| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.99 | Heidi Scoble | How he was thinking. Now we'll do our streaming. Streaming is live. We're admitting all the participants. Just let everyone come in. |
| 00:00:14.93 | Heidi Scoble | 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 the meeting is also being broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:34.64 | Jill Hoffman | Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, May 11th, 2021 regular city council meeting. Madam Clerk, can you please take the role? Council member Sobieski. |
| 00:00:44.19 | Ian Sobieski | there. |
| 00:00:45.20 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:00:45.22 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Blaustein? Yeah. |
| 00:00:46.94 | Colleen Eldon | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:00:47.15 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:00:47.18 | Colleen Eldon | Thank you. |
| 00:00:47.79 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kelman. THE FAMILY. Mayor Hoffman. Here. |
| 00:00:56.71 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:00:57.29 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:00:57.32 | Jill Hoffman | All members are present and we have a quorum. Very good, thank you. I will call the meeting to order then. Moving on to... Our first agenda item, special presentations and mayor's announcements. We have no special presentations, but in our mayor announcements, Wish our vice mayor a happy birthday and welcome her to our city council meeting. |
| 00:01:19.06 | Chris Zapata | and |
| 00:01:19.06 | Jill Hoffman | And as |
| 00:01:20.03 | Chris Zapata | as the 1B approval of agenda. I would like to request pulling item 7B fireworks off the agenda this evening. |
| 00:01:28.69 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. All right, thank you. That's a request from our city manager. Um, Okay, so we'll pull that off our city council meeting. tonight Moving on. Um... |
| 00:01:44.28 | Melissa Blaustein | Madam Mayor, would you like to... |
| 00:01:44.47 | Jill Hoffman | Madam Mayor, would you like to- Thank you. |
| 00:01:46.21 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:01:46.28 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:01:47.02 | Jill Hoffman | approve the agenda as amended. Uh, yes. Would somebody like to make a motion to approve the agenda as amended? See you next time. Second. All on paper? |
| 00:01:57.40 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:57.45 | Jill Hoffman | Uh, oh, please. |
| 00:01:58.33 | Heidi Scoble | So roll. |
| 00:01:58.64 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:01:58.71 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:59.24 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:01:59.25 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 00:02:00.57 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:02:02.59 | Heidi Scoble | Linnells. Yeah. Vice Mayor Kelman. Yes. Mayor Hoffman. You skipped me, honey. |
| 00:02:08.62 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 00:02:08.97 | Ray Dieter | Okay. |
| 00:02:09.83 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, I did, sorry, Councilmember Glass-Dean. Yes. and then we'll do vice mayor kalman yes |
| 00:02:14.32 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry. |
| 00:02:16.74 | Eva Cresante | Thank you. |
| 00:02:17.02 | Heidi Scoble | and Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:02:18.15 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 00:02:18.44 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:02:18.62 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Very good, the motion passes. Five-oh. Moving on to communications. Um, Oops, sorry. This is a time for city council to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. Except in very limited situations, state law precludes the council from taking action or engaging in discussions concerning items of business that are not on the agenda. However, the council may briefly respond to statements made or questions posed in public. Ask clarifying questions, make a brief announcement, or make a brief report on his or her own activities. The council may also refer matters not on the agenda to city staff or directed subject be agendized for future meeting. Um, Very good. |
| 00:03:09.15 | Jill Hoffman | I will now open. Communications for... public comment for matters not on the agenda. And I will note that today, We have a lot of public comment on matters later in our agenda. especially particularly last item 7d so I'm going to limit comment tonight to two minutes and madam clerk if you could call If you could call the first person for public comment. |
| 00:03:41.68 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, and before I call on the... Participants, if you would like to provide any public comment, please use the raise hand function in the Zoom reactions button. Or if you're calling from a phone, please use star nine. Looks like we have four hands raised at this time. We'll start with Eva Cresante. |
| 00:03:51.46 | Janelle Kellman | Bye. |
| 00:04:00.01 | Heidi Scoble | Detour Tracker, and then Anna Wright, and then Charlene Eldon. So we'll start with Ava. Ava, you've been asked to be unmuted. |
| 00:04:11.05 | Eva Cresante | Thanks so much. I'd like to ask for the full three minutes since there are only four people speaking in general public comment, if that could be arranged, I would approve. |
| 00:04:23.08 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry. I think, I think whoever that was, oh, there you go, okay, your phone. your phone was muted I'm So sorry. |
| 00:04:35.43 | Eva Cresante | because THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:04:36.58 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:04:36.78 | Eva Cresante | Thank you. |
| 00:04:36.81 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:04:36.93 | Eva Cresante | Can I? |
| 00:04:37.46 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:04:41.61 | Eva Cresante | I'm sorry, am I not muted now? You're not muted now. |
| 00:04:41.93 | Jill Hoffman | THEY MAY NOT You're not muted now. I'm sorry. |
| 00:04:45.12 | Eva Cresante | Thank you. Okay, terrific. I would just ask for the full three minutes since there are only four speakers in non-agenda public comment. I do want to point out that I know that I had raised the issue of Andrew Henning speaking. at a Sausalito library event, There have been a lot of questions about Mr. Henning's conduct as director of homeless outreach services. I did a CPRA to the city of San Rafael regarding what he was doing. And I got a body of correspondence that is absolutely shocking. And which I think considerably increases our liability of the city of San Rafael. One of the letters that Mr. Henning sent indicates that He considered it a tactical move to have eliminated be mail services that were available at the Renner Center for 500 individuals who were unhoused. That means that veterans would be, their ability to collect benefits would be greatly complicated. SSI applications would be greatly complicated. the ability to apply for EDD or to receive court notices, all sorts of things would be greatly affected by this. I spoke with Mr. Henning yesterday and today about this body of correspondence And he told me that he had no idea, he had done no tracking apparently on how many people were able to get PO boxes after their mail service was cut off at Ritter Center. Mr. Henning has moved from a city position at San Rafael. He started a consulting business where he earns anywhere from 48,000 to $60,000 per client. per municipality to advise them on homelessness issues. I want to point out that apparently one of the people affected by- You're two minutes. |
| 00:06:48.57 | Heidi Scoble | Your two minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:06:50.36 | Eva Cresante | Bye. I have another minute if that's okay. I would appreciate that. |
| 00:06:54.09 | Jill Hoffman | I APPRECIATE THAT. back up. We have a lot of people speaking tonight. So thank you for your comments. I appreciate that very much. Okay, moving on to our next. |
| 00:07:06.94 | Heidi Scoble | It looks like we lost. So we'll go on to Anna Wright. You've been under |
| 00:07:15.04 | Anna Wright | MUTE. Hi folks. Hi, my name is Anne Wright. |
| 00:07:19.64 | Ray Dieter | This is Ray Dieter. |
| 00:07:22.02 | Anna Wright | Oh, okay. |
| 00:07:22.32 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:07:22.93 | Anna Wright | Thank you. |
| 00:07:22.97 | Jill Hoffman | Oh. |
| 00:07:23.89 | Anna Wright | Thank you. |
| 00:07:23.91 | Jill Hoffman | I was... Okay, let's go with Mr. Dater. We lost him, I'm sorry, Anna, and we're gonna, we'll come back to you, I promise. Thank you. |
| 00:07:35.00 | Ray Dieter | Good evening, council member. This is a formal request to council for COVID-19 relief of permit fees. for the South Seattle Animal Hospital awning at 1309 Bridgeway. My name is Ray Dieter, owner of Veterinarian of the South Seedle Animal Hospital. and 1309 Bridgeway. I have 1180 active clients, 73% canine, and 27% feline. Because of COVID-19, I communicate by phone to the owners not allowed in the hospital. I replaced an awning over the front window that along with my sign were blown down in a windstorm years ago. The awning allows the owner to see, hold the pet, give owners paperwork, medications, and instructions out of the rain under the awning. I am granted a temporary permit and the permanent permit is complete, safe historical review. I have paid initially $100 toward permit fees and asking city council for a waiver request for COVID-19 for the $10,470 balance. for permits I put up my truck for sale to pay for Giannola canvas, $6,626 for the awning and my mom's Indian jewelry. We are lending Shoshone to pay for the architect $2,500. Planning and billing requires me to hire. I don't have cash reserves, only knitting $34,000 last year from the hospital. and the city licensing going up over a thousand dollars this past bad income year. In the neighborhood, I've talked to building owners who replaced one in 20 audience who wear and tear and none has the city requiring those permits. This won't be the last pandemic and Sausalito Animal Hospital's special advantage for the city of Sausalito. Imagine a catastrophe with Golden Gate Bridge, Richardson and Tam Junction bridges down in mass casualties. The only full service hospital would be mined with digital x-rays, therial surgery with soft and hard tissue instruments. fiber optic endoscopy, human grade anesthetic machines, comprehensive laboratory and a large pharmacy. Even doctors who live in Saucelito will be landlocking to use these facilities. I'll be glad to- 30 minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:09:38.83 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:09:38.91 | Jill Hoffman | I'm glad you got it. |
| 00:09:39.96 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:09:39.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:09:43.47 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Mr. Dieter. |
| 00:09:44.73 | Ian Sobieski | Can I just ask the follow-up question on that? |
| 00:09:48.41 | Jill Hoffman | Hold on just a second. Because this is for matters not on the agenda, Um, and I believe that we have received an email from Mr. Dieter regarding the subject that I did forward onto the city manager. And so Um... I believe that you can ask a follow up to staff and then you can make a comment. |
| 00:10:09.84 | Ian Sobieski | Just a clarifying question then, Mayor, is that we all were copied on some back and forth, and the question was whether that permit fee was actually an outstanding balance from the Sausalito Animal Hospital or not. It was unclear if it was $700 or $10,000. I'm just wondering if there was clarity on whether that fee is owed by the hospital or not. |
| 00:10:30.25 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you for that question, Councilmember Sobieski. Let me, we can pose that question to our city manager and I would ask that she provide a response to The city. to the city council members. If you have it, you can email it to us. later, I mean, sorry. if you don't have it right now you can email councilmember sobieski and the rest of us the city council members later but if you have it now if you have the answer now i think you're you can respond, but that's it. And then we need to move on to the rest of our public comment. I'm sorry. Thank you. |
| 00:11:00.03 | Chris Zapata | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:11:00.75 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:11:00.77 | Chris Zapata | I do not have a direct answer to the amount owed by the applicant that just spoke. |
| 00:11:06.86 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you very much for that, for City Manager for that comment and to Council Member Sobieski for asking that. question. We will follow up on that and I believe that We'll follow up on that with... Okay, thank you. Okay. Now, I believe Ms. Wright is our next speaker. Thank you, Ms. Wright. |
| 00:11:32.19 | Anna Wright | Thank you. Good evening, everybody. I'll speak about the encampment. First, a quick intro for the activists in the crowd. I am from a former USSR where for the most of my childhood I resided |
| 00:11:43.90 | Ray Dieter | show. |
| 00:11:45.54 | Anna Wright | in a housing program with my mother, where we shared 10 families would share a toilet in a kitchen with no shower, that you would have to go to a ban once a week. So I clearly have experience of issues with, you know, unaffordable housing in the past. However, in the past three days, I spoke to 53 residents of Soledo on the topic of encampment, and a common theme is not understanding what could or could not be done with encampment and the fear to speak up because of bullying from the so-called activists. And quite frankly, I would like to suggest three things today. I hope I have enough time in a minute, but basically a short immediate action, such as task force that could represent variety of legal and social workers as well as citizens and that would allow us to be informed as residents uh and create a safe space to provide the feedback and ask questions and also a more specific case based approach to the current issues at hand such as we have homeless folks that are in need of drug programs, those that probably need assisted living, and those who are looking for jobs. And I think right now the camp is kind of a one size fits all the solution, which clearly is not working. this problem is bigger than just a one city problem clearly because majority of people in the camp right now are coming from other places. So it's not just an issue with social media, real estate prices or whatnot, I think there is definitely something short-term we can do and needs to be done on a case-by-case basis and needs to be much more open and informative for the public because clearly folks are not in touch with what's going on. I'm not sure. If two minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:13:36.27 | Jill Hoffman | IT'S YOU KNOW, IT'S YOU KNOW |
| 00:13:36.87 | Chris Zapata | . |
| 00:13:38.18 | Anna Wright | Thank you. |
| 00:13:38.20 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:13:38.50 | Anna Wright | Bye. |
| 00:13:38.54 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:13:38.60 | Anna Wright | Thank you. |
| 00:13:39.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you for your comment, Ms. Wright. And I would just add that we do have a page on our website status and providing information. |
| 00:13:47.19 | Anna Wright | Bye. |
| 00:13:50.55 | Jill Hoffman | Um, It's very, I'm sorry, we can't, we're not able to get it. |
| 00:13:53.62 | Eva Cresante | I'm sorry. |
| 00:13:57.54 | Jill Hoffman | But thank you for your comments and hopefully we'll have some good updates soon. Next. |
| 00:14:04.34 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Colleen Eldon has been unmuted. Hi, thank you. Can you all hear me? Yes, yes we can. |
| 00:14:12.12 | Colleen Eldon | Thank you. Thank you. If you were to believe the local news coverage of the United States of Anxiety podcast recently concluded two part investigation, you might think that Sausalito's school segregation was an accident, that true reparations have been made and that the white leaders found guilty of segregation had changed their minds after long, heartfelt community discussions with the black residents and their families. The truth is that when whistleblowers and concerned neighbors got involved, they were threatened, silenced and sued for trying to fight the segregation and the specific individuals who caused it. When the Attorney General's desegregation order finally came down in 2019, it stated that the segregation had been committed knowingly and willingly. Those same charter school leaders immediately filed a retaliatory lawsuit claiming a lack of transparency from the attorney general. |
| 00:15:02.29 | Janelle Kellman | you |
| 00:15:02.47 | Colleen Eldon | Sausalito City Council under the mayoral leadership of Susan Cleveland Knowles, Jeff Knowles' wife, then filed an amicus brief but in favor of the charter schools lawsuit. Former mayor Cleveland Knowles also declined to offer COVID relief to the Marin City community, claiming the area was out of Fosilito's jurisdiction. She has yet to apologize for or correct the harm done by herself or the amicus brief. Instead, she and current mayor Jill Graham Hoffman, who also sat on city council during segregation, have continued their fights against the state on matters of human rights. Both have openly suggested fighting the state's affordable housing quotas, and the city is still in litigation against the federal judge who ordered them not to evict the homeless encampment at Dunphy Park. This much can be said for the podcast. It at least predicted that the school desegregation effort will fail if the segregators remain in leadership positions. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:15:57.60 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. Um, Moving on to our next agenda item. I don't see any other speakers. Heidi, have I got that right? |
| 00:16:07.41 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no additional hands raised at this time. |
| 00:16:11.15 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Um, Sorry, okay, moving on to our next agenda item. |
| 00:16:25.77 | Jill Hoffman | action minutes of the previous meetings. Do we have... Do I have a motion to approve as submitted or move to approve as changed or corrected? So any changes or corrections or a motion to move as? Submit it. |
| 00:16:41.60 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:16:42.44 | Janelle Kellman | you |
| 00:16:43.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:16:44.01 | Janelle Kellman | I have no changes, so I'll make a motion to approve that submitted. Thank you very much. Second. |
| 00:16:49.91 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:16:50.49 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. All right. |
| 00:16:52.02 | Heidi Scoble | Heidi, can you please call the roll? Council Member Sobieski? |
| 00:16:55.75 | Eva Cresante | Yes. |
| 00:16:56.92 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blaustein? Yes. Council member Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:17:01.83 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 00:17:02.62 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Kelman. Yes. |
| 00:17:04.24 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:17:04.65 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor, |
| 00:17:05.04 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:17:05.24 | Heidi Scoble | And. |
| 00:17:05.32 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:17:06.10 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:17:06.12 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, but I forgot to take public comment on this item. So I will open public comment right now on item 3A. I see no hands raised. Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no hands raised. Very well, I will close public comment and we will move on to our next item. which is council member committee reports. Who would like to start us off? Or should I just call on somebody? How about |
| 00:17:33.15 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | I can start. |
| 00:17:34.16 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 00:17:34.28 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. Or you can call on us. You want to have us. |
| 00:17:35.97 | Jill Hoffman | I call on council members. Cleveland Noles. |
| 00:17:40.09 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Okay, I just have a couple. I attended a Safe Routes to School meeting last week that I've been attending as our liaison to the pedestrian and bike advisory committee meeting. We talked about some of the issues with school back in session plans for Next year, the fact that we have finally gotten some crossing guards back. We also talked about potential changes to the Nevada street to have a safer route to there and then the Coloma Street project that will also hopefully provide a safe crossing for children and then also maybe benefit the seniors that the of Lima Street residents. I also attended with Councilmember Sobieski, South Salido, Marin City Sanitary District, joint meeting, joint committee meeting, and I'm pleased to report that staff is about to come out with the phase two report. So we looked at phase one for consolidation, of Sassolito. sewer services and Sausalito Marin City Sanitary District Services. And so the phase two report will be released soon. So hopefully we can get that on our agenda. in the coming months. And then lastly, there was a transportation authority of Marin executive committee meeting this last Monday. we approved funding for two significant projects, one in Southern Marin, and a Blythedale Bye. project to improve Blackdale from 101 Um, sort of west and then San Rafael Third Street improvement project. Thank you. Good projects with some added bike improvements as well as road improvements. Thank you. |
| 00:19:51.22 | Jill Hoffman | So thank you. |
| 00:19:51.85 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:19:52.86 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Who would like to go next? Yes, Vice Mayor Kelman, go ahead. Thank you. |
| 00:19:57.01 | Janelle Kellman | I'll just jump in here. Okay, so a couple of meetings. We had a meeting of Bay Wave, which is a Marin County's sea level rise Countywide task force. And the highlight of this meeting was a really important and interesting report from Corte Madera on their climate adaptation assessment. So we received a report from a former Corte Madera council member, David Cunhart, and then their head of Department of Public Works. And we looked at kind of what worked for them and what didn't work for them. The report actually looked at various climate risks, but sea level rise was at the forefront. And I think it's gonna be a really good benchmark for Sausalito as we embark on our own sea level rise initiatives and solutions. So I'm trying to get a copy of that from Corte Madera, but I was very impressed. They got some money from Caltrans to put this together. They were able to add some money from a sales tax to be able to pay for it. So it's just interesting how they approached it and I think we can probably learn a lot from them. |
| 00:20:46.72 | Ray Dieter | Thank you. |
| 00:20:46.82 | Janelle Kellman | to the next episode. |
| 00:20:46.97 | Ray Dieter | THE END OF |
| 00:20:50.25 | Janelle Kellman | I know several of us also attended the Marin County Council of Mayors and Council Members General meeting. We heard from Senator Mike McGuire and COVID relief bills. But we also heard from Marine Municipal Water District about our drought status. And so I think we were all pretty dismayed to learn we're in the second worst drought in the last 90 years. I know that DPW and as well as in currents, we had some suggestions about how to modify our personal water use. so that we can be more mindful of this critical concern. But I think it's something we as a council should certainly keep an eye on and figure out ways that we as a community can do our part. I also had a Marine Clean Energy technical meeting And it's interesting, I've been asking everybody who will take my call, have they looked into obtaining renewable energy from MCE? So it's a very easy program from a cost perspective, pretty on par with PG&E. They also have several excellent programs to serve low income communities, providing 100% renewable energy and a 20% discount off the entire bill. So if you're interested, MarineCleanEnergy.org is the website. You can certainly reach out to me as well. Council Member Sobieski and I also continue to work with the Federal General Services Administration on the machine shop to understand some key options around taking ownership of the machine shop and whether we want to or not. We've been discussing two potential pathways to acquisition. One is called a public benefits conveyance. The other is a negotiated sale. staff is going to be putting together a summary of that meeting to present to the entire council so that everybody is on the same page and then we can move forward together with full agreement as to the best direction. So, Additionally, I filled in for Mayor Hoffman and Council Member Sobieski at the MCCMC economic recovery meeting. And maybe all of you have heard this, but apparently the state is going to be lifting of COVID restrictions on June 15th. So we had very robust conversation as to whether Marin County should provide each city with recommendations and best practices to help ease the transition. we heard from the county that 83% of people who are eligible in Marin County have received a COVID vaccine. |
| 00:22:49.20 | Ray Dieter | Thank you. |
| 00:22:49.30 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:22:49.32 | Ray Dieter | I heard that. |
| 00:22:55.12 | Janelle Kellman | But as we know, we've received a large number of tourists. They may not be vaccinated at the same rate. So we may want to keep an eye on this as well. And then the last thing I'll mention is the housing element subcommittee that I serve on with council member Cleveland Knowles. We did receive a response to our RFP or our request for proposal for the housing element update. We have some interviews scheduled for next week. And we're also gonna be putting together the notice to solicit applications to join the subcommittee. We are hoping to distribute the applications mid-May with probably a due date at the end of the month for applications. So if you have any questions about that, don't hesitate to reach out to myself or council member Cleveland-Norles. |
| 00:23:32.18 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, great. Thanks very much. Council Member Blyalstein, would you like to go next? I saw that you took your mute off, so I figured you were ready to go. |
| 00:23:37.23 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:23:37.36 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:23:37.38 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:23:40.96 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:23:41.01 | Melissa Blaustein | anticipating it there happened you're on it tonight Yeah, I like following vice mayor because we both do work on climate. So there's an easy segue. Okay. |
| 00:23:44.11 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. Yeah. |
| 00:23:50.34 | Melissa Blaustein | And so the sustainability commission is meeting again this Thursday, but I wanted to share in the meantime, how hard it worked their committees have been. The sustainability commission has a variety of committees that work. and meet on key climate related issues pretty much every week. And so they've submitted their quarterly updates to staff, which I'm hoping that the council will be able to review and take a look at. But I do know that the energy committee is formally recommending a policy for the city. The transportation committee is developing financial options now for the city's EV charging infrastructure, working with MCP to plug into the countywide EV charging network plan. And they are thinking about revising the sustainability and resilience hubs, which we've talked about as locations for in the event of a disaster or if there's a need for charging or otherwise to think about how we might change location to prioritize Bayside MLK, given the significance of the school for our community and how we can do more there. I also attended a Library Board of Trustees meeting and some exciting news, I'm not sure. which we'll probably hear about in the budget and the COVID report, but the library is open for browsing. And so folks have been able to come back into the library for the first time, which is very exciting. So great work to Abbott and everyone on his team and getting the library back up and running for browsing. excited about that. Also at the library board of trustees meeting, there was a robust conversation around budget and the board of trustees are working on having a special subcommittee to discuss what their priorities are for budgets. We'll be hearing from them. as well and that's it since our last council meeting so thanks Thank you. |
| 00:25:26.66 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks for having me. |
| 00:25:26.96 | Melissa Blaustein | much councilmember sobieski |
| 00:25:28.64 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:25:29.41 | Ian Sobieski | I'll add on to our vice mayor's report on the machine shop, just to note that she helped organize a meeting with Vicki Nichols that was super productive in terms of downloading her long her encyclopedia of information about that property, been added to our working group on that issue. So thanks to Vicki and her continued engagement on that. Um, On EDAC, I attended their monthly meeting. And as you know, it's on the agenda or in the agenda, there's a letter from EDAC outlining a variety of proposals. that align with the tasks that this city council assigned to EDAC. Much of that is in the presentation. I still hope we can have them present so that we can engage them with the Q&A primarily because their proposals are cost negative to the city. There are a variety of proposals to answer the challenge with streamlining. our permitting process that actually will cost money up front, are modeled to generate revenue and net revenue to the city. that we should make sure we engage with them. There are other proposals around implementing a marketing campaign for our town. co-sponsoring local events for regional visitors and for residents. um, pursuing A partnership with the state's Visit California campaign to encourage California residents to visit us here. and direct support for merchants through our Love Sal Salido Emergency Fund campaign. Um, So these are encapsulated in a letter, which if anyone has not read in the public or on the council, I highly recommend it's detailed and the result of hundreds of hours of work. I also attended the monthly Parks and Rec Commission meeting, was busted because we didn't have a quorum. Nevertheless, there was a discussion informally around what was on the agenda. proposal. from the Saucyutu Arts Festival about where to actually hold their event. in September. The two candidate locations are Delphi Park and MLK Park, and there is a clear preference on the part of the organizers for one of those too. It's a matter that the Parks and Rec Commission is going to engage in in their meeting which will hopefully have a quorum tomorrow night at 6 o'clock. So anyone in the public has an interest in this question about whether The Sausalito Arts Festival will be held in either King Park or in Dunphy Park, Tomorrow night is the commission meeting at which you can attend and listen and provide your public comment. On the consent agenda, you'll note that there is also a proposal to increase the of the Parks and Rec Commission by two seats, which will allow us to report the person who wanted to volunteer, but we didn't have room for it because of our previous cap, |
| 00:28:23.28 | Ray Dieter | to do. |
| 00:28:26.45 | Ian Sobieski | And this will also help decrease the chances of not having a quorum. Thank you. |
| 00:28:32.13 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, thank you to all of our city council members for all of your hard work and, everything that you do in addition to attending these city council meetings and work on various other exercises. Of course, we love all our commissions equally, but I will note if you haven't read the EDAC report, I think the 30 page report that's attached to the record, is quite interesting and obviously the result of a substantial amount of work. And so we're happy to have that and that insight and guidance from EDAC. So Well done on that. Not to say that we don't love all of our part, our, all of our commissions equally, just to make that clear. um, |
| 00:29:11.03 | Janelle Kellman | Yes, the Vice Mayor has her hand up. Yes. Sorry, Mayor Hoffman. This isn't really a committee or subcommittee, but I did get some inquiries as to the status of the ferry. And so I just want to report out on that for everybody. So I reached out to Golden Gate Ferry and I was told that the final fit up of the replacement plating is now complete and welding of the new structure is underway. Right now, the best estimate for having to float back in place is mid-June, but we are trying to see if the shipyard has any additional welders to increase or streamline the production schedule so that we can have the float back in place in early June as opposed to mid-June. So we'll keep you posted on that, but I just want to make sure everybody was aware of that. |
| 00:29:52.49 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:29:52.81 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, great. |
| 00:29:53.98 | Jill Hoffman | for that update. Okay, then I will, if everybody's got all their updates, I'm going to open up the This item for public comment. I'm seeing. |
| 00:30:04.96 | Heidi Scoble | Two hands. Madam Mayor, that's correct. We have no hands raised at this time. |
| 00:30:10.97 | Jill Hoffman | Very good, I will close public comment. And we will move on to our consent calendar. Item five on our agenda. Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, are expected to have unanimous council support, and may be enacted by the council in one motion. There will be no separate discussion of consent calendar items. However, before the council votes on a motion to adopt the consent calendar items, council members, city staff, or members of the public may request that specific items be removed from the consent calendar for separate action. Items removed from the consent calendar will be discussed later on the agenda and public comment will be heard on any item that was removed from the consent calendar. There are six items listed on the consent calendar. I will now open up public comment. on the consent calendar. |
| 00:31:00.79 | Heidi Scoble | The mayor, we have one hand that's raised at this time. It's Ava Crisante. Ava, I've asked to unmute you and start your video. So you're ready to go. THE END OF |
| 00:31:10.71 | Jill Hoffman | some |
| 00:31:11.11 | Heidi Scoble | I'm sorry. |
| 00:31:11.18 | Eva Cresante | Can you hear me? |
| 00:31:11.62 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:31:11.99 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:31:12.24 | Eva Cresante | Yes, I can. Thank you. Yeah, I believe library is on the consent calendar. |
| 00:31:20.01 | Sandra Bushmaker | Yes. |
| 00:31:20.02 | Eva Cresante | Is that correct? So it's okay to address that now. Yeah, I think the issue of library presentations needs to be reviewed. I am going to say that the kind of unquestioning acceptance of a certain narrative by the head librarian who selects the library presenters has been problematic and I would point to the Andrew Henning choice as particularly problematic in light of the documents I received through the CPRA. And I was going to point out that one thing that was very simple to research and would have been simple for a librarian like Mr. Chambers to research is the effect of the ending of mail on the unhoused population. Not only was there mail cut off at Ritter Center, but also there's showers. And this, during this time, a 56-year-old woman died under the freeway overpass in Marin. She was a Stanford swimmer. She had been recruited to swim for Stanford. She was senior class president at Tam High a couple years ahead of me. Um, I swear we all swam on the same team in high school. She's a varsity swimmer. and quite accomplished she died that I went to visit the coroner today to look at the report and she died of acute diabetic ketoacidosis, she's insulin dependent. It's not clear. I should have more details soon, whether she actually had access to insulin at the time of her death. very very much could have been complicated by the cessation of her mail access, I did find that she had had a Ritter Center mailbox. So if these are the types of public officials that you're promoting through your library presentation, I think you need to take a serious look at your librarian. Your two minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:33:19.06 | Jill Hoffman | The year two minutes has elapsed. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Thank you, thank you for sharing that with us. |
| 00:33:23.40 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Our next participant is Sybil Boutillier and then Charlene Eldon. Sybil, you've been asked to be unmuted and start your video. |
| 00:33:38.10 | Sybil Boutillier | Hi. Yes, I wanted to speak to the issue of the COVID-19 update. which I believe is part of the consent calendar. One thing that isn't included in the staff report, it came in late, is that we are going to be having of vaccinations in South Salido this Friday. The Marin County Mobile Vaccination Unit will be giving free vaccines. at the Marin. Excuse me, at MLK Park Gymnasium. On Friday, May 14th, from 12 noon to 2 30 in the afternoon. And this will be with Pfizer, And both first and second doses are available. And also Johnson's we approved one on one and done. vaccine will also be available. And this is for anybody age 16 to 100 plus. And the younger folks, minors, need to be accompanied by a pair of guardians. No appointments are necessary. Drop in, I'll be there. There'll be a welcoming crew from the county and... Mike Langford has generously helped us to set this up in the gym. And I wanna thank him. Let everyone know that they're welcome to come if they need to be vaccinated, or if they need a second one, if they have the first Pfizer at least 21 days ago, then they're welcome to come and get their second. even if they're late to get it. please come and we want everyone vaccinated. Thank you. |
| 00:35:22.08 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks Sybil. Let me, and so that's at the MLK gym. Give us a date and time. |
| 00:35:27.02 | Sybil Boutillier | Thank you. |
| 00:35:27.78 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:35:27.80 | Sybil Boutillier | Okay, it's this Friday, May 14th, from 12 noon to 2 30 in the afternoon. And that's at Martin Luther King Park. Okay. |
| 00:35:40.00 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. is, yeah. Very good. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you. |
| 00:35:47.02 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Charlene Eldon. Charlene, you've been asked to be unmuted. |
| 00:35:58.99 | Colleen Eldon | Bye, thank you. I also like to comment on the library and their presentations, especially in light of the research that has been presented to Abbott Chambers, the head of the library by Ava Crisanti, who has done her own research at personal expense and was censored from it. Andrew Henning. who we now know, thanks to the same person is probably culpable in this woman's death and how many other homeless people's deaths And I hope that the rest of the people in Sausalito listening can really think about that because I've seen next door posts and emails from basically everyone about how to get rid of the homeless people. Well, this is how you do it. and this is the price you pay even if it's a hidden cost. So I hope that there can be less censorship of the library presentations, but also more scrutiny of the speakers and what kind of message they're trying to promote. I will say, I liked Alex Schaefer's Sorry, Dr. Alex Schaffer. who presented on affordable housing being an environmental solution. on top of so many other things. instead of providing that people are concerned that the homeless population hasn't paid enough in real estate taxes. to deserve a park or a view. leaving out the entire context of murder and terror from the sheriff, the SWAT raid. the constituents, the harbor master. I assume I'm over time, thank you. |
| 00:37:49.55 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Um, |
| 00:37:51.25 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:37:51.64 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:37:51.96 | Heidi Scoble | Any other hands, Madam Clerk? Madam Mayor, there are no hands raised at this time. Okay, thank you. Sybil Boutillier raised her hand again. |
| 00:38:04.10 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I think I think she's already... I think she already. Okay, Sybil, let's look to Sybil. Just in case she needs to correct the only because of the COVID-19 and if she needs to correct the information she gave us. |
| 00:38:24.90 | Sybil Boutillier | Thank you so much. Actually, I just meant to add one thing and that is that There will also be a vaccination event for anchor outs and encampment dwellers and their visitors on Thursday morning. May 13. And that's at the, it's at, and that is at the encampment okay great |
| 00:38:44.26 | Jill Hoffman | And that is, I'm sorry. |
| 00:38:47.09 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:38:47.51 | Sybil Boutillier | Thanks for having me. Okay. Yeah, the general public is Friday and a number of people at the camp did already have their first shots. So they'll have the opportunity to have their second shots. at that time. |
| 00:39:00.63 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, understood. Thank you for that. Thank you. |
| 00:39:02.69 | Sybil Boutillier | I'm not sure. |
| 00:39:02.82 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, now moving on, I see no other hands up. And so I'm gonna close public comment. for consent calendar. And do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? |
| 00:39:16.79 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | uh mayor i'd be happy to make a motion to approve the consent calendar but i did also just want to note that um I don't know if you've been in discussions with Abbott Chambers, but we had asked him back early in COVID to provide an update at every meeting. And I would just note that, you know, the information is getting more kind of routinized and that given the fact that the library is opening, that perhaps we could leave it at staff's discretion whether or not to have a COVID update every meeting you know i mean obviously if there's news or something changes then we would love that but i i do know i'm sure that |
| 00:39:52.62 | Ray Dieter | you know, I mean, |
| 00:39:59.15 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Our director of communications is very busy. and that perhaps That's not kind of a necessary thing. I had originally, the council had originally asked for it last year. given the urgency and the changing, constantly changing information, but it does seem like we're entering a different phase at this point. |
| 00:40:18.84 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you for that. I think that's a That's a good point. And I'll leave that to the city manager to follow up with Abbott to see if his input on that and what he thinks. |
| 00:40:31.11 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | That's fine, or the agenda setting committee, however you want to handle it. It's fine with me, I just thought I would bring it up. |
| 00:40:33.79 | Jill Hoffman | here. |
| 00:40:36.36 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | No, thank you. |
| 00:40:36.46 | Jill Hoffman | that. |
| 00:40:37.62 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so that I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar. |
| 00:40:38.08 | Janelle Kellman | with that. Thank you. |
| 00:40:41.64 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Oh, sorry. It looks like council member Blastain had a comment. |
| 00:40:45.03 | Melissa Blaustein | That's my blasting. I'm okay. with moving forward to approve the consent calendar, but I just wanted to note on the topic of the consolidation of the corporate yard with Mill Valley, I know that it showed that the rate for the payment at this point is 60, 40 between Mill Valley and Sausalito. And I would just note that Mill Valley is at least twice the size of Sausalito. So as we go forward in the conversation, if we could have another presentation about a fully agreed upon rate that might be more representative of the size of each of the municipalities. |
| 00:40:55.29 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:40:55.31 | Ray Dieter | I'm going to go ahead and get a |
| 00:41:15.54 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Okay, so we have a motion. Do we have a second? Anybody want to second the motion to approve the consent calendar? Second. I'll say that. Have a good one. There's a tie between the vice mayor And |
| 00:41:31.57 | Janelle Kellman | And kill them her glasses. Thank you. |
| 00:41:33.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:41:33.58 | Jill Hoffman | button real quickly. |
| 00:41:34.44 | Janelle Kellman | different |
| 00:41:35.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:41:35.14 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:41:36.06 | Jill Hoffman | What's that? Okay. I'm gonna deem it seconded by flip a coin, council member Blaustein. So, um, All right, Madam Clerk, can you please take the roll? Council member. |
| 00:41:50.96 | Heidi Scoble | Esquire. |
| 00:41:51.57 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:41:52.41 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Blaustein? Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. Yes. Vice Mayor Kelman? |
| 00:41:58.19 | Jill Hoffman | Mayor. |
| 00:41:59.35 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:41:59.45 | Jill Hoffman | this. |
| 00:42:00.28 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:42:01.58 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, thank you. Moving on, item six in our, Agenda public hearing items. There are no public hearing items this evening. So moving on to item seven. And exactly on time at 7.45 is the, as estimated on calendar on our agenda. Business items. Item seven, business items, we have three. Sorry, we have two items on our business, no, sorry, three. Three. Now with the amended agenda, we have three items on our business calendar tonight. And our first item is from Uh, accept the report on general strategy related to addressing capital improvement program projects for fiscal year 2021-22 Uh, And it's going to be given by our very hardworking Director of Public Works, Kevin McGowan, and our equally hardworking Interim Finance Director, Charlie Francis. Kevin, you have a tie on and I see your video on, so I'm guessing you're going to kick us off. |
| 00:43:08.76 | Kevin McGowan | That's right. Good evening, mayor and city council members. I have a presentation for you this evening and I know we need to move it along. So I'm gonna share my screen at this point in time. And I am hoping that you can see my presentation. |
| 00:43:24.23 | Jill Hoffman | I can see your presentation. |
| 00:43:26.93 | Kevin McGowan | Oh. Well, there we go. Oops. Okay, thank you so much. And I'm Kevin McGowan with the Department of Public Works. So good evening. Tonight I'm working in conjunction with the finance department and Charlie Francis. We have prepared a short presentation for the capital improvement program for fiscal year 21-22. I'd also like to thank our DPW staff. They have worked super hard over the last year and they have helped me with this presentation as well. So thank you everybody for all your assistance. There are several topics I'd like to cover this evening. For your review this evening, we have developed a draft six-year capital improvement program. It's called the CIP. The CIP is intended to narrow the focus of the general plan goals and strategic plan goals to specific projects that maintain the current infrastructure as well as address important goals and directives of the council. Tonight we will be going over the process utilized this year to develop the draft CIP for fiscal year 2021, excuse me, 21-22. Keep in mind that this is a planning document. The budget stated in this document, or more like budgets for each project, are estimates and are utilized to develop general allocations for each fiscal year. A CIP is generally developed each fiscal year and is included in the budget as it is developed for the city. This presentation is intended to present staff's recommendation on which projects should be implemented in the next fiscal year. |
| 00:45:05.95 | Ray Dieter | Yeah. |
| 00:45:24.14 | Kevin McGowan | This year we have followed a rather complex and multi-step process to develop a list of projects for the draft fiscal year 21-22 capital improvement program. We followed our standard process for maintaining a list of projects from previous fiscal years. that have not been implemented. and reached out to department directors to solicit for additional projects that may have come up over the last year. In addition, DPW staff has reached out to Council subcommittees such as PBAC. Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee, and the Sustainability Advisory Committee as well. to further develop a list of projects. Staff utilizes a reading system which generally prioritizes safety projects as a high priority. but we also asked the subcommittees for their top three projects with the hope of developing these projects, even if they are not specifically considered safety projects. A good example of this is the installation of EV charging stations at City Hall. This project is not related to safety issues, but is important to the community as well as the council. With this staff has developed a list of more than 80 projects to be considered for the capital improvement program, which is a six year program for fiscal year 21-22. Staff has also developed rough estimates for costs of each project as well as identified their potential funding sources. This may change as these projects are developed. Based on the priority mentioned earlier, each project staff then developed a list of primary and secondary projects. to be considered for implementation in fiscal year 21-22. As the current active projects are being completed, Public Works will move forward with implementing the primary projects and then as those are finished in the next fiscal year, Will is suggesting to implement the secondary projects. In 2021, the city and the country were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even while the pandemic influenced many things, we currently do the active capital projects started before the pandemic needed to move forward. Oops, I think I'm on the wrong slide there. There we go. Excuse me. Some very important projects were completed last year, including the street resurfacing, and the work at Dunphy Park. as well as the permanent restoration of the slide area between Sausalito Boulevard and Crescent Avenue. The total. The total of these projects is over $7 million, which is significant with our limited staff, as well as the fact that these were completed during a pandemic. We currently are not finalizing or bringing the notice of completion for the dump fee park phase one project to the council because we are still in a dispute with our prime contract. |
| 00:48:47.93 | Kevin McGowan | The city currently has more than 18 projects that we are working on. Some of these are almost completed, such as South view park, while others, are in their initial design phase. Staff has re-examined the budgets of these projects and determined that additional funding is necessary to complete the work. For example, the cost of the soil stockpile removal was not originally anticipated when the Dumpy Park project was initiated. However, the removal of this material is necessary based on the fact that the majority of the material contains levels of lead that exceed the state thresholds. In addition on some of my documentation, I have missed one of the projects as well. So Caledonia Street should be on here. And since this is a draft document, I will modify it to at least show Caledonia as an active project. SO I JUST WANTED TO MENTION THAT, I tend to make mistakes too. All right, as noted earlier, there are more than 80 projects to be considered for the implementation in the next six years. The list of these projects is included in attachment one. The list of projects is broken into categories and that helps us kind of develop the document itself. And they are separated into the categories shown on your screen right here. |
| 00:50:15.37 | Kevin McGowan | When considering priority projects, staff recognize that projects with grant funding should take a precedence since many grants have specific timelines and requirements. During the year, there are repairs and maintenance projects that cannot be performed by our current staff. This may be because we do not have equipment, specific equipment or specific manpower to perform this type of work. And as such, staff is recommending setting aside funding for each category to address these type of maintenance costs. Other high priority projects related to the priority categories developed as well as interactions with the subcommittees are noted as the 13 projects in attachment to. And this is noted as a priority project list. The list is noted on this slide as you can see and And I'll take a, I'll present one more slide a little bit later on here to talk about some of the highlighted projects that we need the council's assistance with as far as kind of prioritization. In addition, staff has developed a secondary project list. The intent is to address these projects as staffing and funding becomes available. Council is welcome to move some of these projects on this list forward from the secondary to the primary project list and vice versa, depending upon whatever you choose. |
| 00:51:55.64 | Kevin McGowan | As noted earlier, several of our active projects will need additional funding to implement. This allocation influences the amount of funding available for the CIP. and the new CIP projects in fiscal year 21-22. Of particular importance is the soil stockpile removal at Dunphy Park, which is estimated to be close to $900,000 once we include some of the construction management and some other things that have to go into that soil removal. Staff estimates that an additional 1.28 million is necessary to support the current active projects. A copy of the list is included in the draft CIP document, which is included as attachment four. And that's a pretty large document for you to review. But I'll go through some of those stuff in that document to assist you in a minute. In reviewing the active project, excuse me, In reviewing the active projects and primary projects and secondary projects, staff has provided an estimate of these costs in your packet. Attachment 2 shows the proposed primary projects, while Attachment 3 provided the primary plus secondary projects, project listings and costs. A total cost of $5.2 million is estimated to be needed to support active, primary, and secondary projects in 2021. |
| 00:53:32.20 | Kevin McGowan | Over the last fiscal year, staffing in many departments within the city has been significantly reduced to address funding shortfalls due to COVID-19. Currently we have approximately 1.5 FTE assisting with capital projects. This includes the department director, that's me, our maintenance manager and our senior engineer that would stepping in to take care of capital projects However, we do have other separate tasks that we can't always dedicate our time to specific capital projects such that we do need assistance with these. based on the number of projects on the active primary project list, for fiscal year 2021, staff is recommending allocation of additional funding to secure a project manager excuse me, a project management firm to administer the projects at an estimated cost of $230,000. In the staff report, we note that the additional funds are needed to manage these projects from the list. If we backfill the positions that were impacted by COVID-19, we can reduce this cost, but we won't necessarily be able to address all of the projects on the list with simply backfilling the position that we had prior to COVID-19. And one of the ways I paraphrase this is, a project manager can only handle so many projects at one time, generally about eight. Now we could spread these over about a year and make this happen. However, there are quite a few projects on the list that we will need more assistance in order to make that happen. All right, almost done folks. So in your packet this evening are four attachments. Attachment one through three are fairly self-explanatory and include lists of projects as noted earlier, attachment four is a draft six-year CIP. This document contains all the listed, all the lists previously provided, and also includes a list of sorted prioritized projects on page 58. It also includes a list of our active projects on page 29 and a summary of the rating systems at the end of the document. So if you need to look at that, kind of trying to guide you through that big document towards the end. Um, The document also includes individual project summaries under each category for reference. And this document helps staff and the public with clarifying the details of each project. |
| 00:56:31.57 | Kevin McGowan | Earlier, I mentioned one project on the proposed list that we feel is important to discuss with the council. I've labeled this as the Climate Change Adaptation Plan. I'm not sure if that's the correct label. So I wanted to reach out to everybody to let us know that. The intent of this project is to identify specific projects in Sausalito in which we need to start the design process and develop a design package in order to have a shovel ready project. Um, when we have a shovel ready project, it will be more appealing to those who have grant funds in order to fund this and get things moving very quickly. Staff essentially needs kind of a roadmap. Tell us what we need to do in order to protect against some of the climate change that is happening throughout the state. This can include sea level rise, it can include fire protection. It can include other things as well. The city of Puerto Madera developed one of these documents, which helps their public work staff pinpoint what they need to start designing and it helps them also apply for grants. Let's see, in addition, impacts related to settlement and inland flooding and other items could be addressed with this, whatever we wanna call this particular plan. So I wanted to bring it up because as your public works director, I think it's important that we really start looking down in the future of how we're going to address some of these climate changes. Staff is recommending including the essential, the estimated costs to implement the current active projects and include the funding necessary to implement the primary projects noted in the attachments as shown in the staff report. Steph also recommends setting aside a minimum of $230,000 if we do not backfill our current positions at this point in order to assist with the project management and move these projects forward. All right, one more project as I'm kind of finishing up here. There is a project on our list that is known as the Marin Ship Infrastructure Engineering Study. And it's noted in the big document attachment four. And it was noted by EDAC as a high priority project. I think. This project is summarized on page 109 of attachment 4. And the way I've listed this is that we were not starting this project until several years in the future. So I wanted to reach out to Council to ask them, to ask yourselves, do we want to move this particular project forward and maybe start it this fiscal year or maybe listed as starting it next fiscal year? It's an important project to address some of the infrastructure issues in the Marin ship and try to move those type of projects forward. Um, Please keep in mind that this is a planning document. Project costs will change as their scope is refined. At this point, we're kind of guessing a little bit about what the project is. It's an educated guess as far as its cost. In addition, we welcome councils, the staff welcomes council's input into the list of priority projects and can modify the draft 21. a 21, 22 capital improvement program per your direction. Thank you so much for your time. And we do appreciate all your help with this, especially all the subcommittees as well. They've done a great job to work with me. And I do want to reach out to those who have really taken a strong step into helping me with the CIP. So thanks again. And I will stop sharing my screen at this point. |
| 01:00:49.79 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. Thank you, Director McAllen, for that tremendous effort to put this I always, documents together and present us with this plan. So I know that was a heavy lift for you guys at a very busy time. Thank you. um for you and your department. So thank you. did okay I noticed that Charlie was or our interim finance director. Did he have something to add on this? |
| 01:01:14.97 | Chris Zapata | Madam Chair if I might, Manager Raines and Charlie please do join in. I wanted to just make a few comments on context. We do have Charlie available this evening. The Director of Public Works has done a fabulous job. |
| 01:01:14.98 | Jill Hoffman | Madam Chair, I'm not. |
| 01:01:29.97 | Chris Zapata | In context, this is part of your budget discussions we have said that every meeting will talk about pieces of your budget that are coming together for adoption this evening the intent is to lay out for you what public works has seen listen to you and heard listen to the community in terms of the list of projects and develop an approach you heard uh director mcgallan referring to the need for uh assistance in terms of a capital works project manager the intent this evening is that you begin for the first time excuse me to look at this and add or delete projects that you feel having heard what you've heard as an elected official have we missed anything Is there something that's on there that is not a priority for the community that should be deleted and give direction going forward as to any modifications for the budget process. Charlie, if you want to add to the context, I see your name, would you join us please? |
| 01:02:35.76 | Charlie Francis | No, that's exactly what I was going to say. You know, the first year of the CIP generally becomes the capital budget and the adopted budget. And so this would be the time to prioritize the projects. |
| 01:02:50.55 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Manager Raines for that. And so just to be clear though, This is not the final word on this. This is a first look for the council This is the first opportunity for us as a group to provide input is not to say this isn't going to change later or that we're not going to |
| 01:03:05.23 | Janelle Kellman | Correct. |
| 01:03:10.78 | Jill Hoffman | revisit things as we move through the budget process. So as we move through the budget process, it's going to become clearer. And I think easier, not easier, it's never easy, but clear on what to prioritize, right? So things are gonna adjust a little bit. But at this point, this is a big document, right? This is a lot of information to... to synthesize. This is the first opportunity for the council to really look at it together and also for the public to take a look at it. So this is kind of the road we're thinking. uh, That is the. the input from our public works director, our very able and smart public works director. and how it ties into finance, which is why Charlie's on, and then you know we will continue this conversation right so this is the last conversation so this is the first Um, Yep, okay. All right. Based on that, do we have any questions from our council members? Yes, council member Sobieski. |
| 01:04:10.38 | Ian Sobieski | I have a question for Kevin. Kevin, thank you for the great presentation. brought up the question of shovel-ready projects. in regards to climate change infrastructure investments. And that provokes the question I have more broadly about the strategy, the high-level strategy of preparing numerous capital projects to be shovel-ready so that if They're on the shelf and ready to go. when potential sources of funding might be identified. My understanding, and perhaps Council member Cleveland knows to help me out on this is that There have been some projects, for instance, relating to bicycle lanes or what not, that we may have had a shot at getting funding for. but missed out on because our, um, process required meant that the project wasn't actually meeting the criteria of shovel-ready. And so we sort of have a habit or a process, I believe, of waiting until the money is identified before we do a design. And I'm wondering if strategically we should invest in flipping that on its head, at least for some set of projects, where we have designs that are done approved, ready to go on the shelf. and even made known to the public and to the council so that people can work on trying to find funding sources for them. so they can be implemented. There you go. There's my question, and I'm curious if you are respected. |
| 01:05:40.82 | Kevin McGowan | That's exactly why I brought up that one project that's where we have to identify some of, I'm gonna reference sea level rise, but if we can identify where these are, where we want to look at these projects specifically, it would be good to develop a design for those. And then when funding becomes available, such as local hazard mitigation funds or other type of funding, we can simply apply for that very quickly And probably be ahead of other folks in order to get this funding. The project that you mentioned had to do with seeking funding for a project which was to put in some bike lanes down on Sausalito Boulevard between Princess and Richardson. And, TAM was suggesting that we could apply for that money. However, they were looking for shovel ready projects and this was not shovel ready. And therefore, we didn't make the cut. So if we can get these things ready upfront, I think we'll be much better off in. obtaining outside funding to support these projects. |
| 01:06:48.99 | Ian Sobieski | So following up on that, Director McGowan, my question really is then whether, in terms of feedback or a question for my colleagues, whether we should have a policy of putting on the shelf. some shovel-ready projects across the spectrum of different categories that we have, the low-hanging fruit, let's say. so that if and when we find these sources of money, whether they be from a in infrastructure spending or transportation spending or climate change grants, that we have something to pull off the shelf uh, to apply for and of course that requires an investment of our money up front to do the design so it can't be done for free. spend a little money to load the move the top of the hopper with a couple of shovel-riding projects, but we have to commit to spending that money, even though we don't have the money to, actually execute on the right. |
| 01:07:39.50 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. So that's a good question too. I would not necessarily say that in each category we would want to look at this. However, we have to look where the money may be coming from, from the state and federal sources. And I know that Council member Susan Cleveland Knowles being on the TAM board has a good idea of what may be coming down the pike as well. But I'm looking at, at more at the federal level as well. seeing that there might be this type of funding coming in in order to protect against things like sea level rise or climate change in some way. So we need to be ready for those type of projects with those type of projects so that we can acquire that funding. |
| 01:08:22.53 | Jill Hoffman | So let me weigh in here, especially on climate change and sea level rise. This was exactly a subject that we talked about at our last sea level rise meeting, exactly this point of looking at what projects, in the scope of what we might want to focus on on that committee task force. And to your point, Council Member Sobieski and Director McAllen, what's shovel ready and how we can be ready with our asks with grant requests. and, Anyway, to this exact point, I'm delighted that this is in our, that you had a special shout out to climate change because we are already well, underway with that effort, Director McCallum, but we were trying to leave you alone so you can get this done in a nice way, say it in a nice way. So like I said, I'm delighted, but I would love to have you come and talk at our C-level RISE Task Force, and so that we can get direction from you and coordinate with you on some of our efforts. So, I think that's great. So thank you so much for including that in your in your presentation, that's very exciting for us. So, okay, Council Member Blaston, yes, you have your hand up. |
| 01:09:42.89 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:09:43.23 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:09:43.26 | Melissa Blaustein | I just wanted to add on to that point that the sustainability commission was able to work with director McGowan and thank you very much on the EV charging and the how the importance of getting EV chargers in Sausalito And it's really great to see that three of the projects that are in the CIP came from the Sustainability Commission, the two of you charging sites, and then also the community resiliency hubs. So if you are gonna continue to present to, or meet with the sea level rise task force, I see that the vice chair or co-chair of the sustainability commission is on with his hand raised to get public comments. So he might speak to that, but I'm sure he would love to hear from you as well on shovel ready projects potentially and because they are very interested in moving helping move those forward as much as possible so I just wanted to add that point |
| 01:10:28.64 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Does anybody have any questions for Director McCown? Yes, Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. |
| 01:10:29.19 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:10:33.48 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:10:33.50 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, I do. And when we get to discussion, I would really like to talk more about the climate adaptation plan concept and kind of what that might be and what it might not be. And we'll hopefully have another council discussion on that. But in terms of just some specific items, so thank you, Director McGowan for Mentioning the MIRNSHIP Engineering Study, that was one item I didn't see on the more near-term lists that I would really like to see brought up Another issue is the pedestrian and bike advisory committee had talked about one collective project that is not only about the intersection of Napa and Bridgeway, which has had quite a lot of focus, especially as Dunphy Park gets more actively used and more pedestrians and bikes there. So the intersection right there was one thing that was very important, but they also proposed as part of the capital improvement plan that very, the higher injury section from Johnson to Bridgeway and Napa. So I think those potentially could be just one study. And I think that that's what they had proposed. So I just, you had it listed just as the NAPA Bridgeway intersection. So I just wanted to confirm that that could be broadened a little bit to include the entire portion of the corridor from Johnson down to that intersection. |
| 01:12:03.68 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. You're absolutely correct. And we would want to have some economy of scale as well so that if we're going to have somebody studying the intersection of Napa and Bridgeway, now is the right time to study the rest of the section that may have higher incident rates of accidents or problems. And so yeah, you've nailed it. So I think we do want to increase that. |
| 01:12:26.74 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Great, thanks. And I'm sorry I didn't ask you about this earlier, but I also just realized while we were talking, I didn't see the Richardson to Princess portion of Bridgeway. on the phase one or phase two. And I think we do have a very good chance of getting a planning grant to Council Member Sobieski So, I'm going to wait. after we had the discussion about that portion. So that's from Richardson to Princess on Bridgeway. And it's about bike improvements, very busy, congested area there. We have a very good chance of getting a planning grant from Bay Trails, and then that would, could, then if we could go back to TAM or another funding source could eventually get the capital money. to implement that. |
| 01:13:17.99 | Kevin McGowan | So I apologize. |
| 01:13:18.77 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | I miss it. |
| 01:13:19.31 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. I've renamed it slightly. It's noted as Bridgeway Bike Lanes Pilot Project Design. And it's. It's in the primary project list. Its number for a project number is 21T-004. So it's on there. |
| 01:13:35.91 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Great, thank you. Those were my questions. Okay. |
| 01:13:41.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Any other questions for Director McCowan before we go to public comment? |
| 01:13:47.42 | Janelle Kellman | I'm gonna jump in here if that's okay. Thank you so much, Director McGowan. really a heavy lift. I know it was and it was extremely thorough. and it's I think going to really require all hands on deck A couple of questions for you. And again, as the mayor mentioned, I'm also ecstatic to see that climate change and climate adaptation is included in your IN YOUR THINKING HERE, What efforts or outreach or collaboration opportunities have you identified with neighboring communities like quarter Madera, as an example, to work on these issues. So I'll just give you a quick little anecdote. They originally named their climate change adaptation a plan as well. And then they ended up calling it an assessment and they had a series of reasons why it became an assessment over a plan. And the fact that it became an assessment over plan really influenced how they prioritize some of the capital improvement projects. So, Is that something that public works directors do that you're sort of sharing that information already? Or is there anything that we can do as a council to help you? Because I think there's lots of lessons learned there and I want to leverage that information. |
| 01:15:02.67 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. Well, we have public works directors, obviously in Marin County have a Marin County Public Works Association. And so we've been sharing these type of ideas And lucky for me, I've worked with RJ before in Cordo Madera. So, you know, he's a great guy. we wanted to, kind of reach out to any kind of community that might have shoreline against the bay itself. And I can see us reaching out specifically when we get to sea level rise with the county and the Bay Wave program. That's our starting point. We need to start there and then start to focus down in to find out which projects we want to implement. there are obviously other items we want to address as well. impacts due to let's say fire we want to work with our fire departments and that's including the the new agency that's developed at the county itself i forget the acronym at this point so sorry about that But all these, we do have to reach out to all these other agencies to find out how we're going to work together and make more of a uniform approach across the county of Marin And that way we can reach out to federal funding, not just Sausalito, but really in Marin County altogether. to have economies of scale to develop these type of projects. So I hope that answers your question. |
| 01:16:24.95 | Janelle Kellman | No, that's great. I'm glad you're thinking along those lines. Sort of related to that, and I just want to flag it, and I think the council can hopefully be helpful to you on this with our various subcommittee appointments, but to Council Member Sobiesi's question about something being shovel ready, I think it depends on how you characterize the project. And so I just want to express my support for you and your concept around having somebody manage these things, because I think we're going to find that a project could be a climate change project, but it could also be a disaster preparedness project. It could also be a sea level rise project. And how you characterize it opens up very different grant monies. And so if there's a way for us to help you, and maybe just more constant communication or feedback between council members and our committees, I would love to do that. Because, for example, FEMA now has pre-hazard mitigation monies through their BRIC program. Well, that BRIC program may actually allow us to plan for some coastal resiliency for a sea level rise project, but we wouldn't think about it because it's a prehazard mitigation. So just that type of shared learning would be interesting. So I just want to say I support your sort of idea that we have some way to manage all these things, but how we characterize it will change the shovel readiness of it, I think. |
| 01:17:41.24 | Kevin McGowan | That sounds great. Any help that we can work together with? It's going to be great. So I really appreciate it. |
| 01:17:47.18 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, sorry, just two more questions. So we talked a little bit about the Marin Ship Infrastructure Engineering Study. I guess I have a question around how are we utilizing past resources and past staff reports to help influence. So I'm thinking of a 2011 engineering study that former DPW Director Jonathan Goldman put together regarding flooding on Gate 5 Road. So he did the study. The information is there. The staff report exists. He presented eight engineering options for addressing that type of flooding on Gate 5, right by Heath. It's great information, right? We shouldn't lose track of that. How does your department leverage sort of historic staff reports, historic research as these things become more salient as conditions change. |
| 01:18:33.15 | Kevin McGowan | That's a, it's a great, decent question. I mean, that's our starting point. We want to take, we want to step backwards and look at all the staff reports that have come up Unfortunately, I don't have the depth of knowledge that I would like to as if I were here for 20 years. And so I reach out to some of my staff who says, I've heard of this before, let's go research it in this direction. |
| 01:18:48.07 | Ray Dieter | Thank you. |
| 01:18:48.12 | Janelle Kellman | Uh, |
| 01:18:48.52 | Ray Dieter | Thank you. |
| 01:18:56.17 | Kevin McGowan | But as some of you council members know, you have more depth of knowledge than I do in some of these. So I wouldn't mind reaching out to each one of you from on occasion, say, hey, have you heard of this? Can you help me in some way to give me a little history on how we got to where we are right now? So I'm anticipating with that specific project we'll probably need to work together in some way, maybe even have a subcommittee on it in some point in time, so that we can move forward with it in a way that is good with the council, as well as good for the community. |
| 01:19:29.38 | Janelle Kellman | Great, yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you for that. I know we'd all be happy to do that. And then just one last question for Director Francis. So I had mentioned in our budget workshop and then the subsequent budget conversation at the City Council meeting that I think it would be ideal for us to have a list of funds. So the balance in of itself is not really as useful without knowing how much the balance is available. for tactical or strategic or even black swan type spending So I am just wondering if Director Francis can give us an update on preparing a reference document that tells us the fund balances, the restrictions on each fund, an easy to understand reporting of each fund balance so that we can really look at the capital improvement program and understand what resources we have available. |
| 01:20:21.52 | Charlie Francis | Sure. I'm working on that. Let's see. I'm muted still. |
| 01:20:26.06 | Unknown | No, you're good. I can hear you. We can hear you. |
| 01:20:28.14 | Charlie Francis | Oh, okay. I mean, So here's, we're preparing a list of the funds and the balances. Now these are old balances. So the numbers are coming from old financial statements, We'll have that. We'll also have a reference document then Part of which is in your financial policies document today, and another one on whether they're legally or by policy restricted or not. So yes, we are working on that. |
| 01:20:56.66 | Janelle Kellman | And sorry, Dr. Francis, is it possible for that document to indicate how much of the fund is explicitly committed or allocated and what inflows to the fund are expected in the next, let's say four fiscal quarters? |
| 01:21:11.20 | Charlie Francis | Yes, the budget will have that. |
| 01:21:14.91 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. Yeah, I just want sort of a cheat sheet, I guess for the council. So we're all on the same page when we were understanding that the money's available for this program. |
| 01:21:23.27 | Charlie Francis | Stream of that, yeah. |
| 01:21:26.80 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:21:26.81 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, thanks. Okay. Yes, Council Member Blastey, I see that you have your hand up. But virtually and past |
| 01:21:35.47 | Melissa Blaustein | Peace. I had a question, two questions for, for, Director Francis. So I noticed that one of the categories, one of the clear categories for the CIP is sewer and stairs. And we're obviously in the process of a sewer consolidation. So will these projections for the CIP for the next six years remain consistent with the sewer consolidation? And if not, Do we have a plan to adjust or should we expect that the funds will remain the same |
| 01:22:04.12 | Charlie Francis | And the rates for sewer were set by, a rate hearing that was held a couple years ago and those rates will be in effect for a few more years. So those rates generate revenues for cash capital projects. In other words, rate generated capital projects. Then there were sewer revenue bond capital projects that were identified in that rate study that were finishing up that are in process now or have been identified for completion to use up the rest of that sewer revenue bond money. So. for the consolidation. The sewer consolidation won't, what we're doing now won't affect the rates nor the capital improvement plan. |
| 01:22:46.26 | Melissa Blaustein | And then another question I have for you in looking at some of the projects that are currently ongoing from last year, things like, Dumpy Park. I saw the amount of projections for the budget for this year, but not total spend. As we review the budget as a whole, can you include total spend on those projects so we can have kind of a horizon view? of this is how much has been spent, this is how much we expect to be spent before the product is completed. so that it's more Thank you. |
| 01:23:10.64 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. And that should be something that is naturally completed. I mean, a lot of the history is there, but it just needs to be recompiled. So we'll do our best to get that for you as well. |
| 01:23:22.29 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, great, thanks. And then I had one last question for you, Director McGowan, which was around community input. If you were to have a project manager or someone focused on potentially just specifically the capital improvements, which I would echo the vice mayor, I think that's just a really critical thing because it would really help us. for a variety of reasons, but one thing that I'm, |
| 01:23:41.20 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | the government. |
| 01:23:44.02 | Melissa Blaustein | really concerned with is just making sure that the community is aware. I noticed we didn't, I was surprised that we received very little public comment on these capital improvement projects because they relate to things like which you know where a crosswalk will be and where roads are going to be built and these are things that I hear from constituents about very frequently. And so I'm wondering if perhaps there was a way or if we had thought about a way to provide for more community input on where we might want to have a priority for some of these projects as we move forward. |
| 01:24:12.95 | Kevin McGowan | we always welcome community input in any shape or form generally. But what we're trying to do also is to utilize our subcommittees to help us with this. So we start discussing some of these projects such as with PBAC, Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee. And we bring up projects that are important to that committee. And the public is welcome to join those meetings and to voice their opinions on some of these projects as well. The other ones that may not be that specific, I'm always welcome to public input and tell me what you think. So my answer is yes, please. Feel free. |
| 01:24:55.59 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, and I'll point out too, this isn't the last time we're going to talk about it. our CIP you know, prioritization. This is the first time that we're looking at it as a council and for our community. So I would expect during a budget process, we would continue to have public comment and public input on prioritization. Um, Okay, so if there's no more questions, we're gonna move to, I'm gonna open public comment. for this item. And Madam Clerk, I'll just let you call. Next in order? |
| 01:25:26.88 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we have two hands raised at this time. We have Vicki Nichols and Greg Thompson. Vicki Nichols will go first. Vicki, you've been unmuted and asked to share your video. Thank you. |
| 01:25:36.16 | Unknown | Hi there, thanks very much. I appreciate Kevin's, but I think you can imagine that I'm curious as to what the Caledonia project is that's been omitted. So I think that would be difficult to look at this because we don't know what that is. There's been various things talked about there that some are permitted under the emergency COVID thing. talked about. permanently and I'm hearing from some people that when they go to the city, they're told they can have things for three years or they have to come back. So there's a lot of, confusion. about what is happening on the street And I would like to say that a group of us have been vocal to you and expressed our concerns about a permanent closing of Caledonia Street. possession of some case law and we will be pursuing that so with you So I just want that to be known that that may affect some of your other projects. So I appreciate Council Member Blaustein's comments. I frankly looked at this and I didn't see anything for Caledonia Street. And I know a couple other people didn't either. So they haven't come. And I would also say that the description for the project that Susan's interested in getting funded Is, more than uh, it's a little bit more descriptive or comprehensive than the way it's being described. It's talking about, removing the median on Bridgeway. And we know that Thank you. The 40 years I've been here, I think it's It's just prudent that you involve the public. it blows up later. And this kind of information is not getting out people don't go to BPAC in the middle of the day or whatever. So this is not the only way to learn this. And I think that paper- Two minutes hasn't left. |
| 01:27:38.16 | Heidi Scoble | THE END OF |
| 01:27:38.18 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:27:38.20 | Heidi Scoble | I'm super excited. |
| 01:27:38.97 | Jill Hoffman | That doesn't allow. |
| 01:27:41.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:27:41.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay? Next, please. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Greg Thompson has been unmuted. Hi, Greg. Welcome. |
| 01:27:53.60 | Greg Thompson | Hi everyone I want to thank Director McGowan for that excellent presentation of the projects and all of your work for us here in the city for yourself |
| 01:28:01.52 | Ray Dieter | THE CITY IS A CITY IS A CITY |
| 01:28:03.80 | Greg Thompson | The council members for all the sustainability work that you guys are focused on and doing, council member Blaustein, obviously council member Cleveland Knowles, Councilmember Kalman, everything. There's a lot of great focus here on how we can address the climate issues What I want to talk about is the EV charging network. We need one in the city. We need one across the county. The Sustainability Commission is working on that and we're working on the financial model and plan for it. We are now starting to work with MCEP on their plan for developing a network for the county so that we can, Plug into that. Um... and make sure we have a network for EV charging. It's critical for us. to do this. It's kind of like the analogy is with gas cars, you need gas stations. With EVs, you need EV charging as a network in your city for public charging as well as, of course, for homes. and business charging. And when you look at the pie chart of our emissions, the things that are causing the climate issues and the need for adaptation. The biggest emissions category by far is our transportation emissions. It's over 60%. And the next category is 30%, which is energy for our arms and businesses, which is nicely being taken care of by clean energy. The point here is that we've got an ounce of prevention that we have to work on to help prevent, you know, the pound of cure we'd have to pay for later. And the emissions is a huge category for us as a city to address transportation, the biggest category. And we need to help people get into their EVs and they need an EV network in order to feel comfortable to do that. So we need to think about this more broadly, again, collaborating with the county, which we're going to be working on. |
| 01:29:24.73 | Ray Dieter | that we're going to be |
| 01:29:50.48 | Greg Thompson | And I think we're going to collaborate obviously with director McGowan and with the city council on, where we want these EV chargers to go as part of our EV charging network in the city. |
| 01:29:59.64 | Heidi Scoble | The year 12 minutes has elapsed. Thank you. We have one more speaker, Peter Van Meter. Peter has been unmuted. |
| 01:30:16.27 | Peter Van Meter | Thank you and congratulations for the staff, tremendous effort put into this report. I see the $100,000 as a city's contribution for the Ferry Landside Improvement Project as a current active project, but I wonder about projecting additional funding to meet the design that is currently underway, the alternatives that are being considered by the council, the follow on study and so on. If this is a six year plan, I'm a little bit concerned that there's no evidence of additional funding being projected for this later phases of this project. And particularly since I understand the city may be getting substantial funds through the federal stimulus program, and that could make those dollars available for this project. So that's the question as to why the additional funding for future phases of that project are not in this long-range thinking. Thank you. |
| 01:31:09.54 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:31:09.56 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. We have one more speaker, Sandra Bushmaker. Sandra, |
| 01:31:14.03 | Sandra Bushmaker | it. Good evening, everybody. I hope you're seeing a relatively fog free tonight. It's really blowing up here in the hills, that's for sure. I wanted to speak on the capital improvements that we focus, and I'd sure like to see the council take this position, that we focus on public safety and public health as our top priorities for these various projects. I submitted two short letters to you, one about the North Street stairs and one about the the removal of the pile of toxic soil. And I'm happy to see that Uh, Chairman McGowan did raise that issue. So I'm happy to see that that's there, but I think the focus in the short haul needs to be our public health and safety. Frankly, Future parks, additional parks in downtown Sausalito is a very low priority in my book. Thank you so much. Thank you. |
| 01:32:17.53 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, I don't see any other hands raised at this point. Madam. |
| 01:32:21.16 | Heidi Scoble | I'm... You are correct. |
| 01:32:23.03 | Jill Hoffman | at this time. I'd like to ask one follow-up question. that Mr. Van Meter raised with Director McAllen. Can you address his question about the funding for the ferry landing and the federal funding that we're going to receive from that? As I understand that was his question. |
| 01:32:40.18 | Kevin McGowan | Well, I see this as two separate projects. In other words, the project that he's referring to is an active project for the Ferry Land Site Project. And so we're working on that one. And that has its own separate funding. which we've talked about before. There's a new project coming up where the local architects are looking at the general area around the Ferryland side to see how that can be improved in the future. Now I have not included that project. So I did take that note and I will add it to the six year CIP to take a look at that. At this point, it's in its preliminary phases. And I know that council member Sobieski is working with the architects as well, but we can work on some approximate costs and put something in the document so that we include it as well. |
| 01:33:27.10 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks very much. |
| 01:33:28.82 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yes, can I just add on to that? It may have been buried, I think one of the most kind of important and interesting parts of capital improvement plans to me and you know something I think that our director of public works put a lot of time into but it's not upfront in our staff report it was buried I think on page 52 to 50 of our staff report is what he was just referring to as the six year capital improvement plan. So it shows the plans for fiscal year 22, 23, 24, 25. And it shows a lot of the projects moving out So that even though you might only see $60,000 in this fiscal year that we're talking about right now, you can kind of see some of the projects marching forward in different fiscal years. So maybe we could just ask staff the next time we get this in front of us and also for the public to bring this report a little bit more to the forefront because I think it's a really helpful tool to see not only what we're prioritizing this year, but how we see things moving outward in time over the six year. improvement plan. planning period. |
| 01:34:36.93 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, thank you for that. Okay. Do we have any other comments from the council members at this point or the, the, I think the action, there's no action. It's receiving and provide feedback and direction. So. |
| 01:34:50.64 | Ian Sobieski | I'm a favorite. |
| 01:34:53.03 | Jill Hoffman | Go ahead. |
| 01:34:53.50 | Ian Sobieski | I- Thanks, Mayor. I think I would just underline to circle back with the director, Miguel and all of us. the question of whether we want to I'm a little thoughtful in establishing a policy of preparing capital improvement projects to a shovel-ready level of being. as the Vice Mayor pointed out, how some of these projects are characterized can make a big difference in where we can get funding for them. uh, Like, What I think happens in the real world is that we find the funding source, we hear about And that's the opportunity to apply for it. And there simply isn't enough time to go from from a general thought that we want to do a project to a shovel-ready design in the time it takes to apply for the funds. So it would have to be a kind of policy statement that we're going to invest a little bit of money in getting projects to a shovel ready point. I mean, it's going through all our own processes including the CEQA and perhaps other things, community feedback, and then having a design ready on the shelf to get funny. But I think that's gotta probably be a policy choice and less on the wrong. how this would work. So let me know if you think I am, but otherwise we might need to to kind of shift our SOP on some of these. |
| 01:36:19.73 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's a good point. I see Councilmember Cleveland Knowles has her hand up, but before I move on to that, let me... I was going to react to Councilmember Serbius. |
| 01:36:26.98 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | But go ahead now. |
| 01:36:28.75 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, yeah. Well, I don't disagree with Council Member Sobieski, but I'm trying to, uh, I'm trying to think about what that policy directive might be and whether or not we need a little bit more information to issue that kind of a policy directive from the council. To me, it would be, I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE We would request, you know, obviously input from Director McAllen on what that might look like. and how that might be implemented. And then that would inform our policy and what the policy statement would actually be. In other words, you know, would that be you know, something that would be assigned to somebody in public works to identify, would it be a list that we would Add to Um, throughout the year, although that doesn't sound right to me. So that's why I'm saying, I think we need some information from public works. So anyway, council member Cluenos might have some thoughts on that. |
| 01:37:26.07 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council Member Sobieski. I think that is what we're talking about with our capital improvement plan. is these early investments, as you can see, in fiscal year 21, 22, or 22, 23, on studies. And then the expectation that once the studies, the planning studies are done and some of the entitlements are gotten that we would be looking for funds out in your. you know, 23, 24, 24, 25. So, a successful capital improvement plan will have, some initial probably more than the ultimate number of projects that we end up either because we study it and we don't think it's a great idea or people lose interest or we don't have money. So I think I definitely agree with your approach, but I think it's also just baked in Um, to the process of a capital improvement plan. I think we might wanna be more thoughtful about it. And I really like staff's idea. at least tonight, maybe give directions. I like the idea of having additional staff to really monitor and work with our capital improvement plan so that they can make sure that enough projects are moving forward um, in the study and entitlement phase that by the time funding comes in, we do have shovel ready projects. So I'm very supportive of the proposal to have contracted program program management so that we can realize some of the goals. have had historically sort of two issues. And one is the opposite issue of the one you're talking about. We have a lot of great plans. South Gateway plan. Ferry landing to gate six feasibility study. We have the, you know, the, gate. five road project that that Vice Mayor was talking about earlier, in some ways we have a lot of plans that we haven't implemented. And then we also have this opposite problem that you're talking about right now, where, because, um, due to being short staffed, we don't have shovel ready projects. I think we just need I think it would be great to have a position in public works that's really focused on moving these things forward and making sure that we're always kind of in the right um, phase to take advantage of funding opportunities that come up Um, And then I had a few other comments, but if other people want to. weigh in on this particular one. I'll pause. |
| 01:40:04.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I see Vice Mayor Kelman has her hand up. Did you want to weigh in on this or? |
| 01:40:08.43 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, I disagree with everything that Council Member Cleveland Knowles and Council Member Sobieski were commenting on it. It feels like what we're really talking about is agreeing on a methodology and a process. And I know that we have a criteria for selection and we apply that criteria and weight each of them in order to figure out project we want to move forward with. But if we start with our goal of shovel ready or our goal of on a resiliency or climate adaptation, I think there are some different types of criteria that might need to be introduced. in order to BE ABLE TO PROVIDE THESE SHOVEL-READY PROJECTS THAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT. and I can't really, I guess, emphasize enough, that I think we do need to being a broad categories that these projects can fit into and whether it's fire preparedness, disaster preparedness, coastal resiliency, sea level rise, each of them have their own buckets for funding. Um, you know, part of the vetting should be does it fill three of those, four of those, five of those? And then if we have something to shovel ready, we know all the different sources of funding that we could potentially pursue. So I just want to introduce maybe an additional layer. I know Bay Wave was going to be coming up with some sea level rise criteria and filter for capital improvement programs. I'll take on the task of circling back with Chris Chu and the county to obtain that information to see if it's happening. But I think that's the type of stuff that will actually get us to shovel ready beyond simply saying, oh, we have a write up. I think it's actually, is it executable? |
| 01:41:39.67 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, I would love to tell him that I'm ignorant about what shovel-ready actually means. And it might be a technical term, actually, that varies from, project. type to project type. You can imagine with Biden's stimulus program, perhaps infrastructure program, that there might be a ton of money for laying asphalt. And even though some of our road improvement projects might be very low on our 30,000 priority list relative to other public safety issues. The money's just there, but it's only there if everything's tied up with the Baba and ready to go. So I don't know whether Council member Cleveland knows the kind of planning you're talking about is actually meaning the criteria of shovel rate, if it is, than, um, then perfect. But if it's, if there are more requirements, like CEPA or public input or a city council vote. with the whole process. Like my thought is to go through the whole process, get all the public input, everyone's He's for it and against it. have the drug and then, There's no money for it, but it's approved. It's on the shelf with a bow ready to go. Uh... |
| 01:42:46.90 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | No, I think you're right. It's not, it's already doesn't mean just planned. It means that you've done your public input, you've done your environmental review and that you've gotten your jurisdiction is either poised to approve it or has already approved it. And that's how I understand it. And so, yeah, we have a lot of plans but have not gone to that next level of. maybe gotten all their CEQA review or anything like that. So yes, I think that's, and maybe our public works director can come back so that we all have a common understanding, but that's certainly my understanding. |
| 01:43:12.58 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:43:12.67 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:43:18.47 | Jill Hoffman | Let me pause this here, because this is a really great discussion one issue of a very big issue that we're talking about tonight which is great, I love that. But what it seems to me is that this might be a working group, a city council working group for several ready projects. So Um, Ha. to work with uh you know director mcgowan at least so that we understand the parameters and a definition right what's the definition And then what's a doable, achievable, goal. I'd volunteer for that. |
| 01:43:54.30 | Janelle Kellman | Um, |
| 01:43:56.03 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, very good. Okay. So council member, I'm happy to help you with that. If you don't have time, I can as well. |
| 01:44:02.58 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | So, much appreciated. |
| 01:44:03.63 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Oh yeah, thanks very much for that. So let's do this. Let's start off with council member Sobieski and I, if I get, Thank you. |
| 01:44:12.35 | Janelle Kellman | No. |
| 01:44:12.67 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. drawn off into other directions then um then council member cleveland-nulls thank you very much for your volunteering for that so So that's what we'll do. Director McAllen, I promise you we will not We will have... as short a meeting as we possibly can. on a definition of shovel ready. And then small categories, like I said, achievable, right? That we can achieve in a short term and long term. Okay. So if there's a project out there, money to be had, I agree, let's be nimble and have things ready so that we can quickly and easily attack it. So, okay. So other than that, excellent discussion that we just had, and we have a solution at least going forward. Do we have any other discussion on this or are we ready to... Um, you know, are we confident that we've given the director at least the input that he needs for tonight and we can move forward? I feel like we're good, but okay, go ahead. Councilwoman. |
| 01:45:08.14 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Sorry, I just had one or two additional points. So I think we've been asked, is everything that we think should be on our priority and second priority list on there. Is anything Um, you know, do we want to take anything off, et cetera. I mean, generally, I think public works staff did a really amazing job at capturing most of the priorities that we articulated in our strategic planning process last year, and then a lot of the things that are just absolutely necessary to do and kind of have a really good balance between kind of the less sexy but very necessary road stormwater, sewer improvement projects with a few other kind of, you know, public safety projects that we really wanted to get started. So I think given our budget, and our constraints, I overall am really pleased with what's on the list. Of course, I would love us to be able to get to priority list too. this year if we can afford it. I think there's a lot of really good projects on that list. The one thing I think I mentioned earlier that I didn't see on either priority one or two that I would like to at least start to get started on is the Mirn Ship Engineering Study and to move that out of year 25, 26 and advance it. in much nearer term depending on our I also think that we need to have discussion at the council level and would love to get that agendized soon about what we mean by climate adaptation plan. We have a climate action plan. We have a low emission action plan. We have a lot of policies in our general plan on sea level rise, adaptation, measures. You know, we just have kind of, we've got a lot going on. So I think we should at the council level review those things and kind of give broad directions to staff on what we think we want to see in a capital plan for climate adaptation. I think that's worth a conversation with the five of us. um, those in my comments. |
| 01:47:22.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, thank you. Anybody else have comments? Thank you. So you're already nothing. Very good. Very well, I would also like to echo the thanks, as I said at the beginning, And I reiterate now, Excellent work by the staff and thank you so much. for the beginning lift, right? We're not done. This is just the first step. of reviewing our capital improvement plan. So thanks very much. Um, okay. close this comment, sorry, close this item. And then we're moving on to our next item on our agenda. So thank you very much. Our next item is a presentation by our interim finance director, Charlie Francis. And, It is, oops, sorry. It is... Item seven. Was item 7C, I'm going to leave it as 7C. approve an amendment to the contract with virtual CFO at the, an estimated additional cost of $50,000 for a total of $140,000 for supplemental finance services and special projects completion for, the fiscal year 21-22 budget. |
| 01:48:40.35 | Charlie Francis | Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, members of the council. Just a real quick overview of of where we stand with the virtual gov CFO contract and the additional money that's needed. First, a little background. The contract was initiated in January for some specific special projects that didn't have staff available to work on. Sewer consolidation, Bank of America, RFI, Dorothy Gibson Estate, all these projects that have come to the council over the past several months. We're still working on the base of these refuse franchise agreement. We had some questions about the fire district, some pension analysis. And then in February, we increased that contract and an additional 16. franchise agreement. We had some questions about the fire district, some pension analysis. Then in February, we increased that contract, an additional $60,000 to continue the work on these until the end of the year. But then in April, the assistant city manager resigned and this contract was expanded to primarily focus on oversight financial management, outsource financial management of the finance department, and then to prepare the fiscal year 21, 22 budget. So we're in the process of that fiscal year 21-22 budget now as you speak. So after this agenda item, we'll be going through a budget status review next. Right now the department heads are in the, process of preparing their department requests. City manager will review begins May 17th through the 21st, and then we'll proceed through the rest of the calendar to formally adopt the budget on June 22nd. I'm not sure. the current staffing in the finance department just to kind of show you says, We have a management analyst that was full-time, We have a temporary into departmental loan from the Parks and Rec Department working on accounts payable, accounts receivable, and other accounting tasks She's assigned full time. Everything else is contract. You know, we have myself, but was working half-time is now pretty much a full-time position. We're using Aid Bailey for some other special accounting projects. We have a contract. This contract payroll technician was just converted today to a full-time position. starting to provide some stability in the finance department Then we have a contract senior accounting technician and we have a temporary retired annuitant working in the finance department. So this staffing is kind of fragile at any point in time. It's not the kind of staffing you want to see in a typical finance department. So, uh, We're trying to stabilize the system right now to prevent any backlog of reconciliations from growing. We're working on those reconciliations and hopefully bringing, the capability to provide more timely and accurate financial report. So this is consuming a lot of time as is the budget press preparation. So the initial contract was for 30. We expanded to 60 to bring it for a total of 90. We're asking tonight for an additional contract expansion of 50,000 to bring the total contract to 140. We've expensed to date 65,000 and I expect expenses through the end of the year to be another 65,000. So with that, staff is recommending that, you know, you adopt the resolution and authorize the interim city manager to execute an amendment to the agreement by between the city and virtual go CFO. That concludes my staff report. |
| 01:52:18.32 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. Thanks, Charlie. And to be clear, this is this is for you to do your work on the budget. |
| 01:52:24.82 | Charlie Francis | and oversee the financial management of the department, yes. |
| 01:52:27.53 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Just to be clear. Okay, so do we have any questions of the council, Mr. Francis on this? |
| 01:52:37.83 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, Mayor Hoffman, I have two questions. Thank you. Mr. Francis, thank you. We are delighted to have you and I just want to acknowledge all of your hard work Once again, a heavy lift from staff to, really get us back in a really great place. So thank you for everything you've been doing. I just want to confirm a clarity. I think I heard you say, |
| 01:52:53.47 | Ray Dieter | I just want to say, |
| 01:52:57.89 | Janelle Kellman | that we've paid out or we are paying out 140k from January through June, is that accurate? That's correct. |
| 01:53:07.36 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 01:53:07.38 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Okay, that seems quite reasonable. And then I guess the second thing that I didn't see in your estimate, I'm sure the other council members are aware that the finance director reports to the city manager but the treasurer reports directly to the city council per our municipal code. And that was created to be checks and balances on the system. I did not see any discussion of a treasurer being brought in or how we're handling that. Do you have any insight on that? |
| 01:53:38.73 | Charlie Francis | Oh. So, I'm surprised that the municipal code says that the treasurer reports to the city council. I don't recall that. I'm sure you're correct. I'm happy to go research it. When I was there, the position of the treasurer was combined with the administrative services director and that position was a under the authority of the city manager. And then I understand that the recent incumbent also had a combined title of assistant city manager, administrative services, director, and treasurer who reported to the city manager. I think the treasurer position is in the municipal code is that the city has to have one, but, um, you know, as to who the treasurer reports to, I'm not certain. |
| 01:54:27.73 | Janelle Kellman | Sure, yeah, and let's just assume for sake of argument that it is in fact to the city council. I guess I was just wondering, who would be serving as that, or maybe we can table that, but I'll just mention it so that the full council's aware that I did consult with some other council members and other municipalities. And the idea being again, that it's a checks and balances so that we do have sort of a more of an independent review and can always sort of have another set of eyes. So I kind of think it's a nice idea. |
| 01:54:53.62 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. Yeah, in many cities the treasurer is does that position but I do not recall that being our situation. Mary could look it up real quick while we're while we're answering other questions you might have. |
| 01:55:08.98 | Jill Hoffman | I think, how about perhaps we discuss that at our next finance committee meeting? All right. |
| 01:55:13.65 | Janelle Kellman | All right. |
| 01:55:14.70 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I think we just, I don't know. I feel like we maybe, I don't know, touched on it at one of our prior meetings, Anyway, thank you for that. Okay, any other questions for Mr. Francis on this before we open it up for public comment? I've seen any, okay. Then I will open up public comment on this item. |
| 01:55:41.09 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not seeing any hands. Madam Clerk, can you please confirm? |
| 01:55:41.14 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:55:44.94 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct, there are no hands raised. |
| 01:55:47.86 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Um, okay. So do we have any discussion or do we want to move straight into, do we, do you need a resolution or a vote from us? Mr. Francis? |
| 01:55:57.71 | Charlie Francis | We do, yes. |
| 01:55:58.67 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 01:55:59.26 | Charlie Francis | I need a motion to adopt a resolution. |
| 01:56:01.83 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, gotcha. Okay, do we have any discussion or do I have a motion? I don't want to cut anybody off, but I'm ready to make the motion. Okay. Anybody want a second? |
| 01:56:13.78 | Janelle Kellman | I can... |
| 01:56:14.18 | Jill Hoffman | A second. I think council member Sobieski got in there. So council members Sobieski is our second. And, uh, I have to give a shout out to Mel Blaustein. I just saw him pop on, so welcome. Thank you, Jeremy. as the proud father of our council member, Melissa Blasting. Okay, we're in the middle of a motion. We have a motion, we have a second. Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Councilmember Sobies. |
| 01:56:44.98 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 01:56:45.27 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:56:45.53 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 01:56:46.50 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:56:46.51 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Blastie. Yes. |
| 01:56:48.69 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:56:49.11 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Cleveland Knowles. Yes. Vice Mayor Kellman? |
| 01:56:52.94 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 01:56:53.77 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Hoffman. Yeah. |
| 01:56:55.02 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 01:56:55.34 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:56:55.36 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Very well, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you to our interim. finance director and you might as well just leave your, leave your camera on. because you're up next for our fiscal year 21, 22 budget review and this is part of our ongoing schedule of budget updates as we move through our exciting budget See you then. |
| 01:57:23.44 | Charlie Francis | Yes, and it's a busy budget season indeed. So as I mentioned in the previous agenda item, we're here on step five, May 11th. Department heads are in budget preparation right now. As you recall, they're preparing their scenarios post COVID gradual return and then pre COVID. From that next week, we'll begin the city manager review where staff will be presenting a city manager recommended budget to the full city council. We are using this new budget preparation software and I'm linking the budget preparation software to Power BI document. And that was kind of the beginning of that. of. brief introduction that I showed you earlier when we looked at all the funds and all of the different funding sources beginning fund balance revenues expenses change and that will be the summary document as as you asked for in your last meeting and then we'll walk through a series of pages that are have good visualizations easy to read and yet give you the kind of in-depth picture that you need to make policy decisions. Um, And that's where we're at in terms of our budget status. And then the next steps, like I said, I mentioned city manager review, city manager recommended budget. Um, I want to touch on the American rescue plan. As I talked about it, our last council budget review update, we expected guidance coming in mid May. The guidance came out yesterday morning. So it created a lot of buzz. And I went off and read 151 page document to make sure that we understood what we can use the money for and what we can't. So first of all, the initial preliminary estimate of $1.3 million, they haven't revised the estimate to us, but I do know that the amount that the state of California will receive is about, maybe a billion dollars less than they were expecting, which could mean that our 1.3 million could drop down to a couple hundred thousand dollars. We can expect this money in two tranches, the first tranche in mid-June, the second tranche no sooner than mid-June of 2022. up. the uses of funding, haven't changed from what was in the law, but the regulations that were put out by the US Treasury Department broke those uses into eight different, seven categories and one ineligible category. And I just want to briefly touch on these. They're consistent with what we talked about earlier, but give us a lot more detail and guidance. So the first category here was supporting the public health response. And in doing that, they identified like these three major bullet points. They actually provided a list of guidance of services and programs to contain and mitigate spread of COVID, services to address behavioral, and then payroll and covered benefits expenses. And so here's the list of what they mean by services and programs to contain and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. as well as here's the services to address behavioral health needs, mental health. So these are uses that we could use that money for as we're preparing our budget. We can also use the money to address the negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency. So they gave us four categories, deliver assistance to workers and families, support small businesses, loans, grants, in-kind assistance, counseling programs to enable small businesses to rebound from the downturn. |
| 02:01:00.03 | Ray Dieter | Thank you. |
| 02:01:00.18 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:01:22.00 | Charlie Francis | In other words, this is like maybe the EDAC request could be considered a draw upon the American Rescue Plan monies. speeding the recovery of tourism, travel, and hospitality sectors. If there was a need to provide assistance maybe for marketing hotels, this money could be used there. And again, rebuilding public sector capacity is another category under negative economic impacts. Third, we got serving the hardest hit communities and families addressing health disparities, investment in housing and neighborhoods, addressing educational disparities and promoting healthy childhood environments. Again, there's a lot of regulations all around all of these, but this is a summary of the category. examples of where we could use that. |
| 02:02:15.22 | Janelle Kellman | and |
| 02:02:15.88 | Charlie Francis | And then here's the category that has the most fungibility, if you will, replacing lost public sector revenue. And they actually provided the formula to calculate the gap here of how much money could actually be used to replace lost public sector revenue. And what they mean by that is if the revenue is dropped and there were services we didn't provide, or if there were activities we didn't pursue, then that money could be used for those purposes. Uh, and So, and the services can include, but maintenance of PAYGO funding, including roads, modernization of cybersecurity, health services, environmental remediation, and the provision of police, fire, and other public safety services. So we can use the replacing of the last public sector revenue to reestablish any of the programs that we cut that met these categories. I'm working on developing language that were, as for that would demonstrate the findings that we would go through to use the money. So in other words, in the budget appropriation, if we intend to use any of the American Rescue Plan money, I would recommend that the city council have a bunch of, several whereas statements that identify the specific formulas, the specific needs that we have talked about so far. And then. several whereas statements that identify the specific formulas the specific needs that we have talked about so far and then say now therefore we resolve that we find these expenditures consistent with the american rescue plan and then that kind of finding will provide the documentation we need for subsequent federal audits in the future. premium pay for essential workers. You know, they really wanted to focus on Uh, making sure that the people that are out there on the frontline are getting compensated for their work that they're performing there. And then of course the investment in water and sewer infrastructure, they're pretty specific on the wastewater is constructing publicly owned infrastructure, managing and treating stormwater. So this would be good for our our storm drain system, subsurface drainage water, facilitating water reuse and securing public own treatment works. So this is an area where we might want to use some of that money for our storm drain infrastructure projects are identified in our CIP. And then investing in broadband infrastructure. We cannot use it to make a deposit or any kind of contribution to any of our pension funds for unfunded liability. So I just wanted to summarize that for you and let you ask any questions about that at the end of this presentation. Well, actually, this would be a good time to see if there's any questions before we get into the financial policies. |
| 02:05:15.55 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Mayor Hoffman, I just have a quick question |
| 02:05:18.23 | Charlie Francis | Okay. |
| 02:05:18.55 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:05:18.77 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:05:18.79 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. So Mr. Francis, in your, the policies that you circulated for us to review, and you talked about not using one-time sources for operating expenses. But then the American Recovery Act would allow us potentially to maybe bring back staff at a slightly higher level. level. So is this an exception to that rule about not using one-time sources for operating or would you still that we should prioritize this funding for capital or non-operating. |
| 02:05:59.14 | Charlie Francis | Capital. So the policy and the policy document is sort of like saying, These are operating expenses that we continue to do that will need to continue into the future and we don't have any revenues for it right now. So we're just gonna use one-time revenues. That's what the policy is addressing. I think what we're addressing through here is we had adequate revenues for a certain level of service. Those revenues have dropped and now we're going to use the one-time revenues as a stopgap because we anticipate those revenues to come back to the same level as they were before. And so the use of one-time is a stopgap measure, not a... Not a... Oh my gosh, how are we going to do it this year? Oh, we'll use some one-time money. Yeah. |
| 02:06:51.06 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. That's what I was hoping your answer would be. |
| 02:06:55.45 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Okay, any other questions on the America Recovery Act? Thank you. |
| 02:07:00.71 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:07:00.75 | Jill Hoffman | is |
| 02:07:00.97 | Melissa Blaustein | a quick point of clarification in the beginning when you were talking about the 1.3 million, you said it could drop down to a few hundred thousand dollars. You meant buy a few hundred thousand dollars, right? |
| 02:07:10.89 | Charlie Francis | I did mean that, yes, thank you. |
| 02:07:13.03 | Melissa Blaustein | . |
| 02:07:13.10 | Jill Hoffman | It was a little scary. |
| 02:07:13.72 | Melissa Blaustein | Good. |
| 02:07:14.08 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. |
| 02:07:14.10 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:07:14.11 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:07:14.13 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:07:15.92 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Thank you. Okay, any other questions with regard to this? subject. No, I see none. for the council. |
| 02:07:22.97 | Charlie Francis | I had my first vaccination shot today. So maybe my words are coming out a little bit different than |
| 02:07:28.34 | Jill Hoffman | Oh no. |
| 02:07:29.20 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:07:30.31 | Jill Hoffman | Hopefully you're going to be okay. Okay, so why don't you move on to your next... |
| 02:07:32.39 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. Thank you. So what I did have in the agenda packet and in front of you tonight are financial policies. Financial policies are a recommended best practice. Any city that's successful in having a resilient financial management structure has good financial policies adopted formally adopted by the city council and reviewed on an annual basis and and the benefit from that are listed here you know it's and i'm not going to read them to you you've read them in the staff report but you know just a summary it's what good cities do and it's what we're recommending that that you when you adopt the budget. So tonight we want to go through those financial policies and ask, you know, to get feedback from you on each one of those major categories, operating budget, capital improvement, revenues, expenses, cash management, debt management, and then fund balances. So I'm just going to start by Coming in here to the general financial principles, and ask if any of the council members had any feedback for this document on the general financial principles. |
| 02:08:55.73 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | I thought it was a great document. I didn't have any comments. |
| 02:08:59.23 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:08:59.66 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, thanks. |
| 02:09:01.10 | Charlie Francis | Okay, so then on the operating budget, You know, it's interesting that in California, there is no regulation that specifically says every city has to adopt a budget. Well, There are other... regulations that imply that you have to do it. There's other laws that you have to meet. But our council charter actually says that the city manager will develop and present a budget annually to the city council. So we have a charter, not a charter, general law I'm sorry. I mean, our Mary, help me out here. our municipal code. talks about tells us that we have to adopt a budget. And so, but the policy should be that the adopt City Council adopts the budget no later than June 30 of each year. I remember policies are guidances. Sometimes there are years when you can pass a continuing ordinance to continue the budget into the next month or the next two months. Those are usually enacted when there's an emergency, maybe you just can't because of extenuating circumstances, mudslides, earthquakes, unusual circumstances that it's, we're not saying here that can't be done, but what we're saying that this is the policy, no later than June 30, we will adopt the budget. The city, I want the second bullet point is saying the city manager may develop and present a two year budget. But what's required in our municipal code is a one-year budget, but the policy says we can go beyond that, what's the minimum. And the third bill of points talking about, we should always try to have a multi-year financial plan that is updated as part of the periodic budget process. In other words, the budget for the current year becomes the first year of a five-year financial plan. And then that's recalibrated every year as we go through the process. What I'm suggesting is, again, is this is the minimum policy. We'll probably go beyond it by procedure by recalibrating and projecting our five-year as we go through The each month of executing the current year budget. So every month we'll look at where our budget day actual is. We'll extrapolate that out to the end of the year. That new end of the year figure becomes the base year for a recalibrated five-year financial plan. Oh. A balanced provisional operating budget will be presented to the city council where the, the total projected expenditures won't exceed total estimated revenues. So in other words, uh, Assuming that our reserve levels are adequate, correct, and not excessive the city manager by this policy will present a balanced budget. Balanced meaning expenditures not exceeding revenues. And then it should be necessary. The city council may approve a planned use of accumulated fund balances that in the prior years for inclusion in the budget. So if we have estimated revenues that equal estimated expenditures, and we want to increase our expenditures to use that fund balance, this by policy, the city council may approve that. Well... Funds may not be expended for a new fiscal year until the budget for that has been adopted by the city council. So in other words, if we do go, if we don't do this by June 30, then we have to, produce a continuing budget. The council members, Cleveland Noles pointed out the one time Revenues are not to be relied upon to fund ongoing operations, but that doesn't mean that they can't be used as a stopgap measure. And this defines budgetary control where the city manager can make budget transfers within a department. As long as those changes do not increase overall appropriations for any one department, Chance was between funds, overall increases in fund appropriations and overall increases in project budgets can only be made through city council action by policy. And then when you adopt the budget, the policy becomes part of the adoption process for that year. And this talks about the leg of oil control for department heads. Not spend at the year lapse, except for certain encumbrances like purchase orders that will carry over to the next fiscal year and appropriations for capital improvements and ongoing grants with a life cycle beyond one year, they carry over and they carry over their assigned fund balance. This defines the kind of accounting that we budget by. So in other words, we want to budget the same way we're required to do the accounting. On the modified accrual basis for proprietary and fiduciary fund types are budgeted on the full accrual basis. And finally, we have to comply with our Prop 13 of the Constitution. Any questions or comments or feedback amendments that add to the operating budget policies? |
| 02:14:28.51 | Jill Hoffman | I know. They sound really great and a great direction for us |
| 02:14:28.61 | Charlie Francis | I know. |
| 02:14:29.67 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:14:29.71 | Charlie Francis | Good job. |
| 02:14:33.49 | Jill Hoffman | to keep moving forward on. So, um, Does anybody have any city council members have a comment on this? Yes. |
| 02:14:41.01 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. |
| 02:14:41.70 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. I just have one comment. Director Francis referenced the reserve policy and I know he very kindly sent that out to the full council several weeks ago. maybe we can reserve some time to review that. and make sure we're all on the same page about the reserve policy. My sense is that it's a very strong policy, but maybe it could be simplified slightly. So I would just love to hear feedback from other council members as well. |
| 02:15:05.03 | Charlie Francis | Well... I'm Vice Mayor, I was going to put that on the next agenda. |
| 02:15:10.36 | Jill Hoffman | Wonderful. Thank you. Oh my God. Look at that. Look how responsive he is. Yeah. Excellent. Okay, yes, Councilman Blaustein. Thank you. |
| 02:15:18.90 | Melissa Blaustein | I just had a question about this. So obviously none of us could have anticipated the situation that we saw with COVID and we, and we had a reserve plan, but then our finance department pivoted to have a series of scenarios for us to look at. in thinking about what the economic impacts of a re-entry in the COVID world will be. are we taking into account those projections for our reserves policy, I guess I'm wondering Now that we know that there can be a complete disaster that we don't prepare for, Um, how are we taking that into account in our, in our reserve policy, especially in thinking about a lot of economic experts are suggesting that there will be increased inflation as we resume the economic activity. I guess I'm hoping because this is so great. I love this policy that we could see something as well that would reflect planning for her. another unexpected financial emergency. |
| 02:16:11.97 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. You know, the The policy that I had prepared back in 2013 and in fact did anticipate a black swan event. We didn't call it COVID. No one knew, no one could predict, but we could call for a black swan event. And so the reserves, We're actually Oh. that we had at that time exceeded the risk-based analysis of the reserves. So in effect, through the past five to six years, we've had reserves to anticipate a black swan event, a COVID. And in fact, what I saw the city council do is actually use reserves to stabilize the level of service provided to citizens. But yes, now as the economy is likely to get better, we need to replenish those reserves and that'll be addressed in the reserve policy we review at the next council meeting. In other words, the risk-based reserve policy should tell us |
| 02:17:17.80 | Janelle Kellman | There's another thing. |
| 02:17:18.32 | Ray Dieter | Thank you. |
| 02:17:23.38 | Charlie Francis | Here's a trigger when you should use the reserve. And then here's the trigger when you should start building the reserve up, you know, and, and always keeping constant level of service or a constant improvement of level of services to the community. |
| 02:17:40.04 | Janelle Kellman | Dr. Fenton, I'd like to actually follow up on that. I sort of heard, and I don't mean to put words in your mouth, Council Member Blossian, but I sort of heard the question slightly differently, not as to the reserve policy per se, but we had talked at our four hour budget workshop around the sensitivity analysis, So we know our sources of revenue, we have good historical data on how they fluctuate in response to the macroeconomic environment, But for some foresight around cash management, we had discussed, and I thought you had agreed around doing a sensitivity analysis of the revenues to understand the magnitude of potential declines in revenue due to macroeconomic events like a pandemic. Is that something that you're still considering baking into this program? |
| 02:18:23.49 | Charlie Francis | Yes, of course. |
| 02:18:25.72 | Janelle Kellman | Thanks, Mayor Kilman. what I was getting at as well in addition to the reserve piece. Okay, great, yeah, I'm on board with you, Council Member Blassey, and it makes sense to me. |
| 02:18:34.39 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Any other questions? Any other questions before we move on? |
| 02:18:38.09 | Ian Sobieski | Just a clarifying question about the biannual budget. Are we doing a biannual budget in June or an annual one year until we get to the biannual budget next year? |
| 02:18:46.39 | Charlie Francis | We're not doing a biennial this year. |
| 02:18:48.20 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. It's a one-year extension, and the biannual will be June 30 of next year. Is that the expectation? Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. We'll do a two-year budget by next June. And by this June, we're doing a one-year budget. |
| 02:19:06.42 | Charlie Francis | I mean, it's, The policy is as indicated say that the city manager may develop and present a biennial budget. It's been the practice of the former administration to prepare biennial budgets. And certainly that could be the practice of the new administration. And a lot of that is direction by the city council as well. |
| 02:19:35.84 | Jill Hoffman | And Charlie, Part of that might be that we, And part of this new operating and policies is perhaps that we might move away from that and just continually reassess our budget as we move forward |
| 02:19:50.74 | Charlie Francis | I think that we're certainly going to move to a the continual budgeting operations. but because of our our requirement and our municipal code to adopt a budget each year. And just because it's a good financial management practice, we will go through adopting a budget each year, but we will be managing it with the tension of long-term planning, as well as being able to react to economic events. |
| 02:20:23.09 | Jill Hoffman | So it may be that we're changing our thought process as we move forward in our evolving budget, procedure. |
| 02:20:31.29 | Charlie Francis | Yes. |
| 02:20:32.13 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Does that answer your question, council member? |
| 02:20:34.53 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:20:34.59 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:20:34.97 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Sobieski, okay. Just for context, I mean, the reason that we did a one-year budget last year was because of the extreme uncertainty. It wasn't. a change in I would just throw in that I've really enjoyed the two-year budgeting process because it is a good It allows for a little long-term planning and then also gives us kind of a break. You know, you don't have that intense budget process every year. I happy to have longer discussions about it later. |
| 02:21:05.44 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. |
| 02:21:05.63 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:21:07.00 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, any other questions before we move on to public comment on this item? Not seeing any questions from the council members, I'm going to open public comment. for this item. |
| 02:21:17.81 | Charlie Francis | Oh, sorry. Are we ready? Not ready? No, there's, we're going to look at just the capital improvement program policy now. |
| 02:21:22.50 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:21:25.32 | Charlie Francis | basically. |
| 02:21:26.59 | Jill Hoffman | It's really... Thank you. |
| 02:21:27.28 | Charlie Francis | Director, just tell me |
| 02:21:28.97 | Jill Hoffman | You're ready. |
| 02:21:29.93 | Charlie Francis | All right. Well, Mayor, Do you want me to move through these rather quickly? |
| 02:21:36.97 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, that would be excellent. Thank you. |
| 02:21:38.70 | Charlie Francis | So these are the six bullet points under the capital improvement programs. Basically what Kevin just presented. We'll maintain a five-year CIP. We're gonna track those systematically, report on them quarterly. We're gonna look at what can be financed through user fees, service charges, special assessments. Capital improvements is specifically benefit of fee for service, like the sewer fund are to be financed through the sewer fees. And so this is kind of a, Master policy. Transfer of resources into the CIP fund will be evaluated annually based on surplus dollars. For example, in the past, uh you know it used to be like two hundred thousand dollars would come out of the general fund into the capital improvement fund to be combined with the other uh restricted monies that could only be used for certain capital projects and then that helped determine the level of funding every year and then again we should strive to maximize the use of capital grants and state subventions, you know, before tapping into our general revenue sources. This is just good capital CIP financial policy practice and any comments by the council on this? |
| 02:22:58.01 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:22:58.03 | Jill Hoffman | So keep going. |
| 02:22:59.35 | Charlie Francis | Okay, revenues. |
| 02:22:59.38 | Jill Hoffman | REVENUE. |
| 02:23:00.85 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. So we're really fortunate that we have a balanced blend of elastic and non-elastic revenues. And the idea is that we want to maintain a diversified and stable revenue base. In other words, our property taxes form, give us the stability to continue operations. And our elastic taxes like our sales tax and Mayor has given us the ability to increase reserves as well as improve levels of service. All the while looking at that sensitivity and how much reliance do we have on them for operations versus uses them using the elastic revenues for like capital projects. We always seek to, we always seek to, maximize the use of other people's money, have independent user fees. I think the city should always strive to cover the full cost of providing non-tax discretionary fee-based services. Operating departments are to review those annually and see what's appropriate for fee collection and then you know, recommend to the city council new fees as they're updated. Uh. And then finally, enterprise operations will be self-supporting. And then they shall reimburse the general fund for any and all material services provided on their behalf. So basic policies on revenues, nothing, nothing. out of line with best financial management practices. expenditures are to be budgeted and controlled so as not to exceed estimated revenues, plus the approved and planned use of fund balances. conduct a mid-year financial status review. So in other words, this is kind of the minimum and i've never managed to the minimum i mean yes we have a policy to have a mid-year budget review but that doesn't mean we're only produce a mid-year budget review right we should we should be updating and knowing where we stand uh every moment every day your cfo should know that and then reporting to the council any outliers that we see as we see them and then reporting regularly through the finance committee into the council, you know, regular budget to actual reporting, as well as projections on how we're doing through the, through the course of the fiscal year. So, um, |
| 02:25:40.10 | Jill Hoffman | Charlie, can I comment, can I jump in on that one? And some of the, the technical, the cloud-based systems that you've you've implemented since you came on board have really moved us dramatically toward that ability to do almost real-time reconciliation, or at least real-time snapshots about where we are. Is that your sense of where we're going? and what you've been able to achieve since you came on board? |
| 02:26:06.73 | Charlie Francis | Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We need to, I mean, as that information is debits and credits are being processed, I would like to move it as quick as I can into our transparency portal so that everyone always has a good snapshot of where we're at. Of course, so we can strain the information to a typical financial reporting. It's just not debits and credits that anyone can take out of context. It says, here's our revenues, here's our expenses, here's where we stand. I'm in the process of developing a template for, um, of measuring where our our bond rating would be at any point in time, based on our financials, based on our management practices and stuff like that. In other words, a running dashboard, if you will, saying, oh, we're drifting up to triple A. Something's happening, we're drifting down to double A. Should we take corrective action? Can we take corrective action? Things like that. So it's... Kind of like, you know, just getting information out there that not only is just not giving it out, but saying, here's what it means. Here's the impact it's having on us. |
| 02:27:17.38 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:27:17.40 | Charlie Francis | Great, thank you. City Council reviews the investment policy annually. We do that during the budget process. And here's the responsibility, for investing it with the Administrative Services Director Treasurer. who's to exercise due diligence to adhere to the policy, Um, and will present quarterly investment reports, presenting a summary of the status I'll tell you a funny story here. When I first put up the transparency portal We, the transparency portal capability kind of grew. And I was able to put assets up there. like our balance sheet information. And the You know, I'm showing it to the finance committee and uh, the Mayor Ray Withey was the mayor at that point and I'm showing him and I say, and then here's our, here's our portfolio management. And he looks at it and he goes, He goes, The... The diversification of our investment portfolio doesn't look like our diversification investment policy. And I just looked at my eyes, got real big and I said, Oh, mayor, you know, with transparency comes accountability and I haven't been following the investment policy since I've been here. And he said, oh, okay, I want you to start following that investment policy. So again, it was this kinds of stuff, transparency, accountability, they go hand to hand. |
| 02:28:34.59 | Ray Dieter | He said, |
| 02:28:47.85 | Charlie Francis | debt management. You know, it's sort of like, Some of this is set by law. Some of this is We should use that in a manner that sustains finance management at financing payments at manageable levels. Always trying to seek a high credit rating. Make an effort to pay as you go as we can. Debt financing can be used if the overall project exceeds and anticipate available resources. In other words, we had back in 2015, we had the ability to leverage our COPs for those park projects. It was seemed like, and in retrospect, was a good use of addressing an immediate need through the use of debt financing. The same thing with our sewer revenue bonds. of you know, and our geo bonds for the public safety. In other words, there was a need that the cost exceeded our available resources. So that went along with our finance, our policy of using debt financing for those kinds of projects. We monitor all forms of debt annually in conjunction with the budget process report on the bond covenants. because you never want to not violate one of the bond covenants. We will not issue long-term debt to finance current operations. It's sort of like borrowing to go to restaurants. you know, using credit card instead of your income to support your lifestyle. Cities shouldn't do that. So we have a policy that says we won't do that. We'll use a lease purchase method of financing if the lease rates are more favorable than the city's overall investment rate of return. So right now our investment rate of return is pretty low. So we should not be pursuing lease purchasing and finance for equipment or vehicles. And then again, we have this constitutional limit of 15% of assessed valuation. And then finally our fund balance policies. So before I get into fund balance, anything on what I've mentioned so far, Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:30:55.49 | Ian Sobieski | So these come here. |
| 02:30:55.81 | Charlie Francis | These folks. |
| 02:30:57.38 | Ian Sobieski | Not to belay, a narrow question about incentivizing You're talking about flexible budget management. Is there any way to from a policy point of view. incentivize coming underneath budgets that are allocated as part of a budget exercise so rewarding staff to innovate and cost save and cost cut at their own discretion to come in under |
| 02:31:21.94 | Charlie Francis | you |
| 02:31:22.14 | Ian Sobieski | approved budget targets. |
| 02:31:23.39 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. There have been performance management programs that have been used by several governments to Um, Yeah, to kind of reward innovative programs that achieve efficiencies or deliver services, you know, in a more strategic and effective manner. We don't have such a program in place now, but it's something we can certainly explore. |
| 02:31:43.94 | Ray Dieter | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:31:44.03 | Ian Sobieski | You don't have. |
| 02:31:49.85 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:31:49.86 | Ian Sobieski | I don't know how to put that as something to consider, maybe to the finance committee or, or not, but it seems like a policy-wise decision to try to incentivize and reward our employees to be creative and come in under budget would be a potentially Um, of course multiplier way of having a more efficient |
| 02:32:16.14 | Charlie Francis | Okay. I mean, certainly we can look at that as we go through the fiscal year and look at different kinds of compensation plans. But it's a longer term project. Those things have to be carefully constructed. They, I mean, there's an old story of a park, parks and rec, manager who went out and got a grant for a swimming pool in the Central Valley. And they had no means of continuing the operation to maintain that swimming pool. So they had to actually turn down the grant, you know, which was, um, well you know disappointing for the community but you know and basically embarrassing to the elected officials where an employee went out and did something and then the uh you know, elected officials had to say, we can't accept this because we have no way of maintaining that pool year over year. |
| 02:33:07.86 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Go ahead. |
| 02:33:09.58 | Charlie Francis | Okay. |
| 02:33:10.17 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:33:12.47 | Charlie Francis | So here's where we get into the kind of definitions of all the fund balances, of all the different types of funds. And these come right out of like an accounting manual. And then, The fund balance classification is required by GASB. In other words, you have to look at your fund balance and say, what's non-spendable? A good example of that was We had of, when we first bought MLK, the general fund was subsidizing MLK operations. And so there was like an inter-fund loan where MLK owed the general fund a pot of money, and the general fund had given MLK a pile of money And what happened was, So, On the books, it looked like the general fund had a big fund balance, but it was really just a paper transaction between two funds. So that was something that was non-spendable. Uh-huh. you know, but restricted now are like, where he was restricted by creditors or grantors. An example of the restricted was the money that was being held by the Bank of New York and we're going to have a certificates of participation where the bonds were issued, the money was placed into a restricted account that could only be withdrawn when you presented a proof of payment for the source that was supposed to be paid for. So those are example of restricted fund balance. And then committed is when the city council takes a former action, to say we're going to commit this amount of fund balance only for this purpose. And then assigned or not any of the above, but they're, they can They are constrained by the city's intent to be used, but they're neither restricted nor committed. And then unassigned is that there's a sitting out there available to use. And so the order of utilizing those then shows, shows up in this guideline that comes from GASB. and then here's kind of the beginning of vice mayor because what's restricted and what isn't. So here's the beginning of that list. The Tideland's funds is restricted by a state land grant. The gas tax fund is restricted by state statute. the County measure A and B restricted by special sales tax. So, you know, we'll build this list out as we go through the budget process to include all of the special revenue funds and what's restricted and what's unrestricted. For example, we have a stairs fund |
| 02:35:51.67 | Ray Dieter | Thank you. |
| 02:35:51.80 | Peter Van Meter | Yeah. |
| 02:35:51.97 | Ray Dieter | Thank you. |
| 02:35:53.71 | Charlie Francis | and that stairs fund has a little bit of money in it. And it was actually, it's, It's restricted by the donation that came from, in a will, some lady bequeathed the money to the city and said she only wanted that money to be used for stairs, building stairs up and down. So that was the genesis of our stairs fund. Um, |
| 02:36:21.64 | Charlie Francis | And then the policy levels is to, you know, this is the policy levels that are set by the 5% and the 10% that you've heard reported on in the future. Uh. I mean, in the past, And then, this kind of sets out what has been for all of these funds. As we review our reserve policy at our next council meeting, we're going to be looking at these more as a risk basis rather than let's just have a dollar amount set in that reserve fund. And then we'll revise this policy document as we go through the reserve policy. |
| 02:37:03.25 | Charlie Francis | financial reporting, And finally, annual review and update. Ugh. just really quickly on financial reporting. The policy is to report on GAAP to have an annual audit the And right now the city's encouraged to submit a CAFRA Uh, This does not we are not required to submit a comprehensive annual financial report. It's been just a practice of the city by this policy guiding us that to encourage us to submit it for award presentation. That the city council wanted us to go back to the basic financial statements of only issuing like a 17 page document like Mill Valley. That's would be the minimum requirement that we could do. But these things are usually best financial practices. External financial status are to be issued via the city's website and via fiscal transparency website as a policy we always wanna be transparent. Interim financial status are to be issued on a periodic and timely basis, no less than monthly and be made readily available citywide. So in other words, right here we're addressing, we will report by policy to the city council financial status reports on a monthly basis. Okay, that concludes. You ready to open the public comment there? |
| 02:38:24.66 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:38:28.35 | Jill Hoffman | Let me ask if there's any follow up on those last sections, exciting sections that we just went through. . |
| 02:38:35.49 | Sybil Boutillier | Thank you. |
| 02:38:36.35 | Jill Hoffman | don't see any okay so um let's open it up then to public comment on this item. I'm not sure. |
| 02:38:44.97 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor, we have one hand that is raised at this time. It's Eva Cresante. Eva, you've been unmuted. |
| 02:38:52.79 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks so much. Can you hear me OK? Thank you. |
| 02:38:54.35 | Eva Cresante | Yes, we can. |
| 02:38:54.79 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:38:54.93 | Eva Cresante | Thank you. |
| 02:38:54.96 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:38:55.59 | Eva Cresante | Thanks. I noticed that on the slide that started with four, there was a discussion of, moving money back into services that had been cut back. And at the very, very bottom, there was a discussion of moving more monies back into the police department. I want to explain why this might be problematic at this particular time. we are facing another major wildfire season. and we are gonna need everything we can give to the fire department we also have various environmental issues I think you know public work is going to be critical to preventing another one of those sewage spells like you had last month So I think we need to decide whether we want to put more money into the guys with the shiny brass buttons or if we want to live. And I think we're going to have to start thinking about how we distribute these things. I also wanna say that there's some, uh, some pretty easy ways you could immediately cut back on the still bloated police budget, and that is to take a look at Officer Nick White, I'm citing an article published March 28, 2017 in the Marin IJ, it's amazing to me that He still had a job after this, but he apparently made up some false claims. against his girlfriend, this poor young school teacher was put on trial by the district attorney, which is pretty shocking. And the the THE the The jurors decided that she was not guilty. One juror in comments after the verdict said White's testimony was not credible and the late disclosures of video evidence further damaged the prosecution's case. She requested anonymity out of concern over possible retribution by the detective. For the same reason, several jurors asked the court for assurances their identities could not be ascertained. Judge Jeffrey Howard said he could not completely |
| 02:41:00.16 | Chris Zapata | You too. It hasn't lasted. court record. |
| 02:41:02.47 | Eva Cresante | It's good. |
| 02:41:02.56 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. Amen. |
| 02:41:02.98 | Eva Cresante | Thank you. Okay, thank you. |
| 02:41:07.42 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 02:41:09.52 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 02:41:09.93 | Heidi Scoble | Sandra, you've been unmuted. |
| 02:41:11.03 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you very much for all this detailed information on the budget process. I wanted to ask, with regard to the public's access and transparency, have. THE FAMILY. priorities. How are we going to train the public such as myself in accessing financial information? And is there going to be some sort of So, training program for the public to use this open government process. Thank you. |
| 02:41:44.88 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:41:45.89 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 02:41:45.91 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. And Charlie, before you respond, let's keep going with our public comment and then we'll come back to that because I know you have an answer for that. |
| 02:41:53.55 | Anna Wright | Anyway. |
| 02:41:53.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, let's go ahead. |
| 02:41:56.98 | Heidi Scoble | Alden, Charlene, you've been unmuted. |
| 02:42:00.92 | Colleen Eldon | Hi, yeah, I'd like to echo the concern about Nick White staying on the police force and on the budget A budget is a reflection of our values and without actually defunding the police or paying reparations or damages or whatever you want to call them to the black community that was. stolen from for years Um, It's clear that not a lot has changed, despite some of the protestations about how much everyone learned in 2020, post George Floyd, post COVID. Um, This is disappointing to say the least, that someone like him is still on the payroll and in the police force and that the best that we could do was to get the thin blue line stickers removed from their cars Thank you. That's all. Thank you. |
| 02:42:56.04 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, I see no further hands. Okay. Very good. I do note that we had a substantial amount of public comment attached written public comment attached to our that's a good idea. agenda tonight and it's online and I believe I'm sure all of us city council members have read all of those comments. So thank you very much to everybody who sent in. written public comments. Okay, Charlie. with regard to the question about how members of the public can learn to use these systems. I know you did a little tutorial for OpenGo that we posted on the Currents. Um, Is there anything else? you |
| 02:43:38.70 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. A couple things. Yeah, just for the to the person who just commented. If you go to the website right here, Sausalito.ca, Sausalito.ca. www.openglove.com He'll bring you to this site And right up here under the words annual revenues and expenses, there's a tutorial on how to use the tool. Also, under the help button over here on the right, there's a little mini course on multi-fund accounting 101 and how to navigate through the site. And then, Yeah. In the next fiscal year, we intend to put on a citizens academy on how to more in depth use the fiscal transparency site. |
| 02:44:27.82 | Jill Hoffman | But that will be sometime after we get our budget done. |
| 02:44:32.26 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:44:32.28 | Janelle Kellman | Chris. |
| 02:44:32.99 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Okay. Good. I mean, you know, excellent. All right, so, Good. All right, then do we have any other, do we have council member comments about this presentation by Charlie in our budget review process. in accounting years. thank you very much for all your hard work on this charlie and putting to get this together for us i think the vice mayor and aranda |
| 02:45:01.24 | Charlie Francis | wise marriage. |
| 02:45:01.77 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. Thank you. |
| 02:45:02.69 | Charlie Francis | Yeah, I apologize. This, the COVID vaccination I think is hitting me. |
| 02:45:03.31 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I apologize. |
| 02:45:08.84 | Charlie Francis | If I'm talking disjointingly, I feel like I'm talking disjointingly, so I apologize for that. |
| 02:45:14.33 | Jill Hoffman | Well then we're gonna try to wrap it up as quick as we can. |
| 02:45:17.06 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:45:17.10 | Jill Hoffman | I'm going to have to go. |
| 02:45:17.33 | Janelle Kellman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:45:17.40 | Jill Hoffman | Mayor. |
| 02:45:17.98 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, no more really questions for Director Francis, just again to say what a fantastic job and thank you for putting all the effort in getting us aligned and this was a really big presentation. I just want to flag for the council members, you all probably received a copy of a benchmarking report that looked at a comparison of expenses and revenues across similarly situated communities on a per capita basis. I think that something like that could be really helpful for us in operational efficiency and understanding our expenditures. And then also really having a sense of the, the health and vitality of our revenue. So maybe we can find a time to roll that into some of our budget discussions, but I just want to make sure everybody had received that. There's a ad hoc committee out of the finance committee. Okay. All right. |
| 02:46:03.84 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:46:03.94 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:46:03.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Any other comments or questions? |
| 02:46:05.95 | Ian Sobieski | I would like to echo that. I read the benchmarking report. I thought it was interesting. Obviously, some questions that are naturally come up from it. I don't know what the appropriate process is to engage with those questions, but they seem material and pertinent and |
| 02:46:18.79 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:46:21.69 | Ian Sobieski | And... It'd be great to have some way of rationally and systematically following up on that. |
| 02:46:29.25 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Thank you. Okay, yes, Council Member Blasdy. |
| 02:46:34.91 | Melissa Blaustein | I just want to thank Director Francis. That was fantastic. Really appreciate all the time you put in. And I'm sorry to hear that you're not feeling well from the vaccine. So we really appreciate you. I think you did a fantastic job. But I wanted to flag and thank the members of the public who submitted comment and especially thank EDAC for like the 30 page report that was submitted and of course the letter outlining the suggestions and I'm also hopeful that we'll be able to at some point hear from them and also we got a lot of public comment on funding for the CARS program, which I know we've all really value all the council members. So I just wanted to say We are in a budget review process, so obviously we will be considering all of these as we consider the whole, um, budget as a whole and we make these decisions but i really appreciated how many letters we we did receive it's obvious that these are there's a lot of support for a lot of these initiatives so i just wanted to acknowledge and say thank you for that as well |
| 02:47:31.57 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Any other final comments? See none. Very good. We got a thumbs up. Thank you, Charlie. And you're welcome to repair now to your bedroom. |
| 02:47:44.48 | Charlie Francis | . I will do that. It's almost midnight here. Thank you. |
| 02:47:49.19 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 02:47:49.46 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. Thank you. Right. |
| 02:47:50.61 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, moving on to our next item. on the agenda, city manager reports, city council appointments and other council business. Um, I'm going to take public comment on items A, B through A, E in one shot. And so those are city council information or city manager information for the council and that city manager recruitment update. That's item 8B, item 8C. is appointments to boards and commissions And... 8d future agenda items. And of course, okay and that's it so we're going to take public comment and one shot on all the items on eight. on our agenda. I'm not seeing any hands. Madam Clerk, can you please confirm? Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no hands raised. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay, then I'm closing public comment and I'm moving on to item 8B. city manager information for the council and I invite our city manager, Marsha Raines, to give us an update. |
| 02:49:03.49 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to inform you, as you're aware, most of you, that the council has been working with finalists, final candidates for the position of city manager. They, you have noticed a public, excuse me, a closed session meeting tomorrow evening. at which I assume we will make progress and be ready to make an appointment during the month of May as I indicated at your last meeting. Thank you. |
| 02:49:36.79 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 02:49:37.68 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:49:38.25 | Jill Hoffman | Do you have any other information for the council other than that item? |
| 02:49:43.45 | Chris Zapata | I think you've covered a great deal of turf, particularly along the lines of budget this evening. |
| 02:49:49.14 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so moving on to item 8C, appointments to boards and commissions. And so, We are, it looks like we are accepting the resignation of pedestrian and bicycle advisory committee Member Marjorie Thomas and thank Marjorie for her years of service in that and many other things and Sausalito. So thank you to Marjorie and We're sorry to see you leave PBAC, but we are and I assume under a motion, pursuant to a motion that I'm guessing will be made shortly. appoint alternate Jessica Penrod to a full voting member of PMAC. And so. Yes. Thank you. |
| 02:50:33.55 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | I was just gonna say I'll make that motion. Can we make all three of these |
| 02:50:33.59 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:50:39.38 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | reports together If so, I'll wait. But if we need to do them individually, then... I'll be right back. |
| 02:50:46.57 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I don't I don't perceive any of them to be a controversy. So I think we could do it all in one motion. So. unless I hear otherwise. We will move on. The next agenda item is accept economic development advisory Commission many Commission member resignation. and make a new appointment. So we'll accept the resignation of Economic Development Advisory Committee member Marina O'Neill and thank her for her efforts and service on that important committee. and appoint alternate Bob K. Lalain to full voting members. And then the last one is accept the resignation of sustainability member and make an appointment and that we accept the resignation of sustainability commission member Robert Robin Parvin, thank Robin for to say to really his or her. or either. |
| 02:51:40.89 | Colleen Eldon | Yeah. Yeah. |
| 02:51:42.05 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. There are many, many years. She's been on a mission. I'm good. |
| 02:51:46.28 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:51:47.05 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:51:47.15 | Janelle Kellman | I'm going to go. |
| 02:51:48.31 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you for that. Thank you for many, many years of hard work on the sustainability commission and appoint alternate David Cooper to a full voting member. Um, We're going to do all those in one motion. And may I have a motion, please? |
| 02:52:05.00 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, I'll make a motion to accept all of those resignations and make those new appointments if there's no further discussion. |
| 02:52:13.56 | Jill Hoffman | Change a second. |
| 02:52:14.96 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:52:14.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:52:14.99 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:52:15.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:52:15.16 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:52:16.32 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, Madam Clerk, can you please fill the role? Council member Sobieski? |
| 02:52:20.74 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 02:52:21.55 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blaustein? Yes. Council member Cleveland Knowles? Vice Mayor Kellman. |
| 02:52:27.68 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:52:28.00 | Eva Cresante | Thank you. |
| 02:52:28.03 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Mayor Hoffman. |
| 02:52:30.06 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, and let me just, I just want to make one comment that I'm pleased that our new process of that we just finished of fully populating all of our boards and commissions, including alternates. This is a really good example of how this can smooth our this process of making sure that our abortion commissions are fully populated. So I'm excited about that. I'm also excited earlier that we added the new two new members to our Parks and Rec Commission. So we did, this is a good night for all of our boards and commissions and our processes in our city. And so, which brings us to the exciting agenda item of 8D, which is future agenda items. And this is... do I have council members who want to throw out some agenda items that they would like to see upcoming? |
| 02:53:23.01 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, I just wanted to make a comment that I think Councilmember Blaustein and then the Sustainability Commission member Greg Thompson tonight had mentioned in the past, a proposal coming out of the Sustainability Commission for Electric Charging Infrastructure. And that that would be coming to the legislative committee. I have not. We haven't gotten that. So I'd just like to urge us forward on that. and I'm not sure where that's stuck. Maybe staff is just kind of overwhelmed, but in any case, I'm interested in hearing that. I also just we got an email and I had already heard some press releases about Mayor Lend and breed in San Francisco designating a month for local business. month and urging everyone during that month to buy only locally and to abstain from mail order from Amazon and other companies. I thought that was a great idea. I don't know if that's come up at EDAC. I would love to um, support such an initiative here if other people on the council were interested. And then lastly, I just wanted to know that perhaps at our next meeting we could recognize Asian Pacific American heritage men. um, in some way. Okay, great. And it's bike month. |
| 02:54:50.54 | Jill Hoffman | Great. Very good. Thank you for those suggestions. Anybody else would like to suggest things for our future agenda items? |
| 02:54:59.35 | Ian Sobieski | I'd like to, again, put in their request to have EDAC answer our questions about their lengthy report on ways to meet much of what we've talked about and that the previous city council assigned to EDAC to solve. |
| 02:55:13.66 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, great. Thank you so much. Okay, any other? Yes, Council Member Blastey. |
| 02:55:20.33 | Melissa Blaustein | I got an email from fellow grillius who's on the, um, the education board in Nevada, but she also serves at this bar center and she's a director of LGBTQ programs and she has been sending an email and letters to all the mayors and city managers at requesting. that every city in the county flat fly the pride flag for june so if that's something that needs to be on the consent calendar i'd really like for that to be considered as well and again i'm going to suggest and i can send i have i will send the um legislative committee the proposal or the suggested text for making the matthew turner tall ship the tall ship the official tall ship |
| 02:55:55.46 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:55:56.02 | Melissa Blaustein | Sausalito is non-controversial. And I would just echo Council Member Cleveland Knowles requests about the EV charging and the sustainability commission. And also during the budgeting session, we had talked about perhaps having a more robust conversation around what a climate action plan is with regards to the budget. So if we could find some time to do that. |
| 02:56:17.70 | Jill Hoffman | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Okay, I... Um, Bye. Do plan to, I mean, I did, I was contacted about the 30 days you know, similar, something similar in Sausalito, obviously that we would support about shopping in Sausalito for 30 days and not Um, refraining from online shopping. I am looking into that. whether or not we want to adopt wholesale what San Francisco did, or if we want to tailor it in any way. um, So I don't perceive that to be a a controversial thing. And so I... Let me ask you this, let me just ask the council to input. Do we need to start that on the first of the month? or Yeah, are we okay with doing it? some random like the 11th through the 11th. or the 15th to the 15th I mean I don't know I'm just wondering if we just wanted to declare June you know, in town shopping month or, That's kind of what I was thinking, |
| 02:57:23.89 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | might be able to do a 30 day, we could do a month or we could just do a 30 day challenge and post it on things like Facebook and next door so that people understand it's day one, day two. you know. |
| 02:57:35.08 | Jill Hoffman | okay anybody this isn't an agendized item i'm just sort of getting feedback i don't i don't think that this is probably going to be on our future agenda item i'm just going to do it and announce it Okay. All right. Okay, thank you. Thank you for your input on that. And with that and no further comments, I'm going to adjourn. So thank you very much. |
| 02:57:56.79 | Janelle Kellman | Thanks, everybody. |
| 02:57:57.26 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Talk to you. |
| 02:57:58.41 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Nice. |
| 02:57:58.67 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks to all of our staff for their tremendous, tremendous hard work. |
Ray Dieter — In Favor: Requested COVID-19 relief for permit fees for an awning at South Seattle Animal Hospital, citing financial hardship, community service, and unique emergency veterinary capabilities in Sausalito. ▶ 📄
Anna Wright — Neutral: Shared personal background; expressed resident confusion and fear regarding the homeless encampment, suggesting a task force for transparency and case-by-case approaches for different homeless needs. ▶ 📄
Colleen Eldon — Against: Criticized local coverage of school segregation, alleging ongoing harm by city leaders, including Mayor Hoffman, referencing past actions against desegregation and current litigation against homeless encampment orders. ▶ 📄