| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.03 | Heidi Scoble | N-29-20 issued by Governor Newsom on March 17th, 2020. And all members are joining this meeting telephonically through Zoom and is broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:17.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much to our clerk. And we are opening the meeting of May 26th with the Iowa City Council regular meeting. Could the clerk please call the bill? |
| 00:00:29.29 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Riley? THEIR OWN. Councilmember Burns. Sure. Councilmember Cox? Thank you. |
| 00:00:36.18 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:00:36.28 | Heidi Scoble | THE END OF Vice Mayor Withee? |
| 00:00:38.41 | Vice Mayor Withee | care. |
| 00:00:39.40 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:00:40.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Sure. |
| 00:00:41.93 | Heidi Scoble | All members are present and there is a quorum |
| 00:00:44.51 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you and welcome everyone. The first item on our agenda is closed session. And we will discuss two issues in our closed session, item D1 and D2. And I think there are some council members who have announcements about these items. Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:01:05.39 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you, Mayor. I will be recusing myself from item D1 because I live in close proximity to the Martin Luther King campus. |
| 00:01:14.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Council member Riley. Thank you. |
| 00:01:16.64 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will be recusing myself from item D2 in closed session. for the same reasons due to proximity, if that matter. |
| 00:01:26.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Before we go into closed session, I will open it up for public comment. |
| 00:01:33.77 | Heidi Scoble | At this time members of the public may address the city council regarding agenda items D1 and D2. Public comment will be accepted by video or audio audience participation via Zoom. Video or audio public comment participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you'd like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application and you'll be called upon when it's your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, press star nine. Each speaker will be notified when the time has elapsed. and it doesn't, |
| 00:02:02.69 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | and it doesn't, |
| 00:02:03.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:04.45 | Heidi Scoble | It appears that there are any hands raised at this time. |
| 00:02:04.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Does it? I'm not sure. Great, and I am seeing none as well. So we will close public comment and we will adjourn to closed session and we will come back and open session at 7 p.m. |
| 00:02:23.97 | Sandra Bushmaker | words in my heart. you I feel the bomb too. |
| 00:02:28.41 | Heidi Scoble | Start. Okay. Okay, we're admitting. |
| 00:02:28.68 | Sandra Bushmaker | Bye. Thank you. |
| 00:02:34.05 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:03:08.36 | Heidi Scoble | We have two more people that are in the process of joining. |
| 00:03:15.38 | Heidi Scoble | AND WE MAY BEGIN. |
| 00:03:17.75 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Great, welcome back. We are back from closed session and this is our regular meeting of the City Council. Sausalito for May 26. We have already called the roll and we are coming back out of closed session. session announcements. And just before we get started with our first approval of the agenda, I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day. and hope that everyone enjoyed the three-day weekend, but also had a chance to pay respects to those men and women who served in our military. My father was a World War II and Korean War vet and I always Remember, he kind of had a special moment and tear raising the Memorial Day flag. So our family did that today and thought of him. And so I hope everyone did take a moment. Okay, I'll move on to 2B for approval of the agenda. So moved. |
| 00:04:22.66 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Second. |
| 00:04:24.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and because we are under special rules for virtual meetings, we'll have a roll call. |
| 00:04:30.69 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Riley. Approved. |
| 00:04:32.95 | Kevin Carroll | Thank you. |
| 00:04:33.73 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns? |
| 00:04:35.11 | Kevin Carroll | Yes. |
| 00:04:36.02 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:04:37.56 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:04:38.45 | Heidi Scoble | Vice mayor Withey. |
| 00:04:39.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:04:39.89 | Kevin Carroll | Yes. |
| 00:04:40.83 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:04:42.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, thank you. That motion passes 5-0. We can go on to item Thank you. One special presentation, Mayor's announcements. and our first item is a COVID-19 update, which is a standing item now on our agenda. and I'm the director of communications |
| 00:05:09.13 | Abbott Chambers | Thank you Mayor Cleveland. I'm going to share my screen now. |
| 00:05:12.00 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:05:12.02 | Unknown | Great, thank you. |
| 00:05:30.66 | Abbott Chambers | Good evening, council members. I'm Abbott Chambers, your city librarian and director of communications. And I'm here tonight to give another of my series of COVID-19 updates. As far as what I'll be covering this evening, I'm going to start with an overview of where we are right now with shelter in place. I'll talk a little bit about the newly allowed activities under the updated shelter in place order. I'll give a little preview of perhaps what's next as far as allowed activities. I'll attempt to address the question that people are asking as to why COVID-19 cases are increasing in Marin. We'll spend some time talking about the city's efforts to manage downtown visitors. And at the end, city staff would be happy to take any questions. And I wanted to again give a shout out this week to Parking Enforcement Officer Beth DeLego, whose lovely photos documenting shelter in place are sprinkled throughout this presentation. So our current situation with shelter in place, and this is the shelter in place we've been under since March 17th, continues to mean sheltering at home except for allowed activities. But the point where we are with the process is phase two according to the Marin recovers plan that's been issued by Marin County Public Health, where we are gradually relaxing the shelter in place order by adding more allowed activities. It's important to mention that the Bay Area is moving more slowly than most of the rest of California as far as adding new allowed activities. And that's because we continue to be in the top tier of cases or counties with cases in California. And the state of California, the shelter-in-place order sets the bar for us as far as a point which we cannot go any further in relaxing our orders unless we get special permission from the state It's important to note also that the threat of COVID-19 has not gone away. The reason that our public health officers in Marin are relaxing the shelter in place orders is that we currently have adequate capacity to respond to a surge in cases requiring hospitalization. Were that to change, public health would respond quickly in putting new restrictions in place. The current shelter in place order that we're under, the updated order was issued on May 15th. It became active on Monday, May 18th, so we could go Monday. And unlike previous shelter-in-place orders, this one is in effect until rescinded, superseded, or amended. With past orders, they set a termination date of June 30th or May 31st. In this case, we're now following this date's lead, and it's in effect until it's rescinded. Um, There were a couple of changes from the previous order, not highly significant, but a sign that this relaxation process has begun. on curbside retail. is now allowed. And in Sausalito, I believe there are now approximately 10 retail businesses offering curbside service. In addition, supply chains that are supplying those retailers are also allowed to resume. And in both cases, they're allowed to resume with safety precautions in place that protect both workers and customers. |
| 00:09:28.45 | Abbott Chambers | Apparently the way the process is going to work is rather than issuing additional updated public health orders, Marin Public Health is going to announce on an irregular basis additional reopening guidelines. So letting us know that new activities or business services can begin. And on May 22nd, they began with an announcement about childcare and summer camps. It's not fully opening childcare and summer camps. It's meant for the kids of people who are currently allowed to work under the public health orders. And again, with lots of safety precautions in place. We're expecting, or I've been told by the public information officer of the county, that we should be getting another issuance of reopening guidelines either today or tomorrow. An announcement actually may have popped up on my phone while I've been speaking to you. I asked the public information officer if perhaps she could give us a little preview, and she said, sorry, you've got to wait until the announcement. So we don't at this point know exactly what is going to be allowed as far as these new guidelines. We do have an idea of what it might entail just based on what's happening in other counties and around the country, and also what the state is announcing as far as allowed activities. So one of the, which is curbside pickup at libraries. the allowing religious services under pretty strict social distancing requirements. Ditto for in-store retail. outdoor and indoor dining at restaurants, hair salons and barber shops. And we're also expecting guidance at some point in the not too distant future about schools in Marin and when schools in Marin can reopen and under what circumstances Uh, People have been asking why are cases increasing in Marin? Why are cases of COVID-19 increasing in Marin? And this is a chart that I copied today from the surveillance reports that are published on the Marin County COVID-19 website. And you can see as you move towards the right end of the chart over the past couple of weeks, we have definitely seen an increase in the number of newly reported cases. Um, The reason for that increase is that Marin has significantly ramped up the amount of testing that we're doing. And not just more testing, We're also doing more contact tracing, which is more likely to identify people who may have COVID-19. And collectively that has led to more identified cases and particularly more identified asymptomatic cases so that What seems to be happening is more people are being tested So it's a highly higher likelihood. And I should add that that often these are people who are in essential businesses who aren't showing any symptoms and are being tested and finding that they're asymptomatic with COVID-19. There then, contact tracers are then finding out who has been in close contact with these people. We're testing those people. Again, there may be asymptomatic cases among that group as well. And so, as you would expect, even though the number of cases has increased, When we look at current hospitalization, so these are people who are currently in hospitals in Marin for COVID-19, that number has been essentially flat through the month of May, coming down from the level it was in April. And again, we would expect that this would be one of the early indicators as Marin Public Health is very closely watching what's happening in the county. that if these numbers were to start going up, they would start taking action. And particularly in the way that they will be metering out these different allowed activities, they may be able to draw connections based on when and where cases appear as to what activities are more likely to increase the numbers. Let me move on to managing downtown visitors in Sausalito. We first closed the downtown parking lots on Sunday, April 26th as a result of crowding in the downtown area on Saturday, April 25th, the first really beautiful day of the spring. And probably also coinciding with the time that people were starting to feel particularly strong cases of cabin fever from shelter in place. That closure or those closures were largely effective, but they did have side effects, one of which was increased congestion at meters on bridgeway. including people double parking, waiting for meters, that sort of thing. Residents then were unable to pick up their to-go items from downtown restaurants. And it also had the side effect of pushing visitors into our neighborhoods and creating congestion in the neighborhoods. For those reasons and expecting because of the good weather and the holiday weekend and increase in the number of people visiting the city made the decision to partially reopen parking lots. In downtown Sausalito for the Memorial Day weekend that consisted of parking lots one and two with parking lots three and four held in reserve. The Sausalito police compiled I've synthesized them here. And I'm going to go back to the Memorial Day weekend. in the report. The police were conducting foot, vehicle, and motorcycle patrols throughout the weekend. The city also had two ambassadors on duty. These are the ambassadors that in any normal year would be helping with bicycle parking and directing people to the ferry, to the ferry landing. But in our new circumstances, they are encouraging visitors to appropriately social distance and wear masks. The police reported that vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic did increase over the course of each day, tailing off again in the evening, but at no point during the weekend did that traffic or did those crowds reach dangerous levels. And the overall number of visitors, though it was busier than perhaps it has been in recent weekends, was definitely down from our typical spring, summer weekend, particularly a holiday weekend with good weather. Continuing their report on Our officers reported that most people they encountered were practicing social distancing and following guidelines on face coverings. Our officers were not writing citations to people, but were focusing on providing information and education and encouraging good behavior. It was found over the course of the weekend that at no point did Lot 2 become full enough to necessitate opening up Lot 3 or Lot 4. And you'll see in the photo here, that's Parking Lot 2, which is the one next to the Bank of America building at 12.30 p.m. on Memorial Day. Another nice touch for the weekend, thanks to Mike Lankford and our Parks and Recreation Department. I'm following the lead of New York and San Francisco. They painted 10 foot diameter circles in Gabrielson Park to encourage social distancing among visitors enjoying the park and the view and you can see the circles here in this photo. And then here's a picture from Saturday. The angle's not great. But the folks in the photo are using the circles and creating social distance between the different family groups that we're seeing in the photo. And I get a real kick out of this project. Important to note also, Schoonmaker Beach, the police reported on Monday that a number of people, 30 or 40 people, had gone under the caution tape and had occupied the beach going against the signage that was in place. The police would like to let everyone know in Sausalito that Schoonmaker Beach, though it's a public shore, is private property and the property of the Schoonmaker Point Marina. And unfortunately the PD cannot just respond to the beach. They have to be, it has to be reported to them by the property owner. So in this case, the property owner was notified. The police were brought and the police provided support for the property owner to tell people to disperse. And in this case, the property owner decided not to press charges. And then I'll wrap up my presentation with what is also becoming a standing item, my Dunphy Park update. This is a photo that I took this morning. and we'll see the grass is filling in very nicely. The new trees that were planted are looking very healthy. And if everything continues to go well, I think we'll be enjoying Join Dunphy Park in July. That concludes my reports and I, along with your city staff, would be happy to take any questions. |
| 00:19:27.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you very much, Abbott. That was, as always, very thorough and good report. Are there questions from council members? |
| 00:19:40.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Jo, Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:19:42.68 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. And thanks Abbott again for keeping us in the loop on this. And the only reason I'm asking this is it just came to me while I was looking at the presentation on the parking I don't know if closing or opening parking lots control the number of people that come here. It just controls them once they are here. Would it be better if we opened all of our parking lots and only allowed staggered parking within to provide distance? because the parking lots were packed, The park wasn't packed, but It had a lot of people who then are by nature close to each other while they're in the parking lot as opposed to all the parking lots being open and having spaces in between. somehow, which I'm not suggesting I have an answer logistically how to do that. Just did we consider that type of outcome? |
| 00:20:29.11 | Abbott Chambers | I would defer to our city manager or our chief of police if they wanted to address that. |
| 00:20:36.44 | Marcia Raines | Thank you, Abbott. Um, We thought about that, Council Member Burns, and discussed the pros and cons of opening up. a whole lot. And there's pros to that, obviously the folks that are down on the north end, of the parking Lots down there, lot four, you know, a lot of them serve Caledonia Street as well as that end of Bridgeway. But I think at the end of the day, again, with consultation with the mayor, and with the police chief We thought a measured approach was the right approach. Also a lot easier for us to manage. and look at the capacity issues and the strain. So rather than having anything open and having to cover more ground, we thought a measured approach would be the right approach. The chief did give the watch command the authority to open all four lots if they felt it was needed. especially for any safety related issues. but obviously we did not feel that was needed. So the measured approach, the management of the lots as we open them, kind of prevailed as we looked at this past week Thank you. |
| 00:21:51.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Any other questions? Councilmember Riley |
| 00:21:55.69 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | I have a thank you for a great presentation. for the first time, I've seen complaints about trash in our streets. Um, Any background to that? Is there just more trash being created and we have fewer resources or is it a valid concern? |
| 00:22:13.88 | Abbott Chambers | I don't know the answer to that. perhaps the city manager or our public works director might have some insights |
| 00:22:21.41 | Marcia Raines | Yeah, I can answer that as well. at least one email this morning concerned about the overflowing trash cans. A part of it is through Bay Cities who does a lot of the downtown trash. They had scaled back the number of services that they were offering |
| 00:22:36.36 | Unknown | It's field. |
| 00:22:40.38 | Marcia Raines | and we clearly did not have the city's maintenance crews normally scheduled. So that is a lesson learned and a quick change in both Bay Cities and the city staffing level over the weekend. that those receptacles are all cleared. on Fridays and then Bay Cities will manage them throughout the weekend going forward. |
| 00:23:06.33 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you for bringing that up. received several complaints about that as well. I also think the amount of takeout containers is contributing to that issue. Um, I have a question if, other council members don't and have we been in touch with uh Golden Gate, Transit, and the bike rental agencies in San Francisco. pretty sure the bike rental agencies haven't started up yet, but they are probably likely to come in a phase soon and I'm also curious as to when Golden Gate might start ferry service on the weekends again and how we plan to manage that. |
| 00:23:51.44 | Marcia Raines | I'll start with the first question, and if the chief wants to respond to it now or if you want to wait until the chief's item when he comes on. a little bit later. In terms of working with Bolling Gate Bridge and with Blue and Gold, there are discussions that actually started today in terms of looking at the queuing and the six feet. creating markers at the ferry landing for queuing at social distance. It's social distancing. the Golden Gate Ferry is starting to look towards weekend ridership. So that conversation has started. and blue and gold I think is planning on starting June 15 is the date that I think was on the email that they're planning on trying to start back up on June 15. In terms of the bike companies, I know that Stacy Gregory, Lieutenant Gregory is working with Captain Frost and with the chief. at our time. with our contacts with not just the bike companies, but all of the various stakeholders in terms of, the bike rentals and activity related to bikes coming across the city. So working with the chamber, the bridge district, blue and gold, and the bike companies themselves. |
| 00:25:15.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. Other questions, Councilmember Cox or Vice Mayor Withey? PB, Sarah Silver, Okay, so i'm going to open it up to public comment. PB, Sarah Silver, If clerks go well could. let people know how to comment tonight. I see a couple of raised hands already. |
| 00:25:35.77 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, at this time members of the public may address the city council regarding agenda item 1A. Public comment will be accepted via video or audio audience participation via Zoom. 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 nine. Each speaker will be notified when the time has elapsed. And it looks like we have Julie Myers. Unmute Julie. |
| 00:26:10.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, and I just did, we had a little confusion last week, so I did wanna clarify, this is public comment on the COVID-19 report, and then a little bit later, we have general public comment, so. Okay, Julie Meyers. out. |
| 00:26:27.01 | Heidi Scoble | It looks like she lowered her hand. So, Oh, it looks like everyone lowered their hands. Yeah. So we have no public comment for this agenda item. |
| 00:26:41.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Great. I'll close public comment. Are there any comments from council members? If there aren't, I did just want to, you know, sort of following up on Councilmember Burns' question. I went downtown several times this weekend and generally found the situation manageable, but also a little unnerving from the perspective of how many people you know, walking, how narrow our sidewalks are and how many people We're close together. And while a lot of people were wearing face coverings, there were a number of people who weren't. So I think as these are summer starts to unfold that we do really need to Be very vigilant. I really appreciate the chief and the city manager Um, you know, following this very balanced approach as we gradually reopen with the rest of the Bay Area. But I think we could do a little more as we kind of keep going. You know, perhaps stationing ambassadors at the opening to the parking lots, handing out a flyer to let them know that face coverings are required. you know, that to maintain six feet of social distancing um, you know, or other methods. I did talk to the ambassadors. I know we have financial issues, but especially when the bikes are coming, If we can find any way to increase the number of ambassadors, increase the number of signage, You know, maybe work with the chamber on love, Sausalito, face coverings, I went to Sloat this weekend to get a lot of fun and fun. Get some plants, some vegetables for the garden. And they had these really big buttons that every employee was wearing, that they were kind of in that happy face, yellow and black, but they said six feet, please. And, you know, it was just an easy way for employees not to have to yell at people. But to really drive it home. So as much of these kinds of creative and the circles at Gabrielson Park, you know, such a great way to invite people to the park but keep them distant as well. So, I would love to keep the conversation going at the council level and the staff level about ways that we can really make sure that people arriving here I think we understand that we are welcoming, that we are opening gradually, but this town believes in being putting public health you know, at the forefront. and that we want our residents and our businesses and our visitors to use safe practices. So I just wanted to throw that out there. I think there's a lot we can do. Another idea that is Common is using pricing kind of for demand management. um I noticed that our summer parking prices went into effect. that might be something else we want to consider to help manage flow. um So, Just some thoughts and I don't know if anyone wants to dive in or if anyone else was downtown and how you felt everything went. I would also say I did go to MLK Park. One on, I think it was Saturday or Sunday. It was beautiful. It was empty. It was... It's a gorgeous lawn and just so fun to kind of sit there and hang out. We've got a lot of good resources here. |
| 00:30:47.84 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Madam Mayor I will this is Tom I will comment I think all those are great ideas in each each no Each week we should be coming up with creative ideas to improve the safety of our town. and the visitors will come and for our residents. And I think those are all good ideas. I also do wanna commend our law enforcement parking folks, ambassadors, Because while this weekend wasn't perfect, It sure wasn't Lake of the Ozarks or Daytona Beach or other places that were just true mayhem. And I think we have adapted and made adjustments that improved and we can continue to make improvements each week as you have suggested. |
| 00:31:31.35 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. And thank you. I had that on my list of, yes, thank you to our police, firefighters, and especially the ambassadors. It was great to see them out there as well. Okay. With that, if there are no other comments, we can move on to Let's see, we've got action minutes, item three, I think. know. But communications. Okay. So now is communications. This is the time for general public comment and this is a time for members of the public to comment on items that are not on our agenda this evening and you have up to three minutes. |
| 00:32:16.69 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you, Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Would you like me to go through my normal spiel or it looks like we have multiple hands raised and we can start going through that process. |
| 00:32:26.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Sure, why don't we do the announcement one more time a little bit later when people might have joined for the first time. Thank you. |
| 00:32:31.96 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Fantastic. So we'll just start from the top. We have Sandra Bushmaker. So I will unmute Sandra. |
| 00:32:45.14 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, council. I'm happy to be before you tonight. You should have in your packet several letters from me. One, since we're going to be pursuing vigorously the general plan, I wanted to resurrect a letter that I sent you on November 12th, 2019. that deals with many issues with regard to the marine ship and the marine ship vision. I'm also going to bring that up at GPAC in the next working group. But it seems to have gotten lost through the cracks, and I wanted to bring it to your attention again. Specifically, I deal with with housing in the Marin ship And that will take me right into the next item. And that was the newsletter I sent you for the letter I sent you with regard to the fire at Pier 45. and the use of the boat St. Francis, which was serviced here in Sausalito, along with other fireboats in the Red and White Ferry as well. Now, had it been not had we not had access to the St. Francis Fireboat. Jeremiah O'Brien would have been in uh, deep space, so to speak. And as a result of the efforts of the fire boat, we were able to the firefighters were able to control the fire on the Jeremiah O'Brien and save much of it. That brings me to the notion that Because these boats are serviced in Sausalito, I think it's important that we keep the Ah, focus on them working waterfront. The fact that these services and the industries that back up these services are extremely important. By the way, the Bayside Boat Yard which serviced that. a fire vessel. is immediately adjacent to the arena plaza. And then I sent you a letter concerning |
| 00:35:02.54 | Sandra Bushmaker | Uh, Memorial Day. And I would like to see the city Instead of saying happy Memorial Day folks, get down to the meaning of what Memorial Day really is and have some solemn services in Sausalito I know this is difficult with virtual services, but there are things that could be done, such as a letter from the council, from the mayor, from the city manager on the importance of Memorial Day and what the real purpose is. For some of you, you may not know, it used to be called Decoration Day. And that was the time we went and put flowers and flags on the gravestones of the fallen military in defense of our country. So I'd like to see a more solemn view rather than a picnic Uh, party view of Memorial Day in the future. |
| 00:35:57.60 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:36:00.35 | Sandra Bushmaker | I would really appreciate that and I'm sure many other residents would too. Thank you. |
| 00:36:06.73 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. Tula Biederman. |
| 00:36:17.80 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 00:36:17.97 | Tula Biederman | Hi, can you hear me? |
| 00:36:18.95 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:36:18.97 | Tula Biederman | Thank you. Yes, we can. Hi. Oh, thank you, Mayor Cleveland Knowles. My name is Tula Biederman. As she said, I'm a library assistant chief for the city of Sausalito. Thank you. And I my classification of which I am the only person who holds it is on the list of potential layoffs for the city of Sausalito. So I wanted to speak to that and the impact of, personnel cuts in general and the large $1.9 million that this council is asking to be made in personnel cut specifically. As Marin begins to reopen Sausalito residents are more restless and eager than ever to start safely returning to their communities as soon as possible. They're asking about library services parks and rec events and how city staff will uphold the high safety standards the county's Department of Public Health requires. Council member Riley and Mayor Cleveland Knowles brought up residents concerns about overflowing trash on the streets. Yet at least one of the positions being targeted for layoffs is on our already minimal maintenance crew. we cannot keep public health at the forefront while simultaneously laying off one of our two custodians. Now is the exact wrong time to cut nearly a third of our staff. 12 to 15 may not sound like many layoffs to some, but our workforce totals less than 75 to begin with. A city our size cannot afford to lose so many workers. Our workforce already works over time and struggles to keep up with the demands of our workload. Adam told me last week that he thought I ranked higher in the library hierarchy than I actually do, which is very complimentary, but I think it's also telling. Every single staff member at the city of Sausalito consistently goes above and beyond their job descriptions to serve the city as best we can. I hope the council understands that the impact of $1.9 million in personnel cuts goes far beyond simply our official duties. The deficit in support and care for Sausalito that the loss of any one of our workers would create is immeasurable. We're all familiar with the instructions in case of emergency, break glass. You hold a fund balance and reserve every year to sustain Sausalito in case of emergencies. This is an emergency. It's time to break the glass. Thank you. |
| 00:38:19.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Julie Meyers. |
| 00:38:22.47 | Julie Meyers | Thank you. |
| 00:38:24.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:38:24.26 | Julie Meyers | Hello, everyone. Hello, mayor, vice mayor, and all the council members. I'm here to talk about the budget deficit as well. Tula said there's quite a few positions that are slated to be laid off. And unfortunately, two of them come out of recreation. both the recreation supervisors, both I and the programs person. And that doesn't mean that It's just the special events that are going to go away. Because those are going to go away, and they should right now because of the requirements for our COVID. I can also do virtual events, and there's things that we can do with small groups. And there's things that we can be creative about getting our community together and connected with and not have it be a thousand people. at an event. um, But I also want you to know that the programs are going to go away, meaning Bocce is part of that. and that I oversee the facility rentals. And as Abbott showed the beautiful picture of Dumpy Park When that opens up, there's going to be quite a few people who want to rent it for that we're going to have birthday parties or weddings. And I'm not really sure who's going to manage that. I also manage the special events, applications, the banner applications, and the film and photo applications. And, I've also become the de facto banner maker. If you've seen the, this is six feet banners That was my idea and that was something that I did. And I was out there helping Mike do the circles. So on Gableson Park. So those are things that are going to be missed out on. And I love this town and I love serving the residents of this town, serving the businesses and serving the other employees. I want to be able to continue to do that. I'm not sure. And lastly, one of the things that we all do as employees is we help out. and we help out when there's emergencies. And you guys know that we helped out, we came together as a as a staff to help out with the mudslides with the power outages and with any the major accidents that happen in town. And I worry about this town, if there's going to be another emergency, what's gonna happen when you have quite a few employees not available to help out. You know, the library and parks and rec set up quite a few power and charging stations for the power outages. We were also the evacuation place for mudslides. And we all chipped in and helped out. And so I worry about what's gonna happen when there's no recreation, when there's, an emergency. And that's it. I want to thank you for your time. |
| 00:41:20.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you, Julie. And thanks for everything you're doing. and Tatula as well. Wendy Richards. |
| 00:41:33.03 | Wendy Richards | evening Council members, thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. I would like to speak to a item I would like to see on a future council agenda. last week. or last meeting at the budget discussion, as you know, I suggested that the council consider structural changes to the way that we employ people in the city as a way to reduce the overall burden and save some of the individual positions. At the same time, I also brought up a major inequity in the way we are taxed in this city. and I am here this evening to focus on the, need to repair the inequity in the way we tax our businesses. when this council decided to, quote unquote, streamline the business license tax without notice to the residents, suddenly home-based businesses are being taxed on gross receipts. This is extremely punitive. extremely unfair and discriminatory. We are all now home-based businesses. Everyone is working from home. And there's absolutely no reason why we should be taxed versus our neighbors simply because we are professionals working from our homes with AB5. Numerous people can no longer be on 1099 status. They must create their own businesses. They will suddenly be taxed. The tax is not a net income tax, it's a gross receipts tax, which means that we are paying for the city's budget before we can pay ourselves. In addition, our professionals in town, whether they're home-based or not, saw a tripling of their tax. That means that our dentists, our chiropractors, our lawyers, they are all paying triple what they used to pay, again, before they can pay themselves. Again, when it's a Gross receipts tax, it's highly, highly regressive. If I, and paid on a project from a client and I hire a previous speaker, for example, Sandra Bushmaker as my lawyer, Guess what? You're getting paid business license tax twice. because I'm paying it. And then if I hire Sandra, guess what? And she happens to have a business, then she would be paying it and someone else and someone else. I just picked that, you know, I don't know Sandra situation, so I didn't mean to imply anything there. It's very regressive. I would like to see it come up on the agenda. You need to rescind the home-based business tax You need to. reduce the tax on professional services, and equalize the way we are taxed. If we as a city would like to continue to enjoy these great services that we do enjoy, including bocce ball, We need to all share the burden and not be placing it unfairly on small businesses that are taxed already more than they can. Your time has elapsed. Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate you. |
| 00:44:58.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Kevin and Carol. |
| 00:45:04.69 | Kevin Carroll | Yeah, this is Kevin Carroll with South Toledo Taxi. at the last meeting, I asked that the City. employees be identified by their titles on the Zoom meeting list and within about five minutes, Heidi had everything up. and labeled and I was very impressed by that. I was thinking that's the fastest I've seen a government employee respond to one of my requests ever. And then I remembered our parking control officers. They are a little faster, but I did want to thank her for doing that so quickly. |
| 00:45:43.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, we are definitely lucky to have her here. So thank you for that. We always appreciate, thanks for our great staff. Bryant. |
| 00:45:58.45 | Bryant | Hello. Mayor Noles and City Council, thank you, it's a privilege to be here through Zoom. I am a city employee, but I'm here as a member of the public also to comment on What is still not set in stone, but it's the potential for layoffs within the city of Sausalito I've worked here for almost four years now and it's been a real privilege and There are a lot of people on that list that I saw Um, that. need this job and I just want to go back to what retouch what Julia and and Tula were commenting on that. the city needs. its employees also. I'll just give you an example of you know, September and October, Um, My department is public works and we pull in people to do overtime and we pull in people from other departments to clean and do maintenance on the storm drain system that is absolutely necessary And I can't imagine how that would be Um, shorthanded by. you know, three or four people in those various departments. So I'm just coming here to um, virtually here to sort of, I'm going to plead with you guys to find to keep staff on It's important to us and it's important to all of the people that live in Sausalito or enjoy Sausalito in one way or another. And it would be... I think it's a tragedy to me and I think a tragedy to everyone else to have to say goodbye to these great people that we work with. Um, you know, on the team 100%. I'm not sure. we, We've developed, you know, close relationships with each other. And when someone from When a resident calls or a business owner calls, we're there to pick up the phone. and try to solve the problems. just you know, from, From the bottom of my heart, I'm asking you guys to try and other other ways other than layoffs. I appreciate what Wendy said also about sort trying to develop new revenue sources and we want to work with you guys. I yield back my time. Thank you. |
| 00:48:35.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Alice Merrill. |
| 00:48:40.70 | Alice Merrill | Bye. Hi. air. I'm calling. I'm here on my the old saw about the Marin ship. First, I want to say that I think it's great that you guys put in $10,000, although hearing these people asking for their jobs, I hope that that was you know, offset, but for the, what is it? The Love Sausalito business fund, because that's cool thing and I'm glad that you guys did that. I also want to say that this is ridiculously hard, this Zoom meetings. You guys are hanging in there and doing them. And I appreciate it greatly. because it is no picnic. And I think that the... The real hard ones are the general plans, noodling out spellings and words. And, um, It's tough. It's really tough. Um, but on the friendship. When I give my thing about how it really should stay what it is, it should be the uses that it is we need to have those marine services, we need to have that land be maybe it's messy, maybe it's not pretty, but you know, it isn't meant to be. It's an area that that's not its focus. Its focus is doing the jobs that it does. And it was commented that I have passion but that maybe I don't want things to change. And I would like to say that in this case, I think that the tiniest little piece of change, which is huge to put the services for seniors down there and the memory care is a huge change. And it is, It just wrong on a thousand different levels. And, and, It was also said that at those Spinnaker meetings that a lot of people, a lot of people said they wanted senior housing down in the Marinship. In my chatting with people, my research that I've been doing recently, A lot of people just came to that by somebody said it and they said, Oh, great idea. It wasn't like they thought about it up or they... had been seriously considering it or, you know, it was just like, oh, well, that's fine. And I've talked to people who said, there's plenty of room down there. There's room for everybody. Okay. And I just beg you guys to... really not look at it as just Open property. Because as soon as you do look at it that way, It will B. It will, it will just be gone. And there's so much and it's so fragile and it's so unique. And if those boat ways go where the big ferries and all come in, and that's one of the most fragile ones, and it is the right next door. to the property that's recommended and now you know it's gonna be oh but it's um but there's sandblasting going on at 8 30 in the morning or 7 30 in the morning that's too loud for us we don't want that and then who's gonna who's gonna decide that Thank you. |
| 00:52:10.48 | Heidi Scoble | Your time has elapsed, Alice. |
| 00:52:12.01 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:52:12.40 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 00:52:12.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:52:12.66 | Alice Merrill | Right. |
| 00:52:12.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 00:52:12.69 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 00:52:12.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. All right. Good night. Sausalito Parks and Rec. |
| 00:52:21.80 | Brian Vitale | Hello, my name is Brian Vitale. the Parks and Rec supervisor for programs. I wasn't able to change my name in there, so you could just refer to me as Sausalito Parks I'm sorry. Thank you. |
| 00:52:32.32 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 00:52:33.21 | Brian Vitale | of Thank you for taking the time to listen to us talking tonight and hearing everything that's going on. I greatly appreciate it. Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. I'm also here to talk about the budget cuts that are proposed for the next fiscal year. And these are some major decisions that are definitely difficult to make. And they are going to have lasting effects, not only on the livelihoods of our city employees but on the community as well whether or not we are taking the recreation department out or the library out or members of the maintenance crew out whether we have great events that we used to do for the parks department and we're not able to necessarily get them this year the public is going to see that, but the public is also going to start to see if lawns don't get mowed or things on the maintenance side aren't able to get fixed as quickly, and this will have lasting effects. I've been a recreation professional for 15 years, and I love what I do, and I do what I love. I got into recreation not because I wanted to get rich. I did it because I really love working with people. I love being able to create events for people, do programs for people, and figure out what people want to do within the community and try to help them get in better shape, learn a new skill, and do a whole bunch of different types of activities. I started in Salusalito seven days after the pandemic, or before the pandemic started. I started on March 9th, and from day one, I was taking phone calls from members of the community talking about what's going on with the tennis courts, how we can help as a rec department or as a community of what we can do. And since that time, I've been checking in on our Edgewater seniors and seeing how they're doing, seeing if they need assistance or support, and been helping out with virtual programs and events that Julie has been putting on. We've all had to transition. We've all had to figure out different ways to better ourselves and better our community. And one of the things that I think is really important during this time is to try and figure out how to make connections and how to be able to figure out these solutions without cutting down people's livelihoods. I have 44 contract instructors that their livelihoods are at stake as well because they work with us throughout the entire year. So you're not just going to be taking out the 9 to 12 members of the city employees, but you're also going to be taking out over 40 contract instructors that are right now not able to do anything. I created virtual programs for my virtual rec room that I created. I have 13 programs running right now. We've made $500 gross. Most of that income is going to the instructors. So we are being that community that is helping out because part of our core values are to innovate, create, and take informed risk, be honest and open government, creating an environment where people can excel to their full potential, showing professionalism, a sense of community, and quality public service. And that's what we are here to do. And we're not going to be able to do that if we are cutting 12 to 13 people or trying to take out the rec department or take out other various people in these positions. So I thank you for all of your time. I hope that you will take all of the comments that we've given today and take a hard look at it and try to see if there's other ways to be able to figure out a solution outside of cutting out. the livelihoods of full-time instructors, part-time people. and contractors. So thank you for your time. |
| 00:56:27.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. I do not see any additional raised hands. Could I just have confirmation from the city clerk that there are no Um, additional public commenters that I cannot see. |
| 00:56:42.35 | Heidi Scoble | There are no additional raised hands or public commenters. |
| 00:56:46.50 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you for everyone that came tonight to comment, especially our city staff. As you know, this is not on our agenda tonight, so we cannot I discuss any of these items, but we appreciate the input and the feedback. So we will move on to Item number three, action minutes of the previous meeting from May 12th. Are there any- |
| 00:57:11.65 | Unknown | I'm going to approve. Thank you. |
| 00:57:12.41 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:57:14.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Do I have a second? |
| 00:57:17.42 | Unknown | Second. |
| 00:57:19.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I have a motion by Councilmember Cox and a second by Councilmember Burns. Could the clerk please call the roll? |
| 00:57:26.93 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley? Thank you. |
| 00:57:28.49 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes. |
| 00:57:28.94 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Councilmember Burns? Thank you. |
| 00:57:30.72 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes. |
| 00:57:31.42 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox. Yes. Vice Mayor Withee. |
| 00:57:35.20 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you. |
| 00:57:35.26 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:57:35.69 | Heidi Scoble | . Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Yes. |
| 00:57:38.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Okay. |
| 00:57:39.22 | Heidi Scoble | Motion passes. unanimously. |
| 00:57:42.36 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. We're finishing each other's sentences now, Heidi. We're getting good at this. All right, we will move on to council member committee reports. And we have a couple of A big action item already tonight on a couple of our committees, but are there reports from others? Councilmember Cox nodding. |
| 00:58:07.50 | Councilmember Cox | Sure. Okay. In no particular order, I attended by Zoom the Richardson Bay Regional Agency meeting on May 14. We learned that executive director Beth Pollard is resigning at the end of this fiscal year. Hired an assistant harbor master with impressive experience to assist Curtis with his duties. Their new budget focuses on implementation of steps to further transition to a safer, healthier, and well-managed anchorage. In their budget, they rely on grant funding for abatement of marine debris and abandoned vessels. and our member agency contributions. Because enforcement efforts have been stayed during COVID-19, there has been a slight uptick in vessels arriving in Richardson's Bay Currently the current count is 133 boats in the anchorage, approximately 125 of which are occupied. The city manager and I continue to meet with uh, Senator McGuire regarding identifying with the Richardson Bay Regional Agency to come up with a multifaceted solution for housing those who are living on the bay and also cleaning up the bay. Our next step is to meet with supervisor Sears and Supervisor-elect Moulton Peters and then to meet with the Department of Housing and Community Development about the types of sites that would be feasible to use. Um, I attended a general plan working group meeting with the mayor on May 19 at which we discussed and gave extensive feedback to the land use element. There will be a general plan advisory committee meeting tomorrow, May 27, at which we will consider four elements to the general plan. The sustainability element, the waterfront element, the environmental quality element, and the health, safety, and community resilience elements. So we encourage anyone interested to please attend that meeting by Zoom. I attended with the mayor of Tiberon, meeting with Senator McGuire last week regarding upcoming housing legislation. The city clerk is going to upload to committee reports an overview of upcoming housing legislation |
| 01:00:44.27 | Unknown | And over the years, |
| 01:00:48.39 | Councilmember Cox | the MCC-MC Legislative Committee agenda. That meeting was held this morning. And I'm happy to go over some of what's in the housing package, but in the interest of time, I can let the, report speak for itself. |
| 01:01:09.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great, thank you. We've got our howl going on tonight. So lots of noise outside. Thank you, Councilmember Cox. Anyone else? |
| 01:01:21.63 | Councilmember Burns | Well, I'll just say, obviously, there's economic development issues on tonight's agenda. However, coming attraction... the bike and ped committee is having their first meeting this Thursday evening. So, I'll do a little plug for that. that they haven't met for quite a while. So we'll be doing a Zoom I will have good things to report. They work on a lot of dynamic things. One being the Caledonia street situation we're looking at with the closures. Exciting stuff to come from PBAC soon. Great. |
| 01:01:53.22 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Is it a great- |
| 01:01:54.61 | Councilmember Burns | Library. |
| 01:01:55.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Is there anything else on the agenda for PBIC? |
| 01:01:56.19 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah. |
| 01:01:58.64 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 01:01:58.71 | Councilmember Burns | Yes, there's three items. Um, there is, um, the just general circulation, safe routes to school, And they'll also talk quickly about some of the things that have gone through the general plan update, some of their ideas that have kind of taken a few reiterations as it's gone through the GPAC process Caledonia Street Capital Projects, they'll be looking at that process as well as the Alexander Avenue bicycle signage. getting ready for the bicycle season as well. |
| 01:02:33.37 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:02:33.39 | Councilmember Burns | Okay. |
| 01:02:33.94 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:02:33.96 | Councilmember Burns | Great. |
| 01:02:34.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:02:36.25 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:02:36.30 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | THANK YOU. |
| 01:02:36.61 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:02:39.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:02:39.14 | Unknown | ANYWAY. |
| 01:02:39.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Hello, Madam Mayor. |
| 01:02:39.34 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Hello, Madam Mayor, this is Tom. |
| 01:02:40.09 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:02:40.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:02:42.16 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Just following on council member Burns comments, he and I have been communicating with quite a number of our businesses. And in particular, we've been exploring ideas to assist our restaurants when some of the dining restrictions are lifted and they can start operating |
| 01:03:01.01 | Unknown | Thanks. |
| 01:03:01.95 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | And we're exploring ways to help with outdoor seating. And that can include the discussions around Caledonia, but potentially looking at parklets, coordinating off parking lots where there can be outdoor seating, or even some of our public park areas that are near restaurants. So we will be making recommendations in the coming weeks. These are all ideas to help our businesses. |
| 01:03:23.50 | Unknown | that's going to be a THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:03:26.44 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | We'll be providing an update on Love Sausalito later today. And thank you, Alice, for your comments. And finally, I do want to make a big shout out to folks in the Marinship and that working Waterfront Coalition that have been making face shields and hand sanitizers. Not only have they been delivering those across the country to frontline responders and hand sanitizer for free to our residents, But they've been reaching out to our schools and in discussions with our schools, if they can provide mask and hand sanitizers for our students as they plan their reopening. So I also wanted to thank them. It's a great example of community collaboration. |
| 01:04:06.89 | Unknown | Great, thank you for that. Vice Mayor. |
| 01:04:11.53 | Vice Mayor Withee | Yeah, very briefly, as you know, I've been focusing with the League on figuring out, is there going to be any relief for cities in particular through any of the various machinations going on? at both the state and the federal level. And I think at the moment, where if there's anything interesting going to happen is going to be at the state level because the state budget is in play. And so when something is in play, then there's possibly room for discussion. The problem is that they're still hung up on how, if any, they would divvy it up in any realistically sensible way for the cities. So that's still a work in progress. And so I think, but on, the 12th of June, |
| 01:05:04.94 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:05:05.82 | Vice Mayor Withee | It will be really important as we make some of the decisions we are going to make. to understand the reality of whether we're going to see any funding from the state or federal level. And at the federal level, obviously, the Democrats want to do it, and the Republicans don't. Thank you. And that's the state of play. It's that simple. Oh, and one other thing I wanted to add, which has nothing to do with this. I mentioned a while ago that BCDC had entered, issued a new report on sea level rise. Well, in actual fact, they are presenting a Dana Bretschwald, Senior Environmental Scientist with BCDC, will be presenting to the Bay Wave Executive Committee this new report, which is the Sea Level Rise Adaptation Study. I have just sent Heidi a forwarded a copy of the email that I got from Chris Chu inviting people to that meeting. So it should be showing up shortly in Granicus as late mail from me with a Zoom invite. I happen to be on the executive steering committee and so we'll obviously be participating in that meeting. But Chris and the county were particularly trying to get more people interested. So Heidi will be giving everybody, including the public, that information. |
| 01:06:52.06 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. And perhaps we could forward that to our general plan Advisory Committee and working group as well. Councilmember Cox, it looks like. |
| 01:07:03.39 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:07:03.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:07:03.55 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:07:03.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:07:03.94 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. Council member Withey reminded me of something I forgot to mention, which I also sent as late mail a letter that the cities in Brinn County provided information for that went to Congressman Huffman, who is also working to develop legislation to ensure that smaller cities are included in the federal relief. So that letter will be showing up as late mail on this evening's agenda as well. |
| 01:07:37.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I think that's a great question. Great. The only things I have to add that Council member Cox didn't already discuss in terms of the I think the other thing that we have tomorrow is that Councilmember Burns and I have been attending on Fridays kind of informal committee with the other mayors and council members about the recovery of businesses in Marin. And so generally that's been a very useful kind of weekly way to share information and to get updates The main focus has been on the Marin recovers efforts, which our city manager is participating in that steering committee to gradually reopen the We're in businesses in groups and to develop protocols for all of those businesses as they as they reopen. So that website is increasingly getting populated with useful information for local businesses and residents about what is open and what can and cannot happen. So that's been helpful and some good ideas there. |
| 01:08:49.85 | Unknown | and then, |
| 01:08:53.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I think that, oh, and then also I was invited and gave a lunchtime talk at Sausalito Village, which was wonderful. Always good to see how engaged and involved that group is. So there are no Further committee reports, we will move along. Oh, actually I see a hand raised. So it looks like we may have public comment on this item. So we will pause. Lorna Newland. |
| 01:09:25.30 | Lorna Newland | I was trying to raise my hand for 20 minutes. It was actually general public comment, if I'm allowed. Thank you. |
| 01:09:30.16 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Oh, absolutely. |
| 01:09:30.97 | Lorna Newland | I'm sorry about that. Thank you. Zoom is not the easiest, but my name is, hello everyone, and my name is Lorna Newland. I've been a resident and homeowner in Sausalito for 26 years, and this month is the 18th anniversary of opening my business here, Sausalito Pottery. I'm getting a little weepy because thinking about 18 years and I hope I can continue. But first I was on Bridgeway for three years and now I've been a tenant at the MLK Park for, 15 years. Um, And I know there was something in closed session regarding the tenants' rents. Um, times are tough for all businesses, small and large. I'm a sole proprietor. I've survived for 18 years doing what I love, sharing knowledge by teaching classes there. I've probably donated pottery to just about every nonprofit in town for silent auctions, including Park and Rec. I hope council and staff are looking to do what they can to help. with rents with the tenants, whether it's deferred or, or whatever. I know the city of Nevada has already approved certain things. It was in the Marin IJ. Um, And right now, Retail is just starting to open. A lot of my business is through galleries, shops, my own studio. Art festivals have all been canceled. I would like to give a big kudos to Julie Vieira of the Chamber has been hosting seminars for a lot of the artists in the chamber and actually opening it to other people because we're all in this together about selling online, Etsy, eBay. I mean, there's so many creative ways that we can all do to go forward. I have sent a letter to Serge and copied several of council members and those on the OMIC committee. So you'll see that in your email. Unfortunately, it just went out today. So Anyway. I'd like to thank the council and city staff and everybody for what they're doing, especially Abbott for all his information that's coming out. Um, through next door or, or through anything. Julie Vieira has been sending so much information out that's keeping all of us informed. And I share it to non chamber members. Every, like I say, we're all in it together. And also with Julie Vieira or Julie Myers of Park and Rec, what a delight she's been and what she's done, but she's participated in a couple Zoom chamber mixers. And I've always thought, I love Park and Rec, I've always also thought you know our city of 7 7500 is supporting allowing so many free events, whether it's Halloween or just by the Bay and things to all of Marin County. And she's come up with so many creative ideas that will help bring money in, whether it's a virtual class or something like that. So there are a lot of people keeping us all informed and, um, Anyway, I'd like to thank everybody for that. But my last little thought is somewhat philosophical and- |
| 01:13:00.34 | Heidi Scoble | Your one minute or your time has expired. |
| 01:13:03.04 | Lorna Newland | Oh. Thank you. Please honor our planet. It's angry. That was the thought. |
| 01:13:11.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Lorna. I'm happy you were able to get on and you should be hearing from our city manager soon. So thank you. Okay, I don't see any additional public comments. So I'm going to move on to our consent calendar. We have three items on consent. this evening. Are there any comments or do I have a motion? |
| 01:13:40.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I think you're still muted, Joan. |
| 01:13:46.68 | Councilmember Cox | I would like to comment on the reports that the report from our community development department and just thank our for her hard work and for all of the innovation that she has been undertaking to keep her department moving forward even while we have to all work virtually. And aside from that, I'm ready to move approval of the consent calendar. out. Thank you. |
| 01:14:17.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Heartily agreed with your comment, so thank you for that. |
| 01:14:22.22 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | I second the motion. |
| 01:14:25.22 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, could the clerk please call the roll? |
| 01:14:32.53 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:14:32.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I believe we need public comment on this item. Oh, I'm sorry, I apologize. Thank you for the reminder. Public comment on the consent calendar. We have three items on our consent calendar. |
| 01:14:45.66 | Heidi Scoble | At this time, members of the public may address the council regarding this agenda item regarding the consent calendar. It does not appear as though we have any raised hands. |
| 01:14:59.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so now we have a motion and a second, and could you please call the roll? |
| 01:15:08.69 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley. |
| 01:15:10.28 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes. |
| 01:15:11.09 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Burns. |
| 01:15:12.47 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes. |
| 01:15:13.13 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox. Yes. Vice Mayor Withee. |
| 01:15:16.91 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yeah. |
| 01:15:17.25 | Vice Mayor Withee | Thank you. |
| 01:15:17.57 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Yes. |
| 01:15:23.81 | Heidi Scoble | Motion passes five, zero. |
| 01:15:26.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you. Excited about this? So remember, Okay, so we are have no public hearing items tonight, so no section six and we will move on to our business items in item number seven seven a is the police budget reductions and services sharing. Our chief of police, Chief Warbacher, will give us a presentation. |
| 01:16:03.96 | Unknown | Okay, hopefully you can hear me and I'm doing the screen share thing. Heidi, if you would tell me if that's working. |
| 01:16:11.55 | Heidi Scoble | We do not see the screen share at this moment, but we see you. and we can hear you. |
| 01:16:16.33 | Unknown | go to the green button that says green share. |
| 01:16:26.89 | Unknown | Is that working? |
| 01:16:27.30 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. Yes, you have shared your screen successfully. |
| 01:16:31.25 | Unknown | How about that? It's either going to be that or one of my dogs. So I'm not really sure how that was going to go. Okay, well, thank you, Mayor and members of the City Council. So, My presentation tonight is to talk about the police department's budget reductions and service sharing opportunity. Uh, The situation is serious and Yulia Carter, our Assistant City Manager, We covered that in great detail the last couple of City Council meetings, the challenges that the city faces financially and of course that's not just our city but it's all the cities in the county and of course in the state and across the nation. We are not alone in needing to look at other opportunities. In this particular case, the city manager had REACHED OUT TO ALL OF US DEPARTMENT HEADS WITH A CALL TO ACTION TO either find ways to increase revenues. And of course, the police department, that's not really an option. or to propose reduced services or otherwise cut expenses Uh, So I replied to Adam and said, You know, I just had the misfortune having one of our brand new police officers released them from field training program, which created a vacancy in the police department That is our 20th position. There's 20 sworn members of the police department. . And so instead of attempting to fill that job, I said to Adam that we should freeze that. and, you know, that money or save that money. or something else. And then instead that we were gonna go back and look at some service sharing opportunities. Let's see, change screen here. So I'm going to talk about the pilot program concept with the Mill Valley Police Department. So a really quick background because it does matter some. uh, Mill Valley has a new police chief, Alan Piombo. He was appointed a little bit over a year ago. And Alan and I worked together for about 25 years at the San Rafael Police Department. working relationships. And as soon as he was appointed on He and I got together to talk about what it's like to work in Southern Marin. And with our great partners with the Sheriff's Office and town of Tiburon and the city of Belvedere and how that we look to help each other out you know, as as need be. And then also that we could maybe look at renewing some of the things that we had started several years ago back in 2014 and 2015 when Angel Bernal was the chief of police at Mill Valley and we were sharing some traffic enforcement services just on an as needed basis related to some needs that we had at the time and also at the same time that Mill Valley had. And of course, Alan was very interested, but like a lot of things, a brand new chief's got his hands full. We did not get back together again to really talk about it until the fall. when his boss at the time, Jim McCann, who's since retired, as city manager of Mill Valley and myself and Adam, to renew that conversation in what can we do to help each other out and look towards some service sharing opportunities. And so we had a great conversation, identified some things that we could work on. And of course, Again, then things happen. I, you know, Jim McCann retired and Alan became the, um, interim city manager from the Valley. And so, and then of course now we have the pandemic, which has changed a lot of our focus So, And then of course, with the financial difficulties all of us are facing, time is appropriate to Talk about a concept, a pilot program concept with Bill Valley. So that's where we're at. And so, Then recently, Adam and I and Alan and Lindsey Haynes, who's the Mill Valley Police Captain serving interim role. In the meantime, we got together already on a Zoom meeting to talk about what we might be able to do. and immediately, had some things come to mind. So the first is, of course, we have the vacant position here at Los Lido. That's an opportunity for us to do something different. It's also a reduction in our budget. Um, And that 20th officer position would have been a second detective for us. Now we won't have that second detective. It's, Good to have that second detective, it's just not gonna happen now. And so, Mill Valley, similarly structured, just slightly a larger staff than us, They have a detective who holds the rank of sergeant, and they also have a school resource officer And we've already agreed in a concept that detectives from agency agency are going to help each other out. And so that means that with already permission in place from me, And from the police chief, the detectives are just going to do it. They don't have to ask anybody for permission. They just have to keep their own supervisors, of course, appraising what they're doing. And so we're starting on that immediately. And I hope to be able to report back on some Successes with that as we move forward. There's some other pieces to this that we're able to do. This is something that we did with them earlier back in 2014 and 15. SHARING SOME POLICE MOTORCYCLE officers for traffic enforcement, We do not have a full-time traffic enforcement officer Officer McAfee works hard enough to make it seem like we have one full-time officer, but in fact, uh, He's a part-time officer and then we have a couple other officers who are qualified to ride the enforcement motorcycles. Mill Valley also only has one full-time traffic officer on their staff. And so we've agreed already that we are going to help each other out when the officers have things to do, whether it's for us, the opening of what we might say is the more serious visitor season. Now it's not quite there yet. and doing enforcement on the south to north traffic coming through Shaustalito, And then of course, for Mount Mill Valley, they'll have their own concerns around the schools and also the multi-use path And so we did this before with great success and we look forward to doing that again also that's immediately in place and doesn't require any additional action from me or from the the city manager or council. So there's another piece to this too about are sharing property of this technician The story actually going to my last bullet point, uh, that they agreed to the MOU already and we've already signed it and it's in place. We have some money that we were already in our budget to pay for a halftime WE HAVE BEEN DOING THAT FOR ALMOST SEVEN YEARS WITH THE CENTRAL MEN POLICE. THEY NOTIFIED US THROUGH THE TERMS OF THE MOU THAT THEY WERE UNABLE TO CONTINUE TO OFFER THAT SHARING WITH US. SO WE REACHED OUT TO THE VALLEY AND THEY AGREED TO SHARE THE NEW PROPERTY EVIDENCE. THE CLERK HAS ALREADY BEEN HERE WORKING STARTING LAST WEEK. And so we look forward to being able to continue that The other piece of that story is that We're the only law force agency in Marin that doesn't have body-worn cameras. I've talked about this before. It was on the top of my list of things to ask for in the coming budget year. Had it not been for some of the financial challenges facing us now, I'm clearly not going to be asking for that. And I'm not sure Even if you were to want to approve that, I wouldn't take it without Also, having to fill the other half of the property evidence job. So rather than create a need for a full-time person, which we can't afford, Um, And by many more cameras that we can't afford. then we're going to work within our means and keep our agreement with no valley and share the position of a property evidence technician and that's already in our budgets. So, That's a pretty tight. I'm happy to take questions. Um, Oracle BACO for anything that I went too fast on. So I just Let me know. |
| 01:25:54.16 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you for that very thorough presentation. We really appreciate it. |
| 01:25:58.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:25:59.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | that We'll open it up to council member questions. Do I have any for the chief? |
| 01:26:09.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Just while we're all coming back online here, I just want to thank the chief for his hard work on this and creative. thinking and cooperation with Mill Malley. We'll have time for full comments, but thank you. |
| 01:26:25.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, any questions? Okay, I'll open it up for public comment. |
| 01:26:34.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I am. Yes. Not the ceiling. Go ahead. |
| 01:26:40.23 | Heidi Scoble | I was just going to state that this is the time where the public may address the council regarding this agenda item. And we will be accepting comment by video or audio participation. and it does not appear as though we have any hands raised |
| 01:26:55.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I will close public comment and bring it back to the council for any discussion. This is not an action item if I am looking at this correctly. receive and file this report from the chief. Is that correct, Chief Warbacher? |
| 01:27:13.09 | Unknown | This is just a, receive the file, please. |
| 01:27:16.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 01:27:19.03 | Councilmember Burns | I am. Go ahead. |
| 01:27:21.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Now, go ahead. |
| 01:27:22.33 | Councilmember Burns | Thanks, Madam Mayor. Chief, I think it's great that you took the leadership to produce this and kind of get us started on this type of path with sharing services so important in this time, but also for our future of our city budgets to have this conversation in I'm... Thank you. Glad you did that. I think you should be proud that there was no comments or questions. That means you did a good job, and I hope our next item goes the same way. But thank you so much for bringing this to us and starting this off on this foot of sharing services and getting us into that mindset. |
| 01:27:59.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Anyone else? |
| 01:28:02.06 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes, this is Tom. Chief, thank you for the presentation and the creative work. I know you've been a champion of body-worn cameras, and I'm sure you're disappointed that we'll be pushing that out a year. I think that is the right decision and I think you pursuing these shared services, like with a technician or what have you, is creative and is a direction that we're going to have to look across all cities. So thank you for setting the base. |
| 01:28:32.52 | Unknown | I APPRECIATE THAT SUPPORT. THE DECISION TO NOT HAVE BODY WARN CAMERAS, I HAVE TO SAY, IS BELIEVED. You know, made easier by the fact that they're are the officers, the men and women that work here in the police department are are superb. They're just amazing folks. They do a great job. We have a citizen complaint rate that is below one a year on average. And so It's just playing the odds, so I feel comfortable in them. knowing that the stop is tremendous. And so while I'd like to have them I think we'll be fine for the time being. |
| 01:29:17.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you councilmember Cox would you like to say anything? Thank you. |
| 01:29:20.17 | Councilmember Cox | Yes, thank you. I'd like to echo the comments of the mayor and my fellow council members. Chief, thank you for your creative uh, money saving strategies and for your thorough report and the thinking behind it. And thank you also for the excellent manner in which you have maintained the level of service of the police department as a whole. during the pandemic. you know, despite the fact that your officers have to be mobilized 24 seven, You still find the time to provide daily reports to us over the weekends to come up with strategies to implement a closure of the parking lots in less than 24 hours. It is truly impressive the way you have managed these issues throughout the duration of these challenges. |
| 01:30:12.50 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:30:16.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Vice mayor, would you like to pile on? |
| 01:30:19.32 | Vice Mayor Withee | Um, I would agree with all of that and I'm not going to repeat it all. So, um, But it's a testament to, to the professionalism and respect by which, with which our police department is held that we can with, I believe, great trust and partnership enter into these sorts of discussions with And I'd just like to say that I cannot think of a better sort of partner than the city of Mill Valley to try and forge some of these ongoing working relationships. So thank you very much, Chief, for all your efforts there. |
| 01:31:10.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, well, thank you. Clearly, this is just an amazing result. And as the Vice Mayor just said, is, you know, a part of your having forged excellent relationships with your counterparts. So thank you for the, that's a long term commitment that you've made and has um, come to you know, just be, very valuable to us. So we really appreciate that. And I would just like to echo Council member Riley's comment that, you know, this is a fantastic model for additional shared service provisions and just being creative that we should be looking at across our city services. with other jurisdictions. So thank you for Thank you for the hopefully with this venture and more to come. And, And also echoing Councilmember Cox's thanks to the whole department for your professionalism and agility and flexibility during the pandemic. |
| 01:32:19.25 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:32:19.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Well, |
| 01:32:19.35 | Unknown | Hey. Thank you all very much. |
| 01:32:21.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you. Okay, so we can move on to Item 7B. consider revising membership categories, establish terms and appoint members to the Economic Development Advisory Committee. I believe Council member Riley and Burns will give us a brief presentation. |
| 01:32:43.43 | Councilmember Burns | Yes, thank you mayor and the council member Riley is going to kick us off and then I'll run us through the through the project |
| 01:32:50.10 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you Madam Mayor and thank you Councilmember Burns. I just wanted to take a moment. I have been remiss the past two meetings With my excitement for the new Economic Development Advisory Committee, I am overlooked, uh, are extending our gratitude and thanks to the members of the Business Advisory Committee and the Hospitality Business Development Committee. We've had 15 residents and business owners volunteering their time on those two committees for many years. and they have done a tremendous job for us. I want to thank For the Business Advisory Committee, our Chair, Marcia Carvalho, our Vice Chair Bruce Huff and our Secretary Chris Gallagher along with members Payim and Rodneya Maya Thomas, Aaron Singer, Jeannie Schwartz, John Scopazi, and our president and CEO of the chamber, Julie Vieira. on the hospitality and business development committee, We extend our thanks to the Chair, Mark Flaherty, Vice Chair, Yoshitomei. And members Jeff Shiroz, Pat Sorber, And this Pugney. and also, Julie Vieira. These folks have been tremendous, and we can't thank them enough. We've been moving quickly and I do apologize, we didn't acknowledge their efforts. prior. What I would like to do is invite the chairs and vice chairs of these committees to meet with our new membership of the EDAC as we develop our, go forward agendas and we can get help setting some priorities based on the work that they've been doing and have some consistency there. So my thanks to those folks. I hope we find a way to truly recognize them in the future. With that, I pass the baton to Council Member Burns. |
| 01:34:48.95 | Councilmember Burns | who is on mute. Thank you. Thank you for that as well. Thanks, Councilmember Wiley. I'm so glad that you brought those two committees up and the individuals that made those tick for so many years And, and truly for so many years because a lot of those people have served multiple terms and have done so much for our business community. And knowing most of them, they're not done. So we will see a lot of those individuals that you've mentioned going forward in how we process this new EDAC. So welcome to the night of appointments for the Economic Development Advisory Committee Um, This is on our first slide here. I put together the month in review and Just to kind of give a little context, we have talked about this for some time, even years as far as blending the two committees and more recently within a year of what that looks like as far as economic development But it wasn't until we were forced and faced with COVID realizations on our economy. and the opportunity to make some changes, both to the structure and more importantly, to the areas that this committee will be working on. But then we went into a really fast process and I'm not gonna obviously read all of these, but you can see within just a month and a couple of days, We went from Um, talking to the two committees down to where we are today of making appointments. And when we went live with this, Thank you. on May 11th with with getting interest who would serve Within a couple of days, we already had 39 applications and we ended with 48. And I know that there was others who were on the fence. And like I said, there's others that have served for many years that will be there for us. So we have an incredible energy right now for this topic, and it's a genuine interest. for our community, not just for our reaction to COVID, in a real understanding that we have to make some changes in how we earn and how we Um, make our budget and our financial prospects resilient in coming years while benefiting our community and our quality of life here. Very quick month and four days, but here we are now and we are |
| 01:37:09.77 | Unknown | now. |
| 01:37:11.93 | Councilmember Burns | looking at, what the Economic Development Advisory Committee comprises of, and, you know, we started this process and council member Riley put together a great list of objectives of what we were currently working with with BAC and HBD, and then adding some context to those to both put it into the current time with the change of online, the COVID changes to our just our general retail space. Um, And those are a good starting point for the objectives of this committee. And I think it's really important at this point to point out that it is an economic development advisory committee. All four of those words being extremely important as we look at how we get some of these objectives done and get them back to the city council for policy and and programming. So again, not to read any of these, but all of these together, but you can see that within each of the objectives added. there is an additional sentence such as preserving our unique characteristics. and fostering that serve and enjoy the loyalty of our local community. So there's a lot at stake here other than just raising prices and bringing in more people. objectives that are forward-thinking and forward-facing to our community. Um, So all that said, and again, all this is in our staff report and stuff we've talked about over the over the years and definitely the last year. Now we're to this process of, of identifying the candidates. As you saw on the previous slide, we have met as a council. to interview on. Twenty three. people. That was actually up from 20 in the group that we wanted to put to this council when a small group of people Tom and I and some staff members went through all the applications. But there's, you know, we... It could have been 35. It could have been 48, frankly. Um, But we narrowed it down to actually 24, and then we had one person that didn't make it. Um, of the interview, but With this 23 now, we have, similar to what we've done in other large scale placements, you know, we have their application, their resume, and a a questionnaire that we decided was appropriate since we had so many people to go through. So now we've all seen those and the community has watched us if they were in tune to that in a public process we went through a interview system with some questions to the 23 And tonight we're going to make a selection or at least put forth this selection process. What we're going to do here is when we're done with this little bit, we're going to turn it back to the mayor who will um, announce, I think it's a great question. and four alternates, and then we will each add in our seven and we will have then a public comment, obviously, and then we'll have each council member will vote for a minimum of seven to a maximum of 11. and those numbers being key in the resolution that started this, We'll start this when we get seven. We cap it at 11. We might fall anywhere in between that for now. If we do, we'll eventually bring it back up to where it will need to be at 11. Once the consensus is reached with the nominees, anywhere between 7-Eleven, Each council member would then designate the proposed term for each nominee. and a nominee must receive at least three votes to be appointed. So, you know, again, that that gives us some space that we might go where we don't get it done tonight, though I think we will. And, If no nominee receives three votes, the roll call vote shall continue until the vacancy is filled. So that's going to be the process that we're going to go We've had a lot of the conversation about what the composition of this group would look like. And we backed away from making it very specific. They must be from this business or this industry. We put some composition ideas, hospitality, retail, business, resident, Um, And then obviously this group will interact with a set of liaisons, two from city council, one from the Chamber of Commerce and our city staff person who will work with this group consistently. You'll see there that the Chamber of Commerce liaison has been added to this. We thought that would be better to put that as a standard position in this group instead of having to re-up it or re-term it, it is just a formalized liaison to the to the committee. Um, And as mentioned, we do want to stagger this a little bit so |
| 01:42:10.77 | Unknown | And as mentioned, |
| 01:42:14.57 | Councilmember Burns | uh, constantly re-interviewing at one time a year for all 11 spots. So we staggered with one year, two year, three year terms, which we'll be promoting tonight as well. that. doesn't mean that they're capped at that. We still, you know, they can have additional terms, but that's how we kind of get this going. And then we can make changes or not make changes, but we won't have to visit all 11 candidates at the same time. So we like to have all of our committees staggered with, at least two to three different term levels in them. So that's a little bit of what we'll be looking at as far as how these candidates might align themselves to the objectives. However, at this point, we do not have a set number of how many have to come from either one of these industry categories. we simply, and I almost put instead of appointments, draft night on the head slide because we're looking at some incredible athletes here that we want to get onto a team. that is going to help advise the council over the next few years on economic development within our town. We talked about the interview. candidates. This is the group On the next slide that we interviewed just four nights ago, good grief, what am I here? less than a week ago. And that was an incredible evening of discussion and hearing from these people and all their great ideas and talents This is obviously the group that we most look for out of these appointments. at any point we might decide to go forward with somebody who wasn't on this list, maybe at a different meeting. Nobody's really completely off the board until we have all the positions filled. But I think this is our good working group We got to know these people very well. And I think we all had great respect and admiration for what they brought to that meeting and what they'll bring to this group. Um, I'm gonna kick it off here to the mayor. I just to close our action item tonight is to adopt a resolution of the city council and the city of South Dakota revising the membership categories and establishing terms for the Economic Development Advisory Committee, with the addition of the following language that the Economic Development Advisory Committee may include. non-residents as determined by the council in its discretion. Um, just like the BAC. because we deal more with businesses and not all of our business owners live here. that you do not have to be a resident as to be on this committee like you do on all of other committees from park and rec PBAC, sustainability, historic preservation, and so forth. And then we're going to appoint members to the Economic Development Advisory Committee And We're going to call on our esteemed Madam Mayor, to lead us through that process. I'm not sure. I imagine here, I hope I wasn't on mute that whole last 20 minutes. Am I good? I imagine here, will the city clerk be tallying? There we go. Whatever. sheet that looks like. So we'll have live calculations and computations as we go here. Um, Madam Mayor, take it away. |
| 01:45:26.22 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well, Yes, I see that Councilmember Cox has her hand raised. |
| 01:45:32.76 | Councilmember Cox | I had a question about process if I might. Don't we typically hear public comment before we make appointments? |
| 01:45:40.22 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. So this is the first time I've done a process like this. So I'll leave it to those of you who are on the council. |
| 01:45:43.29 | Unknown | So this is... |
| 01:45:49.16 | Councilmember Cox | We'll be right back. |
| 01:45:49.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 01:45:49.30 | Councilmember Cox | for the GPAC, I think we heard public comment and then we uh, because I would like to hear the feedback from the members of the public. I think the Brown Act requires us to hear feedback from the members of the public before we take action on an item. I know we definitely. |
| 01:46:02.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I know we definitely Okay, that's fine. I mean, we definitely need to take public comment before we act. to actually vote on anyone. So if you prefer to do it now before we I'm fine with that. Any objections? |
| 01:46:18.90 | Councilmember Burns | That's a good idea, Joe. Thank you. |
| 01:46:20.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Heidi, if you don't mind stopping sharing your screen so we can see the participants, that would be great. Oh, now I've got them. Okay. Nevermind. Okay, so we will open it up to public comment. You'll have up to three minutes. |
| 01:46:43.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I do not see any public comment. Does the clerk see any hands raised? |
| 01:46:48.52 | Heidi Scoble | There are no hands raised at this time. |
| 01:46:52.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Great. We will go back to sharing the screen. Oh, I'm sorry. I do see, I'm sorry. Lorna Newlin did raise her hand. |
| 01:47:05.90 | Lorna Newland | I was just wondering, the screen before listed the four different categories with all names. Oh, sorry. Thank you. |
| 01:47:14.60 | Unknown | I hope it helps. |
| 01:47:14.62 | Lorna Newland | I hope it hits. I'm not sure. not the spreadsheet, but where it had all the names that we could look at because I think that helps us know who applied. |
| 01:47:29.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and I also think that those names are on the spreadsheet on the very leftmost column. |
| 01:47:29.67 | Lorna Newland | And I also, |
| 01:47:35.95 | Lorna Newland | But you only see half of the time. |
| 01:47:39.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So, |
| 01:47:39.46 | Lorna Newland | I can only view it to like the 20 people, I think. |
| 01:47:39.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 01:47:44.51 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you for that comment. Great. Okay, why don't we go back to, was that your comment? Thanks. Okay. Can you do it? I don't see any additional public comment. So if we could go back to the screen that you had up, I don't know if you can split. Oh, there we go. Okay, we've now got all of the candidates showing up. there. Thank you. Okay. So first, before we get started, I just wanted to again thank Councilmember Burns and Councilmember Riley and our clerk, Heidi Scoble and staff Adam Pulitzer and Yulia Carter for all of your hard work. on this process and as council member Burns noted this, um, We have been thinking about this and working on it for quite a while, but it was given some new urgency with COVID-19 and the need to really have an economic committee up and running to begin to discuss So thank you. I know it's been a big lift and a lot of work. So I thank all of you for doing that. Secondly, maybe more importantly, I wanted to thank all of the community members and local business owners and participants who just really flooded our inbox with amazing applications and and really gave the time and the thought to this issue that it deserves. have. I just every single person who applied, I want to thank and appreciate. Um, and this is a very difficult decision. I also wanted to note that I clearly had nothing to do with writing a staff report because it puts me in. an almost impossible position of having to go first. with these suggestions. So I am putting out, I really, really struggled with this. And there are a number, a huge number of people that didn't end up on my list that I would be thrilled to see. If we have tonight, so please everyone don't take this as anything negative about people that aren't on this list. So I would just say in starting that I looked at the categories that we had talked about and I kind of broke them down slightly differently, but, but sort of the same, but, In terms of specific Sausalito businesses and representatives of those businesses, it's kind of my first dental category. My second general category is people, most of whom live here, but who have good business expertise. and have run businesses elsewhere. And third, I thought we had a really interesting array of people in the PR and communications area. And I really enjoyed kind of hearing their spin. So I've picked For my first seven, I picked three people |
| 01:50:58.97 | Unknown | in the first, three people in the second, and one communication person. So for the representatives of businesses that are here, I guess I'm nominating Teresa Ancona. Cass Green and Gary Chesta. I can't hear you, Joan. |
| 01:51:21.91 | Councilmember Cox | I'm actually having a hard time hearing you. |
| 01:51:24.25 | Unknown | Sure you are. |
| 01:51:25.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:51:25.40 | Councilmember Cox | Exactly. |
| 01:51:25.42 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:51:25.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. is that |
| 01:51:27.34 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:51:27.36 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 01:51:27.64 | Councilmember Cox | THE END OF |
| 01:51:27.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 01:51:28.30 | Councilmember Cox | but, you |
| 01:51:29.45 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:51:29.48 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:51:30.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Are other people having a hard time hearing me? I didn't hear the |
| 01:51:32.99 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | I didn't hear the- |
| 01:51:36.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Am I still faint? That is better. Okay, I have a lot of paper on my desk. So maybe I had, can you hear me now? Okay, I think I might've been covering something up with my volume paper. Okay, so those were from my first category. The second of- |
| 01:51:55.96 | Councilmember Cox | I did not hear your second nomination, mayor. |
| 01:51:58.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, it's shown on the screen. Theresa Ancona, Cass Green. And Gary Testa. Then people who have general business expertise and most of whom are residents, Monica Finnegan, Well, Limmermann. And Jacob. What if? And then from the PR category, Jessica Rogers. And I would say overall, I also had to kind of apply a filter of residency, kind of generations represented, and gender. you So am I, should I do the other four now too? Is that the idea? there. |
| 01:52:46.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:52:46.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 01:52:46.60 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:52:47.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | What? |
| 01:52:47.97 | Unknown | Marina O'Neal in the first category. um, |
| 01:52:58.18 | Unknown | And then John Sipazi second. I'm really struggling between two others, but Ian Sarbieski |
| 01:53:12.73 | Unknown | and Dan Dablin Thank you. |
| 01:53:17.52 | Unknown | Thanks. |
| 01:53:18.29 | Unknown | Thank you. John, sorry. |
| 01:53:29.19 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And then I'll ask the vice mayor to go next. |
| 01:53:39.59 | Vice Mayor Withee | Okay, can everybody hear me okay? Um, So am I doing seven or 11? And does it make any difference whether they're the first seven versus the next four? Thank you. |
| 01:53:51.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:53:51.84 | Vice Mayor Withee | Um, Well, It seems like it doesn't work. We're looking Right. Just a question. Um, |
| 01:54:02.74 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah, I frankly, I, I thought we were just doing 7 to 11. So I'll ask if staff has the requirement that we nominate all 11 or just a number between seven and 11. |
| 01:54:15.79 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I don't think there is any requirement um, We need seven to get started. |
| 01:54:21.22 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:54:21.24 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:54:22.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So I can take my, second four off if we want and then Thank you. |
| 01:54:27.52 | Councilmember Cox | I think with such a huge talent pool, we should scoop them up while we can. |
| 01:54:33.99 | Marcia Raines | Thank you. |
| 01:54:34.01 | Councilmember Burns | What does that mean? |
| 01:54:35.73 | Marcia Raines | Madam Mayor. I'm having video issue here, but I wanted to respond. the mayor said it correctly, We'd like to get all 11, but if you only have seven or you only have eight, if you can only if a council member could not get to 11, then they only need to identify those that they were able to get to. The idea is to to share your first seven and then your second form. |
| 01:55:08.81 | Councilmember Cox | I mean, I had 14. |
| 01:55:16.33 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm sorry, I didn't hear your comment, Council Member Cox. Thank you. |
| 01:55:19.49 | Councilmember Cox | I had 14, I had a terrible time |
| 01:55:20.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I had a hour only. |
| 01:55:23.15 | Councilmember Cox | 11. |
| 01:55:25.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, well, that was a hard choice, but we can't have more than I love them. |
| 01:55:30.07 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | May I suggest fellow council members. If we all list 11, we have a better chance of finding three votes for members to get to the first seven. |
| 01:55:39.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 01:55:39.52 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:55:42.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so Councilmember, Vice Mayor Whitty, why don't you- |
| 01:55:47.86 | Vice Mayor Withee | Okay, so sorry for mixing it up there. So I'm just going to I could use that spreadsheet back up. Thanks. I've got my list here, but I now want to check it because I think if I've got to produce 11... I'm not going to be far short of what the mayor's done. So put me a yes for Theresa... Ancona Um, Don Daglow. Monica Finnegan. CAST green. Uh... Walter Lennon. Marina O'Neill. Wow, this is going to get embarrassing. Jessica Rogers. John Scarpazi, Ian Sobieski. |
| 01:56:45.37 | Vice Mayor Withee | Gary Now that made 11 for me, but am I miscounted? |
| 01:56:52.28 | Heidi Scoble | Thanks. That's, You have 10. Yeah, that's 10. |
| 01:56:57.40 | Vice Mayor Withee | Well, now it's going to be really bad for poor old Jacob if I pick somebody else. So let's say Actually, Jacob was really good on the PR strategic front. So let's say Jacob is on. So I'm going to replicate exactly what the Vice Mayor has done. What the mayor has done, apologies. |
| 01:57:19.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right. I think why don't we just, if it's okay with everyone, why don't we just march across the column here? So that would, unless you need more time, Joan. |
| 01:57:33.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Cox, are you ready or should we go on to Councilmember Burns? |
| 01:57:37.88 | Councilmember Cox | Sorry, I'm now trying to reconcile my list with the spreadsheet, but I'm heading |
| 01:57:41.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:57:41.93 | Councilmember Cox | Okay. |
| 01:57:42.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:57:42.30 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:57:42.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:57:42.49 | Councilmember Cox | Why don't you go ahead? So I agree also with Teresa and Kona I'm going to just go down my list, Teresa and Kona. and I will be able to We'll come in. Jessica Rogers. Marina O'Neal. and Sobieski. And this is where I veer off. So I also have Malcolm Morgan. um, John DeRay. |
| 01:58:17.60 | Councilmember Cox | And how many do I have now? We have eight. |
| 01:58:21.52 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:58:24.25 | Councilmember Cox | Okay, John Flavin. |
| 01:58:31.02 | Councilmember Cox | Did I say Ian Sobieski? Yeah. Sonia Hammonds. |
| 01:58:41.97 | Councilmember Cox | and cast green. |
| 01:58:51.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Can the clerk just confirm that's 11? |
| 01:58:55.29 | Heidi Scoble | 8, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Yes, it's 11. |
| 01:58:59.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:58:59.45 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, great. Council Member Burns. |
| 01:59:02.36 | Councilmember Burns | Okay, so in this process, there's no difference between an alternate and the seven. So the seven and the four, it's just all 11? Okay. I have Rodgers. Jessica Rogers. CASS GREEN. Ian Zebeski. Sam Rubin. And Rena O'Neal. John Daglow. John Anderson. Welcome, Morgan. |
| 01:59:36.11 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:59:39.58 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:59:39.60 | Unknown | Josh Carrera. |
| 01:59:48.48 | Heidi Scoble | You have nine. |
| 01:59:59.58 | Councilmember Burns | Um, |
| 02:00:03.29 | Councilmember Burns | and I have to do all 11 right now. Okay. Um, |
| 02:00:14.75 | Unknown | Gary Testa? |
| 02:00:15.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:00:18.65 | Unknown | Jacob Wite is showing. |
| 02:00:28.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great, thank you. Is that 11, Heidi? |
| 02:00:32.59 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, it's 11. |
| 02:00:34.16 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. very hard thank you all all right councilmember wiley |
| 02:00:39.74 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes, I like to request an amendment to the rules that I get 23. |
| 02:00:46.12 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:00:46.27 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Um, So I did look at diversity. across industry, locale, and also gender, so that we are well represented in how we look at things. Um, I will, my list is cast green. representing the hotel industry, Gary Testa, representing the industrial industry, I'm Malcolm Morgan representing the maritime industry. John DeRay, a financial trader, |
| 02:01:20.83 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Monica Finnegan? Sonia Hammonds. Samuel Rubin. Jessica Rogers. And, Don Daglow. |
| 02:01:39.97 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | That should be 11. |
| 02:01:45.98 | Heidi Scoble | You have nine. |
| 02:01:49.86 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | 123456. You're correct. I was working on these 7 and 11 things. I also recommend Teresa and Kana. and John Scopazi. |
| 02:02:17.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. So, |
| 02:02:20.18 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:02:20.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | you |
| 02:02:20.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:02:21.16 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Why not? additional idea I just wanted to throw out before we note it from us. is we did have one doctor who is also an infectious disease expert. who offered in her application to serve as an informal advisor. And I thought maybe for one year or six months to one year that might be be prudent given that it can be difficult to get access to our county health official, she might be someone that could help us translate or help the committee. But I just, I know that's not something we had talked about, but I was kind of impressed by her, um, offer of not being a full participant, but serving in some advisory capacity. |
| 02:03:08.07 | Councilmember Cox | That was Shelly Merle Gordon, and I agree with the mayor on that. |
| 02:03:12.77 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | I agree as well. And I hope that we can tap into this full list in different advisory capacities. to these as the committee's working. But I think the doctor would be of tremendous help in the coming months and years. |
| 02:03:28.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | so we can ask if she was willing to do that um Okay. |
| 02:03:34.67 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:35.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:03:35.36 | Unknown | I'm going to go. |
| 02:03:35.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 02:03:36.12 | Marcia Raines | I hope here, Madam Mayor, in this path that the city clerk I'm going to highlight in green the names that got three votes or more. So you can see who float it to the top here based on the votes. And then... we'll put in yellow, the names, the names that got two votes. Let's just see where we are in terms of a minimum of seven. appointing a minimum of seven to where this gets you. |
| 02:04:11.31 | Marcia Raines | and possibly appointing to 11 if you have reached consensus and if the Council is happy with the a variety of people their age, their demographic. in areas of expertise. |
| 02:04:41.98 | Vice Mayor Withee | Heidi, I think you missed one. |
| 02:04:44.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:45.31 | Vice Mayor Withee | Number 13. |
| 02:04:57.14 | Councilmember Cox | Uh-oh, that's 12. |
| 02:04:58.56 | Marcia Raines | So hold on, Heidi. Sorry. I didn't think we were going to have So many on the green. So take off the yellow. Let's start with the green. You have 12. So you guys are going to need to confirm who you're right now you have 11 that you have 12 that received three or more votes you have 12 total that received three or more votes. |
| 02:05:23.19 | Unknown | Can we actually, can we highlight people that received four votes? |
| 02:05:29.05 | Marcia Raines | Yes, let's do that yellow. Do the ones before the vote. |
| 02:05:33.08 | Councilmember Burns | We did have 55 votes for 33 spots. That's why 11 was a tough number. |
| 02:05:40.05 | Marcia Raines | Yeah, let's see what four of you does that might help. |
| 02:06:05.90 | Marcia Raines | So that looks like it gets you your minimum of seven, is that correct? |
| 02:06:11.20 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:06:12.30 | Marcia Raines | We've got |
| 02:06:12.86 | Unknown | that. |
| 02:06:13.36 | Marcia Raines | Thank you. |
| 02:06:13.38 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:06:13.80 | Marcia Raines | Thank you. |
| 02:06:13.84 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:06:16.82 | Marcia Raines | And it leaves. five, these five people for four spots. So we, and re-vote. for those five spots. where you guys can have a discussion. and better persuade someone to change their vote based on what you think that, that person brings to the table. |
| 02:06:50.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I would just, looking at just a sample presidency, I think we have, |
| 02:06:56.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:06:57.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | to Thank you. |
| 02:07:00.21 | Marcia Raines | We might need everyone to mute so we don't get background. |
| 02:07:03.50 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We have five folks right now. who are not residents. So we may want our you know, that to be, PB Sarah Silver, One consideration. Although I think |
| 02:07:23.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | and And what's our, we've got It's like we've got a good mix gender-wise. |
| 02:07:38.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Does anyone have any thoughts or one more? |
| 02:07:42.87 | Councilmember Burns | One of the categories that we don't have represented yet is I'm not sure. and specifically art as a business. Um, I think we all have it as a passion. But it is. Thank you. it's, that's something that we can still try to flesh out with with the group. So even if we ended with nine, as this group melded and started working on their objectives and what they were looking at, does that help to maybe define two more. Um, though I could, and not just in that, in any of the other categories that are missing. |
| 02:08:24.72 | Councilmember Cox | I, um, if you're taking comments at this point about the remaining five that we have to narrow at least to four or less. The thing that impressed me about Malcolm Morgan was his talk about high value tourism, which is being overlooked. That is what we've been pushing for with the hospitality committee and the business advisory committee. impressed me. about him. Um, that and his experience with other towns like us, Monterey, Carmel that rely on tourism. Um, I also thought it interesting that he was involved in a desalination machine that had to leave Sausalito sorry, that he talked about, um, a desalination machine that had to leave Sausalito because it couldn't survive here. And his talk about innovative businesses that are diverse that sort of fits in with the innovation zone that we've been discussing. So that was why he got one of my votes. |
| 02:09:32.52 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. Are there any other comments? |
| 02:09:37.80 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | So I would make the comment that I believe all five in green are all residents. So we will be pointing for additional residents when we complete this process. I think it would be pretty efficient to We just went through this last process very quickly. If we were to all vote on these, you know, pick four of the five. and see how that comes out. |
| 02:10:02.57 | Unknown | Okay. I, |
| 02:10:04.13 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:10:06.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:10:06.73 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. So we pick four. Is that going to be too many votes again, then? |
| 02:10:15.97 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah. we pick four and Three of us. It's a classic. |
| 02:10:22.00 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. I think I'm not very good at math, but I think if we would all have to pick three. |
| 02:10:31.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | that maybe somebody who's got more of a... I mean, if we all pick four again, I think, We might, yeah. |
| 02:10:38.79 | Councilmember Burns | You're right, it would at least be three. and, and even two would get us to a number. |
| 02:10:44.38 | Councilmember Cox | Let's try three and see where we get. |
| 02:10:45.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:10:48.29 | Councilmember Burns | It couldn't be for it. |
| 02:10:49.08 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | If I'm wrong, then somebody can tell |
| 02:10:51.36 | Councilmember Burns | I think that's right. |
| 02:10:55.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. So we'll pick three. |
| 02:11:00.12 | Councilmember Cox | of these five. |
| 02:11:01.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Um, Monica Finnegan. |
| 02:11:09.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | This is so hard. |
| 02:11:17.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | uh, Walter Lemmerman and Jacob Wittish. |
| 02:11:29.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:11:29.87 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:11:29.97 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:11:30.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Vice mayor? |
| 02:11:30.63 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:11:34.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | You're muted. |
| 02:11:38.27 | Vice Mayor Withee | Okay, I've got to pick three, right? |
| 02:11:40.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:11:40.74 | Unknown | Uh-huh. |
| 02:11:41.16 | Vice Mayor Withee | Uh. Monica Finnegan. John Scarpazi. Jacob Wittish. |
| 02:11:53.56 | Councilmember Cox | Councilmember Cox. Monica Finnegan, I don't know how she got off my first list. Walt Lemmerman, Malcolm Morgan. |
| 02:12:05.59 | Councilmember Burns | Morgan. Skopazi Wittish. |
| 02:12:14.10 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Monica Finnegan. Walter Lemon Malcolm Morgan. |
| 02:12:24.39 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:12:25.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So one person got four |
| 02:12:26.98 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:12:27.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Is that correct? |
| 02:12:28.49 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:12:29.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | No. |
| 02:12:29.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:12:29.81 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And also, yeah. And then also got four votes. |
| 02:12:30.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:12:35.80 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And, you know, |
| 02:12:37.69 | Councilmember Burns | No. |
| 02:12:38.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Oh, no, I'm sorry. I'm looking at the for all the lessons. for |
| 02:12:46.87 | Councilmember Burns | So it'd be Morgan and Wittish would be the three. |
| 02:12:50.94 | Unknown | So Malcolm Morgan got |
| 02:12:52.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | three votes that called Lemmerman got two additional ones. Wait, hi. |
| 02:13:02.53 | Heidi Scoble | Did you vote for Walter Limmerman? |
| 02:13:06.23 | Unknown | No. |
| 02:13:06.40 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Bye. Thank you. |
| 02:13:07.66 | Unknown | I originally did, yeah. |
| 02:13:09.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:13:09.04 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:13:09.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Not a second time. |
| 02:13:12.06 | Heidi Scoble | Got it. Thank you. |
| 02:13:13.94 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Oh, actually. I think you've deleted Thanks for that. Say that again? I did vote for Walter Lennon. I thought you did. |
| 02:13:25.11 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:13:25.63 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | twice. Yeah. Sorry. |
| 02:13:30.91 | Heidi Scoble | I apologize for that. |
| 02:13:32.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It's okay. |
| 02:13:33.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:13:39.81 | Unknown | right. |
| 02:13:39.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So we have three more. |
| 02:13:41.04 | Unknown | on that with Walter Lennon. built up with us, right? That have many students that |
| 02:13:49.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:13:49.86 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:13:55.11 | Unknown | Oh, Malcolm Morgan too. |
| 02:14:03.03 | Unknown | How many is that? |
| 02:14:05.44 | Unknown | That's. |
| 02:14:05.96 | Councilmember Cox | you |
| 02:14:06.13 | Unknown | Or... |
| 02:14:10.50 | Councilmember Cox | Monica said, |
| 02:14:12.61 | Unknown | you |
| 02:14:12.70 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:14:12.71 | Councilmember Cox | and the other guys. |
| 02:14:12.73 | Unknown | and the other got stuck. Yeah, so that's. Right? |
| 02:14:21.25 | Unknown | How many did we have? |
| 02:14:22.52 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. You have 11. |
| 02:14:28.26 | Marcia Raines | Yeah, so if you're happy with this composition, then you can move to appoint these 11 individuals with more discussion. That's at the discretion of the mayor and the rest of the council. |
| 02:14:46.65 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So I'm just trying to look at all of my I mean, this is such a hard decision Thank you. |
| 02:14:53.06 | Unknown | that. |
| 02:14:53.33 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I think we have a good time. Is there any further discussion? |
| 02:15:06.58 | Councilmember Cox | So do we have to now, Mayor, do we have to now say who is seven and who is four? or figure out the terms. |
| 02:15:16.69 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. No. So, I think we didn't really talk about alternates. And with this large number, I think we could just leave them all as full members. Um, We shouldn't have a problem with quorum. Um, And I think there's two ways that we can do the term limits. We could have the clerk at a later date do a, lottery. Just pull the names out of a hat. Um, or we can try to have a discussion about what, make sense. I don't, I really did not have the, I was mostly concerned about reviewing all of the information and the applications. I didn't really get to a point of deciding how I thought the term should be decided. So if anyone else did put that brain power to this task, I would love to hear what you would recommend. |
| 02:16:15.65 | Councilmember Cox | Mayor, may I suggest We had 200 pages of materials by the way to review for these candidates. So, you know, it's impressive that everybody invested this much time and energy. May I suggest that now that we know who the 11 are, we come back with our recommendations about terms based on the interview. Because some of the people, like one person who I think we did not appoint, said he'd prefer to work in phase two. And other, so different people said different things about what phase they'd the strongest with. So Is it possible to bring this back so that we can consider these 11 folks. |
| 02:16:58.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Well, the most important thing to me is that the committee is able to get up and running. Exactly. |
| 02:17:06.64 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:17:07.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So if that's, if we can defer Term limits or term I guess I'd ask the city attorney if she has any issue with that or if any other council members want to weigh in on that idea. |
| 02:17:22.96 | Councilmember Cox | May I also say some of the members themselves may have a preference for the term that they serve as well. So that would give us an opportunity to get their feedback on that as well. |
| 02:17:34.49 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | May I also ask a question this might be of the City Council. Let's say when a one-year term comes up, Is it renewed as another one-year term or does it become a three-year term? |
| 02:17:48.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It becomes a three engine. |
| 02:17:50.05 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Okay, thank you. |
| 02:17:51.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It's just to stagger them so that they're |
| 02:17:53.22 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes. |
| 02:17:53.94 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | with all committees. The term is still years. The first terms have to be different. |
| 02:18:05.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, is the city attorney on? Karen Hollweg, The line and could she weigh in about whether we can defer this? |
| 02:18:15.22 | Unknown | I am. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And yes, you can. You can defer it to a future date if you would like. Also, just one other quick point of clarification on the terms. If someone's appointed to a one-year term and then a three-year term, they then could be appointed to one more two-year term because you do have a maximum of six years in the Muni code. |
| 02:18:36.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. Great, thank you. Well, why don't we proceed tonight without any questions allocating the terms, we can ask the committee members, to express a preference. If they have one. And we will take this up at a future meeting. I just don't want to let this get lost. We do need to make a decision. Thank you. |
| 02:19:06.91 | Vice Mayor Withee | Well, Madam Mayor, one of the things that, uh, We, I think, are seeking some guidance from each of the selected individuals as to whether they have a preference for a term. But other than that, I personally do not want to spend time in a lot of discussion, unnecessary discussion about term limits. I agree with the structure that staff proposed, and I just think we should draw the names out of a hat. |
| 02:19:37.32 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. with that. |
| 02:19:42.38 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | I am fine with that as well. |
| 02:19:45.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So why don't we allow committee members who express the preference only for a one-year term. or two-year term, the short term. I mean, |
| 02:19:58.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:19:58.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | . |
| 02:19:58.90 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:19:59.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | loss. from ahead. Is that enough direction to staff? That's fine with me. |
| 02:20:06.72 | Councilmember Cox | Madam Mayor. |
| 02:20:07.58 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Or other random method if a hat is unavailable. whatever method, yeah. |
| 02:20:15.64 | Marcia Raines | Yeah, that's fine with us. I think that's a good recommendation. We will reach out and see who is interested in serving in a one-year or two-year term. And based on that information, we will then draw the names at random to fill the Three years. not through your terms. |
| 02:20:36.75 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Well, I just want to, I mean, I've said this at the beginning. I just want to thank everyone again. This was an amazing, It was amazing pool of applicants and then an amazing pool of interviewees and I could have voted for any number of people on this list. So thank you and thank you for my fellow council members for all your good nominations and ideas and reading through all this information. It was actually, it gave me a lot of insight into town and into what people are thinking. And it was really educational. So I appreciate all the time and thought that went into it. on everyone's behalf. It was very hard. decision. But I think we've got a good list here. So thank you. Any other final comments? |
| 02:21:24.17 | Councilmember Burns | um, I feel guilty for bringing this on to you tonight, but I just thought we just did a great process and we got 11 great individuals. So thank you five council members for for doing this and stepping up and picking these people can't wait to start working with them. So thank you. And thank you, everybody that put their name forward and, and, spent all the time to interview and write all the documentation. You're not going anywhere. We know where to find you. |
| 02:21:53.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And we do have other boards and commissions that we have. |
| 02:21:56.17 | Councilmember Burns | Absolutely. |
| 02:21:57.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | to yourself. a good start in that recruitment. Okay. Um, I have to. get my papers that were blocking my microphone back. All right, so do we need to take a final action or have we done sufficient to form a committee. I know we have a resolution in the packet. |
| 02:22:20.94 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:22:22.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Do we need to adopt that resolution? |
| 02:22:25.50 | Unknown | Yes, please, Madam Mayor. I'm sorry to jump in there. Council Member Burns and Riley. I hope that's okay. We do want you to take action on the resolution and the changes in there and that the suggested edition allowing for non-residents, obviously, And then as part of your vote, if you're just confirming the 11 because of the roll call vote requirements, I mean, I think we did get all of your votes, but that would just solidify the 11 that you've chosen. |
| 02:22:50.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, but we can do that in one motion. So we're approving the resolution and that includes the 11 candidates that were shown on the screen. |
| 02:22:59.84 | Unknown | Correct, and then the addition of non-residents being allowed |
| 02:23:04.24 | Councilmember Burns | And does the resolution, I'm sorry, does the resolution also include that we'll be doing the term limits later, or do we need to do that? |
| 02:23:04.48 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:23:10.54 | Councilmember Burns | make that note in the resolution. |
| 02:23:13.39 | Unknown | That's just direction to staff to bring that item back to you. |
| 02:23:16.29 | Councilmember Burns | Okay. |
| 02:23:17.34 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:23:17.76 | Councilmember Burns | I move that we, accept the resolution the state. and put forth these 11 individuals for the Economic Development Advisory Committee. |
| 02:23:33.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | with the amendments. stated by the city attorney. |
| 02:23:37.15 | Councilmember Burns | Yes, in the resolution amendments made by the city attorney. |
| 02:23:42.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Your second? |
| 02:23:45.72 | Councilmember Burns | I was like, |
| 02:23:45.97 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | second it. |
| 02:23:47.86 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. We have a motion and a second. So please follow along. |
| 02:23:52.13 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Riley. Thank you. |
| 02:23:53.89 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:23:54.06 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 02:23:54.24 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you. |
| 02:23:54.29 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Council member Burns? |
| 02:23:56.22 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes. |
| 02:23:56.52 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Council member Cox. Yes. |
| 02:23:58.97 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you. |
| 02:23:59.36 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Withee. |
| 02:24:00.76 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you. |
| 02:24:00.77 | Vice Mayor Withee | Yeah. |
| 02:24:01.58 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland-Nolz. Yeah. Motion passes five zero. |
| 02:24:07.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you. All right, moving on to our Our last item tonight, our last business items, This is item 7c. Authorize a $10,000 contribution to the Lev Sassvater business fund and request that the county patch. |
| 02:24:26.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:24:27.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:24:28.45 | Unknown | contribution. And Thank you for another presentation from Joe and Tom. |
| 02:24:37.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:24:37.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:24:39.33 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you Madam Mayor, this is Tom. I will present in council member Burns may add color commentary. Um, So thank you. City court, please advance to the background slide. So, Shelter-in-Place has many small businesses in a precarious situation. If you look at Sausalito, we're probably very unique because we don't have any big anchor tenants or franchise big stores with corporate backings. Our businesses are mostly small, and they're really, really vulnerable to what's happening. If you look across Marin, Most cities are responding, putting in place emergency funds in very different and creative ways. I have some examples here where San Rafael has a very large fund that was supported by some of their big anchor businesses, but also some money from the city and county. Same with No Valley that put together a new funding campaign raising a fund. |
| 02:25:32.88 | Unknown | No, that was... |
| 02:25:33.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:36.98 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | if you please advance. Um, in Sausalito, as I mentioned, many of our storefronts They're single operations, they're non-franchises, they're locally or regionally owned, and this is the primary business for those owners. |
| 02:25:46.36 | Unknown | is |
| 02:25:53.06 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | And all of them are equally challenged. |
| 02:25:55.98 | Vice Mayor Withee | Thank you. |
| 02:25:56.03 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | when you look at, at our storefronts, A closure of any one storefront? will have a negative impact on the needs neighboring businesses. One of our hotel managers said that it will really hurt their business if there are a lot of vacancies |
| 02:26:06.88 | Bryant | Bye. |
| 02:26:12.52 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | along Bridgeway. And likewise, merchants have said if their neighboring businesses were out, it would have an impact on them. We all see what's happened on Princess with the absence of Starbucks and the impact it's having on nearby stores. So we want to preclude vacancies as best as we can. Please announce. And this is the Love Sausalito program. came through collaboration discussions with the Chamber of Commerce, the President and CEO of the Chamber and the Board of Directors who are all Um, volunteers as we looked at ways that we could raise funds. So we want to create an emergency fund that can be used to aid small businesses struggling to survive the shelter-in-place. When we say small businesses, we're talking about brick-and-mortar storefronts in the city of Sausalito. Wow. So we want to help those businesses. We want the residents in the region community to support these businesses once the shelter in place is lifted. And this is a way to get, to really bridge and bring together our community, including the city, our merchants, our Chamber of Commerce, residents, and even the county together for us to come together as one team and try to help our struggling businesses. Please advance. So here's the status. The Chamber of Commerce has put up a GoFundMe site, you can find it by searching on Love Sausalito. We have raised $16,125 to date. That includes $7,500 from the county |
| 02:27:51.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:27:54.85 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | that they will contribute to. this fund and basically they've allocated funds based on population size. Quite frankly, The fairest way to do it, given our density of businesses, And we do intend to go back and ask them for additional funding. I'll come to that in a moment. I thought I'd point out that 12 of our small businesses have already applied for $57,000 in emergency funding. If each of those businesses employs six people, that's nearly 75 people that can be out of work, let alone these business owners losing their primary income. |
| 02:28:26.88 | Unknown | of work. |
| 02:28:31.26 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | So I feel this is a very, very important program. Our request is that the city of Sausalito Um, invest $10,000 in this program. but. And the keywords are invest, not donate. I think this is the best money we can spend. If we help this program be successful, And let's say it saves six merchants. It's going to help many merchants around them. It's going to help the vitality of our city return It's our goal to go back to the county, Appreciate the 75. $500 they asked, but asked them to match the contribution from our city of $10,000. That concludes our presentation. We would like to have your support |
| 02:29:11.22 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 02:29:12.61 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | for that $10,000, which will come out of this year's budget, so it's not part of next year's planning, It will be in the June spend. And finally, I'd like to ask my fellow council members for your support of this program and for you to reach out to your constituents to ask for their support of this program. This is truly a community-led efforts. So with that, I will take questions. or if Council Member Burns, do you have any other comments? Thank you. |
| 02:29:41.73 | Councilmember Burns | All right. |
| 02:29:42.04 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:29:42.66 | Councilmember Burns | just translated your dog beach and your dog just donated $2,000. So thank you. |
| 02:29:50.24 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | My dog is happy. |
| 02:29:51.18 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think you nailed it on the head Tom with the investment Um, comment. how we've been looking at this. And so I appreciate you stating that. |
| 02:30:05.80 | Councilmember Cox | A question, Madam Mayor? Yes, please. Is there a way for us to ensure that Love Sausalito monies go to small Sausalito businesses. because there are a lot of businesses that are members of the Chamber of Commerce that are not based in Sausalito. So is there a way to ensure that those monies actually go to cost? Sausalito businesses that are struggling most. |
| 02:30:37.72 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah, that's actually the criteria that the chambers put forth. Um, It was, doesn't have to be a chamber member. And then 94965 Sausalito. So that's always been the plan on the GoFundMe and this money that's going to be assisting. Yes. |
| 02:30:52.34 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes, and I did confirm that today with the president and CEO of the chamber. And also since public funds are going into this program, there will be transparency into the businesses that receive the funds. |
| 02:31:06.87 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And also, I think I read in the staff report that It's only businesses that are 12 or fewer employees. Is that correct? |
| 02:31:14.83 | Councilmember Burns | 10. |
| 02:31:15.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Ciao. |
| 02:31:16.84 | Councilmember Burns | Okay. Maybe it's 12 in the staff report, but I think the program originally had 10. |
| 02:31:20.55 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you. |
| 02:31:20.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:31:20.60 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | And brick and mortar. |
| 02:31:23.64 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 02:31:27.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, you're right, it does say 10. Great. Any other questions? The only observation that I had is... there was a caveat that the money not go to people that have received any of the other funds And some of those initial funds were for very short term purposes and may have already been you had to expend them quickly on wages. So I would definitely say that I guess it's not up to us what the rules of this program are. Is that correct? This is a chamber program? |
| 02:32:13.15 | Councilmember Burns | Yes. We could. let them know our thoughts, but yeah, they've And they're managing that process. |
| 02:32:22.06 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, all right, nevermind, so that's fine. |
| 02:32:24.20 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:32:25.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:32:25.42 | Councilmember Cox | I had one other question, Madam Mayor. Yes. Is this program available to our artists? like at ICB and such, or is it only, because they have, Um, Thank you. They don't have sand, brick and mortar, but they have It's a good call. |
| 02:32:46.36 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes, Council Member Cox, in discussions with the Chamber Board, the decision is for this to be for brick and mortar or storefront merchants. And the idea is that one merchant going out hurts the merchants next to them. A vacancy will reduce business traffic in certain parts of our town. So it's really geared towards brick and mortar square foot merchants. |
| 02:33:13.80 | Councilmember Cox | I appreciate that. I agree with that. come up or consider some other type of program to assist. There's a lot of those artists, who do count on foot traffic are obviously struggling. |
| 02:33:30.83 | Councilmember Burns | to work on them being able to have a retail operation in that building. |
| 02:33:35.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. discussing that at our general plan advisory, the general plan working group. All right, I'm going to open it up to public comment. I see that we have one raised hand, Julie. If there are other people who would like to raise their hand to speak on this item, please do. |
| 02:34:03.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Can you hear me? |
| 02:34:04.44 | Julie Vieira | Yes, we can. Okay, I just, I don't want my video on. Thank you, because I'm already in my PJs. but I wanted to answer some of the questions that came up from the city council members. Um, As Council Member Cox had the question, regarding who qualifies for it, We're a little late to the game. The other chambers have already gone through this and already dispensed funds. So I have learned from their trial and error. And so the one thing that they suggested was that it be the brick and mortar, because they were having large companies apply for it of 50 you know, 50 employees or more. AND ALSO THAT that we The people that have received PPP, and SBA have had some help but there are brick and mortar businesses out there that didn't receive anything or they're still waiting and they've had no relief. So that's kind of where I got it from, is from the other chambers that have already gone through this. And there is a committee that is going to be making the decision is going to be made up of community members, is going to be made up of chamber boards, and local businesses making the decision of who receives the funds. So it's not gonna be just the Chamber of Commerce, And it is open to everyone. And if there's any other questions I can answer, I'm happy to. |
| 02:35:48.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:35:48.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you for being here. I see also Lorna Newland. Welcome back. |
| 02:35:58.53 | Lorna Newland | Thank you. How do I? Sorry, I'm working. Don't start my time yet. I'm working on the video. uh, There I am. Um, The zoom is a little different on the other giant thing. I want to thank the city council for, um, entertaining this whole process and. I've been a member of the Chamber since I started my small business. I have a corporate background of 20 years. And for 18 years, I have believed in the Chamber of Commerce. I only learned today that unfortunately, we're down to 200 members. And it's these 200 members and our dues that pay for the upkeep of the office and the CEO who was doing everything. And I know in our residents tourism, a lot of people on the Hill don't believe in it, but it's tourism that has paid our, our city budget. And it's when in 2008, when so many towns were going bankrupt. Sausalito did not. And I'm a resident. I love it too. And I, it's just, it's part of what we are. People around the world know our town and it's a way of how we can manage it with bicycles or anything else like that. But it's the small town feel. Joe was talking about why isn't there an artist on this new, on the committee, the combined committee. Um, we're known as an artist community and people come and want to find it. And Joe made good comments about ICB. There are ways that we can help all of this. And it takes our town and our residents and it's our, our favorite Herb Weiner used to say, talk about reinvesting in business and it's very important. And it's, like the hotel, the TOT tax, there's so much that comes into this town. And I know Julie Vieira, like I said, she's been doing seminars on eBay and Etsy and trying to figure out ways how we can promote all the small businesses. I mean, I'm surprised. I just learned this week Molly Stones is no longer a member of the Chamber, and I don't know why. I believe in the Chamber of Commerce. Whether or not people come to my business, that's how it is. I'm off the beaten track. But I believe in what we do and what we've always represented me. So I do hope that the, you guys have seen me a lot in the last, 18 years, but I do hope that you will think about supporting this and We're all in this together. Thanks. |
| 02:38:47.25 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you so much. Okay. I do not see any additional public comments. So unless the clerk tells me. I'm going to go ahead and see if I can. to the council for discussion. |
| 02:39:05.36 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Council member Cox or with you, do you have Anything to add to the presentation from Council member. |
| 02:39:13.59 | Vice Mayor Withee | I have nothing to add. I'm very supportive of this and thank for those who worked on it. |
| 02:39:21.61 | Councilmember Cox | with the, um, caveats that have been confirmed. in the staff report and by Council members Riley and Burns I'm also supportive of this program and the I thank you. the efforts that went into devising a program to not only help individual business owners, but to help their neighbors in the city as a whole. And I also do want to acknowledge I have attended a couple of their meetings and it is extraordinary to have a great opportunity The information that she has gathered and shared and the assistance she's providing to businesses, whether or not they're members of the chamber. Kudos. |
| 02:40:08.60 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:40:08.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, so both of those and especially thanks to the team for all their hard work and to our two council members again for their work on the program. program and personally support this program. as a city councilman. So, Thank you very much. Need a motion and a second. |
| 02:40:35.37 | Councilmember Burns | I move that we authorize the donation of $10,000. through the GoFundMe for Love Sausalito. |
| 02:40:46.14 | Councilmember Burns | I don't have a good friend. Did I say that wrong? Everybody's looking at me. |
| 02:40:49.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. I'll just give you a second. |
| 02:40:51.84 | Councilmember Burns | I don't know. |
| 02:40:51.97 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | I will second Council Member Burns. |
| 02:40:54.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. We have a question and assistance. Will the clerk please call the phone? |
| 02:40:58.49 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Riley. Yes. Councilmember Burns? Yes. Council member Cox. |
| 02:41:08.06 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. Vice Mayor Withey? |
| 02:41:10.89 | Vice Mayor Withee | Yes. |
| 02:41:11.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:41:11.43 | Vice Mayor Withee | Thank you. |
| 02:41:11.99 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 02:41:13.30 | Unknown | I'm not. |
| 02:41:14.11 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, thank you. |
| 02:41:14.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:41:15.25 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Motion passes five zero. |
| 02:41:18.69 | Unknown | Great. Thank you. |
| 02:41:20.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:41:20.29 | Unknown | And we will move on to |
| 02:41:22.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | item 8 agenda to city manager reports city council appointments and other council business we have one set of public comment on all items under section 8 so I'll ask if any members of the public would like to comment on the city manager report city council appointment or other city council business |
| 02:41:47.83 | Heidi Scoble | As a reminder, I'll just provide a brief announcement that public comment will be accepted by video or audio audience participation and that your public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker. |
| 02:42:03.46 | Heidi Scoble | There are no hands raised at this time. |
| 02:42:06.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you. Okay item B is the city manager information for the council. |
| 02:42:14.46 | Marcia Raines | Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor and council members. Just a reminder, everyone, to always have your Mike muted when talking because the background sometimes comes through hard to hear. Um, Great job tonight, by the way, everyone. Good meeting. All in all. But in one of the things I found in the committee reports is a lot of the items that I have to report are covered in the committee reports. because I, with some of your staff members, join a lot of the committees via Zoom. I wanted to highlight two and then share a comment on a third that is not populated by council members, the the mayor mentioned earlier, the Marin recovers uh, Uh, team that the county has put together and I represent the Marin managers on that team. There are two council members from the Marin County Council, mayors and council committee that also represent the cities on Marine Recovers They gave a report, an update to the Board of Supervisors this morning That information should be available on their website. to watch their Zoom meeting that they held. and they got an update and then had some back and forth with Dr. Willis. as well related to some of the same questions that our community asks about how and when are we going to reopen, how are we going to keep everyone safe. So the Marine Recovers group is hard at work and the cities are well represented on that, on that team. The mayor also mentioned with council member Burns that, Councilmember Burns and the mayor sit on the MCC MC committee. on working on recovery. economic recovery in the county at the city level and I also represent the Marin managers with Dan Schwartz from Larkspur. And that group two is actively meeting on Fridays and a lot of a really good information and collaboration is coming from that. A lot of that is part of our shared service discussion, as you heard earlier from our police chief. on shared services with police services. We're also looking at community development. Again, one of the innovative Um, and creative solutions that came from COVID-19 was moving to virtual inspections, moving to virtual applications, so that people didn't have to come and stand in line at the counter. And obviously we've been successful with that. able to keep construction moving in town and applications moving. So again, that conversation is continuing because we don't want to go backwards. We don't want to go back to the old way of doing services here. So the conversation at the community development level is also continuing. And that by nature covers public works in terms of encroachment permits and private development inspections of retaining walls, drainage. things like that. So your department heads are all hard at work, as you heard from the chief earlier, working on ways to be creative, and team oriented as we collaborate with our neighbors to the north. The committee that I serve on, which is the Marin managers, we meet two to three days and at least once a week with the county administrator Matthew Iamo. And tomorrow we'll be meeting with Dr. Willis and with the County Administrator A lot of questions and concerns on how we're reopening. And in some communities, were opening too fast and other communities were not opening fast enough. And as you can see across the nine Bay Area counties, we're not all moving at the same pace anymore. Not that we were all together originally, but there was a lot more collaboration especially with the six counties as we moved out the gate and even that is starting to splinter a little bit. And obviously those in the North Bay that have been less affected by COVID-19 are moving at a different pace than the five or six counties that are continuing to work with Dr. Willis. So one of the things that we're asking is for the city managers to be part of the decision making or the sausage making, You know, how are these decisions being made? then how are they to be enforced? And then how are we messaging that information out to the public, not just here in Marin County, but across the nine barrier counties, because people are not just staying in their own county. They're visiting other places, and so that communication is important. So we're hoping to be working more closely with with Dr. Willis, the challenge for him is they are also moving very, very quickly. and so trying to keep up with the needs The Nevada versus the needs of the Belvedere are quite different. So anyway, those are some of the discussions that we're having on a weekly basis with the team of city managers. working together. and collaborating. And we're trying to work with the county as best we can to be able to provide value and insight to them as they're making these decisions that obviously affect cities. And that includes enforcement. There is still some confusion on the counties creating the order but it's not clear is that the county that's supposed to be providing the enforcement or down to the city, and obviously the cities don't have the resources. you know, to enforcement |
| 02:47:49.17 | Unknown | Uh, |
| 02:47:49.48 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:47:52.11 | Marcia Raines | as timely or as necessary as the county may be expecting. and vice versa, the county may not be in a position to do the enforcement. So again, that's a conversation we're continuing to have with the county health official and the county administrator. This becomes important because as we move into the new normal, of living with COVID-19. and getting back to opening our businesses, there still will be restrictions and there still be rules and regulations that we're asking our residents to follow. So important that we're all on the same page as we move into the into this next phase. I'm going to get there. I'm happy to answer any questions in the council. We will be bringing back obviously on your June 9 meeting that will be the beginning the approval of the budget. We've gone through the two step process, the first two steps identifying the issue, identifying the scenarios and then looking at strategies to close that gap. We are actively working with the employees. and we will be bringing forward the recommendations to the council on June 9th. Thank you for your time. Happy to answer any questions. |
| 02:49:06.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Are there questions for the city manager? |
| 02:49:10.31 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | I have a question for the city manager. Adam, can you just share with me what you know about what Napa has done with respect to restaurants |
| 02:49:20.89 | Marcia Raines | I might turn to Councilmember Burns. He's more active in the NAPA discussion, but my understanding is that they have either moved or are moving to indoor dining with regulations I lost track because there's been a discussion about the restaurants trying to move early in opening and one did. and the county administrator made it crystal clear that if you open a restaurant prior to the order being modified, that they were going to suspend their liquor license. That was really the last active involvement in that discussion that I was involved in. But my understanding is that they either have moved to or are moving to inside dining, but I would look to Council Member Burns He has more recent information. |
| 02:50:17.32 | Councilmember Burns | They have and I was wanting to get through this past weekend to check with both Napa and St. Helena on some of their experiences. Anecdotally prior to the weekend I had some friends that they went to some restaurants and it was very light traffic. In fact it was kind of dead. But that could have been people getting ready for the weekend. I don't know. But I'm hoping to get more kind of information from those two council people and cohorts that do what we do to see what kind of what their perception was as far as the people coming back to that type of business quickly and how it worked for them. |
| 02:50:59.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, any other questions? I would just comment on the city manager's report that enforcement is just, I think, something we really need to keep our eye on and be looking for solutions that are as self enforcing as possible and proactive. It's just going to be, I think, one of our biggest challenges moving forward, especially with our tight budget. So. With that we can go on to appointments to boards, commissions and committees. We do not have any appointments tonight, but now that we have successfully concluded our economic development advisory committee. I will be working with the clerk to fill our other vacancies and address some issues that we have with Term limits and, and other things. So we will start on that process and hopefully finish that before. our meeting in July, but we'll see. I see council member Cox shaking her head. Yeah. You're on mute. but, I'm good. Sorry about that. Oh, that's okay. I know more work. Okay, 8D, future agenda items. I have one, I'll start. We've been talking a lot and hearing a lot of public comment on various social media about creating more space for our restaurants, which I wholeheartedly you know, agree that we should be doing that. I really also feel like we have a space issue downtown, as I alluded to with just general pedestrian traffic Um, and otherwise on our sidewalks. And I had mentioned earlier in the COVID-19 Crisis said a number of different cities are experimenting with so-called slow streets and other traffic calming and increase in pedestrian areas and using creative tools to slow traffic down to create more space on sidewalks. and think about pedestrian flow in a different way to allow for six, be it of social distancing Um, and non-crowding. So I would really like to see us take another look at that. I know our... staff was, overwhelmed and also thought there were safety issues, which I understand. But I am wondering if we could refer this item also to our pedestrians. Um, and bicycle advisory committee to think about whether there are opportunities to help with that. So I was gonna put that on future agenda items. |
| 02:54:07.07 | Unknown | Anything else? |
| 02:54:08.05 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Yes, Madam Mayor. I do believe, and this is falling on Wendy Richards' comments about the business tax. I do believe when we put that in place at the beginning of the year, the calendar year, At that time we said we would revisit it in a six month timeframe to see how effective it was So I just ask that we put it on an agenda item when we can get to that, it would probably be appropriate. |
| 02:54:33.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:54:33.13 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 02:54:33.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:54:34.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | on us. |
| 02:54:35.02 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 02:54:35.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I think that is the agenda setting committee will do this. |
| 02:54:41.84 | Julie Meyers | Thank you. |
| 02:54:42.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:54:44.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Anything else? Okay. Other reports of significance? I don't think in my entire time on the council there has been an report of significance. take this off. But anyway, all right. So seeing none, the next item on our agenda is adjournment, and it is 9.55. Thank you for a good meeting tonight. And thank you for all the public that joined us. Much appreciated. And everyone. Have a good night and try to stay cool. |
| 02:55:20.02 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Thank you. |
| 02:55:21.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, we'll adjourn this meeting. |
| 02:55:23.47 | Tom (likely Councilmember Riley) | Good night. |
| 02:55:24.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right. |
Tula Biederman — Against: Opposed proposed layoffs, highlighting the essential services provided by city staff and advocating for use of reserves instead of cutting positions. ▶ 📄
Julie Meyers — Against: Spoke against cutting recreation positions, detailing the loss of programs, facility management, and emergency response capabilities. ▶ 📄
Wendy Richards — Against: Criticized the business license tax as unfair and regressive, especially for home-based businesses, and requested it be revisited on a future agenda. ▶ 📄
Kevin Carroll — Neutral: Complimented city staff for quick responsiveness to a previous request regarding Zoom meeting labels. ▶ 📄
Bryant — Against: Pleaded against layoffs, emphasizing the vital role of city employees in daily operations and emergency situations. ▶ 📄
Alice Merrill — Against: Advocated for preserving the Marin Ship for marine industrial uses and opposed senior housing development there. ▶ 📄
Brian Vitale — Against: Spoke against budget cuts and layoffs, highlighting the impact on recreation programs, community connections, and contract instructors. ▶ 📄