| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:10.32 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. Okay, we're ready on our end. So I'll start. Good evening, Mayor Cleveland Knowles and council members. This meeting is being held pursuant to section three of executive order N-29-20 issued by Governor Newsom on March 17th, 2020. And all members are joining this meeting telephonically through Zoom and is being broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:36.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Thank you everyone and welcome to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council. It is Tuesday, June 9th. Could I please ask the Clerk to call the roll. |
| 00:00:48.87 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Riley. Thank you. |
| 00:00:51.03 | Councilmember Riley | I'm here. |
| 00:00:51.85 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:00:53.20 | Councilmember Riley | Here. |
| 00:00:54.17 | Heidi Scoble | We just have council member Cox joining us and I just need to make her a co-host so she can unmute herself. I'm hearing you. |
| 00:01:02.98 | Councilmember Cox | I'm sorry. |
| 00:01:03.02 | Heidi Scoble | Bye. Perfect. Thank you. Vice Mayor Withey? |
| 00:01:07.06 | Vice Mayor Withey | I'm not here. |
| 00:01:07.97 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor of Cleveland Knowles. Here. All members are present and there is a quorum. |
| 00:01:13.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right, the first item on our agenda is our closed session items. which are D1, D2, and D3. Do we have public comment on any of these items? They are meeting with a real property negotiator on 750 Bridgeway. |
| 00:01:34.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:36.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Conference with legal counsel on anticipated litigation and conference with legal counsel on existing litigation Um, Whiskey Springs HOA versus Sausalito. Is there any public comment? |
| 00:01:51.42 | Heidi Scoble | It does appear as though we have one guest. I'll just read a brief introduction regarding public comment. At this time, members of the public may address the City Council regarding agenda items D1, D2, and D3. Public comment will be accepted by video or audio audience participation via Zoom. |
| 00:02:11.76 | Heidi Scoble | I do not see any hands raised. |
| 00:02:11.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I do not see that. I do not see any either. We will adjourn into closed session. We will be back in the next week. to start our regular meeting at in open session at 7 o'clock. Thank you, and we'll see you at seven. THANK YOU. |
| 00:02:31.97 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:02:32.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:32.11 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:02:32.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:32.16 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:02:32.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:03:31.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you so much for joining us. June 9th. So we have just come out of closed session. And we have no closed session announcements. So I'm going to move to our item 2B, which is approval of our agenda. Do I have any comments or emotions? |
| 00:03:54.93 | Unknown | I'm going to say I'm going to |
| 00:03:58.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Riley. |
| 00:03:58.96 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:04:00.08 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:04:00.09 | Heidi Scoble | I don't think that. |
| 00:04:00.87 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:04:00.89 | Councilmember Riley | I second that. |
| 00:04:02.14 | Heidi Scoble | Oh, sorry. |
| 00:04:02.79 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:04:02.83 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:04:04.23 | Councilmember Riley | And I approve. |
| 00:04:08.43 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you, Councilmember Reilly, and Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:04:11.44 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:04:11.45 | Melissa Blaustein | Yes. |
| 00:04:11.75 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:04:12.23 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox? |
| 00:04:13.65 | Melissa Blaustein | Yes. |
| 00:04:14.72 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Withee. |
| 00:04:16.23 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:04:16.24 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:04:18.52 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, that motion carries five zero. Moving on to special presentations and mayor announcements. We will start as we have been for the last several months with a presentation On our COVID-19 update from our Director of Communications, Abbott Chambers, welcome Abbott and thank you for being here. |
| 00:04:40.70 | Abbott Chambers | Thank you, Madam Mayor. |
| 00:04:47.39 | Abbott Chambers | Well, good evening, council members. I'm Abbott Chambers, your director of communications, and I'm here to provide another in my series of COVID-19 updates. I'm going to try to keep this one relatively short. I know you all have a lot on your plates tonight. As far as what I'll be covering, I'll start with the review of the shelter in place order that's currently in effect. I'll talk about the guidelines that have been released for newly allowed activities as of June 1st and June 5th. I'll go into a little more specifics as far as outdoor dining and vending here in Sausalito. I'll provide a preview of the June 12 guidelines for indoor retail. Those are expected to be released at any moment. and then I'll provide an update on managing downtown visitors. At the end, staff will be available to answer any of your questions. And I'd also like to again thank Beth DeLego, our parking enforcement officer, for her lovely photos that illustrate tonight's presentation. So we're currently under a shelter in place order that became active on May 18th. It is, in effect, until it's rescinded, superseded, or amended. That's different from previous orders that have a specific end date. And the phase that we're under is that amendments are being added to that shelter in place order to allow additional activities here in Marin County. And the amendments and the shelter in place order are all under the auspices of Marin Public Health. the framework that Marin County is following for the gradual reopening of the Marin economy is called Marin Recovers. RIM Recovers involves 18 different industry groups that are developing guidelines for the gradual reopening of the economy. And basically, MarineRecovers is creating a list of guidelines that Marine Public Health can choose from as it moves from low risk to high risk activities in allowing additional activities here in RIM. It's important to emphasize that the threat of COVID-19 has not gone away. likely will not go away until there is a But in relaxing the shelter in place order, RIN Public Health feels that we currently have adequate hospital capacity to respond if there is a surge in cases. And the way that they're rationing out these amendments is such that if we do happen to get a surge, we would be able to roll back those allowed activities in a measured fashion also. The key indicator that public health is watching and that we should probably keep an eye on is the number of current hospitalizations in Marin. If you look at the far right of the graph, currently there's only one Marin resident in the hospital for COVID-19. And these numbers have remained relatively flat or stable for the last six weeks or so. New guidelines were issued by Marin Public Health before June 1st, but went into effect on June 1st. And those guidelines were for general office space, library curbside pickup, outdoor dining at restaurants, outdoor retail, childcare, and summer and sports camps. With all of these, the guidelines are accompanied by strict instructions as far as maintaining social distancing and other precautions to limit the likely spread of COVID-19. In the case of general office space, offices are encouraged to continue to have employees working from home as practical. Library curbside pickup just started today here at the South City Public Library. We're offering curbside pickup in the library parking lot. on Tuesday through Thursday. If you'd like to request materials, you can give the library a call at 415-289-4121. I'm gonna say a little bit more about outdoor dining and outdoor retail. and for childcare and camps. The guidelines call for cohorts of 12 or fewer children to remain together for a period of no less than three weeks. And again, another measure to limit the likely spread of COVID-19. If you want more information about the different guidelines, you can visit marinrecovers.com. |
| 00:09:32.80 | Abbott Chambers | On June 5th, additional guidelines went into effect. So that was just this past Friday. And they include outdoor protests, outdoor religious and cultural services, additional outdoor recreational businesses, charter boat operators, dog parks, like our Remington Dog Park at MLK Park that reopened on Saturday, June 6th. and outdoor swimming pools. I'm going into a little more specifics on outdoor dining and vending in Sausalito. on May 29th, City Manager Adam Pulitzer issued an executive order facilitating the approval of new outdoor dining and vending spaces in Sausalito. The council ratified that on June 4th. Also on June 4th, the council gave the city the authorization to use additional public property for outdoor dining. One example being the B of A Plaza. for outdoor dining again. And the city manager was given the authority to close certain streets for outdoor dining. And one proposal is to close the portion of Caledonia Street between Pine and Johnson Street. businesses and restaurants that would be interested in offering outdoor vending and dining in additional spaces. are encouraged to fill out a temporary COVID-19 activities and encroachment agreement and submit it to the city. And you can find that form at Sausalito.gov slash agreement. The city as of today has approved 15 agreements with local restaurants and businesses. There's a list on your screen now, 10 of the 15 are restaurants and community development director, Lily Whalen, tells me that there are nine more agreements that are in process. And again, the city is going through these and working with businesses to get these released as quickly as possible. Guidelines for indoor retail are expected to be released either later today or tomorrow. with indoor retail with restrictions being allowed as of June 12th, that's Friday. The guidelines will include that retailers should maintain a curbside alternative if they can for customers that are uncomfortable with going into stores for their shopping. The guidelines will also set occupancy limits that are no more than 50% of pre-COVID limits of a business. In addition, retailers should have The staff member actively counting or monitoring the number of customers in a store at any time. Real retailers are instructed also to install floor marking signs and barriers to limit the distance between customers and between customers and employees. And customers and employees are to wear gloves or to use hand sanitizer before they handle merchandise in the store. |
| 00:12:48.77 | Abbott Chambers | of updating you now on managing downtown visitors in Sausalito. Downtown area continues to be under close supervision of our police department that are watching carefully to monitor the number of visitors that we have in our downtown area. They have the authority to open and close downtown parking lots based on demand. We also have our downtown ambassadors on duty on the weekends. There's a photo there of one of them. They are holding up signs to encourage visitors to maintain social distance and wear masks. And then social distancing circles have been painted in Gabrielson Park and Viña del Mar Plaza to encourage family groups to maintain separation. |
| 00:13:44.78 | Abbott Chambers | That concludes my presentation and I would be happy to take any questions or refer any of your questions to other staff members. |
| 00:13:56.22 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much as usual for a very thorough presentation. Other council members are coming back onto the screen. I did have a couple of questions. At first we heard both at our hearing last Thursday and also some Other communications that I've seen some concern by residents that the number of cases in Marin County is rising. And I just wanted to, that at one presentation that that is primarily due to the increase in the number of tests being administered, but could you just talk to that quickly? |
| 00:14:32.33 | Abbott Chambers | Absolutely, and that is correct. Marin Public Health believes that the number of new cases that are being discovered relates directly to the number of additional tests that are being performed. They're working very hard to increase the number of tests to keep up with state guidelines on how many tests a county should be performing. So at this time, they're not considering it a particular area of concern on a sort of general level. I think where the concern comes in is when there happens to be a spike in a particular demographic area. And I know they've been concerned about a spike of cases in the canal district of San Rafael. |
| 00:15:19.65 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. And then I think I'd ask that our last meeting if we knew when the Golden Gate Ferry would start weekend service again and when and whether bike rentals would start in San Francisco. And I don't know if we have Stacy Gregory or if you know the answer to that question. But the second question related to that is how will our ambassadors be continuing to be able to perform their bike duties and the kind of COVID education functions at the same time. And if we need to talk about this at another meeting, that's fine, but if we have an answer today, that would be great. |
| 00:15:59.88 | Abbott Chambers | I don't. I don't know if we have one of our officers or our chief online on the |
| 00:16:09.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | See Adam come back, so, or come on visually. |
| 00:16:13.63 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, so thank you Abbott. Really no update on that. It's still not clear. on when they're going to allow the rental bike activity, but they're making reference that that will come back online Soon, sooner than I think originally anticipated. But I don't have a date. You know, we had this conversation with the county health official last Friday. about bike activity and then rental bike activity specifically, but nothing for certain. And I have not heard anything more about the ferry Thank you. a service extending and expanding service at this point, but we'll come back at our next meeting. and put that in the current as well if we get new information. |
| 00:16:58.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. And then just the last question that I had heard from some folks is if you already had a permit for outdoor dining or if you already have outdoor dining space or retail space, which is less likely, but pre-COVID, is it correct that you do not need to apply for a permit from the city as long as you are complying with all the requirements from the health officer. |
| 00:17:27.38 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, Lily is on. I'll let Lily respond. I think Abbott and I both know the answer, but Lily's here, so let her respond. |
| 00:17:35.87 | Lily Whalen | Great, thank you. Thank you, Mayor Clivenor. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Excellent. I apologize. My video is not working. We're trying hard to get it fixed right now. So the answer is that any business that already has |
| 00:17:47.34 | Unknown | the answer. |
| 00:17:51.69 | Lily Whalen | permit for outdoor dining can continue to seat in the area that they were approved for outdoor dining. if they're looking to expand that outdoor dining area, to additional space on the sidewalk or into a parking lot for instance, that's when they would apply for the permit with the city. Right. |
| 00:18:13.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:18:13.50 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. |
| 00:18:13.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. All right, and I apologize, but I have one last question that's really important. for our director of communications is also our head librarian. So thank you for letting everyone know that we have curbside pickup at the library. That's great. I've had a lot of questions from parents about whether there will be a summer reading program. |
| 00:18:34.66 | Abbott Chambers | At this point, we're going to be focusing on an online summer reading challenge. We don't think there's a safe way at this point to have the kinds of summer programming that we've had in past years. So, you know, we've canceled the performers that we were planning to have, unfortunately. But we'll be releasing more information about the Summer Reading Challenge that we'll be offering in Friday's current. |
| 00:19:05.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Karen Hollweg, Right Thank you okay other Council members have questions. |
| 00:19:12.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, seeing none, I'll open it up to public comment on the presentation about the COVID update. I see Julie Vera. |
| 00:19:30.65 | Unknown | Welcome. |
| 00:19:32.05 | Unknown | I just wanted to let Abbott know that the Guidelines for indoor retail came out this morning. I received the email for those and we did send it out in our newsletter at the chamber this morning. So we do have members that are already working on the guidelines for indoor retail. |
| 00:19:58.00 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Thank you for that information, Julie. Okay, I'm seeing no other hands raised. And Abbott, I didn't see a picture of Jumpy Park. It's looking beautiful. |
| 00:20:12.06 | Abbott Chambers | I trimmed it as part of my effort to keep things short tonight. |
| 00:20:16.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Well, thank you. I thought that was a nice, nice touch. |
| 00:20:20.21 | Abbott Chambers | All right, we're done. |
| 00:20:20.24 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right. |
| 00:20:20.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:20:21.28 | Abbott Chambers | Thank you. |
| 00:20:21.33 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Does anybody have any comments? So this is just a really rapidly evolving as always. So thank you so much for keeping us informed. |
| 00:20:32.87 | Councilmember Riley | Mayor, may I make one comment? This is Tom. |
| 00:20:35.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. |
| 00:20:36.63 | Councilmember Riley | Um, uh, have a thank you one for a great presentation again. Um, And I just want to bring clarity, you gave a summary of what we approved in our special city council meeting. I think it's important to understand that we gave approval to the city manager to close streets on a temporary basis. |
| 00:20:53.03 | Patrick Guasco | Good. |
| 00:20:53.29 | Councilmember Riley | and not approval to alter the direction of traffic on streets. So I just wanted to bring an additional clarity in a comment instead of asking those questions. So thank you for that. |
| 00:21:07.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you for that clarification. Great, all right, no other comments? Any other comments? Okay. Thank you, our director of communications. Appreciate that. And we will move on. to our next item on the agenda, which is This is a time for members of the public who would like to comment on items that are not on our agenda tonight. to do so. On our agenda tonight we have our budget and an item on Southview Park. So any public comments that are not related to those two items, we can hear now. Could the clerk just announce how people can public comment tonight? |
| 00:21:50.58 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, thank you, Mayor Cleveland Knowles. At this time, members of the public may address the City Council regarding communications agenda item two Public comment will be accepted by video or audio audience participation via Zoom Video or audio public comment participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you would like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application and you will be called upon when it's your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, press star nine. Each speaker will be notified when the time has elapsed. It looks like we have one public commenter Kevin Carroll Great. |
| 00:22:27.70 | Kevin Carroll | Thank you. |
| 00:22:28.33 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:22:28.38 | Kevin Carroll | Thank you. |
| 00:22:28.41 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:22:28.56 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:22:29.19 | Kevin Carroll | Good evening. my comment is at the last city council meeting another member of the public mentioned their unfamiliarity with Zoom and I sent a quick email to Abbott saying, Gee, it'd be nice if on the library site they had instructions on how to use Zoom to participate in the meetings And very quickly, both he and Heidi that we have. the agenda for tonight's meeting where you have two places where you can click on to see how you can comment and participate in the meeting. And I just wanted to give both Abbott and Heidi Shout out for that. It was very quick response for something that is really important as far as keeping the public participating in the meeting. So thank you very much. |
| 00:23:20.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. And also I know we've done, the library has done some Zoom for Zoom webinars to help people become more familiar with Zoom. I also did just want to note that we got a comment from a member of the public about language on our agenda related to our ability to respond to public comment and our city HAB-Charlotte Pitts, Have come up with a little bit more clarity for that language, which will be getting up on our agenda soon, so I wanted to thank them for their efforts. |
| 00:23:53.55 | Unknown | in that. |
| 00:23:55.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, seeing, oh, we have Alice Merrill. Great, good evening, Alice. |
| 00:24:01.33 | Alice Merrill | Yes, you have me again. Hello. I just want to say thank you again for this job that you're doing. It's horrible hard and it's long and tedious. I do feel that It's like rolling along like a train and city council meetings never felt like that before. Is it that you're just trying to get so many things done that it's unusual? Is it just because we're all, this is such a hard process, this Zoom thing. I feel for you guys having to all the reading that you have to do, all the et cetera, et cetera. I wish that it didn't feel so... so forced, it feels forced. There's so much to be thinking about and doing issues coming up and So I'm sorry, I always am complaining, but I just, I just feel like it's forced. And I wonder if there's anything that you could slow down. Thank you. |
| 00:25:15.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you, Alice. Sandra Bushmaker, welcome. |
| 00:25:28.82 | Sandra Bushmaker | Let me get your problems again. There we go. I just wanted to bring the numbers of new cases to the Council's attention. I just looked them up on May 2nd, we had 239 cases of COVID-19 in Marin County. And as of yesterday, we have 625. So that's almost tripled. I just want to make sure that with all this opening of businesses, that we have some sort of enforcement of the face masks, not just encouragement, but enforcement of the face masks and the social distancing. Now, I recognize that these numbers are probably going up because of the testing. Nevertheless, the numbers speak for themselves. We have 625 cases in Marin County that test positive. And that's a lot for this little Good morning. So I just would plea That We have not just encouragement, but enforcement of face masks and social distancing. Thank you. |
| 00:26:36.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much for that comment. All right, I'm not seeing any additional general public comment. Could the clerk please confirm that for me? |
| 00:26:47.02 | Heidi Scoble | You are correct Mayor Cleveland Knowles. There are no additional raised hands. |
| 00:26:51.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Karen Hollweg, Great Thank you, so we will move on to the action minutes of our previous meeting for the regular city council meeting of May. 26. Do I have any corrections or emotions? |
| 00:27:06.93 | Wendy Richards | There was one correction, way. |
| 00:27:17.39 | Unknown | There we go. |
| 00:27:27.05 | Councilmember Cox | on page One of six, line 23, the word B should be were, W-E-R-E. |
| 00:27:36.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Do you want to make a motion with that correction, Councilmember Cuff? I move approval as amended. Do I have a second? |
| 00:27:44.93 | Councilmember Riley | Second motion. |
| 00:27:46.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, we have a motion from Council Member Cox and a second from Council Member Riley. Would you prefer please call the roll? |
| 00:27:53.10 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Riley. Thank you. |
| 00:27:54.64 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. |
| 00:27:54.98 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Council Member Burns. you |
| 00:27:56.83 | Brian Vitelli | Yes. |
| 00:27:57.02 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:27:57.52 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Cox. Yes. Vice Mayor Withey? |
| 00:28:01.32 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 00:28:02.01 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. |
| 00:28:03.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. That motion carries five zero and the minutes are approved. We will move on to item number four, which is council member committee reports. Who would like to start? |
| 00:28:22.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I do have one question for our liaisons to the EDAC, the new economic development advisory committee, which is when we might expect that committee to start meeting. |
| 00:28:33.91 | Councilmember Burns | The city clerk has put out a, or is putting out a, THE FAMILY. so that we can get that set up I think both Councilmember Riley and I have replied with our availabilities. correct? Yeah. I'm not sure. and actually be getting the group together. |
| 00:28:53.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:56.05 | Councilmember Riley | Mayor, I will give a report out, it's brief. I attended two meetings with the chamber. One was a conference call, the chamber, a Zoom call, the chamber arranged with city staff Uh, myself. and roughly 40 of our business community to answer their questions about the COVID-19 and shelter in place. And you can imagine a lot of the questions that our businesses have. And Mayor, you're on that call as well. it was, I think, a very productive call. Uh, two days hence. I joined a call with the Chamber President and CEO, several of the board members of the Chamber, and business owners that serve as the Governance Committee that has oversight of the Law of Soft Solito Business Fund At that time, they were reviewing 21 applications for a total of $91,000 in emergency fund requests from our merchants. Um, I'd like to inform everyone we're proud that we have raised $30,000 to date from residents County Marin and the city of Sausalito. But as you can see, We already have 21 businesses asking for $91,000 in funding. So we don't have quite the funds to be We hope to continue getting support from the residents and the community. for the Love South Salido Business Fund. Thank you, that's my update. |
| 00:30:20.37 | Patrick Guasco | Thank you. |
| 00:30:21.69 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Could I ask a question? So a number I saw next door that some residents had received a survey about a bond from the Sausalito Martin City School District. And were you aware of that or do you have any information to share on that issue? |
| 00:30:40.87 | Councilmember Riley | I was actually at the receiving end of that survey via phone call last night. and the person who was doing the survey did not have any information other than only the ability to read the questions. So I do not have any information. |
| 00:30:54.04 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:30:56.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Thank you. |
| 00:30:57.38 | Councilmember Burns | I took the online version. And, uh, It is definitely searching for Um, taking the temperature on a bond. so. |
| 00:31:09.19 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | for this November. |
| 00:31:10.64 | Councilmember Burns | very long and Well, the questions were what they are. I'll go. You finish Tom's. Yes. Um, I reported last week that I was going into the PBA see meetings, which obviously we did have right after our council meeting and we discussed that, uh, at our special meeting this last Thursday. So pretty much the items in there had been discussed Um, One meeting of interest that I attended on Zoom was this Sunday, and it was the Willow Creek Board but it was a kind of a working group meeting to discuss the elements within the unification plan brought back by the unification task force. that is now kind of like we did with our JPA's JPA see it's a smaller group now. And they're looking at items that would make sense in that type of arena, which are, governance. the staffing, calendaring, union, non-union, curriculum. even I think they going to start getting into names eventually, but really the report is that conversation is going forth in a very unification manner in that They're really looking at building the best single school for the district. And as you know, there was a lot of conversation this last early winter before COVID. from December, January, and February with meetings with larger groups. And now the schools are working out those details and the Willow Creek board, is really delving into all those little details that it's going to make this a potentially potentially work. So, Um, And that was it on meetings and committees that I'm assigned to. |
| 00:33:08.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. |
| 00:33:12.19 | Councilmember Burns | I'm sorry, I'm sorry. One quick thing you did ask mayor and the, I just found out the date for the EDA C is June 30th. So their first meeting will be June 30. That's a Tuesday. I'm not sure the time, but I believe we've been shooting for the morning hours, given it's a business group. |
| 00:33:31.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Sarah Silver, Thank you, and you happen to know the next meeting of the pedestrian bike advisory committee, I know there will be a lot of follow up work on our discussion from last Thursday about Caledonia street and others, and so I know there was a lot of public interest in that. Do you have that date off the top of your head? |
| 00:33:48.49 | Councilmember Burns | Yes, exactly. But remember things, the meeting on the 30th is 8.30 for the EDAC. 30th, 830 EDAC. Next meeting for feedback. pedestrian and bike advisory is the 15th. And that is 630. at, uh, on Zoom. We are going quickly. I think our normal meeting would have been the 22nd, but given what we're dealing with on, on some of these, uh, spaces and how they relate to circulation, they're having a meeting sooner. |
| 00:34:18.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you. Councilmember Cox? |
| 00:34:25.55 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. Two of the meetings I attended, I attended with our mayor. One was the general plan advisory committee meeting. on June 10, sorry, there's one tomorrow, June 10. We attended one last week Um, And actually on May 27 in which we went through half of the draft general plan We have the second GPAC meeting tomorrow evening in which we'll be going through the other half of the general plan and obtaining General plan advisory committee comments to key issues within the general plan. The mayor and I also attended a general plan working group meeting last Tuesday June two and went through two additional elements of the general plan and we will be having one more meeting of the general plan working group on a date to be determined to go. Thank you. Um, a final element as well as |
| 00:35:32.20 | Alan Burland | Yeah. |
| 00:35:35.07 | Councilmember Cox | clean up open items left dangling from prior meetings. In addition this morning, a with Vice Mayor Withey, A. working group meeting with Sausalito Marin City Sanitary District in which we continue to explore our options for how we might better collaborate with the city collection system with the sanitary district treatment system. and we will be coming back to the city council with a to the full council with a report on the feasibility study as well as our recommendations moving forward. Thank you. |
| 00:36:22.26 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Vice mayor. |
| 00:36:26.22 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah, I really have very little to report this meeting. The sewer committee meeting that I attended with council member Cox, I think we will be discussing need to discuss it in the next agenda setting committee, best time to bring that feasibility study report to the full council. And the only other thing is, although not an official city appointment, I announced two weeks ago that there was an upcoming which has now subsequently been held, a meeting of the Executive Steering Committee of BayWave, and the BCDC presented their new A vulnerability study for sea level rise out. mention that simply because I was delighted to see the two of our GPAC members attended that meeting we were trying to publicize it particularly for members of the public and City Council, various committee members to be present. And we were well represented. So, but other than that, I have nothing else |
| 00:37:41.65 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Just a couple of things on my part. I'm on the Transportation Authority of Marin board and now also on the Executive Committee for Policy. Those discussions have focused mostly about the upcoming budget for fiscal year 2021 and impacts to revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic. They anticipate trying to keep the funding levels the same for this year, but at great expense to the . But that's because they already had announced those funding levels that local jurisdictions and projects rely on. So there's Just a lot of discussion about how that will play out over the next couple of years. They're also starting discussions about post-COVID congestion levels, which I think is going to be a very big issue in the Bay Area. Even with a minor amount of reopening, traffic levels are already going to be a very big issue in the Bay Area. sharply and steeply increasing. So this will be a continued discussion about how to address congestion and the instinct of folks to not get back on public transportation, but to be driving and how that will play out. So that's gonna be an ongoing discussion at TAM. I also do just want, I have it later on in the agenda, but to let people know that, I will be forming a Blue Ribbon task force on creative funding sources to address the issues that we will be talking about later in our calendar. We will probably announce members of that next week, but Council Member Riley has agreed to join me in taking advantage of the amazing offers we have had from many community members about various ways to help the city and identify creative funding sources. Um, Lastly, two things about the sustainability commission. It's meeting tomorrow night, Thursday. I'm sorry, Thursday night. Um, But I did just want to applaud the chair of the sustainability Commission, Ting Li, for reaching out proactively to the members of that committee to introduce some really interesting articles on the intersection of between sustainability and racial justice in light of the events of the last couple weeks. And I would just encourage all of our other boards to also be thinking about those issues as it pertains to their work. So thank you to Ting. The second thing I just wanted to mention is, and I know this is unusual at this point in our agenda, I, Andy Davidson has been staffing the sustainability committee since about 2009. So 11 years, and there's been a decision to change that staffing from public works over to community development. And I just wanted to give a special shout out to Andy tonight for all of his really amazing support. of the Sustainability Commission. I can see former liaison Council member Cox nodding her head vigorously and Joe Burns giving a shout out there too among others. So Andy reached out to the commission last week expressing his appreciation for their work and I have to say he's definitely a staff person who not only showed up to support the Sustainability Commission, but deeply was committed to its mission and purpose. and really actively engaged. And he listed a whole bunch of things the Sustainability Commission has achieved over the years while he has been there including photovoltaic cells on top of City Hall, composting, annual e-waste events, single-use bag ordinance, climate action plan, C level rise amazing sea level rise event the single use plastic band and a whole lot of others. But he's just has this great perspective and looks at it through his three kids and just sent a really nice email to the Commission and I think he's here tonight, but I just wanted to thank him and probably on behalf of other Commissioners. and council member liaisons as well. He's not leaving the city, but he's leaving the Sustainability Commission. So thank you, Andy, for all your work. And that wraps up my report. So I think we can, I guess. |
| 00:42:18.42 | Vice Mayor Withey | Madam Mayor, can I just make one more comment, if I may? |
| 00:42:21.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Absolutely. |
| 00:42:22.69 | Vice Mayor Withey | It was, you mentioned this, but I'm not sure anybody, most people have understood the significance of this. I am the alternate on transportation authority of Marin and therefore I keep close attention to what's going on. I can't. uh, underestimate the importance of the fact that you have joined the executive committee there. And that's very, very important. and it shows you're already moving into the sort of TAM world. Sausalito continues to be, if anything, massively represented in all our regional agencies. So well done, Madam Mayor. |
| 00:43:11.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. Oh, thank you very much. And thank you to you and all the other council members who are also playing very good leadership roles at the. County and county level and beyond. So thank you. Is there any public comment on this item? I am not seeing any hands raised. Okay, with that, we will move on to... to my place, yeah? item five which is our consent calendar we have four items on the consent calendar tonight are there any council comments before i open it up for public comments |
| 00:43:58.78 | Councilmember Burns | I have one. Small. typo on item 5D in the resolution. It's actually your name, Mayor. |
| 00:44:07.30 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:44:07.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:44:09.29 | Councilmember Burns | So it's just spelling correction, it is. |
| 00:44:09.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:44:09.46 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:44:09.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | That's important. Okay, thank you. |
| 00:44:14.18 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah. |
| 00:44:17.64 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So we have our community development block grant item. We have a local early action planning grant program for the housing elements. Term limits for the Economic Development Advisory Commission and a resolution with a contract amendment with ROMTECH for our restroom and trash enclosure for about $7,000. So if there is no public comment, which I'm seeing on. I will open it up for a motion. |
| 00:44:46.53 | Vice Mayor Withey | Madam Mayor, I move that we adopt consent calendar items 5A through 5D. second. |
| 00:44:54.83 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we have a motion by Vice Mayor with you, a second by the motion. Councilmember Burns. To the federal law. |
| 00:45:02.65 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley. Yes. Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:45:07.41 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 00:45:08.45 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Vice Mayor Withing. |
| 00:45:12.25 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 00:45:12.70 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Mayor of Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:45:15.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, that motion passes five zero and our consent calendar is adopted. We have no public hearing items, so we will move on to our business items, which is item seven. The first item 7A is a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute the construction contract for the construction of Southview Park improvements. And I think we have our director of public works, Kevin McGowan, with a presentation. Welcome. |
| 00:45:46.96 | Kevin McGowan | Good evening, Madam Mayor. Hopefully you can see me. I'm going to share my screen at this point. |
| 00:45:52.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | You can see you're kind of floating. |
| 00:45:54.93 | Kevin McGowan | I know. Give me a moment here. |
| 00:46:02.25 | Kevin McGowan | There we go. |
| 00:46:17.59 | Kevin McGowan | All right, Madam Mayor, can you see my screen? It should be a blue screen with a presentation. |
| 00:46:22.57 | Unknown | Yes, we can. Thank you. |
| 00:46:24.17 | Kevin McGowan | Okay, I apologize for my voice in the afternoon. I get a little... My voice gets a little rough at a long day, so my apologies. So I'm Kevin McGowan for the Sausalito's Public Works Director. I'd also like to thank this evening, Mike Langford, our public, our parks and rec director, Andrew Davidson, again for for his help on this project and Lauren Umbertus, our maintenance manager who have all been instrumental to bring this project to this point. Item 7A before you this evening. Is. is a request to award the construction contract for the Southview Park improvements. Southview Park is located between 3rd and 4th Street adjacent to North Street. The site of Southview Park was originally a school. The school was closed in 1941. and was used as a recreation area after World War II. In 1961, the site was turned into a park in basically the same configuration you see today. the same retaining walls, pathways and play structures, even though there might not have been a play structure in 1961. are in the same configuration as they were then. One of the most appealing features of this park is the view from the main entrance. Improvements to this park are needed to further accentuate this feature of the park. as well as make improvements to the tennis court, basketball court, and play structure area. This project has a long history of development, which started in 2011, with the city utilizing Linda Carruthers for surveying and SWA landscaping architects. to provide preliminary design services for the park. A COMMUNITY MEETING was held in 2015 regarding the park with over 40 residents attending that meeting with a general response to keep the park in the same configuration. And just... repair the deteriorated interior systems. Staff also consulted with the United States Access Board regarding the access, who concluded that each functional area should be made accessible. However, the path of travel to these areas does not need to be made compliant based on the park's topography. The project was approved by the Planning Commission in May of 2017. Since the park's original opening in 1961, The infrastructure has continued to deteriorate. Some of the existing wall systems are cracked and leaning while the tennis court surface is also cracked. The basketball court is also showing signs of settlement with a change in elevation from for more than a foot from one side to the other. In order to accentuate the unique view features of the park, several interior wall systems need to be demolished and reconstructed. The drawing in front of you on this slide shows the existing park And the walls that need to be removed are shown in red. This is the main The main thing concentration of the work on this particular project is demolition and of wall features. While the overall geometry of the park does not change, the entrance area off of North Street gets modified to have a more welcoming area which accentuates the views of Sausalito. the Bay and San Francisco. Other improvements include replacement of fences, tennis court surface, and of course the play structure. Funding for this project funding for this project has several different sources, such as certificates of participation, a recreational grant fund, and Measure O funds. The design for the project was developed by CSW Stuber Stroh, and currently there is 1.78 million available for construction. |
| 00:50:47.30 | Kevin McGowan | The project was bid in the spring of 2020 And on May 19th, 2025, bids were received. The bids were structured to have a bid alternative to repair the basketball court. The low bid from CF Contracting Incorporated was found to be both responsive and responsible. In addition, the cost of repairing the basketball court basketball court appears to be reasonable And it is unlikely that the cost for repairing the court will go down in the future. Staff is recommending moving forward by including the bid alternative work at this time. Funding for the construction is available at this time with a remainder of about $88,000 available for the purchase of the play structure and the construction management in order to manage the project. Staff estimates that the cost of the place structure and the construction management will be about $325,000. Based on this, staff recommends allocating an additional an additional $236,000 of Measure O funds to support the purchase of play equipment and construction management at this time. staff will continue to seek to seek out community donations and additional grant opportunities from state and local sources. If additional funding becomes available, Measure O funds may be expended on other parks projects. The contract duration for the project is about 150 calendar days, excuse me, it is 150 calendar days. Um, Pending council's approval tonight, we anticipate the contractor's first working day to be just after July 4th, 2020. The topography of the site makes the construction project more challenging than a normal parks project. demolitioned, and new retaining wall placement will be the primary tasks for the project. the primary the prime contractors work should be completed in December 2020 if no unforeseen conditions arrived arise during the work. Staff will coordinate this work with the play structure manufacturer and installer which is managed separately from the main construction. The installation of the place structure should be one of the last items to be completed and may occur in December. |
| 00:53:25.20 | Kevin McGowan | Staff is recommending that council authorize the city manager to award the base bid contract plus the bid alternative. and award a construction contingency this evening. In addition, staff is recommending council direct staff. to include an additional allocation of Measure O funds to cover the construction management and purchase of the play equipment. This allocation will be captured in the next fiscal year's budget. which would be brought to council on June 23rd, 2020. That concludes my presentation on this item, and we are happy to address your questions and comments. Thank you. |
| 00:54:09.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Sarah Silver, Great Thank you very much director mcgillen are there questions from Council members. Council Member Crap. Oh, and I'm sorry, before you start, I did want to make an announcement that I meant to make before the staff presentation started. I found out today after participating in meetings on this park for many years that my property line may possibly be within anything. feet. of this property, but I have consulted with the city attorney and determined that none of the factors that might make my participation a conflict exists and comfortable participating. So apologies to Council for that interruption. |
| 00:55:00.22 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you and thank you to our Public Works Director for a great Thank you. We received, my question goes to the sources and uses of the funding for the park improvements. We have received a good number of I'm going to send you letters late this afternoon. that we not move forward with park improvements, but rather that we utilize the funds that would be used for park improvements to purchase body cameras for our police and to |
| 00:55:40.30 | Councilmember Cox | Let's see, and to not lay off personnel. |
| 00:55:48.69 | Councilmember Cox | And so I wanted to better understand what our options are for the COP's, the Prop 68 capital funding, the measure O and the recreation grant funds. |
| 00:56:05.65 | Adam Politzer | Councilmember Cox, I'll Um, I will give the first response here. So several of those funds that you just mentioned are restricted. So obviously the COP funds, we designated those for the park improvements, parks in Sausalito, Robin Sweeney, Dumpy, and Southview Park. It was specifically called out that $1 million, a minimum of $1 million be spent on each of those parks. So you see here $1.2 million of the funds available are certificates of participation for The other two grant funds and recreation grant funds to were also designated for park improvements. So those two are restricted funds. available only for park improvements. Now, it could be argued that they're not restricted to Southview Park. you could use those on other park projects, but those are also restricted funds. A measure row. The city when we went out to the public to increase the sales tax by one half of a percent The commitment was for those funds to be spent on infrastructure and that included parks on the list of infrastructure projects that those funds could be spent on. So again, not necessarily designated for Southview Park And those funds could be spent on other infrastructure projects. Hopefully that answers your question. Yeah. |
| 00:57:43.14 | Councilmember Cox | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:57:43.86 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:57:43.88 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. The final part of my question is whether any of these funding sources could be used to offset personnel expenses body-worn cameras for our police department. |
| 00:57:59.25 | Adam Politzer | I believe our commitment to the only funds there that would that in my opinion would be eligible would be measure O money But it's my opinion that those monies were committed to infrastructure but I think that's a good question. the Thank you. I don't mind if we are committed to this. |
| 00:58:15.97 | Unknown | like, whether I will be stopped in the church |
| 00:58:22.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So I think city manager, you broke up there unless that was my connection. Sarah Silver, Adam, Could you try just that last sentence, one more time, just for the public record, I think you were saying. That in your opinion, measure O funding could not be used for Bye-bye. for personnel uses consistent with our messaging to the voters at the time measure O was adopted, but I might not have caught all that. |
| 00:58:50.92 | Adam Politzer | Sorry about that. I apologize for any, uh, Right. Wi-Fi Yes, she is. Yeah, that was my comment that I think that it was our commitment to the community. that measure of funds would be spent on capital projects focused on infrastructure. There was a long list of projects, including roads and storm drains, in parks. and other infrastructure related projects. But at the end of the day, it's at the discretion of the council on how those funds can be spent. But that was our commitment back when we went to the voters. for their support. |
| 00:59:29.57 | Councilmember Cox | Then Madam Mayor, I had one more question. Yes, please. If we were to delay Moving forward with the improvements to Southview Park at this time, must these improvements be performed within a particular season. you know, to avoid weather. And If we were to postpone to the next available season, how much escalation in price would you anticipate? |
| 00:59:59.84 | Kevin McGowan | So, Thank you, council member. I'm Kevin McGowan. We can. We don't necessarily have to construct these improvements in the summertime or the fall They basically is wall work. a lot of demolition. The demolition should be done before the rains hit, but the actual construction of the wall work could occur as long as the form work is in place. Preferably, we would like to get this work done now, so that we avoid any possibility of erosion or problems at the park itself. And then your second question if we postpone the escalation, I think that that's hard to, |
| 01:01:23.71 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | your video while you're speaking. Unfortunately, we can't hear you. |
| 01:01:28.86 | Adam Politzer | Is that working? |
| 01:01:29.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And I didn't know, I feel also the reason |
| 01:01:32.47 | Adam Politzer | Can you hear me better now? Yeah. So all that I was saying was that those that have history going back into the 90s would recall that we had a major accident on the construction of that park when they made improvements where a backhoe ended up into the neighbor on the downhill's property. I would also suggest that with all the earth And if |
| 01:01:59.16 | Unknown | . of the you |
| 01:02:03.92 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:02:03.94 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:02:03.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:02:04.06 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:02:04.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | you're cutting out again. I think you need to kick your whole household off the internet. |
| 01:02:11.45 | Councilmember Cox | The other option is to phone in Use your phone. for your audio portion and not your computer. I have found it's far more reliable. |
| 01:02:23.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Why don't we move on to other council member questions if we can. And then if Adam can rejoin us and complete that thought, we will do that. Council member Riley, did you have a question? |
| 01:02:35.41 | Councilmember Riley | Yes, I do. For Kevin. Kevin, in the original bid that went out, we actually identified the basketball court as an alternative. When you're doing remodels, that is always kind of an approach for the things that you may not be able to afford and are kind of nice to have. Can you give an explanation of why that was listed as an alternative? |
| 01:02:53.79 | Kevin McGowan | I think you hit the nail on the head right there. as we were concerned that the bids would come in higher than the actual budget. And so we separated out the basketball court in anticipation that if we wanted to add it in, we would at least have that ability to move forward with the project. and maybe not do the basketball court, depending upon how our finances work. |
| 01:03:15.39 | Councilmember Riley | Okay, and I have a subsequent question, which might be for the city manager and I don't know if he's dialed back in. But I did look back to measure O and the use of those funds and one of the items was for public safety. which I would interpret as finding more cameras as a public safety need. Um, Seed Manager, if you're on, can you Comment on that. |
| 01:03:42.88 | Adam Politzer | Yes, hopefully you can hear me this time. Am I better? |
| 01:03:46.49 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. |
| 01:03:47.59 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, as you and I discussed earlier in the day, um, my interpretation of public safety was more related to crosswalk and pedestrian improvements. I mean, really, I think the structure is still discussions. I didn't know what I said. Again. |
| 01:04:06.23 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 01:04:06.38 | Adam Politzer | Yeah. |
| 01:04:06.79 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:04:06.82 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 01:04:06.86 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:04:09.10 | Adam Politzer | Sorry. I need to. |
| 01:04:13.47 | Councilmember Cox | Are you able to call in, Adam? There is a call and number for this Zoom meeting. |
| 01:04:17.76 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, I'll try that. Can you hear me now? Any better? I'll just give you the short. version of that. that's foreign term, the term |
| 01:04:25.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:04:31.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Adam, you're going to have to call in because we just keep losing you. |
| 01:04:37.35 | Adam Politzer | Got it. |
| 01:04:39.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So I think are there other, we will, I think we'll come back to Adam when he is able to dial in. Are there other questions from council members? Okay, so I'm going to open it up to public comment and then when we are finished with public comment we'll hear from our city manager again. Um, have Yasmeen Magrain. Welcome Yasmeen. |
| 01:05:14.86 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I can't hear Yasmin, can we unmute her please? |
| 01:05:19.97 | Finnegan | Can anyone hear us? Hello? Yep. OK. It's actually, it's Finnegan. |
| 01:05:21.19 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So, well... It's actually, Bye, Fenagan. |
| 01:05:27.08 | Finnegan | Hi, my name is Finnegan and I'm going in eighth grade at Willow Creek Academy. I live in a part of Sausalito called Old Town, near this part. I'm going to turn 14 in October, and I've been living here my whole life. Me and all the other neighbors and kids in this area love this park, but it is unsafe and not meeting expectations of the community. |
| 01:05:44.31 | Unknown | . I'm sorry. |
| 01:05:46.60 | Unknown | Why are you? |
| 01:05:52.85 | Finnegan | I got a new scooter a year ago and went up there all excited to try to ride around on the tennis court and knew immediately it would not work. There are huge cracks and bumps and it is uneven, like there was just an earthquake. When me and my friends play basketball there, there's always a puddle in one quarter. So the ball always goes there and gets wet. The court is not flat. Um, the worst thing I wanted and somewhat easy to fix are the basketball hoops. They are, um, They are uneven. One is actually taller than the other. There are holes in the backboard too. So one side you can't even use. We don't even use it because when you shoot, it goes through the backboard, the holes bigger than the backboard. Not. And And the other one isn't ideal either because it is short and the backboard is wobbly. I haven't. even mentioned the retaining wall on the tennis court. It is about to fall down on somebody any day. I won't And the dog park is on. It has a lot of weeds and it's really muddy. I was thinking for a school art project that me and my friends create a mural on one of the walls that can inspire peace, love and hope for everybody to see after this break due to coronavirus. Um, I sent this idea to Joe Burns and he a few weeks ago. Joe got back to me right away and said it was a nice, great idea and he would bring it up to the city council for review. I created design options to be considered. so i highly recommend approving the budget and working to renovate southview park immediately my friends and i would like to use it um while we are young. I've waited for this time for a very long time, my whole life. Thank you very much. |
| 01:08:03.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you, Finnegan. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your thoughts. I have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 01:08:15.68 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi, everybody. I just wanted to remind you of a little history. That park was remodeled during my tenure on the council, which was 20 years ago. Can you hear me? which was 20 years ago. So my concern with a remodel in only 20 years is what about the maintenance program? And I hope that there is a maintenance program so that we're not having to constantly remodel these parks every 20 years. So I just wanted to bring that to the public's attention and to council's attention, because I think this was before your time active in city of business. So, Yes, I know it needs improvement. but I wanted to remind you that we had a grand opening of that park just 20 years ago. And everybody was happy with the park and it was used tremendously. And I hope that a maintenance program, a vigorous maintenance program is enacted in order to keep it from crumbling in the future. Thank you. |
| 01:09:23.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Alice Merrill. |
| 01:09:29.29 | Alice Merrill | Start my video. Hi, I just want to correct one small piece of the history. I went to kindergarten first and second grade in that school in the early 50s. So it wasn't stopped being used when you said it was and it wasn't a park then either. Um, It was an interest. I had my kindergarten teacher. was the same teacher, her name was Miss Beecher, she was the same teacher as Bob Gunn had when he was a kid and he had been already the mayor of Sausalito before I was even born. So, It was still a school in the early 50s, just so you can fix that history. I loved hearing Yasmin's son. He says it all. We need our parks. I would love to see that money used for something more relevant right this minute. But listening to him, maybe that's what's relevant. That's all. Thank you. Goodbye. Thank you. |
| 01:10:34.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Alice. We have Chris Durbin, welcome. |
| 01:10:40.43 | Unknown | Thank you. I'm going to turn on Mike, there we go. Hi. Yes, I'm well aware that the voters voted for this, but it wasn't during a time of a pandemic crisis. And I would I also feel for Finnegan. I would love for his park to be usable for him. Um, But when I weigh things right now, I think body cams are more important, keep other people safe. I especially, well, equally want people to not lose their jobs. This is a horrible time to lose a job. and people have worked hard for our city. I think if we put this back to the voters, I mean, if you have the discretion to reallocate the money for different So that we don't have to have people lose jobs and we don't have to not have body cams. I just don't think that the voters, I'm certainly would choose that over a parks project right now in this time of crisis. serious crisis. So thank you. for considering that. |
| 01:11:58.92 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. I have a caller that's identified as call-in user 2. |
| 01:12:12.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And while we're waiting for call-in user two, I did just want to ask if Yasmin had your hand up, did you also want to speak? If so, just keep that hand raised, then I'll get to you after the next couple. power. |
| 01:12:24.18 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. |
| 01:12:25.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:12:25.41 | Wendy Richards | Am I confident? |
| 01:12:25.92 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 01:12:26.03 | Wendy Richards | number two. |
| 01:12:26.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:12:27.23 | Wendy Richards | Yes, you are. Welcome. Hi, thank you, it's Wendy Richards. Hi, thank you all for being here this evening. So I appreciate the neighbors and young people like Finnegan who would like to see this park. And I agree with the prior speaker, this is not the time to undertake a project like this. Number one, Dunphy Park has had major overruns It's still closed. There's no trees. We have no information about the status of the COP in this report. to spend 1.2 million of the COP And accounting of where we stand with the COP is not responsible to the voters. In addition, do we know if we can pay back the COP? There might be problems with our leases. I want to make sure we can pay this back. It's a loan. Next, I absolutely oppose allocating a penny of Measure O to this park project. Infrastructure in this town is desperately needed to repave our streets. and to prevent fires to take down trees that are fire hazard. And if there is, a desperate repair needed. And if the COP can sustain it, then you have your $1 million And I would say not a penny of Measure O. Next, the play structure. I was there the night the council allocated the play structure. This was a no-bid contract. The place structure was selected by one vendor, one vendor only, And the bid was set up to be just under $200,000, so nobody would have to put it out for public bid. Now that may have been in some people's minds. I opposed it at the time. what people did in those days. We're not in those days anymore. This is a crisis. We're asking our people to reduce their pay. We're laying people off. I would like to see the infrastructure funds used for all of the community and repair what is basic and the bare minimum only after we are given a report on this. COP status. And lastly, the assumption that we'll only have a 10% override, this is a $2.2 million project. If you add up all the numbers, half a million dollars for that is from measure O. And there's only a 10% overrun. Show me a project that has been done on any other park that's had only a 10% overrun. When you answer those questions, then We, the voters and the taxpayers, can then trust that this will be done. And finally, it is not the job of the city to predict the future prices of anything. So whether the cost will go up or down, none of us know. None of us can predict the future. In this labor market, it is equally possible that the cost could go down in the future. We don't know, and anybody who pretends to know |
| 01:15:34.36 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:15:36.15 | Wendy Richards | can't be right. So I really appreciate the work that's been done on this. AND I strongly oppose spending measure O and I suggest that all those questions be answered before we go forward. Thank you very much. |
| 01:15:51.32 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Wendy. Vicki Nichols, welcome. |
| 01:16:06.52 | Unknown | I appreciate all the comments that have been made and acknowledge the financial duress the city is under and realize how thoughtfully the I've worked in budgets corporately. These are very tough when you have to work on a lot of based on finances. One thing I would like to caution the council though When measure O was voted on by the citizens, This was controversial, anticipated by some people that a future council would change what was defined as the money being used for |
| 01:16:44.26 | Unknown | check. |
| 01:16:44.98 | Unknown | I think that you have, create a slippery slope. If you go back now and you reallocate or reinterpret what citizens voted on, a big portion of this and a big push by even several of the people on the council was for parks. I think it is very risky to do this. I think that other sources should be found. I appreciate some of Wendy's observations about the analysis of this, but Measured Ore was primarily for parks and infrastructure. I think to not honor that is really sort of a bait and switch and it's risky. Thank you. |
| 01:17:30.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you, Vicky. I'm David Sudo. |
| 01:17:40.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Good evening. Thank you. |
| 01:17:41.72 | David Sudo | Good evening. Um, I just wanted to point out that that for the kids in the Hurricane Gulch, this is their only area to play in. So, This is also a public safety, Besides the condition of the park, having this park. in, um, in the neighborhood is also a public safety issue. because if the kids can't access this park, traveled to other places in our community and for kids of the age of using that park, this park, safety issue if they're trying to traverse the city on their own. So it's really important that that, kids in the Gulch have a place a safe place that they can get to So, and, be able to recreate. and some people don't have very big yards in this area also, so they really need a place that they can go to besides where they live to to recreate. So I just think it's very important to get this done. It was also, you know, it's the last item in our measure and it needs to get done. Thank you. |
| 01:18:54.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, David. Yasmeen Magrain, I'm assuming it's you that would like to speak this time in addition to Finnegan. |
| 01:19:11.66 | Finnegan | See you. Oh, can you hear me out? |
| 01:19:14.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can hear you and we can see you this time. Great. |
| 01:19:16.40 | Finnegan | Ms. Finnegan. Yeah, so I just wanted to say that I understand that there are Many priorities and I'm also a big supporter of body cameras, but I also having lived here and raised our kids and I speak for a lot of parents, I'm sure in this area because I've talked to them over the 15 years I've lived here. about the hope and the need for the children to have a park in Hurricane Gulch. And it has been 15 years of long waiting for at least a basketball court that's usable for the children, at least a playground that's safe and up to code. at least a tennis court where the wall isn't falling down. I just, I worry that there is a safety issue that could happen that would be pretty bad for the city if that were to happen as well as of course, for the person or that anything that happened, because if you don't live here and you don't see how the park is maintained currently, you probably, I would think to allocate the money somewhere else, but maybe there is a solution and I'm sure this has been considered where part of the park could be usable. At least we could have usable basketball hoops for the children, at least the retaining wall for safety issues could get fixed. I mean, just the minimum after 15 years could get done. And again, to Vicki Nichols' point, |
| 01:20:11.03 | Unknown | or the |
| 01:20:44.27 | Finnegan | You know, the voters did express their views on this. And it was a very contentious, discussion, it went on for a long time, and then the voters voted. So I think that needs to be really heavily considered as you make a decision in reallocating funds. And again, I'm not supporting other priorities like the body camps, but is there a way that we could do both. finding the right solution to meet both needs. |
| 01:21:14.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Tricia? |
| 01:21:29.14 | Heidi Scoble | Trisha has been unmuted. and we'll just need to press the unmute button |
| 01:21:41.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I am still not able to hear Trisha um, Thank you. |
| 01:21:46.69 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:21:46.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:21:47.03 | Unknown | Can you hear me now? Yes, thank you. You're welcome. Okay, great. Thank you. Yes, I don't think I have anything wise to add in addition to what everybody else has said, My family does live on Sausalito Boulevard and this is one of the closest parks that we can walk to. I have a teenager. And I just agree with all the other things that people in the neighborhood have said. Going there, you know, with my child, there's There's not a lot you can do there. And it's a shame because it is a park in the neighborhood with the kids that are around and can't use it. um and i just agree with what yasmine just said about part of the park being usable I understand that there's a lot that the money could go for. There's other places that it's needed. But if there were new backboards and hoops, you know, that would be great. Just something small. And I don't know if the community could come together that aside from the funds that you know, the city has. Just to see that for our kids. Thanks. Thank you. |
| 01:22:51.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Thanks for joining us. Sarah Silver PB, Sarah Silver PB, All right, I one more public comment from Lee dimes if there are other members of the public, who would like to comment, please raise your hand. Welcome. |
| 01:23:04.57 | Lee | Hi, my name's Lee and I live over here in Larkspur. And I actually do play music sometimes in Sausalito and visit there frequently. I actually have a family that lives in Sausalito. It came to my attention that Sausalito was the last remaining police force in Marin County to not use body-worn cameras. And seeing as how this has come up now in this conversation about the park, seeing as how that this Measure O might be, so far in this discussion, might be the only way to fund said body-worn cameras, I would certainly rather see this money go to body worn cameras. The park definitely sounds like an issue. You know, it saddens me to think that the kids that live over there don't have a place to play. But seeing as how this country is in the a reawakening regarding racial justice. I think Sausalito really needs to step up and show that he can set an example for the rest of the country because there's a lot of police departments around the rest of the country that don't have body worn cameras. I personally am from the state of Ohio and I know a lot of police departments there that are still working out some of these kinks. And I would just love to see Marin County the door on the whole body worn camera thing. And if this is the only way to make that happen, I prefer to see the money go that direction. |
| 01:24:30.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Okay, I am seeing no, I'm sorry, David Merrill. Welcome. |
| 01:24:40.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:24:43.46 | Stephanie Romano | Hi, my name's Stephanie Romano. I just want to agree with Lee. I'm a Sausalito resident. I work with children. I would love to see children at a park. I think it's upsetting that we don't already have this in place already. Um, yeah, it would be great to come to a compromise, maybe just, you know, even a GoFundMe for the backboards, like, you know, I want kids to, play their kids. And I'm also very, very upset that Sausalito is the last Um, city in Marin that doesn't have body cameras. I don't even necessarily, you know, I think that we need accountability and if this is the first step. towards that. That's really important to our community. Um, you know, it's kind of a matter of life and death at this point. Yeah, I hope that the funds can be reallocated towards body cameras as a step one. Thank you. |
| 01:25:49.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. All right, I have one additional speaker. Andrea Hall. Welcome. |
| 01:25:59.85 | Andrea Hall | Hi. Sorry, I'm still... relatively new to Zoom, but I also wanted to stand in support or reallocating funds where available. for body cameras. It's not easy to manage budgets and figure out where to put funds. But I'm a recent transplant from Baltimore, and obviously the city that had a lot of issues with police and all things small moves. to implement body cameras and body camera training relative to broader policing tactics. And so to me, moving to a beautiful city that is blessed with not only natural beauty, but a lot of wealth. It feels like a no brainer to work as hard as possible to bring equity where we can not only in terms of how our residents experience the town, but how they experience their police force. And an easy way to do that is just upping accountability where we can. So I stand in support of reallocating funds for body camps. |
| 01:27:21.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Okay, Nancy Hirschbaum. And please, if you would like to speak on this topic, please raise your hand at this moment. I'm going to close public comment after the speaker. All right, Nancy. |
| 01:27:38.33 | Nancy Hirschbaum | Thank you very much. I also want to echo the importance of the body cameras. I just think that we made a great point. Sausalito is the last city in Marin County. The grand jury report and recommendations were provided back in 2014 and every other law enforcement agency was able to find funds to deliver on this program. And I think it's really important. given today's day and age that we take care of this issue. I think that it sends a signal to the community And I'm also Just I think that I realized I didn't know the history before of the controversy with the parks funding I absolutely understand that. I wonder if we can figure out a way to do both. . We can just think about the fact that the public is probably going to be very understanding if there would be a shift in the intentions for these funds. So again, I'm in support of using the funding for the body counts. |
| 01:28:46.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Okay, we have one more speaker, Armando Wang, sorry. |
| 01:29:01.10 | Unknown | Can you hear me? |
| 01:29:02.67 | Unknown | Yep. |
| 01:29:04.31 | Unknown | Yeah, it's actually a Vong. So yeah, I would say that I am in favor of the The park, I think that having a place for kids to actually get together and build their communities pays dividends to the point where, you know, I totally understand the perspective about the body cams, I think to make them unnecessary is more important. especially with respects to having a place where kids can socialize and really get the sense of bond of community so that it won't be quite as necessary. Um, I do understand that body cams should be on the docket, but I just prioritize that higher, especially for my own kids. Thank you. |
| 01:29:56.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Elizabeth Alderfer, and I apologize to Mr. Vaughn for mispronouncing your name. Elizabeth Alderfer. |
| 01:30:07.10 | Ali Buzari | Hi there. My name is actually Ali Buzari. I'm using my wife, her Zoom account. So she and I live in Sausalito and we just want to concur with those few who spoke before us about prioritizing really anything that we can do to increase police accountability in Sausalito. for right now body cameras and allocating funds to take that one very small when I emphasize bare minimum step, is something that we feel very strongly about. Somebody said before that living in a city is as beautiful and with this much abundance of open, safe space that's not the middle of the street. I want kids to have safe places to play. I want all kids, including non-white kids, to have safe places to play. And I don't know that that's a reality until we have a higher standard for police accountability in Sausalito and beyond. Thank you. |
| 01:31:12.71 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you very much. Lydia Arellano. |
| 01:31:28.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I am not hearing Lydia, so if you can unmute me now. |
| 01:31:31.27 | Lydia Arellano | Yes. |
| 01:31:32.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, I can. Thank you. |
| 01:31:34.40 | Lydia Arellano | Yes, again, I want to echo what has been said by a lot of other participants regarding the body cams. I am a resident of Green Break. Sausalito is not my city. However, I am part of Marin County and I would be very proud to know that every city in Marin County by the same morals and that the body cams are very important. I understand parks are important too. That was a different story three months ago, but things have changed. Thank you. |
| 01:32:08.50 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Okay, I've got Bobby and Casey. Welcome. |
| 01:32:17.01 | Bobby and Casey | Everyone can you hear me? |
| 01:32:19.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can. |
| 01:32:20.01 | Bobby and Casey | Great, thanks. So I wasn't sure when to join in the agenda and thanks everyone for being here. I want to put my two cents in for body cameras and support for our police force. And I don't know that it's a zero sum game. I don't know that we can't figure out another way to fund this. happy to work with whomever, whenever, wherever. I work for a software company for their foundations. I have a lot of experience with that. I would feel better as a Sausalito resident knowing that our police for their own accountability as well as for our community. for, um, doing the highest standards of support with regard to body camera and accountability. Thank you. |
| 01:33:02.52 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Karen Hollweg, Great Thank you very much, and yes, we are going to have to we have another item on our agenda tonight, where we will be talking about our budget specifically. Jeff Knowles. |
| 01:33:18.18 | Jack | Hi, I'm Mayor Cleveland Knowles. My name's Jack and I live like really close to Southview. um, and I heard what some other people said about having some money go to the maintenance of the park because So, I go there a lot and it really needs maintenance. So if you go there, you'll see like the wall's falling off basketball room is like crafting stuff um so if there can be some money that goes there, but I also really care about the body camps too. I don't know if that's possible. but if it is, I would like that to happen. So thank you. Cleveland Owls. |
| 01:34:01.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you, Jack. Appreciate that comment. For those of you who are not aware, this is my son. um, Okay. I do not see any further hands raised. Could our clerk confirm? |
| 01:34:17.32 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, Mayor Cleveland Knowles, there are no additional hands raised. |
| 01:34:21.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. I am going to close public comment. We appreciate all of the comments that we got on this item in addition to some written correspondence as well. And just So the clerk is aware I cannot view the other council members on my screen at this point. All right. So if there's any way to adjust that, |
| 01:34:43.33 | Vice Mayor Withey | Oh, let me speak so I can come up on the... |
| 01:34:46.16 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. I see you. |
| 01:34:47.09 | Vice Mayor Withey | Likewise, Thomas here. |
| 01:34:48.91 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, if everybody could just log on. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:34:52.68 | Councilmember Cox | AND JUST TODAY, WE'LL BE |
| 01:34:52.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:34:52.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:34:52.93 | Councilmember Cox | We have our city manager back. Was he going to finish his comments? |
| 01:34:56.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. He is here and then if Joe, if Council Member Burns could please |
| 01:35:02.45 | Unknown | Hello, hello, hello. |
| 01:35:03.81 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, there we go. Thank you. Okay, I can see all of you now. It's hard to tell when you wanna speak if I can't see you. So great. And we do have our city manager on the phone. Mr. Pulitzer could kind of conclude his remarks in response to the questions from Councilmember Riley and Councilmember Cox. That would be helpful. |
| 01:35:21.31 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:35:23.17 | Adam Politzer | Yes, thank you, Mayor. Can you hear me better? I'm now on my phone. Thank you. So to |
| 01:35:27.66 | Kevin Carroll | So, |
| 01:35:29.53 | Adam Politzer | Council member Riley question. measure of funds, were dedicated to infrastructure projects. And so in terms of, public safety, the reference of public safety was related to pedestrian safety. and cross-block. improvements. and lighting improvements at crosswalks. That was a lot of the discussion back then. So that was the commitment towards public safety. was more related to pedestrians. and improve. |
| 01:36:00.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:36:03.87 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great, thank you. Thank you. were there other questions from council members i had one just in response to public comment that There might be some partway project here. It was my understanding that given the significance of the structural issues, that it would be very difficult to do something like just fix the basketball court. But if our director of public works could comment about whether there's some modified project that's possible, that would be helpful. |
| 01:36:39.34 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Mayor. I'm not sure that we've studied some alternative projects in this particular case. However, I think you are correct in that some of the infrastructure is in such bad shape that we need to move forward with fixing the park, which will in turn fix the basketball courts and other things at the same time. So that structural piece of the whole park needs to be repaired at this point in time. Hopefully that addresses your concerns. |
| 01:37:12.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, are there other questions of staff? And if not, yes, Councilmember Kapp. |
| 01:37:17.18 | Councilmember Cox | Yes, I recall visiting the park during several study sessions when we first were considering renovating the park and I know there were some retaining wall issues I would like to hear from the public works director what measures we would have to undertake if we don't approve park improvements tonight what monies will we have to spend to ensure the safety of the structures that are there? |
| 01:37:45.27 | Kevin McGowan | So that's a complex question. To fix the structures, we would have to ask the question of whether they need to be removed in order to be replaced. There may be some alternatives to put in tie backs to try to hold this whole thing in place. But I would submit that that is more of a Band-Aid approach at this point. Um, not knowing how cracked and how dysfunctional some of these retaining walls are, I think our recommendation is based on the fact that we need to replace these walls. Could the park be open or if we don't award this, that's a possibility, but we would need to study these walls a little bit more to find out if there is an impending issue at this point. |
| 01:38:33.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, other questions? |
| 01:38:36.15 | Councilmember Riley | Yes, I have a question. for Kevin, please. Kevin, $204,000 is for the play structure. Is there a scenario where we could use the current play structure until we're in a new fiscal year where we have access to new Measure O funds. So effectively, there'll be a six month period with the existing play structure. And then in the next fiscal year, we could afford the new play structure. |
| 01:39:05.06 | Kevin McGowan | Um, Not being a kid anymore, I'm not too sure if the slide and the other features are actually usable. but that does sound like a reasonable alternative in order to push off the cost of the play structure. for six months. and then come back at it at a different point in time. |
| 01:39:25.16 | Councilmember Riley | And I mean, I have frequented with my young, well, not necessarily anymore, but at least two years ago, the play structure, while not as beautiful as what is showing in the photographs. is functional for a young child and safe. |
| 01:39:40.33 | Kevin McGowan | That sounds like a reasonable approach at this point, unless maybe Mike Langford is on the call and might want to add to it. |
| 01:39:48.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Is our director of Parks and Rec on the line? And I'm excited if you have any comments. about that proposal. Appreciate the creative thinking from Councilmember Riley. Okay, I'm not hearing from Mr. Langford, so why don't we just, Sorry. |
| 01:40:09.32 | Adam Politzer | Mayor Cleveland-Holfe. It's Adam. to city manager. Mike wasn't able to get on, but he sent a text And I knew the answer as well. The existing play structure is not in compliance. It's out of code and it's dangerous. So it's technically not in compliance and we're required to either remove it, or replaced it. |
| 01:40:34.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. you Um, All right, is there someone who would like to kick off or I can start if others are. So I would just like to thank all of the public comment and we will be having our next conversation that will include also funding for body cameras. This has been a long term priority and project for me in terms of our parks. We have spent a lot of time and energy over the years trying to improve some fairly dilapidated public parks in Sausalito. And we had a very specific campaign, campaign measure F that brought together a lot of folks in our community to find a funding mechanism where we could do that. This is the last project on that list. And we already have a dedicated amount of money. I think it's 1.2 million for this park project. We also have a really excellent bid at the moment that is near our engineers estimate. And I think, that this is an excellent time move forward with this. I know that we are all sorely aware that we are in a pandemic and we are all very, very well aware |
| 01:41:58.33 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:42:00.81 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | of the really important discussions that are happening around racial justice. So this is not a decision that we are making in a vacuum. And I definitely don't. want anyone to think that we are making this decision in a vacuum. That said, This is one of the saddest and most dilapidated parks in Sausalito, and yet it is the park with just unbelievable, amazing potential. It has the most beautiful historic site. that has been the site of, as Alice Merrill said, a public school and now a public park. And it is dangerous. And but it is even dangerous, even with the walls falling down, even with a fault line through the tennis court, even with the inability to make a basket, kids from all over this southern area of town just gravitate there. because it's just a really, really cool place to hang out. So I would like to take advantage of the fact that we have the Measure F money But I would also like to make a commitment and take up some of the neighbors who have already commented in writing and have reached out to the city to find creative ways to raise public funds so that we are not spending all of our scarce public resources on this park. So while I would like to move forward tonight, I would also like to work hard through the Blue Ribbon Committee that I mentioned earlier and through other private citizen efforts. to get the funding that we need to supplement the park. So I think council member Riley had a really good idea that perhaps we can pause Maybe for now on the play committing to the play structure. and work on ways that we can supplement that funding either next year we can see how the timing of the construction works out, we can see how our budget works out, through the COVID recovery and we can you know, assess maybe mid year. um, I think that that is really excellent, even though we can't retain the existing public structure there due to safety concerns. um that still might be a feasible way to move this project forward and there's still even with the tennis court and basketball court would still be a lot of opportunity for people to enjoy the park. Those are my comments. I guess my other comment was I was really interested and surprised to hear Sandra Bushmaker's comment that this park was redone 20 years ago because I moved here about 20, many years ago and by the time my son who commented was born the park was already sorely in need of repair so I do think we need to make sure that we focus as with all of our parks on the maintenance so that will be an ongoing concern. Other council members? |
| 01:45:11.70 | Vice Mayor Withey | Madam Mayor, I'm happy to go next if you would like. We're going sort of out of order and that's okay. Uh, So. um, I've listened to all the public comment and I really appreciate all of it, we've sort of mixed up several agenda items here. which is okay as well. It's almost I wish we had this as one agenda item so the whole thing could be discussed in context, but we didn't and that's okay also. You know, our job is to ensure the efficient, prudent, faithful, transparent use of our resources. And I have a personal connection to all of this Um, I was mayor when we... raised the measure of funds. I know exactly what they were promised to be used for. Council member Burns, who was not on the council at the time, was chair of the citizens committee that raised the money for measure O if my memory serves me correct. I think that's correct. Um, And the following year we then had a very controversial I'm not sure. but a significant majority of residents voted in favor of the certificates of participation to raise money to upgrade all of the parks, including Southview Park. I well remember well remembered during one of the debates on Measure F, Someone saying, you know, Ray, I hear you say you're going to do four parks, but I know what's going to happen. you're going to run out of money, and Southview is not going to get done. Well, That's not the case because I'm very much in favor of accepting this bid and moving forward with this. Southview is gonna get done. And just to before members of the audience who were already getting agitated because they want body cams. I'm also going to advocate in the next agenda item for body cams. I think it's a false choice. There is no reason why we can't do both of these. I think council member Riley's idea of delaying the play structure is a very good idea. And I'll have more to say about that when we actually get to our next budget item. Vicki Nichols is quite right. We promised the voters that we would spend money, this money, the Measure F money, certificates of participation on the parks. It would be, in my view, not right to reallocate or attempt to reallocate those funds. We can't. it would be a violation of our COPs and I don't think we need to. Um, David Sudo also correctly said Measure F was very controversial, but it passed by Again, if memory serves me right, about 63% or approaching that. of the electorate to actually put this in And at the time, I will also remember Council Member Hoffman um, I think, Vice Mayor Hoffman at the time, insisting that we put a minimum amount in to ensure that every part got done. And that was due to Vice Mayor Hoffman's at the time. desire to ensure that every park got done, that we put a minimum of $1 million aside for every park. We've got 1.2 dedicated and other money is available. We also got a really good bid and let's not forget, we've already approved this. We already had a bid, which we then decided to to not move forward with. So it's not like we've admittedly and tragically COVID-19 has got in the way. But I think we can. do both here, and as I said, I'll have more to say about that later. This need not be a zero sum game. |
| 01:49:25.06 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Um, we'd like to speak next. It looks like council member Riley is losing his hand. |
| 01:49:32.89 | Councilmember Riley | Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. And I appreciate everyone's comments. Just some quick math. I estimate the total project about $2,020,000. I'll round it to $2 million. We have $1.5 million that, as I understand, can't be used for anything but parks. The Measure F funds, the Prop 68 funds, and the recreation grant total $1.5 million. So the real question is $500,000. You want to spend $500,000 of Measure O funds towards this park. I am. I certainly hope that we all approve funding body-worn cameras tonight. So the question is, how do we do it? In our next discussion, do we take it out of the surplus that we have planned for and reduce that surplus. or do we fund it with some of these measure of dollars here? Um, I am going to be a strong advocate that we also maintain a surplus. And so my recommendation is that we trim this project so we can fund it but still deliver on our commitment to Measure F. What I would suggest is that we don't resurface the basketball court. Um, I do play there. I do know that the ball can go into the Southeast corner and can get wet. but you can still play basketball. We need better hoops, we need better backboards with the surface itself other than that sloping corner. is I believe safe. So I think we pull the basketball court out if In my new assignment, on the Blue Ribbon Committee, we pursue funding from the community for that basketball court, then we can achieve, um, Both things, fund body-worn cameras, which I would do with these measurable funds because it is public safety. And just for this one year, And then, maintain our surplus in case the economy continues to worsen. and we fulfill Measure F. That's my recommendation. |
| 01:51:38.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Councilmember Cox or Burns? |
| 01:51:42.24 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah, I will go. Thank you, Mayor. It's a tough conversation, obviously, and we were brought forth in the conversation now comparing a park to body cams this afternoon. This was somewhat being teed up by some other residents who had a thoughtful plan and a thoughtful process to bring up body cams in our next issue, next item. I'm not sure. but, some letters came in last minute on on the parks and ironically they came from people who I don't remember being a proponent of the park in the first place when we went through measures O and F and all the work we did to get these parks finally completed I don't know if this is so much body cams as it is one more way to keep us from improving our parks. But these two, as the vice mayor said, are not zero sum gains. they're not even related. in the body cams are really a discussion for the next item. And I look forward to having that as well as I believe we are on agreement. Um, There's been conversation about, and I'm one conversation about that money that we spent on this, how we never hit budget or we'll miss the budget. We have not missed budget on parks after we've had a solid bid. Where we missed budget was when we were forced to accept a number that was, brought out of the air in 2012 for parks and put those into the initiative to fund the parks for the COP and then five years later, try to get bids to match that number from years before. And obviously like we saw in dumping, we've got a $4 million bid. I'm not sure. So we had to value engineer that down to where we to where we'll complete that park. Our hands were really strong early by not having flexibility with the COP monies. And because the community in a lawsuit pushed us into having an election just like we had an election on Measure O. And we need to fulfill those election promises. We need to fulfill what we said to the community we're gonna do, which is build these parks with these funds. If we don't build Southview now at this bid and we come in later time, like we experienced with Dumpy, We don't have to predict what the number is going to be, but I can be very assured it's going to be higher. So the cost of these body cams, if we go this route, is gonna be exponentially higher for the cost of those body cams given the opportunity that we're missing by not building this park right now at these rates and at this timeframe, when we have availability, this bid could have been well over two and a half million dollars. And I'm not surprised if we'll be way up in that range if we come back in a year from now, when the country is gonna be looking for infrastructure growth and these contractors are gonna be extremely busy. So I think we're gonna put a heavy tag on our budget if we forego using these funds right now for this and finding funds for our body cams in the next item. And we've seen this before and we don't wanna make that mistake. Thank you. |
| 01:54:48.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Karen Hollweg, Right great Thank you Council Member Cox. |
| 01:54:51.19 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:54:51.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:54:52.32 | Councilmember Cox | This is one of our more challenging decisions. This year was not challenging six months ago when we first approved a contract for Southview Park. challenging because of the pandemic, but I really appreciated the comments of our vice mayor and a council member Riley, who both took a really practical approach to analyzing this issue. you know, I agree with Council Member Riley that and this was the purpose of my questions at the beginning of this item that The real question is do we spend $500,000 in measure O funds toward the park? The other funds cannot be used for other So we already have 1.5 million that we need. for the park. I also agree with the vice mayor and council member Riley, that we don't have to choose either or. I and confident that between the surplus that's now predicted in our budget for our next item. The fundraising efforts of the Blue Ribbon Committee that the mayor is going to be forming and the fundraising efforts of various interested community members who have written expressing their interest in enhancing the line items for the park that we will be able to Um, raise the funds necessary to both improve the park and approve the body worn cameras. Um, Right. I also appreciate the recommendation that we temporarily trim the project of less necessary features until we've done our homework to raise the monies. I am worried, you know, when I was out there two years ago, I want to say, the retaining wall was seriously leaning then. So I am worried about the safety issues posed. at Southview Park if we don't take some action. um, But I also want to be respectful of the testimony of our community members. And I do want to endorse Wendy Richards' recommendation that we get another update from city staff. of an accounting for the COP funds, Measure O, Measure F, We it's been a while. Perhaps the finance committee has seen these things, but I have not in a while. So I would like to continue as the Vice Mayor said to ensure that we have faithful, transparent use of resources. And that includes an accounting of how we have been and will be spending our monies. based on that approach to trim the project temporarily until we can fund all aspects of it. to support that. this project this evening. |
| 01:58:00.19 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. I just wanted to seek a little clarification. Oh, I'm sorry, Councilman Gorilla, did you want to add anything? I just wanted to pull up the slide of the budget. I wasn't exactly sure where you came up with 500,000 of measure O in my packet. It's looking like 256. |
| 01:58:18.97 | Councilmember Riley | The original fund had 257,000 and staff is requesting an additional $257,000, I'm sorry, additional $236,000. |
| 01:58:32.56 | Lauren Alexander | the best. |
| 01:58:34.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right. |
| 01:58:35.63 | Councilmember Riley | I don't know. |
| 01:58:36.91 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Go ahead. |
| 01:58:38.38 | Councilmember Riley | I was hoping to just rephrase my comments earlier. in a simple comparison. For me, this is not a decision between are we doing a park or are we doing body cams? We need to do both. For me, the decision is, Do we do the alternative part of the bid, which is resurfacing a basketball court, or do we put that funds into our surplus for another rainy day? And for me, I believe Um, Putting those funds in a surplus right now is a wiser thing than resurfacing the basketball court. We can achieve everything in measure F. other than a slightly sloping corner. And I think that's the right, that's my recommendation. It's researching a passport court versus maintaining a surplus facing what could be a very bad economy at |
| 01:59:27.91 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. And can I just get clarification on where the number, the amount for the basketball court resurfacing is? I know that the director mentioned it in his presentation. |
| 01:59:38.67 | Kevin McGowan | and his. |
| 01:59:40.36 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So I'm looking at mine. That's it. |
| 01:59:44.73 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Mayor. I can bring up the presentation and show you where it is if that's acceptable. Yes, thank you. All right, let's give that a try. |
| 01:59:59.12 | Kevin McGowan | Excuse me. |
| 02:00:06.72 | Kevin McGowan | All right, in our original budget, I believe it is on slide Um... Slide number seven. It shows measure O funds at 256,870. That's already allocated to the project. And we, in addition, in order to fund the installation of the play structure. as well as the construction management, we're suggesting authorizing an additional 236,000 to the project. You add those two up, about About 500,000. |
| 02:00:41.16 | Unknown | Okay, but where is the cost of the... Sorry, the basketball. report. |
| 02:00:46.86 | Kevin McGowan | Okay? That is the bid alternative. right here on slide, I'm not too sure, 192,641,000. 192-641. |
| 02:01:04.33 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:01:04.35 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So council member Riley was your proposal to just cut the basketball court for now to delay that or |
| 02:01:14.08 | Councilmember Riley | Yes, I mean, I thought it would be better to postpone the play structure, but Given the advice we heard that that is unsafe, then my recommendation is to postpone this alternative the basketball court, which is being funded by Measure O dollars. And I like those Measure O dollars used. for body warm cameras so that we sustain our surplus. |
| 02:01:38.92 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so we would go ahead with the construction management expenditure, the price structure, expenditure, |
| 02:01:45.08 | Unknown | It's great. |
| 02:01:46.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | but without the 192,000 for the basketball research And then I'll turn it over to Vice Mayor Duffy. |
| 02:01:54.99 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you, Madam Mayor. So my question is for our Director of Public Works. If we, decided not to go with the bid alternative to do the basketball courts. and then subsequently wanted to do the basketball courts. Is there an economy of scale to do it now versus delay? And. Because where I'm coming from is I'm trying to decide are we better delay in this place structure or are we better delaying the bid alternative And if indeed we get some economy of scale such that we could never do the bid alternative for the amount, I would personally prefer to delay the play structure and ask the new Blue Railway Committee to figure out how to raise some money for the play structure. But it depends on the answer from the Director of Public Works. |
| 02:02:50.14 | Kevin McGowan | Very good questions. So at this point, to me, in my opinion, the It's better to to award the the entire project, We already have a bid in place for the play structure. We're anticipating that'll go up slightly. It seems like the bid alternative for the basketball court is more standard work. And we can award that at a different point in time. We could also discuss it with the contractor at this point to see if he can hold his prices. My guess is, they may be able to do that until we make a decision on whether we can move forward with that particular piece. so that we may not have to award it right now. However, the price will probably go up ever so slightly. Usually it's between zero and 5%. Okay. Hopefully I've addressed your question. |
| 02:03:47.21 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah, I mean, a follow-up question is, we're not gonna have to tear up stuff, are we, the basketball court later. You know, are we going to have to tear up any new construction to do the basketball court? That's my question. |
| 02:04:02.90 | Kevin McGowan | No, sir, we are not. |
| 02:04:04.37 | Vice Mayor Withey | I'm going to go. |
| 02:04:04.49 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 02:04:04.52 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:04:08.64 | Councilmember Burns | Okay. two items that have come up. Mayor. Now it sounds like we are comparing the ability to raise funds through a blue ribbon committee for either A basketball hoop. or body-worn cameras. And given the passion for body-borne cameras, the need the participation from people that don't live in our town. you're going to raise money quicker for body race, body worn cameras than you are a basketball court. So let's spend the money that we've promised the voters that we're gonna spend on basketball court, on the basketball court, and raise money for body-worn cameras. I have a feeling that people really, really all across the county want to give money to this program. I'm not sure. but, I'm curious why we would be going in the other direction to take away something from the voters that in comparison care to the other. These two things aren't mixing for me. I want body-worn cameras. I think there's a lot of funding opportunities for them. Thank you. A basketball court isn't one of them. On the COPs, I'm not sure what the accounting that people are looking for We have a $1.2 million budget item. transparent, it's in the budget, it's been holding there. And then the citizens oversight committee of the COP goes through the process as we spend the funds to make sure that they were properly attributed to the actual, rules of the COP. That's the accounting function of the Citizens Oversight Committee So I'm not sure other than wanting some numbers what accounting we're looking for from the from the certificates of participation dollar amount We have 1.2 applied to this project. in the budget. And when we look at the construction, fees and the process. The Citizens Oversight Committee applies those. And if something doesn't fit, they don't pay for it in the COP. So I'd be curious on what we're really looking for in that question. |
| 02:06:07.15 | Councilmember Cox | I think that since I'm the one who brought that up after hearing public comment, for me personally, I know that from time to time we get periodic accounting of what monies we've spent on the various park projects together with what overruns there were and how we paid for those overruns. I'm quite confident that we have stayed within the operating parameters of the COPs. But since the question was raised by a resident, I'm quite confident that we have stayed within the operating parameters of the COPs but since the question was raised by a resident I'm simply asking for an updated report on those issues. I know we ran over on Dunphy Park for example |
| 02:06:09.90 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:06:43.69 | Councilmember Cox | But Mike Langford found us significant grant monies that helped allay that overage. But not every resident attends every meeting and is as familiar with some of these facts as we are. So I simply... was asking for an update. |
| 02:07:01.71 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Well, I think it's really a good time. You know, I think jumpy is just kind of wrapping up. There's some potentialist items. And I think this is a good time to kind of update and refresh our last update, which was probably about two months or three months ago, I think, maybe three months. on our parks so we could just ask staff maybe for a consent item on that and maybe also talk about the items needed to open density parks this summer, later this summer. So I think that's not a difficult task. Okay, so we need a motion. I see Council Member Ray and himself. |
| 02:07:45.90 | Councilmember Riley | I had another comment or a proposal before making it into a motion because I don't think we have consensus on a motion yet. Um, whether it's the play structure or the resurfacing of the basketball court. And I'm saying we do need a basketball court. We need a rebuild of it as resurfacing. It is either 192,000 or 204,000, so I'll just round it to $200,000. I would propose that we approve a project for $1.8 million. And I, on the Blue Ribbon Committee, work with the community to find $200,000 to fund either the play structure or the basketball court. is the same dollar amount roughly. and the play structure we have more time. because it's the last thing that goes in. And I appreciate Council Member Burns' comments, I think we as a city need to make the statement that we're funding body wearing cameras and not looking to the community to do that. So I'm all up for being on the committee to work with the community. to look for funding for $200,000. and approving a $1.8 million expenditure. |
| 02:09:00.17 | Councilmember Cox | I may, may I recommend that We, uh, could direction to the public works director to see if he will hold open that pricing for the, if we can keep the pricing in place for the, um, basketball court and or the play structure. because this is typically the honeymoon period as people want, as the contractor wants our vote, this is the time to make that request and to obtain from the contractor a decision point date by which we must pull the trigger or not. And so if we obtain that decision point date, we can then have staff report back to us with their, with how they're going to fund it and ask for us to pull that final trailer. |
| 02:09:52.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Karen Hollweg, Right well, I am Thank you, I am supportive of that i'm also supportive of Council member riley's proposal to move forward with approximately $1.8 million budget with confidence that we can. raise funds through a variety of means through their grants. community members or other things. So I think that's a good, given the time that we are in, given the moment of history that we are in and given where we are with all these projects. I think that's a very reasonable and, uh, Good company. So I appreciate it. I appreciate the thought that went into that. Are there any other comments or can we make that into a motion? |
| 02:10:41.81 | Councilmember Burns | Well, that motion will still require that we pull funds from Measure O for the use of something that Measure O was not made for. Now we can obviously vote for that for 5-0, but we're gonna open a Pandora's box on how we use Measure O going forward. So this vote is gonna be not just what, it's great. I love just saying it's 1.8 million fulfill that, but what we're really saying is that measure O monies now can be applied to a lot of different things. This is exactly what the detractors from that said would happen. So if we're going to open that door, we make sure that we are acknowledging that we're opening that door. |
| 02:11:19.73 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | This is really a question for our next agenda item, but I don't know if the city manager wants to chime in, but I am not completely sure that the entire reserve that we are talking about this evening is from Measure O. Is that what you're saying? Councilmember Byrne? I can't hear you. |
| 02:11:41.77 | Councilmember Burns | The sources of income from this project that we're trimming all come from elected based revenues. and if we're going to pull money from this project, |
| 02:11:52.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We can keep those in reverse. |
| 02:11:52.69 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:11:54.71 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I think that was Councilmember Riley's proposal. We're not spending them on the body cameras necessarily, those exact dollars in the reserve, |
| 02:11:57.86 | Councilmember Burns | Thanks. |
| 02:11:58.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:12:03.70 | Councilmember Burns | Got it. Just patting the reserve and then taking it out of the reserve. |
| 02:12:07.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. And I think there are other monies in the reserve that are not dedicated to infrastructure. if I'm not mistaken. |
| 02:12:17.12 | Councilmember Cox | I endorse that that clarification from Council member Burns that we not I think that's a good question. allocate. that by this vote, we not signal that we want to allocate measure O funds towards body worn cameras. We will address body worn cameras in our next item. Thank you. |
| 02:12:37.59 | Councilmember Burns | I concur with that as well. |
| 02:12:37.61 | Councilmember Cox | I concur with that. Okay. |
| 02:12:39.83 | Councilmember Burns | When it goes into surplus, it's money that we can't use for other things as well, other than infrastructure projects. |
| 02:12:39.94 | Councilmember Cox | I want to give you a little bit of a |
| 02:12:47.75 | Unknown | Okay. I think we're all on the same page. |
| 02:12:50.24 | Councilmember Burns | Well, we are, but we're still six and one half of the other. So it's surplus funds, but we can't use them for anything other than infrastructure. |
| 02:13:00.20 | Councilmember Burns | Correct. |
| 02:13:01.67 | Unknown | healthcare. |
| 02:13:02.80 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah. |
| 02:13:03.91 | Unknown | And that's, |
| 02:13:04.77 | Councilmember Burns | I'd rather use them for the project that we actually have on bid than to put them into a surplus for a we have no idea about knowing that it's going to be infrastructure. |
| 02:13:13.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. comments. Merci. I think we understand that concern. Okay. I'm Do we have a motion? |
| 02:13:26.97 | Councilmember Riley | I would like to make a motion that we approve the project for Southview Park. in the amount of the total expenses in the presentation, less the alternative bid. at this time. with the understanding that we are going to seek alternative fundings for the alternative bid pushing. |
| 02:13:49.70 | Councilmember Cox | May I make a friendly amendment to that motion? |
| 02:13:52.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Please bring the tent. |
| 02:13:54.23 | Councilmember Cox | that as a part of our direction to staff, we seek an extension of time to exercise the alternate, the $1.9 million alternate that was part of the bid, communicate back what that decision point date is that will set the deadline for our, um, identifying additional funding and that we Thank you. um, |
| 02:14:24.37 | Councilmember Cox | make clear our direction to staff that the measure of funds are to remain for parks and infrastructure and not other uses as recommended by some of the correspondents we received. |
| 02:14:42.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, I'm not sure we need to. I don't have that last part to this, but that's fine. I don't get to clear. |
| 02:14:51.32 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, do I have a second? |
| 02:14:53.40 | Vice Mayor Withey | I'll second that. |
| 02:14:55.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we have a motion in a second. Could the clerk please call the roll? |
| 02:15:03.14 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley? |
| 02:15:04.72 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. |
| 02:15:05.63 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Burns. |
| 02:15:07.56 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:15:07.62 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:15:07.78 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 02:15:08.48 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox. Thank you. |
| 02:15:09.97 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:15:10.32 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Vice Mayor Withey. |
| 02:15:12.28 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:15:12.33 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 02:15:12.97 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:15:13.36 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. |
| 02:15:15.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. And thank you for the collaborative nature of this conversation. I know these are very tough times and we're all not gonna be 100% happy with almost anything. that happens within this budget. So thank you all and we can move on. We have a five zero vote on the Saskia Park contact. So thank you and thank you to our department, our Public Works Director. And we will go now to our study session and introduction of fiscal year 2020-2021 strategic resource allocation plan and Let's go to your... budget. I believe that we are being led off by our finance director, Julia Carter, but perhaps our city manager wants to pick up. |
| 02:16:13.72 | Adam Politzer | I'm just going to have Yulia Carter, our Assistant City Manager, Administrative Services Director lead off. I would just say that this is the, the third phase of our three-step process. We started with the the first introducing this discussion at our mid-year discussion. Then we came back. As a 2nd meeting to discuss. are forecast for the second, for the second, for this, This, um... fiscal year 2021 and now we are here to share how we are going to close the gap of that $4.3 million deficit. But I'll turn it over to our Administrative Services Director, Assistant City Manager, Julia Carter. |
| 02:17:03.62 | Yulia Carter | Good evening. Can you see my screen OK in the full screen? |
| 02:17:07.52 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All. |
| 02:17:07.88 | Yulia Carter | Isn't it weird? |
| 02:17:08.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It's a great day. |
| 02:17:09.02 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. Yes, I can see it. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Okay. Madam Mayor and the City Council, the item before you tonight is continuation of the fiscal year 2021 based budget review. And I apologize, so let me start my video. This budget review, I mean the fiscal year 2021 recommended budget options. And tonight we will be talking about general fund. mostly. So the. |
| 02:17:45.08 | Yulia Carter | Let me see if I can, you can see my screen. Okay. Can you see my screen? |
| 02:17:53.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:17:53.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We can see your screen, but we've got your talking notes. and All right, that's fine, but it's not just the presentation. Why not? |
| 02:18:06.45 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. When you share your screen, you want to click on the one thing to share. you're sharing two different windows from computer. |
| 02:18:17.20 | Unknown | I apologize for that, so let me see if I can. |
| 02:18:34.34 | Unknown | Just give me one quick second, I apologize. |
| 02:18:54.91 | Unknown | Thank you. We made it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:19:15.77 | Heidi Scoble | Yulia, this is Heidi Scoble, the city clerk. Let me know if you'd like me to pull up the presentation. |
| 02:19:19.81 | Yulia Carter | the presentation. If you can pull up the, well, actually. Let me. don't |
| 02:19:29.31 | Unknown | you |
| 02:19:30.01 | Yulia Carter | Let me see if I can send you a presentation very quickly. I really apologize for that. |
| 02:19:37.29 | Unknown | Hold this. |
| 02:19:44.83 | Yulia Carter | Right. No, she's feeling it's amazing. |
| 02:19:47.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Is it sense to take a five-minute recess? |
| 02:19:50.75 | Yulia Carter | Yes, I would really appreciate it. Just, I need to. |
| 02:19:50.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Wow. Sarah Silver, So I apologize to the public, but we are going to take a five minute recess which will also allow members to. Have something to eat or? So we'll resume this meeting in five minutes, which will be at 925. Thank you. |
| 02:20:13.43 | Unknown | you . you |
| 02:20:40.26 | Unknown | you |
| 02:20:44.42 | Unknown | . Thank you. Yeah! . you Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. you . Bye. . |
| 02:21:51.78 | Unknown | . Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:21:59.97 | Unknown | Thank you. Bye. |
| 02:22:52.46 | Unknown | Hey, everybody, this is Sean Jones, and you're tuned to Radio Sausalito. |
| 02:23:06.98 | Unknown | you I never want to look into those eyes again I never want to see them shine I never want to listen to those sighs again Or feel your cheeks so close to mine I never want to dream about that kiss again Those huggable arms so snuggable and so tight Bye. |
| 02:23:42.67 | Unknown | you |
| 02:23:43.22 | Unknown | I never want to ever feel like this again No, never until tomorrow night. |
| 02:24:38.98 | Unknown | . I never want to look into those eyes again. I never want to see them shine. I never want to listen to those sighs again Or feel your cheeks so close to mine I never want to dream about that kiss again Those huggable arms so snuggable and so tight I never want to ever feel like this again. No, never. Until tomorrow. Oh, no. . Yes. No, never. you you Thank you. Bye. Not until tomorrow. Thank you. |
| 02:25:50.43 | Unknown | Radio Sausalito would like to thank the City Council and management of the City of Sausalito for their generous donation. You help provide something that few other cities of our size have, its own radio station. |
| 02:26:05.34 | Alan Burland | Be sure to tune in to the Jazz Lounge. where we explore the many facets of jazz from the 1950s and 60s. from the Latin rhythms of Carol Jader |
| 02:26:22.37 | Alan Burland | to the Afro-Cuban big band jazz of Machito. Tune in and explore the golden age of jazz. Step into the Jazz Lounge with me, Alan Berland, your host. There's no cover, no minimum. every Friday and Monday night, beginning at 8. on Radio Sausalito. |
| 02:26:43.97 | Unknown | Here's a public service announcement from FireSafe Marin. |
| 02:26:51.70 | Unknown | Summer has already arrived and we've all been spending more time than ever in our homes. So it's a good time to think ahead about fire season and what we can do now to be safe in the fall. |
| 02:27:05.44 | Unknown | Sausalito's own Faye Mark is featured in a new video about Fire Safe Landscaping that was produced through a partnership between Fire Safe Marin and Marin Master Gardeners. The seven-minute video provides quick and simple guidelines for maintaining a fire-smart landscape around your world. |
| 02:27:21.99 | Yulia Carter | and City Manager Administrative Services Director |
| 02:27:22.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:27:24.62 | Yulia Carter | I don't know if it's an issue with my connection or something else, but they I'm looking at my iPad right now, so my service failed on me. I apologize for that again. So that, um, discussion item before you tonight. is fiscal year 2021 recommended budget options. We will be focusing on the general fund primarily today. And Heidi, next slide. So, tonight. We will talk about the proposed budget for fiscal year 2021, we took council direction from May 12th meeting to revise the general fund structural deficit, be prepared the list of budget options for your considerations and the summary of this options presented in attachment number one. and further detailed in attachments two through five. |
| 02:28:21.83 | Yulia Carter | So we look for you, back to the previous slide, so we look for you for direction on budget options that you want to be included in 2021 budget. We also want to receive any additional options to consider, additional direction, and we already heard some of the discussion on this topic in the previous. agenda item and once we receive your direction on the budget, we will put together proposed budget for you for fiscal year 2021. for the formal adoption of the budget at the next meeting. Next slide. |
| 02:28:58.11 | Yulia Carter | So this slide shows where we are in the budget process. on. As you may remember, on April 14, Council approved the fiscal year 1920 mid-year budget adjustments. So that formally starts the budget process. At the following meeting on April 28th, we presented general fund based budget, we also talked about based budget methodology, revenues, expenditures, assumptions, And. at the last meeting on May 12th, we talked about non-general fund-based budget assumptions, you gave us direction on the CIP program, and we revised structural deficit and had some preliminary discussion on budget strategies and options. During this meeting, you authorized us to use $2.5 million in non-general fund resources. to cover projected 4.3 million deficits And that's the way we are today. So tonight we are bringing you forward some of the options for consideration to put them in fiscal year 2021 proposed budget And again, the next meeting will be formal adoption. Oh, goodbye, dude. Next slide. |
| 02:30:15.15 | Yulia Carter | This is just a quick recap or refresher. As you may remember the slide from the previous meeting. Um, As I mentioned in the previous slide, the mid-year budget review started. the budget process. VITSU. the revised budget and build the base budget At the current level of services, we develop the base budget revenue expenditures and revenues assumptions, We described them and discussed them in details in the previous meetings. We identified and determined the deficit for the upcoming year. And tonight we are putting forward the decision options for you. for the service change to reduce and balance the budget. You may have noticed in your packets that department has developed and ranked all the decision packages based on their priorities. City manager looked at them citywide. as well, and that's why we are in the process today. And again, once we receive your direction, being the formal budget for adoption at the next meeting. Next slide. We included this statistical slide just to give you some background on how COVID-19 affecting the state economy. Well, obviously this is not the subject for tonight's discussion. but we feel it's important to keep this in mind when we get to the budget options discussion itself. And |
| 02:31:50.51 | Yulia Carter | As you can see, the state unemployment rate spiked and 15.5%. And of me. I'm having difficulties with technology today. So the California job losses are 2.3 million and the 2.5 million. California's lost the the jobs and our current land employees. that Every industry. is experienced one way or another, experienced the impact of the COVID-19. Next slide. |
| 02:32:41.67 | Yulia Carter | So city of Sausalit is facing difficult choices too. and As we reported, the budget deficit 2.3 million. in the general fund. |
| 02:32:56.98 | Yulia Carter | We also committed to the Council to come back at today's meeting to talk about options and budget reductions in personal costs, capital spending, materials, and contract costs. And we also explore delivering services differently in sharing services. |
| 02:33:22.83 | Yulia Carter | Next slide. |
| 02:33:27.57 | Yulia Carter | So you also may remember this slide from the previous meeting, again, that shows our open stimulant. DEFICITS. And that's just the last slide to kind of refresh when you are in the process. And we can move to the next slide. |
| 02:33:53.00 | Yulia Carter | So the console's direction. from the May 12th Council meeting was to use one-time use of 2.5 million in, fund balance transfer from general fund. We also took your direction on the capital program at the minimum level funding request via directed staff, you also directed staff to open negotiations with the labor groups to seek concessions. And, |
| 02:34:25.15 | Yulia Carter | You directed us to look at the staffing level options. and explore some options for the shared services. Next slide. |
| 02:34:44.23 | Yulia Carter | So that's where we are today. You can see that we took your direction via applied 2.5 million deficit. And I'm bringing your attention to the green column. Um, you can see that instead of showing 4.3 million deficit, we are showing 4.571,000 in the net change to the general fund budget. And we included some footnotes in measure O. You had a very robust discussion in the previous item. So obviously the last comment does not apply at this point. for two. want to make sure that we thought. we list that the if, later, the council decides to reconsider funding for self-view program. Southview Park. this funding will come out of this net change today. general fund balance. It's like, |
| 02:35:45.17 | Yulia Carter | Well, before we jump into the discussion of the actual programs, We wanted to bring your attention to Um, to what some of the guiding principles that we used in the in developing this budget options. the, thought very critically about what the crisis means and what crisis represents. And every time we hear we hear COVID-19, we hear it with the word unprecedented. So the word unprecedented implies that We don't know the answers. But if you look back and think what the typical crisis phases are, I think, I hope you will agree with our train of thoughts It includes responding to the crisis, and recovering thrice. So we've been responding to the situation since March and you've been hearing all the updates from the communication director, police chief city manager and community development director on what we've been doing. to, manage this situation and what actions the city um, took in response. But it's very important, I think, to recognize that what what we can do to recover. And so, learn from the |
| 02:37:20.53 | Yulia Carter | how we can recover and emerge stronger from this crisis. And, Most importantly, what we can do to prepare for the next normal. Heidi, can you click on the slide one more time? Okay. |
| 02:37:41.71 | Yulia Carter | So the challenge that we have here is to be navigating through all three phases concurrently. and we have to allocate these resources accordingly. And that's, As we think about it, how we can do it. I think it's real critical to recognize that resiliency is the or resilient leadership is the answer to this. to this challenge and this problem. Next slide. |
| 02:38:15.61 | Yulia Carter | So how do we define resiliency? we found this definition of resiliency. once. personal teams capacity, recovery, adjustability, elasticity, the ability to recover from and adjust easily too. adversity of change. the ability to act and adapt in face of adversity and constraints. So what chompsed us at this point definition that resiliency is the action that ain't good work. |
| 02:38:50.64 | Yulia Carter | Next slide. |
| 02:39:00.83 | Yulia Carter | So what is resilient leadership? And these are the five fundamental qualities that we've been |
| 02:39:09.59 | Yulia Carter | I apologize. It looks like we're all having... technical difficulties today. that we've used this five guiding principles, fundamental qualities. for the resilient leadership. First of all, we want to design from the heart. And the head. It's very critical to being involved empathetic and sincere. and we took this as a priority right from the beginning when we started responding to to the pandemic. to Employee safety is our number one priority. All the management team and HR specifically, I've been working really hard, developing the safety protocols, timekeeping, tracking, to like am using policy and to make sure that we are able to move the separations and the very differently in the new world. And now it's time to think about financial performance and they Look hard. And the. taking hard and rational decisions. And when we do this, we want to put city mission first. We want to make sure that we stabilize organization and meet the crisis. We want to assess the risk. We want to formulate appropriate response. how we can meet the basic operational requirements. of service. And the most important, we want to be adaptive to the change. We want to recognize the new trends that we want to explore and allocate findings to. That includes... technological uses in the advances some of our digital principles. The next. principle of quality would be acting fast. We want to make sure that we take actions and hard decisions based on all the information that is available to us at this moment. And, It's not always perfect. we are dealing with a lot of unknowns. and even with imperfect information, we want to make sure that we keep moving. and basing our decisions based on the best information that was available to us at the time. |
| 02:41:21.39 | Yulia Carter | Telling our own story is also very important. We strongly believe in being transparent about current realities. We want to be honest to you. and transparent to our employees, to our stakeholders, to the community, and we've been doing pretty. decent job at this as you know, be have been given updates, periodic updates on the way we are and how we do and we've having these discussions on the budget, the challenges for three council meetings in a row. And we do believe that trust starts with transparency and credibility. So we want to. earn this credibility by applying this basic principle that we say what we do and we do what we say But the most important quality out of all of this is having a vision. And that includes making strategic choices. So when we go into the budget discussion of specific choices, specific options later, |
| 02:42:20.18 | Unknown | you know, |
| 02:42:20.28 | Yulia Carter | Good evening. We want to go back to this slide and think strategically. how those decisions are going to redefine Baltimore. make. our organization stronger. Next slide. |
| 02:42:41.09 | Yulia Carter | The most critical piece is that none of this could be achieved without first belief that it can be done. And that's our mindset. That's what we put as a guidance principle. And let's fast forward a little bit. Heidi, can we go to the next slide? |
| 02:42:58.99 | Yulia Carter | So we want to do, we want to start with having a positive mindset first. It is going to be a new world. with new tools, new economies, new ways of doing business, and we want to make sure that we can adapt to this world and recognize it. So we want to use the situation as an opportunity. and define the future and what the future success looks like. Some things. will change or already changed and will never be the same. And you can see this blue box below So some of the items that we identified there So those are the changes that we need to be prepared accounted for and maybe include some resources towards that. and, Some change will never change. Some things will never change, like core services that the city government will have to be. providing to the community and residents. So as we're looking at the budget, we want to make sure that we look at it as a process improvement opportunity. We want to do smart and strategic investment in our people, in our process, and in our technology. that's life. |
| 02:44:18.03 | Yulia Carter | City Council used this analogy at the last meeting. are the three-legs stool approach, and with one leg being use of fund balances and the other two program changes in personnel and the operating budget. Next slide. So, One thing I want to point out Thank you. |
| 02:44:42.84 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:44:42.86 | Yulia Carter | That's right, next slide. So we want to briefly describe each one of the lags again and where we are in the process. So the use of fund balances, we already briefly talked about. You gave us authority at the last meeting to apply 2.5 million non-general fund balances to cover the deficit. So you can see it listed here. um, from transfers from full funds I just wanted to point out again that this transfers are on time only. and the V. committed to keep sufficient fund balances in all of these funds after these transfers. Next slide. |
| 02:45:29.74 | Yulia Carter | Now let's look at the budget strategies in leg two, which is our personnel changes. You can see it's almost 1.6 million listed On summarize on the slide and all of this changes. presented many options. and the, We tried to put it together by bargaining groups so you can see how they play out and what we what we included in your packets. Please keep in mind that some of these options assume that we are successful in negotiations with the labor groups. those negotiations currently in progress. and the, if we are not successful, in achieving the savings. we want to point out that we will have to bring forward alternative options to you at the next meeting that people have to pursue. and those options may include layouts. one thing I want to point out that management worked really, really hard to try to avoid layoffs and this version of the budget options. You may notice this in your packets that most of the changes were realized from freezing vacant positions and And the. pursuing some of the options like early retirements and separation. And we do everything we could do in our part to reassess the talent that we have within the organization and relocate people or move people around from provided. from non-essential functions to essential functions department. So we have some success stories with this already. in play, and we we are continuing looking for other opportunities to save jobs and not lose. our employees. Next slide. Well, I'm sorry, before we get to the next slide. So you can see that this too. This 1.6 million is split and divided in two groups. staffing changes, which is almost a million dollars. and the labor concessions of about 653,000. And again, the labor concessions will be subject to success in our negotiations. Now let's go. To the next slide and briefly. Look at what staffing changes we are proposing. tonight. So, The first item on the list is the organization of the administrative services department |
| 02:48:08.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:48:08.18 | Yulia Carter | that will if approved at all. achieve about $25,000 in savings in the upcoming fiscal year. We already move in this direction beyond the field, the senior accountant technician position with accountant technician. that brings about 25,000 savings on the annual basis. But we already included this in the base budget, so I'm not counting it towards the deficit for the upcoming year. we felt like it was important to tell you what we are doing and what it started going this direction. on this world. We actually hired an employee during the pandemic. at the beginning of the pandemic. So we want to do the same thing with the second senior accountant technician and also downgrade the account technician position. but at the same time, on the upside we want to. reclassify and upgrade the senior accountant position that just became vacant two weeks ago, less than two weeks ago. and we want to, bump it up to the finance manager because that is there. the strongest organizational need is for my department. the Other piece for the admin services reorg is to request the city clerk position to assistant to the city manager. So, and at the same time, upgrade the energy positions to the deputy state park. and share that position at the level. with the South Marine for a department that 50 percent So you can see that altogether, this results in about 25,000 in savings or close to 50, actually a little bit cool If you call. BROOMS. guarantee You'll see some requests as of the for consideration to admin aid position and associate planner to assistant planner position. in community development department Again, all of this changes reflect organizational needs in each department and you sole purpose of aligning what positions are actually doing in the appropriate classification. that would match this workbook. The next item on the list, the hiring freeze for vacant police officer position. prison management analyst position in admin. Um, prison vacant accountant technician position, but it's currently being backfilled by parks and recreation supervisors. that otherwise would be on elimination list. and the freeze and wake and admin aid position. in works integration. And you can see two layoffs. Before you. So one is IT manager position. So this is quite unique situation. Good game-up. developed in the last few months. the employee was still on the medical leave No. he will not be able to return to his duties. take advantage of this opportunity to look at services a little bit differently. the recreation supervisors, again, we listed two FTEs here, one is already moved to admin. and, Another one is still on the layoff list, but we are currently working on identifying new revenues and exploring some sharing options and sharing opportunities within the organizations so we on. there might be some changes related to this position too before the next. budget meeting. And the final item in this block is retirement incentive. that's The projected impact to general fund is about 188,000. And Again, the more information is presented in your packets via looking at some public works positions. might be able to take advantage of this opportunity. |
| 02:52:28.91 | Unknown | Next slide. |
| 02:52:31.65 | Yulia Carter | So the second part of the personnel savings would be from labor concessions. And again, all of these concessions are around coal increases, um, equity adjustments, reduce work weeks, and shared services. Well, again, I want to point out These are all subject to negotiations, or at least some of them with the represented labor groups. And if we are not able to achieve any of them or implementation of them, you will have to pursue. other options. |
| 02:53:10.90 | Yulia Carter | To conclude our presentation, analysis of the personnel cuts or personnel reductions. We wanted to show you what it does to our staffing level. So as you can see in the base budget for fiscal year 2021, counting 74 full-time equivalent positions, and altogether all the options included in your packets uh, represent 10.5 FTE is Reduction. And the important items to recognize here public works, parks and recreation and administration. So those three. are getting the highest heat and that's really, really difficult. Oh. service level change when you be losing stopping level to this extent. And again, most of these reductions are a combination of hiring fees, retirement, and only a few layoffs at this point. Next slide. Now we are moving on to budget strategy. um, group. or the leg-free of our stool and those options adapt to 790,000 as a net change or net program savings. And you can see we identified some of the revenue increases included in this and the thanks to the marine county that shared with us that we should anticipate additional 10% you don't have property tax allocations We're happy to include it in the budget. That's about $49,000. We also included 42,000 projected revenues for cost recovery planning services, this program is currently underway and the Community Development Department is already work in towards this direction. or other options. also included additional funding for housing element studies Study update. But we I've said this additional piece by the grant, so we built it in so The net increase is only 69,000 for that. We also... moving towards this innovation that we described earlier, the replacing in-person buildings inspections with a virtual inspection Again, credit to creativity of Community Development Department And we also put the cost allocation plan, user fee, and development impact fee study. on the plan for the upcoming year. The study itself, we're estimating it at about 75,000. the The projected revenues will not cover this entire cost for the whole year. because we are not projecting revenues any revenues until the last quarter of the year. So we're Showing. This is additional increase of 25,000 approximately. on that. definitely that will bring additional revenues in the following years. And that's why we recommend the proceed Thank you. move forward with the study. In public works, we are reducing services, mostly contractual services, you can see. via videos in some of the small capital projects, funding for small capital projects for maintenance and the, some of the reductions in utilities, but Those with doubt, since either due to So. efficiency savings or Um, some of the issues we identified that were carried over from the budget, like there was a leak in the MLK in the previous years and inflated the budget, so we brought it back, we brought it down. And zero connection fees for Dunphy Park, which was one time closed again. giving us an opportunity to reduce it. Vegetation management, that's a little bit, again, decrease here. also outside contract funding. And in parks and recreation, You can see we're looking at even the small items, downtown hanging baskets. So we We're eliminating findings there, assuming that that would be a good candidate for some community. fundraising. program in the future if you want to keep it and also some additional contract services reductions in maintenance budgets. the last item on the list is Anna Voelkeresviliy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy.gfeyy. The next slide. We're reducing books. budget in the library. reducing hours of operations in the library and all the related costs, including part-time that's additional 130,000. In administration, we are looking at the opportunity to improve our connection to direct link, to police department and connect city hall and the police department and by that, doing this, we will replace the recurring AT&T cost. It's about 17,000 a year. we are projecting 12 for the upcoming year. to get the upside in roughly 5,000 investment in infrastructure. but in the following years of it will save. 17,000 a year, that's what we're paying now. We were able to renegotiate insurance premium budget. Originally a few weeks ago, the risk management pool came back to us 13%. increase in our premium, that was original budget proposal, we went back and discussed some of the options and the shared this project with reductions in particularly in personnel calls, so we were able to to negotiate the budget. assuming that there will be some throw up at the end of the year, but that will save us about 100,000 in the meantime. And we already briefly discussed the different approach we are taking for the IT services. so we're. seen some opportunities to enhance our services here. And that's will result with the offset and elimination of position that will result in savings of about $65,000 in the upcoming year. Then going down the list, we funding of historical society on the list as well. That's Dawson Salaries? It's relatively small item, but again, we are looking across the board. and we found some opportunities to reduce non-departmental contractual services, and that's a composite number, 73,000. or. Many different things. some redundancies, but also some of the key items, not key items, but important items like holiday recognition party or volunteer recognition events are included in this number as well. And finally, we are reducing citywide training funding and conference budget by 50%. Well, this is definitely excluding state mandated post training and police, every way us we are reducing it by 50 we are not recommending to reduce it completely because it's like never we need to invest in our, Um, in the expertise and the knowledge base of our employees. So we want to make sure that we continue finding required training, especially those that are required for recertifications and any of them. critical training in department, but we want to apply a little bit more discretion. of who and how and when. would receive this training. Next slide. |
| 03:01:41.97 | Yulia Carter | So altogether, if you look at all the reductions by department, you can see that they're not quite equal. And the reason for this is because Not every service. that the Siri provides is equal in nature. So you can see that police department is getting the least heat at this point. But at the same time, I want to point out that and you saw it in the previous agenda, meetings that we are having some conversations on the shared services and police departments those changes are structural in nature so that they longer and we may have to take the whole entire fiscal year 2021 to get to that point. this work is on the way. But as of right now, you can see the hardest deepest heat is being based on non-essential services more in the area of recreation in the library. |
| 03:02:52.31 | Yulia Carter | Next slide. |
| 03:02:56.90 | Yulia Carter | Now, before we open discussion of the options, Let's, look at the general fund, restricted and unrestricted reserves. And you've seen the slide before in the previous meetings, you may remember that when we put together modified based budgets, for the upcoming year at the current level of services. And you can see it's in middle column right here. So our undesignated reserves would go down to unacceptable 2%, so obviously that wasn't an option. but I'm leaving it as an comparison so you can see that if you approve all the options that are before you tonight. the undesignated budget. go up to 3.7 million. which is about 22%. of the operating expenditures. |
| 03:03:49.92 | Yulia Carter | Next slide. Now this brings us to policy discussion on what is the appropriate level of secret service? the city. |
| 03:04:05.93 | Yulia Carter | So there Heidi, can you click on the slide again so it was there? Yes. So the GFOA guideline, recommends minimum two months of the general fund operating expenditures. If you do the calculations, brings us to about 2.8 million. the city. or 17%. I want to point out that these guidelines haven't been tested by COVID-19. So that was written and done. Before that, what is the right and appropriate amount, that's just being left for individual agencies. And that's a tough decision and tough task for the console. to, to make decision on and the way we see it, we are putting two options for each. if you accept staff recommendations. That will give you approximately 571,000 in surplus, but again, please keep in mind some of the options that we identified related to labor concessions are still in the works, so they may or may not be realized. And, But even assuming that all of these options are available you'll be accepted today. That brings us to 3.7 million or 22% in general fund expenditures. The option two would be to go down the list more critically um, decide on individual items or decide which items Will Noby. included in the budget. and identify some additional pulse directions. Again, some of this discussion already happened in the previous agenda items. So once you provide this with direction would like to be funded the only thing we will include in the upcoming budgets. The only thing we would like you to Awesome. to make sure or give us direction to make sure those options will not Exceed. uh, the next. the net change in the fund balance of 575,000. because we want to make sure That's weird. moving forward the balance budget, the revenues Explain the truth. So, And and the budget is sustainable once again. |
| 03:06:35.92 | Yulia Carter | Next slide. So that brings us to the end of the presentation. today we want to take your direction on presented recommended budget options. and that they have any additional funding requests that you may have that you want to be included in the budget. And once we receive your direction, we will bring forward the 2021 budget for all funds for formal adoption on June 23rd. At the end of the presentation, I just want to take a moment to I think finance staff and the entire management team for putting these options together for you As you saw on the previous slides, the impact to all departments. is huge. And I want to just give special shout outs to parks and recreation, public works, and library directors for being and amazing forward thinking. Team players. for putting this the needs of the entire organization before the individual department needs. And I also want to, I think the city manager will his guidance and leadership creating this culture of collaboration. in this difficult time. And finally, I want to thank City Council for your leadership providing policy direction for the benefit of the entire community. as we design our vision of tomorrow to help us not only recover, but also thrive as an organization in the future. That concludes my presentation. And again, I apologize for all the technical. difficulties today. Hopefully it will be better next time. |
| 03:08:17.73 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you very much, Yulia. We appreciate that very thorough staff report. And as you said, At the end, appreciate all of the staff for their very difficult and extensive efforts in trying to meet this very significant expected decline in our revenue for the upcoming year. So this is not, these are not easy discussions and we really appreciate everyone applying themselves to address these issues. I just wanted to kick off with a couple questions and then I'll open it up to other council members. So first of all, I think we heard during our last item, a lot of council members and public expressing concern over the fact that we were not able to include body cameras in this year's budget. This was a recommendation made by the chief. several weeks ago, even prior to the killing of George Floyd and all of the conversations and protests since then, it was a decision that he did not make lightly, even at that time. And now of course, in light of events of the last couple of weeks, even much, much harder decision. With that, have you thought about where we could find that funding if that was things where we would find that funding. if the council moves in that direction. So even |
| 03:10:03.85 | Yulia Carter | If the council chooses to move this direction and approve this funding, that would come out of the surplus funds that we are showing. and considering that this is going to be a one-time expense, It's... will have impact on the fund balance, but it will not have a drastic impact on the ongoing budget because the impact will consider to be one point. |
| 03:10:31.00 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So if I understood the chief though correctly, I think it's the larger amount is a one-time |
| 03:10:36.45 | Yulia Carter | Yolanda Vescaz, The large amount yes i'm in and in the smaller impact will be yeah. |
| 03:10:38.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | AND |
| 03:10:42.04 | Yulia Carter | ongoing funding for the um, for the evidence, Okay. Thank you. |
| 03:10:50.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So there are measure O funds in the, I mean, there are non measure O funds in the surplus, excuse me. |
| 03:10:59.51 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. Well, at the end of the day, we are talking about applying general funds. balance for this or some of the surplus funds. so there's Thank you. the slide that I showed you that showed 571,000 surplus. |
| 03:11:17.19 | Unknown | you |
| 03:11:17.24 | Yulia Carter | No. this funding will reduce this amount. And at the end of the day, it will not have Thank you. |
| 03:11:25.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It was just that slide is a little bit confusing because it talked about the 571 as general fund and then referred to measure O funds. as part of that. So I just wanted to make sure that there are non-Measure O funds in that Thank you. |
| 03:11:43.68 | Yulia Carter | account given out so when you remember there was a slide that showed 3.7 million in undesignated fund balance |
| 03:11:50.91 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:11:51.33 | Yulia Carter | So even if the measure O funds are set aside completely for infrastructure only. portion of this, of the other general fund could be funded. could be used for body-worn cameras. Okay. |
| 03:12:04.90 | Adam Politzer | Mayor Mrakas, M.A. Mayor can I can I just add. to that. know we heard pretty clearly on the last item that the council We'd like the support. moving forward with body worn cameras. And I think your chief and your police officers in your community would all appreciate that. I think the other area that we will have an opportunity to go back to Yulia and I will is we're making a change in our IT department, our IT division. And we have professional services money there as well. We'll be working with a new vendor as we go out to contract and there'll be an opportunity there to look at some additional savings, but the savings you're going to achieve in the IT division is in the neighborhood of $64,000. You know, I, I, I think we heard in the last item, and you guys will talk about it, later this evening. But I think with that direction, Yulia and I will be able to go back and figure out where's the right pot and how to move the pieces around. to accomplish that direction if You folks provide that to us tonight. |
| 03:13:12.36 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thanks. I have other questions, but I have to open it up first to other council members. |
| 03:13:17.36 | Councilmember Burns | I have a question kind of tagging onto yours, Mayor, because it's regarding body-worn cameras. You know, looking at slide number 23 with the balances or with the budget of each department, Hence the George Floyd you and all the conversation with police budgets and body worn cameras and so forth. Have we looked at that budget as a source for the funds? Have we gone back to see if there's anything that we can cut out of the $6.8 million to help fund these cameras as opposed to IT and parks and some of the other areas? I haven't heard that discussion yet. I understand the chief put together a budget and we had this conversation prior to this unfortunate situation that we're in now with it but that seems like that would be the first budget I'd look at in finding these funds and then going from there and have we had that complete in-depth look |
| 03:14:20.59 | Adam Politzer | Maybe, Madam Mayor, if you don't mind, I'll kick this off and then let Chief Robacher and respond if that's okay with you. |
| 03:14:29.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yep, that's fine. Thank you. |
| 03:14:30.92 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. So, you know, I now had the pleasure of working with for finance and administrative services directors starting with Louise Ho, Charlie, Francis, Melanie Purcell, and now Yulia. Carter and we had Brian Moore in the middle of some of those transitions. Um, and each has a different style. And so with IT, for example, At one point, each department had their own IT budget. And at some point we consolidated that all into the IT division. One, it was to protect people just spending them on a variety of gadgets back in the day. and potentially not in the way that was prioritizing the city spending. So I believe that's still now where we are. We've taken all that money. So the, the, I think the police department doesn't have its own IT pot of money to use, but I think the chief can speak on what opportunities await us here in the future, as we are continuing to work with not just the city of Mill Valley but the county of Marin Um, There's money potentially coming back. from Mira. potentially in the neighborhood of $60,000. So there's still some pots of money that are floating around out there that the police department works directly with. Chief, if you don't mind, I'll have you expand on Councilmember Byrne's question. |
| 03:16:04.30 | Chief John Rohrabacher | All right, I'm working on being unmuted. Is that working? |
| 03:16:08.59 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 03:16:08.89 | Chief John Rohrabacher | Thank you. All right, now that I've done that, could you just help me with a question It got kind of long there. |
| 03:16:17.43 | Councilmember Burns | Yes. Have we exhausted all the opportunities to include this money for body worn cameras in the police budget because we seem to have drawn the line that it's gonna come from another budget other than the police budget. And I'm wondering if we've already come to the conclusion that there's just not another way to look at that overall $6.8 million to find this money there. |
| 03:16:45.86 | Chief John Rohrabacher | So I would say that the simple answer is there is not. You know, our police department budget is primarily made up of personnel costs, are, Supply and services money is fairly small actually, One of the biggest components of our supply and services money is our dispatch contract. which obviously is much, better for us financially than having our own dispatch center. but it makes up at least probably a full third or more of our supply and services account to pay for our contract dispatch services. Definitely much. left to try and come up with the basic amount of money to purchased the body worn camera system And Certainly doesn't leave much room for the Um, potential for needing some extra staff help with that. acquisition of a body worn camera system especially in light of authority freezing one of our police officer positions. |
| 03:17:56.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. Any other council member questions? Council member Riley and then vice mayor. |
| 03:18:06.02 | Councilmember Riley | I apologize, Vice Mayor, for jumping in. This is for Yulia. Yulia, thank you for a tremendous presentation. Well laid out. I think your great work actually started six, eight weeks ago when you presented three scenarios to us. I forgot what they're called, the bad, ugly, hideous, and we chose the middle one. that allowed us to either shift to a better world or to a worse world. Um, And that led to a $4.3 million budget problem we're trying to solve. The worst world was going to be triggered If COVID returned in the fall, winter, and tourism extended out. Can you recall what the losses are in that scenario? |
| 03:18:53.00 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 03:18:53.02 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:18:53.03 | Councilmember Riley | or mayor or city manager, |
| 03:18:55.13 | Adam Politzer | Well, roughly $9 million was mine. |
| 03:18:56.97 | Councilmember Riley | memory. |
| 03:18:57.83 | Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. |
| 03:18:58.60 | Councilmember Riley | Yeah. And I seem to recall, so that's basically $4.7 million, bigger problem than we would have. And right now our general fund balance is gonna be 3.7. And I think it's a very likely scenario. And so that's why this general fund balance is so well. The second part of my question, I just want to validate something. |
| 03:19:19.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:19:19.26 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 03:19:19.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:19:19.97 | Councilmember Riley | The GFA guidelines say that we should have 2.8 million in a reserve. But if I look at it, we've just spent $2.5 million for this coming year. plus $800,000 in Q4. to a total of 3.3 million right now to solve this pandemic. And this could get worse. Is that correct, the 3.3? |
| 03:19:44.57 | Yulia Carter | That is correct, because 2.4 million that you already allowed us to use for this to transfer into general fund will not be available next year. So I mean, I think right now, |
| 03:19:54.82 | Councilmember Riley | So I mean, I didn't write for this. You said the GFOA guidelines are not tested. And we proved that they're not right, because we just spent 3.3. for a COVID response. So those are just one of the kind of, validate through these questions. Thank you. |
| 03:20:12.47 | Unknown | Nice there. |
| 03:20:14.81 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. Look, I've got a ton of questions and they're not So I'm not going to be able to ask them more. I'm not sure. but I know our budget really well. Bye. known it. really well for eight years now. And I just want to first of all reinforce what Council Member Wright is saying. I am not sure. that our residents, our employees, And those that have chosen and are welcome to joined us tonight who don't live in Sausalito, understand. that This is not a situation that is pleasant. We are in a critical financial situation, and I think Council Member Riley would agree with me here. We are in a critical financial situation. And so we need to dissect it. And first of all, we need to dissect our fund balances and understand how we're gonna use them. 2.5 million is not gonna be available next year. So. My first general question is, I'm not sure. Yulia, thank you so much for that presentation. I know you put a lot of thought into it. sorry about all the technical difficulties, but nonetheless, I understood what you were trying to tell us. Um, Are you at all concerned that we have We are creating inadvertently a unknown structural deficit in future years that we have yet to resolve and understand. CalPERS numbers. Um, the fact that No matter how much people are dreaming things are going to change, it's going to take years to get back to $19 million of revenue stream. possibly three years, who knows, but it's not going to be next year. No matter how much work we put into it, in terms of revenue generation and all the things we're doing. So, When are we going to be able to understand? My question is, when are we going to be able to understand Well, first of all, if you share that concern and when are we gonna be able to understand the Um, Oh. whether we're building in inadvertently a longer term structural deficit problem that we're gonna have to resolve. So that's my first question. And then I want to talk about, ask some questions about, layoffs. And then later on, we can have, I'm going to have more questions, but I would yield Madam Mayor, of course, because I don't want to dominate this. So my first general question, are you at all worried about a built-in structural deficit we don't yet understand for future years? |
| 03:23:08.05 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:23:25.23 | Yulia Carter | Well, as I mentioned earlier in the presentation, we are operating in a lot of unknown. And that's the fact. We don't. we don't know what the future will bring. And you're right, it could get much worse. And in fact, I did pull up the, presentation from the previous meeting. the... ugly scenario was showing over 8 million. Yeah. structural deficit. So that could become a reality and that is devastating. |
| 03:23:54.05 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:23:54.27 | Yulia Carter | I'm certainly hoping you were wrong in some of those assumptions. the I think what we can do to continue monitoring the situation and bring it to you at least poorly and see kind of do the, check-in points and and see how we're doing on assumptions and validating them. the concern is real, yes, and... we're all trying to make the best decisions as we go along with this |
| 03:24:28.10 | Vice Mayor Withey | Okay, and later on, I want to talk about our discussions with our labor groups and You know, you presented in the staff report very what appear to be an enlightened and very positive uh, work with our labour groups But tonight you're sort of hedge in your bets, it seemed to be sort of backtracking a bit. but let's talk about that a bit later. I just want to clarify one simple question. Other than the IT manager position for which we got certain special circumstances, How many of our employees our current employees, I know we got frozen positions, But how many of our current positions employees. are actually losing their job. |
| 03:25:22.56 | Yulia Carter | Well, at this point, we still have one position on the layoff list. And the- |
| 03:25:29.68 | Vice Mayor Withey | What? |
| 03:25:29.99 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. And even then, we are currently working on seeing if there is some move on sharing services or relocation for this position. So it was our philosophy from the start to try to make it work. |
| 03:25:43.76 | Vice Mayor Withey | Right, and that was a philosophy the City Council really fully endorsed and supported. All the email correspondence I'm getting does not seem to appreciate that fact. |
| 03:25:58.15 | Adam Politzer | Mr. Vice Mayor and Mayor can I Please. Just add a little bit to that. because as we all are paying attention to our county health official, the activity that is allowed or not allowed continues to change. And so for this particular employ the recreation supervisor Um, who oversees camps and classes. those programs were shut down. a lot of options. But just recently, I think as of Monday. they allowed, or June 1st, sorry, Monday, June 1st. the county health official allowed camps at a limited and participation in the to actually operate this summer. And part of that was to provide Much Needed. daycare and childcare services for all those that are needing to go back to work and need care for their kids. That's the primary target. But towns like Tiburon and Mill Valley and Sausalito It was also an opportunity to provide those services for Oh. for those that needed camps for children. So that helped save that position. It gave us the opportunity to create a revenue stream. And then some other creative ideas that the administration department is looking at to have special projects that we would need someone else to take on also free up the ability for this person to work outside of the Park and Rec Department. You know, great credit to Mike Langford and Yulia Carter for again, looking for creative ways to keep all of these positions, but to your direct question, absent the IT position, we do appear to avoid it. All layoffs. of any of our employees. |
| 03:27:50.64 | Vice Mayor Withey | That is not understood by very few people. |
| 03:27:58.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Maybe the city manager could just confirm that that's with some short-term hour reductions. Correct. Thank you. |
| 03:28:09.03 | Adam Politzer | Part-time, yeah, and those changes |
| 03:28:09.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | group. Yeah. |
| 03:28:12.98 | Adam Politzer | those changes were mostly felt immediately by parks and recreation and library because the library was closed and still remains closed. and park and rec. special events were all canceled and still remain canceled So those, the staff that would be working in our library. usually on Saturday and Sunday. and after hours to nine o'clock. and our parking staff that would work Blues and Jazz by the Bay on 4th of July, those positions obviously are not filled because there's no opportunity. |
| 03:28:49.16 | Vice Mayor Withey | So, Madam Mayor, I will stand aside. I have a lot more questions, but later on, I want to understand what the hell's going on with our labor negotiations, quite frankly. |
| 03:29:00.32 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, are there other council questions? |
| 03:29:08.08 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Council Member Cook. |
| 03:29:08.97 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:29:12.48 | Councilmember Cox | I would like to She asks some questions about the decision making programs. But I think I'm going to defer that. for the moment. You know, for example, the Ice House, we have the Historical Society docents, who are retirees who volunteer their time to really enhance. the public impression of our downtown. I want to better understand the decision to cut 15,000 from there as opposed to some larger potential savings elsewhere. |
| 03:29:54.03 | Adam Politzer | Let me, if you don't mind, Yulia, if I can respond to House member Cox. That one's a tough one. I mean, you know, they're all tough ones if you ask me, But again, we spent some time talking through each one of these to understand the impacts And so similar to the library, the ice house, his staff, to support contact with our tourists as they come in and look to learn about what to do in Sausalito. And the majority of those folks that the opportunity to work as our docents. are usually folks that are at the high risk population in terms of age or other potential medical condition. The ICE house is closed. It's not something that should be open. And so we look again for this first six months Our primary focus right now that they won't be open for this summer. and it will be something that we would have to relook at next spring depending on where we are in the recovery. So as much as I know you all support the docents at the ICE House. We just support it and had a great volunteer effort by our community and the leaders of the historical society the ice house and the exterior patio and plaza that exists there now. So it's obviously a great disappointment to all of us that right now that needs to be shuttered. until the county health official allows those types of services to continue. |
| 03:31:26.62 | Councilmember Cox | And then I had one other question concerning our, you know, this recommended approach, which yields nearly 600,000 structural surplus. A, I understand That's if things work out the way we anticipate, but, Um, You know, we have, our union our unions saying, look, you should spend that or at least half of that to avoid furloughs. So what is the rationale? or why is it important that we continue to maintain this structural surplus? of nearly $600,000. |
| 03:32:12.73 | Yulia Carter | Well, as you mentioned yourself, so the surplus is a kind of moving target. So we don't know if we will be able to achieve this number specifically because several items on this list are kind of what we are hoping to get. and the, outside of our control with the labor groups. Um, Another piece, what Council Member Riley pointed out, we need to be prepared for the worse. 22% in undesignated fund balance is not a lot of money. And that's the fact and that's the reality of this. If the council decides to allocate additional funds to fund other projects or other programs. well, we gave you the example for, we kind of assumed that you might be going different direction on southview park and if you were to approve it that number brings down. Thank you. and designate the fund balance to 20%. So simple action like that is reducing your fund balance, as we speak. So many of my colleagues from all over Bay Area in finance the director's role also, targeting at least 25% in the designated fund balance if they can afford it. Many series try to go higher than that. Again, this is a sole policy decision, and each organization is unique. we felt that it was prudent for us to, A, give you some options to choose from, and B to have this conversation the appropriate fund balance level because we do have a policy for budget shortfall and the the 5% and 10%, but we don't have a formal policy on the end-designated fund balance. So it would be helpful for staff to know your comfort zone is. So when we bring you the balanced budget, we want to make sure that we address all these aspects together. |
| 03:34:07.42 | Adam Politzer | Madam Mayor, if I can just add to that. answer as well. And again, Yulia commented at the end of our presentation, thanking the department heads and the employees for their creative ideas and solutions in terms of savings, both for programs and services But on one of your slides here, I don't know if it's slide, I don't know the number of slides, We talked about all of the reorganization that we have done in the city. We have four frozen positions, and we have creatively put staff in non-essential positions like park and rec, as an example, into two of those positions so that those jobs were available. So some of the fund balance that you see is based on us not filling these essential positions like the community development department, admin aid to deal with the volume of calls and, contacts and emails that they receive let alone help managing track it in their boards and commissions meetings, which I think they have at least five boards and commissions and committees that are staffed by our community development director. But we also made decisions to underfund positions. So we did not go out and just fill positions at the highest level. We ended up filling those positions at a reduced level. And so you can really see in the administration department, there is significant changes in the staffing, let alone the vacant position Thank you. that's now filled with a park and rec supervisor to help manage the properties. So some of the reserves people got created. or the surplus got created because if we would have filled all those essential positions than those other positions would have if we didn't play them off. would have ended up having a negative impact and we would have been in a deficit. rather than a surplus. So again, I think it's the creative solutions that the department heads brought forward. And obviously I was a part of those discussions, including the deputy clerk going to Southern Marine Fire halftime to serve as their clerk to the board. including looking for opportunities for engineering staff. to work for the city of Mill Valley where they have current vacancy. in their engineering division. to help offset some of the capital projects that they need to oversee since we've reduced the number of capital projects that we'll be managing this year. So that's a combination of why we ended up with the surplus. And it wasn't by accident, it was by hard work from your management team. |
| 03:36:52.73 | Councilmember Cox | And Madam Mayor, if I might, my final question has to do with risk. We've had a couple of tough years, last year with the slide and this year with the pandemic. I want to be sure that we calculated the risk of those expenses. So I know that we were seeking FEMA funding to reimburse us for some of the slide expenditures, but we may or may not get that. So I just want to be sure that in the calculations presented to us, we've adopted a, we're not counting on those monies that very well may not materialize. |
| 03:37:35.21 | Yulia Carter | That is correct. We are not counting on this money. So that would be... And nice. addition to our projections. |
| 03:37:44.77 | Councilmember Burns | If I could, since Councilmember Cox brought it up, We did hear from Mike that there shouldn't be any delay in FEMA. And if there is any delay in FEMA to let him know, because he's heard no delay, FEMA. I'm hoping that we are looking for that. I'm sure he says that to everybody, and that's probably a common thing but We have it on tape. So I don't know when the last time we asked, but, uh, We have his voice on tape saying, No delays in FEMA. |
| 03:38:15.22 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, a couple of different Um, situations there. So there's a the FEMA money for Um, COVID related. activity. And for cities under 500,000, you know, that money is technically getting funneled to the state and potentially to the county. We don't yet know how that money is going to funnel from the state into the county to the local cities. You know, I'm not sure if that has all been worked out and maybe you and I know more than I do based on your conversations with the league. um, in terms of the landslide, the mudslide event that we had. It's not that it's delayed, we were rejected. So they are funding part of our claim. but they rejected another part of our claims. And that was the work that we did to remove all the debris that was scattered on technically private property, which to us makes no sense. The public property is what created the debris field. And so... |
| 03:39:23.10 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:39:23.14 | Adam Politzer | there was no way that all of those individuals were going to collectively |
| 03:39:23.44 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:39:26.93 | Adam Politzer | be able to figure that out without the city doing it. We are in our second round of appeals and we will engage Congressman Huffman to help us Thank you. that prevail. Okay. |
| 03:39:38.97 | Councilmember Burns | Well, that brings up a lot more questions that obviously isn't this item, but I thought we were I thought we already came to that conclusion and we were waiting for money to put the stuff we removed from the street. |
| 03:39:51.57 | Adam Politzer | So we'll get the money for the stuff that was on public property, our property. It's the private property that we're still arguing that we should be funded for. |
| 03:40:00.92 | Councilmember Burns | But we already ate that in our minds. |
| 03:40:04.40 | Adam Politzer | I believe the council has, but staff has not. |
| 03:40:07.60 | Councilmember Burns | Bye. |
| 03:40:07.62 | Councilmember Cox | I just wanted to confirm because it's still somewhat uncertain, I wanted to confirm that we were not counting on those monies in the current budget projections. |
| 03:40:19.69 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:40:19.75 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, no. |
| 03:40:20.55 | Adam Politzer | That's correct. |
| 03:40:22.81 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and I think that was just an important point that Adam started off with that I had wanted to ask just clarify for the public that there is no, you know, we had talked at some point about a four legged stool where the fourth stool might be federal relief for smaller towns. And that is just highly uncertain still at this point. So we cannot be certain that anyone's going to come riding to the rescue here from, that'll be nice if it happens, but we can't count on that. Okay, I know we all have a lot of questions I'm going to just my next group was We got... Some public comment that I thought was important. I heard from Aaron Roller about public works versus police. heard from Meg Fawcett and Carolyn Ravel about I thought a good point, which is we were being a little penny wise and pound foolish in terms of some of our maintenance cuts in the sense that pruning would be fine to cut, but that things that might actually destroy landscaping such as watering or fertilizing, is going to just end up costing us more money to replace in the long term. So I was just wondering if, either our public works director or someone had analyzed whether all of those reductions, what would be the cost of taking out some of those you know, watering and, um, sudden oak I don't mean to say that. And if you don't have that answer off the top of your head, if we can try to get that. at a large part of the reduction or small And then we got a longer letter from a group called Active Allies. I think we've gone over some of the labor issues, but there were some other concerns in that letter, and I don't know if the city manager or... wanted to address any of those concerns proactively. at this point. |
| 03:42:38.11 | Adam Politzer | Let me start with those earlier questions that you had mentioned. about our park maintenance and maintenance So some of the reductions there are either through efficiencies or that we're going to have savings. So we had leaky irrigation systems. We found a significant leak um, when we were replacing of the irrigation at MLK. that was probably costing us thousands of dollars a year. So those are now those will now be savings. Um, including what people forget. We had massive watering going on. to establish you know, the grass at MLK, and the grass that's now growing at Dunphy Park. So massive three times a day. watering to get the establishment going. Once we turn into a more regular watering routine, And clearly we live in an environment where fog and rain are have a regular pattern here. we're not going to be soaking those fields like we had to do to establish them. Um, The contract maintenance reductions are things that the union looked for us to do first before we looked at any potential reductions of our staffing levels. And so some of the median work that we have, roughly $20,000 a year, they come in a couple times a year to do weeding and some of that work. We also contracted out mowing services for our fields. And so those are areas that we'll be looking for our maintenance staff. to pick up. And again, we won't be mowing. uh, two times a week. We might only be modeling one time a week. But these are also opportunities we're very have groups like Sausalito Beautiful and other volunteers in our community. We're coming in and helping with the weeding and helping with some of the vegetation management. can be picked up by volunteers. So those contracts were small contracts, but they were to help offset some of the work that our maintenance staff was required to do And then we do see efficiencies in our new parks with our new irrigation systems. We're not going to have a starting off with a weed problem. So a lot of the things will be brand new. So I think again, as we Managed through this 1st, 6 months, we'll be able to reevaluate. where we have weaknesses in our services and where we need to reevaluate some of these decisions in the first six months. |
| 03:45:22.68 | Adam Politzer | In terms of the letter that we received, I am happy to respond to specific questions in there. I did have an opportunity to talk to one of the members of the group earlier this afternoon and shared a couple of things that was maybe not clear. One was that, I think that it was one of our council members at the previous meeting, that thought that we should continue to aim to have a 50% fund balance. Clearly what we're presenting in front of the council tonight is 22% and based on the funding that was passed I don't think it changes anything significantly with with Southview Park because I think the original budget was there. So that additional 192,000 that you have deferred probably doesn't change that 22% fund balance significantly. So if we make changes like to where I think we are committed with the body worn cameras, you know, that will slightly reduce our fund balance, but you're probably more in the neighborhood of 18% and within the area of what's recommended. but not tested as brought up earlier. So, I think that was one of the earlier misstatements that was raised. Um, in the letter that we have too much of a surplus |
| 03:46:48.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:46:48.99 | Adam Politzer | you. |
| 03:46:49.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:46:51.52 | Adam Politzer | 50% and that's not accurate. If there's specific questions from that letter, I'm happy to respond. Wow. to respond. |
| 03:47:02.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | You already responded to the contract employee question. And then there were questions about 10% versus 20%. you know, and I think the idea here was that it was only a six month The last proposal that I heard we were talking about was six months. at a 20%, but which would actually end up being 10% over the year. that |
| 03:47:30.52 | Adam Politzer | That's correct. That's been unfortunately misunderstood and repeated. So it sounds like our SEAU employees are being asked to take a 20% reduction And in fact, they're taking a 10% reduction over 12 months. But it is front loaded and that will be felt by our SEAU employees in that first that first six month period But there was some rationale, just like I talked about the docents, about not funding the docents in the first six months is because we see the ICE house not being opened, When we looked at the first six months for the SEIU employees to be off every Friday for the first six months, from our conversations with SAU, it gave them opportunities to work every Friday in another job or take Friday off, they were actually being, you know, they weren't So there was some benefit To either them choosing to use that as free time. or to pick up a regular steady job on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to make up that difference. So there was a discussion that As we understood as of last Tuesday, the third you know, that we had conceptual agreement and unfortunately the membership did not agree when they took it to the full membership. So, you know, just to clarify, what was being proposed was for the entire year a 10% furlough where they were not working on Fridays. which gave them the opportunity for that first six months Tattoo. either enjoy that time off or pick up another job. |
| 03:49:19.50 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great, thank you. I see that the vice mayor has a point. |
| 03:49:23.26 | Vice Mayor Withey | Um, Yeah, I have two more questions, if I may, Madam Mayor. The first is I want to clarify one thing about the use of our reserves and ask the following Am I correct in... saying that as part of the budget that you put forth, I'm not sure. you have built, you built in a repayment into the tens percent shortfall fund. if that's the right term. that the 800 and odd thousand that we used for this fiscal year. You've included that repayment in the budget. So I just wanted to clarify, I'm not sure. for the council member Riley and I are on the same page and understanding exactly how much reserves have been used. so that in actual fact, If we use the full $2.5 million in reserve for this next financial year. that's actually the reserves that we will have ended up using. Am I right in that or am I misunderstood? |
| 03:50:36.79 | Yulia Carter | Well, I think there are two things here. The 10% shortfall policy, yes, we did restore this. So that's the designation of operating contingency as part of the council's policy and we when we ask for authorization to use it for the current fiscal year, be dealing with the understanding that we will restore it for the upcoming year. And you can see it in your attachments, I believe it's attachment five that describes what we did here. put this level back to 10%. And the second piece of your, second part of your question, the 2.5 million, So we'll see. that transfer is a built-in asset transfer, asset revenues to general fund from other funds for the upcoming year. And that's why I made this point earlier that these funds are not going to be available next year. Because we're simply going to deplete these reserves in this upcoming year. |
| 03:51:31.40 | Vice Mayor Withey | And my, Last question. for now is, the that's a good idea. There seems to be a, I'm trying to understand why the for The labor groups, we seem to have gone with both for management and with the police association, a elimination of the COLA or deferral of the COLA But with SEAU, We went to the for which is not yet a agreed upon DOI. seem to gather. that we went with a different methodology, which was reduced work hours. Why have we got that discrepancy? Could someone help me understand that? |
| 03:52:27.52 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, and that's, thank you for that question. It's an excellent question. That's where we started with all the groups was, and that's where we started in these discussions at the council level that the most obvious place to start the reductions is deferring our cost of living increases and our step increases across the board. And so that's what we put in front of SEIU at the very first conversation with SEIU, and that was rejected. and a non-starter for them. At the same time, some of the other cities were a little ahead of us, like Novato and San Rafael and Santa Rosa. And those were these furlough programs and volunteer separation agreements, early retirement, agreements seem to be leading the way in these other communities. And so that's where we gravitated. with SEIUs, uh, I'm not sure. thoughts on this, as I mentioned earlier, where the furlough was really a benefit versus losing the cost of living increased. The furlough was a benefit because people were able to pick up other jobs or you were not asked to work and not be paid. And so, you know, that's where the furlough created some momentum from SEIU. And unfortunately, it did not. play well with the rest of the membership. But that's where we started. You know, that's why management and the police association We're all interested in deferring the cost of living increases, equity increases. and step increases as a better approach. The way that I looked at it, this is my personal opinion. you're giving up something you don't have versus being asked to give up something that you have. And so, Unfortunately, we could not out of the initial conversations, reach agreement with SEIU to share what the POA and the management and confidential employees were all willing to do out of the gate. |
| 03:54:46.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And can I just call? |
| 03:54:48.07 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:54:49.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Can I just follow up on that? Would that be a roughly similar say that |
| 03:54:54.71 | Adam Politzer | No, and unfortunately it's not a similar savings. Um, But because we didn't explore that, we didn't creative. thought process, didn't include what does that mean? I'm not having a furlough. So going to a four day of work four day a week work week. that's where our attention went to is, okay, now how do we provide services? How do we work around that? So if we would have started with the, you know, but it amounts to, if I have this correct, Julia. somewhere in the neighborhood of Um, $60,000, maybe a little bit more than that, the difference, the difference with the four-day workweek is roughly 200 and $64,000. and the cost of living increase and SEP increases is what, 88, maybe it's 88. |
| 03:55:48.15 | Yulia Carter | Yeah, it's about 88,000. |
| 03:55:50.80 | Adam Politzer | Yeah. |
| 03:55:52.08 | Yulia Carter | for SCIU. |
| 03:55:53.48 | Adam Politzer | So we would have to make up probably two and a half positions to make up that savings. But if we would have had the last four weeks to work on that. I'm pretty confident we would have made that |
| 03:56:10.19 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Karen Hollweg, Great Thank you, thank you both okay Council members unless there's anything else urgent I think we should probably move on to public comments. If everyone who is in our Karen Hollweg, room with us welcome if you'd like to raise your hands, so we can see how many folks would like to. I know this has been a very long presentation, but this is part of our annual budget process. So we have a lot on our plates, as you can see. |
| 03:56:45.68 | Vice Mayor Withey | Madam Mayor, before you open for public comment, could I just ask... One thing, too. I think it's highly, I'm expecting that we're going to get a lot of public comment on body-worn cameras. |
| 03:57:01.24 | Patrick Guasco | Yep. |
| 03:57:01.57 | Vice Mayor Withey | And, I think I'm sensing from the consensus of this council that it is our intention to fund that tonight. Yeah. We may need to make that point now. before we open public comment. |
| 03:57:18.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, I think that's how I'm reading the room, although it's always hard when we're on Zoom. I've seen nodding heads. I agree. |
| 03:57:25.42 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:57:25.43 | Patrick Guasco | I agree. All right. |
| 03:57:26.02 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:57:26.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | At least four. |
| 03:57:29.13 | Councilmember Cox | I agree as well. |
| 03:57:30.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. myself included. and vice mayor and I see Joe, maybe. |
| 03:57:38.70 | Councilmember Burns | I think we agreed to that in the last... item. So I said, Still don't agree with how we did it. |
| 03:57:46.68 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, well, if it wasn't clear before, I think it's clear now. So with that, we will open it up to public comment. I'm seeing about 11 or 12 folks. So if we can hold around that amount, I'm gonna stick with our three minutes of public comment if that's amenable to other council members. I know the hour is late. Okay. um, Brian, welcome. |
| 03:58:19.91 | Brian Vitelli | Hi, Madam Mayor, thank you for having me. Thank you council members. And happy belated birthday to Adam. I heard last council meeting it was his birthday. Um, I just want to start off this meeting, start off sort of the public comment. I think you're gonna hear from a lot of other of your employees in SEIU and maybe some in, some people from the public too, but just, you know, when you're looking at these numbers, try to remember our faces because it's not always easy to put face to the numbers. Heidi, are you able to go back to slide 19 there, where you show the cuts and hours? If that's possible, please. |
| 03:59:20.54 | Heidi Scoble | I will defer to the Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 03:59:24.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It's fine if we could do it quickly, but your three minutes |
| 03:59:26.53 | Brian Vitelli | Okay. |
| 03:59:27.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:59:27.17 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:59:27.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:59:27.44 | Brian Vitelli | Um, |
| 03:59:27.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:59:27.52 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. |
| 03:59:28.54 | Brian Vitelli | So I'll just start with, uh, of body worn cameras. Joe, I agree with you that it's not really fair to take money out of someone else's pots to pay for something. If you look at, the cut. cuts and hours, the Um, that the rest that SEIU and and Confidential employees are taking, um, You know, there's no cuts and hours to... to the police, why not? I don't think you would have to even cut close to 20% of hours from police to make up that same amount, to make up the 150 grand or so to cover body worn cameras. So, That seems like a creative solution you're looking for from from management, I'm just throwing that out there. You know, obviously I don't make these decisions. Yeah, and then to your point Mayor, or sorry, Council Member Withy, I think it is risky to, to cut to cut into the fund balance so deeply, but it's also, again, it's also a big risk to the public to cut into the services. that you're, you know, you're gonna be reducing by 20% cut in hours, especially because that's gonna go into the beginning of the rainy season when we typically need to have a lot more people in streets maintenance and storm drains out there, getting the storm drain system ready for the winter. And then, uh, |
| 04:01:27.18 | Brian Vitelli | Sorry. It's just- |
| 04:01:28.72 | Heidi Scoble | Your three minutes has elapsed. |
| 04:01:30.16 | Brian Vitelli | OK, I yield back my time. Thank you, guys. |
| 04:01:33.63 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you. Our... Sorry, next speaker is Tula Biederman. Welcome, Tula. |
| 04:01:47.37 | Tula Biederman | Hi, thank you. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. right? Thank you all for your questions. Thank you for having us. Thank you particularly to council members Cox and Vice Mayor Withey for your questions about the negotiations. I'd like to clarify some things. Last week, we came to you to urge you not to reduce SDIU employees' weekly hours by 20%. We had no specifics on what the rest of the city's budget might look like. We spoke purely on two points. The huge blow this furlough would be to the services we're able to offer the community. and the devastating impact it would have on our personal finances, even if only for six months. These points remain salient. It is still clear that the primary effects of this cut would be on the services we're able to provide for Sausalito and our ability to support ourselves and our families in the ever more expensive Bay Area. |
| 04:02:30.89 | Lily Whalen | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 04:02:31.02 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 04:02:31.07 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. |
| 04:02:32.00 | Tula Biederman | Our city manager today expressed great frustration at our members for quote, changing our minds in the 11th hour. for our concerns over these cuts. We never intended to do so. However, the staff report was published four days ago, and it fundamentally changes the context in which Adam and Julia are justifying these cuts. We've met Adam Weekly for the last month and a half to discuss what we told were options designed to reduce layoffs with few specifics. These new specifics clarify that FCIU members are being asked to shoulder the lion's share of this burden. It is undeniable that the most is being taken from the employees who are paid the least. And yet we've learned these cuts are not solely being made to avoid layoffs. They're also being made to allow the city to end the fiscal year with a surplus. This is unacceptable. No one should lose their job or take a 20% pay cut to justify a surplus. The definition of a surplus is literally an excess of production. the concept that our enormous loss would be considered necessary so that the city can report in excess is insulting and appalling Stay Adam Head Stewards. told stewards that we need to cover the gap in the previously mentioned FEMA funding for the landslide and various lawsuits in which the city is involved. I'm sure these are expensive. However, these expenses should not be placed squarely on the back of your community service workers already low wages. We appreciate the work management has put in to reassign a few of our members to other jobs in order to maintain their employment. However, it is not clear that those changes or is now clear that those changes are minuscule compared to what is expected of our membership overall. This is not shared sacrifice and this is not sharing the pain. SEIU's payroll is not the highest of Sausalito's employee groups, yet we are being asked to bear a burden that's more than twice as large as that of any other group The police department, for example, though with payroll as the largest, is facing the smallest budget decrease. We are freezing more vacant positions than any other group not reflected in the previous slide. We are expected to cut 24% of our base payroll. The PD are expected to cut 6%. This is exactly what political organizers across America are pointing to as the difference between a public service oriented local government and a police state. In our meeting today Adam repeatedly referred to the preservation of policing budgets at the expense of other city services as the norm. I completely agree. However, where we diverge is that I cannot fathom how our current situation could be described as even close to the norm. The world has changed both because of the pandemic and because of how we think about our police forces. If you'd like to read more, I recommend a couple different works by scholars of color. Please contact the library for help accessing the resources. Your three minutes has elapsed. |
| 04:04:52.15 | Unknown | Your three minutes has elapsed. |
| 04:04:54.97 | Tula Biederman | Our hours are a fraction of what they used to be. |
| 04:04:56.91 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. Brian Vitelli, welcome. |
| 04:05:06.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:05:18.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Hi, Brian, I can't hear you. Heidi, is Brian unmuted? |
| 04:05:26.45 | Brian Vitelli | There we go. |
| 04:05:26.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | There we go. |
| 04:05:26.88 | Tula Biederman | TODAY. |
| 04:05:26.94 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | it. Thank you. |
| 04:05:27.99 | Brian Vitelli | Hello. |
| 04:05:28.08 | Tula Biederman | Yeah. |
| 04:05:28.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Hi, welcome. |
| 04:05:30.59 | Brian Vitelli | Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Knowles, City Council, and Heidi Scoble for continuing to change my name each week. I appreciate it. I've spoken at three council meetings about the upcoming budget cuts for the fiscal year of 2021. Today is my three-month anniversary in Sausalito. And I can honestly say that in my three months, aside from a global pandemic, I have loved working with every member of the team in the community. from contract instructors all the way up to the city manager. I've mentioned before that I love what I do and I do what I love. And whatever decisions are made in the next two weeks, that will not change. What will change is my life. my family's life, the opportunities that I may one day gain from working in such a wonderful city. It will change our community's perspective on what we stand for, how we react during emergencies, and what the future holds for a city they love so dearly. I mean summer camps can't operate. No after school programs, no adult and senior programs, no events. So how we act now will impact the future of the department, the city, and our community. These layoffs will definitely damage the services we provide to the public and as a result community members may never return to our programs or events. With the most recent projections and actuals, I have 70 local kids signed up for camp. We're projected to make between 25 and 30,000 from summer camp alone. And this is only a nine week program, nine weeks of programming. We opened registration less than two weeks ago and have already brought in almost half of our total projected revenue. There's still room to grow as my projections are conservative. And there are still more opportunities to expand camp options later in the summer. We had after school programs, sports leagues, adult programs. I'm confident that we can secure enough funds to keep my position. If cuts are needed, I hope we can all agree that it takes a village to share the burden and that management will look into a reduction of pay as well. I appreciate the hard work that Adam, Yulia, all the department heads, city council, and Mayor Knowles are doing to help figure out this budget crisis. Rough seas are ahead, and navigating this ship is no easy task, especially in uncharted territory. But I hope that every crew member is heard, and no one has to walk the plank. Thank you. |
| 04:07:51.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Julie. |
| 04:07:55.70 | Unknown | Welcome. |
| 04:08:01.33 | Julie | Madam Mayor and City Council, I want to thank you for taking the time to hear what I have to say tonight. I want to talk about how we can spread the pain equally in the budget that was just presented to you. But first, some background. As chief steward of SEIU 1021 union, I have been part of the discussions with management for weeks now. I've also been meeting with the general membership for equally as long with the goal of minimizing layoffs and contributing to balancing the budget. For weeks, we've been asking for scenarios with numbers attached to those to show specifically how our sacrifices would minimize layoffs. We, We're asked to give up our COLA and our merit increases, but we were told that that wouldn't be enough to stop layoffs, so that's why we looked at cutting hours. And We, We looked for those numbers and those numbers were not given to us in a timely manner. In fact, we only got them when this budget recommendation became public last Friday, and when the staff reports and attachments were posted, on the budget business items. And then to our horror, we found out that our sacrifices does not minimize layoffs as it was supposed to. It in fact goes towards half a million plus budget surplus. a budget surplus. I've been here. 571 K dollar budget surplus as stated in attachment six a surplus that comes on our backs We've been told that a surplus is necessary, but if you take away our 20% wage sacrifice, totaling $250,000 in savings, there would still be a surplus. Please let me repeat, there would still be a surplus. Not only that, but please realize that the pain is not being spread equally. Of the four personnel groups in the city, we bake up 49.5% of the cost savings. And if you take away our 20% wage sacrifice, we would still make up 41% of the savings. Lastly, I want you to make sure that you understand that this budget takes the most from the least. We surveyed our members and it is clear, absolutely clear to me that there are members who due to the 32 hour work week would have trouble putting gas in their tanks and food on their tables. And I want to make that clear. There are members, not just one person. There are people who would have trouble paying their bills. And this is not a 10% cut. over a year, this is 20% out of my paycheck, starting July 1st. And that's 20% less. food I can buy. I encourage you guys to rescind our sacrifice from this budget and to spread the pain equally and keep food on our tables. And that's it. Thank you for taking the time to listen to me. |
| 04:11:02.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Thank you. Oscar Massario, welcome. |
| 04:11:13.98 | Oscar Massario | Good evening. Thank you so much for your time, City Council. I'm City Mayor. interesting times. I just wanted to tell you a little bit about my experience with my co-workers today. It's been definitely a stressing time for us, as I know it's also for you, but definitely to oversee the future of the city of South Salido by taking into account the workers who are out there every morning taking care of the most decaying infrastructure that we deal with every day. We always come with ideas and ways to be resilient, to be inventive, to save, and to use the most out of our time to the benefit of the city. As a public servant in two years working for all of you, it's been a pleasure to be continuing to exceed to our best. And I can see that my co-workers are also on the same page, that they've been making a career working for the city. Now, there could be some imperfections. There could be some tuning in that can happen later on, and I know we can work with that. But we're not antagonistic in our forces dealing with management. We work together, we comprehend each other's needs, and we're always working for the best goal, which is to make our city safe. I love you all. I really wish you to look at that to the budget to see that surplus that is there or almost $700,000 could be used to lessen the weight on the workers. That's all I have to say. Thank you. |
| 04:12:48.24 | Unknown | Great, thank you. Melissa Blauskin. |
| 04:12:56.38 | Melissa Blaustein | First, I just want to say my heart really goes out to all of the city workers who just shared their story because they are such an important part of the fabric of our community. I'm speaking to you this evening on behalf of the newly formed active allies of Sausalito Coordinating Committee and we'll begin reading to you from our letters submitted with almost 100 signatures and support from residents. We find ourselves in a unique moment in history, a moment of great difficulty, but also one of great As we grapple with the incredibly hard choices facing us, especially in terms of addressing a loss of revenue due to the pandemic, and ongoing economic uncertainty. We do so amidst cultural upheaval and a movement for change unseen in the United States since the civil rights era of the 1960s. As we choose how we will meet this moment, we have a powerful chance to live into our best selves and focus on meeting the needs of our entire community. We applaud the leadership shown by our mayor, council members, chief of police, and other city staff in standing up and creating a space for these much needed and overdue conversations. We see this as an opportunity to continue that leadership by expressing our community values and how we choose to spend our precious city dollars. The murder of George Floyd by officers of the Minneapolis Police Department has not only left our country in a state of grieving, but a state of awakening. White Americans are finally waking up to the systemic racism built into our society and how for centuries the privileges afforded to white people and white communities like Sausalito have allowed the type of acts like the one committed against George Floyd to continue across our country. here in So, We need to do more than just be not racist. We must step up and become an actively anti-racist community that supports and welcomes everyone equally if we hope to see any sort of real change. We're fortunate to have police chief like John Rohrbecker who has demonstrated that like all of us, he sees the immediate need to have a very frank conversation about race, privilege and accountability in policing and recognizes that we can and should do better. We must support his efforts by providing the funding for police body worn cameras that his department has requested. We are aware that this is an extremely difficult time for our community in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and cuts will have to be made. not the time now for us to opt out of a critical policing tool that provides clear accountability as well as evidence and data. We cannot be the only community in Marin County without police body worn cameras, regardless of our reasons, not having these cameras sends the wrong message to our community that we know you do not need to send. Chief Rohrabacher, our Mayor and members of this council have shown courage in their moving statements and demonstrations of what authentic conversations around this topic can look like. We are... . Thank you. Thank you. program. the moment. This is an opportunity for Sausalito to set an example for other similarly privileged communities across the country that have thus far chosen to spend their dollars on other priorities. It is a chance for Sausalito to set an example of what it means to stand together for justice as a community at a time when so many other communities are at odds with their police and elected leadership. The rest of the committee will continue reading the letter. I didn't want to take up more than three minutes, so thank you very much. |
| 04:16:04.25 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you. Sam Rubin, welcome. |
| 04:16:10.81 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles, Melissa Blaustein, on behalf of her group, asked if we could read or have the public commenters in a specific order. Would you be amenable to that? And if so, the next commenter would be Lauren Alexander. |
| 04:16:28.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, that's fine. I don't know if we have a policy about this, but anyway, that's fine. Let's just do it. |
| 04:16:36.04 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. So the next public commenter would be Lauren Alexander, then Sam Rubin, then Lisa Bennett, then Jen Conway. |
| 04:16:39.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Lauren Allen. |
| 04:16:46.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and just in the future, these requests really need to come ahead of time. so that we can not disrupt the, you know, So go ahead. We all have the letter as well. So, and thank you for that. |
| 04:17:04.56 | Lauren Alexander | Hi, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to us. I'm going to continue to read from our letter. We ask you to reconsider your decision to remove funding for body cams, and we also ask that you consider their use once implemented. When we do have body cameras here in Sausalito, we must be sure that they're used in a way that makes our citizens feel safer, not more afraid. We recommend the Sausalito Police Force adopt the ACLU suggested policies with regard to the use of body cams in our community. Body cams are only a first step in improving policing in our community so that everyone, regardless of their skin color, feels safe and welcome here. To this end, we call on the city council to recognize that it is time to shift funds that do not directly relate to increasing accountability for the police force, such as body cameras from the police department and into other areas of the city's budget that truly promote public health and community safety. We have seen New York City, Minneapolis, and other communities announce steps in this direction in recent days, and there are previous examples of successful implementation of this type of thinking. This is an opportunity for us all to come together and truly define what cost-effective public safety looks like for Sausalito in a way that recognizes historical realities and considers new opportunities to find a better way. We recommend adopting the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Demands locally |
| 04:18:29.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | PB, Sarah Silver, Okay, I think miss Alexander's lost her Internet connection so for the next speaker. PB, Sarah Silver, start please. |
| 04:18:41.20 | Sam Rubin | Certainly, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak with you. And I would just like to note that some of the numbers that I'm about to read are a little bit different than what you received. as they're updated based on conversation this afternoon with City Manager Fultz, We understand the importance of being prepared The thinking behind the current proposal to hold back 22% of the operating budget and unused funds balance after using 2.5 million to help minimize the amount of cuts necessary This means that we're currently above the 20% target reserve established based on guidance from the government Financial Officers Association. based on the funds already earmarked from the reserves in your comments. We realize that you recognize that this is an emergency. and one unlike any face within our life. Similar communities in the area such as Mill Valley also recognize this important. but choose to target only 15% reserves, achieve 25% in normal time, and have moved forward with a similar 20% temporarily, given the dire need to the current PL. While we recognize the difference in the nature of the revenue structure of Sausalito as compares to Mill Valley and other communities, We call on our city council to further leverage our reserve funds to meet this along with providing for long overdue items such as body one camera. This will allow us to maintain service levels and staffing. While we identified better ways to support improving the resiliency of our Rather than focus on quick fixes due to the immediacy of the issue, This will give us the space to make thoughtful decisions that best serve our long-term needs. and better provide the opportunity to leverage Sausalito's collective genius. We are ready and willing to stand. our elected leaders, police department, and city staff. to find solutions. including fundraising to identify outside opportunity. but it must start with you choosing to protect the jobs and services that our community relies on in the near that we may all work together to protect them and move on. Thank you and I yield the rest of my time. |
| 04:20:30.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Karen Hollweg, Thank you next speaker, please. |
| 04:20:38.25 | Lisa Bennett | Hi, sorry, this is Lisa Vennett. I'll continue. We cannot risk the loss of services and staffing that will impact our city operations for years to come. We may gain some savings now, but at what cost to our future? Elimination of maintenance positions now means that we will be faced with higher costs in the future as deferred upkeep becomes critical failure and costly repairs, something we've already seen with our sewage infrastructure. Example, elimination of custodial positions means that we will not be able to meet the safety and sanitation needs of the ongoing pandemic. Elimination of staffing in other city departments means that the current service levels already limited due to understaffing would be further reduced and unable to meet the needs of our community. Therefore, we, the undersigned, which is the group you mentioned, are in solidarity with our city staff, particularly the members of SEIU Local 1021 in calling for the following. Utilize more of the general fund to support the current city staffing and city service levels as well as body worn cameras for the police department. closed City Hall at most one day every other week, a 10% cut. as a temporary cost saving measure. City management, not just city staff, must take a pay cut. If such a pay cut is already being discussed, that information should be publicized to allow the community to see that leadership is in action. Rather than cutting salaried employees, eliminate contract employees and shift that work to the existing salaried staff. Any temporary cuts, reductions, or other measures must be established as temporary in writing to ensure that they are not used as a backdoor to permanent cuts over the life of the contract. The cost of the body cams combined with the unrealized cost savings from limiting the cuts to service levels account for less than 10%. of the proposed reserve and less than 3% of the overall budget. This number could quickly drop as alternative funding sources are introduced, new service models are created and traditional funding begins to recover. The goal is to provide time for new solutions while addressing the immediacy of the need. We recognize that this is not easy for you. and that the ongoing realities have created this crisis that must be addressed. We understand that the council and city staff have been working overtime to find viable solutions in a difficult situation. We appreciate all the hard work and thought that you have and continue to put in. For that, you have our thanks. It is in the forge of crisis that true leadership shines through. We call on you to show that leadership by choosing to stand with us and reconsider how together we may solve our funding crisis. so that we may come out of it a stronger, more resilient and just community. And as a final word, I would like to say, I'm really, um, It was wonderful to watch you struggling with all of this and trying to do the right thing for the people and the community that you serve. So thank you for always holding your highest values as you work through this process together. That's it. |
| 04:23:29.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you, Lisa. You're the last speaker in your group, is that correct? |
| 04:23:34.08 | Heidi Scoble | There's Jennifer Conway. |
| 04:23:36.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, Jennifer. |
| 04:23:43.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And then we've got David Sudo, Patrick Guasco, and Lee Dines. If there's anyone else in the room that would like to speak, please raise your hand. |
| 04:23:53.76 | Jennifer Conway | I will be super quick. I just wanted to say thank you Madam Mayor for connecting me to Sam and the rest of this allow us the opportunity to work on this letter and I really appreciate As Lisa said, the dialogue and the creative thinking that I saw exhibited in trying to solve this, you clearly were already planning to do this, so thank you. Um, And for a little levity I shared, My daughter, Brooklyn, who's nine years old, was listening to the calls that I was having with the group throughout the week and took it upon herself to come up with a plan for a car wash fundraiser for body cams, which now can be a plan for a car wash for a play structure or whatever it is we need to fill the holes. I think, I'm inspired by you all making this a priority to solve with the existing funds and then allowing us to come together as a community |
| 04:24:42.21 | Unknown | Exactly. |
| 04:24:45.72 | Jennifer Conway | seeing you modeling the way of doing the right thing, and then to come and fill the gaps with fundraising and would love to get our kids involved. wonderful to see just the conversation inspire Brooklyn to wanna help. And I'm sure there are many others that will have that same sense. Thank you very much. |
| 04:25:04.08 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you. Uh, got David Sudo. |
| 04:25:16.21 | David Sudo | Thank you, City Council. This is not one of those times when it's not when it's tough to be on city council. |
| 04:25:24.48 | Adam Politzer | uh, |
| 04:25:24.99 | David Sudo | and, Not a fun time. THE END OF THE END OF THE I agree that the 20% cuts to the staff, that's tough. There's many times in my life where I just couldn't have I couldn't handle that myself. And I can't imagine some of the staff with what they get paid being able to absorb 20% cut to their pay and still being able to do the things they need to do every week Um, but, I would go with the recommendation of that group of trying to find a way to limit it to 10% cut. Um, Especially, and I'm still not really sure why we have a budget surplus this year. unless we're planning on having a tougher scenario than what we're planning on. So, you know, there's years you have budget surpluses and there's years you don't. THEIR OWN HIGHER. I would say that, you know, This is a great opportunity to look at how The city does business. and where we can find efficiencies. I saw that thing about Doing video inspections, I would say that's an example. We need to figure out ways we can do more efficiently because Another item I saw that really concerns me where we're cutting money is our, are, that's going to be a little bit construction improvement, capital improvement program We were deficit spending before. COVID-19. in, you know, in the top of our, business cycle. And so I don't know how we continue to under spend on our roads and our infrastructure. and expect to be able to continue living in Sausalito the way people expect to. We need to figure that one out. own. Thanks. |
| 04:27:19.79 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, David. All right, Patrick, Lasca? And then lead ions. And if there's anyone else that would like to speak, please raise your hand now. |
| 04:27:35.56 | Patrick Guasco | Good evening, Madam Mayor. Thank you. people know uh, Vice Mayor Withey, Council member Cox. Council member Burns and council member Riley. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I want to kind of go back to what I mentioned a week ago. We have a sewer fund that's fully funded. It's not under peril. as is perhaps the general fund. And The SEIU group is being requested to basically you know, pay down the deficit. with their salaries, that includes the sewer crew. Now, no one has told me why The sewer crew including me, is included in the general fund CHANG We have the funding to do our operations maintenance as it should be. including projects and any kind of subcontractor need comes to So, Could someone please me why the crew is being affected by this. Now, in addition to that, Thank you. There is room for other people to make lateral movement Another lead from the maintenance department. I've got stable body staff right now. third person would make it great so we wouldn't have to borrow from DPW Street Cruise to help us practice before we're in the road. cleaning your public sewer system, making sure it doesn't overflow into the bay. Um, So, At some point, I'd like SEI you to know why Mike, we're not looking at the sewer fund as an independent fund. apart from the group and why we're still going to get 20% reduction perhaps. in our page. by having to take every Friday off. You know, we do show up. and take care of emergencies even though we don't have on-call duty We do things above and beyond the duty. So anyway, I'm making my plea for my crew. the sewer fund and i do believe that there are other departments that are being asked for far less than the buying share of which we're burdening on our back. Thank you. And thank you for your time. |
| 04:30:16.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, great, thank you. Lee Dines and then David Mill. |
| 04:30:23.13 | Lee | Hello again, Madam Mayor, thank you very much for allowing me to speak. Thank you to Joe Burns for recommending that I be here and for putting me in active allies of Sausalito. And I'm also really grateful that you guys are now fully intending on getting body cameras to the Sausalito Police Force. I also wanted to add that I fully support the Active Allies letter and as what they touched upon in the letter that body cameras are not good enough on their own. There needs to be a progressive policy that benefits underserved communities that has to do with activation of cameras particularly remotely. So activation of cameras, activation time being right when police officers get a call and after the call is over. And there also needs to be a progressive policy regarding who has access to the footage. So potentially a civilian oversight committee would need to have access to the body cam footage as well. And I know that Sam and Active Allies of Sausalito have done a lot of research regarding funding for data storage and most cost-effective ways to provide access these different points regarding body camera policy. So I just wanted to add that on to the letters, the letter read by active allies at Sausalito. And I wanted to thank everybody on the city council again for allowing me to speak and allowing me to be here. |
| 04:32:07.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. All right, our last speaker is David Merrill. Welcome. |
| 04:32:19.64 | David Merrill | Thank you so much, Council Members. I can only imagine how difficult this is. trying to deal with that budget and really appreciate letting me speak. Um, I want to kind of reiterate my support for everything around the body cameras and that you guys are going to fund that. I'm still a little bit unclear about how that is, and this is kind of going off a little more what Ken Burns was saying, earlier asking the police chief about how the budget is allocated and looks like the discrepancies between how Bye. the budgets for parks and rec compared to what they are for the police department is pretty large and I was just curious if it transparency sake of how the budget is for the police department wasn't too clear about why there is no budget or no talk of looking into that 6.8 million dollar budget for police to use that for any of the body camera and maybe that isn't the discussion but it wasn't clear so That's it, and thank you. |
| 04:33:25.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, great, thank you. Okay, I see no additional public comment. Thank you for everyone who spoke. I'll just confirm with the clerk that I'm not missing anyone. |
| 04:33:37.30 | Heidi Scoble | There are no additional raised hands. at this time. |
| 04:33:41.75 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Council members. Bye. The evening is late. I know we're all tired. It's been a long night. Are there more questions? |
| 04:33:57.02 | Vice Mayor Withey | all. Madam Mayor, I feel like I'm living in two different worlds. I'm not sure if you're I would like to ask our city manager and if our labor negotiator is also on this coal. Um, I want to know what's going on here because Um, it is being portrayed here tonight. by our employees, who I have enormous respect for, that we force the concept of a 20% reduction of hours on them. Whereas I thought that was their idea. So could we have some clarification and understand actually what's going on? I am really, really confused. |
| 04:34:50.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And actually, before you respond, I think I would just like to add, I thought we had clarified in our earlier questions and responses that We, there are no layoffs currently proposed the one |
| 04:35:03.39 | Unknown | Right. |
| 04:35:03.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | position that is potentially. in that category, we are very certain given the revenue potential for that position. that we will be able to retain. So, That was what I heard earlier. And then I heard something completely different during public comment. So... |
| 04:35:28.99 | Adam Politzer | So let me respond to um, Thanks, Mayor, with these questions first. Thank you. As you heard, and again, want to start by saying, I appreciate all of our staff I've made that abundantly clear. in all of our meetings. I appreciate what they bring to the community, what they bring to our team, and their collaborative approach. I think in hope that they feel that I've been transparent. I think some of the statements that you heard tonight were taken a little bit out of context. with the context. And I'd like to just clarify a few of those statements as well. Let me again say, as Julia shared in her presentation, for SEIU employees. There are no layoffs. pending. We had a layoff pending with a recreation supervisor at the time of us writing the staff report, but you heard from our Recreation Supervisor this evening. that the success of his camp registrations. has helped us generate I think what he mentioned, $25,000 of revenue to offset his costs. And as we shared with the creativity of our administrative services director, and our Park and Rec Director, we found other opportunities that we think will keep that position funded. for at least the next six months. So it's not, at this moment. on the layoff list. So again, there are no layoffs. that are in our immediate future. um, The other one you heard it several times I mentioned at the beginning when you're asking questions we keep hearing 20%. a furlough. It's a 10% furlough over the course of the year. If you went to every other on Friday as what you heard in the letter and proposed. then over the course of the year, that'd be a 5% furlough. So we've got to make sure that we're we're speaking the same language here in terms of what's proposed. And specifically to Vice Mayor Withee's question, Um, We proposed deferring the cost of living increases and step increasing. step increases at the very first meeting and that was rejected. And it wasn't rejected because it would include additional layoffs. We didn't know, just as we didn't know and we predicted the good, bad and ugly scenarios, |
| 04:37:47.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:38:02.06 | Adam Politzer | back in at our first meeting in April. We didn't know how the opening of Marin County or opening of California or opening of the United States was going to roll forward. And we still don't know. That information is... is still lagging behind and obviously we are very fearful of what happens in the future. So there was a ton of requests for information. We responded as quickly as we could with the information that was available. Some of the requests took a lot of time to research and figure out. because we were moving in a lot of different directions with each of the departments to be able to verify how many contract employees we have or don't have, So we worked. Honestly, and openly and as transparently as we could during these times and that's what we had to offer. That's what we offered them the entire time. |
| 04:38:54.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:38:57.72 | Adam Politzer | Um, One of the other comments that was not accurate was the comment about the police norm. One, I never said that. I wasn't in the entire meeting because I had to take a call. with one of the members who wrote the letter. So I jumped off there. That may have been mentioned by another member of the team. which is our interim HR manager and our outside legal counsel negotiator. But what I did say, and I want to be really clear on this, is that our police department, and you heard it from Yulia earlier, is actively working on shared service agreements right now with the city of Mill Valley. We are looking at the future of how we work together with our neighboring police departments to help address the costs and expense of police departments. We put that forward. years ago. It's because of the pandemic that we got Mill Valley's attention to work with us and now here we are of sharing traffic. patrol support in detective work We're actively doing that today. We're not waiting until July 1 and we continue to see opportunities there. So the new norm is shared services. You heard from David Sudow. I talk about virtual inspections. That came from Sausalito. We led that effort. it's now being duplicated here in Marin County by the other. cities. They think that that's a great opportunity. that conversation is also leading to potential virtual permit centers where again we share all of our inspectors, we share all of our planning and building officials in one center, one virtual center. These are all good. They're also all very green. We need to break the habits of people feeling that they have to come to City Hall to fill out an application or to meet with staff. It's a lot more efficient doing it through these type of Zoom meetings. And again, I want to really thank and appreciate our Community Development Director, who's been leading this effort over the past six weeks in terms of all of these virtual ideas, where we are conducting all of the activities on the Planning Commission, the HLB, the general plan working group But all the things that the planning commission were able to receive the applications. And we're able to process those applications and then move to the building permit side of that where again, Issue the building permits. and do the virtual inspections all online here. So again, I think that those were some of the major items that came up. One last piece here. is that, |
| 04:41:42.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:41:42.62 | Adam Politzer | The actions that Sausalito is taking that we're asking the city council to support as we move forward. are the exact same actions that the city of Mill Valley is doing. The same actions that you read in the paper that the city of Larkspur is doing. The exact same actions that you've read that the city of San Rafael is doing. The exact same actions that you've seen the city of Novato doing. Early retirement incentives, furloughs for their non-essential employees, specifically, unfortunately, your Park and Recreation Department, personnel, your library, and your maintenance. And there's a reason for that. One is that they are the most impacted by the shelter in place order. They're closed. their programs have been have been shut down during this transition here. And unfortunately, what I think might have gotten misinterpreted to the new norm. is that it's not the new norm, Historically, over my 33 years in local government. Park and Recreation. library and maintenance during any downturn in the economy are hit first. And there's a reason for it. The main reason is that they're usually supported by hundreds of volunteers. Park and Rec events and services have a ton of volunteers. Same with the library. And as we are fortunate here, like other cities with groups like South Sud of Beautiful, There are a lot of groups like that that help jump in on maintenance. And in addition, These departments also have friends of and foundations of. the Recreation Foundation, in many cities come in and help supplement these expenses and this is what's happening here In our town, same type of examples. So it's a lifelong experience during economic downturns that this is where you trim the sales. And again, I appreciate all of our employees. I would also mention that I think we've been ahead of the curve. You look at how we've expanded library services since Abbott Chambers has been our librarian. There's not a person in this community that doesn't believe our library is top of the charts. And we've been expanding those services. Park and Rec, we've been expanding those services. I shared. with people from the folks that wrote the letter earlier, from the group that wrote the letter earlier, that, In my 13 years here, you know, if you look at the, the first, 10 years prior to me starting or seven years prior to me starting, The city did. $3 million worth of capital projects. So prior to 2007, go back seven years, they did $3 million worth of capital projects. And I took over in 2007 with zero in the reserves, zero fund balance. then we moved forward and recognized that that was not a good formula. And not only did we increase our fund balance to the minimum of 20%, we then were able to exceed it. but at the exact same time, we spent over that same seven year period going forward in the neighborhood of $40 million on capital projects. So not only were we expanding our services in park and rec library but we were also putting money away for the rainy day. And here we are in the rainy day and as council member Riley, shared earlier. We've contributed $3.3 million towards that rainy day. And we still are not having any layoffs as of this moment in time. So I will conclude by saying that I think we've done an outstanding job of the expanding our services, fixing our infrastructure, and protecting ourselves against catastrophic events. I will respond to Pat Guasco, who does an amazing job, has worked for the city for a number of years now, The reason why the sewer fund is not able to absorb any public works employees is that We went to the voters and increased the sewer fee based on three employees, doing maintenance work, of our system. and then the remainder of that balance for capital projects of an aging infrastructure. new employees into there that was not part of our sewer fee structure. Otherwise, we will jeopardize both the maintenance and the capital projects that we are desperately needing to continue to move forward. in this five year cycle. that our ratepayers are paying. And then the reason why the three employees are part of this, uh, the, uh, the furlough program, even though the sewer fund is fully funded, is because you're members of SEIU and you're part of that team. And the team is going to vote on what concessions, if any, they are willing to support to avoid layoffs. Thank you, Madam Mayor, for indulging me with all of that information. |
| 04:46:41.80 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:46:41.81 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you. Okay, thank you everyone. Um, so, uh, We could talk, we could sort of go around and talk that way, or maybe we could start off with the I'm reserve issue initially or I don't know do there a preference about how to get through our discussion for tonight and give direction to staff I'm sorry, undesignated reserves. |
| 04:47:18.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well, why don't we just, there's no other approach. Why don't we just, around and give our thoughts on all of his issues. I think we've come to agreement on the body-worn cameras. So we can reiterate that if we'd like, but otherwise why don't we focus on the other issues. Okay, Councilmember Reitling. |
| 04:47:50.16 | Councilmember Riley | I'll just jump in with, I guess we want to give direction to staff at this point. So I'll try to be crisp my thoughts. And these are hard decisions, and this is a hard time to be a council member and working in the city. Um, My thing is we are headed in the right direction. We've been working on this for about eight weeks. I think we are striking the right balance We are avoiding layoffs. and we are positioning ourselves or if something gets worse or something gets better to recover quickly. I fear things can get worse. And there's three things in front of us that we have no idea about. The first... If COVID returns, in the fall or the winter. We're in scenario three. and we're going to have another $4 to $5 million shortfall. Second, We're heading into an election year. Is that only highly contentious? It's super consequential on an economic societal level. Sir! The whole world. is an economic and than societal or social unrest. If you look at what's happening in Hong Kong, What's happening in the OPEC battles, what's happening in European Union and exits, Um, our trade war with China, There is more downside risk ahead of us than upside. and we are not very well prepared for scenario three. where we may have to find an additional $4 to $5 million. That's why it's important for us to have a surplus. The surplus actually allows us to save more jobs in the future in scenario three. Because without a surplus, we are doing significant cuts This plan allows us to keep our folks employed And things get worse to keep them employed longer and to deliver as many services as well. We can. um So I believe in staying the course. I think we made the right balance between dipping into our reserves, saving jobs, cutting projects, down to very line item details. I have just one recommendation and I feel for our employees that the next six months would have to take a 20% cut |
| 04:49:57.73 | Unknown | I love you. |
| 04:50:07.39 | Councilmember Riley | that's a good idea. What we're trying to do is save 10% over the course of a year. So maybe we can get creative about how we spread their pay reduction as 10% over the course of the year. We can do that by for a year shutting down every other Friday or asking to work four days the first half of the year but the 10% pay cut is over the full year. And there could be creative ways we do that. So they don't have that, financial burden upfront. That's one recommendation. Finally, I was asked by the mayor to help find creative ways to help raise funds. I hope I found some new colleagues in the active allies for Sausalito, and I would love to ask for your support. |
| 04:50:54.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Anyone else? I'm getting an echo. Thank you. Thank you. you Councilmember Cox or Burns, would you like to share your thoughts? |
| 04:51:08.95 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:51:08.96 | Councilmember Cox | Sure. So I too believe that we would be foolish to plan to end up with nothing. because that leaves us no contingency. You never undertake a construction project or any type of project with no contingency. I never. write checks until I have zero in my account. I always leave. a little bit in my account for unforeseen. expended expenses that I may not be anticipating and in these uncertain times I completely endorsed what council member Riley said we don't know if the pandemic is going to have a resurgence. We don't know if we're opening up too quickly and we're going to have to shut down again We don't yet know the full extent of the risk that we face. And for that reason, we would be Irresponsible. to all of our employees to leave ourselves with a negative balance in our checkbook. So I think we must plan. Um, I agree with taking the middle of the road option. We're not planning for the worst. We're not planning for the best. We're planning for the middle of the road that gives us options. If things turn out worse than what we're planning. I'm pleased that we have consensus For the body cameras, because we're the one force in Marin County that doesn't have them. But I also, have to commend the job that our police force does. I think we're the force that least needs them. Um, because we have such excellent officers who do such an excellent job. in situations of high stress, and I see them unfailingly polite, not exacerbating a challenging situation. So while I endorse the concept as a nationwide concept, um, I'm proud that. with the performance that's been demonstrated time after time after time and year after year by our police force. Um. I am interested to see what opportunities we can generate through community fundraising, through the mayor's blue ribbon committee, through grant funding, Um, and other approaches. To. is the challenges that we face. in terms of our budget. largely endorse what staff. is recommending in their presentation. or our budget. And You know, I don't know if everybody realizes how much our managers are working. You know, I'm having email conversations with our city manager at six in the morning and at one in the morning. So, um And the same with Yulia Carter, we got the PowerPoint last night at 1.20 a.m. It's now almost midnight. Um, THEIR OWNERS. managers are working around the clock and they don't get paid overtime. Um, And they it's through their. creative ideas and leadership that We are able to absorb tremendous losses in revenue. without more severe consequences. |
| 04:55:01.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 04:55:01.06 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:55:01.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. Joe? |
| 04:55:06.83 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you, Mayor. Well, the first two council members, Cox and Riley really hit a lot of the items I wanted to speak about. And I really appreciate their words. on the details of this budget I'm not sure. You know, I think one of our goals going in that we have little idea of what the future looked like. We wanted to be paired to strike and to go forth when things opened up. We just have to have a lot of our infrastructure there and our infrastructure, I'm not sure. the opportunity to earn the right the right things within our town like Brian Vitelli brought up you know, once they were opened, he was able to earn $25,000 in programming. That was a great example of right at the right time that came together. Um, So I think we really need to keep focusing on that. And absolutely, we need to keep this surplus intact because we don't know. because that might help fund that little bit. We don't know what's going to exist in September, October, but there could be a $100,000 expense that can make us five, six, $700,000 in revenue if we do it right. And that's what we have prepared to do. We don't want to lose all of our opportunity costs in the budget. We want to have opportunity available by having a little bit in our surplus to strike when it's when we're ready to strike. I'm not sure. Obviously we all feel for any employees across the state of California, especially within our own town right here that are hurting during this pandemic. And this thing started so abruptly, and came out of nowhere that we weren't able to plan for it. So we had, Nowhere other than hey, everything's closed down and We needed to act fast and I'm not sure we don't know the privy of all those discussions, but I get the feeling that Maybe SEIU is just a little slow in the proper reaction. And that is why there is some more hurt right now, I feel, just given the information we've received. We could have done some things earlier to kind of lessen that impact. I still want to lessen it as much as possible. And I hope that we continue to find ways to see areas that if we could bring somebody up to a normal spot that that we can get there quickly. Um, Again, the other council members said it so well, and I know I'm body cameras, I'm obviously in a little different position here, I was not expected to pull from a park situation for this. We had a budget and an idea prior to the George Floyd death. And it made a lot of sense where we stood on body cameras. at that point. After that, as Councilmember Cox said, There's a different social pressure upon us now. And I think our police and I send a note to our chief immediately during this this ordeal with what happened in Minnesota. supporting his his employees and saying how wonderful our staff is. And I'm glad that we have the type of police that would never make me think that we would have this type of thing happen in Sausalito. And I still believe that. However, It has happened in our world and it's something we have to deal with it I would rather see us really look first at the police budget for these funds It was the last place we looked just tonight. It was the last place we looked. And, That's the message I think we also have to say. is we don't just automatically take out of the community park and the a bike. basketball. for kids. to pay that social Now there's a going to be tremendous upside for our police department and having those tremendous upside for our community. I think we all agree we need to have them for a police item. Let's first find that money in the police budget. Um, And we didn't do that. And we're actually walking away tonight with an increase in their budget because we're going to take money from something else and put it in the police budget for body cameras when we really haven't had the right – we don't know what all those costs are like. We don't know all the information in particulars of those, We're all committed and I'm glad we're there. We didn't make a budget decision tonight. We just simply took something and moved it around. So I wanna know more about that for the next meeting, weirdly what costs we're looking and have we absolutely exhausted |
| 04:59:17.76 | Unknown | I want to know. |
| 04:59:23.71 | Councilmember Burns | that budget that I think should come out. because I don't think it should come out of basketball for kids. That said, I, can't say enough for what our staff and what Yulia and Adam have had to do for this budget. We've always said budgeting is so hard and it was so much harder this round We have a few things to tie up. and, um, to get us to this point so quickly, literally in half the amount of time that we normally have in a year with twice as many issues. abundantly impressed with the way our staff was able to get us to this point and crunch these numbers to this, to get us here. So thank you all for that. |
| 05:00:05.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Vice Mayor? |
| 05:00:09.67 | Vice Mayor Withey | Um, Well, I obviously will not repeat what others have said other than to say I fully agree with that. what everybody has said. Um, for The employees of the city of Sol Soledo who have known me since I joined the city council and I don't know, but there's a lot of you that are relatively new. I think if you're honest, you will know that I have been an enormous supporter. of the employees and the staff. And Even though I worked all my career in the private sector, in the non-unionized private sector, um, I, helped. I got through college by working on construction sites. and was a proud member of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners for seven years, as was my father. So I have a lot of respect for unions and what they've brought to employees and brought to society, actually. I'm not sure if you're But something's gone wrong here. Something's gone very wrong here. and I am very, very disappointed. Um, As I said, I felt earlier like I was living in two worlds. Um, And I'm not going to dwell on this point, but I would seriously ask SCIU to look into themselves and ask the question, Um, you know, uh, to. be part of the team. It was not management that suggested the 20%, as you call it, furlough. management suggested a reduction in your suspension of your Colas There are no layoffs. No employee of the city of Sausalito are losing their jobs. But that is not how you've portrayed it to the community. And I find that desperately disappointing. And that's all I'm going to say. |
| 05:02:38.75 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. Thank you everyone. I thought that council member Riley kicked off the discussion hitting some of the points that I think are really critical here that the uncertainty that we are facing leads us to a position where we must prepare Not only for the most likely scenario, which is what our current revenue loss projection is, but for the worst and also for a faster recovery that we need to stay flexible. We need to stay nimble. but we cannot go down to zero surplus or further deplete our undesignated reserves. I mean, it would just be completely would abdicate our responsibility at this point in time to not stay prepared for a much more serious outcome than the one we planned for. I also just want to say that we've also set ourselves, I think if we can reach an agreement with our employees. you know, who we do do care for a lot. We know all of you. We know all your faces. We're a small town. We are a small organization. Um, We need to also plan for a better scenario. And by avoiding layoffs and reducing hours, I feel like we are best set up to come back. without damaging our organization too much. um, And, you know, if we do get revenue opportunities as council member Burns has talked about, and how our staff has talked about, we are suited to take advantage of those. We're kind of trying to play both sides and it is painful. There is no doubt that these are very, very, very painful decisions and I feel them deeply. I, you know, can one up I'm vice mayor. I'm actually a union member now in my day job. and I, I, I, you know, this is, this is not fun. This is very serious and it hurts. So, um, I don't want anyone to feel that we are unsympathetic, but we are also trying to make decisions that protect us and put us in the best position for very, very uncertainly. future. I also just wanted to hit on the concept of the police budget. because the optics of that in our staff report and look very, They don't look good. And I understand. Why staff? Other staff. is feeling that way and the public is looking at that budget in that way. I just wanted to reiterate something our city manager talked about, that the police department budget is very inflexible. It's mostly made up of that you know, officer positions for staff. And we haven't really I don't think we're prepared to make significant cuts in service at this point. And if we did make significant cuts in service, we might be paying more in overtime. by the end of the year. And one of the things that is augmenting that is that by whatever odd fate of COVID, our health officer orders are only enforceable by our police department. So not only are we relying on our police department for their regular job um, you know, crime related and community policing activities. But now we're also relying on them to address the enforcement of the health orders. And so that would be a very significant conversation to have about about those cuts, but what I am committed to, and I think the entire council is committed to, and what we've already made very significant progress on is a more structural conversation that will not, happen in the next couple weeks, but hopefully will happen over this year and maybe next. about structural reform, where we can look to our neighboring jurisdictions or significant savings in our police budget with shared services and other creative arrangements. So I'm committed to continuing with the vice mayor and city manager and the chief. those conversations with our neighboring jurisdictions so that we can achieve real savings. Not to say we can't talk about this next week, Council Member Burns, but I think the real savings will be in longer term discussions around shared services. And so those are the two. things that I wanted to say that I don't I think had been said before. I guess I would just end on, you know, for the specific direction to staff. every, um, cut that we are looking at, you know, from library books to the docents. to the maintenance, you know, these are, they're just not one that I would really want to fully support. I mean, some couple of them are efficient and make sense, but most of them are very hard. I would just say that staff take a look, you know, and just make sure that we're not cutting, you know, cutting our nose, despite our face and some of the maintenance cuts that we are not Yeah. resulting in long-term damage that's gonna end up costing us So more to come back from. So that's my one, um, point on that. And with that, it is 10 past 12 and I will wrap up those comments and hope that that's sufficient direction for staff. for tonight. Yeah. |
| 05:08:48.26 | Vice Mayor Withey | Madam Mayor, I'm wondering whether we could have the city manager comment on whether he needs any further direction or whether we've given enough. would think might be helpful for us. |
| 05:09:01.89 | Adam Politzer | Thank you very much, Madam Mayor and Vice Mayor. I think that staff has the direction. and lots of comments that each of you provided. that are helpful. And please be assured that all of the comments we've heard from our public tonight on both items on business. We will continue to evaluate as we move forward. Thank you. |
| 05:09:30.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right, yes, and thank you to the public. I do want to say I really appreciate the public comment that it was very generally positive in the sense of lending allies and support in all of the areas, you know, whether it was Sassolito Beautiful or Erin Roller from our Bike Head Committee or the allies that everyone is also leaning in to offer support and hopefully we can galvanize that support and direct it productively. So thank you to everyone. Okay. I think we can wrap up on this item and move on to... are items eight, city manager reports, city council appointments and other council business. um, Bye. We're looking at our city. Oh, we should take public comment. So public comment on all these items. I do not see any hands raised. |
| 05:10:36.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Just confirming with the clerk. |
| 05:10:38.59 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, there are no additional hands raised. |
| 05:10:41.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we'll close public comment. Would the city manager note that it is 1210 AM? Thank you. Does he have any city manager report? |
| 05:10:54.10 | Adam Politzer | No, I think that You've heard enough from me tonight, but happy to answer any questions of our council members. |
| 05:11:01.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. I think it's been said earlier and often today, but we do want to thank you and your staff for the round the clock. and really, you know, Very hard work everyone has been doing both at a management and staff level. So thank you for that. I had on appointments, boards, commissions, and committees, I've already mentioned the formation of a Blue Ribbon Committee to develop creative funding sources. to offset the impacts. I am not ready to make the appointments to that tonight, but I am looking forward to working with Councilmember Riley to finish identifying a great team of folks in all many of the areas that we've talked about and other areas where we have We're looking at budget reductions or holes in our strategic plan. And I did just wanna emphasize and assure the city council that this is not a committee to run off run after new pet projects or things that we have not already discussed as a group either in our budget discussion for our strategic planning process. So this is meant to augment things that we've already agreed on as a team. that we would like to pursue, not that new vet projects. I'm looking forward to that and hope that it's successful and we'll be ready at our next meeting to form that group. Um... Okay, we have a... future agenda items. One thing I did want to ask the council about and think that we should agenda is we've had many, many public comments about events that we talked about last Thursday. Um... racial justice, inequity. systemic racism. I would like, you know, I think we all made statements to the effect that Um, you know, condemning George Floyd's and killing. but I think there are next steps And other follow through that we we'll be needing to work on over the coming months and year. So I'm going to put that on future agenda item. as the way to commit us to continue to work on those issues. Are there any other future agenda items? Okay, seeing none. Other reports of significance? Karen Hollweg, When you will, it is 1213 and thank you all, this was a long and hard discussion, but I appreciate your. input and appreciate all of the members of the public and especially our employees who came to comment. I don't know. And thank you for everyone's input tonight. And we will adjourn. Take care. |
| 05:14:07.28 | Alan Burland | Step into the jazz lounge with me. |
| 05:14:08.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:14:08.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm not. |
| 05:14:09.61 | Alan Burland | Alan Burland, your host. There's no cover, no minimum. every Friday and Monday night, beginning at 8. on Radio Sausalito. |
| 05:14:20.04 | Kevin Carroll | Tell your friends about the radio station that |