| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.62 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. you |
| 00:00:07.61 | Heidi Scoble | Streaming is live. For Hoffman and council members this meeting is being held pursuant to section three of executive order and dash 29 dash 20 issued by governor newsome on march 17 2020 and all members are joining this meeting telephonically through zoom and is being broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:28.41 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you, Heidi, and good evening and welcome to the regular City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 25, 2021. We are now... Uh, Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Thank you. |
| 00:00:41.34 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Sobieski? |
| 00:00:42.79 | Ian Sobieski | here. |
| 00:00:43.80 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Blastey. |
| 00:00:45.36 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:00:45.37 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:00:45.41 | Ian Sobieski | you're not. |
| 00:00:45.49 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:00:45.68 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:00:45.70 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kelman. Here. Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:00:52.34 | Janelle Kellman | Erin? |
| 00:00:53.14 | Heidi Scoble | All members are present and we have a quorum. |
| 00:00:53.26 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Thank you very much. I now call the meeting to order and request the roll be taken, so the roll's been taken. So, okay, moving right along. Two items. 1B, items D1 through D3 will be discussed in closed session. Those items are D1, public employment, pursuant to CGC section 54957, city manager, Item D2 is conference with real property negotiator pursuant to CGC Section 54956.8, the property is a machine shop. 25 Liberty Way, the negotiating parties are U.S. General Services Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, |
| 00:01:34.80 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:39.22 | Janelle Kellman | and our negotiator is the interim city manager and the city attorney and under negotiation our price and terms. D3 is conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, significant exposure to litigation pursuant to paragraph two of subdivision D section five, four. nine five six point nine one potential case And with that, I will open public comment on closed session items. |
| 00:02:08.59 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, it does appear as though we have one hand raised at this time. It's Mr. Dieter. I will unmute Mr. Dieter and ask to share the video. Mr. Dieter, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:02:28.90 | Janelle Kellman | We're not hearing anything, Mr. Dieter. |
| 00:02:33.66 | Janelle Kellman | Still not here. |
| 00:02:33.81 | Unknown | Can you hear me now? |
| 00:02:35.74 | Janelle Kellman | I can hear you now, yes. |
| 00:02:37.54 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:02:37.58 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. |
| 00:02:38.88 | Unknown | I have two minutes. |
| 00:02:40.70 | Janelle Kellman | You do, this is a closed session item, Zoe. Are you perhaps going to speak about an item on our consent calendar. |
| 00:02:51.75 | Unknown | It may, I think it may be. |
| 00:02:54.72 | Janelle Kellman | It might be the awning for your animal hospital? |
| 00:02:57.35 | Unknown | Yeah. All right. |
| 00:02:58.26 | Janelle Kellman | All right, sir. Yeah, sir, I think what you wanna do is when we come back from closed session at about seven o'clock, Um, public comment on the consent calendar items. And I believe your item is on the consent calendar. |
| 00:03:12.91 | Unknown | So around seven o'clock. |
| 00:03:14.50 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. |
| 00:03:15.34 | Unknown | OK, thank you. Sorry about that. |
| 00:03:17.65 | Janelle Kellman | You're quite welcome, no worries. |
| 00:03:19.21 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:03:19.22 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. And do we have any other public comment on closed session items? |
| 00:03:24.98 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we do not have any hands raised at this time. |
| 00:03:27.90 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, very good. And then at that point, I will close public comment, and we will adjourn to closed session. So thank you very much, and we will see you at 7 o'clock for our open session. |
| 00:03:39.95 | Vicki Nichols | hailed as one of the most original and unpredictable musical voices of his generation, Thank you. |
| 00:03:46.19 | Unknown | Audio is live. |
| 00:03:50.14 | Unknown | Video is live, 150 participants. |
| 00:04:05.56 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, the meeting is ready to reopen. |
| 00:04:08.48 | Janelle Kellman | Very good. At this time I am calling us back to order and I'll do the city council And I have a short announcement before we begin. I open this meeting a year after the tragic death of George Floyd. Our country, our town, and many of us individually have done soul searching in trying to understand the context of systemic racism in some cases, the inception supported by laws in the 19th century, that defined African-Americans as property without rights and later laws that denied basic equal protection under the Constitution. on the basis of race to our BIPOC community. This was wrong. and we are still living with the consequences of these unjust laws 100 years later. year ago the need for governments and all public officials to evaluate how they did business and do better was an imperative. we can do better as we strive for equity and justice for all. I would like to announce um, an effort with our Marin City leadership that I'm going to be creating and it's going to be a leadership subcommittee for the Racial Justice Task Force made up of myself. Dr. Atoko Garcia as a associate emergency school district superintendent and Damian Morgan, Chair of the Marin City Community Services |
| 00:05:32.98 | Janelle Kellman | on the racial justice task force and to augment those efforts. And so at this time We are moving on to Um, our roll call and Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll for the city council? |
| 00:05:50.83 | Heidi Scoble | from the member Sobieski. Councilmember Blastey? here. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. here. Vice Mayor Kellman. |
| 00:06:00.97 | Lori Dubin | Thank you. |
| 00:06:00.99 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. in there, huh? |
| 00:06:02.35 | Janelle Kellman | and I am present. we are all present and accounted for. We're moving on to our First item on our agenda, special presentations and mayor's announcements. I want to announce two efforts that we're going to be working on in the next month or so. The first one is Shop Sausalito, which we talked about at the last city council meeting. I've talked with Julie Vieira, who's the chamber president, our Sausalito Chamber of Commerce president, about this effort. And the two of us decided collectively that we would start this on, officially start it on June 8th, and it would go for 30 days from June 8th through July 8th, and it would be an effort to encourage have people think about buying things and shopping locally in Sausalito. We talked, Julie and I talked a little bit about the San Francisco mayor's effort, Mayor Breed's effort, And I'm not sure. you know, their effort to not purchase things online, but to purchase things in San Francisco. And obviously San Francisco is larger. They have more stores greater variety of things. the effort in Sausalito will be more a focus of to the extent that you can, you know, buy in Sausalito and support our local businesses and then talk about it and share the, share the purchases and the things that you've done to support a look at businesses online and other social media efforts. So stay tuned. We're gonna announce that and for more comprehensively at our June 8th city council meeting. And the other one is our 4th of July fireworks. typically our 4th of July fireworks are paid for by donations. And, you know, through I think through purchases from Jazz by the Bay tables, which obviously we're not having Jazz by the Bay this year. and through donations at Jazz by the Bay and sales of some sweatshirts and things. And clearly we're not doing that this year. So we're trying to figure out how to pay for fireworks. So stay tuned. I'm working on that this week. obviously get that off the ground and going. because we're getting close to the time where we have to contract with the vendor and things like that. My hope is that we will have 4th of July fireworks this year. in keeping with whatever COVID requirements are in place this year at the 4th of July. Stay tuned for that. We'll have an update on that. definitely on July 8th, maybe even earlier through the currents and through other efforts in South Salido, so stay tuned on that one. |
| 00:08:34.70 | Unknown | and, you know, |
| 00:08:36.91 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, so those are my two announcements. Moving on. |
| 00:08:42.02 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, if I may interrupt. We have not done the approval of the agenda yet. |
| 00:08:49.13 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. Thank you very much for that. |
| 00:08:55.83 | Janelle Kellman | That's item 2B, my apologies. So do I have a motion for approval of the agenda? I'll move the agenda. again. |
| 00:09:06.87 | Janelle Kellman | Very good. Could you please take the roll? |
| 00:09:08.47 | Heidi Scoble | MENORAL. |
| 00:09:08.71 | Janelle Kellman | work. |
| 00:09:08.98 | Heidi Scoble | you Council member Sobieski. |
| 00:09:11.10 | Ian Sobieski | us. |
| 00:09:12.06 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blaustein? Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. Yeah. |
| 00:09:16.45 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:09:17.11 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Kelman? Yes. Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:09:20.72 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. Thank you. Mayor Hoffman, I see two hands up. I wonder if these are the public comment on closed session items? I don't know if you want to open that up. |
| 00:09:28.18 | Janelle Kellman | Public comment on closed session items would have been before we didn't close for closed session. We're coming up on... communications though, and that would be time for matters not on our agenda, which would encompass, I would think closed session items. Let's move along. Oh, well. So sorry, I do have two more announcements and they are, before we move on, They are on the consent calendar. So this is going to be a little bit a little bit strange because we're gonna vote on the consent calendar, but the announcements are that Um, We do have two resolutions on the consent calendar. One is to declare the month of May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. and there's a proclamation and I will read that proclamation after we vote on the consent calendar. because that's for the month of May. The second is a consent calendar item proclaiming June LGBTQ plus pride month and to fly the LGBTQ THE FAMILY. flag for the first week of June. And so I'm not sure. That's also We will read the proclamation for that at the first meeting in June, but that's June 8th. So just so you all know, when you see the flag at city hall, it's gonna be the first week in June. That's when we're gonna fly it. I'm not sure. Everybody straight. After we do the consent calendar, I'm going to read the proclamation for the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. And then you will see the LGBTQ plus pride flag at city hall, the first week in June, and we'll do the proclamation in the first meeting. in June on June 8th. Okay, now moving along to item two on our agenda communications. This is a time on the agenda for members of the public to provide any public comment for items that are not on the agenda, except in limited situations, state law precludes the council from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning items of business that are not on the agenda. However, the council may briefly respond to statements made or questions posed by a member of the public, ask clarifying questions, make brief announcement, or refer matters not on the agenda to city staff or direct that the subject be agendized for a future meeting. If you would like to provide a public comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application and the clerk will call on individuals who have their hands raised in the order they are raised. After you were called on, you'll be unmuted to allow you to share your comments. Remember public comments are each allowed a total of three minutes to speak. Please keep your comments respectful and focused. We want to listen to any individual who requests to speak and each speaker has a responsibility to act in a civil and courteous manner as defined. by the chair, which is me. I will not talk, we will not tolerate hate speech, direct or indirect threats or abusive language. the meeting host will mute anyone who fails to follow these guidelines. And at this point, I would like to open up this item for public comment. These are matters not on the agenda. |
| 00:12:33.70 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, before we begin, it looks like we have 10 hands raised at this time. Would you like to have the standard three minutes per speaker or would you like to reduce it to two minutes? |
| 00:12:43.66 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, sorry. We're going to reduce it to two. We have a lot on our agenda tonight, so reducing public comment. Thank you. |
| 00:12:52.25 | Heidi Scoble | So the order that we have right now would be Sandra Bushmaker, Johnny's Computer, Camp Cormorant, and Alicia Leach. I will unmute Sandra Bushmaker and ask you to share your video. You've been unmuted. Sandra? Thank you. |
| 00:13:06.78 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, everybody. I don't know where I was supposed to comment on closed session items, but I'm going to do it here anyway, because there's no instructions to my knowledge of how to do this other than speaking up now. I was concerned about the machine shop item on your, CLOSED SESSION. While I understand you cannot discuss terms and conditions and negotiations on real estate deals, this appears to be A. as labeled a negotiation between the parties, the city being one of them, and the negotiating parties are named, and terms and conditions. So I'd like some disclosure on what this is about. If it is for the purchase of the machine shop, I think the public needs to know this is in the hopper. Thank you very much. |
| 00:13:58.23 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you very much. And I will briefly respond to that statement. that you can expect this item to be on the June 8th city council meeting. The machine job. Thank you. Thank you for your time. |
| 00:14:12.03 | Heidi Scoble | on it. |
| 00:14:13.40 | Janelle Kellman | Go ahead, Madam Clerk, call the next roll. Name. |
| 00:14:15.24 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. The next speaker is Johnny's computer. Johnny, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:14:31.62 | Janelle Kellman | I think we're having trouble hearing you. Nope, we can't hear you. Although I don't, it doesn't look like you're on mute, sir. |
| 00:14:43.64 | Heidi Scoble | Can we go over to the microphone and click on whichever speaker you're using or microphone you're using, then that would work. |
| 00:14:56.33 | Heidi Scoble | There's a little carrot to the right side of the microphone. If you click on that, it'll give you options to speak. |
| 00:15:08.51 | Heidi Scoble | And if you would like to work on your technical difficulties, if you don't mind, we can start bringing up another public commenter, and then I'll be sure to bring you back as you're, working towards fixing your computer. So I'm just gonna put you on mute. Also keep your hand raised. And we'll go on to the next speaker, which is Camp Cormorant. |
| 00:15:36.22 | Heidi Scoble | Camp Cormorant, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:15:47.66 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, we'll move on to Alicia Leach. Alicia, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:15:57.22 | Alicia Leach | Hello, I think I've got you guys, can you hear me? |
| 00:15:59.78 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. |
| 00:16:00.20 | Alicia Leach | Thank you. We're sick. |
| 00:16:00.74 | Janelle Kellman | We've seen. We can hear you. |
| 00:16:03.04 | Alicia Leach | I see you. That one, awesome. Okay, so I would like to comment on the Cannabis Storefront Ballot Initiative that's being sponsored by Karen Cleary and Otter Brands. |
| 00:16:03.56 | Janelle Kellman | That one. |
| 00:16:04.05 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:16:13.20 | Alicia Leach | My name's Alicia Leach. I am a 17 year resident and homeowner here in Tosolito. And my husband and I are raising Two children here. They were born here. They went to Sausalio Nursery School. Melissa. They also attended Willow Creek. K through eight. So we are a Sausalito all the way. So I want to give a quick story. Two. City Council members reached out directly to me a concerned citizen, and to Connor of Otter Brands. And they proposed a very interesting It's called A Jeffersonian dinner. And ultimately, it's supposed to create a forum where two people or two groups, like four to five people on either side of the debate, can come in, sit down, and talk through some items relating to a debate. And I agreed to come. and bring four friends. And Connor, I thought, agreed to come. That was two months ago, and then Recently, we heard about a ballot initiative. So this would be... completely circumnavigating the city council and going to vote. which is a vote is great, right? Like we're all Democrats, democratic here. Um, but it's tone deaf right now. We have major issues in the city, major issues. And what I'd like to just have everybody consider is the fact that bringing a cannabis storefront to the city is not going to benefit Children? It's not going to benefit schools. It's not going to benefit homeless. But it will benefit an out of town person who's going to bring a storefront and a business and it's gonna cost the city money. So I'd like to know from the city, how much putting this ballot initiative on the ballot in November, is going to cost the city. I think my time's up. Thank you. |
| 00:18:11.88 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:18:15.27 | Heidi Scoble | And we'll go back to Johnny's computer Johnny, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:18:30.05 | Heidi Scoble | Johnny, we're still not able to hear you. A recommendation would be to use a landline or a cell phone and on the city's agenda, there's a couple of telephone numbers that you can use to call in. And just use star nine once you're in the meeting to raise your hand. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ava Crisante. Ava, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:19:05.40 | Wendy Richards | Thanks so much. Can you hear me okay? |
| 00:19:07.33 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:19:07.35 | Julie Vieira | Yes. |
| 00:19:07.90 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:19:07.92 | Julie Vieira | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:19:08.56 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. |
| 00:19:08.80 | Julie Vieira | Thank you. |
| 00:19:08.83 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. |
| 00:19:08.85 | Julie Vieira | I know. |
| 00:19:09.13 | Ava Crisanti | TODAY. Yeah, I wanted to touch base, I had an interesting back and forth with one of your library trustees. who has written a letter, I think a nearly 370 word letter that's on the agenda. And I thought it was really IT'S AN INTERESTING LETTER. It raised the issue that i had raised it talked about it it tried to address the issue i had raised um about um andrew postponed presentation with the library, BUT IN THE this nearly 370 word letter, the library trustee I'm not sure. failed to note that she had not actually looked at any of the correspondence or documentation that I retrieved through CPRA regarding Henning's policies. And also the policies of the city of San Rafael and also the policies of the county with regard to the unhoused population in Marin County and This entire body of correspondence is absolutely stunning. It reveals how steadfastly municipalities, county, and in particular, Mr. Henning were working against the interests of unhoused people and working against the counties and cities own stated interests of the of assuming to assist these individuals. It's a large body of correspondence. It goes all the way from 2016 to last month, And it is really something I'd like to recommend to your library trustees that instead of opining on on the matter, they should actually take the time to request the material and read through it. And I'm happy to provide that information for them or instruct them on how to derive the information themselves. Thank you so much. Thank you. |
| 00:21:15.28 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Elizabeth O'Donnell is our next Speaker Elizabeth, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:21:27.46 | Heidi Scoble | Elizabeth, you'll need to also click the unmute button on your iPhone or on your device. How's that? Perfect. |
| 00:21:35.66 | Elizabeth O'Donnell | Hi, my name is Elizabeth O'Donnell, and I live in the hockey park region of Mill Valley, which is right on the border of Sausalito. And I understand that a Sausalito resident who is a partner in a cannabis business is seeking to put an initiative on the ballot for a recreational retail storefront in Sausalito. So first let me say that I am not anti-cannabis and I think delivery only services work well. for the most part in Marin. but I have many lived experiences with cannabis stores from 20 years of residing in Denver, Colorado, before I moved back here a couple of years ago. So I just wanted to make sure that residents here know what they're signing up for with a retail cannabis store since I've had firsthand experience. I'm not sure. Because this would be the only recreational cannabis store in all of Marin, and Sausalito is located near the on and off Exits to the bridge and 101. Traffic will definitely go up considerably. So that's a given. People will stop here for their cannabis before and after work and after school. From my experience living near cannabis storefronts, too many people light up as soon as they get back in their cars and auto safety becomes a large issue. You'll notice the smell emanating from cars at stoplights. I did. |
| 00:22:57.42 | Ava Crisanti | I did. |
| 00:22:58.40 | Elizabeth O'Donnell | regularly and while not everyone will do it, enough will that makes it an issue and you'll have to deal with it. So I live near a street a lot like Bridgeway with a median in the middle and one way traffic on either side. And I had my share of 911 calls when drivers not used to ultra high potency pot that they just bought didn't realize that traffic was one way and they were driving on the wrong side into oncoming traffic. Running stop signs was also a big one. My teen was learning how to drive then, so it was a really scary time for me as a parent. So dealing with other people who are high on the road is a challenge for the best of drivers. delivery only businesses. Your two minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:23:41.63 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:23:43.86 | Elizabeth O'Donnell | Oh, thank you. I just want to say that delivery is great. Why mess up a good thing? I think it works well. Thank you. |
| 00:23:52.43 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:23:55.94 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Lori Dubin. Lori, you have been unmuted. |
| 00:24:05.12 | Lori Dubin | Hi everyone, good evening. Can you hear me, see me? Yes. So as you know, I have commented a few times before the city council as a Marin parent with serious concerns from a public health perspective, about the impact on youth of a cannabis storefront. So I'm also going to address the ongoing efforts to put cannabis on the ballot in November. I'm especially troubled that the Sausalito resident who is collecting signatures right now to allow cannabis storefronts through a ballot initiative is not just acting as a citizen, but is part of Otter Brands and a cannabis industry, which has long been salivating to get into Marin and the market here through retail storefront. This resident will profit big time if the initiative succeeds. Otter Brand CEO is a San Francisco cannabis consultant. and political operative. He's an owner of Burners on the Hay, a store that's part of a half-billion-dollar cannabis empire, according to Forbes. Berner is famous for his cookie strain of cannabis, which started out being called Girl Scout cookies until the actual Girl Scout of America. I talked about trademark infringement. Their cookies line of weed includes berry pie, honey bun, cereal milk, sticky buns, Georgia pie, catchy names, with colorful packaging all sold at the San Francisco store. Then there's this product named after former NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton, Now they're partnering with Snoop Dogg, which calls his Doggy Bag Cookies product the breakfast of champions. It's right on the cookies website. It lists the, quote, flavor as, quote, rainbow candy and its aroma as fruity candy with an experience described as a strong head high. |
| 00:26:08.49 | Unknown | Your two minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:26:10.23 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:26:10.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:26:10.40 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:26:10.42 | Lori Dubin | Thank you. |
| 00:26:10.79 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:26:10.87 | Lori Dubin | Thank you. |
| 00:26:10.91 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:26:14.62 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Judy Wetter. Judy, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:26:23.35 | Heidi Scoble | Judy, you will need to unmute your microphone as well. |
| 00:26:27.09 | Judy Wetter | Sorry. Hi good evening Judy Wetterer thank you for the work that you and predecessor councils have done to educate yourselves in the community about the issues surrounding legalization and sales of cannabis in the region I'm a 26-year resident who's appeared before you several times about a proposed recreational cannabis retail store in Sausalito at one of the council meetings earlier this year I expressed concern that the city seemed to be moving too fast and asked you to slow down |
| 00:26:46.33 | Unknown | And if you're not going to be it. |
| 00:26:56.40 | Judy Wetter | to hold public workshops to engage the community cure all our concerns. during a thorough public process so we could all weigh all the social health and economic ramifications of the serious topic. It sounds like some of those were happening However, even though I did send the city clerk and council members my contact information so I could be included in these discussions, I have heard nothing from the city. And so I was surprised this morning to learn that the topics being considered again and that there have been these meetings occurring. Again, please slow down. A recreational cannabis retail store in Sausalito would be, again, the only cannabis store in all of Marin. This is a big deal. Cannabis is already sold freely and delivered to homes of Sausalito's. So I ask you, who are we trying to attract to our city with the store? Are we interested in becoming a Bay Area tourist vector for cannabis buyers and users? I live very close to another Sausalito tourist attraction, the former Starbucks on Princess Street, that once attracted locals and most of the tourists who got off the ferries or came down the hills on bikes Three years ago, that store in neighboring buildings went up in flames. when the tourist flicked a cigarette in the alley. The building is still under construction. Business and people are still displaced as I speak. It was a terrifying night, I will tell you. |
| 00:28:27.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:30.16 | Judy Wetter | My lived experience tells me that people who are high and stoned are generally too relaxed to care about of lit cigarettes as well. Please slow down. Thank you. |
| 00:28:37.77 | Heidi Scoble | The two minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:28:46.75 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Sybil Boutilier. Sybil, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:28:54.34 | Sybil Boutilier | Thank you, Heidi. Civil Wotelier by Adrian E. Salcedo. I just wanted to mention that we're going to be having another vaccination opportunity in Salcedo, and that's on May 4th. Excuse me. June 4th. Friday, June 4th. at Martin Luther King Pipe Gymnasium. from 1230 in the afternoon until 430 in the afternoon. And This will be an opportunity for Folks age 12 on up. to 112 and beyond. and So this will be our first vaccination event that will include those younger cohorts. and Pfizer. Um, First and second shots will be offered as well as Johnson & Johnson, One shot. um, vaccinations. So I just wanted to let the community be aware of this. And anybody who's still looking for an opportunity, this will be a convenient place to come. and Join the. Joanna. the vaccinated members of the community and make us all safer. Thank you. |
| 00:30:15.98 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you, Sybil. Can you announce that again when and where? |
| 00:30:19.21 | Sybil Boutilier | Yeah. It's Friday, June 4th. at Martin Luther King Park Gymnasium. which is at 610 Coloma Street in Sausalito. And it will be from 1230. to 4.30 in the afternoon. |
| 00:30:38.48 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you. Thank you for making that announcement. |
| 00:30:45.40 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Jasmine Garrity. Jasmine, you've been unmuted. Thank you. |
| 00:30:51.98 | Jasmine Garrity | Thank you. |
| 00:30:52.05 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:30:52.21 | Jasmine Garrity | Hi, hi everybody. Hi Sausalito City Council members and the Sausalito community who's here tonight. My name's Jasmine Garrity. I'm a Sausalito resident and I work here locally on use, substance use and misuse. I also want to touch briefly on the citizens initiative that's being put forward. |
| 00:31:03.65 | Unknown | We're not. |
| 00:31:12.38 | Jasmine Garrity | that is kind of being sponsored by a corporate cannabis business owner. And they're getting signatures currently as we speak to get this on the ballot moving forward for this coming |
| 00:31:13.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:31:22.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:31:24.53 | Jasmine Garrity | ballot period that's coming up in November. I wanted to just bring up a couple important points that I think are valuable, but... that the youth vaping rates here in Marin County are still very high. And the last California Healthy Kids survey that was conducted here in Marin County shows that Tam High students, where Sausalito young people attend for high school, report that over 50% of 11th graders have used cannabis in the last 30 days. So this is higher than any other high school in Marine County and it's higher than most schools in California. This is a big problem that we are facing with our young people here locally. Um, I also wanted to mention that cannabis THC potency rates have been going up in the last 30 years. And the concentrates have been found up to 98% THC potency. Currently, as far as research goes on the health impacts of cannabis, Due to it being federally illegal, there's, they're only researching up to 12% THC. So when people, really, you don't really know what the impacts are of these high concentrated products that are being sold in the legal California market. Um, so one of my questions for the council is if the potency level is something the city's looking at regulating. And then I know you passed the tobacco ban and That's amazing. And I'll finish up just now. Thank you so much for passing that. And if the council will look at. banning flavored cannabis products as well underneath an ordinance. and then Thank you. |
| 00:33:09.90 | Heidi Scoble | Next speaker is Julie Vieira. Julie, you've been asked to be unmuted and start your video. |
| 00:33:16.78 | Julie Vieira | Good evening, everybody. I'm not going to speak on cannabis, but I do want to. keep in the forefront to the city council members to keep pressure on Golden Gate Ferry, Golden Gate Transit, to get our ferry up and running. It is highly affecting not only our commuters, putting more cars on the street in order to get to work, It's affecting our local businesses. It was supposed to be 60 days that the dock was down. We passed that 60 day mark. I know Councilman Kellman has been in touch with them. but I just want to, impress upon the city council, the effect of not having the ferry service, both on residents, and on visitors to the Sausalito area. It's putting more cars on our street, more people on Bridgeway, more cars on Bridgeway, So if we can keep the pressure on Golden Gate to get our ferry service back up and running, That would be great. Thank you. |
| 00:34:26.76 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Thank you, Julie. So I have an update, and I'm just going to give it real quick. So, It's an email from Jim, actually to the vice mayor, that I just was able to pull up immediately. So I'm going to just say it. Um, He's he, uh, he estimates Jim Swindler, who is a liaison. He's the deputy general manager for the ferry division. We have a couple of questions. He's learned that the Saucydeal Float should be back in place and operational no later than Friday, June 19th. most of the welding is complete but there's a lot of other things there are a number of other items that need to be accomplished so He will notify us ASAP when that's confirmed, but we're shooting for... the float back in place and resumption of ferry service. on or about June 19th. So anyway, thank you, Julie, for bringing that up. Okay, go ahead, Madam Clerk, next. |
| 00:35:22.52 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is John Scopazi. John, you've been asked to be unmuted. This may be your last chance |
| 00:35:29.98 | Janelle Kellman | . |
| 00:35:30.13 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:35:30.16 | John Scopazi | Now, am I good now? Oh, my gosh. You can hear me. Yes. |
| 00:35:34.63 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 00:35:34.97 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:35:35.98 | John Scopazi | And my last name is Scopazi, not computer. Okay. Where are my herrings? Where's my herring? I need my herring in the background. All right, keep going. All right, well, thank you all for all your help and volunteering here. So speaking of volunteering, I'm representing South Salido Community Boating Center |
| 00:35:44.76 | Sybil Boutilier | you |
| 00:35:53.87 | John Scopazi | We're up and running, gonna be mostly finished by the end of July. So we're looking for volunteers June and July to come help us out. We're going to have a kind of a soft opening on September 10th, 11th, and 12th. and fully open 2022. We're looking for people to help us out, computer work, social media, stock work, whatever it takes. So I want to keep it short. Um, go to best as the Google Sausalito community boating center. because our URL is way, way long. So just Google us, we're right between that. Sausalito Cruising Club and Galilee right at Dunphy Park. So, uh, Anyway, or Google me if you want. I don't just come help us out. Thank you. |
| 00:36:42.44 | Heidi Scoble | All right, thanks. Our next speaker is Camp Cormorant. Camp Cormorant, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:36:56.17 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:36:56.19 | Janelle Kellman | We're not hearing you, Camp. former end. |
| 00:36:59.28 | Heidi Scoble | Camp Cormorant has not unmuted themselves or shared their video. Oh, there we go. |
| 00:37:04.29 | Janelle Kellman | Oh, there we go. |
| 00:37:04.85 | Unknown | to them. Thank you. Wait, wait, wait, I'm muted. We're unmuted. |
| 00:37:09.17 | Janelle Kellman | You know, you're good, see ya. We can hear you every day. |
| 00:37:11.43 | Unknown | I can hear you every- |
| 00:37:13.30 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 00:37:13.81 | Unknown | Can you hear us? |
| 00:37:14.84 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. |
| 00:37:15.58 | Maria Hernandez | Thank you. |
| 00:37:16.78 | Unknown | So, Okay, okay, this is, you can't comment. Jeff, you speak first. There's a number of us speaking. |
| 00:37:22.99 | Jeff Jacob | Hello, Madam Mayor and City Council and residents of Sausalito. This is Jeff Jacob from Camp Cormorant here on Locust and Bridgeway. We are now entering our fifth month. of our stay here in the center of this beautiful town. We're here because the public access all along the waterfront in Sausalito. from The fuel dock and gate 6. all the way down to the ferry building. has been cut off for landing, for kayaks, and skiffs and inflatables. So we are able to land here at Camp Cormorant. The location that you suggested that we move. Only after we already had this camp at this moment has no landing facilities. They are expressly prohibited. That's admiring ships. That's one reason that we're here. Another reason that we're here is because Sausalito has not allowed community gardens So I've started I and I have started the Sunflower Community Garden. This is the number four community garden that's happened here in Sausalito. We don't. What? this garden destroyed like the first three were. either by the city, people working for the city or indirectly from the city. Right now, I feel that that is one of the most important things is that people are in tune with growing their own food. There is no opportunity for that here. There is in here in Sausalito, there is a camp Cormorant. We are also running an experiment with people who have been under a lot of pressure Living together. in peace, not always perfectly. And it's not the last. |
| 00:39:19.49 | Unknown | you |
| 00:39:19.66 | Unknown | 10 minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:39:21.79 | Jeff Jacob | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:39:23.53 | Unknown | They got more speakers, tell them more speakers. |
| 00:39:25.35 | Jeff Jacob | All right, we have another speaker, please. |
| 00:39:27.24 | Unknown | Okay. That's fine. |
| 00:39:29.03 | Janelle Kellman | Go ahead. You're good. That's fine. |
| 00:39:31.44 | Unknown | Okay. Oh, could you? Okay. Yeah. |
| 00:39:37.08 | Jeff Jacob | Yeah, she's got it. |
| 00:39:38.39 | Unknown | Go ahead. You have two minutes. |
| 00:39:40.03 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:39:40.20 | Jeff Jacob | Thank you. |
| 00:39:40.33 | Unknown | Thank you. Okay, okay, this is a waterfront and anchor out pasture. Peter, Kristen Romanowski. and CEO of the Duke Outland Action. Association. I don't. Not a problem. Organization. and I believe that... I'm CEO of the only nonprofit out here Anchorage and we keep out pilot for support, you know, from Samsung. Foundation. What was in need? I'm not sure if anybody else is going to be able to do that. Thank you. here in THE FAMILY. THE END OF THE END OF THE Fundraising. THE END OF THE END OF THE Obviously. I'm getting hold of it. Come to the camp. Thanks. But anyways, call me at 415. 370. or 17. Thank you. that comes to a You be one of them. upgrade our boats out here. AND I THINK THAT'S A Most of the people in his camp are anchored. a former eggnog. Most of your The people actually run this camp, I've lost their votes. And they had no place to go left. This is it. and, Spiritually speaking, the tide has rise. the whole situation at the bottom Yeah. Yeah. God is strict. and And the tide is rising now. And nothing will stop. Nothing will stop this, this will not go away. Nothing will stop this rising tide. A rising tide lifts all boats. you know, poor people's posts, young posts, But it floods. it floods some going to Like... but You'll look. floods the flatlands, so to speak, you know. Anyways, uh... I'm not sure. I'm going to go ahead and Daniel here was the first one to pitch his tent I have been 53 years old and he is an experienced Right. He's been around first for like, I'm going to go ahead. THE END OF THE END OF THE Would you like to speak, Daniel? do with Okay. Bye. |
| 00:41:38.09 | Unknown | I don't. |
| 00:41:38.63 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:41:39.20 | Unknown | system there. under the mayor of city council. Oh! about. to the community. Yes. out. I think it's a good thing. Oh, yeah. I know you. Go ahead. Just a date. . I am here. I see in a ever. I'm not. |
| 00:42:01.66 | Unknown | Okay. Yes. All right. Oh. It ain't gonna be. |
| 00:42:15.01 | Unknown | CHARLES. with our mafia. and bother. bigger than that. But they just say, What is happening is the color of the bomb. PROPERTY IS BEING TAKEN. Thank you. I'm not sure. Thank you. be. And I'll leave. and the process of being taken Right. I'm not sure. that starts to be I think. and the character of the art. and took a couple of years for my grandchildren, for my daughter. I agree with that. that were living with her when she came from New Mexico and my wife and |
| 00:42:55.76 | Ian Sobieski | I'm not sure. |
| 00:42:56.47 | Unknown | because she would get a better opportunity to solve all the various problems He has been a single partner with the children. And the way you got here, Organized the share of the our vision. You're A VARIETY OF EXAMPLE. to dictate our children is violating every single law. pertains to the price it didn't borrow. And they knew it. And then they even awarded after my daughter, but they weren't after my daughter. They were after the child. Thank you. Now all those children are out of my hands. They're out of my wife's hands. They're out of my... And I'm living at the a very excellent situation here. as this THE END OF THE END OF THE Well, And what we have Yeah. I know your 10 minutes has elapsed. |
| 00:43:55.26 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:43:55.79 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:43:55.80 | Janelle Kellman | I'll tell you to mention, Thank you. we're going to move on to our next speakers now thank you so much for calling in Okay. |
| 00:44:03.70 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:44:03.94 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Goodbye. |
| 00:44:08.31 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Kelsey Fernandez. Kelsey, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:44:12.43 | Unknown | Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. I'll make this quick. My name is Kelsey Fernandez and I work on countywide initiatives. as a part of Marin Prevention Network to address underage substance use in Marin County. the particular focus on environmental which include local policy and regulations that prevent underage access. and use of alcohol, tobacco, and commercial cannabis products. A few months ago, this council announced that they would be conducting some town hall forums to provide an opportunity to discuss the public health impact of profit-driven cannabis businesses on Sausalito residents and the surrounding communities. And tonight I'm wondering if that is still in the planning. We know from experience when cannabis companies pursue a ballot measure, they draw on the wealthy and powerful cannabis industry that has the ability to greatly outspend local families and public health coalitions. We also know that the cannabis businesses tend to promote a self-serving narrative and misrepresent the scientific facts. I hope this council will continue what they started with engaging the community on this important issue and calling on local experts to share the facts so that residents can make informed decisions. Thank you. |
| 00:45:38.61 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:45:41.95 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Bridget Clark. Bridget, you've been unmuted. Hi, can you hear me? |
| 00:45:48.26 | Bridget Clark | Thank you. Yes. |
| 00:45:51.21 | Vicki Nichols | Okay. |
| 00:45:51.57 | Bridget Clark | Thank you. Um, I, I want to thank you. to the council members |
| 00:45:56.44 | Unknown | and then |
| 00:45:57.78 | Bridget Clark | I'll try to make this short as well. I just, I wanted to, |
| 00:45:59.47 | Maria Hernandez | I'm sorry. |
| 00:46:02.20 | Bridget Clark | Thank you, first of all, for the ban on flavored substances you did being one of the first in Marin County to do so. I'm not sure. although this ballot initiative that's come up for cannabis has bypassed, as Kelsey mentioned, we're hoping, I personally am hoping for some more public forums. And if you would like to see what corporate cannabis products look like, if you would go to womenmorinforpublichealth.org. You can see the sort of claims that the cannabis industry makes that they're not making products attractive to you. very similarly to the drill industry with the vaping devices, they're following the same tactics, it appears. If you wanna read more about it, it is on this website and we appreciate your support in any way possible. And That's about it. I don't want to take too long because you've had a lot of speakers. Thank you. |
| 00:47:04.03 | Heidi Scoble | And our last speaker is Megan Tumbo. Megan, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:47:10.37 | Megan Tumbo | Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Great. I was actually at the post office today and I had a huge package I was getting out of my, the trunk of my car. And a man walked up and said, I'll help you with that package if you'll sign a petition for me. And I said, well, what is the petition? And then he said it was to legalize a cannabis store in town. And I said, no, thanks. Do you have any identification? And he didn't, he wasn't wearing a badge. And then he walked off and didn't help me with my package when I said I wouldn't sign. So... I just think that There's going to be all these signatures. You're not going to know where they're coming from. bribing to get them and they don't have proper identification. So I don't know how you monitor that or, but I think it's something that should be noted. |
| 00:48:00.31 | Elizabeth O'Donnell | Thank you. |
| 00:48:00.32 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:48:03.88 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we do not have any hands raised at this moment. |
| 00:48:08.29 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, then I will... closed public comment on matters not on the agenda and moving on to item three on our agenda, which is action minutes, of our previous meeting and we have three on our agenda May 11th. May 12th and May 17th. And so do I have a motion? to approve those minutes. I'm moved, man. So a second. I'll second. Thank you very much. Madam Clerk, could you please CALL THE ROLL. Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 00:48:47.34 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:48:47.35 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Councilmember Sobieski? I don't think. Council member Blaustein, yes. you Council member Cleveland knows. |
| 00:48:55.22 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Cleveland, no one |
| 00:48:57.87 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Kalman? Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:49:02.17 | Janelle Kellman | Yes, and I forgot to open public comment on |
| 00:49:02.24 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 00:49:02.96 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. |
| 00:49:02.98 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:49:05.90 | Janelle Kellman | the action minutes. So I'll open it now. Anybody wanna talk about the action minutes of the previous meeting? So you know hands, Madam Clerk, can you please confirm? |
| 00:49:17.38 | Heidi Scoble | There are no hands raised at this moment. |
| 00:49:20.16 | Janelle Kellman | Very well, then I will close public comments and moving along. Thank you. |
| 00:49:25.98 | Heidi Scoble | And since Council Member Sobieski just reappeared, Council Member Sobieski, would you mind declaring your vote on the minutes? |
| 00:49:34.40 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:49:35.57 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Very good. |
| 00:49:37.96 | Janelle Kellman | Motion passes five zero. Moving on to item four. Uh, committee reports. Does anybody want to make committee reports? |
| 00:49:49.98 | Melissa Blaustein | Can we have video first? I can start. |
| 00:49:50.09 | Janelle Kellman | you |
| 00:49:51.99 | Melissa Blaustein | Here, go ahead. |
| 00:49:53.01 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:49:53.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, great. So I attended the MCCMC Homelessness Committee and some exciting news to share is that as a result of President Biden's Recovery Act, the County of Marin is set to receive 115 new vouchers, specifically permanent housing vouchers specifically for individuals who are unhoused. And so through collaboration right now, a number of representatives from across the county are looking at what steps can be taken to ensure that those vouchers are used and also thinking about and exploring the possibility of pallet homes or tiny homes within the county. So we're hopeful to continue to explore that possibility and of course, pursue every possible avenue for housing. and The Historic Preservation Commission had a meeting this last Wednesday and they adopted the Sausalito Historic Contact Statement, which was a beautiful piece of work that was worked on for many months by our consultant and really dug deep into the history of all of our neighborhoods, what makes Sausalito unique. So if you're looking for a fun read at some point, I would encourage you to take a look. We also reviewed the appropriateness of a project on Bonita Street and the Sausalito Women's Club roof improvements earned their certificate of appropriateness. Thank you to everyone who wrote many, many letters on that issue. I also had the opportunity to meet with Sybil from Age-Friendly Sausalito to get an update on what they have been working on. Quite a lot. So you'll be seeing soon the Age Friendly Survey. And we have 3,246 older adults that qualify for that survey. So many of you will likely be receiving this survey from Age Friendly and we look forward to them presenting it. They also applied for the AARP California Walking College grant and they received it and they now have two fellows, Vicki Nichols and Ginny Irwin, who will be participating in this fellowship program over the course of six months. They also have two grants from the county, one that has been funding the Tai Chi lessons on Zoom and another that is responsible for |
| 00:51:38.36 | Unknown | . |
| 00:51:38.53 | Bridget Clark | Thank you. |
| 00:51:38.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:51:51.86 | Melissa Blaustein | Pardon me. the fitness court, the senior fitness court at MLK. You heard Sybil speak about the vaccination sites that Age Friendly has been coordinating on and the Working Waterfront Age Friendly Meals Program continues in partnership with Rotary Foundation. They are delivering 20 meals three days a week to seniors in need in our community. So they are certainly very busy. And I'm gonna finish with sustainability commission and then hope that Vice Mayor Kelman will take it away because we often have a synergy on this. So the sustainability commission is working on and has actually drafted a building electrification ordinance. And at the last meeting was determined that they would do some community outreach to make sure that it is consistent with community needs and work with folks who maybe have building projects or businesses that would be impacted. They also submitted committee reports to the council from each of their working committees. And they are working to add a statement of purpose as a consent calendar agenda item. So we should be seeing that they've updated that as well. And they're working on the rate review process with Bay cities to see if we might take steps to make recycling part of backyard pickup rather than trash. And EV chargers continues to be a huge project with the sustainability commission. And today vice mayor Kelman and I had a meeting with the transportation committee and MCE and vice mayor Kelman put that meeting together. So I will, Hand it off to Vice Mayor Kellman to talk about that and all of your other great climate work. |
| 00:53:13.02 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:53:14.06 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:53:14.08 | Janelle Kellman | I love this segue, thank you. And thank you for all your hard work. Yes, so thanks to Council Member Brostein and the Sustainability Commission. Today, we met with the EV charging program manager at MC, MC is Marine Clean Energy. So the Sustainability Commission is taking a lean on developing a business case around the opportunity to add high-speed chargers in Sausalito. And the goal of the conversation was to understand what rebates might be available for us for level two and maybe even level three type charging mechanisms. Thank you. Sausalito and the goal of the conversation was to understand what rebates might be available for us for level two and maybe even level three type charging mechanisms. So hats off to the sustainability commission for putting together that business case and identifying locations and moving our community in that direction. So also on MCE, I did have an MCE board of directors meeting last week. This was super energizing. It was focused on diversity, racial equity, youth engagement, and workforce development. Many of you know MCE is a community choice aggregator, or CCA, whose mission is to broaden access to renewable energy resources. So we actually approved a resolution committing to advance racial equity in the renewable industry. And then along those lines, we discuss education around renewables and apprenticeship programs. And MC is going to be sponsoring a youth oriented climate action summit. So that was pretty exciting. Also last week, last Monday actually, our four person subcommittee for the housing element interviewed consultants to handle the drafting of our housing element. We had several impressive candidates. We'll be making recommendation to the city council as to next steps there as well. I'm sure Councilmember Cleveland Knowles will have something to add since she's on that committee with me. Sausalito's Sea Level Rise Task Force met earlier this week. We are moving forward with an analysis of the opportunities to mitigate and address sea level rise in Sausalito. We have four different subcommittees, funding, communication, collaboration, and solutions. And right now we're reaching out to individuals and organizations within Sausalito and other jurisdictions as well as universities and government agencies. This is gonna be a really widespread community effort and we wanna engage as many stakeholders as possible. So our upcoming action items include a webpage with resources, a community survey, and an interactive modeling map. And then as part of our mandate, we'll be drafting recommendations around action steps for the full council to consider. And then two more things, we had a Marin County Council of Mayors and Council Members Climate Action Committee meeting, as many of you probably know, this committee historically has focused on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our communities. We're actually gonna be doing some review of wildfire impact on air quality. So later this week, I'm speaking with a postdoctoral research fellow at NASA Langley, who specializes in understanding the composition and magnitude of fire emissions and how that might change in the future and ways to mitigate the negative impacts to climate change so I'm sure I will learn a lot and have to use a reference document as I as I speak with her and then finally I want to flag that we have two upcoming Finance Committee meetings so please save the date the first is Wednesday June 2nd from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Then the second is Monday, June 14th from one to 3 PM. |
| 00:56:13.75 | Janelle Kellman | And that's it. Okay, thank you. Council Member Cleveland Knowles or Council Member Sobieski? |
| 00:56:19.59 | Melissa Blaustein | I can dive in as Councilmember Kelman, already said we had the housing element So hopefully that recommendation will be coming forward. and gave me a lot of confidence that we'll be able to get through our housing elements. And then there was a PBAC meeting that I unfortunately, pedestrian, bike and advisory committee that I unfortunately missed due to one of our special meetings, but I have notes from those. The PBAC unanimously voted to recommend that the city look hard at Napa and Bridgeway intersection as an enforcement hotspot. They reviewed pedestrian and bicycle safety statistics in Sausalito and flagged a desire to work more closely with the police department. on those issues and they reviewed some early concepts for Caledonia Street post-COVID and suggested focusing on defining the overall goals and engaging with community stakeholders as critical next steps. And that's all I have to report. |
| 00:57:25.21 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you. Council Member Sobieski. |
| 00:57:29.18 | Ian Sobieski | In the interests of time, I have nothing to add. |
| 00:57:34.38 | Janelle Kellman | Awesome. Yes. And most of my input has also been... It's also been covered by other members of the council members. Council, so we will then open this item up for, uh, public comment. So I'm opening up public comment for council member committee reports. So |
| 00:57:55.94 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we have one public speaker with one raised hand, it's Eva Cresante. Eva, you've been unmuted. |
| 00:58:05.19 | Ava Crisanti | Thanks so much, can you hear me okay? |
| 00:58:06.88 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:58:07.93 | Ava Crisanti | Hi, I wanted to touch base on Melissa Blaustein's comment regarding the loosening of more funds for homeless services and for immediate housing. And I think it's a great idea. I think what we're learning by reviewing the correspondence from the CPRA. regarding Andrew Henning and city of San Rafael and the county. is that despite a small fortune being spent on housing, on so-called housing and homeless services, it's really astounding how little of this actually made it made it to the homeless people, much of, much of the money that was spent went into nonprofits that somehow managed not to help the people who are in most serious need and to give you like a basic example of that I would refer to a Tuesday May 12th 2020 email sent by Andrew Henning this was over two months since the lockdown was announced last year and Mr. Henning said Moran is the only Bay Area county that is not currently providing food and water to people living in encampments until Ritter and St. Vincent's resumed normal operations, presumably early June, the feeling is that food and water through normal county outreach efforts E.g. a couple of bottles of water, food to get through a few days is an important outreach tool until those traditional resources reopen. It's stunning that in one of the wealthiest counties in California, we were the only Bay Area County not providing food and water to encampments in the middle of a pandemic. And that's not to mention the fact that the president of the board of supervisors at that time, Katie Rice was denying porta potties. Your two minutes has elapsed. |
| 01:00:08.80 | Heidi Scoble | Your two minutes has elapsed. Thank you. We have Roberta. |
| 01:00:15.97 | Roberta | You're not. You've been unmuted. Thank you. I wanted to ask Council Member Blaske if the Historic Preservation Commission is still doing the presentation that I'll start my video. If the presentation on Thursday night is still scheduled, that the Preservation Commission was planning on Zooming. My understanding is a flyer was made and I think I saw a copy of it on Facebook and that there was supposed to be a public review of historic preservation and the value of having historic preservation. |
| 01:00:58.87 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you, Barbara. Council Member Weilstein, do you have that information handy? |
| 01:01:02.51 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. I don't, but it looks like commissioner Vicki Nichols is about to make public comments. So maybe she can weigh in. She's glad. |
| 01:01:10.97 | Janelle Kellman | to answer that question. If not, I'm betting that |
| 01:01:13.14 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:01:13.72 | Janelle Kellman | someone will be able to get back to you, Roberta, and tell you |
| 01:01:16.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Absolutely, I'll get back to you if Commissioner Nichols doesn't have the answer. |
| 01:01:20.08 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 01:01:20.11 | Melissa Blaustein | Go ahead. |
| 01:01:21.01 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 01:01:21.77 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:01:21.97 | Vicki Nichols | SPEAKER 1 you Hi, thank you for the little opportunity to do this to my knowledge. This is still being scheduled. I was not on the commission when this was done. Two members from the commission, the historical preservation commission worked with the historical society. The knowledge it's still going forward. I believe there was an E-light thing that you could respond. I would suggest, checking with, um, and maybe I can do it and figure out how to get it back to Council Member Blaustein, maybe a contact, maybe, the chair or something like that. I'll try that offline right now. Okay, thank you. |
| 01:02:10.16 | Janelle Kellman | Thanks very much. |
| 01:02:10.50 | Vicki Nichols | Because I don't know. THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:02:10.97 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Thank you very much. OK, I don't see any other raised hands for public forum, sorry, for public comment. Can you please confirm Madam Clerk? |
| 01:02:24.05 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no hands raised at this time. |
| 01:02:27.34 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, in that case, we will close public comment and move on to our next agenda item, which is the consent calendar. |
| 01:02:38.03 | Janelle Kellman | The consent counter includes matters considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, are expected to have unanimous council support It 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 actions. 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. Um, There are seven items listed on a consent calendar. 5A is a COVID update. 5B is an encroachment agreement for 181 Spencer for their driveway widening. and a 1.5 foot retaining wall. 5C is a report. third quarterly report from the Community Development Department. 5D. is consideration of waiver of the planning division application fees for the construction of an awning at Sausseo Animal Hospital located at 1309 Bridgeway 5E is a quarter one police department statistical report. 5F is consideration of policy regarding display of flags. city facilities proclaiming June LGBTQ plus pride month. and request to fly the LGBTQ plus pride during the month of June, but actually, The staff report requests just the first week in June. AND, The 5G is adopt a resolution declaring month of May as Asia Pacific American Heritage Month. So those are our five items on the consent calendar. I will now open this up for public comment. |
| 01:04:32.20 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we have one hand that is raised at this moment. Ava Crisante, you've been asked to be unmuted. and start your meeting. |
| 01:04:39.24 | Ava Crisanti | Thanks so much. Just very quickly, the police IAM, I would recommend to remove for larger discussion. And the very last item, I think I'm probably one of maybe two people on this call with Asian heritage, but a proclamation that May is Asian American Heritage Month on the 25th of May is superfluous and there's probably uh, you know, it's a little too late, but more seriously, I think the, crime statistics do warrant more discussion. Thanks so much. |
| 01:05:23.38 | Wendy Richards | OK, thank you. |
| 01:05:27.57 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we do not have any additional hands raised at this time. |
| 01:05:31.38 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you, I will now close. Um, I'll close a public comment for this item and I'll open up for council comment. Do we have a motion to either approve as submitted or amended? |
| 01:05:44.58 | Ian Sobieski | I just have a question there on process. Is it possible to approve the consent item regarding the waiver of the fees while still, directing staff to look at reconsider whether to waive the additional balance for the fee. |
| 01:06:03.28 | Janelle Kellman | Sure, I mean, I think what we would do is approve the item as it's on the consent calendar and then give directions staff for further consideration of the additional fees. |
| 01:06:16.74 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, I mean, without making any discussion at it, the $21,000 is a lot for an awning. $7,000 seems like a lot for an awning. It's part of a larger discussion about permits and costs. There's also particular issues around this particular business and its particular critical infrastructure nature that I think warrants an investigation and engagement by staff. I know they're busy, but it would be nice to take some of the burden off of this business, but also not close the subject altogether. |
| 01:06:47.81 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, I think, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. So would you be willing to engage with the community development department on those concerns and further? |
| 01:06:57.29 | Ian Sobieski | I know Vice Mayor Cohen and I are already working on this, and she seems to be nodding her head that we continue to do so. |
| 01:07:02.64 | Janelle Kellman | Great. OK, I think that's good. Um, that's fine then and so then do we have a motion to approve the consent calendar as it's written with that caveat that we're gonna provide further direction or request further direction. and effort with regard to the the remainder of the fees for |
| 01:07:21.98 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:07:22.42 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:07:22.45 | Melissa Blaustein | It's also your animal hospital. I'll make a motion. I just wanna also acknowledge Felicia Grellius, who's the Marin County Board of Education Trustee who suggested the waving of the flag and observance of LGBTQ plus Pride Month. She's been doing a lot of work across the county to make sure cities are engaged on these issues. So just wanted to appreciate and give her a hat tip as well as thanking staff for including that. And with that, I make a motion to approve the consent calendar with Council Member Sobieski's suggested amendment. |
| 01:07:50.77 | Melissa Blaustein | And I was... that motion. And then I also just wanted to note that on five C, the Community Development Department third quarterly report. I just do want to acknowledge how much work is reflected in that quarterly report and how stressed our staff is, especially with another recent departure. phenomenal amount of work and I just want to thank the Community Development Department. |
| 01:08:13.16 | Janelle Kellman | you |
| 01:08:18.29 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. uh very good so we have the motion and we with an amendment and we have a second and so madam crook if you could please call me from our study. |
| 01:08:28.03 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 01:08:28.40 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Yes. Thank you. |
| 01:08:29.72 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Blaustein? |
| 01:08:31.20 | Wendy Richards | Yeah. |
| 01:08:32.18 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Cleveland Knowles. Yeah. Vice Mayor Kelman? |
| 01:08:35.62 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:08:35.93 | Wendy Richards | Yes. |
| 01:08:36.81 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. |
| 01:08:36.97 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:08:37.02 | Heidi Scoble | Hoffman. |
| 01:08:37.51 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:08:38.09 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:08:38.10 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. Um, Very good. The motion passes 5-0. And so at this point I will read the resolution. of the city council. regarding Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and honor. So we are passing a resolution of the city council. of the city of Sausalito recognizing, celebrating, declaring the month of May as Asian, every month of May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and honoring the contributions of the Asian Pacific American community. Whereas the origin of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month came from a former Capitol Hill staffer, Jenny Chu. who illuminated the need for the recognition of this important community and highlighting her own story as a great granddaughter of a Chinese transcontinental worker and Ruby Moy, the Chief of Staff of Representative Horton, who worked to make the commemoration possible. And whereas congressional representatives dating back to 1977 Most notably, Congress members Norman Mineta and Frank Horton introduced resolutions to designate official recognition for Asian Pacific Heritage which eventually recognized the first week in May as Asian Pacific American Wheat. And whereas on March 28th, 1979, President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation for Asian Pacific American Heritage Week to recognize the significant contributions of Asian Pacific community and Whereas in 1991, United States President George H.W. Bush signed into law a joint resolution adopted by the Congress of the United States declaring the month of May, be celebrated as asian pacific american heritage month in the united states and in 1992 it was declared that the celebration would take place in May in perpetuity. And whereas the month of May carries significance to Asian Pacific Americans because of two historic events that occur on May 7th. the date in which the first Japanese immigrants arrived to the United States. On May 10th, 1869, the transcontinental Chinese railroad railroad workers day. in recognition of the contributions of Chinese immigrants that worked to complete the first transcontinental railroad in the United States, despite discriminatory on safe conditions. Whereas Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is a celebration of diversity accomplishments, and is a time to embrace a unique value that can be found in all of us. And whereas, Asian Pacific Americans have had a profound impact on the United States and Saucelida community. And whereas the United States and the city of South Salido are enriched by the diverse cultural contributions residents from areas like the Pacific Islands, China, Japan, Vietnam, in India. and whereas the city council celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by calling upon Sausalito residents to honor Sausalito's Asian Pacific Americans and learn more about the history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Whereas additional Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month information and resources can be found at AsianPacificHeritage.gov. and Asian and Pacific Islander Americans continue to enrich our region's economy, culture, education, politics, arts, literature, science, and technological developments, despite institutional and systemic injustices designed to prevent and limit those achievements and contributions. Now therefore, the city council of Sausalito does hereby resolve that the city council recognizes, celebrates, and declares the month of May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in perpetuity. passed and adopted. this day, May 25th, May 2021, by unanimous vote. So thank you. Okay. Okay, moving along to our next Right. the roll call on that? We already voted on it as a Calendar vote. So. Thank you. Okay, so moving along to our next Item public defense. uh, I have six public hearings, but there are no public hearings tonight. So moving on to our business items, Um, Item 7A. And this item is consideration of city manager employment agreement between the city of Sausalito And Chris Zapata? And I'm not sure who's making it. Mary Wagner, our city attorney is making it. Very good. Go ahead, Mary. |
| 01:13:02.65 | Mary Wagner | That would be me. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. I'm gonna start a brief presentation, if I may. |
| 01:13:19.06 | Mary Wagner | Again, thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. As you all know, the item in front of you right now, Item 7A is consideration of an employment agreement for your new city manager. |
| 01:13:33.52 | Mary Wagner | As you know, your former city manager, Adam Pulitzer, retired effective December 31st of last year. And since that time, you've been in the good hands of interim city manager, Marsha Raines. You had a recruitment effort led by Avery and Associates. and you conducted an extensive search that resulted in over 50 candidates applying for the position You went through a very thorough interview and background process. And at the end of that process, the council Thank you. offered a conditional offer to Chris Zapata. |
| 01:14:08.92 | Mary Wagner | You have in your packet tonight, the draft city manager employment agreement and the terms are laid out in your staff report. Mr. Zapata's first day on the job will be June 7th. The contract is for an initial term of two years and 23 days, which seems a little odd, but it gets you to the end of June that's June 30th 2023 and then automatically renews every two years A base salary is included at $226,000. Mr. Zapata will be relocating from Southern California. And so there's also a lump sum one-time payment for relocation of $15,000. The contract includes an incentive pay provision after one year that would be 5% of the base salary upon the satisfactory completion of specific goals and objectives that are reached by Mr. Zapata and the council. The contract also includes a severance of three months based salary, And then healthcare and other insurance related benefits would be continued for six months. Mr. Zapata would be a member of CalPERS and the rate that would apply to him would be 2% at the age of 62. The other benefits that would be offered to Mr. Zapata are generally the same as the fringe benefits offered to all your other departments. your department heads, department managers, the cafeteria plan, the deferred comp plan, And then vacation, admin, sick leave. Mr. Zapata would come on the books with 45 hours of sick leave at the beginning of the arrangement. And you would have an automobile allowance of $400 per month. The fiscal impact is also laid out in your staff report. There's a little bit of a range because it's somewhat dependent upon what benefits Mr. Zapata would choose for healthcare. And those benefits vary depending on whether it's actually waived or if it's the employee only or employee plus other family members. And you can see that number there ranges from approximately 282,000 to 300,000. the first year. So I'll conclude by just saying that staff's recommendation based on the city council's direction is that you adopt a resolution of the council approving the city manager employment agreement between the city and Mr. Zapata. And with that, I will stop sharing the screen and I would be happy to answer any questions that the council may have for me. |
| 01:16:32.81 | Janelle Kellman | Hi. I have a question about the auto I thought we, I don't recall that we, oh, sorry. I'm seeing I'm not, my video's on. |
| 01:16:47.16 | Mary Wagner | Madam Mayor, if I may, that was a negotiated term that Mr. Zapata requested that was consistent with what your former city manager had in his contracting. |
| 01:16:58.82 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, does everybody else remember that? I thought we... Did not approve those types of allowances, so I. Maybe I'm mistaken here, but does anybody else? Remember that? Thank you. |
| 01:17:12.39 | Janelle Kellman | You know, I recall that conversation that we expressed a desire not to have the a la carte type scenarios. |
| 01:17:22.66 | Mary Wagner | If I may, Madam Mayor, it is a benefit that's offered, I believe to other department heads as well. through, I'm trying to stop screen sharing. I'm sorry, I don't know Heidi, if you can help with that. I'm having difficulty here. There we go. Thank you. Um, And it's been a term that's been in the agreement that's been considered by the council. |
| 01:17:42.71 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, it was kind of that we offered the same set of benefits that and that we had published. |
| 01:17:51.47 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, but I thought we had a discussion about that and that we were not expressly not gonna offer those. I don't remember anybody coming back to us and saying, okay, we negotiated this we've negotiated the $400. Otto. Sorry, I just don't remember that. . And then I had a question about the CalPERS retirement too. Sorry. Anybody else? expressly remember us discussing i mean i understand that we offer that to some of the other managers, but we had expressly talked about not going down that road with this contract. So. Sorry, anybody else other than Councilman of Cleveland-Knowles expressly remember us saying that we were gonna allow a $400 a month auto? Allowance? |
| 01:18:39.85 | Ian Sobieski | I remember there were a whole set of benefits that weren't delineated that we identified were typical uh, would be offering. job description that was published by Avery. |
| 01:18:54.67 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, I'm just looking at what we, the compensation and benefits on the back of the Avery thing. And that is definitely part of what we had I'll try again. |
| 01:19:03.76 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:19:03.78 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, but we didn't just... Okay, but we... Okay. even though it may have been on a brochure at some point, There were other things on the brochure that we did not offer, right? And then. I just, I'm sorry, I'm just not remembering that this was part of our negotiated contract specifically with this candidate. |
| 01:19:23.68 | Janelle Kellman | Mayor Hoffman, if I could just clarify with the city manager or the city attorney. So Mary, I think you were just stating that the candidate requested this during the negotiation and then that's when it was offered, is that accurate? |
| 01:19:35.81 | Mary Wagner | No, I don't believe so, Vice Mayor. I apologize if I misspoke. It's been in the terms that, since we've been discussing this from, since you know beginning of May 1st. and believe was taken directly from those communications. |
| 01:19:51.89 | Melissa Blaustein | I don't know if I see it. I'm just looking through this list. Everything on this list is what is part of the term of the contract. Thank you. Sorry, I can't share my screen because I've got a piece of paper here. |
| 01:20:02.76 | Mary Wagner | I'm happy to if that would be helpful. |
| 01:20:10.22 | Janelle Kellman | I mean, there were also, okay, that's fine. If you guys remember, I, I just don't recall that. And I remember there were other things that were housing allowances and there were, you know, commuting allowances and all kinds of things that we expressly decided we were not gonna offer at this point. |
| 01:20:24.04 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. |
| 01:20:24.07 | Vicki Nichols | I'm not sure. |
| 01:20:24.37 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. |
| 01:20:27.04 | Janelle Kellman | you know, I don't remember, anyway, I don't remember us negotiating that, especially the number and expressly saying, That's what we were going to. do for this contract? So the other question I had in Mary was, How does the CalPERS retirement work? 1%, what'd you say? 2% is 62 because our candidate is now, he's 61 years old. So how does that, work. with the two-year contract. At the end of the two-year contract, what retirement would he expect? Or is there a vesting period as well as age? |
| 01:21:01.15 | Mary Wagner | I believe he's eligible to for two percent at 62 um not a mayor and then the city's contribution is based upon the years of service at the city of Sausalito other I believe will pay into that as well. I could use some assistance perhaps from your interim city manager or your finance director if that would be helpful. |
| 01:21:23.93 | Marsha Raines | I believe the city attorney in this instance has outlined exactly how CalPERS works. CalPERS is a retirement formula that will take the years of service or months of service at one formula, in this case 2% at 62, combine it with years of service and formula at other places of employment of any particular individual. uh, combined to a minimum, I believe it is of 30 years. I'm not, positive about the minimum. but at any retirement point, would pay a combination of employers and benefit provided. So for example, You mentioned that your current, um, contract consideration is 61 years of age. Our formula is at 62. say he were to turn 62 tomorrow. the day after hiring, he would be eligible for one day of service. 2% at 62. |
| 01:22:21.76 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:22:21.77 | Marsha Raines | Okay, thanks. Then he's... It's my understanding of the retirement system after 40 years of trying to figure out CalPERS. Thank you. |
| 01:22:30.02 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. And he's a tier, he's not a legacy. I mean, there's different tiers in Sausalito of, retirees so that he's not a legacy. He's a Yeah. |
| 01:22:40.40 | Mary Wagner | Only two at 62. Thank you. Yeah, correct. |
| 01:22:45.53 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. Okay, anybody else have any questions? specific questions. Okay. Thank you. |
| 01:22:52.98 | Ian Sobieski | All right, then I'll open it up. I had a question, sorry about just for Marcia. And just for everyone's benefit of your limitations on your ability to continue to work for the city of South Salado. I understand that because of your own retirement rules or CalPERS rules that your hours have been produced and they go to zero at some point. Can you just go over that one again really quick? |
| 01:23:13.95 | Marsha Raines | I can give you the version that I have. CalPERS, as anyone who's dealt with CalPERS can tell you, difficult to follow. They I have provided a letter allowing expansion of the standard 960 hours. It would be allowed retired annuitant, which I am, I have well over 30 years in the system. So I'm a retired annuitant, I'm subject to 960 hours in retirement. They did make an exception as long as the governor's order Thank you. on COVID was in play. So, like many of my colleagues doing interim assignments, we're all eyeing June 15th as the next target date within which we'll get a letter from CalPERS saying, okay, Executive emergency order for COVID under the governor is up. and so is your extension of 960. So with that in mind, I've been urging the council to continue the process. I'm very happy that you've now found a highly qualified previous city manager with some background to take over from your prior city manager. |
| 01:24:21.97 | Ian Sobieski | Thanks, Marcia. Is this your favorite place to work? |
| 01:24:26.89 | Marsha Raines | So far, yes. Right. One of the biggest factors is the beauty and the lovely employees to work with in addition to the council, but the employees in this organization are the hardest working and most dedicated I have found in my career. |
| 01:24:45.55 | Janelle Kellman | Marcia, just for sake of clarity, when did you start with us? |
| 01:24:49.21 | Marsha Raines | October 28th. |
| 01:24:52.30 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:24:52.35 | Marsha Raines | Thank you. |
| 01:24:52.38 | Janelle Kellman | So quite early. |
| 01:24:58.44 | Janelle Kellman | Any other questions for Marcia before we open up for public comment? Okay, let's open up for public comment. on this item. |
| 01:25:22.94 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we have four hands that are raised at this time. We'll start, they're growing. And we'll start with Steven Woodside, Lisa Scapazi and David Sudo. Stephen, you've been asked to be unmuted. |
| 01:25:39.82 | Steven Woodside | Hi, good evening, Mayor Hoffman, members of the council. I think this is a terrific place in which to live. and Marcia. I agree with you. It's also a terrific place in which to work. I wanted to lend my strong support for your hiring of Chris Zapata. I don't know personally, but I, have spent on a career in municipal law. And I think that one of the most important criteria is for a city manager is having a deep understanding not only the legal environment, but the practical environment of getting things done in a city like Sausalito or San Leandro or Anaheim or, you know, a national city or wherever he has worked, And I think his depth of experience is extraordinary. And you're very lucky to have candidate of his background. I also want to make a comment about diversity. Oh! I've had an opportunity to, for example, working with some of the names of people you mentioned earlier. I first met Normanetta when he ran for mayor. San Jose where I was a kid. I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE I knew Ron Gonzalez, the first Latino mate mayor of a large American city. THE END OF I really think that when you think about attracting quality people, to non-traditional jobs held by minorities. having a city manager Thank you. who's a person of color and with his background is going to do wonders in that regard. I just wanted to add that into the mix. I think he's not only well qualified, but I think the kind of diversity and inclusiveness that his appointment would represent. will speak well for this city now and into the future so thank you |
| 01:27:28.93 | Heidi Scoble | You've been unmuted. |
| 01:27:35.12 | Unknown | Hi there, can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I am actually speaking for myself, but I also wanted to speak from the, position of being president of the Sausalito Rotary Club. We wanted to first of all welcome Mr. Zapata. I have not met him, but we definitely are grateful that we do have a very strong candidate. And we look forward to having him come to one of our Rotary Club meetings in the very near future. Rotary, as you know, is a very active nonprofit. We are engaged not only in local projects in Sausalito here, but in projects both nationally and internationally. We're a very small but mighty group, and we work hand-in-hand very closely with the city of Sausalito, so we look forward to working with him, talking with him, and introducing him to our club. And that's all I have to say. |
| 01:28:37.56 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:28:37.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:28:43.96 | Heidi Scoble | You've been unmuted. |
| 01:28:49.53 | Unknown | Hi, everyone. I too am really impressed by Chris Otis' resume. um i'm i'm very hopeful that his experience with Public Works projects will help us. He sounds like a really good candidate to help us with our rentship issues and with some other longstanding issues we have with infrastructure in town. I'm hoping that he can set us on a, help set us on path with the public works department on some long range improvements to our community that are really needed. I'm also really, I THINK I'm really thankful to the to the selection committee for looking at another hire that helps increase diversity in our staff. I know we also have some other Latinos on our staff. that having Uh, additional diversity at the top of our of our of her leadership is a great thing and a good sign. Thank you. |
| 01:30:03.34 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:30:03.35 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:30:03.61 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:30:08.54 | Heidi Scoble | Lisa Lewis, you've been asked to be unmuted. |
| 01:30:15.13 | Lisa Lewis | Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for taking a few moments to hear what I have to say. I strongly agree with everyone else that spoke, the residents that spoke about Mr. Zatada. And I'm excited that he has so much great experience. but I'm also a little concerned about the information that's out there on the internet when looking up what his qualifications and who Mr. Zapata is. In searching for him, there's information about his previous employment that seems a little concerning There's allegations of sexual harassment and being fired by two previous city councils in San Leandro and Anaheim. with language such as backroom dealings, hardball politics, and allegations of misconduct. And this is all on page one of Google. And you know that that's where everybody goes. My concern is, that that becomes somewhat of a tainted story of who Mr. Zapata is and who Sausalito is. My request to the city council is possibly to either answer what has been researched about these allegations and this bad press And have you thought about how it's going to affect the city the workers that he works under and the whole image of Sausalito, much less, if there's any truth to any of this, and it's hard to say, how this could affect the city of Sausalito in the future, bringing somebody in that has The possibility that this may indeed be something that has happened in his past. Um, I agree that he has great experience. We definitely need great experience. Diversity is wonderful. We're always looking for that, but we always have to look at the other side of the coin and especially being careful with our top leaders. That's it, thank you. |
| 01:32:20.16 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:32:21.11 | Lisa Lewis | Thank you. |
| 01:32:21.43 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:32:25.10 | Heidi Scoble | CM Rubin, you've been asked to be unmuted. |
| 01:32:32.06 | Sam Rubin | Apparently you also stopped my video though. if that is okay. Um, Council members, I Ah, there we go. |
| 01:32:40.04 | Janelle Kellman | Yes, we can see you now. |
| 01:32:41.56 | Sam Rubin | Thank you. THE FAMILY. First off, I would Like say, Great seeing you all. It's been a while. I'm not sure. And I was also wanting to note how historic a moment this is. I mean, it's one that has been way, way, way too long in coming. But I just want to highlight how incredible it is that U.S. Council members tonight have an opportunity. to hire the very first Latino city manager in Marin County's history. very first in our city, but also in the entire county, a barrier that has been way too long and being broken. I too, as many of them have spoken tonight and incredibly impressed with what Mr. Zapata brings to the table. I have not had the pleasure of meeting him, but having looked at his resume and his credentials, think he is an incredible fit for our needs right now at this specific time where we are in our history with the challenges that are facing us in so many areas. Additionally, in regard to some of the allegations that they've made against him, In my day job, I'm lucky enough to get to work with members of the city of San Leander staff. And I actually, once I found out that Mr. Zapata was one of the candidates, we were looking to hire, reached out to them. So because I too was concerned about these allegations. And what I heard back was nothing but amazing, wonderful glowing responses. They were so excited for us that we were gonna get Mr. Zapata as our city manager. And so I just wanted to reflect that back to the council that not only is this something that will reverberate within our community, but this is something that will be praised by those who work for him. and those who worked under him. And so I think this is a really incredible moment, and I really thank you for doing the right thing tonight and putting yourself on the right side of history in your vote this evening. Thank you so much. |
| 01:34:23.20 | Heidi Scoble | You've been asked to be unmuted and to share a video. |
| 01:34:32.75 | Ray Whithing | I am not sure you are able to see me, but that's okay. Can you hear me? |
| 01:34:37.19 | Janelle Kellman | But that's okay. Yeah, we can hear you and we can see you in the shadows. your little witness protection plan, |
| 01:34:46.06 | Ray Whithing | Thank you. |
| 01:34:46.62 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:34:46.65 | Ray Whithing | No, I just decided to change location. So this is the first time I've tried to do it. Anyway, my time is running out, so. Look, guys... You've had a difficult decision. to make. I'm not sure. You know, I'd like to, as a two-time mayor and been on the city council for eight years to welcome Mr. Zabata and to say, you know, man, you're brave. Come on. You've decided to come into this situation where you're not sure you've got the unanimous city council behind you. That's a tough job. You're a very experienced person. I'd like to get to meet you. And I really hope that you bring all your experience to bear. in what is going to be a series of very, very difficult problems to solve for Sol Solito. I'm going to actually stay on this call and participate in the finance part of this because I think I was going to try and stay out of things, you know, for a while, but I thought that now is the time if there was any city council meeting to come in and poke my nose in and this was the one. So I'm gonna stay and help with finance to the extent I'm able. And all I wanted to make sure is that you guys understand that you've put your new city manager in a very difficult position. So start to work together because in the end, What matters and what is really important is the incentive plan and the goals you're going to put in place. Make sure that you are 100% 5-0 behind those goals. |
| 01:37:05.87 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:37:06.02 | Heidi Scoble | Two minutes has elapsed. I'm sorry. |
| 01:37:08.23 | Ray Whithing | Thank you. |
| 01:37:08.25 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. So... Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:37:15.00 | Heidi Scoble | CG Rare. |
| 01:37:16.03 | Heidi Scoble | We've been asked to be unmuted. and share your video. |
| 01:37:20.99 | CG Ware | Well, I've unmuted, and I've Should I just start my video? We can hear you and see you. Okay, great. Hi, everybody. I too am very enthusiastic that you had so many candidates. and that there were a number of people of diversity, which is certainly what we were aiming for and wanting. But I'm a little bit in the camp of the previous woman who I think there's some outstanding questions. which can be but have they been? Have they been researched? Have they been vetted? I'm an old reporter with ABC for 20 years. And it's important to get the facts. And it didn't seem like you had all the facts. So I would just urge you to find the facts. And if everything vets out properly, |
| 01:38:08.85 | Julie Myers | Thank you. |
| 01:38:14.64 | CG Ware | Hooray! But I know you had a lot of good candidates, and before you rush into anything, |
| 01:38:16.07 | Ian Sobieski | I know you had a lot of time. |
| 01:38:20.98 | CG Ware | I would urge you to make sure you know all the facts. so that the candidate feels welcomed and that we're all on the same page. And if not, it could be big problems for us down the hole. I just wanted to put that in there. I know that you all do the right thing. do it. Thanks. |
| 01:38:48.94 | Heidi Scoble | next speaker is eva chrisante eva you've been unmuted |
| 01:38:52.08 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:38:53.70 | Ava Crisanti | Thanks so much. I probably agree with CG Ware. on absolutely nothing else. But I share her skepticism about this particular hire. I think the allegations are a mixed bag. I think the strong endorsement by Sam Rubin actually makes me pretty nervous. It looks like Mr. Zapata's background involves stadium deals, which are terrible for ordinary citizens. And knowing Mr. Rubin's connections to developers, it is just worrisome that there would be such an enthusiastic welcome from Mr. Zapata from Mr. Rubin, it just raises more questions about backroom dealing. We don't know a lot of what happens in our municipal governments. And there is an effort from San Diego all the way up the coast, on the West Coast to to try to create some transparency through CPRAs. And we're doing our damnedest over here. I think you're gonna have more problems on your hands if you don't vet your candidates very carefully. And if you allow people with ties to business developers to, to try to create some transparency through CPRAs. And we're doing our damnedest over here. I think you're gonna have more problems on your hands. If you don't vet your candidates very carefully. And if you allow people with ties to business developers to, to try to get your candidates very carefully. to wrestle control of your city government. So I would urge the mayor and city council to act with extreme caution. And also just a heads up, we're going to be looking very closely at business dealings in Sausalito. And that's for everyone's protection. Thanks so much. |
| 01:40:50.38 | Ava Crisanti | Thank you. |
| 01:40:50.39 | Heidi Scoble | We have one last hand that's raised. I believe it's Wendy Richards. Wendy, you've been asked to be unmuted. Oops, and to share your video. |
| 01:41:04.82 | Wendy Richards | Thank you very much, Madam Mayor and Council. I would like to further the points raised by Lisa Lewis. and CG Ware and the previous speaker, Ava's phone. I actually request Mayor Hoffman that you defer the vote this evening. and that you place the vote on the following council meeting, and you provide us, the citizens, with the information that the previous speakers requested. This is a very experienced candidate. and a candidate who has a tremendous amount of conflict in the public domain. And we the public here know that Sausalito is already not short of conflict. And we, need to have the facts. And you owe us as the citizens and the taxpayers, the transparency that you've done your homework So, check that these allegations are Untrue. and that In addition to the point that Ray Withey made, you also owe us that set of goals and incentive plan before you make this higher. The contract that Mary shared with us has a clause that says, this person gets paid extra if they meet the goals. Where are those goals? I saw earlier that Jake Carter was on this call. You spent four hours with her in an outstanding meeting talking about what by when. In my request tonight, is that before you call for the vote, Madam Mayor, that you provide us, the citizens, with the transparency and the clarity so that we can all be thrilled and happy and embrace the person that you select for our city manager. Thank you very much. Thank you. |
| 01:43:07.81 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. Um. I don't see any other, hands up. Madam Clerk, do you see any hands up? |
| 01:43:14.24 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no hands raised at this time. |
| 01:43:17.59 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you. Okay, so let's start our discussion. Does anybody wanna start or would you like for me to start? I'm happy to. interesting. |
| 01:43:27.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:43:27.04 | Janelle Kellman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:43:27.10 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm not. |
| 01:43:27.15 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:43:27.20 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:43:27.89 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:43:27.90 | Melissa Blaustein | See, no hands. I'd be happy to dive in. I mean, I think, um, First of all, there's just so many people in this process to thank. We had a really great team. helping us go through kind of a a long process on our city manager search, starting with our last city council, We had Paul Kimura from Avery and Associates and Deborah much more. And then we had, as the last speaker just said, Jake Carver, a volunteer who spent an entire Saturday with us and a lot more time with our. a great hiring committee, Councilmember Sobieski and Vice Mayor Kelman And then we had our department heads and our boards and commissions spend literally hours with final candidates and a confidential interview process and that all was just so helpful. I thought every one of those people brought so much to our process and really helped us and guide us in a very difficult process. I was really thrilled that we had A large number of candidates from all kind of walks of life, very diverse, very knowledgeable, very experienced and it was kind of a lot of fun to actually talk with them and hear their different approaches to Sausalito. um, And I'm really... that we ended up with a candidate with Mr. Zavada's experience It's breadth of knowledge. and also just as life experience. which is really valuable. I think he can get up to speed quickly. He understands what needs to be done in a city like ours. He's been in multiple cities and he's done this before. He can execute on our shared vision to be a well-run city that delivers excellent service to our residents, workers, and visitors. And I think he can move some of our really exciting projects, which we have probably too many for our budget, which we're going to talk about in our next item, but a lot of our challenging capital improvement projects forward as some of our speakers mentioned, transportation projects, sea level rise, infrastructure, et cetera. And then kind of to top it all off, we have experience with housing people and addressing homeless situations. So I'm very excited about that. And I'm also excited that he'll be able to take our internal and external efforts on diversity, equity, inclusion to the next step. The only thing that I regret about this process is, you know, for understandable reasons, I think, is it took a very, very long time. And I think that's been hard on our staff. I know it's been hard on our amazing interim city manager Marsha Raines. And it's been hard not having kind of a public face of our city. who is going to be that permanent public face. So I'm really excited. We will move forward tonight and I'm really looking forward to getting to this next phase. in this really important decision. So I just want to thank all my fellow council members as well for their hard work We had so many special meetings. and everyone has put so much time into this and really you know, really value all of your input and thoughts during this process. So thank you. |
| 01:46:56.61 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, who would like to go next? I'll call on somebody. then council member Blaustein |
| 01:47:05.09 | Melissa Blaustein | Great, well, I wanna echo Council Member Cleveland Knowles' comments about so many people to thank. There was a lot of work and a lot of effort that went into this process. And I really want to thank our interim city manager, Marcia Raines, for guiding the ship through this, really difficult time. It has been a really difficult time. I mean, we all lived through an unprecedented year. We're here with a new council and while we were in the community, vetted many candidates. I'm quite frankly, thrilled and also relieved that we've ended up with a candidate who has 30 years of experience managing cities, but also a demonstrated track record of using innovation from within and Chris Zapata has managed not just cities, but waterfront cities. So he knows our needs. He knows what communities like ours deal with. He's dealt with a 300 person unhoused encampment. So he knows how to help us with our homelessness issue. And he's put fiscal responsibility before politics in many situations. He's also demonstrated that he can mentor staff. And right now, I think that's something that our staff really needs. You know, he's mentored up three other city managers just from under him who have been hired in other places. And I'm really... looking forward to having that level of experience to guide our city through this difficult time, because we need to balance a budget in COVID we need to move forward on some of these big projects. And he brings quite a bit of experience that will help us do that. And I'm excited to work with him. And I think that we'll all, get to know him and get to know more about the way he works and his style. And I think that he'll do great things for our community. And I'm just, this has been a very long process. I'm excited for our staff to move forward and for us to get it going. Those are all my comments. |
| 01:48:55.65 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you, Councilmember Sobieski. |
| 01:48:58.22 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:48:58.23 | Janelle Kellman | it. |
| 01:48:59.73 | Ian Sobieski | I'm still putting my thoughts together, so I'll pass for a moment if you don't mind, Mayor. |
| 01:49:03.68 | Janelle Kellman | Um, Let me ask, Vice Mayor, are you ready? I will go last though. You know? |
| 01:49:10.03 | Janelle Kellman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:49:10.23 | Janelle Kellman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:49:10.28 | Janelle Kellman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:49:10.31 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:49:10.52 | Janelle Kellman | you |
| 01:49:10.70 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:49:11.04 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. |
| 01:49:11.35 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:49:11.82 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, then I'll go. Yeah, my comments are very much focused on being responsive to the community. And I want to thank everybody who, reached out to me today and shared your thoughts and your insight and your questions. And I want to know that I read all of your emails and I listened to all of your voice messages And so these comments are really for you. Not really for, I guess, for myself personally, but I do want to share them with you. So I went into the city manager hiring process seeking an innovative candidate who would take a very different approach to local government. and hopefully present creative solutions in a post-COVID world. We had, as we've talked about, over 50 highly qualified candidates. many of whom had never before held the role of city manager. And personally, I sought a candidate who could embody a new approach in Sausalito. and represent our commitment to building financial strength becoming a climate change leader, and supporting diversity and social justice. I came into tonight's vote on the fence My hope was to balance a desire to create and maintain harmony with my colleagues on the council. while fulfilling my campaign promises to lead us down a new and non-traditional path for Sausalito. And to be honest with you, the major budget shortfall highlighted in tonight's budget presentation gave me significant pause about our past direction and really set my sights toward a new future. That said, in voting for the ratification of this contract, that Chris Zapata's three plus decades of experience as a city manager will in fact help I also expect that our new city manager will steer our, steer our community into a new phase of forward thinking. and transparent governance. I, for one, and I think my fellow council members share this, will be looking for proactive innovative approaches to critical issues like climate change, diversity and equity, |
| 01:51:01.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:51:01.47 | Janelle Kellman | . |
| 01:51:01.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:51:05.06 | Janelle Kellman | and how we deal with long-term housing challenges considering these factors. Finally, others have said it, but I would be remiss if I did not, We have been extremely fortunate to have an interim city manager, Marsha Renz, who recognize the value of operational efficiency and transparent, strong leadership. My only regret is that she started way too early. So we ran out of time with her. I'm not sure October 28th was necessary. We would have maybe had a little bit more time in this process. But she really did emphasize operational efficiency and transparent strong leadership. And I expect to see that same level of leadership and accountability for Mr. Zapata. as Wendy Richards just mentioned, to ensure our city council and city manager are on the same page. We are in fact drafting clear performance benchmarks and metrics for our new city manager. And the intent here is to improve accountability and results for our incredible staff in our wonderful city. So I just want to publicly state that that is my commitment to everyone listening and watching tonight. I do hear you, I have heard you, and I thank you for joining us tonight and for helping us in supporting this process. Thank you. |
| 01:52:09.55 | Janelle Kellman | THE FAMILY. |
| 01:52:09.71 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:52:09.85 | Janelle Kellman | you |
| 01:52:09.93 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:52:10.03 | Janelle Kellman | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 01:52:11.45 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, so, So where to start? I ran really advocating a non-traditional candidate. I'm a non-traditional candidate myself. from the private world and private business. And it's all been an education about how government works. But part of that education I've learned over the last few months is how much there is to do here in Sausalito. My inbox is crammed with complaints and alarm about basic functions not working. The residents feel like the city doesn't work for them. The businesses feel like the city doesn't work for them. employees feel like the city isn't working so well for them either. It feels like no one that the city's working that well. I'm not sure. We desperately need to improve their morale. of all those categories of people. and make our city work well for everybody. and I definitely found some of the traits of people with no city experience, no government experience, to be attractive. I'm not sure. that is a daunting occurred through the process that, um, someone with Chris Zipata's DNA. of actual lived experience in other cities. for Cecilio. is revolutionary. Our previous city manager, long tenure, grew up here and was promoted from within. he never had the benefit of working in other places and bringing with him the DNA of how those cities functioned. So I actually think there's a lot to credit to the idea that Chris Zapata's leadership in this town could bring some very innovative new approaches within the country. within the relative scope of the way government works. I'm excited. I'm not sure. Christophan is hungry. South Florida was a jewel. And I think it's a gem in his career path and that he is going to give this job his all. I'm not sure. this is gonna be the crowning achievement of his professional career. And we have a lot of work to do. survival and growth of our working waterfront, of our industrial sector, of artistic sector. We have arena number of 700 new units that we may have to meet or in some way accommodate. um, We want to improve the morale of our employees who would like Sausalito to be the place everybody wants to work. in Marin County? I'm not sure if you're going to we would like it to be a place that people want to start businesses We would like it to be a place that families want to raise their kids. I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE I think it's a great question. the wealth here, not just the monetary wealth, but the wealth of the experience of our citizens and help unite us. help to truly lead us. I think there's an incredible opportunity for Chris to make a monument. and to polish the gem of our town. and it's an opportunity I hope he takes advantage of. We have in our part as the city council. I think that's something that's been a little overlooked and the vice mayor highlighted it. There are two aspects to the, uh, employment agreement. I think, you know, I'd like to Same issue you're proud of. One is, as Rudy Richards pointed out, there's an incentive bonus built in for the first time, I believe. An actual performance bonus tied to specific metrics. This was something we all talked about during the campaign. We didn't specify them, Ms. Richards, not because we didn't get our act together, but we actually wanted some public interest. I wanted to say at this meeting, I think we all wanted to say It's in his appointment contract. that he will get a reward for achieving specific, measurable goals. I would like to hear, I think we would all like to hear from all of you, everyone watching, What are the specific measurable goals we should hold our city manager to account to? that we would reward him for achieving. I have my own. but I would love to hear from you. So in some form or fashion, if you're interested in participating that way, let us know. Let me know. We'll be figuring that out as a city council over the next 60 days and it will be part of his new term objectives. Um, The other aspect is that We pushed hard and Chris accepted only a three-month severance agreement. for reference, Our previous city manager had a 12-month severance agreement, and our expert HR people tell us that that's a normal, industry standards. Severance period. What? We pushed for three months because Part of what we all said was that the city council's job is to hire and to hold accountable. And honestly, it's really hard to hold someone accountable if it costs you a quarter million dollars to terminate them for lack of performance. I think it says something that Chris Zapata is so confident in his ability to perform to win over. those who might be skeptical. but he was willing to accept that. is willing to accept. a sovereign's agreement that makes it easy. for us to terminate. relatively easy. And I think that says that that's not going to happen. I think we are going to have an exciting of new leadership in town, from someone with a lot of experience, who listens. who has a history of inspiring his subordinates, I'm standing up. for principle in the face of political pressure be willing to, by the way, cut his own salary preserve the salaries of his subordinates home. In many ways, Chris Zapatta as an individual that I came to know through the interview process is a Um, representative of the American dream. He grew up in poverty. his house literally had dirt floors. He used an outhouse. His father. didn't graduate from high school. and yet he became the senior executive of several cities. I'm going to go to the That says something about his life experience. on the campaign trail, I talked a lot about the diversity of Sausalito. Sadly, We don't have enough racial diversity, but one interesting kind of diversity we have is economic diversity. There is quite a range of people with different incomes and wealth in town. And Carrizabada represents a different kind of diversity than just the ethnic diversity that's gotten some headlines. He represents a diversity of experience in economic outlook and sensitivity that I think will enable him to be a unifier. And if we can all get behind him. So I would ask everyone. to make an effort. TO ensure that Chris Zapata is successful as our senior executive leader. Let's see council set policy direction and let him lead the team to execute flawlessly, quickly, responsibly. to the direction Thank you. that city council sets. At the end of the day, Chris is a part of success. is going to be Sausalito's success. and I'm going to work and commit. to doing everything I can. to make sure that he's successful. |
| 01:59:23.96 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you. So here's my perspective. We interviewed many qualified candidates, a lot. there were great candidates. And I personally supported somebody who I believe would have done a really superb job of leading us not only with diversity but also management in a new direction that a lot of us have talked about for the past year, maybe two years. that we felt was needed in Sausalito. And, So I'm disappointed that we did not go in that direction. Um, and this person had a stellar record. And so I haven't, you know, I have concerns about Mr. Zabata's employment history. particularly the circumstances of departure from his last two positions. in San Leandro and in Anaheim. Both were negotiated exits. with substantial severance package payments, 350,000 from San Leandro, and most recently 475,000 from Anaheim. So These were the last two city councils that he worked for Um, And he, was, with that. an exit was negotiated for him from both of those towns. So I'm just being honest about my position and my perspective and whether or not these two things in conjunction with the other investigation that was referenced by one of the other people that called in. our red flags for our candidates. And so our job is to pick the best candidate we can possibly pick. for the city of Sausalito and the people of Sausalito. And so Obviously I would like to extend the discussion. I understand that there's probably gonna be a vote tonight and I'm gonna be in the minority, You know, I have to do what I believe is right for the town Um, and for. of our city. Um, it's, If the vote is confirmed, of course, I will I do my best to make sure that We support Mr. Zapata in his new position and there is a successful transition in tenure here in Sausalito. Those are my comments. I believe they speak to the my position. And so at this point, |
| 02:01:44.04 | Melissa Blaustein | DO WE HAVE A |
| 02:01:44.63 | Janelle Kellman | Bye. |
| 02:01:44.76 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:01:44.78 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:01:44.80 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. I'd like to make a motion to approve Chris Cipolla's contract with the city. |
| 02:01:51.14 | Janelle Kellman | Very good. |
| 02:01:51.19 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm going to go. |
| 02:01:53.00 | Janelle Kellman | seconds. Okay, Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll? and some of them. |
| 02:01:59.04 | Heidi Scoble | Sobieski? |
| 02:02:00.12 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 02:02:01.47 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Blaustein. Thank you. Council member Quiblin-Nolz. |
| 02:02:09.42 | Heidi Scoble | My son. Thank you. Yeah. Vice Mayor Kellman. Thank you. |
| 02:02:13.48 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. |
| 02:02:14.82 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Hoffman. |
| 02:02:15.97 | Janelle Kellman | No. The motion passes for one. Okay, moving on to our next. Item on our agenda, which is item 7B. It is our budget review. with. our interim finance director, Charlie Francis. Mmm. |
| 02:02:36.76 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:02:37.35 | Sybil Boutilier | Thank you. |
| 02:02:37.36 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:02:37.41 | Janelle Kellman | You're only an hour and 12 minutes behind schedule, Charlie. |
| 02:02:37.43 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:02:38.22 | Sybil Boutilier | I'm sorry. |
| 02:02:41.29 | Charlie Francis | Right. Heidi, can you let me share my screen? Oh, there we go. All right, thank you, Mayor. Members of the council, this is our Budget status review number three. Here's where we are in our schedule. where we're finishing the week of the city manager review of the proposed budget. And today was the number three council status review. up. The city management proposed budget will be finished on May 28th and there's a special city council finance committee on June 2nd. Another special council meeting will be held after the first budget hearing with an anticipated date of adopting the budget by June 22nd. So that's where we stand in our budget review process right now. Tonight's agenda has three items, fund reserve update, discussion that was requested at the last council meeting of our restricted funds. And then finally, I put in here the third quarter's treasurer's report as it was just completed. |
| 02:03:48.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:49.99 | Charlie Francis | Now, the purpose of the discussion of the fund reserve update is part of the budget preparation process. In other words, as you go into preparing the budget, you have to know what your starting point is. And so, I'm not sure. when we present the starting point, what do we expect our ending fund balance to be at June 30 of 2021? I didn't want the council to have seen one set of numbers and then seen another set of numbers. So the intent today is to explain the difference between the mid-year budget Richie O. and the report you'll see next week, the city manager proposed budget. I'm not saying there was anything substantially wrong in the mid-year budget report. We're talking about the matter of definitions and I'll actually be reconciling the mid-year budget report to our audited financial statements, which are audited and correct. up. in terms of an audit perspective, And, so that we can get to a situation where here's what was presented, what we're looking at is what is really available, what monies are available for resource allocation. So one is fund balance, which includes restricted and other items like net assets, but what's available, basically what's our working capital? How much money do we have to begin the budget process with? So this is gonna become a little bit technical. I've tried to keep it as... as simple as I can. And I've actually kind of drawn animations into it so that we can see the reconciliations that are happening. So let me just start. I'm gonna be using some reference points. The reference points are from our audit. So our audit is of June 30, 2020, page 26, has what's called a balance sheet. for our Governmental funds. These are funds that are accounted for on the flow of financial resources. Much like we would account for our own checkbooks, where we have a beginning balance, we put in deposits, we write out checks, we always know what our running total is. We also have a statement of net position. These are coming from our enterprise funds, or proprietary funds, they're called in accounting. These are accounted for on the flow of economic resources. And this bottom line not only includes the current assets, but it includes non-current assets and non-current liabilities. In other words, items that can't be easily liquidated into cash reserves. So, you know, we're gonna be looking at the definition of that. But these are our reference documents from the audit. So let's go to the first one. Over here on the right is the reference document. This is the general fund balance sheet that I showed you came from page 26 of our annual financial report. up. Oh, I want to show this in PowerPoint. so you can see the animations. Now, first of all, Uh, The first column is the mid-year budget review. The second column is review. is revised to be what is really available. So the first number is the $11,744,000 for the general fund. And that totally reconciles what's in the audit, 11,744,000 work fund balances. But I want to point out this word up here, it's called general fund unrestricted. And over here, we can see that there's definitely some restrictions and unspendable portions of this $11,744,000. So, So, The real money that's assigned and unassigned, those GASB definitions that you saw back in the mid-year budget report, are really $8,328,000, which is the sum of these two numbers over here. Now you're probably asking, Why is this restricted and what are these numbers? So the first number I want to point out is this restricted number. And you can see it has an offsetting debit up here in cash and investments. And what these two figures represent are the amount of money that's held in the PARS Section 115 Trust for our pension and our OPEB obligations. Truly that money has been set aside at the council. It's an irrevocable trust fund. It's restricted. It's not available for resource allocation. The other number is this 1,524, Non-spendable. Well, what does that mean, non-spendable? First, it's an advance that come from other funds. It's the major component of this 1,524,000. And what that represents is over here in the enterprise funds, this is an excerpt from page, 32 of the financial report You can see this number advance from other funds. No. just for a little bit of history. Way back in time when the city first acquired the MLK facility on a lease from the school district, they, it required additional repairs. And so the general fund advanced money to the MLK fund in order to do those repairs and therefore, and a loan, sort of like a loan between the two funds, Interfund. ADVANCE, IT'S CALLED, IN ACCOUNTING. Well, Of course, there wasn't enough cash in the MLK fund to pay back that loan. And so it carried on the books for a long time. And then in, when measure F was passed. there was a discussion by the city council and I think I think I put a reference in here later that said that we're going to pay back some of that interfund loan and this balance this 1.5919 We're going to considered like an amortization schedule can pay it back like a loan over the same term as the, certificates of participation. So in reality, this is non-spendable because there isn't enough cash in the MLK fund to liquidate it. In other words, we can't liquidate this advance Thank you. right away. And then there's a couple of small little items that are loans receivable and prepaids, but that's what comprises that number. So that total of 1,524, then is what I'd sort of like to point out that this was coming from the mid-year budget review. You notice the 11, 744, ties the 11, 744. This was the estimate of revenue and expenses during the current year. And you see this non-spendable amount? It was correctly pointed out in the staff report that we did have a non-spendable portion. that actually was actually pointed out that there are restricted reserves and we'll notice that this, based on the operating contingency policy where the total designations and undesignated fund balance are, come close to what we were, I was showing in my previous slides. So, you know, again, I don't want to, |
| 02:11:24.47 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:11:26.24 | Charlie Francis | alarm anyone. I'm just saying that the balances that I'll be showing and the mid-year budget review are going to be these balances right here And then we'll, start by saying and I'm analyzing this now, are the revenues you saw in the mid-year budget review, are we still on track to receive all of these revenues? And then the second, we're undergoing right now, the expenditures you saw estimated in the mid-year budget review. Are we still on track to spend this amount? Are we gonna spend more or are we gonna spend less? Will this truly be our key? of. net surplus or deficit, and therefore then what will these final numbers be? So, and the city manager proposed budget, even these numbers won't be the same because these might change as we're digging down further into what revenues we're going to receive and what expenditures we will incur. So that kind of concludes the general fund portion of the report. |
| 02:12:29.15 | Ian Sobieski | Mr. Drew, can I just ask you a question since you have this slide up? Of course. |
| 02:12:32.66 | Charlie Francis | Yes. |
| 02:12:33.12 | Ian Sobieski | I mean, there's of course a lot of changes in |
| 02:12:36.04 | Ian Sobieski | which seem like definitional changes, we're leaving one money from one pocket to another, you know, big changes in the sewer fund, but it's really just a matter of definition. There is a material thing here that's gonna affect our budgeting, though. which is I think what you just pointed out in your top line, it's $700,000. revised fund balance for the general fund down. So it's $700,000 less than we thought we had. I'm not sure. to actually spend. Is that fair to say? |
| 02:13:04.17 | Charlie Francis | Are you seeing that on this slide? |
| 02:13:05.97 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:13:06.02 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:13:06.58 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:13:06.60 | Ian Sobieski | Yep. Thank you. |
| 02:13:07.95 | Ian Sobieski | you. |
| 02:13:08.03 | Ian Sobieski | We've got the revised projected fund balance as opposed to the available Okay. |
| 02:13:13.57 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:13:13.67 | Ian Sobieski | . |
| 02:13:13.73 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. Right. This is 700,000 less than this. That's really is to 663. I haven't looked. Again, I haven't adjusted these numbers from the mid-year budget report. My initial indication is that we're going to have more revenues that we anticipated and less expenses, which could change this to be neutral or maybe even positive, which will raise this projected fund balance. But if we use the mid-year budget review numbers, these are the same numbers you saw in the budget review, a $663,000 reduction in both of those numbers. that, Yes. Okay. But... |
| 02:13:55.35 | Janelle Kellman | Charlie, while we're on the screen, on page two of the staff report, At the bottom. underneath this, I think this chart, It says the mid-year budget review significantly overstated the amount of reserves available to the city. and understated the amount of financial resources available Can you show, just for the sake of the people, the folks on the call with us, where you're showing the overstatement of the amount of reserves available to the city |
| 02:14:23.61 | Charlie Francis | 16 million versus I'm sorry, 22 million versus 29 million. |
| 02:14:27.21 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:14:30.45 | Janelle Kellman | So there was a delta there of 6.5 |
| 02:14:35.17 | Charlie Francis | No, yeah. |
| 02:14:35.24 | Janelle Kellman | I'm going to go. |
| 02:14:36.09 | Charlie Francis | But the Delta as Council Member Ian Sabieski just anticipated that it's, of what is really available and what is presented in the audit. Yes, these are fund balances and net assets that are presented in the audit, but they're truly not liquid assets. Our liquid assets are 22, and so that's the delta right there, about $6.5 million. |
| 02:15:02.71 | Janelle Kellman | So is this a reporting? A reporting issue with a P or a recording issue with a C? |
| 02:15:10.00 | Charlie Francis | It's neither, it's kind of a, It's a It's a budgeting issue versus an accounting issue. This is accounting. And this is what we use for budgeting purposes of what cash do we have available? If we needed to dip into reserves, these are the reserves that we have. |
| 02:15:30.86 | Ian Sobieski | In other words, there was money that was restricted that we really couldn't touch, that was included in a category that implied that we could touch it. |
| 02:15:38.45 | Charlie Francis | Correct. And it applied it in a slide, but it reported it here. So it was truly not a, |
| 02:15:39.55 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 02:15:46.94 | Charlie Francis | I mean, nothing deliberate about this at all. It was just an accounting way of looking at things and versus a budgeting way of looking at things. |
| 02:15:55.99 | Melissa Blaustein | But I think when we looked at the mid-year budget report, we saw this table that Charlie has put here on the left-hand side, which clearly shows non-spendable and restricted reserves. And then I think it even goes further of 1.5 and 1.8, which Charlie has shown again that we can't spend. And then I think this slide is also really helpful because it shows all of the operating contingencies that we also applied on ourselves to make sure that we were had contingencies in case COVID went the wrong way. |
| 02:16:32.00 | Charlie Francis | Absolutely. |
| 02:16:32.74 | Melissa Blaustein | It was all there, it's just, I think it's clear, you know, it's very clear the way that Mr. Francis has presented it tonight. |
| 02:16:40.15 | Janelle Kellman | And to clarify, there is attachment what is attachment one, the treasurer's report, March 31st, 2021, but did this need to get corrected or |
| 02:16:51.88 | Charlie Francis | No, no, this doesn't affect the treasurer's report, except for the next item. The next slide that I'm going to show you is something that that does need to be corrected. So let me, Let me continue if that's okay. Well, then I'll answer that question. |
| 02:17:07.69 | Janelle Kellman | So I'm sorry, before we leave this slide, Charlie, you could just indulge me. the, are then existing assistant city manager presented the audited fund balance, And so if you go audited fund balance, which indicated that we had I'm looking at your chart right here, 30 million. but, after your review and can you tell us the steps that you did to come up with these numbers. I mean, I know it's been exhaustive work for you for the past six weeks to dive into our budget and to make corrections where you felt corrections were necessary. Can you just tell us just a little bit about what led you to this revision in the number? and your statement in the staff report about under the major significantly overstated amount of reserves available to the city and understated the fiscal reserves available for preparing the fiscal year 2021. 21, 22 budget. So that's page two and three. So if you could just give us a really brief or whatever explanation you feel is necessary Um, |
| 02:18:21.01 | Charlie Francis | Well, I think that's what I kind of tried to explain here is that When I looked at this report And I saw that this word unrestricted applying to an audited fund balance that clearly includes restricted then I thought, at this point, I can't use this this number as the beginning balance for analyzing the current year, status. In other words, when you begin budgeting, the first step in budgeting is where are we at right now and where are we going to end the year? And so this report, this report here was by I had to look at this and examine it. And when I saw 11 million in reserves, oh, wow, you know, we're doing pretty good. But when you look at the balance sheet and you see that 3.3 of it is restricted and non-spendable, then that was kind of an aha moment that said, I have to explain this to the council. I have to explain it in a way that shows that there was no error in that mid-year budget report, except for that one word unrestricted right here. Uh, But the the number that I'm going to be presenting in the current year review to calculate what the, current year ending. It's a... forecast what the current year ending fund balance is going to be. I'm going to be starting with this number up there. So I'm bringing it to the council tonight so that we don't get bogged down in these kinds of questions while we're actually getting into next year's budget. This is like cleaning up the current year presentation. |
| 02:20:00.03 | Ian Sobieski | We talked about the two |
| 02:20:03.04 | Ian Sobieski | big changes the capital |
| 02:20:04.76 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:20:05.17 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. number change and the tidelands fund change and the sewer uh fund change what were the what was the material elements that changed those numbers |
| 02:20:13.84 | Charlie Francis | Okay, I can move right into that then. So let's just put, Fund balance is on a hook for a minute and come into the COPs. Remember, the COPs was measure O, I believe. And in the measure O, we promised to fund three parks, fix the MLK facility, and we issued $7.2 million in certificates of participation. The amount that had not, that had been spent already on the parks and on the MLK facility Uh, left, um, Mount St. hadn't all been withdrawn from the bank in New York. And so on the books, we were showing that the bank in New York still had 4.2 million and the general capital improvement fund. and 701,000 over here in the MLK fund. for a total of $4.9 million. Now, this $4.9 million is the correct number. but the distribution of how much could be withdrawn for the capital projects of the park and the capital projects of the MLK. This number should have been 3 million and this number 1.9 million. Now, how did I calculate that? So first of all, here was the measure O budget, 4.2 for parks, 3 for MLK. We had bond proceeds. Also had issuance costs. So when you take out the issuance costs and add all the interest income we earned over the life of the COPs, this was the total amount of Budget. that was allocable for parks and for MLK. the prior year disbursements, In other words, prior to this financial statement, The disbursements were $1.3 million for parks and 1.1 million for MLK. So the amount that was left then should have been recorded on the general fund was 3 million, not 4 million. 1.9 million, not seven or a different, uh, $1.2 million. Now, I think the reason why this was done is because there was a calculation at the end of each year on construction and progress. So at one point, there was more construction and progress probably happening in the parks than was happening in the MLK fund and therefore the allocation that was made And the financial statements of this 4 million and 7 million had been sitting there for several years and because no one was withdrawing the money there was not a calculation to change the two amounts. From an auditor's perspective, The 4.9 million was right and it was on the books. from an accountant's perspective, you know, this kind of a calculation would have made this report more accurate. So what that meant for uh going back to the statement then is you notice in the capital improvement fund on the mid-year financial review we showed the 4.1 million dollars which accurately comes from this number down here 4.1 statement of fund balance but you notice This is restricted, 4.2. So, the real calculation, is this should have been three months million which would have made this number 3.8 million. And this number then $2.8 million. And that's how I got the $2.8 million over there. |
| 02:23:54.46 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, but just one, So the restricted cash has not been spent. Oh. |
| 02:24:02.60 | Charlie Francis | to the people. |
| 02:24:03.42 | Ian Sobieski | is restricted for future use? |
| 02:24:06.44 | Charlie Francis | up. No, it had been spent. That's what I'm trying to show you over here. |
| 02:24:10.22 | Ian Sobieski | It's on the outside. |
| 02:24:10.78 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. Absolutely. |
| 02:24:11.27 | Charlie Francis | It had been spent, but it had been withdrawn from the bank. So, I mean, in effect, But, General fund money was paying for capital improvements that had a bond issue had been set aside for. And as the money was being spent, we should have been withdrawing that money from the Bank of New York so that, you know, our general fund cash flow was made whole. up. Yeah. On the other hand, we were making pretty good interest income on it as well. So, you know, it wasn't probably more than we would have made if we would have left it and the local agency investment funds. |
| 02:24:49.19 | Janelle Kellman | No. Charlie, couple of questions. A prior slide which showed the measure F funds if we didn't and so at the CAFRA review with the auditor the auditor highlighted a major deficiency that we hadn't reconciled and you pointed that out already for us so it showed 4.9 million dollars that that really needed to be reconciled I'm going to go. if we weren't reconciling, we weren't pulling from the Measure F monies in the bank, How are we paying the contractors for the work in the parks? What were we pulling from? Interfund loan you mentioned earlier? |
| 02:25:27.93 | Charlie Francis | Oh, well, actually you can even see it in this year's Treasurer's Report. |
| 02:25:28.02 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:25:33.53 | Charlie Francis | We can come down here. Let's see. Oh, no, in the last quarter, I remember watching the council meeting in the last treasurer's report where the capital improvement fund had a line item and vice mayor, you even asked about it. It says negative, 1.7 million in the capital improvement fund under uh, the cash account, negative cash. And then it showed $4.2 million as restricted cash. And then over on the far right, there was a net number of those two. And you asked the staff, I'm not sure. How does that work out? And so, So basically what's happened, it's just a cash Cash is fungible, right? We have money sitting in a bank account and then we have money spending in another bank account. As we were spending it out of the family savings account, we should have been spending it out of the tuition account. |
| 02:26:18.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:26:18.37 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:26:30.12 | Charlie Francis | You know, it's like having, you send your kid to school and you have a tuition savings account. And when she's paying the tuition, you're paying it out of the family savings account. And all of a sudden one day you say, hey, I can reimburse the family savings account by withdrawing all those tuition payments I should have been making out of the tuition savings account. |
| 02:26:50.03 | Janelle Kellman | I think I got confused on that because we had a citizen oversight committee that was supposed to authorize that repayment. I wasn't aware we could borrow from one to pay the other. on vote. |
| 02:27:01.56 | Charlie Francis | We have to pay the bills, right? The bills come in, we have to pay the cash out. As we paid the cash out, then we at that simultaneously, or as soon as we can afterwards, you know, |
| 02:27:01.66 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:27:13.40 | Charlie Francis | you would be putting in a request to withdraw the funds. The way the trust agreement was written was that we had to spend the funds in order to get a reimbursement. And then we had to present an evidence statement that said, here's the funds that we spent for this capital, each one of the capital projects. |
| 02:27:32.64 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, so now with this new reconciliation and adjustment, Am I right in seeing about $10 million of unrestricted cash? or am I reading this incorrectly? |
| 02:27:43.14 | Charlie Francis | So where is into my |
| 02:27:45.58 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. Not this slide, I couldn't tell you which slide it is |
| 02:27:48.67 | Charlie Francis | I'll just... Well, So as of July 1st, 2020, |
| 02:27:51.52 | Janelle Kellman | THE END OF |
| 02:27:51.88 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:27:52.03 | Ian Sobieski | As of today, |
| 02:27:52.75 | Unknown | What? |
| 02:27:55.69 | Charlie Francis | Instead of having 4.1 million in the capital improvement fund, We have 2.877. Thank you. Let's go back to this slide here. 4.1 |
| 02:28:05.65 | Unknown | Four points. |
| 02:28:07.49 | Charlie Francis | One point, and then the expected new revenues of 1.4, expected expenditures of 20.5. We were expecting an ending balance for the end of this year of $2.9 million. but we really are if these projections are correct. will only have $1.7 million. which, then says we don't have as much money for capital projects as this This report indicated that we would have |
| 02:28:38.23 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. I'll come back to, I'll find it. I'll do my homework and find it and come back to you. But below this, there's a treasurer's report, I think, that shows $8.7 million in the sewer fund. |
| 02:28:49.01 | Charlie Francis | Okay, let's wait and we'll get there. Okay. Okay, enterprise funds. Enterprise funds are strange animals because they're accounted for just like a business. It's the full accrual account. We even account for depreciation. And people ask me all the time, why would you account for depreciation? There's no tax advantage for a city. But the real issue is how do we account for the flow of economic resources? The assets have to, produce a service or a good that people are consuming. And it has to be able to be an ongoing concern to continually produce that. So, this This summary right here of $12 million is totally correct in saying it's the, the net position of the city. The net position's saying all of our assets including fixed assets. minus all of our liabilities, including all of the loans that we have outstanding to give us this position, 12 million, 12 million. Let me put it back in animation mode and break Thanks. But, Current assets can't be liquidated. In other words, that's not operating capital that we have to, uh, you know, used for resource allocation. And at the same time, we have loans. So if we liquidate the asset, we would have to pay off some long-term loans. So the real way for budgeting purposes, this is an accounting statement, for a budgeting statement, you only look at your current assets and your current liabilities to say, What is our operating capital at any one point in time? So, What I'm saying is, Here's the current assets for all of our funds, and here's our current liabilities. Let's look at the net difference before each of those for our enterprise funds. So you'll notice we have to make one change for the MLK. MLK has more current assets, for this, reason I showed before the, um, uh, Certificates of Participation. which increases that number. which increases our total current liabilities. We subtract out our current liabilities, I mean our total current assets, subtract out our current liabilities That equals $7.6 million. This number minus this number. And that's this number over here. There's no loss of money. There's no loss of assets, it's just purely taking an accounting entry and converting it to an operating capital entry. |
| 02:31:47.87 | Charlie Francis | There's one more. Uh, And I remember this comment coming up in several meetings from January is why do we have a $2.5 million negative fund balance in the Tidemons Fund? And we can clearly see that the What's causing this to be minus is this unearned revenue amount. Unearned revenue. What does that mean? And why is it affecting our position here? Well, what it is, is that it was a condition of the negotiations for |
| 02:32:17.91 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:32:17.93 | Ian Sobieski | What it is. |
| 02:32:23.21 | Charlie Francis | fixing the bulkhead. The bulkhead was failing. The Sausalito Yacht Harbor wanted an extension on their lease. The way the agreements had been written is the Sausalito Yacht Harbor had the right, if the city didn't fix the bulkhead, to go fix it themselves using their contractors and then charging us the entire amount of fixing the bulkhead. And they had the ability to charge us interest if we didn't pay that amount as well. But, but they wanted an extension on their lease. So the city negotiated an agreement to extend their lease up to 50 years, which is the limit you can extend a lease based on our acquisition of the underwater streets. And in return for that, We got a Uh, They just paid us sort of like cash. for half of the capital project. Uh, And then they pay it We couldn't afford our house. So they, we only put in a million and they finance the rest through the unearned lease. So this total that's coming from this note to the financial statement actually results in this unearned revenue. In other words, it's an amount that sits on their book, on our books. We don't owe it as they make their lease payments. We subtract out that amortization portion of the lease payment against that revenue. And so our will, operating cash is current assets less only these two current liabilities to give us 829,000 of operating cash in the tight ends fund. I know this is a big difference between accounting and budgeting, but hopefully I made this kind of easy to understand. |
| 02:34:08.65 | Ian Sobieski | I know this. Big. |
| 02:34:15.28 | Ian Sobieski | That's kind of my question. We're gonna keep seeing an accounting |
| 02:34:19.02 | Ian Sobieski | for its |
| 02:34:19.68 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:34:20.51 | Ian Sobieski | the other number, right? because of the CASB or whatever depth standards you're going to use. |
| 02:34:26.28 | Charlie Francis | That's correct. |
| 02:34:27.06 | Ian Sobieski | We've got to be prepared to that we're going to be seeing two radically different numbers and have to remember what we're looking at whenever we see these numbers. |
| 02:34:35.95 | Charlie Francis | Yeah, and that's the reason for tonight's meeting is just to bring back some institutional history to the new city council and then be able to document that and constantly refer back to it as we see these two numbers, yes. |
| 02:34:50.44 | Ian Sobieski | I think that's the vice nurse goal, which I know she has in my share, I think we all share, which is actually how much money do we have? Yes. |
| 02:34:58.04 | Ian Sobieski | He's asking. |
| 02:34:59.08 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:34:59.10 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:34:59.25 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:34:59.30 | Ian Sobieski | and you're trying to get us that answer. Yeah. |
| 02:35:01.51 | Ian Sobieski | Yep. |
| 02:35:01.73 | Ian Sobieski | acknowledging that accounting can be confusing. And this is a great example of that, this negative 2.5 million number it seems weird, but we actually have $829,000. I know you're trying to get there, but just to |
| 02:35:16.11 | Ian Sobieski | and I'm going to go. |
| 02:35:19.23 | Ian Sobieski | I'm really kind of talking to myself as much as anybody, |
| 02:35:21.97 | Ian Sobieski | Um, We try to get to that number of how much money do we have? How much cash do we have? What are real resources? Thank you. |
| 02:35:28.36 | Janelle Kellman | All right. Hold on, Troy, before you move from that page, so just to run that to ground, so what you're showing us there, at the 829, is that an accrual balance versus cash on the treasurer's report? So, because we're trying to reconcile that. |
| 02:35:40.04 | Ian Sobieski | Oh. It's all that. |
| 02:35:41.81 | Janelle Kellman | The treasurer's report says the tidelands is at 521.704 and I don't see that number elsewhere. |
| 02:35:48.27 | Charlie Francis | So there's a simple answer. and the tidbits fund. you have $873,000 in cash. and the general fund You have 13 million cash, but 1.89 is restricted. And, General Cap, your cash is your total asset line. fund balance is how much of that cash can be spent. Well, if we have, If I have $1,000 in my checking account, but I have two MasterCard bills that I have to pay for $500, then I only have $500 to spend on groceries. That's what this is telling us. I have $873,000 in cash. I have $43,000 in current liabilities that have to be paid out of that 873. And so my net cash, my net cash, available money to Write the next check on is $829,000. |
| 02:36:48.86 | Charlie Francis | I mean, it's like that in your personal checkbooks. A few minutes. $10,000 in cash and $9,000 in credit card bills due by December 31st, you only have a thousand dollars left to spend. So that's what fund balance is. It's the difference between current assets and current liabilities. And in this one case, there's a current liability that's really not current at all. It's an accounting entry of the amortization Uh, future lease payments. In other words, by paying their half of the project They gave us money in advance of when it was due to us. |
| 02:37:38.86 | Charlie Francis | And we use that money to build the bulkhead. |
| 02:37:45.66 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, I have one final question, maybe for this one. So these two numbers down here on the very bottom line, total all funds, And so |
| 02:37:56.14 | Charlie Francis | out here. |
| 02:37:57.23 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, you've got it in yellow there. See where the difference. between 29 million versus 22 million. |
| 02:38:04.51 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:38:04.54 | Charlie Francis | Right. |
| 02:38:05.10 | Janelle Kellman | So that 22 million is these other numbers that have, you've got highlighted up here. |
| 02:38:10.28 | Charlie Francis | It's the 22 million as the total of all of these stuff, this cop, this whole column. |
| 02:38:15.56 | Janelle Kellman | But the discrepancies where it went from 29 million to 22 million, are these highlighted numbers, Charlie? |
| 02:38:21.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:38:21.79 | Charlie Francis | Yes. |
| 02:38:22.50 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thanks. Okay. Thank you. |
| 02:38:27.10 | Charlie Francis | So if we were looking at it, and saying, does this represent cash? No, it doesn't because this is the difference between current assets and current liabilities, but it's the amount that's available to, it's sort of like, |
| 02:38:34.19 | Mary Wagner | No. |
| 02:38:34.68 | Unknown | I'm not. |
| 02:38:46.22 | Charlie Francis | I have a thousand in the checkbook, but I have $500 in bills. This is that represents that $500 in bills. I mean, the balance after the $500 and bills are paid. |
| 02:39:01.34 | Charlie Francis | So again, there's no alarm here. There's nothing to be concerned about. the next step that I have to do is saying, Are these numbers? |
| 02:39:11.74 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:39:13.24 | Charlie Francis | Accurate projections. Remember these projections were done, I believe in March So now it's May. We're getting a little better feel on how much revenues we're going to get for all of the different revenue sources. We only have three pay periods left and there's, you know, bills are still coming in for some of these other projects. So as I firm these numbers up, Of course, the difference between revenues and expenses may change. As they change, this number will change, right? Because this number is, Yes. plus this minus this equals this. |
| 02:39:50.65 | Janelle Kellman | And so Charlie, are we gonna go over that in our finance committee meeting on June 2nd, do you think? |
| 02:39:56.67 | Charlie Francis | Well, Well, we're going to go over these numbers and your finance committee. |
| 02:40:00.79 | Janelle Kellman | you find it. Thanks. Thanks. just for those people at 101. Thank you. |
| 02:40:05.62 | Charlie Francis | Yeah, and not only those, but then also what's projected for revenues and expenses for next year. |
| 02:40:13.08 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. We do have, I mean, this is, you know, this is our available money to spend, but we also have a series of policies that we've been following over last couple of budgets that I've been involved in, including our 5% budget stabilization policy, our 10% shortfall policy. So those would further restrict you know, Fairly large. amounts of these so-called available funds. So at what point Are you going to be recommending that the council take a look at those policies to determine if those are the you know, that we want to continue those. |
| 02:40:56.73 | Charlie Francis | Oh, before you adapt your budget, you'll be looking at Uh, what? What do we want as a reservation of fund balance for designation assigned, unassigned and things like that. |
| 02:41:10.55 | Heidi Scoble | OK. |
| 02:41:11.47 | Charlie Francis | Yeah, I mean, You may, we have heard that, you know, Well, Let me just say this, that that reserves are very important. They're strategic resource for the city. And it's a fine balance of how much is too much and how much is too little. Reserves aren't there just to be held in the bank and say, oh, we've got reserves. Reserves are there to be used for emergencies and purposes, which we did during COVID. And so the question we have to ask ourselves is, are we still in an economy where we have to rely on reserves or are we in an economy where we can't replace reserves? Or are we in an economy where we can keep the level of service that we have and slowly add to our reserves so that we're able to face the next fiscal situation that occurs. So those are all important decisions that have to be made in the resource allocation process. And it's not, And it's a balancing act. |
| 02:42:15.15 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I ask a question just to the resource allocation piece? Because I mean, maybe I should have asked this when we were going through enterprise funds, but it speaks to what Council Member Cleveland discussed. I'd just like to understand for instance, the restricted MLK funds, are they restricted because of city policies that we have created and what are those policies? And if we wanted to change them, Could we do that? |
| 02:42:38.44 | Charlie Francis | Okay, so... that Two kinds there's first there's the restriction in the MLK that came from the COPs. They'll say we withdrew all that money and that money is not restricted anymore. And the MLK is accounted for as an enterprise fund. but it has always been treated as if there is extra money to pay back that general fund advance. Remember I talked about that? Then the MLK is not restricted that it has to stay in the MLK facility, but it can be used to be transferred back to the general fund. It was set up as an enterprise fund to account for the flow of economic resources of the facility, to always make sure that There was a Capitol available or revenues available to issue debt to, fix the facilities so that it would have an ongoing concern. But, Any surplus that's left over at the end of the day is not restricted. |
| 02:43:44.76 | Melissa Blaustein | So there's no policies governing the restricted, beyond the COP that we've already moved over for that? |
| 02:43:49.16 | Charlie Francis | That's correct. And that's why there's a unrestricted. You, up here. |
| 02:43:53.19 | Janelle Kellman | But Charlie, but the broader question that council is getting at is are funds, some of them are restricted by policy. Some of them are restricted by a statute or some are even restricted by covenant. And I think Yulia actually even put together a list of all of the funds with their restrictions. Like the Thailand's fund has restrictions from the state because we acquired the land from the State Lands Commission. That does not apply at all. I think it'd be great to have that list again. |
| 02:44:09.56 | Julie Myers | Thank you. |
| 02:44:18.64 | Charlie Francis | Well, it's in your staff report that I presented. And it's also summarized the cheat sheet that you asked for at the last council meeting. So here it is again. |
| 02:44:19.37 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:44:31.00 | Charlie Francis | General funds, legally restricted, no. Sewer operating capital, yes. These others, no, and here's your answer. And then, Oh, and then in the staff report, I gave a description of each one of these funds and what restricts it. |
| 02:44:48.55 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, I think, yeah, that's great. And I saw that in the staff report. I think what I'm trying to understand is which ones do we have discretion to change those restrictions on and which do we not in the event that we may need to given the $3 million change. Well, |
| 02:45:02.91 | Charlie Francis | I'm not. |
| 02:45:03.40 | Julie Vieira | If we don't, then we don't. |
| 02:45:04.88 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:45:05.32 | Charlie Francis | You don't have any discretion. to change any of this. |
| 02:45:12.74 | Melissa Blaustein | But the enterprise funds Potentially. |
| 02:45:15.14 | Charlie Francis | Except the civil rights. |
| 02:45:16.52 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. Okay, thanks. |
| 02:45:20.25 | Charlie Francis | but there's no restriction on them. Money. freely flows from the parking fund into the general fund. In fact, this year, they completely depleted all of the reserves from the parking fund. to go to the general fund. There are no restrictions on these. This is purely just a way of keeping all of the accounting for the parking activity in one place. |
| 02:45:39.52 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:45:39.54 | Ian Sobieski | keeping. |
| 02:45:40.03 | Ian Sobieski | All right. |
| 02:45:44.25 | Ian Sobieski | I'm not sure you see that, sorry to pick on parking, Isn't the enforcement in the police budget? |
| 02:45:48.70 | Charlie Francis | It is and it should be because enforcement is not only for the parking lots, but it's for the entire city. but the enforcement of the parking lots is |
| 02:45:57.02 | Ian Sobieski | and please pledge it, you don't, you know, |
| 02:45:58.96 | Charlie Francis | to the community. We charged the parking fund an annual a fee that covers service charges by finance, city manager, legal, HR, and police activity. |
| 02:46:13.06 | Ian Sobieski | I see. So you actually do charge. for parking enforcement on the parking enterprise fund. |
| 02:46:18.27 | Charlie Francis | Yeah, no, it's not as detailed, the cost allocation plan is, Could be. I think we've just been charging the same amount over all these years. but Uh, That's the justification, one of the justifications for bringing money into the general fund. |
| 02:46:39.04 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, let's, Charlie, can you give us an estimate of how many slides you have left? |
| 02:46:43.65 | Charlie Francis | Uh, I have... |
| 02:46:44.38 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. We have three more items on our agenda. |
| 02:46:46.48 | Charlie Francis | I have two more slides left. |
| 02:46:48.36 | Janelle Kellman | OK. Sorry. Go ahead. |
| 02:46:49.62 | Charlie Francis | Okay. So this is the third quarter's treasurer's report. Now I want to say |
| 02:46:50.48 | Janelle Kellman | So this |
| 02:46:54.20 | Charlie Francis | We had to go back to November of 2019 to find our first real clean bank reconciliation. As of today, we're through February of 2020. And this March report, remember, I didn't withdraw the money out of the, Bank of New York until the middle of April. So this treasurer's report still shows that the 4.9 million is in the Bank of New York Mellon-Dreyfus fund. you know, But, You can see here that here's our reconciliation to the general ledger. Here's our cash. And here's the answer to your question. Right now we have $22.9 million in cash. I withdrew this money out of here. So this is just came out of this bucket and went up into this bucket. However, This also includes THE FEDERAL. 2.4 that's in pension trust 1.6 that's in there. In other words, 4 million of this is still restricted. And this is restricted for sewer projects. So the money available just to the general fund is Uh, 9 million to all funds is the remaining of it. And here's sort of like 6.5 in the general fund. And here's all of the other amounts. Now it's impossible to have negative $3.3 million. This is an accounting entry. You know, the sewer project fund, they've been charging expenses against and haven't been transferring money from the sewer fund, which is $8 million in it, down to cover this cash shortfall. It's just, it's all pooled cash. So in the sewer fund, $8 million less than $3 million is $5 million in the sewer fund. General Fund has $6.5 million. But, You can't have negative cash in Prop 1B, so that's gotta be made up probably out of the general fund. So these are all things that are accounting entries that need to be cleaned up. Yes, ma'am. |
| 02:48:57.47 | Janelle Kellman | Yes, sir. And you expect that to be done with the next treasurer's report? |
| 02:49:01.92 | Charlie Francis | Oh, absolutely. It'll be done by, You know, the end of the year, yes. |
| 02:49:07.37 | Janelle Kellman | End of the fiscal year. |
| 02:49:08.81 | Charlie Francis | Yes, yes, I'm sorry, yes. |
| 02:49:10.75 | Janelle Kellman | Oh, it is. |
| 02:49:11.68 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. |
| 02:49:12.49 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. |
| 02:49:13.11 | Charlie Francis | Okay, that concludes the presentation. the third quarter budget review. |
| 02:49:20.72 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. And so. We've asked our questions, I think, as we have gone along. Do we, any council members have any questions for Charlie before I open this up for public comment? |
| 02:49:33.23 | Janelle Kellman | I just want to commend him and thank you. That is fantastic work, extremely thorough. lot of information and i know a mayor and i have been asking for this for a couple months and you seemed to put it together very quickly like magic, and I know it was not magic, it was a lot of hard work. So, really want to commend you and thank you |
| 02:49:48.97 | Janelle Kellman | I'm going to. See you, Haglock. Thank you. |
| 02:49:50.81 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. Vice Mayor. |
| 02:49:52.24 | Janelle Kellman | I agree. Tremendous. Thank you so much for all of your hard work. Okay, any other questions for Charlie before I open this up for public comment? Okay, seeing none, I will now open up the budget presentation for public comment. And I'll let our |
| 02:50:09.96 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 02:50:11.41 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:50:11.45 | Heidi Scoble | you Madam Mayor, it looks like we have one hand raised at this time. Julie Myers, you've been asked to be unmuted and share your video if you'd like. |
| 02:50:24.09 | Julie Myers | Hello council members and Madam Mayor. |
| 02:50:26.72 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 02:50:26.75 | Ian Sobieski | you |
| 02:50:27.16 | Julie Myers | I want to take a moment to thank the interim city manager, Marcia Rains, for the kind words she said about The staff, and I do agree with her, the staff is the most dedicated and hardworking that I have ever worked with. And I'm not sure if you know this, but I support Sausalito workers. Thank you to people who left. Um, When talking about the budget, I know that you are gonna soon be making decisions about the city's level of staffing. And I just thought I'd take a quick moment to share with you some thoughts. I wanna be honest. I think we should be honest about this. Basically the residents of Sausalito have suffered this past year because they have not gotten the level of service that they both deserve and have paid for because the level of staffing this year has been so low. Each department has struggled. Every single department has struggled with a low staffing level. CDD struggled with processing building permits. DPW has struggled with routine maintenance, just to name a few. Basically, But in short terms, this ship that is the city of Sausalito is listing to the side and barely afloat. And you, the city council are at the helm And you can right this ship by returning us to pre-COVID level of staff. And that's my time. Thank you. |
| 02:51:55.36 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:52:24.27 | Melissa Blaustein | If Heidi was speaking, I don't think I could hear her. TAMMY. |
| 02:52:27.38 | Maria Hernandez | Thank you. |
| 02:52:27.41 | Heidi Scoble | I'm not sure. |
| 02:52:27.65 | Maria Hernandez | Thank you. |
| 02:52:27.95 | Melissa Blaustein | person to start talking. Thank you. |
| 02:52:29.40 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, John, you are unmuted and ready to speak. |
| 02:52:36.59 | John Oppenheimer | Okay, hi everybody, can you hear me okay? |
| 02:52:38.90 | Heidi Scoble | Bye. |
| 02:52:39.04 | Bridget Clark | Yes, thank you, John. |
| 02:52:40.17 | John Oppenheimer | Hi, this is John Oppenheimer. I'm a Sausalito resident and I'm the current chair of the library board of trustees. And I really appreciate all the city council's support for all the programs and different departments. And I'm here tonight to talk a little bit, just for a moment or two quickly about the library and just to ask for your continued support for the library's programs and events. It's a community living room to all age groups, to the seniors, to the kids, and to the families. And the library's been a source of comfort, stability, security through thick and thin, back to the fires in October of 2019. and I just want to really give a great shout out to it being the the living room of sausalito and to ask for a return uh to pre-covered levels by the end of this year or by um next year uh fiscal 2021-22 um and finally just to really say that um you know going through this time of turbulence and everything else the this the families and the kids who have been really stressed out really look to the library for their services their events their programs and their great staff and I really just want to once again reaffirm and ask for your commitment to really restore the library's funding and budget issues to pre-COVID levels or whatever is most appropriate going forward. Thank you. |
| 02:54:14.18 | Janelle Kellman | you |
| 02:54:14.23 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 02:54:17.59 | Heidi Scoble | This is Ray Whithing, you are our next speaker. You've been unmuted. and ask to share your video. |
| 02:54:25.55 | Ray Whithing | Hello. Welcome to not two minutes. Can you hear me? Yes. All right. Madam Mayor and Council, I just wanted to, as I said earlier, I have tried to stay out of things but I thought that I could help a little bit, especially with some historical perspective as you struggle with the budget. you are going to have a struggle. You have been looking at audited fund balance numbers without understanding that there's a lot of both political decisions and legal decisions that have been made on each fund balance that are restricting your ability to use these numbers. Before COVID-19 hit, I was extremely worried that the trajectory of our revenues and our expenses were such that Notwithstanding our very strong financial position, we were potentially in a going to hit a structural problem. And it appeared that over the last two years, we were gonna be able to solve that problem, unfortunately and against my wishes, by using Measure O money to do it. The fact remains that even without COVID, you have major, decisions to make which are going to be tough and difficult. They relate to staffing. They relate to the structure of the organization. They relate to how you're gonna get future revenue streams and how you're gonna limit expenses. We have managed successfully through, I think this COVID-ish crisis, but don't forget the structural issues were there ahead of that. |
| 02:56:39.29 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. You're too. The last. Thank you. |
| 02:56:42.71 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 02:56:44.28 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 02:56:44.32 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is John Bush. John, you've been unmuted and ask to share your video. |
| 02:56:56.92 | Heidi Scoble | So John, you'll just need to unmute yourself. |
| 02:56:58.49 | Roberta | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:57:04.58 | Heidi Scoble | Mr. Bush, we're still not hearing you. |
| 02:57:07.08 | Unknown | Yes. Thank you. Hey, we're all figuring this out. Hi, I'm John Bush, probably public works, maintenance too. And I must agree with Julie. you know, that we need to get the staff level up again. You know, because the citizens of the United States love us, and they love to see us out there. And we really do A handshake service to our citizens. and As far as structural, Uh, I'm the shop steward of public works department, sewer department, parks department. And, um, As far as the structural part, I mean, we're We're a streamlined service. We don't have... |
| 02:58:02.02 | Unknown | I'm proud. |
| 02:58:03.37 | Unknown | any more than we need and we don't have, and we do have a bit less, we, we lost our |
| 02:58:04.96 | Unknown | We don't know if we do have |
| 02:58:10.04 | Unknown | mechanic in our shop. So one of us from public works has to run a truck to the shop, pick a truck up from the shop. And we've been on a furlough service also. So we're losing one guy per week. Monday, Friday, Monday, Friday. We're trying to alternate it. So we're short staffed as it is. And But anyway, we have, we're fully committed to the city council. And we appreciate everything you guys are doing for us. Thank you very much. |
| 02:58:46.34 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 02:58:51.67 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Vicki Nichols. Vicki, you've been unmuted. |
| 02:59:03.01 | Janelle Kellman | We're not hearing you on our end. I think you might need to |
| 02:59:03.04 | Vicki Nichols | We're not hearing you. |
| 02:59:06.13 | Janelle Kellman | Do something on your end. |
| 02:59:07.68 | Vicki Nichols | There we go, sorry. I wasn't gonna speak because I think that all the departments work really hard and I appreciate, |
| 02:59:07.70 | Janelle Kellman | There we |
| 02:59:16.38 | Vicki Nichols | Mr. Oppenheimer's comments about the library, but I'd like to put a, a bug in your ear about our community development department. Having been on the planning commission for the last seven and a half years, this is a revenue generating department and they have really struggled with staffing. So when you're allocating, I think that's a area that we can't be lean in. We have to recruit good people. Um, And we need to support all the employees. So I would just hope that we don't, uh, you know get too tight with our economy it's false economy to keep cutting staff that's why the citizens are complaining it's obvious when they don't see this level of service so please please do what you can to get these employees back on track. I have never in all my experience working with this city, seen a slacker employee. They all work very, very hard. So I think you need to start there. Thank you. |
| 03:00:25.51 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:00:29.16 | Heidi Scoble | Wendy Richards, you've been unmuted. |
| 03:00:34.52 | Wendy Richards | Thank you very much. First of all, I would like to acknowledge Charlie, your hard work in, making that presentation clear. concise and understandable. I think many of us in the community have known that the numbers weren't right, that things didn't look right. And I really appreciate your hard work making that clarification. I heard a lot of calls to go back to pre-COVID levels, and I would like to add a call for the home-based businesses to go to pre-, measure-, and tax levels. Mayor Hoffman. You postponed discussion of an agenda item several meetings ago, that had very smart and fact-based letters from a number of neighbors, all of whom are entrepreneurs who work for themselves and who were subject to a sudden tax as home-based workers that was neither transparent nor spoken of nor mentioned to anyone that voted on it. I have many neighbors who work for a paycheck from another company who were appalled when they found out that Measure M taxed their fellow Sausalitans who work independently. And I strongly urge you to return that to the agenda. and to reform Measure M so that those People in this community who work independently are not subject to an additional tax on their gross revenue before they've even paid themselves. We're bearing the burden for those car allowances when we haven't even paid ourselves and our own subcontractors and bills. So please include that in the agenda. in this budgeting process I would appreciate it and thank you again to Charlie for the hard work Thank you. |
| 03:02:35.70 | Heidi Scoble | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:02:35.87 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. |
| 03:02:36.01 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Our next speaker is Maria Hernandez. Maria, you've been asked to be unmuted. |
| 03:02:53.71 | Maria Hernandez | Hi. Hola, mi nombre es María Hernández. Thank you Council City Member Cleveland Maltz for understanding the struggles the community department is under. We in the city department need to go back to pre-COVID staffing, We are struggling with the demands of the Sassolero residents. The customer service has fallen due to inequitous staffing. My new boss, Lily William, has asked in the new budget for two new possessions that will help with the CDD department with the demands of the subsidiary residency I ask that you hear or plead for help. Gracias. |
| 03:03:35.20 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Our next speaker is Sybil Boutillier. So will you then Ask to be unmuted. |
| 03:03:45.19 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 03:03:45.21 | Heidi Scoble | you |
| 03:03:46.36 | Sybil Boutilier | Thank you, Heidi. Yes, I'd like to speak about the need to bring the recreation and park department staff back up just to and the staff. As you know, over the past year, these new parks, I mean, our parks have been renovated. They're like new parks. Martin Luther King part has installed the one and only feature that's specifically for older adults in South Salido, and that is the Senior Fitness Court. And all the equipment hasn't been installed in that yet. and already some of the pieces are broken because people have remove signs giving the age restriction for the equipment It's not only unsafe for children, but the children have been abusing it in large numbers in such a way that the equipment's actually been broken. And the Wreck and Park staff is you know, working in so many different areas with I think in some cases 25% cuts and 50% cuts. that you know, all the different, areas that need maintenance. Um, are not being kept up and some of this is brand new equipment And it's the only place where older adults can go out exercise in fresh air and not have to, you know, for this kind of exercise, not have to congregate in gymnasium, you know, expensive gyms like, you know, fitness centers where They're in close proximity to many other people, which is a very uncomfortable situation. for a lot of older adults at this time. But we have this gym that's been installed, Thank you. Other, that's just an issue. |
| 03:05:51.99 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Okay. All right, I don't see any other hands. Madam Clerk, can you please confirm? |
| 03:06:00.99 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no hands that are raised at this time. then I'm gonna close public comment |
| 03:06:07.85 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:06:08.36 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:06:08.38 | Janelle Kellman | Um, |
| 03:06:09.86 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:06:09.88 | Janelle Kellman | I don't. I don't believe we need any vote. Uh... I don't see any or it's for direction to staff. I, the direction to Charlie is keep going and we'll stick on the, stay on the schedule that we approved earlier this year so |
| 03:06:30.33 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:06:30.65 | Janelle Kellman | I'm not. |
| 03:06:30.97 | Janelle Kellman | I have one thing just to former council member with these remark around controlling our revenue and our expenses. I just want to remind the fellow council members that the benchmarking report was shared with all of you. And I know I think it was council member Sobieski who stated he had some feedback that he wanted to be able to give. Rather than expect you to have that feedback on hand, I'll just say, if maybe we could plan to discuss that on June 8th, during committee reports, as we report out from finance, that would probably be a good time have some of that feedback or Well, maybe I'll work with the mayor to figure out a better way to... facilitate that. |
| 03:07:06.46 | Ian Sobieski | I commend that report to everyone to look at. I know we get a lot of incoming and it BABY. It's easy to forget, but it's good stuff. and deserves some review. And particularly with our new city manager, that would be something for him to help benchmark our town relative to our neighbors. |
| 03:07:28.85 | Janelle Kellman | Thanks. Well, yeah, so we'll talk about it in the context, like I said, of committee report, or as vice mayor said, in the context of, our committee reports at the next city council meeting. And so, All right. So I think. Unless. I'm not seeing any further so we're going to close this item and move on to our next item, which is Uh... 7C, which is adopt a resolution or the city council, authorizing an interim city manager to award the construction project for dumping park soil stockpile removal. Um... in the amount of $820,000 and Kevin McGowan is going to give this presentation. but pretty thorough presentation of this matter back I think it was in October. Um, and so this is sort of a follow up to that presentation. Um, And so, Kevin? You have the floor. |
| 03:08:34.94 | Kevin McGowan | Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. I don't have a PowerPoint presentation this evening, but I do have a few things to read off, and I'll try to make it as brief as possible. So I'm Kevin McGowan of the Department of Public Works, and Item 7C before you this evening is a request to award the Dumpy Park Soil and Stockpile Removal. First off, I apologize for having a wrong date on the staff report. And, The Dumpy Park Improvement Project, which is located on an old burn dump site, included the reconstruction of an existing park and the installation of a dedicated parking as well as other amenities, including large turf area, Hibachi Court, Restrooms, Volleyball Court, Landscaping, and other amenities. This first phase of the project construction is completed and the public is enjoying the area for over six months. The original plan for this park anticipated encountering some soils that exceeded the state-led thresholds. The original plan was to mix this soil with the other grading material at the site to reduce the overall contaminants to be less than the state limits. No off haul of soils was originally anticipated. After the start of construction, the soil material located underneath the proposed parking lot Thank you. was found to not be able to sustain the loads of vehicles in the parking area. leaving the material in place would ultimately break up the parking lot surface and destroy the new pavement. In order to address the situation and keep the project moving forward, city staff instructed the contractor to remove a section of the material under the proposed parking lot and backfill the area with rock rip wrap and wrap it in a geotechnical fabric. which acts as a bridge and distributes the heavy vehicle loads. The material that could not support the load was moved to the south side of the parking, south side of the park and stockpiled with other soil material. This material was later tested and found to contain levels of lead that exceeded the state thresholds. in order to meet the Marin County Environmental Health services and cow recycling requirements The project needed to demonstrate that the area to be used by the public was free of contaminants. In order to demonstrate this, after the contractor reached a set grade, Additional testing was performed at the surface. This testing denoted additional areas where the terror was to be installed that exceeded allowable limits for lead and the material was required to be removed and replaced with clean soil. The original concept of combining soil material generated during the construction and placing all the material on site would no longer be compliant due to the fact that the majority of the stockpile material exceeded the state-led thresholds. the city consultant, retested the material placed in the stockpile area and found that approximately three quarters of the entire stockpile, exceeded the state thresholds for less. This city. Sorry, the city has pursued all available funding options, exploration of various contract issues for the work to excavate the soils. The city retained an outside legal counsel to thoroughly investigate this matter and at this point, has determined that the best approach is to use city funds to remove and dispose of the stockpiled soils. We are also continuing to explore historical insurance that might be applied to this specific project. On March 30th, 2021, the city received a total of 11 bids for the Dunphy Park soil stockpile removal project The low bid from Eleven Engineering Incorporated in the amount of 745,000. $815. was found to be responsive and responsible Staff is recommending authorizing the city manager the interim city manager to execute the construction contract for the Dunphy Park soil stockpile removal project with 11 Engineering Incorporated, I authorize a contingency of about 74,000. While there are some remaining funds available from the Dumpy Park Improvement Project, phase one, The prime contractor for that project has disputed the final payment, such that staff does not recommend utilizing these funds at this time. funding for the removal of the stockpile material is recommended to be allocated from the general fund at this time. My last comment is that the stockpile is required to be removed or at least protected by other regulatory agencies such as BCDC. It's part of the original permit to at least cover it with two feet of additional soil. or in this case, we are recommending its removal. So that concludes my quick presentation. And thank you for your patience. |
| 03:14:03.14 | Janelle Kellman | Thanks. Director McAllen, and thanks for all your hard work on this project. And we did, um, We did have a couple of conversations about looking for additional sources of funding. Um, from other people. other contractors that were working on the site. And And I don't know, Mary, if you wanna weigh in, Mary Wagner, our city attorney wants to weigh in at this point, I think maybe Kevin covered it, but it looks like it's the responsibility of Sausalito to clean up and so. unfortunately. So have I got that right, Mary? |
| 03:14:41.14 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the city council. Yeah, I do. I think Kevin hit the nail on the head. You know, we did. explore other options for funding for this, including looking at some of our existing contracts. did a pretty thorough look at that, utilizing outside legal counsel who specializes in construction work and our best advice to the city council is to go ahead and move forward with removing these stockpiled soils in the manner that Kevin has outlined for you tonight. |
| 03:15:13.54 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thanks to both you and Kevin for I'm digging into, you know, no time really intended. digging into that. And we had, I'll just remind people that on November 10th, our November 10th, 2020 city council meeting, We did a deep dive into this with lots of technical questions and plans and things that we went through. And so if somebody wants or is interested in that sort of exploration of this. of this issue, that would be a good city council meeting to look at. Anyway, unfortunately I think this is where we're at and what we need to do to go forward. So do we have a, yes, we have two hands ready, do I have three hands, two hands? Council member Sobieski and then council member Blasting Councilman Cleveland Knowles, I see maybe You have a partially raised hand, |
| 03:16:05.94 | Ian Sobieski | Director McGowan or any of my colleagues who know the answer to this, You alluded to the possibility of capping or burying the dirt as an option. Is that actually an option? And what was the alternative? Why is that not an alternative that was exported? |
| 03:16:22.06 | Kevin McGowan | So that has not been breached with any of the regulatory agencies. I don't believe it's a viable alternative at this point in time. The cost of it when we originally looked at this was very close to actually removing the soil as well. So it is a possibility, but I don't think we broach this with any of the regulatory agencies. |
| 03:16:43.86 | Ian Sobieski | THE END OF So you mentioned the two feet of dirt, that was just temporary. That wouldn't be considered bearing to put a two-foot cap. |
| 03:16:52.50 | Kevin McGowan | You could put a two foot cap on top of it, that's correct. |
| 03:16:56.06 | Ian Sobieski | So... The two foot cap is $750,000. |
| 03:17:01.05 | Kevin McGowan | When we originally investigated this, the cost was rather up at the same level. but we have not investigated that completely. |
| 03:17:10.91 | Ian Sobieski | I, you know, I'm just shooting from the head. Is that something we should at least quote out as an alternative? Or has this ship sailed? |
| 03:17:20.36 | Kevin McGowan | My opinion is the ship has sailed. We need to actually remove the material. That's what we've been telling the regulatory agencies at this point. |
| 03:17:30.36 | Melissa Blaustein | Also, I mean, I'm not an engineer, but as a practical matter, the soil has been removed. Normally you cap before you remove the soil. So now we have the soil. is four or five feet above ground. I'm not sure. |
| 03:17:44.81 | Unknown | So I, you know. |
| 03:17:45.81 | Melissa Blaustein | Maybe our director can just speak to that, but I do think it's too far down the road at this point to cap. unless we had another place to put the soil and then cap it. |
| 03:17:51.81 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:17:55.46 | Ian Sobieski | I'm a engineer on live TV, but I am an engineer, and I grew up in a town that has Mount Rushmore. It's the only place we went sledding. |
| 03:17:55.66 | Melissa Blaustein | you |
| 03:18:03.90 | Ian Sobieski | And Mount I'm sorry, Mount Trashmore, not Mount Rushmore. Mount Trashmore is a mountain of trash. full of all kinds of nasty things. And it's fully capped. It's amazing what you can cap. Truly, it's a mountain of trash. THE FAMILY. So this seems right. eat the rock the boat but we've gotten to this, in part by not exploring some options. I just wonder if we shouldn't explore that option at least quickly. to run the ground that it really is not dramatically cheaper to do some sort of cap on top of the pile. |
| 03:18:38.94 | Kevin McGowan | The file is about seven feet tall at this point in time. Adding another two feet would put it up to nine feet above the roadway. That's quite a large pile to deal with. It could impact views as well. So I don't, like I said, I don't think we can approach this with some of the regulatory agencies. |
| 03:18:57.15 | Melissa Blaustein | I had a question about the funds because you had mentioned that sorry council members so we asked you are you finished I don't want to jump ahead if you had additional comments. Okay, so you had mentioned that we can't use the existing Demphe Park funds right now because of a dispute with the contractor. However, I'm wondering if and when that dispute is resolved, we will be able to return some of the money back into the general fund or reallocate it from the Duffy Park project back into the general fund should that dispute be be handled. |
| 03:19:29.28 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, that sounds correct. At this point, we have not settled that dispute, so. Um, I don't think it will cover the total cost of this project or anywhere close to it, whatever is left over from that dispute should be able to be turned back into the general fund or at least where it came from. |
| 03:19:50.48 | Melissa Blaustein | And at this point, how much is left over in the Dumpy Park? that we're going to be budget. |
| 03:19:55.96 | Kevin McGowan | The latest numbers that I've run through, we're at about 167,000 left over. Somewhere in there. However, there's some other things that have to come into play, such as liquidated damages and how we deal with the prime contractor in relationship to those damages and that we haven't decided on That is what's being disputed. |
| 03:20:18.88 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Okay, any other questions from the council for Director McAllen? |
| 03:20:25.43 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:20:26.49 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:20:26.51 | Melissa Blaustein | Mayor Hoffman, I just wanted to add on to your note that the public could look at our November 10th meeting. We also on October 27th, I think the budget is going to be a little bit for the same and I think I was really surprised to go back and look at that October 27th and see that the bids were essentially at the same level, maybe just a couple thousand dollars lower. So we did kind of faced this really difficult decision last October, at the end of October. We asked staff to go back and do everything they could. We hired a consultant to see if there were any possible you know, alternatives to lessen the cost. You know, staff has been working for months and months to try to get this cost down, and it's really disappointing that the bids came in again this high, but I did just want to point also to that to that staff report and and the work that's been done. since then by Director McGowan and his team. |
| 03:21:34.63 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:21:34.99 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:21:35.00 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. OK. all right um seeing no further hands raised from the council I will open this up for public comment I see one more. |
| 03:21:44.57 | Heidi Scoble | One more time. |
| 03:21:45.02 | Heidi Scoble | We have one hand raised, Roberta. I have unmuted you and asked if you'd like to start your video. |
| 03:21:52.00 | Roberta | Thank you. |
| 03:21:53.75 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:21:53.77 | Roberta | Hi, yes, thank you, Roberta Malloy. I would like you to know that between the tarped soil and the sidewalk are some boulders. One of which is, was a boulder that has a plaque in it that was dedicated to the Squires family by the Chamber of Commerce. I believe in the early 1990s, I'm not quite sure when. And it's just sitting, it's just sitting in a bunch of weeds with some other large pieces of boulder or, cement or anyway, and it's valuable. And we brought it to the attention of, well, I, I talked to Molly Squires and then she talked to Jock Ullman. So they know that it's there, but we want to make sure that it's not taken away with any of the other things that you're doing. whatever you end up doing. And that we can make sure it gets put back maybe near a tree the same way that the chamber had designed it. |
| 03:23:06.35 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you. Thank you for that. Okay. Director McAllen, can you please take note of the the boulder Thumbs up. Thank you. Okay, any other public comment? Yes, I see another raised hand. |
| 03:23:23.46 | Heidi Scoble | I'm still... You've been unmuted. Thank you. and ask to share a video. |
| 03:23:30.75 | Sybil Boutilier | I just wanted to pass on a concern I've had There are young children living in the encampment. next to this pile of dirt. Since we know that there's lead there, I think it's a particular, we all know it's a particular risk to very young children, and Jess led you know, impacted by land. And I'm wondering, you know, if there's anything that we can do, you know, to at least make sure that their family is aware of the danger of having young children playing in lead, lace dirt. Maybe they'll decide not to be staying there right now. And when it gets moved, you know, it'll Some of it will, you know, aerosol. And, So it's just something that's been on my mind since I've been over there and seen the young children. playing there. Um, And It's... it's a little concerned because it does cause cognitive cognitive effects. |
| 03:24:41.44 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Our next speaker is Ava Crisante. Ava, you've been unmuted. |
| 03:24:51.88 | Ava Crisanti | Thanks so much. Can you hear me? Yes. Thanks. It was my understanding that one of the families did acquire housing. And so that would be one of the families with young children did acquire housing. So that would be one less concern. But I hope we can all reflect at this particular moment. on the reality that in one of the wealthiest counties in the state of California, We actually have a situation. where there are young families. WITHOUT HOMES. And I know that I know that there are a lot of logistical issues to consider, but this really is, it really makes it quite stark. what we have come to. I know that they're good people in our local government to understand why this is important to pay attention to. So I'll leave it at that. It really is pretty shocking. |
| 03:25:53.59 | Wendy Richards | Okay. Thank you. Okay. I see no further emails. |
| 03:25:57.59 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:25:57.90 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. |
| 03:25:58.03 | Janelle Kellman | and |
| 03:25:59.91 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no additional hands raised at this time. |
| 03:26:03.57 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you. And so I will close public comment on item 7C, which is, which is Dunphy Park. soil stockpile removal. And so. believe that we need to pass a resolution. Is that correct? Do we need a motion? |
| 03:26:26.82 | Melissa Blaustein | I think that's correct and I'd make a motion to authorize the interim city manager to award the construction contract for the project of the dumpy park soil stockpile removal Pretty well. |
| 03:26:36.39 | Maria Hernandez | I'm not. |
| 03:26:37.23 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll? |
| 03:26:40.20 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:26:41.84 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:26:41.86 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski? Councilmember Blaustin. Council member Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kalman? Yes. Mayor Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 03:26:54.31 | Janelle Kellman | Very well, thank you. That passes 5-0. Thank you, Kevin, for all of your hard work on this and the rest of your staff. So hopefully you can get a little bit We are moving toward resolution. Um, Okay, so moving on to our next item on the agenda is item which is the Bicycle Congestion Management Agreement. And this is going to be with our chief A place. Chief Robacher, thank you for staying up late. We are only an hour and a half |
| 03:27:33.00 | Janelle Kellman | Lieutenant Gregory, thank you for staying up so late. |
| 03:27:35.60 | Unknown | Thank you. I can't. |
| 03:27:37.14 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:27:37.16 | Unknown | All right, all right, guys, go. All right, so actually Lieutenant Gregory is gonna give the presentation on this. I'm gonna have the next topic. But by way of introduction, I want to commend Lieutenant Gregory for all the hard work she's done since she got promoted to lieutenant in January five years ago, she's had the circulation management responsibility. which is quite involved, no plan intended. It's very much a moving target and there's lots of players involved and she's got the unique skill and knack of getting everybody to work together. And so this was, been on our mind now for several months knowing that, optimistically hoping that the pandemic would cease and the town would become a little bit more vibrant and of course some things would be coming back. With that introduction, I'm gonna pump this off to Lieutenant Gregory, thanks. |
| 03:28:34.80 | Lieutenant Gregory | OK, I have a PowerPoint, so I'm going to share my screen. |
| 03:28:49.82 | Janelle Kellman | OK, can you see that? Nope. |
| 03:28:54.00 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. |
| 03:28:54.04 | Janelle Kellman | seeing the the zoom screen. |
| 03:28:59.96 | Lieutenant Gregory | Yeah, that's it. Error. Anyway, we'll go without sharing the screen. Since it's so late, now I gotta just make it go away. |
| 03:29:14.20 | Lieutenant Gregory | Okay, so good evening, Mayor, Council members. I'm here tonight to talk to you about the tourist season and the circulation management plan. although we don't really know what that means. What I wanna first do is start by recognizing Sorry, hold on. recognizing the partners in this, congestion management, circulation management, which we've renamed it. The first is Suss Little Bike Return, and they are on tonight in case we have questions of them. Golden Gate Ferry. All the rental bike companies. the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee the Chamber of Commerce. in the Sausalito residence. Um, the last three to five years we've all worked really closely to manage what goes on downtown In 2020, we had secured Sussado bike return It was their third consecutive year to manage the downtown congestion. Then COVID hit and crushed all of that for us. There was no tourist season. So we have retained some sort of biker's return, And even though they weren't parking bikes, returning bikes, They were still a huge asset to the city as they were ambassadors downtown holding signs, reminding people of social distance, Thank you. reminding people to wear masks, handing out masks to people that didn't have them. AND I THINK THAT'S A you know, and when we asked them to join our team in that way, they, you know, were they jumped right at it. You know, we're a good It was a good success downtown with them. Now in 2021. You know, none of us have a crystal ball. We don't know what we're going to prepare for, but we're trying to prepare for the unknown. Our goal is to be prepared for whatever the season brings us and to be able to adapt in a very short time So our proposal tonight is that Sassano Bike Return as they have in the past three years, contract with us. I We initially would like them to start monitoring bicycles And if you know, public health order restrictions and reminders are still applicable, to continue with that as well. We'd be in contact, the police department would be in contact So I send a bike return on a daily basis. be ready to shift our operations based on circumstances you know within a 48-hour period and most likely we'd be able to move and adapt within 24 hours. And that would also depend on another one of our major partners in setting up this operation is the Department of Public Works. So again, the direction of our operation down there is gonna depend on with the Tour of Spring. And there's many options, you know, maybe South Hospital Bike Return is just monitoring and helping people park their bikes in the right spots. know looking at taxis looking at buses just watching what's going on for us and being our eyes and ears we may decide we need to trade close Tracy way. and have paid or unpaid parking, either is an option. Most, the most unlikely thing is that South Saludo bike return, the actual return part is going to return because of the fact that a lot of the smaller bike rental agencies probably aren't going to be operating. And then the bigger rental companies are still doing their own return. And lastly, we may decide that South Little Bike Return isn't needed at all downtown. So there's a lot of room to be creative with what we're gonna need downtown based on what the tourists and the community asked for. And I know that Sauceto Bike Return staff, John and Lisa Scopazi, and their staff who are mostly returning employees. are ready and up for the challenge. know that they work well with all those partners that I've already mentioned So since this plan is very fluid and to be effective, We're gonna have to ask that the chief be given, hopefully, authority to develop the plan as we go. And that, you know, whatever our actions are, moving forward and as we change and adapt to the needs of the community and the tourists, that you know we would update um the City Council on a, regular basis just to let them know what is happening. So with that, I would like to recommend the approval of in my, Would you like me just to read? this document. staff recommendation. |
| 03:34:05.62 | Janelle Kellman | No, that's okay. I mean, it's a staff recommendation and a staff report. I think we've all read that. |
| 03:34:10.51 | Lieutenant Gregory | Yeah, you've all read it. So it's the third amendment of the Saucedo Bicycle Congestion Management Agreement. And then the authorization of the chief of police to develop the plan is on an as needed basis. |
| 03:34:20.64 | Janelle Kellman | So you're asking, essentially you're asking for an upfront payment to Sausalio bike return for 23,000 whoops, I haven't got, yeah, 23,000 for the beginning of this season. And then we'll kind of see how the season rolls out, right? |
| 03:34:36.77 | Lieutenant Gregory | Right, and then the financial part, say all of a sudden, were running like we were in 2019. And if the paid parking comes back, all the, all the financial kind of rules would go into play from the 2010 20 contract, which that's also listed in the staff report. |
| 03:34:54.45 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, that's under the fiscal impact part. |
| 03:34:57.04 | Lieutenant Gregory | Correct. |
| 03:34:57.68 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. And so what just a hypothetical so The initial payment of 23,000, is that gonna cover the full season for South Seattle Bike Return? Or is that just June? Or do we have any idea because we just don't know? We just don't know. I mean, generally that's |
| 03:35:14.98 | Lieutenant Gregory | for the bite counting and kind of the intersection monitors on your regular ear. And you know, it's it's a it's for the positions that they're not, they're not making revenue on. And So I think, You know, we don't know. everybody I've talked to said it's going to be about 50% of what 2019 was. If that's the case, you know, it might last them the whole season. It depends on what the weekdays do with the, you know, the weekends are, overburdened and you know, you know, the end of. and we're going to have a end of August or the month of August generally is pretty busy. So it's everything is such an unknown. It's really hard to plan. |
| 03:36:00.94 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, I see the vice mayor has her because they're virtual. |
| 03:36:03.35 | Janelle Kellman | It's a virtual place. |
| 03:36:04.50 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:36:04.54 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you, yeah, thank you, Lieutenant Gregory. So with the, ferry right now not coming back until june 19th is there any measurable accounting or linkage on on bicycle usage of incoming bikes that we would have traditionally from the ferry. so that we could have an assessment. So we know that we're going to miss most of June. with bikes coming out of the ferry, how much of that is attributed to overall like congestion and traffic in downtown. |
| 03:36:34.25 | Marsha Raines | Vice Mayor, the reports for your agenda are prepared a week to two weeks in advance in order to meet all the publishing deadlines. And so part of what the Lieutenant is saying is how they'd like to operate is to authorize the chief of police to develop plans as things change so already the things that have changed since the publishing of this report is more information about when the ferry will begin operating again and you're absolutely on target when you say that will affect those numbers one thing you might consider doing this evening is approving the item as requested and ask the chief as Lieutenant has said, to continue to keep you up to date on a monthly basis. So those numbers are gonna move As everything around us changes, the fairies, COVID regulations, you know, they can sit down with Suslito bike congestion management firm and talk about what's going to happen on June 15th when the state regulations change. and come back to us with a more concrete example. But the authorization that's being requested now Um, would get us to a position of having their attention and talking to them on the development of those plans. |
| 03:37:51.93 | Janelle Kellman | Sure, very good, thank you. Let me rephrase my question. Do we have any historic linkage or historic usage patterns attributed to bikes coming in on the ferry that would allow us to have some sense in the forecasting perspective to how many bikes would actually be coming in, not with standing changing conditions? So could we look at last June and know how many bikes were inbound or not last year, I guess two years ago, and how many bikes were inbound, so that we could just have a forecast and start making some assumptions. It was more of a factual, a historic factual question. |
| 03:38:11.77 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:38:11.81 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:38:21.14 | Lieutenant Gregory | Yeah, so most of the bikes leave on the ferry. They'll actually come in on the ferry. And what I'm finding is that the bigger companies have changed their, the way they operate. And in fact, or have gone more towards electric bikes? and are changing the routes of, where people are riding. So we are seeing rental bikes come through. They're either riding back and or their electric bikes. And you know, so that's a little easier to get back, but so the operation and the way that, the bike companies are, are pushing their bikes out is different. So I don't know that we could even, it's apples and oranges really. |
| 03:39:01.39 | Janelle Kellman | That's a great point. Thank you. |
| 03:39:01.54 | Lieutenant Gregory | Thank you. |
| 03:39:03.63 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, interesting. We do have a lot of I know. We do have a lot of data actually monthly from 2018, 2019, I think even 2017, which you know, fluctuates, but and and But keep it in mind, this is just we're in sort of, La La Land, right? So that's why, you know, I like this. I like what you guys are doing as always. You know, the police department is way ahead of us and thinking for solutions and always adapting and trying to keep ahead of the curve, so I appreciate And I think, you know, anyway, Let me just pause there. because we'll have comments later, but, Does anybody have any questions or should, are you ready for us to move on to public comment on this item? Okay, no questions. Let's move to public comment then. Let's see if we have anybody that wants to comment on this item. I'm not seeing any hands. Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no hands raised. Very well, then I will close public comment and I will go back to my comments. about this, you know, obviously, the advantage of having SouthSuite bike return is that it frees up the police department for management on the streets. Right. So that's, originally why we went to this type of model I don't know, five years ago for help managing the congestion downtown. So I'm not sure. You know, 23,000 seems like a reasonable number to start off with. with the idea that the SOSO bike return isn't gonna be generating any revenue So we'll see what happens when the ferry comes back if and when our visitor numbers go back up. And then I like the fact that you guys are gonna be you know, have the ability to quickly pivot and go back to a paid fee. biking. I'm hearing that correctly. Lieutenant Gregory, that's kind of the model. |
| 03:41:00.76 | Lieutenant Gregory | Thank you. |
| 03:41:01.76 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 03:41:01.98 | Lieutenant Gregory | I mean, if we see that there's you know, it's gotta be, gotta be worthwhile, right? But if we see there's a need and there's, you know, there's congestion of the bicycles downtown, absolutely. I mean, we can get Tracy way clothes very quickly and, you know, the paid portion of it too is, you know, something we can do within 24 hours Senate. |
| 03:41:21.03 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:41:21.43 | Lieutenant Gregory | Thank you. |
| 03:41:21.47 | Janelle Kellman | Fairly quickly, yeah. You know, this gives us the flexibility, that we need and And just the ability to react is very important to changing conditions. I'm in favor of it. If anybody else would like comment, that's great. Or entertain a motion. |
| 03:41:44.11 | Melissa Blaustein | I just, oh, sorry. |
| 03:41:44.15 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:41:47.18 | Melissa Blaustein | I just have a quick comment, which is, I just wanted to thank Sausalito Bike Return and Stacy, Lieutenant Gregory and the team for just the really quick pivot last year. I mean, we were all kind of taken aback when COVID happened and the ambassadors being downtown, greeting people and reminding them about masks. It was just really just the right touch. and they quickly got these big, giant kind of signs, and they were out there, and they were enthusiastic, and they were welcoming, but they were also really doing a good job. educating people. And so I just wanted to say a big thank you for last year. It was such a weird year, but the flexibility of all involved was really important and helpful. And I really appreciated it at the time. So I just wanted to say thank you. And then I did forget I had one small question, Lieutenant. Um, so are we going to be counting? We'll assess that a bike return, have folks who are counting bikes again. this year. |
| 03:42:49.47 | Lieutenant Gregory | You know, I've thought about that, and if we, I mean, we could, because we have 2019 numbers to compare to. um, So I... |
| 03:42:57.35 | Melissa Blaustein | I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK. THE FAMILY. |
| 03:42:58.30 | Lieutenant Gregory | Thank you. |
| 03:42:58.48 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, it just goes to the vice mayor's question. I've really appreciated over time the data that we have and that it's really helpful to be able to See those May, June, July. numbers and kind of really be able to anticipate what kind of a summer we're having. Um, So if there is any way to, do that at any level. I think it would really be helpful to just kind of, I know we didn't do it last year for obvious reasons, I think it would be great to get on track if we could. |
| 03:43:31.12 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. Anybody want to make a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the Third Amendment to the Sausalito Bicycle Congestion Management Agreement. And to give the chief of police, sorry, I'm looking for the... 30. to report back. as needed. in order to manage the contract and report back as needed. |
| 03:43:57.76 | Janelle Kellman | like, you know, |
| 03:43:57.97 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Okay, Madam Clerk, could you please |
| 03:44:02.03 | Heidi Scoble | on the roll. Council Member Stavieski? |
| 03:44:05.90 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 03:44:07.52 | Heidi Scoble | Council member |
| 03:44:08.04 | Heidi Scoble | I'm not asking. |
| 03:44:08.50 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:44:09.29 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 03:44:10.79 | Heidi Scoble | and some of the reclubinals. |
| 03:44:12.02 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:44:12.51 | Heidi Scoble | us. |
| 03:44:12.83 | Heidi Scoble | you Vice Mayor Kellman. |
| 03:44:14.81 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:44:15.30 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 03:44:16.56 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:44:16.58 | Janelle Kellman | I'm not sure. |
| 03:44:17.10 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:44:17.20 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:44:17.84 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:44:17.86 | Janelle Kellman | Yes, motion passes 5-0 and moving on to our next Item on our, thank you very much, Lieutenant Gregory. and South Salute Bike Return. Moving on to our next item, which is item 7E. this is a discussion for continued services with urban alchemy at our tent encampment and so before a bonker. |
| 03:44:43.90 | Unknown | All right, thank you. |
| 03:44:44.03 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:44:44.96 | Unknown | Thank you Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members. So tonight I want to ask you for some discussion and some guidance about going forward. with retaining services of Urban Alchemy. And I'll provide some background as I go along here. I'm not sure. to help with the discussion. What's driving this in part is that We have, um, already met the limit of what we're able to spend I'm Engaging the council and further approvals. I'm not sure. So going forward and then deciding about the level of service and what the scope of work might look like is something that I want to. you know, ask your feedback on So I'm just going to go over some other kind of notes that aren't in the staff report just to give you some background about what urban academy does for us. If you're not familiar with them, they started their operations back in 2018 and we learned about urban alchemy from at least i did anyways from councilmember blaustein and mayor hoffman and we were having our discussions are related to our encampment. And then I got to meet the people who run that and learn that they operate a significant amount of operations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. most applicable to what they do in San Francisco as it relates to us is their experience in the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Park Stop program, and also their Safe Sleeping Village program gives them some background experience to help us manage our account management. We first used them in February just for a five-day period. to get to know each other It was a holiday weekend. We had some things going on, and we wanted some people in the camp to help us. That cost us $1,800. I was able to execute that agreement on my own. It fell within my spending authority and I was, I have to say I was very pleased working with them. They were very responsive. I really like their attitude and their demeanor. and treating our Kempers with respect, which was important to us. A second contract started in March, March 26th, and we I'm not sure. anticipated that we would end that contract on May 15th, thinking that we might get to council before that. to talk about an extension. When we passed up that deadline for the May 11th meeting, I asked if we could, I talked to Marsha and asked about extending the contract till tonight or to today. So we're, today's the last day of the contract. We spent about $20,000 on the second contract and then a few thousand more when we extended it to today. So just to give you some idea about what they're doing for us, in summary, they're just managing the encampment for us. It's not really... a job or the place for the police department to do that. You know, we accept that the campers don't necessarily trust us. We, despite our best efforts, there's just some things that we're not going to be able to change. but they do have a trust relationship between Urban Alchemy staff and the members of our encampment. And so some statistics they run for us and help us to understand what's going on. And I'll be clear right up front, we never ask anybody for any names. I don't really care. about the names. I'm looking forward to tracking anybody. That's not what we do. There's other people that do that with social services. But I would like to sense all the time about who's in our camp. And so at the last update, the one before this contract expired tonight, is the last count for tents was 44 tents in the encampment. They moved around quite a bit. I'm not sure. And we learned from them, of course, in some of those tents are used for storage. So it doesn't necessarily mean that there's 44 people, in the camp just because there's 44 tents. because they need some place to put their things. In fact, the last count of people was 31. This is from Urban Alchemy, counting 31 people in the encampment And that included four children, I heard tonight, from Sybil that, I think it was Sybil or Ava maybe, Ava Karsanti said that two of those children and the mom might have already moved out. Liking how that sounds, that's really great news for us to hear that and the children and the mom would cut down some other housing THE END OF THE END OF THE But we know of the 31, there was 12 women and 15 men. 30% of those people were considered elderly. We're counting that as 65 and older. on approximately 12 of the occupants They possess skiffs, kayaks, small boats, denguees, and they split their time between our camp and then their boats out in Richardson Bay Anchorage If you look over at our shoreline, you'll see that the shoreline is littered with the small boats. are clearly visible all around the north and east side of the shoreline for the camp. and they just go back and forth. I think it's a very good thing. The Urban Alchemy staff tells us that there's a transient nature to the encampment. live kind of thing. There's no such thing as one day is the same as the next. People come and go. And of course, there's almost impossible to count the visitors because there are so many people come to visit, including members of the community who are trying to help support the needs of the people in the encampment. At our request, the Urban Alchemy staff puts a high priority on helping the encampment members keep the encampment clean. We heard from Judge Chen in the Hearings that the health and safety of the camp was very important, especially during the pandemic. Um, The stock removed a significant amount of trash abandoned tents, another debris from the council, They organize work parties with the people in the encampment and They're using now the dumpster debris block service that we provide. We started out with just one day a week and now it's being picked up three days a week. just to help keep the camp clean. I'm not sure. In addition, the people from Urban Alchemy bring THE FAMILY IS personal protective equipment to the camp members, as well as disinfecting the portable toilets twice each day when they are in camp. and they bring drinking water, tarps, socks, beanies, things to keep people warm when it was cold. I'm not sure. And then of course back in the late part of April, we had a fire in one of the tents. One of the two people were burned, one more badly than the other. The Herbal Alchemy was in camp the next day helping with removing burnt property and disposing of a lot of the damaged materials. So that's just a little snapshot of the kind of things they do for us. And I know that might help answer some of the questions, but I'm here to and so others that you might have. So I asked Urban Alchemy to provide some options about getting us through either July 1st meaning just to finish this fiscal year. or to look ahead for the first six months of the next procedure taking us through January 1st, and we asked for some three-day week options or five-day week options. Those are in your SOP report. and So those are the numbers and the information for you to consider. We have not yet agreed on a scope of work. It wouldn't be exactly the same as it is now because they've made a lot of progress in their first two contracts with us. Some of the things might stay the same, but we would probably make some modifications going forward. but While some of it may seem repetitive, and again, it's important to note that The encampment is very much a live type of place, and so where it may seem that they have identified what they need to identify in the first week And in fact, they do that every day because of the... the complexion of the camp changes. So there'll be some of the same things in the scope of work, but I did not on purpose bring a scope of work to you other than the one that's already in the, other contracts in case you have something that you were looking for, or wanted to talk about or ask me questions And then at the end of all this discussion, I'm hoping that you will authorize the city manager to carry forward and sign a contract with Urban Alchemy either at least through the end of this fiscal year or the second level is to go into all the way through January 1st. So that's my representation. I did have a slide. It would be difficult for me to find it at this moment and try and put it up, but I wanted you to see some pictures of the urban alchemy folks that are doing the work and I get included in in the materials for the meeting that just If you end up on the screen, it would probably take longer than we have left tonight. So I'm gonna give up on that. and So that's the end of my initial presentation, but standing by here to... answer questions if you have any. |
| 03:54:44.19 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thanks chief. Thanks for all your hard work. always right but also in reacting and helping us manage this dynamic situation so I can't thank you enough for all of your effort and leadership on this. So I see three hands up. And so we'll just start on my screen, left to right. Council member Sobieski and then vice mayor and then council member Cleveland Knowles. So. |
| 03:55:13.05 | Ian Sobieski | Right. Cut in line, I was third. |
| 03:55:15.11 | Janelle Kellman | Oh, okay. Council Member Cleaver-Knowles gets to go first. Okay, I'm sorry. I was just reading on my screen. So go ahead, Council Member Cleaver-Knowles. |
| 03:55:18.47 | Janelle Kellman | I'm sorry. |
| 03:55:22.75 | Janelle Kellman | That's fine. It's OK. Thank you. |
| 03:55:25.49 | Melissa Blaustein | so anybody can cut in front so uh chief for backer thank you yes and agreed thank you for all your hard work so we did get some public comment written public comment on this item I was wondering if you could just explain whether it's within the scope of urban alchemy's job description to help individuals look for and obtain housing or if that's really within the purview of the county. |
| 03:55:53.67 | Unknown | Thank you for actually reminding me to talk about that. I did see that comment in the materials for tonight's meeting. We specifically asked them not to. They're from San Francisco. They don't have the same access to the information about local Marin County services at the level that they do in San Francisco, where they do the bulk of their business. And so in our early conversations, I told them that I'm not looking for them to place anybody anywhere. We get two days a week of outreach services from the County of Marin through Health and Human Services and Downtown Street Steam. And so there was no need to ask urban academy to get involved in that. That's not their job. That's not what we've asked them to do. So it's not in their scope of work. by design. |
| 03:56:44.29 | Melissa Blaustein | Great, thank you. And then the second question that I had is, you listed some really helpful information that they have been able to gather sort of statistics about age, family status, whether they have boats, etc. I'm not sure. So do you have kind of a list of things that are helpful both to you in doing your job and perhaps to the council and to the county? um, kind of characteristics or things that are helpful pieces of information or does urban alchemy develop those lists. |
| 03:57:25.50 | Unknown | So we actually asked them to help us is look for what we needed to know because this was all new to us and we were happy to rely on them for some guidance. They're very experienced at doing this. But we told them that we wanted a better understanding of who was in camp. and it would help us guide our services and then to help work with the other agencies in there, As I now and Frank Gregory both, we participate in several different types of of you know, unsheltered care service meetings with Health and Human Services, and whether it's strictly encampments or whether it's the unsheltered in general throughout Marin, Because unfortunately we have the dubious distinction of having the see the largest camp. in the county, but it's our only camp, as opposed to some cities like Nevada and Santa Fe, who have several camps, just none of them quite this size. And so we share our experiences and looking to see what each other does. It's working, it's very troubling and challenging. and so having information to bring to that conversation is important. and we get that from Urban Alchemy, one of the things that they do so well is relate to the people in the encampment and gain their trust enough to have the conversation By the way, it's no secret that they're there. The pictures that I included showed them in their work clothes. They have like perfected vests and high visibility clothes on. |
| 03:58:58.42 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:58:58.43 | Ian Sobieski | THE END OF |
| 03:59:08.24 | Unknown | You know, they're not, They're not spies. And that's not what this is about. It's not what we wanted. And we told them in the beginning that they were to please say right up front that the city of Sausalito is paying the tab to have them there. And that, you know, And then of course, that people living in the encampment weren't going to trust them on day one. That takes time. And so over time, that The two fellows that worked there, Michael and Joseph, they've done a phenomenal job of you know, making themselves THE FEDERAL. I'm not sure. you know, welcome and valuable to the people in the account And then at the same time, gathered information for us that is very helpful. show It's actually works out for each other that we have done it that way. with no prior experience at it. |
| 04:00:02.42 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, and then I just had a small question about your recommendation for tonight. Is it your recommend, so there's two choices. end of this fiscal year, which would be June 30th, or the end of the calendar year. And then secondly, kind of a two day a week versus a five day a week option. I think you said your recommendation was five days a week. Is that correct? Thank you. |
| 04:00:25.86 | Unknown | Well, Actually, I'm just looking at my sheets and I'm thinking that's not the case. So they helped us with the recommendation, but I asked them to give us some examples because I want it to be, I'm just cognizant of what we were just talking about an hour ago with Charlie, giving that budget information and where we are with the budget and what can we afford and whatnot and so not wanting to presume anything I asked Urban Alchemy to give us some pricing for, just to take us through the end of this fiscal year. both a three-day option, which is what they're doing now, or a five-day option if we thought that we needed more. and then if things look okay money-wise to give us an option for going beyond June 30th and taking us all the way through the end of the calendar year. But again, it's either a three day an auction or a five and If I recall, we thought that the three-day the longer term, three day would be better. but, um, If we had to, we would, with the first shorter one three days, But like I said at the beginning, Councilmember Cleveland Mills, we're no longer able to spend any more money without council approval. And so I wanted to be real clear about the options so the council could make an informed decision about which way they want to go. |
| 04:01:48.97 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, great. Thank you. I'm sorry. to take up so much of our time here. |
| 04:01:53.41 | Janelle Kellman | but they're great questions and I'll follow them quickly, Mayor Hoffman. So I was going to ask you about whether this is duplicative with the downtown streets team. And I think you've mentioned that, Just maybe to the working group, I noticed that we've moved to weekly updates or I guess once a week. So if we do spend, you know, taxpayer dollars on this as we move further down the road, I think it would be great to get some type of regular cadence of updates from Urban Alchemy that we can share with the public. I get a lot of questions around exactly what the chief shared with us. How many people are there? How many tents? You know, what's the current composition? Do you know their names? Are you familiar? And I think it would go a long way to really showing that the city's doing everything it can to, to care for the folks in the encampment as well as our community. So that would be a suggestion, I guess, for scope. And then for the chief, three questions really quickly. So I understand they have some open fires for food cooking. How is Urban Alchemy working within the encampment to make sure that we as a community are both safe, but then also adhering to food and safety regulations? |
| 04:03:01.30 | Unknown | So the fires are troubling. The fire that started in the tent where the two fellows were burned was actually a heater fire, a propane heater fire. and not an open fire from a you know, a wood or some kind of burning fireplace, and it was inside one of the tents. And it was unfortunate because the heater got knocked over, And when it did, then the propane became liquid instead of gas and then created the fire. So very tragic and Not sure that there's anything we can do about that. We do respond to some of the open fires. It's my understanding in our municipal code that we really can't do it. They're not supposed to have any open fires. That doesn't mean that we're going to be able to stop them each time. But when we get a call for service or we see one, we'll go into the encampment and check it out. uh, But they used the fires before also to keep warm and not just to cook food, They have a lot of other devices for cooking food. And so it was probably a combination of different things. The fire department's come down there with us a couple of times on response to fires. I don't have the details on that. I know they've been there. when people have called about fires in the camp. I think the experience in San Francisco is that the fires are highly feared. when one happens, it's usually pretty awful. And so we don't want to see that happen to anybody. and we're not looking for the encampment to burn down. |
| 04:04:33.65 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, yeah, it'd be good to understand how Urban Alchemy can maybe facilitate that safety issue ensure everybody's safety down there. Then I'll just merge my last two questions, which is really about growth of the encampment. So I received from a constituent today a an email that Robbie Paulson is sending around about creating an art festival within the encampment and inviting other folks from throughout, I guess, the Bay Area, to come to the encampment and participate in some type of art festival. And there's so many permitting type scenarios that come to mind, purely from having an event, notwithstanding the fact this is a unique situation. How can Urban Alchemy help us address that, both in, again, making sure that we are adhering to our own municipal code that requires permits events over certain sizes and also sort of managing the size and growth of the encampment |
| 04:05:26.67 | Unknown | Sure. I'm not so sure that they can. I know that we would look at that ourselves. Not so sure that we'd ask Urban Alckminy to do that for us. They might help us deliver the message. But I would say that the folks in the encampment have already had some of their own art shows. There's people in the encampment that like to paint. And They've had that on some Sunday mornings. you know, small, Nothing has ever come to our attention as a problem. Not that necessarily we're encouraging it, but it's not been a problem with gatherings THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE But there are people that I like to paint on and then share that. with each other. I don't know whether there's a lot to be worried about attracting a big you know, art festival, Typer, response. Again, we don't know, but we would do our best to be prepared for it and have that conversation with best I can say right now, Vice Mayor. |
| 04:06:35.71 | Janelle Kellman | I'll send you the email that I received, but I guess overall what I'm getting at is I'm trying to understand the unique role of Urban Alchemy in addressing some of the really pressing issues that go beyond providing some of the basic services, which I'm so glad that we do provide, but there are other questions that come up for the community and I'm trying to understand the scope of their services and how we could better utilize them given the changing nature and shifting size and sort of composition of the camp. So I don't expect to have an answer, but that's sort of where my questions are coming from. |
| 04:07:06.96 | Unknown | At this point, all ideas are good ideas until we know different. So we're happy to try things out. and maybe that would be something that Urban Outcome could help with this. I'm not sure that we would ask him. |
| 04:07:18.52 | Janelle Kellman | Thanks to you. |
| 04:07:18.86 | Unknown | Thank you. And by the way, you're probably at least several hours ahead of the news. I haven't heard that yet about whatever you just described I'll be here eventually, but you're wired in someplace, so thank you for sharing that. |
| 04:07:34.57 | Janelle Kellman | Go ahead, Council Member Sobieski. |
| 04:07:37.67 | Ian Sobieski | THE FAMILY IS ideas or good ideas. How about this one? If it's three days a week at eight hours a day, Could they do five days a week at five hours a day, and it's roughly the same number of hours? floor coverage. Is that something they'd be willing to do? Is that beneficial to us to have |
| 04:07:56.58 | Unknown | I think it's less beneficial. I think it's better how it is. The nature of the camp is the way that the camp lives in you know, the hours when it wakes up and when the camp goes to sleep and whatever, people And if we had a change in hours, I think the folks from Urban Academy would get less of an opportunity to their thing and to mingle with the people in the camp. So I think that there The eight-hour day is a good working arrangement so far. I don't know that we would benefit from having to be extra days but shorter hours. I don't mind asking them. It's their proposal. They encourage the full data. I think it gets the results that they're looking for. But. I don't know. |
| 04:08:46.68 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. Councilman Sobieski, was that it or? |
| 04:08:50.24 | Ian Sobieski | That's it. |
| 04:08:51.72 | Janelle Kellman | So one of the things chief, I think, you know, we were trying to figure out solutions and we're still trying to figure out solutions, right? For this, but, One of the things I think, that maybe urban alchemy brings is, a non-threatening kind of stabilizing impact. And a safety aspect too, without having the confrontation issues that you might have with police officers or uniformed officers there. So do you feel like that's also a benefit from Urban Alchemy other than the work that they're doing? |
| 04:09:26.35 | Unknown | It is absolutely probably their number one best trait. is that they go in just as who they are. and they're completely neutral. I'M GOING TO BE ABLE TO Like I said, they are instructed by me to freely say who's paying them to be there. but what their mission is. That's why I told them, please don't ask people a lot of personal information about their names and different things like that because it sounds too intrusive. I don't really need to know it. It's not that critical. other people can learn that when they need to, but I'd like to know more about the camp. time period. You know, we noticed how much the camp has moved. onto the private property adjacent to the city property. The majority of the tenants are no longer on city property at all. and And at Urban Alckmin, you know, when we try to look for ourselves about the changing nature of the tents and the rain flies that cover them up when it's wet and they look different and they get structured different. But with urban alchemy crew on the ground there, they are able to in their own way, make a you know, an accounting, of the tents and it's very helpful. to be sure that we know how many people and how many tents were there. I wouldn't ever have that information without him. |
| 04:10:51.15 | Janelle Kellman | So I think also it seems that for some of them more vulnerable people in the campment, It's also a source of stability for them and, A SOURCE OF Would you agree with that? |
| 04:11:05.83 | Unknown | I would agree. Fellas that work in the camp, they're very experienced and they've done a lot of work at San Francisco already and they just have a way about them. THE FAMILY. you know, that they're happy to come in in the morning, bring some coffee, sit down and talk to people. see how things are going. You know, and just establish that rapport and that relationship You know, as you look imagine we would never be able to do that ourselves as law enforcement officers. Just wouldn't really work out that way. You know, an urban alchemy crew can sit and chat for as long as it takes. know to to gain trust and help you know, but at the same time not violate any confidence because we don't really want them to. Because if they lose trust, then they might as well go back to San Francisco. They would be of no use to us. We have some pretty clear operating guidelines to a bright line over what we would like them to do and what not to do. |
| 04:12:07.59 | Janelle Kellman | Okay? Um, if no further questions, oh yes. |
| 04:12:11.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Go ahead, Councilman Blasting. So could you just speak to one of the reasons that they're so valuable is I think we all know that our The Family Health and Human Services Department does excellent work, but they're very busy. And so they have a limited number of caseworkers and Urban Alchemy is able to it sounds like serve as a bridge. First, the city of Sausalito to get the information that we need to be able to be more effective. one of the main purposes that they serve as well |
| 04:12:40.51 | Unknown | I believe so, and I think in recognition of our city small size and the corresponding small size of just the city staff, we don't have any excess people that could do this job. on our own. Going outside for help is important. You know, maybe some big cities have their own ability to stop things like that. you know and we don't and so finding the right people to do that is a key to the success I'm, and uh... You know, they can be there without having to listen to the police radio for the next call for service and have to leave. and so they're dedicated to I'm, carrying out the things that are understood in our scope of work. |
| 04:13:31.53 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you. All right, so no further questions from the council. We'll move to public comment. I see a couple of hands up. Madam Clerk. |
| 04:13:41.58 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we have Ava Crisanti and Rob Massey. We'll start with Ava. Ava, you've been unmuted. |
| 04:13:50.36 | Ava Crisanti | Thanks so much. I have some concerns about urban alchemy based on cost, but also based on what we've seen with similar entities, like downtown streets teams, downtown streets team, where in the beginning, it seems like a really good idea. And then What we learn later is that many of the practices, um, are exploitative of the workers. And it just seems like In Sausalito, you have a couple of unusual factors. You have Chief Rohrabacher, who is adept at communicating. You have an encampment, which is unique in many, many ways, distinct from other encampments that we've seen in the Bay Area. and you have a potential for collaboration. Um, And you also have the reality that the number of homeless not just in the Bay Area. and not just in California, but across the country, the number of homeless will only be growing. it seems possible that you have a real potential to do something without using these kind of third party groups. And instead of, I know it's hard now since the lawsuit, but maybe there is a greater potential for something more collaborative with the community, the encampment and the city. So I hope you would consider that. |
| 04:15:34.19 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:15:40.92 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Rob Massey. Rob, you've been unmuted. |
| 04:15:45.35 | Rob Massey | Thank you. First of all, thanks incredible amount of dedication to this on such an important matter. So thank you. I dialed in tonight specifically because of the comment made by, I think it was Robbie Polson about inviting many people to salsa lead on it. It sounded like I think the reference was a civil rights movement to our little town. This actually caused a great concern to me and my family. We live here with our small children. So we did feel a little unsafe and perhaps threatened. So with all due respect, Chief, I recommend that you get ahead of this and be proactive, trying to avoid something which could get out of hand quickly. That would be my ask. Thank you. |
| 04:16:32.66 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Okay, I don't see any hands, additional hands raised. Madam Clerk, You confirm that then. |
| 04:16:44.34 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no hands raised at this time. |
| 04:16:47.60 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, then I'll close public comment and we'll move on to our to a potential motion. So chief, It sounds like even though you've given us two options, really at this point, you're just asking for the three days a week. And you're either asking us, THE first ask will be through the end of July, but your preference would be through the end of January. Or sorry, to January 1st, 2022. Have I got that right? |
| 04:17:17.20 | Unknown | My preference is that we carry this through to the end of the calendar year. But if there was a significant amount of financial concern, not knowing about how far along we were going to be in the budget process, was to at least get us through the end of the fiscal year and then if we needed to we could come back I'm not sure. at the end of June and ask for additional funding to carry us through the end of the |
| 04:17:42.97 | Janelle Kellman | OK. All right, so... Does anybody want to discuss this or anybody just want to put a motion? |
| 04:17:51.60 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, I'd like to just say, I have some concerns around the scope. I am not fully understanding the full breadth of the opportunity with Urban Alchemy. I think the work they've done so far has been extremely helpful. But I think, you know, as everybody said tonight, It's a shifting and dynamic situation. And I'm wondering how best to, harnessed their their capabilities to address the things that are changing in real time. And I'd like to have a better sense not just the fact that they're going in and servicing and helping the folks within the encampment, but I think that members of our community would also really benefit from understanding the work that they're doing. So what's the report out looking like? How do we convey the information that they're gleaning to the extent we can in light of the lawsuit. So I'm only, it's not a, an intention to not support this tonight. It's just, I would really like to see, better understanding, or at least all of us on the same page, about the opportunity here, seemingly in light of some of the statements around growth and you know, the number of folks in the encampment. But personally, I mean, You know I'm a little bit more financially conservative, so I tend to want to start off with a shorter contract. three days a week just to see where we are with budget, knowing we have a lot of other priorities, but I also am open to hearing, you know, what other council members have to say, and especially our working group. |
| 04:19:14.11 | Ian Sobieski | I'm inclined to agree with Janelle on just pretty much everything she just said, intimating in part, I think, I don't know if it's within their scope or not, but actually to convey some of the information that they conveyed through you with your excellent census summary. that's going to be a I don't know if they could do that directly through next door or some sort of communication strategy or if we |
| 04:19:37.38 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 04:19:37.46 | Ian Sobieski | I'm going to flip it back in. |
| 04:19:37.51 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 04:19:39.03 | Ian Sobieski | There's a lot of misinformation about out there that is not contributing to It's just not contributing to the dialogue. And it's great to get facts. out. Um, so I thought some of the data he had tonight chief was just really, uh, solid facts and it'd be nice to convey that so but like like the vice mayor said i'd be inclined since it's a dynamic changing situation to just do it for the minimum and then reassess and then reassess. |
| 04:20:11.31 | Melissa Blaustein | So, When we brought in Urban Alchemy, I had been looking for someone who could advocate for the people in the encampment and find out what their needs were and make sure that they could get access to services. Some of the other models in Marin County and beyond provide either an additional caseworker beyond county services. So in Santa Fe they have a person who works full time visiting the encampments. Or in San Francisco they have a system where they have essentially problem solver who after the initial what we would know as the vi spdat assessment follows through on checking in on people to see if all possible opportunities for housing and i really had wanted to see a dedicated hire that would focus on this or someone that could work on mental health outreach but urban alchemy right now is acting as a bridge for us and what i really appreciate about Urban Alchemy is that they treat the people in the encampment with dignity and with respect, and they make them feel like they care about their wellbeing. And I think that that's one of the most valuable parts about them is that they have established trust. And in order for us to have any sort of resolution to the situation in the encampment, I think that having some line to trust and knowing what's going on is really valuable and important and And I would agree and echo that it's really critical that the information that they're sharing out, we could do a better job of getting into the public sphere, whether that's through Currents or Nextdoor or otherwise. And I know that they're really good people at Urban Alchemy who would be willing to work with us on the scope. And. I'm also wary of a long-term commitment given our budgeting situation because we don't yet know what it looks like so i would support whatever the other council members were comfortable with but i just want to say You know, I know that they are doing good work and providing PPE and checking on safety and cleaning up the site. And a lot of it doesn't look like it's happening, But one of the reasons why when you walk around Denphe had still nice um in the main areas is because urban alchemy is you know there and checking on things so i i appreciate what they're bringing forth and i would support whatever other council members are comfortable with in terms of contract |
| 04:22:25.89 | Melissa Blaustein | Bye. Thank you to everybody. I would just want to weigh in. I think that we're heading in a direction of three days a week through the end of the fiscal year. I think it was really helpful you know, this whole conversation tonight and the presentation by the chief has been very helpful to me and kind of, enhancing my understanding of both what urban alchemy is doing and what the on the ground situation is. also thought some of the thoughts that council member boston just shared about other models are kind of interesting and we might want to consider given what our available resources are as we head into budget. what the most effective next strategy is. So I'm most comfortable with the shorter term with the understanding that we will continue to do something |
| 04:23:03.24 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 04:23:13.70 | Melissa Blaustein | given whatever our budget constraints and kind of highest needs are as recommended by the chief and others. |
| 04:23:21.71 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, well, it looks to me like then we have consensus for three days a week, I'm not sure. three days a week for $16,403. With the idea, I suppose that we're gonna have to come back then before July 1st. So that would be our second June. City Council meeting in June if we want to extend the contract. And I suspect, I suspect that we will. That's the only, caveat that that we'll just have to come back and revisit this in about four weeks so but that's fine |
| 04:23:59.65 | Melissa Blaustein | We'll be right back. |
| 04:23:59.70 | Janelle Kellman | Mayor, |
| 04:24:00.04 | Melissa Blaustein | Would it make more sense to go through the end of July? Um, just I think everything else we have on our plate. |
| 04:24:08.91 | Janelle Kellman | it makes sense to go through the end of September because we go through the end of July and we don't have a city council meeting again until, you know, |
| 04:24:11.27 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm going to go through the |
| 04:24:15.66 | Janelle Kellman | until August 31st, right? |
| 04:24:17.75 | Melissa Blaustein | 31st, right? I'm on an August 31st, I think. Thank you. |
| 04:24:21.72 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 04:24:21.82 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 04:24:22.18 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:24:22.26 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you, Mike. |
| 04:24:22.30 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Well, we have, yes, our interim city manager is giving his words of wisdom, go ahead. |
| 04:24:24.27 | Melissa Blaustein | but we have one. |
| 04:24:24.73 | Marsha Raines | Thank you. |
| 04:24:24.76 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:24:29.03 | Marsha Raines | Thank you. |
| 04:24:29.05 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. |
| 04:24:29.43 | Marsha Raines | I'm trying. One of the things you might consider is to put this in the pile of items to consider during budgeting. You do have a June 22 budget adoption slated so you would be able to at that point take the city manager's recommended budget and make council modifications, including this and other pieces. |
| 04:24:51.13 | Janelle Kellman | Oh, that's fine as well. |
| 04:24:52.79 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:24:52.81 | Janelle Kellman | you It's... |
| 04:24:53.19 | Melissa Blaustein | But, |
| 04:24:53.41 | Janelle Kellman | I, |
| 04:24:53.99 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. I, you know, personally, I'm kind of interested in having a longer discussion about this particular issue, the data that we're getting, kind of our other issues around the encampment. I mean, I'll defer to the rest of the group, but I'd kind of prefer to keep it, to have it go out a little bit further so we don't have to rush this into this fiscal year. So if that's the end of July or the end of August or the 15th of September, whatever date. and then have a little bit longer discussion at some point when we have Thank you. |
| 04:25:26.59 | Ian Sobieski | than actually because of what you just said about needing to renew, we'd actually consider it at the last July meeting. We wouldn't have to wait till |
| 04:25:26.72 | Melissa Blaustein | the end is really. |
| 04:25:36.83 | Ian Sobieski | September because the contract would expire at the end of July so we would THE EXTENSION AT THE END OF . July, correct? |
| 04:25:45.13 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, we actually have a city council meeting August 31st. So. I You know, to me it makes sense. I can't imagine that we're not going to need them. for the next three months. I don't know. I mean, when you guys wanna do it to the end of July, that's fine. If you wanna do it to the end of August, I think that kind of makes more sense. I think we'll be in a better position. but uh, The ideas, you know, we talked about messaging, especially with the city council members and with, things that the public can understand and we can put out for public consumption. I think that's absolutely doable and that we should do that. So that's a good, Sometimes council member Blasey and I have get immersed in what we're doing and we forget to keep the information flow going to the rest of the council. So I take that to heart and try to do better on that. |
| 04:26:34.43 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. No. |
| 04:26:38.32 | Janelle Kellman | Without it? |
| 04:26:38.34 | Janelle Kellman | I can support this to the end of August, just to give us some projection on it. But I think maybe to borrow a phrase from Councilman Blossett, in this began as a bridge to the folks within the encampment and our community. And I think now let's work on both sides of that bridge. And I think it will go a long way and work with Urban Alchemy to help figure out what part of their, capabilities can help us do that. And whether it's reporting out on statistics, whether it's helping us to manage growth or other dynamics within the camp, if as long as we can continue to explore that, I would be open to a longer, allocation. |
| 04:27:18.39 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, I think that's reasonable. Chief, you think that's reasonable? |
| 04:27:26.06 | Unknown | I think that would work out fine. |
| 04:27:28.56 | Janelle Kellman | Mm-hmm. So why don't we, anybody wanna make a motion for out to August 31st then? |
| 04:27:36.39 | Janelle Kellman | Sure, I'll make the motion that we extend the contract with Urban Alchemy out to August 31st. And this would include a three day a week contract. |
| 04:27:45.47 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Okay. |
| 04:27:48.03 | Heidi Scoble | can you please take the roll? Councilor Marsoviecki. Thank you. |
| 04:27:52.34 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 04:27:53.81 | Heidi Scoble | I'm sorry. |
| 04:27:54.02 | Heidi Scoble | Member Blastie? Councilmember Clevel-Norse? Thank you. |
| 04:27:58.41 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:27:59.44 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Kelman. |
| 04:28:00.59 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. |
| 04:28:01.42 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Hoffman. |
| 04:28:02.56 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. Okay, very good, passes. Five-0 and Chief. thank you so much for all your hard work and to the rest of you and the Sausley police department |
| 04:28:11.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:28:12.66 | Janelle Kellman | the solution. Okay, moving along to item eight. city manager reports, city council appointments and other council business. I'm going to take public comment on all of the items under, Eight, which is city manager updates, appointments to boards and committees which we don't have any and then future agenda items so we're going to take public comment on all those things right now. |
| 04:28:45.86 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 04:28:45.88 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:28:45.90 | Heidi Scoble | Bye. |
| 04:28:45.95 | Janelle Kellman | Bye. |
| 04:28:45.97 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, there are no hands raised at this time. |
| 04:28:48.92 | Janelle Kellman | very well then I will close public comment and Madam interim city manager, Right. |
| 04:28:56.97 | Marsha Raines | You had a floor? Thank you. I wanted to take a short opportunity to say, short moment to say congratulations on moving the organization forward with the appointment of your next city manager as we transition. to Mr. Zapata's assignment. He has been invited and is planning to join the department heads tomorrow. All of your managers will be there. We are doing some training with Bay Cities Insurance. long overdue. Chris, I'm sure will take the opportunity to meet and greet those of the team he has not had the opportunity to meet We do look forward to meeting him. meeting with him, Um, It will be. his first time interfacing with us and I'm sure some of the items that he's discussed with you during the interview process such as his SWAT approach to the department heads will be part of the discussion At the same time, this will likely be the last council meeting that I will be the in charge. unless you do one of your 19th it'll be special meetings that have occurred since my arrival in in the first of the year So I don't foresee any of those on the future plan between now and June 7th, which is his planned arrival date. you'll know that that's the date before your next meeting. So he will be in charge for June 8th, although I'll take the responsibility of pulling together all of the agenda and the distribution of that. So we want to take the opportunity to say thank you to the five of you for all of your support. Thank you for the welcoming community that I've had the experience to enjoy. It has been a fabulous opportunity. I'm not going away quickly. I will be available through Chris's transition, but you'll start to see me fade away. a little bit more than I have been visible. I do reiterate that this is a gorgeous community. You have an amazingly loyal and hardworking staff and a talented group of professional department heads. So, Please, please, please be good to them. They've earned it. Thank you. |
| 04:31:03.63 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you and agree. concur okay so moving on then to Our next item, which is appointments to boards and commissions, we don't have any of that tonight. So we're gonna skip over that, thank goodness. |
| 04:31:17.37 | Melissa Blaustein | that are still on here that the housing element committee applications are available and please consider applying. OK. |
| 04:31:26.97 | Janelle Kellman | So thank you for that. So housing element application committees and how do they access those and what's the window for the application? Thank you. |
| 04:31:33.87 | Janelle Kellman | Period. It is on the city's website. If you Google Saucelot housing element, you'll come to a website. hosted by the city servers that explain the housing element and There's a link on how to apply. And, Councilmember Cleveland, do you remember the deadline for the application? |
| 04:31:48.03 | Melissa Blaustein | at the end of the month. I don't, our clerk may know, but I have not, I don't have that information at my fingertips, but. I agree with you, it's right on our website. |
| 04:31:59.29 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 04:32:00.16 | Melissa Blaustein | All right, thank you. Okay, future agenda items. So I have a couple things, but before I do, I did just want to, I mean, I don't want to have long Yeah, the hour is late, but I did just want to thank Marcia so much for stepping in, for her professionalism, for her. |
| 04:32:16.68 | CG Ware | THE FAMILY. |
| 04:32:23.64 | Melissa Blaustein | work ethic and for her, especially, I think most of all to her attention to our staff and her respect. for them and, um, for the work that they do. So I just... Hopefully we'll have the chance to say some more formal goodbyes, but I just really have so appreciated working with her and having her. THE FAMILY. Thank you. in the organization in the interim. So for future agenda items, so I know council member sobieski has brought this up several times but we've been I think awaiting an EDAC presentation that he has notified us of Um, I would. I think we got the answer on the Golden Gate Ferry, but if that date slips, I would really like to ask the Golden Gate Ferry leadership to come to a city council meeting. I'm not sure. so that we can talk about what the actual date will be. Hopefully the date that we were given earlier is correct. I'm not sure. I have asked a couple of times to get an in-depth update on the sea level rise committee and the scope of that work and how it intersects with the general plan, with our climate action plan and with other things. I would really like to have that on the agenda so that the rest of us can to hear how that is. Um, going forward, I would like to actually agendize the benchmarking discussion at a time that we can actually talk about it as opposed to in committee reports so if that's part of our next budget discussion or some other place, I think that might be helpful. Um, And then lastly, Mayor Huffman, you mentioned at the very outset of the meeting, that we are moving forward with a fireworks display And I know we had had a full staff report on that and I think one of the biggest concerns that I had is that no other jurisdiction in the Bay Area is holding. such an event and that there were concerns that it was not in compliance with current health orders, obviously those health orders could change. But if we are indeed the only community. I am very concerned about our ability to even without COVID health issues. to address traffic and congestion And, you know, we have narrow inlets and outlets, So, you know, I wasn't aware that that decision had been made. I don't know why we didn't. continued the discussion of that at the meeting where we had but I do have some concerns. and just wanted to hear more about that at some point. |
| 04:35:12.42 | Janelle Kellman | No, thank you for bringing that up. of course we will comply with all whatever health directives are at. if there's any type of order, obviously, that not to go forward with something like that from the public, you know, Renn County Health or anybody else, of course we wouldn't do it. And we would just save the money to next year. Um, I'll check on that. They asked that. My understanding was that the other communities were doing fireworks. I'll look into that as well. Mary looks like she's popping in. Mary, did you have something to add? |
| 04:35:49.73 | Mary Wagner | Just to see if we were talking about agendizing this for a future discussion, which I guess would be at your June 8th meeting, if that's what council member Cleveland Knowles was requesting. |
| 04:36:00.43 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, I'm not sure that's what she's requesting. I think she's wondering about what other communities were doing. Do you think, are you saying that you want to agendize it |
| 04:36:11.57 | Mary Wagner | It's not on your agenda tonight. |
| 04:36:13.07 | Janelle Kellman | It's not. right oh I gotcha okay I see what you're saying Mary okay so we'll consider that for future agenda Let me look. |
| 04:36:19.99 | Melissa Blaustein | you |
| 04:36:20.26 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:36:20.46 | Melissa Blaustein | The staff report that we got, just to be clear, said that no other |
| 04:36:20.61 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:36:25.15 | Melissa Blaustein | there were no other known communities in the Bay Area that were holding fireworks this way. San Francisco was a no. Moran was still deciding if that's still true. I would like to agendize it for our next meeting before we commit. so that we can understand from the chief and others. What? if we are equipped. to handle a very, very large crowd of people who are dying to get out to do something on the 4th of July. understandably dying to get out to do something on the 4th of July. |
| 04:36:56.22 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. Well, let me, I'll look into it and we'll talk about it as in the setting. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, anybody else? Future agenda items, going once, going twice? |
| 04:37:06.95 | Ian Sobieski | We just, I know, I didn't invite I think our agenda was, hoping our agenda was light tonight. The mayor asked the EDAC chair. |
| 04:37:15.86 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah. |
| 04:37:16.82 | Ian Sobieski | to attend, unfortunately, just timing wise, it was too short notice for into a town, but hopefully he can come next time. So that would be great if we could sneak him in. |
| 04:37:26.65 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, let me look at the agenda. I was under the false impression that we had a light agenda tonight. So yeah, thank goodness he couldn't make it. |
| 04:37:33.85 | Ian Sobieski | That's not given by committee report. |
| 04:37:35.91 | Janelle Kellman | I was trying to get them in. I was, and I am committed to still trying to get them in. So, okay, we'll look at both of those at our agenda setting and see what our agenda looks like next time. |
| 04:37:45.31 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:37:45.76 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:37:45.80 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. |
| 04:37:46.57 | Elizabeth O'Donnell | I'm Leslie. |
| 04:37:47.17 | Melissa Blaustein | of the agenda, just, I want to reconsider or look at parklets. I've had some conversations with, business owners on Caledonia and in other locations who are concerned about the June state closure and what that might mean for the parklets and so it would be nice to have a report out from from DPW or parking rec on that and agenda set. It is on the agenda for June 8th. |
| 04:38:07.55 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:38:08.07 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:38:08.09 | Melissa Blaustein | Great, thank you. Is that going to the legislation committee first or no? |
| 04:38:09.81 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:38:09.86 | Heidi Scoble | There you go. |
| 04:38:15.16 | Janelle Kellman | Maybe Marsha can tell us what exactly will be brought to us on June. |
| 04:38:22.18 | Janelle Kellman | there. |
| 04:38:23.06 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:38:23.11 | Janelle Kellman | Miro. |
| 04:38:23.51 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Marcia, you're on mute. All the good parts, yeah. |
| 04:38:28.61 | Marsha Raines | Thank you. There you go. I apologize. So I could use the city attorney's help here, but everything that has been approved. under the COVID regulations adopted by the prior council, um, is for discussion on the June 8th meeting. What to do with the term parklets, what to do with the design, what to do with any possible long-term I, reconfiguration of access how to make sure the community, the business community, and the residential community understand Um, COVID regulations that were put in place are for both restaurants and retail so just a discussion of where we are as a community is what is planned for June 8th Mary, are you able to shed more light on this? I don't know where Mary is. |
| 04:39:20.99 | Wendy Richards | I'm happy. |
| 04:39:21.40 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 04:39:21.90 | Marsha Raines | Thank you. |
| 04:39:21.92 | Mary Wagner | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 04:39:22.22 | Marsha Raines | Thank you. |
| 04:39:22.31 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. Sure. I think that your interim city manager hit it on the head. You have the idea is to bring forward an item that explains that your temporary COVID-19 permits don't expire automatically on June 15th, even if the governor releases state restrictions, it's up to the council to determine when those permits will be either extended or terminated. If the council would like us to, we could certainly meet with the legislative committee or with your COVID-19 working group in advance of the city council meeting on the 8th, to have an in-depth discussion about if that would be helpful. We don't have a lot of time given we're already at Wednesday. And next week's a short week for staff. |
| 04:40:11.31 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, that's fine. I just, I thought before when we had talked about it, it was going to go to a committee first and then, but if it's on June 8th, that's great. |
| 04:40:23.51 | Janelle Kellman | All right, any other agenda items? If not, we will adjourn. Very good. We're joining. |
| 04:40:28.69 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:40:28.71 | Ian Sobieski | FORGET. |
| 04:40:29.64 | Janelle Kellman | Good meeting. Excellent. Good night, everybody. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Marsha. |
| 04:40:31.73 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:40:31.75 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 04:40:32.03 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 04:40:32.30 | Ian Sobieski | Thanks, everybody. Thanks, John. Thank you. |
| 04:40:33.87 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:40:34.04 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 04:40:35.07 | Janelle Kellman | Thanks everybody from the staff for staying up late and doing all this incredible work. So I appreciate it. |
| 04:40:35.34 | Ian Sobieski | I'm going to go. |
| 04:40:39.80 | Janelle Kellman | Well done. Good night, good night. |
| 04:40:42.01 | Sybil Boutilier | Thank you. |