| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:16.69 | Heidi Scoble | We have all of our participants admitted into the meeting and we can begin at any time. Okay, I am ready to begin. Okay, good evening Mayor Cleveland Knowles and council members. This meeting is being held pursuant to section three of executive order N-29-20 issued by Governor Newsom on March 17th, 2020. And all members are joining this meeting telephonically through Zoom and is broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:46.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Welcome everyone. This is a special meeting of the San Juan Ludo City Council on Tuesday, that not Tuesday. Yes. That was in my |
| 00:00:58.03 | Unknown | I'm sorry. Yes. |
| 00:01:02.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | packet that you just sent. I am sorry. It is Thursday, June 4th. Could you please call the wall? I apologize. |
| 00:01:09.19 | Heidi Scoble | I WANT TO TALK ABOUT President. Councilmember Burns? Councilmember Cox? |
| 00:01:18.77 | Joan Cox | you |
| 00:01:18.82 | Heidi Scoble | you |
| 00:01:18.91 | Joan Cox | Thank you. You have muted me. unmute. |
| 00:01:22.99 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We can hear you now. |
| 00:01:24.36 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 00:01:24.95 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:01:25.20 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:01:26.94 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Withee? |
| 00:01:28.52 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:01:28.56 | Unknown | Here. |
| 00:01:29.50 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. |
| 00:01:31.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Sure. |
| 00:01:32.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:32.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:01:32.47 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:32.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So... |
| 00:01:32.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:33.35 | Heidi Scoble | All members are present and we have a quorum. |
| 00:01:37.25 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. We have item number one, D1 on our agenda is a closed session agenda, a conference with I will open it up to your public comments before we go into the session. Thank you. |
| 00:01:54.98 | Joan Cox | And this. |
| 00:01:55.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:01:56.57 | Joan Cox | Pardon me, as you know, I'm having challenges with the video portion of my Ability to log into zoom and I have a hard time hearing you when my video is activated. So I'm going to I will stop my video so I can better hear the |
| 00:02:14.86 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate it. your letting us know. So for the record, council member Cox is not showing her video, but is actively engaged due to internet issues. Okay. open. item d1 up for public comment And give a minute for anyone. to raise their hand at this conference with labor negotiators. |
| 00:02:44.63 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, and if I may, I'm just gonna take this as an opportunity to announce that at this time, members of the public may address the city council regarding this closed session agenda item. Public comment will be accepted by video or audio 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 three minute time has elapsed. It does look like we have two hands raised. We have Julie M. I will lower and unmute Julie. Hi, good evening. |
| 00:03:29.53 | Julie M. | Hi, is it possible to turn on my video? Is that okay? |
| 00:03:34.24 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Absolutely. |
| 00:03:36.96 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, we just started your video. |
| 00:03:39.57 | Julie M. | Thank you. Hi, thank you. City Council and Mayor Cleveland Knowles. I really appreciate you guys having the public comment right now. I know that tonight is going to be a difficult night for you and I support you and what you guys are going to do. And I just want to say that you're going to be presented with a program that I know you're going to accept, but there's more that you can do. We talk about shared sacrifice and There's other people at the city who can also help sacrifice the The employees are sacrificing quite a bit with this program. And we ask that you look into making the management also sacrifice. We will be taking a 20% pay cut, and we ask that you do that for the management as well. Susan, you were quoted by the SF Chronicle saying that there was going to be pain and that you are going to work hard to spread the pain evenly and apply a balanced and as balanced an approach as you can. And we think that having management do more than just give up their COLA needs is balanced. that just giving up the cola and their merit increase is not balanced and it's not spreading the pain. So we I ask specifically that you look into having the management take the same pay cut as all the other employees. Thank you. That's it. The bye time. |
| 00:05:05.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right. Thank you. And then we have Tula Biederman. |
| 00:05:13.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:05:13.50 | Unknown | there. |
| 00:05:13.50 | Tula Biederman | Hi there. Thank you. Can you give us a second time myself so I know what's happening? All right. Thank you, Mayor Cleveland Knowles and Council. I spoke to you last week on the impact of layoffs due to the withholding of reserve funds from an incredibly affluent town. On top of these proposed layoffs in some of our city's most beloved and crucial departments, City management is currently proposing a 20% cut union members pay for the next six months which supposedly would equal a 20% cut to the services we provide. If this is an honest plan and workers will not be expected to spend their own time carrying their already overburdened workloads for free. This is an incredible loss to the city of Sausalito. This means your city will be able to respond 20% fewer sewer overflows. 20% fewer flooding storm drains. 20% fewer building permit applications 20% of your senior is able to access the only computers they can use 20% fewer children able to learn and grow at story time 20% less sanitization of city facilities and equipment despite the fact, the best pool of coronavirus patients in Marin finds every day And yet we hear nothing more about police funding than that the budget body cameras has been eliminated and one vacant position frozen. We've been told that currently management is only being asked to give up their annual cost of living and their step increases. They make the highest salaries of any city employees if they are being out. |
| 00:06:37.54 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:37.79 | Tula Biederman | Thank you. I do not speak tonight in the hopes that everyone employed by the city of Sausalito will suffer just as much as union members are expected to. I speak to urge you to consider more carefully the responsibility you have to your residents who expect high quality of services for their tax dollars. And your employees. to look for our leadership, care about our well-being as much as we care for the city. City of Mill Valley has stated that striving to retain 25% of their annual budget and reserve. is their responsibility. Sausalito City Council, on the other hand, has resolved that they must reserve over 75% This is, This is unacceptable. when it means cutting 20% of all city services. Furthermore, on the issue of the protests and the oppression of people of color that have been in the public eye lately Not only does eliminating body cameras look very bad, But when you look at the high turnover rate at City Hall, City Hall employees, You see how few of our employees are people of color to begin with and yet how high a proportion of the folks who leave city the city. are people of color. I think this shows an incredible lack of insight on the council and management's part. to work to retain these employees, make sure they're paid their fair share and can afford to stay. The word shared sacrifice are thrown around far too casually. This is not sharing. This is hoarding. Do the right thing, spend your reserves and save your city. |
| 00:08:01.32 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much, Dula. Okay, I see we also have Bryant Ho here tonight. This hand raised? |
| 00:08:15.79 | Bryant Ho | Hello, Mrs. Mayor, thank you for having me and thank you council members for having me also. Um, Oh. Just got on. I... Appreciate it. the opportunity to speak. to the council and to the public. Um, I'm here also on behalf of Um, the city employees. I work for city of Sausalito and I'm just here as a as a member of the public speak forward to the employees. Today, a couple of employees came forward to me and they mentioned that The city still has on contractors doing custodial work And like Tula mentioned before, They lack institutional knowledge and Um, members of the public have come to them and complained about the quality of contract with studio work and I would hope that Um, City Council and City Management are taking this into consideration when they are looking at budget cuts, instead of cutting an actual full-time custodial position Um, that has opportunities for Um, people to grow with the city and learn the city more than a contract with student work. That's not to say that all contract and work is in the city. I've worked with some great contracting consultants. from where I work in the city of Sausalito. And I just also want to again, reiterate that Um, Cuttings. cutting. city hours and or employee hours should be fair and uniformly applied across the board. I don't think it's, Fair to ask. the labor. Um, to they could 20% cut in hours if management and police are not also shouldering that burden and, um, Again, I thank you guys for allowing us to speak here and I yelled back on time. |
| 00:10:42.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, great, thank you very much. All right, Brian Vitale. Welcome. |
| 00:10:53.63 | Brian Vitale | I don't know. There we go. Hi everybody. How are we doing? Thank you City Council and Mayor Knowles. As a recreation professional for nearly 20 years, I've dedicated my life to serving communities. Since our last conversation, the recreation world has been opening up and I've been working hard every day to bring my programs to our community members. Initially when I was hired almost three months ago, we had two summer camps that we were planning on running. But since the beginning of this week, I've secured over eight different camps with over 16 sessions to choose from. And one of our camps has 11 of 12 signups. I came from working at the ranch, which is Belvedere and Tiburon's recreation department, And the way they operated was by producing enough revenue to secure your job. I managed a half a million dollar budget and moved over to Sausalito so I could grow youth summer camp programs along with after school programs. and programs for underserved adults and seniors in our community. Before the pandemic, we were poised to net about $7,000 just from summer camps. But as the go-getter that I am and knowing things are opening back up, Right now we're poised to make over $23,000. And that's with only filling three quarters of our camps So far. Oh, not so far. That's just budgeting three quarters of our camps being full. I'm working hard and I'm dedicated to my craft. I'm passionate. I love what I do. And I do what I love. as do many of my colleagues in Sausalito. But I'm going to be honest. From being here for three months, I'm feeling a little defeated. I'm tirelessly working day in and day out to serve the community. But every day I wonder, will I be here at the end of the month? I'm here talking to all of you tonight because I know you all care about the city and you have very difficult decisions to make to help secure the future of Sausalito. To reiterate what Julie Meyer said, we discussed a 20% reduction in pay for all union members talking about golden handshakes. But before Julie mentioned anything I haven't heard anything of sharing any pay reduction for directors and leadership making sacrifices. If the pain will be spread around, then it should affect all city staff, not just union members. I'm here. trying to work each and every day with every one of you. with all of my colleagues, in City Hall. with community members, And I hope that the decisions that are made tonight and the decisions that are talked about aren't just for slashing and cutting, but are decisions that we can all work together to figure this out. I've been in recreation for a long time, so I know how the recreation world works and I know how difficult it is to sometimes secure funding for it. But I know that from talking with Mike, my director, that he's working hard to help me stay in my position. And I greatly appreciate him. each and every day. talking with me about how we can make a difference in our community, how we can offer new programs, and how we can do all of these wonderful things in order to secure a great future in our city. Three minutes has |
| 00:14:04.52 | Heidi Scoble | THE END OF COMPANY. |
| 00:14:06.29 | Brian Vitale | Thank you for your time. I hope everyone has a great night. |
| 00:14:09.80 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, thank you, Brian. All right, Patrick. Wasco, wasco. Welcome. |
| 00:14:26.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:14:26.97 | Heidi Scoble | Can we unmute Patrick? He has been unmuted. |
| 00:14:34.66 | Patrick | Okay, so folks, Thank you for allowing me to speak to our council. um, Council I mean, Mayor Cleveland Knowles and the rest of the council members I appreciate your time working with us on these challenges. Um, I just wanted to kind of chime in a little bit and I'm certain you're aware of this, but the sewer on. Our enterprise fund strictly for sewer is funded, fully funded, and it will continue to be fully funded. We currently operate with, THEIR OWNERS. three stops. I'm going to be talking about as basically the sewer coordinator and the supervisor of the sewer crew. that's going to be a And then we have, and I'm a grade for uh... California Water Environment Association Collective System Maintenance Grade 4 That's the highest level of certification you can have for that discipline. And then we have a grade three, that's Eric Graham. Um, and, um, He acts as the lead in a way, in most ways for our two man crew in the field, which used to operate as four and then three and now two in the field. I believe that there's room to Um, Well, I believe there's room to make lateral moves from DPW to the sewer department if allowed. to help help us with the work we do. that's going to be a I'm encouraged by the fact that we are fully funded and that we can afford to keep our staff intact. so we can do our necessity work for the city by making sure the public sewer system keeps flowing to the treatment plan. Um, I haven't heard any discussion regarding the sewer fund. So I am a little bit intrigued where the council is on that. that's a good question. As far as... you know, the work we have planned to do, there's plenty of capital projects our staff engineering department could segue into as lateral moves. I haven't heard any discussion of that yet, but I'm anticipating you're thinking about it. THE END OF THE END OF THE So, More than anything, I wanna let everyone know for every overflow that occurs, potentially the city could be fined up to $10 per gallon. for sanitary sewer overflows. It might have gone up a little bit, but I'm not sure. We have not been fined by the state quantitatively since 2008. I wanna report out to the board right now or the council right now that, um, in this, last six months we haven't had an overflow at all because we clean the sewer system. We have a sewer system that needs to be maintained all the time because it is a very old system in many, many parts of the city. So your sewer crew is, you know, we don't have an on-call duty. The only people that are really your first responders for sewer overflows are the police department, the fire department, and then they end up calling me at home or the dispatch does and then either I go deal with it and get staff or a subcontractor. Your three minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:17:48.12 | Julie Vera | Your three minutes has a left. |
| 00:17:49.96 | Patrick | Good for... Thank you so much for your time. I hope I didn't bore you too much. I look forward to your responses. |
| 00:17:56.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you for coming. All right, I do not see any additional hands raised. Are there any other members of the public who would like to comment to me? |
| 00:18:12.33 | Heidi Scoble | It looks like Tula Biederman raised her hand again. but she has already spoken during public comment. |
| 00:18:18.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yep. Okay. So we will adjourn into closed session. And we will reconvene at 7 o'clock. |
| 00:18:30.81 | Joan Cox | Madam Mayor. I was going to say it's impossible someone else is trying to speak from Tula's computer. |
| 00:18:37.06 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Oh, okay. That's your correct. as possible. Why don't we unmute Ms. Biederman. I hadn't thought of that possibility. |
| 00:18:50.12 | Tula Biederman | Thank you Councilmember Cox and Mayor Cleveland Knowles. I was actually going to indicate that Oscar Lucario is on. He hasn't been able to raise his hand in his version of Zoom but he would also like to speak. So great. |
| 00:19:00.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:19:01.17 | Tula Biederman | Thank you. |
| 00:19:01.19 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:19:01.24 | Tula Biederman | Thank you. |
| 00:19:02.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Oscar, we will unmute you. Welcome. |
| 00:19:13.66 | Unknown | Hi, good afternoon, city council, city mayor. It's a pleasure to speak in front of you guys. It's been quite a while. I know it's been a fiscal ride 2020, and I know the decisions being put on the table through labor and or city management. It's moving forward. I want to let you know and express my interest on how much work we've done through the city, in all departments. I was hired under the Department of Public Works and then it divided into parks and recs. And when it divided, it still didn't create a division among all us workers. It actually bind us even more right after I was hired, we dealt with the lens light. into an aging infrastructure that we have in South Salud. We also having great new projects, but it involves everybody to be part of it from emergency response to the Department of Public Works, Parks and Recs, to having our parks being provided with services of a community base. And I wanna tell you and express you that I really paying for all of us. And we really are helping ourselves being tied together. And if we're going to take a 20% pay cut, we would love to see also management to do that. So we can have some funds there. We're gonna do a temporary try out, which is great. And I really have to thank Adam and Julia for having forecasting and having us put it into the table because it's important to hear the voices of the workers. We have institutional knowledge and we come with new ideas to improve our services. And we dealt day by day on how to make it better for all of us. So please think about us, think about families and we're a small family and we're gonna get through this and we're here to move and do our best. Thank you so much. |
| 00:21:03.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you very much, Oscar. And I do now see also Rebecca Bergen is here and has her hand raised. |
| 00:21:18.99 | Heidi Scoble | We have unmuted Rebecca and asked her to start her video. |
| 00:21:23.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, welcome. |
| 00:21:26.56 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:21:26.58 | Rebecca Bergen | Thank you. I'm just, can you hear me? |
| 00:21:31.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can hear you. |
| 00:21:33.16 | Rebecca Bergen | Thank you mayor Cleveland Knowles and City Council members. I'm Rebecca Bergen. I've worked for the city as senior library assistant and have been a city employee for almost five years now. I'm here to support my union and fellow employees who are dedicated to taking care of Sausalito. The turnover rate for city employees has been pretty high in the past few years. Those of us who are left are the ones who faithfully still serve the city and in any capacity that we have been able to. Most of us reside in cities and counties far from Sausalito. But despite a global pandemic and all of its devastating fallout, We continue to show up in every way. possible to be community builders. We've reinvented our departments in order to take care of the city's families and children. with educational and recreational outlets and to provide residents with functioning sewers, landscapes and infrastructures. We are the ones who are left. And we are the ones who rushed to serve Sausalito in the face of any type of emergency. Mudslides, power outages, fires. We're there. Yeah, we're the first ones to get cut when the budget needs repair. The original proposal to cut 10% of our hours made most of us need to rethink our personal budgets. but the sacrifice is worth it to spare our fellow employees jobs. especially in these dire times. when that number suddenly doubled and was raised to a 20% cut, Most of us doubted whether this already short staffed city could even run on such a bare bones personnel. The residents will suffer greatly from this cut. Taking 20% of our productivity will amount to a huge reduction in services for local families. If residents want to enjoy living in Sausalito for the next year, we need to go to a different direction for mending the budget. If asked whether they would pay extra taxes rather than lose essential services, I would wager that most residents of this fair city would choose the tax increase. If we raise taxes, use more of the reserve and delay non-essential projects, trading and expenditures to the next fiscal year, We can all help run a city that deserves to have a fully staffed department who's available to serve in the next emergency. Thank you for listening tonight. |
| 00:23:59.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca, for being here. Okay, I do not see any other raised hand. |
| 00:24:12.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | and okay so hopefully nobody else is having trouble raising their hands but um So now we will close public comment and we will adjourn to closed session. and we will be back at 7 p.m. in open session. And thank you again for people that commented tonight. and the clerk will leave this meeting, is that correct? |
| 00:24:37.74 | Heidi Scoble | That is correct. |
| 00:27:46.49 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Cox. Yes. Vice Mayor Withey? Yes. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:27:56.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. Sorry, apologies, I didn't realize we were live. So welcome back to our regular meeting. or special meeting, I'm sorry. And we've already taken roll call and we will move on. to our special presentation. I'm having a lot of feedback, so if folks who are not |
| 00:28:16.15 | Unknown | you |
| 00:28:16.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:16.42 | Unknown | you you |
| 00:28:19.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:20.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | their microphones, that would be great. All right, thanks. So we had a special meeting tonight to talk about labor negotiations, which was just done in closed session. But there were two events that happened very quickly in my last city council meeting and the city manager, vice mayor and I thought that this would be a good time to update the council and have a discussion on these topics. The first is our public update and community events, marches and peaceful protests by Chief Warbacher. And before I introduce I just wanted to um, start by briefly sharing some of my thoughts and hopes. about this just tumultuous and historic moment for our country and our local community. It's been a tough week, there were 10 days. The brutal and horrific killing of George Floyd together with other recent racially charged events have tapped deep well pain, anger and outrage in our society. And this atrocious act comes at a time when we are also coming to terms with a pandemic. that has affected all of us, but has also disproportionately impacted our black and brown communities, both from a health and economic perspective. These events have triggered an outpouring of protests against a long history of racism that's continued to plague our country. I welcome the voices of protest, and I will pledge to be an active ally in the fight for racial justice. I was proud to join my husband and my son and my neighbors, including several other council members, at last Sunday in a peaceful protest in Vina del Mar Park. While I could not attend the March in Min City on Tuesday, my two teenagers returned from that peaceful and powerful event. moved and inspired. It was clearly a shining moment for Marin City, for the 94965 zip code, and for Wayne County as a whole. As tragic and painful as the recent events have been and as daunting as the challenges we face are, my hope is that we can seize this moment as a society to make transformative and permanent change for the better. For those of us, like myself, who do not have the lived experience of being a target of racism, This will include listening to the experiences and perspectives of those who have worked failing toward the goal of achieving social justice. Before I introduce the Chief, I also just wanted to thank him personally and the other law enforcement officials in Marin County for their handling of this sensitive topic. and their words in action. in support of the peaceful protest. So thank you to Chief Rohrabacher, and with that, I will introduce him for his presentation on the day. Welcome to. |
| 00:31:37.86 | Chief Rohrbacher | Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. I will start my screen share. |
| 00:31:50.42 | Chief Rohrbacher | I'm hoping that that's right. Help me out here, Heidi. Is that showing up? |
| 00:31:57.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm not seeing it. Thank you. |
| 00:31:58.87 | Chief Rohrbacher | on that one. |
| 00:32:04.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:32:04.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:32:04.96 | Unknown | you |
| 00:32:05.01 | Joan Cox | No. Great. Thank you. |
| 00:32:08.13 | Chief Rohrbacher | Yes. |
| 00:32:08.45 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:32:08.49 | Chief Rohrbacher | Thank you. |
| 00:32:09.30 | Joan Cox | Yes. |
| 00:32:10.24 | Chief Rohrbacher | Okay. I'm a two screen user. I never know which one's gonna pop up there. Thank you for your patience with that. And I appreciate the opportunity tonight to speak to the council and to the community A little bit about the public safety status and of course about our community events, the marches and peaceful protests |
| 00:32:34.33 | Chief Rohrbacher | I'd like to start with this image. This is George Floyd. Mr. Floyd was the that was killed at the hands of the four Minneapolis, Minnesota police officers on Memorial Day. that act by Any definition was just horrible. It was a horrific thing to watch. Many of us were just disgusted by what we saw on that video. And the reactions across our nation and actually into other nations was Highly emotional, we're gonna talk about that a little bit. There was no need. for Mr. Floyd to lose his life. That call for service was nothing more than over a counterfeit $20 bill. |
| 00:33:27.24 | Chief Rohrbacher | So over my career, I've had a couple of different times to think about things that are important. more so now than ever. So I'm going to share just a couple of thoughts before moving on. And So my experience and my thoughts are that It takes a long time to work on positive relationships with community, to build trust. And then just to find that I'm not sure. you know, an event. an event like what occurred in Minneapolis, can just destroy that so quickly So the trust has to be earned on a regular basis. It's not a one-time thing. You don't get to have it and have it never ever be tested. And Our job is to know work on that all the time and make sure that the trust that between the police and our diverse communities that we are here to serve and protect them. |
| 00:34:28.40 | Chief Rohrbacher | So. These last 10 days have been very troubling. And our job is to protect the people that wanna bring some voice to the emotions that they're feeling and boy, are they... uh, and people should feel free to march and protest and pray gather. And be loud. Do so loudly if they choose. Because being peaceful does not necessarily mean doing so quietly, it's important to remember just because people I just wanted to get together. does not mean it's a criminal act at all. |
| 00:35:12.49 | Chief Rohrbacher | So here's an example. So last Saturday I was contacted by Some people from Indivisible Sausalito. and they were calling to tell me that they were gonna have an event in Sausalito on Sunday in the afternoon. It's important to note they were not calling to ask for my permission because they don't need it. but they were calling because they wanted my help and the help of the Associate of Police Department and having a peaceful event. They wanted the opportunity to gather to hold up their signs. and share with their feelings. And just wanted to make sure that it would go okay. So we had a great conversation. about where might be the best spot It turns out that a little park at Vina del Mar is a pretty good spot for that. And, About 75 people showed up. It lasted about 90 minutes. And it was a really great event. And we didn't receive a single call for service about that. The officers, you know, I told them, you know, stay away, no need to hover. This is not that type of event. Just go about your job and handle calls. It turned out there weren't any. But still, this is what an event should look like. and express what they are feeling and do so in a safe manner knowing that they are protected by the police department that they were going to be safe. And that's critical that it worked out that way. And I think the people from Indivisible Saucelito allowing us to be part of that. |
| 00:36:42.81 | Chief Rohrbacher | While that was going on, there was plans being made for an even larger event in Rhin City. and the Sheriff's Office jurisdiction and they did the planning they involved almost every agency in Marin County to help them out, whether it was to help out at the event or help cover for calls in their while their deputies work this particular event. with the same process that people just wanted to have a peaceful, They just wanted to gather and express what they were feeling I'm not sure. there was ranges anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 people there. And there was actually zero incidents that occurred during that event. Sadly, two or three people needed to be tended to because it was awfully hot. And so the fire department had a couple of calls related to treat people for the heat. But other than that, the event was terrific. I have a few more pictures you can see here. |
| 00:37:33.57 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:37:36.71 | Chief Rohrbacher | people gathering. and here as well. It was well covered by the media. and by people of all ages and families And it was a wonderful, safe event. and as I'm speaking to you now and over the past few days and on to the rest of the week. There are several events going on all over county and you're likely not to hear much about them because they're peaceful. You might just see little blurbs about what and Fairfax and the I'm not sure. Bucksburg, Corte Madera, and San Anselmo and all over. So we're very proud of that. All of us together that work in Marin County are dedicated to making sure that people are able to express themselves and have a peaceful event. Sadly, that doesn't work out that way all the time. Um, There are people, and I could just call them evil doers, committed. to taking advantage of other people's Grief. to loot and pillage and wreak havoc and violence. on you know, the communities, we saw that all over the nation. But lots here in the Bay Area. And. Sadly, there was a federal officer killed in Oakland, and there was more gunfire later at the Oakland of police headquarters where people shot at the officers who were standing guard. There were officers killed across the nation. It was frankly just It was just awful. And now, we are thinking about what's next. So bring me back to us locally. We are vigilant. And in our efforts to make sure that Nothing's going to happen here. or if we do, we're going to find out about it ahead of time. And we were working with all the other law enforcement agencies, including state and federal agencies, And today we have found no credible information to suggest that Sausalito or Marin County has been in harm's way. That does not mean there has not been protests. It just means that there's been no indication in harm's way. But we don't rest on that alone. on and other law enforcement agencies. We continue to work with the high patrol and the sheriff and put together contingency plans. There's nighttime patrols all over the Bay Area that we participate in. And there's nighttime patrols, extra patrols, of officers all throughout Marin County, making sure that Um, the areas are safe over and above the normal on. These are a multi-jurisdictional response And we're ready to go. you know, 24 seven. So, Looking on a little bit. So I want to leave you with this image here. This is the amazing men and women of the Saucyuta Police Department. These are our volunteers. These are our professional civilian staff. our parking enforcement officers, and our police officers. We are all dedicated to serving this community to make it a great place to live and to work. Getting hired here is not easy, I can assure you that, because I'm in charge of that. Thank you. Candidates go through a rigorous background to make sure that the right fit for this agency We train them well in how we want police work done here. We give them the proper equipment. and then we let them do their job. and I couldn't be more proud of each and every one of them. In closing, I have a slide just if you have any questions for me, I'm happy to answer them. |
| 00:41:40.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much Chief Warbacher for that presentation and for your approach to this. Are there questions from council members? |
| 00:41:57.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and just for members of the public, I did just want to let you know that Councilmember Joan Cox is with us tonight, but she's having internet issues and so is not showing her video for some of this meeting. um, Thank you. I did have one question for the chief and last at our last meeting. We heard a presentation from you about and consolidation with Mill Valley. which was excellent. discussed the proposal to not include the body cameras in this year's budget. And so that issue in light of all these events that we've been discussing Um, has come back up. It's been raised to me and I believe other council members bit of correspondence. So I've also heard very proactively some members of the public being open to help us fundraise. for some of the funds to contribute to those. And I did just want to reiterate, since we're talking about this, that this was something that you had express an affirmative desire to have in the budget. But given our four to $5 million revenue loss that was just not something you thought you could support. this coming year. But, you know, if there were additional funds that became available, is that something that we might be able to reconsider? |
| 00:43:34.19 | Chief Rohrbacher | Absolutely. It's been It's really amazing the amount of email messages I've received. since the council meeting last week and after some of that information made its way to the news media, And they covered that. with people being so generous and kind in offering to participate in fundraising, efforts to help us because people see the value in that. as do we. And I'm appreciative of all the efforts that council has made to support the police department over the years, including adding our and the officer positions that we needed and the license plate reader cameras, all things that are very expensive and the body cameras are no exception. And so it's exciting to think about working with people moving forward. Obviously, in the last couple of days, there's not been time to reply to each and every one of those people. But I'm gonna reach out to every single one of them and thank them for their offer. And of course, keep all of you in the loop on that. It will take me a couple of days to work through that amount of email. But I would still, of course, love to have plenty more cameras. And so I didn't expect that. And so it's nice to see. |
| 00:44:54.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Okay, seeing no other council member questions, we will open up to public comments. |
| 00:45:03.74 | Heidi Scoble | At this time members of the public may address the city council regarding agenda item 1A. 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. We do have, oh, sorry. |
| 00:45:34.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | No, go ahead. |
| 00:45:35.69 | Heidi Scoble | It appears as though there is a public commenter from Bryant Ho. on mute. |
| 00:45:40.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:45:41.36 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:45:41.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Welcome, Brian. |
| 00:45:52.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We do need to unmute you. There we go. |
| 00:45:56.07 | Unknown | Okay, is this public comment time for Chief Rohrbacher's presentation? Yes, it is. |
| 00:46:03.13 | Bryant Ho | Okay, I just like to thank Chief Rubrocker for the excellent work he does. Sauce Leader is a great example of police work. and I'd like to thank him for helping city staff assisting public works in their duties. And I'd also like to thank him for Um, his detectives, or I'd like to thank his detectives for the work that they're doing to try and rectify our you identity theft issue that happened a couple years ago. But that being said, I just also want to advise that I think that the use of curfews and tear gassed is a violation of civil rights, a punishment of you know, everyone for the um, the crimes of the few. And I don't think it's just, so I don't think Sausalito has a curfew at this time, but where I live in Oakland, |
| 00:47:01.87 | Lee Hunt | Thank you. |
| 00:47:02.38 | Bryant Ho | There is a curfew and it's You know, I'm being punished for the actions a few bad people and a I would hope that Sasauito looks at the literature on tear gas and |
| 00:47:13.55 | Unknown | at the last. |
| 00:47:16.74 | Bryant Ho | curfews and comes to the conclusion that it's not appropriate for it. um, and I yield back my time and thank you again. cheeseburger right there. |
| 00:47:29.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you, Brian. Okay. If there's any other public comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application. I am not seeing any other hands raised. Could the clerk confirm? |
| 00:47:44.58 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, there are no other hands raised. |
| 00:47:47.75 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. Well, thank you again to Chief Boerbacher. I would open it up to the council if you have Any. comments to follow, I'm already made my may be awkward but heartfelt comment but if anybody else would like to speak please do |
| 00:48:04.86 | Unknown | I think you did make a great lead into this, Mayor, and I think you spoke the words I would... if I was eloquent to say so I really appreciate that that you kicked us off like that and obviously the Chiefs words this was a tremendously emotional week and it's going to be continuing for a while and it should And I'm really thankful for our community, the way they've responded and the way you have led and the way our chief has led. So thank you all and our entire city staff. |
| 00:48:35.47 | Tom | Madam Mayor, this is Tom. Thank you for your comments. And Chief, thank you for your heartfelt comments. I saw even your emotions and your thoughts about it. |
| 00:48:35.56 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:48:35.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:48:35.61 | Unknown | Um. |
| 00:48:35.93 | Unknown | I'm not. |
| 00:48:35.95 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:48:45.75 | Tom | policing and working with the community. Thank you for your great work. I will share it was really sad to see that our downtown had to be boarded up this And that some of our merchants had fear. I'm so pleased that we didn't have to I do hope that the we see those boards removed and our beautiful hamlet is back to what it is. And one thing I do encourage is that we have some kind of communication that I mean, I do believe you have that set up and there was no alerts, but I think we have to do I just, I hope that, uh, our businesses feel comfortable. coming back to business despite the challenges that they have. prior to this last two weeks. Thank you. |
| 00:49:46.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Vice Mayor? |
| 00:49:49.12 | Unknown | Yeah, your comments were not awkward at all. relevant and heartfelt. I also would like to express my thanks to our Chief, and our police department, And for the jurisdiction we're in that work so law enforcement jurisdictions in Marin that work so effectively together. You know, Just because people are going to exercise their rights to protest does not mean that there's going to be trouble. It just doesn't. because, um, you know, People are feeling the incredible inequity and lack of social justice exists You know, it's spread beyond our shores, as the Chief indicated. |
| 00:50:40.15 | Unknown | you know, Thank you. |
| 00:50:45.11 | Unknown | Um, So let's just remember that you know, there are going to be protests and That's OK, it's healthy and it's right. and To quote... the vast majority of protesters are simply demanding that we live up to our values as people and our values as a nation. and That's a quote from retired general Jim Mathis. |
| 00:51:20.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Councilmember Cox, do you have anything to add before we move on? |
| 00:51:27.90 | Joan Cox | I really don't have enough, I have a lot to add. I think As you said, Mayor, these are such unique and challenging times that we have but, the challenges of this unrest and of on top of people having been sequestered for weeks on end due to a pandemic. So it really is a lot to ask anyone to bear. I think it's a lot to ask anyone to bear. And I think the vast majority of people have responded respectfully, peacefully and appropriately in the face of truly daunting challenges. I'm grateful and I'm grateful to our as well as all of the Marin County Police Department for serving our individual communities for banding together to assist such as Oakland, where there is huge amount of unrest, and to keep all of us safe and protect our rights to continue to express our views in our own individual way. |
| 00:52:34.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right. Thank you. Well, we have a lot of hard work to do, continue to do in our society, and I look forward to working as a team to do that with all of you. So now we will move on to the second item on our special meeting. which is to ratify the Director of Emergency Services Order 2020-1 regarding outdoor activities and encroachments by businesses. And is our city manager gonna kick us off with this or? What do we have? |
| 00:53:20.59 | Mary Wagner | Thank you, Madam Mayor. I think it's actually, the ball's actually in my court unless the city manager would like to tip it off. |
| 00:53:24.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thanks. Thank you. |
| 00:53:27.16 | Mary Wagner | And if I may just add my thanks both to the council, the city manager and the chief, for that presentation and for Sorry, such an emotional issue for the way that the the city is handling itself under the current circumstances. So thank you for indulging me with that. Thank you. |
| 00:53:44.10 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:53:45.87 | Mary Wagner | Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the city council, Mary Wagner, your city attorney, I'd also like to acknowledge all the hard work that's put been put into this item that's in front of you this evening by the entire team. but particularly Lily Whalen, your community development director, and Kevin McGowan. your public works director, and to Adam Pulitzer, your city manager, for his leadership on this issue as well. So I'm going to start off with an overview and a little bit of a background and then turn it over to Kevin McGowan and David Parisi. to discuss specifically the street closure issue. And then come back to me, I'll finish up. And I'll also let you know that Lily Whalen, Kevin McGowan, David Parisi, the chief and the city manager are all available for questions as well. And thanks also to Heidi for driving this presentation tonight. That's very helpful. So next slide, please, Heidi. So as we all know, the state and county have issued shelter in place orders and Marin County has been under a county health order to shelter in place since March 16th, 2020. In April of 2020, the governor announced a four-phase roadmap for relaxing those shelter-in-place orders. And then in May of 2020, the governor and the California Department of Public Health initiated a phase reopening of non-essential businesses throughout the state. So we're currently operating under the county order that went into effect as of May 18th, 2020. And as we have moved into this phase reopening, the county is updating the appendix to that order. as new activities are allowed. These orders have had a severe impact on our business community. Restaurants have only been able to have takeout and delivery services. And our retail sector hasn't been able to have any retail sales. Next slide, please. Next slide, Heidi. Thank you. So as we're moving into this phased reopening, the county has developed Marin recovers. It's a collaborative initiative with public health officials, local businesses, and industry and local government leaders to develop reopening guidelines and procedures. And I've included their, of core missions, if you will, is to ensure compliance with state and county public health create industry reopening operating guidance, and then collaborate with industry working groups with a robust two-way communication to ensure support and resources for industries to reopen and remain open in partnership with the Chambers of Commerce and other leaders in our community. Next slide, please. So what we are currently under is the phase of reopening that went into effect as of June 1st, 2020, where additional businesses and industries are allowed to operate in compliance with the Marin County Health Office. which are available both on the Marin Recovers web page, which is listed below, and I believe there's a link from the county's web page as well. So as of June 1, 2020, there are additional childcare opportunities, general office space opening up. libraries have curbside pickup. And then restaurants, are able to utilize outside dining in addition to the delivery and pickup that they've been using. Outdoor retail is also allowed, but still no indoor in-person retail. There's opening up of summer and sports camps, and then there's some additional ability to use our beautiful beaches and parks. Next slide, please. I think it's also too important to acknowledge and recognize that what we're proposing tonight is being undertaken by the majority, if not all, of the Marin County cities and towns. I included this slide with a few of the examples that I was able to find the city of San Rafael as of June 1st. authorize their city manager to streamline a process for the use of city sidewalks. and on-street parking spaces, much like the order that went into effect in Sausalito. There's also an ability to waive or reduce application fees And they're looking at street closures up to two evenings per week. Mill Valley also took action on June 1st for the use of the right of way and private property. street closures, suspending fees, And then they also took an action particular to the use of the downtown plaza area. The city of Nevada started as of June 1st, also allowing temporary use of private property and public right of way. for outside dining and retail and, um, That's right-of-way and private property. They had a lot of staff authorization in place. So they just went ahead and did that. And I believe they're taking an item later. to their city council to update them on that. Next slide, please. So on May 29, 2020, in order to expand opportunities for outdoor dining and outdoor retail activities in compliance with the county order, And with the social distancing requirements, the city manager issued an order acting as the director of emergency services That order is in your packet tonight and it suspends or relaxes certain provisions of the municipal code that were prohibited or restrict outdoor activities that are being proposed. It allows for the use of private property, such as a private parking lot, with the the permission of that private property owner, if it's not owned by the entity that's applying for that use, It also authorized the use of public right-of-way, sidewalk and parking spaces, and it allowed for some temporary signage so that businesses could identify themselves. We are asking that people apply for and then would enter into a temporary COVID-19 outdoor activities encroachment agreement with the city. That's also included in your packet, and it's been available online. We've received quite a number of applications. I believe it's 23. Um, That's an update from your staff report and then an update even from a slide that we have moving forward. So what we're asking you to do tonight is ratify that executive order, or excuse me, that emergency services order, and then also authorize the use of some other publicly owned property We've specifically received a request from COPIDA to utilize the Bank of America Plaza And if you go to the next slide, please. So their proposal is to put eight to 10 tables out and to use 24 to 28 chairs. to include some umbrellas and their hours, proposed hours are set up around 1130 and removal by 930. They would have some low level ambient music and some illumination. AND THEY'VE ASKED THAT THAT COMMENCE AS OF JUNE 8TH. And if you go to the next slide, we have a rendering of what that would look like. There we go. |
| 01:00:33.88 | Unknown | you |
| 01:00:37.78 | Mary Wagner | Next slide, please. So as I indicated, we've received a number of requests for permits to engage in the outdoor activities that are allowed with the social distancing requirements and the guidelines that the county has put into place. I believe, as I said, that we have 23. as of now. Next slide, please. And I believe that staff has, is quickly trying, one back please, Heidi, sorry. go one slide back. Thank you. So I think that, as I said, 23 have been received. Staff is trying to work through those as quickly as possible. I believe that nine are currently ready um to be reviewed by the city manager and potentially issued as soon as tomorrow. |
| 01:01:33.82 | Mary Wagner | So this slide now moves us into the next request that you have in front of you this evening and recommendations. which is to allow for some temporary street closure. So you would authorize the city manager to temporary closed streets for some additional outdoor space for restaurant dining or other business activity that's allowed You have in your staff report the provision of the vehicle code that allows this to happen. We would propose a special outdoor dining encroachment permit that I think will be very similar to the temporary COVID-19 agreement that we have for the use of sidewalks and right of ways. And on last week, I believe it was last Thursday, the VPAC received a presentation from David Parisi about the closure of Caledonia Street. So in just a moment, I'm going to turn it over to Kevin McGowan to introduce David, and then David will run through a presentation for the council. But I wanted to just clarify that what we're asking you for tonight is authorization for the city manager to enter into temporary street closures. in order to deal with the impacts of COVID-19 and the reopening. So we're not asking for your approval of the full closure that's being presented, I believe by Mr. Parisi. That would go back to the VPAC for further consideration and then come back to the council for authorization. So with that, we can pause this phase of the presentation and turn it over to Kevin and to David. Thank you. |
| 01:03:03.44 | Kevin McGowan | Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of City Council. I'm Kevin McGowan, your Public Works Director. Hopefully you can hear me. And this evening we have asked our traffic consultant, David Parisi. To make a short presentation regarding a proposed pilot project to close the end of Caledonia Street between Pine and Johnson, Prior to David starting his presentation, I thought it would be helpful to mention that staff from the community development department, the fire department, the police department, our city manager's office, as well as our city attorney have been working to assist businesses to reopen during this difficult time. Mary covered most all the points that I wanted to make. So I'm just going to move on to mentioning that the BPAC on the 28th did receive a presentation from Parisi Transportation Consulting. And they were in favor of closing the closure of the end of Caledonia Street. So with that, I think I'll try to turn this over to David Parisi to make a presentation for you. Thank you. |
| 01:04:12.85 | David Parisi | Okay, thank you, Kevin. |
| 01:04:14.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Welcome, Mr. Precise. |
| 01:04:16.78 | David Parisi | I'm not sure. Good evening, Madam Mayor and council members. Can you guys hear me okay? Okay, super. I am going to share my screen. and start a presentation. |
| 01:04:33.96 | David Parisi | if I remember how. OK, great. I'm Last week we I think we've met with the BPAC in a Zoom meeting to talk about the scope of work. that we have developed. with public works department. and also to get feedback on some existing issues and things to look for. And the first half of this presentation is exactly that. What we went through with be packed. but the second half, are some we're going to show you some initial ideas that we've been developing. as the first one. the most southern block for potential closure or other actions. And the telescope will work. It has six elements to it and they're lettered A through C It's, um, probably easier to kind of look at a map so I'll just show you We are focused on the green box, which is to close Caledonia Street. to traffic and parking between Pine Street and just north of Johnson Street. There's a lot of restaurants on the west side of the street there. So we're taking a look at that. And actually we've sketched out an idea as well as some potential alternatives if foreclosure isn't palatable. We're also looking at potentially providing limited parking. on the last third or quarter of that street near the police and fire departments to allow people to come in, go to the optometry shop, I THINK WE'LL BE ABLE TO make short-term parking maneuvers and i'll show you an idea for that We've also been asked to look at Caledonia next block to the north between Fine Street and Turney Street. not for a full story. the street. to the public. one way for traffic, the one direction or the other. perhaps re-angling parking. providing parklets on one or both sides of the street for outdoor dining or bike parking. Things like that, and there's different alternatives we are pursuing or we will be pursuing that. block. of Caledonia as well. So these are just the two blocks under this scope of work that we'll be looking at for the six blocks of Caledonia It would be a big ask. at this point in time to look at all six blocks So the focus is primarily on the Southern two blocks. We're also looking at some potential impacts and mitigations that could result from these effects on Caledonia. and those excuse me for all these these colored boxes here, but I'm trying to make a point what we want to do is look at If we adjust traffic patterns, would it make sense at either of the attorney or Pine Street intersections to add more stop signs? We're going to take a look. Also, interestingly enough, three of the streets The short streets between Caledonia and Bridgeway are one way eastbound. And if traffic is redistributed or different traffic patterns in Caledonia, Could it make sense to convert either a two way street to one way the other direction or one way to be. to two-way. Those are some of the things we want to look at because we want to be cognizant of what the effects could be. to Caledonia. For instance, on Tourney Street itself, that's a two way street with a lot of parking. Perhaps that could be one way. to the department. and we could add some angle parking if there's some big parking impacts. And then last but not least, if traffic is redistributed, We want to make sure it's safe to get out onto Bridgeway, in and out of Bridgeway. You wanna look at sight lines at the corners. for drivers looking to the left and looking to the right because there have been a number of collisions through the years with pedestrians, bicyclists and other cars. along Bridgeway between Johnson and and Napa streets. We spent some time with the. EPAC group. I'm actually doing a virtual walkabout. going through all the streets. and down across streets as well. talking about issues and opportunities, and it was really wonderful. to hear a lot of different views. including the idea to close down the entire Southern block. The need for retaining parking at the most southern end of this about how bicyclists would get through Thank you. how traffic would circulate. A lot of good feedback at that point in time. Since last Thursday, we've been very busy. We actually went out and mapped the entire couple blocks here. really wanted to understand how many parking spaces there are, but the dimensions the street and the parking spaces are. What are the parking restrictions? There's a lots of different curb pain there there's green for different hours of restrictions or blue for the stable spaces, there's red for no parking, There's yellow. for loading. a lot of things going on here. So we really wanted to understand the street system. really well. before we started coming up with different ideas. So now I'm going to just walk through some different ideas we do have for that most southern block of Caledonia between Pine and Johnson. And What we're doing is we're thinking about different concepts. There's actually a wonderful guide the It was recently published by the, by NACO. National Association of Cities and Transportation Officials that provides different ideas. not only for you know long-term needs but also during the public crisis right now for opening restaurants and streets and creating slow streets. We've been looking at some of that guidance on this project and other ones that we're involved in. |
| 01:10:42.07 | David Parisi | This concept is what was I'm proposed in our scope of work, what we asked to look at. And that is a closure of Caledonia Street. between Pine and Johnson. This is conceptual. More work will need to be done. But this is just a quick drawing of what it could look like. The street itself between the curbs is 40 feet in width. A complete closure of the street, perhaps with bollards or vertical posts on either side. of the street. THE FAMILY IS could look something like this. where the street itself is used for tables or . platforms or you name it, there's a lot of different uses you could and the other thing that we have to do Well, we would propose for parking would be to rearrange that last third of the street to put head in parking on the east side. so that it looks similar to this. Sean here. By the way, on this... There are 19 on street parking spaces. 11 on the east side. in six. I mean, 11 on the east side and 8 on the west side. Under this scheme, we believe we'd be able to restore about six parking spaces if they were head on. on the east side as shown here near Johnson Street. The reason we would not be able to put a parking space here. at this location I'm showing with my cursor is because the motorists coming into this last space would need to pull out. and have some space here before they continue on. but it could provide a nice location for bike parking. or other amenities. So this is the first concept. You know what, we decided to actually look at some other ideas too. working with Kevin and thinking about, This is a full street closure. We don't know yet. what the impacts or improvements could be. to the next block to the north or along Pine Street. but this is certainly plausible. the streets wide enough to do this. and this is what it could look like. THE FAMILY IS just with a engineering drawing. I'm gonna show three other options. just to show you some of the things we've been thinking is a possible way to phase it. perhaps. or, I'm not an expert with with restaurants. or if they decide they need less space than shown here or |
| 01:13:14.84 | Unknown | before. |
| 01:13:15.65 | David Parisi | if during different times of the day or different days of the week. one wanted to have some flexibility. and how the street was used during these times. So this option, which I'm showing as option two, could retain the northbound traffic flow. and 12 parking spaces along the street. Some of the spaces could be repurposed. to be short-term. for pickup of food or whatnot. other purposes. And then the area that we're showing here we've got half as wide instead of 40 feet all the way across the street. It'd be about 20 feet. with. separated with bollards. I'm not sure. One idea that could be a subalternative to this option would be to pull these back another few feet. and allow what's called a contraflow bike plane in the southbound direction. to the federal government. So that's cyclists. actually ride. on this block. in the southbound direction. which, um, Actually, I kind of like that because it would provide a soft buffer. in front of the Um, in the seating area for the restaurants. So there's a couple other options, again, that could be used just for phasing purposes. Here's one. that actually would just provide about 10, 10 feet And you're seeing ideas like this throughout the nation right now where parking has just been taken. for the reestablishment Thank you. seating. And in this option, it would have the same number of parking spaces as the previous one. again, retaining about 12. that we can do. traffic. And then finally, Here's a different derivation. which I'm calling option four, which could provide, um, 25 feet, just a large area. or of street closure. restaurant and other uses. And we're shown about 15 feet. against the east end which could be an area for walking. walking or Riding your bike. through this area. or if there was an emergency, and the fire department or police or somebody needed to get through they could use. use this lane as well. So those are just some of the initial ideas that we've come up with. i've mentioned this is just one block we've also been asked look at I'm not sure. Caledonia. between Pine and Turney. not for complete street closure, but to retain traffic. in one direction or the other. and also what that could mean for some of the cross streets So with that, I'm just going to, I just wanted to make this a quick presentation are considering what some of the options that we've seen so far. and then can open it up to questions for Kevin and myself. |
| 01:16:29.09 | Unknown | Mayor, while you're getting, do you mind if I ask quickly? |
| 01:16:31.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Absolutely, I'm sorry, I was having trouble playing my video. |
| 01:16:33.37 | Unknown | a problem. Yes, David, thank you for your work on this. It was great to be out there with you and watching these these wheels get put in motion. |
| 01:16:34.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. |
| 01:16:41.40 | Unknown | Um, Really quickly on just to clarify, so this question will probably come public comment the one-way direction that is being considered to create more parking spaces by doing the diagonal i just want to make sure that we're clear on that we don't know exactly how many yet but that is that's the primary reason for one way is to create more parking that might be lost in the other area |
| 01:17:04.29 | David Parisi | That's correct for the next block up, right? between pine and turning. Yeah, the idea would be is if we can, there's parallel parking on both sides of the street. So what we'd want to do is look at converting one or both sides to angled parking. because angle parking would achieve more parking spaces. as a way to, you know, again, provide more supply in downtown. I'm not sure. particularly if some are being lost in that Southern block or if there's this more demand, even for short-term parking. for pickup of food and whatnot. Thank you. |
| 01:17:42.29 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right, that was actually gonna be my question as well, the second block of turn of between turny and pine was necessitated by the closure between Pine and that. Johnson. So I think that and they are interrelated. Mostly throw parking. for parking reasons. And you said you do not know exactly how many spots we would be able to pick up. |
| 01:18:12.70 | David Parisi | not in the second block, not yet. And that's all going to be dictated based on, you know, driveways and which side of the street and parking maneuvers. That's our next step. and we also wanted to look at some other alternatives. you know, for phasing in the Pines of Johnson, just to offer those for discussion for tonight. But next we'll be looking at that next block between fine |
| 01:18:34.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you, Vice Mayor Withee, you have questions? |
| 01:18:40.22 | Unknown | Yeah, thank you, David, for that presentation. I, what? is the, obviously this is conceived as being temporary in nature and therefore flexible in nature. What would be the cost effective options for your little dots, the physical barriers that would separate and protect the dining and pedestrian areas from |
| 01:19:03.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:19:09.84 | Unknown | that coordinate off. What, and you know, are we gonna wheel in great big concrete barriers or is there, what are people using out there? Thank you. |
| 01:19:21.75 | David Parisi | that's a that's a great question we're doing some more research on that there's quite a catalog you know the lowest cost can be just that's a very good thing. type of vertical delineators. For more permanent measure, you can use planters. So I think a lot of it is going to depend on you know, the longevity. of how long and the aesthetics. that one would want. But also if if it's to be phased or transitioned weekdays to weekends or days to nights. that's going to be a want something that's light and easy. move. The nice thing is it's a low speed street. Right. And I think we could as a temporary test. initial test. |
| 01:20:10.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, Councilmember Cox, do you have questions? |
| 01:20:20.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So, |
| 01:20:21.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:20:24.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I do not. All right, great. Thank you. |
| 01:20:24.49 | Unknown | I do not. |
| 01:20:27.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Thank you very much. Mr. Preece for that great presentation. I like the boxes and the colors, it makes it, It's really easy to understand and focus on the on the things that we need to focus on. So thank you for that. It's very easy to understand. complicated. So thank you for giving that brief amount of time. I also just open it up to public comment. I really want to thank Scott and our consultant. And for just turning all of us around with, you know, lightning speed and a special, very special thanks to council member Riley and Burns. for shepherding this through and working with the PBAC, who I would also like to thank. We had a lot of public comment and request to get some creative ideas like this. It's being done all over the Bay Area. and in Marin and this is really interesting. So, um, If you would like to do you have sort of council member? Oh, I'm sorry, Mary, are we not done the presentation? |
| 01:21:49.05 | Mary Wagner | Um, Yeah, apologies for interrupting, Madam Mayor. There's a few more slides to go on the other requests that are in your staff report, but I'm happy to jump to the, to the end and just put up the recommend a motion if you would like, but I can also just... you know, speak to the other remaining items up to you. |
| 01:22:04.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | you know, Yeah, we should finish the presentation, but I also did just wanna ask council member Riley or Burns if they had anything to add. through the presentation by staff. |
| 01:22:19.75 | Tom | This is Tom. I do not have anything to add. I thank the staff for moving quickly. I have spent time with the vast, along with customer Burns, the vast majority of merchants on Caledonia. All of who are supportive. I have talked to a number of merchants throughout town who are also supportive. And on Nextdoor, where we really got this idea from, there was nearly 200 comments in support of a similar measure. |
| 01:22:38.89 | Unknown | known. |
| 01:22:51.98 | Tom | so um that's my only other comments and i thank staff for moving quickly and for mr preezy's fine work |
| 01:22:59.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. So I'll turn it back to Mary. I apologize. And you can bring us over the finish line. |
| 01:23:06.05 | Mary Wagner | Thank you, Madam Mayor. So Heidi, if you don't mind pulling back up and we're on the... Building and development permit timeline extension slide. Thanks. So there's a few more remaining items in your staff report that are described pretty thoroughly there. So I'll try and run through them relatively quickly. The first is we're asking the council to grant a six month extension to all building permits, building applications and development permits. that were in effect as of March 16th, when the shelter in place order was put in place. AND I THINK IT'S A GOOD to allow the the community and the business, you know, the, excuse me, the construction community, to get back up and running. So there was a big pause. when only very essential construction was allowed, then that opened up somewhat. but it had a lot of restrictions to it. And we wanna make sure that we don't have permits expiring THE FAMILY IS A needlessly. So next slide, please. |
| 01:24:06.41 | Mary Wagner | And then there's a couple other items also in your staff report and in the resolution we're asking, you to give the city manager the authority to adjust parking rates. in the lots and in the the meters to react to whatever the situation may be. whether you want to encourage people to stay longer or perhaps encourage them to do their business and then and then move on. There's also a number of other fees that are applied in the city. I gave you a link to that fee resolution in your report. So the resolution authorizes the city manager on a case by case basis to waive fees. Currently, only the city council has the ability to do that. And so he would only waive them if there was a need based on the COVID-19 pandemic and or the shelter in place orders. And then finally, we're asking for a streamlined process for encroachment permits and agreements. You would give staff the ability to put that into place. Right now, you have to go through a design review process for all but the most minor of encroachment permits. And it's a very time consuming process. It can either be done as an administrative design review or planning level design review. And then the agreement, encroachment agreement itself comes back up to the council. So next slide, please, Heidi. So here's the motion that you have in front of you tonight. I'll go through it quickly. I think you've got all the pieces. We're asking you to adopt a resolution ratifying the Director of Emergency Services Order, extending that authority to utilize other city-owned properties, such as the Bank of America Plaza. You're being asked to grant a six month extension for all building and development permits. And the resolution authorizes the city manager to close certain streets for outdoor dining and outdoor uses. adjust parking fees, waive other fees, and develop a streamlined application for encroachment permits and agreements. That concludes the presentation. and available for questions along with Lily Whalen, your Community Development Director, Kevin McGowan, the Public Works Director, the Chief of Police. and the city manager. Thank you. |
| 01:26:12.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you all. Very thorough presentation and a lot of really good work. Are there questions from council members on items covered in Mary's portion of the staff report. as opposed to, uh, Mr. Preceve. Okay. Seeing none, I'm going to ask, we have a lot of folks here tonight. So thank you, everybody, for showing up. We've got 92 people in our Zoom room. So we really appreciate your spending some of your evening with us. If everyone who would like to speak at this moment could raise their virtual Zoom hand, that will help me get a sense of how many public speakers that we have and calibrate our public comment time. Okay, I'm seeing about 10 raised hands. So I'm gonna keep public comment at our usual three minutes per person. And I will, we have Jake Fire first. Welcome. |
| 01:27:27.06 | Jake Fire | Hey, Susan, can you guys hear me all right? |
| 01:27:29.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can. Thank you. Hi, welcome. |
| 01:27:31.78 | Jake Fire | Wonderful. First off, thank you for your comments at the beginning. And David, thank you for your presentation. I think it's great to see this kind of this effort going on in the city. Two main things that come to mind when I see that Um, First off is businesses, I've talked to a couple, and it sounds like Tom, you said you did. Majority of their business is probably takeout at the moment, which requires folks to pull up close to Caledonia and be able to drop food. I didn't see a whole lot on how that may or may not impact businesses in the short term. that needed to be able to take the food from the restaurant to the car. So that If you can comment on that, great. If not, no worries. It's more of a statement and a question if you can comment. The second is David Um, Thank you. When you block off Caledonia, I live on Pine Street. We own a home on Pine Street. You're gonna get a lot of traffic that comes around Caledonia if you've closed any of Caledonia off. So, uh, Bonita, which is a block up. you'll have folks that come around. That's a two-way stop intersection. didn't see any plans on how that may impact traffic flow there. If you only have a two-way stop, but you increase traffic by, you know, let's say 40, 50, 60%. |
| 01:29:03.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. And we will collect questions and try to address the ones that we can at the end of public comment. Sandra Bushmaker, welcome. |
| 01:29:32.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I think Sandra's video may not be working. Heidi, can you try to unmute her one more time? Thank you. |
| 01:29:39.32 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah, I've unmuted her. Thank you. |
| 01:29:41.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:29:41.44 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 01:29:41.50 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. I'm not sure. |
| 01:29:41.82 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:29:41.92 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 01:29:41.94 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:29:41.99 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. I am here. I have a procedural question. While I understand the reason for most of the emergency items contained in the resolution before the council, I failed to see without commenting on the merits of the Parisi Consultant Report, why that is included in a special meeting with 48 hours notice only to the public. This is a big deal item for the city of Sausalito. And I question whether it is properly on a close, I'm excuse me, on a special meeting agenda with such a broad scope of impact. not involving the planning commission, not involving the local community residents in particular. I think that it deserves more public airing before it's implemented. That's my point, and I'll stop there. Thank you. |
| 01:30:42.10 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Craig Merrilies. |
| 01:30:51.45 | Heidi Scoble | Craig has been unmuted and his video has been asked to be shared. |
| 01:31:00.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Welcome Craig. |
| 01:31:06.10 | Craig Merrilies | Sorry about that. We're having a little technical problem, I think, on your side. You don't have video of me at this point, is that right? |
| 01:31:14.16 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. I've asked you to share your video, so you will be prompted to accept that. |
| 01:31:20.63 | Craig Merrilies | Okay. There it is. Thank you. I'm not sure. First of all, I haven't said this before, but I wanted to thank all the members of the council and the staff for your long hours and weekend work everything you put in Council, it's often a thankless job. I want to thank you. a great example of a project I think is really positive and helpful. that we're going to be I've been in touch with a lot of the small businesses on Caledonia and can concur that they're in favor of this. And, I think it's hard to imagine who would oppose it, but maybe we'll hear I wanted to say that a number of people small businesses, restaurants, have tried to pursue this in the past, and run into daunting obstacles from the city council policies that I guess are carried out by the staff. I think it was alluded to in the staff comments there about the, a fair amount of bureaucracy, detailed reports, planning, virtually impossible, a very difficult, onerous process to get to have the dining on the sidewalk in the past. Ironic that this crisis is brought this to our attention and made it possible for us to move forward with this. really expeditious way. Um, And I fully support it and want to thank you for moving in this direction. Thank you very much. |
| 01:32:45.35 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. All right, Cynthia Nemo, welcome. |
| 01:32:53.03 | Cynthia Nemo | Thank you. Can you hear me, Susan? |
| 01:32:54.79 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can. |
| 01:32:57.05 | Cynthia Nemo | Thank you. I want to thank all of you for wonderful presentations and discussion. I know that the tonight is probably not the first time you've been thinking about this. Just to say as a resident of Sausalito, who's been here for almost 20 years, excited I am to see this kind of leadership because when crises like these happen, it requires all of us to Act swiftly. and with thought and that can be really, really hard. I appreciate the thinking, including from the consultants who shared wonderful plans that are very creative, seem to be So, So straightforward. in opening up a space that will enable all the residents enjoy the wonderful restaurants and to help keep these restaurants surviving. And when I heard, I was thinking in my head, because I'm on Caledonia Street all the time, and it is a fairly slow street and trying to remember how many parking spots are there even when I thought, wow, it's 19. I mean, it's just not that many. to know that even there might be some plans to have some there. is just fantastic. Creative thinking, excellent work. And I just really commend all of you for your leadership in moving this forward. and keeping our world-class town in having a world-class response to a crisis like this. I just thank you. |
| 01:34:17.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Cynthia. Appreciate that. |
| 01:34:17.91 | Cynthia Nemo | Thank you. |
| 01:34:20.87 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Vicki Nichols, welcome. |
| 01:34:28.34 | Heidi Scoble | Vicki Nichols has been unmuted and her screen has been asked to be shared. |
| 01:34:34.70 | Vicki Nichols | I'm trying, just a moment here. Okay, here I am. I... have just some quick comments. I'm gonna try to do them in my three minutes. I wanna thank you for the opportunity to share my views this evening. As a resident who has lived on Caledonia Street for 38 plus years, I wanna say that I appreciate all of our businesses here and know they are under tremendous financial pressure. Just to be clear, we have no restaurant row. And this plan reviewed by the bike and pet committee on May 28th, while called Imagine Caledonia, has nothing to do with previous Imagine Sausalito efforts initiated by the city council in the past. Please do not conflate the two efforts. This plan is not the answer for the following reasons. Reconfiguring Caledonia Street is not an emergency and has been hitched to outdoor dining as an opportunity. reference the bike and ped member of the Marin Co. I believe he's an employee there. who has a strong interest in converting the street. I am nothing against bicyclists, but we have bicyclists that go down the street now. I also do not agree with all the assumptions and opinions that were made in the report. Residents who pay for parking permits were not included in any of this discussion and will be impacted as their permits only allow see parking on the side streets. There's been no analysis of how much additional traffic will be drawn to the area. As observed on Nextdoor, most proponents love this, but they do not mention any impacts or, you know, consider or do they even live in the area? Who prepared this report? No names or dates were listed. If Parisi had input, who paid for it? Sounds like the city did. This should be limited to how to allow outdoor dining and not reconfigured the whole street. A street closure at Jack Tracy Way gets more discussion. Why not here? If the city council goes ahead and allows this, how is the enforcement of C zone going to be How's the parking for C zone residents going to be THE END OF THE END OF THE done. Do we get a break on our permit costs? At least one of the city council members suggested just the other evening that our parking permit fees should be raised. AT THE PAST, In the planning commission meeting for the theater project, the applicant went on record to acknowledge that there is not sufficient evening parking in the area now. and that is before their project is even completed. The last time a major change in Caledonia was proposed, which was closing the street for the police and fire building The community roundly rejected that change. The current council may not have been around, but if nothing else, it demonstrated that the current community needs to be consulted and at the table when these kinds of changes are contemplated. Caledonia must be looked at as a whole street with all the businesses and residents need not just focusing on the smaller block and then we hear that the next block is going to be considered. I hope the council will see fit to bear in mind and work with the residents and businesses to make a plan that works for all interests. I'm not the only one on my street and I can tell you that all the businesses were not consulted in this. I've spoken with them. Thank you. |
| 01:37:49.91 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you, Vicki. And just for clarification, I had the same question about who had prepared the Imagine Caledonia document. And I believe it was one of the PBAC members on his own time. I think Council Member Burns can confirm that was Mr. Aaron Roller. Is that correct? |
| 01:38:10.84 | Unknown | Yes, Tom and I provided Aaron and David Sudo, Aaron Rohrer and David Sudo, kind of some guidelines and they put together that document in a very thoughtful way because we have talked about this numerous times and we'll get into that further, but yeah, so those two. |
| 01:38:22.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. I just wanted to make sure that we knew who it was from. And then we can talk about the content later. Thank you. All right. And actually now we have David Sudo speaking of. Welcome. |
| 01:38:35.90 | David Sudo | Um, I guess you know my comments on Caledonia Street. We covered this in PBAC and we were unanimously in favor of trying a pilot. Obviously we need the input from Parisi for traffic impacts And, you know, we had quite a bit for our committee, we had quite a bit of community input compared to other recent meetings. I'm glad to see we're having more community input here. But I think we also need to realize that we need to move quickly if we want to be able to support our restaurants. If we spend two months on this process, then we're going to miss our opportunity because our restaurants are going to close. I wanted to comment on some of the other applications that I saw in the report. In particular, maybe as an example, I would point out the hamburger shop. who suggested that they wanted additional street park Seating, that's a particularly congested point on our sidewalks. I don't know what the tourist traffic is going to be like this summer, but in previous summers that has been a huge congestion point between people trying to go up and down the street and people standing in line to get a hamburger and adding seating there doesn't seem very well advised. Also, I would think that a restaurant that has seating or has people waiting outside needs to have staff to do traffic management, and that hasn't been the case in the past for that particular restaurant. So it would be another thing to consider when doing, I don't wanna burden the permitting process too much, but I think those are things to consider when we are handing out permits. The other thing I would I would be a little bit concerned about is places like Equator it seemed like they were talking about utilizing their handicapped parking spot and I have 88 concerns about about doing that too. think about as we So, consider moving quickly. Thank you. |
| 01:40:57.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Kevin, Carol. Welcome. |
| 01:41:08.11 | Kevin Carroll | Good evening, Mayor and the council members. I brought this up at PBAC, My comments about the 750 Bridgeway I've already done in writing, and I'm not going to elaborate on those. But one of the things I tried to bring up before is I do drive locals as a cab driver and I'm constantly hearing the locals versus merchants versus tourist businesses versus local businesses, et cetera, And I'm not surprised to hear some of the objections coming up. But, I think it's important to keep in mind these businesses are dying now. They can't wait two weeks or two months or six months to survive. They're barely hanging in as it is. And so passing this tonight does not make anything permanent. It's emphasized throughout it that it is temporary. I think the one thing though that you should do is just like you would if you were issuing a building permit to anybody else in town. It should be made sure that preferably a mailing be made to the residents in the Newtown area, certainly at least the ZZZone permit holders. but also posting signs throughout the neighborhood about the changes that are contemplated in any future meetings community meetings that might be held. to let people know about what's going on. These businesses can't wait for this every year. T to be crossed and I dotted. The need is immediate. And I'm amazed at how quickly you've come together. I don't agree with everything that's in it. I could go on much longer than three minutes. which my idea is, but this is not the time or the place for it. This is a process. And as long as the locals get enough notification, I think that might solve some of the wounds Thank you. |
| 01:43:15.94 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Karen, call again. Welcome. |
| 01:43:21.80 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:43:23.05 | Kiran Culligan | Whoa. Hi, Mayor. I just wanted to say thank you to City Council and to staff for all their work on this and for David Parisi and his team. I'm a member of the PBAC and just want to reinforce my personal support for the temporary measures, in particular the Caledonia pilot. We had a lot of thoughtful comments from residents and business owners at the PBAC. I know a few days after that meeting, I took my family out to get dinner on the street. And when I brought up the pilot idea with one of the restaurant owners, the first words out of this person's mouth was, it's great, but when are we going to see it? We've already been talking about it for a month. And to Kevin Carroll's point just before me, we really need this now. And these restaurant owners really need something now. And so I appreciate all the energy. I just want to make sure we keep our foot on the gas for this. I can point to specific towns that had the planters rolled out and the picnic tables in the street on May 5th. So we are moving faster than we normally would, but we still are behind the ball in some respects. And so there's opportunity to make sure we get this out there. It is an experiment. We are not proposing that Imagine Caledonia dock right now. It's two blocks. It's really kind of one block primarily. And so let's get out there. And another point that hasn't been made yet is that this is the time to experiment. Traffic is light. I was just on Caledonia 90 minutes ago. There was tons of available parking, probably less than 50 per cycle. And the time to work out the wrinkles and to identify issues and resolve them is right now, before we have a bigger population of people out on the road. |
| 01:45:10.20 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah. |
| 01:45:10.25 | Kiran Culligan | Thank you. Across all of the topics proposed, I would just suggest that there be a plan for City Council to be able to review the uptake of these new measures, ensuring that they're being used as intended and that they're equally available to all members of the community. So that's kind of applying to all of these things. For example, fee waivers, not specific to Calabini. So that's all I have. Thank you. |
| 01:45:33.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Thank you. Alice Merrill, welcome. |
| 01:45:38.89 | Bonnie McGregor | No. |
| 01:45:44.44 | Alice Merrill | Hello. |
| 01:45:45.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Hi, we can hear you and see you. |
| 01:45:48.09 | Alice Merrill | oh, you can't see me very well, I'm good. I just want to say that I just heard about this yesterday from the currents. So, um, I basically think I keep up with what's going on. So this seemed like a, |
| 01:46:01.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:46:04.67 | Alice Merrill | fast. To do just the... THE BUSINESS. restaurants, I get it. I get why it's needed. I get why we want to do it. If it's just in Caledonia, then it's not fair. If it's all over town, it's more fair. Is it possible? I don't know. the idea of Copita restaurant DASHING ACROSS THE STREET WITH THEIR Freshly cooked food is hilarious to me. And how is that going to work? But I do want to say that when I heard about this, I asked a few people in Caledonia And they didn't know about it, other businesses. So who Who... was talked to. Was it just the restaurants? How did it happen that some who are fairly substantial businesses had no idea that this was happening or thought about? So I am nervous when I see... A time like this, we have, it's such a dramatic fraught with danger time in so many ways, having an emergency meeting for anything other than just the street dining. anything else, the changing of traffic, That whole report makes me really uncomfortable. because I think it's not an emergency. It's something that could be talked about So that's what I have to say, thank you. |
| 01:47:44.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Alice. Uh, Michael. Sorry, I don't have your last name. |
| 01:47:53.97 | Michael | Hi, good evening. Sorry, my video is broken on this computer, I apologize. Can you hear me? |
| 01:48:00.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can. |
| 01:48:01.30 | Michael | Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor and council members for the opportunity to speak this evening. I think we've all put in a tremendous amount of effort on this and I see how fast you're trying to move and I really commend that. Unfortunately, I have a small nit to pick, but it's a systemic nit. And it's a very big problem in Sausalito. And that is the nature of defective notices. So I don't know, Heidi, if you can take a quick moment and put up the webpage that announces this meeting. But the headline for that meeting is special council meeting on June 9th. Now in the body, it has the correct date. But the dates on notices are systemically incorrect. I've received two different notices from the Planning Commission that gave dates for the last allowable time to comment. One was a date that was in the previous year on the day of the week that did not exist. The other one was a date for the last data comment, which was prior to the postmark of that notice. Come on, please. I really implore staff and the city to work on notices that are accurate. When you provide dates in notices that are inaccurate, you squash participation, because people look at the notice and go, oh, it's too late to comment. Or in this case, I read the headline and thought the meeting was on the night. So again, Heidi, if you can put up that notice after I finish speaking, or if you can just go to the page, you'll see special council meeting, June 9th. Thank you very much for your time. Have a good evening. |
| 01:49:44.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. you Wendy Richards. |
| 01:49:58.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Hi, welcome. |
| 01:50:00.35 | Wendy Richards | Okay, hi. Yes, good evening. Hi. Thank you very much. Really, thank you for all the hard work that's gone into this. And for the very comprehensive study that was presented tonight, I had several issues. with the proposal this evening and would basically ask the council not to delegate so much authority to the city manager at this time. This should be a minimum delegation for what is needed to get our rest, to do what we can to get our restaurants up and running. I do not agree with section. Uh, three a. in the draft resolution which grants approval to the city manager to close all or portions of city streets including Caledonia upon a finding that closing is necessary for protection of persons, blah, blah, blah. that, This should be a minimum. The consultant gave us several really interesting choices for how to manage Caledonia Street. some of which would prevent the fire trucks from getting through. I haven't heard from the fire chief, but I think that's a critical piece of this. One of those options would allow the restaurants to start immediately with some tables and would simply get rid of a few parking places And that would be a minimum trial. It would also be the least expensive option because I also, as you know, I am always asking, how are we going to pay for this? And as you know, I have asked you on prior council meetings to review the business license taxes, because when we reduce the business license tax, When you reduce the business license tax on the restaurants, you trebled it on the professional services and imposed a new tax on home-based businesses. So the dentist who's on that same street is paying triple the tax as the restaurants, and we are not able to offer the dentist any special services. This goes too far for my taste. The word temporary is never defined in the draft resolution. I believe an earlier comment was made by Kiran Culligan that there be a city council review process. So I'm asking you to maintain your authority over how this progresses, so that the community can be involved, the fire chief can speak to the need for transit through that space and other emergencies. There are residential places above those restaurants. Those people need to get in and out. I'd like to know who's paying for this because as you know, I'm not happy paying triple the rate of tax of my neighbors. and other businesses who are also suffering, small businesses in our community, small professional businesses or veterinarians, people like that, or dentists can't clean teeth. and to set up a system of review so that the community can be involved, that you can retain your review. And at the same time, our staff can continue this great work that we can review. these options, these reports that the consultant is doing and bring everyone along together. Thank you very much. I appreciate all your work. Thank you. |
| 01:53:17.64 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Elizabeth Sutherland. Welcome. |
| 01:53:27.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:53:27.73 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:53:27.74 | Elizabeth Sutherland | Thank you. |
| 01:53:28.49 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:53:29.09 | Elizabeth Sutherland | Madam mayor. I've sent about four emails, I appreciate the two responses. And one lately was for this meeting And I have to say from a healthcare perspective, I am a little concerned with regard to phases and opening If you notice the data today, for the number of cases confirmed in Marin County May 20 when I sent the email just in two weeks, we've increased the number of cases by 54%. This is not including this weekend's data that will be reviewed. after Memorial Day weekend. Because as you know, we're looking at 12 to 14 days post. And then you look at, 14 days after the protests, And then you look at after when you keep opening up |
| 01:54:11.89 | Unknown | you |
| 01:54:15.03 | Elizabeth Sutherland | restaurants and having people congregating together. When you look downtown right now at the restaurants that are open, there is no social distancing going on between tables, which is a concern. regarding and the honor system of only people who are dining, who are congregating together already or quarantined together. I can't imagine that's happening. you're bringing harm with regard to not only The residents of Sausalito But the workers, who are working within Sausalito, AND THEN, I would imagine that the percentage of people working in South Salado who reside in Sausalito is probably love The bigger concern is, and I'm wondering what if you're working with other mayors and the governor, is what is going to transpire with the data that's coming down the pike for the remainder of the year. As a healthcare provider for the VA, we follow obviously the VHA, Dr. Stone, who just presented to Congress this week. And he was talking about in reference to the pandemic in 1918 and 1919, where right now you see the scenario and then it's going to increase in the fall and winter. going into 1919. where you're going to go back to quarantine in place. So overall. I just express my concerns like I do in my emails. with regard to how the data sets. Thank you. |
| 01:55:45.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Um, Lee hunt personal, oh, Lee hunt, sorry. Personal. |
| 01:56:02.27 | Lee Hunt | Hi there. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak. I'm both resident and a business owner in Sausalito. And I do want to add my voice to the thanks and to the support. of this initiative. While this isn't directly benefiting my business, I do want to say thank you for anything that's being done to help the small business community in Sausalito. I see this as a very very positive move and I really wanted to add my voice to voices of support of this initiative. |
| 01:56:45.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. |
| 01:56:46.90 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:56:46.92 | Lee Hunt | Thank you. |
| 01:56:47.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:56:48.86 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Next we have Carol's iPhone. |
| 01:56:58.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:56:58.90 | Unknown | Hello. |
| 01:56:59.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. you |
| 01:57:00.55 | Unknown | Hi, good evening. Hi, thank you so much for allowing us to speak. And Thank you for all the hard work that has been done. I just want to remind the council that many of us are not that familiar with using Zoom. And you can even see some of the more professional people are having trouble with it. Therefore, I would like to ask you to in order to engage the community since we cannot come into your council chambers to speak. If you could enlarge the maps that were presented in this report, and post them on empty storefronts on Caledonia, allowing us to walk by and look at these alternatives for a week or two at least. This was very short notice. And a change such as this, I think, requires much communication with the public So that's my first point. The second concern I had in reading was that there was not a clear time limit set for these changes to be reviewed. And an open-ended mandate for even six months seems much too long to me. I think you need to review it and set a clear date for review. and for more public input at that point. about traffic, about noise. I was horrified to hear that they wanted to play music across the street in the Bank of America I've been walking in the hills between 5.30 and 7.30 each night. And you can even hear doors slam, it's so quiet. And to have, be inundated with music from 11.30 to 9.30 would be just horrific. So I'm hoping that none of this will involve outdoor music. Thank you. We'll get enough of that at Trader Joe's. Thank you. I'm not sure. So and also I do have concerns about giving so much authority to the city manager and hoping that that will be limited as others have already expressed. Thank you very much. |
| 01:59:18.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Julie Vera. Welcome. |
| 01:59:27.23 | Julie Vera | Hi everybody, I'm going to leave my video off. Um, I have to say as the Chamber CEO, I'm a little dismayed at some of the comments this evening. I received a note today from a business that is closing. that they are leaving Sausalito. We have businesses that are barely hanging on. It's not just the restaurants, it's the store next to the restaurant. It's the store down the street from the restaurant. We need ideas to help our businesses now. We, as soon as we received the notice about this meeting, we sent it out. If you're not able to get the current notices, go on the Chamber website, sign up for our newsletter, and we will send it out to you. But our businesses need help and we have to start thinking outside the box. I just finished a meeting. with other chamber CEOs and every single city is doing this. It's helping their retail merchants. It's helping their restaurants. And we need to think outside the box are those boarded up businesses that you guys saw on Monday and Tuesday. They're going to be that way permanently. So we have to, as the residents, as the business community, it's not all about me and I'm gonna have music playing or that I'm not gonna be able to park somewhere. It's about all of us working together as a unit, as us, not me, as us. to make our community better and to get our businesses through this very tough time. So I hope that the residents, the city council members, the city staff, the chamber, all of us work together so that we can not take three months down the road when half of our restaurants are closed and we say, oh, well, if we only would have done this or got something done. quicker. So please everybody work together. Everybody try to get this done. And let's help our businesses and help our community to recover. Thank you. |
| 02:01:49.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Julie. Terrell Callaway Good evening. |
| 02:01:55.49 | Terrell Callaway | Thank you so much. I just wanted to actually emphasize what Julie just said. You know, other cities have converted, you know, streets overnight. You know, you think about Oakland that has converted 74 street, 74 miles of streets just overnight. We're talking about a block and a half. And if it's going to save businesses, a block and a half people come on. We've got to do better than that. So that's all I have to say. Thank you. you |
| 02:02:30.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Ron Albert, welcome. And if before Ron before you start, I do not see any additional raised hands so if there are other members of the public who would like to comment, please raise your hands now. Thank you, Ron. |
| 02:02:48.85 | Unknown | Okay, I'll make it very brief and just say yes. I'm not sure. Use your best judgment. ASK NOW. come up with the best plan that you can think of right now. It won't be the perfect plan. but do something now, this is temporary. That's not the end of the world. We don't need to have exhaustive public input on a pilot program. launch the pilot, come up with your best ideas, reach a consensus and do something. Thank you. |
| 02:03:23.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. I have a phone number that ends in 2739 with their hand raised. |
| 02:03:32.09 | Peter Van Meter | Yes, that's Peter Van Meter on my iPhone. |
| 02:03:35.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:03:35.58 | Peter Van Meter | Can you hear me? |
| 02:03:35.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right. Yes, we can. |
| 02:03:37.84 | Peter Van Meter | Pardon me? Okay, thank you. Yes, I'm absolutely supportive. |
| 02:03:39.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. |
| 02:03:42.36 | Peter Van Meter | and moving quickly with all the conditions to open the sidewalk dining and get the on Caledonia Street and elsewhere through town. I'll just make one comment from my 30 years in the real estate business. And that is that street closures in retail districts have been very problematical. If you're in a high traffic area already, high foot traffic, |
| 02:04:03.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:07.17 | Peter Van Meter | And you have nearby parking facilities, even parking structures. And, street closures can sometimes work. But in neighborhoods where you have weak retail, like we do on Caledonia Street, It can be a death knell. to retail by taking away parking. And the parking is extremely limited there now. Just think, how many times have you driven around that block the very first block we're talking about closure, I'm looking for a parking place. It happens all the time. So I think even removing one parking place is going to be very problematic. for the merchants there. If you wanna look at some, hourly closings. of certain limited sections. possibly a criteria to expand the space for sidewalk dining. But I would just be very cautious about the long-term effects on the actual viability of the street. by having a more permanent street closure. But don't let that |
| 02:05:01.02 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 02:05:02.72 | Peter Van Meter | stop you in terms of opening the floodgates to outdoor dining and everything else we can do to support merchants right now. Move me to move on that immediately. Thank you. |
| 02:05:12.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Marcy. Welcome. |
| 02:05:23.48 | Marcy | Thank you. Can you see me? We can. Welcome. Okay, wonderful. Hi. I will make this short and sweet as well. I'm also in strong support of supporting the restaurant. And it is a time for nimbleness. and a time for being flexible as we're seeing all over. country and especially in our North Bay cities. I was over in Mill Valley last night they have opened up. They are being they're having diners come out, we can do a model like that. And I think what I want to say is 80%. This is not a time for perfection. Right? 80%, let's try it. Let's see what the positive effects are. and support our community. And I have to voice as well that it's not a time for our individual, it is a time for coming together. And that's been the, message of the entire week. And so I'd really urge us all to get on that same page. So thank you. |
| 02:06:27.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Uh, to believe decor, believe that might be Terry Lang. Welcome. |
| 02:06:47.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm not able to hear Terry yet. |
| 02:06:50.03 | Unknown | Hi, can you hear me? |
| 02:06:50.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Now we can. Thank you. |
| 02:06:52.31 | Unknown | Okay. All right. So, I agree with Marcy quite fully. I feel like this is an unusual time. The world has shut down. And we need to do exactly what we need to do to have our community come together And if that means shutting down one single block of Caledonia. then that's just what it needs to, that's just what needs to happen. I have a store on Caledonia. My husband has a store on Caledonia, not necessarily in the same location as everybody else, but I do feel like it could be a wonderful way to bring community together. And we are so in need of coming together as a group of people whether it be, you know, whether we hug or not hug, or whether we kiss on the cheek or not kiss on the cheek. I mean, this is a time that we need to support one another. And I really just... think that, um, closing down one block. could be beneficial, whether it be leaving a bicycle track or not. I just leave it up to you to decide what is the best alternative or what is the best option, excuse me. Thank you. So thank you so much for giving it your all of your input and ideas. Thanks. Exactly. |
| 02:08:22.81 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. And then I have one last speaker, Mac Air. |
| 02:08:31.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And again, if there's anyone who would like to speak after this, please. Hi, can you hear me? |
| 02:08:35.69 | Bonnie McGregor | Can you hear me? |
| 02:08:37.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can. Thank you. |
| 02:08:38.05 | Bonnie McGregor | Can you hear me now? You can't see me now because I keep trying to turn on the video. This is Bonnie McGregor. and the whoever's controlling things has got more control over my video than I do. |
| 02:08:52.29 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, well, we apologize. |
| 02:08:53.93 | Bonnie McGregor | Okay. Why my thing says Mac here. I don't know. I don't know how to fix that, but we'll work on that. Obviously I've lived here a very long time. |
| 02:08:53.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 02:09:02.10 | Bonnie McGregor | And I try to participate as much as I can. and I'm very glad you all had this meeting tonight and thank you so much for your efforts. As to closing off, a couple of blocks or one block or half a block where it is, this is not a good town for walking and carrying any packages. We're built like a banana and not an apple. if you're going to go to a restaurant down on Caledonia Street and you live way up in the hills you probably aren't going to walk down You might Uber, I guess, but if you're gonna drive, where are you gonna park if you block off a block? And if you've got six extra parking places, That's nice, but that means only six people, et cetera. I think this needs a lot more work. I do like the idea of the restaurants being able to have diners on the sidewalks right now. I walk from here to Napa Street frequently during the week And I've had to do a little dipsy doodle out maybe in the bike lane or what have you to get around various people dining on the sidewalk And yes, it's kind of a nuisance, but if it means that we have to do that to keep our restaurants moving, I'm all for it. And also solving problems for the restaurants does not like the other people have said, take care of the other situations. Oh, and today I walked by I walked the other way, other direction today. And the corner, there's a restaurant by It's a cafe by the bay or it's right around the corner from, um, uh, Princess Street is next door to the pizza place. It's cleaned out. That restaurant's gone. So it is a simple and I hope we can give a little more consideration to how you're going to close things off. And if you're going to do it for 30 days and see what happens so don't do anything permanent. That's one thing, but to kind of make plans without doing the road runs I think is a mistake. That's it. |
| 02:10:54.75 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:10:55.02 | Bonnie McGregor | Thank you. |
| 02:10:55.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Great, thank you very much. Okay, Julene Beyer. |
| 02:11:05.57 | Unknown | Welcome. |
| 02:11:06.84 | Joe Paulino | Hi, it says Julene Beyer, that's actually my wife. I'm Joe Paulino and |
| 02:11:06.89 | Unknown | Right. Thank you. |
| 02:11:12.39 | Joe Paulino | I sit on the community safety disaster preparedness committee, but I'm speaking definitely as an individual here. I'm definitely concerned about the access for emergency service vehicles, and I hope that there will be some thought devoted to that. I was at Sartaj when the upstairs apartment caught on fire, So I'll never forget that. The other thing is, I really hope that the city will pay much more than lip service to our socially distanced guidelines. We are in the midst of a pandemic. And if people are not going to abide by those guidelines and help spread the disease, then we'll then we've made a mistake. moving slowly forward into an opening up. But there has to be a very clear line about Um, how close we can be, when we need to wear masks. All of those things are very, very important. And even though people are coming here to have a good time, they have to have their good time within that context. Otherwise, I don't wanna look like New York. And thank you, that's all I have to say. |
| 02:12:30.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Karen Hollweg, Okay, I am not seeing any additional. Public comment, can I just confirm with the clerk that you also do not see any raised hands. |
| 02:12:46.50 | Heidi Scoble | That is correct. There are no additional raised hands. |
| 02:12:50.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. I'm going to close public comment and I am going to thank everyone who came out tonight to comment. We had a record number of participants and we also had a lot of thoughtful written correspondence. So thank you everyone for that. And I understand some additional correspondence came in while we have been meeting, so thank you. I just wanted to confirm there was a comment about the notice, the posted notice for tonight. And I wanted to just ask our city attorney if she could comment on whether the notice for this meeting tonight was adequate. |
| 02:13:30.63 | Mary Wagner | Sure, thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. Yes, the agenda that was posted for this meeting correctly stated the date and time and location of the meeting. I think there may have been a link under the news the news tab on the front page of the city's homepage that said June 9th, but when you clicked on it, it took you to June 4th. And immediately to the right of that tab is the city calendar, which correctly also identified it as June 4th. |
| 02:14:00.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Yes, Councilmember Cox. |
| 02:14:04.80 | Joan Cox | I was interested in the process. suggested by one of the speakers this evening about posting notice on doors and such maps so that people could see. I was wondering whether any notice was provided to the various shops within 500 feet of the block that would be closed, sort of like we do for planning commission meetings, and whether such notice would be required. for us to undertake that action. |
| 02:14:38.92 | Mary Wagner | So, Madam Mayor, I can answer the second part of that question, which is I don't think you are legally required to provide 500 foot notice but I would look to either Kevin McGowan, the director of public works, or perhaps your city manager on to what discussion or notification was given to the adjacent businesses. |
| 02:15:01.57 | Kevin McGowan | Madam Mayor. Thank you. I don't believe that Public Works provided any notification Adam, you may want to step in there. |
| 02:15:10.70 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, no, I'm not aware of it either other than you know, our traditional outreach for the feedback committee meeting. And then the efforts council members talking with the businesses along Caledonia Street. |
| 02:15:28.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Sarah Silver, That Council member Cox for the moment. Okay, and then there was a comment about, you know, the special meeting and I did, just explain at the beginning of this meeting that we had a prior special meeting We have been agendized tonight for a labor negotiation closed session and we had two issues The county health officer acted last Friday, May 29th to open outdoor dining, among other things, June 1st, which was Monday. So our city manager acted in concert with the other city managers in Marin to come forward with the executive order. about restaurants and businesses. And because we were having this meeting, it seemed that we should get the most public notice and comment and input from Council as these events like almost everything related to COVID are unfolding at just lightning and rapid speed. So that is why We put it on this agenda tonight. um, And I just wanted to open it now for, Council member comments or if you had questions that came up with the public comment that you wanted to ask before your comment. |
| 02:16:56.33 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Are there, I actually can't see other council members on the screen right now because so many folks have spoken. Is the clerk, is there a way to reorganize the screen? |
| 02:17:09.50 | Unknown | I'll speak to move myself up closer to you, Mayor. |
| 02:17:12.06 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. And if Vice Mayor Wittes |
| 02:17:15.59 | Unknown | with. |
| 02:17:17.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | If Vice Mayor Whiffey and Council Member Riley can also just speak, that would be helpful. |
| 02:17:22.88 | Unknown | Good, well I'd raise my hand anyway to ask you a question, which unfortunately you couldn't see, as is by the way, Council Member Cox. So the only question I have, and it may be for related to, okay, what would be the immediate next steps that our city manager would in fact do. and so perhaps he could help us if we give him this authorization, perhaps he could help us there. And in particular, I was really the one thing I was wondering was have we thought through at all I think it was a couple of speakers brought up the the question about sea zone permits and do we see a problem there with people not being able to park, residents in Newtown not being able to park because they can't use effectively their sea zone permit. So I don't know if, um, that's a valid concern or not. That's my question. |
| 02:18:31.07 | Adam Politzer | Madam Mayor, if you'd like, I can answer Vice Mayor Withy's question. Um, So they, the, Um, starting with the parking challenges. I think that is something that the PBAC committee will continue to look at. And I think as David Breezy mentioned and of discuss. is looking at both the Turney Street and... uh, Who did? between Turning Street, Pine Street, and I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. the discussion still on needing to be evaluated, which is looking at that circulation coming down Caledonia Street if you turn it one way, either north or south. how many parking spaces could that create. And as mentioned earlier, some of those parking spaces could be used for pickup for temporary parking, so limited to 5, 10, 20-minute parking zones. So I think that you saw a little bit of that on David Parisi's slides. that looked at the parking impacts. Additionally, on the other end of Caledonia Street at Johnson, they designated parking there, temporary parking that is head on, head into Johnson. So again, you're picking up parking in that area. I think in terms of the sea parking, we would continue to enforce the sea parking permits and so those with those permits would be assured that they would continue to have those parking privileges. I think as noted in previous council meetings in terms of what we are doing in terms of the just the response to the pandemic. We've been closing our parking lots, as you know. Parking lots one and two the last two weekends have been open. and we have not had a parking capacity. We've given our law enforcement officers the opportunity to open up slots three and four if the So right now, the intentions of this pilot program and the other items in front of the council is to help us recover. And so right now we don't have a parking demand necessarily here in lot four and clearly we can open up lot four to accommodate the demand that may come forward. The next steps, I think there is some planning and clearly we would be working with Council member Riley and Burns with the businesses there on Caledonia Street. Um, and move this project forward if council gave us the direction to move forward. I would like to just point out one thing. And we used to traditionally hold a Caledonia street fair every year. I have shared with many others that San Rafael did it every Thursday. They basically did a every Thursday on 4th Street. So it is a bit of a special event if we did it just on weekends or some limited amount of time. Again, those are some of the details that I think Councilmember Burns and Riley working with the merchants on the Caldun Street between Pine and Johnson will work that through. So, I would like to say that It's something that we've done before. We brought tables out onto the street before. As we know, we held Fourth of July. in the chili cook-off. on a one block radius between Litho and B Street. hugely successful obviously and had no real negative impact. So again, I would like to just keep that perspective as the council continues to think this through. |
| 02:22:26.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you. I think what might make sense is to talk about the items in front of us that are not related to the street closure and see if anyone has comments on those. We had several items that Mary walked through. We have the ratification of the city manager's executive order, which is really about putting either retail or dining in parking spaces, the parking lanes. We had an authority over parking fees. fee waivers and building and development permit timeline extensions. So maybe we could just first indicate if we have concerns or thoughts about those issues, and then wrap up with the street closure question, does that, Sound okay to everybody? Okay. So I will open up the discussion to the items in Mary and City Manager staff report, or all staff, I guess, were very involved with this, all of those items. Do people have comments? Anybody like to start? |
| 02:23:40.96 | Tom | This is Tom. I will start, Madam Mayor. I am very supportive of every one of those. I think time is of the essence. We have businesses that are shutting down. You know, I'm a big supporter of the Love Sausalito Emergency Business Fund. Currently we have 21 businesses that are asking for emergency funding. That gives you a sense of how our businesses are struggling. So I am supportive of, and the other side of the sidewalk retail, sidewalk dining, extending those permits and also adjusting our parking fees. |
| 02:24:23.35 | Tom | And you're muted, Madam Mayor. |
| 02:24:25.24 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I know, I just realized that trying to get down on background noise. Any other comments? Thank you. |
| 02:24:31.39 | Unknown | Yeah, I just want to touch on the item that's come up a couple times, both tonight and in the emails about the city manager having the ability to make |
| 02:24:31.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 02:24:39.40 | Unknown | especially in emergency times like this. I think it's warranted. But I think it's good for the public to know that the city manager doesn't make these decisions in a vacuum. even with COVID going on, I know he's in at least two meetings a day with other leaders across the county. He's conversing with us individually, each day on different items. there's nothing happening here that the city manager is doing in a, in a vacuum. And there's a lot of checks and balances in the process. Now, I get it. Some of those aren't in the public. domain and some of it falls into the duties that we were elected to do. and that he was hired to do. But this idea that we can't move without having something put out in the public for a month notice and two months to get it done for the city manager to make something like a fee change on a parking is, is getting ridiculous, frankly. He has the ability to do that and he has the ability to check with us and to check with his staff and check with other counties on what's happening in times of emergency. That's what his role is and that's why he's been hired. And that's why we hit I'm not. and he answers to us and that's why our roles Now, we'd love to have more public. opportunities. But tonight was a prime example of the public showed up. Apparently word goes out because we had the most public meeting, the largest public meeting we've had and most public comment on any item this year. And I think maybe back to short-term rentals. there was 269 supports for this item on Nextdoor, let alone 150 something comments. And that was just one thread. There's been multiple threads on this because every community is talking about this. So somebody hasn't heard about these items yet. they're really in the weeds. And if you have a business, and you're not checking MarinRecovers.com, It's all over there too. So there's been so much public comment or some public ability to find out what other communities are doing and how we need to be reacting here in Sausalito as well. And so I just wanted to kind of touch on that and I'll save the rest for the Caledonia. |
| 02:26:50.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, Councilman de Tocz, you have anything? |
| 02:26:53.89 | Joan Cox | Yes, thank you. I'm very grateful for all of the members of the public who showed up tonight to express their comments. I do think we have to be mindful that We are in uncertain and new times and we are forging new pathways and I THINK I'M GOING TO BE understandably concerned about a lack of transparency and of public process in the way that we're doing business. I'm enormously gratified at the number of people who did manage to show up. When I lecture about the Brown Act, I'm pointing out that we actually have more public participation through these virtual meetings than we did when people had to show up in our council chambers. So I'm grateful for all of that, but I'm also empathetic. to folks who are struggling with having been cooped up in their homes, unable to work, unable to move about, unable to socialize, and are concerned about things happening that they're not aware of or don't feel as though they've had adequate opportunity to analyze or Um, or provide feedback to. I I am a huge supporter of our city manager and I absolutely uh, We'll vote to ratify the Director of Emergency Services Order 2020-1 regarding outdoor activities and encroachments. I also am fully supportive of his adjusting parking fees, streamlining applications for encroachment permits and agreements. These are all things geared up to assist our businesses in hitting the ground running. I do believe that we should Pause, not long. but pause briefly to be sure that all of the businesses on Caledonia Street that will be affected by potential street closures have been notified of the potential street closures. I was concerned to hear Bonnie McGregor say, or Alice Merrill say, that she had spoken to businesses on Caledonia Street who did not know this was happening. That concerns me. So, and I know personally businesses who are so busy trying to figure out how they're going to reopen that they're not reading the currents or staying on top of, the Chamber of Commerce as much as others. I want to be sure that we treat all of our businesses and residents with parity and that we give them plenty of time to weigh in. um, on what I think is ultimately going to be probably a positive um, decision. Thanks. |
| 02:29:45.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:29:45.87 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:29:46.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Vice Mayor, you have thoughts? |
| 02:29:50.54 | Unknown | Yeah, I'll comment separately later on the Caledonia Street issue, as you've requested. I'm fully supportive of everything else that's in the resolution. I'm actually supportive of the Caledonia Street thing as well. I don't want to imply otherwise, but I'll have separate comments on that. |
| 02:30:08.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Great. I think everybody spoke and I am also supportive of the other items. I really do want to thank the city manager and staff for working around the clock with other jurisdictions in Marin County to make sure that we are paving a way, smoothing a bureaucratic bureaucratic left path. to help our local businesses reopen. And I do, I thank Councilmember Cox for her comments about how this can be hard to You know, when things are moving at such a quick pace for folks to feel comfortable, Their county health officer orders are coming out now weekly. Things are changing every week. And we are kind of all tied to those so that we, in our efforts to bring our economy back, we are in step with other jurisdictions. So everyone has been working fast and furiously to make that happen and to adapt. So I want to thank the city manager City Attorney, Community Development Director, Director of Public Works and everyone else I'm missing. for their hard work to get this all together and identify what we can do and what we can streamline. And again, these are temporary processes during the course of the emergency. And they are tied, I think someone asked, they are tied and will expire. when we end our local declaration of emergency. Okay, so I think we have pretty solid agreement on those issues and Now I'd like to talk about the street closure issue. And I would also just like to remind ourselves and the public that this is not just about Caledonia street. Um, our staff report, uh, talked about ensign street, which is the one outside of, um, the taste of Rome. And there were a few others which I I'm now forgetting, but so this would be authorization to the city manager for temporary pilot closures of certain streets in order to help the businesses next to those streets in their economic recovery. And again, these would would be pilot temporary measures. Or Joe, would you like to kick off since you've been in the weeds on me? |
| 02:32:59.31 | Tom | Tom will kick off. So again, I think time is of the essence and our businesses need us. I agree that we might create parking challenges by eliminating some parking spots. However, you're not going to go dine if you can't get a table If you look at the restaurants on Caledonia Street, They might have two tables on the sidewalk. and they don't have any tables inside that they can serve. And when they can serve inside, it's only gonna be 50% capacity. They might have one or two tables inside. They won't survive and no one's gonna wait two and a half hours to get a table. So, I would be happy to be challenged a little bit without parking, so that I can help those restaurants and know that I can have a table to dine at. I am very supportive of the pilot. There are things that are unknown, I like Parisi who showed three different configurations We should design this so we can change those configurations and maybe revisit this on a 30, 60-day basis. I'm not sure. But, you know, we don't have time for perfection. |
| 02:34:03.26 | Unknown | We don't have to do it. |
| 02:34:05.02 | Tom | I see a real urgency to help our small businesses, which helps our community. And those are my comments for now. |
| 02:34:12.10 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:34:12.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | was my kid. |
| 02:34:12.42 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:34:15.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:34:18.33 | Unknown | Thank you. And I think Tom's a great reminder that we need to get that barbershop open really quickly. Um, I just wanna state that- |
| 02:34:27.56 | Unknown | I just want to state that. |
| 02:34:28.46 | Unknown | Thank you. Um, To be serious now, Fear is hurting us, and fear is hurting Sausalito. The fear of that if we create something nice for our residents, that tourists might come to it, is hurting our residents. And that's a fear we have to get over. We've long lived with the fear of cycling and it's kept us from being behind the curve as becoming a biking community and we know the impacts of that on our health. If you're not riding, you're dying. So we are fear is hurting us and then now the fear of change. There'll be a little pain when you change a street. It's a quick shot of pain. But the benefits are long lasting and we know that from Europe to other parts of the nation, to now the Bay Area and to now COVID. We know when you create walkable, bikeable plaza style community areas, you increase business, you increase health, you increase community, that's a good question. Get together. and community networking. And that's what we can't let fear keep us from having anymore. We have to be able to be brave to make some of these changes that we've talked about for years. And I'm so glad that the community stepped up and was so vocal in the social media campaigns that they brought forward to say, please do this for us, us, the community, us, the residents. It's ironic that we still stay so tied to the vehicle, yet this plan is trying to increase parking. We're still trying to find the one way dynamic, like I said earlier, is to create more parking and it creates it down in the area where there's more C zone parking that flows on to Caledonia. Johnson Street, which I lived right on the corner there. Those residents parking in the sea do not flow onto Caledonia and rarely does pine. Pine benefits greatly from parking because it's the one way and rarely has anybody else parking there and they have a lot of driveways. So when we talk about sea parking, we're really talking about turning and down, and there is just not a huge impact on that on Caledonia. What's more important about parking is the number of businesses that park on Caledonia. And that's what we should be looking at. And I want to use the Saucyutal Market, who was one person who is not in favor of this, according to Tom and my walk through that area. yet they park in front of their business. as an owner of a business. That should be freed up for their clients. And that's what we need to really focus on is getting those people, our employees parking back over in four and five and even on Bridgeway, which if it's shorter term, because Bridgeway is open quite often. We should be a community that's healthy enough that we can walk from one block to the next to have community services. especially given all the people that tell me how much they walk in the hillsides at night, It shouldn't hurt too much to walk from lot four into to have dinner. Um, in an outdoor environment that has kids playing and bikes parked and all sorts of fun things. Our community deserves that. Our community has spoke up that they demand it. And it's time that we step up and really help our community become healthier, happier and not fear that if we do something nice, tourists are going to take it over or that something else is going to happen. So I'm. I'm supportive of the closure of enzyme. I think I said, right, as Taste of Rome has talked about it, because that does allow for the one way. That doesn't really need to be a two-way anyway. So that's a good use of space. We have very wide streets in some areas, as David Prezi talked about, like on tourney that we can convert to parking in areas that convert to dining easily. And I think Ensign's a great spot for that. Focusing on Caledonia, we made an effort to make sure that sauciludal optometry was protected, that we moved those bollards or whatever blocks traffic up towards the barber shop, maybe even a little further in so that there's places for people to park if they still are doing to go, they can get in, get there to go food and get out. I'm not sure. I'm less, excited about cars going right past people that are eating. I've never found gas fumes and things to be attractive when I eat. if we could keep the whole block closed. I don't even think we need a thoroughfare for bikes. I'm big into cycling, but I think that's because of destination. You get there, you get off, you park your bike at the bike rack, you sit down, you have food, drink, and marry with your friends. So I'm for a full-width closure of that area. Yeah. And let's move Sausalito into 2020. THE END OF THE and become healthier and happier and using our space more for plaza and people and less for cars. That's where I stand. Thank you. |
| 02:39:11.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you, thank you, Councilmember Cox. I know you already made some comments, |
| 02:39:19.67 | Joan Cox | Thank you, yes. I completely support the closure of ensign. I don't see that interfering with uh, circulation. I am more concerned about Caledonia and about the ability of the merchants, all affected merchants to weigh in I remember two years ago when, the Department of Public Works repainted a lot of green stripes in front of some of the local businesses on Caledonia. And it adversely impacted other businesses, hair salons, nail salons. You can tell the types of businesses I frequent beyond restaurants. who, you know, were challenged with having their clients have parking because there were so many short-term parking spots that had taken the place of the long-term parking spots. So I'm very mindful of the potential adverse impacts of precipitous action. That's not to say that I don't think ultimately this will be, that we'll be able to devise the correct path forward. but to call a special meeting 48 hours notice. to hear that not every business was aware of our plan it concerns me, particularly since we aren't out and about chatting with one another, popping into all of our businesses all the time, since some of the businesses are still closed because of the pandemic. And so I have always been a huge advocate of process and transparency, and I'm not sure we've met the mark here. But I do. understand the fine balance between moving quickly to help our businesses regroup and resume and balancing that against the businesses and residents who may be adversely impacted by the action we're considering. I mean, I'd like to see us perhaps take action on ensign tonight, perhaps postpone action on Caledonia till Tuesday. I'm not saying postpone it for a long period of time, but I want to be sure that maybe if we just send postcards to the businesses to be sure the businesses have been able to weigh in. Keep in mind many of our residents are over 60 or 65 years old. And so while for some of the younger folks, walking four or five blocks is not a big deal, for some of our older residents, it is. Particularly with our hilly. geography. So I just want to make sure that we are respectful of and inclusionary in our process. Thank you. |
| 02:42:19.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Thank you. uh vice mayor you wanna |
| 02:42:24.11 | Unknown | Yeah, sure. So I am supportive of this. I've got some questions because I'm not sure that we actually have really a plan. I think David Parisi did a fantastic job. And to my mind, if we tried to spend week after week trying to perfect the plan It won't get done. And so the best thing to do is Um, Actually, I wrote down what Ron Albert said. And if I could just say, well, I agree with Ron, we could but I think... but public comments over. He basically said, and sorry, Ron, for messing up what you actually said. He said, act now, use your best judgment, This is temporary. I want to come back to that in a minute. And we do not need really, and this is now me, Ron said this, but I don't know exactly what he said. Basically, it's our usual extensive public comment on something that is We may find after a week it doesn't work and it's changed. So the best way to move this forward is to actually, and that's why I was interested in knowing what were the temporary, sort of bollards and things that we would use, Try something out. If it doesn't work, you'll soon know, change it, do something else until you get the right configuration. That's the best way to move forward here. because it is temporary. You know, I know Some residents and I, you know, are worried about tourists invading Caledonia. I understand that. I know that some residents are worried that This is going to drastically impact the nature of Caledonia Street. Um, But again, this is temporary to get businesses through a crisis. Julie Viet, our Chamber CEO, was not exaggerating, was not just being dramatic for the sake of it. there is a real chance that if you were disturbed by seeing a couple of of the Businesses shuttered. in downtown. earlier in the week for these tragic reasons that we talked about earlier. Um, We have the potential that that's going to happen everywhere. I mean, it's going to be depressing Many, many more businesses therefore by synergy or lack of synergy will go out of business. If you want to see a transformation of Sol Solito in a very negative way, than Let our businesses go out of business. That's one way to do it. And I don't want to do that. So I am, um, I think Marcy said, Um, She didn't say, quite this, but I'll paraphrase in a well-used cliché. Um, Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Let's just get on with it. Let's experiment with it. And It's temporary. Thank you, Madam Mayor. |
| 02:45:55.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, well thank you all. Thank you for all of your really thoughtful comments. I just wanna pick up on a couple of themes. I don't wanna repeat everything that you've all more eloquently said than I could. But... One of the things, Um, You know, we have, we need, we need to take some urgent steps and help our businesses. I also want to put this in perspective in the sense that we are giving the authority to our city manager, but we will continue to be meeting regularly I, He, after working with him for several years has good judgment. He listens to residents. He listens to businesses. I am confident that if adjustments need to be made or if, things are not working as we plan that we will come back to the council for reconsideration of the authority or the decision. So, I think the design that Mr. Precy presented is thoughtful. I think we have excellent options to do this in a way that creates a really amazing community space on Caledonia that will slow traffic that will be a place that we can kind of slowly emerge from the pandemic and really enjoy our community. and enjoy each other. Um, I particularly liked the. uh, design that had about 25 feet for the businesses and another 15 feet of car-free kind of public walking biking area that could then also be used in an emergency. I think that was a nice trade-off between the privatization of the public realm and having some kind of still public group air aspect. But again, We'll just have to see how this unfolds. We do really need to stay nimble. We need to stay flexible. I think you know, at least at the beginning of this, I would urge the most changeable, you know, the flexible bollards, the most easily adjusted tools so that we can see how this works. And I would also just like to add that in other communities where they have been experimenting with these things, The pilot is the notice. It serves as a way for people to actually see how it works and instead of looking at it on a drawing and to react in real time to that and provide us good feedback. So I think that sort of this idea of this special event um, kind of, you know, a few weekends and things to kind of get the feel of how it's all working and continue to gather community feedback will provide us with a lot of data |
| 02:49:08.52 | Unknown | Um, |
| 02:49:11.25 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | about what's happening if the street is completely closed. I also wanted to Just note a few public comments about the health consequences of having the outdoor dining. And, you know, we are really relying on our county health officer to make these very important and difficult decisions about whether these things, whether this is the right time and whether these are safe and doing them in a safe way. Right now, outdoor dining is permitted. You are supposed to be dining with people in your household. and six feet apart from other groups. And so all of that will be built into, um, into these programs and I just don't want it to appear that we are Not. taking public health seriously or noting the possibility that the gradual reopening will have consequences on the number of cases that we experience. I think that's the plan. And we are taking that risk as we as we reopen. So we are doing all of this, um, with the health officers orders, within the health officers orders and consistent with other communities. I I think people, I know there are a lot of concerns. I think people are gonna really enjoy this. I'm very optimistic that it will have It will not have the impacts that people fear it will have. But I just want to also say that I have an open mind. And, um, if we do experience negative impacts that we can revisit this at any time. But I would like to take this action to grant the city manager the authority to close certain streets in relation to COVID-19 business issues and to take public continue to take public comment over the next couple months. I really appreciate council member Cox comments about the members of the public and a feeling that this is rushed We have talked about this idea at every council meeting in the last six weeks, I think. Council member Riley and Burns have reported on it regularly. And the fact that they were working with Parisi, with the city manager and you know, we did have the public hearing at the PBAC. So I definitely appreciate that feeling I, I think that we should ask the city manager to come back at our second meeting in June. to give us a report and to allow an opportunity for public comment. on how residents and businesses are experiencing this. I also think I would offer that we ask the city manager before he takes any action to make sure that he has reached out. to all of the impacted business owners. to make sure that they are aware of this. So those, I appreciate your comments on that item. Caroline Miller, Okay, so those are my thoughts could I asked staff to. Pull up the last page of the staff report or whatever the best. recommended motions are. |
| 02:53:04.11 | Unknown | May I? Thank you. Are you ready? |
| 02:53:07.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I, sure, I don't, yeah. Thank you. Ciao. Is there any other comments by council members? |
| 02:53:17.33 | Joan Cox | Madam Mayor. Yeah. May I ask that we bifurcate this motion? Yes. |
| 02:53:25.98 | Unknown | Why don't you make it then Councilmember Cox? |
| 02:53:28.73 | Joan Cox | Okay. um, So I will move that we adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Sausalito one, ratifying director of emergency services order 2020-1 I can't read it because the screen isn't right. THANK YOU. I should be parting. go back. Sorry. Yeah. The pictures are in the way of my screen. Thank you. All right. |
| 02:53:56.05 | Brian Vitale | YOU WANT ME TO DO IT? |
| 02:53:57.45 | Joan Cox | I'll do it. I'm just turning to it. All right. ratify the director of emergency services order 2020-1 regarding outdoor activities and encroachments by businesses operating in compliance with social distancing requirements additional public such as the Bank of America Plaza for such uses grant a 6 month extension for all building and development permits. Thank you. and authorize the city manager to adjust parking fees, waive other fees and streamline applications for encroachment permits and agreements. |
| 02:54:34.73 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Do you have a second? |
| 02:54:35.64 | Tom | Second. I second it. Thank you. |
| 02:54:38.16 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we have a motion and a second. Call the roll, please. |
| 02:54:45.04 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Riley. Yes. |
| 02:54:47.88 | Tom | Thank you. |
| 02:54:48.62 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Burns? Yes. Councilmember Cox. Yeah. |
| 02:54:52.89 | Rebecca Bergen | Thank you. |
| 02:54:52.91 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 02:54:52.92 | Rebecca Bergen | Thank you. |
| 02:54:52.97 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Vice Mayor Withy. Thank you. |
| 02:54:55.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:54:55.18 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 02:54:55.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:54:55.62 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Yeah. |
| 02:54:59.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, that motion carries five zero. I just... |
| 02:55:03.18 | Unknown | As a second motion, I move that we authorize the city manager to close certain streets for outdoor dining and outdoor uses, including Caledonia Street. |
| 02:55:16.28 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I have a second. |
| 02:55:18.22 | Tom | I second that. |
| 02:55:20.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we have a motion and a second. And then before the last item of after this motion. |
| 02:55:32.38 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley. |
| 02:55:37.10 | Tom | Yes. |
| 02:55:38.13 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns? Yes. Councilmember Cox. |
| 02:55:42.49 | Joan Cox | For the reasons I stated, I'm not ready to vote yes on that this evening. |
| 02:55:48.09 | Heidi Scoble | Vice mayor Withy. Yes. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 02:55:53.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. |
| 02:55:53.64 | Heidi Scoble | And I tell you, |
| 02:55:54.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:55:54.80 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So did your motion affected? No. |
| 02:56:02.57 | Unknown | I didn't hear you. |
| 02:56:04.94 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So I had just suggested I'm sorry, I didn't hear if your motion included that the city manager would reach out to the affected businesses. |
| 02:56:17.47 | Unknown | I don't know. I didn't make that motion. |
| 02:56:20.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. All right. I'm going to go through that. |
| 02:56:24.25 | Unknown | Madam Mayor, why don't we just suggest that you give that direction to the City Manager. |
| 02:56:30.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. And I will vote yes. |
| 02:56:35.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | That motion, go ahead Heidi. |
| 02:56:37.72 | Heidi Scoble | I apologize. Motion passes for. One. |
| 02:56:42.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. Thank you for everyone who joined us tonight. This is not on our agenda, but I've been assured by the city attorney that I can wish our city manager, Very happy birthday. uh, tomorrow. And, uh, I know that we all join, um, in wishing Adam Hollitzer a happy, we won't disclose which one it is, but you've been working The working exceedingly hard and I recognize you and all of the hard work that you've done, and I hope you can take some time tomorrow with your family. |
| 02:57:09.61 | Unknown | I want to recognize you. |
| 02:57:18.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | to enjoy the day and know that We are all wishing you the best. |
| 02:57:27.43 | Adam Politzer | Thank you very much, Madam Mayor and Councilmembers. appreciate the kind thoughts and kind words. |
| 02:57:33.39 | Unknown | Happy birthday. |
| 02:57:34.77 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:57:34.79 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:57:34.81 | Adam Politzer | Happy birthday. |
| 02:57:34.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Happy birthday. Happy birthday. And with that, the business in front of us tonight is adjourned, and we will join again together on Tuesday. the night for a regular meeting where we will We'll be having a very long discussion probably about our budget. So for those of you who are here, feel free to come back and join us on Peace. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:57:55.90 | Heidi Scoble | Good night. Thanks, everybody. Good night. Good night. Bye. |
| 02:57:55.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thanks, everybody. Good night. |
Tula Biederman — Against: Criticized proposed 20% cuts to union pay and services, high city reserves, lack of diversity, and elimination of police body cameras. Urged spending reserves to save city services. ▶ 📄
Bryant Ho — Against: Spoke on behalf of city employees, questioned use of contractors over full-time staff, and argued pay/hour cuts should be applied uniformly across all staff including management and police. ▶ 📄
Brian Vitale — Against: A recreation professional described efforts to grow program revenue but expressed feeling defeated by potential layoffs. Argued pain should be shared by all city staff, not just union members. ▶ 📄
Patrick — Neutral: Sewer coordinator discussed fully funded sewer enterprise fund, staff certifications, and importance of maintaining sewer crew to avoid overflows and fines. Suggested lateral moves from DPW to sewer department. ▶ 📄
Oscar Lucario — Against: Expressed solidarity among city workers and requested management also take a 20% pay cut. Emphasized institutional knowledge and commitment to serving the city. ▶ 📄
Rebecca Bergen — Against: Senior library assistant supported union, highlighted high turnover and dedication of remaining staff. Argued 20% cut would severely reduce services. Suggested alternatives: raise taxes, use more reserves, delay non-essential projects. ▶ 📄