| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:03.59 | Heidi Scoble | Now we'll do our streaming. Streaming's up, we'll admit our participants. Good evening, Mayor Hoffman and council members. This meeting is being held pursuant to section three of executive order N-29-20 issued by Governor Newsom on March 17th, 2020. And all members are joining this meeting telephonically through Zoom. and broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:32.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you and welcome to the regular City Council meeting of Tuesday, March 9, 2021. Um, Madam City Clerk, could you please call the roll? Council member Sobieski. |
| 00:00:45.86 | Ian Sobieski | here. |
| 00:00:46.89 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:00:46.91 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Blasting. Here. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kelman. here. Mayor Hoffman? here. All members are present and we have a quorum. |
| 00:00:58.81 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Tonight we will be discussing items D1 through D3 in closed session. Those items are D1, public employment pursuant to CGC section 54957 title city manager. D2 is conference with legal counsel, existing litigation pursuant to California government code section 54956.1D1 Sausalito Marin County chapter of the California Homeless Union versus City of Sausalito. United States District Court number Case number. three. Item number three is conference with legal counsel existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9 D1. Norma Ismail versus City of Sausalito. Um, Oh, Marin County Superior Court case number CIV 1803986. I will now open public comment on this closed session item. And Madam Clerk, would you please inform the public on how public comment may be taken. |
| 00:02:16.69 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you, Madam Mayor. Video or audio public comment participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you'd like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application and you'll be called upon when it's your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, press star nine. Each speaker will be notified when the time has elapsed. |
| 00:02:34.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you very much, Madam City Clerk. I will let you call call the participants who wish to make public comment if you see it. I currently do not see any. |
| 00:02:43.30 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, |
| 00:02:43.99 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:02:44.07 | Heidi Scoble | I'm going to go. |
| 00:02:44.24 | Jill Hoffman | There are no hands raised at this table. |
| 00:02:45.57 | Heidi Scoble | I'm so excited. |
| 00:02:45.78 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Very well. Thank you. At this point, then I will close public comment and we will adjourn to closed session. We will return to open session at 7 p.m. |
| 00:02:55.63 | Unknown | you |
| 00:03:25.77 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. Thank you. This is a good thing. . . you |
| 00:03:40.18 | Ian Sobieski | Bye. . |
| 00:04:08.40 | Unknown | Radio Sausalito would like to thank the City Council and management of the City of Sausalito for their generous donation. You help provide something that few other cities of our size have, its own radio. |
| 00:04:30.54 | Unknown | We will be admitting all 25 Participants? |
| 00:04:42.97 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, all participants are back in. the meeting and the meeting may resume. |
| 00:04:49.08 | Jill Hoffman | Very good. Thank you. At this point, I will reopen the regular city council meeting for March 9th. 2021. And I do not have any closed session announcements. We will move on now to item 2B on the agenda, approval of the agenda. before we have a motion to approve, I would like to suggest that Looking at the agenda tonight, we have We have three financial reports. One is a quarterly financial report. for a quarter ended December 31st. That's 7B. 7C is Treasurer's Report for a quarter that ended December 31st. And then 7E is our comprehensive annual financial report. Item 7D. In other words, after C, but before E, is an item dealing with a contract with regional government services. And so I thought it made more sense to do those three financial reports in one shot. um without going back and forth with another unrelated item So I'm going to, I'd like to propose that we do either 7D either before the 7B, which is a quarterly financial report or after 7E, which is the They're doing it. comprehensive annual financial report. Does anybody have a preference or any thoughts on that? which is very hard. |
| 00:06:14.39 | Janelle Kellman | I think after 7A, given that we have |
| 00:06:15.13 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:15.14 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:06:17.80 | Janelle Kellman | staff ready to give presentations and we have people from the public who would like to see those presentations. Maybe get those done earlier. Agreed. Okay. |
| 00:06:26.98 | Jill Hoffman | So why don't we do that? And if someone would like to make a motion that we approve the agenda, but with the caveat that we're gonna hear item 7D last on the agenda. |
| 00:06:40.32 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I just add Mayor Hoffman, I also believe that we were going to move your mayor announcement regarding our update on the schools to a later meeting Thank you. |
| 00:06:51.66 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, I'll talk to them about that in special announcements. |
| 00:06:51.68 | Melissa Blaustein | Yes, I have that. |
| 00:06:55.54 | Jill Hoffman | or I'm sorry, my announcements down on later in the agenda. |
| 00:06:55.81 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm sorry, microphone. |
| 00:06:59.36 | Jill Hoffman | So we're getting to there, we're getting there. But right now- Yeah, right now we're just approving the agenda. Agenda. Oh, yeah. Okay. No way. I see what you're saying. Okay. Um... Okay. to the public comment appropriately. Yep. I see what you're saying. Okay. I was going to talk about that mayor announcements, but let me talk about that right now. So We have under our special presentations, um under um are Uh, item one special presentations, mayor announcements is, um, the, an update from the Sausalito emergency, uh, unit school unification plan update. So superintendent itoko was, or itoko Garcia was going to give an update. I talked about him. And, um, Uh, the, Chair for the Willow Creek Board, Kurt Weinsheimer about about whether or not we wanted to wait on that because they're in the middle of the coming up with their unification agreement of the school district With Willow Creek and MLK schools. And so I thought, well, it's better. Wouldn't it be better if we just had that update after the unification was done. and so they both agreed um and so what we're going to do is push that item until a probably March 23rd if the unification agreement is done, or otherwise I'll just wait for Superintendent Garcia to let me know when he thinks it's ready to go. Um, So I think in light of that, then I think the motion would be to I think just to remove that item from the agenda and then and then move item 7D to the end of the agenda. So it is- |
| 00:08:40.64 | Unknown | Great. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:08:42.41 | Jill Hoffman | you Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you. Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll? |
| 00:08:51.49 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Sobieski? Yes. Council member Blasdene? Yes. Council member Cleveland Knowles. Yeah. Vice Mayor Kellen? Mayor Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 00:09:02.60 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, the motion passes unanimously. And so we will move on. |
| 00:09:06.56 | Heidi Scoble | on. Thank you. |
| 00:09:07.86 | Jill Hoffman | Boop. Okay, very good. Moving on to our next item, which is special presentations. So I just said, you know, we're not going to do that because we just took that off the calendar. And the only thing was for special presentation was, the update from the superintendent. So but I would like to note that we're under mayor's announcements that I'm opening this meeting in honor of Women's History Month. And I note that our mayor, our vice mayor, our interim city manager, our assistant city manager, our community development planning director are all women for the city of Sausalito. And that I am not even close to being the first woman mayor in Sausalito, not even when I was mayor back in 2016. That I believe was Robin Sweeney in 1972. And she held, she also was mayor in 1985, 1988 and 1994. And the notorious Sally Stanford was mayor in 1976. Our other female mayors include our fellow city council member Susan Cleveland Knowles Sandra Bushmaker and former council member and Mayor Sandra Bushmaker and former council member Joan Cox. And so as we celebrate Women's History Month, I thought it was appropriate that I note our women who participate in Sausalito And I also want to assure council member Sobieski and all over there. non-female gendered people in our community that we support you and include you with equality in our conversations and in our esteem. So thank you. Um, Okay. And moving on, spoiler alert. um um, for item six, a, uh, on our agenda development agreements, that's under our, um, uh, under our public hearing item, We had a request from staff that that item be moved to the next city council meeting so that they can complete a legal review. And so we will not be doing a they will not be presenting a staff report but that we will take a vote on that item to move it to our next city council meeting at the request of staff. And so we'll get there. when we get there. I just wanted to call that out at the very beginning of the meeting. Okay. And so We're now moving on, I believe, to item two, communications. And Madam Clerk, if you'd like to read, the a process for public comment, that would be great. |
| 00:11:44.95 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Video or audio public comment participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you'd like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application, and you'll be called upon when it's your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, press star nine. Each speaker will be notified when the time has elapsed. And Madam Mayor, it looks like we have one hand raised at this time. and I will unmute Eva Cresante. |
| 00:12:10.06 | Jill Hoffman | Very good, and for everybody, these are matters not on the agenda. And go ahead, Yvonne, I think you're... right |
| 00:12:21.77 | Eva Crisanti | Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Thank you. Thanks so much. I hope this is three minutes. A couple years ago, I began inquiring about arrest demographics in Marin County. As a blue-collar worker who had previously worked for and been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Observer, I had an interest in documenting what seemed to be happening to my working-class co-workers who were disproportionately people of color. Principally, that appeared to be that they were arrested at higher rates than the white clientele we served in the restaurants. The data I finally derived from the county after considerable effort shows a truly startling history. Over a 31-year period, our Marin County Sheriff's Office has arrested black individuals at rates over eight times their demographic presence in Marin. Because I'm neither a statistician nor a policy analyst, I made use of faculty at UC Berkeley and younger activists and scientists to help me crunch the data and figure out what questions were necessary to get the county to produce the data sets. What's notable is that no one else in the county was doing this. The Marin public defender wasn't doing it, even though his office represented a disproportionate number of black individuals. Health and human services wasn't doing it, even though over-policing has been demonstrated to have serious health effects on vulnerable populations, and so on. You might think that once I had the data, I might be given the opportunity to present the data by Abbott Chambers, your city librarian who was paid over $200,000 a year in part to host programs at Sausalito City Library. But yesterday on International Women's Day, Mr. Chambers sent me a curious reply. He said that my tenor was wrong. And he said that I placed too much pressure on him to let me present at the library and therefore regardless of the importance of the subject, he would not grant me an opportunity to present the data. First, let me assure you, I am happy to make public the entirety of my correspondence with Mr. Chambers. There was nothing wrong with my tenor unless you happened to be made out of sponge sugar. Mr. Chambers decision seems a step beyond gatekeeping and into the realm of censorship. I want to assure Mr. Chambers that the data won't simply disappear if he denies it an audience. However, it will be remembered that Mr. Chambers, perhaps due to the high salary he is paid by the city, made a decision as a representative of the city to deny a working class biracial woman the opportunity to share the data she had collected. It's worth noting who Mr. Chambers has previously invited to speak at Sausalito Public Library. They're almost all white. They are disproportionately male, and they consistently present an agenda that syncs with Sausalito's desire to see itself as the good guys. Therefore, David Duncan, a mere graduate student in history at UC Santa Cruz, was actually invited to present by Mr. Chambers, even though he has never been published by any national publication. Although Mr. Duncan's subject, the first desegregation effort in Southern Marin, involved Black subjects, Mr. Chambers made no effort to include any of those subjects in the presentation. It appears that will be the trend when Mr. Chambers next guest, another white male like Mr. Chambers presents. Andrew Henning is a highly remunerated quote, homeless director who has gained a notorious reputation amongst the county's actual homeless population. I really asked the city council to review how their, how their, letting people in or how they're letting Mr. Chambers. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. |
| 00:15:29.59 | Unknown | Your three minutes has to last. |
| 00:15:36.27 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:15:36.29 | Eva Crisanti | Our next speakers will be Joe Cald. |
| 00:15:36.31 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, our next speakers will be Joe Caldwell, Charlene Eldon, and John DeRay. |
| 00:15:38.97 | Vicki Nichols | All right. Charlene Eldon And John DeRoy. |
| 00:15:41.89 | Susannah Suvest | TODAY. |
| 00:15:43.39 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:15:43.43 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 00:15:49.86 | Jill Hoffman | Go ahead, Mr. Caldwell. |
| 00:15:52.22 | Joe Caldwell | Yes, thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm not sure. i'm coming again to the council to request that the council's schedule some time to make a review of the treatment of professional services under Measure M, I know that Measure M is a is a law that was approved by the public But I believe that and I kind of enumerated how Um, the public was, Um, confused about what what the the measure would actually do. because the measure I think perhaps appropriately, is designed to create equality among the businesses as it relates to the business license tax but I believe that it, It does the opposite. I believe that it discriminates against professional services with really no no real rationale for why that discrimination should take place. So, I think it would be in the best interest of the city, to just take a look at that measure and the way it treats professional services If there is a fair rationale, it would be good to be able to state And if there's not, I think it would not be good to allow this measure to understand any further. |
| 00:17:33.08 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 00:17:40.42 | Heidi Scoble | Charlene Eldon has been unmuted. |
| 00:17:42.67 | Charlene Eldon | Thank you. |
| 00:17:42.70 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:17:42.97 | Charlene Eldon | for him. |
| 00:17:43.27 | Heidi Scoble | Ms. Sheldon? |
| 00:17:45.21 | Charlene Eldon | I thank you. Is now the appropriate time to ask that Councilmember Cleveland Knowles direct participation in segregation be added to a future agenda? |
| 00:17:58.77 | Jill Hoffman | At this point, we, We accept public comment on matters not on the agenda. I believe you've made your public statement and you're welcome to submit written comments as well. Thank you. |
| 00:18:13.72 | Charlene Eldon | I, I, |
| 00:18:13.78 | Jill Hoffman | I'm going to go. |
| 00:18:13.80 | Charlene Eldon | Thank you. |
| 00:18:13.90 | Jill Hoffman | So, we're going to have a |
| 00:18:13.97 | Charlene Eldon | I've submitted a written comment as well and have also reached out to city council members trying to get this added to the agenda so that it can actually be addressed. |
| 00:18:26.42 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. does that um Does that end your public comments for this evening? |
| 00:18:36.14 | Charlene Eldon | If this is the appropriate time to ask about it being added to the agenda, then yes. |
| 00:18:42.37 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:18:44.58 | Charlene Eldon | Thank you. |
| 00:18:45.00 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:18:50.23 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Madam Clerk. Who's next? |
| 00:18:55.01 | Heidi Scoble | Sean Duray has been unmuted. Oh, no, WR. Oh, sorry, Wendy Richards. I apologize. |
| 00:19:02.82 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. I would like to speak on the topic that Joe Caldwell brought up. And as many of you know, I will speak quite more forcefully on the topic of the business license tax. You have one more meeting in March, during which you can actually make a difference for the businesses of Sausalito. You've made a 60 day extension on the payment of the tax. And that comes up the end of this month. Now I am urging you and requesting you to put it on the agenda for your next meeting. and stop this inequitable, highly discriminatory, punitive tax on our services, businesses, and on people who earn a living in our homes here in Sausalito. This tax was blindly extended to people who work from home, which is now everyone. thanks to COVID, unfortunately. But in a discriminatory way, if someone earns a living with a W-2, they're not having to pay just to earn a living in their home. But if someone earns a living with a 1099 or a K1 or an LLC or any other alphabet soup of a business. |
| 00:20:26.47 | Unknown | business. |
| 00:20:27.81 | Wendy Richards | then they are subject to a tax not on their earnings but on their billings It's highly regressive, it's punitive, And on all services businesses, whether home or in an office, the tax was trebled overnight. Now this is, I ask you if Comcast tripled your bill from a hundred bucks to 300 bucks, Do you think you might be a little upset? If PG&E went to the PUC and said, we're gonna triple electricity rates and there'll be no recourse, It wouldn't happen. But yet the city expects that people who are earning a living and taking risks should disproportionately be paying for staff who have guaranteed retirement, who have benefits, who have all of this and be paying not on their earnings, but on their gross receipts. Leaves. You stood up on that Saturday and said what you stand for is diversity, equity, and inclusion. You said you want to be a leading community in this region, in this state. Please. change this tax, roll it back. and do so at the next council meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you. |
| 00:21:53.99 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, there are no additional hands that are raised at this time. Okay. |
| 00:21:57.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you very much. |
| 00:21:59.20 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:21:59.22 | Jill Hoffman | Um, Then at this time, I'm going to close public comment for matters not on the agenda. And we're going to move on to... Item three on our agenda, action minutes of the previous meeting. If someone could I would be willing to entertain a motion to Um, either accept the action minutes or to, if somebody would like to call it out, if they need to have any changes or corrections, we can also discuss that. Thank you. |
| 00:22:25.53 | Melissa Blaustein | So. |
| 00:22:26.88 | Jill Hoffman | of emotion. |
| 00:22:28.65 | Melissa Blaustein | There are no comments, I'll move the minutes. |
| 00:22:32.71 | Jill Hoffman | I don't see any. Consider Susan or Councilmember Cleveland Knowles has made the motion. Do we have a second? |
| 00:22:42.94 | Jill Hoffman | I think I saw Yes, happy to say. Okay, thank you, Vice Mayor. Second, Heidi, would you please call the roll? |
| 00:22:51.04 | Heidi Scoble | member Sobieski? |
| 00:22:52.53 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:22:53.47 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Blaustein. Yes. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:22:58.06 | David Sudo | Yeah. |
| 00:22:58.94 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Komen. |
| 00:23:00.69 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 00:23:00.98 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:23:01.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Yes, the motion passes unanimously. Whoops, sorry. I forgot to open up for public comment. Sorry. So we'll take public comment on the action minutes. Bye-bye. I see no hands. I will close public comment. Moving on. Okay, so... We're moving on now to item four on the agenda. Council member committee reports. I'll start off. We had a finance committee and pretty clear the finance committee. We discussed the quarterly report, the business, the treasurer's report. |
| 00:23:43.96 | Unknown | I'm not sure. |
| 00:23:44.10 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:23:44.13 | Unknown | Committee we just |
| 00:23:47.96 | Jill Hoffman | and the CAFR at the last finance committee meeting. You will see the fruits of that tonight. Council member Blaston and I as the homeless working group had a meeting with our state senator Mike McGuire that he put together at our request. I think that's a great question. from the Southern Marin municipalities in the county that make up Richardson Bay Regional Agency. So we had a meeting with the mayors of They were very kind to give us this time and come together and talk about a solution for homelessness on a regional Southern Marin approach. And that was Tiburon, Belvedere, Mill Valley and the county of Marin. We had, I thought, a very a very fruitful discussion on our regional response on how to approach those without shelter. We discussed short and long term goals and you're going to start seeing some of the fruits, I believe, from that effort as we work toward a collaborative way to address those without shelter in Southern Marin. Council member Sobieski and I had a meeting with Charlie Francis on the B of A about the RFI process and the request for information. and also how that interacts with and is complimentary to the land side ferry landing improvements. So the parking lot and the circulation and how Those two things are, I believe, going to work together as we move forward. We're having more meetings on that. and expect to see something on the RFI coming back in the next meeting or so. Anyway, soon. I think that's all I can remember. |
| 00:25:31.86 | Janelle Kellman | like, updates or |
| 00:25:35.29 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:25:35.30 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:25:35.32 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:25:35.37 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, I'll jump in. So Councilmember Sobieski and I attended the Saucyut economic development advisory committee meeting. We ran through a number of initiatives related to marketing and COVID economic recovery. Councilmember Sobieski and I also gave direction to add development metrics to measure the city's fiscal performance to the EDAC's work plan. That was well received and we'll continue to talk about that. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles and I had a legislative committee where we discussed ordinance changes and updates to support streamlined permitting of EV charging stations throughout town. So we'll be working hard on that. I will be looking at both public and private property. And then finally, the housing elements subcommittee met to discuss the request for proposal in the RFP. Thank you. to fine tune that RFP, to bring in a consultant for the future housing element effort. And those of you who asked me about sea level rise, the Bay Wave meeting was canceled for March. We'll be meeting again in April. Thank you. |
| 00:26:39.31 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:26:39.33 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:26:39.34 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:26:39.65 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Any miles? Yes, Mayor Hoffman, can I just add on to Vice Mayor Kellman's report at the Legislative Committee, we did also consider whether we should amend our various ordinances that relate to dog barking due to some complaints over the last year on that front. We did review the relevant ordinances and heard quite extensive testimony from Chief Warbacher about efforts to address the particular citizens issues and we decided that a amendment to our current ordinances would likely not address that particular issue. but that So we just didn't want to um Sorry, we decided not to recommend to the city council to amend any of those ordinances. Thank you. So that's where that stands. And then I'll just add on that. I, in addition to committees that Councilmember Fiosneem will report on The vice mayor already did. I had a TAM executive committee meeting yesterday And unfortunately, a proposal, I think you received correspondence about this, but a proposal from Sausalito for some improvements on the bridgeway the bike area between Princess and 2nd Street was not and ready enough to forward to an MTC program and Metropolitan Transportation Commission program, but the Transportation Authority will continue to help us look for funding for that initiative. Thank you. |
| 00:28:18.40 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Council member Blaustein or |
| 00:28:21.50 | Melissa Blaustein | Yes, I can report out just because Council Member Cleveland-Knowledge suggested that there were some meetings we had had. She and I met with Charlie Francis on the Dorothy Gibson House for the last meeting. And so we've already started to get the ball rolling on conversations about the future of that property. Charlie presented a couple of scenarios for paths forward, one that's more immediate as it relates to repairs necessary on the property, and another on pursuing what types of additional units might be possible at what cost and how would we move forward so we are hoping to see that brought forward to an upcoming council meeting sooner rather than later so we can start to make progress on on that somewhat immediately council member sobieski and i have spoken about the as members of the cannabis working group on making sure that there is a substantial amount of community engagement around this issue. So again, I'd want to remind folks that if this is something you're passionate about or would like to be engaged in discussion in, please reach out to Heidi, our city clerk, and let her know that you are interested in being on the mailing list, particularly for this issue. We're hoping to convene a series of sessions and conversations around cannabis and its future in Sausalito. Also, Mayor Hoffman, you and I have begun reaching out to BIPOC community members on the racial justice conversation to think about how we first convened to talk about what plan or path forward might be appropriate. that many stakeholders are represented as we begin these conversations. So it is moving forward, but we want to make sure we're doing it in a very thoughtful and inclusive way. So that as well. And did I miss one? |
| 00:29:47.77 | Unknown | It's a good thing. |
| 00:29:57.40 | Melissa Blaustein | I think that that's, oh, and the Library Board of Trustees had a meeting, and Abbott is hard at work. to try and find a way forward for browsing safely, but it will be contingent upon COVID regulations and what that looks like. The library is still in a waiting period as we decide what our budget will look like for the year ahead so that they can make decisions based upon that. And that is it for my committee reports. Thank you. |
| 00:30:22.13 | Jill Hoffman | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 00:30:24.03 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. Council member Gloucester and I attended the parks and rec commission meeting and uh several matters were covered. I'm sure everyone is curious what's going on for the summer events and may not be surprised to learn that nothing yet has been decided. to the The situation is being monitored and it is possible Certainly nothing has been for sure committed to be done, but the possibility exists of recovering some portion of our summer music in the park, depending on what the COVID situation is and unfolds as over the summer. Picnic tables are going in at Dunphy Park via the Costco Busan funds. Construction is nearly complete of Southview Park and the soft opening will be held soon. Just so people know the lines on the basketball court and tennis court are going to be temporary until final lines are put in when the weather is drier. So that's why the lines may look the way they are initially. Um, There is a commission engaged in looking over the capital improvement budget and has some feedback that they're providing to public works. And people might be interested in knowing that the art on public places subcommittee has been reformed. So if you have any input into how to have more art in public places in Sausalito, this is a way of connecting with that subject. So that's it on Parks and Rec. Just a word more on EDAC from... the vice mayor's report Just to note that there's new leadership at EDAC. The new officers were elected. Tom Riley, former council member, has been elected as the chair. The vice chair is Cass Green and the secretaries Teresa Ancona. uh, In other news, they have been meeting with various stakeholders, landlords, businesses, as well as the development director and directors and staff in other municipalities have been making great progress on their charge from city council to look at permitting. They are now in collaboration and discussing with the planning commission and in one form or fashion recommendations will be coming soon to city council for how to move forward on that. issue. That's all. |
| 00:32:42.68 | Jill Hoffman | Excellent. Thank you guys. Thanks for all of your hard work on all of our boards and commissions. I know it's a lot of time and effort, but You are seeing the fruits of that labor. Yes, Councilmember Clegg and also. |
| 00:32:53.70 | Melissa Blaustein | Sorry, Mayor, just to add on to Councilmember Sobieski's Rec Park, I think if some of our bigger events might have to fall by the COVID wayside this summer, it might be interesting to think about events like the Super Bowl, where various restaurants I'll cook soup. I mean, not that exact one, but, you know, those are roving through town. They get people out. You walk around. You get to visit. uh various restaurants but things that don't encourage people to gather in such large groups So I hope we can come up with some creative replacements for our traditional gatherings if we're not allowed to do those so that we can kind of all continue to get out |
| 00:33:34.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:33:34.33 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. and have fun this summer. And then Further, I have noticed in Brook Mill Valley and I think San Rafael, some really awesome art on that kind of big, ugly electrical utility boxes that are everywhere. I don't know the technical term, but that seems like that could be something really fun for our part. Rek park committee anyway just don't know when I could provide that input other than here, so thanks. Oh, that's great. Great ideas. |
| 00:34:02.63 | Janelle Kellman | MS. Mayor Hoffman, we did miss the ever important city manager working group report, which is just to remind everybody, we did a Saturday session last week, a member of the public, Jay Carger, who's an executive coach and hiring consultant led us through pretty much a workshop around what outcomes and dividing a very results-driven format for our interviewing process. And from that, we went into closed session and talked about some types of questions we'll want to generate in our interviews. And then we are continuing, of course, with Looking at our applicants, I think we had, did we hear tonight 54 applicants? A really incredible group has come forward and we're going to have a lot of really wonderful choices I think and we'll be getting our interview sometime in the next two weeks so we will definitely keep you all apprised we'll speak more about that probably later today but I just wanted to remind everybody And then since I have the mic, I will also say to the Parks and Rec Committee, if there's going to be a public arts subcommittee, I hope very much that that subcommittee will be reaching out to the artists at ICB and the artists at Galilee and of course throughout other parts of Sausalito to engage them directly on having public art installations. |
| 00:35:19.09 | Jill Hoffman | I feel like it's gonna be a robust outreach, |
| 00:35:21.30 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 00:35:21.34 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:35:21.40 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:35:21.49 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 00:35:21.66 | Janelle Kellman | Sure. |
| 00:35:22.28 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not. |
| 00:35:22.67 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:35:22.96 | Ian Sobieski | I just want to underline the thanks to our member, our community member, Jake Carger, for her volunteer efforts. Thank you. on behalf of the city in helping the city council organized its thinking around the questions to ask of our candidates. I want to point out that We learned about her and were able to work with her because of Vice Mayor Janelle Kelman's outreach to her and connections. So thanks to the Vice Mayor, too. |
| 00:35:50.77 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks for both of you guys. Excellent. Really fantastic work from everybody actually on the committee. But thanks to you guys for the city manager search. I know you've been working hard on that as well. Okay, all right, if no further reports, I'm going to open this up for public comment on this item on the agenda, which were city council updates committee reports. I don't see any hands. Madam Vice Mayor, or Madam Clerk, |
| 00:36:20.25 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, there are no hands raised at this time. |
| 00:36:23.62 | Jill Hoffman | Very good. Then I will close public comment on this item and we will move on to our next item on the agenda, which is the consent calendar. I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT consent this item is the consent calendar and the items that the items on the consent calendar are for items that are routine and non-controversial and Um, if a Council member may request that we pull a remove an item, but otherwise we vote on them as one. And so, At this point, do we have, I'm going to open up public comment for items on the consent calendar. Do we have any public comment for items on the consent calendar? I'm not seeing any hands. I'm going to close public comment on the consent calendar. Do we have any, I'm going to open this item up now for council comment. Do we have any wish to pull or discuss anything on the consent calendar, or do we have a motion to approve? |
| 00:37:24.00 | Melissa Blaustein | I would just I don't know if we directly need to pull item 5D, but it's really critical that we have a robust conversation about evacuation routes. So if we are going to move forward with the consent calendar on the specific grand jury report, I think it's critical that we immediately have a community conversation about evacuation routes and that it's on the agenda. So whether or not we pull the item, I'm sort of indifferent to, but I want to make sure that's something that we've heard a lot of concern about. What is our safe evacuation route? How do we use our stairs? I feel like it's more important than just consent. So however you'd like to proceed in terms of that item. |
| 00:37:48.01 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:37:59.12 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's probably something that we would add to future agenda items and probably in the context of disaster preparedness committee, which I think you're the liaison for. |
| 00:38:07.98 | Melissa Blaustein | Yes, and tomorrow is my first meeting with the committee and I'm very excited about it. Tomorrow evening at 5 p.m. |
| 00:38:13.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:38:13.12 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:38:13.19 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, excellent. Well, this might be something that you might want to bring up. I'm just saying. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? That's so moved. Five seconds. |
| 00:38:23.38 | Melissa Blaustein | Exactly. |
| 00:38:24.53 | Jill Hoffman | Very good, thank you. Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll? THE CITY. |
| 00:38:29.09 | Heidi Scoble | Sobieski? |
| 00:38:30.13 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:38:31.25 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blasti. Yes. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. Yeah. Vice Mayor Killman. Yes. Mayor Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 00:38:40.58 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:38:40.70 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:38:40.85 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Very good, that passes unanimously. And moving on to item six, Public hearing items. So item 6A is introduction of zoning ordinance amendment to add a new chapter. 10.8 0 to Title 10 and it's also a municipal code to establish procedures and requirements for the consideration of development agreements. Now you may recall that I talked about this at the very beginning under announcements that the staff has requested that we move this to March 23 and that there is no staff presentation. And so, at this point um i'm going to ask uh well first at this point i'm going to ask if there's any city council members need have needing clarification otherwise i'll open up for public comment i'll close public comment and then we'll talk about a vote So at this point, does any city council member have a question or a comment? I suppose a question for staff. Okay, I'm seeing nothing. Based on that, I'm going to open this item up for public comment. |
| 00:39:49.41 | Jill Hoffman | And I don't see any hands raised for public comment. And so I'm Oh, okay. I was too fast. Madam Clerk, I'll just let you call the names. I see one hand raised, but I'll let you call the cans because they do bounce around a bit. |
| 00:40:07.01 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:40:07.62 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:40:07.64 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, Madam Mayor, we do have one hand raised at this time and it's Vicki Nichols. Vicki, I am unmuting you now. You've been unmuted. |
| 00:40:21.59 | Vicki Nichols | There we go, I think. |
| 00:40:22.94 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, I can hear you now, Ms. Nichols. |
| 00:40:24.24 | Vicki Nichols | Okay, thank you, mayor, you are fast. You are calling those items fast. I'm just confused. I'm trying to understand. I thought I heard you say that you guys would vote anyway. I'm wondering how you can vote without presentation from staff and maybe Maybe I heard incorrectly, but I would recommend that you get the the presentation from staff. I think there was a lot of discussion about this at the last meeting. AND I THINK IT'S A LOT OF So that's just my comments about it. This is an important addition to what, can be done in several instances and I think there needs to be a good understanding of the pros and cons. Thank you. |
| 00:41:07.09 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Maybe I was not clear. The only vote is to move it to March 23. So just everybody, just if I wasn't clear about that. So, okay, so I don't see any other hands. And so I'm going to, at this point, Close public comment. and I'm going to bring it back up here. I'm inviting a motion from one of my fellow Council members. I make them a |
| 00:41:33.36 | Melissa Blaustein | I make a motion for a continuance of the development agreements issue until March 23rd. |
| 00:41:37.94 | Jill Hoffman | Second. Thank you very much. Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll? |
| 00:41:41.53 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:41:42.43 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:41:42.44 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Sobieski? |
| 00:41:43.98 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:41:44.92 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blasting. Yes. Council member Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:41:51.17 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:41:52.74 | Heidi Scoble | Vice mayor Cummins. |
| 00:41:53.63 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:41:53.70 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:41:54.00 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:41:54.30 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:41:55.05 | Heidi Scoble | Hoffman. |
| 00:41:56.09 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, very good. That passes by unanimous vote. Moving on to item seven on our agenda. We're now studying our business items. So our first item is 7A. The temporary Caledonia Street closure between Johnson and Pine to allow for increased outdoor dining space through fall of 2021. And our very talented director of public works, Kevin McGowan, has I think it's Kevin McGowan. I see Mike Langford. Who's doing it? Okay, one of you guys is gonna do it, I don't know. They're both Very talented. I'm not. And one of them is going to give a presentation. Thank you. |
| 00:42:41.32 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Mayor. Good evening. I'm Kevin McGowan with Department of Public Works. |
| 00:42:41.37 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:42:45.20 | Kevin McGowan | Mike Langford, your Parks Director, is going to help me with this presentation, so we are tag-teaming this evening. |
| 00:42:50.84 | Ian Sobieski | I'm sorry. |
| 00:42:51.09 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 00:42:51.17 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:42:51.19 | Kevin McGowan | you I'm going to share my screen. and show you a quick presentation. We only have a few slides with this at this point. Hopefully you can see my screen at this point. |
| 00:43:00.02 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:43:00.03 | Unknown | Thank you. Can't see it. There it is. |
| 00:43:03.16 | Alice Merrill | There it is. |
| 00:43:03.49 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. Come on, kids. There we go. Can you see my screen? It says outdoor dining pilot program on Caledonia Street. Thank you. |
| 00:43:13.03 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:43:13.20 | Kevin McGowan | and we'll see you next time. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Um, I'm going to start up the presentation fairly quickly and then turn it over to Mike so that we can work together on a couple slides here. So in 2020, some businesses and most restaurants within Sausalito were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to assist Sausalito businesses, the city moved forward with allowing outdoor dining. and in particular, started a pilot program to close the end of Caledonia between Pine and Johnson Street. Now, I'm going to turn it over to Mike from here, and he's going to kind of lead you through how this worked out last summer and last fall. |
| 00:44:01.86 | Mike Langford | Thank you, Kevin. |
| 00:44:01.88 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Kevin. |
| 00:44:03.87 | Mike Langford | Good evening Madam Mayor, City Council members. Mike Langford, Parks and Recreation Director here. So as you see from the slide, the closure initially started on July 26, 2020. I'm not sure. was implemented on a daily basis Thursday through Sunday where staff would go out at approximately 3 p.m. and close off the portion of Caledonia Street between Johnson and Pine. and then return in the evening so that the roadway was reopened by 10 p.m. |
| 00:44:36.71 | Mike Langford | Thank you, Kevin. The closure worked well and the restaurants in the area were able to stay open with the assistance of having the street. open for their patrons. In fact, Some of the restaurants said that they would not have been able to survive if it wasn't for this. Some doubling their business, some say even on some nights tripling what they would have been able to do. without having the street available for dining. Now having the staff available to install or remove the barricades on a daily basis was not sustainable so in September Thank you. with the help from a grant for the transportation authority of marin the city installed removable barricades in the road, those yellow posts you see there. And so then what we did is we closed the road beginning on Thursday afternoons, And then we reopened it early Monday morning. The closure process continued until November 2020. once the weather changed appropriately. So I'm now going to turn it back over to public works director Kevin McGowan to speak about next steps here. |
| 00:45:48.82 | Kevin McGowan | So a few things have happened since the closures occurred in the late fall. Restaurants and owners in the area have also submitted applications to install parklets along this section of the roadway. I've checked in with our Community Development Director And a few of these parklets are ready to be constructed at this point. Now, a parklet is basically the area that's utilized at this point for parking and it's converted into outdoor dining. I think you've seen this at different places throughout town and within different communities throughout Marin. All right, at this point, staff is kind of seeking, we are seeking. the Council's direction on two options associated with Caledonia Street pilot project. Option one is to utilize the same system as implemented last September. And Mike kind of explained that about closing the road on Thursdays and opening it back up on Mondays. and also putting in barricades and the rest of the The rest of the signage that's needed at that time. Option two, which was brought forward by the restaurants, was to close the street from March all the way until at least October. and to extend the hours of operation to 11 p.m. each evening. |
| 00:47:24.09 | Kevin McGowan | Now a couple more quick slides just to to let you know what else we're working on for this project staff still into it's working closely with a pedestrian bicycle advisory committee. to determine if further modifications to parking and circulation should be pursued in this section of Sausalito. David Parisi of Parisi Transportation. has provided several other concepts to improve parking on adjacent streets, as well as additional alternatives for the closure area. Staff also anticipates seeking input from the public through various committees, such as EDAC, as well as the Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee. All right. This has been for the last year, and this appears to be a successful pilot project in 2020. Staff is recommending to move forward with option one, at this point, which is the same approach utilized in September of last year. that mike and i are available for questions and comments so thank you very much and i will Stop sharing my screen. |
| 00:48:36.35 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Director McAllen, and thank you, Director Linkford. Excellent presentation and thank you so much for all of your hard work on this and all the hard work and heavy lift you guys did last summer. I mean, that was quite remarkable. The way you were able to put this program together and help our local restaurant. So I certainly appreciate that. I don't have any questions right now, but I'll ask if my fellow council members do. Anybody have any questions at this point? Yes. Councilmember Cleveland, go ahead. |
| 00:49:09.24 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, so Director McGowan, I know you just, or perhaps it was Director Langford just talked about the applications for the parklets, but could you go over that one more time? How many applications do we have and where are they in the process? I'm sorry, I heard you. talking about them, but I wasn't sure how many there were and whether they are for a uniform, single. parklet along fronting restaurants or not. |
| 00:49:36.34 | Kevin McGowan | So with that, thank you, council member. With that, I may ask Lely Wayland some additional help with that. I'm not too sure of the exact number, but it's my understanding that The restaurants along the full frontage on the west side of Caledonia have applied for a Harklet. kind of as a conglomerate all the way across that entire length. And I see our city manager has stepped in as well. |
| 00:50:04.52 | Chris Zapata | I have because Director Whalen is not with us this evening. So I think if you could estimate the number and Mike could help you, that would be most helpful moving the meeting forward. |
| 00:50:15.22 | Mike Langford | I would be happy to step in here. I have seen the plans and it is for a single parklet uniform and look across the west side of Caledonia Street using the parking spaces. If you're from the south, there'll still be the red zone that's there by the barbershop. and going all the way north to just before the sidewalk. |
| 00:50:40.62 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:50:40.64 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 00:50:42.24 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. So, I have a follow up question to that. It seems very germane, very important to know a little more specifically, Those have been approved. and they're ready to be constructed. So they're out of CDD altogether. They're in the hands of the restaurants to build. Is this true? |
| 00:51:00.33 | Mike Langford | My understanding is that it is. When I spoke with the restaurants today, they said they just met with our building inspector to make sure that everything is ready to go and they are working on getting bids for the project. So they're about ready to go. want to get it done quickly. |
| 00:51:18.82 | Janelle Kellman | Yes, Vice Mayor. I also want to thank Director McGowan and Director Langford. that Balancing the different needs is complicated and you guys really did a fantastic job here. So thank you so much for your hard work. I'm wondering if one of you could put up the rendering And my question is how accurate Is this rendering? Any conversations you've had with the applicants around what it would actually look like. Did we look at options? Like I believe we have in Capita where it's on, on wheels, anything you could tell us about the actual configuration Um, would be quite helpful. and then also speak to parking and circulation in terms of emergency vehicles. |
| 00:52:05.08 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'll try to put up the presentation that we have had here. And I don't have a great sketch from the applicant on what exactly they want to install. If you'll notice on this slide, they provided this hand-on sketch for us to show us what they have in mind. Now, I apologize for the clarity of this, and I would definitely want to see something a little bit more clear, such as where my cursor is on the right hand side of the screen. But at this point, this is all we have. So I'm anticipating that they will be putting in some type of barricade on the outside edge of the parklet, as well as on the ends of the parklet itself. I don't have much detail other than that. I'll be glad to double check with the buildings. |
| 00:52:54.05 | Mike Langford | Kevin. weird, Mike. If I could step in here. My understanding and I do believe that there are some of the restaurant representatives in the meeting here as well, and they may be able to clarify. But the plan is outlined in the application. is for that to be a concrete the concrete slab. poured over a plastic barrier so that they can be easily removed when the time comes, much like the one that is in front of the wine shop on Bridgeway. |
| 00:53:33.79 | Jill Hoffman | So, Yeah, I had a follow-up. for that. this is just for informational, right? So I know that when we've done these kind of parklet, in the past, they usually come back up to city council and we have a whole discussion about removal of parking spots and whatever fees are gonna cost and all that kind of stuff. Is that process still in place or do we have some sort of alternate process right now because we're in a pandemic emergency situation. I'm just asking for people that may not understand the process. And I think I'm one of them. for the parklets at this point. |
| 00:54:17.68 | Mike Langford | In reading the application, it was for a three-year period. |
| 00:54:17.77 | Jill Hoffman | I'm going to ask. |
| 00:54:22.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:54:22.07 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. Okay. Has there been any analysis done of the number of tables that are obtained? for installing the parklets versus the number of tables involving the road closure. |
| 00:54:35.62 | Mike Langford | Um, I can pull that up here in a moment. |
| 00:54:41.34 | Janelle Kellman | And Director Lankford, as you're answering Councilman Sobieski, if if we could speak a little bit more to the parking. I know on November 10th, Parisi made a presentation, if there's any new information that would be helpful as well as you're articulating this. |
| 00:54:56.63 | Kevin McGowan | As Mike is pulling that up, I don't think that we have additional information specifically on parking but, Since Mike has a little more information associated with the restaurants, maybe he might have some more detailed information on this. |
| 00:55:10.60 | Melissa Blaustein | And Mike, could you also speak to, you both suggested that the 11 p.m. closure and the 24-7 closure was recommended by the restaurants. Is there a collaborative conversation ongoing between the four restaurant owners there? Could you maybe speak to that process so we have an idea of what their direct asks have been and how their collaborative process with the city has been going. |
| 00:55:32.18 | Mike Langford | Okay, so I just shared my screen. there with you. Is it coming up? |
| 00:55:38.93 | Ian Sobieski | Yes, we did. |
| 00:55:38.99 | Mike Langford | Yes. Okay. layout for that we did last year that we were proposing again for this year. with the, those are not CDs, those are actually The white dot is the table and then the colored area around that is actually the distance that is needed because of COVID. So. that we're going to have a The distance is actually, we need the 72 inches between the backs of the seats of the people. right now with this, |
| 00:56:17.90 | Mike Langford | You can put approximately 10 tables with the parklet. And we could do double that with closing the street. Now, if regulations are I'm not sure. less restrictive in the future, of course, then they will be able to put more tables in the area. |
| 00:56:37.00 | Ian Sobieski | So what we're really talking about, the capacity difference between ParkWit's where you lose parking. and closing the street where you closed the street. is roughly the difference between two and a half and five tables. But correct? |
| 00:56:52.78 | Mike Langford | No. |
| 00:56:53.51 | Ian Sobieski | you. |
| 00:56:54.52 | Mike Langford | with a parklet you could put the bottom row there, |
| 00:56:58.69 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 00:56:59.46 | Mike Langford | You could do that. And then if the road is closed, you can put the top row. Yeah. |
| 00:57:03.26 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. just half this, you're doubling it, Masi. |
| 00:57:06.67 | Mike Langford | your daughter. You're going from about 9 to 10, 9 to 20. |
| 00:57:08.44 | Ian Sobieski | You're going from about. |
| 00:57:12.15 | Mike Langford | or if they use where it says R1 or waiting area, you're going from 10 to 20 approximately. |
| 00:57:19.05 | Ian Sobieski | Following up with Councilmember Blasstein's question, there's clearly been some dialogue with the restaurants. Has there been commensurate dialogue with the neighbors about the various issues that you've seen raised in public comment? both last time and this time. regarding those. |
| 00:57:32.96 | Mike Langford | No official notice has gone out. We have heard from some neighbors and I know the council received some letters from different neighbors and different residents throughout Sausalito as part of this meeting. |
| 00:57:47.03 | Chris Zapata | Mike, if you could go over, excuse me a moment, but if you could go over what the requirements would be if the decision this evening is to move forward, would that need to go to the Planning Commission? Would it need to go to Design Review? Do you know the answers to those questions? |
| 00:58:01.83 | Mike Langford | you know, this proposal here as doing it, uh, exactly the same as we did last year, does not need to go through any more review. I'm not sure. The city manager has the powers to do this through the emergency powers that were granted to the city manager last year, If. It is staff's recommendation that if anything has changed from last year, such as the hours or days of operation, that then there be a deeper review, possibly going to the planning commission or other commissions in the city so that we can get more public feedback. |
| 00:58:40.86 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 00:58:42.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:58:42.94 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, Councilmember Cleveland-Olds, go ahead. |
| 00:58:45.71 | Melissa Blaustein | Great. So thank you to staff for this presentation and all the work, of course. You know, I read all the public I have been talking to a lot of folks. There is generally very broad support for keeping the kind of vibe of this is a community space. I just wanted to ask staff, it seems like the permanent establishment of the parklets will add a. a lot of 24 seven seating. so that, and it will look good. It will have a more kind of We've seen Mill Valley and a lot of other communities have a much more sort of polished approach. So would one option, at least in the short term as we kind of do a little more outreach and explore some of the impacts be to have the permanent, when I say permanent, I mean, able to be removed at the end of their term. Parklets and then retain that next line of seating for the Thursday through Sunday. and what would the impacts on staff and resources be for that. |
| 01:00:01.02 | Mike Langford | Definitely anything is an option at this point. if, the council chooses to do that, then staff would go out on Thursdays like we did last year and close off the street and then reopen it again on Monday morning. |
| 01:00:20.41 | Chris Zapata | And one of the considerations for any Additional seating in addition to what's in the adjacent facilities, anything on the street could be referred by the Council to the Planning Commission for design and style implementation. Yeah. |
| 01:00:40.44 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, just a follow up on two elements of this. Director Langford, to what extent uh, Did you look at, to Councilman of Cleveland Knowles' point, the temporary versus permanent nature of what is being suggested. Or alternatively, are we just not far enough along in terms of what this would actually look like? to know. Meaning are there ways to design or, you know, that would be more, of a temporary nature of |
| 01:01:08.94 | Mike Langford | what we're bringing you tonight is uh temporary |
| 01:01:12.10 | Janelle Kellman | Correct. |
| 01:01:12.47 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:01:12.49 | Mike Langford | as far as the choice to go as we did last year. or to go as the restaurants are suggesting to go with a 24-7 exposure. Thank you. If we, the restaurants have indicated, if we go with a 24 seven closure, then it would be much easier for them beautify the area. They're looking at purchasing matching furniture for the entire area. and bringing in plants and possibly lighting and possibly other amenities. Of course, all of that with the agreement that it needs to go through the city to make sure that all codes are followed. |
| 01:01:50.89 | Janelle Kellman | Sure, and Madam Mayor, may I ask two questions of the city manager, just a clarification? So for the city manager, TAB, Two unrelated questions, one is there's been reference to sort of the emergency order and the authority which. TAB, The previous city manager had to grant this without planning Commission review is that emergency status still. In effect, that's my first question, and I have another for you. Yeah. |
| 01:02:16.19 | Chris Zapata | Yes. We did check with city attorney before we set this item for your consideration this evening. It's my understanding that the emergency authority is still in effect. Theoretically, with that authority, the same scenario as last season, last fall, could be enacted with the additional seating as proposed by the restaurants to go through the review process to the Planning Commission if that's what's desired this evening. It would require additional review. if that's what you want to consider this evening. |
| 01:02:53.38 | Janelle Kellman | And then my second question, since I don't see Chief Warbacher on tonight. is Has there been any type of commensurate LOOK INTO THE PARKING SITUATION ON THE ADJACENT residential streets, specifically, I suppose, Johnson and Bonita, and the impacts that prior closure may have had on that parking. And I guess the question there is, do we have the resources to, Also proactively police that in conjunction with something like this offering? |
| 01:03:27.49 | Chris Zapata | I think that is an extended review that would occur if the council decides to consider the enhanced seating and refer this to Planning Commission as a part of the Planning Commission review. Those types of issues would be included in the review. They have not been done to this point. what, the staff is prepared to support is the entire enhancement but the second level would in fact require additional review and drilling down that's not been completed at this point what brought this forward for council consideration now is the restaurants request to begin reopening the weather's turned it's sunny and warmer. They're interested in beginning the outdoor seating March 15. So the staff wasn't ready for the additional to answer a lot of the questions and the review procedure on the additional layer but did not want to hold back the opening on March 15 without bringing forward the full picture. with the understanding that the modified or continuation of last year's last fall's seating arrangement could be authorized at the manager level. In other words, we didn't want it to open in March of 15, which I find to be suitable given what we've done previously. But we have had comments about noise and about parking. And so moving it forward to a larger concept, I thought required a detailed discussion. Thank you. |
| 01:04:59.52 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:05:00.35 | Ian Sobieski | Go ahead, Melissa, please. |
| 01:05:02.00 | Melissa Blaustein | I still don't feel like I got an answer to my question about how the restaurants approached with the 11 p.m. time request and what the collaboration has been amongst the restaurants. And I also recall that this issue went to EDAC in terms of the consideration of a permanent closure of the street. So I'm just wondering... |
| 01:05:07.00 | Ian Sobieski | 11. |
| 01:05:11.27 | Unknown | and I think, |
| 01:05:19.50 | Melissa Blaustein | what staff communication has been around that. |
| 01:05:24.08 | Mike Langford | So I have been communicating with the restaurants and they, they came with the, uh, the proposal to stay open later. together they would all like to do that. They have also indicated that should they get the full 24-step enclosure they would most likely expand their hours with some of the restaurants that are not open for lunch right now opening for lunch. As far as any exact times or details, you would need to talk to the restaurants. |
| 01:05:51.57 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Yes, Councilor McLeod, you have a question. |
| 01:05:53.20 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. Just following up on Councilmember Blassey's question to you, Mike. I recall you had some issues with restaurants pushing the 9 p.m. closed last time. How do you feel that the enforcement regime worked in terms of actually getting |
| 01:06:10.26 | Mike Langford | We did have some restaurants as well as patrons that wanted to stay out later, especially on the... few really nice warm nights that we had. I don't know. We did send a letter of warning to one of the restaurants and we didn't have any issues after that. |
| 01:06:29.16 | Ian Sobieski | And then I had a question for the city manager to follow up on the vice mayor. question. Is it possible to use your authority in a tactical way in response to the restaurant's actual capacity needs? There are many nights during our fine summer that are very inhospitable to eating out, even when they're on the weekend. And as Director Langford just pointed out, there are some nights that are extremely hospitable. So can your authority be used to close the street a little more judiciously and in response to anticipated weather rather than having it be calendar based? |
| 01:07:08.28 | Chris Zapata | Actually, I'll look to the department heads here for assistance, but it's my understanding, this was before my arrival, and it's my understanding that the manager's authority was used on a very discretionary basis based on weather. As I arrived, this program was winding down, and I recall that there was a week-by-week review of the weather forecast and whether to open or close. Mike, do you have more detail on that? |
| 01:07:36.70 | Mike Langford | Yes, definitely. So during the closure time If, starting up on the Thursday. If there was a day that when we got out there and it was just too windy or it just didn't look right, I spoke with the restaurants and we all collaborated and came up with the decision not to open the street. We had one time where we laid out all the tables and within a matter of five minutes, they all ended up in the same corner. So we said, this is not a go today. We came back the next day and We had a great weekend, but we left it. |
| 01:08:08.79 | Chris Zapata | but |
| 01:08:09.80 | Mike Langford | left the street open. when the weather was not conducive. Yeah, we did have. |
| 01:08:13.33 | Chris Zapata | You know, it did happen. Other than on a week by week basis, a day to day basis is extremely labor intensive in terms of whether to open or close and set up or not set up and whether to communicate amongst the departments involved. So I would not suggest doing it on less than a weekend by weekend basis i.e. a day by day basis. I think it'd be exceedingly |
| 01:08:20.72 | Mary Wagner | Yeah. |
| 01:08:35.54 | Chris Zapata | difficult communication-wise and operationally. |
| 01:08:38.91 | Ian Sobieski | I just have a technical question then in follow up to that. Is it not possible for the restaurants to do the setup of their own tables? rather than city spots? |
| 01:08:46.98 | Chris Zapata | I'm not talking about setting up the tables. I'm talking about barricades. I'm talking about communication between public works and PD. All of that, we do it on a day-to-day basis is not as fluid an operation as if we do it on several days at a time. And that was the reason for my recommendation. I believe the restaurants were doing their own setup and cleanup, Mike. |
| 01:09:09.26 | Mike Langford | Yes, the restaurants did all of their setup of the tables and chairs as well as the cleanup. City staff was responsible for placing the bollards out and closing the street. We also contacted the parking enforcement when we did have a vehicle. that was parked in the way. And I wanna give a great shout out to the parking enforcement team to try to contact owners of the vehicles and the vehicles that are so that they would not get towed or have their vehicles impounded. We did crazy internet searches in addition to the standard vehicle registration. So we had a lot of happy people because they did not get towed. So that is the one complicated part about closing the street is dealing with any of the cars that are on the street. |
| 01:09:55.75 | Chris Zapata | A lot of the work that's done for setup and cleanup On a weekly basis doesn't does require notification of employees that we're going to need additional services or flex their hours that type of thing that's why it's more difficult to do on a day to day basis. You know we could technically staff up assuming we're always going to be open and then do the reverse and shut down so it could be done Council Member I was just looking at the ease of operation. |
| 01:10:23.22 | Melissa Blaustein | I have a question. |
| 01:10:24.62 | Chris Zapata | Yes. |
| 01:10:25.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:10:25.09 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:10:25.28 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:10:25.30 | Chris Zapata | Yes. |
| 01:10:25.68 | Jill Hoffman | Councilmember Cleland, I'll go ahead. |
| 01:10:27.34 | Melissa Blaustein | Maybe if Mike could stop sharing his screen so that We can... I don't know, I can tell who's talking. Um, My question is, we have an approved application for some really attractive living in parklets? And maybe this is a question more for the restaurants, but is it possible are the restaurants, if they get the permanent full street closure, are they not going to, are they going to abandon the parklet permits? Are these either or or can they just build on to the parklet structures to do the full. Uh, Street. |
| 01:11:11.72 | Mike Langford | My understanding is that the restaurants would continue with the parklet so that they can use that area during the months the seat once that the road is not closed as well as, as an effort to beautify the area. The other issue with the area next to the sidewalk is that it is at an angle. |
| 01:11:26.89 | Unknown | the other. THE END OF |
| 01:11:33.25 | Mike Langford | And sometimes it's not as conducive to dining as you get out towards the middle of the street. |
| 01:11:39.55 | Melissa Blaustein | Right. |
| 01:11:40.12 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:11:40.14 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:11:40.29 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:11:40.34 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:11:40.51 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, any other questions before we move to public comment? Questions of the staff or Staff, any further information you need to share? I don't, looks like no. So let's move on to public comment then. And Madam Clerk, I see some hands up, but I'll just let you Call the... call the public. |
| 01:12:03.98 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, it looks like we have four hands that are raised at this time. The order of the commenters will be Raylene Gorham first, Vicki Nichols second, David Sudo third, and Diana fourth. So at this time, I... have unmuted Raylene. and ask you to share your screen. |
| 01:12:26.41 | Raylene Gorham | Hi, everybody. Thanks so much for this presentation. I'm so happy we're talking about this. This is an issue that I think is very important to Sausalito right now for a number of reasons. important to me personally. My background is in I've watched a lot of cities grapple with these issues outside of COVID times. And there's often a lot of resistance to change and there's often a lot of pressure from vehicular traffic and the, you know, the normative as it were in this last century. Um... practices, but often it results in very successful projects And in every way that you can measure it. So I'm here to speak in support of the restaurant. I think that my understanding as I've talked to the restaurant owners, they're very passionate about wanting to see the whole street clothes and my understanding is that the parklets are kind of a backup measure Um, the Sorry, I took some notes here. There's a tremendous amount of work in this setup and set down as Mike Lankford said, And if you were there at all this last year, there's also a ton of wind that happens in this temporary measure. The tables are flying. I was almost hit by a chair and it's kind of like this. You feel like you're camping and it's kind of, it's just all, we're trying to make it work, but I'm really certain that we can do better. And I know that a lot of people are throwing their efforts behind this Um, I can't. verify this, but I believe South Lito Beautiful even spoke up about you know, throwing some effort and support behind beautifying the street. I would like to see us have a vision of this, like, becoming a plaza. Perhaps it is permanent. Perhaps it's an asset to the community and I almost think we're, I wonder why we have the resistance to it You know, I understand there's a ton of you know, bureaucracy and permitting and what have you, but I'd like to see a take this as a chance to change our city for the better. to change the public experience. We're all really craving I'm not sure. are civic experience and this If we could beautify it and have it be a permanent thing, I think it would be wonderful. Umm... There's many examples of cities who have gone through such transformations, little block by block. San Luis Obispo is one. New York City had a lot of resistance and they were able to do that in certain areas, even Times Square. I really haven't seen any justification for the reason why Monday through Wednesday is so impacted and being supported for the temporary measures. Why not 24-7 when it becomes an urban civic space that we all own and not just- Your three minute time has a lot. |
| 01:15:28.35 | Unknown | Your three minute time has elapsed. |
| 01:15:30.24 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:15:30.82 | Raylene Gorham | Okay. |
| 01:15:35.26 | Heidi Scoble | Vicki Nichols has been unmuted. |
| 01:15:44.76 | Heidi Scoble | Vicki, you have been unmuted. |
| 01:15:51.23 | Vicki Nichols | Hello? |
| 01:15:55.08 | Vicki Nichols | Can you hear me now? Yes. Thank you. I had some written comments. I've lived on Caledonia for 40 years here And I would be saying the same things if I did not live here as well. I am totally confused at what's being proposed here. I don't think the council, there's two things going on here. Well, we're going to do this if this happens and this and that. I have not heard the residents mentioned at all. I'm frankly pretty really disappointed. We asked for some input on this the last time, we weren't given any But, That being said, I think you know me well enough, you can tell that I'm pretty, I actually feel pretty angry about this, the way this is being handled. I think that one aspect, when you look at your staff reports, comments, this is not the most popular thing. And this is input from people that live around it. Of course, everybody would like a recreation space, but they don't live here. The GoFundMe petition is asking for a place for kids to bike and scooter, for locals to enjoy a a glass of wine that sounds fine but they're calling the street open space as someone that's worked for to achieve open space out in nature for 12 years a street is not open space so please how can the council approve this you don't even have a drawing that we a concrete drawing that we would require as planning commissioners to approve this is ludicrous and I would like to hear from each council person what is your solution for the people that are going to be blocked in on that block How are they going to get in and out? How are deliveries going to be made? We had three ambulances here recently. If the other part of this project you're not even talking about, the changing of the street happens, emergency services going to be with diagonal parking. So you need to put it in the record that first block, we permanently lose 20 spaces and then you're gonna push it down to the other block. not even accounting what the new project for the theater is gonna require. So let's be honest about this. and let's have an analytical gathering of the facts before this is permitted, because it's just not fair. Everyone wants the business as well. But this is not fair to everybody. And I'm surprised there aren't more people because I don't think they knew anything about these parklets, which frankly, I had no idea, which sounds like they've been approved. So I'm sorry to be so direct, but this is a really bad process. Thank you. |
| 01:18:46.52 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. Done. If it's you know you've been unmuted, |
| 01:18:54.73 | David Sudo | Thank you. |
| 01:18:54.75 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:18:54.77 | David Sudo | Thank you. |
| 01:18:54.82 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:18:54.99 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:18:55.00 | David Sudo | City Council, thanks for bringing this up. I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT. you know, I'm fully in support of closing the street, I'm not sure if I support you know, the full 24-7 or just the weekend I think with the park with that with the park that's maybe either could work. I'm not sure. You know, every time I tried to use that, the outdoor seating this summer, I couldn't because it was full of local residents. So I think that broadly, there's a lot of support for this. You know, I would note that the fire lane will continue to be there. Perhaps local residents who need ADA access or loading, temporary loading access, not during evening dining hours can arrange with, the police to gain access to the fire lane. Maybe there needs to be a program for that. And the other, I would, |
| 01:19:53.44 | Kevin McGowan | the other. |
| 01:19:55.85 | David Sudo | and what I would suggest is that the city encourage people to arrive to the area by bicycle or walking instead of driving since we all know that that area is parking constrained, especially on a nice weekend. Thank you. |
| 01:20:16.12 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Madam Mayor, after Diana, who's been unmuted, we'll have Julie Vieira, Joe Burns, and then Alice Merrill. Thank you. |
| 01:20:26.43 | Diana Cohen | Go ahead, Diana. Hi, this is Diana Cohen. And I just want to say that I resonated completely with what Raylene and what David just said. And I also want to thank all of you for all the work that has gone into this really thoughtful presentation. So thank you. I also want to weigh in for my support for 24-7 closure of the block. I think this would be a visionary development for the city of Sausalito and would also provide an open space for the community and would expand the ability of the restaurants to provide And from what I saw from the diagram, actually doubled the outside seating. So for me, looking at that, this would be an obvious and compassionate step towards helping our wonderful restaurants stay viable and enable them to continue to pay their workers and build more economic sustainability in Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 01:21:25.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:21:31.79 | Heidi Scoble | Julie, you've been unmuted. |
| 01:21:34.83 | Julie Vieira | Hi everybody. Good evening. I want to say that the that we support the closing for the Caledonia restaurants. I didn't know that they had their permit or their application in for the parklets. Maybe that's something that we can start with, start with the parklets, see how that goes. And as more and more people get out and vaccines are more readily available. Then we can move it into the street and expand it. But why not let them do their parklet Get it going, get it set up so that they have some outdoor dining now. And there seems to be some, you know, questions from the residents, questions about ADA, which I totally understand. Maybe we can revisit that part in closing down the street more at a later date when we have more, more data. But go forward with the parklets, let them get that going this week, next week, whenever they can get the concrete poured. get the parklet set up, give them some outdoor space, and then we can expand after that and take it the next step. Because I think there's still a lot of questions that maybe we need answers to. that maybe everybody's a little bit confused about. And then we can also talk about the ADA making arrangements for the residents. So take it kind of one step at a time. That's all I have to say. Thank you. |
| 01:23:05.75 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Madam Mayor, I think it might be helpful THE END OF I'm not. ARTICULATE WHETHER A PARKLET PERMIT HAS, IN FACT, BEEN GRANTED or what the status of that permit is, and how that permit request differs or is synonymous with what you've shown us tonight it sounds like there might be some confusion Thank you. |
| 01:23:28.21 | Jill Hoffman | So, |
| 01:23:28.89 | Janelle Kellman | you go. |
| 01:23:28.97 | Jill Hoffman | ahead and take |
| 01:23:29.66 | Janelle Kellman | the last one. |
| 01:23:29.97 | Jill Hoffman | to public comment and then do that clarification. Absolutely. Let's go ahead and take the last, I see two more hands. Let's go take those and then director Langford, if you could follow up on that, I think that'd be helpful for our discussion for sure. So I think Ms. Merrill was next. Or was it Joe Burns? Mr. Burns. |
| 01:23:46.16 | Heidi Scoble | What's next? And then Alice Merrill. |
| 01:23:48.53 | Joe Burns | Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, Council. I don't want to make this a habit on Tuesday nights. So I'm sorry to address you again. I really do appreciate my personal time on Tuesdays. But I did want to speak to this because it's so near and dear. It's been nearly 10 months, I think, or thereabouts, where Tom Riley and I, started this conversation with Mike and Adam and Kevin and David Sudo and David Parisi, you know, so we've been talking about this for quite a while, and it's more than just the restaurants. It's It's a promenade and I don't think open space is the right word, Vicki. I agree with Vicki Nichols on that. It's a promenade. It's a pedestrian. and people and bikes and kids that makes all of Caledonia more walkable. more accessible. This isn't just about that part. The more we can bring people down there, the rest of Caledonia wins as well. It's definitely for the residents. I'm a resident on tourney street. a big boon for us in the New Caledonia area. Newtown area. As the other Joe that's in the White House said with COVID relief, you got to go big, and it's time to go big. Just close this thing. Make it a permanent structure. We're going to be outdoor dining for years. We're going to want outdoor space for years, not just months. This is going to be the new thing with communities. We can be on the forefront and not in our visitor area downtown in the core of our community where where our our residents want to eat and play and walk and promenade and go from business to business without worrying about cars and parking and everything. There's plenty of parking down here. We'll get by with our cars, trust me. We need more bikes, we need more pedestrians, we need more people. Peace, read. Thank you guys. Thank you for your work too. Appreciate it. |
| 01:25:43.61 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:25:49.49 | Heidi Scoble | Alice, you've been unmuted. |
| 01:25:51.34 | Alice Merrill | Bye. I'm not going to start. Oh, well, I'll start my video. What the heck? Um, So, When this whole thing started talking about it, we were in the midst of a horrible mess and . all of a sudden some man on the bike and ped committee had drawn this big fancy, |
| 01:26:13.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:26:13.38 | Alice Merrill | and nobody had seen it and suddenly it was presented as almost a done deal. and people who who were paying attention said, well, wait a minute. How can we have a done deal when we haven't even talked about it? And how can we have a fancy big map? Did you pay for it? Did you not? Who did it? Um, So here we are all of a sudden, This is not really any more a crisis. This is a crisis from the point of view of the businesses need more need need people there, but it's not the same crisis as we have the emergency powers thing. We know this is like the next steps, but maybe not. something that it just gets done because it used to be a crisis. So not too many people here tonight discussing this. I hear the people who want to have it just closed and wandering around and I remember when when, Bridgeway was the town, was our town, was where we walked and had stores and went in and out. And it was, decided that Caledonia was going to be Sausalito's little place. And I hear Joe saying, well, that's so we can look at the stores. Well, what stores are there? It's really just the restaurants. It's that's the restaurants. There are about three stores there. that are stores. This is... Happening pretty fast. And once again, kind of without. We've had a big conversation and this town likes conversations. And what I've seen in all the little parklet things on Bridgeway is that they were given, oh, let's try it. And then at a city council meeting, it was time for them to be discussed. And well, it's already there. It looks fine. Let's just give them another, you know, we'll just say, sure. So that's the way things get done. And I'm just saying I kind of agree with Vicki. So thanks. |
| 01:28:33.43 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Our next speaker is Susannah. Susannah, you've been unmuted. Thank you. |
| 01:28:43.08 | Susannah Suvest | Bye. My name is Susanna Suvest and I'm one of the owners of F3. I wanted to start by thanking the city council. We're very grateful you're considering this proposal. as it would be a lifesaver for our business. Um, As I'm sure you know, the restaurant industry has been one of the hardest hit by COVID. We have really been struggling to make it through this past year. Um, We are thankful for the support we've received so far from the Sausalito community but we believe the struggle is not over yet. While we are allowed to open to 25% capacity indoors, Most of our clients do not want to eat indoors and we feel they won't be comfortable for quite a while. This makes creating an outdoor dining space necessary for the survival of our business. and the other restaurants on our block. While we were hoping you will approve a 24-7 block closure, as we'd really like to invest in tables, chairs, plants, lights, et cetera, and be able to beautify the space. We understand it does take time for something like this to happen. We are also cognizant of the needs of the residents and other businesses on the block and want to make sure it works for everybody. F3, along with Divino, Sandrino, and Sartaj, recently created a GoFundMe page in hopes of raising some funds to allow us to purchase items to beautify an outdoor dining area on Caledonia Street. As of today, 42 people have donated. That's 42 people putting their money where their mouths are in support of closing down Caledonia Street for outdoor dining Please keep that number in mind when considering people for and against this proposal. In addition, we feel that the 24 seven block closure would create an open space that would benefit the whole community. Many other cities have already implemented this, including San Francisco with their shared spaces program. don't let Sausalito fall behind in supporting their businesses. The future of our restaurants are really in your hands. We urgently need to be able to add outdoor tables in order to survive. Thanks for your consideration. Thank you. |
| 01:30:53.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:30:53.42 | Heidi Scoble | I see one more hand up. |
| 01:30:57.57 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Tom Riley. |
| 01:31:02.92 | Heidi Scoble | Tommy, you've been unmuted. |
| 01:31:11.75 | Jill Hoffman | We still can't hear you, Tom. |
| 01:31:14.26 | Tom Riley | Good evening, thank you for the opportunity to address you, and thank you for your service. I just want to comment in support of the restaurants and closing California streets to support them. |
| 01:31:27.31 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:31:28.19 | Tom Riley | Um, I and my family don't intend to return to indoor dining for quite a considerable time. And yet our only options to do outdoor dining happened to be in the downtown area. in Caledonia, which we always talk about being reserved for our community. Our favorite restaurants are in California if we want to support them. And as Mike Lankford said, his observations are that The folks that took advantage of outdoor dining on Caldorn during our pilot project were local residents. |
| 01:31:59.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:32:02.90 | Tom Riley | I think that's a tremendous opportunity for us. I want to offer my support for that. I think there is further information to do when we think about 24 by 7 closure and how we address the local residents. But I think we should move forward with helping the restaurants on the interim basis until we determine whether we do it on a permanent basis. Thank you. |
| 01:32:25.63 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. I see another hand up with an iPhone, but it doesn't have a name on it. I just see iPhone. Thank you. |
| 01:32:37.63 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:32:37.64 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:32:37.68 | Heidi Scoble | The iPhone has been unmuted. |
| 01:32:39.77 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:32:39.79 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:32:51.73 | Jill Hoffman | Are you there? Yes, we can hear you now. |
| 01:32:52.78 | Unknown | Yeah. Okay, it's Bill Werner. It doesn't sound like him, but it will in a second. |
| 01:32:59.56 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 01:33:04.31 | Jill Hoffman | Just talk, you're on speaker. |
| 01:33:05.60 | Bill Werner | Right. |
| 01:33:06.50 | Jill Hoffman | Go ahead, Mr. Warren. |
| 01:33:08.29 | Bill Werner | Oh. I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm just, Very happy to be watching this, which made me laugh. Anybody that thinks that pouring concrete on plastic makes it temporary. I think that's absolutely brilliant. and the notion of making a concrete a parklet which is removable because it's got a plastic sheet under it. is pretty humorous. But what I'm really calling about is the fact that every one of these businesses, restaurants or whatever, went through. all hell in order to get their permits to be where they are. They had to cover themselves in terms of the total number of tables. in terms of the available parking areas. All of these things are totally being thrown out of the window. because these people now think that the only way they can make their money is to put tables out in the street we're, where we're literally where people in bicycles and wheelchairs and cars in order to support what is there already. are now to function. So from my point of view, I think Caledonia Street could be an extraordinary place. but I think it needs to be looked at from the point of view of everything from Johnson Street to Napa Street And if you want to make sure the street. beautiful. and a wonderful place for the pedestrians and residents and visitors and everybody else. You need to think seriously. in a holistic way. I know I'm beginning to sound a little like Michael Rex, which is surprising to me, because that's the way he usually makes every project go. off the rails. But anyway, It is something that needs to be thought about. I'm doing it piecemeal is really I'm stupid. And this is a stupid proposal. And it doesn't make any sense the way it's drawn up. It doesn't show you exactly what's happening. And by the way, every single one of these businesses knew exactly What they had. what they could do. what they could do. generate their income on and how the future could be . their ability to serves the public. And what we're facing with now is somebody Everybody running around saying, We have a problem, we have a crisis, we have this problem. Pandemic. please let us have what we want. and I think that's a good question. YOU'RE ALL Less... enjoyable in terms of your your treating of the city than I think you are. |
| 01:36:01.29 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Um, Madam. Madam Clerk, I see two more hands. |
| 01:36:08.85 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, we have Elena Yonah and Joan Cox. Thank you. Elena, you've been unmuted. |
| 01:36:16.29 | Ilana | Hi, my name's Ilana. and I'm a 30 year resident and business owner in Sausalito. And I'm wondering, is it possible to share my screen because a dear artist shared some renderings and I would love to echo the support for creating a parklet on the 100 block. And I'd love to share these beautiful drawings. So those who, have been wondering what it might look like could see. Is that possible for me to have access to sharing screen? |
| 01:36:47.93 | Jill Hoffman | I think. I don't think so. But what you can do is submit them for public comment and we can attach them to our record. It was. |
| 01:36:58.77 | Melissa Blaustein | They were submitted. I saw them in our comments. |
| 01:37:00.94 | Ilana | in our comments. Excellent. |
| 01:37:02.26 | Melissa Blaustein | Excellent. |
| 01:37:03.86 | Ilana | Then I'll be brief and just reiterate that I believe that this is a extremely Vibrant. and healthy proposition to close the 100 block. that it not only supports the five businesses, but it allows, our town to both enjoy. an expansion of something that draws us to be permanent residents here. And as I shared in my notes to the city council, I adore inviting not just my friends, family and colleagues, but strangers who I work with to dine on Caledonia Street. I've done so for 30 days a year. I'm sorry, 30 years. The egress around the block is Easy. closing the block. allows walking traffic to create a a deeply warming sense of community We've all had an unusual year, as some of the speakers have shared. It's not going to end overnight. And I believe that social nations will value this move. in blocking the 100. block. seven days a week, and it will support the health and vibrancy of Sausalito. So thank you so much. |
| 01:38:31.60 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:38:39.55 | Heidi Scoble | Joan Cox has been unmuted. |
| 01:38:42.87 | Joan Cox | Good evening. Thank you everybody for your hard work on this. As you all know from the staff report, This is something we really started considering last year as a mitigation measure to assist. our challenged businesses, both on Caledonia and on Bridgeway in surviving, the downturn resulting from the pandemic. We don't yet know what the ultimate outcome of the pandemic is going to be. We are still navigating this transitional period. And so I really respect the comments of Councilmember Susan Cleveland Knowles about conducting further outreach I don't see the harm in extending a pilot program to continue to afford our businesses the relief they desperately need, But on a pilot program basis, as we continue to assess Um, how they and everyone else in Sausalito is affected through a transitional period until things start to settle down into what will become the new norm. So I just believe it's more prudent to undertake a transitional pilot program approach and not undertake permanent changes yet until we have a better chance to A, conduct further outreach and B, understand exactly what life in Sausalito is going to look like once hopefully, herd immunity is accomplished. But thanks all for your hard work and thanks to the staff for all of their hard work on this. for this report, but also throughout last year. |
| 01:40:28.12 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I see one more iPhone hand up. I'm assuming that's not someone that we've already talked to. No, it is not. Oh, very good. Go ahead. Thank you. |
| 01:40:39.34 | Unknown | Okay, Pat Zook. And I didn't take my hand down, although I have to say Joan Cox said what I wanted to say far more eloquently than I will probably or would have been able to say it You have before you a proposal to extend a pilot program. That's what I thought was on your agenda, along with some other alternatives. And I would urge you to support the temporary emergency that you have at hand? by extending the temporary pilot program. which will give you more information as to some of the impacts and give the restaurants some relief in keeping with what was done last year. but to recast and reframe a portion of the town in a permanent way. in response to a hopefully temporary emergency situation is not where I hope you will go. would be done without community consensus. particularly among the people that live in that area, many of whom are neighbors and friends of mine and yours and who you would be ill-advised and inconsiderate to make major changes in their life life ability. on this temporary basis. Thanks. |
| 01:42:03.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:42:03.18 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, I don't see any other hands raised. Madam Clerk, can you please confirm? Madam Mayor, there are no additional hands raised at this time. Thank you. Okay, so I'm gonna close public comment and bring it back to the city council for comments. I think that we probably want to take action tonight to approve what was done last year, which was the three days and then removal of the temporary you know, temporary facilities out there. Because that seems to be what we could approve tonight. if the restaurants and the If the restaurants want to go forward with their parklets and with 24 seven, then I think they do need to go back to the planning commission. And here's why, because you're fundamentally changing the nature of that street. You're removing it as a street into something else. And so we need to have much more robust public involvement when we make that kind of a fundamental change. With the parklets, we've always had a lot of conversation about parklets. how you're changing the nature of parking along the street and you're converting a public a public asset, which is a parking spot and to a private use, which is to the restaurant. So I'm not saying that I'm against it. I'm just saying that we need to have, I think, a lot more public comment on that. And then the usual things from Planning Commission, if you're doing that sort of thing, what it looks like, what the, you know, how it fits in and all the other access issues that you have when you talk about parklets or you talk about a more permanent change to a public space or public access space. So those are kind of my thoughts. And then I will open it up to the rest of the council for your comments and discussion. |
| 01:43:48.64 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Madam Mayor, could we maybe get staff to answer those questions that I posed earlier, just to help guide our conversation? Sure. What was the question was with regard to the parklets. To clarify, so a few speakers thought I thought I heard as well somebody say a park that had been granted. So I'd like to know if in fact a park that I'm having granted and whether it's been granted or not, what is the scope of that permit either request or the granted permit. |
| 01:44:15.46 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I'd like to know that as well. |
| 01:44:17.03 | Janelle Kellman | Go ahead. |
| 01:44:17.90 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 01:44:18.02 | Melissa Blaustein | or have you? |
| 01:44:18.21 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:44:18.29 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:44:19.48 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 01:44:19.63 | Melissa Blaustein | I can answer yes. |
| 01:44:19.64 | Jill Hoffman | I can answer yes. |
| 01:44:20.67 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:44:21.85 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:44:21.87 | Melissa Blaustein | Go ahead, Mike, but I just want to remind everyone that we did authorize a parklet program on an expedited basis last year. |
| 01:44:30.44 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Thank you for that. |
| 01:44:32.47 | Mike Langford | Yeah, so the parklet was approved through the expedited There are many conditions with it as far as ADA, fire, size all of that good stuff, but one was approved. |
| 01:44:47.47 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry, I have a follow up then. Are they approved for three years on an expedited basis? |
| 01:44:54.69 | Mike Langford | From what I read in this one, that was the request, you would need to check with our community development director. |
| 01:45:01.76 | Mary Wagner | Okay, that's fine. Madam Mayor, if I may too. |
| 01:45:04.19 | Ian Sobieski | America. |
| 01:45:05.63 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. Just to add, if I'm understanding correctly, if these, um, Approvals were given through the COVID-19 temporary occupancy. Thank you. then they they don't they wouldn't have a permanent expiration of three years they would have a a permanent expiration of when the restrictions are lifted. unless the council took other action to extend it. |
| 01:45:30.52 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, understood. Okay, then thank you for that clarification from both Director Langford and from our city attorney, Mary Wagner. Thank you. |
| 01:45:38.52 | Ian Sobieski | I have a question then for the attorney just that ending date |
| 01:45:38.55 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:45:43.01 | Ian Sobieski | What is it tied to? Is it a declaration of the president of the United States? Is it the CDC? Is it us? is who declares that the emergency is over and that parkland is no longer authorizing that has to be taken away. |
| 01:45:59.69 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, thank you, Councilmember Sobieski. I'd have to look at the actual language in the permits that are granted, but the concept would be, so long as it's necessary for them. to conform with the county health order or the state orders. regarding social distancing and indoor outdoor dining. I think there's some thought around it as to when they're back at full capacity. to the prior operation that the the permits would no longer remain |
| 01:46:27.37 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:46:28.15 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:46:28.31 | Ian Sobieski | So. |
| 01:46:28.40 | Mary Wagner | So in other words, |
| 01:46:28.97 | Ian Sobieski | if someone if the if 100% indoor dining is restored then the park would have to be torn up. |
| 01:46:36.04 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, we can come back to you with the exact kind of thought on what that would be. We haven't really looked at that hard yet because we haven't gotten to a place where it's been imminent. But I think the concept is that when businesses are back up and running at full operation, and I don't know if that means the minute that it's authorized to be 100 percent, or if it's when their operation is actually more up and running, but we can come back to you as we get closer to that, you know, as we move into another tier and to have more conversation around that. |
| 01:47:06.13 | Janelle Kellman | Does the parklet authorization allow for more tables than what is currently allowed for under their indoor dining permit? |
| 01:47:13.74 | Mary Wagner | It's different. It's however much space is they're utilizing they would come forward with a plan. So it's not tied to their indoor seating. What I was referring to is the county health order that now restricts indoor operation to what, 25%? So I don't think we as staff would recommend to you that, you know, that would trigger a need to rescind those temporary authorizations. |
| 01:47:39.19 | Mike Langford | If I could add to that, I'm looking at the authorization here and it says the approval for this temporary parklet is valid so long as it is necessary to comply with the Marin County shelter in place orders. |
| 01:47:53.60 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, and that's consistent with what I was referring to as the county health orders. |
| 01:47:56.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:47:59.20 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 01:47:59.73 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:47:59.74 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So. I, I think I'm I mean I'm I'm ready to make a motion that we approve this essentially the same plan that we had last year And then I think that's the only thing that we can do tonight And then if the restaurants want to go to the planning commission for 24 seven, they can, What I heard from staff was that's essentially the only thing we can't |
| 01:48:24.10 | Ian Sobieski | I just have another question about even temporary closure. I know when this was presented last year or prior, it was, there was one intermediate closure concept that closed the street up to the center line. |
| 01:48:25.34 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:48:36.56 | Ian Sobieski | and the fire lane allowed still vehicular traffic to go in one direction. Is that something that Is it possible alternative? |
| 01:48:46.69 | Mike Langford | If we were to do that, we would not be able to have parking on the east side of Caledonia. If you remember from the map, the fire department requests actually a 20 foot, but they're letting us get by with 19 feet because of the |
| 01:48:54.34 | Ian Sobieski | I was like, |
| 01:49:02.45 | Mike Langford | where the tables are. So if we were to leave it open, then we would also need to have a barrier along the entire center line of the street Again, then no parking. on. the east side. I would Thank you. more research would need to be done in order for that to be. brought forward. |
| 01:49:26.87 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I make some comments? Yes. |
| 01:49:26.94 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Yes, Councilmember Clevenal, sure. Go ahead. |
| 01:49:31.98 | Melissa Blaustein | So, First, I just want to thank all the people that came to speak tonight and who wrote in a whole variety of opinions on this topic. I would say that I think overall, the general feeling has been that outdoor dining and the parklets and the street closure have been kind of one of the few silver linings. of COVID and that they have been a huge benefit to our residents in order to have the limited social engagement that we have been able to have and a new sense of really using our downtown space and Caledonia in a way that we really haven't before. And I went down to I've been to Caledonia numerous times last year and it was one of the few times I was able to see It was a big draw for local residents, which is exactly what we have always wanted Caledonia So I would second the mayor's I think we are still in COVID. We are still in the emergency I am not going to do indoor dining anytime soon. I know a lot of people aren't. And our businesses are in economic distress. and this pandemic is not behind us. So I think we still need to take urgent action. I would like to, I'm glad the Parklet permits have been approved, I think those are going to be a great addition that sidewalk dining that's been happening right now is overcrowded and not consistent with the ADA. I would like to return immediately to the Thursday to Sunday street closure. And I would like to affirmatively have our council make a motion tonight to send this to the Planning Commission with a recommendation that we would like to do a 24-7 closure with public outreach with looking at the parking situation, with looking at ADA requirements and with a plan from the restaurants exactly you know, how they would beautify and occupy the space. And I would love the planning commission to be able to hear that on as expedited a basis as possible and hopefully you know, see where we go with that. Sarah Silver, And I would also like to echo some of the public comments about having more bicycle parking and bicycle storage. and more public outreach about encouraging folks who are able to come to Caledonia on their bikes or their feet or other modes of travel that don't. require a parking space. I have been working in San Francisco on this effort. in my day job. I know that every jurisdiction in Marin County is aggressively going forward with ways to support their businesses and to make these types of plans work. and to harness the energy and the positivity that these concepts have brought. So I hope we can follow suit and do so in a way that respects the neighbors and the businesses at the rest of the street. I'm also looking forward to hearing the more permanent and bigger vision that some folks mentioned soon so that we can put this all in context, but I do not want that to slow down. these immediate efforts and want to Thanks staff for bringing this forward as quickly as they did. |
| 01:53:11.48 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Comments from council members? |
| 01:53:15.88 | Ian Sobieski | Only if this moves to a motion that gets passed, I would love to ask staff to use this opportunity to actually keep some quantifiable metrics on things such as complaints around noise, complaints around circulation, complaints around access, And I would love to affirmatively ask the police department to enforce parking up the hill. parking prohibitions and also to keep track of complaints surrounding changes in people's perception of access as a result. And particularly since we according to this motion, we'll be doing something that's turned on and turned off. There'll be a very interesting data set to do comparisons. that will be dispositive in answering some of the concerns around around these issues. |
| 01:54:03.16 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. Mayor Hoffman, I'll chime in that I fully support the motion. It sounds like you're ready to make and agree with pretty much everything my fellow council members had said. There was a lot of good work done in the general plan process, and council member Cleveland Knowles probably remembers. We talked about actually putting some more bike parking down on Caledonia and really facilitating pedestrian access, and so it's an interesting opportunity. I do believe this warrants a bigger community discussion. And I think probably the disconnecting conversation was tonight was just a lack of amongst the public. I don't think this is something that is going to be that that should be that difficult for people to have a good dialogue about. We just need to give them a forum to do so. And so I think having a robust notice period and sending this over to Planning Commission makes a lot of sense to me as well. I agree with Council Member Sobieski's comments around parking and having a proactive parking enforcement, not a complaint basis, but something that says, when this street closure happens, the police know to go out and make sure that our residents are taking care of as well so that everybody can enjoy this together really. So I just wanna voice my support for the motion. I think you were close to making. |
| 01:55:12.94 | Melissa Blaustein | I'll just add on to that, that I would agree and voice support for that motion. And the only thing I would add that hasn't yet been said is I think we should also really engage the merchants, not just the restaurant owners on Caledonia in this discussion, because they are really excited as well. I've had many conversations with um angela salty for instance about how much the restaurant closures have really helped impact foot traffic to their businesses and all of the businesses along caledonia have an opportunity to benefit from this including you know katia glass or driver's market or tivoli i always loved during the summer to do a little walk promenade to all the shops and finish with a lunch at f3 i think it's it's a great opportunity for robust community conversation with the merchants as well as the restaurants, because they have really cool ideas for what might go into a permanent closure as well. So I definitely would agree with all of what all the other council members have said and just ask that we also engage the merchants in addition to the restaurants and move to get this, the permanent closure in front of the planning commission sooner rather than later. |
| 01:55:39.67 | Unknown | you know, |
| 01:56:00.12 | Unknown | definitely. |
| 01:56:12.93 | Jill Hoffman | I will make the motion and then we will encapsulate some of the other comments in direction to staff. At this point I'll make a motion that we approve the street closure for Caledonia Street as it was presented from staff, that's essentially the plan from last year. Wait a second. I'll second those. Very good. Heidi, could you please call the roll? So mayor, |
| 01:56:38.89 | Melissa Blaustein | Mayor, can we add what the direction to staff is, just so that we're all clear before we vote? |
| 01:56:46.11 | Jill Hoffman | Sure. Well, the direction of staff is separate from the vote, though. But I'm happy to add those comments before we go. The direction of staff would be the comments that I think that you made which was to get this back to Planning Commission is soon as we can get it agendized and noticed and back on their agenda. for you know, essentially, what the proposal is. I mean, we're not making a proposal. The restaurant, I think, group is making the proposal. So they would bring forward their proposal on what they wanted to do. And then it would be a notice hearing and the planning commission would hear it. I think we also heard from Councilmember Sobieski that he has some concerns that he would like some quantification and I think that's probably valid about um, some of the metrics that are involved and also proactively, I think, Vice Mayor, but I think I'm pretty sure was taking notes on some of those things and and they would be included in the staff report that went to the Planning Commission, but also for staff to follow up with us on when presumably this is going to come back to us. at the city council level. Thank you. |
| 01:57:56.95 | Melissa Blaustein | Is that okay, thank you. I'll just say that, yeah, I would just say that to the extent that the street closure and the restaurant proposal are two separate items, that the restaurants not being burdened by, you know, large application fees and that the city would the city would be addressing kind of the street closure part of it and the restaurants would be addressing the improvements to be made within that. So, I think that's... don't want them to be referred to as any of the engineering or any of that. |
| 01:58:32.05 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's fine. Thank you. |
| 01:58:33.87 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:58:33.89 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:58:33.92 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:58:34.02 | Jill Hoffman | second dimension without understanding and confused. Thank you. Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll? |
| 01:58:36.99 | Unknown | I'm not. |
| 01:58:41.10 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:58:42.43 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:58:42.44 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 01:58:43.85 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:58:44.88 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blastey. Yes. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. |
| 01:58:49.90 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 01:58:50.97 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Kellman. |
| 01:58:51.96 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:58:52.13 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 01:58:53.09 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Hoffman. |
| 01:58:53.87 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:58:53.92 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:58:54.31 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much for everybody, your hard work and our robust discussion as always. Okay, moving on to... Item seven. So again, to remind everybody, we're going to hear item 7B, which is the quarterly financial report. per quarter ended December 31st. 2020. Then we're going to hear item 7C Treasurer's Report for quarter that ended December 31st, 2020. Then we're going to hear Item 7E, which is the Draft Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, because those are all three finance related issues. And then we moved Um, Item 7D, which is contract the regional government services to the end of our agenda so I believe our assistant city manager is here to give us our report on these. Thank you joining us this evening, Julia and Start whenever you are ready, please. |
| 01:59:58.74 | Yulia Carter | Absolutely. So let me share my screen. Do you see my presentation? Yes. Okay. Perfect. So today we are presenting 13 financial reports to you. Typically, all these reports appear on the consent calendar. um because they don't require city council's action and even though these reports are now on the business agenda before you today, there's still informational items, so no, Cancel actions is required at the time. But today we will talk about quarterly financial report for quarter two of the fiscal year, the quarter that ended on December 31st of 2020. And then we'll move to Treasuries report for the same quarter and we'll do the brief introduction of the draft a comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year. that ended June 30, 2020. you So we'll start with the financial reports for the second quarter. I'm not sure. you Before we move on, I just want to highlight that financial reports before you summarizes the general fund activities to provide the council and the public with broad overview of the city's prime financial conditions in the prime uprising fund general fund for the city and the information presented in this report is unaudited Um, so additional adjustment may occur throughout the year and definitely well, by the time we move to the year-end process, |
| 02:01:41.98 | Yulia Carter | Just a little bit of background. Staff implemented the practice of preparing for the financial reports to council in just last fiscal year and fiscal year 2019-20. The purpose of this report is to provide executive summary of the city's current financial conditions for the operating budget and also comply with the Council's strategic goal of fiscal resiliency. These reports are especially important during the uncertainty that is caused by COVID-19. pandemic, as I said, affects all aspects of local economy. Again, as I mentioned before, the second quarter report summarizes the general fund activities. and the The last highlight is that quarterly reports prepend on a cash basis. So what it means that only revenues received through December 31st of 2020 reflected in this analysis. and to the same extent expenditures recorded when paid, using the same cash basis method of accounting. So the next slide shows pretty much a snapshot of the report. So you can see that 50% of the year complete The channel fund budget is on track. uh, with expenditures about 53% of the budget and revenues about 56% of the budget. These figures do not include budgeted operating and capital transfers. We don't anticipate any changes there, or if the changes would be required, we will present them to you as part of mid-year budget review. Revenues very often exceed expenditures at the end of quarter two, and this is mainly because of the timing of key certain key revenues such as property tax, sales tax and franchise fees. And overall revenues and expenditures, you can see they're in line with the adopted budget. Just a little bit more details on the revenue side. You can see that property taxes, which is the city's largest revenue source on track, and actually in fact exceed the budget. with about 61% collected at this time. Some of you may remember that we discussed with the council during the budget adoption that we budgeted property tax conservatively. uh, assuming that there will be some property reassessment claims filed. and we are really pleased to report and see that actuals actually showed normal increase in property tax and some increase in unsecured property tax as well. The sales and use tax is the second largest revenue source for the city. And we're also showing that it is on target at 52% collected at this time. which is also slightly better than expected. and mostly because of the online shopping and as well as yacht and boat sales that we already reported during the quarter one. So the same trend continued through the quarter two. Well, TOT revenue showed the largest decrease, about 56% compared to quarter two of prior year. But still, if you look at the... Varshini Prakashianna Bollingeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringeringer at the adoption of the budget, with about 57% of revenues collected at mid-year point. Business license revenues could be a little bit misleading here because we have not yet booked all the quarter two revenues related to the new businesses and routine compliance matters, so we received them in January. this adjustment will be made, it's one of the adjustments that I described earlier that will be made and you will see it in quarter three. J. G. Yet we checked with HDL our business license provider before we publish this report and the. the assurance us that the revenues will remain on track. and as the renewal went through in January of 2021, As of right now, as of March, the total collections are about 1.1 million. So the budget is on track for the year. Permits include building, engineering, and planning permits, and also on target. you can see that we collected about 58%. of the budget. franchise fee showing only 31% collected, but it's also very much in line with the last year's numbers as you can see. And we anticipate the large payment from PG&E to be made in April 2021. So the next quarter will show increase in this revenue. Other revenues include grants, donations, interest allocations, and parks and recreation programs. This revenue, so you can see showing quite a significant increase. This is mostly because of the 750,000 color cycle grant that was received in September. this year but Uh, It was accrued in the last year's budget, so we will be making this adjustment towards the year end. |
| 02:07:39.86 | Yulia Carter | the next slide. Now we are moving to general fund expenditures by type. And you can see that increases in administration public works, all those increases are mainly due to increased consulting costs. to backfill vacancies and as well as one-time payouts to Um, recently separated the retired employees payouts of vacation balances. |
| 02:08:06.48 | Mary Wagner | and, |
| 02:08:08.30 | Yulia Carter | and things like that. So police department shows some increase quarter to quarter, mostly, again, to fill in vacancies that existed at the beginning of the prior year. and as well as budgeted increases in MOU and other programs. But at the same time, if you look at the budget, you can see the budget is pretty much on track, showing only slight elevation. of 53% expended at mid-year points. The non-departmental expenditures are showing 74% increase, 74% expended of the budget. but this is mostly due to the upfront payout to culpers for unfunded material liability So we usually do this payment at the beginning of the year and and the are the increases due to additional HR consulting agreement costs and other course related to the city manager's recruitment. And parks and recreation and library budgets are on track, showing the expected decrease And this is as expected due to decreases in services as it relates to COVID. of COVID-related reductions in services. |
| 02:09:36.45 | Yulia Carter | Overall, the city's operating expenditures and revenues are performing in line with the budget at the half point mark There are clearly still uncertainties related to the full impact of COVID-19. yet, it's very encouraging that the budget appears to be on target. at the end of the second quarter and staff will be using this data provided in this report for more. in-depth analysis of fiscal year 2021 budget At mid-year point and this mid-year budget review is currently underway. So that completes my presentation for this portion. of the agenda. |
| 02:10:23.92 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. So this was the quarterly financial report, correct? And then the next one, just so we're clear, there are different types of reports. And the next one is going to be the Treasurer's Report. |
| 02:10:36.04 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:10:36.27 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, so I am going to open this up for council questions at this point of staff and then we'll do public comment and then we'll There's no vote on this. This is for informational purposes only for us. Do I have any questions from city council members of staff on this report? |
| 02:10:57.32 | Janelle Kellman | Sure, I'll dive in Madam Mayor. So first of all, I just really want to thank the Assistant City Manager for all the hard work in putting this together. There's a number of very big reports that came out at one time managing a lot of different literally moving parts and also people. So thank you. wholeheartedly agree with you. This is very encouraging. And I really want to commend the prior counsel as well. I know you are conservative in your budget estimates, but I think it's it's served us well, because even though TOT is down by 56 percent, sales tax revenue is up, right? And this is in a pandemic environment. And as the assistant city manager said, it's because of a lot of online sales as well as the yacht and boat sales, which I think tells a very interesting story around the power of resident shopping and what happens when we have our residents spending money in town. So I think that's really great news. Also noted that property tax is up 22%, which is great. You touched upon some of the expenditures also being up. So I just had a couple of questions just to clarify. On the revenue side, Why did the category of other revenue jump $900,000 year over year? Is that just a timing thing in terms of how we record it? |
| 02:12:15.82 | Yulia Carter | Well, the other category is up because of the color recycling grant. So we expected this grant last fiscal year, but we received it in this current fiscal year. and As I said, since the report is prepared on the cash basis, we just reported it when we But at the year end, we will do this adjustment and since we accrued this revenues in the last fiscal year, so we will reverse and adjust it. |
| 02:12:43.73 | Janelle Kellman | Great. I knew there was a simple answer for that, and that's great to hear we had a Cal recycling grant, so I'm happy about that as well. Under the expenditures, where are we capturing Bank of America costs? And how would we be able to see how much the city is spending per month on the property in terms of mortgage and upkeep? What bucket is that under? |
| 02:13:05.53 | Yulia Carter | So all the operating Expenses related to the Bank of America purchase were recorded and non-departmental. and you will see it in non-departmental expense category and you will also see the corresponding decrease in the general fund. |
| 02:13:27.47 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, that makes sense. And then you mentioned police, there was a $400,000 increase for hiring. So just confirming that's a one-time thing, right? We won't see that again next year? |
| 02:13:39.11 | Yulia Carter | Uh... Well, we will give you a little bit more in depth description when we go into the mid-year so you will see a little bit more details as we go through this analysis. |
| 02:13:51.40 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:13:51.42 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I just |
| 02:13:51.70 | Yulia Carter | The budget is in line with the budget, so that's good news. |
| 02:13:56.38 | Melissa Blaustein | I just had a follow-up question on the vice mayor's question. It might make sense to ask it now. Please. Yeah, it'd be great. So, At one point in the staff report, it mentioned that we had a hiring freeze, which was my memory as well. And then in this portion of the police, um, expenditures, it did say that there had been hiring and that led to that expenditure. So I was just wondering if you or the city manager could comment on that. |
| 02:14:23.75 | Yulia Carter | Great question. Well, right now for the purpose of this report, we're comparing quarter to quarter. So some of the vacancies existed at the fiscal year 1920 prior to the pandemic. And that's what we are trying to say. this quarter captured some of the vacancies that existed in the past in the prior fiscal year There were no additional |
| 02:14:46.72 | Melissa Blaustein | the book. |
| 02:14:49.23 | Yulia Carter | hiring happening since the pandemic. |
| 02:14:52.12 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, that's what I thought, thank you. Okay. And then you mentioned also bringing us a forward-looking forecast. Would it be possible to – or maybe we already have this – to get quarterly, half-yearly reports that include a forecast for the next half year? so we can understand what the forecast is. Is that something that comes out of this process? |
| 02:15:17.73 | Yulia Carter | Yes, at mid-year. So we typically do this as a mid-year budget review because second quarter gives you enough information to produce that. typically it's very difficult to do at the first quarter. I mean, we can do it, but it's going to be a constant adjustment process. So mid-year point that that's what budget mid-year review is for. |
| 02:15:40.87 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:15:41.14 | Yulia Carter | And at that point, we will give you projected actuals for the year. Yeah. |
| 02:15:41.38 | Unknown | THE FAMILY IS NOT ABLE TO |
| 02:15:41.68 | Jill Hoffman | I'll just say. |
| 02:15:41.97 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:15:46.20 | Jill Hoffman | For you and other people listening, we expect to do the mid-year budget probably the next city council meeting. at the 23rd. We'll have the presentation in the mid-year budget then. |
| 02:15:59.63 | Janelle Kellman | THE END OF THE END OF THE Yeah, I think that's it. I think the only other thing I would add, and this is not a comment on the report you provided, but I think at some point it'd be interesting to look at a 10-year cash flow analysis to establish a band of expected outcomes with and without recessions and pandemics and develop sort of a prudent cash management plan around that. Um, so we could talk about that in finance or offline, but it'd be, uh, kind of exciting to have something like that. exciting in a nerdy way, but exciting. Thank you. Probably. |
| 02:16:30.02 | Jill Hoffman | . |
| 02:16:30.11 | Janelle Kellman | useful. |
| 02:16:30.53 | Jill Hoffman | for us anyway. I think I think you can unshare your screen, Yulia. It might be easier for us to Unless people are going to go back to the slide. Um, Either way. Do we have any other council member questions? I think council member Blouse looks like she's. |
| 02:16:48.27 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, I had a couple of questions. First of all, Julia, thank you so much for your hours and hours of work on all of these reports and to your departments. I know you've been working overtime to really get these done and bring them forward to us in a way that makes sense. And I really appreciate your time and effort. I just had a question about the other category. Were the donations to Southview Park also considered within the revenue sources for the other category? Yes. Okay, so then thanks to our residents. That's a really great contribution from all of our residents that helped us pay for our parks. So everyone that did that, that's really great. The other question I had in looking at this, it is fantastic to see that our fiscal standing is better than would have been anticipated in light of COVID. But I recall in June during budget discussions, there were three tiers that were assessed that we might take as a path forward depending on budget projections. And we had chose the middle tier, which was not the worst case, but not the best case scenario. Going forward, does it seem like we're going to stay that path based on these reports? |
| 02:17:49.39 | Yulia Carter | Uh, Yes, again, we will give you a little bit more information and the detailed breakdown on the project at the year end actuals and the fund balances. SV. preparing the mid-year budget adjustment, but based on the data that we are going to be using for this analysis, I would I would say yes, we are pretty much in traffic. |
| 02:18:12.64 | Melissa Blaustein | and, |
| 02:18:12.86 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:18:12.88 | Melissa Blaustein | you Thank you. |
| 02:18:13.15 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:18:15.83 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, Council Member of Cleveland Knowles. |
| 02:18:18.21 | Melissa Blaustein | So, Mayor, first I just had a point of just a clarification. I thought I understood at the beginning that we were moving these three financial items into one category. So we'd be having one. presentation, one set of public comment. Was it, did I misunderstand? I think so. Yeah. We just grouped them together. I see. It was just an ordering. Okay. Thank you. So at some point I would like to ask, and maybe this is the appropriate item, Um, our assistant city manager. We received a schedule for our financial reports and mid-year budget. Are we on schedule? The mayor just said we were gonna hear a mid-year budget report at our next meeting, which is great. Really looking forward to that. Um, And otherwise, does our schedule still remain the same? |
| 02:19:09.63 | Yulia Carter | The schedule remains the same as of today. The only adjustment we've made is adjustment due to the strategic plan retreat that obviously did not happen in February. |
| 02:19:24.16 | Melissa Blaustein | And so when are we scheduled to do that? |
| 02:19:29.78 | Yulia Carter | As of right now, it is my understanding there is no schedule, or it's not included in the schedule, but it's definitely up to council's discussion to give direction to staff. |
| 02:19:42.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:19:42.25 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I have a comment on that, but we can save that till we get to our comments. Thank you. |
| 02:19:47.45 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Okay. |
| 02:19:48.24 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:19:48.26 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:19:48.37 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:19:50.08 | Melissa Blaustein | And thank you, Yulia, for all your hard work on this and to your staff as well. |
| 02:19:56.09 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, any further questions on the treasurer's report? Thank you. . Nope. Okay. So then we'll move on to public comment on the Treasurer's report? |
| 02:20:10.08 | Melissa Blaustein | I think this was financial report. |
| 02:20:14.46 | Jill Hoffman | You're right. Right, I was looking at the wrong paragraph. Sorry, this was item 7B, the quarterly financial report. Okay, moving on to public comment on item 7B, the quarterly financial report. I'm seeing no hands. |
| 02:20:32.82 | Jill Hoffman | I'm going to close public comment on this item on 7B then and we will, there is no, like I said, as I said, there's no, there's no action on this. But since we are in discussion, let me just address the issue of the strategic plan. So I went back and looked at the strategic plan. I looked at the implementation plan. |
| 02:20:57.17 | Unknown | I'm going to go. |
| 02:20:58.96 | Jill Hoffman | And I talked to Um, former council member Riley just for context on on what I thought you know, what I thought the strategic plan was and the path forward. And, you know, because it's a, because it was a six year plan. It was passed last year. It was not implemented last year. that I think my recommendation is, and I think the path forward is, that we don't need to redo a strategic plan that was a six-year strategic plan. That if people have read it, The strategic plan is broad based policy issues on a six year cycle. So what we do need to do though, as part of our, which would have been the norm anyway, and a year where you're not actually drafting the strategic plan. is that you look at you know, you address the implementation plan. and that you see where you are with the implementation plan and you get staff feedback on the implementation plan, and then you move forward from there. And you do that as part of your budgeting process for that year. And so I think that's the appropriate way to look at the strategic plan and fold that into our which would have been a normal course anyway, you fold it in here, your budget. your budget discussions for mid-year and then when we start with our budget discussions for next year as well. So it's all part of the same continuous process. So that's I think how we're going to move forward with the strategic plan and we can discuss that as we move forward, but I think that that's how we're going to do it. So. |
| 02:22:36.57 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, so respectfully, I would say that our discussion last Saturday really highlighted for me |
| 02:22:37.38 | Jill Hoffman | Absolutely. |
| 02:22:42.98 | Melissa Blaustein | how we may have different perspectives on the implementation plan items. and that it would be really helpful, I think as a council, especially with, many new members to have that strategic discussion about where we prioritize those implementation plans. measures in kind of order of priority before and then you know, staff still needs to check and see if their pricing is still correct. And then we come back and we have our budget discussions. If we are doing that at the same time as we're trying to budget, I, I'd ask staff if they have a recommendation, but I think at least maybe a modified conversation. I just think it really, we started to get into it in a great way on Saturday, but I think being facilitated and having that, is going to make our budget process go so much more smoothly. |
| 02:23:32.64 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So let's do this. Why don't we take that to... I don't disagree that we do need to look at the implementation plan from last year specifically and see how the rest of us feel about it and how we want to for lack of a better word, rack and stack those priorities, especially given what's happened in the intervening time between when that was done |
| 02:23:56.33 | Unknown | in. |
| 02:23:56.42 | Unknown | you |
| 02:23:56.49 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:23:59.58 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not sure. how we want to do that moving forward. It might make sense to do something like that after we do a after we get the mid-year budget, right? So we're gonna have the mid-year budget next city council meeting. We'll have an estimate on how much time we think that's gonna take and whether or not we're gonna need to devote a full city council meeting to that or whether we need to get to devote. a part of city council meeting that or whether or not we need to have an extra special City Council meeting just to address review the implementation plan. Let me, we'll talk about that at our next finance committee meeting. I think that will be right after our right after our mid-year budget which I believe is going to be March 23rd. So if that's That's what I'm thinking right now. And that's our, and that's, our discussion. as under the quarterly finance report. So we don't need to take a vote on this. As I said, this was just for... Um, This was for information, which I thought was important. for both this and the Treasury report and the CAFR report. due to the unique circumstances of this year. And it's just good for us to have an explanation from the from our assistant city manager. |
| 02:25:22.63 | Melissa Blaustein | So just to clarify, Madam Mayor, are you saying that we will be having, it just seems really critical for us to have an opportunity to discuss our priorities separate from how we budget for them? I mean, are we, is the path forward that we're going to have a priorities discussion as a council and then a budgeting discussion, but both after the mid-year budget presentation? |
| 02:25:43.90 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 02:25:44.69 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, great. |
| 02:25:47.91 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. So, With that, Does anybody have any other comments you want to make on this item or should we move on to our next regional Sorry, our next item on the agenda which is the treasurer's report. |
| 02:26:05.21 | Janelle Kellman | I do only have one follow-up comment. I can't remember. I think the assistant city manager already provided us with a list of all the different funds, but I thought the council had a follow-up question as to which funds were restricted. And if they were restricted, was it by policy or covenant or statute? Meaning like Thailand's fund has to be used for certain things by statute. Whereas I think, We have some other funds that are by policy, meaning if we needed them for other things, we could use them. And so I think that information would be really helpful based on the conversation we were just having in the discussion around how we allocate resources. So thanks for sparking that for me. |
| 02:26:48.31 | Wendy Richards | Thanks. |
| 02:26:48.49 | Janelle Kellman | So you're asking for that to be included in the next, in the mid-year budget or? Yeah, I think so. Cause I think it'll help us understand what we can't touch at all. And what, if we really needed it, we could move some things around. |
| 02:26:52.39 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:27:02.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. |
| 02:27:02.67 | Janelle Kellman | I'd be... That sounds good. |
| 02:27:03.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:27:03.65 | Melissa Blaustein | Thanks. Thank you. I would like to add, I think Councilmember Blaustein alluded to this, but last year I know Ms. Carter will remember we were really working in the dark with the numbers and we were pressing and pressing on her and her team. to make projections and to give us the good, bad, and the ugly, and to give us three scenarios. And I am really just truly amazed at how close we came to those projections. I mean, it's just kudos you know, she kept saying, there's so much uncertainty, and there was, but it's truly amazing to me to see how close close we are, they're ups and downs and things aren't exactly the same, but we really are firmly within that middle category and I just, that was such an excellent piece of work. and really saved us from having from being in a really bad position right now. So thank you again. |
| 02:28:02.19 | Janelle Kellman | i really want to commend you and the mayor for that as well because it Like I said, when I started my comments, I was very encouraged. So Well done. Yeah. |
| 02:28:11.98 | Jill Hoffman | Spectacular actually and what a great what a great position they put our city in at a very, um, um, Anyway. Thank you. very stressful time i mean it was remarkable actually the city council at that time so thank you to all of them at that time Um, Okay, so now, I think we're ready to move on to our next item, which is item 7C, the treasurer's report for a quarter that ended December 3. 2020. |
| 02:28:43.90 | Yulia Carter | Yeah, before we dive in there, I just want to, again, thank the council for for your comments and the words of appreciation, but it's definitely teamwork, and I definitely want to commend the council during the censoring time to provide direction to staff and have this robust discussion to actually help stuff to put together the sustainable budget. And yes, we are very pleased that we are very accurate on our assumptions. So, um, Back to Treasures Report. Preparing Treasurer's report is an industry standard. It's also a government code requirement that states that municipalities provide The governing body report regarding the city's investments all investment activities on a quarterly basis to ensure compliance with the investment policy And we implemented this practice in fiscal year 18-19. So this is our second year. that we are reporting. Um, Treasury reports to you on a quarterly basis. If I can make my PowerPoint move. |
| 02:30:01.54 | Yulia Carter | Excuse me, so let me share in the share again. |
| 02:30:18.60 | Yulia Carter | Can you see my screen? |
| 02:30:22.84 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, I can see your screen. |
| 02:30:25.34 | Yulia Carter | Okay, now I can promote. So the city's cash and investment portfolio at fair market values of December 31st, 2020 was $26.2 million. This amount, $7.5 million, was placed in state control's local agency investment fund. also known as Lea. So I think that's a good question. New York BNY 5.5 with Bank of Marine operating accounts and 4.1 in PARS Trust, that's our Section 115 Trust. As I mentioned earlier, finance staff initiated this practice of preparing quarterly reports to council in 18-19. the next step in this process will be to prepare the cash management procedures for annual review and reconciliation. We discussed this project with the Finance Committee at that. Um, we reviewed the cash balances in 2015 and 2016 bond accounts and we'll be working on preparing the ketchup, drawdowns going back to 2015. and 16 and As we complete this reconciliation of these accounts, we will also prepare procedures moving forward. So we plan it as a special project right after the budget work and you'll go back F.O.S. five six years and once completed the procedures will be included in internal procedures for the fiscal year and close. |
| 02:32:03.52 | Yulia Carter | As of December 31st of 2020, you can see our portfolio contains sufficient liquidity to meet at least six months of expected expenditures by the city. And overall, the serious investment portfolio increased by 4.5 million from 21.8 million reported last quarter. This increase is, again, mainly related to payments remitted to the city for sales tax and the first installment of the property tax. that was due in the second quarter of the fiscal year. |
| 02:32:42.13 | Yulia Carter | This table just very briefly provides detailed distribution of cash into the series channel ledger. So you can see how it translates in our series funds and city accounts. And we will. I believe we already provided Finance Committee with the list of funds, and which ones are restricted and unrestricted, probably clean up this list and I will make sure we will include it as part of the mid-year. budget report as well. |
| 02:33:15.49 | Yulia Carter | I'll stop here. and happy to entertain any questions on the treasuries report. |
| 02:33:22.58 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks very much, Julia. Thank you as always for your hard work and putting this together. Excellent job. And I don't have any questions. Does any of the city council members have questions? Yes, Vice Mayor. |
| 02:33:35.67 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, sorry, some of these are really just because, you know, we've had these really in depth finance committee meetings and questions, there's a Q and A, and I just wanna be able to share that with the folks who are on, with the other council members. Can you go back, would you mind, going back to the because showing the cash reserves. I think it was the slide before this. this one? Yeah, so I remember we had looked at finance Bank of Marin at five and a half, LAIF at about seven and a half, the cops money, I think it's the next one, sorry, at five. And we talked about the GFOA best practice on cash reserves. And you so kindly, I know worked very hard to get me some answers prior to the meeting and the whole council received those answers. trying to understand what the best practice for Sausalito is for cash reserves. And I just want to make sure I understand I think you're saying that the council mandated that each year an amount equal to 15% of the general fund budget should be set aside as a reserve. Did I understand that correctly? |
| 02:34:44.52 | Yulia Carter | That's the only written policy that we have right now at the time. So the Council previously set aside two contingencies. One is called budget stabilization reserve and That's 5% of appraising expenditures and 10% of appraising expenditures were set as a budget shortfall policy. So that equals to 15% set-aside reserve. |
| 02:35:08.08 | Janelle Kellman | Oh, great. Yeah, it'll be good to see that policy. I'm glad. Thank you for pulling that up. that. OKAY. uh, I had asked about a cash reserve And you had mentioned that they adopted, this is just from your report, that they adopted general fund expenditure budget is $18.2 million. But the second quarter financial report shows 16 and a half million Where's the 18.2 million from? |
| 02:35:34.76 | Yulia Carter | That's adopted budget, the full adopted budget that we adopted back in June. So I used that as a... So the cash reserves and fund balances are calculated twice a year, and it's critical to include the CAFRA balances. So once we audit the year, so the auditors calculate the assigned and assigned balances, and that's something that we use as part of preparation of the budget, and then we'll do it again as part of adopted budget. So we provide council with the, projected fund balances so you can make your sound decisions as far as. what services and programs you want to fund for the year. |
| 02:36:14.47 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, because I know you said it was projected, but I thought, like I said, that financial report showed the mid-year was equal to half of 16 and a half. So are you projecting Closer to 18 then is what you're saying? |
| 02:36:26.92 | Yulia Carter | No, I think you're probably mixing the COFRA balances that were presented at the Finance Committee So that's what we discussed at the Finance Committee level, because the expenditures, general fund expenditures, was 16 million. but you operating budget. for the fiscal year 2021. was 18 million in the general fund. |
| 02:36:48.97 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, I'll maybe go offline about it. I thought I was looking at the first page Second quarter financial, but that's fine. And then the other thing I just want to bring to the full council is we, We looked at the certificates of participation, and you can see here on this screen that we have about $5 million in the account. So, but we've paid contractors. So what we're trying to figure out, and I know Yulia is going to work on reconciling this. We're trying to figure out how did the contractors get paid And then, given that we have 5 million sitting here, Does this mean that this is de facto general fund unrestricted cash? |
| 02:37:24.99 | Yulia Carter | No. And I knew that question came up during the finance committee. Yeah, right. I know you've talked about it. I think this slide right here, so you can see if you go to, where is that one? |
| 02:37:31.01 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. I think. |
| 02:37:42.50 | Yulia Carter | if you go to the operating general capital project fund, fund 140, You can see negative cash here. but it's being upset by this cops cash that is held with fiscal agents. So that's how we report it. So it's a setting. And once we complete the reconciliation, these buckets will move around. and we will reconcile. So it's not really affecting your... Your cash. Your cash is the cash. |
| 02:38:15.14 | Janelle Kellman | Right, right, right, right. Okay, so you're gonna get it by the cops account, got it. |
| 02:38:19.66 | Melissa Blaustein | And I think, and Yulia can correct me if I'm wrong, but that generally our fully budgeted COP Measure F funds have gone to the capital programs that they were initially set for the four major parks and that we do not have a great excess of remaining. |
| 02:38:41.06 | Yulia Carter | Right, those funds are restricted. That's absolutely right. Yeah, those funds are restricted. And we will talk about it while I already... |
| 02:38:49.97 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, it's interesting because the capital improvements fund is only restricted by policy, not by statute or covenant. So even from an accounting standpoint, we want to return some of that money to the fund, those funds could be spent on whatever we wanted in terms of capital improvement. which I think is which is why I asked for the funds to understand if they're restricted by policy statute or covenant And so if we are in fact not sitting on $5 million, we need to reconcile why we see $5 million on the quarterly report. So I believe the sum of that is that Yulia is going to be doing a reconciliation and present that to us. And I guess that those invoices will be added to that and we'll see a detailed accounting of what money was used to pay the office, the invoices for Measure F. I think that would probably be a... a worthwhile effort. |
| 02:39:39.16 | Yulia Carter | What we need to do, we need to do the drawdown. We need to catch up on the drawdown going back to 2015 and 16 when the project started. I got it. And that's true not just for COP funds, but also sewer revenue bonds and all bond accounts. But again, the CIP funds themselves are restricted for specific purposes. |
| 02:40:05.03 | Janelle Kellman | Correct, right? But I won't belabor the point. We paid the contractors somehow, but we still have 5 million sitting on the books. So we're just trying to figure out what we where we took the money from. But again, we'll visit again, I'm sure. And I know you're working on the reconciliation, so I'll leave it there. |
| 02:40:23.47 | Melissa Blaustein | I have a question. If you're done, if you're done by smear. Okay. Okay. So I had a question about our investments portfolio. As someone who is very concerned about social impact and obviously sustainability, I was wondering, I see that we have a clear city investment policy. Have we considered and might we make space to discuss ESGs or do we have any ESG determinants whatsoever in deciding where we're making our investments? |
| 02:40:50.54 | Unknown | are involved. |
| 02:40:50.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:40:54.35 | Melissa Blaustein | And if you're not, sorry, folks aren't familiar with what ESGs are. It's sort of a metric for impact investment. So environmental, social, and government requirements that justify whether or not an investment is sustainable, a positive for the environment. that sort of measure. It's a somewhat newer metric, but it's being more and more adopted across more standard portfolios. It's often asked for quite frequently by folks who are making investment decisions. So I'm just wondering if we consider ESGs at all, or if it's something we might at some point as a council have a discussion about where and how we are choosing to invest. |
| 02:41:30.26 | Jill Hoffman | I don't, go ahead, Yulia. Go ahead and answer. |
| 02:41:33.96 | Yulia Carter | Yeah, I just want to, well, be a big clearly haven't considered this particular tool, but I want to state that Investments in the government entity are strictly restricted by what we can and cannot do. Uh, safety liquidity go before the returns. So we absolutely have to comply with this, uh, principles and that's really that's one of the items that the auditors look at very closely every year when we when we complete our audit. And the last fiscal year, you may remember those special who were on the console at the time. We actually made some changes to the investment policy because a few items came up during the audit and we modified our investment policy to remove some of the restrictions, how much mobile percentage should be in leave fund versus something else and we added county investment pool as an option for us to invest, just to have a little bit more flexibility to see moving forward. So we can definitely look into this in details. But again, I just want to point out that this is really |
| 02:42:51.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Strictly limited. Okay, thanks, Julia. Maybe you and I can talk about it offline at some point. |
| 02:42:57.12 | Ian Sobieski | Just tying into that last question of Council Member Glousteen. Are we allowed to invest in CDFIs? at all community development funds. which are both socially good backed by, well, they're safe and they are, often higher yields. |
| 02:43:21.49 | Jill Hoffman | I think we could agendize this on the finance committee on our agenda and take a look at these. and then bring a report back to the City Council and probably part of our probably part of our maybe not for mid-year budget, but after that. we could talk about how we, how if, how, how we might be able to incorporate some of these ideas into our investment portfolio. |
| 02:43:45.23 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Definitely, I think it's a great idea. Thank you both for bringing that up. |
| 02:43:49.25 | Melissa Blaustein | That does seem like, I mean, I know our finance department is really strapped, so I guess I would defer to them, but that could be a second half of the year after our budget is adopted. something to look at going forward, because it's not something we're gonna be able to turn on a dime with. But great points and really Good suggestions. |
| 02:44:10.46 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, if no further questions on the presentation, then we'll open this up for public comment. |
| 02:44:24.21 | Jill Hoffman | And I don't see any hands. Madam Clerk, do you see any hands? |
| 02:44:24.51 | Vicki Nichols | Yeah. |
| 02:44:30.20 | Jill Hoffman | Madam Mayor, there are no hands raised at this time. Very well, then I will close public comment. Again, this is for information, there's no vote on this. I will thank again our our assistant city manager, for doing all this tremendous amount of work and bringing these reports together, as well as the rest of the staff and the consultants who have been a great team in helping us bring these reports forward, as well as the CAFR that's coming up, frankly. So a lot of good work has been done in the past few months to get these reports ready and ready for presentation. Anyway, any other comments before we move on to our next item? Okay, then we're moving on to our next item, which I will remind you, we are skipping to item 7E. which is our draft comprehensive annual financial report. And so, Ms. Carter, if you would like to. Start that, that would be great. |
| 02:45:33.85 | Yulia Carter | The last financial report presented today is draft CAFRA for fiscal year ended June 30, 2020. We had in-depth discussion with the Finance Committee presenting this report just last week on March 4th, We invited our consultant from Ide Bailey and the audit managing partner from Mason Associates, the city's independent auditor to attend the meeting, to provide some kind of first-hand experience with the audit and the present the findings and the provide the finance committee with the opportunity and the public with the opportunity to answer any questions and hear directly from the auditors. So we typically don't have and detailed discussion at the annual about the annual report at the council meeting but today, well, the report that is before you is actually just the auditor's draft, so it's not the final conference. So we did not put together the in-depth presentation, the same presentation that we did in the Finance Committee meeting. uh, it's, um, Again. It's not the final yet, so we need to Thank you. We need about the week to finalize the report. The auditors gave us the timeline, so hopefully by early next week, we will have the final conference. and the, Once it's finalized, we will make sure to deliver the annual financial report to you. Um, at the subsequent meeting. So today we did not plan to have detailed presentation but I would like to bring some highlights just good. at the kind of MDNA that highlights the point. So the government, white assets exceeded liabilities by 29.1 million at the level of net position, so that's a balance statement This is a decrease of 1.2 million or about 4% over the prior fiscal year. This is mainly because of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, which was expected, and as we already discussed earlier today, We addressed this as part of mid-year, the last fiscal year, again. most really good to see that we were conservative in our projections as well. Uh. the C revenues for 25.6 million. also showing the decrease of 1.5 million And again, mostly due to the pandemic, the expenses went up, but again, it's important to realize that this figures compare actual to actual, so in order to drill down in details, we would have to look at the budget of expenditures and the city-wide level so most of the, well, all the progress that we've made on the capital improvement projects will be rolled into this number as well. the general fund balance It was 11.7 million. it decreased by about 800,000, is still very healthy and again um, higher than what we at mid-year point a year ago. the revenues decreased, |
| 02:48:59.49 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:49:02.70 | Yulia Carter | mainly because of the pandemic again. The general fund expenditures totaled $16.7 million. It shows some increase of 1.8 million over the prior period. and most importantly, the state is assigned an unassigned balance, general fund balance, of 8.3 million. is about 50% of expenditures which is well over the city's mandated policy of 15%. That's very good news and clearly sets us well prepared for the budget discussion that we're about to enter. And additional highlights of the annual report could be found in management discussion and analysis. analysis section of the report. And just want to point out that overall it's very good news because it shows that our COVID assumptions that we made that mid-year point a year ago were again conservative and actual results showed better results at least for the general fund. So again, as I said, this is just a draft, so we didn't feel it would be appropriate to go over the numbers, so we'll drill down into too much details. But I want to... point out that last year, the city of Sassaleta was a proud recipient of a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. That's the award by issued by the Government Finance Officers Association, GFWA, that's a national organization that we all look up to. We believe that this year's annual report will continue to conform to the highest standards in government accounting and financial reporting requirements And we believe that we will qualify for the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence this year as well, and once the report is finalized and issued, we will submit to GFOA for award consideration this year as well. That concludes my brief introduction of CAFRA. |
| 02:51:20.77 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so do we have any follow-up questions based on that presentation? |
| 02:51:31.62 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:51:31.67 | Janelle Kellman | I'll only make one summary comment, which is, CAPRA does cover some of the pension obligations, |
| 02:51:32.01 | Vicki Nichols | . |
| 02:51:37.76 | Janelle Kellman | And I think we're aware the pension obligations will increase. And so we're going to be asking. Charlie Francis to come forward with a Pension analysis, I know there's been some questions around that already. So the full Council, I think, can expect to see more of that as well. So keep the questions coming, they're all good ones. And just want to let you know we have had some discussion. Of course, it's covered in the CAFER. |
| 02:52:02.15 | Jill Hoffman | and, And for people who are familiar with the Capra, I know there are many people out there who are familiar with the Capra, we'll have the full, it will be issued. You said that in the next week, Yulia? |
| 02:52:13.88 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:52:14.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:52:14.77 | Yulia Carter | Yes, based on the latest I heard from the auditors by next week, we should Okay. |
| 02:52:19.38 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:52:20.09 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:52:20.63 | Jill Hoffman | So that'll be the full, |
| 02:52:20.76 | Yulia Carter | that'll be the 40. |
| 02:52:22.33 | Jill Hoffman | paid. |
| 02:52:22.68 | Yulia Carter | you |
| 02:52:22.85 | Jill Hoffman | gaffer away from all of the tables |
| 02:52:25.27 | Yulia Carter | full CAFRA report and memorandum of internal control and required communication. |
| 02:52:31.22 | Unknown | 150 pages. Did you say 40? |
| 02:52:35.41 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, perfect. |
| 02:52:35.69 | Unknown | Oh yeah. |
| 02:52:36.44 | Jill Hoffman | Right. |
| 02:52:36.69 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:52:37.21 | Jill Hoffman | I think actually council member Cleveland Knowles Looks like she might have a question or maybe I, oh, okay, sorry, my apologies. Thank you. Okay. Okay, so we have no Further questions, I'll open this up for public comment on this item. |
| 02:52:55.57 | Jill Hoffman | And I'm not seeing any I'm not standing any hands. Madam Clerk, are you standing any hands? Madam Mayor, there are no hands raised at this time. |
| 02:53:07.24 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Then I will close public comment. And I will, again, this is for us to receive, but I thought it was important, especially in this year and with the new council for you to be familiar with what the CAFR is and what summaries we can get from it, what information that we can get from it and conclusions on our city finances. So do we have any comments from, Council members, or are we ready to move on to our next item on agenda? I think we'll move on to our next item on the agenda. As always, thank you very much to our Assistant City Manager, for putting together all of these financial reports and doing the heavy lifting to help our finance committee understand our financial reports and our financial position of the city. So I certainly appreciate all of that and all the hard work for all the teams that are involved in this. And so with that, we will close this item and move on to our item that we moved to the end of the agenda, which is item 7D. contract with regional government services, At the estimated additional cost of not to exceed $30,000 for economic development services. We have a staff report that again, Ms. Carter, our Assistant City Manager and Administrative Services Director, she serves both functions, will give a presentation on this matter. Ms. Carter, whenever you're ready, |
| 02:54:43.03 | Yulia Carter | Sorry? Thank you. So this is going to be very brief. You can see my screen, right? Yes. So just a little bit background on this issue. So the city entered into agreement with RGS for Economic Development Services in April 2019. to develop the citywide economic development program. that was later approved by the full council. I believe we included reference in the staff report, approval was on. August 27, 2019. And the program was funded as part of fiscal year 2019-2020 budget. in this current fiscal year, We continued the services under City Manager's authority. of 30,000, and on January 12, 2021, we requested the council authority to continue utilizing RGS services. in access of this authority and the city council continued this item and referred to Finance Committee for review. On January 19th, we brought it to the Finance Committee and the committee directed staff to bring this item back. to consider in light of all active purchase orders for all consulting services statewide, which was presented to the committee at the subsequent meeting in February. At February 9th, Council meeting, it was requested that we would put this item back on the Council's agenda. It was later removed and... requested to brought forward again tonight, tonight's meeting. So that's the quick background. Uh, the, Since some time already passed, we discussed how would be best to approach the kind of scope that this performance as part of this agreement and we put it into three buckets before you today and kind of it's spelled out in the staff report as well. You can see that under this agreement, our chair is providing consulting services, advice, and guidance in all functional areas of economic development. Um, we typically in most municipalities economic development services Yeah. reside either in community development or city manager's office. So in city of South Florida, it's city manager's office function. V. don't have currently any dedicated staff resources so this services were backfilled by the consultants and And for the remainder of the fiscal year, we try to estimate Like what? number of hours that would be required to carry on with the services so you can see the first bucket is edac liaison and support The second bigger bucket is the Economic Development Program, assuming that the Council wants to continue with the Economic Development Program guidelines as previously adopted. and the last piece is a special project. So at this point, it's just the Verizon and Spring Antenalysis. because the solid waste project was reassigned to another consultant. And Right. we can go into the cells or it's just pretty much for the information where we are. with the program and how we estimate the number of |
| 02:58:22.26 | Diana Cohen | Oops. |
| 02:58:23.03 | Janelle Kellman | I lost you, Leah. |
| 02:58:28.05 | Janelle Kellman | Yulah, if you could hear us, you are frozen. |
| 02:58:33.38 | Jill Hoffman | Perhaps maybe perhaps maybe the city manager or assistant city manager Somebody just said that. |
| 02:58:42.10 | Chris Zapata | Let me text her and tell her what we're seeing. Give me a moment, please. In fact, if you want to go on to the next item and come back to this, that might work too. That's, this is our last item until we get to... You still have city manager recruitment update, do you not? We do, but that's under your report. I understand, but Deborah Muchmore is online and can help you with that while I go retrieve the assistant city manager. Deborah? Thank you. |
| 02:59:10.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:59:10.64 | Chris Zapata | on. |
| 02:59:10.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, we're gonna, so while we're facing our technical difficulties with Ms. Carter, we're gonna go to So we have a lot of questions. We have a lot of questions. update on our city manager search. So we'll go to Deborah and then we'll come back. |
| 02:59:34.45 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:59:36.27 | Jill Hoffman | Hello. |
| 02:59:36.29 | Unknown | Hello. Can you hear me? Okay. Okay. Good evening, Madam Mayor, council members. So this, I just, a little bit of history city manager search began on January 6th and the applications are accepted through the middle of February. On January 12th, the council appointed a working group to help prepare marketing and community participation materials. And that was aimed at attracting a broader pool of applicants that was very successful and and i'm going to share that with you with a few numbers. The working group, with the help of a very talented Community volunteer Catherine Soder prepared and launched a successful Community outreach program. because of the combined efforts of the city's recruiter, Avery and Associates and the council working group. The following was accomplished. And I'm going to share this little screen while we talk over here. Um. There we go. 54 candidate applications were received. And of those 54, 24 or 44% of them were qualified and received further consideration. about |
| 03:00:48.95 | Unknown | about 15% of that poll was of the entire poll was very highly qualified. And, and that's, that's a group that the council will be looking at as they, um, and as they go into their decisions and interviews later this month. um, But, As far as the outreach was concerned into other markets, Dr. J. J. 37% of the applications that that are better in the the group that received further consideration were non traditional candidates who came through the materials and outreach. that was created by the working group and with the help of Katherine Soder. So that's a very exciting response. for that and several of those candidates are in the group that are going to be looked at. So I just think that this was a very interesting process and I think the working group did a great job. I'm gonna stop sharing my screen at this time. I think I am. I've lost my stock. There it is. Sorry about that. Thank you. um and so so the update uh the council is working towards those uh interviews uh diligently and we should have more information on that process in a couple weeks That concludes my presentation. |
| 03:02:15.33 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. We usually take Let's see, public comment on all the matters on eight. on Section 8 all at once. So that's city manager information and appointments to boards and committees, future agenda items that's all on eight we do that all at once so I'm thinking since we jumped around that and we're in the middle of this report, we'll take public comment on this right now. So, and then we'll, jump back. So my apologies, it's a little bit disjointed, but we're trying to fix our technical difficulties. So I'm going to open public comment on this. item that we just this report that we just gave. |
| 03:02:58.84 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:02:59.77 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:02:59.80 | Heidi Scoble | And I said a mayor, oh, there appears to be one hand raised. It's Charlene Eldon. I will unmute Charlene. |
| 03:03:00.04 | Jill Hoffman | That's amazing. |
| 03:03:05.47 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, very good, thank you. |
| 03:03:09.94 | Charlene Eldon | Hi everyone, if I'm correct, this is now the time to propose something for a future agenda item. |
| 03:03:19.61 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:03:19.63 | Charlene Eldon | Uh, |
| 03:03:19.97 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 03:03:20.03 | Charlene Eldon | Yes, it is. Thank you. |
| 03:03:26.33 | Charlene Eldon | So I'm concerned about the record of Sausalito as a city. And this goes back to what another commenter said about the Sausalito Public Library So far, No mention of the desegregation this time around. has. really sufficed because none of them have mentioned or included anyone from Marin City. So as we move forward appointing boards, can we please, please try to remember that there needs to be a lot more diverse people having a seat at the table. Um, The fact that the desegregation process isn't process isn't finalized is disappointing but not surprising given that the people who segregated the schools are still facilitating the process. Sausalito's false peace, like what MLK talked about, is not the absence of tension, It is the presence of justice. or true peace, sorry. False peace is what Sausalito has made evident by the whitewashing and failure to even mention their actions keep the and it keeps the county a nightmare for black people and their children. This is not just bad housing policies or one crazy old sheriff. The segregation of schools was found to be perpetrated willingly and knowingly. And the Marin City community reportedly does not feel enough has been done to rectify it. Sausalito library presenter David Duncan shared some upcoming pitfalls that the southern Marin communities could fall into again. during the second round of desegregation, starting with the fact that this latest desegregation order is state mandated and not voluntary. In a clarifying follow up to his presentation today, he told me that he didn't think it was appropriate to have people who committed segregation still in positions of power. In last week's school district meetings, a few local black parents and even superintendent Natoko Garcia agreed that the attorney general's desegregation order was too weak. The debt owed to the black community of Marin City is to be named by them. And according to the recent meeting, they still haven't even been surveyed for what that could mean. newly elected trustee Elena Monder said, if we can't mend broken fences and develop and nurture relationships among our communities, this combined effort will fail. This is not about cancel culture or bleeding hearts. This is about basic accountability and justice. Please add the issue of council members, Cleveland Knowles is direct participation in segregation and the amicus brief against the attorney general's desegregation order to a future agenda. Thank you. |
| 03:06:14.37 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. And I believe I see one other hand up for this item. Yes, Madam Mayor, we have the Iver Crisante. |
| 03:06:22.11 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:06:22.13 | Eva Crisanti | Madame Mayor, we have the Eva Cresante. |
| 03:06:25.08 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:06:26.62 | Eva Crisanti | Thank you, this is Eva Crisanti. I did wanna point out that I think it's very interesting that David Duncan, was able to make that comment when he wasn't a guest at the Sausalito Public Library. It raises the issue of how circumscribed any guest at the Saucydeau Public Library would be when they are granted permission by Mr. Abbott Chambers. It's a very curious way you're running the library speaker series. I actually think there should be some discussion of that. I don't know if it needs to be on an agenda. While you guys were meeting, I started tabulating the rest demographics for Sausalito Police Department And I'm finding some very interesting numbers. For 1995, Black individuals were arrested at 12.3 times their demographic presence in Sausalito. So it looks like It looks like it's really not safe for black people, whether it's in Marin City, where they'll be prey to the sheriff or in Sausalito. If Abbott Chambers doesn't want this data discussed, I think probably the best PR move for the city is just to allow the presentation to be held within the city. Because the more you shut this. out the more people bring it up time and time again. And I would say with regard to I agree with the basic gist of Charlene Eldon's comment that it is really inappropriate that Susan Cleveland Knowles is, I think the city has a after. after participating in this segregation that required an attorney general to order the district to desegregate. It is really, really inappropriate. On the other hand, I do see a silver lining The silver lining I see is that It's a little bit, It's a little bit like the person who made the grave era at least can be held accountable well their reputation is on the mend. But I think it's that will never happen unless the city is able to make a statement about the severity and the gravity of the crime. And frankly, the fact that you haven't even addressed the amicus brief and you haven't made a statement condemning it. or at least acknowledging it, that it was an error. And in fact, I think there's an opportunity for censure And that would be something that wouldn't require too much. That is definitely a topic that should be on the agenda. First, the Sausalito police arrest demographics and the sheriff too because it is they do come into |
| 03:09:30.98 | Unknown | Three-minute time has lasted. |
| 03:09:32.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Let me ask the city assistant, or the interim city manager Have we found electronically our assistant city manager or are we still in? |
| 03:09:45.93 | Chris Zapata | you know, We have she's got two connections online right now and if we give her two seconds i'm sure she'll kick back in. |
| 03:09:52.75 | Yulia Carter | William? Yes, I'm here. I apologize. My computer just gave up on me. |
| 03:09:55.53 | Chris Zapata | All right. |
| 03:09:55.95 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:09:56.68 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:09:56.71 | Jill Hoffman | So, |
| 03:09:56.76 | Chris Zapata | on my computer. |
| 03:09:59.08 | Yulia Carter | Absolutely. Thank you. |
| 03:10:01.05 | Jill Hoffman | Now where were we? |
| 03:10:01.08 | Yulia Carter | I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK. |
| 03:10:02.37 | Jill Hoffman | I think oh yeah okay so we're on we're still on um item seven RGS yeah the RGS contract Okay. I think you were almost finished with your presentation. |
| 03:10:13.03 | Yulia Carter | I was on the last slide when this happened, I apologize. |
| 03:10:15.40 | Jill Hoffman | and |
| 03:10:16.91 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 03:10:16.93 | Unknown | learn. |
| 03:10:17.27 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. from current slide. So that actually brings us to... The end of the presentation, so we are seeking for console direction today. and how to proceed with the existing services under the RGS agreement for economic development. We laid out all the options that we see available at this point for council to consider. and the hoping that you will pick one of them and give us directions. The first one is to approve the contract as requested to continue economic development services through the rest of the fiscal year. We estimating this cost will be not to exceed 30,000 at this point. That will bring us to the total $60,000 for the whole fiscal year. And this cost is already included in the budget. As we anticipated, the second option would be to direct us to develop RFP to put the services out for bid for the new fiscal year. Typically, the full process will take about three, four months. So potentially we can start the services as of July 1. I'm not sure. for economic development services. with the new consultant, the Other option would be to direct staff to defer economic development services, at least for now, until we are done with the pandemic. and well, as well as special projects that have been performed under this contract. and the this option built clearly result in some reductions in revenues because given the nature of the special projects, and you may also consider bringing economic development services in-house as part of a 21-22 budget or provide us with alternative directions. So that concludes my presentation on this item. And again, I apologize for the technical difficulties. |
| 03:12:18.16 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. No need to apologize for technical difficulties. in this environment. Um, Okay, so... I don't believe I have any questions on this. Does anybody have any questions of Ms. Carter for this item? Thank you. |
| 03:12:36.40 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:12:36.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Yes, I believe that is. I'm sorry, you're not on my, you dropped it. |
| 03:12:40.32 | Melissa Blaustein | and health insurance. I don't want to just hear that. That's okay. I don't need the slide right at the moment. That's better. But anyway, my question, to either our assistant city manager or city manager is, whether who is staffing the EDAC at this point and is this Is it needed to have an outside consultant, at least in the short term, to adequately staff Iraq. And then I have another question after that. |
| 03:13:13.00 | Chris Zapata | one of the things we can bring to your attention is that, um, Without the contract for RSG from January forward, it's been a scramble and everybody in the city manager's office has been assisting with EDAC trying to get service delivery to them so that they can keep doing their work that they are doing, identifying projects and doing implementation. So it's been a variety of personnel. helping with posting the agenda. That's about the level of support they've had which is not what they were accustomed to. Moving forward, you know, one of the things the Finance Committee has talked about is the need to align the consultant contracts throughout the organization with tasks, that are geared to implement the council's stated goals for the year and so that is one of the directives and policies that um they have yet to to make a recommendation back to the full council but that is you know you've got two members of the committee right in front of me i'm sure i could let them describe the work that they're doing to try and align expenditure of funds. with intentional achievement of goals. |
| 03:14:27.68 | Melissa Blaustein | Great, thank you. Yeah, and I have heard that discussion and I applaud the Finance Committee for taking a look at that. I think my concern is our interim plan is that we need to continue to move forward with our the EDAC's recommendations and we need to be able to move forward with the economic development plan that was you was prioritized in our strategic plan and implementation measures from last year. So I take no I'm really happy that the Finance Committee was taking a look at the nature and scope of consultant services and look forward to their recommendations. I guess my second question is, I believe that either a council member Sobieski or Vice Mayor Kelman reported in committee reports that the EDAC is moving forward to and I think that's a great question. some economic development priorities to kind of streamline sort of some of issues and retool them for COVID. Did I hear that correctly? |
| 03:15:32.73 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, that's right. there's a whole process of interviews and engagement with uh our staff with our local landowners, property owners, our business owners, as well as the community development professionals and other jurisdictions all with the cooperation of our hardworking staff to try to understand where some of the bottlenecks are in our processes and my understanding is that 20 plus recommendations are coalescing and are gonna be presented via letter or if invited to city council directly and that there is some collaboration with planning commission also to try to to augment those recommendations with the work the Planning Commission is doing as well. |
| 03:16:20.72 | Melissa Blaustein | Great. Thank you. So I was really the one that pushed to have this back on the agenda. So thank you to the agenda setting committee and staff for having it back. I think what I would suggest given the EDAC's current work is |
| 03:16:33.38 | Jill Hoffman | Well, hold on now, we're still in questions. We're not in comments. |
| 03:16:36.65 | Melissa Blaustein | I know, I just thought I would let everyone know what direction I was going to propose so that people can react to it. But if you want me to hold off, I will hold off. |
| 03:16:45.70 | Jill Hoffman | I have another question for our interim city manager. And then I think we take public comment, and then we'll come back and decide where we're going to go. So with regard to with regard to the contract, one of the issues I think is just, This is kind of a reason. is that this is appears to me to be somewhat of a legacy contract that was thought that it was going to be something else and it's just kind of drifted into Now this is just staff, basically staff support for EDAC. and that it's really more junior level kind of stuff. that's the real work of that's the support of EDAC right now. And it's not particularly aligned with what we expect to be the recommendations from EDAC that are going to come back from City Council. . fair statement. |
| 03:17:42.68 | Chris Zapata | I'm not familiar with the legacy contract term, but to me this is a contract that had been provided to the firm RGS over time prior to my arrival, so I don't know how far back it went, but I believe it was at least through 19 and 20. um, Rolling it forward, I do not think there's been alignment between what EDAC is working on And the need for a particular type of professional. So at this point EDAC as Council Member Sobieski has been saying, is identifying projects. So we're hiring the consultant and they are identifying projects. Those two have not been brought into alignment to my knowledge. Council member who is part of the subcommittee that works with this committee could probably answer that better. Has there been alignment? Are you a weirdo? |
| 03:18:36.82 | Janelle Kellman | Are you aware? I think what you're saying, if I have you right, is that EDAC, and I think I heard Councilmember Sobieski say this, EDAC is still working through its priorities. |
| 03:18:47.55 | Ian Sobieski | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:18:48.07 | Janelle Kellman | and some of which will be in need of support, some of which I think Councilmember Sobieski highlighted will be, for example, in the planning department. Planning would cover that. And so maybe what you're suggesting is that we need to see what those priorities are first as a council. align around them as a council. and then make sure we get the right support, whether that's this contract or otherwise, is that kind of what you're thinking? Thank you. |
| 03:19:17.57 | Chris Zapata | Yes. |
| 03:19:17.59 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. you know, |
| 03:19:18.97 | Chris Zapata | the contractors before you could be one piece of the puzzle. It's traditionally been operated that way. From what I'm discerning from, The little bit of time I have spent with EDAC is they are identifying goals and objectives moving forward. So it might be that we need a different type of professional, whether that's in addition to or in place of, has yet to be discussed with the committee. So... |
| 03:19:45.38 | Ian Sobieski | So... Oh, sorry. |
| 03:19:48.88 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:19:48.91 | Jill Hoffman | No, you're on the committee of building. |
| 03:19:50.12 | Ian Sobieski | to get to the end of the day. Yeah, sure, I was just going to say, I was gonna ask a question, which is, my understanding is that the city has a contract with a digital ad agency called CDA. that has been signed. not implemented because there's no staff support and that this was originally going to be part of the bill bill it to RGS to Is that correct? |
| 03:20:17.83 | Chris Zapata | Ilya, can you help me? |
| 03:20:18.66 | Yulia Carter | THE FAMILY. |
| 03:20:18.73 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:20:18.84 | Yulia Carter | but I'm not familiar with that. |
| 03:20:18.88 | Chris Zapata | Yeah. |
| 03:20:18.96 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 03:20:19.00 | Chris Zapata | I'm not. |
| 03:20:19.25 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 03:20:19.77 | Chris Zapata | I'm going to. |
| 03:20:21.06 | Yulia Carter | Yes, the the city did and train the agreement with the city to provide marketing study and the world three deliverables under this project that one was. gap analysis, which was completed and the draft report was delivered to staff. The other two deliverables included the marketing strategy and strategic plan. for the So... for the upcoming year. And that's the piece that is now on hold, as Councilmember Sibiyaski indicated, because we have no resources to carry this project through. |
| 03:20:58.48 | Ian Sobieski | And originally that was going to be an RGS managed relationship. Is that correct? |
| 03:21:02.60 | Yulia Carter | And that's also in line with the Council approved the Economic Development Program in 2019. |
| 03:21:02.70 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 03:21:08.74 | Yulia Carter | Because as we presented this program, it was a three piece approach, land economics, marketing strategy, and branding. |
| 03:21:17.00 | Ian Sobieski | And is it a $120,000 budget towards marketing that |
| 03:21:17.42 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 03:21:21.52 | Ian Sobieski | that we currently allocated in that budget. |
| 03:21:24.13 | Yulia Carter | The council allocated 150,000 in fiscal year 1819. portion of this money were already spent on land economic study and this original contract study for the CDA. I believe we have about 70,000 left out of this additional location. |
| 03:21:44.27 | Ian Sobieski | Right. And then I just have a question about the contract with RGS. Is it possible to retool it in a way where it becomes a relationship that can be used on an on a flexible basis so that we don't have to pick it up again here at city council. Can we operationally approve it at the $30,000 level that we're talking about, but have it be, um, drawn on an hourly basis for the particular needs that EDAC identifies that they need or that city staff identifies that it needs. For instance, moving the CDA relationship. forward as it was as we've already contracted with them. to move it forward. |
| 03:22:26.13 | Jill Hoffman | Absolutely. is, I have a follow up on that. Is there, is it possible also to. and then we can do it. the appropriate staff, I suppose, the appropriate billing rate or the staff level for the person from RGS. In other words. if the need is just for a lower level staff position or work. Right, so just putting together the agenda or something I know there are different billing levels and that some of the billing has been done at a higher level that isn't necessarily meeting in the alignment of what the actual work was, Is that possible or is it just one billing rate that we have from RGS under this contract? |
| 03:23:11.29 | Chris Zapata | I hear a lot of what you're saying ties directly to what Councilmember Sobieski is saying in that we, although we might contract, for example, if that's where the council decides to go with this firm, we would tie the services and the service provider in that scenario to the tasks that EDAC chooses to work on that's consistent with the council goals. So along those lines, we can touch base with the city attorney and make sure that that is possible under this contract. I don't see why it wouldn't be. |
| 03:23:50.12 | Ian Sobieski | So I've proposed something along those lines where we're authorizing the $30,000, but letting EDAC choose what services they need to support them, or city staff, all of course, with the approval of the city manager, who ultimately RGS is that he's reporting to. |
| 03:24:06.79 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:24:07.03 | Janelle Kellman | this all together, right? May I ask a question? Yes. City Manager, do other So this is a committee. Do other committees have dedicated consultants. |
| 03:24:21.79 | Chris Zapata | It's my understanding they do not, but I would refer to city attorney and Ulya, your assistant city manager, because my My tenure has been the last 60 days roughly, and so I'm not sure that I understand all the components of the organization. Uliya, can you answer that question with a direct answer? Did you know? Thank you. |
| 03:24:43.87 | Yulia Carter | Well, I can't speak for every single committee, but I just want to mention again that the economic development program was new for the city so we started this program as part of 1819 and that's how this consultant agreement came to quate |
| 03:25:01.20 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, so I'm not aware, I mean, I've looked at the consultant agreements, I'm not that wasn't a yes. So I'm not aware of their being. any other situations like this? And I guess my follow-up question, is would you consider it to be, Marcia, best practice to have a consultant managing a consultant. Um, For example, a CDA contract. that, Sounds like it requires some direction from counsel. Something, and this is part of, I think, what the Finance Committee is reviewing, sort of best practices. That makes me uneasy. Is that something that you've seen as best practice in your time? |
| 03:25:37.61 | Chris Zapata | I've seen consultants managing consultants. I've also seen department heads take the responsibility for the consultants and the committees that are within their realm. And usually the direct service delivery is being the staff, the department has taken responsibility for consultants. This organization, you know, I do have to add is so thinly staffed that The number of tasks that are on the council's priority list. I have serious questions for my short tenure here that the staff, the existing resources inside the organization can directly tie to and keep moving at an adequate pace all the things that are on the table. So in this case, we could go into strategic planning and prioritize would be one recommendation. We can work with the committees and commissions to define alignment of council goals and objectives with committee work. It seems that right now there's so much on the table. in terms of prioritization from the council that other than the use of consultants, I don't know what resources we have to move all the projects forward. |
| 03:26:51.07 | Janelle Kellman | Well, let me you know, it sounds it feels like we're getting into a little bit of back and forth with one another. Maybe we could take our public comment and then and bring it back How do you feel about that? |
| 03:27:01.31 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's fine. If that's okay, anybody else? |
| 03:27:04.69 | Melissa Blaustein | I have some context to add to the question that the vice mayor asked. I can do that after public comment if that's helpful. or an hour. |
| 03:27:11.96 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Yeah, that's fine. Let's just, let's, let's get public comment and then we'll come, we'll bring you back up and. Please. move toward resolution. So go ahead, Madam, Madam city clerk. Thank you. |
| 03:27:23.93 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we have two hands raised. Joan Cox will go first and then we'll have Julie Vieira. Thank you. |
| 03:27:29.76 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Heidi, and good evening again, City Council. I just wanted to provide a little bit more background for especially for the newer City Council members is that RGS and the consultant Brian Mora has actually served the City of Sausalito in a number of very senior roles, including the Interim Administrative Services Director after the... retirement of our prior director and prior to the hiring of our assistant city manager, Yulia Carter. Aside from that, he served as the point person for the general plan advisory committee. And so as pointed out by some of the comments and questions this evening, He's actually a very senior consultant with over 35 years. of experience. And so I think it would behoove the city council to ensure that his role is that of a senior consultant and not an administrative role. The other thing that I wanted to remind the city council of, if you're not already aware, is California Assembly Bill 5. which has sort of undone many municipalities ability to rely on independent contractors in lieu of employees. AB5, popularly known as the Gig Worker Bill, went into effect January 1, 2020, and requires companies that hire independent contractors, to reclassify them as employees with some exceptions. And so this is an issue that the mayor brought up before she left to enter into... returned to her military service, took a hiatus. And this is why I believe that she and others have so strongly believed urged the Council to carefully consider its use of independent contractors moving forward because there's a high risk that they could be considered to be employees as opposed to independent contractors which have severe financial consequences. for the city. So I just wanted to encourage you to weigh that as you consider how best to proceed with RGS and other independent contractors. Thank you so much. |
| 03:29:57.35 | Diana Cohen | Thank you. |
| 03:30:03.95 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:30:03.97 | Julie Vieira | Julie, you've been unmuted. Hi, thank you everybody. I know it's late, but I'm gonna make this short. I believe that you guys need to have Brian for EDAC, I serve as a liaison to EDAC And I try very hard to attend 99% of the subcommittees that have been formed by EDAC. And many times the committee say, oh, we'll have to ask somebody at the city. Oh, we'll have to get background on that from the city. It's a very new committee. There was absolutely no one carried over from the old hospitality or the BAC committee. except for myself. And They need some direction. They need somebody to steer the ship. so to speak and to keep them on task. They already have four members that have dropped off. As far as I know, there's another member that's gonna be dropping off. There's been changeover in the chair, the vice chair, the secretary. And so I really think that it would behoove the city to have Brian there, at least if it's just till the end of this fiscal year, to get some things moved forward. Yulia does not have time. She was the original staff member assigned to EDAC. She doesn't have time for it. Um, EDAC really needs their brand new committee, only nine months old, They really do need someone. that is going to steer that committee and get them moving forward and get them working as a committee and then add more new members to it. I would definitely suggest that you guys have Brian come back. He has the history. He knows Sassolito. and EDAC could really use his expertise and abilities to help them move forward. |
| 03:32:03.31 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Madam Mayor, we have two additional hands raised. We have Sandra Bushmaker and Charlene Eldon. Sandra, you've been unmuted. Thank you. |
| 03:32:14.87 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening everybody. I've been sitting in on quite a few of the EDAC meetings. And I would say that the council has given direction or should be giving direction to EDAC as to expectations with regard to its functioning, EDEC's functioning. and the committee needs to do the internal work of how they're going to develop those expectations and those directions. And personally, I do not see the need for a high level senior executive or consultant to be providing that particular service. I think it's an internal job that EDAC can perform. I also share, Joan Cox's concerns about the characterization and the um, characterization of entities or people who are working for the city, whether they're employees or independent contractors and I do realize that the consequences for a misstep in this are highly costly to the city. So I would encourage. EDEC to do its internal work on conforming its activities to the goals and objectives that the in purposes that the council has directed the committee Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:33:40.52 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:33:46.08 | Heidi Scoble | Charlene, you've been unmuted. |
| 03:33:49.45 | Charlene Eldon | I just like to echo a concern about the hiring of someone who has historically been with the city, given the city's history. If there is a need to cut the budget, and this is someone who's not even necessarily hired legally, I don't really see what the issue is. But. I'd urge you to look elsewhere than Sausalito's own history for experts, please. Thank you. |
| 03:34:21.45 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. I don't see any of your hands. Madam Clerk, can you confirm that? Thank you. |
| 03:34:27.39 | Ian Sobieski | you |
| 03:34:28.62 | Jill Hoffman | Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no hands raised at this time. Thank you. Then at this point I will close public comment and I will invite Councilmember Clevel-Knowles to give us her Perspective. |
| 03:34:43.08 | Melissa Blaustein | Great, thank you, Mayor. And actually I think my ultimate recommendation is very close to the recommendation that council member Sobieski already articulated But just as background, you know, The council did come up with an economic development program in response to the urging of the business community several years ago. It was around the time of measure L and measure M. and I think Mayor Hoffman was |
| 03:35:12.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:35:12.75 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Thank you. I think that was still before you had left. And we did discuss taking some of the additional revenue and reinvesting it back into our local business community. And one of the ways that we did that is through the economic development program. RGS was important in helping to articulate that and to figure out a program and a path to implement it. And that was discussed as part of our and our ultimate six-year plan at that time. So that's just the background. I think some important long-term questions have been raised tonight both by members of the public and by the Finance Committee about where we need employees and where we need consultants and that balance. But right now we have a very short-term need. We only have a couple months left in our fiscal year. We are in an economic crisis, despite the fact that we were holding steady kind of in our range, we did have to significantly our budget last year and our businesses are in need a huge amount of assistance in economic recovery. So I think this is not a good time to just stop our economic development consultant contract, especially given RGS's Um, experience in this area. So I would suggest that we approve the contract tonight as suggested by Councilmember Sobieski with a limited focus at the outset of kind of stabilizing the work of EDAC. and the franchise agreements that are revenue generating for the city And that when you got comes back with their suggestions for priorities and the council has a chance to align our priorities with their priorities. then if there are tasks that we can prioritize on Mr. Moore's work plan. Sarah Silver, We can do that, and if there aren't it's a as needed contract with a not to exceed it's not a. It's not a mandatory, we don't have to use the money that we've authorized. So I think if we can just provide some short-term relief to Ms. keep economic development on the front burner and then wait for EDEC's recommendation and our council discussion. We can see if our priorities align with RGS's expertise. And then simultaneously, we'll do the long-term work we need to do to look at our consultant contracts and our staffing. |
| 03:37:42.97 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, and I would like to maybe just dovetail with that thought that you made the mayor and that maybe it doesn't have to, the needs should certainly be provisioned according to the need. and that if we don't need a senior person for a particular task than more junior persons. would be preferable. So if that can be picked into the contract, great. And I think, And I think that addresses one of the two concerns that Joan Cox articulated so well in her public comment. And then in terms of the mechanics, it's just my idea that it could help an overburdened staff to have EDAC help direct some of the time of the consultant, but always with the approval of someone who is the a paid employee. It's just a way of provisioning efficiently. and trying to not spend more time |
| 03:38:41.52 | Joe Caldwell | Thank you. |
| 03:38:42.17 | Ian Sobieski | on staff contemplating an action than is paid for to actually get the action done. So it seems like it more efficient way of just conducting business. And if it so happens to cut some new trail in the way we use help our all our commissions across the whole city then all the better. Maybe it can serve as a model for a future way of working. And if it falls flat on its face, then maybe that'll be a good test. to not never do that again. |
| 03:39:11.36 | Janelle Kellman | Mayor, may I chime in? Yes, this has been really helpful dialogue and the questions that in the Q&A, I think, was really good helping to shape my thinking. I think we're really close. This is an opportunity for us to really as the new Council dictate how we see our relationship to consultants and maybe I'm maybe I'm old school or just frugal, but I think $30,000 is still a lot of money. That's, that's $2.2 million worth of sales tax, um, or sales actually to generate the tax to pay for the contract. Um, so I think it's a lot of money. So, uh, you know, it's taxpayer money. I want to be fiscally responsible. So I'll, I'll declare that upfront. I guess I'm, I'm sort of frugal, but, um, I think we have to deploy our resources and consultants in a smart way. um, EDAC needs someone to steer the ship, but consultants don't steer the ship. We steer the ship. That's our job. That's why we were elected. And I also want to point out, I'm hearing this, so I think it's good to call it out. This is an RGS contract. It's not a Brian Moore contract. It's an RGS contract. They do great work. We know that. We have Deborah Muchmore. She's fantastic. So let's be clear about that. And I think we need to be prudent about deliverables. And as I think Council members will be asking, I talk about a lot, how we measure success. So if you look through some of the tasks, there's duplicative junior tasks. Sales tax, a hotel tax analysis is already done by a consulting called HDL. Plus, we have the numbers today presented to us, so we don't need that task. Destination Sausalito is already under contract. They make, they do the website, they get paid. I think $1,200 a month to do the destination in South Seattle website. Why do we need to pay someone to add an economic development webpage? And certainly not a senior level. I think we're close because what I would suggest is that We pause at B. We get the information from the EDAC about their priorities. We bring that back, we align. We figure out the RGS contract that makes sense with the right level of staffing. to support both Ms. Carter and the EDAC. So I think we're really, really close, but The staff report has a lot of duplicative junior tasks. And I just want to be clear that even those align with what the EDAC is working on. have that be our direction, bring that back. I know council members will be asking I can commit to making that happen and bring it here. I think we'll, finally be able to put this to rest and create a path forward for how we deal with contracts. |
| 03:41:45.26 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I just ask for clarification? I'm not sure what you're proposing to bring back. A contract? What I'm proposing we bring back |
| 03:41:53.04 | Janelle Kellman | the priority from feedback I'm sorry. |
| 03:41:57.36 | Melissa Blaustein | you're you're proposing to bring back staff to help EDAC prioritize and bring forward their staff report to the Council to do our economic development. planning. |
| 03:42:07.06 | Janelle Kellman | That sounds... like not what I'm proposing. I am proposing that Council Member Sobieski |
| 03:42:10.94 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. |
| 03:42:13.42 | Janelle Kellman | relay to you all or have the chair and vice chair of EDAC bring us their priorities. and that we as a council give the remit back to EDAC based on what we believe the priorities should be. And then we make sure we get them the right resources to support those priorities, because that's the end game. So. We know we have good resources available to us. Let's just create that alignment. And then I think that'll be a good path moving forward because We have talked on other occasions about how we've spent money and how quickly money can be spent, so let's be Let's be smart about it, create deliverables, make sure they're aligned with our goals. You've talked a lot about strategic planning, to make sure they're aligned with our goals, and then get the right resources. I think we're so close on that. So, |
| 03:42:57.97 | Jill Hoffman | I understand it. |
| 03:42:58.89 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:43:00.67 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, go ahead, council members. Busting, did you want to |
| 03:43:04.77 | Melissa Blaustein | I just wanted to add to comment and just weigh in. I I completely appreciate the concerns for fiscal responsibility and taking the time. And $30,000 actually, it is a substantial amount of money. It's not pocket change by any means. But I think it's important to highlight what's been said by both Councilmember Sobieski and Councilmember Cleveland, which is we by no means have to spend all $30,000 of it, nor should we probably. But I'm really concerned with staff bandwidth and the deployment of continuing to just say, well, we'll have staff help. when staff is is spread quite thin on multiple committees and commissions right now. So my concern is keeping the ball rolling with the excellent work that EDEC is doing while providing some support. I'm not |
| 03:43:39.91 | Alice Merrill | is, |
| 03:43:50.24 | Melissa Blaustein | wedded to the idea of a specific consultant if there's a if there's a cheaper easier way to do it but i don't want to lose what we have going and the support that EDAC clearly needs given that there's been quite a bit of turnover. So I worry that if we just say EDAC come back to us with a report, but they don't have the support they need for that report, if we won't get the results that we want. So I would also like to find a way to do it that saves money, but being aware of the realistic the reality of the bandwidth of our staff right now and that we do need consultants for some of this help. |
| 03:44:24.69 | Ian Sobieski | I kind of was, I'm sorry, Mayor, go right ahead. |
| 03:44:24.83 | Melissa Blaustein | So... |
| 03:44:28.90 | Jill Hoffman | out. So you, I may be, Anyway, I'll be interested in what you have to say. But, As I understand it, EDAC is going to be coming to the city council in the next month or so with their list of economic development initiatives. And they're also... in that intervening time, they're going to try to have a meeting with the planning commission to discuss some of those initiatives. So when they come back to us, Some of the initiatives will be finance, some of the initiatives will be community development. So, That is where city council comes in and aligning those initiatives and then defining who's going to provide the support. Because some of those things will be coming from Community development planning and other things will be coming from finance and so To the vice mayor's point, we don't really know. It's hard for us to decide. the contract before we know what those, what those initiatives are. But as I heard it from are. As I heard it from our assistant or interim city manager is that we can adjust that contract. So even though we're going to approve a $30,000 contract with RGS, If that's not necessary, and we're not you know, tying it to a certain person and we can for lower level administrative things as prioritized by the city council and by EDAC we can adjust that. So I think that was one of the concerns that we had when we originally looked at and saw this contract. I think we have a really great Economic Development Committee right now we have our two really great city council members who are our members of that. who I'm sure will be communicating with us on a regular basis about what these things are and we will be having a presentation My understanding is after the planning commission back to city council these are your options, this is our recommendation, this is the way we're gonna move forward. We have a really great chair right now who is our former council member Tom Riley and helps set up EDAC. That's kind of where I'm That's kind of where I'm falling out. I kind of agree with everybody. I think we're all on the right track I'm just trying to functionally figure out how to do this in the most efficient way. within the realm of possible with our interim city manager. I, in council member Sobieski you had your hand up and I think I had |
| 03:47:04.55 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. No, I mean, I was just gonna, if you're looking for a structure that I think is easy to implement, it's this idea that, There are a few things we know we want done that have been languishing, like the CDA contract that's been approved and is not being executed because there's not a staff person to monitor it. So that could be given the RGS. There might be something else that I'm missing that's like that. Um, that's not the full $30,000, that's only a part. a small part of that. So that at least would get done. and then I would just say authorize, um, RGS on an hourly basis to provision the needs of staff or TDAC. with the city manager's approval. I'm not sure. on an hourly basis, so that's not gonna be, it'll be like a taxi meter for the actual time that's used and it'll be provisioned according to the actual need. And Brian Moore is one level person. for a particular task that would require that. And perhaps it could be someone else for a different task. But then we don't have to, you know, the $30,000 is budgeted or allocated and And we can spend our time when EDAC presents talking about the priorities and not about financial allocation. |
| 03:48:17.05 | Jill Hoffman | And for the interim city manager, I'm assuming that the city council representatives for EDAC, if they had a question about that, would be able to. pose that question to you or the subsequent city manager about use of the contract and and Probably. Is that? correct? |
| 03:48:37.18 | Chris Zapata | I'm assuming one of the things after this evening's meeting, I'm going to ask the city attorney to review the contract and make sure that that is something that we can do. But knowing the firm of RGS and the quality service delivery that they give us as a city and other areas and having worked with them in other places, I know there are a number of consultants that work with them, a number of personnel. So it's a conversation I need to have with RGS and with the city attorney to make sure we can bring the council's vision together in the contract form, whether that's And I'm confident that we can reach that objective. I don't know that we can do it with the form that the current contracts get. I'm gonna have to pull that out and talk to the city attorney and talk to RGS. If we need to, we'll bring it back to you. for contract review, but we get your direction. And as I say, I'm proud of can't be 100% sure RGS will want this work, but I'm relatively sure they want to continue to work with us. We've had a great relationship with them. And as I say, they have a diversity of personnel. So let me give me a chance to go talk to them and I'll come back if I need further authorization. |
| 03:49:44.69 | Melissa Blaustein | Another one. |
| 03:49:44.73 | Chris Zapata | And otherwise- |
| 03:49:46.58 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm sorry. Thank you. |
| 03:49:47.51 | Joan Cox | No, go ahead. |
| 03:49:49.07 | Melissa Blaustein | So if I understood that, I think Council Member Sobieski was giving direction under the existing contract, which we have with the scope of work, is broad enough to encompass the several immediate term items |
| 03:50:00.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:50:03.46 | Melissa Blaustein | that. excuse me, that we will revisit. whether anything that comes out of our conversation with EDAC also fits. And if at that point we need to do a contract modification, we would, and if we're not gonna use the rest of the not to exceed, then we just don't use it. I mean, it's an ad-created, not-to-be-contract. |
| 03:50:21.35 | Janelle Kellman | I am, isn't it? We did not. there's really no scope and no deliverable. And if we're trying to streamline things, I'm looking at the contract right now, I don't really understand. how we then provision who makes the request for services, who's, who's tracking that, who's accounting on that. I'm just, I'm a little lost on, Functionally how that works, it feels like it would create more work, but I think at the end of the day, I just wanna say I'm just seeking alignment between services and goals. I think we all are actually, but I think It feels like there's just one more step here. Thank you. |
| 03:50:57.04 | Jill Hoffman | Let me say this. I think since you're on the EDAC, You're on the EDAC committee and so is Councilmember Sobieski. then If you feel like that the contract needs more specificity, especially from the definition of what you expect to happen then I think you would be able to talk to the city manager about that, about how to manage that and what the scope of his or who's ever direction. I mean, I think that falls squarely within your sort of liaison duties with ADAC. Good morning. |
| 03:51:35.51 | Melissa Blaustein | But I think the city manager, our interim city manager and our finance director would be managing the contract. |
| 03:51:42.75 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:51:42.77 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:51:43.29 | Melissa Blaustein | I think so. |
| 03:51:44.93 | Jill Hoffman | I don't think those things are mutually exclusive. Yeah, right. |
| 03:51:50.84 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 03:51:51.55 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. Everybody. |
| 03:51:52.86 | Ian Sobieski | My thought is that RGS isn't doing anything that isn't signed off on by our city manager. People can recommend I can recommend, the Vice Mayor can recommend, the EDAC can recommend that something is done, but ultimately it's the city manager that says yes or no. in response to the recommendation and if there's some other question about it, it can just come to us at some other meeting perhaps. But- |
| 03:52:16.32 | Janelle Kellman | What if we did this? What if we went through the staff report and we identified what we thought was the priority, like eliminate the duplicative tasks. And then Marcia, you can advise us on Um, you know, if we had somebody who, uh, a lower level, we could get more for our money. So maybe if we can figure out how to make it go further, That could be a useful exercise. I'm sorry. |
| 03:52:41.97 | Melissa Blaustein | I think that's within the... Of the hour, I'd leave that to the city manager and the... |
| 03:52:42.37 | Janelle Kellman | with the... |
| 03:52:47.10 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm a I know we've been talking about this a lot. I would just make a motion to approve this contract under 7D with the modifications suggested by Councilmember Sobieski with direction to the city manager to to manage. near-term projects. with an eye to not using anywhere near the extent of the contract until we have a discussion about EDAC's priorities. |
| 03:53:14.94 | Ian Sobieski | I do want to second Vice Mayor Kellman's emphasis on our priorities. I just believe that her goals can be met by um, by our interim city manager, um, interfacing with with us and with EDAC with the goal of provisioning the right person at RGS for the task. and not doing all the things that were listed in the staff report as priorities when this is passed, but rather being judicious in what to task that person with doing. |
| 03:53:42.77 | Chris Zapata | I hear you and I think we can coordinate with Zach on the work that they're performing currently. You know, I do want to continue to help the council focus on what I heard was the overarching priority, the review drill down on this contract, which was to look at how we use consultants at the larger scale. And we are now in the middle, I'll call it the middle of March, and the dollars that we're talking about on this discussion were originally intended to get us to July one to the new budget year, so we have looming. larger issues, which are how do we use consultants going forward? Some of the lessons that we're learning tonight and we're talking about can be applied to consultants in general across the entire organization as we move forward in the budget process. |
| 03:54:36.83 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Thank you for that. Okay. I think we're all. We have a motion and we have some an amendment was that an amendment by council member sobieski do we need to vote then on motion |
| 03:54:52.92 | Ian Sobieski | Well, is it in the contract actually that all those tasks have to be done? If so, then yeah, we need no. At least Susan Kluden was just shaking her head. |
| 03:55:01.27 | Melissa Blaustein | Well, let's ask our city attorney. |
| 03:55:05.57 | Ian Sobieski | No, it's not. So, so no, there isn't an amendment. I think it's more |
| 03:55:05.98 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:55:06.53 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 03:55:09.52 | Ian Sobieski | that the staff has been listening attentively to this discussion and kind of has clear marching orders to provision the contract in the most efficient way and sparingly. pain. |
| 03:55:24.93 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:55:24.98 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:55:25.10 | Chris Zapata | Okay. |
| 03:55:25.13 | Ian Sobieski | Right. |
| 03:55:25.70 | Chris Zapata | And in concert with EDAC. |
| 03:55:27.85 | Ian Sobieski | in concert in BDAC, yeah. |
| 03:55:29.65 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:55:29.70 | Mary Wagner | And not to belabor it, but to address Councilmember Sobieski's point, the scope of work specifically says that projects and activities may be modified upon the request of the agency. |
| 03:55:30.06 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:55:40.37 | Mary Wagner | And the agencies only billed for the actual hours worked. |
| 03:55:43.71 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Bye. Thank you. Okay, so we have a motion. Do we have a second? |
| 03:55:47.68 | Janelle Kellman | I'd like to make it. |
| 03:55:47.90 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:55:49.82 | Janelle Kellman | Sorry, go ahead, Vice Mayor. I'd like to make a second motion, if I may, Mayor Hoffman. Okay, make a motion that we continue this based on some of the advice I believe I heard from Interim City Manager. to a date certain, which would be March 23rd. to give us an opportunity to gather the right alignment around the deliverables and to give the interim city manager the opportunity to connect with RGS around opportunities to execute in that fashion. |
| 03:56:22.00 | Jill Hoffman | Very good, okay, so we have, we have a, amended motion, and so I think we vote on that first. Correct? Am I saying that right? |
| 03:56:31.03 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, see, council members made a substitute motion, Madam Mayor, so you need a second for that motion. And then if there is a second for that motion, You would vote on the Vice Mayor Kellman's motion first. |
| 03:56:43.11 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Do I have a second? |
| 03:56:44.90 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:56:44.92 | Ian Sobieski | I just have a question just so I know what I'm voting on. |
| 03:56:44.97 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:56:45.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:56:48.22 | Ian Sobieski | Vice Mayor, are you... saying that you would like EDAC to come on the next meeting and present their recommendations? |
| 03:56:56.42 | Janelle Kellman | I think perhaps you and I could do that legwork and at the same time, the interim city manager would confirm some of her questions with RGS so that we understand how can we structure this in a more meaningful fashion And again, I'm thinking big picture, how do we set the tone? for having to manage contracts. in our consulting space. |
| 03:57:16.46 | Melissa Blaustein | I think we've all agreed on the tone. I mean, I'm looking at our next meeting. We have a million things. We've continued a million things. I think we've given clear direction to staff, which will actually allow you and Council Member Sobieski to provide exactly the input that you suggested. I'd still like to vote on this tonight, but your motion is on the floor, so I think we should vote. |
| 03:57:37.16 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, do we have a second for Vice Mayor Kelman's Substitute motions. Not here in a second. Very good. Then we'll move on to the original motion that's on the floor as amended by Councilmember Sobieski. Thank you. And I... Do we have a second for his amended motion? |
| 03:58:03.64 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:58:03.84 | Jill Hoffman | And again, Okay, then let's call the roll. |
| 03:58:09.04 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Clerk. Council member Sobieski. Yes. Council member blasting. Yes. Council member Cleveland Knowles. Vice Mayor Kellman. |
| 03:58:21.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:58:21.42 | Heidi Scoble | No. |
| 03:58:21.75 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:58:22.50 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Hoffman. |
| 03:58:22.98 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. Thank you for this robust discussion and I think I think we hit all the points that we need to hit. but understanding the vice mayor and where she was trying to lead us as well. But anyway, I would expect her and Councilmember Sobieski to be involved with the interim city manager on this. So thank you. |
| 03:58:45.89 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Just about having the conversation, right? I mean, this is a very, very good dialogue. So I thank all of my fellow council members and staff I know we hit you with a lot of questions and you did a great job |
| 03:58:55.23 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:58:55.75 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 03:58:55.97 | Jill Hoffman | Agree. Agree. Thank you. Very useful discussion. Um, So we're moving on to item eight. We already had our update from City Manager. search from Deborah Munchmore. We had public comment. It was a little bit a little bit, Um, unusual though, so If anybody feels strongly that they need to I guess an additional public comment, then we might entertain that. But at this point, I think we move on to Um, item, uh, 8C City Manager, did you have anything other than the the city manager search. So in other words, Ms. Raines, did you have anything other than what Ms. Much More reported on. |
| 03:59:53.43 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. No, I think that's it for this evening unless you have questions. |
| 03:59:57.09 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. Mayor, could I just make one comment? I think we've all, I just thought Ms. Munchmore's presentation just deserves a little bit of recognition from the council about how amazing it is about the number of candidates that we got and how many qualified candidates and just to Thank you. subcommittee of vice mayor Kelman and Council member Sobieski and Ms. Munchmour um, for all their amazingly hard work along with our consultant and our volunteer. consultant in that process. So I know we kind of skipped back and forth, but just didn't want that to get lost. |
| 04:00:34.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much for bringing that up. Agree and we might be at the beginning of the bubble. Because there's a lot more work to come. But your city council is working very hard on this as well as the working group, as well as our consultants that we hired. So, okay, moving on to appointments to boards and commissions. I don't have any appointments, however, I am forming a new exciting Do sea level rise and subsidence task force and we're going to start off with myself as mayor. the Vice Mayor, Kelman, and Planning Commission Chair, Christina Feller. as our inaugural members and much like we did with the landslide, task force. The initial work will mainly be in identifying the Um, identifying potential community members who are experts in these areas and bringing them into the conversation and developing short and long term goals for this task force. That is exciting and lots of work to be done on that issue. Um, Okay, so then moving on to future agenda items. Um, Do we have future... We have a lot of things in our agenda in the next few months. |
| 04:01:53.56 | Janelle Kellman | We did have one from Councilmember Sabieski and Councilmember Blaustein around our investment portfolio and the profile of our investments. So that has been noted. |
| 04:02:03.60 | Jill Hoffman | Great, okay, any other future items |
| 04:02:08.07 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, I just think we also talked about getting our strategic planning session, whatever that looks like on the agenda. |
| 04:02:16.26 | Melissa Blaustein | And then I did also just want to note, I think at one point we had on our agenda kind of just a review of our council protocols. And I'm also just wondering if we could check in with staff. I know that we have a lot of questions that are being fired at staff. And in some other organizations I've worked in, we've had, sort of what's called a request for information policy, RFI, where we track different counsel requests and for things that exceed a certain amount of staff time, to that. board or whoever. just to agree that that's the direction that we want staff spending their time on. So I don't know if our interim city manager has anything to say about that tonight, but maybe we could discuss that with our other council protocols at the appropriate time. |
| 04:03:04.25 | Chris Zapata | I think you could definitely wrap your discussion of protocols in with strategic planning. It would make a lot of sense, and I've seen it effectively combined where you start the meeting with the discussion of protocols. spend Karen Hollweg, Not not a significant amount of time but say an hour on that and then roll into strategic planning. Um, You got a second question, I'm sorry. Council member I'm exhausted this evening. |
| 04:03:32.43 | Jill Hoffman | I think the second part of it was how to manage requests for information to send people to the |
| 04:03:38.56 | Chris Zapata | Oh, thank you, Madam Mayor. So yes, your protocols do address at one level requests of staff time and do refer to limits on individual requests for staff time. and there right now are a large volume of questions. What about this? What about that? Coming to staff, and I think in large part because of the newness of the large majority of the council. I do think it would be organizationally healthy to revisit those and we might do it at the same time. We talk about strategic planning. What are the large number of requests you could then, if that's effective for this council, repeat that on a quarterly basis. Excuse me. So as you look at your budget on a quarterly basis, also look at the demands for service and what it's how it aligns with the resources available. So it's a very good suggestion. |
| 04:04:38.09 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Yep, that is a great, that is, and also Yes. |
| 04:04:44.98 | Chris Zapata | I agree. Thank you. |
| 04:04:45.67 | Jill Hoffman | will. |
| 04:04:45.97 | Chris Zapata | to bring forward, we'll reconnect with your strategic planning associate and ask staff to pull together, look at your council protocols and then as best we can pull up a listing of requests from the first of the year of the staff. Thank you. |
| 04:05:10.51 | Janelle Kellman | Marsha, would it violate the Brown Act? I think there's probably yes, but if, um, on a weekly or bi-monthly basis, on Fridays we got a poll that said, here are the issues that you guys ask questions about, vote. And then like the top two got staff attention. |
| 04:05:28.92 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 04:05:28.94 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:05:29.27 | Chris Zapata | Oh, actually, I think that's a conversation that is mandated to be in public and you want to have it in public so that your public has the opportunity for transparency and the ability to weigh in. So you've identified as a council what's your top goals for the year are and how do the request for service from the Council to the staff align with those goals and objectives is definitely a conversation that should be had along with the budget update on a regular basis. And can you do that? by calling in a vote, I would suggest not, not only legally, but also operationally. I think you need to have those discussions in public together so that you know what the other four members of the council and the public have to say. about how we're spending our resources. |
| 04:06:21.15 | Janelle Kellman | Sorry, I think I'm misunderstanding. I thought this conversation was about Requests for information. that individual council members make. Right. |
| 04:06:29.97 | Chris Zapata | So we can chart that and there are two types, two levels of requests for information, those that are at the level the public would ask them so do you have these types of reports where would i access this where do i find this um, What can you tell me about the history of that Then there are the requests for service that we get from the public and from the council that require more than a Um, Short term answer, more than an hour's worth of work. On a regular basis, we get requests from each of you here in this meeting this evening for a level of work that goes Anywhere from two hours to days worth of work. Um, If we don't manage those as an organization, they drain our resources away from the objectives and goals that have been set by the council. And we are at a level right now where it would behoove us to look at that and to manage it, to prioritize it. And it's an exercise we can definitely put you through organizations I've worked with in the past identify each of your requests and what area they are, what department they'd be assigned to and what else is going on in that department. |
| 04:07:42.18 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. That sounds like a good discussion to have. So We'll figure out where and how we can put that into our future agenda items. And so anything else for future agenda items? Not seeing anything. Very good. In that case, I will adjourn the meeting. Thanks everybody for all your hard work. Thank you staff for the excellent service that you give your city and your city council. I appreciate it. |
| 04:08:07.26 | Unknown | everybody. Have a good night. Thank you. Good night. . |
| 04:08:10.23 | Jill Hoffman | . |
| 04:08:11.21 | Ian Sobieski | . |
| 04:08:11.81 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:08:11.97 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 04:08:12.05 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 04:08:12.44 | Ian Sobieski | Bye. |
| 04:08:12.47 | Jill Hoffman | . |
| 04:08:12.88 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 04:08:12.89 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:08:12.91 | Ian Sobieski | Bye. |
| 04:08:12.94 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 04:08:12.98 | Ian Sobieski | . |
| 04:08:14.45 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 04:08:14.97 | Janelle Kellman | Bye. |
| 04:08:15.97 | Unknown | . |
| 04:08:16.98 | Ian Sobieski | Bye. |
Joe Caldwell — Against: Requested council review of Measure M's treatment of professional services, arguing it discriminates without rationale and creates inequality among businesses. ▶ 📄
Wendy Richards — Against: Urged council to address the business license tax at the next meeting, calling it inequitable, discriminatory, and punitive, especially for home-based and service businesses taxed on gross receipts. ▶ 📄