| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.03 | Mayor Blaustein | because we have a lot of closed session items to cover. Oh, here he is. He's in the waiting room. All right. |
| 00:00:06.14 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, good evening, Mayor Blaustein and council members. This meeting- |
| 00:00:09.85 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:00:09.87 | Amy Pritzchik | Recording in progress. |
| 00:00:11.39 | Walfred Solorzano | This meeting has been held pursuant to government code section 54953E. And in light of the declared state of emergency, the regular meeting for the city council of for February 28, 2023 will be conducted telephonically through Zoom and broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. In addition, council chambers are open to the public and for the record, there are no people in attendance. |
| 00:00:38.25 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you, city clerk. I will now call this meeting to order at 5.01 PM. City clerk, will you please call the roll? |
| 00:00:46.77 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox |
| 00:00:48.34 | Mayor Blaustein | present. |
| 00:00:48.66 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:00:49.96 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member Hoffman. |
| 00:00:51.58 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:00:51.60 | Jill Hoffman | here. |
| 00:00:52.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Kalman. |
| 00:00:56.34 | Jill Hoffman | Here. |
| 00:00:56.51 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:00:57.81 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Sobieski. Thank you. here. and Mayor Blastham. |
| 00:01:02.01 | Mayor Blaustein | here. Okay, we have several items to discuss in closed session this evening. The first is conference with legal counsel existing litigation government code section 54956.9. Sausalito-Marine County chapter of the California Homeless Union versus the City of Sausalito. The second is Commerce of Legal Counsel, Existing Litigation. Government code section 54956.9 Schmidt versus City of Sausalito. Then conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, Sausalito Yacht Harbor versus the city of Sausalito, Conference with labor negotiator, government code 54957.6. Agency designated representative, Deborah Muchmore. And then threats to public services or facilities, government code section 54957, which is a conversation with our chief of police. So I will now take public comment on closed session items. And city clerk, can you remind members of the public how they can make public comment? |
| 00:01:57.14 | Walfred Solorzano | Well, if you're in attendance, which we have nobody here, you can assign a speaker slip. But those that are on Zoom, you can use the raise hand function. Or you can, if you're on telephone, you can press star nine. |
| 00:02:13.50 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. Do we have any public comment at this time, Wilfred? |
| 00:02:16.94 | Walfred Solorzano | We do not. |
| 00:02:17.92 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, seeing none, we will go into closed session and we will resume the meeting at 7 p.m. Thank you. |
| 00:02:27.69 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:02:27.97 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:02:28.03 | Mayor Blaustein | I have a link to those sessions. It's a breakout room. on the bottom right. |
| 00:02:51.55 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Nothing. Thank you. |
| 00:03:18.51 | Unknown | Amen. May I let my voice out? Because they're softening? Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:03:33.74 | Unknown | by some feathered ring? |
| 00:03:37.67 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:03:38.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:03:38.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:03:45.26 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:03:45.72 | Unknown | you |
| 00:03:48.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:04:03.54 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:04:12.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:04:17.96 | Unknown | one of the little classes that was right at the minute. and told me. Thank you. that's over the month. Thank you. um No. Thank you. |
| 00:04:33.96 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. that you've done. |
| 00:04:47.88 | Amy Pritzchik | Recording stopped. |
| 00:04:51.82 | Mayor Blaustein | That scarf is sharp, Janelle. I like that. |
| 00:05:08.62 | Janelle Cox | You're on mute, Janelle. She knows. Thank you. |
| 00:05:14.67 | Mayor Blaustein | What? |
| 00:05:20.20 | Mayor Blaustein | Now you can unmute yourself and react to my compliment to your scarf. Thank you. |
| 00:05:23.78 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:05:23.80 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:05:23.96 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I will just give a little brag that this is an Hermes scarf that I got in a consignment shop in Rome. And I sort of wandered in and I was like, is that her men's scarf? Edek and Simon shop. So I had to acquire it. And it's a little jaunty for me, but I felt, I don't know, felt jaunty tonight. Do it. I got it. |
| 00:05:43.77 | Ian Sobieski | I got an Hermes jacket in Rome at a consignment shop. |
| 00:05:48.04 | Jill Hoffman | Ooh, you should wear it. |
| 00:05:49.31 | Ian Sobieski | Well, it's black, it's too somber for this evening, at all. |
| 00:05:53.75 | Mayor Blaustein | So where to our group dinner? |
| 00:05:55.12 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. |
| 00:05:55.32 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:05:55.47 | Janelle Cox | Yeah, ooh, wear it to our group dinner. I like that idea. |
| 00:05:57.24 | Ian Sobieski | We'll be back. |
| 00:05:58.74 | Janelle Cox | Kudos that you guys can even recognize what Hermes looks like. |
| 00:06:02.27 | Ian Sobieski | It has a label on the inside, John says Hermes. |
| 00:06:02.51 | Janelle Cox | It has a lot of time. |
| 00:06:07.23 | Ian Sobieski | I said, hmm, is this any good? Oh, it's Hermes. It's good. I'll buy it. |
| 00:06:14.62 | Mayor Blaustein | Are we still waiting? We're still waiting for Jill. Oh, there she is. Great. Perfect. |
| 00:06:20.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:20.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:21.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:21.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:21.49 | Mayor Blaustein | Sorry, here. |
| 00:06:21.57 | Unknown | Sorry, here. |
| 00:06:22.81 | Mayor Blaustein | Here, present. Okay, now we have everybody. So I'm ready whenever... You are a city clerk. |
| 00:06:31.09 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay. Recording in progress. We're live now and you can reconvene the meeting. |
| 00:06:36.83 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you very much, everybody. Welcome back to this regularly agendized meeting of the Sausalito City Council. There are no announcements from closed session and I will now reconvene the meeting at 7.06 p.m. And so let's start by approving the agenda. |
| 00:06:58.23 | Mayor Blaustein | Do I have a motion to approve this evening's agenda? So moved. |
| 00:07:00.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:07:00.77 | Walfred Solorzano | So, |
| 00:07:01.48 | Mayor Blaustein | No. I will second. |
| 00:07:03.53 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, for the record, who moved? |
| 00:07:05.52 | Mayor Blaustein | Joan Cox. |
| 00:07:10.12 | Mayor Blaustein | I'll stick it. Thank you very much, Councilmember Kellman. So can I have a roll call vote, please, City Clerk? |
| 00:07:15.85 | Walfred Solorzano | Transformer Cox |
| 00:07:17.09 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. |
| 00:07:18.32 | Walfred Solorzano | Council Member Hoffman. |
| 00:07:19.83 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. |
| 00:07:20.81 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Kelman. |
| 00:07:22.14 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. |
| 00:07:23.12 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Sobieski. Yes. And Mare Blasting. |
| 00:07:26.88 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. Motion passes 5-0. So next item on the agenda is mayor's announcements. I just wanted to share in case you didn't see it in currents that the fundraiser for the Sausalito Sea Lion has officially begun for the Sausalito Foundation and there is a link. on ways to support them on their website. I know that we have received a lot of comment and many of us about this icon, so I wanted to make sure that folks were aware that that fundraiser has kicked off and that the sea lion is in the process of being restored. So at this point, we will go ahead on with the special presentations. And this evening's special presentation, we have with us the potential and promise of Daylighting Willow Creek, from the Willow Creek Daylighting Foundation, Steve Moore. So let's hand it over to him for that presentation. |
| 00:08:15.28 | Steve Moore | Well, thank you so much, Mayor Blaustein and honorable members of the city council. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to speak about the potential and promise of daylighting Willow Creek. And I hope you can hear me okay. Um, I do have a presentation to share. So let's see, I'll share my screen. |
| 00:08:39.43 | Steve Moore | and to number one and I just want to do a quick test. Is this working? Can you see this slide? |
| 00:08:49.10 | Jill Hoffman | We sure can. |
| 00:08:50.56 | Steve Moore | Excellent. So my name is Steve Moore. I'm a director of the Small nonprofit Friends of Willow Creek we established in 2011. Myself, an alumni parent, the head of school, a teacher, an environmental educator, formed this nonprofit I'm a registered civil engineer. and 25 year homeowner here in Sausalito. over 30 years experience in water resources. I'd say I really believe that water is the physical manifestation of spirituality on earth, and we were born into a world. that and a culture that has a dysfunctional relationship with water. Water brings beauty and life into our lives and we choose to fear it and bury it in our urban areas. But that's changing. Have faith. in the water. You know, the title of my presentation is Moment of Truth. for a once forgotten decree. The 300-foot-long channel at the Willow Grove at Nevada Street and Bridgeway is no longer forgotten. thanks to this sign. Um, And that was erected in 2021. It was painted by Terry Thomas, who's an ecologist here in Sausalito. and a friend of the creek and also Lise Cholino. of Sausalito beautiful and we really want to acknowledge City Manager Chris Zapata, who encouraged us to make the sign, and City Public Works staff, |
| 00:10:09.25 | Jack McDonnell | Thank you. |
| 00:10:13.01 | Steve Moore | Lauren Umbertis, who's now with Fairfax, Kevin McGowan and the Corporation Yard staff. that finished it and installed it and did a wonderful job. It recognizes this priceless natural resource. Right here in our midst, a perennial flowing creek, even in drought, and the namesake of our city, Sausalito. which means little willow thickage, and those growths. near Little Creek. Let's talk a little bit about history, shall we? Go back to 1926. And hopefully you can see my cursor. know. what we talk about is that this Creek, Willow Creek Watershed. It really represents the one creek out of six or seven that we could possibly restore from the headwaters to the bay. I'll walk really quickly through here. I live down here in Hurricane Gulch, that's one watershed here. This ridge above our city condenses fog and creates these year round flowing creeks that have largely been forgotten. unless you've got one going under your house, you sure know it's there. There's just a lot of Hurricane Gulch, Tiffany Creek, Glen Creek, We have spring in Woodward Creek, Willow Creek. and the Lincoln View creation. And so we just want to point out What we learned more about this, that it was, this is the possibility because there's no significant structures on top of this. It's all underground except for Willow Grove. But what's interesting why it might've been forgotten is you see the street that's here in 1926, right on top of where the creek would be, right? So even back then, It had been buried. Moving forward to 1945, Here's an aerial photo of the watershed We're in SHIB. And you can see Nevada Street right here. and this is now the campus the Nevada campus of the school district you see all these benches that where the current school buildings are located and where the ball field is. Here's Buchanan Drive into Mollus. So you see, yeah, the creek is buried. And it was hastily buried to create Marinship. And also this, fill in the canyon was made for the Redwood Highway, Waldo Great. Another interesting point is inhabit chambers here. He took me to the Shanghai tunnel Springs a while back. This was the water supply in the 1800s before the city was incorporated that serves 300 people or so 20,000 gallons. day. And that's the source of Willow Creek. And here's some pictures, here's the horizontal well. that you can find up in the headlands. This is a cave where the water's coming out. year round and here's the water flow up in the GGNRA. So it's kind of an interesting story and explanation. why there's this steady rolling creek. You know, just real quickly, I want to go over some of the work we've done over the years. You know, we were focused on the Willow Grove and restoration there for several years. doing invasive plant removal native planting. along with getting the school kids down there. with an outdoor education. And we also worked on native plants on the campus at Nevada Street. in preparation, we were hoping for daylighting there. over the years. We obtained grants. had a conceptual plan back in 2013 We worked on a possible bond for the lower part of the school campus. In 2016, that was aborted. We received $100,000 in 2017 to develop a 70% design on the Nevada campus. In 2017, you may recall we had some input to the general plan. on Creek resources. We applied to Coastal Conservancy in 2018 with the district to do daylighting on the upper campus. I'll show you the plan. It was not awarded. In 2020, Measure P passed. We participate in that. $41 million, the voters approved for campus renovation in the district. this past year. We worked with the, to apply for a U.S. EPA grant. And we expect an announcement to be that the district will be eligible perhaps $3.5 million to daylight the creek. The problem at this point. is the current schematic plan that the district approved in December does not have a creep. What are we talking? You know, when it's flowing, not raining, it's clear. the high water quality, the national park level, Stone flies, caddis flies. that you find in Yosemite. you can find in this creek. It's a high water quality, and it flows year round. The fact sheet for Measure P IT HAS THIS ON IT AND I'LL JUST FOCUS ON THE, underlying bubble, What about climate change and environmental stewardship? down here in the It talks about green building standards, but measure P would help the district improve outdoor environmental education, And the Underground Creek and Nevada Street campus would be daylighted to provide outdoor science education opportunities to students. I don't know. So going back to the whole watershed idea, this is the conceptual plan that we've floated here before the city council in the past, because we would be weaving through structures, but we actually could create with some realignment the entire creek. Right now the red, it shows the only section of open channel in the city at the Willow Grove. We envision that it's possible to phase it in. The more difficult phases would be put off with a lot of stakeholder input, but the community could choose to create a creek corridor all the way through, all the way to the national park, and create wildlife corridors. This is a great riparian. that would help this wildlife corridor from Cypress Ridge and the wildlife that exists there. And you know about the road kills on the freeway. So this could be a solution for that too. This is the daylighting plan that we developed in the upper campus, and you might recognize that squiggly blue line here. those here in a almost ready to construct land. It has bridges, fences. It keeps, you know, the kids out, keeps them safe. controlled access. outdoor education area. and riparian habitat. and connected to wildlife corridors. about 300 feet long, just like the Ridgeway willow grow. And we use this in the EPA application and this is what won them over. as far as the water quality improvement expected. from a channel like this. So this is what EPA is expecting to help fund So recent timeline, I just want to go over quickly You know, we, as I mentioned, we were active in the Measure P campaign, we provided funding volunteer time. this past year, we contracted with Dr. Dr. Joradowski-Chatham, who the city's worked with, the creek restoration experts, And, Um, We to get them ready to provide technical assistance on measure P Let the district folks know. In April, the district hired JK Architects for campus renovation and we requested meetings. May 2022, community meetings were initiated without us or PCI. And then in August 18th, We had a great board meeting at the district. They agreed to apply for the US EPA grant with our assistance. And then 13 days later, Up until this point, we thought that the creek was going to be daylighted in the plan. on August 31st. JK unveiled a schematic plan to us and CPCI that did not have the creek included. So in response, we still worked through and got the application in. but September through January this past year, We've been meeting with the superintendent and the JK team Um, And at some point around September 27th, we were assured that the creek could maybe be done around the school perimeter. We weren't sure that that's really feasible. and we had PCI look at it. and they provided some input Going around the school was not feasible. That doesn't mean it's not possible. But as you all know, there's a difference between what's feasible or possible Feasibility speaks to what's affordable. and practical and not too disruptive. So that's where we're at. That's why I'd say we're in a moment of truth. You know, the school property is really phase one of a conceptual daylighting plan. and we'll set the stage for potential momentum in the rest of the city if we're really serious about doing this restoration. um, And in confidence, JK Architects told us, you know, back in September, They don't have experience with creek restoration. This is not their wheelhouse. Well, that's fine. |
| 00:18:57.93 | Unknown | Well, I'm going to go. Thank you. |
| 00:18:59.28 | Steve Moore | That's why we have PCI under contract to provide technical support until the district can contract with them. to perform engineering services. So at this time, It's, The district is inexplicably not hired DCI. And what we feel is a headlong rush to build a school project. Now, I respect and understand the pressure that the district is under. to get the school project underway. You know, I I empathize and really want to continue with a partnership approach. but I'm concerned that a key engineering step may have been inadvertently missed that increases project risk, for instance, Project overruns may occur due to unknown buried objects, such as cultural resources. um, This project currently undermines the promise to the community to restore the creek. by not bringing experts in earlier in the process. And I want to point out, that it's a massive earthmoving and retaining wall project. And, Our question is, can't we achieve project objectives without such expensive measures? If you've done a remodeling project, you know. If you're putting in concrete walls and moving earth, and the costs add up quickly. So what is our ask? Could the districts please slow down Target 2024 for construction. and really engage the experts. And as a, footnote. it is a required matching expenditure. that the district has pledged in their grant application for the 3.5 million is to pay for this type of technical analysis. So, I wanted to provide you the schematic plan that the district is worked up. This is the storm drain. that they proposed to pay for with Measure P fund There's currently the red line is the underground culvert through the school. The yellow line would be a new into the hillside. You can see the topographic lines. This is a significant construction of a pipe. And for reference, this blue line is the proposed day lighting plan that EPA viewed favorably and that we had designed a few years ago. So what I'll point out is by moving the ball field from this location here See that flat area? and then there's a hill. by moving it uphill. There's now a 15 to 20 foot retaining wall here. And so that uh, makes creek restoration impossible through here. |
| 00:21:37.08 | Steve Moore | In January, we had PCI provide some written comments on the plan And to go around the school, this is the, medium blue line here. what the project team was proposing. And it really are, each box is a problem. with this design. And one of them is that this is a city storm drain that's not big enough. and would have to be upsized to be able to carry the flow. So the city would be impacted by that. but also Um, You have the retaining wall here. and you have a creek that's going parallel which is more like a canal, not a creek. Creeks have to go perpendicular to the topographic line. For reference, this is a light blue line is the day lighting plan that the EPA viewed favorably. And this is the existing Great. location with a wavy path shaped like a creek. It's just a path. the compromise that PCI proposed a month ago here was. to daylight. outside the ball field. and then connect into the new storm drain that the project team proposed. But, So, Where next steps, I think we have three options. There's probably more, And we certainly could live with one or two on this. And we're very concerned about option three. Option one, as I just described, would be a quicker option So, of an integration of the creation if the district would direct the architects to work with PCI to integrate institutions consistent with the Measure B fact sheet. And it would be an opportunity there near the proposed ball fields. Number two, which we might prefer as a slower option, We call it value engineering. where the district would direct the architects to work with PCI to modify the design to better use existing building pads and ball fields to reduce the cost of earth moving and massive retaining walls and also integrate the creek into the plan. The third option, district moves forward with the schematic plan which we are concerned may foreclose on creek daylighting and the $3.5 million grant, which is based on that. day lighting plan I showed you. which we know would improve water quality. |
| 00:23:53.36 | Unknown | So. |
| 00:23:53.78 | Steve Moore | YOU KNOW, AGAIN, THIS IS THE the plan that we could build on the existing campus. that that EPA viewed favorably. It shows a cross section. And so you can start, you can see Now here's the height of the parking lot And 84 would be about the height of the new ball field. So that that would be the, into the hillside and you can see how the creek would be perched. So we do believe in closing, it is a moment of truth. in that. This really was the first phase envisioned in trying to recreate the Creek corridor And You know, I think it's a moment of truth for Willow Creek and the community. If the stream isn't restored, We don't have a lot of confidence that we'll be able to have momentum to restore any more of this restorable corridor. and during our Sausalito namesake, So I think we have an opportunity to show The children. in Sausalito. Marin City. commitment. to reestablishing a healthy relationship with water. not a dysfunctional one. And by doing it here in our home watershed, and prioritizing the creek in parallel with a lovely reimagining. of the public school campus. that is underway. Thank you. I don't think we can answer any questions. |
| 00:25:14.93 | Mayor Blaustein | you so much Steve before we go to council questions I'm just going to take public comment on the presentation since we don't have any action beyond questions since it's a special presentation. uh, City Clerk, can you remind members of the public how they can make public comment this evening? |
| 00:25:30.17 | Walfred Solorzano | Members of the public, if you are in person, you can hand me a seat. We do have a couple people in person. And if you are on Zoom, you can use the raise hand function. Or if you're on the phone on Zoom, you can press star nine. And in person we have, Jeff Jacobs? |
| 00:25:59.15 | Mayor Blaustein | I don't think that that mic is turned on, Wilfred. We can't hear Jeff. |
| 00:26:02.22 | Walfred Solorzano | We're going to help her right now. I'll turn it on. It wasn't a lot of background noise, so we turned it off. |
| 00:26:05.19 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay. |
| 00:26:05.63 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:26:07.67 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay. |
| 00:26:08.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:26:14.55 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:26:14.57 | Unknown | All right. Hello, city council, city workers, and... One member of the public that managed to get past the locked doors here of city hall, every door is locked. There is no way for the public. to enter here unless They're not. very loudly on that door and have a member of of, The city workers let them in. I'm very disappointed that The city council has chosen on this day where the governor has ended the state of emergency over COVID. None of them are here. I'm not understanding why that is. I will speak to the issue of Willow Creek We're talking moment of truth here. So let's have a moment of truth. Willow Creek When I first arrived here, It said Willow Creek Refuge. Sponsored by Willow Creek Academy, by the school. There was a Miwok type structure inside of the grove of trees And the creek ran all year long. The structure is gone. The refuge is gone. that Too often government is dependent on the expenditure of money. that whenever that money starts flowing, the government workers and the consultants follow. It would not take any money to rebuild that refuge now. put that structure back. to allow people to go to the river, for the police not to answer calls. from NIMBY neighbors overlooking the river when somebody chooses to dip a toe into it. |
| 00:28:23.83 | Unknown | There's a book about consultants. that has just been released. I'm suggesting that everybody read it. It's called Tom Job. that I'm for all for city workers working. for the people that are working for the city, to take all sorts of different jobs that maybe they haven't done. But once somebody is hired, from outside, whether they call themselves accountants or planners. We're in a whole different ballgame. prohibited. According to my reading by the California Constitution, and not ethical and that needs to stop and stop now so reopen Willow Creek and we the citizens will do our part to daylight it thank you |
| 00:29:17.53 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you very much. |
| 00:29:18.51 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:29:18.52 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:29:18.54 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. And for the record, the library staff had locked the doors as part of the protocol. They didn't realize we had a council meeting and we have unlocked the door so people can get inside. So they are unlocked. |
| 00:29:31.87 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you, city clerk. Do we have further public comment? I see some hands raised on Zoom. |
| 00:29:40.21 | Sergio Rudin | And counsel, for the record, the governor did sign the proclamation terminating the state of emergency. However, that proclamation does not go into effect until 1159 tonight. |
| 00:29:50.82 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. Thank you very much, City Attorney. I appreciate that. We will Conclude our meeting prior to 11.59 p.m. What? |
| 00:29:58.42 | Walfred Solorzano | Paula De Silva? you A Paul da Silva? Thank you. |
| 00:30:01.57 | Paul Da Silva | Good evening. Oh, okay. Very good. uh, Good evening, Mayor Blaustein and members of the council. My name is Paul Da Silva and I'm one of the organizers of the Marin Biodiversity Corridor Initiative, MBCI. Last December, I was fortunate to attend the International COP15 Biodiversity Meetings in Montreal, Canada. There I learned a few things. One was that some issues transcend single schools and cities and are in fact important for all of society and indeed for our whole planet. such as the issue of Willow Creek. It is really an issue of basic rights. One kind of right is the right of students to learn directly from the real environment of the world they will inherit. Another kind of right is the right of the creek to be free. Please respect these basic rights as you make your decisions about the creek and the future. Thank you very much. |
| 00:30:59.69 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you, Paul. |
| 00:31:06.20 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, next speaker, Marin RCD. |
| 00:31:11.35 | Unknown | Hello and thank you very much. Good evening, mayor and city council members. I do not have a comment necessarily prepared as Paul Da Silva was just so eloquent with saying that but I would be remiss if I were not here in support of the Daylighting of Willow Creek. I am the urban streams program manager for the Marin resource conservation district i've been in this role, thankfully, for almost 10 years now i'm funded by Marin county. I work in every watershed all throughout the county. I work with all the constituents, all the property owners, all the organizations and municipalities. Sorry, I'm not familiar with your faces yet, but I get around. And this is the project that I've been hearing about since I started and Steve We all are so lucky to have such a quick advocate in your community as Steve. I mean, he has fought tirelessly for this. And as a project manager myself and running a lot of different restoration projects, large scale, small scale, different government funding. It's a lot of work to take on and to get this far and to have these designs and have been working this tirelessly. I remember speaking to the school board about this so many years ago. I thought we were on track and we were going. This is what we're doing. We're connecting. kids with nature, we're a day lighting preaks. This is just where we're at. And how are we going to be having any kind of future of hope If our children and they are the future, if they're not connecting with nature now, if they're not learning these goals, these values, this connection, this relationship with a stream, with water quality, with the stoneflies and the mayflies and any of the fish species that are in there, like clean water is something rare to find. And in Marin, knowing and focusing a lot on water quality with the regional water quality control board, it's really, it's harder to find than you realize. So to have it right there at your fingertips and to have a possible outdoor classroom for students to connect and engage is really priceless. And I will say one of the reasons I took this job in Marin County is I've been in the field for about 15 years now and I have always looked up to Marin County for how green it is, how cutting edge for the environmental decisions that are made. And I really feel that way about Southern Marin especially. So this is something that I just really wanted to chime in and make sure I was present in support of this. I can't believe it hasn't been daylight yet or that there's any kind of like projects about not day lighting it and saying working with contractors that don't know how to work with Greeks. Pull in the experts, you know, like we can have a bigger team, we can all collaborate and play together. But I just really, I'm working currently right now with Miller Creek Elementary School and have been for a handful of years building an outdoor classroom and working with the students there. It's just priceless. And that's not even like in my scope of work. I just do it because I know how important it is. Just wanted to just wanted to say that and thank you so much for your work and being a public service person is definitely really hard I work a lot with the public so just thank you so much and I recognize you and appreciate the space and time to speak. Thank you so much. |
| 00:34:07.49 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:34:08.82 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker, Amy Pritzchik. |
| 00:34:14.04 | Amy Pritzchik | Yeah. Can you hear me? |
| 00:34:15.93 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:34:15.96 | Amy Pritzchik | Yes. I just have one question or actually one item that I'd like Steve to, give a little bit more information to the council on Steve, could you please share how much of funding has been allocated out of measure P for Creek daylighting at this time? That's all. Thank you. |
| 00:34:38.83 | Steve Moore | Yes, unfortunately, no money. Um, You know, Ed, |
| 00:34:43.30 | Amy Pritzchik | Right? |
| 00:34:44.60 | Steve Moore | We thought there would be even some consulting money made available in the last six, seven months, but no money of Measure P funds have been allocated toward daylighting the creek. |
| 00:34:57.51 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker is Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:35:00.18 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi, Sandra. Bye there. Good evening, council, Steve. Amy, I wanted to say if there was ever a case about paving paradise and putting up a parking lot, this is it. And I think that we don't want to go there. and for the sake of our community, for the sake of our history, and for the sake of our students. to have this access to this stream. is vitally important and let's not pave it over. Let's open it up and make it available for for education, for enjoyment, and just for enjoying the water that it provides. It's in and of itself, I think that's enough. Thank you. So please, council, do what you can to help Uh, to help forward this project, this Daylighting Project through. If it's getting in touch with the school board and having consultation with them, please do that. Thank you. Thank you, Sandra. |
| 00:36:03.84 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker is John. Thank you. |
| 00:36:08.20 | John DeRay | Hi, thank you. This is John DeRay. I wanted to, indicate that I do support this project. I think it's great, but I want to make an observation ABOUT THE MLK GAME. AND I THINK THAT WE HAVE A I recently got a new dog, so I'm walking my dog throughout that campus. I was shocked. to see the amount of trash and debris and plastic and bottles and old toys, and it was just shocking to me. So I think perhaps step one for the students there is for them to own the environment that they currently have and really take care of that. before this Creek thing happens. Thank you. |
| 00:36:56.56 | Mayor Blaustein | Thanks, John. Do we have any further public comment at this time? City Clerk? |
| 00:37:01.93 | Walfred Solorzano | We have no further comment. |
| 00:37:03.30 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, I will close public comment. And as this isn't a business item, which is just a special presentation. We don't have any action to take, but I think we definitely have questions for Steve and a huge appreciation as well for bringing this forward to us for your huge commitment to Daylighting Willow Creek and to fresh clean water for our kids to play in. With that, I'll go to Councilmember Cox. She has her hand raised first, and I'm sure other council members would like to thank you or ask questions of you as well. |
| 00:37:30.18 | Janelle Cox | I want to thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Steve, for the great, really informative presentation, my first question is whether we can get a copy of that presentation. It was not attached to our agenda and it really has a lot of facts and information that's helpful as we are speaking with community members about this project. My second question may seem overly simplistic, but what is it that you are asking of us? Because the city council has no jurisdiction over the school's property. that is governed by the Sausalito-Murin City School District. I did speak with one of the board members who indicated that she would like to bring this back to the school board for consideration and recommendation of a path forward in response to your work and concerns, but I'm you know, aside from lobbying, the school district about its best path forward, I wanted to ask you what it is that the friends are asking of the city council. Thank you. |
| 00:38:40.29 | Steve Moore | Very reasonable to ask that question, Councilmember Cox. Thank you very much. but, I think this is an opportunity to raise awareness. Certainly it's a public meetings, public forum, I hope that you also saw my attempt to weave a theme and that yes, there's the district's jurisdiction but that the watershed includes a lot of cities uh, properties, you know, whether it's the right-of-way along Nevada Street, or the corporation yard, or up by Lincoln Drive and then part of Marin Ship, There are... there's a city interest If. if the community and the city council support the idea of daylining. And then there's an opportunity for collaboration with your sister agency at the school district and having those communications. That's very healthy. serves the public well when the different jurisdictions work together, the different elected officials. So, We're just trying to engender discussion. and interest and provide information and support. |
| 00:39:46.70 | Steve Moore | So yeah, what do we need from you? just, you know, If you're interested, Please help us advocate for this natural resource in our city limits. |
| 00:40:00.65 | Mayor Blaustein | DID YOU HAVE ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS, COUNCIL MEMBER COX, OR CAN I GO TO COUNCIL MEMBER KELMAN? Okay, great. |
| 00:40:05.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:40:06.64 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:40:06.66 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Mary. Yes, Steve, thank you so much for that very thoughtful and detailed presentation. As you know, after our last council meeting, when the vice mayor brought up the opportunity here that we felt was being missed. He and I have met with you several times. Since our last meeting, we met with the school superintendent, Artigo Garcia, We've spoken to a couple of trustees. And so, I just want our fellow council members to know that, you know, We have been carrying the water because we do think it is important and this is an opportunity for for the city and you alluded to it, but didn't spell it out, that the headwaters may be in the degenerae, but the ultimate full daylighting of the creek is in fact all the way to the bay. And so there's some substantial riparian zones that could be restored and opportunities for us around all sorts of things. climate leadership as articulated in our general plan. So I just want to let everybody know that we had met with you and just for full disclosure. Part of the request, of course, was how can we, since Measure P was passed by the same voters that elected us and specifically stated that it would have a component of Daylighting the Creek that we wanted to emphasize that we were watching out for our constituents as well. So thank you for that. And I'm sure my Colleague on this, the Vice Mayor will have some meals to add. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. |
| 00:41:26.26 | Ian Sobieski | I was just going to add that there may be a draft resolution on the next city council meeting, which we can either pull off consent or not. something in support of this effort. So that's one potential action on I'm from. Council Member Kelman and I. the real opportunity to hear of the neighborly obligation is to share with our colleagues in the school district the perspective we have with fresh eyes on this situation. I voted for Measure P in part because of its of its promise, the daylight, the Greek, and we all lived through the closure of Dumpy Park that was extended because of digging in the dirt and the consequences thereof. the current plan of the school district's renovation that involves massive earth moving has risks that could profoundly affect the financial viability of that project. while at the same time, undercutting the promise to daylight the creek in a reasonable way. So I'm delighted to hear of the possibility you can be. Councilmember Cox that there's at least one trustee who's interested in Taking a second look, I think that's all the Ask Willow Creek is. They're hired engineers, the Water Creek experts. We're never consulted. by the architects on the project, that just seems like a miss. And we all know how these misses can happen. And the simplest thing would just be to acknowledge it happened and let's Let's get them together to make sure while things are still on the drawing board. that there isn't some obvious win-win outcome that both improves. the, CHANCES THAT THE PROJECT BE BUILT UNDER BUDGET AND DAYLIGHTS FOR |
| 00:43:06.07 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you, Vice Mayor. Let's go to Council Member Hoffman. you |
| 00:43:09.09 | Jill Hoffman | So yeah, thank you. Yeah. myself, like a lot of other people were kind of excited that this was part of the project. And so I seem to recall it that that was actually called out in the Measure P materials. And so I did. I went and looked up just now the Measure P fact sheet and it says Under climate change and environmental stewardship, the underground creek at Nevada Street Campus would be daylighted to provide outdoor science, education and opportunities for students. So I'm a little perplexed now that the district is just throwing that out and saying, they're not gonna comply with representations that were made to taxpayers when they were, when we were addressing whether or not measure P, whoever was addressing whether or not they were gonna vote for measure P. I'm a little bit concerned about that, You know, and like I said, I'm perplexed that all of a sudden now we're hearing they're not going to go forward that and they're not even, you know, reaching out to your engineers to talk to them about how that would be incorporating the project. So I'm concerned about that. taxpayers in Sausalito who voted for Measure P based on these representations. And the district is just arbitrarily deciding not to go forward with that important environmental offer that was made as part of Measure P. So the bait and switch part of these measures are a great concern to most of us who actually are paying for these things. So anyway, thanks for bringing that out. I support you and let us know what we can do to help you get them on track. |
| 00:44:49.21 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you again so much for being here, Stephen, for all of the work that the Friends of the Creek have done and continue to do to daylight that creek so that. our community and our students and our visitors can all enjoy it. And I think that it's the unanimous consensus amongst the council here that we're very supportive of you and your efforts. So you can expect to see further action on our agenda going forward. So thank you again for being here. We really appreciate it. And I will go ahead and move on to the next item on the agenda. Have a great night, Steve. Take care. So the next item on the agenda is the approval of action minutes from the previous meeting. I'm going to go ahead and take public comment on the action minutes before we Oh, sorry, Joan, did you, Council Member, Did you want to say something about the minutes? You're muted. |
| 00:45:36.92 | Janelle Cox | I just noticed a typo. In the minutes for January 30. Planning Commissioner. And we do as a woman was missed out throughout the minutes, so we might be with the bridge. genius instead of genius. So we may just want to look that up. |
| 00:45:56.49 | Mayor Blaustein | See you. Thanks for that. Any other comments on that before we take public comment and I call for a vote? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and open up public comment on the action minutes from the previous meeting. |
| 00:46:09.57 | Walfred Solorzano | No comment, no public comments. |
| 00:46:12.53 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, I will go ahead and close public comment and ask for a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meetings. |
| 00:46:18.85 | Janelle Cox | I move approval of all three sets of minutes with the amendment to the January 30th minutes that I've mentioned. |
| 00:46:26.63 | Mayor Blaustein | I'll second. Thank you okay with that I will ask the city court to take a roll call vote, please. Thank you. |
| 00:46:32.69 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox. Yes. Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 00:46:36.51 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. |
| 00:46:37.23 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Common. Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski? Yes. And Mayor Blas. |
| 00:46:42.83 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes, so the motion passes 5-0. And I will now move on to item three on our agenda, which 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 consent calendar this evening consent calendar we have item 3 a. Adopt a resolution amending 6201 designating the responsibility and authority in updating the process and procedures and the determination of disability requirements for safety employees. to include the Acting Chief of Police, effective December 1, 2022, Item 3B. Adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Sausalito approving and authorizing the city manager to apply for a grant. the California Department of Boating and Waterways requesting a total of $490,000 for the Turning Street Dock Project. Item three C. Sosileta Police Department's Crime and Traffic Report, Calendar Year 2022. Item 3D. Authorization to close Tracy Way for the 2023 season. Item 3E. adopt a resolution opposing initiative number 210042A1, the Taxpayer Protection and Accountability Act, And item 3F, Southern Marin Fire Protection Districts, annual report for the 2021-2022 year prepared for the city of Sausalito. So does the council have anything they would like to comment on with regards to consent? I see that your hand is raised Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:48:25.08 | Janelle Cox | Thank you, I just wanted to clarify that although item 3D is. entitled Authorizing Closure of Taylor Way. The resolution that's attached to it and the staff report does make reference to the closure of Tracy way and that was the topic. of this consent. Thank you. |
| 00:48:43.51 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah. Yes, thank you. On my version of the agenda, it does say Tracy Way for item 3D. reiterating that it is the closure of Tracy Way. Okay, so at this time, I will open it up the consent calendar for public comment. Do we have any public comment on the consent calendar items? |
| 00:49:00.36 | Walfred Solorzano | Jeff Jacobs? |
| 00:49:06.86 | Unknown | Hello, mayor and council and, uh, Jack, thanks for showing up. We'll start with... 3A. Um... I'm very proud of the people that were at Camp Cormorant and the anchor outs who fought valiantly And the chief of police is no longer the chief of police here. That's John Rohrbacher. As far as I know on indefinite sick leave, he was mentioned. quite prominently in a number of lawsuits, as was William Farras, the captain, also on indefinite sick leave. Thank you, Camp Cormoranters, for that. Item number 3B. is about... I don't see a consultant attached to this. It's kind of a surprise. 490,000 for Turney Street, the last remaining doc. for the Anchorage. that The docs. in Sausalito were taken down one by one from the fuel dock up north. to Galilee dock further south. And all that remains is Churney Street. |
| 00:50:31.52 | Unknown | That Turney Street. Being the only doc endangers the lives of the remaining Mariners who are living on their boats and the Mariners who transit this area. to have to go miles out of their way to come to this one dock when they used to be able to land anywhere I am Ms. Sausalito. Waterfront. is something that we're dealing with. We have to deal with this. So, That dock and especially the wooden, the wooden docks that haven't been used in a number of years that are to the north of there can be refurbished to enable a better dock area. I don't see that that needs to cost $490,000 Galilee, when they removed their dock, promised that a new dock would be built? within Two years. Their time is up. There is no new doc. that we can solve a lot of these problems without spending money. Uh, that Officer Nick White offered to work with me on expanding Turney Street Dock. So that is what we need to do. But we don't need to spend $490,000 to do it. Thank you. |
| 00:52:08.76 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:52:08.91 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:52:08.99 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:52:09.03 | Walfred Solorzano | to be able to get the |
| 00:52:09.08 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:52:09.09 | Walfred Solorzano | BELIEVE. All right, next speaker, we have, it's a call, call-in user, if you can press star nine, we're gonna, if you can unmute. |
| 00:52:23.30 | Mimi Willard | Yes, good evening. This is Mimi Willard calling in. President of the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers And I'm calling in to discuss the consent ITEMS. WHICH IS A RESOLUTION TO OPPOSE a ballot initiative on the California November 2024 ballot. which is the taxpayer protection and government Accountability Act. Um, Oh, The Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers is urging you to please remove This item from the consent calendar and either one table it indefinitely, which would be our preferred APPROACH OR TWO, PUT IT ON A FUTURE REGULAR AGENDA AFTER TAKING So, The Citizens Pulse. The material that you have received for tonight is verbatim from the League of California Cities. It does not provide a balance of views for the council to consider. The Taxpayer Protection Act was put on the ballot via citizen initiative to protect taxpayer voters FROM MISLEADING BALLOT LANGUAGE and erosion of existing protections such as, the percentage of yes votes needed to pass a new tax And also to protect us against the state legislature current ability with a supermajority to end road and run the voters right to approve new taxes in our constitution. FURTHER, I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT that, um, that you as a legislative body taking art would be taking action on something that is going before the voters, and it really should just be allowed to go before the voters. Also, we have a staff report tonight THAT SAYS THE MEETING DATE ON WHICH THIS is being considered is February 25th. 23. 2023. THAT OBVIOUSLY IS A DEFECTIVE NOTICE. And you should re-notice. So in conclusion, please remove this item from the consent calendar today and defer action. Thank you. Thank you, Mimi. Thank you. |
| 00:54:46.22 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 00:54:46.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Bye. |
| 00:54:46.57 | Mayor Blaustein | And. |
| 00:54:49.64 | Walfred Solorzano | No further speakers. |
| 00:54:50.08 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. No further public comment? Okay, I will close public comment at this time. and bring it back up to council for Approval. |
| 00:55:05.17 | Ian Sobieski | I just have to. I just have a question in reaction to that last comment. I feel like they'd like to. bounce this item over to the next consent agenda on the next meeting, which is a week away. If you want to consider that any deeper. |
| 00:55:22.06 | Ian Sobieski | I won't press for it, |
| 00:55:25.20 | Amy Pritzchik | Bye. |
| 00:55:25.45 | Ian Sobieski | I'm going to create the room for you. |
| 00:55:25.54 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:55:25.76 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:55:27.82 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:55:29.92 | Jill Hoffman | Go ahead, Councilman Hoffman. I was going to, I was going to actually ask our city attorney to weigh in on that. And I think, um, I think that because the staff report had the wrong date, the real I think the legality is whether or not the notice was given or whether or not our agenda was published in time. But on the other hand, I have no objection to moving it to the next meeting either. I don't think there's any time urgency. So that's my question. Thank you. |
| 00:55:55.96 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, I mean, I think the simplest issue would be just to put it on the next consent calendar. If there's any concerns about that in light of the public comment, |
| 00:56:05.80 | Jill Hoffman | I have no objection to that. It's fine. |
| 00:56:12.06 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Yeah, so in light of that, we're going to have to... |
| 00:56:14.44 | Mayor Blaustein | have another motion, right? Yeah, we'll have to have a motion approving the consent calendar with the removal of item |
| 00:56:16.21 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, what? |
| 00:56:21.86 | Mayor Blaustein | three. Thank you. |
| 00:56:23.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:56:24.18 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:56:24.19 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:56:24.85 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:56:24.87 | Jill Hoffman | and Yeah. I'll make the motion and then also add that, um, Item 3E be added to our next city council meeting for consent calendar, which is. um, March 7th. Yes. |
| 00:56:40.90 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:56:41.24 | Mayor Blaustein | you Thank you very much for that second. I will ask for a roll call vote at this time, City Clerk. |
| 00:56:47.63 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? Thank you. |
| 00:56:51.13 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:56:51.14 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 00:56:51.30 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:56:51.33 | Walfred Solorzano | Council Member Kellman? Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski? Yes. Mayor Blasen. |
| 00:56:58.47 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. So that motion passes 5-0 and we will move on to item four on the agenda, which is public hearing items of which this evening there are none. So we will move to Number five on our agenda, which is business items. And that brings us to item 5A, which is our fiscal year 2022-2023 mid-year finance update presentation, which will be led by our city manager, Chris Zapata. So please, Chris, take it away. |
| 00:57:22.14 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor. Can I get the slideshow up please while I'm talking? So by state law, all cities have to adopt a balanced budget by June 30th and the budget balance is for a fiscal year which starts July 1st and is June 30th. So what we're talking about tonight FISCAL YEAR BUDGET, WHICH IS It was June 30th. ended this year, but started July 1st of last year. And as you all know, the city manager is charged to work with the staff to bring a balanced budget forward for the council. and for community consideration. So that's what we will be working on and have been working on. Last year on March 22nd, we presented a staff report and some resolutions that involved a major update and related request to move money around to make budget adjustments. We're not doing that tonight. The feedback I got last year was that was a little bit too much in one meeting, so we're going to try to bifurcate that so that tonight you'll get the snapshot but not the movie. So go to the slide, the first slide. Peace. I can't see the slide, I can see the mayor. |
| 00:58:36.22 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah, none of us can see the PowerPoint presentation at this time. |
| 00:58:43.92 | Walfred Solorzano | you |
| 00:58:45.84 | Mayor Blaustein | City Clerk, could you get |
| 00:58:46.96 | Walfred Solorzano | We're getting it up there right now. Sorry. |
| 00:58:48.34 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you very much. |
| 00:58:56.14 | Chris Zapata | So I'll begin while that's very good. Thank you very much, Wilfred. So again, a budget, is simply a top line number that We cannot exceed without special authorization And it's an estimate of what we think the revenues and expenses will be throughout the fiscal year, which is a year, but runs July 1st through June 30th. And we always get assistance from consultants. who look at our sales tax, our hotel tax, our property tax, and give us projections. And so we'll run through some of those tonight. Um, Next slide, please. |
| 00:59:34.75 | Chris Zapata | So again, as we start looking at this current year's budget, it is important for next year's budget. And so this night, what we'll do, we'll focus predominantly on the general fund. And the general fund represents over $20 million allocated to different departments. And the bottom line is it is very, very important to keep that whole because that's where your services come from. We'll talk a little bit about how the prior year and this current year, had our budget balanced. with the use of one-time monies because of our structural deficit. We'll show you where funds are spent by department year to date and where we're projecting them to go in this year, this current year. And then we'll talk about some sales tax projections. Next slide, please. We'll talk about Measure L a lot because that was something very important to This community, if measure O had been allowed to expire, we would have lost in the range of $1.2 to $1.5 million with Measure L's passage, next year we'll look to essentially double that and use that money for maintenance and infrastructure. We'll talk about our general fund reserves, where they are right now, because that was important in terms of balancing the prior two years budget. We'll talk about the 115 trust and what's in that account. As prior councils and administrations had use that tool to help defray and and help with future spikes in pension costs and post employment benefits. And then obviously we have a budget calendar that runs throughout the rest of this fiscal year, which will end on June 30. And there are particular dates that we have that are important so that we can bring forward the budget that we want you to consider and then get your input and hopefully have that adopted without as a last minute rush. Next slide, please. |
| 01:01:29.09 | Chris Zapata | So this year, the adopted budget for 22-23 was $35,650,620. That's the total budget of the city. That's comprised of the general fund, which is comprised of sales tax, property tax, TOT, et cetera, enterprise funds, special revenue funds, internal service funds, and the trust fund. So the big budget, as we call it for the city is $35,650,000, $620,000. But tonight we're going to focus on the general fund because that's where the most challenge is. Next slide, please. |
| 01:02:06.99 | Chris Zapata | you |
| 01:02:07.03 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:02:07.33 | Mayor Blaustein | Can you adjust this to full screen? Because we can't see the numbers to the right. I don't think the public can either. It's in comment mode as opposed to full screen mode. |
| 01:02:17.35 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:02:17.42 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. |
| 01:02:17.64 | Ian Sobieski | That's. No, I think what the mayor is suggesting, Wilfred, is we're seeing a different, you want to click on full screen service, Not making it smaller. |
| 01:02:24.41 | Mayor Blaustein | make decisions. We're seeing it as a PDF as opposed to as a presentation. And so right now we Can't see the number. He needs to click on slideshow. |
| 01:02:34.74 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. Right. |
| 01:02:35.38 | Mayor Blaustein | Bye. |
| 01:02:35.43 | Janelle Cox | Yeah. |
| 01:02:35.44 | Mayor Blaustein | All right. |
| 01:02:35.49 | Janelle Cox | on the current slide. |
| 01:02:38.78 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, no doubt. Sorry, we had to put it up on PDF because we received the presentation a little bit when the meeting started. So that's what we're trying to get up right now. |
| 01:02:49.33 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay. |
| 01:02:49.52 | Chris Zapata | Okay. |
| 01:02:49.57 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:02:49.59 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:02:49.60 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:02:49.62 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:02:49.64 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:02:49.74 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. I'll do my best. So, so this year at the 22, 23 major budget, You can see that the total amount that we're projecting will span this fiscal year. Now I can't see the figures. |
| 01:03:09.53 | Chris Zapata | Okay. |
| 01:03:10.43 | Janelle Cox | The numbers are cut off in the right one. |
| 01:03:12.69 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, we can't even |
| 01:03:12.97 | Mayor Blaustein | I can't believe in the numbers of Wilfred at all. |
| 01:03:14.88 | Chris Zapata | There you go. |
| 01:03:14.97 | Mayor Blaustein | Sure. |
| 01:03:15.74 | Chris Zapata | I suppose the investigation. |
| 01:03:15.79 | Mayor Blaustein | I suppose. That's fine. You can leave it like that. |
| 01:03:19.22 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, well, that'll be well enough. Thank you. And thank you for being with me, Mayor and Councilman Public. So you can see that as of this year, you know, the total projected amount that we believe will be spent is $22,199,604.29 for the And we're going to show you that's less than we budgeted, which is good news because that's important. And we'll show you that, you know, on the revenue side, some of the things that you have done to try to create more revenue. are going to impact the budget in a positive way. The grand total on the expense side that we're looking at in the general fund is $22 million, $199,064. Next slide, please. |
| 01:04:05.37 | Chris Zapata | So obviously, you know, we are a community that has had a structural deficit. And, you know, to be very simple about it, that means that we have less revenue coming in than our expenses. And so that was a problem as we try to balance our budgets. And in the past two years, there's been a big problem with us having to dip into reserves, use one-time monies, federal funds to make sure that we could, in fact, bring forward a balanced budget required by law. I'm on the wrong slide, Wofford. I need to go. Down one. |
| 01:04:44.84 | Chris Zapata | Okay, thank you. So in the prior year of this year's budget, the budget we adopted had a significant gap of about over $4 million. And how did the city balance that budget? We've heard this story many times, federal funds, parking fund transfer, tidal end funds, and measure O and about $980,000 from your sales from your reserve account. I want to note that measure O in the budget balancing that we started with was about a 1.2 million dollar transfer. It was a 1.2 million dollar transfer. I think the city council recognized the the need to correct that so last year in the middle of the year we made an adjustment so that that $1.2 million was put back into a capital improvement program and the $1.2 million was taken out of reserves. So essentially almost $2 million came out of the reserves for the 21-22 budget. This year, our budget gap shrunk through some changes that we needed to make on the expense size And so our gap was not 4.3 million, it was 3.2 million. And so all of that was done with eyes wide open to maintain basic service levels and to keep the staffing that we have currently. We did this by shrinking our staff We did it by freezing positions. We've done a lot to reduce expenditures and we'll show you some more of that in the next couple of slides. Next slide, please. |
| 01:06:24.47 | Chris Zapata | One of the things that is a big part of the general fund is the property tax. You had a presentation by HDL, our sales tech consultant, on October 25th. to talk about where property taxes is in Sausalito, where it's been and where it's headed. And you can see from this graph Property tax is very stable. It's one of those things that has very limited expansion or contraction. It's very, very predictable. And so we like property tax. And so you can see that our property tax in 2011 12 dip significantly. That's the year that we outsource the fire department to the fire district. Next slide, please. |
| 01:07:10.79 | Chris Zapata | Excellent. So sales tax is one of those misunderstood taxes. Many people You went too far, go back one, please. |
| 01:07:23.65 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:07:24.02 | Chris Zapata | Can you go back one slide, please? Thank you. Sales tax is one of those misunderstood revenue streams. Go to the next one, please. |
| 01:07:40.58 | Chris Zapata | Can you move to the next slide, please? |
| 01:07:45.81 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. Keep it there for a minute. So sales tax is misunderstood in the sense that a lot of people don't know where the sales tax comes from and essentially what it goes toward. Our sales tax, goes to the general fund. The interesting factoid is that the state takes 6% of that sales tax At one point, the sales tax was 8.75% with the passage of Measure L. It'll go up to 9.25% as of April 1st. And the question is, if you're a resident or a visitor or a business, the question is, who gets that 9.25% effective April 1st? The state would get 6% of it. The county would get 1.25% of it. And then the city would get 2% of it. So all cities get what's called a Bradley Burns 1% tax. And then by adding measure L, We're adding another 1%. The one key factor to note is that it's not a like-like transfer of taxation revenues because the 1% of Bradley Burns covers more areas than the measure L money will. So there's a slight difference. It's not a dollar-for-dollar match. One of the things we also did to make sure that we were understanding where that money was coming from. We had HDL, our sales sales consultant, do a visitor spend analysis, and they did that for us, and they concluded that |
| 01:09:10.57 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:09:10.59 | Jack McDonnell | Bye. |
| 01:09:10.72 | Steve Moore | Thank you. |
| 01:09:10.79 | Jack McDonnell | Thank you. |
| 01:09:11.60 | Chris Zapata | 6% of the sales tax generated in Sausalito. I'm talking about the 2% that you see comes from visitors. And we believe that's a fair approach for people that come to your community, our community, use your facilities, use your services, they should pay their fair share. And in this particular case, they pay a little more than their fair share of 50%. They pay 6% of the sales tax. The sales tax that we're talking about right now does not include the hotel tax. and does not include the gas tax. Next slide, please. |
| 01:09:47.87 | Chris Zapata | One of the things that we like to do is recognize people that generate sales tax in our city By law, we can only do them in aggregated or alphabetical numbers. We can't tell you how much each business makes. So what you see on this list here are the top 25 producers in Sausalito of sales tax. And you can see starting with the B's and ending with the S's. And in between there, you have a number of businesses that are highly important to our community as are all businesses, but in particular, these are the top 25 producers. Next slide, please. |
| 01:10:29.45 | Chris Zapata | So one of the things that we use as a forecasting tool is estimates from our consultant. And we always like to look at actuals. And if you see the 2021 and 2022 actuals in terms of sales tax from cars from businesses from restaurants from general consumer goods were about $3.2 million. So we use that number to project the next year, what we would see coming. And we projected about the same amount, slightly less. And then this coming year, what we're getting from our sales tax consultants who have their own trade secrets and how they come up with all this. But a lot of it is historic going forward and trying to figure out what the economy looks like going forward, what certain things may be happening across state, the country and the world that in fact impact our sales tax. So you'll see that our sales tax will be relatively flat. for the next two years. |
| 01:11:36.61 | Unknown | you |
| 01:11:36.64 | Chris Zapata | you And then you look down at the bottom and you see measure O measure L. and you see a 21% increase this year. And that that's very, very important to note. And that's simply because we'll see one quarter or three months of measure L money in our budget this year, which we did not account for, which is good news. But essentially 21% increase next year will be close to a 6% increase and then level off to a 2% increase. So in the future, that 1% Bradley Burns sales tax combined with the 1% measure L will generate about $6 million for the city of Sausalito. Next slide. |
| 01:12:24.77 | Chris Zapata | So one of the things you want to make sure that measure L will become measure L on April 1st of this coming year. And again, thank all the people that supported and worked for it. Uh, the city of South Salud has some critical infrastructure needs and, uh, this money, even though it is a general measure with a non-specific purpose and therefore required a 50% plus one vote to pass. This has always been targeted toward maintenance and infrastructure. Again, Measure L will double funding. because it's a half percent on top of the half percent from measure O. and it's got an eight year sunset on it. And again, used for maintenance and infrastructure needs throughout the city. Next slide, please. |
| 01:13:13.69 | Chris Zapata | So if you look at the five-year outlook, you see where revenues are relatively... flat in the out years and you know I showed it show this slide you with some trepidation because as we all know, the further out you look, the cloudier your crystal ball gets. And so, you know, we don't know what could happen, you know, four years from now, five years from now, three or two years from now, but we do our best to try to figure out with our consultants what that might look like to give us a sense of what revenues could be in the future with, you know, professional assistance from HDL. Next slide, please. |
| 01:13:55.90 | Chris Zapata | So one of the things that we've been talking about quite a bit is how we have impacted our general fund reserve. City of Sausalito, prior administration and council did a good job of saving money for emergencies. post COVID in the last few years with the structural deficit WE'VE HAD TO DIP INTO THOSE FUNDS TO THE POINT WHERE I THINK THERE SHOULD BE AND IS SOME VALID CONCERN our team and the council. you know where are we today what are we projecting so if you look at the green um uh table. And you see that, you know, the 5% budget stabilization policy, which the city council adopted years ago, and the 10% shortfall policy. there's money set aside based on the budget that's, uh, that we adopt. And so in that amount, you see $1,046,000, you see $2,092,000, And then you take what's called the undesignated fund balance. That savings has not been assigned to anyone anywhere any project and that's added to those two 5% of 10% which gets you to. the undesignated fund balance, combined with the shortfall and stabilization of $7 million approximately that the city has. for emergencies, for economic downturns, for unforeseen circumstances that are happening. And I believe that when we started, we talked about our reserve being about 33% of our operating budget. It dropped down to about 27, 28%. And so this year, what you see, that $7.6 million is important because at the end of all of this, wherever there's a shortfall, that's the number that's got to be Thank you. made up through that account, those accounts. And at the beginning of the year, when we adopted the budget, we said that we would probably need $3.2 million of that. That would take that down to about $4.5 million. And that's precarious. So next slide, please. |
| 01:16:11.91 | Chris Zapata | So how are we doing this current year and how that impacts our reserves? I'm gonna talk to you about our expenditures and our revenues first and expenditures next. Then I'm gonna talk to you about how that impacts that general fund reserve that you just saw of about seven and a half billion dollars. So as you can see, some of our revenues are coming in at very modest, modest eclipse. Some of them are not coming in. I think the big ones to pay attention to are the property tax, the sales tax, the TOT, the business license tax and intergovernmental money, because those are where we put big, big placeholders in terms of building our budget, looking at revenues. So if you look at the bottom, and I can't see that for some reason, |
| 01:17:01.20 | John DeRay | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:17:01.74 | Chris Zapata | you |
| 01:17:05.37 | Chris Zapata | There you go. Our revenues and overall context in the total line with thinking that we're going to do about $21,671,000, which is a 5% increase from what we budgeted, which we budgeted $20,687,000. So that's good news. Our revenues are up 5% is what we're projecting. And again, these are projections based on history that we have and information we get from our consultants. So 5% increase in revenues is a good thing. Go to the next slide, please. |
| 01:17:47.69 | Chris Zapata | So on the expenditure side, you see some important numbers. In particular, we budgeted 23,261,000 in expenditures And if we only budgeted 20 plus million dollars in revenues, that's the $3 million gap we talked about. So what we're looking at this year is we're projecting not 23 million in expenditure, you're projecting a million less. $22,199,000. So that's a 5% decrease. a little more revenue and a little less spending. And some of the things that I think are important to note are in salaries and benefits, you know, we're down 10%. The magic of that is essentially we've had a hard time filling positions. We've had a lot of vacancies. |
| 01:18:29.94 | Jack McDonnell | the |
| 01:18:36.41 | Chris Zapata | Um, Look, appropriately the city council worked with us on some, what I call, Labor negotiations that resulted in some savings where staff got cut, administrators took pay cuts, and our payroll was less. The impact of the 36 hour work week It might be mistakenly put in there as a 10% gain, but that's not the factor. We didn't implement that until |
| 01:18:59.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:19:06.11 | Chris Zapata | December of this past year it wasn't citywide and it was offset by bonus pay that we gave to the SIU membership in the management confidential in the police department. Professional services is down significantly, almost over half a million dollars, which is a good thing. I think that one of the things that we wanted to be sure of when we built our budgets last year is that we could use consultants, and I know that's a bad word right now, we could use consultants to help us trim down the backlog. of things that we had in certain departments, whether it was community and economic development department, our planning department, our public works department, our finance department, is just to get back to an even keel. So the council was pretty generous with the allocation. which was $5 million. You can see that we spent $2.4 million of that we're trending toward about 4.6 and that'll mean that we'll spend 600,000 less than was budgeted and our salaries and benefits will be you know 1.2 million dollars less than was budgeted as well. So all of that to say um uh that equates to a Lesser amount from $23,261,218,000 to $22,190,604 and a 5% decrease. Let's go to the next slide, please. |
| 01:20:32.10 | Chris Zapata | So before I start talking about the 115 trust, you know, spending less money and taking in more money, means that the take on the reserves when we end up giving you the information we're going to give you in the coming months to to complete the year we will not have to draw down that three million dollars we said we would need at the beginning of the fiscal year when we built our budget with all these estimates. So by hard work and some new revenue from Measure L that we're counting on, some parking revenue that the Council authorized that we do during special holidays, with some less spend on consultants. Our budget picture is going to be not as bad as we thought it would be. in June of last year, it's actually going to be looks like it could be $2 million better, but that still means we're spending a million dollars out of the reserve, not $3 million, but that's still a million dollars out of that $7.6 million that you saw earlier. One of the things that I really want to make sure that People understand the Sausalito about is the foresight that folks had to be one of the first cities in the country to put together 115 trust. That is a specific designation of funds. Those are funds that cannot be used but for designated purposes of which are pensions on one fund and post-employment benefits on the other. And so when you do that, you put that money away and only use them for those. Last year, after we had a presentation, we're telling associates about our pension and the rise in those costs, the recommendation was, you know, we use those monies in the highest, the highest bike years, which lived to be 26, 27, 28, and keep them there in the fund that they're in until that time. to kind of smooth out our debt obligations or our pension obligations in those three years when our revenues are flat. One of the things that people ask, you know, why do we have a trust? The trust fund is in a different investment than what's called the local agency investment fund. Most California cities have their money in what's called the local agency investment fund administered by the state of California. It's secure money. It's liquid money. but there's no yield attached to that money. And so in the case of... LEIF, THE INVESTMENT APPROACH IS MORE AGGRESSIVE, AND SO CONSEQUENTLY THE INVESTMENT RETURNS HAVE BEEN BETTER THAN LEIF. THE ONE THING IS THAT IT'S NOT LIQUID. YOU CANNOT USE IT TOMORROW UNLESS YOU'RE GOING TO USE IT FOR PENSIONS OR POST-EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS, WHEREAS LEIF IS THE CITY'S MONEY TO USE AS IT SEEN FITS WHEN IT NEEDS IT. Next slide, please. |
| 01:23:30.27 | Chris Zapata | So you have approximately $4 million in those two accounts to assist with our pension and post-employment employment benefit obligations and costs. Next slide, please. |
| 01:23:45.15 | Chris Zapata | You see the number in the two counts as of January 31st, 2023. The city of Sausalito has 4 million. little over $4 million in the two accounts. Thank you. You see the earnings, expenses, the distributions, the transfers. What I'd like to do in the near future is bring out our parse people in to talk about their investment strategies and what they think the future holds for these funds and whether you want to put more money in if you can at some point in time. So to have $4.3 million set aside for these costs that we know are here and will come and could be higher than we want them to be in the near future is a very, very good thing. How you spend them, what years you spend them, that's the things that we've been analyzing with Bartell and also with NHA advisors. And both of them have the same advice, which is don't spend that money now. Spend it in 26, 27, 28. Next slide, please. |
| 01:24:47.73 | Chris Zapata | So some of the things that we do when we have budget challenges, as we've had in Sausalito since I've been here, is we prepay our expenses, for some of our PERS obligations or retirement obligations. We pay down some of our unfunded accrued liability, which is what UAAL is. We've downsized, we've frozen, We've had salary savings and in spite of increased overtime, you know, we've saved money. Our contractual consultants, you know, I told you, you know, they're looking at $600,000. And then, you know, we're looking at all of our properties and leases down a different way than we've had in the past to try to figure out, you know, what to correct, application of fees or lease rents or the market tells us we should do so. That's very important because as you know, property, the property portfolio in South South Florida is pretty substantial, not just the parking lots, but some of the assets that Martin Luther King or you know downtown different little pieces of property the city owns throughout the city or the community. Next slide please. |
| 01:26:13.40 | Chris Zapata | Next slide, please. |
| 01:26:22.12 | Chris Zapata | So the update today is essentially, as I said, a snapshot. I think the big takeaways are was our general fund expenses were projected at 21 million. or pardon me, at $23 million, but we're looking at them coming in at $22 million. Our general fund revenue is projected at $20 million, and we're looking at it coming in at $21 million. So that nice delta of increase in revenues and decrease in projected expenses means that, you know, at this point, we're looking at a $528,000 gap between revenue and expenses you're in. I don't want to have you all hold on to that simply because We always find bills toward the end of the year. There's always something unforeseen that comes up that we hadn't planned on. So as I like to say, we do find, you know, nickels and dimes in quarters, but we also find bills that are nickels and dimes in quarters as well. So my guess is that at the end of the year, we'll be looking at anywhere between the 600,000 to a million dollar gap. And so that $3.2 million request from your general fund that we put in your budget this year is not going to be that. It's going to be approximately $2 million less. And so that's all very good. That's significant progress from a A $4 million gap to a 3 million gap to maybe a $1 million gap in revenues versus expenses to the bad side. So what I want to say is, you know, that's cause for hope, but it's not cause for celebration. We still are in hope. you know, the mid-year. So some things could happen that we hadn't foreseen. |
| 01:28:00.23 | Jack McDonnell | mid-year. |
| 01:28:03.91 | Chris Zapata | We are still out of balance and that's important for the public to understand. We are still facing increasing costs in the coming years that involve debt service, that involve Pensions that involve deferred maintenance. So to say that, you know, We are working hard is an understatement, so I'd like to really take the time to thank the people that helped put together this presentation, and that would be Vivian and the finance staff. much more in personnel. and Noelia and Walford in terms of the presentation itself. So all I'm trying to do today is make sure that there is awareness that we will be coming back at a future meeting with all the transfer resolutions for the adjustments that need to be made this year for this current year's budget. And then this news is something that I think informs, you know, the upcoming budget that we're building for 2324, which has to be adopted by June 30th of this coming year. So with that, I'll take any questions. And if I can't answer them, Vivian's on staff and Deborah's on staff to help as well. Thank you. |
| 01:29:11.77 | Mayor Blaustein | Great. Thank you very much, City Manager Zapata. I really appreciate your dedication to helping us get our structural deficit in order. and all of the staff who worked on putting together this presentation And we got a lot of really great public comment with prior to this meeting. from members of the public. In particular, we got a letter from John Flavin that I think made a lot of good points that I'm probably gonna follow in my line of questioning because we got a lot of questions following up on that in commentary as well. And I think that you really touched on many of them, which was around reinforcing our existing revenue from, reinforcing our revenue from existing assets, and trying to keep down our consultant fees and make hard choices, right? To demonstrate that we are in this deficit. So with that in mind, Um, I'd really like to understand, you know, it looks like we're spending 5.5 million on consultants right now. or that's what it shows in the budget. But what it doesn't show in the budget is how much are we spending in each department? And I'd really like to know, is it all going to CDD? Is it going to DPW? Is it going to finance? and where can we make some of those changes and cuts? So do you have an idea of, and if you're not able to answer it today at this meeting, I'd like to be able to see it at our next meeting, so that we can look closer at where that big picture funding from consultants is coming from. But at this stage, do you have a breakdown? |
| 01:30:30.46 | Chris Zapata | Thank you for the question. I do not have a breakdown, but I do have an answer. It's coming from all departments. We have consultants in all departments, human resource consultants, community development consultants, public works consultants, you know, across all departments that most of the year we do have. With the exception of library, I think, where we don't and parks and recreation where we don't. But for the most part, the other departments and police, you know, that's not a staple, but the city manager's office uses consultants, the finance department uses consultants, the community and economic development department uses consultants, and the public works and engineering department uses consultants. So let's get that to you. We'll break that down for you. And so you can see what departments are using them the most. Okay, we'll do that. |
| 01:31:19.38 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah, I mean, I think it's clear that all of the departments use consultants at some phase, but there are definitely places where we've spent more or in excess. In particular, I'm thinking of the holes that we've been filling. IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BEFORE WE HAD A DIRECTOR OR THE AMOUNT OF FUNDING WE SPENT ON FORLEVE FOR OTHER So I'd like to have a clear sense of where we're spending the money so we can think about where we might need to hire or bridge that. as we can continue this, you know, looking at the budget going forward. And then in thinking as well about how we get revenue from our existing assets, if you could just kind of give an update on what we have been looking at so far in terms of, I mean, I know many members of the council have asked for a, um, a real inventory of our city sites where we might be able to be collecting more rent or whatever our leases are existing leases are and I know you've taken some efforts and Council Member Kellman and vice mayor Sobieski are working on renegotiating at least their Just could you give a brief overview of what that might look like and what your working on. |
| 01:32:15.08 | Chris Zapata | Yes, Mayor, thank you. But let me not let that first part of that commentary go away, One of the things about consultants is You know, the idea of using consultants, there are always times when you need consultants. But in Sausalito's case, the thing that we are trying to do is move into hiring our own people. We are trying to get away from consultants as much as we can where it makes the most sense. Some places we won't be able to, but for the most part, we are trying to shift that narrative from hire a consultant to hire a full-time employee. Because when we're doing the cost-benefit analysis of that, whether it's the amount we pay or the institutional knowledge we gain, Uh, PAIRED WITH THE CONSULTANT, We really have been moving away from trying to bring on consultancy, do things that city staff traditionally has done, but hasn't done here in South Toledo for a while. So moving back the pendulum toward in-house staff is what we're trying to do. And you'll see that in terms of what we're trying to do with our property portfolio. One of the things that we did last year is we hired a a consultant to manage all that, to put it all together. And he has done that. There's a laundry list of all of our properties and related leases and, and what they are and what the terms are and what the languages and it's all a big document that we needed to have in one place so that's been done. And as we have looked at some of our bigger properties, whether it's at MLK, we've been trying to work diligently with the special group to help us get to some answers that we can bring before the council and the community in terms of the biggest leases we have out there, the two schools. some of the work that's been done to kind of understand post COVID, you know, where we need to be with our smaller tenants, we are working on right now. We have been trying to look at two different things. One of them is HIRING A PROPERTY MANAGER THAT DOES THIS, as a consultant or hire an in-house staff. And so my approach is to give you options look at the property management by a professional firm, if that's what you think makes the most sense for All concerned, that's one approach, but we also have advertised and are receiving applications for a real estate and property manager that we would have in-house. So we'll bring both of those to you in the near future because that is so important. Our revenue from these properties needs to be maximized, but at the same time, we need to take care of the tenants. We have a number of tenants we have long partnerships with that have gone through some hard times or have experienced things that, you know, maybe a landlord should be responsible for. And that's the city. So we're working through all that, but we need a full time person to do that or we need a full time group to do that. And so that's where we are with all that. |
| 01:35:14.66 | Mayor Blaustein | And then on the theme of in-house staff, I don't expect you to have this tonight as well, but just wondering if you had thought about one of the pieces of feedback we've heard from you very often is that it's difficult to hire and that it's a competitive time to hire. But I would much rather be spending the money on full-time employees than I would on consultants, and I would rather see more of the salary perhaps be shifted and offer more competitive salaries. if that meant being able to eliminate some of the funds that we spend on consultants and keep folks around longer. I don't know if you've given consideration to or have some analysis or maybe Deborah does of what we pay. versus what neighboring municipalities in Marin County pay, but that would also be If you could give a short answer now, something to consider. as we think about the next part of where we're making these decisions around salary and budget. |
| 01:35:59.08 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, no, I think it's pretty clear that Sausalito is not the top of the market in Marin County for sure. the positions that we hire. You've seen some notices from some of the labor groups, including one today that said, look what everyone else around us is the police officers. Obviously, it's across the board in a lot of areas where Sausalito maybe has gotten down in the market, but that's a function of what you can afford. when you have a, 21 million dollar revenue stream and you have 23 million, you check $600,000 out of consultant this year, if you took a million out, The question is, could you staff up quick enough with the, with a less competitive package that you offer in Sausalito. to do the work that needs to be done. And so one of the things that we asked last year is that you give us a consultant surplus so that we could whittle down this backlog. And I think we've made some strides there, but that's the whole argument. Do we keep consultants working for us at higher cost? In some ways, I think the full blown analysis is you have to look at what a fully loaded employee costs because salary is one thing, benefits are another thing. And there are a lot of things to consider, whether it's you know, a full-time employee can essentially create |
| 01:37:18.85 | Jack McDonnell | Thank you. |
| 01:37:20.82 | Chris Zapata | on-demand service and, you know, There's institutionologists gained. but there also are extra costs that a consultant doesn't have. like pension obligations at the same time. consultants then don't keep the institutional knowledge in the community. So it's a balancing act. Certain jobs we want to have full-time people, certain jobs you may want to consider both. And other jobs I believe you have to have a consultant because you just don't have the expertise. |
| 01:37:49.78 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, and I just have a couple more questions about sales tax and measure L, and then I have more, but I'll go to my colleagues so that they can weigh in. issue, but on Measure L, when you're giving us the bigger, better picture of what the infrastructure the deficit looks like at this stage. Are you including the measure L dollars when you say that it's down to 1 million from the 3 million, or is that apart from those numbers? |
| 01:38:12.90 | Chris Zapata | That's in there. So we added another $300,000 plus, which is the last quarter of this year. So we did not budget that this year, because we did not know if Measure L would pass. But at mid-year, we can make those adjustments. So it's a better picture, yes, because of Measure L. $300,000 plus was added to our mid-year projections because of Measure L. |
| 01:38:32.26 | Mayor Blaustein | And then just on the sales tax predictions, because what I had heard from EDEC was that our TOT recovery was 2x faster than some other communities and that our sales tax was revenue. I remember last year's budget was much better than expected. So. but it seems like from your report that that's going flat. Is that just from general economic projections and does that take into account the nature of our community as a tourist destination, or was it a rather general projection? |
| 01:38:58.29 | Chris Zapata | We rely on HDL for both of those projections. And the word we get is, we recovered to a degree, and then everything flattened out. And that's what you see. If we built a bunch more hotel rooms, then you'd probably see another spike. But when those hotel rooms in Sausalito having good occupancy rates, then that's reflected in that number, which is close to $2 million, but it can't go much higher than that. Cause you have limited rooms and, you know, I think the seasons and the times in which we do draw visitors to stay in our hotel rooms, It is seasonal until we do something different, whether it's events or more attractions or potentially more hotel rooms. then you're going to keep that number about where it is. It's a good strong number, but Again, it can't grow much. So that's what they're showing. And they're actually showing the sales taxes going down a little bit because they're predicting a rougher economy this coming year. And, you know, and when you try to make that up over the next two, three years, they're very cautious with, you know, the increases. So it looks relatively flat. That's their wisdom. They're pretty good at it. So, I mean, I can look at our numbers and our actual numbers and look at their estimates and they're pretty close. |
| 01:40:14.03 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:40:18.01 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, great. Well, I'll have more questions for you, but I'm going to go to council member Cox. She had her hand raised first. |
| 01:40:24.49 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. um, And thank you City Manager for that presentation and for providing this detail. Good news that the Delta between expenses and revenues have shrunk. But as you mentioned, we have to use this report as data as we consider our path forward, as we put together our budget for the next fiscal year. I wanted to ask you about the sustainability of some of the cuts that we've made. For example, I don't believe That's maintaining the 10% cut that you and the department heads took is sustainable in the long range. I believe we have to properly pay our goods. And similarly, I'm not sure meaning 36 hour work week is sustainable in the long term. by the continue to believe that we need to adopt a back-to-basics approach similar to what the city was forced to be back in 2008. So I'm wondering if you were including recommendations and your perspective on the sustainability of the cuts that got us to the sweepstakes that we are now as we consider our budget moving forward. |
| 01:41:50.74 | Chris Zapata | Thank you for that question, Council Member Cox. YOU HAVE A SMALL BUT MIGHTY WORKFORCE IN SAUSALIDO SUPPLEMENTED BY CONSULTANTS AND SOME MAY SAY TOO HEAVY A DEGREE AND WE'RE TRYING TO CHANGE THAT. some of the things that have been brought forward in the last year and a half have been awareness of our financial condition, how we got here, why we're here. And that's important. I don't think there's any real questions about, you know, what a structural deficit is and what we're trying to do about it. But the people that are doing that work, working extra hours, I'll give you an example. We started to staff up a little bit in public works, and then all of a sudden we lose a person to Larkspur. We staff up the community development and it is a person to send and sell more. We start to staff up in the city manager's office. We lose another person to San Anselmo. I REDUCE POLICE OFFICER TO PELO ALTO. You know, so all of those things, I think there was an economic factor in there that led to some of those decisions to move on. but there also is a work factor in there. And when you talk about sustainability, One of the things that I'll say to you is that, you know, there's a mistake on the next presentation, which I'll speak to. You know, we didn't dot a couple of I's, cross a couple of T's, spell some words right. people that can do great work may do not as good work when they're stretched to the hilt. And that's what I'm seeing in this organization. I'm watching people work through lunch, I'm watching people work on weekends, you know, and I'm seeing, you know, where there were When there were four people, there were three people. When there were three people, there were two people. And so, no, that's not sustainable in the long term. And so that's one of the things that I said to the city council, you know, if you want to be an organization of choice, then you create a better work environment. And I think we're trying to do that. through work-life balance, shorter work week, less time on the road. But ultimately, pay becomes a factor in any person's position. And if people see that there's a better package, they may be willing to pick over the fence and you'll lose good people because good people can always find their way. So I have big concerns about that. You know, the turn in Sausalito has been tremendous since I got here. But I'm told by colleagues that it's happening a lot in most organizations. jump into jobs and it's hard to keep good people for too long. So we've been making job offers to people and been getting turned down. So we've taken to making job offers at the top of the range instead of at the middle or the beginning. just so we could bring people in to keep police officers. You know, we bumped them up one, two, three steps at the patrol level so we could keep three police officers. Yes, it's a difficult time right now in Sausalito, and that's why, you know, I keep telling folks that, you know, if what did the folks at Willow Creek say, the moment of truth, The moment of truth is upon Sassludo two years ago. coming out of the pandemic. and it stays with us and so I think You know, I am not going to criticize staff for not dotting an I across the T because I'll make those mistakes too. because you just get stretched too thin. But I do believe that city council has been cognizant of going back to the basics, infrastructure, finances, people. And I think some of the improvements made as it relates to board and commissions and the obligations that we have that added to the workload that doesn't allow us to do basic stuff are starting to be addressed. I think there's a little light at the end of the tunnel, but we're definitely in a hard time, Council Member. |
| 01:45:38.38 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. That was my main question. Thank you. |
| 01:45:42.11 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, and we'll go to Councilmember Kelman. |
| 01:45:46.97 | Jill Hoffman | I think the vice mayor had his hand up before me. |
| 01:45:52.51 | Ian Sobieski | It's, you know, I, uh, And most of my questions have been asked and answered, so I won't belabor then in fact, I'll follow up with my little nitpicky questions with staff at another time. I just wanted to say, In the newspaper business, I think they call this bearing the lead. Uh... $3 million plan structural deficit decreases to a million dollars projected. is big, big good news. By no means are we out of the woods. But, um, And I'm not saying congratulations to celebrate, but I'm saying congratulations to honor the hard work that you and the rest of the staff the leadership staff and the entire staff have done to get us to that point. There's still a lot of work to do to attend to what my colleague, Council Member Cox described about improving level of service and morale. And and resiliency within our organization. So lots of more work to do, but We've always talked about the most important decision we make is hiring our city manager and holding him or her to account. Boy, we hired you to deliver these kinds of results. And all the things you talked about doing are delivering on that. of reacting to facts in a professional way and managing our problems tactically. The transparency here is tremendous and the challenges are clear. about how we can do more with less in this coming era. And some of the experiments we're doing, like the four day work week, IT MIGHT BE INNOVATIVE, IT MIGHT BE SOMETHING WE NEED TO REVERSE IN THE FACE OF FACTS, BUT IT MIGHT ALSO BE THE TREND OF THE FUTURE. THERE'S LOTS OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ABOUT THE IMPROVING MORALE AND SUSTAINED PRODUCTIVITY BY THE FOUR-DAY WORKWEEK. ultimately our employees will decide, but it certainly sets us apart in those ways. So I guess I I want to just leave it at that to underline the good news here while we continue to block and tackle and make progress. Congratulations on the progress so far. |
| 01:47:59.37 | Chris Zapata | I have a closing thank you if I can do that after the questions, Mayor. |
| 01:48:03.39 | Mayor Blaustein | course. Absolutely. |
| 01:48:04.91 | Jill Hoffman | Councilmember Kelman. |
| 01:48:05.73 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:48:05.75 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, Chris. straightforward, clear presentation. I know you've been working extremely diligently and challenging us to think creatively. I just have a couple of questions just for clarity's sake. I think I saw on your presentation, that the parks and recreation revenue was showing a decline. Is that accurate? And can you explain a little bit about why that is the case since we've come out of COVID And then, and what we could do to increase that or what your vision high level might be. I remember when you first came on board, we talked about really something that I'll hold out as a as an example, because it is a revenue producing department. So just your thoughts on that and how to account for that. |
| 01:48:52.85 | Chris Zapata | Thanks for that eagle eye there. I caught that too. I still need to sit down with Brian Batali and ask him and Vivian how we have that short of a shortfall because it doesn't ring right with me. So when we put these numbers together, that was our 12th iteration of that PowerPoint. with some of that information in there. We got it out early so the public could see the draft. And then we would make adjustments. This is one I suspect may need to be looked at again, because I don't understand it as well. I think that the Parks and Recreation Department, which is now not three people and a director, is two people. And they've been doing... great work and the events that you all have funded have continued and their ability to be entrepreneurial, which I admire as a Parks and Recreation professional in the old days, has been outstanding. So I want to look at that and get you a clearer answer, just like when the mayor asked about, you know, where are the consultants and what departments, so we'll note that and we'll get you an update. So we're not going to do all this tonight, but we'll try to do more of it the next time we see you when we ask for some authorization. |
| 01:50:02.76 | Jill Hoffman | Great, thank you. Sure. And a couple of my other questions are really just placeholders for you to find out more information for us. So another question I had at the priority setting session we had, we had a great presentation from NHA about additional taxes. And the community, of course, is very concerned about looking at that as our primary strategy. You also, though, have been looking at new revenue sources and have emphasizing to us that we need to be looking at new revenue sources. What are some of those new revenue sources that you could include in a future presentation so we can understand that opportunity as well? |
| 01:50:35.84 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, so I'm not a magician. I don't create revenue, but you know, I've seen places where there's been the need and the community understanding the political will to do it. I don't think that you're here yet at that point in Sausalito. I received about 20 emails from concerned residents about, you know, the conversation we had at the February 10th meeting about, you know, what are you thinking about, you know, taxes and so forth. I'm showing you exactly what I think cities can do if they choose to and if they choose not to then the other choices I said is pretty easy then you cut. So some of the revenue streams that are available to cities, obviously one thing we can do better is collect what's out there. And so one of the things you can do is an audit. And if you do an audit of certain people that you think may have not paid that they're supposed to pay, be prepared for that. You know, that's something that turns into you know, finger point and really turns into a beehive of problems, but you know, you got to do that at some point. And I think we're almost there with our situation. So auditing our numbers, looking at, you know, all of our, um, our revenue streams that we could in fact be missing. That's a big one. You know, making sure that we are making timely and upfront payments on some of our obligations. Like when we prepay our unfunded accrued liability payment to CalPERS. That saves us $200,000 or $300,000 when we do that, making sure we do that. Even though it sounds a little painful. investing in certain positions to help you, consultants to help you get other people's money. And you did that last year by bringing in California Consultant and you know, all the fruit that they are, They're tilling the ground right now with applications. We haven't received the big grant that we want other than the one that you worked with the team on. But the idea that we are building a grant database |
| 01:52:36.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:52:38.98 | Chris Zapata | where we may not get funding this year and we can find out why. And we go out there next year and tweak our application tell a better story or support it in a different way and then we get funding and we don't have to start all over because we've built that relationship. So I think the other thing is, is, you know, um, our grants, um, and ship. was in need of some some help and we've gotten that help, but you know, the, the, the fruit hadn't been born yet, but I believe it's coming. So those are three areas off the top of my head that I think you can look at that don't tax people. And I think just making sure that we have a handle on all of our leases, making sure that people are paying when they're supposed to pay. |
| 01:53:14.72 | Jack McDonnell | Bye. |
| 01:53:22.58 | Chris Zapata | And when there are increases, those increases should be implemented and if there's negotiations need to happen about, you know, some new scenario that we do that. So those are things that, you know, happen over time, but they're in process right now. |
| 01:53:37.95 | Jill Hoffman | So Chris, on follow-up to that, thank you for all of those things. And we've discussed them and I endorse that pursuit of understanding those better. Can you add, I don't need to respond to it now, but when you provide us that analysis at a future date, divesting ourselves of property or managing it in a better fashion. We have a, extremely large property holding as a city. And it could be interesting during this opportunity time now to see what we want to manage and what we don't. And so that would just be a request to understand that so the public can understand it. The other request that I had is a presentation of materials. Maybe I blinked and missed it, but it seems like most of your numbers are year to year, right? And I'm very interested in sort of the micro and macroeconomic trends. And it's very for somebody to say after COVID, we're up 100%. We've doubled our numbers. And I'm very interested in sort of the micro and macroeconomic trends. And it's very easy for somebody to say after COVID, we're up 100 percent. We've doubled our numbers. Well, of course you did, because lockdown is no longer one of those concerns for us. So I think it'd be very helpful if when we look at numbers, if we could see some five to seven year historic numbers, I think that'd be quite helpful for us in the future. |
| 01:54:40.96 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, I do. |
| 01:54:42.21 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. That's it. Thank you very much. Great. |
| 01:54:44.74 | Mayor Blaustein | Let's go. |
| 01:54:45.03 | Jill Hoffman | Councilmember Hoffman |
| 01:54:45.79 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:54:48.74 | Jill Hoffman | I, I don't think I, in the context of everybody else's questions, I don't think I have any other questions, but we're going to come back up for comments after public. Absolutely. Absolutely. |
| 01:54:57.16 | Mayor Blaustein | OK. I had a question. Just a quick. One other question. Just so in in the mention of property tax, when you look at it, so property tax and you mentioned there's a significant decrease in our revenue. since the passage of the consolidation of the fire district. But also in looking at the cost for public safety, it looks like our biggest spend is on Public safety, correct? outside of the SMFD. So, |
| 01:55:21.63 | Amy Pritzchik | Correct. |
| 01:55:23.08 | Mayor Blaustein | And in looking at the report from SMFD tonight, actually their total budget to run that department is upwards of 22 million. So, I would appreciate it. I don't know if you've looked at, or have benchmarking, but I, I think we need to be responsible and aware of that. The spend that that goes to that in property tax. But I'd like to understand Is that realistic or not given benchmarking with public safety spend for regions, like for instance, how much does San Ramon Valley or how much does Palo Alto's fire department cost and how much would that have would cost Would that cost if we were to just so that the public understands how much of our budget realistically would we be getting back and what are our options? Because it seems to be brought up again and again, but it was something that was a ballot measure that was passed by the majority of voters. So it's not something that we can quickly change. And I'd just like to see at least a benchmarking of that spend Um, and to better understand it. Because when we passed it, I know it was something like 2.7 million annually. Now it's much more. but it could still be a realistic contribution of what we would be paying anyway to SMFD. So I just wanna put a lens on that so that we're aware of where we are. responsibly or not responsibly spending our budget. So if you could think about that, it would be helpful. |
| 01:56:36.29 | Chris Zapata | Thanks for that, Mayor. I'll talk to Chief Tubbs about doing some comparison agency to agency. And obviously, we're a part of the Southern Wind Fire District. We're not the whole $22 million budget. So yeah, so I can ask him to look at some like-minded and see what they do and number of firefighters they have and other things that matter to cities when it comes to the fire service. The one thing I always like to say is that you're fortunate in Oslo to have a ISO rating of one. IN THE FIRE DISTRICT, WHICH AGAIN HELPS BUSINESSES AND RESIDENTS WITH THEIR INSURANCE COSTS. THAT'S THE BEST YOU CAN GET. SO, AND I THINK WITH RESPECT TO THE ELDERLY POPULATION YOU HAVE IN SAUSULUBA, THE AVERAGE AGE IS 60 PLUS. You know, our firefighters are significantly involved in emergency services and emergency response and because you have a wildland interface and so forth and you definitely have a need for a fire department. So I've never said that the fire department isn't great. But what I've always said, and I'll say it again, is that shift of property tax create volatility in your revenue stream because now you're more relying on TOT, Measure L, and sales tax than you would have been otherwise. And so I'll just look, see, I've got some information, different people in the community sent me their analysis of why they thought the fire department budget then and the fire district budget now were probably awash. So I'm happy to share that with you if you'd like. So is that your question? |
| 01:58:15.33 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah, I just want an understanding because it would be a significant line item in our budget that could be upwards of potentially the amount that we're paying in property tax. So just for the sake of public understanding of what sort of deal we are getting and also the contributions that the fire department makes to our community, as you said, the rating of one. is obviously quite valuable. Just flagging that. |
| 01:58:36.45 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, and let me just say again, I don't provide this information. It's historic. I think Councilman Kilman asked if I would write more historical. That's historic information. GOING BACK 10 YEARS. I PROVIDE IT JUST FROM A STANDPOINT SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND the trending in the property tax is stable. I said it publicly and I'll say it again, I do not advocate going back in re-voting on that. That ship has sailed in my mind. That's a lot of work. I think we can always be partners. There's opportunity to be better partners. We continue to try to work with Chief in the Southern District to try to do that. SO THAT'S MY PUBLIC STATEMENT ON THE FIRE DISTRICT. Anything else you need for me? |
| 01:59:15.79 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you city manager. I think the vice president has his hand raised before we go to public comment. |
| 01:59:17.21 | Chris Zapata | Yeah. |
| 01:59:20.60 | Chris Zapata | I have one more thing to say before. Before you go to public comment. |
| 01:59:20.62 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah, just one. |
| 01:59:24.18 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:59:24.19 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah, you have a closing thing. OK, great. Perfect. Great. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. |
| 01:59:24.97 | Ian Sobieski | closing. |
| 01:59:25.44 | Chris Zapata | And- |
| 01:59:26.25 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. I just had one question here, Chris, on This slide. So this is the mid-year budget. Is this through, it says it's actually as of 2, 22, 23. So was it literally as of February 22nd? six months into the fiscal year, it's not It's whatever 2 slash 22, 23 is. I'm trying to understand what percentage of the fiscal year these are actuals of. |
| 01:59:56.32 | Chris Zapata | Yeah. It's, it's, It's a mishmash, Vice Mayor. Some of it, as you see, some of those numbers are actuals, you know, what we've got. And then you can see the projections and you can see what we think we're going to get. Some of those projections are our own projections because we have different facts and information than our consultants have for some of the things that are in there, but it's actually almost a seven-month point in time count for you It's not a six-year review, a six-month review. It's a... So, date is back. |
| 02:00:35.07 | Ian Sobieski | And, um, Okay, that answers my question. Thanks so much. |
| 02:00:39.59 | Mayor Blaustein | Let's bring it back to the city manager for his comments he wanted to make. |
| 02:00:42.85 | Chris Zapata | I just want to say on behalf of the organization that I admire the city council's decisions over the past two years to use one-time monies, dip in your reserves to keep the workforce intact. I don't know that there's a real firm understanding and appreciation by many people in our community, but I know that on the part of our organization, you made a hard decision to take reserves that were built by other and prior councils and administrations and use that to maintain service levels, meaning maintain the city staff. You did not cut city staff when that would have been something you could have done based on COVID. Some cities did that. Last year when you had a budget deficit, you did not cut city staff when, you know, we had a $3 million shortfall. So what I'm suggesting to you all is we owe you as a council, |
| 02:01:12.40 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:01:36.19 | Chris Zapata | I thank you for giving us a little more time to try to right this ship. We're not there yet. It's going to take a lot of work to get there. But at the same time, I think the community who went through COVID and the businesses who went through COVID, when we came out of it, you know, there was a Parks and Recreation Department. There was a library. You know, there were community development people, there were park maintenance folks, all of that you kept intact in spite of COVID, in spite of the deficits. And so we're trying to honor that by continuing to make progress and making sure that in the future that Sausalito is much more sustainable. |
| 02:02:17.77 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you very much, city manager. Thanks for all of your hard work on this. And I really appreciate vice mayor's call out that you really did work hard to bring us down $3 million deficit to $1 million, and that's not nothing. And I know there's still work to be done, Truly appreciate you. So let's open it up for public comment on this item. |
| 02:02:38.41 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 02:02:47.12 | Sandra Bushmaker | All right. Good evening. Thank you, Chris Zapata and the City Council for your efforts in this area, which are badly needed. And I would just like to start off by saying that They think that the public needs to be in its communications like the currents that we're going through a belt tightening, that we are going through an adjustment period here in order to make our books balance and that there's going to be some changes and ask the community for its patience. And I think that would be an important thing to get across. I am absolutely delighted to hear the discussion about the real estate. That has been something that's been on my mind. For a very long time, we need to get rid of property that is not productive and useful to the city. We need to collect rents. We need to evaluate the rents from various tenants of the city. We did have a notebook many years ago, a three ring binder with all the city leases in it. I don't know what happened to it, but I'm glad we've got it put together now. But now we need to manage, as Chris Zapata brought up, we need to manage our assets and manage them to the benefit of the city, not to the detriment of it. And lastly, I just wanted to comment Um, I was dumbfounded to receive the Marin Ship Park Survey. for all the bling to go into the maroon ship part. In light of all these discussions we've been having the past two years on trying to right the budget. And I don't know where that came from. I don't know who instigated it. But not only was it dumbfounding, It was also a very difficult, if not impossible, survey to fill out. Uh, In my opinion, that park needs grass cut, pipes fixed, and wash the tennis courts. And that's all we can afford to do right now. We cannot afford to add bling. Just if you don't know that survey, you must pick one of the bling items or three of the bling items in order to get on to the next question. to add your comments. And so that's not good. And I don't like to see the city spending time and money on surveys that are statistically unreliable. And that one was one of the worst I've seen so far. And I just want to put my two cents worth because if we're talking about spending money on efforts that make the city better, that isn't one of them. And like I said, I'm happy to hear all these discussions. I know these are tough times and you know, I support the work that the council's doing to try to get our revenues in line with our spending or I should say our spending in line with our revenues. Thanks very much. |
| 02:05:35.38 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you, Sandra. Do we have any further public comment, Wilfred? |
| 02:05:40.07 | Walfred Solorzano | for the public comment |
| 02:05:42.09 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay. All right. I'll close public comment and bring it up to the Council for comments and directions. |
| 02:05:51.98 | Mayor Blaustein | Who would like to get us started? |
| 02:05:57.11 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:05:57.13 | Jill Hoffman | I'm happy to start, Mayor. I mean, if that's okay. I think we've been pretty clear and consistent. You know, we want to see an opportunity to identify missing revenue in these existing revenue streams. locate efficiencies and waste, utilize existing assets more productively, explore new sources of revenue, I think that's all consistent when we touch upon a prioritization session, what Chris has been telling us for a while now. I think now our task as a council is to figure out how to remain laser focused on finances above all. above all else. And if we have projects or as we're looking at our agenda setting, if we can maybe think about how we might come together and agree on some criteria and apply a lens, for how we... create the prioritization that might help further some of these goals as well. And so I think we're headed in the right direction. I appreciate the way the vice mayor called that out and Chris about his work on this. But now I think the heavy lifting in some ways is on us to make sure that we stay consistent with this. So I think the presentation tonight was extremely helpful. Any way that we can continue to message this to the community so they understand where we are, what we're trying to do. I think would be great. And I would just like to know before we conclude tonight, when we and the members of the public can expect to hear an update. on some of the questions that we've asked tonight. So that's all I have to say. |
| 02:07:19.31 | Mayor Blaustein | Amen. |
| 02:07:19.39 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you so much. |
| 02:07:19.90 | Mayor Blaustein | you |
| 02:07:19.95 | Jill Hoffman | Councilmember Cox. |
| 02:07:20.93 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:07:22.67 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. I'll echo the comments of Councilmember Kelman. I also found our minutes from our last special meeting to be helpful in terms of enunciating the priorities identified by the council members of the club at that meeting and a lot of them had to do with some of the same themes we've discussed tonight in terms of streamlining preserving staff and morale identifying economies of scale such as you know a potential merger with Saucyuta Marine City Sanitary District just looking back at the some notes from what each council member said at that initial priority setting session is helpful in terms of guiding our future, which I think we've all agreed has to be about the basics and to get us to a place where we are no longer in the deficit spending. COB, Elaine McLaughlin, So I look forward to hearing further detail from the city manager and response to some of the. questions in areas of inquiry raised tonight and to continuing to roll up our sleeves and get to work amongst us to move the tough positions for the vote. And. |
| 02:08:47.58 | Mayor Blaustein | THANK YOU VERY MUCH COUNCILMEMBER HUFFMAN. |
| 02:08:54.33 | Mayor Blaustein | We can't hear you, Councilmember. Oh, fair. Thank you. |
| 02:08:59.68 | Jill Hoffman | I'm going to have to do that. |
| 02:09:00.86 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:09:00.97 | Jill Hoffman | I know, right? Thanks to again to Chris for the heavy lift, not just this year, but last year in 2021 when he did the really heavy lift of giving us an historic sort of perspective of how we got to where we are and actually calling out that that we were in a structural deficit and we had actually been in one for for a while. So that was a first step in the right direction. I think we're progressing toward the right direction. I think the clear, you know, DECLAIRE strategy from this point forward is that we have to be very clear that we are working toward a balanced budget. And this year is our fifth year that we're talking about a deficit spend budget. And that is absolutely not acceptable in my mind. And we made some tough decisions last year. And I think we need to continue on that course and be very vigilant and disciplined about how we as a council respond to different asks that come to us from the community. And if we could come up with a set of objective criteria that we can all agree to adhere to, I think that would make it much easier for us, would make it much easier for the staff and much more transparent about what our decision-making process is going forward. But our number one priority balanced budget for this year, this is it done. No more deficit spend budget. Thank you. And I think that's I'm adhering to that and I hope I can the rest of the council would agree to hear that as well. I think if we could also agree on objective criteria, I think that would make it much easier for us. I think the policy of rigorous fiscal scrutiny on every ask that comes to us in every analysis that we do, no matter what group it is or no matter who it is that comes before us, if we can adopt that, I think that also would be be much clearer for us and other people who are working on efforts throughout town, understanding Right now, while we're in a budget deficit, you know phase, that our likely answer is going to be filtered through the same criteria for everybody that comes in before us and that we're going to adhere to that. And I think that would help us, it would help the staff, and it would help our community. So that's all I have to say now. I hope that we can continue down the scope that I've just outlined as we move through our budget process from now until June 30th. Thank you. Vice Mayor? |
| 02:11:26.19 | Ian Sobieski | Well, let's see, I think I gave my main comment already. Congratulations on the progress thus far. Echoes of everything my colleagues have said. I think we can be clever with about doing more with in these times of having less, but that the KEY CRITERIA SHOULD BE ON CONTINUING THE CITY MANAGER'S LEADERSHIP ON riding the financial ship. A key component of that would be potential revenue sources and Personally, I'm, I'd love to tax any residents of Sausalito. There is a real My business nose tells me there's a lot of money being left on the table for the Sausalito business model. from the way we have our parking parking fee structured. to how we might do additional fees on or encouragement of different kinds of visitors to looking at. So all the other things we talked about at the last at the last meeting. So I'm hoping that the presentation that we got from NHA. uh, At that meeting, we got the very high level summaries on different kinds of revenue sources. And I would love them to take their level of analysis down to level of specificity on things like a vacancy tax. Uh, And. how that could actually be implemented, what kind of revenue could actually be made, and what kind of circular virtuous cycle could be set up by encouraging businesses to occupy vacant storefronts by having that kind of incentive. So I hope we'll get that in terms of future action items or direction, I hope we'll get that. uh, LEVEL OF ANALYSIS SOONER RATHER THAN LATER SO WE CAN ACTUALLY IMPLEMENT SOMETHING ASAP. You know, not to be missed is the real opportunity with our with our parking lots and how much money is potentially there. That could actually also be a win win if we structure it right in cooperation with the businesses to actually serve their needs as well as the communities. |
| 02:13:32.05 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. So I'm definitely in agreement with all of the members of the council that right now we really critically need a back to basics work towards a balanced budget approach. So I heard from each of you that we need to have locating efficiency in waste. So I think we directed and asked for you know, itemized where are we spending on consultants? What about looking at our merger with Sausalito Marin City Sanitary District? finding new sources of revenue. I heard a lot of you speak to How do we look at our current lease agreements? Where can we offload what we're not doing a good job on? fees and visitor taxes, vacancy tax, et cetera. And of course, preserving our staff morale so that we don't need to continue to hire consultants. Is our 10% decrease sustainable across the board for directors? What's our breakdown of pay? How can we be more competitive while operating from the lens of We need to get back to a balanced budget. And really importantly, I think all of you have called for thinking about an objective criteria that we can all adhere to as we're making decisions this year. THROUGH THIS LENS OF NEEDING TO GET BACK TO A BALANCED BUDGET And we do have a follow along to our prioritization session. that we hopefully will be able to look at that and come up with that together. So I really appreciate everyone's consideration of this really critical issue. especially city manager for really directing the ship in such an effective way. Is there anything else anyone wants to add to go back through before we move on to the next business item here? Because we have a few more to get through. |
| 02:14:59.93 | Ian Sobieski | I also would like to second Janelle's outline of looking at our city owned properties. We have a ton of city owned properties. In the South, we call it landpore. So. Let's look at that. |
| 02:15:10.98 | Mayor Blaustein | Great. Fantastic. Okay. All right, so then I'll go ahead and move on to item 5B now, which is the direction to staff regarding recommendations made by EDAC. So I think we're going to hear from the city manager again and our EDAC chair, Tom Riley. |
| 02:15:26.34 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor members of the council members of the public. Let me lead off by saying I apologize for this important matter. And there's a merger in the staff report that belongs on the audit RFP item. So excuse me for that, that shouldn't be there. So as you all know, Economic Development Advisory Committee is a merger of two former committees. and has a, um, what I call a |
| 02:15:56.34 | Chris Zapata | Hello? We can hear you. OK, my screen went dark. |
| 02:16:02.06 | Mayor Blaustein | Oh no, we're all here. |
| 02:16:02.44 | Chris Zapata | They're all here. Okay, as a merger of two. two former committees of volunteers that have been asked to help the city of Sausalito create a more vibrant and dynamic business environment. I've highlighted who the board is. The chair of that is Tom Riley. I think I spelled John DeRay's name right. I hope I did. But again, I go back to some of the things that they've done over the the last year. There are some attachments that Mr. Riley can speak to. But there are 10 that were submitted to the city council predominantly The one that you addressed two meetings ago, which is business improvement district consultant. You've approved that one. The marketing program is something that Mr. Riley believes strongly in. And You know, obviously there's some talk about the Marinship Innovation Zone for They want to look at other revenue opportunities for the city. They liked the idea of more hotel rooms. They've been on the same theme of streamlining our permitting process. because that's important. They want to provide some support to the Saucyos Center for the Arts to create more economic activity. the community events that have been a part of their, uh, mixed for the past two years, like Holiday by the Bay and was the night live that they coordinate with our public works and Parks Department for our community benefit There is an expanded lighting program that We just seeded the funding and act as a fiscal agent for the lighting that you see now downtown. And then they're advocating for the return of the social art festival. So Mr. Riley is here. I think he can speak to the program and what they'd like to do. in a much more eloquent manner than I can. SO, TOM, IF YOU CAN SIGN ON AND ADD TO WHAT YOU NEED TO ADD ON TO AND THEN Council and comments from the questions, comments and question to council in public. |
| 02:18:09.91 | Tom Riley | Thank you, city manager. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, city council members. Thank you for the time. Vice mayor, I hope you get healthy soon. Thank you for working while you're sick. Um, So first and foremost, everything EDEC does is on behalf of your direction and is focused on raising revenues for the city. One year ago, about this time, We ask for your direction on priorities. A number of you gave us your top priorities by voting. And we have been working on those. Um, The number one request was to advise whether we should do a business improvement district or not. We met and we met consultants. We recommend that. Number two was to promote Sausalito as a waterfront destination. and work on our brand. Number three was to look at parking. Number four was to fill vacancies and consider whether we should revise our formula retail requirements. And finally, to consider a smaller scale art festival. Those were our directions. We are pleased with our results. As was pointed out, HDL reported that are TOT and restaurant revenues, outpaced the recovery of the rest of California by 2x, we attribute that to the work that EVAC did. to give you a return analysis EDAC spent on marketing and events $90,000 over the course of a year. That's incrementally $40,000 more than the city was spending before EDAC got engaged. But that $90,000, One hotel. ONE HOTEL REPORTED THAT THEY'RE DOT revenues to the city increased by $142,000 in that same time. So just one hotel gave us the ROI. We'd love to do the analysis of all hotels and all restaurants, to get a return on that $90,000 investment, but we know it'll be 5X, 6X. And we don't want to take the resources of staff to do that analysis because it is a no brainer. What we're asking for you today is, Yet again, work at your direction and your priorities And so we're looking for that direction. And we are FEWERS ARE WORKING TO MINIMIZE BURDEN ON STAFF. I THINK STAFF WILL CONCLUDE THAT. Other than having to run Browdak meetings, we don't ask anything of staff. We help staff. And we've reduced our meetings to quarterly. And when there was two Um, they were having 24 meetings a year. We're down to four. And we're showing ROI for every investment that we recommend the city make to increase revenues. We've identified 10. Um, We do think that a business improvement district can take over a lot of what EDEC on behalf of the city has been doing, from marketing and putting on events and lighting That should belong in a bid. and until that bid's in place, we believe are marketing, Promoting Sausalito as the destination will continue to drive TOT and restaurants. And And so we want to continue that and continue events until a bid is in place. And they were recommending that we shift our focus to the MarinShip and support bringing in blue economy type businesses. We think that can be a big impact. We're happy to weigh in on where we can help drive revenues, new revenues, or get creative. If we can system parking, we'll do that. But that concludes my presentation. We're here once a year to get your direction. to make sure that we are addressing your priorities and working on those. So I'll pause there. |
| 02:22:02.06 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you, Chair Riley. All right, we'll start with Councilmember Kelman, who had her hand raised first. Thank you. |
| 02:22:06.31 | Jill Hoffman | Great, thank you. Really good to see you, Tom. Appreciate the work and effort you and EDAC have put in. I'm excited to see a lot of ideas here. I actually have a couple of follow-up questions for the city manager. um, just that is linking off of some of the suggestions. So if the city managers is available to turn this video on real quick. One question I had was I noticed on our actuals and our projections that the Community Development Department was in negative double digits in our budget. And I'm wondering if you just validate that, because as I think about which opportunities could have the biggest impact, and I'm thinking about streamlining the permitting efforts, I want to cross-reference that with, some of the conditions that are worse off than others. So can you just validate that for me? |
| 02:22:53.76 | Chris Zapata | So have we gotten to streamlining? Is that your question? |
| 02:22:56.83 | Jill Hoffman | No, I just said, Again, maybe I blinked. It was one presentation ago, but I remember seeing on your chart that the community development projected budget was in the negative in a double digit fashion. I'm trying to make the connection that we could, in fact, benefit from some streamlining or some other permitting focused efforts. But I want to make sure that I understood that correctly. |
| 02:23:20.16 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, I don't think that's correct, Councilman McKelman. I think that there are significant savings in the community and economic development department. The budget that was adopted was, um, anticipated the field positions, but while we were trying to fill positions, there were consultants that were authorized that were at a number that we thought we needed to deal with the backlog of permit applications we had. So my take on that is, is maybe we looked at the numbers in a different way, but the community and economic development department budget is going to be less than the spend is going to be less than the budgeted amount, not the other way around. But I'll confirm that. |
| 02:23:59.78 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, yeah, and just for the city clerk, I was trying to pull it up, but I'm getting an XML error, so we might have to reload it. Similar question for you. On the TOT, I do remember it said a 0% change, and Ms. Riley just mentioned to us that we saw a double, and it's a double in the recovery, but we're showing a 0%. So can you just articulate the distinction between those two things? |
| 02:24:23.96 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, I don't have an answer for that. I have to talk to our sales tech consultant as to why their number is what their number is. And compare that to the information that chair Riley provided and get you an answer. |
| 02:24:36.11 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and then one more question for you on the BID. I think when you explained to us at the last meeting, you talked about the contribution, that the city would need to make a contribution based on the linear square footage of participation in the BID. Have you calculated the city's potential contribution to the BID so that we can understand where the city, It could be out of pocket, even though notwithstanding that it could be a benefit long term, just have you calculated that contribution. |
| 02:25:04.78 | Chris Zapata | No, no, and I haven't, and that's why you hire a consultant. The consultant will come in and he'll develop A map that people can yay or nay. And once you figure out what the map is and you can figure out what the uh, involvement of the different property owners is, and then what the, uh, formula you'll use to calculate what the cost would be to each individual entity, whether it's the city or a business owner or a property owner. excuse me, a property owner. So that's where we hire the consultant, the consultant comes in and does all of that. and tells you what it would look like Theoretically, the boundaries of it, how you would assess you know, what the timing for, you know, An election might be when that money could come in and how you put it on the ballot for a vote by the people impacted within that district. But I don't have that information and wouldn't have it until you get some certainty around the actual area that you're going to have in the business improvement district. |
| 02:26:01.97 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. Yeah, that just was outstanding for me. Appreciate that. That's all I have. |
| 02:26:05.21 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 02:26:05.55 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:26:08.35 | Mayor Blaustein | Thanks, Councilmember Kelman. All right, let's go to Councilmember Cox. Who has your hand raised? Thank you. |
| 02:26:12.58 | Janelle Cox | And, |
| 02:26:12.65 | Mayor Blaustein | Absolutely. |
| 02:26:12.97 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. And thank you, Tom, for your presentation and for all of your . wonderful work on behalf of the city. both on the council and working with EDAC. We very much appreciate everything you bring to bear. I wanted to take the opportunity to weigh in on some of the projects that you're proposing as priorities for EDAC for the coming year and get some perhaps raise some additional questions to be considered. I endorse what Councilmember Kellman said about understanding It's my understanding the city is the biggest property owner within the business within the proposed business improvement district, so I think it would be important to understand what the city's contribution to that district would need to be and i'm happy to hear that the consultant would provide us with that. information. Some of the proposals on here, I believe, entail the expenditure of funds, the marketing program. I know that we pay, I think, 1,700 I'm not sure about what period of time to hear in the past, for the creative digital agency contracts. I. For some of these proposed priorities, I think we should look at them through the economic lens that Councilmember Hoffman mentioned, which is understand what the cost is and then understand what the benefit or what the potential benefit is to that. So the marketing program would be one of those. |
| 02:27:55.67 | Janelle Cox | Go to the next page. streamlining the permitting process. I appreciate that. Goal. We heard tonight you not tonight, but we have heard of instances where Sometimes streamlining results in. mistakes that can be costly to the city. And so I want to understand and put a lens of ensuring that streamlining doesn't result in a loss of level of service. So I want to understand that tension between streamlining, which is important, but maintaining a certain level of service to ensure that the city is not vulnerable. Saucinito Center for the Arts, I'm a huge supporter of the SCA, but again, want to understand what, if any, the proposed spend by the city would be to support the SCA. And the same with community events, continuing community oriented events. I know there's an expense to hiring musicians and other vendors. Same with the expanded lighting program. And the same with the Sausalito Art Festival. The Sausalito Art Festival, I was very active in back in 2010. 18 and there were a lot of monetary and non-monetary contributions by the city to the Sausalito Art Festival. As we consider prioritizing this list, which I think is laudable and full of wonderful ideas, I want I would just like us to better understand a cost-benefit analysis for those projects that would entail spending by the city. Amen. |
| 02:29:56.26 | Tom Riley | Mayor, may I address that, those comments? Yes, please. Thank you, Councilmember Cox, and I am in full alignment with you. At this time, we got your direction. We came back in the budgeting process with your direction saying the things you asked for, here's what they would cost. and we gave an ROI analysis for each of them. Um, we will do the same here. Uh, we want to, uh, advise the city to spend its money wisely with a clear return. And now, you know, like on the marketing spend, We can do a better analysis versus a projection. And, um, And so what we wanna do is spend the least amount of money for the greatest income to the city. And I want to thank all my Committee members. I estimate we probably put in about a half a million dollars of consulting efforts. If you look at the professional marketers and commercial developers and real estate professionals helping the city for free, to increase revenues. And so I thank them as well. |
| 02:31:02.90 | Janelle Cox | Thank you for that. And I also recognize, for example, Monica Finnegan has been a real estate broker for free in finding tenants for downtown office space, as an example. And so I very much appreciate the efforts of the EDAC. I also appreciate your commitment to |
| 02:31:15.91 | Jack McDonnell | Yes. |
| 02:31:22.53 | Janelle Cox | streamlining. the work of the EDAC to ensure that it does not increase demands or place burden on city staff. So everything very commendable. Just want to, and I was unaware of the ROI that you had prepared last year, just want to continue to look at prioritizing things through that all important economic lens. So thank you so much for all of your work. |
| 02:31:45.58 | Tom Riley | And one last comment, thank you, Council Member. On the permitting process, two years ago, we did about a three month project and came forward with 35 recommendations, not necessarily to streamline. Streamlining was meaning, how do we get permits through the process faster, not how do we do it with fewer people. And it was a three-year plan. to implement these over time to improve. We want to revisit that. |
| 02:32:12.88 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. Okay, Councilmember Hoffman has her hand raised. |
| 02:32:19.82 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:32:19.83 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So, Tom, I just want to focus in on, you know, the the direction that the city council might give you guys tonight on the next six months. And, you know, full disclosure, Tom and I talked this afternoon. So so as I understand it and I agree with you that the biggest the biggest thing, the biggest priority and bite that we could move forward is determining whether or not I think to move forward with the BID or the business investment district in getting that process together. And that's probably the biggest value add that you bring to the table as EDAC in the next, let's say this quarter, right? I said six months, but I'm, you know, from now until the end of June 30th. Would you agree with that? |
| 02:33:09.45 | Tom Riley | Well, I think it can have a significant impact on the revenues and reduce costs that the city is spending through EDAC. So I have a supporter of the business |
| 02:33:21.95 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. And we also talked a little bit about you know, this conversation we've been having about how to transition boards and commissions, right? Away from Brown Act to non-Brown Act and what that might be. And one of the things I think that you said was, you know, if we want to be consistent amongst all of them, right? And how we approach that, we might consider just dissolving all of them and then creating working groups. That's just a general concept, but with regard to EDAC, that that would be something that would be that would be manageable by EDAC because you guys are kind of already off on your own, working on your own track. And if we give you three priorities between now and the whatever the short term is, you're gonna be functioning largely in that capacity anyway. Did I get that right? |
| 02:34:18.89 | Tom Riley | Well, to address the city manager and staff's concerns about all these committees and commissions being a burden, which they are because of Brown Act, We were very aggressive to move to quarterly meeting cycles, to not put requests on city staff. Um, But to get our work done, We then created sub working committees that are not subject to the Brown Act because they're not a quorum. And that's how we've been working. We feel comfortable on a quarterly cycle to come back and make sure that we're addressing the city council's priorities and then going off on a quarterly basis. We've gone from in the last three years, 24 meetings a year to four meetings. That's a significant reduction on staff. Um, And tonight we're looking for priorities. we're not prepared to talk about the overall committee structures. I THINK THAT'S A |
| 02:35:13.34 | Jill Hoffman | As far as. Yeah, fair enough. Thank you. So I, okay, thanks. I think those are all my questions and I'm Ready to... Before. |
| 02:35:22.71 | Mayor Blaustein | Do we have I have a couple questions for you if there's no questions from any other members of the council vice mayor do you have any questions. |
| 02:35:31.10 | Ian Sobieski | Do you think, are you hearing the conversation as I think you did, Chair Riley? earlier about our revenue. brainstorm. about how to exploit our business model better, that that's an area that THE VOLUNTEERS ON THE EDAC. Could help. |
| 02:35:46.70 | Tom Riley | of. Yes. Again, I liked our city manager's comment that he's not a magician and can't create revenues out anywhere. I don't know the ideas, but I think it's a good idea. we could support the city manager on researching ideas. whatever, doing a survey on behalf of the city. There's many things we could do. Again, our goal is to increase revenues for the city. And we'll look at every creative way to get there. Thanks. |
| 02:36:18.19 | Ian Sobieski | I just have another, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. |
| 02:36:19.73 | Mayor Blaustein | Go ahead, Vice Mayor. No, by all means, please. |
| 02:36:21.43 | Ian Sobieski | So EDAC did a bunch of events. Wednesday Live, I think, Holiday by the Bay. I'm missing, I'm sure, a ton. Um, I can picture them, I forgot they were called. What's the status of those going forward? Are they transitioning to parks and rec? Are they being taken over by the chamber? or the community. |
| 02:36:43.03 | Tom Riley | Our recommendation in the past two years, we've done between 50 and 60 events. between Holiday by the Bay, which is 18 different events, Wednesday Night Live, which is a dozen events, and other things that we've done. Um, The community seems to like them. They draw 100 to 200 people each event. Um, The businesses are very supportive of them. What we're recommending is to collaborate with the Parks and Rec Department on all the events they do and see how these fit in. Because the city to put on all these events, I think spent about $18,000. in the past year. Holiday by the Bay was 10,000. The other events were about eight. Um, We'd like to match it up to parks and recs and make sure that We have a collection of events. that activate our community and help our businesses throughout the year. Thank you. |
| 02:37:45.94 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, I have a couple of questions and full disclosure. I also had the opportunity to talk with Tom this week about in advance of this meeting. So if you could just, given the fiscal situation we're in and how we're trying to be really mindful of our spend, I had asked some questions of you and I'll just reiterate them. about the $300,000 that we provided to EDAC because I've seen that you're using it quite effectively. And I think folks think that maybe it's all gone or you're asking for more money. And so could you just clarify that? So far you were saying that last year, It was about $74,000 for the marketing program, which you would like to continue. and maybe another 15K for events. So last year you spent about 90K. Thank you. |
| 02:38:28.57 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:38:28.62 | Mayor Blaustein | Bye. |
| 02:38:28.76 | Janelle Cox | So, |
| 02:38:29.48 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay. And then this year you're asking, or you would like to see the marketing programs potentially can continue. and maybe have another 90, like let's assume there's another 90K of spend with the marketing program and events, right? |
| 02:38:42.19 | John DeRay | Yes. |
| 02:38:42.88 | Mayor Blaustein | And so then that would leave an additional at least 90K from the 300 that could be used for the BID because it wasn't already used. Because it was appropriated to improve the permitting, and it seems to have just changed. sat and not yet been touched, correct? |
| 02:38:58.25 | Tom Riley | Yes, so to also be clear, Mayor, we've just given advice to the city on money to put in the budget that we believe the city should spend. And a good chunk of that was to do that 35 point action plan for the permitting process. It wasn't spent because of the turnover in that department. Eat Act and spend it. And, um, So we recommended the city do those things. And in this cycle, we'd like to take your direction and come back with what we think the budget should be and the ROI on these investments. Um, But yes, what we're recommending is we continue the marketing program, we continue the events. Um, until we have a bid in place, which could take a year, |
| 02:39:46.50 | Unknown | you |
| 02:39:47.16 | Tom Riley | And then on these other items, we can come back with Um, how we can help. in what we think the city's investment would be. |
| 02:39:57.43 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, great. And then I'm just gonna ask the city manager on the bid, because obviously as we're drawing the lines for the bid, It's gonna include some city property, um, would we be able to come up with a program where we could? be reimbursed through the bid. for the payments that we're making for the RFP or otherwise? |
| 02:40:16.87 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, Mayor, thanks for the question. That is possible. I think when we talked about the P bid at the last meeting two weeks ago or two meetings ago, I would advocate against doing that because in setting up a bid, let's say the budget that you're going to, um, um, achieve, let's just call it $300,000. And all of a sudden you're paying the city back a hundred thousand dollars. So that leaves you $200,000 to make an impact that year. And it's very important for bids to get off the ground strongly. When they don't, in my experience, then they tend to lose momentum and then all of a sudden they can be dissolved because people feel like they didn't do what they were supposed to do. So I would... I think you would ask you all to think twice about paying yourself back. from the proceeds of a potential bid formation, which you could do as I understand it. I think what you can do is the money that you allocated two years ago ought to be the money that you use to pay for that consultant and then let it start with the fresh blank of |
| 02:41:25.30 | Unknown | Bye. Thank you. |
| 02:41:26.53 | Chris Zapata | whatever it is they want to do that year to make real improvements so that they can get a solid foundation and succeed. Otherwise, I think you'll have problems. So Just my best thinking at this moment. |
| 02:41:38.80 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, great. Thanks. I appreciate that. And then did you have a follow-up question to that specifically, Councilmember Kelman? Because I can circle back. Okay, go ahead. |
| 02:41:45.96 | Sandra Bushmaker | Yeah. |
| 02:41:46.97 | Jill Hoffman | So I'm just wondering Chris, If we did hire a consultant to work out the bid, I'm not sure. Would we need EDAC or another community or working group to work on it? I mean, at that point, we would have a consultant who was pulling it together. And it seems like EDEP would have done its job of conceptualizing and recommending. And then we did our job of moving forward. Is that your thinking as well? |
| 02:42:12.82 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, when I made the recommendation to consider a P bid consultant. One of the things that I said was I would really depend on the chamber of commerce and the economic advisory committee to help in the formation of that in terms of, you know, whether there's mailing lists or community outreach or just being knowledgeable about what the P bid is so that there's community awareness. I think that's a real role that EDAC could continue to play as well as the chamber. But once you form a PBIT, Business Agreement District, then, you know, I think that with a new community and economic development director, with a formal group that is set up to work on that particular part of town. You may not need any debt. You have to consider the marineship. If you consider other parts of Sausalito because the PBIT only is the area that it is boundary by the boundaries within that businesses within that. So I don't know that the economic development functions solely in the hands of our community economic development director. will be spread far enough to go out of a P bid into, you know, bridgeway, up bridgeway, around bridgeway into the marine ship. So you may always need to add bodies that, at some point maybe EDAC becomes, you know, you know, its own 501c3. It becomes a part of the Chamber of Commerce Thank you. or it ceases to exist. But I think there's enough work to go around for everybody right now, if there's going to be a broad reach to do something in the blue economy and the marine ship. Uh, and I know that our community and economic development director has that background but he's also got to do planning and building and administrative stuff as well. So I don't see him as a pure economic development director. So there's gonna be, Uh, a transition at some point. I'm just not sure when that is. |
| 02:44:14.46 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. And then Chair Riley, just a couple other questions. You didn't actually put up the presentation on the numbers from the marketing campaign, but could you just share some of the high level your view of ROI that was really successful from the spend there. |
| 02:44:31.45 | Tom Riley | Yes. So if you look back at the financial presentation that the city manager gave, The single largest line item for sales tax revenue comes from our restaurants and hotels. So at your direction, we promoted Sausalito experiences, leveraging our waterfront, leveraging our events, leveraging the hillsides, to communities within a couple hundred miles, so that they'll come and stay in our hotels and our restaurants. The spend on the marketing is an annual contract of $74,000, about $6,000 a month. Um, That is... incrementally about $20,000 more than what the city was already spending on its marketing efforts. but this is a professional organization We have four committee members that work with the consulting group every week on ideas, promotions, And we're very pleased that our TOT and restaurant sales tax revenues are recovering two times faster than the state of California San Francisco. all the Bay Area and Marin. And that's according to HDL. So one hotels increase. If you take half of that, for that one hotel almost covers all of our spend. that we're going to have We think if we did an analysis, we don't wanna burden staff, but if we did analysis, we'll find that the return on that spend of marketing will be quite significant. measured in probably four or five X return. Um, we think, uh, Thank you. I shared with some of the council members today where, We were ranked number one as of the top 10 things to do when you visit San Francisco. Um, And in the report that we shared with you from January from the marketing agency, you can see all the articles in the press. That's all seen in the past. And again, we have a marketing team now with Press outreach. in a marketing outreach and competing for THESE RANKINGS. in driving people to our hotels and restaurants. And the focus is, As Chris, our city manager said, our occupants rates are high. The Downtown Hotel is having their best year ever. A downtown restaurant, one of our larger restaurants, is having their best year ever. What we are doing now is focus on the off seasons. where occupancy drops. restaurants are less. That's where promoting is events. So I hope that helps address your question. |
| 02:47:11.65 | Mayor Blaustein | And then just again, thinking about things through a fiscal lens, as we've been discussing this evening, The other priorities that you outlined when we talked and also that have been touched on tonight making Sausalito to continue to be an art hub, whether that's through SCA or reinvigorating Art Festival. I'm in the Marin chip blue economy that's that's something that you would spend volunteer hours and time on but you're not making a fiscal request of the Council specifically for that work. |
| 02:47:37.83 | Tom Riley | No, we're saying these areas we will continue to focus on. And We have a meeting next Monday with your direction. You know, we're going to talk about, hey, if there's any that the city needs to pursue these things because the city council has given us direction, Let's get that analysis to the city. to consider with an ROI. |
| 02:48:02.41 | Mayor Blaustein | Great. Okay. That's all of the questions that I had. Are there any further questions from council before I open it up for public comment? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to go ahead and open it up to public comment. |
| 02:48:18.54 | Walfred Solorzano | At this, we do not have any public speakers. |
| 02:48:24.09 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, there's no public comment on this item, so we'll bring it back up to Council for direction. who would like to get started. |
| 02:48:34.47 | Mayor Blaustein | I'm happy to start. If our advice, Mary, did you turn on your mic? Go ahead. By all means. |
| 02:48:38.80 | Ian Sobieski | I would just like to thank all the volunteers for EDAC. It's the first organization I got involved with. in the South Slido government. And I really, um, Maybe people don't know that I run a volunteer organization. That's what I've been doing for 25 years, most of the work done by My company, which has only three employees, is done by volunteers who don't get paid. this hybrid model of having paid employees Excuse me. this hybrid model of having paid employees work. leveraged by the work of volunteers is one I'm very familiar with. Something that surprised me here in Sausalito was discovering all these boards and commissions, which we're talking about reforming. but I recognize them, they seem very familiar to me because I got what the intent was. people that are, who love the community and want to volunteer their time. and they also happen to be experts. And we, I guess, agree organically over time. figured out a mechanism for how to take advantage of their volunteer effort. Um, And I think we certainly can reform the way it is structured, but I just applaud. that and EDAC Uh, isn't everything for everybody, but it has made real strides and accomplishments across the board. Uh, from all the events that were mentioned to the recommendations that that we then implemented, like establishing an ombudsman's role in the CDD department. and and generally approaching our economic choices smarter. So, To my own mind, if I were to recommend it, given the issues of the season, I would ask EDEC to focus on things that are revenue generating for the city. So The marine ship Janelle has led with a great title of the blue economy, you know, the marineship has lots of vacant spaces, how to fill the partnership with the businesses Uh, that are aligned with that vision, just like EDEC has helped fill some of the retail spaces in town with businesses. So that would be one area I would suggest that we ask them to look at. I think this idea of streamlining the permit efforts is still a big one. Uh, the we have great new leadership in CDD. But there are 35 recommendations from last year were comprehensive. And it would be great to have them just collaborate with Brandon on effectively implementing ANY OF THEM THAT HE AND HIS PROFESSIONAL OPINION WITH THE APPROVAL OF CITY MANAGER OF ZAPATA FEELS LIKE SHOULD BE DONE. as the authors of that work, it could be collaborative with Brandon Brandon's role is also being economic development officer. he could collaborate with EDAC on how they can help him leverage his paid time with their volunteer time to help fill more of our retail spaces downtown. Personally, we have all these revenue ideas that came up on the NHA advisors presentation. Some of them were boring old taxes. same old, same old, but some of them were innovative ideas around vacancy tax, around whether there's a fee we can charge non-resident boat owners, whether there's a way of extracting more a fee from day visitors who come by bus or by bike, like the bike parking program did. So I'd love them to to look at that. and then you know first and foremost really is this bid because as as council member hoffman uh his goal is to um I think see if some of these can become self-sustaining established entities. the BID could very much take over all the marketing and all the events that EDAC currently is doing with their volunteer time and the BID would have a budget that self-assistating so You know, helping with that to the extent the city manager thinks is appropriate seems like a goal. But until then, it'd be nice not to lose the event. So to the extent that the volunteers are able to do it. with a modest budget or budget provided by others. then that'd be those events seem like they still add quality of life to our City under the theme of doing more with less. I mean, I certainly know. we were in an era of austerity, You know, if we're able to get incredible, if we're able to get 100X leverage out of $1 spend, those are not the first places that would be. I would take a dollar from. I would take a dollar from where we're getting $1 value for $100 of spend, not the other way around. Those are it, those are my comments. |
| 02:53:22.44 | Mayor Blaustein | Vice Mayor, we'll go to Council Member Kellman who has |
| 02:53:24.97 | Jill Hoffman | end up next. |
| 02:53:25.80 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:53:26.03 | Jill Hoffman | Great, thank you. So I think one of the things that's really exciting about this conversation tonight is that Uh, the chair of EDAC stated a very clear goal, which is to increase revenues for the city. And I want to make sure that we emphasize that and we repeat that because one of the things that the charter of the EDAC had was very focused on tourism for a very long time. And if you look at the five bullet points on the city's website around the EDAC, It really focuses on supporting businesses and tourism, but it's anything about residents and quality of life. And I don't want to get into the tautological, honest conversation that they're all part of one ecosystem, but that's true, right? And I'm not trying to separate them. But I think this is the first time when we're really very, with a lot of clarity saying, If we take away, you know, some of these bullet points at the end of the day, we have a shared goal of increasing revenue for the city. We all agree on that. And so in my thinking as I was reading these, I was trying to align them with the comments that we made in the prior business item with the city manager. And so I really divide them into three main buckets, diversify revenue. Um, I create efficiencies. And then also be able to bring in more revenue sources. And so for me on diversified revenue, that's blue economy. That's suggestion number three. And components of suggestion number four, which is just very vaguely revenue opportunities. I think first and foremost, we talked about that. Everybody says something about it tonight. I think that's a huge push. The second is something around addressing vacancies. I think that's a really big component of our community right now. Nothing takes the wind out of the sails of a community when you walk by and you see shuttered or closed or dark storefronts. And I'm calling it addressing vacancies because I think it brings in the EDAC goals number two and number six, which is both around marketing and around the community development department. So we have 35 recommendations. There's no way our staff has a resource to actually go through and implement all of those. But what we can do is make sure if we're trying to get a new tenant into a storefront, an organization like the EDEC could be very helpful in making sure that we're creating the ombudsman scenario and working with the city and making sure that moves forward. addressing vacancies is huge. And then the third one is around events. I wouldn't limit it to just community. I wouldn't say just art. I think having a robust event system and robust ecosystem that people can come and feel a lively, vibrant community serves residents. It serves our businesses. It's a really copacetic and synergistic opportunity. And so I would be interested in seeing those events. And events have a clear ROI. Diversifying revenue have a clear ROI. Addressing vacancies, clear ROI. And so for me, that's how I would emphasize them. Now, all that said, I have a really strong bias towards working groups. And we're not talking about the structure tonight, but I will just hint at that because I think working groups are empowered to have an end date and success and to have a goal and a milestone. And so I think there's something very unique and beneficial from having that type of structure. So that's how I would organize this thinking. I think I heard the vice mayor in agreement on those items. He called them different, but I think we were in agreement on that. So those are my thoughts, and I look forward to hearing everybody else's. Thank you. |
| 02:56:54.49 | Mayor Blaustein | Thanks. I'll go to I don't know who had their hand up first Council Member Hoffman or Council Member Cox. I'm muted first so you go first. |
| 02:56:59.59 | Jill Hoffman | I'll mention it. |
| 02:57:02.17 | Mayor Blaustein | Go ahead. |
| 02:57:02.98 | Jill Hoffman | For once, right? The first time. |
| 02:57:03.13 | Mayor Blaustein | Come on. |
| 02:57:04.68 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So my input is really easy. I think the EDAC in the next quarter should focus on getting the business improvement district RFP together and helping support staff in whatever way they need it. and helping support whatever consultant we get, gathering their information and getting that together. And also helping us message to the community what, as we do that, as we gather this information through our consultant, you know, what this means. Like, what is a bid? What is the ROI, right? ROI on creating this kind of a district? You know, what are the risks involved, especially in what's to spend from the city. So I think your experts on EDAC would be tremendously helpful. And I think I heard that from both our city manager and from you today about that's probably one of the highest priorities. Understanding that once a business improvement district is formed, that EDAC would likely be, those functions would be absorbed into that and funded by that bid. So I think that's, to me, that's the number one priority and, you know, for this quarter. And I know you're, I know we're meeting on Monday. So I think that's good. |
| 02:58:01.47 | Jack McDonnell | you know, |
| 02:58:20.03 | Jill Hoffman | I think we also need some clarity about what our spend is with EDAC and how that gets done. I mean, to your point, Tom, it's not like EDAC's not out there writing checks. Like, they don't have a checkbook. It's... It's a recommendation to the city. And then we fund that, right? But, and this is the discipline that we need to start instilling in the council, which is no matter who comes before us, no matter what entity, group, effort, we have to look at these things through the same lens, right? In the context of our overall budget, as we're moving in, because it's very hard when we're sitting here, you know, we want to support efforts, right? But you're good efforts. We want to support good efforts of other, but to look at that in the context of, what we spend in our current fiscal crisis, we have to have a way to look at these objectively and respectfully and say, I know that the work you're doing is good. But... in the context of our overall budget and our objective criteria, we're going to have to put this on the shelf for a year, this great idea on the shelf or whatever. And I'm not saying this for anything that, you know, efforts on EDEC specifically, I'm just saying, within the discipline of what we do here on the council and our direction to staff. I think my ask to staff is after that meeting, on Monday and we come back and look at what is our spend for these marketing efforts and the other efforts of EDAC, how do we fit that objectively into our overall budget in this time of crisis and when we're driving toward a balanced budget for our next year. So those are my comments. And thank you so much, by the way, for all your hard work on behalf of the people of South Saliva and the team that you put together on EDAC. It's tremendous. And I love the experts and leveraging the expertise that we have from people here. And so I'll say, okay, one more thing. I do agree that a task force is the best way to get, best and fastest way to get something done. I've seen it happen on two different task force and that when the work is done in the task force, that then the task force is dissolved and you move on to the next. So this is a good example. EDAC was formed for a specific reason. You're doing great and you're pushing it forward and you're dragging us out of the malaise of |
| 02:59:56.76 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:00:35.22 | Jill Hoffman | pandemic. But then do we need to shift you to something else? Probably. After the bid is formed, probably. And that's a task force related to blue water economy or something else or increasing revenue. It might be a task force to look at all of the underserved properties that are under utilized and underperforming properties in Sausalito. How can we increase those revenues? But helping you guys be focused and helping our experts who want to step forward and help Sausalito be focused as a council give you a beginning and a middle and an end with updates from council liaisons as we move through these efforts is the most effective way to help us move forward in Sausalito and access the wonderful experts that we have in town. |
| 03:01:19.55 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. Okay. Council member Cox. |
| 03:01:22.58 | Janelle Cox | Thank you, Mayor. I endorse the comments of my fellow council members. Just as Council Member Hoffman said, I too am very interested in the ROI analysis of these various objectives. All of the objectives are laudable from my perspective, and I think we have to prioritize them based on which ones have the potential to yield the best, the most financial benefit to the city. And I think both council members, Hachman and Kelman started to sort of segregate the projects into those types of buckets. I know that EDAC is comprised and and interfaces closely with the business community. I just want to ensure ongoing collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce, which shares many of your goals. You mentioned some of the other nonprofits, South River Art Foundation, SCA. I just want to ensure that the collaboration between EDAC and the chamber continues. You know, the commercial vacancy rate is an interesting one, I would like to see that the reasons for that vacancy rate more better explored is it because landlords are unrealistic in their expectations is it because the city's. approval process is slow. What is the source? It is landlords with unrealistic... process is slow. What is the source? If it is landlords with unrealistic expectations, I would like to explore a commercial vacancy tax if that's appropriate to provide an incentive for the landlords to actually lease their properties because it's not a good look when you walk around downtown and see a bunch of shuttered door phones. And obviously some of that is folks recovering from the pandemic, but I'm just interested in further analyzing what the source of commercial vacancies is. And then in terms of the streamlining, the permitting processes, I think part and parcel of that is to continue to ensure that our CBD department goes south funding to the extent possible. And I think enhanced enforcement is another way to do that. You know, we have a robust fine structure in place for short-term rentals that I don't think we've been enforcing at all for a couple of years, again, as a result of the pandemic, but I see some opportunities to ramp up efforts within the community development department to ensure that the money it spends is recovered where applicable. Those are my thoughts. And again, I can't thank you enough, Tom, for your individual efforts and for the efforts of your committee. I actually believe that EDAC serves a really useful function. And as long as that is true, I endorse their ongoing um, and structure. But I think we can continue to evaluate that as matters progress. And I like the idea of focusing your priorities. As one priority is accomplished, you move on to the next focused priority. So again, thank you so much for all of your efforts. |
| 03:05:14.40 | Mayor Blaustein | Great. |
| 03:05:14.43 | Tom Riley | Thank you. |
| 03:05:14.45 | Janelle Cox | Great. Thank you. |
| 03:05:15.44 | Tom Riley | Thank you. |
| 03:05:16.13 | Mayor Blaustein | Oh, pardon me, what'd you say, Councilmember? I didn't want to cut you off. Oh, fantastic. Okay, great. And on the code enforcement piece, the CDD department just hired a great new code enforcement officer. I hope you all get a chance to to meet him at some point. If he was here, I would have Brandon. introduce him, but I don't think he's on the call, but that's, But that's moving just so that everybody is aware of that. Thank you again, Tom, for this great presentation. I think there's some clear areas where there is absolutely Consensus? I appreciated Council Member Kellman breaking it into buckets around revenue opportunities, diversifying revenue, In terms of specific areas from your list that we heard multiple times, I think it's really clear the blue economy and the marineship is something that we'd like to see YOU PURSUING AS WELL AS ADDRESSING VACANCIES. events and I think marketing is a big part of that. And I really want to be supportive of your continued efforts in the, marketing program and I know we need to see Fiscal assessment, and we'll talk about that going forward, but I think that was one of your key ROI examples here. Um, And thinking about as well vacancies is a big piece that we heard a lot, and of course the BID. and moving forward the BID with helping the city do that in the best possible way. And also continuing collaboration with our nonprofits in town, Chamber of Commerce, SCA, helping to continue to make us a real hub for business, HELPING TO SUPPORT THE ARTS. POTENTIALLY THAT COULD MEAN exploring events with regards to the art festival and other items. But I think, I hope that you have some clear direction from us on what those priorities are and what that looks like going forward. Yes, Councilmember Kellman, I see your |
| 03:07:00.98 | Jill Hoffman | is raised. Thank you, Mary. Yeah, I would love to hear Tom's feedback on that I think we just listed off about seven different things out of a list of 10. And I think maybe my hope would be that we come down in a perfect world to three, five at the most. And so I know there's a lot of crossover and it's very difficult, but maybe if we, I may just hear from Chair Reilly, feels like we just regrettating his whole list back to him or whether he feels like that was actually directed |
| 03:07:30.41 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:07:30.51 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 03:07:31.10 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay. I mean, I think I just listed MarinChip Blue Economy as one clear one. Yes, definitely. The idea is a clear one. Yep. Marketing is a clear one with regards to events. So that's three. |
| 03:07:35.13 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, definitely. |
| 03:07:41.16 | Mayor Blaustein | And then if you if you |
| 03:07:41.21 | Unknown | and then- |
| 03:07:43.47 | Mayor Blaustein | wanted to include vacancies. That's four, but we could limit it to three somehow if we needed to. But I'd like to hear Chair Riley's feedback on that. |
| 03:07:52.21 | Tom Riley | Well, one, thank you for your summary. A couple of comments just in response to this constructive dialogue. Um, whatever we work on, we'll always have a ROI for any dollars spent. We've done it for two years. For two years, we've reported back on what we've done with the funds or what the returns have been. We want to make sure that we spend the city's money wisely. It's very clear that if we can get a business improvement district in place, that would allow our volunteer efforts to focus on other things that a bid could take on. So we'll work on that. In the interim, we'll continue the marketing and events so we don't lose the great momentum that we've gotten. So we'll probably have to do it for the coming year until the bid gets voted and approved and underway. Um, We have been working on vacancies. with looking at the blue economy, we can expand our work from the retail sector into MarinChip. and try to identify businesses there. So that's very clear. in streamlining the permitting process, Um, Not much for us to do there other than to support Brandon. We're big fans of Brandon. He's been great to work with. He's short staff. We're just gonna augment him and help him in doing those things. And I think a number of us are interested in doing that. Um, Collaborating with other organizations, the Chamber has been tremendous to work with. Julia Vieira intends every EDAC meeting, is very active, and we collaborate in every single event with the Chamber. And I think right now, the city's experiencing one of its better working relationships with the Chamber of Commerce that I've observed in the years I've been here. We are very close to the Salasito Art Festival, Salasito Center for the Arts. We do believe that ART. To me, when I was listening to the Willow Creek conversation, Well, how can we lose arts in our city, including a creek, right? It's so essential to who we are. Um, And so we'll continue collaborating and supporting those efforts. I'm. And so I think with this, we can come back and revise any budget request. with ROI. and then track these. quarterly with you. |
| 03:10:08.44 | Mayor Blaustein | Great. That sounds fantastic. And I also want to reiterate that I'm very supportive of EDEC's existing structure and the way that you've managed to limit yourself from 24 meetings down to four in light of the city manager's memo on potential ways for these committees to continue to go forward. So thank you for your Great work. Thank you to all of our volunteers on EDAC. We're so lucky to have Such fantastic talent here in Sausalito. And I really appreciate you being here tonight and seeking our direction on these priorities and all of the all of the successes you've had and will continue to have going forward. With that, I guess I will let you go, Chair Reilly. Thank you again so much. |
| 03:10:48.25 | Paul Da Silva | So- |
| 03:10:49.72 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. So it is now 10.10. So I think we might push item 5C to Tuesday because we are meeting again within a week. if that's okay with each of you. unless there's a sense of urgency I'm going to go ahead and do that. push it to next week since we do have a meeting, but shortly. So I'll go ahead and move to item six, which is communication. So this is the time on the agenda for members of the public. provide any public comment for items that are not on the agenda. If you would like to provide a public comment, please raise your hand in the zoom application city clerk will call on individuals who have raised their hands in the order that they were raised. After you are called on you will be unmuted to allow you to share your comments remember all the comments are allowed a total three minutes to speak so with that I will open up communications. |
| 03:11:41.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, we'll start off with Jack McDonnell. |
| 03:11:44.26 | Mayor Blaustein | you |
| 03:11:47.18 | Jack McDonnell | I heard. Yeah. Hey, I got an email from the Sausalito Currents about Parks and Rec, it was a survey asking for input from the community for Marin Ship Park and I just wanted to float the idea out to the Sus Lido city council. I think a great use of the empty space and Marin ship would be a skate park There was a really successful skate park in Marin city and, It was one of the only places I saw kids of different ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic backgrounds and different genders hanging out and skating together. And it tragically got torn down because of, uh, probably liability issues. So I thought, um, You know, anywhere near the tennis courts or the old machine shop would be a good place to you know, build something for the next generation and it also generate traffic to the area. like people traffic, not car traffic. Yeah, and other successful skate parks in the area are pretty great too. Mill Valley is a good example. as well as Hamilton. And Fairfax has one now. That's about it. So thank you for your time and thank you for whoever put the, the current newsletter out that's really informative and engaging for the community. And that's it. Thanks. |
| 03:13:18.64 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you very much. And that is Abbott Chambers, our wonderful director of communications and librarian who Walford, any further public comment? |
| 03:13:27.91 | Walfred Solorzano | Vicki Nichols? |
| 03:13:29.76 | Mayor Blaustein | Hi, Vicki. |
| 03:13:31.70 | Vicki Nichols | Hi, good evening, council. I'd like you to consider closing the meeting tonight in honor of Robert Pretzel. Mr. Pretzel was the attorney that lastly came up with Uh, the legal means to close down Maranchello. Maranchello, as we know, would have been the community community, that would have been built in the, Golden Gate National Recreation Area. And he was instrumental in doing that. He passed away on February 4th. at 97. I've known him for a while. He was a terrific man, very humble. But he also worked at the Marineship. so he was an interesting person. He did a lot of great environmental work. And I would just honestly say that Sausalito would not be the same. We would have a neighborhood in our headlands of 25,000 people. So we need to thank him for his work on that project. for his environmental service to the County of Marin. Thank you. |
| 03:14:38.34 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you very much, Vicki. Do we have any further public comment at this time? |
| 03:14:42.26 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public comment. |
| 03:14:44.45 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, I'll go ahead and close public comment. I'm gonna open it up to Councilmember committee reports and I'm going to start because I have a lot. So I'm going to get through them. This last week we had a Marin County Council members and Mayor's Committee meeting, which I chaired as the Vice President. And we had a couple of really great presentations. And we heard from our new superintendent of schools, from Marin County Superintendent of Schools, and my former vice principal, John Carroll, who talked with us about some of the three priorities for the school district, strengthening early childhood education, college education and reading. So he's the new superintendent. If you have a chance to interact with him, give him a big Welcome. We also heard from our new Assembly member, Damon Connolly, who shared with us that unfortunately, while we had a large budget surplus in the state last year, we actually are looking at a budget deficit that might be approaching $30 billion, but Assemblymember Connolly is actually chairing one of the budget committees on utilities and energy assignments. And since we are so climate focused here in Marin County and particularly in Sausalito, It's a lot of potential for us. to really engage with him on that. He's the lead on the Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policy as well. and looks forward to hearing from us about our ideas. around climate change. There are, he introduced 21, something like 21 new bills, Um, looking at things like, Wildfire, looking at things like restricting the sale and use of body armor. So that was great. And we also heard from, um, a group of, I think it was the Young Adults The Concern Group of Young Adults focused on cannabis policy and from HHS speaking about some of the statistics around cannabis sales, cannabis use, and what we need to do to keep young adults from being enticed by things like unicorn flavored. cannabis and sales that are used to increase youth that are used to suggest increased use for youth in cannabis. And then. So that was MCCMC. I had ongoing discussions with Senator McGuire about bringing housing, 100% affordable housing to the corporation yard, potentially for seniors and maybe also teachers. So that conversation is ongoing. Myself and Councilmember Hoffman participated in a dinner with the Japanese Consul General at the Sausalito Yacht Club where he was presented WITH A Honorary Sausalito Burgi and supporting the Sister Cities Program. I wanted to thank the Chamber of Commerce for hosting an active shooter training. at the Sausalito Police Department. Thank you to the Sausalito PD for putting that on. It was really, great. And then I also, in partnership with Council Member Kellman, have been working with California concepts on grants and this evening we submitted our local Um, agency technical assistance grant. So hopefully fingers crossed. We'll get that funding going forward. and I think I think that's it for my list. I just wanted to make sure I didn't forget everything. So that's why I went first. Anybody else? Committee reports. |
| 03:17:44.88 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, Councilmember Kelman. I'll go real quick. The Blue Economy Task Force has been meeting. We had a meeting with an entity called Braid Theory out of LA this week. They spun up the accelerator at Altacy, which is at the port of Los Angeles. And they are donating their time pro bono to help us conceptualize a roadmap for launch. There is a group of volunteers who are interested in building out a 501c3 so that we can have a public-private partnership model for sustaining this effort. The very first thing we want to do is matchmake to, as Ian pointed out, fill inventories with businesses who are interested in focusing on the blue economy. The thesis is around decarbonization and electrification, maritime vessels, and other types of transportation, because we already have support for that ecosystem. So that's one working group that is... very informal. The other very informal working group is, I don't even know if it's a working group, I asked a group of citizens if they wanted to help plan some pride events. They said yes. And so now that's off and running. We're engaging businesses. Julie from the Chamber, Gene Hiller, Poggio, other businesses have been invited to join us on Friday for a planning meeting. Huge thanks to Scott Thornburg and his partner, Charles Melton. Scott is on EDAC. He and Charles are really sort of taking the lead on making this happen with substantial support from Monica Finnegan, not surprisingly, who has been awesome. So the dates for that, June 29th, June 30th, and the 1st. And the idea is that there is already a Jazz by the Bay on the 29th that could have some opportunities for additional events around that. I attended the MCC-EMCE Climate Action Committee yesterday. We had a great presentation from the Sustainability Coordinator from the County of Marin. Talked mostly about reusable food ware. and electrification. And the net net is that there's a ton of money If you want to swap out your gas stove, there's a lot of money for replacing that with conduction and other types of resources. And then the last thing is on Friday, I have a Cal Cities Executive Committee meeting. There's a big League of California Cities meeting up in Sacramento in April. And there's another one, which is the statewide that happens in September. So if you're interested in joining or learning more, let me know. And that's really good place for us to learn more about some statewide legislative things that are happening. So that's it. |
| 03:20:08.05 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 03:20:17.97 | Jill Hoffman | Council member Tellman and I had a meeting with Bridgeway Marina. Bridgeway Marina is not Ashley Marina, but we call it Bridgeway Marina. The highlight from that meeting was that they indicated to us that they were not interested in moving forward with our the negotiated LOI that we had with them. So, I don't know where that puts us or where that puts them, but it's disappointing after the time and effort that everybody went in to come up with that concept. As you'll recall, we were trading some parking spots for the retirement of underwater lots. And so we talked to them about their new concept that they want to do. It's a much larger marina there with some additional docks. So, you know, I asked, we met with the owner and with Michael Rex and I asked them to forward us some more information on their concept of what they wanted to move forward with. We talked a little bit about how they might partner with the city or we might support them in some of their efforts. But anyway, we'll see how that unfolds. But Anyway, that was disappointing. Thank you. |
| 03:21:29.40 | Jill Hoffman | If I could just add, I did have a lunch with Michael Rex and Cameron on Monday as a follow up to that and in addition to the Marina, question suggestion, there's some talk about land-based housing and affordable land-based housing in that area. And so as Jill mentioned, this is still evolving and it looks like Jill, we have another meeting with them next week. |
| 03:21:58.02 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:21:58.04 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:21:58.05 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:21:58.14 | Jill Hoffman | I'm going to be talking. |
| 03:21:58.15 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:21:58.27 | Jill Hoffman | Councilmember Cotter. |
| 03:21:58.95 | Janelle Cox | Thanks. |
| 03:21:59.23 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:21:59.25 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I attended the NCC-MC Legislative Committee meeting on Monday morning. I'm not sure. They had a number of bills on their list for potential action, but universally agreed that it's too early to really take Um, action on bills this early in the game, although they did universally endorse the adoption of the resolution opposing initiative 21 of 4281 the taxpayer protection and government accountability act that was on our consent agenda earlier this evening and that we postponed for consideration until next week um they gave us a heads up about sd 423 which It adds additional streamlining to SB 35. It adds in a number of cities never there before, removes the Coastal Act exemption, the exemption for properties with sensitive habitats and wetlands. This is going to have a substantial impact on local governments, particularly Sausalito, but it has broad support. So, yeah, something we certainly have to be tracking and be aware of. There are two dozen bills coming up on opioids and fentanyl, a number of homelessness bills and accountability for this issue, which is continuing to increase on local agencies, and the number of bills on guns and firearms. So we will continue to keep you apprised as we learn more about these pending bills. I also attended an annual meeting of the Bay Conservation and Development COMMISSION ENFORCEMENT COMMITTEE WHERE WE WERE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE OUR ANNUAL REPORT. Hellman provided that report last year um, Our report was well received by the enforcement committee that raised our waterfront management efforts. We also heard a report from the Richardson's Bay Regional Agency, which mentioned or made reference to some collaborative efforts that we have to keep a close eye upon. So I think they're optimistic about some opportunities that may be offered. or they thought or they hope would be offered by the city of Sausalito. That's something that has not been committed by the city and so I think we just have to keep a careful watch on assumptions, but at the same time, maintain our ongoing collaboration with the county and with all the others. I THINK THAT'S IT FOR MY REPORT. |
| 03:24:54.72 | Mayor Blaustein | Great, thank you. Vice Mayor, do you have anything to share? |
| 03:24:57.42 | Ian Sobieski | Nothing to share. |
| 03:24:58.92 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay. Great thanks so much so i'll move on to item eight and we're going to go ahead at this time and take public comment on item with item eight a is city manager report city council appointments and other council business. We're going to take public comment first on items eight B through eight E, which is those city manager appointments and other council business. Wilfred, will you open it up? I'm going to open it up for public comment. Let me know if we have anyone who'd like to speak on those topics. |
| 03:25:27.32 | Walfred Solorzano | I've seen none. |
| 03:25:30.27 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, I will close public comment. City Manager reports. Citywide staffing update, it looks like. |
| 03:25:38.02 | Chris Zapata | Mayor, I'd like to lay down where I'd like to do this on Tuesday if we could. |
| 03:25:42.37 | Mayor Blaustein | Absolutely. |
| 03:25:42.81 | Chris Zapata | Exactly. |
| 03:25:43.77 | Mayor Blaustein | Absolutely, no problem, great. Okay, so we will move on now to appointments to boards, commissions and committees. And while usually we have none, we actually have one this evening, the mosquito vector control district. has had a vacancy for far too long in Sausalito. And we have an opportunity to appoint someone who I think is very well qualified. And I would like to nominate Vicki Nichols for the mosquito vector control district. And I'm opening the floor to any other nominations, but I know that she has expressed interests and I think that she would be fantastic. |
| 03:26:23.33 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay. And so, Do I city attorney? Do I need a second? I know we need to take a vote on the appointment, but I don't know if I need a second. |
| 03:26:34.08 | Sergio Rudin | In the absence of having your rules handy, I would just suggest a second so we can move on along. |
| 03:26:38.40 | Mayor Blaustein | Second. |
| 03:26:38.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 03:26:38.99 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. Okay, city clerk, would you please call the roll? |
| 03:26:44.17 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox. |
| 03:26:45.35 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. |
| 03:26:46.55 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member Hoffman. |
| 03:26:49.97 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. |
| 03:26:50.87 | Walfred Solorzano | on some armor coming. |
| 03:26:52.07 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 03:26:52.08 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. |
| 03:26:52.89 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Sobieski. Yes. And Mayor Blastie. |
| 03:26:57.06 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. Okay. Congratulations, Vicki Nichols. We're happy to have you continue to serve. our city and appreciate your volunteerism that has been in so many capacities and we're very lucky to have you. Okay, so that is it for appointments to boards, commissions and committees. I'm going to move on to future agenda items. So who would like to start with future agenda items? Councilmember Huffman. |
| 03:27:22.32 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I have two. One is I received a communication from Bob Curry at Marin County Tobacco Related Disease Control Program about our, about a ordinance for amending our ordinance and our current SOSO smoke-free ordinance and adding related providing protections for residents of multi-unit housing. So I know we had discussed that in the past. I know it fell off our sort of, I don't know what that fell off our radar. But I think we need to bring that back. He also indicated to me that of all the other jurisdictions in Marin County, we're the only one that hasn't adopted that. We're keeping them from 100%. representation that all of Marin County has adopted this. So I would like to put that on our agenda for, or like to suggest that we put that on our agenda, you know, in the short term coming up so that we can bring Marin County up to 100%. The other thing is I really, obviously I keep hounding on this, But I really think we need to agendize our, how are we gonna address our boards and commissions? And are we gonna follow the recommendation of our city council or our city manager from last year and the direction of the city council? or are we changing direction? And I really hope that we can come up with a consistent way to talk about all our boards and commissions and we don't devolve into whatever board commission we think we're passionate about or, you know, we feel a certain affinity for. I think it's really important that we be consistent and fair and that we transition them to not, you know, kill their efforts, but just transition them into independent efforts or at least non-Brown Act working groups or task forces that we can give specific tasks to and have them come back. So we talked a little bit about that tonight in the context of EDAC. And I would like to just put that on our agenda for a date certain because we've been talking about this now for a year. And I think it's time to give everybody clarity about what we're doing and moving forward. And if, you know, the council of three members want to change their minds, so be it. Then I'll stop, you know, I'll stop harping about it. But I think I've already made my position on this pretty clear. So anyway, I would like for it to be added sometime in April, one of the two meetings in April, because that will mark a year. Do we need to take a vote on that? Cause I'll. No, that's on our list of future agenda items. |
| 03:30:06.80 | Mayor Blaustein | And I'm sorry. |
| 03:30:07.39 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, we have lots of stuff on our list for future denies, but they don't, they don't rise up to the level of an agenda. So if we can have, if we're on agreement that, you know, that we're going to see this back in April, it can be a short. We're just. |
| 03:30:22.02 | Mayor Blaustein | I mean, we received a memo from the Senate. I don't want to have a broad neck violation, but we received recommendations from the city manager in the form of a memo. And we should talk about if we want to move forward on them. |
| 03:30:31.36 | Jill Hoffman | This is why we're not violating the Brown Act right now, because we're talking about it at a meeting for future data items. So I'm suggesting that we put it on some agenda in April. |
| 03:30:31.37 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah, that's, |
| 03:30:40.64 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 03:30:42.22 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:30:42.27 | Jill Hoffman | Go ahead. |
| 03:30:42.63 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:30:42.73 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 03:30:43.93 | Janelle Cox | I would defer to the agenda setting committee and the city manager about what gets on the agenda when given their familiarity with all of the upcoming agenda items and the limitations of staff. |
| 03:30:59.54 | Jill Hoffman | I think I'm hearing that we don't have any issues with that. Yeah. I'll resolve it. So. I'm fine hearing it soon. Thank you. |
| 03:31:10.03 | Mayor Blaustein | THE ONLY REASON IT WOULD BE PUSHED IS OUR BUDGETING CYCLE AND MAKING SURE THAT WE GET UP, WE ARE ABLE TO HEAR ALL THOSE THINGS BECAUSE OFTEN As we saw this evening, we had to push in a business item because the important discussion around budget does consume quite a bit of time. So making budgeting a priority, given that we need to balance our budget, but definitely That's an agenda item that I think we all have consensus. We're happy to hear. Other future agenda items? Thank you. |
| 03:31:34.98 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, Mayor, may my suggestion. The way I take Councilman Hoffman's request is in the context of the budget, which is related to this other idea that we have some type of agreed upon more or less objective criteria for how we evaluate things that come across our desk. I know we all get requests from members of the public for different focus And I'm wondering if that could be brought in as part of the larger conversation and how we These are resources and how we create the prioritization and make sure that that supports the whole budget effort. Because I agree with you. Everything that we do. for the next. five, six months needs to be about our fiscal resiliency, everything. And so that's how I guess I'm hearing it. And so maybe I'm glomming on and adding an additional layer, which is to say, how do we, how do we, reach decisions together based on some criteria that's linked to the budget. I'm sorry. |
| 03:32:29.25 | Mayor Blaustein | I don't know if it's |
| 03:32:29.41 | Jill Hoffman | That's a good one. |
| 03:32:29.70 | Mayor Blaustein | a separate item |
| 03:32:30.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:32:30.78 | Mayor Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 03:32:30.82 | Jill Hoffman | embedded. |
| 03:32:30.97 | Mayor Blaustein | embedded. I had hoped that that would be part of our prioritization session and everyone should a doodle, although the timeline on the second half of the doodle was in error. So the hope for the prioritization session now is that we can have at dinner together and a sort of team building exercise in the evening and then the following day do calendar for, but I'll have potentially up to six hours to do our prioritization, making the focus fiscal lens and making the conversation about a criteria because we've all heard that a number of times. And I think that that's clear that that's something we all want to work on. so that everything that comes before the council we have a shared consensus and lens on how do we make a decision about it with regards to if we're going to allocate any budget whatsoever. So thank you for that. That's great. I appreciate it. I have a couple of future agenda items. Yes, Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 03:33:21.44 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. So I'm not clear about when we can expect to have this come back. Right. Because I suggested we have a meeting next week and we have a meeting in March and then we have two meetings in April. And so what I, and I suggested we do it no later than April or I suggested April, one of the two meetings, but then. It feels like it's punted again. So do we have it? Do I have, I mean, I'll drop it if I have it. you know, I thought we were also gonna talk about our last four and a half hour priority Thank you. |
| 03:33:53.67 | Jill Hoffman | And we didn't. |
| 03:33:53.69 | Mayor Blaustein | And we did talk about it. And the decision that we made as a council was that we would allow the city manager to give us recommendations because the reason this conversation started was in response to the city manager's request. So we were inviting... |
| 03:34:04.07 | Jill Hoffman | We're a vice president. Thank you. |
| 03:34:05.32 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:34:05.45 | Jill Hoffman | Please don't interrupt me, Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 03:34:05.55 | Mayor Blaustein | Please don't interrupt me, Kelsey. |
| 03:34:07.68 | Jill Hoffman | Which he has provided. He has provided the recommendations and yet we're still not agreeing that we can even hear it |
| 03:34:14.04 | Mayor Blaustein | Next. |
| 03:34:14.36 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:34:14.53 | Mayor Blaustein | I don't think anyone disagrees that we're going to hear it. And we just received the memo last week. |
| 03:34:14.73 | Jill Hoffman | I know. |
| 03:34:14.82 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:34:14.92 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 03:34:20.62 | Mayor Blaustein | And we have a number of things that we need to hear on our agenda. It is gonna be on our agenda. I think it's quite typical that the agenda setting committee decides |
| 03:34:27.67 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, I'm going to make it. Could I just, I'm just going to make a motion. If nobody wants to second it, that's fine. But what I'm hearing is it just keeps getting pushed out and pushed out and pushed out because there's AN IDEA AMONGST OUR CITY COUNCIL THAT THEY NO LONGER WANT TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE IN A PUBLIC WAY. I'M MAKING THE MOTION THAT WE HAVE THIS ON OUR AGENDA for a decision for sometime during March or April. That's pretty broad and that's all I'm asking for. Yeah. Nobody wants to, you know, I'm motions on the table. Is there a second? |
| 03:35:02.25 | Mayor Blaustein | I'm happy to second it and I will say and then add and request. We can take a vote on it, but I will add on that one of the future agenda items that I would like to see at the City Council, which we used to always have together as we set our priorities prior to my joining the Council. was a conversation about a code of conduct and how we conduct ourselves and how we add things to the agenda. and how we review budget. And I think that we're overdue for that type of conversation. So I would happily second your request. We can take a vote. And then I would put on there that I would like uh, I would like to see us discuss the code of conduct going forward. And hopefully we can review that together. |
| 03:35:41.08 | Janelle Cox | I endorse that suggestion. |
| 03:35:43.63 | Mayor Blaustein | Thank you. Okay. Do we want to, since I've offered the second- I say yes to both. I'm in. |
| 03:35:47.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:35:47.19 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:35:47.34 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:35:47.46 | Janelle Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:35:47.54 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:35:50.87 | Mayor Blaustein | Do we need to take, I mean, I think we're all on the same page here. I don't think we need to take. |
| 03:35:53.97 | Jill Hoffman | I think we do because when we go back to meetings and try to figure out what the direction was or what we agreed to, there's squishiness. So I think we probably do need to get into the habit of doing motions and what the motion is and then it's recorded. So there's a motion on the table. It looks like we have three votes for it. Do we need to have a roll call vote with everybody? |
| 03:36:21.06 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, if we have a motion, we have a second, and we're having our remote meeting ground access, we have to have a roll call vote. |
| 03:36:30.08 | John DeRay | unless you want to |
| 03:36:30.32 | Sergio Rudin | Unless you want to just give direction to staff informally, then... I would recommend having a roll call. |
| 03:36:38.37 | Mayor Blaustein | I just prefer to give direction to staff informally and have us do it together and add it to the agenda. But we can take a roll call vote if we want to. |
| 03:36:50.83 | Mayor Blaustein | I mean, there's two motions. |
| 03:36:50.91 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:36:50.93 | Jill Hoffman | I mean, there's two motions. Might as well just take the roll. I'm also, I think it's clear, but for the interest of moving this along. |
| 03:36:52.75 | Unknown | motion. |
| 03:36:53.46 | Mayor Blaustein | Bye. |
| 03:37:01.14 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, Councilmember Cox. |
| 03:37:03.58 | Janelle Cox | I assume we're voting on the second motion first, which is what we do under Robinson's rules. And so the second motion. What's the motion? |
| 03:37:09.94 | Jill Hoffman | Second motion. |
| 03:37:10.57 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 03:37:11.12 | Jill Hoffman | No, we have two separate motions. If you, if the, if we had a motion that was amended for a substitute motion, then yes. But the first motion, what we, the nom Then we don't have the motion that's on the table is to hear the the does whatever we're gonna do for it with boards and commissions, within either in March or April. That's it. That's the motion. There's a second. And then there's council member or the mayor indicated she wanted to do another motion after that about, what are code of conduct or something like that. |
| 03:37:45.58 | Ian Sobieski | This is exactly why we shouldn't be doing this by motions. It seems to me that the right way to flood, that the role of these motions Look, I'm in favor of actually having us collaborate on what the future agendas are. And that's not been the tradition of what's been done here. We've traditionally had this agenda set in committee. That's been the process. So it seems like the CASE TO USE WHAT YOU'RE SUGGESTING, MY FRIEND COUNSELOR HOFFMAN IS A CASE WHERE THERE IS AN OBSTRUCTIONISM ON THE PART OF THE AGENDA SETTING COMMITTEE KEEPING SOMETHING OFF THE AGENDA WHICH I JUST DON'T THINK IS THE CASE HERE. It's a future agenda and I think we should just let it be scheduled when it's ready to be heard. And so, I mean, now the alternative is that we're going to be voting on all the agenda items at every future agenda meeting. If we want to go down that path. I think that might even have some merit but I don't wanna do that. by accident without any consideration. So if we want to talk about changing the way we set the agendas, I'm all for that. I don't want to do it by accident. |
| 03:38:49.69 | Jill Hoffman | on. Okay. Thank you. If I have. If I have a representation from the the agenda setting committee, which is the mayor and the vice mayor, that we're going to hear that issue. in either March or April, wherever it fits in, then I'm fine. But that's not what I was getting. And that's why I felt like I had to make the motion. Thank you. So do I have that representation from the Genesiding Committee or not? |
| 03:39:15.61 | Ian Sobieski | I don't know what to say exactly, Joel, because that's the intention. Okay. Well then- |
| 03:39:19.73 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, well then the motion's on the table and let's take the vote. I mean, motion's on the table, it's seconded. I don't know what else. you know, I don't know how else to go about this, Ian. We've been down trying to deal with this for a year. And we haven't got it done. And we have people on the boards and commissions not knowing what their status is. And so, |
| 03:39:40.01 | Ian Sobieski | Can you hear you on that? I felt similar frustration over my two years when I wasn't on the agenda committee. So I get it, believe me. If you think there's a solution for it, then you and Janelle you're on it and Joan, of course, you're on it too. So |
| 03:39:50.36 | Jack McDonnell | Thank you. |
| 03:39:50.42 | Unknown | Oh, wait. |
| 03:39:50.68 | Jack McDonnell | and so on. and I'll see you next time. |
| 03:39:51.45 | Mayor Blaustein | for it. |
| 03:39:56.23 | Ian Sobieski | Maybe it's germane to have this discussion now about how to attend to this first question. |
| 03:40:00.40 | Mayor Blaustein | In the interest of moving things forward, I think we will. I'm happy to vote on this motion. We can talk about our code of conduct and how we do things going forward as a future agenda item. So let's just move this forward. and then not take motion votes on all the other future agenda items. And just kind of we'll figure out hopefully our team bonding will help us kind of soften the edges on this process so everyone feels heard. And we all have a chance to engage, but I would like to respect Councilmember Hoffman's request here to make sure that she feels heard. And this is understood that we will hear it. So with respect to that, let's let's take a call. |
| 03:40:32.16 | Ian Sobieski | I don't think you need the vote if you just agree that to what Jill said, that you're committed to doing the agenda. |
| 03:40:36.78 | Mayor Blaustein | I didn't. doing the agenda. She's asking for the vote as a point of order, and I will entertain that request. She is a experienced attorney, so I will go ahead and entertain that request so we can keep moving down the agenda. All right, let's do a roll call vote. |
| 03:40:52.42 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox. |
| 03:40:54.50 | Janelle Cox | No, for the reasons I enunciated and that the Vice Mayor enunciated. It's the role of the agenda setting committee. And so I am unwilling to have them advocate their vote. |
| 03:41:08.98 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman. Yes. Councilmember Kelman. |
| 03:41:13.62 | John DeRay | Thank you. |
| 03:41:13.64 | Mayor Blaustein | Yes. |
| 03:41:14.77 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Sobieski. No. And Mayor Blavstein. |
| 03:41:19.41 | Mayor Blaustein | No, but I will. put this as a priority on the agenda going forward. So. Okay. And then I have future agenda items. Obviously, I appreciate the mention of the smoke-free multi-unit ordinance. I was going to bring that forward. I also have an email from Bob Curry. At the request of Chief Gregory, we need to talk about bikes again because the big season is coming. So we need to be prepared for bikes. AND I MENTIONED CODE OF CONDUCT AND ALSO RULES AND REGULATIONS, AGAIN, AT THE REQUEST OF THE CHIEF FOR ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC MEETINGS IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN SAFETY AND KEEP US ALL feeling safe and also perhaps consideration for discussion about active shooter training for staff. I don't know if that needs to be agendized, Putting that on there. Go ahead, Council Member Kellman. |
| 03:42:06.50 | Jill Hoffman | Can we also add the Cascade Community Voting Center? I understand the release is up soon. Absolutely. |
| 03:42:11.74 | Mayor Blaustein | Absolutely. |
| 03:42:11.82 | Jill Hoffman | CLOSED. |
| 03:42:12.02 | Mayor Blaustein | CASKELE COMMUNITY BOATING CENTER IS ON THERE, TOO. Okay. Anybody else have future agenda items that they would like to add this evening. Okay. All right, any other reports of significance? |
| 03:42:31.55 | Mayor Blaustein | Okay, well, I would like to honor, I wanna honor Vicki Nichols' request to close the meeting in honor of Robert Pretzel, who she spoke about. And then I also wanted to mention and close the meeting additionally in honor of Hank Isom, who if any of you are boaters or sailors in Sausalito or in the greater Bay Area would know. He started his career in boating at 13 when he started working at Clipper Yacht Harbor in Sausalito. from Belvedere to Sausalito and his moon boat, And he worked under the great, um, Spalding at the spot and then later started Easton Boat Works repaired and built boats of all shapes and sizes for 35 years. He raced on the San Francisco Bay for 81 years, and he's a renowned Uh, BOATSMAN WHO DID A LOT OF BOAT BUILDING AND CONTRIBUTIONS HERE IN THE MARINESHIP AND IN SAUSALITO AND IS AN HONORARY LIFE MEMBER OF THE SAUSALITO YACHT CLUB. close the meeting in honor of him and also in honor of Robert Pretzel, And with that, at 1042, I will go ahead and adjourn. Thank you everyone. Good night. everybody. |
Paul Da Silva — In Favor: Spoke as an organizer of Marin Biodiversity Corridor Initiative, emphasizing the creek's importance for students' right to learn from the environment and the creek's right to be free, urging respect for these rights in decisions. ▶ 📄
Marin RCD (Speaker not named) — In Favor: Urban Streams Program Manager for Marin Resource Conservation District expressed strong support, praising Steve Moore's advocacy. Highlighted the educational value of connecting children with nature and clean water, and urged collaboration with experts. ▶ 📄
Amy Pritzchik — Neutral: Asked Steve Moore how much Measure P funding had been allocated for creek daylighting; Moore responded that no money had been allocated. ▶ 📄
Sandra Bushmaker — In Favor: Urged council to prevent 'paving paradise' and support daylighting for community, history, and student education, asking council to contact the school board to help move the project forward. ▶ 📄
John DeRay — In Favor: Supported the project but observed significant trash on the school campus, suggesting students should first take ownership and care for their current environment before creek daylighting proceeds. ▶ 📄