| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:01.67 | Heidi Scoble | to fail. Looking for video? |
| 00:00:07.44 | Unknown | Thank you. you |
| 00:00:10.27 | Heidi Scoble | Video is on now we will admit our participants. Good evening, Mayor Cleveland Knowles and Council Members. This meeting is being held pursuant to section three of executive order N-29-20 issued by Governor Newsom on March 17th, 2020. And all members are joining this meeting telephonically through Zoom and is broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:36.65 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, good evening and welcome everyone to the Sausalito City Council regular meeting of September 8th. Could our clerk please call the roll? |
| 00:00:45.86 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley. |
| 00:00:47.50 | Unknown | here. |
| 00:00:48.31 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:00:49.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:00:49.95 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:00:49.96 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:00:50.17 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:00:50.64 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:00:52.06 | Unknown | Here. |
| 00:00:52.34 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:00:52.90 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Withey? |
| 00:00:54.34 | Sandra Bushmaker | Here. |
| 00:00:55.25 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. here. |
| 00:00:57.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:00:57.32 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. All members are present and there is a quorum. |
| 00:01:00.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. The first item on our agenda is a closed session with two items. Conference with Real Property Negotiator. about the property at the foot of locust and a conference with real property negotiator on the MLK school site. So I, yes, Council member Cox may have an announcement. |
| 00:01:25.32 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will be recusing myself from item two conference with real property negotiator regarding the MLK school site, given the proximity to which I live to that property. |
| 00:01:38.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. |
| 00:01:39.37 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:01:39.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So those are the two items on our closed session and I will open it up now for public comment. Is there anyone here that would like to comment on either of these closed session items? |
| 00:01:39.88 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:01:53.35 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, I am seeing no raised hands from the members of the public. Could the clerk confirm? |
| 00:01:60.00 | Heidi Scoble | Near Cleveland Knowles, there are no hands raised at this time. |
| 00:02:03.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. OK, we will adjourn this meeting and go into closed session. We will resume at 7 PM in open session. So thank you, everyone. We'll see you shortly. |
| 00:02:16.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:02:16.89 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:02:16.92 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:16.97 | Councilmember Cox | personal family reasons maybe. |
| 00:02:18.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:18.83 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. . |
| 00:02:23.33 | Heidi Scoble | Is video on as well? Okay. So we're ready to go. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna admit everybody in. Are you ready? One last call. |
| 00:02:33.97 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:02:34.50 | Heidi Scoble | You're ready. |
| 00:02:34.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:39.37 | Heidi Scoble | The participants have been admitted. So we're ready to go. |
| 00:02:44.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Good evening, everyone, and welcome back to our regular meeting of September 8th. We have just come out of closed session and we have no closed session announcements. So we are going to move on to our first agenda item, which is approval of our agenda. Are there any changes or Do I have emotions? |
| 00:03:06.08 | Mary Wagner | Move approval. |
| 00:03:09.27 | Councilmember Riley | second. |
| 00:03:10.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, we have a motion and a second. Heidi, could you please call the roll? |
| 00:03:15.14 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley. |
| 00:03:16.68 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:03:16.69 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 00:03:17.77 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns? Council member Cox. Yes. Vice Mayor Withey? |
| 00:03:23.07 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 00:03:23.59 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. And Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:03:25.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. Thank you, that motion passes five zero. So we're gonna move on to the first item on our agenda tonight, which is special presentations and mayor's announcements. Before we get started on our special presentation, I did just want to note that our thoughts are with our city manager. He cannot be here tonight due to family reasons, but we are all sending him warm wishes. And tonight we have a, presentation by the Marin County Commission on Aging representatives, Sybil Boutelier. and we're very excited to welcome her here tonight. and to hear a brief presentation. So welcome Sybil. are very proud of the work that you've been doing and are looking forward to your update. |
| 00:04:14.89 | Sybil | Thank you very much, fair and city council members um, I'll just launch right into this. presentation. Um, Thank you. Yes. Um, Right. Heidi, are we ready? Yes, we're ready. Okay, so I'll just say next for each slide. And I'm gonna try to move through it really fast with, so I was hoping to cover a lot of territory in a short period of time, so. Thank you. Here we go. All right. So, The Marin County Commission on Aging is a 23 member of federally mandated advisory council to the county board of supervisors. The commission works closely with the aging and adult services on behalf of Marin's older adults. Commissioners are appointed to three-year terms by either the Board of Supervisors or the 11 incorporated cities and towns we're in. And we also have two representatives of the California Senior Legislature, which were elected by the commission and serve as ex-official members. And I must say I'm very honored to be reappointed. by the city council and the service Salcelito's representative on the commission. Next slide. So the commission works in close coordination with women, aging and adult services, which is part of the health and human services agency as mandated by the older Americans Act. Next slide. |
| 00:05:57.65 | Sybil | Board of Supervisors is the designated area agency on aging for Moran. the Aging and Adult Services, administers the programs, and the Commission on Aging is mandated to approve the area plan. We advocate for older adults in the region which we do primarily through our committee structure The commission meets the first Thursday of every month and we bring in an expert for a public presentation for the first hour of our meetings. And those who are attended by the public and on current issues of importance to older adults. I serve on the planning committee, which oversees needs assessments. The new equity committee that started to work with minority organizations around the county and as chair of the legislative committee. The lead committee submits policy priorities for older adults to the county administrator. by administration which is included in the Board of Supervisors policy and legislative priorities annually. And we work with our legislators to recommend positions or provide testimony on legislative bills at state and federal level. I previously served on the Housing and Transportation Committee which has been a big advocate for ADUs and JADUs in the county. So I'm happy that South Salido has picked that up. and run with it. So, Next slide. We've been following the progress. These are, this is sort of the context in which the commission operates. We've been, we follow the progress of the master plan on aging at the state level, and we provided early input into that planning. A member of our alleged committee sits on the long-term services and supports committee of the master plan And, um, which gives us a little bit of an extra voice in there The master plan committee recommendations will go to the governor in September. And the governor's plan is due to come out in December. The equity outreach and advocacy committee, which I sit on, is assigned to work with a board of supervisors subcommittee on monitoring the county's new age friendly plan, the countywide plan. and Aging Action Initiative. is a convening and collaborative body for all the service provider network in Marin with over 200 members. um, They really are the ones taking care of our older adults in so many ways. Their annual convening is next week, the 16th and 17th of September. And they offer a series of webinars called Informant Connect. on important topics for elected and other officials on a regular basis. . Aging and Disability Resource Connection is the go-to place for information, referral, help with any kind of service or program offered for older adults in Marin. And they partner closely with the Marin Center for Independent Living. Next slide. |
| 00:09:14.26 | Sybil | So this was the expected budget at the time the area plan was presented for public hearing, which is in April of every year. The final funding for this year is obviously still evolving. As we receive some extra funding for COVID and expect some more, but like everyone else, We're waiting for Congress to pass the CARES or COVID Relief Act to see what other funds may be coming to counties and what we're counting on that may not come at the state level. Next slide. |
| 00:09:49.79 | Sybil | you So these are the area agency programs under the Old Americans Act. And during COVID there's been a need to make some changes. For example, congregate meals had to be suspended and there was an increase in home delivered meals, including some new programs such as the Great Place program, which is starting up again later this week for the 717 people who were previously enrolled. Many other in-person programs have been greatly curtailed, as you know. And some services going online are by phone, managed by phone. And hundreds of people have been coached to become new users of Zoom Uh. This year's Karen Hollweg, age friendly self legal. Well, right, I wanted to say that this year, Age Family Sausalito and Sausalito's Park and Recreation Department and Dominican University will jointly be providers of one of these programs, the Health and Promotion and Disease Prevention. We're getting a small grant from the county board. to provide several free classes of evidence-based Tai Chi for arthritis and fall prevention. Next slide. So every four years, the AAA area, aging on aging, creates a new area plan with updates each year. We just started our new four-year plan. The planning committee assists aging and adult staff in creating and we usually assist in implementing the countywide needs assessment that helps inform the plan. Next slide. So here's just a snapshot of older adults, 74,177, or over the age of 60. That number is growing and expected to equal some 35% of county population in the next 15 or 20 years. It's currently at 29%. 25% of older adults are under the 300% of their federal poverty level, which means they have less than $38,280 annual income. Next slide. |
| 00:12:10.72 | Sybil | Mm-hmm. So for this survey, which was conducted last August through September, so pre-COVID. We did something different, but it is the baseline for our four-year plan, which will be updated every year. The county contracted with Davis Research to conduct the needs assessment through a telephone survey. And the planning committee helped develop questions. Other questions came from FEMA, USDA. California Department of Aging and community partners. Um, So even though it was done before COVID, it's useful as a baseline of general concerns among county seniors. Next slide. |
| 00:13:00.01 | Sybil | So, oh, here are two of our terrific commissioners. Next slide. So prior to shelter in place, 35% of older adults were either already food insecure or at risk of being so. Next slide. Respondents were asked their potential level of concern on 17 issues, ranging from affordable housing, affording housing to being isolated, And The five most frequently indicated concerns were relatively consistent across ages, rates and income levels. Interesting change from the previous year. When responding to a written survey, Wink fears of falling as number one and cognitive impairment is number two. Here, of course, it's climate change and disasters. such as fires, earthquakes, pandemics. So one third of older adults reported having fallen sometime during the past year, even though it wasn't ranked first this time. And in regards to disasters, 50% said that they had prepared some sort of a disaster bag for their home, but the most had no communication plan. Next slide. Of course, there were a number of differences between different recognized groups of respondents. Next slide. Eating alone all of the time is an indicator of potential Social isolation, which can lead to depression and poor physical and emotional health outcomes. And 15% of all older adults reported eating alone all of the time, and this was pre-shelter in place. So now, of course, that number is much higher. Next slide. Women state that they sometimes often feel excluded or devalued because of their age since turning 60. Men report receiving more help for daily tasks from their spouses, family and friends than women. And women, we put it They were three times as likely to eat alone all of the time. Next slide. People of color were twice as likely to be food insecure in comparison to white older adults and to feel that they're not respected in the community and more likely to have looked for work unsuccessfully pre-COVID era. Next slide. So all the disparities that I mentioned are felt as having been exacerbated or have been exacerbated among the lower income of persons in our county. you. Next slide. you additional information in addition to that. This is just like a snapshot of the of the needs assessment and the full assessment is available if anyone would like to see it. Additional information helps to inform our annual area plan and no doubt additional targeted needs assessments will be conducted as the year progresses. And due to the extraordinary conditions and challenges that older adults in Marin are dealing with in this age of coronavirus, wildland fires, financial instability, and climatic But for the first year of our four-year plan, These are the, quickly we're going to run through the goals that we've set. Next slide. So we'll be continuing advocating for older adults at all levels of government. Next slide. improving access to resources and information to achieve greater equity. Next slide. Promoting the importance of the social determinants of health, Next slide. and leading efforts for an age-friendly county. Next slide. So the county's created is, this is my last slide, the county's created its Age-Friendly Strategic Action Plan age forward, Moran. and has just hired a person to coordinate the implementation among the county departments and in the unincorporated area. So we should note that the county plan includes creating A home adaptation permit fee waiver inspired by Sal Salido's forward looking program. And just as a quick update, The last thing I wanted to say was that Age-Family Sal Salido is now on our evaluation phase of our initial plan as required by the World Health Organization. and AARP Livable Communities. We're starting to prepare our questionnaire for the follow-up survey like the baseline we did a few years ago to evaluate the community awareness and success of the programs that South Lidl's put in place so far. as part of the Age Friendly Initiative and also to identify gaps and new areas for improvement to lay the ground for the next iteration. of the Age-Friendly Action Plan. So we'll be looking for volunteers who'd like to help with the survey. And in the meantime, it's interesting to see this view of the broader marine concerns among older adults. But our follow-up age-friendly cell-solidol survey will give us more insight into the specific concerns and challenges opportunities in our own community. Next slide. So I want to thank you for this opportunity to talk about the work of the Commissioner on Aging. And especially I want to tell you how honored I am to have the opportunity to serve on your behalf. Thank you. |
| 00:18:57.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you so much, Sybil. This is a really excellent presentation and we can't thank you enough for all the work that you've been doing. I particularly found the results of the pre-COVID survey to be really interesting, but also, you know, it's, I think it also highlights how difficult it is as people age, you know, in some of the loneliness and depression and other |
| 00:19:11.38 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:19:22.36 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | instances that come with that. So thank you for highlighting those issues and for your continued Perfect. We're really, as I said earlier, very proud to have you representing us at the county level. Are there any questions from council members before I take public comments? |
| 00:19:41.37 | Unknown | I will also say thank you Sybil so much. in some of those meetings with you at the county and you're just a dynamite, so thank you. |
| 00:19:49.79 | Sybil | Thank you, my pleasure. |
| 00:19:52.27 | Councilmember Riley | So I want to make sure that everybody understands the respect that Sol Solito has garnered over the last number of years as really a leader. in this effort. I had the great honor of being mayor when we applied to the World Health Organization for our status. and we were one of the first and through my role with the first city to do this, Well done, Sybil. And through this, we also, through the Marine County Councils and mayors and council members started developing this as a program. And of course, each time anybody wanted to speak at MCC, MC, they contacted Sol Solito because we were leading the effort. So it was a great pleasure. And so it's also a model for how complex issues need to get resolved in more of a county and regional level. of which we participate, and that's something we shouldn't forget. So thank you, Sybil, for your effort. |
| 00:21:01.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Cox, it looks like you're leading forward. |
| 00:21:04.51 | Councilmember Cox | Oh, sorry. |
| 00:21:05.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | No, I didn't want to say something. Okay. |
| 00:21:05.59 | Councilmember Cox | Oh, right. I did. No, I will say I've spoken with some of the city council candidates. who cannot, who have met with Sybil, who cannot believe the amount of work that she does and what she contributes to the city, all very much behind the scenes. So thank you, Sybil. It's very impressive what you do for us. And as Bray said, how much of a leader you make us in this field. |
| 00:21:31.66 | Unknown | And I will show, Sybil, thank you. |
| 00:21:35.59 | Unknown | I was amazed at how comprehensive the programs are. It's not one effort, it's very, very comprehensive. work with the county is very very important and thank you for representing Sausalito so well. |
| 00:21:48.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Great. Okay, we'll open it up to public comment. You know, given the huge or high number of seniors living in Marin and even higher percentage living here in Sausalito, we're just also so glad to have all your work during COVID and the fires and the smoke, because as you mentioned, all of that just exacerbates existing issues. So thank you. All right, I think I saw Miss Bushmaker here with her hand raised, but now it has. disappeared from my, there she is. Great. Sandra Bushmaker, welcome. |
| 00:22:25.02 | Sandra Bushmaker | I also wanna thank Sybil for all the hard work that she's been doing on behalf of seniors. And I am now one and have been for quite some time. So it's very nice to have that, your efforts and Sausalito Village available to seniors. These are comments just for Sybil's presentation. Is that correct? |
| 00:22:49.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:22:49.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 00:22:49.51 | Sandra Bushmaker | to the |
| 00:22:49.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | general public comment in just a moment. |
| 00:22:51.26 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:22:51.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:22:51.65 | Sandra Bushmaker | All right. And so thank you again, Sybil, for all your hard work and the support of the council on your behalf and the county's behalf. Okay. Thank you. |
| 00:23:01.35 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Cassandra. Alice Merrill, welcome. |
| 00:23:14.38 | Alice Merrill | Unmute, okay. I just wanna ditto, thank you, Sybil. That sounds really wonderful and it's, a lot that you've been doing and I appreciate it. Thank you. Good. Not. Exactly. |
| 00:23:26.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | is Great. Thank you, Alice. Okay, I don't see any additional public comment. So again, thanks to Sybil for being here with us this evening and for a great presentation and for all your hard work. So we will move on to our next item. which is general public comment. So this is a time for members of the public to comment on items are not on our agenda tonight and I also want to thank people who have written in with general public comments. on various topics, including the ICB artists and I know there was some, oh yes, but |
| 00:24:08.12 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:24:09.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Committee for a tunnel of light and a few other projects, so thank you for those those are really helpful and great for members of the public, those are available on our agenda. And I have, let's see, two members of the public, Caroline Revell, |
| 00:24:24.87 | Unknown | So, |
| 00:24:25.32 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 00:24:29.86 | Carolyn Revell | Am I unmuted? You are welcome. |
| 00:24:32.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:24:33.66 | Carolyn Revell | Okay, good evening Madam Mayor and members of the council. I'm Carolyn Revell speaking on behalf tonight of the committee of Sausalito and City Residents dedicated to linking our two communities by a project that is both symbolic and physical, It is a project that will enlist school children from both communities in decorating mosaic tiles that will be arrayed on the walls of the tunnel under 101. and we're calling it tunnel of light. As noted in your packet, our committee is in the early stages of refining this concept originally proposed three years ago by Sonia Hansen and the board of the Center for Excellence at Bayside MLK. along with their advocacy for improved lighting in the tunnel. We're planning outreach to local stakeholders and community organizations, identifying needed agency approvals, pursuing funding sources and initiating the all important art element. The latter includes identifying one or two artists from Sausalito and Marin City to develop a unifying design and identifying local art departments to assist with the actual fabrication of the tiles. And naturally, the fabrication of the tiles must wait till the school children come back, since this is a collaborative process. That's the point of it. I'm not sure if you're Naturally, we must, yes, wait till schools reopen. Our goal in bringing this project before you this evening is for information only. Please note we're not here with our hands out stretched for funding. The project will need to be approved by Caltrans and will follow their detailed guidelines for securing approval. The actual applicant will be the county. And when we're further along with our planning, we will ask for an official city Council endorsement. to be included with our application, but we welcome the council's initial reaction to the project and with the current unification program underway in our school district, and the emphasis on racial justice and social equity, we believe the time is right for this creative and inspiring project linking our two communities. I hope you'll agree and I'll answer any questions if I'm able. Thank you. |
| 00:26:37.92 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:26:47.21 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening again. Last week at your special meeting, I made a request orally and in writing for documents concerning item D one on your closed Session Agenda. I haven't heard from staff or any of you with regard to that request. and would like to inquire as to the status If this involves what I think it involves, it's toxic materials next to Dumpy Park that were removed from Dumpy Park, I think this, issue requires public. awareness. And I think Mr. Laughing and shaking his head, which I find really disrespectful. |
| 00:27:29.11 | Councilmember Riley | wrong topic. |
| 00:27:30.52 | Sandra Bushmaker | Yeah, it doesn't involve that, Sandra. |
| 00:27:32.18 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:27:32.79 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:27:32.80 | Sandra Bushmaker | All right, that's good to know. |
| 00:27:32.84 | Councilmember Riley | All right. |
| 00:27:34.17 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:27:34.29 | Sandra Bushmaker | That's good to know. |
| 00:27:35.03 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. And- |
| 00:27:35.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And- Your request is a public... |
| 00:27:36.16 | Councilmember Cox | You are. is a public records act request which the city has to |
| 00:27:40.97 | Sandra Bushmaker | to respond to. Okay, thank you very much. That's all I needed to know. Just wanted to make sure it was in the works. Thank you. |
| 00:27:48.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It is in the works. Also, Jumpe Park is on our agenda tonight under our business items. It's our first item. So we can also ask questions of staff about that issue at that point in time. I do not see any further members of the public with their hands raised. Hello, DC. Thank you. |
| 00:28:09.35 | Heidi Scoble | one. Mayor Cleveland Knowles, there are no additional hands raised at this time. |
| 00:28:13.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and I also realized that we did not, as we usually do, announce how, if there's anyone here that has not participated in the room before, how a member of the public could participate if they wanted. So do you mind just running through that quickly? |
| 00:28:28.74 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, members of the public may address the city council regarding items on this agenda item, which is communications. 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. |
| 00:29:04.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Okay, and I still do not see any hands raised for this item. So we will move on to item three. which is the action minutes of previous meetings. I believe we have three prior meetings with action minutes. Are there any comments or corrections? Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:29:23.18 | Councilmember Cox | Yes, on the minutes for August 18, page four of eight, it shows at line 33, it shows me moving approval of an item from which I abstained. So I, there was someone else who moved approval of that item. |
| 00:29:42.08 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Which item was that? |
| 00:29:43.89 | Councilmember Cox | item 5L and 5M on the consent calendar. |
| 00:29:47.65 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I think that was vice mayor withy who moved those items, but I'm sure. |
| 00:29:51.79 | Councilmember Cox | They're showing him as the second. I don't, so I don't, if he moved it, I thought he moved it also. I don't know who was the second. |
| 00:29:59.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well, we'll have staff, I think we can just allow them to review the tape. |
| 00:30:03.73 | Councilmember Cox | . |
| 00:30:03.77 | Councilmember Riley | Yeah. |
| 00:30:04.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | that correction. |
| 00:30:05.40 | Councilmember Riley | Easy fix. |
| 00:30:06.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 00:30:07.02 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:30:07.29 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And that was the |
| 00:30:07.97 | Councilmember Cox | only correction in all three minutes that I found. Thank you. |
| 00:30:11.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Anyone else? Okay, I think we can take all three minutes with the correction by one motion. I'll move approval as amended. |
| 00:30:21.15 | Councilmember Riley | Second. |
| 00:30:22.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:30:22.97 | Heidi Scoble | I don't know. Could the clerk please call the roll? THE CASE. |
| 00:30:28.18 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 00:30:28.89 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Burns. |
| 00:30:30.34 | Vice Mayor Withey | I guess. |
| 00:30:30.98 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Cox? Yes. Vice mayor Withy? Yes. And Mayor of Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:30:36.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, motion carries 5-0 and our action minutes are approved. And so we'll move on to item four, which is council member committee reports. This is a time for council members to discuss the work that they do outside of these meetings. Would anyone like to start? |
| 00:30:59.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, I'm going to just, so Council Member Riley. |
| 00:31:05.51 | Unknown | Well, my other council members are so shy. Um, I have just four items to report. So the economic development advisory committee met on August 31st, accomplished three things. We reviewed commercial revenue by GeoZone. It was a very informative presentation by staff. While it was in a public meeting, I think it would be great to have another public forum or means to share that information to really know where our revenues come from different businesses and zones. Um, We reviewed a proposal to continue the street closure at Caledonia Street on Restaurant Row. EDAC committee recommended that we continue the closure and to move to what we call phase two, closing from Thursday night through Sunday night so the restaurants can beautify and put more investment into the streets and make it a better experience now that we have good weather. And finally, the committee provided input on the general plan language specific to racial justice and social equity. And I was very pleased with the input that was provided. A subgroup of EDAC members are working with three property owners in the downtown that have vacant properties or are struggling to stay open. And what we're trying to do is help them with permitting processes or ways that the city can help their businesses. I won't go into the details here. We are supporting the chamber's efforts to put artwork in the windows of vacant buildings downtown so we don't just have wood or sheets of paper. We're putting some nice artwork. There's a proposal to put a beautiful mural across three or four windows, fix some of the scaffolding. So very supportive of that. I think we know from EDAC and even the last city council meeting that one of our businesses in the marine ship, Engineered Fluids, is struggling to find location. I placed a few calls on their behalf with no luck as of yet, but we're continuing to try to retain them. |
| 00:33:08.39 | Mary Wagner | that. |
| 00:33:10.05 | Unknown | I sit on the waterfront committee with council member Cox. And we've had several discussions with Bridgeway Marina as noted in our closed session, nothing to report. but discussions there. And then finally, I am on the Blue Ribbon Committee for Creative and Alternative Funding Mechanisms. I'm in a subgroup working on the parks and we're trying to begin a process to raise $150,000 for Southview Park, That will be $50,000 for the beautification and landscaping of the park. And South Florida beautiful is leading that effort. working with them and we are going to be raising $100,000 to complete the infrastructure for that park. But this is also a mechanism for how on an ongoing basis we can beautify our parks with this blue ribbon committee That's the end of my report. Thank you. |
| 00:34:04.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Councilmember Cox? |
| 00:34:13.41 | Councilmember Cox | Sure. In addition to the two meetings I attended with Council Member Riley regarding Bridgeway Marina, I also attended one or two meetings. regarding our identification of potential housing sites for the future together with a way to spend some money that Senator Mike McGuire is identifying for us. and for many Marin jurisdictions. that has to be spent in the next couple of years. So we are strategizing about how if we were to as a council agree on a site and spend money, could we count that housing towards our next housing element instead of our existing housing element where we're on track for low income housing? I think we're going to form a subcommittee to continue these discussions but very interesting and exciting stuff. And I think, oh, and then, I participated in a meeting with the mayor regarding our general plan. process and how to strategize moving forward with that. That's it. |
| 00:35:33.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Councilmember Burns, anything to report? |
| 00:35:38.84 | Unknown | No, I don't. I wasn't able to attend the school district continuation of their unification meetings due to the meetings that we've been having here on the same night, the last two. you and Tom Riley reported on the EDAC so thank you Councilman Riley. |
| 00:35:55.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Vice Mayor? |
| 00:35:58.11 | Councilmember Riley | Yeah, I don't have much to report. I am, however, going to have a very significant update, which I'm thinking I'm going to put partially in writing next time. Um, on MC Clean Energy. Part of the reason why I'm a bit hesitant tonight, we've had a variety of ad hoc meetings. I find myself on the ad hoc audit committee, on the ad hoc bonding and financing committee. and I'm on the technical committee, which is not an ad hoc committee, But we have been, apart, those, there's subject matter there, but it's all going to get integrated in a strategic planning retreat that we're planning to have on September 18th. Out of that is going to come some clear policy direction and what we're planning to do for the next year. So I thought it would be probably more appropriate to give a detailed update as to where that's going and how all the different MCEs sort of, arrows, the vectors are sort of coming together for a really important change of perspective. And my only other duty at the moment, until we've resumed finance committee meetings in the next month or so, is being the sustainability commission. And unfortunately, due to a schedule in snafu, the last meeting on my calendar. But the sustainability is doing some important work right now, especially in the interface into the general plan that they discussed. But also figuring out how to position sustainability commission in the time period ahead. And I've got a couple of more months, and I hope that I want to sort of work on that with them, because... there's a very important intersection that needs to be, the gaps need to be filled in over the next couple of months. And that's the relationship between our sustainability, of which we have by the way, one of the Counties leading and most respected commissions. Let's not forget it. Um, that rejuvenated by a whole bunch of, you know, subject matter experts, to be quite right, as our mayor knows, having been the liaison. I mean, these guys know what they're talking about. And so we are forming, need to form interrelationships with the county's efforts and more regional efforts. And in particular, Drawdown Marin, which I alluded to, I think, the last meeting, is coming to some important structural decision-making points in the next month of the county. And part of what we need to determine is how we're gonna interface our respective sustainability commissions and how this whole thing is gonna get pieced together. So we're in a very important moment. sort of forming of a sustainability climate action network that is more robust in the county than we are currently going and our sustainability commission will have a major role to play there |
| 00:39:17.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you for those updates. I think everyone has covered almost everything that I had except just following up on the sustainability issue I'm taking the other half of the blue ribbon agenda, which is sustainability. And I've been working with two of our members on a really exciting, kind of framework for how to move some of our I think that's a good question. grand visions in the general plan. into reality and to start working with some partners to find financing and to find ways to action, make actionable our goals and objectives. So we're working on that. go to the Sustainability Commission and among other places eventually here. Okay, so I will open it up to public comment on committee reports. If there's any member of the public who would like to... way in, not seeing any raised hands. The clerk just confirmed. |
| 00:40:19.75 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles there are no additional hands raised and please let me know if you'd let me like me to read the intro on how to provide public comment anytime during this agenda. |
| 00:40:30.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | THANK YOU. Announce that I haven't seen too many new folks arrive, so we'll hold off for now. We will move on to item five, our consent calendar. And I would just like to note, I don't have anything I wanna take off consent, but I do wanna just recognize the huge amount of work reflected in the consent calendar this week, the Community Development Department quarterly report, the library's quarterly report and director of communications annual report I just, you know, I kind of got exhausted reading about all the work that you've done and just wanna huge kudos for everything that you've done to adapt with COVID and to really kind of plow ahead. make some really great changes that will live with us past COVID and make us more efficient. and effective. |
| 00:41:31.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | a proposal to keep Karen Hollweg, The name age friendly in the grant program I don't know if our Community development directors online I did see some email correspondence. about that, but just a small change in the resolution, I think, in the name of the program. And then I did just wanna let everyone know, we did ask last week for a revised general plan schedule and that is in our packet 5i and I just want to thank staff for getting that together so quickly. and coming up with a schedule that really provides for so much additional public input and transparency but keeps our general plan moving along. So thank you for that. Are there any council member comments or any items that you would like to take off of our consent. |
| 00:42:28.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, seeing, oh, Council Member Cox. |
| 00:42:30.62 | Councilmember Cox | Yes, I am not requesting to remove anything from consent, I did want to note that the constraint of the grant that we are seeking Southview Park renovation does require that it remain as a park for 30 years. I'm and that we have to, you know, execute a deed restriction to that effect. I personally don't have any problem with that. I just wanted to be sure we're all aware that we are, you know, constraining the disposition of that. Park. for 30 years by entering into it by applying for and accepting this grant. |
| 00:43:08.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. I did see that and I can't imagine that we will be abandoning Southview Park in 30 years, but I think that's a good thing to note. Thank you for that. Anyone else? Okay, I'm gonna open it up to public comment on our consent calendar. We have items 5A through 5I. Is there any public comment? not seeing any hands raised. Heidi, do you see anyone that I'm missing? |
| 00:43:39.77 | Heidi Scoble | Your Cleveland knows there are no additional hands raised. |
| 00:43:43.33 | Councilmember Riley | So, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of consent calendar items 5A through 5I. |
| 00:43:50.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Second. Okay, could the clerk please call the roll? |
| 00:43:53.51 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:43:54.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:43:54.45 | Heidi Scoble | on some of Riley. |
| 00:43:56.06 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 00:43:56.83 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:43:58.35 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 00:43:59.01 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Vice Mayor Withey. |
| 00:44:02.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:44:02.66 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. |
| 00:44:02.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. |
| 00:44:02.91 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:44:05.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. that motion is approved 5-0 on our consent item. So we will move on to item six, our public hearing items. There are none. We'll move on to our business items, which is item seven. We have several business items and we are starting off with a very exciting item, long time coming, but still really pleased to have this presentation. This is Dumphy Park Update by Lauren Ambertus, Public Works Division. And I see Kevin McGowan, perhaps he wants to kick this off and get us started. |
| 00:44:46.40 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Mayor, members of City Council. I'm Kevin McGowan with the Department of Public Works. And yeah, I just want to step in very quickly to introduce Lauren. But working behind the scenes as well have been many, many people, including Mike Langford, our city manager. our city attorney to help us. move this project along, folks working behind the scenes who you don't really see out in the field But a large portion of this has been on Loren's shoulders. And I just want to introduce him. He is our maintenance manager, running our crews out in the field, as well as moving this project forward. So hopefully during this time, Loren's ready to step in and give his presentation. |
| 00:45:31.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Welcome. Lauren, good to see you. And if you could just maybe at the end, make sure to address that we had a member of the public asking about the toxic waste removal. I think that is part of your presentation, but just make sure to include that. |
| 00:45:49.95 | Lauren | Sure, that'll be no problem. And I expect that there will be some questions at the end of this. Madam Mayor, it's good to see you as well. I haven't been able to come in front of the council for a long while, so it's my pleasure to say hello to everyone. hope everyone is healthy and happy. It is my honor to talk about Dunphy Park and to and give an update on where we stand with that park. It's as Kevin mentioned, it has been |
| 00:46:11.36 | Mary Wagner | I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT I |
| 00:46:13.49 | Lauren | a grand effort on the parts of many people. And so I want to give everyone an update on where we are today, where we're going to go, what we still have left to do. and, and, I will thank a few people along the way. I do have a PowerPoint presentation that we can go through and of course there will be afterwards, I'm sure. So we'll just start off very quickly. You have a rendering up in the upper left here and just a picture from the offices next door showing the park. We began this project essentially in December of 2018 so it has been going on for a long while and there are a lot of reasons for that. which we can go into tonight. But there are lots of really good things that have happened in this project. A brief history, many of you already know this, the Dunphy Park project was at one point a municipal burn dump. and it was converted into a public park by the community of Sausalito. And more recently in 2016, Jacques Ullman and Paul Leffingwell created the Friends of Dumfey Park where they envisioned a community park with new features, with upgrades to meet accessibility requirements and to really go into the next 30 to 50 years. as a public park. Initially, we went out on this project out to bid. And we had the entire project as one single project and everything was included in that. And those bids came in approximately $4.9 million for everything. And that was one contractor. to try to do everything. Not just at the time wasn't feasible. We, city staff, along with a lot of our consultants, stood back took a look at the project, broke it up into different parts, stated that we were going to manage a number of those projects in parts individually in order to save the community money. And so we went back out to rebid. and eventually selected a contractor in Tecna Construction Thank you. |
| 00:48:15.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:48:15.32 | Lauren | services. at $2.175 million for doing the general engineering scope of kind of the main field area. but anticipated that we were going to do all the other scopes of work, irrigation, planting. some of the other elements individually as part of separate scopes and manage those processes I'm not sure. on our own in order to save money. So we went back out and we did eventually start that project. And that started in, as I mentioned, December of 2018. I've had the honor of taking a few people out and giving them a tour of the project, but there are some highlights of what has been completed at Dunphy that I think are really important. We've upgraded our sanitary system at that site that serves |
| 00:49:02.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | site. Can I just say, are you meaning to be showing a PowerPoint |
| 00:49:04.68 | Lauren | Interesting. |
| 00:49:08.28 | Lauren | Oh, yes, I was. |
| 00:49:09.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, because I cannot see your, I don't think you're sharing your screen. |
| 00:49:14.74 | Ted Loewenberg | Thank you. |
| 00:49:14.76 | Lauren | I'm not. |
| 00:49:14.96 | Ted Loewenberg | Thank you. |
| 00:49:15.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Apologies. That's okay. I just didn't, I didn't want to interrupt you, but I also didn't want to miss the PowerPoint if we were expecting that. Okay. |
| 00:49:22.69 | Lauren | Can you see it now? |
| 00:49:23.65 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I can. Thank you. That's great. |
| 00:49:24.90 | Lauren | There we go. Thank you about that. We're only one or two pages in. |
| 00:49:28.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Perfect. |
| 00:49:28.87 | Lauren | So... |
| 00:49:29.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. |
| 00:49:30.79 | Lauren | As I mentioned, there are a few things that we have done at the park and a lot of the improvements there you won't see because they're either underground or most of them underground. We have improved the sanitary system that both serves the cruising club. We've also added a restroom. |
| 00:49:45.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:49:48.32 | Lauren | to that facility that didn't exist before the porta potties that were there we've made some significant upgrades to our storm drainage system that both treats the water and captures trash before it goes out into the bay So that's a real strong and important improvement for that park. as you recall in the past, Rain just fell on the dirt. driveway and mud and turbidity entered into the bay. So, and then we had storm drainage systems that dumped directly into the bay without capturing any trash or treating any of that material before it reached the bank. That's a really big improvement. We'll get into that a little bit later. We are on track of planting more trees at the entire site. than were there originally. We have already planted a number of trees on that site, and we have more to do on the southerly section of the property and also in the coming months as we work on some of the storm drainage bioswales that we'll go and talk about a little bit later. We have the turf completely down at this point. We've been able to mow it a few times. And now we're going to be able to open that back to the public now that it is established and can actually handle foot traffic We've added pathways along the shoreline which improves and meets our accessibility requirements for those with disabilities. and make that whole area much more accessible for the community at large. And it also connects our pathways that start at lot one in the ferry landing and continue on outside of town. We have new bocce courts installed and we have a third bocce court where we used to only have two. And as I already mentioned, we have a restroom, but we also have a trash enclosure. to safely maintain and collect our trash so it doesn't go into the bay And in the event it leaks, it's attached to a sanitary system so that muck and water that might come out of those dumpsters is getting captured and then treated rather than going out onto the ground or into the bed. and I already mentioned the accessible parking and pathways and shoreline access. The parking is really important that not only collects a lot of that storm water and directs it into the bioswales, where it can be treated. to reduce pollutants before it goes into the bay. But now we have accessible parking spots for individuals that need them so that they can actually get from the parking lot over to the cruising club, or eventually to Cass Gidley Marina, or to any of the other facilities that we have at the parks such as the or the gazebo for events. So that's a nice improvement there. Here we have the funding sources, and you've all seen this before, and these were presented to the City Council years past. And you can see that we have within that these different funding sources, certificates of participation, the Cal recycling grant of $750,000, which we have recently just obtained, from them in the full amount of that. measure of funding, parking fund, Highlands fund, And the last one, is the Costco Busan settlement. really goes to Thank you. Mike Langford and his efforts. who was able to get that grant and that is going to help us offset the cost of furniture, additional planting and some other elements of that park. So thank you very much to Mike Blankford for that. Here's kind of where we are today. So we've already talked about the Integra-based contract. We have a number of other contracts with either individuals or plant suppliers that we're working with. But you can see where we stand right now in terms of actual monies spent. We still have significant amount of work to do. We still have a lot of planting to do, which is going to be done a lot by staff. and we're going to be purchasing those plants. And we have some work to do at the south end of the park, For the most part, we've encumbered a lot of those funds or anticipated those funds. And so we know that we have some elements that we still need to do, but you can see here what our total budget was, and where we stand today in terms of expenses. That's an important thing because I know a lot of people have been looking at the project thinking it's gone on, it must be way over budget, but in fact, we're doing well. And if you look back to what we |
| 00:54:06.56 | Mary Wagner | Doing well. |
| 00:54:09.65 | Lauren | originally had as original bids |
| 00:54:09.84 | Mary Wagner | had. |
| 00:54:12.20 | Lauren | our proposals back in October. We were at $4.9 million. You can see where we are today. Hark back to a comment that Joe Burns made, which was, you know, we have a $6 million park that we're paying $4 million for. So we're still relatively on track for |
| 00:54:22.34 | Connor Johnston | to use. |
| 00:54:29.04 | Lauren | all of that. some more details on that if anyone has questions. All right. Thank you. Right now, let's go back and take a look at what the park used to look like. And you can see here that building in the kind of center above center. That's the city hall right there. And as you come down forward towards the water, you'll see where Dunphy Park is and you'll see the portions of it were underwater for a significant period of time. And this, I believe this photograph dates back to the 40s. And so this is when it was a municipal burndown And now we've moved forward past that. Here's some additional pictures. I believe that the picture on the left is taken in the 60s. And you can see that some of that area also appears to be underwater. next to what is where the city has some lots there. So the important thing also is to keep in mind that Dunphy Park has always been a community park. it was decided by the community that they wanted to get rid of the municipal burn dump and create a park. They did so. And you can see here, here's the construction sign that says here, we're gonna be building a park in this location. A lot of things have changed since the 70s about converting burndowns into So it's become a much more complicated process to do that. And there are a number of people who we've had to reach out to for help on this project. Just before this meeting started, I went through a number of different consultants and contractors that we've used, and I could come up very easily with at least 17 consultants or contractors that we've engaged with directly, either through contracting. purchasing or negotiations and agreements to get this project going forward. And some of those groups include the Federated Indians of Great Rancheria the Army Corps of Engineers. We have the multiple contractors and the designers that have been involved in this project. So a lot of different people have been helping us to get this project to the point where it is today. |
| 00:56:36.72 | Lauren | There are some here pictures of the park, as you may remember it. Again, the lower left shows how it was laid out. |
| 00:56:39.67 | Mary Wagner | Amen. |
| 00:56:43.06 | Lauren | Fundamentally, we haven't changed that much. about the elements of the park that just changed some of their locations. Thank you. But we had the lawn and that's where the bocce courts were located in the lower right. And we also had the dirt lot before, which was the parking for the site in that. with the parking for the cruising club as well as the general use of the park. This is a photo that was taken at some point Early on in the construction, you can see that the site has been You can see the outlines of the parking area that had been installed. the framework of the Baichi courts cruising club there, Cascade Lee up. up to the left. And so you can see where we've kind of gone from months ago to where we are today. And here's some other pictures of the project and some notes. One of those that we discovered as we were going through that project were railroad tracks that went through a portion of it that had to be uprooted and taken out and destroyed and, removed from the site. And of course, we did know that the site was a municipal burned up and we had to deal with material and soil that was a part of that burn dump that we had to excavate, remove This is one quick picture right here of the storm drainage system that I alluded to. So the way that the system works is it collects water that not only comes from bridgeway But from within the park, and it collects it in a series of vaults. And those vaults that you see on the left are obviously buried underground. But they actually are much deeper than that. You see only the top, but there's about another eight feet underneath those vaults. that collect stormwater from the park and from Bridgeway. And, by bridgeway I mean up in the hills, brings it into these vaults and basically puts that water through a separator which captures trash that can be removed and disposed of in the landfill before it actually makes out into the bay. We also have a system of bioswales in the parking lot that collects storm water, And then it allows that water to naturally percolate through and so that the water that ends up making it out to the bay has actually been naturally filtered. So we're not putting out pollutants like oils and greases from vehicles directly into the bay. So current and ongoing work, we are opening up this park because we want people to enjoy it. And we know it's been a long time and people have been seeing it. So we want people to be able to go out enjoy it during this period of time, but we do have some work to continue to do. Obviously we need to remove the, Dirt pile. And we have a little bit more shoreline work to do in terms of excavation and replacement of that material with some more soils that will withstand erosion. |
| 00:59:29.23 | Mary Wagner | and the water. |
| 00:59:30.11 | Lauren | and we'll also, be except planting to help with Thank you. the the area and encourage natural habitat there. Once that dirt pile is removed, we'll start an archaeological investigation of that southern area. In that area, it was identified as a location that it had natural resources. natural cultural resources, I should say, and so once that material is removed we'll start doing some investigation of that area by digging up some test pits trying to determine if we can find any additional resources generating a work plan as part of that investigation report, working with the Federated Indians of Great Rancheria. And upon completion of that investigation, then we can continue to proceed with the improvements that were designed by RHAA. We also are in the midst right now, about 50% complete with the volleyball court. Uh, you'll see another picture of that in just a second. And that is being conducted by basically park and rec and public works staff. It was an item that was included in our plan. That's what was considered to be a part of a later phase. So we actually have taken on that role ourselves. And so city staff has been, working on that, setting up the post, bringing in material. We have sand that's in there. scheduled to come in most likely next week. And so should be able to turn that over to the public for their use. after next week. We'll continue to be working with Galilee Harbor, Cascade, and the Cruising Club. who are both our neighbors and our tenants in some cases. The cruising club is in the midst of improving their gangway access to their facilities, that they actually have accessible access to their facility, something that they did not have prior to this project. That's going to be a great improvement for the community and those visitors to the cruising club. And we're also working with Cascale to improve their site so that it can become a community boating center again. We've continually worked with Galilee on their project and being their good neighbor. by working with them to install future Sanitary sewer access, should they decide to access that for their tin shack building. So that would be a great improvement for them if they ever choose to use that. So we wanted to make sure that those improvements were in place. before we sealed everything up. Here are some quick pictures of some of the improvements that we have installed. new restroom. It is a men's and women's restroom. There's a drinking fountain with a dog bowl attachment down below. It has a bottle filler there that is a actual restroom. regular toilet facilities. not a porta potty, which is a great improvement over what we had before. We have the Bajibal courts, which was also a community effort. done by volunteers who were involved in the Bocce community, park and rec staff, and some other contractors who donated their time an effort to build those as well. To the left, we have a trash enclosure, as I mentioned. So instead of having just a loose dumpster, along the shoreline. with access, uncontrolled access, we now have this structure which houses the dumpsters and can contain them, keep water from dropping into those dumpsters and creating a mess. We've also improved the shoreline access on the You can see that we've taken some granite stones that were on the site and on the adjacent property using those as benches on the shoreline. There's that is accessible, that goes down to the shoreline, so people with disabilities can make it and enjoy that view and that experience like anyone else. And so that's another great improvement that we have in that location. You can see there on the left, that is the picture of the bocce of the volleyball court. It will be. 50 foot by 80 foot total perimeter. and it would be underlaid with pea gravel and then covered with sand. So it's going to be a great course. It's going to be a great course for people to use. and will be a nice addition to the park. And obviously the most important thing is we have beautiful grass that's out there and we'll continue to work on that. It still needs some areas where some of the irrigation might spray a little bit more water than we want. So there's still an ongoing adjustment to that area, but it's very thick, very full, and it'll be a really nice piece for the community there. The real important thing I just want to say on this project is You know, it is, it was a, and it still is a very complicated project. We are very far along. I don't think that we could have probably decided to put this project on in a more challenging time for all of us with members of the city staff leaving and retiring as well as what happened down at the south end of town with our slides. and then currently with the pandemic. But I really wanna say thank you to Department of Public Works staff, Park and Rec staff, a number of our consultants who have stuck with us through thick and thin on this project. and have really done a great job of trying to get us to where we are today. And we still have work to do. With that, I'm available for questions. I know that there are many, so I'm available if anyone would like to... ask questions about them. |
| 01:05:15.03 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:05:15.18 | Lauren | Thank you. |
| 01:05:16.11 | Kevin McGowan | Lauren, this is Kevin McGowan. Did you want to mention something about the stockpile as well? |
| 01:05:21.61 | Lauren | Sure. So I know that that was going to be a question that was going to come up. When we began the project, we knew that the site was a burn dump. And what we did not know really at the time was what extent that was going to be and how that was going to ultimately impact the project What our anticipation was at the beginning of this project was that we were going to have a net zero import-export on this job in that we were going to take material from the site and move it to other locations. |
| 01:05:54.20 | Mary Wagner | Moving. |
| 01:05:56.04 | Lauren | to try to use the existing material there to create the park. And as we started moving through the project, and getting to where we were at finish grade. We realized that there were certain areas that had in most cases that we are concerned with the cases of higher cases of lead over a certain threshold. And so we weren't able to use that material, reuse that material in the park. So we took that over to the southern end. We have stockpiled that. And as many of you are now aware, were out to bid to have that material removed. We couldn't use that material. anymore. We just couldn't find a way to sequester it. and some of the requirements that we have through CalRecycle and through Thank you. the county health department is that we had to ensure that the site that people would be using had a clean cap of material for them to be able to use the park. So that material that is over there right now is unusable and we are in the process of removing that. I know that there were concerns from the community about the condition of the tarping on there. We were trying to work. internally of trying to get that material out of there, but also keep it covered |
| 01:07:14.37 | Mary Wagner | out of the house. |
| 01:07:16.78 | Lauren | Um, eventually that material, the tarping material, did fall apart. We've since covered that up as of last week. It will remain covered until we can get the bids in for its removal and once those bids come in we'll have that material properly disposed of. |
| 01:07:37.79 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Did you want to add anything? |
| 01:07:40.19 | Kevin McGowan | THE FAMILY. Yeah, if I could, just one quick thing. Lauren is a bit modest in that this is a super complex project. And there's a lot of different players, which he mentioned, everybody from regulatory agencies to contractors coming on board. So we're pretty excited about this park, having it open to the public. It's a real added bonus to the community. And we feel it's going to be kind of a focal point. And so I'm pretty excited about it myself. I know, |
| 01:07:44.00 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 01:07:50.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And... |
| 01:08:14.04 | Kevin McGowan | Again, Lauren's kind of modest, but at the same time, it's been a lot of work. So thank you, Lauren. |
| 01:08:20.23 | Lauren | And I'll add to that. Thank you very much, Kevin. I'll add to that. I've been working on this project now. for a number of years. And I've, I've mentioned to a lot of people, it's the toughest thing I've ever dealt with. because it just is touching on so many different types of things. And I've been involved in it so closely. I forget sometimes that people don't know very much about what's happening out there. And I am always appreciative when people do come or call me. And I have an opportunity to explain to them how the park works and some of why we did some of the things that we've done, because I think it really does show what What. complicated project it was, but how far we've come along. I think the real important thing that when I go to the and make very clear back in the 70s when they decided to make this into a park. They just brought in new dirt and covered up everything out there. But that doesn't fly anymore. So as Kevin mentioned, the agencies that we've had to work with, not only Bay City, BCDC, Thank you. Army Corps of Engineers, Federated Indians of Great Rancheria, Department of Fish and Game, Richardson Bay Regional Authority. Uh... And we've also been working with other groups like the Audubon Society, uh, to try to really create a park that everyone can use and make it into a safe one so you know a lot of those uh pieces take time there's an element of testing you wait for the results you take action you test again so i i do sometimes forget that that not everyone has been as intimately involved on this project as i have but um it is a really complicated project and and It is really nice to see where it is today. Thank you. So I'm always happy to answer questions about that if anyone wants to bring |
| 01:10:13.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you so much, Lauren. It was a great presentation and a lot of really good work. Do council members have questions? |
| 01:10:21.23 | Unknown | I do. |
| 01:10:22.26 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, counseling students. |
| 01:10:22.85 | Unknown | Sure. Thank you. First I want to further Kevin's sentiments towards Lauren and for those people that don't know, Lauren's fingerprints are all over this town, not just in his role now as our director of public, not director of public, public works, maintenance manager. But with the completion of the public facility, the public safety facilities, and Lauren's role in running that construction project as a as a not part of the city as a contractor. So awesome work on this Lauren and watching you go through this process. I am so glad you're still with the city. I'm still glad you're on our team still. Um, You're here to. |
| 01:11:03.03 | Unknown | Bring it. |
| 01:11:03.85 | Unknown | Yeah, we'll get into all that. But one question I do have, And I'm so glad you touched on the environmental improvement that this property has, this project has added, not just on the park side itself, but on what gets out to the bay and especially this part of the bay that we've, is our eelgrass bedding. That's so important environmentally to this bay and to this estuary. and this was feeding a lot. And I kind of want to bring up that we're all so familiar with that was right behind the gazebo that was just a disaster from a kids concerned to also, that was pretty much taking all the gunk from the hillside and from the street right into the bay directly, correct? |
| 01:11:46.01 | Lauren | Thank you. |
| 01:11:46.53 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:11:46.55 | Lauren | That is correct. So there were two pipes that were actually behind the gazebo pipe. |
| 01:11:46.56 | Unknown | And it's, |
| 01:11:51.58 | Lauren | And if I recall correctly, I think that they were I'm, 30 or 36 inch each and there were two storm drains that came from the bridgeway and went straight through the park and basically daylighted straight out into the bay. And we, basically intercepted those pipes just west of the gazebo. and redirected all of that flow that collects from Bridgeway And I believe it collects all the way up Napa Street. up Litho, up B Street. and eventually brings it and it all comes through that park. We redirect that through that storm capture device There was a picture if I can go back to it. |
| 01:12:36.11 | Unknown | And I love that picture. That's one of my favorite pictures of this park that I took in my phone as well. That is just, that really says so much on how much is below this park, how much improvements can be made. It's gonna impact the bay for years to come. |
| 01:12:48.61 | Lauren | That storm drainage system is pretty amazing. And the challenge of it, obviously, is that you are building this facility, and those three vaults are about 12 to 14 feet deep when you |
| 01:12:48.75 | Unknown | Can we also |
| 01:13:05.62 | Lauren | I talk about the over-excavation and then they basically formed those vaults and placed them in there. So when you're working that close to the shoreline, you're getting infiltration from Baywater the entire time. So we had to dewater that area while we placed that in and then complete that facility. And there's a large, |
| 01:13:17.84 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:13:17.86 | Unknown | They want. |
| 01:13:28.37 | Lauren | of the plastic device that sits in there and what it does is it takes water in there and it's a It rotates the flow through that device and separates trash that is larger than five millimeters and collects it in a vault and then allows the rest of that water to flow out into the bay. And so it becomes a staff. Thank you. item that we're going to have to maintain. going forward. We're going to have to go out to that vault on occasion and pull out that trash and then we'll dispose of that at a landfill. So that's One really great thing. Thank you. |
| 01:14:04.06 | Unknown | We've also diverted water that was going into the slough as well from the north or the South End. |
| 01:14:11.22 | Lauren | So the section that's going into that area, that we have not touched yet. So there's still a pipe that comes into that estuary. that I call it. So there's still a pipe that comes in from that end of the park and still flows directly in there. So we haven't touched that piece. What we've touched is basically that water that comes from basically Litho to Napa Stream, which is a significant amount, which collects everything from up above. |
| 01:14:37.80 | Unknown | Absolutely. Thank you. |
| 01:14:41.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Are there other questions for Mr. Umbertas? All right, well, I think we're gonna have lots of comments after this and more. more compliments, but we will turn to public comment. I see Alice Merrill here. Welcome, Alice. |
| 01:15:03.44 | Alice Merrill | Right. I just want to say that I have seen this from the beginning and I know all when it started. My father said to me, I can't believe it, but I dumped mattresses down there. And Barry Hibben said, this is what we did. We got a mover and we pushed everything into hills and then we put dirt and then we put grass. And, you know, things were done differently then, but this has been a huge project you have met all kinds of difficult, hard things as you've gone along. And I've been supporting this as it goes. really happy to see that it's open i'm glad to see you guys have taken such good care of it and thank you goodbye you Thank you. |
| 01:15:46.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Alice. Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 01:15:47.02 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:15:49.68 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Welcome. |
| 01:15:50.24 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:15:51.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:15:51.96 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:15:52.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:15:52.60 | Sandra Bushmaker | Uh, Yes. Thank you very much. And Lauren, that was a great presentation and you certainly outlined all the work that has been done there. And I know there's been a lot of hours put into this park renovation. My question is obviously on the toxic soil. Can you give an estimate of the timeline before we will see that removed? And also what kind of money are we talking about? going to be expending a million dollars. or 500,000 or what kind of ball game are we in? |
| 01:16:30.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, let's You want to finish your public comment, Sandra? And then at the end of public comment, Lauren will, city council will see if you. Yeah. |
| 01:16:39.16 | Sandra Bushmaker | Basically the calendar, you know, how it's looking, your estimate of time and the cost of the removal. |
| 01:16:45.29 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:16:45.30 | Sandra Bushmaker | Sure, of course. Thank you. |
| 01:16:45.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:16:45.98 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:16:46.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:16:46.30 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:16:46.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:16:46.33 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:16:46.35 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Okay, thank you. Is there any additional public comments? I am not seeing any. Heidi, could you just confirm? |
| 01:16:54.80 | Heidi Scoble | There are no hands raised. |
| 01:16:57.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. I think that we, We can ask Lauren for a quick estimate, but we also did approve that contract um, I think at a prior city council meeting to go out to bid with an engineer's estimate. So you want to just give a quick update. I know it's all, |
| 01:17:17.97 | Lauren | Sure. So we are out to bid. We've released it to the community at this time. And I believe that the |
| 01:17:19.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | that. |
| 01:17:25.41 | Lauren | due date for proposals from contractors for the removal is September 25th. Thank you. I'll try to look at that while I'm doing this. But we are looking to open up bids basically on the 23rd. We have an estimate of the amount of material. We had some previous estimates on the cost of removing the material. |
| 01:17:39.96 | Unknown | we have. |
| 01:17:46.26 | Lauren | some time ago. from the the original general contractor. We hope that the cost will run somewhere around in the $250,000 to $300,000 range. |
| 01:17:52.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:17:59.01 | Lauren | And that is noted in this presentation. and also in the staff report, as a line item. So we do have that included in there as an anticipated cost. The challenge for this material is when the contractors reach out to |
| 01:18:10.15 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:18:18.67 | Lauren | various landfills and based upon the contents of that material. We have some test results of that. but based upon those results, the landfills will determine whether they can accept that material or not. . There are various rules and regulations about what they can take or how much they can take. So what we are going to be placing upon the contractor is Here are the results that we are aware of at this time. And, go out and try to find the best for disposing this material. And much of the cost is really transport. So if the material can go anywhere, in the Bay Area or in California, that is good news. If it has to go farther afield, uh, which we don't have an indication at this time that it does, but we'll find out a little bit further later on. It can go up. in cost. Right now, we haven't anticipated engineer's estimate of, I believe, $250,000 to $300,000. |
| 01:19:24.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. All right. Thank you very much. Okay, are there any general counsel comments before we move on tonight? |
| 01:19:31.71 | Lauren | Madam Mayor, actually before I leave on that topic, One of the answers, one of the questions I didn't answer was when it would go. So if we open up bids and we have good bids come September 23rd, we would want to initiate a notice to proceed as quickly as possible. So the anticipated A start of that work would be in early October. first half of October. And I believe that our contract calls for full removal and completion of the scope and 40 calendar days. |
| 01:20:06.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you very much. Okay. Great, any council comments? If there aren't, I just wanted to, I mean, this is really exciting. I just want to thank staff. I think you've all mentioned all of the staff that have been involved, the regional agencies, the community members, The folks who fought really hard for Measure F, to get funding and just all the incredible work. This has truly been a community wide effort and Lauren, your passion for this project and your expertise is very apparent in hearing you talk about all this, and we really appreciate the level of care that you and everyone else have given to this project. I know it has been a huge challenge and incredibly complicated Um, You know, I just think, The fact that the city could turn this around and do the value engineering and come up with a contract that we could live with. that we got over $1 million in extra money for this project from outside. Thank you to Mike Langford and everyone else who's scrounged landscape for outside money for this. It's just really, it's great. I can't wait to enjoy it. I wish we could all gather for big party, but we'll have to socially distance and enjoy it in bits and pieces until the pandemic is over. And just... really excited about that and appreciate all the hard work. This is then I know a lot of headaches for staff and a lot of challenges, but it's all coming to a great conclusion and we're very proud of this park and I think the community will be too when they get out there. Anyone want to add? What do you think? And you stole Joe Burns' favorite line. So I love that, that you appropriated that in your presentation. All right. Great, well thank you again and thank you to Kevin for being here to pull us across the finish line. |
| 01:22:10.15 | Lauren | Sure, thank you very much and thank you to the community. Thank you to... The council, this has, as I mentioned, been a a project, but it's going to be one that people are going to be enjoying and there are so many people that are involved in this. that people are going to be able to look at it from employees to the community and say, I had a piece on that. And so it really truly is a community park. And I just want to say thank you to everyone who's been doing this. There is no way that I could have done any of this on my own. There were too many people and too many complicated matters on this project. So I want to thank everyone for their assistance. |
| 01:22:49.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And we thank you and we wish we could take you out to Smitty's for a a drink on the house after this meeting, but we'll have to wait on that. |
| 01:22:57.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:22:58.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, we're gonna move on to our next business item, which is a PG&E updates. We have two parts of this presentation. And I believe we have Mark Van Border here for the first part of the presentation on public safety power shutoffs. And then we are going to move directly from there into a presentation on the 4th Street Intercept utility pole. And then we will take public comment on both of these items after those two presentations. So, and I see our director of public works here and perhaps you'd like to introduce Mr. Van Goger. |
| 01:23:36.82 | Kevin McGowan | That's the idea, Mayor. Thank you again. I'm Kevin McGowan with the Department of Public Works. We're happy that Mark Van Gorder is here from PG&E. He has been very attentive to the city, and we do want to thank him for his ability to be very attentive to us, especially during these types of times of crisis from fires in Napa close to his home to all sorts of other things going on at the same time. So hopefully Mark is on the call and ready to lead us through a presentation. |
| 01:24:07.28 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, I see him here and we are sorry that you could not be with us at our last Council meeting we knew that you were attending to. a pretty serious emergency. So thank you for being here tonight. |
| 01:24:19.41 | Mark Van Gorder | Well, thank you very much. Just a quick audio check. Can you hear me all right? I guess I'd like to start off by mayor thanking you and council members and, uh, Director McGowan, it was nice actually to put a face to the name. I saw Lauren there and he and I have talked a number of times about tree issues or other issues. And... I would also like to just apologize for not being able to be |
| 01:24:49.36 | Unknown | And |
| 01:24:49.78 | Mark Van Gorder | with you the last meeting that we |
| 01:24:49.80 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:24:51.73 | Mark Van Gorder | you had scheduled with, we both had scheduled These are some interesting times in the past month. We had the rotating heat outages. followed by the lightning storms. followed by the fires. followed by the smoke. followed by the public safety power shutoffs and whatnot. Um, That was the reason I wasn't able to join you at the last meeting is our power we lost because of some fire activity in East Napa. What I'm going to do here is hopefully share the screen, and if you could kindly tell me if you can see this Google Earth math here. |
| 01:25:40.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can. Thank you. |
| 01:25:43.95 | Mark Van Gorder | Fabulous. I will try and make this very quick, knowing that there may be a lot of questions afterwards and that there's a lot to go through in Council questions and whatnot. Generally speaking, I would like to start off giving an overview of how our electric system works. Um, And then I have a PowerPoint presentation. So this is Google Earth Math. This is what we call the interstate five or what I call the interstate five. of 500,000 volts of electricity. This is really quickly, how does electricity get to Sausalito and serve individual homes and businesses? So if we zoom in a little bit, we will see we get to this vaca. Dixon line here and at this substation the electricity drops down from 500,000 volts to 230,000 volts so it's from the red line Uh, to these light blue line of 230,000 volts. It comes across a couple of ways. All from the north. here from Santa Rosa, Windsor area, down into Petaluma, down into the Nevada area where we have our substation in Nevada. also comes through Napa. |
| 01:27:02.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:27:03.55 | Mark Van Gorder | and also through, basically the North Vallejo Um, American Canyon area. Many people would probably recognize that the transmission towers along highway 37 if they're traveling that route. So let's just zoom in really quick. For anyone in the community who doesn't |
| 01:27:26.15 | Unknown | and |
| 01:27:26.89 | Mark Van Gorder | Exactly. No. what a substation is, you may have driven on Highway 101 and passed by this area. So that's our Ignacio substation. Just in case you're wondering what exactly is the substation? Thank you. from this substation The power travels. Thank you. uh, both south and it travels west. And as it travels west, it heads over the hills out towards Bellinas and the Lima substations. And it passes over what we call high fire threat areas. I'm going to show you that in just a second, because this is the critical point. These high fire threat areas as mapped by the California public utilities commission, in cooperation with PG&E, SoCal Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric, California Office of Emergency Services, CAL FIRE and others. These are not maps to be confused with, Marin County or Southern Marin fire district or Novato. or other fire district priority maps. So just want to be clear these, these district overlays are the Public Utilities Commission. maps. So these areas are high risk areas. Coming down. So a lot of them are in the transmission lines, which as you can see here drops uh, down from the 230,000 volt lines. Sorry, I'm probably clicking on the wrong thing here. |
| 01:29:19.58 | Mark Van Gorder | It's not coming out. drops down to 115. is the purple. Um, And then we have 60,000 volts, but it mostly runs along 101. down south, through San Rafael. And he keeps going. Corte Madera, Larkspur, Green Bay areas, along this path until you get down to Sausalito. where it gets challenging is that the Sausalito substation here is served by these transmission lines that come through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. And so there may be times of high wind events, which were just experienced just last night, where they need to shut off this transmission line. If that transmission line is shut off, The substation, the very small, considerably smaller substation, and Sausalito. |
| 01:30:25.55 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:30:26.96 | Mark Van Gorder | does not have power. And so when that doesn't have power, and I'll turn these off here now. When that doesn't have power, Those transmission lines that serve these orange lines The orange lines are the overhead lines. And the green lines here are underground. And this is what serves the city of Sausalito, And it also serves part of the unincorporated city of Marin. |
| 01:31:01.22 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:31:02.79 | Mark Van Gorder | If anyone has been out recently to the parking lot near the Ross store. and former Outback Steakhouse. we have staged a number of generators right in here that connect up to this power line And they are prepared during a public safety power shut off from these lines with generators situated right here to energize those generators and provide power to the city. |
| 01:31:40.64 | Mark Van Gorder | I'll pause there for a moment before I move on to the other part of the presentation for any questions Mayor or Council members may have. |
| 01:31:50.81 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, do any of my fellow council members have questions? I guess the only question I have is these generators that are in Marin City, those will power how much of Marin City and Sausalito? or is that just- |
| 01:32:10.07 | Mark Van Gorder | If you're looking for |
| 01:32:13.80 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Go ahead. |
| 01:32:14.05 | Mark Van Gorder | Thank you. |
| 01:32:14.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:32:14.29 | Mark Van Gorder | If you're looking for a percentage, I don't have a percentage. to give you, I can get back to you. on a percentage. |
| 01:32:21.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right. Yeah, I was wondering if it was enough to power like a couple of community centers where people can |
| 01:32:23.64 | Mark Van Gorder | Oh, |
| 01:32:29.98 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | charge or whatever or is this supposed to be? |
| 01:32:30.42 | Mark Van Gorder | Oh, no, this should power a majority of the |
| 01:32:34.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. of And that's both an incorporated Marin City and Sausalito. |
| 01:32:41.51 | Mark Van Gorder | Correct. I don't recall the number of generators, but I think there's roughly 10. Each one powers about 1.5 megawatts, so roughly 15 megawatts of power. should serve a majority of Sausalito. There are areas, and it's part of our discussion tonight as I understand, but we'll talk about that later. There are parts of Sausalito that are intentionally not served with power to avoid, as I showed you, that circuit, that transmission line and the circuits that it serves that run up into those high fire threat areas. And I can come back to that, but there are portions of Sausalito that are very close to running up into the high fire threat districts and we will stop the power from going up into those areas to ensure that our lines do not come into contact with dry, very low humidity, fuels, vegetation that could spark a fire and with winds blowing offshore, head into the Golden Gate |
| 01:33:57.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | National Recreational |
| 01:33:58.91 | Sean Cleary | Thank you. |
| 01:33:58.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Yes, Joe and then Tom. |
| 01:34:06.56 | Unknown | Hey, Mark, thank you for being here tonight or being there tonight. You described the line coming down and into our substation and in a wind event that would go down, that would then maybe say that in that case all of Sausalito would be without power. At our last PS or One of the last two. We had a lot of spot on like, Tourney was on, but was off but Litho was on, Easter B off, Spring on, something like that where they were kind of mis-matched. Is that then that those turn offs were local, but the substation was still hot. How did we have it? |
| 01:34:52.10 | Mark Van Gorder | I have to dig |
| 01:34:53.30 | Unknown | neighborhood. |
| 01:34:55.14 | Mark Van Gorder | You have to dig into the specific addresses. I I'd have that that is very specific granular information that I'd have to find out why would one area beyond and one area not beyond. But then the line- You're talking about in the 2019 |
| 01:35:11.04 | Unknown | the line. Yeah, last year. The line coming into town then must have been on then for anybody to have power. |
| 01:35:22.61 | Mark Van Gorder | And it could be that it was on during one event and off during another event. Um, I don't know the answer to the question of why there would be spotty power. This is the transmission line. that serves, and I'll put it back on again, you know, overhead, these orange lines show the overhead circuits. |
| 01:35:46.81 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:35:47.06 | Mark Van Gorder | that I'm aware of. That's what serves the Sausalito area. I'd have to ask one of our other folks, you know, if there's some part of, of Sausalito that's served, that isn't from the substation, but I don't know the answer to that. That's probably it. Thanks. |
| 01:36:10.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, we would love to get that information because we lost power frequently, but right next door or across the valley, other people had power. It was very intermittent. Okay, Councilmember Riley. |
| 01:36:23.95 | Unknown | Council Member Burns asked my question whether, you know, this would imply it's all on or all off for the town of South Slita. So we'd love to find that out. And Mark, thank you for a great interactive presentation. Is the map you're using available to the public? |
| 01:36:39.01 | Mark Van Gorder | No. Not yet. You've asked the million-dollar question. I'm still trying to get There is a good deal of information, as you can see over here on the left. There's a lot of confidential customer information that's in here. I've been asked that question in my response to some of our folks. You know, I've asked, can we provide screenshots or can I give you a PDF sort of zooms in on certain areas. I don't have an answer to that yet. I hope to have that very soon. That is the singular question that I receive regularly. And unfortunately, I don't have an answer to that. |
| 01:37:20.40 | Unknown | Well, thank you for sharing the maps anyways. It's very informative. |
| 01:37:25.73 | Mark Van Gorder | You know, I want to just comment right now. |
| 01:37:26.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. Ms. Cranforter. I think we're ready to move on to your, You have another PowerPoint, is that correct? |
| 01:37:37.23 | Mark Van Gorder | I did. What I will just comment on is it's possible when the substation does have power, it is possible that we can still turn off certain circuits. So this is, you know, there's a circuit that serves different parts of the substation, and it's entirely possible that they turn off one or two of those. during an event of where they'd serve power in a less fire threat district area compared to areas that run right up into more of a high fire threat district area. And we can come back to that if you'd like. So if you could please let me know. If you see the community wildfire safety program slide, |
| 01:38:19.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We do. |
| 01:38:20.88 | Mark Van Gorder | I'm a strong believer that doesn't you Do anyone good to read things that everyone else can read? So I'm going to move through this quickly. This presentation has been provided to council And it's a public facing document that anyone can read. I'm available to answer questions from Council tonight and and after tonight as well. So I'll move through this quickly to get more specific Council questions. This is the event of 2019. These are the customers that were impacted, community resource centers that were open, and the number of visitors that we had. This is the city of Sausalito. numbers. Again, I won't read all of this. I'm going to address these different points as I move through the slides, but we are trying to make them smaller in size, shorter in length, Thank you. and smarter for customers. How do we do that? Well, we're installing sectionalizing devices. That's one of our key discussion points tonight. We're establishing temporary micro grids at the substations. particular in the case of Sausalito, we are not. I just want to stress this, we are not establishing generation at the substation. Generation for Sausalito and Marin City is at the parking lot of the Ross and Outback Steakhouse, the close to the Outback Steakhouse. |
| 01:39:36.90 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:39:44.51 | Mark Van Gorder | system hardening, community resource centers, vegetation management, all part of our program. This is simply a static map of what I just went through. That's why I'm glad to be able to at least show you the interactive map. Prior to the Google Earth map, this is all we had. It shows you the transmission lines. throughout it. I don't even remember. We'll be getting into this a little bit later, sectionalizing devices. These are devices that we can use manually. They exist manually, but what we're installing is radio-controlled devices called sectionalizers, and they allow us to keep portions of cities and towns our power on. to create an island of power, if you will, without allowing that power to go up into the high fire threat districts where we would expose ourselves to the possibility Excuse me. of potential ignition. So we are not doing that. That is the intention of the sexualizer. Um, uh, and again, here, here's a number of them. that we've installed in Sausalito. Microgrids, I think, have covered that. These are generators at specific locations. Where we show the Sausalito substation, we will be generating from the Ross parking These are community resource centers that we are working on establishing and have established. I drove out to three of these community resource centers today in the county of Napa that's currently under the public safety power shut off in the northern part of the valley. |
| 01:41:23.10 | Mary Wagner | in order |
| 01:41:24.92 | Mark Van Gorder | We provide charging stations and water, some snacks and food, a place for adults and children to plug in their devices if the power is off. and especially to continue their schooling. So these are the centers that we're working on The maps are refined now. People can type in their addresses and they can get information about public safety power shutoffs that may impact them down to the parcel level. That wasn't the case in 2019. a large buffer of several hundred feet, and now you can get parcel level information down to your address. Medical baseline has also changed this year. In the past, you had to have a signed document from a doctor indicating that you qualified as a medical patient that would receive these services. Now, if anyone who's interested visits this website, they can self-authorize. They do not need a doctor |
| 01:42:18.02 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:42:18.04 | Tim Ryan | Thank you. |
| 01:42:18.41 | Mary Wagner | Bye. |
| 01:42:28.61 | Mark Van Gorder | to approve that. A number of other links here. Again, this is a document that I believe the clerk has posted publicly for. um, Anyone to download, certainly the council has this document. This is probably my favorite link. or the one I use the most, it's where you can go take a look at the future forecast for the potential of public safety power shutoffs, pg.com forward slash weather. additional preparing Lynx, Redia Marin, certainly. and others. I'm available to the council City Manager, Public Works Director, for questions. tonight. and after tonight, anytime. But the general public, I encourage to call this number, the 866-743-6589. Or if they prefer, people watching tonight can also email wildfiresafety at pg.com. And for more information, you can visit this link. or again, any of the many links. So I encourage folks that are watching tonight to download this presentation and keep those links handy if they need to use any of them. That's the presentation and I'm open for questions. |
| 01:43:54.06 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Council members, any additional questions? Mr. Van Gorder, I had just one question. You listed the centers where people could go during a power safety. Shut off. And the one in Sausalito is Dunphy Park. Which is... kind of an outside location. I was just wondering how that was going to work. |
| 01:44:22.34 | Mark Van Gorder | Yeah, we were targeting, um, from probably, so. Going back to 2019, thank you for asking that question too. It's a great one. You know, 2019, we had tents, we had places where people could be outside, not ideal for high wind events. |
| 01:44:41.04 | Unknown | not |
| 01:44:45.21 | Mark Van Gorder | So we started looking for what we called hardened facilities, libraries, community centers, physical building to be in. And that was something we'd been working on aggressively up until March. And then when March came with social distancing and not knowing how many people might show up at a particular center and talking with health and human services, both at the county levels and the state level, we determined that it would probably be safer and best to manage social distancing and mask wearing for COVID-19 in an outdoor area. And that's what we have. Um, As needed, we may open up some of these hardened facilities if we experience tremendously strong wind events that just won't work for outdoor facilities. Um, And we'll do our best to manage social distancing. |
| 01:45:39.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great, thank you. And any other questions from council members? |
| 01:45:47.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so this is part one of a two-part presentation, and I think for the public, we appreciate your providing these materials people can look for more information at the various website locations that you've provided. So hopefully this might be a good thing for a Currents article to put up on our city website. Okay, so why don't we move on to part two, which is Mr. McGowan and yourself on the 315 4th Street InterSET utility pole. |
| 01:46:26.07 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Mayor. This is Kevin McGowan again from the Department of Public Works. I'm hoping Mark can step in and help me with some of these information on this particular issue And I don't have a specific PowerPoint from staff perspective but there is a staff report that includes a lot of the information that you might be interested in. one of the specialty devices that Mark was talking about was installed in front of 315 4th Street. And it was placed on a new poll out in front of that particular address. And it basically influences the folks' view. And so since that has been installed, PG&E has worked proactively as well as the neighbors have worked proactively with us to try to address this particular situation to see if we can find some alternatives for that specific device that may not affect the views of residents. And we've made some big strides in that effort in terms of meeting with the residents, communicating well, and especially bringing Mark and his team in as well to start addressing this issue. At this point in time, we're kind of in the middle or the very beginning of the possibility of power system shutoffs. So removing or moving that device at this point in time is not necessarily practical. But that doesn't mean that we're not talking about it or looking at the future itself. So with that, maybe Mark can kind of step in and tell us a little bit about your process of looking at this device to see if it can be moved and how we're addressing this possibly with the residents as well. |
| 01:48:11.81 | Mark Van Gorder | Absolutely. First of all, I would like to thank Director McGowan. For his staff report, I thought it was thorough. I've had the pleasure of working with Director McGowan that we're going to have Well, I believe it's coming up on seven years now. And, So, Heaven is thorough. And, these objectives. and tough at times, which I appreciate because I think it forces us to become better in our service to the community. So it's fantastic to have that partnership with him. And I'd say the same thing about Andy Davidson and Lauren as well. So it's a good team there. |
| 01:48:54.28 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:49:02.65 | Mark Van Gorder | You know, I'm happy to speak to any part of the staff report, again, I thought it was very thorough virtually every aspect of the of the sectionalizing device that was installed there. at the address. Um, on 315 4th Street. and At the very end, I suppose I just say that at the very end of the report, Director McGowan mentions that representatives from PG are continuing to meet with residents and address the concerns that they have and possibly make physical changes. I'm just reading from the report after the public safety power shot off season. We're continuing to meet with the neighbors. We're continuing to engage. with them talk about What are other options we might have? I don't know what more to say that is beyond what's in Kevin's report. So probably best for me to answer questions from the council about it. For time's sake. and, This is Kevin again. |
| 01:50:11.94 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | This is Kevin again. I think we do have a lot of... I think we do have a lot of questions. I mean, I don't know if you had a chance to listen to our meeting from our last session when you were not able to be here, but members of the public did have a lot of concerns, as did we for I mean, I think the main issue is how in the world did this giant Um, piece of equipment get put up in front of residential homes with views with absolutely no notice or public input or public information that's number one. And, um, then I think number two is I think we're looking for some commitment that not only will you continue to work with the residents, but you will, find a solution. and that people can live with. So I think that's, And then I don't know, Council Member Cox, did you want to? Chime in. |
| 01:51:06.52 | Councilmember Cox | Yes, thank you. I had an opportunity to speak with some of the fourth Fourth Street residents left. about this issue. And I think I endorse what the mayor said is to figure out what best to do here, including, I think one of the preferences of the residents is to replace that poll with underground wires for that one block that serves that special purpose using your 20A Monday. and other funding that could be raised. But undergrounding might be the best, although not the most expedient solution, but perhaps the ultimate solution to preserve property values and still provide the safety that we're all seeking. And then I wanted to endorse what the mayor said about identifying a public process so that as you consider other sites for similar types of equipment, we ensure that COB, Elaine McLaughlin, neighbors are consulted and given notice so that they can assist EG&E and. COB, Elaine McLaughlin, The best site for that equipment that has the least adverse impact. |
| 01:52:22.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Any other council questions before we let Mr. Van Gorder ask answer. |
| 01:52:30.40 | Unknown | I have one question, Madam Mayor. I also agree with the Mayor and Councilmember Cox that we need not just to work with the residents but to find a satisfactory resolution. |
| 01:52:33.10 | Mary Wagner | Uh, |
| 01:52:38.79 | Mary Wagner | We need. |
| 01:52:43.51 | Unknown | And are there any other sexualizers going up in our city right now? that we're unaware of? Are there plans for that? |
| 01:52:56.56 | Kevin McGowan | I'll jump in. As I recall, there was one sectionalizer near the substation itself. So it was out of anybody's view, but it's very close to the substation. And I think it shows on Mark's map as well. |
| 01:53:11.61 | Mark Van Gorder | Thank you, Kevin. And Mayor, I'm ready to answer it. I'm just waiting for you Give me the go ahead. |
| 01:53:17.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Yep. You got the go ahead. |
| 01:53:19.91 | Mark Van Gorder | Okay, thank you. |
| 01:53:21.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:53:21.55 | Mark Van Gorder | Um, Let me start by saying this. Mm-hmm. |
| 01:53:27.20 | Unknown | in. |
| 01:53:28.72 | Mark Van Gorder | I think. I think we could have done better. and reaching out. to the residents. and talking about what was being installed. And, um, You know, there are a lot of people involved I can't speak to the conditions that they're working in and Um, why that didn't happen. It should have happened, but it didn't. And I'm sorry that that didn't happen. um, you. We are trying to install the safety equipment as fast as we possibly can, and I suspect that that is ultimately the reason that we did not. I think attempts were made to contact customers and notify them But, And based on what I've heard from the community, So, the direction from the Public Works Department and the city manager Ultra. You know, as far as I know, I'm just hearing from folks who have browned truth in the area. That didn't happen. um, That said, I just want to say that I think the intent is to ensure that we can keep hundreds and hundreds of your residents power on during a public safety power shutoff, as was already mentioned. In 2019, many customers had their power off. I received numerous calls from businesses saying, we need the power turned back on. Their businesses were closed. They weren't able to serve customers. And so, you know, it's a balancing act of trying to make sure the power is on. and installing the equipment needed to do that safely. It's simply not acceptable for PG&E to provide power that leads into the high fire threat district areas. We have to shut it off and island it and prevent it from going up where there could be ignition and potential for fire. So, What I can say is that this location was reviewed against about four other alternate locations. I'm not sharing anything right now that hasn't been shared with the residents already. We looked at numerous locations and the other locations would have reduced the number of customers that would have power. So there'd be fewer people Um, or we could have done it and it would have required more polls So this was the place where we could install the least equipment and serve the most customers. |
| 01:56:10.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:56:11.65 | Mark Van Gorder | does that Um, Make it a better situation. for the resident at that address. No. And we will continue to work with that resident and neighbors to see if there's an alternate that we can find. But it was the absolute best decision to make for the city of Sausalito and to ensure the reduction to maximum possible of ignition. I just want to say why it's |
| 01:56:39.80 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:56:40.10 | Mark Van Gorder | Thank you. We can continue to talk about what alternatives we may have, but that's why it is there. |
| 01:56:50.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. So I appreciate that answer. I think that still doesn't really answer the question of why there was not sufficient outreach ahead of time. We know that you are working under tight time frames. But we do expect the courtesy of outreach to both our local government and our residents. get that commitment from you moving forward. even if it is a short time period, or even if you are working on a, I think that, um, We do deserve that. from PG&E. Um, before installing something major like this. |
| 01:57:35.82 | Mark Van Gorder | I, I, Agree I'm one voice in a very. large organization. I, I, my job is to carry that message up at a very high level. And we will do our best to be better going forward and to work with the Public Works Department the City Manager's Department to Um, share this information and try and find other solutions I do think that, Again, I just want to reiterate, Many other locations were reviewed. and the undergrounding I don't, you know, from what I've heard from the engineers, and again, easy to argue and completely understand. information that would have been helpful to share a proactive |
| 01:58:26.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:58:26.57 | Mark Van Gorder | But I do think undergrounding would not have been possible to install this equipment in ready fashion. for this year and as we've seen, we're in the thick of public safety power shutoff season. I'm not trying to make excuses. I think that's what happened. |
| 01:58:44.28 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well, thank you. So we are gonna open this up for public comment. It looks like council member Cox would like to make a comment or has a question before we do that. |
| 01:58:53.77 | Councilmember Cox | I just wanted to close the loop on the comments by Mr. Van Gorder. to the powers that be to have this dialogue, you know, it might bear mentioning that by participating public works and with the local residents, we know our city better than anybody. And so we may actually have some valuable input for you as you're considering what's the most impactful in terms of preventing public safety power shutoffs and what's the least impactful in terms of impacts to neighbors. So we can definitely provide you some useful information in that process moving forward. Thank you. |
| 01:59:37.74 | Mark Van Gorder | Council member, I completely respect that comment. and agree fully. Um, you know, It's one of the pleasures that I've had working with Director McGowan. that frequently he would provide that intelligence that is in the city's And it was always tremendously welcome and helpful. And I appreciate you saying that, yes. Yes. |
| 01:59:57.10 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | you |
| 02:00:02.13 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | you We also do appreciate your commitment as stated in our staff report to continue to meet with the residents and to work towards solutions. So I want to appreciate your that commitment, and we hope that that will continue to go smoothly. So I know we have some. |
| 02:00:22.09 | Mark Van Gorder | You have our commitment to that. Yes, you do. |
| 02:00:25.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. All right, we've got a few residents here. who want a public comment, and I know we've gotten written correspondence from them as well, which I hope you've been able to take a look at. So Caroline Revelle. Thank you. |
| 02:00:38.04 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 02:00:38.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:00:38.46 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 02:00:38.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:00:38.55 | Carolyn Revell | Yeah. |
| 02:00:38.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 02:00:38.81 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 02:00:38.83 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 02:00:38.85 | Carolyn Revell | Good evening again, Madam Mayor and members of the council. As you know, I'm Carolyn Revell living at 515 North Street and you have a letter in the packet written on behalf of the neighbors on 4th and North Streets who are negatively impacted by the PG&E poll at 315 North Street. We'd very much like to thank the council for focusing on this issue tonight to allow discussion of the polls impact and possible solutions. We thank council member Cox for joining us at a Zoom conference earlier, and Andy Davidson, senior engineer, for facilitating communication with PG&E. and BPW director Kevin McGowan. who met with three of us representatives in the field on August 25 that's not reflected in the staff report that's subsequent to its drafting. Apparently he came to review proposals Mr. Van Gorder, we're of course very interested in your presentation and we want to assure you we are concerned as all residents are about the fire danger to all of us. and we appreciate the efforts of PG&E to reduce the number of households affected by power shutoffs. But as we've discussed here, we did feel that PG&E failed to give us adequate notification about the new polar to provide a clear explanation for its purpose. and the rationale for locating it in that particular block. We spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out who to talk to at PG&E. We spent a lot of time trying to come up with possible solutions, most of which turned out not to be workable, but if we'd had more information, we might have been able to be more directed with our suggestions. We did learn of the understanding of the alternative locations that had been looked at, that you mentioned just now, and why they were rejected. but at our last meeting we didn't. any discussion of some possible alternatives that would work after the fire season. So going forward, we hear your commitment to HELPING. designate representatives with the technical skill and decision-making ability to work with our neighborhood representatives in developing an alternative to the current location. And we understand after the fire season, AND, . have several neighbors who what will speak to some specific aspects of our situation thank you very much for your commitment tonight thank you |
| 02:03:00.87 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Carolyn. Tim Ryan? |
| 02:03:07.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And then after Mr. Ryan, Kevin Carroll. |
| 02:03:10.47 | Tim Ryan | Okay, well, thank you very much. My name is Tim Ryan. and I'm a resident of 309 4th Street. |
| 02:03:14.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:03:16.95 | Tim Ryan | So we are directly next to 315 4th Street. And I've been a resident of Saucido for 30 years. So I've really enjoyed living here. And like many residents, it's been a nice, wonderful, quiet place to live. But recently, you know, we became aware that now on 4th Street that we were kind of surprised to find out that we are basically at a state level involvement with respect to the power grid. within the state of California. and also obviously within the city of Sausalito So it's been a little bit of a trying situation and we're doing everything we can to work with everyone involved. And again, we thank you to PG&E and the city of Sausalito, the people who have reached to us. It's just a little bit complex because we are here next to Southview Park as well. And so this past week or two, we've had, you know, jackhammers and dump trucks AND, YOU KNOW, I WANT TO In addition to that, there was a PG&E gas leak. So we've actually gotten to know the PG&E construction crews fairly well. They're very competent. We did not expect a gas leak in addition to everything else that's going on in our neighborhood, but you know they resolved it in a very professional manner. And so we're happy to proceed beyond that. So now what we're looking at is a permanent solution to a relocation of this sectionalizer device. We feel there are a few valid alternatives. For example, as Councilmember Cox mentioned, by The residents understanding the city environment, and by the city employees understanding the environment we feel that there's better alternatives for replacement of this particular device. It could be moved up a block or two onto Central Avenue. which already has an underground district, And there may be like 10 additional households that are affected buy a shutoff, but instead of 700 is 710, for example. So we feel something like that is, |
| 02:05:15.68 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:05:16.27 | Tim Ryan | can be considered. We also feel that this could be placed in a better location. If it does have to be above ground, there's kind of a corner of north and fourth and central where perhaps this could be put in a place where where people don't necessarily notice it. You know, we've all gotten used to polls. We have polls in front of our house. Most people do. But. to have something new that lands without notice. And not only that, but it's much larger in scale and scope and view impact. than anything else. So I would just like to conclude and say that I think we're on the right track. We're all working together. Even though we're sheltering in place, we've made great outreach and contacts with our neighbors around us, We really are fortunate to have the support of the city behind us. and we've been working on a We really entrust PG&E. to do the right thing for the community as well as the state at large. And we understand the timeliness of these decisions and agree a hundred percent. I had to go in now. We didn't have time to do undergrounding. We really want to work together over time, and we really want to continue discussing this issue to the point where it meets a strong and a viable option for everyone involved. Thank you very much. |
| 02:06:30.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Mr. Ryan. Kevin Carroll. |
| 02:06:35.06 | Kevin Carroll | Good evening. Some time ago, I had a house on a hill the lovely view of Mount Tamalpais And a poll went up directly in front of my picture window. And as I remember, PG&E pretty much was exempt from any legal requirements to notify me, but I noticed in the report tonight, it did mention they tried to notify people because there was gonna be a power shut off before they, while they were making this installation. So since Most of the people that have spoken so far about this are not attorneys, I'd be really in and I imagine this has got to be an issue that's been litigated particularly by people with views that get interrupted by PG&E equipment. if the city attorney had any opinions on or could find out about what PG&E's legal requirements are in notifying residents And the only other point I'd like to mention is I've made a note of my calendar. I'm going to drive by to look at this tomorrow. It might be helpful if the residents submitted pictures of what they're dealing with. if this is brought back to the council on a future agenda, so that the rest of the public might understand what this controversy is about. Thank you. |
| 02:07:57.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Mr. Carroll. All right, I don't see any other members of the public with their hands raised. Could our clerk just confirm that that is the case? |
| 02:08:09.12 | Heidi Scoble | Your Cleveland knows there are no new hands raised, although Carolyn Revell has raised her hand. |
| 02:08:15.08 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well, Carolyn, I think you are aware of our policy that we need to treat everyone equally and do not give... extra speaking opportunities. So I apologize for that, but appreciate you being here. Okay. Council members, any additional thoughts or comments? Vice Mayor? |
| 02:08:44.06 | Councilmember Riley | Yeah, so... You know, there's... I think several issues here. um PG&E is... Let me back up. I have a fairly good knowledge of our power transmission system And PG&E. through my involvement for the last eight years with MCE Clean Energy. Now on that side of the front, we're primarily involved in the energy procurement system, as opposed to that part of the business that Mark is primarily involved in, which is the distribution systems and the higher high voltage lines and et cetera, et cetera. two different parts of the business. but, The fact remains that PG&E has a fundamental basic cultural problems. that they do not know very well how to interact with their customers on the energy transmission side of the equation. They know how to do maintenance pretty well. They know how that part of the customer service works. thought. PG&E in this particular situation blundered into our city PUT A POLL UP. in front of residents' houses without any communication plan whatsoever and basically justify it on the grounds of public safety for which they have some justification. But that doesn't excuse the lack of a process to actually carefully go into a neighborhood and say, we must do this now for public safety reasons. And here is our long-term solution. And here comes then the second issue. The second issue is that local governments need to, and they're going to have to come together, and they're going to have to come together and guarantee legislation in the state legislature, because of the power that the state legislature has actually given PG&E to be able to blunder into our cities. And so we're going to have to ensure that there's sufficient legislation put in place so that PGE is responsible for long terms, over the long term, ensuring that they are by law required to underground all this stuff. That's the situation we're in. We can't dump on poor Mark. I've said before from this dais, or rather the one in City Hall, that I appreciate Mark's liaison efforts with him. So it's not his problem. The problem is, it's a systemic cultural problem within the organization that he represents, of which this was an example. |
| 02:11:49.24 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Anyone else? Well, I really want to thank Mr. Van Gorder for being here tonight and for listening to our frustration. and that of our residents. I do want to thank you and thank PG&E for the efforts to develop generators in Marin City, both for the Marin City and Sausalito community. I think that is a huge step forward from last year. So we appreciate the steps that you've taken from last year. I do think just given some earlier questions from council members Part of the issue last year also was a communication issue. And I think really no one quite understood exactly Why? the public safety power shutoffs were happening and why they were happening in the way that they were happening. And some of that communication did get through. But this very random street by street experience that we had here in Sausalito, and I think Mill Valley experienced a similar issue very confusing and very hard. to communicate to our residents what was going on. And I think it would go a long way |
| 02:13:07.69 | Mary Wagner | one. |
| 02:13:10.33 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | to gain public support. I think there's kind of a theme here, which is communication, notice, communication. more notice, more communication. But if we better understood both as public officials and as residents, why things were happening in the way they were happening. there'd be a lot more support. for the efforts to increase our safety and prevent fires. I mean, I know everybody wants to prevent fires, everyone wants increased safety, but when it seems so random, |
| 02:13:41.06 | Mary Wagner | I know. Thank you. |
| 02:13:46.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It's very hard to get behind and kind of message that we do need to be supporting you in these efforts. to the extent you can help us answer those questions about why the shutoffs were So, contained and discreet, I think that would help us this year as we go through additional shut offs and I am really looking forward to seeing how the generators in Marin City will help alleviate the problem. And we do appreciate your commitment to our residents near 4th Street to continue to work. So thank you. |
| 02:14:21.62 | Mark Van Gorder | I am there. I'm actually hoping we don't have to find out how the generators work. I'm certain they will. But after this past public safety power shut off, and certainly after the fires that we've seen already across the state, I don't want to see those generators turned on ever if I can have my wish. Let me say again, thank you to... City Manager Paul Sauer to Director McGoin to you Council members, I hear you. I understand. We will continue the dialogue. with the neighbors. see what we can do. And then real quick on the question about communications and updating, even though no city or jurisdiction in Marin County was affected by the current public safety power shutoff that's going on in about 22 counties throughout our service territory. I tried to provide that information. I hope you received it throughout this event. Press releases, links, notifications, update, not because you were part of the event, but so that you would understand the level of information that you will receive if and when, and I hope it doesn't happen, Marin County is part of a public safety power shutoff. That is the level of communication you will expect or should expect from me. |
| 02:15:19.71 | Sean Cleary | of the |
| 02:15:44.24 | Mark Van Gorder | or more if Marin is part of public safety power shot up when related event in the future. I'm just praying for rain. |
| 02:15:54.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I think we all are. Thank you very much, Mr. Van Goorder. We appreciate you being here tonight. Any last comments, council members? |
| 02:15:58.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:16:04.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. Thank you very much. Have a good night. |
| 02:16:07.89 | Unknown | Have a good night. |
| 02:16:09.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we will, thank you. All right, moving on. I closed my agenda. I think we are moving on to our COVID Update, speaking of things changing by the minute. Welcome Abbott Chambers, our Director of Communication Um, And we are going to hear a COVID-19 update. And we are a little behind on our agenda tonight. So although I know a lot has been happening, so thanks. |
| 02:16:34.48 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:16:42.16 | Unknown | Well, thank you, Madam Mayor and good evening, members of the council. I'm going to share my screen with you. |
| 02:16:53.23 | Unknown | Can you see my slides? |
| 02:16:54.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can. Thank you. |
| 02:16:56.28 | Unknown | Great. So this is another in my series of COVID-19 updates. And as far as what I'll be covering for this presentation, I will provide an overview of the new State of California framework for business reopenings. I'll also provide an update on how that framework applies to Marin. And I'll provide updates on school re-openings in Marin and on activity in our downtown area. So the state announced a new framework to regulate which business sectors can be open on a county by county basis in the state. That was announced and went into effect on August 31st. It replaces the state monitoring list that's been in effect for the last few months and is arguably or certainly supposed to be more straightforward. than the monitoring list though as you'll hear tonight it's off to a little bit of a rocky start the new framework is based on four tiers that are color-coded corresponding to the amount of covet 19 activity within a county and this framework is based on just two primary metrics case rates and testing positivity so that's the number of new cases of COVID-19 within a county and the percent of positive test results. in the couch. Each of these four tiers has a corresponding list of allowed activities, allowed business activities. And with the announcement of the new framework, Marin was initially classified in Tier 1 for widespread community transmissions. This is an image from the state's COVID-19 website. This shows the way that counties are classified within this new framework. I won't go into it into detail, but the way it works is if a county happens to be in one color tier on one of the metrics and another, say, purple tier for case rate and a red tier for positivity, the default is to go to the more restrictive case rate, the lower tier. This is another screenshot from the state website. And this is just one of a long list of different business activities that are covered by this new framework. And just giving you an example for restaurants, if a county's in tier one, outdoor dining is the only restaurant activity that's allowed. But if a county moves into tier two, then restaurants can open with a maximum of 25% capacity or 100 people, which is fewer, moving all the way up to the yellow minimal tier where 50% capacity is allowed. In each of these cases, modifications means that tables have to be socially distant and the hygiene and mask wearing needs to be enforced as well. So how do counties move through this new framework? Well, the California Department of Public Health is going to, says they're going to release new county data every Tuesday. to show new county rankings. And at this point, it's a little bit like a board game. If you're allowed to move into a different higher tier, A county can only move up one tier at a time. So you couldn't jump from purple to orange, for example, And when a county moves between tiers, once it makes that move, so say from purple to red, it has to remain in that new tier for at least three weeks. If the metrics start trending in the wrong direction, a county can move backwards, so it could move back from red to purple if it's in the higher risk tier for two consecutive weeks. It's also important to mention that counties can be more restrictive. than what the state is allowing within its tiers. But Marin public health has indicated that they plan to stick very close to what the state is allowing. So looking at Marin County status, as I said, as a starting point, Marin was assigned to the purple tier one or the most restrictive tier on August 31st. Then this past Friday, we were informed by the state that we'd be moving to the red tier or tier two on September 8th. And obviously everyone businesses started gearing up to reopen today. And then at the last minute yesterday on Labor Day, public marine public health was informed by the state that we would not be moving forward and that we would have to stay in the purple tier and the reason for that last minute change seems to be some changes in the way that the state calculated the case rate and. The public health, I believe, thought they were going to get a better adjustment factor. for the number of tests that are being conducted in our county. If counties are performing more tests than the average for the state, you kind of get extra credit and the factors applied to bring down their case rate. And I guess when the final numbers were run by the state, we ended up being above that threshold for being able to move to the red tier. The county has asked for a review of this tier assignment, a review of having to remain in the purple tier and Uh, the. A discrepancy seems to be that the county believes that its own numbers of case rates are different from the ones that the estate may be going off of. We are expecting that the county will receive a response from the state by the end of this week. But according to the assistant county administrator in a call this evening, it's not looking particularly good for Marin to succeed in this review and move into the red tier. And if that happens to be the case, then it won't be until September 22nd. that we would be able to move into the red tier if our numbers are where they need to be for that tier. So business sectors that have been affected by this hold that's been placed on our tier status include indoor operations at restaurants, gyms and fitness centers, movie theaters, and houses of worship, and also an expansion of retail capacity from 25% to 50%. Schools are also affected if a county is in the purple tier. The schools are not allowed to offer in-classroom learning unless they receive a waiver from the local public health officer, and that's for grades TK through 6 only. In Marin County, public health has issued 15 waivers so far, including the Bayside MLK and Lycée Francais. Bayside MLK was going to reopen today, but due to an inconclusive test of a staff member, I believe they are now targeting September 14th. Bayside MLK was going to reopen today, but due to an inconclusive test of a staff member, I believe they are now targeting September 14th for reopening. And then if we do move into the red tier, we have to remain in the red tier for two weeks, according to the state. until we can allow schools to reopen for in-classroom learning. And that covers all schools at all levels, including higher education. Continuing on to an update on downtown activity. And this is a photo from a walk that I took downtown yesterday. The police department is reporting that they continue to see very few rental bikes coming into town over this past weekend, the parking lots at their peak were at 90 to 100% capacity. Officers reported that they were seeing mask wearing at approximately 90% and that's certainly close to what I was observing yesterday. It does seem like mask wearing increasingly has become normalized, which is very good to see. The PD also reports that they received only four calls over the past week reporting businesses in violation of SIP orders. And the focus of the PD continues to remain on education, with issuing citations to businesses as a last resort. And to date, no citations have been written to Saucelito businesses. Another interesting data point that says a lot about visitors to our downtown area. These are some numbers put together by Elliot Holt of the PD, parking analyst. The numbers that you're seeing here compare parking revenues for July and August of 2020 to the same period for last year. and you'll see that revenues at our municipal lots, so lots one through four, down 56% for this year compared to last year. Street meters down 40%. Revenue from commuter programs down 60% for an overall decline of more than 50%. And when you take into account the fact that we are seeing fewer rental bikes and that ferry operation with the exception of weekday commuter service has not resumed, we are very likely seeing much lower than 50% of visitors from past years this year under COVID. Some other changes in town to help encourage mask wearing. The PD has new signs at our parking lots, at the entrance to each parking lot there on the left and also at our pay stations. And our downtown ambassadors have new signs. The two signs on the right are larger scale signs that are more visible to cyclists as they come through town, as we're trying to make sure that cyclists conform to the mask wearing requirements as well as pedestrians. And on September 3rd, the PD installed as a test four of these downtown zone masks required for all stickers. They were installed, I believe, at four locations on the third and many more will be installed once they determine that these are can withstand pedestrian traffic and don't discolor or peel up too quickly. I'll conclude just with a quick Caledonia Street update, as you heard from Council member Ryan, the Uh, The Caledonia Street has been closed on a more permanent basis between Thursday and early Monday, and that replaces the former approach where we were taking down the barriers every evening and setting them up every morning. That concludes my report and I would be happy to answer any questions. |
| 02:28:44.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you very much Abbott for another really thorough report. I will open it up to Councilmember questions. |
| 02:28:53.15 | Unknown | I wanted to apologize. I said Councilmember Riley. Ryan, I meant Councilmember Riley. |
| 02:28:57.91 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I was wondering if we had increased our numbers. |
| 02:28:58.94 | Unknown | Yeah, who is this council member Ryan? Sorry about that Tom. |
| 02:29:02.65 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | but sorry sorry about that Tom no worries getting late all right any questions for Mr Chambers Okay, well, why don't we open it up to public comment? I see two hands raised, Nicole Arena. |
| 02:29:23.80 | Unknown | Oh, hi. This is actually Bradley. Oh, hold on. |
| 02:29:26.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So, okay, well welcome. |
| 02:29:29.16 | Unknown | I actually wanted to let you know that there were several of us that wanted to provide public comment on the PG&E issue. |
| 02:29:36.06 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 02:29:36.10 | Unknown | but we were not allowed to participate. |
| 02:29:38.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Oh, okay. I'm so sorry about that. Were you having internet issues or were you not able to raise your hand? |
| 02:29:44.96 | Unknown | Yes, and the reason for that is we tried to join the meeting through the City of Sausalito website where it allows you to join the meeting. |
| 02:29:49.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 02:29:49.92 | Unknown | to join in. |
| 02:29:51.32 | Unknown | but it doesn't allow participation. |
| 02:29:53.33 | Unknown | I am. |
| 02:29:53.78 | Unknown | And so we learned today that today that we need to independently plug in the Zoom address and not use the city website. And so we would like to comment and we would ask the city council to bring back the PG&E representative next month. One so they can be more prepared to respond to the questions that were asked today. And two, we'd like to provide comments to him and get his reaction to those questions as well. |
| 02:30:19.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay well you're certainly welcome to finish your public comment now and we will let Ms. Holderman comment as well. Okay. For this evening. |
| 02:30:28.75 | Unknown | Thank you. And what I want to talk about is the 28 funding for that small |
| 02:30:32.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | or that small. |
| 02:30:32.86 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:30:33.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Can you hold on just one second? Heidi, we are getting real, is anybody else hearing really bad feedback and external noise? |
| 02:30:41.05 | Heidi Scoble | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:30:41.20 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:30:41.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | playing back. |
| 02:30:41.86 | Heidi Scoble | It's from the commenter's speaker. |
| 02:30:42.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It's from the... |
| 02:30:46.47 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:30:47.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well, I'm going to mute myself and let the speaker continue and hopefully that will help. |
| 02:30:54.18 | Unknown | Okay, I'll go very quickly. I'd like to address the 28 funding. As we discussed at the last city council meeting, due to the electrical importance of the small four street corridor, and it's the fact that it's next door to a new Southview Park, we would like the city council on PG&E to focus on getting 28 funds just to underground this corridor. |
| 02:30:55.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 02:31:10.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well you're certainly going to come to finish. I can't hold a link to your devices on. Um, |
| 02:31:19.20 | Unknown | And that's basically the extent of my comment. I know with all this background noise, it's difficult, but we would like the city council and PG to follow up on the 28th request. |
| 02:31:22.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | back. It's difficult. We would like the city council on PGN Thank you. Is anybody else hearing? Thank you. I think what's happening, Ms. Holderman, I don't know if you still have your website on, but when you speak, if you could, turn our websites off now that you're on Zoom. I think that will help with the feedback. |
| 02:31:39.35 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 02:31:43.70 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, if there are multiple devices on, then you will get that feedback. |
| 02:31:43.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 02:31:48.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, great. Thank you for being here. I really apologize about the issue with your participating in the last item. Ms. Holderman, would you also like to speak? |
| 02:32:09.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I am not hearing your speaker. Can we try to unmute her? |
| 02:32:14.86 | Heidi Scoble | Ms. Holderman has been unmuted and her microphone is active. |
| 02:32:18.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you and welcome. |
| 02:32:26.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, I'm still not able to hear Ms. Holderman. I also see Ms. Wickwire is here. |
| 02:32:38.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So I assume Ms. Wickwire also wants to speak on the PG&E item. Council Member Cox, do you have a comment? |
| 02:32:44.49 | Councilmember Cox | Mayor, I believe that the city clerk and the assistant clerk were going to set up a back line for someone to call if they had technical difficulties so that they could assist them behind the scenes Perhaps the city clerk could share that number with Ms. Holderman so that they could resolve Ms. Holderman's computer issues while we're listening to the next public comment. |
| 02:33:09.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Heidi, do you have a number for someone to call? |
| 02:33:13.70 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 02:33:13.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. |
| 02:33:15.18 | Heidi Scoble | Excuse me, sorry, there was a delay. Yes, the number to call, and there's actually four numbers to call. I'll just speak to the first one. would be 1-669-900-6833. You can use this number either on your smartphone or a landline. In order to raise your hand, you must press the star nine button. And then when we call you, you'll be able to speak. |
| 02:33:49.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:33:49.19 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah, Council Member Cox. Madam Mayor, I'm not sure that the city clerk understood what I was saying. There's a back number. at City Hall where and the clerk and others are physically located. So we set up this process with the city manager where there's a back number that people having technical difficulties can call to confer to resolve their technical difficulties. That's the number I was seeking, not the Zoom number to join the call. |
| 02:34:24.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well, let's take one more stab at trying to either have Miss Wickwire or Miss Holderman be unmuted and speak. And if we cannot get that resolved, if the clerk could work to find a number where people can reach someone to help them with their that. issues. That would be great. |
| 02:34:49.53 | Heidi Scoble | Ms. Holderman has been unmuted and I can see that her microphone is live. |
| 02:34:56.28 | Unknown | Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Welcome. |
| 02:34:57.36 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 02:34:59.14 | Unknown | Thank you. Okay. Well, you still have a problem in that you gave me a phone number, but then you didn't give me the access code. So anyway, I'm gonna read again a statement like I did last time since I'm not very good these kinds of things. The last time I spoke before the town council on August 18th, I told you that it took four years and a good part of my life savings to renovate my house in Hurricane Gulch. At that time, great pains were taken to make sure that everyone in the neighborhood had their say at a city planning hearing. My house could not be raised even two inches to bring substandard ceiling heights on the lower floor up to code. because it would have affected one of my neighbor's primary views. Ironically, the new Paul and PSPS reclosing devices placed in front of 315 4th Street affects not only the primary views from that property, but also mine at 317-4th, and those of some of the very neighbors on North Street whose rights were protected by processes required by the Sausalito Planning Department back in 2012 when my hearing was held. I carefully considered a lot of factors when deciding to purchase my retirement home in Sausalito. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think that I would fear for my personal safety by having a giant lightning rod adorned with a plethora of large metal electrical devices less than 20 feet from my neighbors cedar shake, wooden frame, tinderbox of a home. a home that is less than 10 feet from mine. and the large expanse of glass that wraps two sides of my house. What could possibly go wrong with the unprecedented weather conditions that we keep experiencing these days in California? On top of the inverse condemnation resulting in the loss in value of several homes in the neighborhood from the obstruction of our primary views without so much of a hearing or due process, we have safety concerns to consider. Does it make any sense at all to keep putting up electrical poles when so many of the recent devastating fires in the last few years have been caused by sparks flying off of some sort of above ground manmade equipment? We may not be able to afford undergrounding equipment in rural settings, but Sausalito is highly congested. We live on top of each other, and the wins in the past few years are the worst I've experienced since the mid-1980s. Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results? And what about the status of 4th Street as a major artery in the electrical grid that runs through Sausalito? Shouldn't this be underground for the protection of all that it surrounds? as well as the people that feed off of it in Sausalito, We need to start being proactive about the severe weather conditions that are coming instead of reacting to current and future problems with old school power poles. You simply cannot look to the past to solve the problems of the future. Let's prevent a disaster now instead of paying out and cleaning up later on. We simply live too close together and too severe of a topographical incline for there not to be a catastrophic loss of life and property. Should equipment catch on fire or shoot sparks that cause Herb Weiner's house to go up like a Roman candle? your three minutes. |
| 02:38:34.44 | Heidi Scoble | Your three minutes has elapsed. |
| 02:38:38.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you very much, Ms. Holderman. I appreciate your being here. Also, I did want to just let everyone from the public know that on our agenda, there are four telephone numbers to call and the meeting identification number is listed on the top of the agenda. And it's 5 4 2 1 4 5 1 8 0 5 followed by the pound sign. And that's on our website as well. Miss Wickwire, can we get your audio? |
| 02:39:14.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:39:14.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:39:14.23 | Unknown | CAN YOU HEAR ME? |
| 02:39:14.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:39:15.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:39:15.13 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:39:15.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:39:15.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can. Welcome. |
| 02:39:17.15 | Unknown | Great, hi. Just a quick question for Mr. Chambers actually, to the issue of masks and COVID-related um, Precautions, I had read, I think in the Marin Independent Journal about the council considering enforcement. measures and just wondering where we are at with that. um, and including fines as well, I know Marin County has a statute |
| 02:39:51.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. I'm just going to see if there are any other members of the public who either for our former PG&E item if they could not get through or for this COVID-19 update by Mr. Chambers. I am not seeing any additional public comment. So we'll bring it back to the council. And Abbott, I know you did speak a little bit to the increased, oh, I'm sorry. I do see one other member of the public, Yasmin McGrane, welcome. |
| 02:40:31.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Can you hear me? Yes, we can. |
| 02:40:33.60 | Unknown | Okay, great. I just wanted to echo, Holly Holderman's comments and to really consider looking forward as we plan, especially down the 4th Street corridor, if more of these polls are going to be put up. When this installation was happening with PG&E, I was asking questions about one of, I don't know if it was a contractor or someone at PG&E that was holding down, kind of blocking the road at the end of that block while the installation of this monster pole was put in place. And he proactively communicated how this was just like going back in time, like why would a city or a company even PG&E put up dinosaur technology was his word to address this problem. Because given the climate crisis issue, this is only going to cost everybody more headaches and more costs down the road. So I think it's really, this is an opportunity for us all as a community to work proactively with PG&E, proactively with our city council members proactively with our residents and use this as a community to work proactively with PG&E, proactively with our city council members, proactively with our residents and use this as a teaching moment of how can we really consider areas where we could underground? How can the community come together? Because it's only going to create a more difficult situation if more of these types of polls are put up in the community. especially in the windy area of Hurricane Gulch. So thank you, Ms. Holderman, for speaking. |
| 02:42:07.29 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. And we did speak quite a bit about undergrounding at our last meeting on this issue. And I think there is definite agreement. on that point from prior counsel comments. So thank you all. Okay, so let's turn back to our COVID-19 update. And Abbott, I think you did talk a little bit to increase measures downtown, including the stickers and increased signage. Do you have anything to add in response to this requires question? |
| 02:42:42.25 | Unknown | Yeah, the as I understand the plan is to see how our efforts to encourage mask wearing through the new signage, particularly those sidewalk signs performs. and then take it from there. I know that our police department is not thrilled about the idea of sting operations to write tickets for people who aren't wearing masks downtown, but I would defer to Chief Rohrabacher if you wanted to add anything. |
| 02:43:18.09 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, I think that is consistent with our conversation at our last meeting that we were interested in enhanced signage and enhanced efforts, particularly in the downtown. step-by-step Thank you. process. Um, are there any, um, Council comments at this point. |
| 02:43:43.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I guess I would just say, I just appreciate Abbott, you're staying abreast of all of these issues and the ever-changing I think what happened in Marin between the state and Marin County this weekend was very unfortunate. And I understand we need to be cautious and take every precaution, but I think these last minute changes are also exceedingly difficult for our local businesses to adjust. It takes a lot of time and money to get employees lined up to come back. Um, and counting on that, um, information from the state that we received on Friday. You know, I just I feel Just... really have a lot of empathy for the businesses that were ready to open today and we're told that they couldn't. So I understand that we do need to be cautious, but I hope that our communication in this new here. process and the data that they're using to make those assessments can get a little smoother going forward. But Anyway. Thank you. Just too bad. |
| 02:44:55.48 | Unknown | Yeah, and I'll add that the assistant county administrator said this evening that they're not going to going forward. I do not plan to put any announcements out on the Friday in advance, but are going to wait until that those actual numbers come out from the state on the Tuesdays that it's just too disruptive and too much to risk to have this happen again. I think everyone is frustrated at the county level, and I know many conversations were held with the state today. |
| 02:45:30.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you for that. Councilmember Riley? |
| 02:45:34.73 | Unknown | Thank you, Madam Mayor. Abbott, thank you for tremendous presentation and keeping us abreast. I wanted to thank you for your currents. It's become a must-read. with such great information and you're not even when you have special news, you get out even more urgently. I was going to ask what the distribution count is of currents right now or how much of our population it covers. |
| 02:45:59.94 | Unknown | Council member Riley the total number of subscribers right now is about 3900 on it. For a typical week we have an open rate between 40 and 50 percent when we have one of those bulletins that goes out. And you know within the last few months it's sometimes noticed above 50 percent so occurrence continues to be. um in my opinion our our best way to get jumped out into the community |
| 02:46:32.97 | Mark Van Gorder | Thank you. |
| 02:46:32.98 | Lauren | Thank you. |
| 02:46:33.02 | Mark Van Gorder | That's it. |
| 02:46:36.06 | Unknown | at least news of a non-urgent sort. And I would encourage everyone to sign up for Nixle and Alert Marin for those emergency alerts on really timely disaster information. |
| 02:46:54.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Excuse me. Thank you. Any additional council comments? Yeah, price may have. |
| 02:47:03.80 | Councilmember Riley | Yeah, I was gonna make a quick comment about Um, You know, swapping between tiers is going to be very difficult for a county our size. There's going to be a lot of volatility. A lot of volatility. And so I have some sympathy with the the county and the state on this issue you know, numbers are going to bounce around. So I think the caution the average... indicating the council's going to, the city, the county is going to take is warranted. The only other comment I would make, and I'm going to tread very carefully here, |
| 02:47:41.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:47:41.33 | Councilmember Riley | Um, you know, We've put a lot of effort and I think our, parks and rec department and so on for the, modifications that they do on Caledonia to have the dining, We got to decide if this is going to be real. Were we just playing at this? um, you know, if you compare downtown Mill Valley. and what they've done. compared to Caledonia Street. I mean, I got to be honest, I'd sooner be in Mill Valley Um, we really need to either change the ambience. to decide and commit that we're gonna do this And notwithstanding all of our good efforts at doing it, Our residents. and the businesses got to decide, is this something you want to do or is Caledonia Street too windy and cold and it don't work? Or are we going to start doing what something like Mill Valley has done to make the whole thing incredibly pleasant experience. Music, ambiance, the whole thing. It's just a different scene. And, Are we playing at this or are we going to make it that scene? make it a scene that actually invites open air alfresco dining. Let's get real here. |
| 02:49:04.13 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you, Vice Mayor. I think the Economic Development Advisory Committee had a discussion along those lines at their last meeting. We'll look forward to seeing how that conversation evolves. Council member Burns, do you wanna weigh in? after you've been packing up tables and chairs. |
| 02:49:22.88 | Unknown | I just completely agree with the vice mayor. And I think we've all talked about that. We need to make that commitment and we need the businesses to make that commitment. We need our residents to make the commitment to go there. And then we need to put out forest fires and keep high winds from happening. |
| 02:49:40.60 | Kevin McGowan | we |
| 02:49:40.87 | Unknown | We can deal with that because now September and October are the months that we're going to make a lot of hay. but we need, really quickly we need to get those businesses get their music up get their better tables going and get that layout up to snuff because you just mentioned one town ray but they're up and down the the valley there's every community is just killing it and and it doesn't look that hot here um and i also want to agree with you we're we have such an up battle upstream battle with this testing more you test, the higher numbers go, but you need higher testing to get your positive rate down and in a county like ours, we're going to constantly be battling that factor number that the state's going to provide us. It's a no win. And they're in a Chris Gabbard, This is new to all of us right it's a pandemic that we've never had before so i'm not blaming anybody, but it does not look good. Chris Gabbard, For us, as far as opening because of that and it's all we can do is wear masks we can't control the state side we can barely control the county side, we know their numbers aren't wrong. We just know the data is bad. And we're going to have to live with that. And it's just terribly unfortunate, but it's a pandemic and there's a lot of unfortunate things happening right now. But it's all we can do is just wear masks, stay safe, you know, take this upon yourself. Everybody's going to self-manage right now and stay safe and do our part because we're not getting any help from the state or the county. |
| 02:51:08.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Thank you. Great. Thank you, everyone. And thank you again, Abbott. We really appreciate it, as always. Okay, so we are a lot later than I had hoped. It's 9.55, but we are. Going to go to 7D, which is Council Clarification on Direction to Explore Cannabis Retail Operations in Sausalito. And I think we have our Community Development Director, Lily Whalen. here to kick us off. I Also just wanted to note that we've gotten We have a huge number of correspondents on this issue. So thank you to all the members of the public at last count. I think we're close to 30 pieces of communication on this item for tonight. So thank you for people who wrote in and thanks for everyone still hanging in here at almost 10 o'clock. Welcome, Loli. |
| 02:52:00.26 | Lily | Thank you. Good evening, council members. Can you see my screen? |
| 02:52:03.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We can, although it's not full screen, And your voice is very faint. |
| 02:52:11.31 | Lily | Thank you. that a little bit better. |
| 02:52:14.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, that should do. |
| 02:52:16.10 | Lily | Thank you. And is the screen more full? |
| 02:52:20.69 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Now it is. Thank you. Okay. Whoops, just went backwards. Thank you. |
| 02:52:27.97 | Lily | Thank you. |
| 02:52:28.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It's okay. It's readable. |
| 02:52:30.28 | Lily | Okay, great. All right, so the purpose of this agenda item this evening is to continue discussion on retail cannabis business and what type of retail non storefront and or storefront retail cannabis business the council would like staff to explore with potential businesses in Sausalito. |
| 02:52:55.34 | Lily | In terms of the background and timing, in November of 2016, 77% of Sausalito voters supported the legalization of recreational cannabis in California. And in 2017, recreational cannabis became legal in California. The city subsequently adopted an interim ordinance, which allowed for the delivery of medical and recreational cannabis into Sausalito for the years 2017 through 2017 19. During those years, the council discussed the potential for retail cannabis businesses in Sausalito. on october 22nd of 2019 the council adopted ordinance number 1274 which allows for the delivery of medical and recreational cannabis into sausalito Although other commercial activities such as repeal sales, dispensaries and distribution centers are prohibited. Also in October of 2019, the council continued discussion of exploring the possibility of retail cannabis operations in Sausalito. |
| 02:54:10.04 | Lily | The Bureau of Cannabis Control in California is the lead agency in regulating commercial cannabis licenses for medical and adult use cannabis in California. The Bureau is responsible for licensing retailers, distributors, testing labs, micro businesses, and temporary cannabis events. With regard to retail licenses, the Bureau issues two types of retail licenses. The first is a storefront retailer. which sells cannabis goods to customers at its premises or by delivery. A storefront retailer must have a licensed physical location, including an address, where commercial cannabis activities are conducted. This is as opposed to a non-storefront retailer licensee who sells cannabis goods to customers exclusively through delivery. A non-storefront retailer must also have a licensed premise to store the cannabis goods for delivery. the premise of a non-storefront retailer may not be open to the public. That's a key difference. |
| 02:55:19.15 | Lily | We've received interest from a number of cannabis businesses indicating their continued interest in having discussions regarding retail operations, both storefront and non-storefront in Sausalito. Staff is requesting direction from the council tonight on if staff should pursue discussions with future potential cannabis retail operators, in the context of non-storefront operations or non-storefront and storefront operations. And once that direction is provided, staff will begin to hold those conversations with potential cannabis retailers and bring back options for next steps to the council as soon as possible, including a public outreach and participation plan. And that concludes my staff report, and I'm available for any questions that the council might have. |
| 02:56:07.65 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much for that presentation. Are there any questions from council members? |
| 02:56:19.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye, Snea. |
| 02:56:20.28 | Councilmember Riley | Yeah, Lily, thank you. We have over the years, I think the city of Sol Soledo has got their arms around this issue. At a previous meeting, it may have been in October of last year, I think you were still on leave, so Mary may be able to help us here a little bit. I seem to recall that the last time we discussed this, staff was hearing from those organizations that were considering doing business in Sol Solito. that a non-storefront was not economically viable and they needed a storefront business to go along with that. Is that correct that staff was informed of that? And did anybody provide any economic data to justify that claim? And hopefully if we've got some potential cannabis business owners who intend to to make public comments and I'd like them to address this because I'm not sure I totally agree with it. |
| 02:57:33.76 | Lily | Thank you, Vice Mayor. That's my understanding of the discussions that occurred late last year from some of the folks who are interested in establishing businesses in Sausalito. I did have a conversation upon my return earlier this year with one of those businesses. And I believe that is some of the indication of that they provided was that it wasn't entirely economically viable to have that business, a non-storefront business without the retail component. I did send an email to all four of the businesses I listed in my PowerPoint, letting them know item this evening so hopefully some of them are here and like you mentioned they will be able to respond |
| 02:58:20.43 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. And if one final one other question, which might be clarifying, Could you... I know I sort of, with Calvin, really sort of dived in about 18 months ago, a year ago. And I've been following this development of these businesses through the League of California Synodities Revenue and Taxation Committee, which has been on top of this in terms of structurally how it works. It has staff and been able to get their arms around the fact that the state, how the state licenses these businesses, I remember, you know, you can license for manufacturing, for big business, you can for distribution, for whatever. But they also introduced the concept of micro businesses, where you could bundle several of the licenses together. So for instance, you could have a warehouse non-storefront link to a delivery and a storefront as one micro business license. a view Guys, manage to get your arms around What are the parameters that allow you to bundle those licenses together in micro businesses? Or is that something we need to do some more research on? |
| 02:59:40.88 | Lily | I think it's the latter, Mr. Vice Mayor. I think we need to do a little bit more research from our end on that. So again, some of the folks on the call tonight might be able to help educate us. to some extent. as a part of what we bring back to you, we could bring that information for sure. |
| 02:59:56.59 | Councilmember Riley | I'm in part setting this all up so that hopefully if anybody in public comment want to comment in those terms, it would be very helpful for the whole council, I believe. |
| 03:00:07.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you Councilmember Riley did you want to week. |
| 03:00:13.55 | Unknown | Thank you for a great presentation, Lily. Just two questions. Since we don't have storefronts in Sausalito, do we know where the nearest storefronts are? for residents that need storefronts for convenience or talking to a professional. And my second question is, we have four interested parties opening a storefront. have we reached out to any of the delivery only businesses to see if they'd want to a delivery distribution center in our city. |
| 03:00:49.32 | Lily | Good questions. I'm just pulling up. There's a table that was prepared as a part of your packet. It was attachment four. Of course there's retailers in San Francisco, but I believe Council Member Riley, you were probably referring to Marin County facilities. |
| 03:01:13.94 | Lily | So Fairfax allows storefront for medicinal dispensaries only. |
| 03:01:24.41 | Lily | And That looks like that's it in Marin in terms of storefronts. The County of Marin also, nope. Delivery. So it looks like Fairfax allows storefront for medicinal dispensaries and no others in And then the second question, which was reaching out to, uh, delivery companies that might want to establish a non-storefront in Sausalito? Is that the question? Yeah, I believe that the conversation a few years ago started with a few of those those companies who were, who were, um, thinking that Sausalito might be a good place to establish themselves. And then the conversation evolved into potentially a storefront operation. I believe that some of them are on the call this evening, so they might be able to speak to that. |
| 03:02:21.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. I thought that I year or two ago the county had actually agreed to allow some kind of storefront use in a limited number of locations, but I may be That's not what this table that's in our packet says. um, So that was my memory, but I could be wrong. |
| 03:02:41.22 | Unknown | That was my memory. |
| 03:02:43.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So. |
| 03:02:44.46 | Unknown | They did, and there was a lot of discussion on the locations, you know, from Tam Valley, and they had proximity issues that I'm sure we'll hear some of that tonight as well from our speakers or from our public comments. |
| 03:02:59.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, if there are any other questions, I just had one, which is, Lily, I'm wondering if you've heard from other cities or any of the kind of league about whether sort of some of the economic benefits um that were anticipated from local cannabis operations have, um, been born out or if that's not something that you've looked into at this point. |
| 03:03:30.34 | Lily | I haven't done a deep dive into that. I've heard some chatter about the, not specifically in Marin County, but about the fact that the state with its tax on these type of businesses, in addition to sales tax, and then an additional tax, a large tax from local government might be discouraging some businesses from either locating in certain areas or, actually doing the type of business that they need to survive, but that's just kind of you know, chatter and articles, but no concrete cities that I've talked to. But we can certainly look in more into that. |
| 03:04:14.25 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and then I just had a question for our city attorney, if she's available to answer this either now or after public comment. If we did have a retail business, either storefront or non-storefront, would we need to adopt a , if we wanted to have attacks on cannabis and are we able to do that under state law? |
| 03:04:43.80 | Mary Wagner | Thank you, Madam Mayor. We were just looking into that question about taxes and it looks like a number of jurisdictions are actually pursuing that, you know, and started looking at that as COVID-19 hit and the economic impacts to various jurisdictions took place. And it seems as though some jurisdictions are actually going out in November. which we've obviously would not be able to do, but we would have other opportunities in the future. We need to look more into what the rates are and that sort of thing and what the current regulations are. but it appears that it's still an option. When we talked about this a while back when the council gave direction to look into the non-storefront Um, systems or businesses. There was discussion of the use of a development agreement in order to impose that's not going to be a financial obligations that were similar to the benefits of having a tax without having to wait to go through that process. So those are still, I believe, options that are available to the council. |
| 03:05:45.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Sure. Any other questions or we've got a number of folks with their hands raised, so maybe we should go to public comment and then. hear what people have to say. All right, we've got about 10 speakers. I'm gonna set the limit at three minutes, but we would certainly give an hour. Appreciate it if you can. keep your comments shorter. Or if you're repeating comments made by others, just reference those comments. But everyone has three minutes. |
| 03:06:14.08 | Unknown | but, |
| 03:06:14.40 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:06:15.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So Eva or Eva? Welcome. |
| 03:06:26.89 | Unknown | Hi there. Bye. And thank you for allowing me to talk tonight. My thanks to the mayor and to the council. It's a long evening and I've sat through a few of these in San Francisco But to be brief, to address the opportunity to have Um, marijuana dispensary as a business in Sausalito. I think it's a great idea. Um, I think it would be number one, a visitor draw. people are always interested in some of these and as a medical and recreational facility I think it will be a double draw. Um, I think that It's a business that will be well received of people that I know who are interested in opening the business. are Um, have been in business before one of the owners already has a business in Sausalito CrossFit training. Chris Monroe. Um. And generally I think it's a good idea. I think that the storefront presence is a definite plus in the city. It's good to know that the nearest storefront is all the way out in Fairfax. and all that supports the opportunity for to really, take advantage of this new business situation. My way I live in San Francisco, But Sausalito is one of our favorite destinations. We go there for the restaurants, for the social ambience, for the weather. And I'm sure it will be a draw outside of Sausalito too for people coming over the bridges. to visit the city. |
| 03:08:07.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you for being here tonight. Michael Johnston. Welcome. |
| 03:08:19.78 | Unknown | Hi there. Can you hear me? |
| 03:08:21.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 03:08:21.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:08:22.43 | Unknown | I thank you for having us. I just want to get quickly to the point. I've been working in commercial real estate here in San Francisco, Marin County for... |
| 03:08:22.99 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE for having |
| 03:08:31.87 | Unknown | over 15 years now. And what I'm seeing and what you're probably all seeing is quite a bit of closures of businesses and retail and office shutting down. throughout the area. and the outlook is pretty grim. for the next couple of years, particularly in the retail sector. And, you know, I think the idea of turning away any potential business right now in this climate could be be a wasted opportunity. something that can be quite profitable, not only for the business, but for the owner of the property. and for the surrounding businesses who may benefit by new customers, new clients, new visitors. We've got a long road ahead in terms of refilling vacant space throughout the country, in Sausalito in particular, And any opportunity that we can, we ought to seize. |
| 03:09:38.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Marissa? Welcome. |
| 03:09:45.49 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:09:47.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:09:48.28 | Unknown | Can you hear me? |
| 03:09:49.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We can. |
| 03:09:50.22 | Unknown | Okay, I'm going to read a couple statements from some Sausalito residents that weren't able to be on the meeting this evening. The first is from Betsy Stroman. She's a 30-year resident of Sausalito and a long-time advocate for services for Sausalito's rapidly growing aging population. At 78 years old, she's a member of the segment of the population herself, and she's writing to ask the council to direct staff to pursue a development agreement for a storefront retail cannabis shop. She's also asking the council to support the proposal for such a shop that has been submitted by Otter Brands, which is Chris, Connor, and Karen. She can personally attest based on for substantial connections to Sausalito's community of older residents, that use of cannabis is widespread within this group. They currently obtain their cannabis via various delivery services. and she's confident that they would prefer the convenience and service available from a local retail dispensary. Moreover, a responsible local retail dispensary can provide personal assistance from an expert that is not available via delivery services. Apart from the benefits individual residents will receive from being able to obtain their cannabis from a local the city of Sausalito will also significantly benefit from tax revenues generated by such an outlet. and the presence of such an outlet will draw retail traffic to other local businesses. particularly in these difficult times when Sausalito's economy has been devastated. Support for a new business such as this seems like a new brainer. Finally, she has known Karen Cleary for many years and is personally familiar with her commitment to serving Sausalito and its residents. She respects her judgment and is confident that the partners with whom she's aligned Herself in this effort will serve the city of Sausalito and its residents. The second letter is from Karen Cleary. She's a 45 year resident of Sausalito. She says, my husband and I raised our son here and we love this town. Over the years, we have been extremely involved in the community, parks and rec, sewer board, library foundation, Sausalito Beautiful, Little League, Sausalito Women's Club Scholarship Fund and Feeding the Homeless at the Baptist Church. Recently, I have become reacquainted with Connor Johnston and Chris Monroe, high school friends of our son, Sean. Their goal is to establish a storefront cannabis business that responsibly and safely serves the needs of the citizens of Sausalito. I'm sure you are aware of the scope of their efforts in the last two years to reach out to both supporters and naysayers. In my opinion, the broad spectrum of their outreach is nothing short of Herculean. In short, I trust them to be excellent standard bearers for this worthy business goal. Due to COVID, our city is in dire financial straits. We need new business, and this would be a profitable source of tax recovery. My personal interest in the success of this project is the very precarious health of my husband, Mark. He's recovering from brain surgery, and the resultant neuro pain is intense. Cannabis products have been far superior in treating the pain than standard recommended drugs. A brick-and-order establishment would go a long way to educating individuals on proper medical care. Thank you for your time, Karen Cleary. Thank you. |
| 03:13:27.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Marissa Baker- Thank you, Marissa. Great, and we do appreciate all the letters that we've gotten and I think And... Hopefully we've mostly had time to read them all. Tony Bellissimo. Welcome. |
| 03:13:50.42 | Heidi Scoble | Tony has been unmuted. Okay, great. Welcome, Tony. |
| 03:13:50.55 | Unknown | Amen. |
| 03:13:54.28 | Unknown | Hi, are you guys able to hear me? Yes. Okay, I just thought I was the guy on the Zoom call that talked and stayed on mute the whole time, so. My apologies. Yeah, I'm a local resident of Mill Valley. I've been a volunteer coach for over 30 years in Southern Marin. I'm one of the original founders of the Marin City Boxing Club, where I also spent seven years in the early 2000s as a volunteer coach at the Marin City Rec Center. Um, I think, Some of the concerns that I think may or may not pop up later, how this affects the the kids. in Southern Marin having a cannabis dispensary in Sausalito and I just wanted to chime in and say, I don't think it will affect the kids. Sausalito has always been a beacon. of inclusion and diversity. In my experience growing up here, I think showing our community how a regulated cannabis business can be operated is very beneficial for our community to include the children in the community. What does concern me is the amount of illegal vapes, that I see around or that I'm hearing about that are around. and opioids. And those are the two things that I find extremely concerning. I do also know that regulated cannabis retail establishments, storefronts, if you will. also do not allow kids in the store. So it's my understanding, and I know the people speaking later will correct me if I'm wrong, would not allow miners into these stores. I also have two teenagers and feel very comfortable that Um, They will be protected and benefit from having a regulated cannabis store. And I know there's a lot of older adults, it would certainly benefit from it too. So thank you. |
| 03:16:09.52 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. The next speaker is call in user five. We will unmute you. So if you're on the phone, that's probably you. I only have one person asking to speak that's using a phone. |
| 03:16:24.74 | Mike Torres | Great. Hi. Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council members. My name is Mike Torres. I'm an actual land use attorney with some experience with municipal law. And I just wanted to speak on behalf of storefront retail establishments. I think if regulated properly, IT CAN ACTUALLY BE AN ASSET TO THE CITY. and certainly will be compatible with other land uses in the city. They can provide a solid tax base as well as employment. The one thing I would recommend from my experience It is making sure you have local residents and a local team that actually cares about the city running these retail establishments. And to that end, I would really suggest someone like the team Chris Connor. and Karen have put together. So again, I know it's late, so I'll keep my comments short. but I really would encourage the city to explore this option further with staff. and to allow storefront retail establishment within the city. Thank you very much for your time. |
| 03:17:22.94 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Mr. Torres. Mike Munro. Welcome. |
| 03:17:29.57 | Unknown | I think I'm unmuted. |
| 03:17:31.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:17:31.39 | Unknown | you |
| 03:17:31.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Wow. |
| 03:17:31.73 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 03:17:31.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:17:32.07 | Unknown | videos that are |
| 03:17:33.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:17:33.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:17:33.10 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:17:33.11 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:17:34.25 | Unknown | Thank you for giving me time to Sorry. |
| 03:17:41.69 | Unknown | There we go. Thank you for giving me a moment to talk about the potential |
| 03:17:49.16 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So Mr Monroe, can I just ask you, do you have this playing on another device? |
| 03:17:55.25 | Unknown | We did that morning. 15. |
| 03:17:59.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | If you could turn the other one off, I think, or mute it, then I think we'll be in better shape. |
| 03:18:04.62 | Unknown | It's off. |
| 03:18:05.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:18:05.75 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:18:05.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | There we go. Okay, we can hear you perfectly. Thank you. |
| 03:18:08.82 | Unknown | So keep this short and sweet. I think this cannabis storefront would provide New taxes for the city of Sausalito. good jobs for local residents. a safe legal product. And for me, I have Parkinson's disease and I get my medications. through a mail order and I'd much rather go Full disclosure, my son is Chris Monroe. who owns Solito CrossFit. I'd like to get the product from you. So. I urge you to consider consider this proposal. Thank you. |
| 03:18:46.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Lee Harper Welcome. |
| 03:18:56.80 | Ted Loewenberg | Here we go. Can you hear me? |
| 03:18:58.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we do. |
| 03:18:58.82 | Ted Loewenberg | Yeah. Good. My name is Ted Loewenberg. I'm the president of the Haight-Ashbury Improvement Association. I want to say a word. about Conor Johnson and the cannabis store that he opened with his partners here in The Hague. our decision to support that opening and Connor and his partners being the local merchants, was based upon the fact that we know Connor, we know who these people are. They are people we can talk to and understand, we understand their values. and his partners strongly committed to working with the community through the operation of the store to ensure that that would not be problematic, that it would be carefully controlled and, uh, properly regulated further for health and safety of everyone involved. So. I think he and his partners here have a I don't know. a viable proposition in front of you. I'd also, if you would like to read another letter from another community leader here in the Haight by the name of Corey Smith. And so when he says, hi, it's Corey who's speaking. As I'm reaching out to support Connor shop to Sausalito. I'm a resident of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco. And I've had direct experience working with Connor Johnson as he and his team opened one of the opened one and are in the process of opening even a second one storefront in my neighborhood. As a result, as a neighborhood resident and leader in my neighborhood association are experienced working with Connor has been nothing short of spectacular. from the very beginning. Their team has been available and transparent with all aspects of the business and showed up strong, showed a strong desire to work with the neighbors and residents in order to make the shop a success since COVID-19 began. to impact our daily lives in March, they've taken all the precautions I would have hoped for and continue to be and valuable part of the community. So that's Connor Johnson. He brings not just the business knowledge, but also he brings a value in his integrity. Thank you. |
| 03:21:29.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Mr. Loewenberg. Eric Sklar. Welcome. |
| 03:21:38.90 | Eric Sklar | Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Eric Sklar. I'm the founder and CEO of Fume. I've been before you a couple times over the years as we've talked about cannabis and possibility in Sausalito. I do want to address some of the questions that the Vice Mayor raised in just a second. But in general, we support the idea of retail cannabis in Sausalito. It's an excellent location for it. The locals need it, and it's pretty far otherwise for them to get cannabis. And you do have visitors who will leave money in your town, which is much needed as well if a retail store front opens. We have primarily been in the delivery business, although we also create our own brands. And Sausalito is just not an ideal location for a delivery-only location, because you would be delivering all over Marin in order to make it viable. And a central Marin location would make more sense as your central hub. Plus Sausalito rents are extremely high. You'd be looking for an inexpensive industrial space since it's not a retail space. It's not that it's impossible, the idea of doing delivery only, a non-storefront in Sausalito, but I just don't think You'll find many takers on it right now. A combination of retail and delivery would work very well, I think, because the retail would sustain the rent requirements that are, you know, kind of presented by Sausalito's limited availability of space. We would very much like to open one, and we actually like you to consider the possibility of it being on a boat, on a houseboat-type situation along the waterfront. We think it would be a good use of that space space and it'd be a wonderful kind of location for it and would be attracted to both locals and tourists. We'd like you to consider that. And so, you know, in the end, I think, in answer to the vice mayor's question, it really is unlikely that you're gonna get a non-storefront only applicant, but we'd like to work with you. I think dispensaries have shown that, you know, around the Bay Area, that they don't have a negative impact on the communities where they operate. In fact, often crime goes down in the areas around them because they have their own security guards at the door. To the question of children, the business will be shut down if it lets somebody under 18 in the business. with a medical card or 21 without. And so there's really no threat of retail to kids. And so again, we stand by willing to work with you to help to try to look at the best way to do this for Sausalito. I'm a resident of St. Helena, but my sailboat is in Clipper Harbor. So I spend an awful lot of time in your beautiful town. |
| 03:24:02.81 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Mr. Schlier. Connor Johnson. Welcome. |
| 03:24:10.93 | Connor Johnston | Good evening, Mayor and Councilors. You've heard my name a little bit tonight. My name is Connor Johnston. I am a Mill Valley native. along with my business partner Chris Monroe, who owns CrossFit Sausalito, And Karen Cleary, a longtime Sausalito native, We have been in the community for almost two years now, talking to merchants, residents, every organization that you can think of, the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, We held an informal meeting with members of the women's club And it's been a slow going process and there have been staff changes and hearings and re-hearings, we have stuck with it because we know that the people of Sausalito support cannabis they've shown that overwhelmingly we know that the people of Marin County support cannabis they they supported prop 64 to legalize cannabis by the third highest margin of any county in the state. And if you look at Sausalito specifically, it actually supported Prop 64 by a higher margin than San Francisco, which was the highest county in the state. everybody that we have talked to with one notable exception who asked us to Every single person that we have talked to across all demographics, all different groups, have been supportive of our presentation, supportive of the idea of opening a cannabis store in town We've had over 150 people sign support letters for our project And I do want to at this point address some of Vice Mayor with these questions because they're good questions. Non-storefront I refer to it a bit as non-business because, there are a lot of things that it can't do or doesn't do. It can't really serve tourists because deliveries have to be to a specific property. You can't just deliver to someone in the park or on the sidewalk. It can't really create jobs. It will create some low paying driver's jobs, but it won't create the kind of jobs that my store on hate street has, which is over 25 full-time jobs and a general manager, who makes over $100,000. Those are real jobs for people in the community. Delivery doesn't do that. Delivery does add more traffic. And it doesn't provide for the personal individualized support for customers and patients who want guidance on what cannabis products to use. by the way it already exists you can get delivery in Sausalito now none of that economic activity is inuring to the benefit of the town though And I know that opponents will often bring up the arguments about youth access. And those arguments sound compelling. The problem is they have no basis in fact. We have seen over and over and over again that regulated legalized cannabis reduces teen use in addition to reducing opioid abuse. We've seen it in Colorado where teen use went down 18% after legalization. The National Institutes on Drug Abuse have done study after study, as have the Columbia School of Public Health showing that. And I just, if I have any time left, I just want to say with respect to the tax issue, what we are proposing and what we presented to city staff back in February is a development agreement where we guarantee hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits to the Sausalito community without having to go to the ballot. We'll do it via a development agreement. and we're proud to do it because we're locals. |
| 03:27:32.51 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you, Connor. You are a little over time, but thank you. And we may have questions for some of the |
| 03:27:33.19 | Connor Johnston | Thank you. |
| 03:27:37.75 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | owners at the end of this. So thank you. Thanks for being here. All right, Bill Bell's iPad. Welcome. |
| 03:28:03.80 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm still showing. Can you hear me now? I can hear you. Yes. |
| 03:28:05.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:28:05.45 | Bill Johnson | Can you hear me now? Hi, I'm Bill Johnson. I'm a longtime resident of Mill Valley. THE FAMILY. I'm retired. San Francisco juvenile probation officer for 33 years. I was head of the department for a while. I worked with juveniles all my life. I've spent many years involved in youth sports in Southern Marin, including pop water football, Little League. I work closely with Sausalito, Marin City, Little League over the years. In short, I've spent a lot of time working with youth. and I've seen a lot of that. bad things that substance abuse can do. with young people when I was in probation. I've also raised four teenagers. I would support the opening of the store in Sausalito. I am not a user of the product. plenty of my friends. and relatives are. and it would be nice for them to, be able to get what they need where there are arthritis, for their sleeping issues. all kinds of things that they would like the product for. and have available locally instead of by delivery going to San Francisco or to Fairfax. So again, I don't see it as a threat THE FAMILY. to the youth of this community. And I would support the opening of the store in Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 03:29:20.36 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Karen Hollweg, At Chris Monroe welcome. |
| 03:29:35.30 | Chris Monroe | Can you see me or hear me? |
| 03:29:37.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I can see you and hear you, welcome. |
| 03:29:40.11 | Chris Monroe | I can't see myself. Thank you, everyone, for allowing us to speak. My name is Chris Monroe and I am San Francisco native and the owner of CrossFit Sausalito on Bridgeway. I wish I could say this off the top of my head but I'm only good at public speaking when it involves barbells and running around. So I'll be looking down and reading off my little prompt here. In the past, I'm sure you've seen our members running around and exercising at the northern end of Bridgeway prior to COVID. But I have to be honest with you, like so many other small businesses in Sausalito, COVID has been devastating to our gym. I don't know if we'll be able to stay open. And with today's overturning of being allowed to open, our future looks very grim. I do know that Sausalito needs to be flexible and we need to embrace new ideas because it's an extremely difficult time for small businesses and local government that depends on their tax revenue and for the employees to depend on their jobs. You know, I employ locals as coaches and I have not been able to pay them because I'm basically out of money. So, For the past two years, my business partner is Connor Johnson, Karen Clear, and I have been working towards opening a small business as a cannabis retail store. My dad is in his early 70s, uses cannabis for his Parkinson's. I'm actually a recovering alcoholic and I counsel people who are in recovery And I've seen how effective cannabis can be in helping people transition off alcohol and drugs. We know that PlusLadems are overwhelmingly support regulated cannabis, both at the polls and the survey conducted a couple of years ago. But we also knew before we did anything else, we needed to get out there and speak directly with the community. And so that's what we've been doing for the past 20 months. So we've met with every merchant in town, walking all the corridors and stopping in every business to introduce ourselves. everyone on the City Council, Reverend Paul Mowry at San Salido Presbyterian Church, Reverend Chip Baker, Larry Moore, the Christ Episcopal Church and spoke with Michael Quinn from St. Mary's Star of the Sea. We presented at Alliance Club meeting, worked with Julie Vera of the Chamber of Commerce and presented at the Chamber's executive meeting, met with Fire Marshal Fred Hillard We reached out to the police department who they said we didn't need to talk to. We presented at a Rotary Club meeting. We spoke with the ED of the Montessori Sparrow Creek School and the principals of Willow Creek and Bayside. We spoke with Sausalito Marin City School District Superintendent Garcia. the Marin County Superintendent Mary Jane Burke and reached out to LIC Francais with no made a response. hosted a meeting at the Firehouse Coffee Shop with dozens of members of the Women's Club and attended their January meeting regarding cannabis. Speaking... |
| 03:32:42.07 | Heidi Scoble | Your three minutes has elapsed. |
| 03:32:42.51 | Chris Monroe | you So thank you for your time to speak. |
| 03:32:54.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thanks. And then we'll just let everybody finish the sentence there. to wrap up. But anyway, thank you, Heidi. Macaulay and Wickwire, welcome back. |
| 03:33:26.35 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I saw that she was on mute. OK, there we go. |
| 03:33:31.48 | Unknown | Hi, I was muted, so you can hear me now? |
| 03:33:34.13 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We can. Thank you. |
| 03:33:35.73 | Unknown | Um, I'll make this quick. It's getting late in the evening. But just to reiterate, I think it's pretty obvious that the city needs you know, the tax revenue, I think the local business is really hurting with the pandemic. really touching and I feel for him and all the other local businesses I actually joined today's council meeting because I had attended a meetup that the group that Connor And Chris had done, I think back in February at the firehouse. And I thought, you know, it was a really well-informed event. you know, just seem like really great, solid locals as well. And, you know, I definitely think as a delivery service consumer myself, it would be a lot easier and I'd prefer to go to a storefront, But I guess I would, and I think I might be one of the last ones to raise my hand, so I would like to just pose the question that I posed at the firehouse meetup. I'm not sure. where I didn't really understand that this has been an agenda item on the council for over a year now. I didn't even know all of the steps that Chris just ran through. I would pose to the council members the question of what are the next steps and why this is taking so long? You know, voted overwhelmingly to have a storefront. Um, you know, viable players. that are ready to go. I don't understand why it's taking so long. |
| 03:35:29.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Next speaker is Michael. I'm sorry, use bio. |
| 03:35:37.81 | Unknown | GCDO, that's okay. That's all right. |
| 03:35:39.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | to survive that damage. Thank you. |
| 03:35:44.22 | Unknown | I've been working for most of my life, so don't worry about it. And thank you very much for giving this opportunity. I really wasn't aware that I was going to speak tonight. I only found out that this topic was on the agenda just yesterday. It's great to be here tonight and get this opportunity. I'm not a full-time, nor my wife and I should say, are not a full-time resident of Sausalito, although we consider Sausalito our second home. We have a 41-foot Beneteau that sits at Sausalito Yacht Harbor. I actually sail past that tugboat behind Councilman Tom Riley all the time. And we've probably been in Sausalito probably 26 weekends a year, if not more. And we visit all your your local businesses on a regular basis. And one of the reasons we used to be in Richmond, and one of the reasons we came to Saucer Toledo was because of the demographics. We like the liberal... approach. We like being in Sausalito, we like the weather. And over the years, we've thought, why isn't there a dispensary in Sausalito? And we are not users, regular users, but we have become users of different products. And that's the great thing about cannabis for all the naysayers, for all the people that are afraid of what it would bring, the stigma, all of that. They probably haven't given an opportunity to go in and look at a store. And that's where my wife and I got reintroduced to it because, as I said, we're not users. But we went in and there's CBD products. There's products for helping people sleep. And there's products that it's not about getting high. It's about living healthy. It's about living well. And we fully support of Connor and Chris and Karen's initiative. to have storefront regardless of whether you do or don't approve this, product's gonna get used, it's gonna get purchased, and why wouldn't Sausalito wanna take in that? many businesses come and go, Sausalito. I think right now, what a great opportunity to bring a business in that draws a wide range of customers and people, and I'm sure most of the residents We would be very appreciative of having a new storefront cannabis store. Well, again, thank you. And, um, we will continue to visit our lovely Sausalito. Thank you very much. |
| 03:38:15.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Okay, I've got four more speakers. So if there's anyone else here that would like to speak tonight, please raise your hand. And then our next speaker is Joel. Welcome. |
| 03:38:32.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And after Joel, I've got MBO Star, Sean Cleary, and Alice Merrill. So welcome, Joel. |
| 03:38:32.50 | Unknown | I'm not joking. |
| 03:38:39.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Start your time. |
| 03:38:40.76 | Unknown | Hi, City Council, thanks for having me. I'm a longtime Marin County resident. I grew up in Mill Valley. Just moved out of Sausalito a month ago. I was there for eight years. And I'm just calling in today to support cannabis in Marin County and Sausalito especially. I... to work with kids. I'm a volunteer coach up at Redwood High School. have very much interest in their wellbeing, of course. I don't really see this to be so much as a, issue for kids getting involved with there being a storefront in Marin County or Sausalito, I think, um, Marijuana has been around for a long time and this won't change that. This can only, I think, benefit the community. brings a new variety of people into the town, tourists and other users. Um, I also think it's an opportunity for Sausalito to be inclusive in new businesses, to be welcoming to all types of businesses, especially at a time when many municipalities need tax dollars, but also to kind of get away from the stigma of marijuana that has been behind it for many generations and to progress past that and to be a welcoming community to new businesses. So in support of cannabis, I, urge the city council to approve it. Thank you. |
| 03:40:14.71 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. The next speaker is MBO Star. Welcome. |
| 03:40:22.98 | Michael | Hello. Thanks. My name is Michael. Sorry, I didn't realize my account was like that. But Lily shot me in the message about this. I work with Spark. I am the Director of Strategy and Implementation. We are a vertically integrated cannabis company based in Northern California, Sonoma County. We have a couple stores in San Francisco, and we actually just won the licensing process out in Sonoma. And so there was a lot of great comments and great responses. I think most of the things have been covered. I've also got to give a shout out to Connor. We're both members of the Brownie Mary Democratic Club of San Francisco, and we'll probably be on a Zoom call tomorrow night together. There are a lot of great operators that are interested in doing business. And I mostly, I guess, want to almost advocate for the process itself and kind of share some recommendations and thoughts there, because I do think there's a lot of |
| 03:40:28.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:40:28.58 | Unknown | That's it. |
| 03:40:28.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 03:40:28.97 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:41:19.29 | Michael | validity to a process, just both for the council, because you don't really know what you don't know, and getting the opportunity to really kind of go through learning what is important to you, to the community. And also, I know for our team, it made us really think deeply about what are those tangible things that we're going to be doing to give back, and what does that look like? And having time to go through that and just spelling it out, I think, is really valuable. And I would push for some sort of limit, but definitely more than one. We actually just surveyed more than 1,000 of our customers and found that most of them compare us to more of a local grocery than anything else. And so think maybe like a small store because that in-person experience also has been iterated many times before. And building that connection is really kind of what resonates, it seems, with customers. Um, And then the mayor asked about giving back to the community if it pans out and, you know, I really would encourage you to think more of like, what is the community benefit and thinking about it that way, kind of with the salaries, like Connor was mentioning, with his store already, you know, there brings a lot of economic benefit beyond just a taxes. And so just really trying to make the application as... open as possible for people, you know, making sure that businesses are set up for long-term success instead of high taxes, high application fees, and finding a real relationship with the operators. And so, and then lastly, I love the boat idea. I lived on a houseboat for a year. My parents have lived on a houseboat for seven years. I love Sausalito. And I also, I guess, I'll wrap early, and I want to give a shout out just to the council and to the comments in general. I've been going to meetings like this at city halls for several years. And this is by far the most welcoming and outspoken in favor of cannabis. And it's really, really refreshing. And it's been well worth the wait to hear all of the comments in favor of cannabis and Sausalito. |
| 03:43:20.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you, Michael. I have two. Last speaker, so if anyone else here would like to speak, please raise your hand. Okay, I've got three. Sean Cleary and then Alice Merrill and Someone with G-O-P-I-U-B-H-I. |
| 03:43:39.74 | Sean Cleary | Okay. Um, Can you guys hear me? |
| 03:43:42.81 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, we can. |
| 03:43:43.89 | Sean Cleary | Okay. Well, good evening, night owls. Won't spend too much time going over a lot of the great points that have been made. Full disclosure upfront, you probably heard my mom drop my name. Karen Cleary is my mother and old friends with Chris and Connor. The one thing that I just wanted to point out that I think is really important, whichever business comes to Sausalito, is really local connection, local focus, and really the kind of interaction that you need With a community like Sausalito and being a native, being somebody that grew up there, it's a really specific place. I think that education on the products that would be available in a dispensary is paramount. I think working handing gloves. with the citizens in that regard is something that would absolutely be essential when you're coming into a place like Sausalito. I think that, um, Also, the fact that with my mother on the partnership with Connor and Chris, there really is a good amount of sensitivity and awareness of what the real needs are with regard to the revenue that some of us have been talking about, be it tax or otherwise. I think that a local really knows where local needs are best met and how they are best met. So again, I do think that that kind of a connection is what you're really looking for in the right kind of business. And just being a native son of Sausalito, I hope that... gets the best and gets what it deserves. So, you know, anyway, That's all I got to say. Thank you. |
| 03:45:14.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Excuse me. Thank you, Sean. I'm Alice Merrill, and then the last speaker I have is Gio. Starts with G out. |
| 03:45:23.69 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 03:45:24.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Welcome. |
| 03:45:24.43 | Alice Merrill | I want to say is that I can't imagine why this is such a big deal. I think we should have been doing this 50 years ago for heaven's sake. We've been drinking alcohol that long. it's regulated, it's sought out, it's the California's got it. So let's do it. Let's do it. Why not? I think we voted for this a long time ago. And I think you guys talked about it a long time ago. Let's do it. Thank you. Goodbye. |
| 03:45:49.83 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you, Alice. Appreciate your brevity at this hour. All right, our next speaker, please. Your moniker is G-O-P-I-U-B-H-I. |
| 03:46:00.53 | Gopi Ubi | Hi everyone, can you hear me? Thank you. |
| 03:46:01.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. |
| 03:46:02.62 | Gopi Ubi | Hi, my name is Gopi Ubi. I'm a long-time resident of Sausalito. I've since moved out but my family is still in Sausalito. the owners and the operators of avatars that's been there in the community for over 30 years. The family has been very active in the community from participating on making pancakes at Sparrow Creek on the fourth morning, the fourth of July, to handing out free Thanksgiving dinners for the entire community the night before Thanksgiving. So my family has always been very active and very centric in the community and very mindful of the wellbeing of the community. I also wanted to give a shout out to Karen Cleary, who's been a second mother to me in my life. And Mark Clear, her husband, was actually my first Little League coach in Sausalito. So go Braves. But I just wanted to say that, you know, We've always been very big supporters of the community and we've always made every decision with the community's best interest in mind. I wanted to call in to just support this initiative for a storefront. And I just wanted to kind of bring that support from the entire Avatars community to this conversation. My uncle Ashok and my mom Kala, who are still there every day, very active, very mindful of what's going on. They weren't able to join on the call today. My mom and uncle are probably still wrapping up at the restaurant, but they did want me to call in support of the initiative and support of all of the locals that have been part of this community that are all kind of chiming in to wait to their support and kind of a unison voice in support of this initiative. So I wanted to make sure that I logged in today and let the community know that the Avatars community is in support of this initiative as well. |
| 03:47:41.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you so much. Okay, I think that wraps up our public comment. I am seeing no further hands raised. Heidi, could you just confirm that? |
| 03:47:53.81 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, there are no additional hands raised. |
| 03:47:53.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, there are no... |
| 03:47:56.80 | Heidi Scoble | Great. |
| 03:47:57.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right. PB, Sarah Silver, Well, thank you okay the hour is late, but I will bring it back up here to the Council for. discussion. The Community Development Director is looking for direction on how and whether to proceed with non-storefront and or storefront. retail. As we all know, our ordinance right now allows medical and recreational delivery, but does not permit any additional type of cannabis businesses from operating in Sausalito. |
| 03:48:36.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Council Member Burns, did you just? |
| 03:48:39.27 | Unknown | I'll start if you're looking. I thought you paused looking for somebody to start. |
| 03:48:39.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All-Star. I did, Baz. Thank you for following me. |
| 03:48:43.59 | Unknown | That's right. Okay. Well, I don't think we should zigzag on this issue any longer. it's, it's been something, and I really don't want to go through any more of these meetings, frankly. It's, it's an obvious no brainer to me. I would suggest that we direct staff to actually come back with an ordinance, allowing us to do a front and get on with this. Um, There's two things that come to mind and I just want the community to kind of hear this as well. And it looks like we have all supporters here, but if there's people out there that aren't, and we did receive a couple of letters of people that weren't supporters, A couple of years ago, we sat in a meeting where we heard a bunch of parents tell us that uh, Bringing champagne to a caviar bar at four o'clock in the evening was going to cause a bunch of drunk people flicking cigarettes at kids during the middle of the day. And we couldn't believe some of the things we were hearing, but there was that type of paranoia around champagne at a caviar bar. Um, Recently. Mill Valley had a non, retail storefront application for Hawthorne Valley area over behind Molly stones. And the school district was against it because it was within a thousand feet or so of the school. However, And they ended up getting the license anyway. But right across the street from Tam High, they sell oxycodone in a store called Safeway. And you can get it with alcohol. So the hypocrisy in our community is just over the top. I can't sit back anymore. I was patient the first couple of years we had this conversation because we had to get people moving along. It's to the point of ridiculous now in California that we're still sitting around talking about the damage this can do and they're going to invite riffraff. Riffraff is not going to come all the way here to buy something out of a store like that. It's just, it's way past time. I suggest that we direct staff to to come back with an ordinance and get really serious about how we can get a business in town. So yeah, we can make some money, but more importantly, we can just add to the mix of product and reduce some of the, Um, reliance on drugs that are really, really bad that are in our community, like OxyCoding, and like, other obituates that flow freely and alcohol that flows freely yet something medicinal and natural it takes an act of god to get going so you know where i stand i hope we can come to now a final agreement and move forward with this as a as a council |
| 03:51:25.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Jo. Thank you. Anyone else? |
| 03:51:33.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Everyone's looking at each other. All right. Right. |
| 03:51:36.90 | Councilmember Riley | Okay. Well, nobody else wants to talk. I might as well have a go. So, I agree with Joe. And I just want to add a little bit more color to this. um The thing that's been a big surprise to me is as I talk to all my friends, all the folks in, Sol Solito, who are naturally many of my friends are getting closer to my age than some of your guys' age, but |
| 03:52:09.89 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:52:12.64 | Councilmember Riley | you know, They're all using the product. You know, I've got I've talked to folks who, you know, are, Telling me about, and these are, you know, I mean, And some of my friends who are talking about creams and lotions that they want to go into a store with, have a touchy-feely sort of... Figure out whether this cream that has THC or that thing or this oil or what. And I'm thinking, my God, you know more about this than I do. And I've spent the last two years investigating what the state's been doing on the Revenue and Tax Committee and trying to figure out the licensing structure and all that stuff. when I realized that some of our residents, and as I said this before, all the times we've talked about this previously, some of the biggest consumers of THC products are our seniors. I mean, in all the different product configurations that you can buy. And I've always thought, well, you know, we've allowed delivery and so isn't that good enough? Many people are saying, no, we want a storefront where we can go and figure out, learn about these products and whatever. I didn't realize that that was the need, to be honest. but it is apparently. |
| 03:53:43.76 | Vice Mayor Withey | I did. |
| 03:53:45.69 | Councilmember Riley | you know, Some folks are quite happy if they're just going to buy an eighth of this or joints or vape stuff are gonna just be quite content with delivery. But other people, And perhaps you could almost envision it being bundled into a very high end establishment, which has got state-of-the-art stuff. that would very well, for instance, fit in Caledonia. It'd be no different to the sort of exclusive products that are sold next to Hell's products. nail salons and the like. We've got to shake off this old image of what people fear about a store going to be an attraction for you know, a less desirable element to come in and purchase products. The sort of place that we would have have in Sol Soledo. your average person won't be able to go in and afford it. Unless they're residents who, you know, have want to actually, just as they would go and buy cosmetics or other sorts of items, will want to go into a store that can have THC products. So I don't see a particular problem What I do see, however, and would like to see, is some linkage and some way that we can stimulate the idea of a distribution center. Because putting something like that, low impact use like that, where we could generate a lot of sales dollars, for instance, in the marine ship, would be extremely helpful to us. |
| 03:55:25.03 | Sean Cleary | stream. |
| 03:55:27.17 | Councilmember Riley | If the same entity came in and said, and this is our high end storefront that we'd like to go with that, I could see that package deal as something quite interesting. Now, the other thing is, We got, you know, my friend Tom Theodore, his ex-mayor, wrote a letter in which he sort of clearly articulated his opposition to this, fair enough. |
| 03:55:50.00 | Mary Wagner | Clearly you are. |
| 03:55:54.17 | Councilmember Riley | but also mentioned the fact of why don't we have a pharmacy? Insulciado. And I agree with him. Why don't we have a pharmacy in Solstice? Well, the reason we don't have a pharmacy in Solzolito is because right now the structure of that industry is that the whole of pharmaceutical retail outlets are driven by the way in which the three or four companies that actually reimburse medicines, pharmaceuticals, actually have built their business models. You cannot possibly... sell pharmaceutical products unless you're affiliated with CVS. Or you cannot sell pharmaceutical products and its distribution channel that Medicare will pay for the pharmaceuticals. So there is no way to do that Unless we're willing to actually accept the fact that we're going to have to violate and get rid of our formula retail with respect to pharmaceuticals and allow some sort of franchise business micro store, which is concepts that are emergent. Why not combine the two? Let's give preference, for instance. to a cannabis retail outlet that wanted to bundle together a pharmacy. Why not do that? In fact, the old time proprietor of our last pharmacy down in the downtime before it closed. That was his idea. exactly what we should do. So anyway, I'm not suggesting we demand that, but what that says is we need a bunch of flexibility Thank you. And we need staff. We staff are just looking for directions. should they be focused only on non-storefront or can they have the latitude to sort of listen to all the proposals that are coming across. We need to give them guidelines, not tonight. We're not ready for it. Staff needs to do some work. But the work that needs to be done is that we give direction that, |
| 03:58:03.39 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:58:04.31 | Councilmember Riley | We are interested in storefront. Yes, we're interested in non-storefront under these terms, A, B, C, D. And there's only going to be one. in this area. and or possibly one in that area, whatever they are. We give them the thing, then we have a beauty contest. Who's got the best proposal? Because we shouldn't be going in saying flatly, we're changing the zoning ordinance to Calasdonia Street to allow it. That's not how it should be done. This should be done under a development agreement where we say, we're entertaining wide variety of very creative options that will fit for Sol Solito And so you, and there's only going to be a very limited number of licenses. The state has prescribed how the licenses are going to be You either have manufacturing, you have distribution, You have retail, you have warehouses, you have various licenses that you can get. And one business can only get one license. except what the state has done is created a micro licensing structure, whereby for a small business that can fit into a community, they will allow a bundling of two or three of these licenses in a so-called micro business. That is perfect for Sausalito. We can have a distribution thing. We could have a retail. The same business could hold both state licenses under this micro business format. So, Our staff are just asking for a recommendation. Do we narrowly restrict them, saying, No, we're not interested in you pursuing anything. Should it just be non-store firm? Or should we say to staff, explore all these creative ideas, with limited licenses And Show us a process to have a beauty contest so that we can evaluate the proposals. And then we can make all the zoning ordinance changes and other changes as needed. That's my suggestion. |
| 04:00:03.10 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. um, I think both Councilmember Cox and Riley would like to speak. I'll call on Joan first and then Tom. Thank you. |
| 04:00:12.63 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. Well, I hope. I endorse most of what the Vice Mayor said. So I do think the best way to approach this is through a development agreement with coupled with a zoning amendment I'm not as sanguine about a storefront on Caledonia. So I would prefer to see if we were going to have a storefront have it be in the marinship. For one thing, Caledonia, speed limit is 15 miles an hour. And when you go to Urbana or other storefronts in San Francisco, there is definitely a traffic and parking impact where those storefronts are. And I don't think Caledonia. that can accommodate that traffic. and parking impact. Aside from that, Caledonia is too close to many of our schools. we, saw a very persuasive letter from Mary Jane Burke the last time that we discussed this. So if we are considering a storefront and I'm moving away from my abject opposition to a storefront that I expressed at prior meetings. If we're moving in that direction, I'd like to see us consider the Marinship. as a more viable location. have. cannabis uh store in the Marin ship in the past. So, I feel as though that's a more viable alternative, but I totally agree with the vice mayor about staff coming back to us with a process whereby we would evaluate different proposals. And with a development agreement, we have the flexibility to do that, to choose, the entity that's going to provide the maximum benefit to the city and has the best business plan for pursuing this in the city. And, you know, I don't think we can discount the revenues that are possible to us through the development agreement approach either. Um, Thank you, Ray, for outlining that. process. And I would definitely like to see some further information from staff along those lines. Thanks. |
| 04:02:32.27 | Councilmember Riley | Madam Mayor, before I know others want to jump in, just a minute, let me clarify. I have no feeling one way or another as to whether anything should be on Caledonia. I just use that as an example. I think we need to keep an open mind as to where it could possibly be. And that's part of the direction that the council needs to give as the process unfolds. |
| 04:02:44.03 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 04:02:53.55 | Councilmember Riley | I don't care where it is. |
| 04:02:57.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you, Council Member Rylan. |
| 04:03:00.66 | Unknown | Yes, I'll be brief. I agree with the Vice Mayor's recommendation to give the staff latitude. is how we can be the most creative of our options. For me, this just comes down to location. I've heard Council Member Cox talk about marineship. We've just spent a year saying the marine ship is for maritime, light industrial and arts use, not retail. So I think we kind of have a conflict there. Not to say that I'm opposing. I'm just saying that's something we would have to reconcile with after we've been talking about our vision for the marinship. Uhm? which just doesn't fit that vision for the friendship. Um, But I also don't feel it belongs downtown. Were I an entrepreneur, I would look at the north end of Bridgeway, because the best customers are gonna come from Marin where it doesn't seem like there's many options. and we want to attract them. Also, if it's convenience for our seniors, which I learned a lot of that through our write-in comments, we're gonna need very convenient parking. not parking in a paid meter lot or looking for street parking. You're going to want to pull up right in front of avatars, right, and go next door. Something to that effect if we're going to have a successful business. And then I think location is also, there's going to be lots of opposition from the parents of kids going to schools, and locations will be the concern. And so we have to consider that as well. um, So those are my comments. Thank you. |
| 04:04:38.80 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you everyone. Great discussion. I think the two issues, I mean, thank you to the vice mayor Councilmember Burns for starting off. I think I definitely agree. I think the two issues that we're distilling our process and location. Those are gonna be our two biggest challenges. And I'm interested in you know, learning, it sounded like one of the speakers from a potential business. had just, you know, he said won a license in Sonoma. So perhaps, you know, Sonoma County or Sonoma, the town has kind of gone before us and thought of a process to kind of distill that kind of selection down. I think we ultimately want to end up with a development agreement. I agree with that, but it sounds like we also are thinking about some kind of a, what they used to call in San Francisco, beauty contest. to get to vet X number of proposals and to get to either one you know, or two or whatever, but some limited, highly limited number that we think is best. for our community and balances all of these trade-offs that we're talking about. So I think from my perspective, it would be to send this back to staff with as the vice mayor said no um, not confined to storefront or non-storefront, we are open to both. Um, but to design a process that's both designed to get the best outcome for Sausalito, taking into account all of the comments that we've heard about the neighborhood character, you know, protecting... local kids, revenue, community benefits, employment, all of these things, a process that will get a great outcome. Um, for us and to figure out how that can work legally And And then to bring that back to us as soon as possible so that we can get that process started. I think, I mean, for me, if we are open to being one of the first communities in Marin. to do this, which I think, you know, it is time. This is legal across California and I think the voters made the decision. about kind of the benefits and risks of cannabis. You know, if we're gonna do it, we wanna do it right. We wanna do it in a way that's sensitive to our community, that allows the business to thrive and be successful. and caters to you know, first to our local residents, but perhaps also to to visitors from RIM. |
| 04:07:39.13 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:07:39.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | and elsewhere. So I, You know, I'm not sure if I'm distilling this exactly correctly, but I think we need to agree on the process. um, And then I think we also need to decide if there are locations that are not on the table or preferred locations. And perhaps that's a, you know, that can come out in the process is one possibility. or we could refer this to either our economic development advisory committee or to our planning commission to um, have that discussion or we can wait to see what we get. I don't know if folks have thoughts on that. And then, um, Yeah. |
| 04:08:31.67 | Councilmember Riley | Well, at this late hour, Madam Mayor, I think The key is staff was looking for some direction of what is the sort of how narrow or how broad they should sort of explore this. They should, from this conversation, have the sense of the council, I would have thought. |
| 04:08:49.68 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So could we actually have our community development director back and great, thanks. Welcome back, Lilly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Sorry. The vice mayor was just saying he thinks you probably have a sense of where we're headed. |
| 04:09:05.66 | Unknown | Yeah, thank you for all that discussion. I do have some clear direction. |
| 04:09:10.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 04:09:10.91 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 04:09:10.99 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So can you just actually repeat? I know we've had a little Um, sense of misunderstanding of council direction in the past. So why don't we just make sure before we end this item, I know it is late, but that we understand the direction. So do you mind reframing where you think we're going? |
| 04:09:32.04 | Lily | So what I heard from the council is that staff is to to reach out to potential cannabis businesses that might be interested in establishing themselves in Sausalito, and we are not confined to looking at only non storefront. businesses, but we can also look at storefront opportunities as well. And then we will develop some options for different processes that could um, work for Sausalito to us to potentially establish such a business and taking into account all of those different items that were mentioned this evening by all of the council members including location, in the city and community character and proximity to schools and all of those types of things and then return to the council. with those different options for you to consider and some potential public engagement opportunities as well, including as the mayor indicated, going before some of the boards and committees to get their input. |
| 04:10:48.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right. Yeah, I think the public input is We've had wide variety of public input on this issue. So I think getting public HAB-Charlotte Pitts, input early and often will benefit the process Councilmember burns. |
| 04:11:03.35 | Unknown | It seems like last time we did our ordinance, we agreed on an ordinance and then sought information. Bye. I think we're just kind of getting into a circle again of not really coming to a conclusion we're gonna direct staff and staff's gonna come back and ask us. There's people on this call that have all these answers. Connor and Chris have talked to every single business in town. They've talked to just about every resident in town as well. They know from other markets, they know from their industry and their business location items, business items. The answers are on this call, let alone in our community already. We need to make a commitment as a council on where we want to be. that out there so we don't have to continue to have the conversation if we're going to have one. Let's say, yeah, we are going to have one. and let's get the ball rolling on engaging with these professionals that come to these meetings Eric Sklar. and Connor. and Chris. and get that. and come back quickly with here's the Here's locations. I mean, we keep kind of going around in a circle. We did it with a non-storefront for a couple of meetings as well, non-retail storefront. I think we need to make a statement. Thank you. of what we want to do here. |
| 04:12:22.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Karen Hollweg, So I think what we're hoping oh sorry Councilmember Riley. Okay. Joe, I think what we're hoping is that we will get the expertise, but we have to do it in a way that's legally sound. I mean, we either need to do like a request for We need to do some kind of process that's fair. and that is defensible so that if we have various numbers of people who are interested, that they get an equal chance of competing if we are going to, if we're doing, it sounds like we're not interested in granting an unlimited number of licenses. I mean, that's, I'm, sort of reading the room on that. that we're talking about one or two. So that means it's competitive. And so to me, that means we have to have some kind of a fair and open competitive process. So that's, I think, the direction I was going. um, with our direction to staff, not another round of um, like just not moving forward on this, but it sounds like. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by kind of consulting with their competitors. in the sense of, I think we just need a process that's legally defensible. |
| 04:13:43.68 | Councilmember Riley | So if I can jump in here, I can understand Joe's perspective here. Um, Because there's a danger that this conversation could be perceived as just kicking the can down the road. That's not why. the process at least I was articulating. what I was articulating. is the staff come back. with an actual process of how we're going to publicly evaluate publicly debate And a limited the issuance of a limited number of licenses and the best way to do that is to have the potential licensees present their project. And in that context, we're able to make a decision. That's how I view this. And the extent that can legally be done, Madam Mayor, that's up to you land use people and all that. You would turn this to figure out. you |
| 04:14:38.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right. If we're going to have folks make proposals, which I think might be a perfectly legitimate thing, we need to decide in advance how we're going to score them. |
| 04:14:38.69 | Councilmember Riley | to me is |
| 04:14:48.51 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right. We can't decide how we're going to score them after we get them. |
| 04:14:49.32 | Councilmember Riley | and decide how we're going to do it. |
| 04:14:52.19 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 04:14:52.21 | Councilmember Riley | Right. And so scope and nature, number of licenses and the way what we're ideally looking for to meet our social goals or how we're going to score them as social edo. |
| 04:14:52.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm so |
| 04:15:05.88 | Councilmember Riley | Is that what you're saying? Yeah, and I agree. |
| 04:15:07.19 | Unknown | Thank you. I think that's kind of the path we're heading on B of A given our EDAC meetings is that we're going to have a community discussion for every applicant and vet every business in an open setting. It'll be a lot. It'll just, I think we provide direction that yes, we are now in the business. We were now going to have an ordinance that says we will have a storefront retail. And we have staff come back with an ordinance saying that Sauceliva has a storefront retail policy. And then just like any other business come to town, they go through the community development department and they submit applications and there's a process. We can provide direction on that process, but I don't think we want to vet that process on Tuesday evening. meetings, we will be here Definitely. |
| 04:15:55.72 | Councilmember Riley | Yeah, but Joe, the thing is the difference here THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE For instance, and games. Sorry, Council Member Cox, I'm gonna use Caledonia as an example. Okay. We allow by ordinance, nail salons. friggin' nail salons do we have in you know, Okay. |
| 04:16:16.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Not even. |
| 04:16:18.22 | Councilmember Riley | What? |
| 04:16:18.24 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Never enough way. |
| 04:16:19.72 | Councilmember Riley | Okay, fair enough. I don't use nail salons. I do use, you know, hair stylists, but nail salons, that's not my thing. But But we're not saying yeah, we're just going to make nail salons legal, and go and we've got eight nail salons or whatever we've got. What we're saying is, We're going to allow one or two. And so you have to have a different process. You have to have a sort of beauty competition when you're only going to allow a very limited number. So it's the limited number that demands a process. And I think that's what we're, we've all been sort of juggling around with. I think that's at least how I'm dealing. |
| 04:17:02.51 | Unknown | I will share also with Vice Mayor that |
| 04:17:02.55 | Councilmember Riley | I will share all of you. |
| 04:17:05.55 | Unknown | We also want to do this as a development agreement, which comes with special terms. What are those terms that we're looking for? What's it give back to the community that we're expecting? |
| 04:17:08.89 | Councilmember Riley | Right. |
| 04:17:11.95 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 04:17:11.97 | Sean Cleary | Nice. |
| 04:17:13.94 | Unknown | And also we're going to be the first in Marin. So this is going to have a lot of visibility. We want to make sure we have a well thought out process. |
| 04:17:21.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | It's not much. |
| 04:17:22.39 | Alice Merrill | I'm not. Oh, sorry. |
| 04:17:24.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | No, I was just going to suggest that maybe a good balance between having Another, you know, too many more public hearings before we're kind of ready for getting additional public input would be to have two council members work with staff. |
| 04:17:34.38 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 04:17:34.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:17:34.46 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 04:17:41.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | to look at options for processes and kind of work it up so that when we do come back, that we've got a little bit more fleshed out proposal. So, I know we have a lot of everyone's doing a lot of work. Joan, are you raising your hand? |
| 04:17:59.62 | Councilmember Cox | I am. |
| 04:17:59.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 04:18:00.02 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 04:18:00.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I volunteer. |
| 04:18:01.06 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. Why don't you punt this to the legislative committee? |
| 04:18:01.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | What? |
| 04:18:07.26 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I could do that. I don't know if the legislative committee has met recently, but... We could do that. |
| 04:18:12.72 | Councilmember Riley | do that? This gives them an agenda theme. |
| 04:18:17.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. So is that, that's Tom and Joan right now? |
| 04:18:22.57 | Unknown | Tom and Joan, soon to be Jill and Joan. |
| 04:18:25.94 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I was gonna suggest Joe and Joan, but... I'm happy to do the legislative committee. It's not exactly legislation, but it is intertwined with legislation given that a development agreement will ultimately need to be |
| 04:18:36.64 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:18:39.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I mean, |
| 04:18:39.95 | Councilmember Cox | I mean, I feel as though since Jill is just coming back, Joe and I might be a little more nimble if we want to tackle this more quickly. |
| 04:18:45.39 | Councilmember Riley | Mm-hmm. I was worried about the timeline, but if you think it's going to be sort of something that's going to occur in the time course of the next month or two, then I would very much support Joe and Joan. |
| 04:19:02.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, why don't we start out with that? And if we wanna move it to the legislative committee over time, we can do that. So at our... Well, I will probably need to make that appointment. at another meeting, but we'll take that direction for now as an informal. touch points for staff. Was that acceptable? |
| 04:19:24.89 | Unknown | Yeah, I'd like to do that. You know, there are other communities that have approved the idea. They just haven't got to the point of opening anything yet because they have their beauty contest going on and they can't come to a conclusion. So we'll be able to go to those other jurisdictions and pick their brain as well. |
| 04:19:45.80 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right. |
| 04:19:46.52 | Unknown | What does it take to get sticks in the air? |
| 04:19:48.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. So we've got, I think we've got direction to staff. We've got two council member touch points and an eventual committee. And we will hope to gather additional public input I'm sure will be forthcoming. and keep this ball rolling. Lily, do you have any additional questions for us? I don't. Amen. Right, and I would like both our community development director and Council Member Burns and Cox to work closely with our city attorney as well. Okay, great. Well, thank you everyone. Thanks for everyone who participated and wrote in on this topic. This was good to hear from you. Thank you. Okay, so we are moving on the agenda. to city manager reports and city council appointments, other council business. We will take public comment on all of these. of if there is anyone who would like to comment. I am not seeing any hands raised. |
| 04:21:05.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So we will move on. We will not have a city manager report tonight. As we noted earlier, our city manager is not with us this evening. appointments to boards, commissions and committees as Councilmember Cox discussed earlier in the evening She has been working with Senator McGuire on a number of affordable housing proposals and with staff and the city manager. um, and would like to start an affordable housing working group. We've talked and I will appoint myself to work with her and Senator McGuire to discuss both housing opportunities for anchor outs, through our Safe Harbor program and other um other opportunities and also just move the ball forward on future affordable housing opportunities as we approach. our next housing element cycle. Is there anything you want to add to that, Joan? |
| 04:22:09.24 | Councilmember Cox | No, thank you, Mayor. I look forward to working with you on this committee. Great, likewise. Thank you. |
| 04:22:16.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, future agenda items, is there anything? |
| 04:22:25.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I had something from earlier, but I can't remember what it was. Anyone else? |
| 04:22:32.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. So we will... It is 1125. And I will thank everyone who has stuck with us till this late hour. And thank you all. And we'll see you soon. So thanks. |
| 04:22:50.33 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. Thanks, everybody. |
| 04:22:51.59 | Councilmember Cox | Thanks, everybody. Good night. Good night. |
| 04:22:53.90 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 04:22:54.70 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. |
| 04:22:54.90 | Councilmember Riley | Bye. |
Alice Merrill — In Favor: Expressed appreciation for Sybil's work, stating it sounds wonderful and thanking her. ▶ 📄