| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:04.22 | Heidi Scoble | It's always a toss up. |
| 00:00:05.03 | Ian Sobieski | I was on the other one and I got sent over here. |
| 00:00:08.76 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:00:08.79 | Heidi Scoble | Welcome. So Mayor Hoffman, we are ready to begin the meeting. Good evening, Mayor Hoffman and Councilmembers. 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 this meeting is also being broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:34.83 | Jill Hoffman | Good evening and welcome to the January 12th, 2021, Staslia City Council meeting. Madam City Clerk, will you please take the roll call? |
| 00:00:44.33 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski? Councilmember Blaustein. |
| 00:00:49.32 | Melissa Blaustein | here. |
| 00:00:50.20 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. or Vice Mayor Kellen. THE FAMILY. And Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:00:56.71 | Jill Hoffman | Here. Very good, thank you. Oh, sorry, go ahead. |
| 00:01:00.31 | Heidi Scoble | I was just going to say that all members are present, and there is a quorum. |
| 00:01:04.71 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Very good. Now we turn to The closed session portion of our agenda tonight, items D1 through D4 will be discussed this evening in closed session. Do you want as a conference with real estate negotiator, um, pertaining to 900 bridgeway Sausalito? Item D. is conference with real property negotiator pursuant to MLK school site. Item D3 is conference with real property negotiator pursuant to um gene hiller menswear inc and item d4 is conferences real estate property negotiator pursuant to Um, or referencing to 558 Bridgeway. um, At this point, I would like to ask for public comment on any of the closed session items. I don't see anybody with their hand raised. Um, Heidi, can you please confirm that? |
| 00:01:59.44 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, there are no additional participants in this meeting and therefore no additional hands raised. |
| 00:02:05.55 | Jill Hoffman | Very well, I will now close public comment or close public comment and move on to closed session. and adjourn the meeting. Thank you very much. |
| 00:02:17.97 | Deborah Muchmore | It's where you are, somewhere there's heaven. How near how... |
| 00:02:28.06 | Heidi Scoble | Today our audio is on. Starting our streaming. Streaming's on. Now we're admitting all nine or 10 participants. |
| 00:02:41.39 | Heidi Scoble | And you're ready to go. |
| 00:02:53.72 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry. Okay, good. Everybody can hear me, right? Okay. I was muted for a second. Okay, good evening and welcome to the open session portion of the Saucyote City Council meeting for January 12th, 2021. Madam City Clerk, will you please take the roll? |
| 00:03:13.67 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 00:03:20.72 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:03:20.74 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. |
| 00:03:20.89 | Ian Sobieski | I need permission to unmute. All right. Thank you. I'm here. |
| 00:03:20.94 | Heidi Scoble | He |
| 00:03:25.81 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Blaustein. here. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. here. Vice Mayor Kelman. you're here. Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:03:36.60 | Jill Hoffman | I hear. Thank you. We have no announcements from our closed session that we just finished. Madam, may I please have a motion and second for the agenda to approve the agenda for this evening. So moved. |
| 00:03:53.11 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | have a comment first? Sure. So when I first got the agenda, we had the ferry landing improvement project on the agenda, and I was really looking forward to hearing that. item tonight and I think it's really important. I just want to make, you know, we've got a lot of other things coming up on our next couple of meetings. So I just want to make sure that we have adequate time we've had pretty robust public comment around that so i'm not sure why it was taken off tonight but I would love to make sure it's on our next agenda. Thank you. |
| 00:04:22.71 | Jill Hoffman | I'm so glad you brought that up because I have under my mayor's announcements. That's the number one thing I'm going to address. So, If we, if you don't have, if someone would like to move the agenda and second, then we'll move on to mayor's announcements and that will be my first thing. |
| 00:04:37.62 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | I think there was a motion, I'll second. |
| 00:04:39.53 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, would you please take the role? |
| 00:04:46.96 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Sobieski? |
| 00:04:48.29 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:04:55.50 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 00:04:56.90 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. |
| 00:04:59.83 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Blaustein? Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles? Vice Mayor Kelman. Thank you. |
| 00:05:07.90 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:05:07.92 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:05:11.36 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. Thank you very much. Motion passes. And now we're moving on to the first item on our agenda, mayor's announcements. So I have three announcements. The first one is the longest and the second two will be shorter. Some of you may have noticed that the agenda, the first agenda that was posted included an update on the Ferry Landing land site improvement project. In further consideration of this large and complicated project, it was decided that we would try a new approach. The update will be recorded and added to the consent calendar and posted online so that members of the community and new council members have the ability to familiarize themselves with this project prior to it coming to the city council as a business item. I expect this to be on the consent calendar for January 26th. So look for this on the consent calendar. It will also include a video explaining the project and the history and background of the project. The project will then return on a future agenda item as a business item. This serves several goals. First, as a new way to provide information that will give everyone the opportunity to familiarize themselves with an issue such as this that has a long history and is quite complicated. It also shortens our meetings. And for tonight, it allows us more time for our discussion on the city manager recruitment. In the coming months, we will be testing new ways to present and engage with our community And I ask for your patience as we try these different methods. My second announcement is that we've received several letters regarding eviction protection given the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and stay-at-home orders. I would like to announce that this afternoon, the Marin County Board of Supervisors approved an eviction moratorium for the county through June 30, 2021, effective February 1, 2021. My third announcement is with regarding the violence at our nation's capital this past week and to assure you that we in Sausalito are committed to the safety and to democracy for all of those in Sausalito and beyond. We take safety issues very seriously. and receive updates continuously from Sausalito Police Department who coordinate with local and state partners for these reasons. And those are my three announcements. We're moving on to communications, our second item on the agenda. |
| 00:07:19.39 | Ian Sobieski | were moving. |
| 00:07:25.19 | Jill Hoffman | This is a time, This is a time for city council to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. Except in very limited situations, state law precludes the council from taking action or engaging in discussions concerning items of business that are not on the agenda. However, the Council may briefly respond to statements made or questions posed by members of the public ask clarifying questions, make a brief announcement, or make a brief report on his or her own activities. the council may also refer matters not on the agenda to city staff or direct that the subject be agendized for future meetings Please make sure that you have completed a speaker's card and turn it into the city clerk. This is now the time for public comment. for public comment for items not on the agenda. And I see three hands raised, Heidi. The first will be Joe Caldwell. Second will be nice. Oh, nice. Four. Okay. So, um, At the top of my queue is Wendy Richards, Joe Caldwell, and Lisa B. Those are the top four. So. |
| 00:08:34.57 | Jill Hoffman | We're ready to start with Wendy. |
| 00:08:46.35 | Wendy Richards | Thank you, Madam Mayor and good evening council members. Thank you for your announcements and thank you for your statement on behalf of our citizens and democracy, and thank you all for your service. I would like to use the time this evening to follow up on one item of a previous meeting, namely the business license tax. Two points, one is it was my understanding And it, I haven't seen it implemented that you were in favor of the presentation made by staff to waive the Thank you. First. $125 fee for our smallest businesses. And I would like to ask that you follow up with the staff to make sure that this did in fact happen. have seen a number of announcements to local businesses about the extension to pay for 60 days, but I have not seen anything that is actually protecting our smallest businesses. And in that regard, I would like you to understand that it is that the rates are such that. while this helps businesses up to their first $100,000 for services businesses This really only helps people at the $44,000 gross receipts level. So that the impact and the urgency of reassessing and correcting the errors in the business license tax regime, it's crucial because these very high rates on services businesses impact people very, very, quickly in the revenue stream. So that these are businesses amongst us that are paying fees and business license fees when they would qualify for the $600 from the federal government. So there's just a complete mismatch. And I really request that this item come up soon on the agenda. And that if there is a citizens committee that I be part of that. And lastly, that Um, I would like to correct an, uh, error in the communications that was sent out on December 18th to all the citizens. It said that the business license tax was here, was paying for quote essential services. And this is untrue. When the business license tax was passed initially, the mayor proudly said, that we don't need this. that it was excess funds and that it was never intended to pay for essential services. tripling of the tax at that time was considered extra Extra money. And so let's be clear and Uh, let's correct it. And please double check on the first $125 fee and make sure our businesses in town are protected. Thank you very much. |
| 00:11:52.12 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. Next up is Joe Caldwell. |
| 00:12:07.93 | Jill Hoffman | Mr. Caldwell, we can't hear you. |
| 00:12:15.48 | Joe Caldwell | Can you hear me now? Yes. Yes, sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity to participate. And also thanks a lot for extending the deadline on the business license tax. I think that'll help. But in the same vein, I would like to request that there be some that could be a small group or a I'm not sure. do some review of Measure M. I've sent a letter to you that you may have had a chance to look at. My contention is that the voter information. that was delivered to the voters on Measure M um, was confusing. And, um, actually that Mr. M accomplishes the opposite of what THE PROPOSAL Um, seeks to accomplish primarily through and I think Um, the, um, the fees on professional services, I know in my particular instance, it went My business license tax increased 500%. in 2019. And I believe that there's, Not really any rationale for that. So I'd like to request that something like that happen. some small group be able to review that rationale. I'd like to be a part of that group. Um, and that it be done in time. for any adjustments to be made before the March 30th. deadline. |
| 00:13:55.09 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:14:00.51 | Jill Hoffman | Next up is Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:14:07.76 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, everybody, Madam Mayor and Council. Happy New Year. And I know it's been a rough year so far. We've had difficult times. I want to... address several issues one is i've been in contact with a couple of the council members about the city obtaining a uh an inventory of the real estate holdings in one place so that the public has access to it. I noticed that many of your closed session items, four of them dealt with real property negotiations. And I think the public should be aware of what the city's holdings in the real estate department are. So I'd like to see that happen. I would also like to see in light of what we've been dealing with in Washington DC a a reinstatement of the Pledge of Allegiance. I don't know why that was dropped from the zoom meetings but we no longer have it at the beginning of our city council meetings. I also would like to see the business license tax reviewed as the previous speakers have stated because of the heavy penalty on professional services for those people who are performing them in the city. Just think of the impact that that has on council member, excuse me, professional service, providers. uh if we're no longer having those services in the city of Sausalito So I think the unfair burden on professional services needs to be reviewed. Let's see. I think that's it for now. I look forward to your meeting tonight and thank you very much for letting me speak. Thank you. |
| 00:15:55.68 | Sandra Bushmaker | Um, |
| 00:15:55.97 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 00:15:56.05 | Heidi Scoble | Next up is Joe Caldwell. |
| 00:16:02.38 | Jill Hoffman | You already spoke. Oh, we did? Oh, sorry. His hand was still up. |
| 00:16:07.04 | Lisa Bennett | Lisa B is next. Hello, everyone. It's great to see the new city council in place. Welcome, everyone. I'm happy to stay there. I'm Lisa Bennett. I live in Sausalito. I'm also a trustee newly elected to the Sausalito University School Board, but I'm not speaking on behalf of the school board tonight. I'm just speaking on behalf of myself. I'm not sure. I'd like to talk a little bit about diversity, equity, and inclusion. in Sausalito. And I say this, it was really brought to the forefront for me. And when I was in a meeting the other day and a black man said, hey, where'd all the white people go? because after the actions of the summer, we were all called to stand up for racial justice. And I have to say, I'm a member of a group focused on racial justice, and we've seen sort of a tide receding in interest in doing this kind of work. And I want to call us all back. to that to that action and Specifically, I'd like to reference the the task force on diversity, equity, inclusion in Mill Valley that just issued an amazing report After eight weeks of intense work, And I'd like to suggest that in Sausalito, we address diversity, equity, inclusion, create a task force of some sort, it does not need to include a facilitator We could follow the model of Fairfax, where it was very much an open and transparent process sort of overseen by the city council, but not run by the city council with a lot of community input. I think it's a wonderful way to build trust, and I think it could be something where we include residents of Marin City, people who work in Sausalito but don't live here, but all towards the end of examining our own role in sustaining systems that discriminate against people of color, particularly in Sausalito. So I'd love to explore this more with the city council, especially as we unify our schools. we are going to be unifying our community as well. And I'd love to sort of bring this in, to bring the city council into this as sort of a holistic effort towards unification and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:18:11.08 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. I forgot I did not take public comment on mayor's announcements so I'm going to back up and and open public comment on mayor's announcements |
| 00:18:31.81 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, I see Sandra Bushmaker has her hand up. |
| 00:18:37.81 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 00:18:37.95 | Sandra Bushmaker | I was very pleased, Madam Mayor, to hear your announcements tonight, particularly with the the lands side improvements at the ferry landing and also your comments about dedication to democracy and representative government. And I would like to see that as a major theme of the the council this year. It certainly is on everybody's mind. The notion that the council serves the residents And the businesses here in Sausalito is a is a major I I think, duty of the City Council, and I look forward to seeing that a focus during the course of this year. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:19:21.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, I see no further hands on Mayor's announcements, public comment, so I'm going to move on to item three on our agenda. Action minutes of the previous meeting. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second? Second. Madam Mayor or Clerk, can you please take the roll? |
| 00:19:51.56 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 00:19:53.06 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:19:54.14 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blaustein. Yes. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. Yes. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kelman. |
| 00:20:03.99 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. Mayor Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 00:20:06.41 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:20:11.35 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you very much. And moving on to council member committee reports. Are there, I have a committee reporter, council member, Vice Mayor Kalman can give our committee report for the finance committee, but does anybody else have committee reports to give? Yes, Councilmember |
| 00:20:32.97 | Heidi Scoble | Cleveland also. |
| 00:20:33.81 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:20:35.32 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:20:35.33 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Great. So good evening, everyone. I was at the TAM Transportation Authority of Marin Executive Committee meeting on Monday where we considered our legislative agenda for the year. We had a very interesting summary some of the issues that might come forward, including an update on the governor's budget with a sizeable surplus. So there will be movement this year from the governor's office on zero emission vehicles. and other policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to move forward toward California's goals and some funding available in that line. |
| 00:21:18.26 | Ian Sobieski | that. |
| 00:21:19.91 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | I also attended the mayor and city council members of Marin Climate Action Committee last night at the mayor's request. We started to talk about priorities for 2021, similar to Sassolito's low emission action plan developed by the sustainability commission and approved by the city council. that, . Sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Marin, transportation, and clean building strategies. So that looks like a great group with a good discussion and good agenda for this year. And then, most happy to report that last year I formed the mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee on alternative sources of funding so that we could look at outside funds during our COVID-19 fiscal crisis. And that committee has done really excellent work in the last couple of months and been able to raise almost $90,000 to supplement our funding for Southview Park, only $7,500 of that in kind contributions. |
| 00:22:35.16 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:22:37.24 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | So absolutely amazing effort by all the members of that committee, including Tom Riley, Ken Shores, Sam Rubin, Brandi Vouse, Bill Hines, and Carolyn Revell. And also a special thanks to Mike Langford, who led the effort from the staffing side. I also want to thank Sassolito Beautiful for their excellent cooperation. that and I'm really looking forward to seeing the great results at Southview. |
| 00:23:02.30 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:23:02.31 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you for my committee reports. |
| 00:23:04.22 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you for all your hard work on those efforts. Excellent. Any other questions? other than okay um i'll start off with finance and then the vice mayor can jump in if As she sees bed. uh we had a our first finance committee meeting um yesterday uh we had a very good uh i think first meeting where we looked at the overall um schedule going forward for 2020 or 2021 as we lead up to looking at our budget at the end of the fiscal year and approving the budget for the next year. So that's going to be our main focus a lot of work between now and March really to get everything in line to where it's ready to come to the city council and noting that we do have two extra meetings in February with the city council in order to address budget issues. So, That's something to look forward to. One of the You know, one of the issues that we're looking at with finance this year is One of the things that we want to address is the use of consultants. And so we're looking at, Um, the overall picture of consultants and, and the impact that they have on our budget and moving forward how we want to organize that. in the short term. And Janelle and my What else am I missing? |
| 00:24:33.69 | Janelle Kellman | I would just add we're really focused, I think, this year on reviewing cash management policies, and that's going to include really doing a deep dive on our expenses, not just looking at reserves and revenue. I know that we talked a little bit about some new reporting formats so that we can really convey with the role of the of the council regarding finance um and then we looked at a couple of uh detailed items like maybe a pro forma for voter measures like measure f we're looking at the payments that we provide to southern and fire and the benefits of the benchmarking exercise to measure our revenues and expenses against neighboring towns on a per capita basis. |
| 00:25:18.88 | Janelle Kellman | And I will be done. I went mute on that. So we're really focused on racial vision. I'll just say our next finance meeting is Monday. We are going to revisit some of the questions around benchmarking, Southern Marin fire, but we're also going to dig into our debt obligations and look at our pension and just try to get sort of a lay of the land as we start the New Year. |
| 00:25:41.21 | Jill Hoffman | And that's it from the Finance Committee. Any other committees? for reports. |
| 00:25:49.26 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Is there an update on the EDAC committee meeting from Monday? Thank you. |
| 00:25:54.76 | Heidi Scoble | there I don't um or last Monday whenever they met Well, that's interesting. Um, I don't think we had, go ahead, go ahead. Aidan. |
| 00:26:05.00 | Ian Sobieski | I know you attended it. |
| 00:26:05.10 | Heidi Scoble | I mean, I intended. I know you intended it. |
| 00:26:07.94 | Ian Sobieski | I did attend, I can say that there was a lively discussion on a number of matters most relevantly and you saw I think in the agenda an attachment concerning their recommendations for what should be qualities in the city manager. So that is in a letter format that's attached to our agenda. I would recommend everyone in the community to look at it. is succinct and shows an exciting possibility for qualities in our city manager. |
| 00:26:40.64 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Any other committee reports? Okay, moving on to our next, oh, sorry. Let me open public comment on our committee report. |
| 00:27:00.10 | Jill Hoffman | Seeing none, I'm closing public comment, and I'm moving on to our next item on the agenda, which is our consent calendar. Matters on the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, and are expected to have unanimous counsel support. It may be enacted by the council in one motion in the form listed below. There will be no separate discussion of consent calendar items. However, before the council votes on a motion to adopt consent calendar items, council members, city staff, or members of the public may request that specific items be removed from the consent calendar for separate action. In order to request an item be pulled, you must have complete complete a speaker's card or raise your hand. I turned it back to the city clerk Um, Items will only be removed from the consent calendar by a vote of the council. Items removed from the consent calendar will be discussed later on the agenda when public comment will be heard on any item that was removed from the consent calendar. There are eight items listed on the consent calendar this evening. I will now open public comment for the consent calendar. I see one hand. Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:28:09.15 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening again. This will be the last time I speak, I think, tonight. But I wanted to request that... Removal of item 5G from the consent calendar. You stated in your finance committee report that you were doing a deeper dive into the city's use of consultants and how that is financially impacting the city. And I think this item is properly pulled off of this agenda and referred to the Finance Committee for analysis. |
| 00:28:41.30 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:28:41.79 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:28:42.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:28:42.55 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:28:42.80 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I see no other hands raised, so I'm going to close public comment on the consent calendar. Um, |
| 00:28:54.92 | Jill Hoffman | At this time, I would like to remove item 5G from the Kinset calendar and refer it suggested it be referred to the Finance Committee for Um, review as part of our larger effort. My understanding is that this will not impact operations for city staff or for the consultant through the completion of our next finance committee meeting And so... I would like to open, oh, I already did that, public comment, sorry. |
| 00:29:31.62 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:29:31.64 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | So can I ask that we discuss the calendar? THE END OF THE END OF THE our own calendar, not the budget and fiscal calendar. |
| 00:29:40.60 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, sure. |
| 00:29:43.11 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | So I just wanted to, oops, got my page already. PB, Sarah Silver, Next step, so we generally meet on the second and fourth Tuesday. of the month in April And due to Ramadan, it looks like there, Our two meetings crammed at the end of the month, one week after another on the 20th and 27th. I was wondering if it, and then in our finance calendar committee report item, It noted that we're having a workshop on the 13th, April 13th, which is no longer on our calendar. So those are inconsistent. I also think that given the tightness and number of council workshops that It would probably be better if we don't want to meet on Ramadan for some reason, but we meet on Monday the 12th or Wednesday the 14th that week. |
| 00:30:41.31 | Jill Hoffman | or, You mean for city council meeting or for Um, or budget and planning. I mean, sorry. budget |
| 00:30:52.57 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Well, I assume that at whatever regularly scheduled city council meeting we have, we're gonna have the budget workshop. All the other city council budget workshops are on our regularly scheduled meetings. |
| 00:31:05.51 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 00:31:05.83 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | PB Sarah Silver, It just seems like when we're doing a finance committee it's very hard to have back to back city council meetings because of the time necessary for staff to prepare. |
| 00:31:11.16 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:31:11.21 | Lisa Bennett | Yeah. |
| 00:31:11.55 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:31:14.78 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | calendars. So, Anyway, I just, thought that it would probably be easier on ourselves and on staff to have a meeting that week. But if we don't want to meet on Tuesday the 13th, that we pick either the Monday or the Wednesday. instead. And I think planning commission meetings are usually only alternating weeks but Otherwise, we should do Monday and not Wednesday. |
| 00:31:44.05 | Jill Hoffman | about if we do this so that everybody can check their calendars and make sure there's no conflicts across the board. How about if we if we have a motion to approve this calendar, except for the month of April, and that we'll pull. and coordinate what our meetings will be on the month of April. Do you think Is that That supplies. Any problem for Marcia or? I'm here. |
| 00:32:13.11 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Mayor. |
| 00:32:14.92 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 00:32:15.04 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | And then I had one additional comment. PB Sarah Silver, Which is in July again we usually meet on the second and fourth, but the one meeting is. on July 6th. So for my work, I always have a public hearing on the first and third. meeting so if we have it on that first on the first Tuesday the 6th it's just a heads up that I will likely not be able to accommodate a closed session. |
| 00:32:36.20 | Ian Sobieski | Um, |
| 00:32:43.51 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Um. Yeah. Okay. So I would prefer to meet on the 13th of July, but if we meet on the 7th, um, |
| 00:32:53.63 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so I tell you what, let's not, let's, um, Do we all agree that our next meeting is going to be January 26th? We're all good with that, right? So why don't we just pull this, let's pull this off then. And then, we've noted staff has noted the suggestions of council member Cleveland Knowles. And then we'll bring this back for the consent calendar. If anybody else has any, thoughts or issues on the calendar let the staff know and then we'll bring it back on the 26th does that sound good to everybody Yes. |
| 00:33:25.57 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:33:26.15 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:33:26.18 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. |
| 00:33:27.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:33:27.73 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | And then Mayor Hoffman, I had one additional comment. Sure. On item 5B on the consent agenda, I'm in favor. It's an encroachment agreement for an EV charging station. But I will mention this at future agenda items. I would like the legislative committee or some other. body to consider why something as simple as an EV charging station is coming forward to the city council through an encouragement agreement. I don't think there's any other jurisdiction that handles these. So I would like to see more of an expedited process for these approvals in the future. but I'll vote in favor of it tonight. |
| 00:34:07.15 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay. Good. Anybody else have any comments on the agenda. |
| 00:34:15.02 | Melissa Blaustein | I just wanted to make sure that item 5A, because it's so critical, and it says that the Sustainability Commission is continuing to follow it and had a subcommittee and I don't wanna pull it from consent, but just note that they are still actively following the conversation and we'll be following up and providing a report just to the council to continue that discussion. |
| 00:34:34.05 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, good, thank you. Thank you for that information. Okay, any other comments on the agenda? If not, then could I have a motion to approve the agenda for items A through D? |
| 00:34:46.09 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:34:47.42 | Jill Hoffman | and items. |
| 00:34:48.03 | Janelle Kellman | F with a comment about April on the calendar? |
| 00:34:54.25 | Jill Hoffman | Well, what we're gonna do with the city council meeting schedule is that we're gonna pull it earlier and staff is gonna work on it with the comments from council member Cleveland Knowles. And then, anybody else who wants to weigh in on dates. |
| 00:35:10.62 | Mary Wagner | So, Madam Mayor, I apologize for jumping in. We can't take that individual. What we can do is if other council members have concerns about dates, we'll consolidate that, put that in the staff report, and then you can act on it. so that we don't have any violation of the Brown Act. |
| 00:35:25.98 | Jill Hoffman | Sure, that's fine. Okay, everybody understand how we're going to do that? Okay, very good. Could I have then a motion for a consent calendar item 5A through 5D and 5F? So moved. Can I second, please? |
| 00:35:46.14 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:35:46.16 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:35:46.18 | Janelle Kellman | second. |
| 00:35:46.57 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Madam city clerk, could you please call the roll? |
| 00:35:53.47 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski. |
| 00:35:54.93 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:35:55.61 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blaustein? Yes. Council member Cleveland Knowles? Yes. Vice mayor Kelman? Yes. Mayor Hoffman. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:36:06.36 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:36:06.41 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. |
| 00:36:11.24 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And at this point, we move on to thank you very much for your comments. And now moving on to item six on our agenda, public hearing items. Six A is introduction of zoning ordinance amendments to amend section 10.40.130 of title 10 of the Sausalito municipal code to incentivize development of affordable housing by allowing. for density bonuses greater than 35% and other changes as required to incorporate amendments to state density bonus law and understand Lily Whalen from Community Development Director will be giving a 10 minute presentation. |
| 00:36:46.39 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:36:46.47 | Lily Whalen | Thank you very much. |
| 00:36:46.88 | Jill Hoffman | I think that |
| 00:36:47.33 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. |
| 00:36:47.92 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:36:47.96 | Lily Whalen | Good morning, Mayor. Council members, Happy New Year. I'm happy to be here to kick off this public hearing item here, which is related to density bonuses. I'm just going to share my story. Thank you. |
| 00:36:59.41 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Green. |
| 00:37:06.70 | Lily Whalen | Hopefully everyone can see that. |
| 00:37:13.71 | Lily Whalen | So I'm assuming everyone can see it. |
| 00:37:14.32 | Mary Wagner | I'm assuming |
| 00:37:17.10 | Lily Whalen | Yes. Lydra, perfect, great. So first of all, to set this stage, density bonus is an increase in the density or number of dwelling units allowed per acre or parcel above that normally allowed by the applicable zoning district in exchange for public benefits such as affordable housing. The example on this screen shows a parcel with the maximum density on the site of six market rate in it. And in this example, the applicant could apply for a density bonus to increase the size of the project by two units in exchange for percentage of units that would be required to be maintained as affordable. |
| 00:37:58.59 | Lily Whalen | By way of background, the state of California mandates that a housing development is eligible for a density bonus based on the percentage of very low, low, or moderate income units provided in the development. Under the law, up until the end of last year, a local agency was required to allow at least a 35% density bonus to applicants. under AB 2345, which went into effect on January 1st of this year. the maximum density bonus that a local agency must allow increased to 50% in exchange for a minimal increase in the percentage of affordable units provided. However, the assembly bill also allowed if a city adopts a housing program or ordinance or both, That incentivizes the development of affordable housing by increasing allowing bonuses that exceed the current 35% threshold. The city would be exempt from the amendments to the density of bonus and the incentives and concession requirements imposed by AB 2345. The city council took up this issue in November on your consent calendar and you adopted a housing element program related to density bonus modifications through resolution number 5997. Subsequently, the planning commission reviewed the density bonus revisions in December and has provided a recommendation to the city council. |
| 00:39:27.81 | Lily Whalen | Tonight the Council will conduct a first read of the proposed amendment which would allow increased density for the same proportional increases in affordability as the existing statue by up to a 40% maximum density bonus instead of a 35% maximum density bonus. And the planning commission recommended city council adoption of the proposed amendment on December 2nd of last year. This table shows the changes which are proposed to be made and you can see the increase in maximum density bonus to 40% with the proportional changes to affordability. in the strikeout and underlined text in the table and in the staff report. |
| 00:40:14.57 | Lily Whalen | In terms of analysis AB 2345 provides a relatively large increase in density bonus and market rate units in return for relatively small increases in the percentage of affordable units required. and a lower threshold to qualify for incentives and concessions. allowing a 50% increase in density for only 15% very low. income, 24% low income or 44% moderate income units. or a 15 percentage. point increase in density bonus in return for 4% percentage increase in affordable units provides very high increases in density in exchange for a minimal affordability increases. The proposed amendment will Increase the maximum density bonus as I said to 40% which exceeds the 35% bonus that the city currently has. The housing element program adopted by the council in November of 2020. And this amendment should incentivize developers to increase the percentage of affordable units in their projects and exempts the city from the amended density bonus of up to 50%. in the revised incentives and concessions requirements under AB 345. As I mentioned in December of last year, the planning commission held a public hearing to make a recommendation on the ordinance to the city council. |
| 00:41:41.83 | Lily Whalen | The planning commission is responsible for providing such recommendations to the city council regarding zoning ordinance amendments. And after discussion and consideration, the commission recommended to the council adoption of the proposed ordinance without any changes. However, during the review of the proposed ordinance amendment, the planning commission inquired about any testing of the percentages between 35% and 40% to ensure that the proposed amendment was the best solution The staff prepared a bit of an analysis here in response to that question for the council's consideration this evening. And this is in table B, which is in the staff report. and on your screen, which shows some testing of the percentages between 35% and 40% and the impacts on affordability and density for A smaller project with five base units and a larger project with 14 base units. For the smaller projects, is no impact on to the maximum number of bonus units with the changes in density. For the larger project, there is a change in the number of density units, but The change begins at 36% density bonus, meaning that any percentage higher than 35% would increase the density allowance for these larger projects. And so with that analysis, staff concludes that the increased that the increase proposed is a good solution. Staff has reviewed the general plan objectives and policies and has determined that the proposed zoning ordinance amendments are consistent with the housing element. and its objective of providing more affordable and diverse housing options within the city. So with that, staff is recommending that the council introduce and read by title only the zoning ordinance amendment to Sausalito Municipal Code section 1040-130. to direct staff to return on your at your next council meeting on January 26 for the second reading and then also to authorize a summary the ordinance to be published five days in advance of the second reading and 15 days after. adoption. And that concludes my staff report and I'm available for any questions that you might have. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:43:51.67 | Jill Hoffman | good thank you miss whalen um do any of the council members have any questions um at this point with regard to the presentation. Yes, I see council member Cleveland Knowles and council member Blaustein and yes, you have questions. So Um, council member Cleveland Knowles, why don't you go first and then we'll follow up with Councilman? |
| 00:44:12.39 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, I just wanted to ask, going back to your table, Lily, where you tested between 35 and 40% It seems like to comply with the new state law, we do need to increase the percentage over 35. That was the assumption of that table, is that correct? Right. and that between 35 and 40. 40 is pretty much the most favorable local program. Um, to achieve compliance with the new state law, remove ourselves from the 50% and retain maximum kind of discretion at the local level. Is that how I was interpreting that table? |
| 00:44:52.59 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. That's correct. And the testing that we did between the 35% and the 40% showed for those example projects that the the increase in density bonus really comes at that 36 percentage. So there's no difference between on the sliding scale between the 36 and the 40%. |
| 00:45:13.92 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and did we have an outside, was Barbara Kauf and involved with this or any outside? |
| 00:45:20.43 | Lily Whalen | I would like to thank you. So we had some outside legal assistance in the development of the housing program that the council took action on in November. The analysis of the sliding scale was done by |
| 00:45:31.81 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | AND, AND, |
| 00:45:35.13 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. Thank you very much. |
| 00:45:38.96 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:45:38.98 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:45:39.42 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:45:39.45 | Melissa Blaustein | Councilmember Blaustein? Thank you, Mayor Hoffman. So in reviewing the original ordinance and now the new ordinance, one concern that I had, and perhaps you can clarify because I noticed that it is in the resolution, but it doesn't show up in the ordinance, is a concern around the variability and density ordinances for affordable housing projects that are at 100%. I know that we do have some within our community, for instance, Rotary Senior Housing is an affordable housing facility. And I just want to be really clear. We definitely I personally don't want to do anything to discourage affordable housing opportunities if someone is going to offer an 100% affordable unit space. So I would like some clarity on whether or not that is part of the new ordinance or. if it's going to be included or if it's assumed based on some of the language within the resolution because it had been existing in our prior policy and it's also part of the state bill so i just wanted to check on that |
| 00:46:35.26 | Lily Whalen | I would have, let me, um, let me check with mary uh maybe in the meantime while the discussion is continuing here my understanding is there's no change uh with our proposed ordinance here to the 100% affordability option. Thank you. |
| 00:46:50.60 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:46:50.63 | Lily Whalen | That's the... |
| 00:46:50.97 | Mary Wagner | That's great. |
| 00:46:51.25 | Lily Whalen | Bye. |
| 00:46:52.74 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, great. I just wanted to ensure that because It the language, perhaps the language can be added to the ordinance just to make that clear. |
| 00:47:00.35 | Mary Wagner | It's in your existing regulations. There's just no change there. But if you think you would like a recital added to the ordinance, we can certainly do that. |
| 00:47:00.42 | Melissa Blaustein | but, you know, |
| 00:47:09.65 | Lily Whalen | Thanks, Mary. Councilmember Blaustein maybe for the public benefit I could clarify that the proposed changes we showed in track changes so the only changes that we're proposing are the underlined in the strike through |
| 00:47:26.18 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Yes, Council Member Sobieski. |
| 00:47:29.54 | Ian Sobieski | just a quick question if the intent is to avoid the state mandated 50 percent density requirement. How is it that we arrived at 40% instead of, and all we have to do is increase it over 35%, how is it that we ended up at 40% instead of one of the other? incremental numbers, 37 or |
| 00:47:49.44 | Mary Wagner | I can address that, Councilmember Sobieski, if you'd like. We think that These changes are reviewed by HCD, and it's important that we be reasonable. I think anything 35.1 between 35.1, which I know is not what you're suggesting. and 50. there's quite a range there. And so I think the work that staff did to kind of look at the incremental increases really does justify that 40% number and it seems much more that it passes that test of reasonableness. Thank you. |
| 00:48:26.46 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:48:26.48 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:48:26.50 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 00:48:27.41 | Janelle Kellman | That's the most American culture. |
| 00:48:28.30 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:48:28.98 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you, Mayor Hoffman. First, Lily, great job on table B, really, really helpful. That was really excellent to include in the presentation. So I had asked Mary a question prior to the meeting around sequa. and wanting to know if we had to do an additional SQL analysis because according to staff report is exempt from CEQA. And Mary, I just want to confirm that I read your answer accurately that SECO doesn't apply to these changes in state law. Is that accurate? |
| 00:48:55.20 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:48:57.24 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:48:57.26 | Mary Wagner | So if the city did nothing tonight, the 50% would apply. What you're doing is actually less impactful, arguably you, and we would have to do nothing for that 50% to apply. So the action for you tonight is exempt from CEQA. It doesn't cause an impact to the environment from staff's perspective, and you don't need to do any additional SQL analysis on this legislative change. um, If a project comes forward, it will be analyzed on its own merits to determine if it has any implications that have to be addressed under CEQA. |
| 00:49:32.14 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. And then do either of you know offhand if the I revised general plan EIR contemplated these, uh, revised density bonus requirements. |
| 00:49:43.85 | Mary Wagner | I think the same answer applies. I don't, I mean, I don't know specifically, I believe it does not, but I don't think that it needs to. I think that this action can stand on its own and then projects moving forward in the future will be analyzed on their actual impacts, if any, under CEQA. |
| 00:50:00.84 | Janelle Kellman | So this is purely a density and not a per unit type analysis because I remember the general plan articulated a set number of units in the housing section or in the land use section regarding housing. So you're making a distinction between density generally versus housing specifically or units specifically? |
| 00:50:20.20 | Mary Wagner | No, I think what I'm actually saying is the difference between the 35 and 40 is very small. As demonstrated, I think in the table that Lily presented, even that difference between 35 and 40 is very small. So even if you thought there was something that had to be analyzed, it's minuscule. I'm not sure I'm following your question about density versus units. I'm not sure it's applicable to the ordinance that's in front of you tonight. But to your specific question, I think that you can use the CEQA exemption to take this action tonight. |
| 00:50:51.18 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Mm-hmm. Okay, any other council questions? Okay. Um, then I, at this point I will open up, um, this matter to public comment. I see two hands raised, Sandra Bushmaker and Joan Cox. We will start with Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:51:17.51 | Sandra Bushmaker | All right, I'm back. I didn't think I would be back, but here I am. It concerns me that the state is pushing toward higher density in housing, while at the same time trying to control a pandemic. Has there been, is the city able to state that concern to the state legislature. when it's making these particular changes. In other words, higher density, we know is a contributing factor to the spread of the COVID virus. It seems to me that the city might want to raise that issue with Sacramento. with regard to this. And I realize we're taking this action tonight in order to avoid the imposition of the 50% density. So I just wanted to bring that to our attention. We're not out of the woods by any means on the pandemic and won't be for quite some time. Thank you. |
| 00:52:13.26 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Next up is Joan Cox and then Eva's phone. Leave us iPhone. Go ahead. his cocks. |
| 00:52:25.58 | Joan Cox | Good evening. Apologies for not starting my video. I'm having internet issues this evening. But Happy New Year to everybody. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I was pleased to see the city of Sausalito being proactive again about these density bonus ordinances. And I think it's important to note that Sausalito's existing ordinance It contains a hierarchy of concessions, which is really important to maintaining Sausalito's character. And so by adopting this ordinance, you're not only avoiding the 50%, but you're preserving the existing hierarchy of concessions, which suits Sausalito's neighborhoods. And I also really appreciated table B which shows that it doesn't matter if you go to 36% or 40%, the incremental difference is the same. So why not go to 40%, which seems more reasonable. I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS. But I am concerned about the CEQA issues and I thank the Vice Mayor for bringing them up because you are increasing the number of units per acre. And particularly if a developer exercises concessions, it can have an environmental impact in my humble opinion. So I heard the city attorney when she said that we will evaluate projects on a project by project basis but I will note for the record that it is very common when new projects are proposed to say they're exempt from sequa by virtue of the general plan EIR so I think it's going to be very important to keep track of any project seeking density bonuses that they be evaluated environmentally and not simply |
| 00:53:55.98 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:54:13.77 | Joan Cox | rely on the exemption for the existing general plan EIR. Thanks everybody. |
| 00:54:21.02 | Jill Hoffman | Happy New Year. |
| 00:54:21.43 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:54:24.52 | Jill Hoffman | you The next hand I see is Eva's iPhone. |
| 00:54:37.81 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:54:37.83 | Eva | Thank you. |
| 00:54:37.86 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not hearing anything. |
| 00:54:38.74 | Eva | Thank you. |
| 00:54:38.83 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:54:39.20 | Eva | Thank you. |
| 00:54:39.55 | Jill Hoffman | I think you're still on the list. |
| 00:54:40.21 | Eva | Thanks so much. Can you hear me? |
| 00:54:42.42 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:54:43.32 | Eva | Thanks so much. Yeah, I was surprised that Sandra Bushmaker, I think, who is an attorney, tried to present the issue of the pandemic as a reason to argue against higher density. in housing. I think it really would be surprising for people living in cities in Vietnam and Taiwan to learn that density is such an irritant condition. to the spread of COVID-19 or anything else during a pandemic. I want to point out how completely ridiculous that statement is and also how ethnocentric it is. and how very white it is. The reality is that we're struggling in the state We are struggling in this because we refuse to look at the models used in other countries. And with regard to Vietnam with regard to Taiwan and even a little country like Greece, where you have nationalized health care and you have the trust of the population and you say something like, hey, you know, it would really help if you guys put on a mask. Let's wear masks. And you do that early. And you say, hey, let's shut this down. And people do. And instead of going out and having mass Christian evangelical sing-alongs, everybody just says, you know what? We had to band together, you know, in this crisis or that crisis, and I think we'll do it again. So these are some pretty dense places, but they're all experiencing far less pandemic spread contagion and per capita deaths then the U.S. and what we're facing here in the state of California. So please do not try to link that to housing density. It's absurd. Secondly, I'd just like to point out that part of the beatdown on areas like Marin and areas like Sausalito with regard to these is because you guys fought it so hard and stubbornly. You have been earned, I think deservedly, such a bad reputation in Sacramento. and across this state, it's the hypocrisy that I think really kind of has brought this down upon your heads. So maybe one of the ways you could demonstrate being a little more honest is to look at your own lifestyles and how it's contributing to issues like climate change. And maybe look at how a little more density might be useful. It doesn't mean you have to change everything. maybe stop fighting it so much and you might do better. Thanks so much. |
| 00:57:48.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Next up I see Carlito Welcome. |
| 00:57:59.66 | Carlito Berg | Hello everybody, it's nice to see everyone. Hopefully everyone can hear me. |
| 00:58:00.36 | Ian Sobieski | Nice. |
| 00:58:04.04 | Carlito Berg | um, I'm very thankful to be able to participate this evening. This is a subject that's near and dear to my heart. |
| 00:58:04.90 | Ian Sobieski | Great. |
| 00:58:11.06 | Carlito Berg | affordable housing is something that we've been passionate about since our family at various points was unhoused. And it's I'm not sure. I just want to make a comment on practicality. So regardless of the legal ramifications, if you're looking at an acre and shown astutely mentioned units per acre. You know, an acre is 43,560 square feet. If you look at a site, there's not a lot of acre sites in Sausalito. And then if you, they're more prevalent to be half acre sites. If you look at for instance, the Olima Street project, which Rotary did for senior housing, that got a density bonus and was able to serve more people because it got that density bonus. And additionally, in California, and I've sent, I think, various... various city staff members this data, but it costs anywhere from $700,000 to $900,000 per unit to build affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's the most expensive place to build affordable housing in the country. Um, So figure you have 35 units, it's nearly $35 million. That's a lot of money to build affordable housing for projects that can be difficult to make pencil. And If you're talking, of course, there's the difficulty with giving up more bonus density for less low AMI And of course, because Sausalito has such a high area median income of over 140,000, a moderate plus is still what most people would not traditionally consider to be affordable. So if you wanted to push If you wanted to be, I guess, more open to actually having affordable housing projects under the LIHTC program. the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, which I'm happy to talk to anyone about and provide more information on. The minimum you really need to get for a unit yield is 35. And if you do less than that, it's very difficult to actually make an affordable housing project go. because you need to be able to pull your 4 or 9% tax credit from the state in the competitive or anti-competitive process. And if you're not able to get those tax credit allocations and have those those folks like Bank of America or other corporations that are trying to buy the tax credits which incentivize the development of affordable housing. then it becomes a very difficult below 35 units as just a rule of thumb. So just something to think about if you have a half acre site, if you, If you only have a 40% density bonus, maybe a lot of things don't get built. Oh. I would just encourage a little deeper look at it and flexibility and I hope, I think it's a great step you guys are doing regardless, even if it's 40%. So. Just wanted to have that practical matter. Thanks. |
| 01:01:06.92 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, I don't see any other hands raised. So I'm going to close public comment and bring this back to the city council for discussion. Would anybody like to start us off with our discussion of this item? |
| 01:01:23.69 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Go ahead. I just want to thank staff and the planning commission for putting together this great alternative to |
| 01:01:25.24 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:01:25.60 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:01:33.60 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | the state law and I think it's a good middle ground for Sausalito. |
| 01:01:38.36 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 01:01:38.66 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | uh, a good balance between state law compliance and retaining some discretion here at the local level, we can always go higher. if we want to, but I think this sets the floor and I think that's the right thing to do with an ordinance of general application. Um, I am not worried about the CEQA issue. I think the state law established that we need to provide 50% density bonus. And so that's the existing baseline condition and we're doing less than that. I agree with the city attorney that we are fine on that front and I'm supportive of this. measure tonight. Thank you. |
| 01:02:27.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Care to weigh in? Thank you. |
| 01:02:35.06 | Ian Sobieski | I'll go. |
| 01:02:35.07 | Janelle Kellman | I'll go. |
| 01:02:35.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:02:35.56 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:02:35.70 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:02:35.71 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 01:02:35.92 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:02:35.95 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:02:36.03 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:02:36.09 | Janelle Kellman | have a Yeah, so I'm also supportive of this measure. We looked at it again when I was on the Planning Commission and we weighed through it and |
| 01:02:36.83 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:02:36.96 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:02:37.11 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:02:37.13 | Ian Sobieski | I don't know. |
| 01:02:37.18 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:02:42.57 | Janelle Kellman | you know, Lily's presentation and that graph was super helpful. AND I KNOW AND I UNDERSTAND WHAT THE CITY ATTORNEY IS SAYING ABOUT THE CEQA ISSUE AND that sort of the existing condition is 50% and we're doing less than that. I think my only remaining concern on the CEQA item is the diligence we put into looking at the PROPOSED BUILDOUT. and understanding in the land use element and understanding how that proposed build out triggered the analysis in the EIR. That's just the only, like, we could connect the dots there just a little bit because the proposed build out was specific as to units. And if because of the density bonuses, as some of our speakers actually alluded to, We had more units than contemplated in the proposed build out. what does that do to our EIR? or is the conclusion that our ER doesn't have to accommodate that at all so i just want to close the loop on that and just get that on the record |
| 01:03:45.71 | Jill Hoffman | So let me ask, before we move on from that comment, let me ask our city attorney Mary Wagner. So Mary, given that, are we able to vote on this tonight and yet still do that last bit of connection before in between this read and the second read? it could, if we wanna, I mean, does anybody oppose trying to address that issue or close that loop as, Vice Mayor Kellman. suggest, I mean, I |
| 01:04:18.60 | Mary Wagner | I don't. |
| 01:04:19.12 | Jill Hoffman | not that Yeah, go ahead, Mary. |
| 01:04:20.49 | Mary Wagner | Can I just provide what I think is clarification potentially to the vice mayor's question and she of course can correct me if I'm wrong. I hear that morbid question about the general plan EIR that hasn't been adopted yet. So I'm, I'm, I'm. comfortable as I've stated that you can use the CEQA I heard the vice mayor's question to be information she'd like addressed in the general plan EIR presentation that'll be coming to you in February. And that if we have the opportunity, can also address at the Planning Commission when it goes to them. |
| 01:04:53.47 | Janelle Kellman | yeah i think that's that's a fair re-articulation of my of my comments i appreciate that and maybe what we do is we provide direction to staff to monitor ceco compliance of new proposed projects or we just we keep that thread in our minds as we as we move forward and it doesn't necessarily need to impact our approval tonight. |
| 01:05:12.01 | Mary Wagner | And one other point of clarification with respect to projects that come forward, you know, actual sticks in the ground projects in the future. |
| 01:05:12.30 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:05:18.96 | Mary Wagner | We don't rely on the general plan as an exemption. What we do is look to see if those impacts were addressed in the general plan. And if they weren't, you would either tear off of that EIR or you do whatever additional analysis was necessary. for the project. Thank you. |
| 01:05:33.86 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:05:34.10 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:05:34.76 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, any other follow-up In light of those questions, or Council Member Blaustein or Sobieski, would you like to weigh in on this? |
| 01:05:44.22 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:05:44.26 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:05:44.33 | Ian Sobieski | I think the intent here is clear. It makes a lot of sense. It preserves... more autonomy for our town to on projects and we can always as council member Cleveland always pointed out go higher on a case by case basis. if the situation warrants, but this is a great baseline. |
| 01:06:02.84 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Any further comments? Councilmember Blau's team, yes. |
| 01:06:08.03 | Melissa Blaustein | I just wanted to say this is likely the first of many responses we're going to have to make to statewide legislation as it relates to housing. So I think the staff did a really excellent job of getting us to a place where we maintain relevant autonomy and I think we need to continue to be prepared to think about how we respond to the state issues as a city council. I think this is a great step. I am very supportive of and anything that helps to create and promote affordable housing. So I think we all agree that this makes sense. I also |
| 01:06:37.03 | Heidi Scoble | Y'all. |
| 01:06:39.89 | Melissa Blaustein | Look forward to the review of the EIR and connecting those dots. So I appreciate the vice mayor's comments there as well. |
| 01:06:46.58 | Jill Hoffman | Very good, thank you very much. I echo all the statements made by, and support all the statements made by my council members and especially thanking the city staff and bringing this forward to us in this manner and in this timely way. And so would somebody like to, may I have a motion please? to introduce and rebuy title only the zoning ordinance amendment. |
| 01:07:07.59 | Melissa Blaustein | in. |
| 01:07:11.00 | Jill Hoffman | To the sausage. I mean. |
| 01:07:11.23 | Melissa Blaustein | It's awesome. Thank you. Okay. |
| 01:07:12.80 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:07:12.94 | Melissa Blaustein | I make a motion to introduce and read by titling the zoning and ordinance amendment. Oh, sorry. Council member. I didn't mean to. jump ahead of your heart. |
| 01:07:21.98 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | No, I didn't speak. Go ahead. |
| 01:07:23.97 | Jill Hoffman | a second. |
| 01:07:24.53 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:07:25.64 | Jill Hoffman | OK, go ahead. Councilmember Blasson, would you like to finish your motion? |
| 01:07:32.28 | Melissa Blaustein | Did I miss one of the words? I would like to move to introduce the, and begin the reading of the ordinance and amendment to the resolution. |
| 01:07:40.27 | Heidi Scoble | and I'll say. |
| 01:07:40.75 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:07:41.95 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 01:07:42.18 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:07:43.21 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 01:07:46.45 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 01:07:47.23 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blaustein? Yes. Council member Cleveland Knowles? Yes. Vice mayor Kelman? |
| 01:07:51.51 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 01:07:51.80 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:07:55.41 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. And Mayor Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 01:07:57.57 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 01:07:57.59 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 01:07:59.16 | Jill Hoffman | Motion-packed. |
| 01:07:59.17 | Heidi Scoble | Motion passes unanimously. |
| 01:08:01.25 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. And as part of this, we are also directing staff to return on January 26th for a second reading. Any objection to that? I'm guessing no. And that we authorize a summary of the ordinance to be published five days in advance of the second reading and 15 days after its adoption. Thank you very much. finished with this item on our agenda. And we're moving on. to item seven, which is business items. But there are no business items tonight. So we're moving on to city manager report city council appointments. and other council business This is item eight on our agenda. At this time, I'm going to take public comment on items eight B 8B through 8E |
| 01:08:48.11 | Jill Hoffman | on our agenda. I see no hands. Therefore, I'm going to close public comment on items 8B through 8E. And at this point I'm moving on to, um, on our agenda. which is city manager recruitment update, which I know people are very interested in Sausalito. And so I'd like to introduce Deborah much more, our human resources consultant, and she will provide an update on the city manager recruitment. Thank you. Welcome, Deborah. |
| 01:09:26.74 | Deborah Muchmore | Thank you. |
| 01:09:26.76 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:09:27.73 | Deborah Muchmore | Good evening, Mayor Hoffman and council members. I'm Deborah Muchmore and I realize that you may not know my role with the city so I thought I could provide that tonight. I'm with regional government services and I've been providing a variety of human resource management advisory services to the support city employees, managers and supervisors. |
| 01:09:38.36 | Ian Sobieski | that |
| 01:09:49.20 | Deborah Muchmore | And those services have included strategic advisory services related to responding to the novel coronavirus pandemic. that have included the leaves and disability management related to that. identifying exposures and possible areas that we need to look at for hazards and assessing those hazards. Entitlements that are available to employees when they're on leave to help them with a continuation of wages action plan. I do tactical services during HR manager absences, vacancies and recruitment. Um, and have been providing FLSA and payroll system implementation and compliance services, labor relation and negotiation services, support for interim and executive recruitment for city manager and benefits administration. So I've been here since about February, which wasn't the original intention, but there have been a number of things that have happened that have made it be that way. So for tonight, what I'm doing is I'm bringing an update to the city manager recruitment. And as part of the process, we'll be asking to receive from council direction to staff We'll also be asking the council to consider appointment of a working group of two city council members to work with staff and Avery and associates. I do have Heidi, am I able to share |
| 01:11:17.40 | Heidi Scoble | Debra, yes, you are able to share your screen. |
| 01:11:20.12 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. Bye. |
| 01:11:20.83 | Deborah Muchmore | Thank you. |
| 01:11:20.86 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. That would be wonderful. to make this just a little bit bigger so you can see it and then I'm gonna share. |
| 01:11:31.43 | Deborah Muchmore | So I thought it would be a little bit easier if I had just a couple of slides for you and actually to focus me. So this is I think I have to move it to this screen or it's not going to work. So we're going to unshare and then do that. Sorry about that. My projector doesn't want to work on this screen. So if it's all right, I apologize for the delay. um, |
| 01:12:03.96 | Deborah Muchmore | Okay, there we go. We got it. Okay, so we're gonna unshare and reshare, stop share. And reshare. |
| 01:12:19.05 | Deborah Muchmore | So just a little technological challenge. Sorry about that tonight. So what we've done so far is as a city, the city council and staff have taken the following steps. The former city manager Adam Pulitzer gave notice of retirement. And to bridge that gap, Marsha Raines, Interim City Manager, was appointed. And during that, staff reached out. There were 12 qualified candidates. Council interviewed the top three in closed session and Marcia Raines was appointed interim city manager on October 27th. to begin the process to then we began looking for a new city manager. So council directed staff to identify search firms and they did identify search firms that were qualified in the area. There were three responsive executive search firms based on the criteria, and when they were presented in open sessions, on 10-29. Council selected Avery and Associates and negotiated the terms and agreement. And they have already conducted a number of stakeholder engagement meetings and developed brochure and materials for the recruitment. where we currently are in the recruitment is there's still some stakeholder input that is to occur We're collecting some additional input from council tonight. There is public comment. there was a bit opportunity for public comment on this item and community survey tonight. There is a community survey that will be posted to the website and we've included it in this packet and I'll be able to put it up on the screen. And we're asking for comment from council on and some direction to staff on that survey. And then we'll provide it once we get the direction up onto the website for the community to be able to answer so that we can collect that feedback for council as they move into the selection process. The current step that we're in is outreach and marketing. So the brochure has been completed. and Avery and Associates has put it on their website. We have a link to their website on the city website Abbott Chambers did a wonderful article and the current Smeg newsletter for us. There's social media directly, direct social media targeting going out right now. That's a terrible word, isn't it? And so they're reaching out to, there's a recruiter on LinkedIn that's helping to reach out to folks who meet the criteria that's in the brochure and the profile that the council has provided for that. who we're looking for for the city. The brochure is being printed and mailed to trade associations and employers of potential candidates, both in the public sector and in some highly regulated private sector entities. There's the this is a good time for one on one outreach by council and city staff, because what we found in recruitment often is that that personal touch of sending taking that brochure and sending it out through your email is just a really strong way to get candidates to apply. And that also can reach us out into other sectors that we haven't reached already. And then we want to talk a little bit about targeted and expanded outreach options that can be identified. We're hoping for a discussion on that tonight. We are limited a little bit by the fact that right at the moment the recruitment is set to close on February 1st. So some discussion around that could be helpful. um, And the next steps after this would be preliminary candidate screening and a recommended candidate list that would come from our consultant Avery and Associates. And then the selection processes would happen after that where a um, the most qualified candidates eight or so would come to the city council for their first interviews and then there would be some additional selection processes that could include advisory panels. and this council would select the final top candidate And then Avery and Associates has agreed to do the reference background and the appointment would be made after that with the successful candidate. So. um, So I'm going to unshare now. and ask council if they would be, um, If they have questions, if they want to discuss any of those points or topics and if they have any direction for staff. |
| 01:17:15.00 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:17:15.98 | Deborah Muchmore | Thank you. |
| 01:17:16.00 | Jill Hoffman | I have just a I have a brief question on the I know that. You know, the timeline, I didn't see the dates on this timeline, maybe I missed it, you know, the winnowing down process, we're hoping Don't. We're hoping to get that done by when? By April? or what? Thank you. Just an estimate. Understanding this is just sort of a rough estimate. Thank you. |
| 01:17:43.82 | Deborah Muchmore | you We are hoping to get the way the timeline that Avery has provided us it looks like we are shooting for final interviews. So council interviews to be in late March early April. |
| 01:17:58.09 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. And then, |
| 01:17:59.01 | Deborah Muchmore | and then |
| 01:17:59.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:17:59.52 | Deborah Muchmore | Thank you. |
| 01:18:00.06 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:18:00.08 | Jill Hoffman | it. |
| 01:18:00.89 | Deborah Muchmore | Thank you. |
| 01:18:00.90 | Jill Hoffman | And then assuming that we are able to, you know, of the pool of candidates that we have, we select one. then an offer would be made and, we could expect them to start They may have to give notice someplace else. So we would expect them to start sometime maybe late May or early June at the earliest. |
| 01:18:20.53 | Deborah Muchmore | Yes, it can be up to six weeks sometimes at this level for them to unwind from projects, but yeah, that's a, that's It looks like that's probably right in line with what is in here. Um, And I know that I know that Avery, because I've worked with them before at other places, but most selection firms do their preliminary selection as the applications are coming in. So we won't have to wait. There isn't a long lag time after the close of the recruitment for them to provide us that list of candidates. Okay, thank you. |
| 01:18:56.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:18:57.59 | Deborah Muchmore | Thank you. |
| 01:18:57.60 | Jill Hoffman | Um, Okay. I think you can probably close that Deborah. I didn't do that right now. Okay, thanks. Unless somebody else has a question. Okay, so are there council questions at this point? Um, Councilmember Sobieski did you have a question I might have heard. |
| 01:19:13.99 | Ian Sobieski | I think it was answered by the little table that Deborah put up. It was that the February 1st deadline is. |
| 01:19:16.57 | Jill Hoffman | Yep. |
| 01:19:21.19 | Ian Sobieski | It's for recruitment and it is a variable deadline depending on how we're doing. So it sounds like we can revisit that. I'm not sure. I will say thank you for the presentation. I appreciated several notations you made about what you might call non-traditional outreach to non-traditional. uh, populations through LinkedIn and the encouragement which I really want to underline for, um, for direct one-to-one recruitment. the City Council members can help out to do that. But I'm wondering to what extent you might be able to tap the community through currents or through some other formalized process to solicit nominations and make this available. I'm not. encourage people to think of who they know who might be interested in this role. and commensurate along with that, Deborah, is the brochure, The brochure is definitely a sparkling document for someone who is looking for a city manager but for someone who would be a great candidate but is not actually thinking of themselves as a candidate yet for city manager, but that we want to persuade to think about it, is this the best document? Is there something else that we should have in terms of professional material? |
| 01:20:37.96 | Deborah Muchmore | Okay. So, Absolutely. reaching out to the community and saying if you know someone you think looks like a great city manager please encourage them to apply that's absolutely a great idea and I think that would be an article that could easily go out in currents and it could actually even be I tried to put a tagline on the website but we could on our city website we could change that so that it can Picking interest. at different times. I saw some good buzzwords in one of the public comments that came out of the brochure. that that were helpful. And it's posted, the public comment that's posted right now. |
| 01:21:24.01 | Deborah Muchmore | You had asked one more question, Ian. What was that? Could you please repeat it? |
| 01:21:28.48 | Ian Sobieski | I guess I made two categories of points. It's the process of getting |
| 01:21:29.09 | Deborah Muchmore | Oh, it was there. |
| 01:21:32.94 | Ian Sobieski | people to search their own database for nominations. What's the process for that? I think we just have to. |
| 01:21:39.03 | Deborah Muchmore | I think we just have. I think we just, you mean the community itself? or staff. |
| 01:21:45.04 | Ian Sobieski | We have great intellectual capital here in town, amazing networks. I'm always stunned by the backgrounds of the people I meet. I think we need to aggressively recruit sort of inside sales, inside Sausalito for people that people know that might be atypical candidates and get the word out that we're not just looking for people that are an assistant city manager somewhere or a current city manager somewhere to apply for this role. We're very interested in people that have a proven track record to and all the criteria that we've laid out. And we want to hear from them too and to consider this role. Even if it's not a career for them, even if it's a career even if it's a, They think of it as community service to take this role on. |
| 01:22:31.53 | Deborah Muchmore | Yeah, we can definitely do that. some parameters around the regulatory requirements. So a highly regulated industry would be an easier transition than a non-highly regulated industry. So we may want to provide some of that, but I think the best way to do that is to simply say in an article, hey, we encourage you. These are ideas of how you might help us out by providing, reaching into your network, talking to your trade associations. If you know someone who's amazing, you know, that sort of thing. |
| 01:23:08.20 | Ian Sobieski | Exactly right. You've heard comments about the fact that this person does have to know about managing government employees different than private sector employees and the highly regulated space. So again, it goes to the question of for this purpose of trying to get our our inside network here in Sausalito to help find potential candidates. Is there a different document than the which is the brochure is very tailored to a certain population of potential candidate. And is there a different way conveying the critical constraints as well as the critical qualities that we're looking for. |
| 01:23:44.09 | Deborah Muchmore | Yes, I think that I'm more of a flyer. or would a shorter more visual. type of, and so we're hoping that the council will recommend a working group to help work with staff so that we can put some of that together. doing that may take a little bit more time which is why we have that have the discussion around the end date so but but I don't think it'll take a lot more time But I think the first might be pushing the envelope for getting response. |
| 01:24:19.66 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:24:19.68 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:24:20.93 | Deborah Muchmore | Thank you. |
| 01:24:20.98 | Jill Hoffman | Other questions for Deborah before we open up for public comment? |
| 01:24:25.28 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | I think we already took public comments. Oh. |
| 01:24:27.71 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:24:27.73 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:24:27.74 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:24:28.07 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | On this item. Yeah, in 8A through 8D. |
| 01:24:32.20 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. Oh, I think you're right. Okay, sorry. You're right, we did. My apologies. Okay, then any other questions before we move? I suppose we're sort of condensing this into our discussion as well, so. |
| 01:24:44.84 | Ian Sobieski | and |
| 01:24:45.18 | Jill Hoffman | So, Does anybody have comments or discussions? |
| 01:24:51.37 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Sure, okay. So I just would like to thank staff and Avery and Associates and also just bolster Council members so we ask his idea to both at our level and community members to reach out to their networks. I think it would be really helpful to just have a coverer or a brief one pager that we can use for that. I've already encouraged people who have reached out to me from the community to please forward the existing brochure to their networks. I think a lot of the points made by the Economic Development Advisory Committee in their very concise letter were excellent. I think they could be easily turned into Um, a simple, cover email or one page thing. In terms of a flyer, I leave that up to Other folks, I think the brochure is adequate and just pulling out points from that. in a kind of pithy way would suffice. I'm not a PR person, I'm not an expert on those issues. I also, you know, I'm very excited by the idea of looking out and reaching out to non-traditional |
| 01:26:00.96 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:26:09.72 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | networks. But as I may have mentioned before, I definitely feel like we need to find someone who if they have not worked within government has a deep understanding of government, especially managing government employees. One of my goals for this year is retention of some of our excellent employees and our workforce who have been so diligent and hardworking during COVID-19 and I think we've pulled through this And, you know, definitely want to Thank you. inspire a leader and our next city manager who will be able to Um, retain some of the really talented staff that we have. It's also really important to me that we emphasize being a good partner, both with our residents, our regional partners, the county, some of the local agencies that we need to work with and, of course, our neighbors in Marin City and fellow |
| 01:27:10.52 | Ian Sobieski | and |
| 01:27:11.77 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | residents of Benign poor 965. So I think our brochure does kind of mention some of these issues, but I do wanna make sure that we're reaching out to diverse and inclusive networks in addition to the other recruiting places. Um, And, you know, I want to make sure that we find a city manager who can bring the various voices in our community. together and form consensus and work towards solutions. So I'm looking forward to that and looking forward to a lot of great candidates coming forward. community members who have already reached out to offer up their networks. and make sure that we do reach out very strongly and in any way that we can. to make sure we hit. all the people who live, work, and do business with Sausalito. and ask them to reach out to their networks as well. be happy for anyone on the Council who wants to take a stab at um, doing that to do that if the mayor thinks that's a good idea. |
| 01:28:28.30 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:28:28.35 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:28:28.59 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:28:28.60 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Other comments. I'll go. Go ahead, Councilmember Blaustein. |
| 01:28:35.50 | Melissa Blaustein | I agree with the points made by Councilmember Cleveland and also Councilmember Sobieski about reaching out to a different group. I'm really excited about many of the ideas highlighted in the EDAC letter that focus specifically on the skill set that we're looking for. I have some concerns about the community survey and I just think community involvement is so critical in terms of who we select to be our next city manager. And I would like to make it as easy as possible for our community to engage at many levels and numerous areas of the process, including potentially creating a panel of residents to interview the final candidates to provide feedback and perhaps also be engaged at some level in and speaking to the characteristics. itself, yes, it asks the right questions, but perhaps I would want to just provide general feedback or it could there be a dedicated website whereby community members can engage specifically on this issue to make it as as easy to facilitate as possible. I echo Councilmember Cleveland Knowles' concerns about making sure that this person does have an understanding of how to manage government workers so that we do increase our retention rates in the year ahead. I think that's really critical. And one piece that is really important that I felt was not necessarily emphasized in the brochure is experience on diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings. And experience, especially at this moment, is critical. We heard from a member of the public. about needing to reengage around this issue. I think it's especially important and the idea of a working group is great as this is a really important issue that will shape our city for who knows how many years to come with the new leader at the forefront and newer councils. So I'm very much looking forward to the process and Thank you to staff for putting together this and opening it up to a non-traditional different kind of search. |
| 01:30:31.50 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:30:31.54 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:30:32.57 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much. And I'm glad we're having the opportunity to have the first many, I think, conversations for the solicit public input here. And I'm very happy to see we're moving in a direction where we're not limiting or recruiting to search firms or individuals only in the public sector. I think I said this before to, you know, publicly, but I'm really focused on finding a candidate who has a commitment to making sure Sausalito is the recognized leader in small city government. Somebody who is aspirational and entrepreneurial who believes in efficiency with empathy. And I think in order to do that, we need to raise our own game in recruiting so that we attract the right type of really special, unique candidate. And I think we're at a time with COVID and budget cuts where efficiency and responsibilities and accountability is really important, but also somebody who kind of has a broad understanding of the various issues we face as a unique waterfront community. And so in addition to diversity and inclusion, we also need someone who is well-versed in, in disaster preparedness and climate change and sea level rise and infrastructure and can help us be very outcome based but understand how we do that in a manner that fits our budget. So on the topic of transparency for the public I think maybe the first step, I like the idea of having a webpage or a website that's really just focused on the city manager search. I want to make it abundantly clear and easy for any member of the public to submit feedback and to also know with one click of a button exactly where we are in the search. I don't want people to wonder or I haven't heard it or we haven't heard anything from council. I want them to be a prize of our status and how things are going. So if there's changes in the schedule, that would be good to know. But opportunities to weigh and have that public participation. So I'm glad to hear we're doing a survey that may be, you know, modified over time. But I think this is a really good first step. |
| 01:32:32.63 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So thank you for all your comments. I agree with all of them. And I think that, as I've stated many times in the past, I think this is the most important decision that our city council will make. And it has for. long lasting, potentially generationally across our city. I want the public, I know that we're all focused on this, but I want the public to understand and know that we are focused on this. This is a top priority for this city council and it is a top priority for the first and second quarter of our efforts with the city with as being city council members that's certainly the top priority i know amongst Thank you. the people that are getting charged with this. So. We are looking for somebody to lead us into the next generation of Sausalito. We are looking in all the casting our net wide, we're looking for in non-traditional areas. We're not excluding any areas. We will pick the best person for the job, no matter where they come from. And we're going to vet them seriously and we're going to vet them to the extent that we can with public input. Um, and we absolutely want and encourage public input and guidance on this from our incredibly talented community. So that is one of the things that makes Sausalito such a amazing place is the level of talent that we have in our community. And by the way, the level of talent that sits on your city council. So this is an exciting place to be. I'm enthusiastic and very excited to start looking at our candidates for city council. This is going to be an amazing place to be in the next three to four years. You're gonna see a lot of excitement and I hope innovation and a thought process and challenging of why we're doing things and why we've done things in the past and where we want to go in the future and be focused on that. So Um, I would like to appoint a working group to work with our recruiters and I'd like to appoint our Vice Mayor and Council Member Sobieski to work with the I think some of the things I've heard if I could just reiterate is that we're going to do a survey. We're going to do one survey. We may do more than one survey. I would look for the working group to make a recommendation on that. I would like to look to the working group for ideas on how to engage with our community as we move forward and get feedback and input from them about how to move forward and be able to capture the best possible candidates we possibly can as we vet them and we make our decision for our next city manager. um, And I think that is a good place to end this evening. |
| 01:35:25.31 | Ian Sobieski | Mayor Mrakas- Could I actually ask a question? Yes, you may. Mayor Mrakas- I don't need the answer now, but since it's because of the Brown Act, we can't talk about this offline. So my question that I wanted to ask my colleagues is one that I'm not sure of my own answer to. |
| 01:35:26.58 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. Yeah. Yes, you may. |
| 01:35:41.35 | Ian Sobieski | We just had our Adam leave after long service and there's a lot of benefit for longevity. STABILITY AND and institutional knowledge. There's also something to be said for the short timer, someone who is who comes in in private enterprise, you'd call the turnaround CEO who has a one or two year engagement with a project, puts in new processes, new thinking, establishes a new order, helps recruit her or his own replacement that might be a longer-term person. you can pay that person differently if they're a short-timer. and expect more of them. It's a different way of looking at it. So my actual question that I just I just wanted to put out there, we don't have to answer it tonight, but I would love to get the feedback from everyone, is this one dimension that's not really clearly put out in the brochure, which is, What's the minimum span of time that we'd tolerate and such a city manager and make a commitment to it? Would we be willing to hire someone for two years, let's say, rather than 10. it might attract a very different kind of person. who might be willing out of a community service motivation to engage with our town and try to make it the exemplar, the paragon of, of the jewel of civic management, if that was a possibility. So that was the question I had. |
| 01:37:06.56 | Jill Hoffman | So I think my feedback on that, Ian, is that you would work with your staff subcommittee member and sort of work through those issues. You would talk to the recruiter. Um, and sort of what does that look like? Right. I, from my personal. standpoint, all options are on the table. All options are on the table and As we work through this process and we get input from the recruiters, from see what kind of candidates we get from you guys, from the working group, We looked at the candidates and if the candidate says I'm only available for two years but your recommendation is this is our best then I think we would seriously consider that. At this point, it's hard to address that because it's a hypothetical. but I don't think that we have any hard yes or you know hard issues of you know if you can't commit to this you know 20 years or whatever we're gonna take you off the table I mean that's not I think that's what where we would go with that. That's my answer to your question. |
| 01:38:08.21 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:38:08.23 | Ian Sobieski | Thanks. |
| 01:38:09.17 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:38:09.19 | Janelle Kellman | Sure. And I'll just weigh in because, you know, as Ian put out for public conversation, um, You know, and I, one of the things, and I guess we'll explore this in the, in the working group is sort of getting a handle on what the city's priorities are and what the timeframe will be to execute on those priorities. And can somebody get started, you know, in the first two weeks or is it, is there a lead up time of, you know, six months before we really start humming along? And then do we lose efficiencies? So I just put that out there as a initial thought and maybe an inquiry that you and I can follow up on and get a better understanding. And that'll just be aligned with some of our strategic priorities. |
| 01:38:50.29 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 01:38:50.45 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:38:50.51 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:38:50.60 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:38:51.80 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:38:51.90 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:38:51.91 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:38:51.97 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:38:52.00 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Can I just add one thing? Not to that point. I mean, I'm, |
| 01:38:52.03 | Janelle Kellman | I'm just hearing |
| 01:38:57.36 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | I think it, I would not underestimate the amount of time that it takes someone to get up to speed and get going in full swing. and the timeline of a lot of our capital improvement projects and other things. So I just would add that as a caution, not as a limitation necessarily, but I think we need to be cognizant of that. And what I would definitely consider, I thought that EDAC provided a really excellent letter, I would also encourage the survey or other outreach to be done with all our boards and commissions. We have some really excellent volunteers who know I've been working on lots of issues for a long amount of time and I'd like to make sure that their input is captured. as well. um I agree. Thank you. |
| 01:39:47.38 | Jill Hoffman | Okay? |
| 01:39:47.75 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:39:47.99 | Jill Hoffman | Great. |
| 01:39:48.85 | Ian Sobieski | I should mention actually to Councilmember Cleveland Knowles' point, there was actually some, I forgot to mention this in my committee report, there was actually some debate at EDAC about the propriety of sending that letter because there wasn't an explicit request from City Council to EDAC for it. the overall majority of EDUC members decided that it was appropriate and went ahead. To that point, if we want to hear from our commissions, we should ask them. |
| 01:40:19.49 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Well, I think it would be worthwhile, either as individuals or as groups, however they want to. I mean, I don't want to be completely slowed down by their down. EDAQ is a little different. It meets more often, but our other boards and commissions meet monthly or sometimes even less. |
| 01:40:34.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:40:35.65 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | So. Thank you. |
| 01:40:37.67 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's great. Yeah. I mean, we consider this an ask, right? So staff and that's a direction to staff issue, you know, an invitation to our boards and commissions to weigh in on, you know, on this search and what they think priorities might be. I, to the extent that they aren't, haven't already been stated in the brochure and through all of our comments. So. Um, Anyway, okay. So any further comments before we close this item? |
| 01:41:04.30 | Melissa Blaustein | Could we, it seemed like Vice Mayor, Kelman and I were both aligned on having a dedicated webpage or section of the site. I don't, I think that our, librarian and director of communications is on and could give an update of what that is now. But can we direct staff potentially to have a dedicated web page? Do we have to do that for that to move forward or to happen? |
| 01:41:23.92 | Jill Hoffman | Do we mean in the council or do we mean in the working groups. Thank you. I don't care. I don't have any objection to that. I don't know what the, um, I don't know what the, uh, barriers to that would be. That would be Abbott who could weigh in on that. But I mean, that's something that the I don't think any of us on the call, the city council right now would have an objection to that. So if the working group wants to work with Abbott on that and see what that would look like, that's fine. I, I think that's, that's a fine idea. |
| 01:41:56.73 | Janelle Kellman | We will, how about that? Okay. We'll look at Abbott on that. |
| 01:41:58.18 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Okay, great. |
| 01:42:01.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:42:01.18 | Janelle Kellman | Great. |
| 01:42:02.47 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:42:03.58 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:42:04.20 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:42:04.41 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. I'm closing this item now and I'm moving. Unless there's further comment or questions. Okay, nothing further. Deborah, you've got everything you need on your end. |
| 01:42:17.11 | Deborah Muchmore | Yes, thank you. I do. I have all the notes and I will send an email because I understand that. that the that Wednesday and Thursday there's openings if the committee wants to meet. So I'll be sending you an email tonight. |
| 01:42:30.56 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, very good, thank you. Okay, then I'm closing this item and I'm moving on to the appointments item 8C appointments to boards, commissions and committees, mayor's appointments. I've made the appointments and I've submitted that to the city clerk and that's going to be posted on the website. There's a lot of appointments. So I just, instead of doing them, piecemeal. I just did them all at once. So They are posted on the website. They will post on the website soon. They are now attached to the agenda. And moving on to our next |
| 01:43:09.97 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | item. |
| 01:43:10.54 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:43:10.64 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | So to that, Mayor Hoffman, is that are we going to be able to discuss that or what's the No. Thank you. |
| 01:43:17.49 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:43:17.53 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:43:17.56 | Jill Hoffman | protocol is that the mayor makes the appointments and I made the appointments and they're posted And if there's a... |
| 01:43:24.97 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | think in the past, we've had a little bit more back and forth. But okay. |
| 01:43:28.70 | Jill Hoffman | My memory is not the greatest but my recollection was I was always just informed by the mayor that congratulations you are now on this committee. So, thank you. Um, Karen Hollweg, Anyway, moving on um so for the next item the Moran Sonoma mosquito and vector control district board trustee. Appointment? I am reappointing Matthew Nathans. As a Sausalito, congratulations to Matthew, Sausalito Trustee on the Board of the Marin Sonoma Mosquito Infector Control District. I accept the resignation of Council member Sobieski from EDAC And I also accept the resignation of Gary Test and thank him for his service on the EDAC And I direct staff to interview from existing group of applicants and forward for our consideration. Thank you. |
| 01:44:29.09 | Janelle Kellman | Mayor Hoffman, just a quick question. Sure. I noticed on the staff report on the on the EDAC, I'm just curious why we're only going to schedule interviews from an existing pool of applications you know, new year, you know, um, We lost two members. Can we open it up? Thank you. |
| 01:44:47.67 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, in fact, I need to look at that. My preference would be to look at, the commissions and boards that we need to make look at, set a time when we're gonna you know, talk to applicants for all of those openings on commissions and boards and fill all of those seats. And also to the extent that we can appoint alternates. so that we will do this in one. That way we won't be burdened throughout the year with doing more interviews, at least for the first two quarters. Right? Right? Right? and we will move through and the alternate should be able to carry the boards and commissions through the end of the year. So that's my idea on that. And hopefully we can. |
| 01:45:37.03 | Ian Sobieski | I hope you will. Mayor, just |
| 01:45:39.63 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:45:39.94 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. I was just going to, since you are directing staff, encourage them to affirmatively solicit potential candidates from non-Sausalito 94965, so in the city and other |
| 01:45:54.99 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:45:55.09 | Ian Sobieski | Don't test the rules of kids. |
| 01:45:55.12 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:45:56.49 | Jill Hoffman | Sure, yeah. I think we've put an announcement in the currents or however it is we do it. I don't know. I'll talk to staff about it and cast our net. |
| 01:46:06.92 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Yes. So in terms of the EDAC, I would also suggest that the number of people on the EDAC was a maximum. And so the committee seems to be functioning properly. really well. I mean, it may not, it may be that we don't need to immediately or ever fill every single vacancy. We had so many good candidates At the time we spent, I think we have a lot of time for Councilmember Burns and Riley |
| 01:46:31.02 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:46:36.23 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | sifting through those applications and then the full council. So anyway, I would just throw that out there as a possibility as well that, that it was not there needed to be an absolute number. That was the maximum number by our resolution. And then the second thing, just going back to the mosquito vector control district, the staff report has that as a council appointment. |
| 01:46:59.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:46:59.50 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | I WANT TO TELL YOU, I WANT TO |
| 01:46:59.79 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:47:00.72 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | So, |
| 01:47:01.49 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:47:01.96 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:47:01.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:47:02.00 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:47:02.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:47:02.12 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:47:02.15 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:47:02.17 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | you |
| 01:47:02.20 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:47:02.22 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:47:02.40 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Mayor announces re-appointment. Oh, I'm sorry. I have a script that I'm going off of. Yeah. |
| 01:47:09.91 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | The city council could decide to not reappoint Mr. Nathans and direct staff to elicit applications. So it's in our... Oh, sorry. Our staff report as a council decision about whether to reappoint him to that board. |
| 01:47:22.67 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, does anybody object to appointing Matthew Nathan's to the Mosquito control district. Board of Trustees. Thank you. Okay, so. then we all agree that Do we need to take a vote? |
| 01:47:39.24 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Yes, under COVID-19, there has to be a roll call vote. |
| 01:47:41.23 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. Um. |
| 01:47:44.47 | Heidi Scoble | you Heidi. |
| 01:47:45.33 | Jill Hoffman | just. |
| 01:47:45.50 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:47:45.55 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:47:45.82 | Heidi Scoble | rule. Council member Sobieski. |
| 01:47:49.47 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 01:47:50.45 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Blaustein? Yes. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles? Yes. Vice Mayor Kelman? Yes. Mayor Hoffman? Thank you. |
| 01:47:58.88 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 01:47:59.20 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. |
| 01:48:02.66 | Jill Hoffman | Very good. Okay, and we're moving on to item 8D, future agenda items. |
| 01:48:09.62 | Melissa Blaustein | So are we gonna open it up to additional candidates for the EDUC? It wasn't clear at the end of that discussion |
| 01:48:15.83 | Jill Hoffman | The end of the discussion was that Uh... I don't know. So what we're going to do is I'm going to look at boards and commissions, all of them. and see where we're at on all of them. And especially the boards and commissions that are close to or below a quorum. then those will get priority. I would like to do it is that that will take you know, applications for openings on boards and commissions in one setting. It's going to be maybe a long setting. It depends on how our boards and commissions. And then we're going to do appointments. So, and also taking into account council members Cleveland Knowles' comments about EDAC. Um, Yeah. Bye. Let me work with staff and see how far we can get and then we'll come back to council for direction on that. |
| 01:49:07.36 | Melissa Blaustein | Great, thank you, Mayor Hoffman. |
| 01:49:08.78 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, you're welcome. Okay, now moving on to item 8D, future agenda items. Okay, anybody have any questions or comments regarding future agenda items? |
| 01:49:20.93 | Ian Sobieski | Mr. Mayor, one item would be potentially be the looking ahead, reacting concurrently and looking ahead to improve compliance with the mask mandate. particularly in downtown. I think there's been a lot – I've gotten a lot. and I think that's a great folks thinking that at different points of the day. It can be problematic down there. And I noted in the police report, that mass compliance has decreased from 95%. 90 plus percent last weekend to or weekend prior to something more like 80% currently. So I've spoken with the chief and, uh, And Marcia and there are many considerations and how to do this and best practices that have been implemented last year. but we might wanna consider that, folks. because of the current moment and thinking ahead to the coming months the weather gets better and more people are coming to town. |
| 01:50:21.95 | Jill Hoffman | Is that okay, thank you. Any other suggestions for future agenda items? |
| 01:50:29.78 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 01:50:32.12 | Janelle Kellman | Amir Hoffman, I can't. |
| 01:50:32.61 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Yes. |
| 01:50:33.97 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | your hands. Yeah, we're over. Oh, sorry. |
| 01:50:34.37 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 01:50:37.31 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Go ahead, Melissa. |
| 01:50:38.99 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, I just wanted to touch on in light of recent events that happened in our country and how we're all feeling and the reality of what it must be like for BIPOC members of our community in this moment, I really wanted to bring back to the forefront and to the conversation the point We as a community at the local level we get to decide what our community looks like and so I think it's critically important that we reengage around a conversation social justice. And I would really like to push for and echo the comments we heard from Lisa Bennett earlier this evening about potentially appointing a task force on this issue. It's really critical and I think that we need to get it on the agenda going forward. |
| 01:51:23.14 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, the vice mayor and I have been talking about that and we're trying to figure out what that's going to look like and what the how to frame that on the agenda. Anyway, thank you. |
| 01:51:34.34 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:51:34.78 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:51:34.97 | Ray Cleveland Knowles | Okay, anybody else? COB, Jean Gatza, NNC, Yep. So that was also on my list for future agenda items. It looks like on your future agenda list that January 26 is exceedingly light and February 2 or whatever that means February 9 is very, very, very I would really recommend pushing some items up. In terms of my comments earlier about the ferry landing update I think that deserves a hearing there we always have a lot of public comment on that item it's I think the consultants or the designers have been moving full steam ahead and the reason that we were going to hear that tonight. was so that they don't get ahead of their skis. without the public and the council kind of having and idea of where that conversation is going. So I like the idea, I was pushing for this all last year to have more staff presentations videoed ahead of time so that we don't have to listen to them all at once, that did not happen. If you can get that to happen, that would be very, very, very supportive, very frustrating. Um, Also, I would like to put on the future agenda items the EV encroachment permits. I do not feel like we should be seeing those here. And even if we could take those off the planning commission's load as well, unless there's something extraordinary about them, I think. those should be done at the staff level. So if you could consider referring that to planning commission or the legislative committee that would be great. and echo Melissa's comments and also Lisa Bennett's. admonition to look at the Mill Valley report. It's really thorough and well done. um, very expensive as well, but definitely a good model. I've also been talking to others about maybe a Southern Marin discussion and task force, and that might be something to pick up on. |
| 01:53:35.51 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Yeah, the Mill Valley report is great and I encourage anybody to look at it. I think it was forwarded to all of us, so anyway. Go ahead. |
| 01:53:44.60 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you, yeah. I don't know this is ready for prime time as an agenda item, but I just wanted to share with fellow council members and get them thinking. I'd like to schedule something related to disaster preparedness. And I would like it to, explore a couple different things one is a southern fire put out a map of the big evacuation routes and i think there were some concerns about areas like langdolph park uh perhaps being a fire trap maybe not being the best place to go to on an evacuation so i think it would be good to revisit that while we're not in fire season um to take a look at evacuation routes and then uh relatedly i would love some input on how we might start thinking about sea level rise. So, you know, it really impacts almost everything we've talked about tonight. You know, we talk about the ferry landing. We're going to have to tackle Bank of America. Why not look at that as a big coastal resiliency project? You know, we're talking about racial equity and supporting our neighbors in Marin City. Well, they have massive flooding due to their topography. Are there things that we can do collectively and come together to figure out some solutions around groundwater runoff and other impacts from sea level rise? So I just want to throw those out. I think there's a lot of crossover on some of those issues. And so we can just get our creativity thinking on that. That would be great. Great. Okay. Thank you. |
| 01:55:05.90 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:55:06.48 | Janelle Kellman | Um, |
| 01:55:06.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. Any other future agenda items to discuss? No, I'm informed that. by our city attorney that we need to take a vote accepting the resignations of the city. Ian and |
| 01:55:26.86 | Melissa Blaustein | Very testif. |
| 01:55:27.83 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, Gary test. Oh, Gary test. Yeah, it's. I think. It is Gary Testa. We need to take a vote on that. Absolutely. |
| 01:55:35.54 | Ian Sobieski | Absolutely. |
| 01:55:37.34 | Jill Hoffman | Second. Thank you. Okay. |
| 01:55:39.35 | Heidi Scoble | Heidi, can you take the roll please? |
| 01:55:41.81 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:55:41.95 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:55:41.97 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:55:42.05 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:55:42.35 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 01:55:43.27 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blasdene? Yes. Council member Cleveland Knowles? Yes. Vice Mayor Kelman? Yes, welcome. Mayor Hoffman? |
| 01:55:52.33 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. All right. Thanks guys. Okay. And so that leads us to adjournment tonight at 8 54. Thank you very much. You guys, good. Thanks for all the hard work. I appreciate it. |
| 01:56:02.69 | Ian Sobieski | Mayor. Bye-bye. |
| 01:56:04.18 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Thank you. Good night, everyone. Good night. |
| 01:56:05.56 | Jill Hoffman | I don't know. |
| 01:56:11.60 | Melissa Blaustein | you |
| 01:56:11.97 | Ian Sobieski | you RUN! |
| 01:56:13.96 | Melissa Blaustein | Oh, man. |
Joe Caldwell — Neutral: Thanked council for extending business license tax deadline, requested review of Measure M due to confusing voter information and 500% tax increase on his business, asked to be part of a review group, and urged adjustments before March 30th deadline. ▶ 📄
Sandra Bushmaker — Neutral: Asked for public inventory of city real estate holdings, reinstatement of Pledge of Allegiance at Zoom meetings, and review of business license tax burden on professional services providers to prevent them from leaving Sausalito. ▶ 📄
Lisa Bennett — In Favor: Advocated for creating a diversity, equity, and inclusion task force in Sausalito, similar to Mill Valley and Fairfax models, to examine systemic discrimination and build community trust, especially with school unification. ▶ 📄
Sandra Bushmaker — In Favor: Praised mayor's announcements on ferry landing improvements and dedication to democracy, emphasized council's duty to serve residents and businesses as a major theme for the year. ▶ 📄