| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:11.29 | Unknown | . you |
| 00:01:00.44 | Kevin McGowan | You're able to hear us? |
| 00:01:02.03 | Heidi Scoble | OK. Madam Mayor, if you would mind, let me start all over again, just to make sure that it goes on the record. Good afternoon, Mayor Hoffman and Council Members. This meeting has been held pursuant to Government Code Section 5-4 953E. And in light of the declared state of emergency, the regular meeting of the City Council for October 12, 2021 will be conducted telephonically through Zoom and broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:01:34.51 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Mr. Clerk, and could you please call the roll? |
| 00:01:40.07 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Sobieski. year. Council Member Blavstein. |
| 00:01:44.20 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:01:44.22 | Jill Hoffman | here. |
| 00:01:44.98 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Clivelet-Knolls. |
| 00:01:46.73 | Jill Hoffman | Take care. |
| 00:01:47.51 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Kelman. |
| 00:01:48.89 | Jill Hoffman | Here. |
| 00:01:49.52 | Heidi Scoble | and Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:01:50.95 | Jill Hoffman | Here, thank you, that's unanimous that we have a quorum and we have all members are present. Our first item of business is I'm not sure. a resolution, the potential of a resolution authorizing teleconference meetings in compliance with AB 361. to continue to allow members of the public to safely participate in local government meetings. We're going to have a super quick presentation by our city attorney and then a potential then public comment and then discussion and action by the city council. So go ahead. |
| 00:02:24.29 | Mary Wagner | Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council, as indicated, this is an item |
| 00:02:24.35 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:02:29.21 | Mary Wagner | to approve utilizing the teleconferencing rules that are now authorized under the Brown Act under AB 361. As you're well aware, you've been operating under these teleconferencing rules since March of 2020, under the executive order that was in place until the end of September. The Legislature recently passed and the governor signed into law AB 361, which amended the Brown Act to add a new provision that sunsets in a few years. to provide that you can use those same teleconferencing rules during a gubernatorially declared state of emergency. and upon a finding that the need to continue to meet via teleconferencing is necessary to protect the health of all attendees and also if there are social distancing requirements being imposed. So the item before you tonight is to make the findings that are required to meet under AB 361. And as you know, this is drafted, so it applies to all your boards, commissions, and committees also. that you as the city council who creates those boards, commissions and committees are taking that action on their behalf. We did have the groups that met last week before you met make these same findings so that they could take advantage of the teleconferencing. |
| 00:03:34.70 | Charles Melton | We've been working on a lot. |
| 00:03:42.68 | Mary Wagner | Rules, we will return to you every 30 days as long as the state of emergency is in effect and the findings are continuing so that you can continue to make that determination as you're required to do under the Brown Act. And with that, I would recommend that you take public comment and or ask me any questions, take public comment and then take action on the resolution before you, I know that this is a little unusual to have you take this action before you go into closed session. But because this actually authorizes you to meet utilizing these procedures, we thought it was important to do it right at the top of your agenda. Thank you. |
| 00:04:17.93 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. Do we have any questions from council members? So, you know, hands raised, then we'll move to public comment. |
| 00:04:26.99 | Heidi Scoble | And... |
| 00:04:27.16 | Jill Hoffman | Hold on, wait, council member Cleveland-Dolz, No, okay, thanks. Okay, then moving on to public comment. Sorry. No, it's okay. I don't see any hands raised, do you? |
| 00:04:41.34 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, there are no hands raised at the moment. |
| 00:04:44.19 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, very good. Then I will close public comment and we will move on to discussion or potential action. Does anybody have any discussion? on this matter. |
| 00:04:56.76 | Melissa Blaustein | I don't have any discussion, but if there aren't any other comments on my commotion to approve the resolution and make the findings. |
| 00:05:03.85 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, very well. Anybody want to second? I'll second that. Okay, Mr. Clerk, if you please call the roll. |
| 00:05:11.86 | Heidi Scoble | Council Member Sobieski. Yes. Councilmember Blomstein. |
| 00:05:16.29 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:05:17.20 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:05:18.68 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:05:19.68 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Kelman. |
| 00:05:20.98 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:05:21.35 | Heidi Scoble | you Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:05:22.75 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, motion passes unanimously. And at this point we will move into a closed session. We have two closed session items. Item 2A on our agenda is conference with labor negotiators pursuant to California government code section 5. 54957.6. The agency designated representatives are Charles Sakai and from the law firm of Sloan Sakai. and the employee organization is SEIU local um, one zero two one. the Saucelago Police Association in Management and Confidential group employees. Our second item on closed session today is 2B conference with legal counsel, existing litigation pursuant to California government code section 54956.9 D1. The name of the case is Sausalito Marin County chapter of the California homeless union versus city of Sausalito. Um, United States District Court number 3-TAC 21-CV-01143LB. At this point, I will open public comment on closed session items. |
| 00:06:39.11 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not seeing any hands. |
| 00:06:41.52 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, it looks like we do have someone on a telephone. Would you like me to read how to provide public comment? |
| 00:06:48.41 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:48.59 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Video or audio public comment participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you would like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application, and you will be called up on when it's your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, press start nine, and each speaker will be notified when the time has elapsed. |
| 00:07:10.88 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. |
| 00:07:12.37 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, it does not look like we have any hands raised at the moment. |
| 00:07:12.57 | Jill Hoffman | Amen. |
| 00:07:16.74 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Then I will close public comment on the closed session items and we will adjourn to closed session. open session will begin again at seven o'clock. So look forward to seeing everybody. I'm sorry. |
| 00:07:33.92 | Unknown | . Thank you. And bright and sweet. |
| 00:07:44.92 | Heidi Scoble | Welcome back, Madam Mayor, and we will admit will admit all participants at this point. |
| 00:08:04.53 | Heidi Scoble | and all participants are in, Madam Mayor. |
| 00:08:07.67 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks very much. Welcome to the discussion of the October 12, 2021 Sasslio city council meeting. We took roll before our closed session. at six o'clock and I will announce that we are all present. all members are present, all city council members are present. um we have no um No announcements from closed session. And We're moving on into Item 2B on the agenda, approval of the agenda. At this point, I will move for an amendment to the agenda. and make a motion based on that. And the motion will be that item Um, item four, sorry, excuse me, 5C, which is approval of citywide, it's also a historic context statement. that we remove that from tonight's agenda and move it to the next City Council meeting agenda which will be the 26th the subcommittee I think we need to do just a little bit more work on the proposed and I think it will be ready to go on the 26th. We just didn't have quite enough time to finish our discussion. So with that, I will make a motion for to move the agenda accepting item 5C. Joseph. |
| 00:09:42.25 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm sorry. Thank you. Madam Mayor, can I just ask a question? Thank you. So I had some remaining comments on that item. seeing the revisions. So is it best to just wait for the next review? hearing or is there a way to provide those comments? Maybe this is a question for the city attorney. |
| 00:10:05.47 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, that's a good, that's a very good, that's a good question. Council member Clujanolz. I think... Let's ask the city attorney, because that would be helpful if you had comments based on the, draft historic contract statement that was attached to the agenda. Um, I mean, it would be helpful, I think, to have him before the discussion, but anyway. |
| 00:10:30.16 | Melissa Blaustein | So I'd be happy to provide them to staff or I don't need to do them publicly but I just would like that to be considered so that we are ready to go the next time this comes up |
| 00:10:40.64 | Mary Wagner | Madam Mayor, if I may. Thank you, thank you members of the council. um sure I think if you send those to staff and we identify them as comments received from council member Cleveland Knowles and the staff report that comes back to council that would be... going. Bye. |
| 00:10:56.06 | Jill Hoffman | I think we're going to be right. |
| 00:10:56.37 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:10:56.79 | Jill Hoffman | Perfect. |
| 00:10:57.72 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:10:57.73 | Jill Hoffman | Okay? |
| 00:10:58.48 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:10:58.49 | Jill Hoffman | So that's a... |
| 00:10:58.60 | Mary Wagner | So that's... |
| 00:10:59.89 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, thank you. So that's the direction, there's a motion on the table With regard to the agenda, does anybody want to second it? |
| 00:11:08.08 | Melissa Blaustein | Second. |
| 00:11:09.50 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. Mr. Clerk, could you please call the roll? |
| 00:11:13.19 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski. |
| 00:11:14.56 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:11:15.55 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Blavstein. |
| 00:11:17.68 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:11:18.49 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Glyvonne Knowles. |
| 00:11:19.96 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:11:20.82 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Kellman. Thank you. |
| 00:11:22.20 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:11:22.88 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:11:24.55 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, so that motion passes and We will proceed with the agenda. Thank you. And the next thing is, on our agenda is special presentations of mayor's announcements. My biggest announcement tonight is that Halloween is on in Sausalito. I've got a message from, and I'm looking for the email right now. I had a message from the Parks and Rec staff that Halloween is definitely on. Hold on a second. Obviously it's always as tradition dictates, it will be on actual Halloween. We celebrate holidays on the holiday here in Sausalito. I'm gonna say that. So October 31st, There will be a Halloween parade and Trick or Treat Lane, which means, on the tennis courts. Um... That will start at 6 p.m. So Halloween Parade down Caledonia Street and the Trick or Treat Lane starts at 6. There were, As traditionally happens on Halloween as well, there will be a Howl-O-Ween, in other words, H-O-W-L, Oh, wean. costume contest that's very serious here in Sausalito. That is at 6.30 p.m. The categories are best little dog, best big dog, best... best couple or group. of human and dog. Good luck to all who will participate in that. And I think there may even be a trophy for the winner. So exciting news here in Sausalito. Halloween has returned. Okay, so moving on to our next exciting thing on our agenda. It's hard to pass that one up Action minutes of the previous meeting. So, We have regular minutes on our agenda from September 28th. Do we have a motion to approve or are there any corrections? |
| 00:13:34.25 | Melissa Blaustein | I don't have any corrections and I'll make a motion, I do think we need to take public comment, but I'll make a motion to approve. |
| 00:13:40.44 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, okay, that comes, on my script, that comes after the motion to approve. So motion to approve. Thanks. OK, now I'll open up public comment. Um, Anybody, this is the time for public comment. Do you need to reread that search, how to participate in public comment? You did, I know, for closed session. |
| 00:14:00.02 | Heidi Scoble | Sure, Madam Mayor. Video or audio public comment participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you would like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application and you will be called upon when it's your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, please press start 9, and each speaker will be notified when the time has elapsed. |
| 00:14:21.33 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. So open public comment for this item is open. I don't see any hands raised. |
| 00:14:30.33 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct. I see my hands raised at this time. |
| 00:14:33.21 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Okay, thanks. And then I'll close public comment. And Mr. Clerk, could you please take the roll call vote? |
| 00:14:42.46 | Janelle Kellman | Madam Mayor, I don't know that we had a second, but I'm happy to second. I, oh, sorry. Thank you. Thank you for the second. |
| 00:14:48.74 | Jill Hoffman | No. |
| 00:14:48.99 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski? Yes. |
| 00:14:54.41 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Blavstein. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:14:58.56 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:14:59.77 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Kelman. |
| 00:15:01.09 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:15:01.36 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Hoffman. |
| 00:15:02.91 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, the motion passes unanimously. Moving on to our next item. On the agenda is the consent calendar. Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, are expected to have unanimous council support, and may be enacted by the council in one motion. there will be no separate discussion of consent calendar items. However, before the council votes on a motion to adopt the consent calendar items, Council members, city staff, or members of the public may request that specific items be removed from the consent calendar for separate action. items removed from the consent calendar, will be discussed later on the agenda and public comment will be heard on any item that was removed from the consent calendar. There are four items on the consent calendar. 3A is a resolution of the city of Sausalito appointing alternates to the Marin emergency radio authority board of directors. 3B is adopt a resolution accepting a donation from the third street undergrounding district. |
| 00:15:55.93 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. Thank you. |
| 00:16:01.40 | Jill Hoffman | The acronym is THUD. in amount of $4,855 from Sausalito residents to be used for landscaping or beautification projects in the Hurricane Gulch slash Old Town area of Sausalito. 3C. is a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute the third contract amendment with csg consultants inc to increase the contract amount for engineering plan review services to an amount not to exceed 71 $5,674. Um, and 3D is adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager execute professional services amendment for providing supplemental professional services for the engineering division, which is an additional $12,000 on that contract. And so do Um, I, at this point, I will open up public comment on this item. on the consent calendar items. |
| 00:16:59.60 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not seeing any hands raised. |
| 00:17:02.71 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct. There are no hands raised at the moment. |
| 00:17:06.86 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Then I will close a public comment and I will ask if there's a motion for the consent calendar. I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar. |
| 00:17:16.16 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:17:16.19 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:17:16.21 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:17:16.31 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, could you please take a roll call vote? |
| 00:17:22.42 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Sobieski. Thank you. |
| 00:17:23.75 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:17:24.10 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Councilmember Blavstein. |
| 00:17:26.23 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:17:27.21 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. |
| 00:17:28.74 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:17:29.18 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Vice Mayor Kellman? Yes. Mayor Hoffman? |
| 00:17:33.07 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, very good, the item passes unanimously. The next item on our agenda is public hearing items. However, there are no public hearings this evening. The next is business items. There are two business items tonight due to the amendment that we did of the agenda. Moving 5C, which is the historic contact statement Our next city council meeting on October 26th So we have two items. The first is 5A Southern Marin Fire Protection District 2020-2021 annual report and that will be given by Chief Tubbs. And our next item is 5B, and that's a discussion of expiration of issued temporary COVID-19 outdoor dining activities, permits, and policy direction on establishing a permanent parklet program. So we will start with item 5A and that will be given by chief tubs. Do we have chief tubs with us? |
| 00:18:29.88 | Deputy Chief Peterson | So, Madam Mayor, this is Deputy Chief Peterson and Chief Welch will be substituting for Chief Tubbs who is unable to make it tonight. |
| 00:18:39.38 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, very good. |
| 00:18:41.39 | Deputy Chief Peterson | So, Mad American, whatever. very much for that. having us tonight and presenting our very first annual report. for the fiscal year 2021. And Chief Welch will be joining us here in a minute. He'll also be moving the slides forward. Go ahead. |
| 00:19:04.73 | Deputy Chief Peterson | So you see a copy of the report came in the packet. And we'll see the next slide. where Chief Welch and I are studying for Fire Chief Cubs here. Currently. And we'll go through the content of what we're going to be talking about briefly tonight. So the history of the district. We will review the 2021 annual report. And then, Chief Welch will go into some highlights on operations, risk reduction and communications. next. Thanks. The district was formed in July of 1999, and the annexation of the City of Sausalito Fire Department was complete. in the year 2012. Currently the fire district is in the shared services agreement with the city of Mill Valley for providing fire department administrative services. And we've been doing that since 2020. Currently the fire district is rated by the ISO, which is Insurance Service Office, as a class one fire department, which brings insurance THE END OF benefits to all those that reside within the district. Next time. And we have, we're independent special districts. So we have a duly elected board seven members that serve four-year terms, and you'll see them in your packet. And these are our board members right now. Next. And here's the order room at our administrative office here in Sausalito down at Liberty Shipway and you all are welcome to Attend. Live or livers are zoomed. and we would welcome you at any time. Next one. Thanks. at our annual planning session with the board we do every year and the board gives the fire chief and that's the rest of the staff and admin direction on what we're going to focus on as goals for the year. So here are our current initiatives, as you can see here, consolidation, fiscal resiliency, risk reduction, cultural diversity, operational efficaciousness and communications. And the next slide will show you the communities that we currently serve. uh, right now and then for A little bit deeper dive, I will turn it over to Deputy Chief of Operations, Tom Welch. Thank you. |
| 00:21:42.49 | Chief Welch | Thank you. |
| 00:21:43.22 | Deputy Chief Peterson | in. |
| 00:21:43.47 | Chief Welch | Yep, the communities we serve are pretty diverse. all the way from the Golden Gate Bridge up to the Alto Hill, Tiburon, portions of Tiburon, Alto Richardson Bay. And then we have a relationship with the GGNRA, so we're out there quite a bit. as well so several numerous communities served by the district We spent a lot of time studying the district, trying to understand better the demographics of our communities so that we can engineer our response to be the most effective. And so these are some of the demographics that we've collected. over time trying to understand how our community is educated, native born, non-native born, also our disability community, so our access and functional needs folks and who might need additional help. as well. As you know, we have an aging community in Sausalito and throughout the fire protection district. And so understanding that as well is important as we age, we get a little slower, a little hitch in the giddy up. And so that can change how quickly we can react in evacuation. Also, |
| 00:22:54.58 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 00:22:57.89 | Chief Welch | Typically, you'll run into folks with falls and things of that nature, and so understanding the age and demographics is very important. |
| 00:23:07.93 | Unknown | Commission. |
| 00:23:08.67 | Chief Welch | Vision and values are shown here, but they're also shown in the report. But I'll just read the mission statement. It's the mission of the Southern Marine Fire Protection District is to contribute to the greater Southern Marine community's reputation as a safe, friendly, economically thriving community in which to live, work, learn, play and visit. And the vision supports that work in the mission And then our core values are included here. Just some pictures here, just in the center here, we did a neat little back to school event because we understand that the kids had a tough go of it this last year with COVID. And so welcoming them back to school, we did six schools. throughout the Southern Marin area, but it was kind of a neat little cute event. We protect the city of Sausalito, both on sea and land, and so we have, Uh, um, a whole bunch of watercraft and we spent a lot of time perfecting our craft in response to water incidences, whether they're in the bay, outside the gate, around in the GGNRA. And then on the picture on the left here is some of our staff working to suppress a fire in Tam Valley earlier today. Um, we hire the best and brightest and we, um, promote them to Our fire department responds to fires throughout the state, from the Oregon border all the way to the Mexico border. and we have been out very frequently this last summer This is a picture from actually a fire in Sonoma County from last year, but we have been very active on many of the large fires that you've seen throughout the state this year. In the operations section, I'm just going to go through some times with you. response times. Then you'll notice on the right are the standards that are identified throughout the state and nation, and then what we're doing in. And so we measure everything in seconds. Seconds matter in our business. And you can see here for our EMS and fire, responses, call processing times. Our dispatcher is doing that at about 49 seconds when 1 minute and 30 seconds is the standard And then turnout times, two minutes is standard. We're at 1 minute 58 seconds. And that turnout time is the major time that we can control. That's the time it takes us to receive notification, get dressed in the appropriate person protective equipment, And so, well within standard there and if you look at our total response time 15 minutes is what's required For our area, given the topographic and street layout that we have, we typically do that in about 11 minutes, 9 seconds. All these things lead to successful outcomes when we can bring the right speed. of our folks and the right weight, which is the number of folks, we get better outcomes. Here's some of the types of calls that we've had in Sausalito throughout the district. I'll just pick a couple. About 2.25% are fires, but a majority of our work is rescue and EMS, and then you have some others, hazardous materials. on down to good intent calls where maybe somebody falls and needs assistance back up. And then you can see in the center there, very pertinent to Sausalito, we have our water response where we have a few jet skis, Fireboat Liberty, which, is well-known, our well-known craft throughout the service area there and an inflatable rescue boat too. So that's the call volumes that go along with it, about 51. between 50 and 60 incidents a year were responding to on the water. Training is a big portion of what we do. We prepare. often. With a number of skills here, you can see this is a fire recruit academy that just recently graduated. And they were set to graduate in front of their families and friends later this afternoon and then they were dispersed out to stations. And this actually represented a joint effort amongst multiple departments. Marin County Fire, Mill Valley Southern Marin Fire, and some departments in Ross Valley as well as Stinson Beaches too. Joe Piazza, M.D.: Prevention is a large party of work for the fire department and working with the communities our landowners to create defensive space around homes manage vegetation on roadways has been an active active job for us. And here's some of our successes. Just to note the picture on the right is certification of our nurseries so that we can ensure that our nurseries are selling the right plants to our residents so that we don't end up in a situation where our resident finds a beautiful plant that actually is fire hazardous and then we say it has to go. And so we're stopping that by working with our nurseries. on the on the front side of it but you can see here all 159 streets about 26.7 miles of road paved roads are focused for fuel reduction. And that's so that we can have good access with our fire engines, but also safe egress for our residents should they need to evacuate. Um, chipper chipper weeks have all been on the increase and we're pulling out tons of vegetation that just adds to the fire problem. within the area. And then you can see we've also worked on fuel breaks, vegetation removal, Fire road clearings, home assessments, any of the residents that need help understanding what to be done, what needs to be done to create defensible space should give us a call. We'll come out and we'll take a look. And so those are all services that we provide We also investigate all of our fires so that we can find trends and put mitigations in place to mitigate those trends. And so there's been a number of fires that happen throughout our community every day. Some of them make the press, some of them don't, but we make sure to investigate them all. And then we believe in inspections and inspections to find common hazards. And we mitigate those before. So we're constantly working with our businesses to make them safe so that they can stay economically vibrant. prevention and public education is a big role. We have done two evacuation mailers which provide primary and secondary evacuation routes among a whole host of tips to help get folks oriented to a positive evacuation should it be needed we've done several drills this last year and in fact i think it's important to note that we have an outstanding relationship with the um the city uh the sausalito police department department of public works all work very well together We are active in the city's community safety and disaster preparedness committee. We're actively working with the Sausalito Police Department and other law enforcement agencies on evacuation drills within our neighborhoods within Sausalito. conducted last year leave five over five Zoom events with Captain Frost and his team, which is outstanding, well-received by the community. conducted work with the Sausalito Police Department. and the mill valley police department along with the southern fire protection district to work to see if we can share services on our emergency operations center build a deeper vent deeper bench amongst all the jurisdictions provide better training for all the jurisdictions and so that's an exciting opportunity that we're we're in the final stages of evaluating Um... And we have more evacuation drills to come too. So those are some of the things there, but we're actively doing videos to help educate and bridge the gap between what people know to be true and what is actually true. our prevention, efforts are robust. which is, a lot of different things to help bridge that gap. We think that education is one of the key key things that we need to do to help our community be safer and more resilient. Here's a picture right here I want to share with you of the evacuation that we did in Old Town Hurricane Gulch area, well received. 80 or so residents came. Plus we got some news coverage for our law enforcement and fire, which I think just raises the awareness of everybody. regarding it. And then here are some prevention. details regarding plan checks. We work closely with your planning and building department to make sure that what our residents are, whether they're remodeling or building new, are doing it safe and within the code. And then we spend a lot of time on other outreach through other platforms such as Instagram, and Facebook and things of that nature. And you can see here throughout the report, we've done over 2,366 posts. Sometimes we'll take posts from other agencies such as Sausalito and echo those out. We have 33,346 followers across our platforms, 70,000 engagements, and over 2 million impressions. And so this is an area of focus that we feel is important, and we place a lot of effort and energy into this. Here's some of the Twitter data. next door data. all really working together to push good information out to our residents that's actionable for them. and helpful. And then we have a website, we just relaunched a new website. It's fantastic. We encourage all the residents within the Silverman Fire Protection District to visit it. It provides outstanding information regarding our operations, regarding our finances, and everything that we do on all the areas. And then we have, as Chief Peterson noticed, we have DEI. initiative and you can see here where this is the Liam Marcus Youth Academy that we were very much participated in and continue to find ways to work with all segments of our community. as we move forward. And so that was pretty quick, but we're here and available for any questions. |
| 00:34:01.47 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. I have a couple questions, but does anybody else want to kick us off on the council? Any other council questions? Okay, I'll kick this off. So thanks, you guys, for coming. Awesome presentation. And we thank you for all of your great support of Sausalito, as always, in our city and our residence. So thanks for that. Thanks for being involved with us. And here's so much, I know. that you're out in the community a lot. So we appreciate that. I had a couple of questions. One is probably a request for the next time you guys come, Do you guys, I saw that you gave general metrics for response times and you know, just calls for service and things like that for the full district. I would request it next time it. you know, and maybe if you have it, you can forward it to us and we can put it out. But if you have that specifically for Sausalito, I think that would be of interest to, specifically to the people of Sausalio and interest to the council. in looking at the services that we get from Southern North Bay District. and I would just request that. I'm assuming there's some way that you guys can break it out or break down the metrics for that. Um... That would be a request. And then the next one is something that we've been talking to Chief Tubbs about, and I'm sorry that he wasn't here. I sent him an email earlier saying I was going to ask him a question based on some of the other questions that we've been Um, talking to him about this fall But then he's not here, so, but you guys are here, so. I saw that his email actually just as soon as your presentation starts. So I'm so sorry that he's not here. We always enjoy having Chief Dunn come Okay, so this is just a general question. In keeping with sort of a review that we're doing throughout this time period of city departments, right? And in different departments in our city, how they're working, Are they, you know, what's the cost of the different departments and how that affects our budget and things like that. I know it's gonna be complicated, Um, Does the fire district have a cost breakdown or some sort of accounting method by which they know how much how much money pursuant to our our agreement. for you know, when we merged with the district, how much money actually comes from Sausalito? Does that exist somewhere? in your accounting. that we could get. |
| 00:36:32.85 | Deputy Chief Peterson | Thank you, Madam Mayor. Off the top of my head, I don't know the answer to that, but I do think that going through the county tax assessor's office, we may be able to get that breakdown for you, and we'd be happy to research that and get back to you. |
| 00:36:49.59 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thanks very much. that we're very interested here in Sausalito. And I know it's a very complicated thing, right? And we've been actually looking at the resolution Um, that was pursuant to the merger and asked, resolution 15-15-2. sorry, 5259. And that gives a breakdown. And in that resolution, it looks like The breakdown is 45% of our property taxes go to Southern Marine Fire District, Do you have any sense if that's a correct number, or is that something that we need to do some further research and analysis on? |
| 00:37:26.62 | Deputy Chief Peterson | Yes, Madam Mayor, the annexation predates my stay with the district. But certainly those records exist and we can look back and get back to you on that. |
| 00:37:40.37 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, thanks. That'd be really, that'd be helpful, I think. Um, Is there a person I should follow up or Chief Peterson, should it be you? that I would follow up with. |
| 00:37:50.09 | Melissa Blaustein | that I would Also, Madam Mayor, I think that that information is in our staff report and it is 45 cents on the dollar. after the first year, which was a fixed amount. |
| 00:38:01.19 | Jill Hoffman | That's interesting, yeah. We've gotten differing answers on that. So I know that that's in 52-59 and that we think that that's the breakdown, but what I like is confirmation. if that's the actual number. We will be working with either Chief Peterson or your designee on that so that we can get further clarity on that. I think it's a matter of of interest to the people here in Sausalito, I think. Um, And so, okay, so one, This is a final question back to the metrics kind of question. Do you have somewhere in your finances, do you, and in your, perhaps your own audit system as we have. Do you have a cost breakdown for the different the different member districts, I suppose. from the map. And if you could put them, can you put the map up? I think that was maybe slide 10. You know, you can see that it looks like there's a municipality of Sausalito I know now, I knew that you were working on an agreement with Tiburon um, for shared services. And then there are other sort of districts in there. But do you ever do you ever cost out the cost of serving the different districts. |
| 00:39:18.77 | Deputy Chief Peterson | Madam Mayor no we don't. The district is as we said earlier independent special district and we provide services to all those communities and it's one budget. |
| 00:39:33.58 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not. |
| 00:39:34.65 | Deputy Chief Peterson | It's not several individual budgets. |
| 00:39:37.62 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. Okay, so this is the district map that you've got up here. That's helpful. And then, or it's just the black. Is it the black lines that are the district or? |
| 00:39:50.85 | Chief Welch | Yes. Thank you. |
| 00:39:51.66 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:39:51.84 | Chief Welch | Thank you. |
| 00:39:51.86 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:39:52.28 | Chief Welch | Yeah, this is the district's Tamalpais area homestead. read are point strawberry area Alto, and then down here, Sausalito. But the district also serves all the way out here in the GGNRA down down below the bridge those areas as well and also a portion of the town of Tiburon falls within the Southern Fire Protection District as well. |
| 00:40:16.73 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks, that's helpful. Because I did notice that on the map online that this whole area of GDNRA is also part of the district. And then So then, and then Mill Valley is also, Now part of the district has that. |
| 00:40:29.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:40:29.95 | Chief Welch | Thank you. |
| 00:40:30.15 | Jill Hoffman | I mean, you don't have to tell me specifically, but just generally so people understand. |
| 00:40:33.22 | Chief Welch | Do you want me to answer that? Sure. Go ahead, Chief. |
| 00:40:36.24 | Deputy Chief Peterson | Thank you. |
| 00:40:36.75 | Chief Welch | Yep, so the city and the district have entered into a shared services agreement where we have one command team. So Chief Tubbs is the fire chief of that, and Chief Peterson and myself are the deputy chiefs of those organizations. And then we're working on broader shared services and potential annexation as well. |
| 00:40:55.02 | Jill Hoffman | So does the budget, Does the budget that we pay into, is that also the same budget that now Mill Valley's paying to or they're separate entities at this point? |
| 00:41:03.22 | Chief Welch | separate entities at this point. |
| 00:41:04.98 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, okay, great, thanks. Okay, so there's There's three hands up, so I'll pass on to the other council members, And you guys are welcome to close the screen if you want to. and So I didn't see who got their hand up first. |
| 00:41:22.06 | Chris Zapata | I was lost. |
| 00:41:22.45 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Vice mayor was first for sure. Okay, so we'll go to vice mayor and then councilman Blassey and then councilman Sobieski. So go ahead, vice mayor. |
| 00:41:23.32 | Chris Zapata | You were allowed. |
| 00:41:30.38 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, thank you, Mayor Hoffman, and thank you, Chief Peterson and Chief Walsh, for being here. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate you taking the time and all your hard work. I just want to follow up on a couple of the questions that Mayor Hoffman was getting to. Just so you know, what we're trying to do, we've invited all department heads, to come to council meeting, Tell us about your levels of service staffing, you know what you would do if you had 10% more budget, what you do get 10% less for we're really undertaking an operational efficiency. Review for all of our departments and it's a little bit more difficult with southern fire because we don't have all the information at our fingertips because. The money goes directly to you from the county as part of our tax base. But property tax is our largest source of income precisely though. And so, What we'd like to try to understand and I'm mentioning it so that we can set up a meeting offline. is around the operational efficiency question. What is the cost of service to the residents of Sausli though? And how much are we paying? I can see from your calfers that you are doing very well at managing your money in 2019. You brought in $15 million. pardon me, you bought in 17 million, you spent 15 million. That's a $2 million profit margin. I'd like to understand if you have excess cash. and it's coming from Sausalito. Is there a way to, you know, adjust the cost that Sausalito is paying. I'm just trying to understand what is it? What is the cost of fire service for Sausalito? And how does it compare to what we're paying and how does it compare to what other communities are paying? So we know that we're all equitable across the board. So I don't expect you guys to have that information at all, but that's the conversation we'd like to have. And to for members of the public who I know have been looking at this, If you go to Marine County's website, you can see that of the property taxes we get, I think the number is 11% of the total property tax ultimately goes to our general fund. Southern Moon Fire gets over 9%. So that's a big chunk. So we owe it to our constituents to dig in and understand with the level of service, which you've described to us tonight, but also the efficiency and how we can maybe make it even more efficient or where the expense ratios come into. So that's the thinking there. The other question that's come up, I think this is for you, Chief Welch, sort of a simpler one, which is I understand some outdoor alerting was going to be provided. And I know you gave that information to members of the prior council last August. Can you just give us a quick update on that? |
| 00:44:02.40 | Chief Welch | Certainly. So we have two current areas. I can't be extremely specific about where they're going off the top of my head, but two areas that we're going to be installing an outdoor alerting system within Sausalito. And so that will help us as a redundant system in notifying our community of specific instructions. But and when to go. if an evacuation occurs. And in Sausalito's case being a water side community you have other threats as well such as tsunami in-bay tsunami and things of that nature where this outdoor learning system That can be quite helpful. Just a little bit more information on that one. The system is going to have solar and battery backup. So as you know, we've been working through these public safety power shutoffs. So we want to create a resilient system. And when the power gets shut off, sometimes the cell phones, cellular networks become less usable. And so we're utilizing satellite downlink in this situation to create an even better layer of communication. So it's just... less usable and so we're using utilizing satellite downlink in this situation to create an even better layer of communication. So it's just one segment. This outdoor learning system is one segment in a whole bunch of modalities that we used to communicate with the community during an emergency. We partner with the Sausalito Police Department on that as well. |
| 00:45:24.72 | Janelle Kellman | Great, thank you. And then one last question, if I may. And I just, this folks have asked me this, when I saw the map of the outline of the service areas, how come Marin City is not covered by Silmarine Fire? |
| 00:45:37.53 | Deputy Chief Peterson | Marin City is part of Marin County and it's serviced by Marin County fire. |
| 00:45:45.46 | Janelle Kellman | Sorry, it just seems inefficient, but I suppose you guys have your process for how to determine how to do that. to seem curious to us. if anything more to add on that other than that service. You probably don't, so I appreciate that. |
| 00:45:59.57 | Unknown | I think it has to do with the history. Good decisions made at those times. |
| 00:46:04.22 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Blaston, go ahead. |
| 00:46:09.44 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you so much for coming. Chief Welch and Chief Peterson really appreciate it. And of course, appreciate the hard work of your department, especially as we are seeing more and more fires with the impact of climate change. And I was wondering if you gave us some information about the deployment of some members of your department to other fires across the state. Is there going to be some sort of fire season debrief where we might see who was sent and for what amount of time and also how we're doing as a community in terms of our fire resiliency efforts or responses to local fires, just so that we can really start to benchmark as we're in the face of many more difficult fire seasons ahead. |
| 00:46:49.63 | Chief Welch | Yeah, I think historically we have done that in the past, and we can bring a report back. And then also we may look to bring a report to you about getting prepared for flood season, should it come, actually, and what we can do to educate our community on that, prepare our community on that, and, of course, the efforts that we're undertaking with our DPW partners and our law partners as well. So those might be two items that we can bring back to you. |
| 00:47:15.96 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, that would be great. And I attended your evacuation drill And that was really great and a lot of community engagement there. So perhaps we could do something like that for flood or sea level rise. as well. And then you mentioned, obviously, the relationship with CAL FIRE. Can you help us understand how the funding for CAL FIRE works with relation to the funds from SFMD Is it just a shared services and when CAL FIRE calls, we go, and that's kind of just the way the partnership works? Do we pay into CAL FIRE? Do they, how does that from a operational standpoint and a fiscal standpoint work? |
| 00:47:52.16 | Chief Welch | I can add a little bit and then Chief Peterson if you want to fill in the gaps. Cal Fire. They are responsible for protecting the state responsibility area. Sausalito is actually a local responsibility area. And then your federal partners up on the hills, they're part of the federal responsibility area. And so they're solely funded through the state. and we're solely funded through property tax. And so that's about the extent of it. We have a great partnership with them. We work up and down the state with them and they are, That's all response. But the Office of Emergency Services also is a part of the governor's office as well. And we work with and through them through multiple different agreements up and down the state. Chief, do you have anything to add? |
| 00:48:36.18 | Deputy Chief Peterson | So we have a master mutual aid agreement. And when we provide services to other counties, then we front the costs up front, and then we're reimbursed on the backside through the Office of Emergency Services at the state. |
| 00:48:56.72 | Melissa Blaustein | Great. Thank you. Well, I really appreciate it, and we look forward to seeing you back again. |
| 00:49:02.49 | Deputy Chief Peterson | Thank you. |
| 00:49:02.84 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:49:04.89 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:49:04.97 | Jill Hoffman | Councilmember Sobieski. |
| 00:49:06.91 | Ian Sobieski | Thanks a lot, Mayor, and thanks a lot, both chiefs and to your entire department for putting your lives on the line for our safety. I'm, I have just a narrow question on finances as well. I know the district merger is only still relatively young, but I'm wondering, I wanted to understand what your perspective is strategically about the, a fixed percentage of property tax revenue that funds the department. How do you think about that strategically from the point of view of budget management? If, for instance, property taxes, property values crashed for some reason, what facility would the district have to be able to fund its operations and protect the public if the public revenues from property taxes crashed? And conversely, if property values skyrocket, what's the thinking about what to do with what you would call excess budget, more money than you actually need to provide the services that you have. Could you please comment on both of these scenarios? |
| 00:50:11.22 | Deputy Chief Peterson | Sure, I would be happy to. So we have... So as a special independent district, our funding source property taxes, you know. So we have to plan for the future, just like the city does or other special districts or counties do as well. |
| 00:50:30.29 | Charles Melton | do. |
| 00:50:32.18 | Deputy Chief Peterson | So as mentioned earlier, on years when we're able to manage our budget very efficiently and have excess, then we put those away in reserves for years to come when property values go down. So we modeled the 2018 recession in current dollars and put together a resiliency plan that we presented to our elected board which they accepted which shows a series of moves that we would make to live within the means of the budget with decreased revenue without cutting services to the community to communities that we serve and we modeled that using the exact same situations that happened in 2018. And we were able to withstand a storm, if you will, without without having to lay off folks or reduce services to the communities that we serve. |
| 00:51:42.43 | Ian Sobieski | Well, thanks for that. But what about the Ember's case over the long run, say over a 30-year timescale? Have you done any thinking about whether the fixed percentage property tax could very well create a structural, budgetary excess of revenue relative to the actual costs of providing fire district services? And if that happened, what would then be the response of the district? |
| 00:51:58.21 | Charles Melton | of. |
| 00:52:13.09 | Deputy Chief Peterson | My understanding, I'm not I'm not fully prepared to answer the question tonight, but my understanding is that at a certain point, the district would then have to refund the residents of the district property tax if it exceeded a certain percentage and I don't know off the top of my head. I apologize for that, what that would be. But there's, I believe, structure or laws in place at a certain threshold. If it goes over, then there's a refund mechanism that is given to the residents, the taxpayers. |
| 00:52:51.67 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, well that would be great to understand that better. That's the first I've heard of that, and I think that would be of interest to a lot of folks. So maybe that could be looked into with a sharp pencil. Thanks. |
| 00:53:00.97 | Deputy Chief Peterson | Thanks. |
| 00:53:01.53 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:53:02.42 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Chief Peterson. We'll just add that to our list if that's okay. |
| 00:53:05.68 | Unknown | Sure, absolutely. |
| 00:53:07.14 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. Okay, I see no more, I don't see more hands up from council members. Any council members have any questions before I open this up for public comment? I don't see any hands, so I will open this up. This item up for public comment. So if anybody has questions for Southern Marin Fire District, now's your chance. I see one hand up, but I'll let the clerk call because hands tend to jump around on my screen. |
| 00:53:31.58 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we do have Kevin Carroll. Peace and peace. |
| 00:53:39.19 | Jill Hoffman | Thursday. Yeah, Mr. Clerk, through the magic of |
| 00:53:41.59 | Heidi Scoble | We do have Kevin Carroll and I will ask to unmute and share his video. |
| 00:53:54.26 | Jill Hoffman | Good evening, Mr. Carroll. I think you're still on mute. I know you're still on mute. |
| 00:53:59.81 | David Sudo | There you go. There we go. |
| 00:54:01.26 | Kevin Carroll | I'm just curious, Kevin Carroll, I'm with, I own South Salido Taxi, and I noticed you guys responding a lot. on Alexander Avenue, which is, I believe, Bridge District territory and out in Fort Baker a lot of ambulance calls for bicyclists this summer and I'm just curious as to whether those two entities do they reimburse the district for those calls or I'm not sure. you know, how's that? divided up or paid for. Thank you. |
| 00:54:32.92 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:54:32.94 | Kevin Carroll | Thank you. |
| 00:54:32.95 | Jill Hoffman | things. |
| 00:54:35.49 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker is Eva. Eva, you've been asked to unmute and share your video. |
| 00:54:46.22 | Eva | Hi, thanks. Thank you to Southern Marine Fire for all your important and excellent work and hard work. I am really intrigued by the question or by the very brief answer about why Marin City isn't included in Southern Marin Fire. And I didn't understand the response. It was that it was a decision, if I understand it correctly, I'm paraphrasing, it was a decision made a long time ago and it was a good decision. but it doesn't explain the decision and it |
| 00:55:20.88 | Eva | It is worth WOULD BE WORTH ASKING BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY questions about what divides rent city from Sausalito and what divides the city from the valley. And of course, like, you know, both of these places kind of all three of those places kind of butt up against the federal property. So I was wondering if you could expand on that explanation. Thanks. |
| 00:55:45.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I don't see any further hands. Is that correct, Mr. Clerk? |
| 00:55:51.93 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you are correct. We have no other hands raised at the moment. |
| 00:55:56.01 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. I'll follow up based on those two questions. Does the district recoup You know, recoup Mr. Carroll's question, does the district recoup costs of answering Calls. in a manner that he referenced. |
| 00:56:15.59 | Deputy Chief Peterson | So Madam Mayor, the district does have a contract with the GGNRA first to provide services in that area. |
| 00:56:23.40 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Okay, thanks. And then do you have any further information on why Marin City? I know our agreement was finalized in 2012, so it's almost 10 years old, but Do we have any further information on why emergency wasn't included or where we might find that information if it existed? |
| 00:56:43.79 | Deputy Chief Peterson | So my understanding is that Marin City is part of Marin County. And so it's served by Marin County Fire Department, which is a separate entity from an independent special district. It's not Southern Marines choice. to provide fire services. In fact, we partner with them daily. We run the Southern Marin emergency paramedic system runs ambulances in the Marin City. Marin City does not have its own ambulance, so we provide that mutual aid. And if they do have a fire, then both Mill Valley and Southern Marin are going to respond in there to give mutual aid to Marin City. But my understanding is the responsibility to provide fire protection is through Marin County Fire and the citizens of Marin City are members. and that that's pay taxes to Marin County. |
| 00:57:41.85 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:57:42.80 | Deputy Chief Peterson | And again, it's not the Southern Marin's decision to exclude. It just seems how the little boutique fire departments over time merged that because Marin City is part of Marin County, that it wasn't an option to join. I mean, to jump to the question, we certainly would be interested to provide services there if we ever asked to. |
| 00:58:08.18 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, all right, thank you. Um, |
| 00:58:10.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:58:11.27 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so I will then now close public comment and bring it back up to our council for discussion. I don't, we don't have any action tonight. This is just to receive your report, but. And we certainly do appreciate you coming, and we appreciate all that you do for the city and people of Sausalito. It's always great to have you guys part of our community. So. any closing thoughts from any other council members you're welcome to make up |
| 00:58:37.56 | Melissa Blaustein | Lisa Smith- yeah Thank you, Mayor I would just echo the thanks and I would also just like to add over the last couple years seeing the presentation so just really like this annual. report format and the data and the information that was included in it. So I just wanna thank you for that extra and I think that's a really great was very helpful and provided a lot of additional information than over what we've received in the past. Thank you both for being here tonight and for all of hard work. on behalf of Saffilito. |
| 00:59:17.62 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. Um, No other hands raised, so we're going to close. |
| 00:59:25.03 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, go ahead. Just wanna ask our city manager to maybe run point on following up with, |
| 00:59:25.82 | Jill Hoffman | which is what I'm saying. |
| 00:59:30.48 | Janelle Kellman | Chief Peterson on those details we articulated that we're going to be and just make sure we run those down find out a way to get, I guess, some frequent updates on finances to help inform our budgeting. as opposed to someone from the council. So I think if the city manager could run point, |
| 00:59:49.07 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Yeah, agreed. Okay, thanks. All right, so moving on from this item. Were you waving goodbye, Chief? OK, yes. |
| 00:59:57.38 | Deputy Chief Peterson | Thank you for the opportunity. It's nice to see you. |
| 00:59:59.69 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. Nice to see you too. by Chief Welch. Okay, so moving on to our next item is item 5B on our On our agenda is discussion of expiration of issue temporary COVID-19 outdoor dining. and activities permits and policy direction on establishing a permanent parklet program. I think the... Our acting community development director, Heidi Stobel, is going to give the presentation. Is that right? Mayor, that's all. |
| 01:00:32.44 | Chris Zapata | Mayor, that's going to, Mayor Kevin McGowan is going to provide this information. |
| 01:00:36.59 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, very good. Okay. I'm guessing that our interim community development director is going to be available though for |
| 01:00:40.04 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:00:41.66 | Jill Hoffman | questions. So great. |
| 01:00:41.76 | Chris Zapata | So great. |
| 01:00:43.43 | Jill Hoffman | Great, Director McCowan, thank you. Thank you for coming, and thank you for preparing this presentation. I appreciate it. |
| 01:00:43.51 | Chris Zapata | Great. |
| 01:00:43.80 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:00:43.90 | Chris Zapata | I'm going to go. |
| 01:00:46.80 | Kevin McGowan | presentation. Thank you. |
| 01:00:48.12 | Jill Hoffman | So go ahead whenever you're going. |
| 01:00:48.20 | Kevin McGowan | Go ahead whenever you're ready. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. I'm Kevin McGowan with the Department of Public Works, and I do have a presentation this evening, so I'm going to share my screen. Give me a quick second here. So I'm hoping everybody can see my screen and we'll start the presentation. |
| 01:01:05.94 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, we can see your screen. |
| 01:01:10.26 | Kevin McGowan | There we go. Okay, great. Looks good. So thank you again this evening. This evening I have a short presentation regarding item 5B, which relates to the expiration of temporary COVID-19 outdoor dining and activity permits. I'm hoping that Heidi Scoble, your interim community development director, can also assist with providing any additional information as I work my way through these slides and the presentation itself. So... Hopefully Heidi can step in and help me out. So this evening staff is seeking council's direction on how to proceed with temporary regulations that were enacted to support local businesses during the recent pandemic. These include temporary agreements for business owners, sidewalk dining and parklets. Thank you. In March of 2020, the city, state, and nation were faced with a pandemic that required businesses and publicly serving establishment to close their doors. On June 4th, 2020. The city council noted, uh, took action. by authorizing the emergency service director, which is our our city manager. to suspend certain regulations in the municipal code. These actions, which are specified in the staff report, allowed local businesses to utilize outdoor dining areas for dining and retail use. Over the last year, Over the last year and a half, a total of 34 businesses have entered into agreements with the city to utilize sidewalks, parking areas and other outdoor areas to provide services to the public. |
| 01:03:04.40 | Kevin McGowan | These services include temporary sidewalk dining areas, as well as parklets, which generally utilize a portion of the street normally utilized by vehicle parking. The 12 outdoor dining areas and nine parklets throughout the city are built on various built of various materials. |
| 01:03:21.60 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:03:24.79 | Kevin McGowan | and were required to enter into an agreement with the city in order to be installed. These installations were reviewed by the Community Development Department Public Works Department, Fire Department, and the building department depending upon what was proposed. Other retail businesses and veterinarian services also requested the use of the public right-of-way. In some cases, restaurants serving alcohol needed to comply with the alcohol beverage control regulations. All of these needed to comply with the public health regulations imposed by the county, as well as local permitting regulations. Prior to the pandemic, the development of parklets and outdoor dining required the applicant to pay fees per Um, per the table shown in this slide. And it's also noted in your staff report. It is my understanding that no fees were charged for businesses that installed these temporary measures during the pandemic in order to encourage these businesses to stay open for SAW's legal residents and the general public. This is a pretty busy slide, but I'm not going to run through every single detail. as the impacts of the pandemic are lessening and communities are reopening, staff reached out to the Isasalito community members. seeking input on whether to allow the use of public space for these temporary encroachments to remain. The survey was available from June 25th to July 7th, 2021. with several interesting results. And I'll kind of run through a couple of these. 85% of those surveyed were Sausalito residents. is great news. The majority of those surveyed were in support of regulations that would require parklets to incorporate public use. Safety, equity, and aesthetics were noted as a high priority as well. 85% of those surveyed had visited the parklet and implemented during the pandemic. 80% of those were uh, who responded supported the loss of public parking for this use. In addition, a community forum was held on June 30th. to discuss these items. The planning commission comprised of Chair Feller and Vice Chair Graf assisted the department, the Community Development Department, by conducting research into how other communities are addressing permanent Parklet programs. the criteria they used to consider which jurisdictions to benchmark included whether they were a waterfront community a smaller size community like Sausalito. They had neighboring cities. They were in California only. and they had a healthy mix of tourism and local patronage as well as permanent versus temporary distribution. The staff report for this item provides a link to other jurisdictions programs, as well as some highlights of notable program features. The same table without the links is provided here on the screen. So please refer to the staff report if you would like to do a little deeper dive. This type of research was also performed in years past for a pilot program at pilot project for Parklet at the corner of Princess and Bridgeway. And that was for in 2014 for Angelina. Many thanks to Chair Feller and Vice Chair Graff for assisting with this work. At a more local level, community development, the community development staff reached out to other Marin County jurisdictions Each is addressing the matter in their own way. And by the matter, I mean parklets and outdoor dining. with some extending the temporary use for the public right-of-way past the date today. The underlying emphasis has been to support local businesses with a process of returning to normalcy. |
| 01:08:02.35 | Kevin McGowan | Several departments have been involved in the issuance of temporary agreements. And moving forward, a permanent approval process In moving forward with a permanent approval process, the departments have provided some general comments that need to be addressed for permanent approvals, which are also noted on this slide and in the staff report. Some additional items that may be considered and are not listed here include safety barricades for front facing parklets and just what type are needed. standardized appearances for railing and structures. for parklets in the right of way. that that present a sausalito character. and lighting and other amenities may also be considered. In 2019, staff utilized a summer intern to examine some disparities in our planning fees, including sidewalk dining and parklets. Sausalito's outdoor dining fee has not been updated since 1994. The city finance department recommends modifications to the fee charge. to be closer to the fair market rent of commercial space on public property. Parklets utilize parking spaces which in some cases provide metered revenue to the city. An analysis by the city's parking analyst um, of metered revenues is provided in the staff report, which notes that the average revenue of a meter parking space should be around $2,000. This varies on Bridgeway as well as other streets such as Caledonia. Now, the next couple of slides, I have a few things that we are requesting councils help with, and I'll have a little cheat sheet at the end so that we don't have to write all this stuff down. So bear with me here. Some of the questions for Council this evening include, should Council establish a date in the future that will repeal the temporary agreements or should Council continue to monitor health orders and local economic recovery efforts and provide direction at a later date regarding repealing the temporary agreements. Steph recommends that if council is considering modifications to the current processes, for approval of sidewalk dining and parklets. that the work run concurrent to notification to the notification of the temporary agreement holders of any pending appeal date, so they run concurrently. So a couple other questions here of each one of these categories. So for sidewalk dining, should the city revise its annual sidewalk dining fee which is established in 1994? If so, when should the city begin to implement collection of this feast. In the downtown area, adequate sidewalk clearance for pedestrian mobility is extremely important. Thank you. And staff is wondering if, are there any issues the council has noticed over the last year and a half with sidewalk dining or retail activities, which should be considered in moving forward. Currently outdoor display and merchandise is only allowed for hardware stores and florist businesses. Sidewalk vending, that's stationary and roaming, is allowed in certain areas of the city pursuant to the Municipal Code, Chapter 1313. Would the council like to explore targeted modifications to the municipal code. to expand allowances for outdoor displays of merchandise Some concerns would be visual clutter and congestion on sidewalks. Should the city encourage and incentivize businesses temporary agreements for sidewalk dining to submit permanent approvals. Some ideas for discussion can include waiving or reducing permit process fees developing a streamline permitting process and guidelines and streamlining a process to include administrative administrative approval. At staff level. So just a few more slides. For parklets, Prior to the pandemic, the council established that all new parklets individually proceed with a design review permit. It's at the planning commission. and obtain an encroachment permit an encroachment agreement through the city council. Should the city continue to require this process or if guidelines are put in place, should the city develop an expanded process that may include administerial or staff level review, without a public hearing or a lower level public hearing such as a zoning administrative hearing. and just some ideas to consider. Should the Planning Commission and the Historic Preservation Commission be tasked with developing a recommended set of standards for permanent parklets in Sausalito. These standards could include aesthetic considerations such as design guidelines, regulations, for the following with direction to consider guidelines from select communities. So some of the ideas could be design and aesthetics of the physical improvements, such as fencing barriers and curb stops. incorporation of landscaping is another thing that could be included. as well as safety measures and practical considerations for, let's say, items to protect against weather, such as awnings or heating elements. A few more things for Parklet's. Should existing design review and encroachment agreement permit fees, either in full or partial, be assessed in order to establish a permanent parklet? Should Council consider pre-selecting a pre-selected parklet areas, specific areas within the city Or should those parklets be established organically? In other words, as they come up. Consideration may include looking to off the arterial roadways, and heavy pedestrian pathways. on side streets where the street width is adequate. how should the loss of public parking be balanced? in exchange for additional street activation. Is there a maximum number of parking spaces the council would be comfortable with exchanging for this alternative use, and maybe the integration of public space is typically required for the use of public property. in the form of a parklet. Should parklets be required to include an aspect of required public space. And a couple more questions for council, and I'll have a summary just at the end here for you. How should city establish equity and parity between businesses and desiring additional outdoor public space, but having limited frontage. such as establishing a ratio of indoor seats and space or establishing categories for businesses, cafes, restaurants, bars. Should the city require an annual fee for a parklet on public property. I'm not sure. There could be fiscal consideration for average parking meter revenues. and consideration should be given for required components for public space in the park. |
| 01:16:20.26 | Kevin McGowan | Now our recommendations from staff this evening are in your staff report And at this point, we recommend that you allow temporary agreements to remain in place for the time being and direct staff to return to the city council meeting in April. to provide an updated that tried an update regarding the need for the agreements and their potential termination and the progress for developing a permanent parklet program. This is similar to outdoor dining as well as parklets specifically. So I won't read through these already, but you have these in your staff report. We should also mention that there should be a distinction between outdoor dining on private property versus outdoor dining on public property. This distinction should be segregated in the future. There has also been a few issues such as utilization of parking for pickup services. staff is working with the property owners and the police department to address this type of issue. We'd like to thank the Planning Commission members for helping out with addressing this issue, as well as parking enforcement and Lily Whalen, our previous Community Development Director, for her hard work on this item. Now, some of the things that I brought up to consider for council, and this is my last slide, these are some of our specific questions a bit highlighted for you so that we have a chance to kind of look through them. So temporary agreements. Do we need to establish a repeal date? and modify the process at all. Sidewalk dining, we're kind of requesting your input on whether we need to revise the sidewalk fee, which is the dining fee, which is fairly old. and requesting your input on whether council sees any issues with the side block clearances and You can kind of read through my list here. I don't think I should go through everything. Oops. Sorry about that. I think we got through most all the slides, and I can bring this back up if we need to have some talking points. So with that, I'd like to thank everybody for your patience. And that concludes my presentation. |
| 01:18:44.59 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks Director McAllen and to your team and to the community development team past and present and planning commission Chair, Chair Feller and Vice Chair Groff for doing their benchmarking exercises. And what a tremendous effort was done by the prior city council during the pandemic to bring this program up so fast. |
| 01:19:03.46 | Charles Melton | Thanks. |
| 01:19:05.82 | Jill Hoffman | in response to those needs and providing outdoor spaces. So that was, I know that was a tremendous lift by everybody. I had a question with regard to your the sidewalk clearance and something that I've noticed, and I just had a question about it. If you have a parklet and you have a permit for outdoor dining what's the ADA path of travel? Because it seems to me that there's a lot of spread that goes on and additional tables are set out. It's very difficult for people to get through, and certainly with regard to ADA requirements, it's difficult. So what's our current method for looking into that, and what's the current rule on that? So. |
| 01:19:57.97 | Kevin McGowan | So from, let's see, that's a very good question, and thank you very much, Mayor. The intent is to utilize the existing sidewalk which complies with ADA standards. In some places, some of the sidewalks may not comply with ADA standards. But let's assume that it does. And, what we have to make sure that the dining areas comply with is making sure that at least four foot wide area is open to the public that does comply with the ADA standards. Many times this is located closer to the building. In other cases, it is located closer to the edge of the sidewalk. So it does change on occasion. you It's important that that four foot stretch stays open all the time for the public to walk through. And I would agree on some of the things that I've seen |
| 01:20:48.39 | Unknown | Amen. |
| 01:20:52.00 | Kevin McGowan | in downtown in some cases, that area can be blocked from the So we want to make sure to follow up with that. |
| 01:21:01.31 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 01:21:02.07 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:21:02.09 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:21:02.12 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:21:02.29 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:21:02.34 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:21:02.36 | Jill Hoffman | Vice Mayor Kellan, go ahead. |
| 01:21:04.45 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you, Mayor Hoffman. Thank you, Director McGowan. I really appreciate all the hard work here, and I know it's been a long time coming, and thank you to the Planning Commission for their help putting this together as well. My question is around some of the data and stats we had requested. at one of the prior meetings. I'm trying to understand how outdoor dining. helps our businesses. And what I mean by that is, Let's say, for example, down on Bridgeway, I often see the outdoor dining by Angelino's and further south, mostly full, right? It has a full-on sun, and it's not really a wind tunnel there. But on Caledonia Street, I often see kind of half-full type scenarios. Were we able to collect any of that data that the council requested around capacity and usage and anything around time of day, all those pieces of information that help us assess kind of how big outdoor dining should be and how often it is used and maybe it's different by neighborhood. |
| 01:22:05.49 | Kevin McGowan | Good question. I'm only able to provide input on Caledonia Street. We've set up a camera that will take pictures of those dining out there. So we'll have data on that when we bring this back to the city council. probably in the first meeting in November. I'm not aware of any other data that has been gathered at this point. Um, I'll ask Heidi, Director Scoble, if you are aware of any other data that may have been gathered for the other park legs. |
| 01:22:36.83 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you, Vice Mayor Kellman for the question and Director McGowan for your response. I'm not aware that we've actually reached out to the other property owners to gather this data. But moving forward, if that's something that the council would like us to do, we could put together a survey and reach out to those restaurants or businesses that are utilizing those spaces and see what kind of results they have. |
| 01:22:48.37 | Charles Melton | of the |
| 01:23:00.97 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, and thank you. Actually, on the topic of surveys, I'm a little loathe to utilize any of the surveys that we have used in the past. The workshop was not. well attended, the numbers are not statistically significant. I'm cautious about using those in a staff report. But I also understand that the other side of this is You sent down notices, it says to a thousand businesses and residents and nobody replied. So I don't have a perfect answer for how to bridge that gap. But I am a little cautious about using non-statistically significant information when you have 40 people attend a workshop. I don't think that's enough for decision making. I'm open to ideas for how we collect better data, I guess is what I'm saying. I don't know right now. |
| 01:23:47.45 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah, that's something that we as staff can work with our director of communications at it chambers as well to cut to come up with a methodology moving forward. But in response to your question, since there are 34 permits that have been issued to specific businesses, we can reach out to those businesses and see if they can provide us with meaningful data that could answer your question. |
| 01:24:10.33 | Jill Hoffman | It's a great idea. Thanks, honey. Okay, thanks. Any other questions before I open this up for public comment? |
| 01:24:17.64 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:24:17.65 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I'm not seeing any hands from our council members. So, all right, I'm going to open us up then for public comment on this matter, and I'll let our clerk call them these. |
| 01:24:24.83 | Unknown | Absolutely. |
| 01:24:30.01 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we do have Kevin Carroll. Kevin, you've been asked to be unmuted and Richard. Share your video. |
| 01:24:39.32 | Kevin Carroll | Thanks. I'm not going to share video this time. Um, A couple of questions and one goes back to the original THEIR OWNERS. and the staff reported under complaint Um, It says another indication of community support or resistance is lack of complaints to police or code enforcement. But I would point out most of the problems are occurring on Friday through Sunday. Two of those days, code enforcement, You know, it's not business hours for them. And people are reluctant, I would think, to call the police department. for a blocked sidewalk. this is affecting mostly the tourists that are in town have a son who's handicapped who comes to town on the weekends occasionally And he's had a heck of a problem with his new scooter when some of the businesses only on the weekends are putting tables up against the building and at the sidewalk. and then the patrons are moving their chairs into the middle of the sidewalk, which should be the access area for him. Um, He doesn't consider that an emergency. And a lot of the tourists, what they end up doing is walking in the bicycle lane. and affecting the tourist bicyclists that are coming who get into the way of the cars, which occasionally us locals involved in all that. So I think that's part of the issue. is that who is going to enforce this? People, I would be reluctant to call the police department on a blocked sidewalk. given the manning that's been reported at previous Council meeting. And there is no way for tourists to know who to complain to and They're home on Monday when The other offices are open. Um, And, regarding the barber shop. THEIR OWNERS. Those restaurants were supposed to notify everybody within 300 feet. And they never did it. It was the last item in their permit requirement. They were still issued a permit. even though they did not notify people within 300 feet. And I personally went, as you recall in one of my previous letters about this, I used marine maps to figure out who the property owners and who was the residents and merchants within 300 feet. It was very difficult to do And obviously the city didn't follow up to make sure that it had been done in the first place. And it is difficult for a civilian to do it, so I'm wondering if maybe that shouldn't be a part of the permitting process. is that community development determine who's within 300 feet and they send out the notice to those individuals Another thing, It's noticed in the complaint about the barbershop. It doesn't say that they got a signed release from the property owner. which San Francisco requires. I found that by looking at the Sausalito website showed what San Francisco is requiring Kevin, you're three minutes. |
| 01:27:47.68 | Heidi Scoble | Kevin Beard, three minutes, left. |
| 01:27:49.67 | Kevin Carroll | Thank you. You have to have signed property on it. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:27:53.32 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:27:53.55 | Kevin Carroll | Yeah. |
| 01:27:53.62 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Mr. Carroll. |
| 01:27:55.10 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Our next speaker is Carolyn Revelle. you've been unmuted and has to share your video. |
| 01:28:11.78 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. Mayor Hoffman, Vice Mayor Kalman, and members of the council. As you know, I'm Carolyn Revelle, current president of Esasalita Beautiful. The topic of outdoor dining in parklets is an important one for the economic revitalization of Sausalito. for the aesthetics of our urban streetscapes and for the health, safety and welfare of our citizens and visitors. The excellent staff report sets forth the complexity of the issues and highlights considerations for the council. We at Sausalito Beautiful recommend that the council not terminate the temporary agreements with Sausalito businesses until a permanent program has been established We also recommend delegating the exploration of possible modifications existing sidewalk dining and a permanent parklet program to a subcommittee of the Planning Commission working with staff As noted, Planning Commission Chair Feller and Vice Chair Graff of research programs in other small seaside California cities. And this benchmarking study serves as an excellent starting point for developing a program in Sausalito. Chair Feller and Vice Graf have the relevant professional expertise. and a subcommittee under their leadership could be expanded to include a representative from Sausalito Beautiful, our Vice President Morgan Pierce, an architect and landscape architect who also served, as you know, on the Planning Commission for six years. In developing a program, the subcommittee could include consideration of the issues raised in the staff report, including public use, clear design standards, a streamlined review process, fiscal consideration, safety and fire concerns. The waiver reduction of collection of existing and future fees for use of public property for outdoor dining would be one of the considerations also under review with the target date for implementation of the program. Council has so many pressing issues to consider in coming months. The city is fortunate to have volunteers with professional background on advisory boards and commissions. So delegating the development of a parklet program to a subcommittee of the Planning Commission for later council approval is a wise use of human capital. Thanks so much. |
| 01:30:20.23 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 01:30:23.49 | Heidi Scoble | Our next speaker, it's Vicki Nichols. Vicki, you've been unmuted. |
| 01:30:30.24 | Vicki Nichols | Hi, thank you. Good evening, Mayor Hoffman and council members. I have just a few scattered thoughts about this. I appreciated this staff report. This is a complex issue and I would, I would strongly urge you to go with recommended motion three. This needs some time for more studies. But quickly, I wanna say that we were told that the street changes that were made would be discussed in another meeting. I hope that's true. And I think that from some financial data that we've gotten, we can see that contrary to the business is going down, the businesses for casual dining have actually increased by 139%. So I'd like us to be really clear about what we're trying to do here. I'm not against business, but I want to just make sure we're really addressing what we should be addressing. It's clear now that these street changes were not related to emergency or COVID or economy. So I think we can stop that and just start talking about if you want that, that's what you want. The Halloween parade, it's been approved. change is to the street configuration was set to expire on the 31st. I hope you'll dismantle that a day early so the kids can have their parade. And I want to know about why buffer zones are not being enforced. There's actually Kevin McGowan's previous report said he had some safety conditions, issues. The council went ahead with approving the buffer zone. You now have tables in the buffer zone by one of the restaurateurs. So there needs to be some consistent enforcement. We've lost according to a couple standards, let's see 12, about 14 parking spaces, three of which have been co-opted by one of the restaurants. I think you're going to be addressing that. And I would like to suggest that you have different criteria for different neighborhoods. Downtown is totally different than commercial residential. If you're going to be allowing music over, you know, under people's bedrooms, I'd like to know more about that. I'd also, as much as I appreciate Sausalito Beautiful's suggestions, like any of our wonderful nonprofits, I would like to add that there should be a member of the residents in this area that's on this commission or committee. We have not been engaged. There's still frustration. AND, UM... Let's see anything else. Oh, I wanna know about the entitlements that are being created with this expanded seating. Are they gonna be permanent? And who is going to be penalized if they don't THE FAMILY. you know, file an application. Right now you have entitlements with inside sidewalk and parklets. I think that has to be addressed. I think that's it. I appreciate your time and I hope that you will allow some time for this to be thoroughly vetted and some solutions come up with. There's some good ones in the staff report. Thanks very much. |
| 01:33:39.05 | Jill Hoffman | THANK YOU. |
| 01:33:40.94 | Heidi Scoble | Next speaker is David Sudo. David, you've been asked to be unmuted and to share your video. |
| 01:33:49.99 | David Sudo | I'm not sure. Good evening, city council. Thanks for having this discussion. I'm not sure. I, I, To Kevin Carroll's point, I think that when we have encroachment agreements with Uh, dining on the sidewalks that part of that agreement should be to have some kind of border delineated on the ground or in some cases, I'm not sure. you know, or temporary fencing. I think it's, It's. unlikely that waiters and waitresses. are going to enforce seating locations I'm not sure. and that I don't see management actively policing their seating. Uh, And therein lies our problem with the downtown congestion issues. with seating. uh, having a provision to clearly indicate where seating is allowed and not allowed to be so that it's easily enforced without uh, without, you know, self enforcing would be is a better provision. I also agree that we need to come up with a permitting system that reduces costs for the city and for the permit for the businesses. We've had businesses in the past that have looked at putting in parklets have been dissuaded by the enormous costs of putting in parklets that would benefit local residents greatly. but haven't been done in the past. We need some way to streamline the system so that it costs the city less and costs the businesses less. Thank you. |
| 01:35:36.82 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. That's the last hand I see for public comment. So unless, oh, no, we have one more. |
| 01:35:45.23 | Heidi Scoble | And we have Sandra Bushmaker. Sandra, you've been asked to be unmuted and to share your video. |
| 01:35:54.51 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, everybody. I wanted to... endorse what Vice Mayor Kellman said about the statistical analysis on the surveys or data gathering methods that are being used. I think that we need to make sure with this project that we have sufficient And. reliable information from the residents in the areas where these parklets are located or will be located. The surveys that have been done in the past I don't feel confident with the information that came from them, and I would like to see further development by a proper properly designed study that will reach out, number one, to the residents And number two, provide us with data that we can rely on. Thank you. Okay? |
| 01:36:51.53 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 01:36:51.68 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:36:51.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Now that was the last, I believe, hand that I saw. Um, And I see, and so let's bring it back up. Then I'm gonna close public comment and we'll bring it back to the city council for follow-up questions or discussion. So I see Councilmember Sobieski's hand is up. So go ahead, Councilmember Sobieski. |
| 01:37:12.13 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I just had a question for Kevin about enforcement. |
| 01:37:15.85 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:37:17.82 | Ian Sobieski | I know in looking at enforcement on zoning violations in the Marinship, a challenge is AND I THINK THAT'S A lots of photographic evidence of zoning violations that aren't admissible. They have to be witnessed by a city employee working on city time. And I'm wondering if for something as that's an issue that's important, I hope we resolve, but on something as simple as encroachment of chairs being moved out of their proper position and blocking the sidewalk whether it would be admissible in an enforcement scheme to penalize the restaurant with some fine based upon photographic evidence taken by a resident that's submitted to the city? Would that be sufficient legally for you to administer? |
| 01:38:11.14 | Kevin McGowan | So your question has a couple different parts, and it has to be mentioned legal. I'm not an attorney and probably couldn't comment on whether it's legal or not. But I think what you are referring to is whether we can or whether we have staff to go and take some pictures and do some kind of walkthrough enforcement. And at this point, Public Works has not done that. And I wasn't anticipating that, but I can sure work with our city manager and our community development director to take a close look at that to see what we can do. |
| 01:38:46.77 | Ian Sobieski | What I meant, Director Montgomery, is if I'm walking through downtown and take a photograph of a set of tables that are blocked the sidewalk in front of a restaurant. that were removed there. Could that be used by your office to find the restaurant? |
| 01:39:04.98 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. My approach would be a little bit different. If I see something, I would go to the restaurant itself right there and then and say, look, you've got to make sure that you keep this open. If it continues on, then yes, we could document that and bring that back to the actual agreement that we have between the two and pull their agreement. |
| 01:39:23.67 | Ian Sobieski | I don't want to belabor it too much but I'm going to try one more time I think there's concern in the community that that's a system that doesn't have a lot of robust enforcement it requires city staff time it gives a lot of passes I'm just wondering and I'm just wondering if it's possible to have a scheme where there's a simple fine or based on photographs of when of encroachment into the public right of way Nothing draconian, but just some things of the restaurants, you know, or anyone who breaks such a encroachment agreement would have a clear feedback loop from those violations and hence modify their behavior. |
| 01:40:04.41 | Jill Hoffman | So I see our city attorneys, Leaning in. |
| 01:40:08.44 | Mary Wagner | Yeah. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Council Member Sobieski for the question. I understand where you're coming from, because right now from our code enforcement, the way that our system is set up, A staff member has to actually observe the violation And photographic evidence, not that anyone would have malintent, but it's difficult to enforced based on photographic evidence. I think we can look at the existing permitting structure. We can look at the program moving forward as we're coming back to you with I think we have a lot of suggestions for an outdoor dining program, a more permanent program, and look at other solutions to enforcement and whether they're built directly into the permit. or something else. Right now, I don't think we have that ability, but I hear your concern. appreciate that there may be an easier way to go about that. |
| 01:41:04.31 | Jill Hoffman | Can I follow up? Vice Mayor Kelman, I know your hand's up, but do you mind if I follow up on that real quick? |
| 01:41:08.08 | Janelle Kellman | And I also have a comment on, on, on, so BS, please. Oh, go ahead, then. I'll let you, maybe. Well, so, Mary, you referred to the permit structure. And so these temporary permits, I think we need some more elucidation around what type of structure they are, because if they're conditional use permits, we could revoke them if they don't meet the conditions of the conditional use permit. So... |
| 01:41:28.40 | Mary Wagner | So... Thank you. Excuse me for interrupting, Madam Vice Mayor. Thank you. Nice working. |
| 01:41:32.53 | Janelle Kellman | So could that could that address Councilman Sobieski's question and concern? Thank you. |
| 01:41:36.97 | Mary Wagner | Well, they're not, they're not, They're not conditional use permits. They're encroachment agreements. And if you violate the encroachment agreement, the encroachment agreement can be revoked. So there is a system, I'm looking at your form right now, to um, to go through the process. |
| 01:41:53.98 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 01:41:54.01 | Janelle Kellman | go through. |
| 01:41:55.80 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:41:55.82 | Janelle Kellman | I'm wondering if they should be conditional use permits though. But you said we could look at the type of permit we're issuing. Would that give us a mechanism that Councilman Sobieski is trying to get at? |
| 01:42:05.08 | Mary Wagner | Well, I think actually revoking a CUP is somewhat more problematic because you have to go through a public hearing process, a due process hearing in front of the body that issued it. |
| 01:42:12.07 | Charles Melton | in front of the room. |
| 01:42:14.19 | Mary Wagner | I think you actually have more authority and more flexibility through an encroachment agreement into the right of way, which, you know, they're designed to be revocable if necessary. So what I was trying to suggest is you do have this permit structure now for the existing temporary COVID-19 outdoor dining permits. But as staff explores opportunities to develop a more permanent program for the council's consideration. we should talk to our neighbors who have them. figure out what they do in these types of situations and come back to you with the best practices recommendation |
| 01:42:48.53 | Heidi Scoble | Oh, sorry, if I could jump in as well, I agree. With everything that our city attorney has said, one thing that we can add to those agreements are conditions of approval and or adding finding mechanisms to those agreements. So it's more of an administrative procedure that's slightly different than the administrative procedures that are listed in our municipal code. So it's more of a condition of that permit. |
| 01:43:14.45 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, and they are built into your existing permit structure. I mean, there's a provision that provides any violation of the permit encroachment permit agreement. can result in immediate revocation of the permit. I think we're emerging from a time when these were, we were trying to be flexible and assist these businesses now into this more permanent kind of discussion. |
| 01:43:26.91 | Charles Melton | like you can- |
| 01:43:35.36 | Mary Wagner | and looking at the impacts on the community also more fully now that it's been in place for a while. |
| 01:43:42.42 | Jill Hoffman | So I have a follow-up on this matter of if you have a, a violation that a member of the staff has to physically go down and take a look at it and that they can't rely on a photograph. a reasonably authenticated photograph. It seems odd to me that that would be a requirement, especially for some of these transitory or sort of issues where you have tables and you know the tables are gonna move around and it's kind of a moving target. I see where if someone built a wall somewhere that you wouldn't wanna, you know. I get that. They would need to go down and do an inspection. But it seems to me that you should be able to, I mean, if I can offer a photograph at trial and authenticate it and it's relied upon as admitted into evidence, then I have a hard time understanding why our city staff in a reasonably authenticated photograph, you know, wouldn't they can rely on that for a violation. It may be that maybe we need to go back with our legislative committee and maybe take a look at that about how our staff can rely in this day and age |
| 01:44:40.75 | Charles Melton | It may be. |
| 01:44:50.03 | Jill Hoffman | cameras on photos and on videos that seem to be fairly credible. I mean, maybe not to revoke, but certainly to say this is your warning. This is one warning if we get another photograph like this and consistent. you know, we're going to move forward on it. So it seems to me that maybe this is an anachronistic thing that's just left over from a bygone era, but go ahead and talk about that. |
| 01:45:13.04 | Mary Wagner | Madam Mayor if I may members of the council. So I think what staff's thinking about is our traditional code enforcement. MS. language and our administrative code enforcement ordinance. that does require a member of staff or other officer to see the violation themselves and be able to document that? I do think we have more flexibility in this encroachment permit So I'm happy to work with staff on what it is that we would need to to prove up a violation, if you will. |
| 01:45:41.56 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's a good first step. And then if we need to scope it out to other you know, what other world of violations there are that we should be able to rely on videos and photographs. Okay, sorry that was a bit of a digression, but okay, I have no idea who is next, because I got three hands up now. |
| 01:45:55.65 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:45:59.34 | Jill Hoffman | I don't know. |
| 01:45:59.48 | Janelle Kellman | I don't know. THE END OF |
| 01:46:00.57 | Jill Hoffman | THE FAMILY. |
| 01:46:01.03 | Janelle Kellman | as a follow up on that enforcement piece. OK, go ahead. |
| 01:46:04.99 | Ian Sobieski | Well, thanks. Yeah, that was my follow-up. Thanks, Vice Mayor. It was just, Heidi mentioned possibly folding fines into the structure. I just wanted to make sure I heard that correctly, that that's something that she has seen or could imagine doing. Um. Is that what you said, maybe? |
| 01:46:20.20 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, Councilmember Sobieski, other municipalities have embedded a finding mechanism into a permit structure. So, and that's something for the council to consider in the future. |
| 01:46:30.88 | Ian Sobieski | Thanks, yeah, okay, thank you very much. |
| 01:46:33.75 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, now Vice Mayor Kelman or Council Member Clement. Vice Mayor Kelman, I interrupted you and jumped in front of you. So I'm gonna, is it okay if I look? You're done? |
| 01:46:43.03 | Janelle Kellman | No, I'm not. I was just in anticipation of finishing my thought. I was kind of excited. OK, so go ahead. |
| 01:46:45.24 | Jill Hoffman | this is a big deal. Okay, so go ahead and then we'll move on to Council Member Cleveland Noles if that's okay. |
| 01:46:51.40 | Janelle Kellman | Great, yeah, I just had two follow-ups for staff on the staff recommendations. So the first is on the sidewalk dining recommendation, and maybe this is for the city attorney. Any constraints or concerns around who is liable if somebody utilizes a city sidewalk for dining? for personal or private GAIN. |
| 01:47:18.28 | Mary Wagner | THE END OF THE END OF THE Great question, Madam Vice Mayor. liability to the entity that's receiving the permit that allows the use. |
| 01:47:29.08 | Janelle Kellman | Okay. Okay, great. And then this is, I think probably for Ms. Goble, the question about parklets. So in reading the, and I read the San Francisco program, there's a distinction between parklets and outdoor dining. And to Carolyn Revell's point, a parklet is an open space for anybody to use for anything, so I can get a sandwich at drivers and go eat it in a parklet in front of Davino. Outdoor dining, however, is to be an exclusive use. Have you looked at the distinction between those two? Can I make a plea to include that distinction when you guys come back? |
| 01:48:02.81 | Heidi Scoble | THE END OF Generally, I know the concepts and I've seen how both work in the future. I believe that we'll be working, staff will be working with the Planning Commission to bring something back to the council, kind of more of a visioning to seek direction on how to move forward. And that's how we can discuss those concepts and how they would relate to Sausalito specific |
| 01:48:22.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:48:25.73 | Heidi Scoble | Great. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:48:28.21 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks for your patience, Councilmember Cleveland-Knowles. You're up. |
| 01:48:31.20 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm sorry. |
| 01:48:31.50 | Heidi Scoble | Right. Thank you. |
| 01:48:32.80 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:48:32.82 | Melissa Blaustein | That's okay. Thank you, Mayor. I'm ready to comment unless other people have other questions. Thank you. |
| 01:48:38.81 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, great. Does anybody have any follow up questions based on what we talked on? If not, then we'll let council member Kluhunel kick us off with comments. |
| 01:48:38.84 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, great. |
| 01:48:45.46 | Melissa Blaustein | And then yeah, also just to follow up on the vice mayor's last question. The only, we did quite a lot of research back in the day when we were considering the first parklet in front of Angelina and the other businesses there. And at the time, San Francisco was really the only jurisdiction that considered parklets to have a public. and they had done a really good handbook on that. But now San Francisco and many other jurisdictions have really moved away from that public Thank you. aspect of a parklet. And while San Francisco still has a nominal public requirement of a bench or something. They're generally, at least in the pilot program there, they are more of a privatized outdoor dining use associated with a particular business. with some public access required during business hours. I think that concept is a little bit in flux, but definitely agree. that the public private aspect is something we need to focus on. moving forward. So I would like to endorse the recommendation, generally the recommendation from staff and also from some of the public commenters that we extend all of the temporary permit and waiver of fees until a date certain to give businesses that certainty while we work on a more permanent program. I would suggest June 30th is the end of our fiscal year and as a point in time that would be adequate for the city to develop. a permanent program. We've got a lot on the Community Development Department's plate. Um, And so I had talked to the former community development director and that seemed like a reasonable timeline. to her and obviously open to input from staff. And then in the meantime, I think we should direct staff to develop. a streamlined permit process for both sidewalk dining and parklets. And my goal in that would be that we develop a program that if a business meets certain requirements, and those requirements could be many of the things articulated in our staff report, that the zoning administrator or other individual could sign off on those permits and only requests that are outside of those requirements would have to go through a more five. a cumbersome process through the planning commission for a permit. I think I would be interested in waiving fees, or at least reducing fees, through another year, June of 2023, to just make sure that our businesses come successfully out of COVID. And then if our program was up and running prior to the expiration of the temporary permits, businesses that want that extra certainty and want to do more investments in their outdoor spaces could apply for a permanent. permit, but if it's not ready, at least businesses would have the certainty that they can continue to operate as they are. It's just like, June 30th, 2022. I do recognize a lot of the issues that have come up on path of travel, et cetera. I'm pretty sure that our temporary permits do have most of the conditions necessary to enforce path of travel, et cetera. I think it's just, a question of getting a better complaint procedure set up so that people can easily report complaints and that we can have our code enforcement folks get out there. I'm pretty confident that if we start actively engaging with the businesses that they will come into compliance. And I know our city manager has talked about programs in other jurisdictions where you can easily, like San Francisco has 311, you can just call with any particular complaint. He's mentioned a few other similar programs. And then lastly, I think staff asked for input on, um, outdoor retail permits. I think that's the issue that I feel like we have the least information about and I would Suggest that we. perhaps ask EDAC or the Chamber or some combination of those to um, give us some evaluation about whether outdoor retail permits are really something that's going to be continue to be desirable or helpful to the businesses. moving forward. I definitely see our outdoor dining both in parklets and on the street being really heavily used and enjoyed by residents and visitors. I'm not really, I haven't seen the same level of interest in outdoor retail, but I could be wrong about that. You know, personally, I... was at the workshop, you know, 40, I think attendance of 40 folks at a workshop is a pretty good turnout on a single issue. I recognize that the surveys aren't an exact science, but I think they're a great tool. I think we've gotten really positive feedback from a lot of residents about the experience. that the outdoor dining has provided. And so I would really like to see that. continue and of course we can continue to look at good ways to gather public feedback as we go. Those are my thoughts. Thank you for the time. |
| 01:54:36.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, thank you. Who would like to go next? Go ahead, Council Member Bloustan, go ahead. |
| 01:54:43.16 | Melissa Blaustein | Thanks, Mayor Hoffman. And I really want to thank DPW and Community Development Departments, but especially our Planning Commissioners, who spent so much time putting together this matrix of similar programs in other communities. It was really helpful to see you know, what places like Carmel by the Sea, whom we often compare ourselves to, and Healdsburg are doing, and that was a big lift. So I just really wanted to acknowledge the work Chair Feller and Vice Chair Graves on that. Um, I think that the parklets have been a really fantastic thing for our community. We've always had sort of a European feel here in Sausalito. People talk about how we look a lot like a Positano of the West. And this outdoor dining experience has only added to that to entice visitors and also for our community members to really enjoy the beauty of what Sausalito is. It's been wonderful for our community to be able to enjoy that. And one of the things that I've heard from in speaking with businesses is that They want to invest more in improving the parklets, but without a path forward or without knowing if it's going to be a permanent program, it's difficult to do that. So there was, you know, a group of merchants on Caledonia, for instance, who were interested in putting in perhaps planters or perhaps investing to make it a more visually appealing experience because as much as it is important to have the orange markers along the way on Caledonia, we all know it could, there's a lot of potential there to make it a more attractive And I think as we work on this issue together, we're gonna be able to find a path forward that will allow these businesses to invest in making it more visually appealing as well. So I am in agreement with Council Member Cleveland Knowles that I think we should pursue the staff's recommendation of having a commission or a small committee come forward with recommendations for this. And also in the meantime, while we wait for them to review and we get more data, which thanks Vice Mayor Kellman for requesting that, I think it's really critical for us to be able to make these decisions. we can come together to figure it out. I do wanna point out though that while I absolutely support our businesses and we need to give them a path forward, we also need to have a financially responsible path forward. So I think we need to consider at the very least, adjusting the outdoor dining cost for inflation. The fact that it hasn't been adjusted since 1994 and is at 150 per square foot. While helpful, it just makes common sense to go ahead and update that and also to consider where we lose parking revenue, how we might make that up. But I would be open to a consultation with businesses to see what their need is to make sure they can be successful coming out of this. But I really appreciate staff's effort and would agree with the recommendations and also was really happy to see so much community input on this issue and look forward to and appreciate the need to have local neighbors and folks living next to these restaurants involved in the conversation as well. |
| 01:57:34.25 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. Vice Mayor Kellan, do you want to go next? |
| 01:57:37.78 | Janelle Kellman | Sure, thank you. I just had a quick question for Council Member Blassey. The number that you just quoted about the cost of outdoor dining, can you articulate what that is in reference to and what that's from? |
| 01:57:48.83 | Melissa Blaustein | that it's in the staff report. It's the cost per square foot of sidewalk usage from 1994, I believe it was $1.50. Maybe. |
| 01:57:57.98 | Melissa Blaustein | the currency right now. |
| 01:57:59.40 | Melissa Blaustein | it's the current fee now as well, but it has not changed since the same time. |
| 01:58:04.14 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, yeah, I'm just wondering, because one of the things that I was thinking about, so thank you for that, is that this idea that we're privatizing a public resource, but we're waiving fees. AND I'M JUST WONDERING HOW THE REST OF THE COUNCIL FEELS ABOUT THAT. I think it can probably be justified if we had data around the increase in sales at a per square footage level or a per permit level. We don't have that data, so I'm a little bit concerned around the privatization. Because at the Planning Commission level, I mean, we would put applicants through, you know, quite a review to add, you know, a parking structure that hit an equipment permit. So I'm thinking about this from the context of our residents, not just our businesses. And I want to make sure that, you know, our taxpayers feel like this makes sense economically. So I just want to push for that again. I think that my prior council members laid out a reasonable plan, but I think that's a good question. |
| 01:58:49.84 | Charles Melton | I'm sorry. |
| 01:58:59.02 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 01:59:03.67 | Janelle Kellman | criteria by neighborhoods would be really important. I think we've had a lot of complaints around music and noise on Caledonia Street and I a lot of attention before we allow for any type of streamlined permitting process. It's quite different, as somebody mentioned, than downtown. So I would definitely want those types of constraints and guardrails baked into a program. I'm also not clear how the staff report or the program addresses concerns like those of the barbershop. who is a thriving business and has said, I don't, I don't want to lose a parking in front of my, store. So that's more of a question for staff. but I would be concerned about enabling something like that or allowing something like that to continue without understanding the repercussions to other businesses. So just a couple of musings. I think we're headed in the right direction, but I think we have some loose ends we need |
| 01:59:58.89 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Councilmember Sobieski, go ahead. |
| 02:00:02.25 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you very much, Mayor. There's so many different flavors. I wonder how staff is gonna synthesize all our comments. Rifting off of the vice mayor's comments, I too have concerns about privatizing public space for free or at a discount. I think we have a lot of city property, BOMIT, Councilmember Bostean and I are working on trying to rationalize how we think about our city property and move towards having a consistent way of dealing with it and to my mind, unless there's a good reason, a good civic reason, to charge something other than fair market value, the leasing of city property should be at fair market value, speaking just for myself. And so that means it wouldn't be just one rate for leasing city property, the public space. It would vary by location. Literally, it might be a different number |
| 02:00:45.36 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 02:00:55.96 | Ian Sobieski | in the north part of town. versus downtown versus Caledonia. My opinion is that it should be a fair market lease, and that fair market rate should be computed by experts. All right. |
| 02:01:13.29 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I just make a clarifying comment, Ian? I'm sorry to interrupt. So I just wanted it seems like there's some confusion and the proposal that I was making, and I think this is consistent with pretty much every other jurisdiction in California that's thinking about this is waive continue to waive fees for this next year. And then perhaps have discounted fees for another year. But after that, I would be completely in favor of going back to our regular system of charging. And I agree that that would need to be updated. So I just wanted to clarify, I wasn't sure if that's what you were reacting to. |
| 02:01:43.28 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you very much. I was not reacting to that. I appreciate the emphasis that you're drawing. There's so much to comment on. Again, I'm a little concerned we might be creating a challenge for staff to figure out what the consensus of the council is. I pulled up the three recommendations, and so I agree with you, Councilmember Cleveland Knowles, to extend the temporary agreements through, they said, they recommended April, I would be fine with your June suggestion. And, And so I'm really just talking about the longer term strategy of how to think about parklets and sidewalk dining in town and think that we should move to a system where we think of it like we do MLK Park or any. of the Jean Hiller Building or Spinnaker Restaurant, these are public spaces and if we're going to allow them to be used in a privatized sense, they should be leased. They should be leased for a fair market value and they should be leased for a term. And those terms, five-year term, three-year term, whatever is appropriate for, as Council Member Blalstein pointed out, their need to actually have some certainty and be able to invest in that space, but it also means that it's not forever. it can be adjusted as the community responds, either favorably or not. So that's my opinion about how I think we should move toward thinking about the parklets an important element of that is this enforcement and i wanted to exclaim hallelujah to the mayor's comments on trying to figure out a way of being commonsensical about how to enforce these things is super frustrating for everybody to see a violation, to submit it, and then not have there be any meaningful response. And if that meaningful response is ultimately the nuclear weapon of taking away someone's permit, that doesn't do the business any good either. Especially restaurants are extremely complicated businesses. Everyone's busy, and it's a squeaky wheel that gets the grease. So you're doing your restaurant a favor actually by giving them a little bit of a penalty because when they pay the $250 penalty three times in a week, that's when they start telling their staff to really pay attention to the patrons moving their chairs into the sidewalk. And that's better for them than the final straw being getting rid of their permit. So I think it's actually a win-win outcome. in terms of the ultimate designs, I think, or the process for these ultimate designs, I would really strongly favor what Cleveland, Council Member Cleveland Knowles suggested, which is a streamlined process for some subset of designs and businesses. So, You could imagine if there are several parklets. There's one in front of Angelino's. There's the ones on Caledonia. Those are two designs that are approved. If we could approve a standard set of designs, let's see, three very different designs, then those could be ministerially approved on the basis of some criteria. Any substantial deviations from those designs can still go through a regular design review process. And just on the public part of this, I do think that these are private spaces. They should be leased as such. And so there shouldn't be an expectation that there would be a public component per se. They are extensions of the businesses into the public realm, leased by the city to the private business because it's viewed as a win-win outcome for us all. Thank you. |
| 02:05:20.14 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. So let me go with the three, I'm just going off the staff recommendations, so that's how. For the staff that I know are taking notes, that's how I'm going to roll through this. So the issue about when to extend, We were thinking, I think, that the April 21st meeting in April would be able to help people prepare I'm sorry, help people prepare for the summer. If you extend through the end of June to June 30th, then you're in the middle of the season, right? And so you've got to allow people to be able to prepare, have some sort of certainty about what's going to happen for the next year. next season, right, which is really what we're focused on, I think, in preparation. So that's why we're thinking about the April or spring. so that the restaurants would know. And that would also... give us a chance to assess where we're at economically, where we're at with regard to you know, the COVID pandemic and what spaces are, actually being utilized. So, I mean, I drive through town and I see that there are there are some parklets that are just empty, like all the time. And so to me, it doesn't make sense to convert that public space to private use during during the period if it's not necessary. Right. So that that was the thought process of bringing it back to Um, a meeting prior to the next season. Um, with regard to sidewalk dining, otherwise, Otherwise, the concept of the temporary agreements, you know, I'm fine with that. Um, I think that we need to look at either in the spring or in the summer, whether or not we're, you know, it goes back to where are we at economically, where are the businesses at economically and whether or not we need to continue to waive the fees at all. I mean, if businesses are coming back and, and, you know, and we're at pre COVID levels and to me it's, it's, then we start looking at instituting the fees and, and, |
| 02:07:02.06 | Charles Melton | you know, it goes... |
| 02:07:22.25 | Jill Hoffman | looking at whether or not they make sense at this time. With regard to sidewalk dining, yes, I think we need to update, you know, what were the fees for that. Same kind of thing, exactly what Council Members Sobieski and Blaustein talked about. These are public, you know, these are public assets, and so they need to be the fees need to coincide with that aspect of it. I think we, I'm sorry, one more thing. with regard to a specific question to Director McGowan, I think, is whether or not we can draw lines on the sidewalks that delineate |
| 02:07:58.09 | Vicki Nichols | that deliver. |
| 02:07:59.51 | Jill Hoffman | what the path of travel is. I think that would make it so much easier for everybody. If you have sidewalk dining, then you know, someone from the Public Works goes out and marks off your area and your tables are to remain in that area. So that way you don't have to argue about it and I don't have to get out of tape measure. And or anybody does. It's very clear where the tables are supposed to be and where the path of travel is supposed to be. And that will, I think, make it better for people who need that path of travel, whenever that is. So with regard to the parklets, You know, I think, I feel like we're all in an agreement on the park list, although I do have one comment on the staff report. where it's in quotes permanent parklets. I think the I think maybe that was a typo, but it should be permitted parklets. I think it's a permitted parklet. It's not a permanent now and forever and at the end of time. It's a permitted and the permit might expire or will probably expire at some point. |
| 02:08:48.51 | Charles Melton | that was a |
| 02:08:59.60 | Jill Hoffman | And I do strongly feel that kind of back to the same thing, you're converting a public asset to private use, there needs to be some sort of public notice on that. and a time for the public to weigh in on that. You know, we've seen that in different neighborhoods, particularly Caledonia Street, where there is a direct and significant impact to other businesses that are not hospitality type businesses for removing parking. So those are my comments. Um, I guess, I suppose. I don't know the word really in, in disagreement, I think that we need to talk about what the extension date is. Do we want to shoot for spring or do we want to shoot for middle of summer? That's my only, I think that's the only, point of discussion. |
| 02:09:44.65 | Melissa Blaustein | So, Mayor, my suggestion to the end of June was actually meant to coincide with a hearing that we would have in April. given the fact that Okay. We might need to, you know, we might have one hearing and then ask for changes to some kind of legislation. And that June 30th date would just be sort of a backstop, but that we would hopefully have a program before then that if people were interested in making their improvements more permanent, I mean, getting that permanent, giving that second |
| 02:10:14.68 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:10:15.13 | Melissa Blaustein | Find a permit, not permanent. that they could do that ahead of time, that they could accelerate and people who were just gonna let them expire could let them expire. So I wasn't meaning to change the date, I was just meaning to have an outside date for the temporary permits, but still keep the April hearing that we would have. and hopefully have a better sense of the next steps in April. So I think they're consistent. |
| 02:10:40.00 | Jill Hoffman | yeah thank you for that clarification yeah then i have then i think uh yeah unless anybody disagrees i think that's that's consistent direction to the council and |
| 02:10:40.12 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 02:10:48.26 | Jill Hoffman | much clearer now for me anyway. So, |
| 02:10:50.74 | Melissa Blaustein | Bye. |
| 02:10:50.89 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:10:51.02 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Can I just ask, Mayor, there were several different articulations of what whether this would be best brought forward by staff, you know, and, or staff working with the planning commission and her subset of the planning commission. I think the legislative committee was also mentioned, I don't know, you know, do we need to decide tonight or give |
| 02:11:16.42 | Jill Hoffman | I think maybe the direction of staff is to inquire of the planning commission as to whether they would like to they have the ability to and bandwidth to participate in something like this to me to me this is a heavy you know, this is a heavy Planning Commission type of effort. But on the other hand, you know, they have a full schedule and they're they're quite well tasked as it is. I mean, my thought was for them to go staff to go back to the planning commission ask for their input And then, you know, and then move forward. If Planning Commission says, yes, we can, we can support this. Or if not, then maybe they need to come back to us in the next. I don't know, month or so and say, look, this proposal, you know, this proposal is from the planning commission about how to move forward. And then we would move forward. I do agree that there should be. |
| 02:11:57.26 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 02:11:57.38 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:11:57.41 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 02:12:08.56 | Jill Hoffman | a resident on that effort as well to give that perspective. |
| 02:12:12.48 | Ian Sobieski | Mayor, could I suggest just, because there's so many things that are, so many moving pieces here. We have three recommendations from staff. |
| 02:12:12.58 | Jill Hoffman | I think it is. Yeah, go ahead. |
| 02:12:19.38 | Ian Sobieski | Do you think we could take them one at a time and approve them? They seem to be separate and there actually could be unanimity on some and some |
| 02:12:23.92 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 02:12:24.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:12:24.09 | Charles Melton | BE. |
| 02:12:26.65 | Ian Sobieski | either disagreement or discussion on them. The first is about extending the temporary agreements. The second is about how to handle fees and how to direct staff to work on thinking about fees. And so there's the question of how to do it. And then the third is this thing that you and Councilmember were just discussing about who does what and how we should direct them. |
| 02:12:38.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:12:51.04 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so let's go for it. I think that probably would be helpful for this staff. So let's do that recommendation. Thank you for that suggestion. So... Temporary agreements, I'll just read it. Allow temporary agreements to remain in place for the time being and direct staff to return At the first city council meeting in April, 2022, to provide an update regarding the need for the agreements and their potential termination. and the progress on developing a permanent parklet program. I think we're all in agreement with that. with the addition of Councilmember Cleveland Knowles that the that the agreements would end. in June, on June 30th, 2022. the temporary agreements, unless further action is taken. So I think we're all in agreement on that. Anybody want to add anything on that one? Okay, so number two is sidewalk dining, and that's direct staff to revise the annual sidewalk dining fee to update the annual fee for all businesses with permanent sidewalk dining and implement collection of the fee to coincide with the repeal of the temporary agreements. I think we're all in agreement on that too. |
| 02:13:57.80 | Ian Sobieski | I just love, I mean, I said it and I don't, just because I said it doesn't mean anyone agrees with me, which is how do we think about this after the temporary agreements are done? Should we direct staff to start |
| 02:14:02.88 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:14:10.30 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. putting together a mechanism for determining what fair market value is for a square foot in downtown, a square foot in Caledonia, a square foot in the north end of town, that's gonna take some time to figure out a mechanism that's workable for figuring that out or not. I think we should, but do other people- |
| 02:14:28.42 | Janelle Kellman | I think we should, Councillor Sabecki, I support that. I think it's important to- I think so. |
| 02:14:33.27 | Jill Hoffman | I think so, too. I think so, too. And is that something, I wonder if OMED should weigh in on that. |
| 02:14:34.89 | Janelle Kellman | I'm going to. |
| 02:14:38.94 | Ian Sobieski | I mean, we can certainly have a role. I mean, we're pushing. to establish those processes. And we've been working with city manager Zapata getting the staff resources for that. As you know, there's a lot on his plate, and so this is why I would appreciate some clear direction to the city staff that this is what we want so that it can be prioritized on his long list of priorities about getting staff resources to do this kind of work because we need it if we want to have it actually done. |
| 02:15:09.55 | Jill Hoffman | I think, well... I think that I am in agreement with that. I would, as part of, and I think a pass through OMED is also a good, would be a good place for it to run through since it's kind of, it's sort of the same thing, right? City assets. So, and in keeping with what's the square footage, I mean, I, I think you guys, I think I'll miss doing an update, right? To fair market value of square footage for at least |
| 02:15:37.46 | Ian Sobieski | We are asking the city staff to staff this effort. And again, it's a matter of prioritizing the many things we're trying to get done here in Count. So we think it's important and getting a clear sense of council that this is what we need to do, I think would influence the city manager. He can speak for himself about how he staffs this. |
| 02:15:47.10 | Charles Melton | Okay. |
| 02:15:58.28 | Melissa Blaustein | So I'd be in favor of the concept, but I would like to simplify it as much as possible and perhaps just have one or two or three tiers. and then increase with a CPI. So, you know, I don't, this should be roughly equivalent to some kind of fair market value, but I don't think we should make this too complicated and perhaps we've got three zones and and then just increase. |
| 02:16:20.39 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:16:20.56 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:16:20.64 | Ian Sobieski | you |
| 02:16:20.69 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:16:22.47 | Melissa Blaustein | with a CPI. |
| 02:16:23.88 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. |
| 02:16:25.89 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:16:25.91 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Agree, okay, so I think that's clear direction. the city manager is not objecting or waving his hands. So... |
| 02:16:34.06 | Charles Melton | That's true. |
| 02:16:34.67 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Okay, so that's number two. So number three, parklets, direct staff to work with the planning commission or a subcommittee of the planning commission to develop recommended set of standards and processes for permanent parklets in Sausselia for review and consideration by the council, including waiver reduction or collection of existing and future fees for use of public property or outdoor dining. and activities. So, Um... We... comment, well the comment that I had on sidewalk dining, it really wasn't sorry, going back to that was, can we draw lines for sidewalk dining so that we don't have to fight about it? But then moving on to parklets. Um... Okay. So how? Go ahead, Vice Mayor. |
| 02:17:21.88 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, I thought actually Heidi gave us some good foresight on that. I mean, this should be a holistic planning process. We have a really great opportunity to encourage that more walkable city. If we are going to encourage this type of use, we're going to monetize it. We're going to figure out what the cost benefit of losing parking spaces is. I would love if staff could come back with a vision around that |
| 02:17:21.93 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:17:45.54 | Janelle Kellman | to borrow a favorite phrase of Council Member Sobieski, kind of a master plan for it, right? So that we're not just sort of haphazard, I think if we have a vision, then we have a plan, then we can actually create these three streamlined, pre-approved look and feel because we understand how it impacts our circulation or overall enjoyment of our community. I don't know if that's possible with staff's bandwidth, but that would be sort of a dream escape of planning. So I think |
| 02:18:12.96 | Jill Hoffman | So let's do this. Let's have our community development director or public works, whichever department is going to fall in, Um, talk to planning commission chair, and see what the recommendation is from the chair on how to move forward with involvement with the planning commission. I think that's the optimal, right? And if that works, then I think we move forward in that way. Whatever the recommendation is from the planning commission chair because they know what their workload is. But that's, I mean, I think with this sort of effort, you know, we have to have that sort of voice as part of it. And, And to the extent that we can fold in a community member as well, I mean, that would be helpful, I think. |
| 02:18:57.53 | Janelle Kellman | I mean, that would be a good thing. Yeah, I think this is good for the Planning Commission. They've done so much work on it, and I think they are the right body to create that vision and work with staff. |
| 02:19:05.93 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, so much work, right? So, Councilmember Sobieski, go ahead. |
| 02:19:08.94 | Ian Sobieski | I was just going to say, in addition to this, there should probably be more than one member of the community, and there ought to be some attention given to precisely the thing you brought up, Mayor, which is trying to factor in the disproportionate effects that this can have on, say, residents on Caledonia or anywhere else where it is, and weigh that against the benefits to other residents that get to take advantage of that. So that's certainly an issue. I did appreciate the suggestion of getting Morgan Pierce on that effort too. So it would support that as well and hope he could be included. I did want to support Councilmember Cleveland Knowles' notion about having a ministerial process for some of these. And so I know this is what we're directing staff to work on and I would love them to have a proposal which we can accept or not. |
| 02:19:20.04 | Charles Melton | keeping your mind. |
| 02:20:02.74 | Ian Sobieski | for having a ministerial pathway that is simple and easy to execute. Again, we don't go through a long procedure when we lease a suite at MLK Park because it's property that can be leased. And so similarly, we should have a procedure for that that is akin to that procedure. |
| 02:20:25.79 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, and I think it was, I think it was council member Cleveland Knowles or some, I can't remember, maybe it was you council member Sobieski that talked about you know, let's approve three, you know, three, Was it you? Thank you. |
| 02:20:36.18 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 02:20:36.97 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. that you don't have to go through a design review for your for your design if you're within these three types. Definitely, let's try to take a look at that one. Okay. |
| 02:20:51.92 | Ian Sobieski | I think you could actually, if you threw it out to our architectural community, I'm sure you could get three solid designs that the planning commissioner or others could uh shoot holes in a little and quickly arrive at three standard designs at three different costs for what is relatively a standard design problem |
| 02:21:10.22 | Jill Hoffman | you Okay. Alright, any other on that third? that third recommendation or that third direction |
| 02:21:18.10 | Janelle Kellman | I'll just put a plug in there. We have some really wonderful fabricators in the Marin ship who could both design and fabricate, and wouldn't that be a wonderful community helping the community? We have that opportunity to do that in-house |
| 02:21:33.24 | Jill Hoffman | No objection to that. All right. |
| 02:21:36.10 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:21:36.24 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:21:36.32 | Melissa Blaustein | Any other comments? Yeah, Mayor, just back to your concern about the physical layout of the existing temporary permits. You know, maybe the city attorney remembers, but I'm pretty sure that our temporary permits asked for a physical drawing. of the layout. and maybe, um, or city attorney can confirm. But if that's true and we have that, then it shouldn't be difficult to do what you're suggesting to mark those physically with tape or something like that. |
| 02:22:13.08 | Ian Sobieski | Maybe, Mayor, if I might just say, since it is the subject as well, this issue of enforcement, it is a win-win for the people that care about having parklets to make sure that people aren't annoyed by parklets between now and next june and uh when i walk through downtown it is at times annoying and so uh i think the sooner we solve this enforcement issue the better and would hope we could include in this third bullet point direction of staff and the city attorney and others ms goble to um follow up on your suggestion about figuring out how we can have a very robust enforcement process to help the restaurant stay compliant. |
| 02:22:58.52 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, our city manager has a setup, so I'll call him the city manager. Except your mute is still on. |
| 02:23:07.60 | Chris Zapata | There you go. With enforcement, this should be preceded by some kind of education. of the folks that were coming to make sure that we're all on the same page. So I would include that in any approach that we made with respect to enforcement, we should educate and inform before we actually do that in a major way. |
| 02:23:28.61 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. Agreed. Okay, all right, thank you for that. I think that's clear unless staff, Staff has a question on any of those things that we've given direction on. I'm not seeing a hand from either Director McGowan or Interim Director Scoble. So thanks very much for everybody's hard work. And we are moving on to our next item on our agenda. which is we moved item C earlier in the meeting to our next meeting, so that'll be October 26th, and that's approval of the Citywide Historic Contact Statement. So then moving on to communications. So this is item six on our agenda. 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 a brief announcement or refer matters not on the agenda to city staff or direct that the subject be agendized for future meetings. If you would like to provide a public comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application. The city clerk will call on individuals who have raised their hands in the order they are raised. After you have called on, you will 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. 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. So, at this time, I would like to open up public comment for matters not on the agenda. |
| 02:25:38.70 | Jill Hoffman | And I am not seeing any hands. Oh, no, there you go. We got one. So Mr. Clerk, I'll let you call. the |
| 02:25:48.74 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, we do have a hand raised and it's spelled T-T. You're being unmuted and Esther shared your video. |
| 02:26:05.01 | Charles Melton | Hi everyone. I'd like to respectfully decline video sharing at this time. I'm Charlie an advocate for equity diversity and inclusion which is necessary for progress in uniting the broader Southern Marin community. That being said, I made notes and would like to address a few concerns that have rolled over from the 928 calendar if possible. Thus far, the city has incurred $500,000 in litigation and relocation costs as it pertains to the encampment that was forcibly moved from Dunphy to Marin Ship Park. On top of this already staggering expense, Chief Roybacher developed a proposal for $185,000 in funding for security at Marin Ship Park that has been approved. However, this panel was unable to identify potential contractors that have been properly vetted to provide security in this unique, sensitive, and complex environment. As previously discussed and agreed to, the community as a whole must be included in transparent and open dialogue as to what exactly this security plan entails and what supportive services are needed. But before we can even begin to address the loss of life, the substance abuse. the mental health, the sexual assault. the violent, and the rape. We must first provide the most fundamental basic human necessity. A C- safety space. for unhoused individuals in need of resources and referrals. More than one year ago, the US declared a national emergency due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. which as of this date has killed more than 714,000 Americans. nearly 10% of which were Californians. Yet at the height of this disaster, Cavallo Point in above tide in Casa Madrona sat virtually vacant. So nearly three quarters of a million dollars later, here we are. which is why I find it particularly egregious that our emergency services coordinator resorted to throwing rocks at a woman who is already suffering chaos and crisis as a result of her boat. her home. being destroyed by the RBRA. I can confirm. that that individual had numerous legitimate reasons to fear for her safety and the safety of others. I provided her with an emergency cell phone and other necessities. However, when she reached out to law enforcement for help, She was denied protection and assistance. which further aggravated her circumstances. further. I was at Marinship Park. and watched the badly decomposed body of a man removed from a tent. I was also there two days prior. when Lieutenant Stacy Gregory failed to discover the human remains. |
| 02:29:10.50 | Heidi Scoble | and ring. Minutes have elapsed. |
| 02:29:14.33 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 02:29:14.36 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. Moving on, I don't see any other hands up. Yes, I do see. Okay, there you go. Ava's, I see Ava's iPhone and I... |
| 02:29:28.17 | Heidi Scoble | If I use next muted. |
| 02:29:28.23 | Jill Hoffman | I think it's the next slide. Okay, thank you. |
| 02:29:32.59 | Eva | Hi there, can you hear me okay? |
| 02:29:34.31 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, go ahead, please. |
| 02:29:34.34 | Eva | Yes. Thank you. Thanks so much. Yeah, I just wanted to point out a couple things. I always get a kick out of what Melissa Blaustein says. The comparison of Sausalito to Positano was very science-po, I have to say, I don't know if you go into the back kitchens in Positano, if you'll find that the staff is almost entirely Guatemalan and underpaid, But yeah, that might be an important distinction between the two towns. that maybe the people who are talking to Melissa Blouse-Steam don't pay much mind to. But I did want to point out that something interesting happened on the last City Council meeting, which is at the city manager, Chris Zapata, announced that the city of South Florida had spent upward of $500,000 on attorney fees because of the the battle with the encampment, the legal battle, and Susan Cleveland Knowles expressed surprise at this. I wondered, maybe you guys should talk more often about costs because it is very interesting that that was news. to a member of city council, particularly one who's an attorney, and whose husband works in big law. I would imagine that you guys were keeping tabs on this. So it was just, it was kind of confusing. I also want to point out that, um, you know, in large part, that battle is a battle that never had to be fought. Um, people were removed from their boats. And then the boats were seized and crushed by a very, very aggressive harbor master who is now having to resign. Surprise, surprise. I don't know anyone who should have been surprised by that, but his farewell meeting will be on Thursday at 530 RBRA. And, um, I don't know if he will be failing up like so many other white men in this county, but It's quite possible. Like Andrew Henning, he will fail up to the next level. We will find out maybe soon on Thursday. But I do wanna urge you to take a less combative and more cooperative approach, $185,000 on security, for the encampment is money that is not being well spent And in general, I think a lot of the nonprofits you're partnering with should probably be or closely tracked. Anyway, thank you for your time. |
| 02:32:32.51 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:32:32.54 | Eva | All right. |
| 02:32:32.84 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, now I see no further hands up for public comments. And so Unless the clerk tells me otherwise, Close public comment for matters not on the agenda. |
| 02:32:48.39 | Heidi Scoble | Madam Mayor, you're correct. We have no further hands raised. |
| 02:32:51.81 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Thank you. So at this point, I will open up. We're moving on to item eight, which is a combined... |
| 02:32:55.59 | Heidi Scoble | Right? |
| 02:33:02.17 | Jill Hoffman | city manager reports, city council appointments and other council business, which will be our, Um... our committee reports and future agenda items. And so we take public comment on all of the item eight matters at one time and that is now. and so. |
| 02:33:22.29 | Unknown | I'm just not. |
| 02:33:23.71 | Jill Hoffman | I will open up public comment for item 8. |
| 02:33:32.11 | Jill Hoffman | And I'm not seeing any hands and so Serge, if you would. |
| 02:33:36.04 | Heidi Scoble | Madam mayor, you are correct. We have no hands-raised for the following items. |
| 02:33:40.73 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Then we will move on to Our first, which is... our city manager report. So go ahead. city manager. |
| 02:33:57.02 | Chris Zapata | Am I unmuted? |
| 02:33:58.57 | Jill Hoffman | You are unmuted, yes. |
| 02:34:00.39 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, I thought the new process was to provide a written report attached into the packet It's about hiring. Is that for you? Go ahead. Is that what we're hiring? |
| 02:34:10.91 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Well, yeah, okay, go ahead. Yeah, whatever you would like to put out to the public. |
| 02:34:14.36 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. So it's. It's in writing. What I will say is, The expenses that the city of Sausalito has paid as a result of the homelessness encampment in Dunphy and in the marinship, we'll provide a full accounting of that. this coming meeting on the 26th. along with some ideas about how the council directed us to bifurcate the money from just security to also services And we'll bring her an approach that I believe will absolutely make sense to people in the encampment as well as the community, because there is a need for both, security for the people that live there, and people in and around there, as well as there is a primary need for services. And so that will come along with the accounting. I don't know where it was said that I said the legal costs were $500,000. I don't... I don't think I wrote that. I don't think I said that. I think when you aggregate all of the city of Sausalito's expenses since January this past year, you're talking around that ballpark so we'll provide an accurate accounting at the next meeting thank you |
| 02:35:26.12 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for your written report as well. So 8C, we don't have any appointments to boards and commissions or committees tonight. Um, So we are instituting a written Hold on a second. We have a live mic of one of our speakers. I think if our clerk could look at that. Okay, thank you. Thanks. I'm sure they didn't realize they were so unlike. Okay, so we are doing written reports now for committee reports, but we do have a little bit of time before our hard stop at 10, that we, our soft hard stop at 10, that we try to institute. So if anybody has a committee report they wanna weigh in with, in addition to the written reports, that's fine. I think we have time for that. So, Councilmember of Blue Knowledge, go ahead. Looks like you... Thank you. |
| 02:36:21.33 | Melissa Blaustein | Sure, so we're going back to item seven. Is that what we're... Did I skip over that? |
| 02:36:24.79 | Jill Hoffman | Did I skip over that? Sorry. |
| 02:36:26.67 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, it's OK. |
| 02:36:28.03 | Jill Hoffman | So I'm just arguing |
| 02:36:29.94 | Melissa Blaustein | Just two quick updates from back in September and then could we just talk about what we're expecting for written committee reports I didn't do them for this meeting, but it would just be helpful to maybe have a. understanding, are we just talking like bullet points and then any maybe attached written? Thank you. |
| 02:36:51.18 | Jill Hoffman | And so, yeah. I think it's as easy and as efficient and clear as we can possibly, relevant information, right? and then agree that if you think you have something from a meeting that needs to be attached, then attach it to your report. I was thinking too that it would just be maybe one for each committee. Maybe there's one page or one report, right? And then you just add to it every, you know, add to it every, |
| 02:37:06.19 | Unknown | I think it's good. |
| 02:37:19.84 | Jill Hoffman | every meeting. So that kind of made sense to me, but... Thank you. |
| 02:37:23.18 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, like a running report, is that? |
| 02:37:23.23 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Yeah, yeah. But however people want to do it, right? I mean, we're just sort of starting this, so. |
| 02:37:32.24 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, so just two quick things from September, the PBAC met on the 20th, and I did just wanna emphasize that this Friday, they are sponsoring together with a couple other organizations. The movie Motherlode in Gabrielson Park. I think it starts at six o'clock and hoping folks from the community will be there. It's bike friendly movie that was made locally. Then there's a Nevada Street. We had a discussion of the Nevada Street bike safe routes to school. Hopefully that will be coming to the council soon. And then the next meeting, which is this coming Monday, there'll be a discussion of the North South Greenway. So for folks who are interested in that, I hope you'll attend. And then a TAM meeting on September 23rd There's a really interesting report on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge and the westbound vehicle shoulder. or the use of the current bike lane for vehicles or for bikes. And then a discussion of programming for some various federal funding sources. And I did just want to note that the repaving of the Mill Valley-Sasalito bike path was funded through those, and that will be happening very soon. And then a presentation on alternative fuels. So that, oh, and lastly, and this might be coming forward. I don't know, Mayor, if you've heard about this, but we did adopt a resolution. This is the Transportation Authority of Marin opposing coal transportation. through Moran County. And I know some folks were thinking about approaching mayors and city council members of Moran with having local resolutions to that effect as well. So that might cross your desk. |
| 02:39:33.03 | Jill Hoffman | Not yet, but did you see |
| 02:39:35.02 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm gonna say Cole, C-O-L. |
| 02:39:36.61 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 02:39:36.97 | Melissa Blaustein | I did, yeah. There's a proposal to use, potentially to use some of the smart trackway for coal transportation, so TAM opposed |
| 02:39:48.93 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:39:49.35 | Melissa Blaustein | that and |
| 02:39:50.60 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:39:51.49 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. |
| 02:39:51.92 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:39:51.93 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:39:51.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks. I'll keep an eye out for that. Okay, anybody else wanna get oral written report in addition to their written report? |
| 02:40:00.50 | Janelle Kellman | I'll go really quickly, Mayrhoff. |
| 02:40:01.75 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:40:01.97 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:40:02.01 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:40:02.02 | Janelle Kellman | we have a |
| 02:40:02.36 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:40:03.07 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, sure. Just real quick. This is an official committee, but I don't think anybody else sat in on. There's a presentation for the California Climate and Energy Collaborative, which I found really interesting about operationalizing equity within climate issues and climate justice being related to racial justice and environmental justice. So I'm going to get the materials from that. And if anybody would like copies. I thought the presentation was excellent and it was extremely sort of helpful to think about those issues in that format. Um, I'm looking through my notes, sorry. We had a finance committee meeting, and I was gonna say something earlier about it, but we had a really good conversation about the Treasurer's Report and the budget slash quarterly financial report. Ide Bailey is handling our Treasurer's Report information, and as you know, Mr. Francis is handling the budget along with Adam Stone. Both are hard at work, evaluating opportunities to present the information more clearly, more succinctly. and to move away from just giving us snapshots and time but instead to provide overall trends. So looking back five years and looking forward to five years, The other one that came up that I think will be important for us is how we look at our funds, whether they're restricted or not, and what kind of restrictions we have, and how we might, from a policy perspective, want to be thinking about our fund balances. So that's going to be part of the treasurer's obligation. As you probably know, the treasurer reports directly to the council, whereas the finance director under our municipal code reports to the city manager. So it's a nice checks and balance on our financial ecosystem. So that's coming going to be talking about the financial ecosystem, and we're going to be talking about the financial ecosystem. So, we're going to be talking about the financial ecosystem, and we're going to be talking about the financial ecosystem. So, that's coming down the pipe, and I think it's going to be really helpful. And maybe we can even give an update on the 30th. And then the last is the Sea Level Rise Task Force. I know we're bringing our report and recommendations to the Council fairly soon. This week, I'm presenting, along with some task force members, and then a short presentation to the Sustainability Commission on Thursday night. So we will have had a significant interaction with city staff, boards and commissions, and be able to bring that to the council a lot of information, so I look forward to doing that. Oh, and I guess maybe Council Member Sobieski can handle the new advisory committee on infrastructure and the EDAC. |
| 02:42:27.10 | Ian Sobieski | Well, sure. We had a, the Vice Mayor and I are pulling together are we calling it an ad hoc advisory committee on infrastructure? It started really, and it's on our future agenda items. We have a future agenda item about reestablishing the undergrounding committee. THAT IS BEEN BROADENED AT THE SUGGESTION OF OUR CITY MANAGER TO BE A LITTLE BIT MORE GENERAL ABOUT A VARIETY OF INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS WITH UNDERGROUNDING BEING THE FIRST TOPIC TO BE ENGAGED WITH. SO WE'VE HAD ONE MEETING BUS FAR WITH PG&E SPEAKING ABOUT RULE 20A and 20B projects and understanding a lot of details there. As with all really good meetings with smart people, there were many questions generated that we are now waiting to get answers to. And we'll write a report on them. EDAC. has met as well and we have a variety. I don't have the list of events in front of me, but I think there will be publicized with the currents. Wednesday night live events are, being organized by EDAC and the Chamber of Commerce. These are additional events to try to attract visitors both residents and local regional visitors to our downtown off midweek, so Wednesday nights. And there will be different kinds of music events held in different venues in downtown. And I don't have the list here in front of me, but I'm sure it'll get published. What did I miss, Vice Mayor? I'm sure I missed something. |
| 02:44:04.01 | Janelle Kellman | Oh, that was excellent. They've been hard at work, so that was a great list. |
| 02:44:07.37 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I just, Mayor Hoffman, could I just ask, I thought at our last meeting we agreed to keep the undergrounding committee confined to undergrounding. I have a lot of concerns about having a subcommittee of the city council that is an infrastructure subcommittee because for example, council member Sobieski and I are on the subcommittee that does the sewer consolidation issues. I'm liaison to P-BAC, which has a lot of discussions about roads. ETC other people are on different committees, I mean infrastructure is so broad that if Councilmember so but yet if we have a subcommittee will be. We just won't be able to We'll have brown act I think I think we'll just have so many brown act problems around that, and I think maybe it would be better to start with the with the undergrounding and then if once that sort of work is done and maybe. Council member Sobieski and the vice mayor can move on to a different infrastructure issue and then the rest of us can kind of stay away from that. But to have just one subcommittee that's not, but continuing seems like it's going to definitely overlap with things that all of the rest of us are doing. So I would just raise that. And I did not think that we had agreed to do that, but maybe I misunderstood at our last meeting. |
| 02:45:27.41 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I think we definitely did the undergrounding part and I think we did scope it out for infrastructure, but I think the vice mayor was leaning forward and had something to add. |
| 02:45:37.99 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Oh, well, yes, if I may. |
| 02:45:38.34 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:45:38.36 | Sandra Bushmaker | I... |
| 02:45:40.84 | Janelle Kellman | I don't recall what we had articulated by in conversations with the city manager I think we, and your points are well taken and probably quite valid in terms of the Brown Act, so I don't have a solution there, but I think the idea was to look at it from a big picture infrastructure perspective. Given the Brown Act situation, we may need to bifurcate it and handle it issue by issue. I'm not quite sure, I don't know if the city attorney or city manager want to weigh in. How about this? |
| 02:46:10.30 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:46:10.32 | Ian Sobieski | this I'll just chime in. I agree with Councilmember Cleveland Holes and the Vice Mayor and I both scratch a heads a little bit about it, but so we can we can settle it right now. I mean the only thing we've been working on so far is the undergrounding issues. |
| 02:46:11.01 | Janelle Kellman | How much? |
| 02:46:25.83 | Jill Hoffman | So how about this? Why don't you guys work on the underground? I mean, that's a priority, obviously. But then, um, At the point where you feel like that's, you know, sort of got that issue on the right track. then think about what that would look like. we do have some huge infrastructure issues that are way bigger than what the individual commissions are working on. Why don't at some point you just come back and at a committee report, give us a report of, hey, this is where we are with undergrounding, These are the other big infrastructure issues that we might want to devote time from a subcommittee. So sewers is a big, you know, that comes up. |
| 02:47:09.42 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:47:09.47 | Jill Hoffman | I think we do have a subcommittee on that though already. to Council Member Cleo Mills' point. So why don't you, so focus on the undergrounding and then, like I said, when you get close to finish up on that and come back to the council with a recommendation on what it would look like going forward. and, how we can do it. how we want to move forward with infrastructure as whatever whatever i mean whatever way you think a recommendation to the city council should be right because you'll be living it for the next few months so does that sound okay anyway okay all right good okay i didn't get to go yeah sure go ahead well we were trying to do keep it to written reports but |
| 02:47:46.73 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:47:48.30 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:47:48.31 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:47:53.00 | Jill Hoffman | But I get it. We have time, so go ahead. Thank you. |
| 02:47:56.13 | Melissa Blaustein | I'll be really quick. |
| 02:47:57.39 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:47:57.41 | Melissa Blaustein | Just well, Mayor Hoffman and I met to work on the historic preservation statement. And so we're still in the process of that. But that was part of our equity work that we've been doing. And I also wanted to note that I attended the race matters meant where Mayor Hoffman was the featured speaker alongside three others, which she didn't mention in her last Committee report. We continue to meet with Supervisor Moulton Peters on the Homelessness Subcommittee. This morning we attended the MCCMC Homelessness Committee meeting which is chaired by Mary Kate Colin and Mary Goddard they had representatives from the mental health services, as I mentioned, but a couple pieces of news that are important to share with the Community that came out of that discussion. The first is that they have hired the two caseworkers who will be responsible for the service utilization. which should help to increase access to housing for those most in need and the encampments that was a good piece of information and also just that they are. |
| 02:48:40.56 | Charles Melton | to follow that discussion. |
| 02:48:52.78 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 02:48:52.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:48:52.96 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 02:48:56.93 | Melissa Blaustein | They have identified a home key site at South Alicio in Larkspur and are beginning inspections and conversations around that. I just wanted to add, we didn't have an OMIT meeting in October because Council Member Sogioski and I are still waiting for some details and information as it relates to market rates for city property, which came up quite a bit tonight. So I just wanted to mention that that will be... happening as well. And I'm going to just keep it short and stop there. |
| 02:49:23.67 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Okay, so no, I don't see anybody else that has their hand raised, so we'll move on. Future agenda items, any? keeping in mind our limited scope and our limited, sorry, not scope, but bandwidth and matters that are already on our, our future dinner. |
| 02:49:45.36 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, I... Thank you. wanted to make sure that the Bank of America was, I did not see that in the next couple of meetings. I also Thank you, Vice Mayor, for mentioning that a sea level rise committee reports to that. But I also did not see that on either of our next two Agendas. So that would be great to You got that in front of the... And then I think we've just Every meeting I think we've sort of talked about the fact that our last meeting on diversity, equity, and inclusion was in January. Probably overdue for that discussion. |
| 02:50:26.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, thank you. I'm looking at our future. With regard to sea level rise, we're targeting that to come back in, I think, the second meeting in November. I'd be surprised if that was not on our future agenda item. And apologies if it's not. |
| 02:50:44.42 | Melissa Blaustein | I was just looking at the next two meetings and I thought we were going to hear that. a little bit sooner. |
| 02:50:51.16 | Jill Hoffman | The recommendation was for it to go back to disaster preparedness and PBAC. And so that's it. We had to work with their schedule. So that's why it's now looking like, I believe it's the second meeting in November is when that's on the future agenda. So, okay. And Council Member Cleveland Knowles, sorry. House from our wilds team. |
| 02:51:17.12 | Melissa Blaustein | I would really like to add establishing a landing knowledge meant for the city of Sausalito to our future agenda items that was something that came up as we were reviewing the historic content statement. If you're not familiar land acknowledgement is acknowledging that we are living on Miwok land and it has been adopted already by the town of Fairfax and by San Juan and the Valley I believe in a number of school districts. it would be really, we're past the point of needing to do that. So it would be a simple process of having a statement. We really wanted to, we could also, bring that into practice at the beginning of our council meetings as well. So just wanted to get that on the radar, folks. |
| 02:51:52.11 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Okay, any other suggestions for future hidden items? Okay, see none. I believe then |
| 02:52:06.30 | Jill Hoffman | Any other reports of significance? I'm not aware of any, and so... I will adjourn the meeting. So very good. Thanks. Good work. |
| 02:52:15.07 | Unknown | Thanks. Thank you. |
| 02:52:15.97 | Melissa Blaustein | Amen. |
| 02:52:19.34 | Ian Sobieski | Some of the radio stations that play big band music sound |
Eva — Neutral: Requested more explanation on why Marin City is not served by Southern Marin Fire, questioning the historical decision and its implications. ▶ 📄