| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:05.50 | Walfred Solorzano | Good evening, Mayor Blasin and council members. This regular meeting of November 7, 2023 is being held in council chambers located at 420 Litho Street. Staff and members of the public are also participating through Zoom. This meeting is being broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:28.89 | Walfred Solorzano | And Mayor Blasin, can you hear us? |
| 00:00:37.07 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you very much, city clerk. I will now call our meeting to order at 5 p.m. City Clerk, would you call the roll? |
| 00:00:46.91 | Walfred Solorzano | For the record, it's 5.02. |
| 00:00:49.78 | Unknown | Oh, and also, for the record, I'm participating remotely from Hotel Alma, Barcelona, my work at 271-08008, Barcelona, Spain. City Attorney, are there any additional actions to be taken? There are no minors in the room with me. |
| 00:01:05.42 | Sergio Rudin | No, no, there are no additional actions other than to note that that location has been posted on the agenda and that location is open to the public as a teleconference location under the Brown Act. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:01:18.28 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm also member Cox. Thank you. |
| 00:01:19.85 | Sergio Rudin | Here. |
| 00:01:19.87 | Walfred Solorzano | Here. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Cohen? Here. Council Member Hoffman? Here. |
| 00:01:24.00 | Unknown | Here. |
| 00:01:24.24 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Vice Mayor Sobieski and Mayor Blaustein. |
| 00:01:27.73 | Unknown | Thank you very much. Okay, so the first item on the agenda this evening is closed session. This evening is closed session. going through a number of items, public employee evaluation, conference with labor negotiator. conference with real property negotiators Conference with Legal Counsel on Existing Litigation. Conference with Legal Counsel on Existing Litigation, County Marin versus Monsanto. Conference with Legal Counsel on Anticipated Litigation, and Conference with Legal Counsel on Existing Litigation. Whiskey Springs HOA versus City of Sausalito. I will now open up the closed session agenda for public comment. |
| 00:02:01.14 | Walfred Solorzano | members of the public who wish to provide public comment. You can, there's nobody here right now for the record, but if you're here in attendance, you can get a speaker slip, pass it on over to the city clerk. And if you're on Zoom, you can use the raise hand function and we do not have anybody in attendance right now. So no comments. |
| 00:02:17.76 | Unknown | Okay, thank you very much. I'll close public comment at this time and we will adjourn to closed session and return at 7 p.m. |
| 00:03:26.09 | Unknown | We're all here, Mayor. Okay, great. Thank you so much. All right, city clerk. So, uh, Whenever you're ready. |
| 00:03:40.23 | Unknown | Or Noelle-y. Are we all set to go? |
| 00:03:43.79 | Vicki Nichols | Yeah, aren't you doing the pledge? |
| 00:03:46.38 | Unknown | Yes, I'm going to start with that. I just wanted to make sure our audio visual was up and we were recording and everything was set. |
| 00:03:52.74 | Unknown | All set. |
| 00:03:54.10 | Unknown | Okay, great. All right. So we are now returning from closed session and calling the meeting to order. There are no announcements from closed sessions. So the first item on the agenda this evening is our Pledge of Allegiance. So if we could have somebody lead us in the pledge. Not really. |
| 00:04:11.33 | Councilmember Kelman | We do have two former mayors in the house, Peter Van Meter and Ron Albert. Maybe one of them would like to lead us. |
| 00:04:17.56 | Unknown | I would love to have Peter Van Meter and Ron Albert lead us in the pledge. That's a great idea. Gentlemen. |
| 00:04:23.97 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. I pledge leave you. |
| 00:04:27.11 | Unknown | Much allegiance to the flag. |
| 00:04:28.95 | Alice Merrill | States of America. |
| 00:04:30.13 | Unknown | America and to the Republic. for which it stands. |
| 00:04:36.83 | Unknown | THE END OF |
| 00:04:37.03 | Vicki Nichols | liberty, and justice for all. |
| 00:04:40.80 | Unknown | Thank you very much, former mayors. Really appreciate that. Great to have you in the audience with us this evening. Fantastic. Okay, and then the next item on the agenda here is the approval of the agenda. And I do wanna make, two quick modifications. The first modification as with regards to the consent calendar per request from staff, we're gonna remove item 3D, which was the ferry landing item and item 3F, the facilities RFP as staff has requested additional time. to continue on those staff reports before preparation for the council. So requesting that. And then the other item I'd like to move 5D, which is our review of Bay City's insurance pool up ahead of 5A this evening, just because we do have four business items and a policy of not beginning a new business item after 10 PM. And this is critical that we hear. So I would like to start with that, if that's okay with that. members of the council. |
| 00:05:34.21 | Unknown | Okay, fantastic. So then I will ask for a motion to approve the agenda as amended. I'll move approval as amended. Thank you very much. Do we have a second? |
| 00:05:46.44 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 00:05:48.08 | Unknown | Okay, so we'll take a roll call vote. |
| 00:05:51.82 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:05:53.19 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:05:53.29 | Walfred Solorzano | . Thank you. Thank you. Council member Hoffman. Councilman, we're coming. |
| 00:05:57.39 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:05:57.87 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Sobieski? Yes. and Red Ball Studios. |
| 00:06:01.00 | Unknown | Yes. Thank you very much. |
| 00:06:03.03 | Councilmember Cox | Mayor, there's a number of people in our audience tonight, and I don't know whether any of them came to comment on the closed session items that we removed. Can we just make sure that- No one intended to come. |
| 00:06:15.03 | Unknown | like, |
| 00:06:15.08 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. Thanks. |
| 00:06:15.45 | Unknown | Thank you. On the consent calendar items. On the consent calendar items. |
| 00:06:18.59 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:06:18.61 | Unknown | uh, items. Absolutely, and that's a great distinction. We will go ahead and city attorney. Can you help me proceed really how we would take public comment on items as we amend the agenda? |
| 00:06:30.75 | Sergio Rudin | So my suggestion is that since those are items on the consent calendar and there is one comment period on the entire consent calendar, people who wish to give comment on the items that were removed from the consent calendar... Uh, and, uh, the rest of the consent calendar should just give public comment all at the same time on the consent calendar. |
| 00:06:50.41 | Unknown | Yeah. Great. Okay. That works great. Thank you. I appreciate that. And thank you for pointing that out, Council Member Cox. I appreciate it. So now we'll go ahead and vote on the amended agenda with the note in mind that of course, if we have comments on those two items, we'll take it at that time. |
| 00:07:04.32 | Unknown | we'll take it at that point. |
| 00:07:05.99 | Unknown | We just voted. Sorry. Pardon me. I'm sorry. Okay. Great. Sorry. Great. Go ahead. Okay. |
| 00:07:06.48 | Unknown | I'm sorry. See you next time. |
| 00:07:10.66 | Unknown | Special presentations on the agenda. Okay, so first of all, I just want to note in mayor's announcements that on November 13th, we will be hearing a special appeal of the ferry landing. So this is just a reminder notification. This has been posted on our website. It has appeared in Currents, but I want to take every opportunity to inform members of the public I also want to note to the city clerk that we have already received a number of correspondence on that. meeting and to make sure that all of the correspondence from that meeting with regard to that item appears on the agenda in advance of us receiving it this week, so that we have the chance to review all those letters in one place. So I just wanted to make that note. And then I think we're going to hear from Brian Vitale, our Park and Recs Director, just to give us an update on city events. Hello, Director Vitale. |
| 00:08:00.12 | Tim Rimbaud | the mayor. |
| 00:08:04.76 | Councilmember Cox | They're not. |
| 00:08:07.19 | Unknown | Mike Is the mic on? Thank you, appreciate it. |
| 00:08:12.44 | Brian Vitale | Thank you. I know I'm usually pretty loud, so that's why, you know, it's a little... Echoing. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor Blaustein, Vice Mayor Sobieski, Councilmembers Hoffman, Kelman and Cox, City Managers of HADA and City Staff. Thank you for having me tonight. I want to give you an update on the Parks and Rec Fall events, but first note that our department of three, including myself, produced 26 special events in 2023 with an to 30,000 people attending throughout the year. We also approved an additional 12 special events in 2023 that brought in an estimated 10 to 15,000 people. With beautiful parks, vast landscapes, a vibrant and eclectic community, and renowned restaurants and businesses, it's no wonder why people regularly flock to Sausalito and to our events. Our community as a whole is thriving, and every day more and more people are talking about the happenings. In 2023, we've highlighted a variety of geographic locations in town and utilized all aspects of our beautiful city. Events span from Old Town for 4th of July parade setup to downtown for 16 jazz and blues concerts to the Clipper Yacht Harbor in our working waterfront for the new and exciting boat show. We've done three parades, had a walking soup tour through town with over 20 restaurants, and merchants participating and toasted to ourselves by reimagining the Caledonia Street Fair. And all of this was possible because of our community's culture. People set up, excuse me, people step up to give insight from our past, lend a helpful hand and support our ideas. Our city officials participate in events, support our needs and use their networks to help promote our endeavors. Your commitment. To our department success is greatly appreciated. The staff's dedication to the recommendations department success goes unmatched. We've seen some new faces over the course of these last few years and had some rocks that have helped keep me grounded when I fly a little bit too high. All of our events need support from every department. The parks team is always keeping our parks beautiful. Finance, cutting checks for our vendors. The library, promoting our events. Admin, CED, HR, and our sustainable department helping with day of ticket sales. DPW, staging equipment and providing on-the-ground setup and takedown, police providing an ongoing safe environment, and fire giving insight to best practices and always leading our parades. Bottom line is everyone helps. Our city manager has volunteered to set up jazz and blues and fourth of July tables and his leadership is a model for motivating success. He believes in his department heads and gives them the opportunity to succeed. He's been a mentor to me and has provided insight to help me take calculated risks. So thank you, city manager, and thank you to all of Sausalito for our continued success because it isn't possible without you. I have a small slideshow for our fall big three events that I would like to share. Great. |
| 00:11:11.25 | Brian Vitale | So this first slide is just our events update. It has some stars on a map that shows all the different areas that we've had events throughout this year. So we really are highlighting all the different aspects of our beautiful city, which is really amazing and great. Next slide, please. First, we're going to start with our 44th annual chili cook-off, which took place on September 23rd. We had an estimated 1,100 people come out to the day and had about 900 people sample wristbands. We had 15 chili competitors and eight brave chili pepper eaters, and this was our first year doing a hot chili pepper eating contest. We also made about $8,000 in net revenue for the day. Next slide, please. So event attendees could get unlimited samples of chili, listen to the Cajun tunes from the Zydeco Flames, and participate or watch the first hot chili pepper eating contest sponsored by Molly Stones. The chili competitors are always festive and excited to attend. This year was pirate-themed, and everyone went all out as they usually do. Teams like the Big Buck Boys, Double J's Chili, or Fire in the Soul have been competing for years. It's a fan favorite, and people from all over the Bay Area come and attend this event. |
| 00:12:17.92 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:12:31.41 | Brian Vitale | Next slide, please. Our next event was the Toast to Sausalito. It was our inaugural year, a reimagination of the Caledonia Street Fair. We did this event in October, on October 21st, instead of May, when it was previously done, from talking to a lot of different members of the community. A May event provided a little bit of a windy atmosphere, and having it in the fall gave us an opportunity to have a little less wind, which we did that day. And luckily it was not the next day when it was raining. This is from Scott Hess, who took a view of the event. There's actually one more block below it with another stage in there, but you could just see how great Caledonia Street looked with all those people standing on it. Next slide, please. There are so many integral parts to this event. We said we didn't want to just have another street fair, and we didn't. We had three stages with 10 performances, which included dance lessons and live rock band karaoke. Some members of staff even participated in the live rock band karaoke. I have some pictures of that, I think, on the next slide. There was some live sculpting with over 150 pounds of clay and an art contest which gave the opportunity for community members to direct the creative process. Next slide, please. |
| 00:13:04.82 | Unknown | This is- Director Vitale, is that |
| 00:13:55.17 | Brian Vitale | I didn't mention the estimated numbers were about 2,500 people that came out. We sold 850 wristbands and 100-plus artists and vendors, 20 local sponsors and community partners, and we spent over $70,000 on this event, which is our largest endeavor, and we made about $1,000 in revenue for this first year. So, yeah. I was pretty happy with being able to break even on the event. On this slide over here, you could see the creative direction that happened. This was an art contest called the Scribble and Splat. And on the left-hand side of each of those photos, you could see some scribbles that took place. Members of the audience, people that came out to the event, had their opportunity to come up, go onto a canvas, and be able to just draw and scribble how they please. And then on the right hand side, you could see what works of art were created based upon those scribbles. So the direction of the artist creation started with these people's scribbles on the paper. There were a few prompts that the artists were given and then they used those as motivation to create something. The one in the middle was the piece of art that won that event. That artist won a $500 cash prize along with $500 to one of our sponsors, Sausalito Picture and Framing, which was a really great contest and really gave us the motivation to do more of these types of communal art projects. Next slide, please. |
| 00:14:18.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:15:28.26 | Brian Vitale | We really held an immersive experience in here. You could see on the bottom left corner, the clay sculpture that Marco Cochran created and the the person who is being sculpted was Oshala Marcus from Marin City. And currently that large sculpture is in the cruising club and will soon make its way down into the Parks and Rec department where it will be displayed until whenever, however long it lasts. On the top left corner, that was our live rock band karaoke. You can see our artist who, that was our artist Candy Cody, who won the competition. We had some salsa music happening in the middle and some salsa dance lessons that were taking place on the right-hand side. So it really was an immersive experience where event attendees could come out and walk around, enjoy the experience and participate in all the happenings that were in town. It was a real communal effort to get this event off its feet. And with such big events come very big thank yous. And I have pages of thank yous to people, and they were all published on the Currents and on our website. But I do wanna be able to recognize our recreation team, Carly Bartlett and Candice Panisi. Your efforts and work ethic go unrivaled. You stepped up your game, produced a high level event and put in so much work to make this happen. I appreciate you and thank you for making this event. |
| 00:16:02.43 | Unknown | Uh, |
| 00:17:00.72 | Brian Vitale | as great as it was. Thanks to our partners, Salcedo Chamber of Commerce, for building our relationships with local businesses for this and future events. Thank you to the Caldonia Street businesses and residents. Thank you to Greg and Kim Christie, who not only sponsored the event, but supplied the receptacles, joined in in the Sustainable Commission booth and helped clean. I saw them all day going around, moving cans around to make sure that the streets stayed clean for the day. A big thank you to our SCB volunteers. We had about 45 volunteers from the community come out Thank you. I saw them all day going around, moving cans around to make sure that the streets stayed clean for the day. A big thank you to our SEB volunteers. We had about 45 volunteers from the community come out. Zane Chess and Jeffrey Chaos Conan from Gilligan's Poke Shop and John Scopazi by jumping in to help direct traffic and really make this event take place. Our city staff that came out for the event this day, there were like 15 to 20 people that came out. So it was a really, really big endeavor from our city staff. Our city council, thank you for believing in this event, taking a chance on this endeavor. Jill Hoffman for helping get the word out from her network. Melissa Blaustein for promoting our event going on Cron 4 and supporting this from the beginning. Our city manager for giving us the opportunity to bring this idea to life. Our sponsors, the artists, the vendors, the food vendors. Thank you to everyone who came out to the event. This event could only have been successful because you came out there. So thank you to that. It was a very big event, the largest event that my department has put on with me being at the helm, and I appreciate all the efforts. All right, and next slide. |
| 00:18:29.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:18:29.75 | Peter Van Meter | Amen. |
| 00:18:30.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:18:32.40 | Brian Vitale | So what we're hearing, you can see some testimonials from some people, some residents, some event vendors, and some business owners. My favorite would be the bottom left is – We do complain when things aren't going great, but yesterday was amazing, and I'll agree with that. Feel free to read those out there. People were very happy and very excited to be able to get things back on Caledonia Street. With every event comes learning experiences and we're gonna take all of the constructive criticism that we got into consideration to make sure that our events next year are just as great and continue to be fun for all. Next slide, please. The last event that we had just a few days ago was Halloween in Sausalito. And I think this picture really represents Sausalito in general. You have families that are coming out and having fun on their first or second Halloween. And then you have some residents who I'm pretty sure they've been in Sausalito for a couple of years. And generations are just mixing together in the parade that we have and having fun. So it's really wonderful to see. Next slide, please. We estimated about 1,250 people coming out. We gave out 300 reusable bags. We had 20 local sponsors, and we had 40-plus dogs in the costume contest, which was a very fun event to emcee. Next slide, please. Our trick-or-treat lane had those 20 sponsors out there, nonprofits, council members, just people from Sausalito wanting to be able to provide and give back to the community out there. So Halloween in Sausalito never disappoints. We had a wonderful parade, a great trick-or-treat lane, and a fun dog costume contest, which is on the next slide, please. And you could see all of our fun little furry friends that got out there. The middle dog was the winner of the small dog contest, in case you were wondering. And we had a thrilling thriller dance by the Sausalito Swagger Zumba group. So thank you for everybody for coming out to our Halloween event. Next slide, please. And next up, we have our Breakfast with Santa, which went live yesterday, and it's already sold out, which is pretty amazing. And our Sausalito parade and fireworks coming in on December 9th. So those are the next happenings in Sausalito. And I thank you for your time and look forward to doing this all over again. And thank you. |
| 00:21:14.53 | Unknown | Thank you so much, Director Vitale. This is incredibly impressive. I mean... just knowing everything that you've accomplished in such a short time and what an amazing program. And I think we all heard phenomenal feedback from the community surrounding the toast. And of course, the chili cook-off is always a hit. So just thank you. Thank you to you and your department. Really amazing. I want to give opportunity to the rest of the council to just give you some accolades because you certainly deserve them. |
| 00:21:43.59 | Councilmember Hoffman | Great job to you and your team. |
| 00:21:44.03 | Unknown | THE END OF |
| 00:21:46.31 | Councilmember Hoffman | You know, every month, I think we've had some great events and especially the new events in October have been fantastic. So well done. Thank you. Thank you to your whole team for all your hard work. |
| 00:21:57.02 | Unknown | Yeah, I sent you a note. Congratulations. And it's worth pointing out that a lot of your events actually generate money. So in terms of value to the quality of life in Sausalito, The Department of Parks and Rec is an incredible deal. provides quality services for a really affordable price because of the model that you are building in your department of generating revenue. So we get the events on the cheap from a government budget point of view. Well done. |
| 00:22:25.20 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah, thank you. And I actually had no idea you were doing all this with three people in your department. So kudos to you for good management and doing a great job getting a lot done with few hands. |
| 00:22:31.19 | Unknown | It's... |
| 00:22:36.51 | Councilmember Cox | You know, the work that you're doing to bring more people to Sausalito really advances our goal of making Sausalito a more regional destination and not just a long range tourist destination. And so many thanks to you for advancing that really important goal of ours. |
| 00:22:53.77 | Councilmember Kelman | job. Thank you so much, Brian. I think it's worth recognizing that when at least three of us started on this council, you also started in your new position fairly soon thereafter. And you did nothing but embrace the challenge and, of course, rise to the occasion. And so I want the community to know that we asked a lot of you and you met that and then some. So thank you so much for being more than a commendable, but really an exemplary example of what somebody who is motivated and interested in success and really development can do. I think we're all seeing that and enjoying your success alongside you. I only have one question, which is the menorah and tree lighting, is that on the 2nd of December? |
| 00:23:13.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:23:13.62 | Unknown | of you. |
| 00:23:13.91 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:23:38.54 | Unknown | That is a great question. |
| 00:23:40.37 | Councilmember Kelman | Sorry. I thought there was a softball. |
| 00:23:43.45 | Unknown | I believe that it is. I am working with Monica Finnegan and EDAC on putting that schedule together live soon. |
| 00:23:52.19 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay, we just really want to see the mayor dance with Jerry, so nobody wants to- Yeah, we've been practicing our |
| 00:23:55.52 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:23:55.54 | Unknown | Yeah, we've been practicing our dips. |
| 00:23:57.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:23:57.95 | Unknown | We've been practicing our dip council member. |
| 00:23:59.20 | Councilmember Kelman | Yeah. |
| 00:24:00.31 | Unknown | and so. |
| 00:24:01.46 | Unknown | Yeah, not going to miss it. |
| 00:24:01.83 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you. |
| 00:24:01.87 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 00:24:01.93 | Councilmember Kelman | I'm not sure. |
| 00:24:01.97 | Chris Zapata | You're not going to miss it. Mayor and council, if I could just close with a couple of words. Yes, please. Yeah, it's obvious to me that Sausalito cares about quality of life. The community wouldn't have voted and built improvements on four parks, over $10 million of community money involved. And so that's a part of Sausalito's DNA and obviously the arts is. But one thing that I'm really appreciative that Brian and his team have done is embrace the concept of ROI, not return on investment, but return on involvement. And when you see the numbers that he's showing you, you can actually see that for a small city to have events where you have over a thousand people participating, having a good time. That is return on involvement. That's something that he does extremely well, as well as try to be entrepreneurial in some of these costs for some of these events and recouping those costs through sponsorships and hard work and community support. So he and his team are small, but dynamite. I'm glad that the recognition of, you know, not one, not two, but three and the city departments to support them. But thank you, Brian. Doing great. Thank you. |
| 00:24:08.14 | Unknown | Yes, please. you know, Thank you. |
| 00:25:12.65 | Unknown | I'm going to go ahead and open it up for public comment because I believe we need to do that on special presentations as well. So do we have any public comment on the director or on Brian's presentation? |
| 00:25:24.74 | Walfred Solorzano | seen then. |
| 00:25:26.04 | Unknown | Okay, great. I'll go ahead and close public comment and we'll move on to the second item on the end. |
| 00:25:28.94 | Walfred Solorzano | the second item. |
| 00:25:30.76 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:25:30.96 | Babette McDougall | Hi, Babette. Nice for brushing it along here. Good. Google, 115 Girard. |
| 00:25:34.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:25:36.06 | Babette McDougall | So I would like to say thank you also for resurrecting Caledonia as a great place for folks to gather. And I thought it worked out wonderfully well. Every child that I spoke with had a blast. So that's the proof of the pudding. I think you already know that we had problems with parking and invading the neighborhoods and what that looked like. So I'm glad to know that you guys are already on that for next year. Thank you. |
| 00:26:01.05 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you, Babette. Okay, now I'll go ahead and close public comment. Actually, we have one more. |
| 00:26:05.27 | Walfred Solorzano | I should have grabbed one more. |
| 00:26:06.81 | Unknown | Oh, great. Keep it coming. I love hearing people praise our staff. Thank you. |
| 00:26:15.40 | Sybil Boutier | I've had the opportunity to work with Brian these last couple of years, and I've been so impressed. He has just stepped up amazingly to do such a range of tasks and skills and building on what he already knew and just providing us with a fantastic community culture, and activities that we can all enjoy. In addition to all the public events he's been talking about, he does so many things in terms of the classes and the work activities that a lot of us participated in on a day-by-day basis that don't get as much attention, but really give kids things to do after school, give art classes, all sorts of different things. I've been happy to work with him with putting on a couple of classes that I've gotten funded from other sources. And he's just been amazing at looking at all parts of that and helping making it work, as well as getting grants himself to be able to provide more services, especially the large intergenerational grant that he got in partnership with Marin City, which has really helped us bring folks together across this highway divide, which we've been so happy about, meeting our neighbors and doing things together in this fun way and making Sausalito even better than it was before. So I want to thank him personally. |
| 00:27:53.81 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you very much, Sybil. Really appreciate it. Okay, do we have any further public comment? |
| 00:28:01.05 | Walfred Solorzano | Nope. We're done. |
| 00:28:03.19 | Unknown | Okay, I will then close public comment on that item and we'll move on to item two, which is action minutes of our previous meeting. These are our minutes from the October 17th meeting. Do I have a motion for approval? |
| 00:28:14.21 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. public comment |
| 00:28:18.01 | Unknown | Oh, we'll take public comment on the minutes. Thank you. |
| 00:28:22.06 | Walfred Solorzano | See you, man. |
| 00:28:23.56 | Unknown | Okay, close public comment. |
| 00:28:25.00 | Councilmember Cox | there. Second. |
| 00:28:26.31 | Unknown | Great, thank you. Okay, can we have a roll call vote city clerk? |
| 00:28:30.75 | Councilmember Cox | Yes. |
| 00:28:31.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. Councilmember Common? Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski? Yes. Mayor Blostein? |
| 00:28:33.15 | Councilmember Cox | Yes. Yeah. |
| 00:28:38.62 | Unknown | Yes. Okay, great. Thank you, everyone. So now we'll move on to 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 in the form listed below. 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 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 when public comment will be heard on any item that was removed from the consent calendar. So this evening, noting that we've removed items 3d and 3f on the consent calendar, we have. 3A Receive and File Resiliency and Sustainability Manager six month activity report. 3B for Stephen Files, Sausalito Bike Return Monthly Report. 3C, accept the library Q1 report for fiscal year 2023-2024, 3E. Adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Sausalito accepting the West Street Sanitary Line Replacement Project as Leaves. 3F, we are removing. 3G, adopt a resolution authorizing the sale of alcoholic beverages in the parklet located in the public right-of-way. adjacent to the restaurant Suzette and 3H adopted a resolution approving an encroachment agreement for the construction of a 42 inch fence in the public right of way at 21 Second Street. Okay, so do any members of the council want to remove any items from the consent calendar for further discussion? |
| 00:30:13.70 | Councilmember Kelman | No, Mayor, I just want to commend staff for 3A. the Resiliency and Sustainability Manager six month activity report. As you know, Katie Ta Garcia is our new manager in that department. And this is, I think the first one we have seen, and I just wanna commend your hard work thus far in shepherding through some really critical projects. And this is a great staff report. I think other council members agree. |
| 00:30:37.85 | Unknown | I absolutely agree. And I was going to note that as well. We're so impressed by the work that manager Toro Garcia is doing. So thank you for bringing that up. Okay, so if there are no other items to remove or note, we will open it up for public comment, noting as the city attorney mentioned that we will still receive public comment on item 3D, the ferry landing, and 3F, the facilities RFP, despite the fact that we have removed them from voting for this evening. So I will go ahead and open it up for public comment. |
| 00:31:06.52 | Walfred Solorzano | Babette MacDougall. |
| 00:31:08.58 | Unknown | Right? |
| 00:31:08.97 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 00:31:09.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:31:10.03 | Babette McDougall | Hi, Babette. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for acknowledging me. So as you know, you've seen my communication. I don't speak for myself here. I believe very strongly that it would be remiss of this council to not open this meeting up to the whole town. I'm talking about implementing a protocol where you don't just do a mailing to the people in the vicinity of the Plaza but tell everybody. That's number one, because everyone is a stakeholder everyone cares about the ferry landing and to think otherwise is foolish that's number one and number two. I think it's also very important to keep in mind that we have a huge amount of peripheral flurry, thanks to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, that needs to be squarely addressed. And it turns out in interviewing the people on this design committee Over the last two years, not one of them even heard of MTC, let alone the so-called tripwires. That's very unnerving. So to not address these issues head on and the implications for taking over the future development of Sausalito would be. Well, I just think you'd be derelict in your duties, that's all. |
| 00:32:14.53 | John DeRay | Thank you. |
| 00:32:16.59 | Babette McDougall | Thank you, Bev. |
| 00:32:17.03 | Unknown | you |
| 00:32:18.11 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Next person we have is Alice Merrill. |
| 00:32:21.67 | Unknown | Hi, Alice. |
| 00:32:28.62 | Alice Merrill | Hi, I see some of the people who signed the petition here. I hope they're going to say something too. I like what the Planning Commission proposed and agreed to. That was a compromise, which is a good thing. And it does not take out so many parking places. And it really is a city thing. It really is. It really is a big deal. And it should be, as Babette said. There should be a mailing that goes out. There really should be, because not everybody gets the currents. We just need to keep people informed. And how are we gonna do that if we don't make an effort? And everybody's busy. I just would like to think that we are really working for the residents and not for just not for the residents, I'd like it to be for the residents to be the ones who are really behind this, and not just a few people who have worked very hard for very many years, I understand. So thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:33:48.96 | Unknown | to the |
| 00:33:49.03 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 00:33:49.06 | Unknown | out. |
| 00:33:49.30 | Alice Merrill | us. |
| 00:33:49.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:33:51.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker we have is Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:33:56.27 | Unknown | Bye, Sandra. |
| 00:33:58.53 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening. Good evening, counsel. A couple things. One, I just wanted to point out that the item on the consent calendar with regard to the bike return showed a positive net income to the city. And I think we should not let that go. Unseen. And secondly, I'm happy that 3D was pulled off the consent calendar and I'm hoping that it will be put on a a public hearing so that we can dig into this. As you know, you pulled it off the consent calendar last time and there was considerable discussion by the Council and by members of the public. So I'd like to, particularly with regard to the money being spent for engineering on this Ferry Plaza business, So I realize the appeal is not on tonight's agenda. But I would like to request that item 3D not be put back on the consent calendar, but be put on a public hearing. Thank you. |
| 00:34:54.84 | Unknown | Thank you, Sandra. |
| 00:34:58.71 | Walfred Solorzano | No further speakers. |
| 00:35:01.22 | Unknown | Thank you very much, city clerk. So with that, I'll go ahead and close public comment and ask for a motion to approve consent calendar items three A, three B, three C, three E, three G and three H. So moved. |
| 00:35:20.93 | Councilmember Kelman | So again, |
| 00:35:23.23 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, on summer birth. |
| 00:35:24.10 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay. Do we have a second? Council Member Cox? Fantastic. City Clerk, will you call the roll? |
| 00:35:24.58 | Walfred Solorzano | have a second council member Cox fantastic city clerk will you call the roll often |
| 00:35:27.88 | Councilmember Hoffman | Bye. Yes. |
| 00:35:30.57 | Walfred Solorzano | Council Member Kelman? Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski? Yes. And Mayor Blofstein? |
| 00:35:31.63 | Councilmember Hoffman | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:35:37.57 | Unknown | Yes, motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. So the next item on our agenda is public hearing items, of which they are none. So we will move right ahead to business items. As we mentioned in the approval of the agenda, we're going to make a little bit of a change to the order of items this evening. And we're going to begin with item 5D, which is the discussion and direction to staff regarding termination of membership in Bay City's Joint powers, insurance authority. and negotiation of withdrawal agreement. So I believe that we'll be hearing from our city attorney and our city manager on this topic. |
| 00:36:14.76 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. I think the city manager likely wants me to go through this agenda item. So the city has been a member of the Bay Cities Joint Powers Insurance Authority since 1986. It was one of the founding members. And that is the way that the city procures its insurance coverage. Bay Cities is a risk-fooling authority created under state law. Its members are comprised of 19 cities in town, along with the Central Marin Fire Authority and the Police Authority. Currently, the city pays approximately $1.2 million a year for insurance coverage, with approximately $600,000 and a little bit more for general liability coverage. Bay Cities provides the city with coverage for general liability claims, property damage claims, worker compensation, and employers liability claims, as well as auto claims and cyber liability claims and crime claims. Um, On October 9th, the city was notified that the executive committee of, uh, Bay Cities was going to recommend to the full board of Bay Cities the potential expunge run of the city. on the basis that the city has had excessive losses. Over the past 10 year period, the city has contributed approximately $2 million to the general liability program for Bay cities. And as a result of 36 relatively significant claims during the last 10 years, the city has, received payouts of approximately 15.5 million out of which 13.7 million were paid by Bay Cities, and about 1.8 million were paid by the city directly as part of the city's self-insured retention. um, |
| 00:38:09.33 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 00:38:09.39 | Sergio Rudin | So part of the board meeting that occurred with the Bay Cities board on October 23rd the Bay cities board, um, |
| 00:38:19.11 | Unknown | the base |
| 00:38:21.88 | Sergio Rudin | voted to issue the city of Sausalito a notice of default under the terms of the joint powers agreement and the Bay City's bylaws. As a result of that, the Bay Cities board can at a subsequent meeting, move to expel the city. The board also authorized their executive director and the Bay City's board council to conduct negotiations with the city. during a 45-day negotiation period to see if an agreement can reach between the city and and Bay Cities allowing the city to remain in the pooled insurance programs, until the end of the current program year, which would end June 30th, 2023. subject to the city agreeing to an increase in the self-insured retention to half a million dollars. Presently the city's self-insured retention is $50,000, meaning the city pays $50,000 for the first or the first $50,000 of any claim. Uh, As a result of this agreement, the city would potentially be paying the first half million of any claim received against the city. Um, Additionally, the city has begun a process of procuring substitute coverage by working with brokers that, uh, would procure coverage under the private insurance market. The city's also approached five public agency risk pooling programs that include Plan JPA, GSRMA, CIRA, PRISM, and the Municipal Pulling Authority. So in general, it's anticipated that the underwriting program for PRISM and the private insurance market is likely to take two to three months, which if the city is terminated involuntarily from Bay Cities may result in a gap of coverage for the city. Um, Accordingly, city staff, including the city attorney and the city manager, do want direction from the city council. as to whether or not the city would like to accept an offer from Bay Cities, allowing the city to stay in the risk pool until the end of the program year. subject to a significant increase in the city's retention. So that is the first issue that the council is hopefully going to weigh on and provide direction to us. Additionally, Um, review of the Claims history that's been provided by Bay Cities has resulted in some thoughts among staff and the city manager and the city attorney. that the city does need to proactively and aggressively look through its risk management practices and undertake certain things that would help the city lower not only its insurance premiums, but also its risk of claims. Those include potentially hiring of a risk manager, in-house review of all city employment practices and policies and revisions of the city employee handbook, adoption of administrative policies by the city manager to ensure compliance with all EEOC and DFBH requirements, Review of city municipal codes to make sure that city laws are currently up to date and repeal of any laws that may be out of date, unconstitutional, or just contrary to city practice. um, review of city contracts, uh, to ensure that city insurance requirements and contracts, um, are in line with the likelihood of claims that are being received by cities today and the significant judgments. Typically the city's insurance requirements and contracts are to require at least a million dollars in general liability insurance, but with judgments for claims and cost of defense being over a million dollars, I would recommend that the city increase its typical insurance requirements to align with those that are recommended by Alliant in its Insurance Requirements and Contracts Manual. Additionally, once the city has a risk manager, it would be worthwhile for the city to review all of its practices at the department level holistically to make sure that active risk management is part of the way the city conducts day-to-day business. Okay. Um, those are some of the suggestions, um, being presented to the council. Um, Again, we welcome your feedback. I'm hoping, I'm seeing if city manager has any additional comments or comments Issues to raise. Thank you. |
| 00:43:10.60 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 00:43:10.78 | Sergio Rudin | I really want to say. |
| 00:43:11.19 | Unknown | Thank you, city attorney, city manager. |
| 00:43:11.59 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Council and members of the public. That was a very thorough update that the city attorney provided. I guess one of the questions the public might want to know is how does Saskatoon get here? One of the things that we know is Saskatoon was incorporated in 1893. It has interesting topography. It's on the bay. The population is a little elderly, and we have some infrastructure needs. And these things all contribute to an environment where, along with the things mentioned by the city attorney, there's some real work that needs to be done because it's important that, you know, people have safe places to be in the public space. It's important that we build the facilities so that they're that way and we maintain them. But one thing that I really want to highlight is this idea of, you know, paying attention to risk management and our risk profile. And that's one of the reasons in the staff report, you see that, you know, in order to get into some of these pools, it's very helpful to be doing work, which we're doing and trying to do better. But it's also very important to have a designated person to help you prevent yourself from sliding into exposure or loss. So I don't want to minimize that. In the past, what Buffalo has done is used city staff to sit on the board of the pool. Now it is a city manager that sits on that pool, along with the city's finance director. It's been over the last year. The city attorney mentioned how long we've been in the pool. And when I asked the question of, you know, when the last time they tried to leave, have a member leave or expel a member, the director had been there 10 years, said not in 10 years. So it's a very precarious, high leverage moment where, you know, we as a staff have to do much better and do much more work and we need some time to do it. So the recommendation that's been made in the staff report is to allow us to use this 45-day period to negotiate with the pool executive director to see if we can continue to be a part of Bay Cities through the end of the program year, which is June 30th. |
| 00:44:36.89 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:45:26.59 | Unknown | Thank you city manager. Okay, I have a few questions but I'll bring it up to the dais to hear from council members. Yes, vice mayor, please. |
| 00:45:34.57 | Unknown | Sergio City Attorney, I have a question for you. The proposed recommended motion has five points in it. But then in the staff report, there's a recommendation under the title of city risk management. that contains several points. It actually also has five points, but four of those points are different. than the five in the actual motion. Would it be appropriate to amend the motion to include direction from city council to actually implement the five points that you have delineated under city risk management as the direction to direct staff to pursue. |
| 00:46:14.52 | Sergio Rudin | So, in short, yes, that is certainly appropriate. The recommended motion is to provide authority to the city manager and city attorney to negotiate a withdrawal agreement with Bay City's Joint Powers Insurance Authority. So that is one motion that we definitely need the council to make if you would like us to negotiate an exit. |
| 00:46:34.65 | Unknown | Thanks. |
| 00:46:36.07 | Sergio Rudin | Additionally, the second Andrew Tuft, issue that is listed in the recommended motion is discussed and provide direction to staff regarding termination of membership in the Bay City's Joint Power Insurance Authority. proposed increase in the city's self-insured retention to half a million dollars effective October 26, 2023. Hiring of a risk manager or similar contract risk management services, procurement of substitute insurance and overview of city risk management practices. So, Staff are looking for feedback. you know, on you know, the five points that are listed as recommendations in the staff report. Um, And additionally, if you have any additional suggestions that you want city staff to investigate, this is a good time to raise those issues. |
| 00:47:28.30 | Unknown | Do you have other questions, Vice Mayor? |
| 00:47:31.82 | Unknown | Sorry, I said thank you. |
| 00:47:33.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:47:33.43 | Unknown | THAT'S IT. |
| 00:47:33.61 | Unknown | Great. |
| 00:47:33.74 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:47:34.03 | Councilmember Cox | Okay. Councilmember Cox. Yeah, just to follow on. So When you ask for direction regarding risk management practices |
| 00:47:41.14 | Unknown | management. |
| 00:47:43.50 | Councilmember Cox | you Those are the five practices you're suggesting on page on the page three of the staff report, right? So your number five in the recommended motion, which is overview of city risk management practices, those are the risk management practices outlined, the five risk management practices outlined on page three of the staff report, right? |
| 00:48:02.06 | Sergio Rudin | Correct. Yes. And we also welcome feedback on any other actions the council may want us to investigate or do. |
| 00:48:08.57 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:48:08.86 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:48:09.88 | Unknown | Thank you. Any other questions from the dais? |
| 00:48:17.60 | Unknown | Okay, I had a question, city attorney. I noticed the fiscal impact in the staff report outlines the impact specifically with regards to Bay Cities. And maybe you wouldn't answer this, but Kathy Nikitas might be better able to. What will the cost of hiring a risk manager be or what's that fiscal impact and what And is this a situation where we would appoint from within staff, which I heard the city manager mention, or are we going to conduct a search for risk manager should we move forward with that? |
| 00:48:45.80 | Sergio Rudin | I will defer to the city finance director and to the city manager on that particular point. |
| 00:48:51.27 | Chris Zapata | Mayor, thank you for that question. A position that has knowledge of risk management and is specialized and it's not something that is a lower level, lower tier employee. It's more mid management. If you did a contract, I'm guessing it's definitely going to be over six figures. But I think our approach would be to get someone on board as quickly as possible and then to look at the assessment that that person would do or that firm would do and then see if it in fact, necessitates a different approach, which may be a short-term three to five-year duration or might be an ongoing position that you need and have all the time. Many cities that are much larger than Saucyut obviously have full-on risk management programs and departments. Midsized cities, some do, some don't. Smaller cities tend to try to use the benefits that a pool provides to offset the lack of staff or people with knowledge in that staff. And that's something that Sausalito has done, and it's understandable. But given the situation we're in, I think we're going to have to really invest in some dollars to save dollars, because by not having a good risk profile or risk management practices, we're spending dollars on another side. So I think for me, it would be pretty straightforward that we look to bring someone on board full time. But in the short term, we would bring someone on contractually, so we would have the help we need. At this time, it's been the departments and Sergio and our HR consultant, Debra, much more pulling together all of the data that's needed. And it's extensive. It's 10 years back and across a lot of functions and facilities and internal documents and procedures and policies that has to be provided to anybody we want to join. So there's a lot of work going on right now, but it needs to be continuous. It can't be just a reaction to this situation that we find ourselves in right now. |
| 00:50:53.33 | Unknown | you |
| 00:50:56.58 | Unknown | Yeah, I'm not opposed to the hiring of a risk manager. It's just that we just approved a budget where we added two new positions. And I want to be mindful of the fiscal impact of a new position and make sure that we have an opportunity to review that as well. It doesn't mean we couldn't decide about whether or not we want to have that conversation this evening as part of direction, but. I want to be aware of the fiscal impact there too. So just if you could keep that in mind. |
| 00:51:18.71 | Chris Zapata | Mayor. Okay. So one of the things that I'll say is that we're in November, typically around December, January, we have a mid-year update. We can tell you where we stand financially. We can tell you what we think the impact of going to a self-insured retention amount of $500,000 may be and how that could impact the budget. So yeah, there's some financial considerations that have to be thought about. I think in the next 30, 40 days, it's really getting yes from the pool and from the city council that we'll have six more months to do that. And that's one of the recommendations in the motion that we've put forward. But yeah, the idea of hiring someone full time doesn't happen overnight. And it certainly wouldn't happen without some financial analysis in terms of the impact. And I would guess that the money you spend would be returned by the money you save by less claims. |
| 00:52:09.41 | Unknown | Thank you. Do we have any further questions from the dais before we open up? Yes, Councilman McAllen. |
| 00:52:12.50 | Councilmember Kelman | Councilman McCallum. I'm going to follow up on that, City Manager or Sergio. The money that we spend will be offset by the fewer claims. Does the money, if we were to hire a risk manager next week, would it help us find a new policy? First question, related question, would it help, could it help at all adjust the SIR increase currently being requested of us? |
| 00:52:38.78 | Sergio Rudin | Certainly that could be something that we would raise in discussions with Bay Cities is efforts to procure a full-time risk manager to proactively mitigate risk. And that may be something that their board would consider and, you know, a concrete action by the city and evidence of. City commitment to mitigate risk to the pool overall would probably be a favorable thing that would be seen by their board. Um, in terms of Um... lower costs overall in terms of substitute coverage, certainly that would be something that we would raise, you know, in response to any sort of high premiums that are received as a mitigating factor that we have taken affirmative steps to, again, mitigate the future risk of claims. And therefore, you know, it may be something that we could use to negotiate a lower premium for substitute coverage as well. In terms of options, as the city manager discussed, bringing on somebody on a contract basis is, you know, certainly a consideration for the city. for a lot of the risk pools that the city may be considering joining, they will have contract persons that they can suggest and in reaching out to PRISM they have indicated that they may be willing to provide some suggestions in that respect Additionally, on our side, I have been seeking within our firm recommendations for retired annuitants or other folks who are retired risk managers that could be able to serve on a gap-filling basis. So to the extent that we can get some recommendations there, we'll provide those to counsel as well. |
| 00:54:32.68 | Unknown | Does that answer your question, Councilmember Kelman, or did you have a follow-up? It's a good start. Thank you very much. Do we have other questions from the dais before we open it up for public comment? Okay, I will go ahead and open this up for public comment. |
| 00:54:49.10 | Walfred Solorzano | Again, if anybody would like to make public comment, you can turn in a slip over that's found on the table, bring it back over here, or you can just go to the dice. And if you're on zoom, you can just use the raise hand function and see none. |
| 00:55:04.58 | Unknown | Okay, I will go ahead and close public comment and bring it back. up to the diaspora discussion and for the purposes of efficiency I'm just going to start the conversation by making the motion to approve the recommendations or to move forward with the recommendations for approval from the staff report. And we can go from there and have folks weigh in. |
| 00:55:21.49 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:55:21.52 | Unknown | I'll second that one. |
| 00:55:22.04 | Unknown | Who wants Great, fantastic. Does anyone wanna? |
| 00:55:24.66 | Unknown | Does any of that matter question about that motion, actually, because the recommended motion The whole operative second part is, and discuss and provide direction to the staff regarding, and then it provides the five points. So it's not actually saying what the direction is. it feels like we need to reword this to somehow be more dispositive. |
| 00:55:43.59 | Unknown | Oh, Well, it's not actually, it's not a specific motion. It's approval of direction to staff. So we can have a conversation now and weigh in on some of those topics and still be following along with the, recommendation in the staff report. Councilmember Cox, you were going to say something? |
| 00:55:58.05 | Sergio Rudin | So may I suggest that the motion be phrased motion to provide authority to the city manager and city attorney to negotiate a withdrawal agreement with Bay City's Joint Powers Insurance Authority. Thank you. |
| 00:56:10.14 | Unknown | Thank you, city attorney. Okay. I'll move forward with that. Do I, is there, is that second still consistent council member Cox? |
| 00:56:16.58 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. I'll second that motion. But I and then I would like to make a separate motion that we increase the city self-insured retention to five hundred thousand dollars effective October 26 2023 that we authorize the city manager to hire a risk manager or or similar contract risk management services and that we authorize the risk the city attorney and the city manager to procure substitute insurance. Thank you. |
| 00:56:45.30 | Councilmember Hoffman | I'm going to go. |
| 00:56:45.36 | Councilmember Cox | THE END OF |
| 00:56:45.39 | Councilmember Hoffman | second that. |
| 00:56:46.13 | Councilmember Cox | you |
| 00:56:46.42 | Councilmember Hoffman | Before we have a second on that, I would like to have a short discussion on the hiring of a risk manager or similar. I have some amendment, maybe. Thank you. |
| 00:56:55.31 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:56:55.34 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:56:55.38 | Councilmember Hoffman | Absolutely. |
| 00:56:55.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:56:55.45 | Unknown | Absolutely. No, we can definitely continue for discussion. We're just trying to be as efficient as possible. So why don't you get us started then, Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 00:57:01.40 | Unknown | Thank you, Councilman Hoffman. Just do a vote on that first motion and get that out of the way and then the second motion. |
| 00:57:05.93 | Unknown | Yes. Your second motion. Okay. Okay. So city clerk, will you call the roll please? |
| 00:57:10.74 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm a cox. |
| 00:57:11.65 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:57:12.52 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman. Yes. Councilmember Kelman. Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski. Yes. And Mayor Blalstein. |
| 00:57:13.45 | Unknown | Yes. YES. |
| 00:57:19.02 | Unknown | Yes. Okay. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you very much. So the next discussion on the table here is the proposed motion, which moves forward with all the points of the staff report, but Council Member Hoffman wanted to weigh in on a potential amendment with regards to risk management hire. So please, Council Member Hoffman, kick us off. |
| 00:57:33.55 | Councilmember Hoffman | What's it? Yeah, thank you. So I think the issue is, this has been raised, I mean, and addressed that we probably do need a risk assessment. But I think, interestingly, There's a lot of different kinds of risk, right? So a risk management person may BEFORE. may address employment issues. Your highest risk or your highest lawsuits may have been that. Your highest loss, your highest risk may be some other issues based on, I think that our highest risk may be based on infrastructure. And so in our highest dollars, based on that, I'm not entirely sure a risk management full-time person could help us with that more than our public works department once the risks have been identified. So I would suggest that we do a risk management assessment, and then that will guide us on whether or not we need to have, I think, a full-time person or whatever. I mean, but I think we need to have that first, and we need that anyway, probably when we're looking for new insurance. But, Um, I'm happy to, to discuss it further. |
| 00:58:40.81 | Councilmember Kelman | Yeah, thank you for that, Councilmember. I agree with that. I was heading the direction of there are five things on the staff report and imagining that this particular risk manager would address two, three, four, and five as part of their purview. And so I think we can probably make part of the direction is an assessment. And then let's reconvene and figure out if it's full time, it's part time. But I get the sense from our city attorney that having somebody on staff who is on a regular basis reviewing this would mitigate our risk and would therefore make us more attractive to future pools or future insurance scenarios may also help reduce the SIR, which is to be determined. So I think that's a big part of it. And then maybe also we took something off consent as a facilities assessment. We may wanna just make sure we're not siloing those two things to the extent that infrastructure tends to be one of those things we can review. So I'll just put a... |
| 00:58:51.99 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:59:38.78 | Councilmember Kelman | comment out there that we should make sure to look at that facilities assessment with this eye as well. |
| 00:59:42.61 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. I'm going to weigh in as well. Something else a risk manager does is they know to whom to tender claims. So when I came on the council in 20, 16. We had never used historical insurance. Our city attorney didn't know what historical insurance was. So we were missing out on lots of opportunities to tender for payment of fees and for payment of indemnity. to historical insurance, which we've now capitalized on for many of our claims. Had we known of that earlier, we had, we, have paid some huge settlements that could have been offset by, sorry, BCJPA paid for some huge settlements that could have been offset by historical insurance had we tendered. That's something a risk manager knows, understands, and, So not only are they great in being proactive and avoiding claims, but they know best how to adjust claims once the claims come in. |
| 01:00:50.21 | Councilmember Hoffman | So do we want to have an interim step of how the risk management assessment or, or do we just want to move forward with hiring somebody? I'm do you, Yeah. |
| 01:01:00.03 | Unknown | I was just going to propose Council Member Hoffman that maybe we have language in there that says we begin with a contractual agreement or something before a full for a full hire, because I think that's what the consensus is that I'm hearing. Because we obviously need to have a conversation about the fiscal impact of a full-time hire. |
| 01:01:16.57 | Councilmember Cox | So who wants to start? That is part of the motion. Oh, go ahead. We're similar contract risk management services. So I think, |
| 01:01:16.84 | Unknown | I mean, what? That is- |
| 01:01:19.22 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:01:19.25 | Unknown | Oh, go ahead. |
| 01:01:23.49 | Councilmember Cox | And obviously it'll come back to us for approval once we're ready to hire. Okay. |
| 01:01:31.07 | Unknown | you |
| 01:01:31.13 | Councilmember Cox | So are we amending your motion? No, my motion already said hiring risk manager or similar contract risk management services. Yep. |
| 01:01:31.27 | Unknown | So- |
| 01:01:38.03 | Unknown | Oh, gotcha. But let's make sure we put into the minutes just to respect Councilmember Hoffman's comments in that direction that we're specifically going to consider the contract approach first and then do an assessment of the full risk hire. I think that's clear as consensus, but I just want to make sure that direction is written into the minutes as well. before we take the vote. |
| 01:02:00.55 | Unknown | Okay, so city clerk, can you call a roll call vote on this motion? |
| 01:02:02.23 | Unknown | You could call a vote on this motion? Thank you. Council Member Cox said in her motion, and I believe you left out the fifth point. Yes, I did, because that requires directions. |
| 01:02:06.39 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 01:02:12.88 | Unknown | So you deliberately left out the fifth point. So the fifth point is the five. |
| 01:02:15.01 | Councilmember Cox | Yes, I did. |
| 01:02:18.77 | Unknown | areas that are in the staff report. |
| 01:02:21.02 | Councilmember Cox | the best practices. |
| 01:02:21.22 | Unknown | The review of employment practices, the review of city municipal codes, the review of city contracts, the review of city department programs. I can make a separate motion that we should do those things, but it seems like we should do those things. So would you like to just add it to your motion? |
| 01:02:36.88 | Councilmember Cox | Sure. Yes, absolutely. I thought there had been some objection that those were not specific enough um, in a situation, but I'm happy to amend my motion to add, um, to undertake the city risk management best practices enunciated. |
| 01:02:58.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:02:58.09 | Councilmember Cox | In the staff report. In the staff report. Great. Melissa, did you want to second that amended motion? |
| 01:03:07.27 | Councilmember Cox | Was she frozen? you know, |
| 01:03:09.18 | Unknown | I'm happy to second it. Great. |
| 01:03:09.28 | Councilmember Cox | Well, I'm happy to second that. |
| 01:03:11.22 | Unknown | Then my second continues. Yes, I'll second you. Seconded. Okay, let's take a roll call vote. |
| 01:03:19.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, just for the record, who's the second? Is it the mayor or is it Councilman Rojas? |
| 01:03:23.82 | Unknown | It doesn't matter to me. Okay. Me. Okay. So let's take a roll call vote. |
| 01:03:25.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay. |
| 01:03:28.92 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. |
| 01:03:31.64 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:03:32.09 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member coming? |
| 01:03:32.94 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:03:33.16 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Vice Mayor Sobieski? Yes. And Mayor Blastin. |
| 01:03:36.53 | Unknown | Yes. Okay. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much, everyone, for being so efficient on moving through that important item that we needed to address this evening. I know that was added. because of the urgency of making sure we're insured. So thank you very much. So now we will return to our regularly scheduled programming here with item 5A. which is the discussion of potential disposition and or development strategies for the city owned corporation yard site at 530 Nevada Street, and we are going to hear from our Community Development Director, Brandon Phipps. |
| 01:04:07.11 | Unknown | Thank you, Mayor. Welcome, Director Phipps. And good evening, council members, members of the public and staff. I am happy to be here this evening, as always. Specifically this evening, though, to introduce and give background on item 5A regarding discussion of potential disposition and or development strategies for the city-owned corporation yard site at 530 Nevada Street. |
| 01:04:07.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:04:07.30 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:04:07.70 | Unknown | All right. |
| 01:04:28.19 | Unknown | The site in question, just a little bit of background, is located at the corner of Tamala Street and Nevada Street. adjacent to the Whiskey Springs planned residential development, as well as the Willow Creek restoration site, which fronts onto Bridgeway. It lies approximately 300 feet west of Bridgeway Boulevard and is currently zoned for public institutional use. The site is composed of two adjacent parcels with separate APNs, totaling approximately 0.6 acres with estimated overall dimensions of 150 by 170 feet. An aerial of the site has been provided as attachment three as part of the agenda item. Regarding the housing element, this site has been included as an opportunity site. Opportunity Sites 75, and decided to have a potential realistic development capacity of 31 affordable units distributed between very low- Low and moderate income levels. The proposed rezoning for the site is housing dash 70, which allows a maximum of 70 dwelling units per acre. as the site is located in a riparian area. due to a creek running under it, the site's development potential has been reduced by 15%. So to promote development of the site, the city has outlined a timeline for the corporation yard's relocation. and ultimate disposition and development, which I will briefly summarize with the caveat that the city is not entirely beholden to this schedule. and certainly has the option to take actions prior to any of these specific dates mentioned in the housing element. So that timeline is as follows. By July 2024, identify an alternative site for the corporation yard relocation. December 2025, relocate the corporation yard uses to an alternative location. January 2026, rezone the site to housing-70. March 2026, declare the site as surplus and initiate site disposition via long-term lease of the site at a modest sum under the Surplus Lands Act. By December 2027, enter into an agreement for the development of the site with affordable housing. In order to meet or exceed the aforementioned timeline and promote the development of the site as outlined in the adopted housing element, City Council has two primary questions that... they need to answer. Question one. |
| 01:06:54.36 | Unknown | you |
| 01:06:54.73 | Unknown | Where will the current corporation yard be located? question to What strategy will the city implement in order to develop the site as affordable housing? So regarding question one, where are we going to put the existing corporation yard if we're going to develop its current site. Based on the history and past direction, I have identified two primary strategies that were previously being considered by council. The first of which is the relocation of the backyard to the machine shop located at 25 Liberty Shipway. I won't really be digging into this option too much this evening as the city recently received an update from a member of the General Services Administration that indicated the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers remains invested in acquiring the machine shop property and has extended their deadline to submit a formal request for the federal transfer of the property for GSA's consideration to February 22, 2024. And based on that update, the property is not available to the city or any other non-federal interested parties at this time. The second option identified for the relocation of the corp yard relates to a shared services corporation yard with the city of Mill Valley. A previous shared needs assessment study for a shared services yard with the city was presented to council in July of 2022. The study indicated that a new two-story building of approximately 9,000 square feet is needed to accommodate the public works departments of both cities. And at the time of the study, staff estimated the cost to construct that 9,000 square foot structure at approximately $11 million, which excluded soft costs and costs associated with any property acquisition or lease. Regarding this option, CDD and DPW recently received an update from the City of Mill Valley's Director of Public Works, who indicated that the project continues to be in hold mode. And in order to potentially fund the necessary improvements, among a number of other identified projects by the director, City of Mill Valley is assessing strategies to raise up to $200 million over the next 10 years. My understanding is that they're looking at bonding to allow for this. These funds could ultimately be used to fund improvements to the corporation yard, as well as other infrastructure needs for the city. But those actions have not yet been taken. And a clear strategy has not yet been defined to Sausalito City staff. So of course, The city council has the option to direct staff to explore and or pursue additional relocation strategies for the courtyard that were not specifically mentioned in the staff report, such as identifying properties, For example, in the Marin ship. that could accommodate this use. Regarding Question two. What strategy will the city implement in order to develop a site as affordable housing? Based on PAC's action and direction, I've identified three primary strategies for council consideration, all of which I will just underline could ultimately include collaboration with Rotary Housing as the city's affordable housing developer. And I will just mention and thank Sybil Boutier for joining us this evening. And as additional background, I will just say, Rotary housing officials have been participating in early dialogues with city staff, Senator McGuire's office, and Sybil Boutier regarding Rotary housing potentially collaborating with the state of California to serve as the vendor that would oversee the construction and operation of a possible affordable senior housing development funded by state monies at the current corporation yard site. So thank you for engaging in those initial discussions and back to the first strategy, which is That that is outlined in the city's adopted and compliant housing element, which states the city will declare the site as surplus and initiate site disposition under the surplus lands act or SLA. As a quick summary SLA regulates the sale and transfer of publicly owned property. Under the SLA, city on land must first be designated as surplus land or exempt surplus land before it can be sold or exchanged. And this can be through sale of a property or entrance into a long-term lease. I will just mention the housing element calls out a long-term lease as opposed to a sale. Once a property is declared surplus, the city must send a notice of availability to HCD, certain local public entities, as well as developers of affordable multifamily rental housing certified by the California Finance Agency, which is generally referred to as housing insurance. So entities desiring of the surplus land must respond in writing to the notice of availability within 60 days. City must enter into good faith negotiations with those entities to determine a mutually satisfactory price and sale or lease terms. As defined in the element, the goal of the strategy would be to ultimately enter into a mutually satisfactory agreement for the development of this site as affordable housing. |
| 01:11:54.21 | Unknown | land. |
| 01:11:54.65 | Sue White | Thank you. |
| 01:12:18.73 | Unknown | The second option for question two identified for development is related to the surplus lands act streamlining process for disposing of land for affordable housing This option would exempt the corporation yard from certain procedural SLA requirements if the city engages in competitively bidding the site as a housing and or mixed-use project that meets specific criteria. So, for example, lands may qualify as exempt if the surplus land is competitively bid with a requirement that at least 75% of the residential units are income restricted to lower income families, with the remaining units restricted to moderate income families. And this option would reduce the necessary steps the city would be required to take under the Surplus Lands Act, so long as the city is able to commit the property to certain percentages and levels of affordability. As far as the third option is concerned, That being gifting the lot to the state to develop the site. I believe we have Jason Kenney joining us virtually this evening. Jason is the chief deputy director of the California Department of General Services and has been in touch with both myself and Director McGowan as related to this development strategy. And with that, Mr. Kenny, the floor is yours. |
| 01:13:43.09 | Jason Kenney | Good evening, everyone. I'll try to be brief. In the event that the city would like to gift the property to the state, there is the possibility of going down that road. When Governor Newsom entered office, he issued Executive Order N619, which I believe is referenced in the agenda. That executive order created a state housing program that is administered by both the Department of Housing and Community Development as well as my department. Um, We typically operate on state lands, although we have had instances where there have been assemblages of local properties as well. If it were to go down this path, I think the simplest way of describing it would be It would be a agreement between the state and the city, ultimately as to what the parameters for any redevelopment of the site would look like. And then the state would leverage its resources to ultimately solicit for developers. We would use our templates, staff resources, consultant dollars, et cetera, to go down that path at any point in time. If there was a disagreement or concern with how the development fared, the city would, of course, be able to... |
| 01:15:03.04 | Unknown | And. |
| 01:15:09.60 | Jason Kenney | nix the arrangement. And I should emphasize that ultimately the gift would not occur until the developer, whoever it is, is ready to break ground. And so you'd retain jurisdiction over the property until the moment where financing is in hand, entitlements are done, and designs are permitted. At that point, then there would be a transfer and the developer would break ground. Under this model as well, the state would serve as lead agency for CEQA and state sovereignty would attach, which ultimately means that there would be no local discretionary approvals directly through council, although we'd be happy to, again, work with council to make sure we're all rowing in the same direction. One of the benefits to the program, I'm not trying to sell you on it, just kind of laying out an option, but one of the benefits to the program is the executive order did direct state agencies to use its financial and authoritative or authority requirements. whatever you want to call it, to advance the program. And part of that means that when developers submit under the program for HCD housing subsidies, they are awarded bonus points, which makes them more competitive compared to other projects. Meaning that if the corporation yard were part of our program and another development was right next door to it, identical in every way, the project that's part of our program would score higher and have a higher likelihood of being awarded subsidies. So, um, We have other ways of helping as well. If you don't want to go down that route, we'd be more than happy to provide consultation and advice in your own development of the property if that was of interest as well. But this is a potential path for you to go and happy to answer any questions you might have. |
| 01:17:03.58 | Unknown | Jason, thank you very much for your time, for joining us this evening, and for your input. And yeah, thank you as well for... being willing to stick around for questions. So just to wrap up the item here before I hand it back to council, staff recommends council consider the information contained within the staff report, supplementary documentation and communications during this hearing in order to engage in a discussion regarding the potential future disposition of the corp yard at 530 Nevada Street with the goal of coming to conclusions on those two questions. Where are we going to put the existing corporation yard? How will the city develop the site? Alternatively, council may direct staff to provide additional information in order to further discussions and come to a conclusion. Thank you, council. And I am available as well as Jason to answer any questions. |
| 01:17:43.91 | Unknown | you |
| 01:17:51.81 | Unknown | Thank you, Director Phipps. Okay, Councilmember Cox, you have your hand raised. Start with you. |
| 01:17:55.08 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:17:55.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:17:56.21 | Councilmember Cox | Regarding Surplus Lands Act, so you gave us one example of streamlined, of exempt surplus land, and that is the competitively bid housing and mixed use projects at your item two. But there's another Exempt Surplus Lands Act provision, Government Code Section 54221, Subdivision F1A, that allows us to not undertake the competitive bidding requirement, but to utilize the site for low-income housing, where at least 80% of the area is used for housing, and at least 40% of those units are affordable, which of course, I think we would be doing that for even longer. And the surplus lands act provisions apply to long term leases over five years as well as to sale of property right. |
| 01:18:50.43 | Unknown | longer. |
| 01:19:03.44 | Jason Kenney | Correct. |
| 01:19:04.72 | Councilmember Cox | And so I wanted to make clear that we wouldn't necessarily have to engage in competitively bid housing in order to declare the property as exempt surplus land, giving us more autonomy to select our developer of choice, for example, Rotary Housing. pursuant to a long-term lease. Would you agree? |
| 01:19:27.86 | Unknown | I would just thank you for that comment. You're absolutely correct. As far as exemption category two for surplus lands act, the, I guess, exemption category that I identified was the one that seemed to be most applicable, but you are correct. The option that you identified is a equally eligible option for the city to consider. |
| 01:19:49.44 | Councilmember Cox | And then I wanted to ask Jason. Jason, instead of, I had thought that in earlier dialogue, there was mention that the city could possibly enter into a long-term lease with the state as opposed to gifting the land to the state. Mm-hmm. Am I misremembering that? |
| 01:20:09.54 | Jason Kenney | I don't know if you're misremembering it. There's challenges in it as it relates to site control documentation for affordable housing subsidy programs. So traditionally, talking with HCD, their perspective is that that actually would make it very difficult to be awarded funding. And so when we've encountered that before, the safest place is the gift option. It's not necessarily like the absolute hard line in the sand, but it is something that we've not been able to figure out a workaround, hence the emphasis on the gifts. |
| 01:20:52.93 | Councilmember Cox | And then I think another topic of discussion early on was that the city really does have a really positive relationship with Rotary Housing and its ability to... not only develop, but actually operate successfully and in a financially viable manner, these affordable housing developments for seniors in Sausalito. And I believe there was some process by which Rotary Housing, I heard you talk tonight about a competitive development selection process, but I had thought in earlier discussions there was the possibility that Rotary could be selected as the city's preferred vendor for this. |
| 01:21:41.32 | Jason Kenney | Thank you. Yeah, and our process, I should clarify, I know the word bid was thrown around earlier. These aren't bid as if they were a public work and there's a dollar figure. It is a competitive process in which someone is selected, but they're selected ultimately on their qualifications, their financial wherewithal, schedule, how well they meet the mission and vision that's expressed by the station itself. And so it's, it's much more qualitative in that sense. And so that would be, you know, a way in which a local developer who has the right relationships, chops, et cetera, would stand out. But our process does require some degree of competition. It's baked into the executive order as well as the statutes we operate under. |
| 01:22:37.37 | Councilmember Cox | And so if the city wanted to go down this road but had reservations about gifting property to the state, could the city literally take step by step and assuming that Rotary was selected and assuming that we were able to reach agreement on key terms for the long term operations and maintenance of the facility once deeded to the state. Would we be able to withdraw from participating if we weren't able to reach agreement at some step along the way? |
| 01:23:14.31 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, yeah. I wanted to emphasize that point in my remarks about the timing of when a gift would occur. So before we spent staff hours and time, just like, you know, because we've got to account for that same way you do, we would want to make sure that we had conceptual agreement on all the big things, you know? So for example, state sovereignty, I'm not saying we would ever do this, but we're not subject to zoning or density requirements. So we could theoretically put a 40 story tower there. Again, would never do it. |
| 01:23:36.51 | Unknown | on the show. |
| 01:23:46.06 | Jason Kenney | Terrible idea. I'll say all those words again if you want me to. But, you know, so we want to make sure what does that height limit look like? Is that is that two story, four story, whatever it happens to be. |
| 01:23:55.28 | Walfred Solorzano | whatever it happens. |
| 01:23:56.56 | Jason Kenney | All the big parameters we'd want to make sure we're on the same page on. And if at any point in time in that conversation, it doesn't work, then we shake hands and walk away amicably. But provided we have that general agreement as well, then yes, then we move on to the solicitation stage and obviously go through that process. And if things don't work out for whatever reason there, can happily shake hands and walk away. Now, obviously, as we continue, if we were to continue down the path with you guys, the more agreement we have and the further down we go, the more invested we collectively are. I hope there would be a really valid reason to walk away as opposed to an arbitrary one. But yes, there would be many, many, many potential checkpoints where you would have to still be comfortable with this, because again, a gift isn't going to occur until the developer's ready to break ground. We wouldn't want to accept the property just to accept the property, and you wouldn't want to give the property just to give the property. |
| 01:24:21.94 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:24:38.81 | Unknown | What? |
| 01:24:57.06 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah, so just one final follow-on on that. You know, I think that there are certain regional authorities that would love to see certain things erected in Sausalito, and I think something that would be really important to the city, since it's the owner and possible grantor of the property, would be to assure that it's the city's vision that is carried out and not some other agency's vision. And so, you know, the fact that you have the ability to avoid zoning requirements, et cetera, we would want to ensure that we had a firm written understanding of what it is that would be developed there and that it meets city officials' approvals before deeding the property. And that's a sequence that would be acceptable to the state. |
| 01:25:03.86 | Unknown | No. |
| 01:25:04.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:25:14.14 | Unknown | possible. |
| 01:25:49.67 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, absolutely. I would say maybe even taking a step further, If at the end of the day. Part of that initial agreement was you wanted to say, no more than three stories and we want to target these populations and whatever that looked like. I mean, obviously we would have to take it back just to make sure no fair housing laws are being violated, that we think it's a viable development with those restrictions based on the existing subsidies. We would do that analysis ultimately, but |
| 01:26:16.61 | Unknown | We would have to go. |
| 01:26:19.32 | Jason Kenney | Yes, I think that would be eminently fair. And so we would want to, again, have those boxes checked before we spent |
| 01:26:21.11 | Unknown | for the |
| 01:26:26.63 | Jason Kenney | more than that staff hours wise and developing something. Thank you. obviously you'd want that as well. |
| 01:26:33.16 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you so much. I so appreciate you making the time to be with us tonight. That was a pleasant surprise to see you. And thank you for providing more insight on some of these issues. |
| 01:26:43.59 | Unknown | Right. |
| 01:26:43.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:26:43.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:26:45.61 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:26:45.65 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you. |
| 01:26:45.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:26:45.70 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you. |
| 01:26:45.73 | Unknown | I have a few. Oh, go ahead. I'll go ahead. Council member. |
| 01:26:49.31 | Councilmember Kelman | Great, thank you. Okay, so thank you, Director Phipps, for the breakdown of the order of operations. I really very much appreciated the aggressive timeline but then felt a great deal of there's no way we'll hit that timeline when you mentioned Mill Valley. So does it make sense to not spend more staff time on this until we resolve the courtyard issue. |
| 01:27:19.06 | Unknown | Theoretically, yes. I think the first and most important question the council and city need to come to terms on and be clear on is where are we going to put this thing? So any discussions on future development without that question answered may not ever come to fruition. So as a first priority in connection with this item, I would tend to agree. We would need to address the relocation first. |
| 01:27:38.16 | Councilmember Kelman | him. |
| 01:27:39.65 | Babette McDougall | I'm doing. |
| 01:27:43.63 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay. And so then on that topic, and just going based on what you mentioned on the Mill Valley, I mean, it's so speculative and they have no idea what they pay for it and the numbers are putting out are very, very high, which sounds like we would then be footing the bill for a nice new facility. I just... Let me run through a couple that you could say if you've talked to them or not. So you said the machine shop. I am fully aware of what the Army Corps is trying to do there. Have you had a conversation, though, about an opportunity to lease a portion of that area? There's a very large parking area. It's not built out. Could we have that conversation and at least see if they might be open to it? |
| 01:28:21.01 | Unknown | If that's council direction, certainly. My understanding in digging into this item is there was direction from council for staff to not do any additional work after the city issued an offer for the site. |
| 01:28:32.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:28:32.74 | Unknown | So, This is indirectly associated with that, this work. If there's additional work, I would just like clear counsel direction. |
| 01:28:39.94 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay, fair enough. I think we've reopened the topic from location. Have you looked at the post office? |
| 01:28:46.74 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:28:47.35 | Councilmember Kelman | Have you looked at Fire Station 2? |
| 01:28:48.89 | Unknown | No. |
| 01:28:49.88 | Councilmember Kelman | Have you looked at MLK? |
| 01:28:51.13 | Unknown | No. |
| 01:28:51.74 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay, so the city has over 70 acres of land under its control. based on our climate action plan. Also, pragmatically, traffic. I'm trying to reconcile moving our corp yard to Mill Valley, knowing you could take 30, minutes to get there on any given day. Is that part of your assessment and thinking as well on this? |
| 01:29:15.01 | Unknown | Oh yeah. As I clarified, the items, two items that I was presenting to you were based on the history of previous council direction and staff work on these options. Indeed, council can direct staff to pursue any additional options. And the one that I just preliminarily mentioned was exploring properties in the marinship, potentially, as that is our industrial zone and corp yard certainly is a compatible use. |
| 01:29:41.84 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay yeah I know so I won't get into comments those are just my questions okay now getting over to the three options. Maybe this is for Jason so. Jason few are still there you go okay so you mentioned subsidies or subsidies mentioned in the staff report the subsidies, I imagine, are going to the developer, not the city correct. |
| 01:30:03.90 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, typically it's a developer who's applying for traditional housing subsidies, whether that's tax credits or MHP or others. |
| 01:30:13.41 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay. And am I correct in understanding that the main, I guess, benefits for your program is that you're the lead agency on CEQA and the subsidies? |
| 01:30:25.02 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, the increased competitiveness for it, the lead agency piece, and the fact that we'd be putting the staff resources into the development, including the project management, We at the state are a authority having jurisdiction as well for permitting plan reviews and the like. Happy to work with you guys on that if you prefer instead. We also have the ability to do that directly. And so it's kind of almost like a resource shift if you want to think of it that way. |
| 01:30:44.06 | Unknown | in the light. |
| 01:30:54.82 | Councilmember Kelman | So thank you for that. You seem very amenable to creative approaches. Under your program, have you ever stipulated to allow the local municipality retain local control? |
| 01:31:08.05 | Jason Kenney | In what sense? |
| 01:31:08.31 | Councilmember Kelman | that's it. PB, Lupita D Montoya- That you'd be subject to all our zoning and building and control over use and any of those issues that could be speculative like height, etc, would just be governed by our existing zoning and local discretion control. |
| 01:31:13.00 | Jason Kenney | Bye. |
| 01:31:21.79 | Jason Kenney | We have not done it. We also just haven't had to do it either. So most of the time in which property has been gifted or exchanged, it's been assemblage. And so it's a smaller portion that's joining a larger state site and the locals are more than happy bolded into what we were doing anyways. In this particular case, we'd have no problem with those limitations. We would of course just validate that they didn't create anything that would make the housing impermissibly difficult to accomplish. |
| 01:31:57.48 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay, thanks Jason. |
| 01:32:00.79 | Unknown | Yes, vice mayor. Thanks. Some of my questions have been answered, but I thought just for myself too, could you help characterize exactly what is in the courtyard? How is it used? If you're going to design it from scratch, what are its descriptive details? |
| 01:32:19.00 | Unknown | Yeah, so I am not a member of the Department of Public Works, which occupies the corporation yard. But in discussions, I have come to understand that the corp yard is a kind of a beating heart of the Department of Public Works. Of course, not including engineering, which is located in this building. With that in mind, I believe it stores all of the city's mechanics, landscaping equipment, and I will defer to Director McGowan. |
| 01:32:24.70 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:32:52.83 | Unknown | you're, |
| 01:32:53.05 | Kevin McGowan | Hi, Director McGowan. |
| 01:32:53.08 | Unknown | I, Director McGowan. |
| 01:32:53.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:32:54.89 | Kevin McGowan | Good evening, Council. I'm Kevin McGowan, Public Works Director. So in the Corporation Center, we do have offices as well as equipment, and we store not just our equipment, but we receive materials as well. So as you know, in the wintertime we have sandbags, but we have many other things in that yard as well. So it can be anything from landscape equipment, landscape materials to roadway equipment and roadway materials and sanitary, as well as offices and other things to house our maintenance staff. |
| 01:33:28.00 | Unknown | Could you help me with some specifics on size? So it sounds like there's a warehousing component with materials. There's a parking component with equipment. And there's an office component. So first off, do those three things have to be co-located? Or could your offices be different from where you store your sandbags? |
| 01:33:47.47 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, that is possible. We want them to be fairly close to each other, though. |
| 01:33:52.82 | Unknown | Right. And then just what's the, I mean, in terms of the, it's 0.6 acres, the site, what's the square footage that's used for these various things on that, of that 0.6 acres? |
| 01:34:04.75 | Kevin McGowan | So I don't have that information this evening. I'd be glad to provide that to you at a future meeting. Sure. Thank you. |
| 01:34:10.68 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:34:10.73 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:34:11.11 | Unknown | Then director Phipps, just so probably up on council member Kelman's questions on these other sites that were looked at, you mentioned the marine ship in general, have you actually reached out to private parties that have warehouses, parking and offices for lease to find out if there's a portable alternative to Thank you. placing the corp yard in a distributed way or even a concentrated way somewhere else in Sausalito. |
| 01:34:38.92 | Unknown | Thank you for the question. Just to take a half step back. So the site is, as alluded in the staff report, it has dimensions of 150 feet by 170 feet, which totals to approximately 25,500 square feet. The specific divisions between the uses on the corpyard, yeah, I don't have that in the report, but we can certainly bring that back. As far as assessing additional sites, I am here this evening to get additional direction from council if that is what they wish. What I did not want to do is take steps without council direction. So if that is the will of council this evening, that is exactly what we'll do. |
| 01:34:42.79 | Unknown | Yeah. today. |
| 01:35:20.20 | Unknown | Okay, thanks. And then just one other question. So Willow Creek runs through that parcel. I'm unaware of exactly its state. Is it all above ground currently or is it undergrounded there? It is. |
| 01:35:32.22 | Unknown | It is undergraded and a culvert. |
| 01:35:34.48 | Unknown | And would there be any development possibility there that would allow the units that we're hoping to build there that would also allow the daylighting of Willow Creek? Yeah. Thank you. |
| 01:35:50.05 | Unknown | Ms. Member Hoffman, did you have questions? |
| 01:35:52.01 | Councilmember Hoffman | I did. I had actually a couple questions for George McGowan. Sorry. And this is about the corporation yard. So You know, full disclosure, I was driving by this morning, so I walked over there and so that I could take a look at the facility visually. And so it appeared to me that There are a lot of trucks parked there, public works trucks, physically trucks, but there's also some of the trucks are pretty sophisticated, big sewer. sort of trucks. Can you explain a little bit about what those are and why it's necessary to have those trucks in Sausalito? |
| 01:36:32.95 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, we have a Vactor truck, which is a large pumping truck. We also have the rest of our sanitary equipment. One of them is a video camera truck that we utilize quite frequently. We use those typically on our sewer system, obviously, but we also use them during the winter season for cleaning out culverts and other things in the city. So's good to have that equipment close by i have heard of other other jurisdictions that would rent that equipment specifically at different times so there are alternatives to keeping that equipment on our fleet however it is recommended at this point that we do keep it on our fleet |
| 01:37:16.74 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay. And it looked to me like there were offices there, but it looks like there are workspaces for most of your public works guys who do the physical work in Sausalito, physical meaning the infrastructure work of parks and streets and sewers. Do I have that right? |
| 01:37:34.74 | Kevin McGowan | Well, most of our maintenance supervisors have offices or desks. Some of our line workers do not, and they work out of the trucks themselves. |
| 01:37:43.86 | Councilmember Hoffman | So, but they report there, they pick their equipment up there, then they go do their work. If they need additional equipment or tools, then they go back to the corporation yard. And then they, so my point, I guess, is it's true that they would, we would lose a lot of productivity time if your workers had to drive back and forth to Mill Valley every time they had to do something at a corporation yard. |
| 01:37:48.52 | Kevin McGowan | Yes. |
| 01:37:54.27 | Unknown | I guess. |
| 01:38:04.24 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, that's correct. |
| 01:38:05.29 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay. Okay, thank you. I do have a question for Director Phipps now, sorry. um director phipps i i did see um in the housing element plan in section eight um the plan for um the surplus uh process and that's the it looks to me like that's the procedure that set out in the housing element so if we uh talked about the gifting route that would be a deviation from that plan correct |
| 01:38:36.22 | Unknown | Correct. |
| 01:38:36.24 | Councilmember Hoffman | wrecked. And can you give us just a quick analysis of the difference between those two plans of either doing the surplus land act route as opposed to gifting the land to the state? |
| 01:38:49.28 | Unknown | Certainly. So the Surplus Lands Act... firstly required that the city provided notice of availability to HCD is essentially a billboard stating that we have a site available, Interested parties, defined as, I guess, housing providers that are certified by HCD, are required to receive this notice of availability. Those developers, housing sponsors, have the opportunity to follow up with the city within 60 days of that notice of availability. Following that, the city must engage in good faith negotiations with those housing sponsors with the goal of settling on mutually beneficial terms. If no terms are struck within that negotiation period, the city is more free to offer that site up to other developers, non-affordable housing developers, for example, or other affordable housing developers. Under the streamline process, those steps are reduced. And I, for example, the one, the option that I mentioned in the staff report, the city has the option to go directly to competitively bid the site. with specific terms associated with the kind of development the city is looking for, 75% affordable at a particular level, the remaining 25% at an additional level. The process that the gifting of the state would go through, I think would simply start with discussions with Mr. Kenny's team. And I think I'll defer to him on first step. |
| 01:40:30.11 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, no, that's exactly right. It would be an initial conversation. I would imagine you'd authorize city staff to do that. And then we would collaborate on what that development frame might look like. I would imagine it would go back to you as well. for a thumbs up vote. we would begin down that process together ultimately. Not more complicated than that, I think. |
| 01:40:54.29 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you for that. So, Mr. Kinney, I do have a follow up question for you. Do you in your agreements, do you have provisions in the agreements for reversion of the property back to the municipality for your failure to perform on the agreement? |
| 01:41:09.58 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, so I think we'd actually insist on it at the end of the day because... We're not interested necessarily in just like getting property for property's sake. So if... |
| 01:41:17.70 | Unknown | property. |
| 01:41:20.82 | Jason Kenney | Again, the transfer wouldn't occur until the developer had everything ready to break ground. And so at that point in time, there should be zero or highly minimal risk of something not being developed. If in point of fact something did go catastrophically wrong and the site couldn't be developed for whatever reason, yeah, we would prefer a reversion clause. That way you... retain control of the property that you had before the process began. And the state isn't sitting on property that we now have to figure out what to do with otherwise and fight with you over it. So yeah, we would like a reversion clause, I think. |
| 01:42:01.12 | Councilmember Hoffman | So let me ask another follow-up. So let's say, for instance, you build a property and we have a scope of agreements with the city of Sausalito about how the state's going to perform or what have you, and you fail to comply with those agreements. is there uh is there any kind of clause in the agreement that if you fail to perform on those at post construction that the property would then revert to the city of Sausalito or if you for whatever reason um at the end meant that if you fail to perform on those at post construction that the property would then revert to the city of Sausalito or if you for whatever reason at the end of the deed period no longer leased the apartments or the units as affordable would that been then trigger a reversion back to the city of Sausalito |
| 01:42:43.07 | Jason Kenney | Um, I suppose something like that could be worked out. I mean, to be perfectly blunt, it's somewhat unfathomable to me. I'm not entirely sure what would be a failure to perform after it's been developed. The site would have a variety of regulatory agreements and restrictions that would preclude anything other than the affordable housing. you know, these developers, the financing stacks, I mean, you're talking about quite a bit of restrictions on the property in terms of use. And then HCD has a monitoring and oversight role in that as well. So, |
| 01:43:13.80 | Unknown | the other. |
| 01:43:17.05 | Jason Kenney | I can't imagine what that would be, but if there was a particular concern about performance, I'm sure a provision could be built into whatever agreement we're gonna have. |
| 01:43:28.11 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:43:28.12 | Unknown | you |
| 01:43:28.14 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:43:28.16 | Unknown | Okay, thank you. Okay, I had a couple of questions, Councilmember Cox, and then we'll circle back. Okay, thank you for that overview, Director Phipps, really comprehensive. So, And I appreciate that you're willing to take direction from us and looking at other sites for the corporation here at But with regards to a product of this scale, just so that we get a sense of, the cost benefit analysis of partnering with the state versus developing it ourself. What are the initial costs associated with putting out the bid? So I know that there's a CEQA requirement. What else goes into it from a staff time perspective and from a city cost perspective that we would then no longer have to take on if we worked with the state, for example? |
| 01:44:09.22 | Unknown | That's going to be a tough one to back into in real time without the opportunity to look into the specific steps taken. But, you know, an RFP takes time, takes money, and every additional step takes staff time and takes money. |
| 01:44:15.90 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:44:15.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:44:16.08 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:44:27.76 | Unknown | Okay, so then I guess I would ask Jason, and thank you for being here. I appreciate it. Um, So if we were to enter into an agreement with the state, what you're saying is that we could do that with all of our local ordinances and local control intact. |
| 01:44:42.63 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, with the caveat again, just emphasizing that we'd want to just make sure that none of those inadvertently preclude housing. But yes, you know, it's... We're... It's your property now. And so we want to work with you on that. Would it be helpful maybe just to kind of walk through the steps of what a development actually looks like to kind of give you a sense for what that would be? Yeah, sure. Like staff wise. Okay. So, um, The solicitation models for housing, they are typically two step. You typically would do a Q followed by a P, which means you're pre-qualling vendors and then you're asking for proposals. That's the simplest and cleanest way of doing it. Um, it's also fairly ubiquitous in the market. So it's actually two step process. And then the quals are pretty easy to evaluate. The RFPs are a little more difficult because now you're diving into the actual affordable housing financing pro formas being submitted that typically requires either expertise or consultant support. And then at the end of the award, then there's negotiation of usually an exclusive negotiating agreement between the entity and the developer. The ENA is typically followed by a lease option agreement, which is then followed by the lease itself. And throughout the process, of course, there's a CEQA, and then, You know, usually there's a variety of assistance that the owner has to play with the developer beyond in addition to that plan reviews and permitting. And then of course your construction basics like inspection. So it is a fairly involved process. It's not super straightforward. |
| 01:46:24.59 | Unknown | And I know we had talked about this previously, but just so everyone is where you would have a city representative engaged in and potentially voting in on the conversations around the RFP and the RFQ. So even if we were working with the state. |
| 01:46:36.79 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, we have templates for everything, but you'd be reviewing, commenting, we'd be working on that. You would be seeing all the submissions, you'd be involved as much as you want in that process. |
| 01:46:48.02 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:46:51.87 | Jason Kenney | And so, yes, it would be pretty. Yeah, yeah. If you want to be, some jurisdictions want to be involved a lot, some want to be involved a little, we accommodate either. |
| 01:47:02.25 | Unknown | And you mentioned templates, so assuming You know, we decide not to move forward with the lease to the state, but your office would still be willing to help our staff on things like the templates for the affordable developers to make it a more seamless process for if we had a preferred housing provider. |
| 01:47:18.91 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, this administration is very, very pro-housing. So if we have a template and it'd be beneficial, we'd be more than happy to make it available to you. |
| 01:47:28.54 | Unknown | Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I appreciate your flexibility and coming forward with an agreement that would make sense. So, Local control could be retained and you would allow for a reversion just so we're clear. Yeah, preferred, yeah. Okay, great. All right, Council Member Cox, you had a follow-on question. |
| 01:47:46.30 | Councilmember Cox | I just had one follow-on question for Mr. Kenny, which is the subsidies. We keep talking about subsidies, but essentially Um, If the developer undertakes the pre shovel in the ground work, the subsidies could cover the majority of the cost of development. Is that right? |
| 01:48:08.55 | Jason Kenney | Uh, yeah, it really depends on the AMI targets that get set for the project. Um, I mean, it's very different if you wanted an 80, 20 deal versus permanent supportive housing. Um, and so, yes. Um, and also again, you know, size and scale, something that would fit in the corporation yard based on just the character of the area, isn't going to have like huge pre-development costs. It's not like you're, you're building that 40 story tower I mentioned earlier, um, But yes. subsidies are necessary to make affordable housing affordable, but the targets that you pick are critical in determining how much subsidy and what subsidies are available for a given development. |
| 01:48:47.85 | Councilmember Cox | And you've actually visited the site, right? |
| 01:48:50.37 | Jason Kenney | Yeah. |
| 01:48:50.96 | Councilmember Cox | And it's, geographically feasible for your program, right? |
| 01:48:56.46 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, we've even screened it for general finance. Probably more words than you want, but the tax credit program, the 4%, 9% are sort of the foundational subsidies that exist. And so most of the other scoring is sort of revolved around it. And a lot of that's adjacency based. And so we've got an algorithm that we can take a property and screen it and score it. And this scored fairly well. |
| 01:49:08.22 | Unknown | See you. |
| 01:49:23.73 | Councilmember Cox | All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. |
| 01:49:27.55 | Unknown | Do we have further questions from the dais before we open it up for public comment? Okay, seeing none, we'll go ahead and open it up for public comment. Thank you again, Director Phibs and Mr. Kinney for being here, and Director McGowan for weighing in on the importance of our corporation here. |
| 01:49:41.47 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:49:42.83 | Walfred Solorzano | First person we have is Peter Van Meter. Hi, Peter. Welcome. |
| 01:49:55.94 | Peter Van Meter | Well, I didn't expect to be first, but anyway. Yes, Peter Van Meter. I'm a member of the Rotary Club, but I'm speaking here on behalf of myself. I'm not involved in the current committee that's talking to the city about the project or anything else. I was on the board when we built the Rotary Place across the street a number of years ago, so I'm familiar with the process a little bit. But I would just like to remind us that, as I've mentioned to some of you in the past and during the housing element development. that I was a little bit disappointed that the common area for the willows was not included in the beginning as an opportunity site, because I think there would be an opportunity there for not only combining this with the corporation yard to develop a more larger and more uniform project, but there could be some financial benefits to the actual homeowners in the Willows area. project because they could get some long-term ground lease income as just as you're proposing ground leaves for the corporation yard itself, I could actually have a big effect on their homeowner expenses, by having some portion of that property developed for housing on their ground lease. and because of the desire to re I'm not sure. activate the creek. to, uh, open that up, that could be part of the project as well. I can see opportunity for screening between the backside of the economy townhomes and the project itself. So I think there's a lot of development opportunities there. And I'd be interested in having you think about combining a timeline in your timeline to pursue that along with what you're thinking about for Corporation Yard, thank you. |
| 01:51:35.39 | Walfred Solorzano | next speaker is Ronal. |
| 01:51:45.78 | Unknown | Good evening, Mayor and Council members, or good morning, Mayor. It's almost 6 a.m. in Barcelona. I'm here speaking on my own behalf, but I did just leave earlier this evening a board meeting of Rotary Housing. We haven't taken any formal action because, you know, things are so unclear at this time as to if this is going to happen and when. you've got to find a place for the corporation yard so we aren't scrambling to create drawings for the site. But we are very interested in participating in the process of creating affordable housing on the site if it can happen. So I wanted to say that this evening. And also, I'd second Peter Van Meter's comments. I'm going to say that this evening. And also, I'd second Peter Van Meter's comments. I've met recently with two affordable housing developers. Rotary housing, I guess, could be called an affordable housing developer. But our last project was over 20 years ago. We aren't actively engaged in the business of affordable housing development. So we're going to have to ramp back up if we get involved in this project. As I say, I've met with two members of two different affordable housing developers. And among the many comments that would be of interest to you, both gave similar numbers, a round number of about $700,000 per unit. on recent projects they've worked on. So if we're talking about a 30-unit project here, we're talking about a project that would cost over $20 million. Second thing of interest to you is they see 40 units is the low end, sort of the cutoff is the lowest project they'll look at. So back to Peter Van Meter's comments, if there was a possibility of incorporating that Willow's open space, we could have a slightly larger project and get interest from more affordable housing developers. If we're confined to just the corporation yard site, whenever an RFP goes out, you may be very limited in the responses you get. Thank you for letting me go a little over. |
| 01:54:13.64 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:54:13.66 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:54:33.74 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. Next speaker is Alice Merrill. |
| 01:54:38.23 | Councilmember Kelman | THANK YOU. We should try to make sure everybody stays at that too, because I don't want to be unfair to anybody tonight. |
| 01:54:46.25 | Alice Merrill | Hi, I won't go over to Yeah. I'm grateful that the rotary has done this over the years. It's really cool. If we're a lucky town that we have something like that, that works and I appreciate it. And, um, I just hope that we can get something built for this, for the, for the old folks who need it and maybe it will be me, but, um, That's all. I just, I just want to support this project or, you know, something like this. And it looks complicated now because we thought the corporation yard might open up, but anyway, that's all. I just appreciate it. And I hope that it happens and I'm just putting my two cents in. Thanks. Thank you, Alice. |
| 01:55:36.69 | Walfred Solorzano | next, We have Sybil Boutelier. You can keep that. High, simple. |
| 01:55:40.47 | Unknown | I said, |
| 01:55:40.97 | Sybil Boutier | Thank you. |
| 01:55:41.97 | Walfred Solorzano | You can just go straight over there. It's fine. |
| 01:55:45.66 | Sybil Boutier | Hi, civil battalion, chair of H. Finley's House Alito. I just wanted to say that we started a conversation with Councilmember Janelle Kelman when she was mayor, and it continued with our current mayor. And that was with Senator Mike McGuire, who had said very clearly and also stated again here in South Salido at an event that he's on board to, you know, help with finding funding for an affordable senior housing project at the corporation yard. And that he would also be available to help find gap funding. So starting with that conversation, the community got really excited about the opportunity to finally have some additional senior housing. As everybody knows, we have a very large population of older adults. And there's a lot of different numbers around, depending on whether you look at the census, American Community Survey, the other different surveys. But just today, to get a different number that might be of interest to you, I talked to the Department of Elections. The current number of active voters in South Salido City who are 56 years or older is a total of 1,911 people. And that is 54% of the active voters in South Aledo. Can I have a couple more minutes? |
| 01:57:54.01 | Unknown | I don't know if the mayor heard that the buzzer went off. |
| 01:57:55.21 | Sybil Boutier | I think. |
| 01:57:55.28 | Unknown | Right. |
| 01:57:55.50 | Sybil Boutier | THE END OF THE END OF THE you |
| 01:57:57.34 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:57:57.35 | Sybil Boutier | I'm just... |
| 01:57:57.56 | Unknown | Oh, the buzzer went off. Okay. I'm simply, unfortunately, we're out of time. I really appreciate it, but we have to be mindful of everybody's. |
| 01:57:58.74 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:57:59.03 | Sybil Boutier | one off. |
| 01:58:05.62 | Unknown | comments and be fair. |
| 01:58:05.66 | Sybil Boutier | Comments. That's just a little additional information. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. |
| 01:58:11.55 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you very much. You know, Sybil has spent hours meeting with Senator McGuire, with the mayor, with the former mayor to spearhead and really move this project forward. So many thank you. Yes. |
| 01:58:23.49 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. Thank you. |
| 01:58:24.17 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:58:25.18 | Walfred Solorzano | Any more speakers in the house? Babep Magdur. |
| 01:58:32.83 | Babette McDougall | Thank you for acknowledging me. So I have a couple of questions. May I just first begin by asking, have you all done a cost benefit analysis? I mean, you're talking about real corporation yard is at a significant cost. So over time, are we talking about, unlike the other rotary unit projects that we have here in town, this one would be available for sale? Or how do we look at the, outlay versus what we might get back for this kind of a trade. And I've spoken in favor of Rotary housing over the years, so I'm not opposed to it. I just, this seems like a really steep investment just to make the housing element thing happen. And I'd just like to know what kind of cost-benefit analysis has been invested yet. Thank you. |
| 01:59:18.90 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you, Babette. Okay. Any more speakers in-house? Seeing none, we have some people on Zoom. Sandra Bush. |
| 01:59:27.10 | Unknown | Right? Bye, Sandra. Thank you. |
| 01:59:31.48 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi there, everybody. I'm all for affordable senior housing, being a septuagenarian myself, number one. Number two, is that I think you're putting the cart before the horse. It seems like we're spending an awful lot of time and staff time on exploring this thing with the state. I liked the suggestion that we look at city properties as a location for a relocation for the corporation yard. I think that would be a very smart thing for us to do. I think the Mill Valley idea is terrible. I think it's just going to cost the city an arm and a leg, but I think we should look at our properties and staff time and council time looking at the properties that we currently have in Sausalito, the ones that the city owns. That's it. I'll talk to you later. Thank you. |
| 02:00:20.91 | Unknown | Thank you, Sandra. |
| 02:00:22.90 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, we have Michelle Cunningham. |
| 02:00:28.47 | Michelle Cunningham | just Thank you. That's just true. Bye. Thank you, counsel. |
| 02:00:32.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:00:33.03 | Unknown | Bye Michelle. |
| 02:00:34.75 | Michelle Cunningham | for letting me speak. So I'm Michelle and I live right across the street at 523 Nevada. So right across the street from the city yard. And I just wanted to comment that I'm still a little apprehensive on the benefit of Sausalito gifting. the property to the state. And, So I am very apprehensive of us giving complete ownership and control over that. to the state. I would really like to see it stay in the city of Sausalito. because Obviously we know our community best and That makes me very nervous to give that up. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you so much. |
| 02:01:24.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:01:24.26 | Michelle Cunningham | Thank you. |
| 02:01:24.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:01:24.65 | Michelle Cunningham | Thank you. |
| 02:01:27.41 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Laura Raffi. |
| 02:01:33.15 | Unknown | Hi, Laura. |
| 02:01:35.28 | Unknown | Thank you. Hi, thanks for letting me join real quickly. I live in Nevada Street, so I'm up that driveway that goes up the hill a bit across the street from the corporation yard. And I think this is going to be a wonderful addition to the neighborhood. Nothing against the beautiful architecture of the of the corporation yard, but this will be, I think, lovely to see some life there. But I did want to just give you a heads up as someone who sort of Now living through the water, there's tremendous amounts of water that are coming off the hill above this property and across the street. In fact, the public works guys were over at my house a few days ago. We've had to do a lot of water eradication methods that have never been needed before, just because there's so much water coming down the hillside. So as you look into that, I got to think it's ending up in that creek. pipes that were dormant are now rushing water. So I hope you're all aware of that and taking that into account. I understand there's another project that's up the hill on Nevada street a bit. And I do worry about the traffic only because crossing Nevada Street is very treacherous at times. There's a blind curve. And so right there, people come down the stairs from Marin street up above and then come off and cross the street and it can be a little treacherous. So I think you're going to want to, I'm sure you're going to do traffic studies and do other things to make sure it's real safe for anybody who might be living in the new space. But overall, I think it's going to be a wonderful addition to the neighborhood. And by the way, I've worked with Jason Kenney in my professional part of my life. Thank you. I run a museum in the Napa Valley. on state land and they've been he's been a straight shooter and nothing but honorable and everything he says has been come to pass so I give a vote of confidence to the state through Jason. |
| 02:03:28.14 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you, Laura. |
| 02:03:28.88 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:30.13 | Walfred Solorzano | No further speakers. |
| 02:03:32.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:32.80 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:03:33.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:33.30 | Walfred Solorzano | So I will close. |
| 02:03:33.98 | Unknown | Exactly. |
| 02:03:34.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:34.69 | Walfred Solorzano | There's John. |
| 02:03:35.45 | John DeRay | Thank you. |
| 02:03:36.10 | Unknown | Oh, great. Hi, John. |
| 02:03:40.80 | John DeRay | John DeRay. Hello. Thank you. It's John DeRay. Hi, John DeRay. Hi. I wanted to make a few comments. I'm also a neighbor. I live basically across the street. I'm very supportive of the idea. |
| 02:03:44.47 | Unknown | I jumped. |
| 02:03:53.99 | John DeRay | especially if Rotary is involved. I got to know Rotary Housing a little bit, delivering meals with part of the Working Waterfront group during the COVID. Uh, And it's just a fantastic experience. area over there. So I'm very supportive of it. I also wanted to give some ideas for the corporation yard. I think the city owned property is a really good idea. Another idea, although maybe not so likely would be the Cal trans staging area. which is the exit off Rodeo Avenue, the exit to nowhere. |
| 02:04:24.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:24.69 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:04:24.74 | Unknown | . |
| 02:04:30.61 | John DeRay | Caltrans uses that area for some of their trucks. So maybe somebody can contact them and see if that's available. Another area is if you're familiar with the Sausalito Mill Valley bicycle path. |
| 02:04:34.58 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:04:43.60 | John DeRay | And as you leave town and go under the freeway on that bicycle path, if you look to your left, |
| 02:04:43.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:50.07 | John DeRay | There's a staging area. It turns out that's U.S. Department of Transportation. The address is 40 Shoreline Highway. It doesn't hurt to make a call over there, see if they have any additional room. But I think maybe the best idea of these that I'm articulating would be The same area, if you look to the other side, under the highway, There's some large partitioned areas that are currently leased to, I don't know who, but there's a few months ago I saw about 25 Sprinter vans under there. So they're large areas, they're covered from the weather, and perhaps that's someplace that Sausalito could use for their corporation yard. So some areas to look into. Thank you. |
| 02:05:38.35 | Unknown | Thank you, John. Appreciate it. Do we have any further public comment online before we close this? Thank you. |
| 02:05:45.25 | Walfred Solorzano | None. |
| 02:05:47.32 | Unknown | Okay, thank you very much. I will bring it back up to the dias for discussion and I would suggest that we first talk about the corporation yard and the future of the corporation yard, and then have a discussion on the development of the site and path forward there. So let's start with the corporation yard, And I'm aware that the discussion, the staff direction was potential for Mill Valley, but we've heard a number of recommendations for another path. I see your hand, Council Member Kellman. We'll start with you. |
| 02:06:10.85 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you, Mayor. Great way to start because I think the best thing we can do to move anything related to this project forward is resolve the corporation or question, and that should be the threshold use of time if the Council believes in this project should be that. So I gave already my list of potential locations. I might also add Marin City, and maybe there's an opportunity for some shared services in Marin City that could benefit Marin City at the same time as benefiting Sausalito. And, of course, being in such close proximity, perhaps they could utilize some of the services that we can offer. I'm not quite sure how that would look, but maybe it's part of our diversity equity inclusion plan as well. I also just want to say, and I won't go too far into the housing mayor, but I just want to say that when Sybil and I did have a conversation with Senator McGuire, I have a recollection that if we could come up with the 250 K to |
| 02:06:23.49 | Councilmember Hoffman | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:07:05.66 | Councilmember Kelman | to do the CEQA review for the site, that the senator would find us monies to do this project without having to give away this parcel to anybody. So that is state support that does not require a gift. And so I would just say that that would be a fourth option to be included in a future staff report. But I'll pause there because I know you want to bifurcate the conversation. |
| 02:07:28.94 | Unknown | Can you just for the purposes of the, Council direction to staff. Can you restate the sites? I know you mentioned the post office in your first, in your round of questions, just so we get that right. Post office was one. |
| 02:07:36.59 | Councilmember Kelman | Sure. Absolutely. |
| 02:07:40.08 | Unknown | God bless you. |
| 02:07:40.98 | Councilmember Kelman | Yeah, machine shot. Yeah, please. |
| 02:07:41.77 | Unknown | Yeah, please. |
| 02:07:42.82 | Councilmember Kelman | Post Office and just be clear to everybody who's going to email me tomorrow. I'm not advocating we get rid of the post office. Post Office has a very large parking lot. Perhaps there's a shared service. Let's just think creatively about what shared services could look like. Doesn't have to be location, not necessarily a truck. So machine shop, post office, fire station to MLK has a number of vacancies. And then I just added Marin City. |
| 02:07:43.59 | Unknown | THE FAMILY IS |
| 02:07:56.48 | Michelle Cunningham | Bye. |
| 02:08:08.77 | Unknown | And I think you also mentioned all city owned parcels in your questions, which just an overarching consideration of city owned parcels. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Council member Cox, then we'll go to the vice mayor. |
| 02:08:22.91 | Councilmember Cox | We heard earlier that there's negotiation between the Army Corps of Engineers, which runs the Bay Model, and the machine shop. So if they end up acquiring it, I'd love to talk with them about sharing information. the parking down there, if possible, or some sort of shared service. I doubt they have a use for the entire thing if they do acquire it. I also wanted to think about some of the larger property owners like Joe Lemon and Carlo Burke about setting up some sort of collaboration with them as a possibility. I wanted to mention that the parking up at the fire station is actually owned by Caltrans, not to say that we couldn't. negotiate something with them, but that tends to take a long time sometimes. Those were my only comments. Thank you so much for the brainstorming of additional locations. I completely endorse the concept of not moving forward with a joint courtyard with city of Mill Valley. |
| 02:09:22.67 | Unknown | Great. Vice Mayor, you had your hand. |
| 02:09:24.76 | Unknown | Yeah, I'll just echo what Councilmember Cox just said on Mill Valley. I think that's just a nonsense. It just doesn't make sense, given the distance and the expense. So that's just, we don't need to spend any more time on that one. |
| 02:09:28.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:09:37.65 | Unknown | I thought all of Councilmember Kelman's sites, I would endorse looking at and ask staff to look at them. And as Councilmember Cox said, expand that to a deliberate inquiry to our private property owners as well. People who own warehouses and have parking spaces. So that might be putting together a sort of description of need and approaching property brokers so that they know that we're in the market for looking for alternatives and property brokers know landlords who may have that need. So it would be a |
| 02:09:57.34 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:09:57.44 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:09:57.50 | Unknown | And that's it. |
| 02:10:11.01 | Unknown | a simple direction to inquire, to see what's available from our private property owners. That same thing can be done in Marin City in addition to public space in Marin City, the mall in Marin City maybe has room at least for the parking component, if not the warehouse component. I thought John Dure's comments on Caltran is at least a rock worth throwing over. Again, at least for the parking component, there is a lot of, unused space under the underpass for parking of vehicles. And then I had a few comments on the affordable housing path, but those are my only comments about the corp yard itself. |
| 02:10:48.98 | Unknown | Okay, we'll get to that next. I just want to be as efficient as possible. Okay, Councilmember Hoffman, please. |
| 02:10:53.34 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah, I agree. I agree with everything actually I think mill valleys off the table at this point and look at local places and on the order I priority for our staff. That's the priority is figuring out where to put and how to put how to make the move and what that would cost us, etc. And then I have some comments on. my assessment of, you know, different opportunities for programs for actual partners. |
| 02:11:20.76 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:11:22.31 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:11:23.42 | Unknown | Great. Yeah, we'll get to that. Absolutely. Okay. So I think it's really clear what the direction is on the corporation already. an agreement that pursuing a shared services agreement with Mill Valley is a non-starter given the high cost and the lack of movement forward. And we have some very clear sites that were outlined staff. Again, I can mention them, but I'm sure you were taking notes. Marinship specifically, potentially the post office or the machine shop. as well as working with private property owners there potentially. Carlo Berg or the Lemon property or others and putting out some specific requests with regards to that. Marin City and consideration of Marin City. Fire Station 2. M. L. K. all of the city owned parcels in general and then with regards to john de rey's comments 40 shoreline highway and under the overpass there with the caltrain zone property so. M. L. If we could do a more comprehensive consideration of that as a site that would be great, so now we'll move on to the next discussion here around. the consideration of housing and development And I will just get started by saying, The main purpose of having this conversation in tandem with the discussion about what we do for the corporation yard is because We need to move this property forward. This can't be just an idea that we have. It's outlined in our housing element. And the further and quicker we move forward with maintaining and meeting our goals of the housing element, the better job we're going to do as a community to be more inclusive and have more opportunities for folks who serve our community, to live in our community, but also to meet our requirements from the state. And I agree, we absolutely need to have a conversation about the direction of the corporation yard. But I believe we can have that conversation in tandem with a conversation about the future of the property as we move forward so that our timeline doesn't exceed the five years of the next housing element cycle and so that we can all be proud of a project that we've put forward. So I just wanted to make that clear and to say I'm very excited to hear what comments all of you have about that with thinking about the future of the property. I'm happy to hear from Director Kinney and see that there's an opportunity to work with the state. But my main goal here is just to make sure we move forward with a plan that makes sense for the community to develop that property. So if there's a big opposition to working with the state, I think we've heard from Jason Kinney that he's willing to share all of the potential resources from the state, which is fantastic. itself. And so if we decide not to move forward with a state partnership, we can still use their templates and engage with them to make sure we have the ability to work with, for example, rotary housing, should we want to do that. So with that in mind, I'll wait to hear from all of you about what paths you'd like to pursue so that we can come together on consensus for the property. okay, Councilmember Kelman, Thank you. |
| 02:13:56.40 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank |
| 02:13:56.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:13:56.89 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you. |
| 02:13:56.90 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:13:57.00 | Councilmember Kelman | Mayor. And then Vice Mayor. Okay, so just a couple of things. Having spent three very rewarding years on the Housing Element Committee, let me just clarify that the reason that, and the mayor alluded to this, the reason that we are pursuing this is because the state has mandated that we provide affordable housing as part of the RHNA cycle. And so it's not that we're looking to waste or spend extra money that we don't have. This is part of the state mandate. Additionally, I think everybody on this dais wants to be able to provide affordable housing. We often, and we did this during the housing element, we'll talk and make the assumption that if we build it, it will be the thing we build. So, oh, we all want affordable senior housing. I caveat all of us here tonight that just saying it's going to be affordable or saying it's going to be affordable senior housing |
| 02:14:15.62 | Unknown | um, |
| 02:14:43.80 | Councilmember Kelman | Um, does it make it so, nor does it ensure that members of the, uh, 1,911 who are over 56 years old in Sausalito who vote will be given a location there. However, because of that concern, I talked to our city attorney who assures me that so long as the city retains control over what goes there, that we can, in fact, work with a developer like Rotary to enact deed restriction to be able to make sure that it is, in fact, affordable senior housing. So i just want to caveat that just because we call it that doesn't mean it will become that unless we take proactive measures to make sure um and then the last thing that i would say is i would take the city the gifting um with the state i would actually just take that off the table i think it doesn't give the city enough upside um and creates a lot of confusion on the other end and i base this in the conversation and conversation and I'm looking at Sybil because she was in the meeting with me. Sorry Sybil, where the state said |
| 02:15:32.31 | Unknown | on that. |
| 02:15:41.97 | Councilmember Kelman | get us that CEQA review, and we'll find money for you to do this project. And so I would resolve the courtyard. I'd revisit that with Senator McGuire. I would work diligently with Rotary, EAH, other affordable housing developers to be able to find grants to be able to develop the CEQA review on that site so that we are able to take advantage of some of the statewide partnership around financing this. And then I think that's a path forward that allows us to achieve affordable senior housing for our seniors in South Florida. |
| 02:16:13.08 | Unknown | Can I just ask one quick question because I understand there's a potential that this site might be eligible for a CEQA exemption. That was something that came up when I was walking the site with. with Jason Kinney. Can you weigh in on what sites are eligible for an exemption for the, um, the assessment, because I think given that this is all flat land in a certain acreage, it might be. Eliminate that problem. |
| 02:16:36.54 | Unknown | you |
| 02:16:36.56 | Jason Kenney | Right. |
| 02:16:36.77 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:16:36.79 | Jason Kenney | Yeah. Sorry, that was for me, correct? |
| 02:16:39.91 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:16:40.03 | Unknown | I hope it wasn't... Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:16:44.20 | Jason Kenney | Jason Eckert, There's a Jason black class 32 infill exemption is a typical one that's used for housing. Jason Eckert, it's it's if it property is consistent with. Jason Eckert, local general plan or specific plan depending on what governs in the area less than five acres it's for affordable housing and there aren't otherwise. |
| 02:16:44.84 | Unknown | Yes, Jason. |
| 02:17:07.67 | Jason Kenney | potential environmental impacts, then it would qualify for a notice of exemption as opposed to an EIR, a mitigated NECDEC. So you'd essentially do an initial study and validate the premise, which is a pretty simple and straightforward path. |
| 02:17:23.79 | Unknown | So we don't have to find a quarter of a million dollars. We can potentially find less. Great news. Thank you, Jason. I appreciate it. Sorry, we'll go back to the dais. I just wanted to make sure we were aware of that. |
| 02:17:29.10 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay, we'll go back. |
| 02:17:31.81 | Unknown | Go ahead, Councilman McClellan. |
| 02:17:31.85 | Councilmember Kelman | Go ahead, Constance. Can we utilize that exemption without the gift Uh, Relationships? |
| 02:17:39.77 | Jason Kenney | Yeah, it's a general exemption that exists for all SQL use across the state. |
| 02:17:45.17 | Councilmember Kelman | Got it. And by the way, for future record, I'm not advocating that we do take advantage of that exemption. I'd like further study on what we have known in terms of a creek in the vicinity. So I just want to put that on the record. |
| 02:17:58.72 | Unknown | Great. Thank you. Okay, Council Member Cox, or did the vice mayor have his hand raised before? Okay, whoever wants to go. |
| 02:18:06.03 | Unknown | Whoever wants to go. I'm going to do the Council Member Kellman to be skeptical about gifting of the property. It'd be great to maintain ownership of it, a long-term lease perhaps structure. So I'm skeptical of giving it away to the state. In terms of a path forward, as you're saying, Mayor, to be quick about it, I know we have a long history, a successful history with Rotary as a developer, but to just move things along, having an RFP into the marketplace to unlock the expertise and creativity that's out there seems to be a wise choice. It can be an opportunity to tailor the criteria of the RFP to achieve what Council Member Kelman is talking about, which is perhaps giving preference to local seniors and other community goals, whatever they are. And so baking that into the RFP would be good exercise for us to be clear what our priorities are for that space. And it also would potentially unlock developers that could work with Rotary or provide additional expertise to achieve that. So in terms of just the deliberate path forward, it seems as though, I mean, I would be in favor of issuing such an RFP as soon as possible. |
| 02:19:21.19 | Unknown | Thank you, Vice-American Councilmember Cox. |
| 02:19:24.23 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah, I definitely like the idea of a parallel path. I... would want to ensure that we have figured out some sort of disposition for the corp yard before for the current uses at the corp yard before accepting an RFP, but certainly we could issue an RFP. I, you know, I thought, and maybe I'm wrong on the history. I've not been involved in this as long as the mayor and the former Mayor Kelman. I thought that we got referred to Jason Kenney by Senator McGuire, that that was the conduit for obtaining the funds promised by Senator McGuire. So I'm not certain that there's a separate path of your, you know, found grant funding for us to pursue this. And so we need to sort that out at some point, but we can sort that out as we're figuring out where to put the corporation yard But in the meantime, I am not bullish on a gift of the property to the state. My understanding from earlier conversations with Mr. Kenny was that it would not require a gift that we could have a long-term lease. If we decided to go forward with the gift, if that's our only option for being able to really... feasibly finance this thing. I loved it. Councilmember Hoffman's questions regarding reversion. I think that's a really great Those are some really great provisions. And those and others, I think if we were to proceed with the gift, we have to have an ironclad contract that assures. Um, no, unintended consequences and that this place is actually going to be developed and operated and maintained in the way that we envision because that's a really valuable property. So I would far prefer a long-term lease. If we're not able to guarantee that Rotary has the opportunity to be our partner, if that's something that they're interested in doing, then I would like to pursue the surplus lands act streamlined process. and work with Mr. Kenny in a consultative role to identify additional funding to allow us, again, to make the development of this feasible. And finally, I really liked Mr. Van Meter's comments about reaching out to the common area regarding the common willows. This is something he had mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago. I think, you know, a reasonable ground lease would make the property more developable and could result in great benefit to the residents of the willows as well. So I'm so pleased to finally have this, you know, everything kind of in black and white for us to talk about as a group. I think we make stronger decisions when we all collaborate together. And I'm really pleased with the opportunity to, with the various opportunities we have to move forward with this site. |
| 02:22:54.24 | Unknown | Thank you, Councilmember Cox. Councilmember Hoffman? |
| 02:22:56.19 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. You know, we have it just as a preliminary thing. I think, you know, we have a vetted process that, you know, was worked out over a period of years that had to do with how we're going to go through this process. Right. So that's that's element eight of our housing element, which is a surplus land act with two different types of tracks under surplus land. So I have some confidence in that aspect of how to move forward. not as much because this is a first I've been exposed to this other idea of gifting it to the state. So I think, and I'm, you know, I'm less inclined to go that route. And I want to be mindful of, you know, the priorities and our staff time, available staff time that we have. So I don't want to give any direction to staff other than, you know, move forward with moving the corporation yard. That's step number one. That's got to get done. And we can't, you know, we have finite staff time. It's, you know, because we direct staff to do something, it doesn't mean that there's, you know, an automatic expansion of their time. They still have to get all the other stuff done that they've got to get done, like fix the streets and reduce our risk due to infrastructure. So, which is what we talked about earlier. to me the order of priority is figure out if and where the courtyard is going to move. And then we can move to, we can't even declare a surplus until we do that. by, you know, by the process. So I think, um, And I would look to also our community development department about the staleness of an RFP. So if we issue an RFP, but we know we're not going to build for three years, sometimes that's helpful. Sometimes it's not helpful. But if the staff time is not onerous to issue an RFP, then to test that, I have no objection to that other than I don't want a lot of staff time on that because it's, you know, we have to get the other thing done first. Um, the reason, uh, you know, I I'm cautious and wary of a gifting also is that that would create, you know, really an autonomous entity that owns a pretty substantial piece of property, um, in the middle of our town. And. also is that that would create, you know, really an autonomous entity that owns a pretty substantial piece of property in the middle of our town and close to our school. And I would want to make sure that We, there was no question about whether or not software had control. My experience with dealing with outside entities, including the federal government, the county, the state, once you don't own the property anymore, you don't own the property anymore, period. That's it. And you can try to get conditions, but then how do you enforce those conditions later? What do you do if they're clearly violating the agreement? You know, how do you enforce that? What's your leverage? The answer is you really don't have much leverage at all. So those are my cautions. Also, there hasn't been a lot of outreach in that area, I don't think, about, you know, these different processes. So if we're going to deviate from the publicly vetted process in the housing element, I think we need to do a lot more outreach in that neighborhood and on that end of town about that we're deviating from, know the years and years worth of vetting that went on and how we're going to work out the process of conveying or at least developing sorry developing the corporation yard so the third thing is it's going to or the i think this is the fifth thing sorry |
| 02:26:04.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:26:04.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:26:19.40 | Councilmember Hoffman | is that if we move the corporation yard, you know, we have to have a funding source for that. Like we have to be able to pay for that move and we're gonna have a, you know, technically, I suppose, a loss of the value of that property, right? Because we're no longer going to be able to house a pretty substantial operation on that property. So that has to be looked at as well. My thought process is somehow that piece of property and the development of that piece of property has to somehow pay for the move of the corporation yard. And how do you do that with your developer? And that's a development agreement that we would have to address. So, you know, the realm of possibility on that and trying to get these units built, as Mr. Albert pointed out, you know, the cost per unit, if we're trying to do low income, of course, it makes the profit margin shrink. So, but we want to support affordable housing and we're committed to doing that in Sausalito and certainly senior housing, of course, I support that. |
| 02:27:00.42 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:27:18.72 | Unknown | Great. Thank you very much. So I think what we're hearing is that, you know, this site is mandated in our housing element, we have agreement about wanting to develop it for affordable housing, potentially for senior housing. It seems like there is not necessarily substantial interest to pursue a state lease or buyback or sale at this time. I wanted to propose because I appreciated that. I think that this is something that we can move at two parallel tracks. And I think it's really important that we make progress on this potential site, given the momentum and the work that's gone into it. I would love to propose that we have an RFP that we put out on this and that we don't lose, although we won't pretend we won't be participating in a sale necessarily to the state, that we don't lose the opportunity to to collaborate with and use the resources of Jason Kenney's office, which he's offered here. to share staff time. So to address the point that council member Hoffman made about staff time, their office has a number of templates and they have a lot of experience with this and with affordable housing developers to help us make it. a very attractive site. So I would suggest that we put forth, aside the direction from the corporation yard, that we put forth an RFP and that our staff works in partnership with the state to the extent that they have templates available so that staff time is minimized and that we continue the ongoing conversations here. |
| 02:28:34.00 | Councilmember Kelman | May I ask a clarification question? Sure. The R&D is for an affordable housing developer. And if that's, I'm seeing nodding on the dice, if that is the case, |
| 02:28:34.13 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:28:38.22 | Unknown | Sure. |
| 02:28:46.85 | Councilmember Kelman | Can I just get some clarification? Is it for 100% affordable housing? Or would we find ourselves looking at developers who want to take advantage of density bonus laws under SB 35 to be able to do a percentage? I would like to ask that this be 100% affordable. |
| 02:29:03.88 | Unknown | I think that's great. I think we should, we should absolutely put in there. We want it to be 100% affordable. And thanks to your hard work with Sergio today, we know that we can. So I think that that's something that we can also partner with with Jason Kinney and with our staff and with the city attorney to make a part of the RFP. But I think moving that forward will be, substantial and a big step for us on the site. So are there objections to that direction? Vice Mayor, yes, please. |
| 02:29:25.30 | Unknown | I have a question whether we think the RFP should come back for approval, Councilmember Kelman, or... is that enough criteria? Cause there could be other criteria like community benefits of one kind or another, including the common area of the willows as a, Yeah. |
| 02:29:40.40 | Councilmember Kelman | Yeah, I think we're making some thank you. I'm going to cut you off. |
| 02:29:43.49 | Unknown | No, I'm asking you a question. So you can cut me off when you're ready to answer that. |
| 02:29:44.57 | Councilmember Kelman | so you can cut me off Sorry, apologies. I think we're making a lot of assumptions around the common areas of the Willow, the dating laying of Willow Creek, the total square footage, the FAR, the available lot size. And I think we probably need to report out from Director Phipps before we can actually structure an RFP for that location. So I support the mayor's suggestion, but to your point, I don't want some of the things we've heard today to be taken as fact until Director Phipps has been able to check those out. |
| 02:30:12.77 | Unknown | And then I had one question for you to all agree on the 100%. It kind of goes to Council Member Hoffman's pointing out that moving the corporation yard is going to cost the city something. So my question to you and to everyone is just your blink reaction to the question of |
| 02:30:14.07 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you. |
| 02:30:29.08 | Unknown | if the project becomes more feasible, affordable to the city. |
| 02:30:33.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:30:33.57 | Unknown | by not having that criteria, by having it be 90% affordable or 80% affordable, is that a trade-off that we should consider making to make the whole project work? |
| 02:30:43.39 | Councilmember Kelman | I think staff can bring that to us, but I would caution highly against that because you will see you will be making other trade offs in terms of number of units, potentially height density things that we won't want to see and that we're not talking about on this site, specifically. |
| 02:31:00.24 | Unknown | That is my question. So at least considering it, and I'm not advocating for it per se, |
| 02:31:01.92 | Councilmember Kelman | So, |
| 02:31:02.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:06.44 | Unknown | would hate to end up in the case where we have the unbuildable proposal. |
| 02:31:10.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:10.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:10.75 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:10.75 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:10.76 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:31:10.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:11.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:11.05 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:11.09 | Unknown | we are actually interested in building something. So, you know, a range of possibilities all has different, there are different trade-offs. So it's a question of, are we limiting just one, one kind of, of description to us, or shall we consider some others? |
| 02:31:26.56 | Councilmember Kelman | Do you think we could start with 100% affordable? Because my fear is that if we open up the door, we will quickly find ourselves relegated to 10% affordable because it just doesn't pencil out. And that is just what happens with these projects. It is expensive. We know that we have to go in with this mindset if we truly believe in affordable housing and we truly want to make that happen here. It will motivate us to find other sources of funding to make it happen. If we begin to open up percentages, we will lose that momentum and I think we won't get the 100% affordable that we're looking for here. |
| 02:31:58.13 | Unknown | So I get that fear and I'm sympathetic to it, but one other, since you're, you're, you're putting anchor in one particular scenario, |
| 02:32:04.39 | Unknown | I already have. All right. |
| 02:32:05.73 | Unknown | I had in mind was a was a development proposal that generated enough revenue to the city of Sausalito because the economics work to pay us a dollar amount for the lease, the land lease. See, I'd rather- That would offset the cost of moving the corporation yard. |
| 02:32:14.11 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:32:17.93 | Councilmember Kelman | I would rather... |
| 02:32:22.03 | Councilmember Kelman | I think it's cost neutral to the city. But I think I find risky and I couldn't support that. I would rather build a state of the art, environmentally forward-thinking, innovative, sustainable machine shop that had EV charger, solar panels paid for itself and created a green energy transition. And I have the machine shop, not the machine shop, the corporation or pay for itself rather than the risk of losing 100% affordable, which is the whole reason we're using this site, because we own this. If we're going into the trouble, this is one of the only places you can actually do 100% affordable because the city owns it. If we're going to start |
| 02:32:22.64 | Unknown | So it would be cost neutral to the city. |
| 02:32:54.26 | Councilmember Kelman | cracking away at that, then it kind of implodes the whole project from my perspective. |
| 02:32:58.19 | Councilmember Cox | All right. And the other thing is we have, a potential developer with experience who's interested in doing this. And I would hate to, I mean, I really would like to favor that as the landowner, I would love to find a way to partner with Rotary Housing on another development in Sausalito. |
| 02:33:06.55 | Unknown | I would hate to. |
| 02:33:19.07 | Unknown | Yeah, I agree with that. It's just a question of, moving things along by getting as much information as we can. It doesn't bind us to any particular path. to be open to a variety of solutions. |
| 02:33:31.55 | Councilmember Kelman | I'm going to go on the record that I'm not open because when we encourage staff to look, it often comes back to us as city council was favorable towards it or told staff to go look at it. So I'm going to be very clear. I would like to see 100% affordable here. It's city-owned property. It's one of the only locations we can do it. I do not want to deviate from that. |
| 02:33:50.25 | Councilmember Hoffman | I agree that's our first step, our first priority, right? If it just doesn't happen, if we just can't get somebody to come back, then yes, then we have to maybe pivot to another thing, but that may be mixed. If we just can't get the RFP, right? But we're going to issue an RFP, see what our responses are. Hopefully, we will be able to come up with a 100% affordable project. That would be, and then the next step would be, okay, if we just can't do it, right? the evidence. Thank you. we will be able to come up with a 100% affordable project. That would be, and then the next step would be, okay, if we just can't do it, right? I think that's, so that's the direction. |
| 02:34:22.77 | Unknown | If I may ask. |
| 02:34:23.71 | Councilmember Hoffman | And we're going to... |
| 02:34:25.33 | Unknown | Clarification. Yes, Director Phipps. Excuse me, Mayor, and thank you, Council, for the opportunity to clarify. When we talk about 100% affordability, you know, within that world, there are levels of affordability. I would just offer that our housing unit has identified 31 units realistic capacity for this site, 18 of those units at very low income, nine at low income, four at moderate incomes. |
| 02:34:25.87 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yes, Director Phipps. |
| 02:34:26.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:34:50.56 | Unknown | Does counsel have any comments or direction on distribution and what income levels? |
| 02:34:55.34 | Councilmember Hoffman | Does that equal 31? . |
| 02:34:57.36 | Councilmember Kelman | Oh. |
| 02:34:57.43 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:34:57.46 | Councilmember Kelman | That equals 31 cents. |
| 02:34:57.60 | Councilmember Hoffman | equals 31. |
| 02:34:58.22 | Unknown | I hope it does. |
| 02:34:59.14 | Councilmember Kelman | Director Phipps, why don't you bring the RFP back to us for review, and when we have all the information, we'll provide you. |
| 02:35:00.20 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:35:05.58 | Councilmember Kelman | more thorough feedback to you at that time. |
| 02:35:07.66 | Unknown | very good. |
| 02:35:08.05 | Councilmember Cox | Let's go with that. I'd be interested in hearing from Rotary what their levels of affordability typically are. Because again, serving our seniors who are most of me, I think should be a priority for the city owned property. |
| 02:35:08.23 | Councilmember Kelman | And I- |
| 02:35:26.05 | Unknown | And we also talked when we had early conversations with Sybil and the state about potentially seniors cohabitating with teachers or something that might be more, there's funding paths that are available for intergenerational living projects. So I think that could be interesting to consider as well. So let's, it sounds like the consensus is, the directions already been given on the corporation yard, but on this to have a RFP that is, we'll review the RFP that we'll consider 100% affordable and other elements and go from there. So I really appreciate that. this robust conversation and moving this important As Councilman Kellman pointed out only city owned property that is really eligible for this 100% affordable housing get the path moving as quickly as possible, while meeting arena mandates so thank you very much. I appreciate it everyone I don't believe we need a vote because it's just clear Council direction so we'll move on to item three. be on our agenda. sorry, 5B, discussion on conducting interviews for various expiring board and commissioner terms and providing direction to staff on how to proceed. So I'm not sure which staff member is giving the presentation. |
| 02:36:28.57 | Walfred Solorzano | Good evening, Council. This is a Walford City Clerk. So every year we have to fill, we have to publish a BANTI Act. So that would mean that we have to either fill some vacancies or reappoint some commissioners. at this time one of the attachments show the vacancies and the expiring appointments so there are various there are various decisions we need to make. So we need to figure out whether we need to reappoint by interviewing some people who have expiring terms or how we go about that or whether we have interviews, whether we not have interviews. and so basically I'm asking for direction so we can have that at the next meeting, whether we conduct interviews for certain seats or just go for reappointment. Also, we've received several applications for several of the seats. It's been published on Currents. And so we've gotten like a few dozen applications in. And we would imagine that something like this, if we do have council interviews at five minutes a piece, it'll take a couple hours at a regular meeting. |
| 02:37:43.14 | Unknown | Thank you, Walford. Do we have questions for Walford about this agenda item? |
| 02:37:43.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Do we need to? |
| 02:37:51.80 | Unknown | I have a question, Alfred. |
| 02:37:53.39 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:37:54.60 | Unknown | I did, So I know we had an expansive conversation about this topic at the April 11th meeting. Did you have a chance to revisit that in terms of direction that might have been given about repayment of planning commissioners specifically? |
| 02:38:06.78 | Walfred Solorzano | There's no direction given to me yet. That's why we're right here. The council needs to decide what we're going to do with some of these reappointments, maybe starting with Planning Commission. Two of the appointments are coming up. We've received applications also. So I need direction on how we're going to go, you know, maybe starting with that since it's probably the most important one of those. But we also have various ones in the Sustainability Commission. we need to fill seats for for the the most important one of those, but we also have various ones in the Sustainability Commission. We need to fill seats for the parks one and library also. But none direction has been given, and so I want to know what I can bring back for a staff report as far as filling out interviews. |
| 02:38:52.77 | Unknown | Okay, are there any other questions from the diocese? Okay, seeing none, we'll open it up for public comment. I know we received a lot of correspondence on this topic, |
| 02:39:02.93 | Walfred Solorzano | Anybody in-house? Bavette McDougall. |
| 02:39:11.79 | Babette McDougall | Thank you for acknowledging me. I just want to say that it's a little bit confusing. And I was glad to hear Walford clarify that in fact, he's still waiting for specific direction, which answers why I felt confused, because I thought we had already handled this question in April. So I just want to say, It's good to know that there are applications coming in. That's a very good sign. What I concern over is that if we have, especially through these very difficult recent years, people who were willing to come forward and serve, even under difficult circumstances, which COVID certainly did impose, and all the attendant things that went along with COVID, and if they are willing to roll it for one more term, I believe I believe Council Member Hoffman was quite correct when she pointed out a few months ago that if someone is willing to let it ride for another term that that should take precedent, because this is not an easy ramp up for any of these volunteer positions I mean. What you folks do is not an easy task and it takes a yeoman's effort, let us just say that so. While it's laudable that we have new applications, let's just take the example of the Planning Commission since Walford threw it out. I think that's grand. And I think that there's a way to start using these applications as cultivating future leadership, because we most certainly do need that. We most certainly need it. So I'd like to, again, encourage If someone is serving on a commission currently, And they're willing. to extend for one more term. I believe that that should take precedent because that's going to cut staff time. That's going to save the city. A lot of headaches and embarrassment down the road. And just the ramping up period in general. So, I mean, we should optimize as much as we can, especially right now while we're trying to get better. Thank you. |
| 02:40:57.27 | Unknown | Thank you, Babette. |
| 02:40:58.61 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Vicky Nichols next. |
| 02:41:01.48 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:41:01.90 | Michelle Cunningham | Thank you. |
| 02:41:01.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:41:11.51 | Walfred Solorzano | I think. |
| 02:41:19.41 | Unknown | I don't think we yet see or hear her. |
| 02:41:21.54 | Walfred Solorzano | We'll go with Sue White next. Oh, there she is. |
| 02:41:24.44 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 02:41:24.46 | Unknown | Okay, and then we'll come back to Vicki. |
| 02:41:25.67 | Walfred Solorzano | No, we got Vicky. She's on. |
| 02:41:27.56 | Vicki Nichols | Okay. All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. It's Vicki Nichols, 117 Caledonia. Yeah. I'm currently the chair of the Historical Preservation Commission And I just want to speak briefly on this process you're using now to fill seats. I don't know at which point this started deviating where there were so many interviews being done at once. which as you just mentioned, it takes five per because you're stacking these into one meeting or so. But if they could be done on a more routine manner, we've had an applicant. that's been in the pool for quite a time. I'm trying to get some training for the state and get the whole commission on or the whole. Yes. the whole five-member commission able to take advantage of this. So I didn't even hear that. Commission mentioned tonight as a priority. I wish you would consider doing these interviews more frequently as this was done in the past, just as a routine process. When these, THE END OF THE END OF THE vacancies came up. There was just, it was just scheduled. And if you had a first term person, You were asked, did you want to turn in the application for the second. I don't know where this got so complicated. Thank you. |
| 02:42:46.47 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:46.57 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you, Vicki. |
| 02:42:46.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:47.06 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 02:42:47.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:48.06 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker, Sue White. |
| 02:42:51.23 | Unknown | Hi Sue, welcome. |
| 02:43:02.49 | Walfred Solorzano | You can unmute yourself, please. |
| 02:43:16.49 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:43:21.81 | Unknown | . |
| 02:43:25.39 | Walfred Solorzano | Your camera's on. You just need to unmute yourself. |
| 02:43:27.93 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:43:31.44 | Walfred Solorzano | Oh, we can't hear you yet. |
| 02:43:46.36 | Sue White | All right, how about now? Thank you. There you go. |
| 02:43:48.40 | Unknown | Yes, now we can hear you. Hi. Oh, wonderful. |
| 02:43:49.80 | Sue White | Oh, wonderful. Well, first of all, I apologize. I hung in there for a little over two hours in the meetings. But with a fractured pelvis, I just couldn't sit any longer. The bottom line is, as you may remember, I met with all of you a little over six months ago in April. primarily to, uh, solicit your support to become a library board trustee, and you granted me that, and I thank you. But my closing comments referred to two of the council members trying to change the policy for Christina, who everybody in our neighborhood absolutely worships. At that time, we put together a petition and got more than 100 signatures saying that this was wrong not to reinstate Christina. And you did that. Now, again, as the great Yogi Berra from the Yankees used to say, this is deja vu all over again. These are two absolutely incredible planning commissioners that we've had personal experiences with because of a building going up right next to us. that have been phenomenal, came out for visits, have been honest, have been fair to all the parties concerned. And to not re-up them the same way you did, Christina, would be extremely unfair. And especially knowing the enormous amount of hours, volunteer hours that these folks put in. So I hope you will go back to your current system, which is allowing them to serve a second term, as the first speaker had suggested. Thank you. |
| 02:45:33.31 | Unknown | Thank you very much. |
| 02:45:36.42 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, for council, I'll give a quick rundown, just what we have coming up. So we'll start with- |
| 02:45:41.31 | Councilmember Cox | I was. |
| 02:45:42.21 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:45:42.29 | Councilmember Cox | had her in her. |
| 02:45:42.33 | Walfred Solorzano | I had her. I mean, |
| 02:45:43.03 | Councilmember Cox | for public conversation. |
| 02:45:43.73 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, Alice. |
| 02:45:44.87 | Sandra Bushmaker | I just said I agree. |
| 02:45:46.61 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay. |
| 02:45:50.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, do you want me to, okay. |
| 02:45:54.69 | Councilmember Cox | So As someone who's been a public servant since 2008 and gone through this a bunch myself, I'll just say that it used to be our process. When I was on the planning commission at the end of my first term, I was asked if I wanted to submit an application to serve a second term, which I did. And then I was interviewed and I served the second term. So it was not an automatic appointment. I had to apply and compete again for a second term. Same thing when I served on the housing element committee. I had to apply when my term ended, I had to apply again. So I have no problem with reappointing existing members who are, interested in serving a second term. When they file an application, that's how we know they're interested in serving a second term. My only issue is with automatically reappointing every incumbent to a second term. |
| 02:46:43.14 | Unknown | Well, that's another question. |
| 02:46:54.21 | Councilmember Cox | I have participated in other committees like Community Safety and Disaster Preparedness, where we had a member who never showed up. but who liked it being on their resume. I would not want that member to be automatically reappointed to continue to not show up and have us have a challenge having a job. |
| 02:47:14.11 | Unknown | I just remember talking. |
| 02:47:14.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:47:14.90 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. I also don't think it's appropriate for the city council, which is |
| 02:47:35.76 | Councilmember Cox | I have no issue with us deciding on a case by case basis. Yes, please continue. but I do. do have an issue with there being a policy that we automatically reappoint without even considering whether we should. Thank you. |
| 02:47:53.41 | Unknown | Councilmember Cox, I think we still have a public comment before we can weigh in, because I know you had said that was |
| 02:47:57.76 | Councilmember Cox | because I know We just, |
| 02:48:00.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:48:00.18 | Councilmember Cox | Finished public comment. |
| 02:48:01.86 | Unknown | No, because Walford said there was more folks coming in that you said. |
| 02:48:04.16 | Councilmember Cox | coming in that. Yeah. |
| 02:48:05.75 | Unknown | Prayer. |
| 02:48:05.95 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:48:06.03 | Unknown | Didn't you say Alice Merrill had her hand raised? |
| 02:48:07.96 | Councilmember Cox | And then she said, I raised my hand to say, I agree. So I didn't hear her say that. So I didn't. Sorry, you couldn't see that. |
| 02:48:12.38 | Unknown | So, okay, I didn't hear her say that, so I didn't. I couldn't see that. So I was waiting for her to make public comment when you were. Yeah. Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate it. |
| 02:48:20.53 | Councilmember Cox | Appreciate it. |
| 02:48:20.97 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you. |
| 02:48:21.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:48:21.56 | Unknown | Okay, great. Thank you very much, Council Member Cox. |
| 02:48:22.05 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you very much, Councilmember Cox. |
| 02:48:24.83 | Unknown | Okay. Yes, Councilmember Kellman. |
| 02:48:27.36 | Councilmember Kelman | I'll jump in and thank you, Councilmember Cox and very much respect your opinion and your experience here. you know, I, I got on the planning commission in 2001 and I, I don't recall ever being re, um, re-interviewed and having to reapply again. So maybe there was an inconsistent, you know, process at that time. But let me offer this. So when we talked about moving forward and getting rid of our boards and commissions, we had a very long talk about volunteerism and transparency and wanting to, um, continue having the people who volunteer feel rewarded. and feeling like it was important that they were giving their time and their energy to us. And I think the reappointment of people already serving does exactly that. And seems very consistent with that conversation we had. And I think in terms of using staff time wisely, using council time wisely. We've now had this on the agenda five times, four times to have this conversation. I would be in favor of a more streamlined approach of continuing to re-up people who are already serving us well. And I would offer this as a compromise moving forward is that perhaps the city attorney would want to write something into either our protocols or to the charter that the council could dismiss somebody for cause and that we'd be very clear what that cause is. And it would be very specifically, you know, failure to show up on X amount of time or something that would give the public the understanding that, We value the volunteers, as we've been saying, everybody agrees on that. We value the service. There is an important aspect of institutional memory, but if you don't show up, we do, we are not going to be happy with you. We'll, we'll take action. But I think I'm in favor of just continuing to, to have people who are already serving and continue to serve us. And I think it also wards off the risk that, |
| 02:50:10.98 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:50:10.99 | Sybil Boutier | you the same. |
| 02:50:11.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:50:31.99 | Councilmember Kelman | there would be any direction, you know, maybe a council member didn't like somebody the way somebody was voting and then they took the opportunity to, you know, maybe move them along. I just, I don't want there to be any impression of anything like that potentially happening. And I think continuing where our volunteers and appreciating their years of service is the path I'd want to go on and see if there's a sort of a for cause type of component that would allow us some flexibility if somebody as council member Cox mentioned, wasn't showing up and serving as they promised to. Thank you, Councilman for the Councilman of the Vice Mayor. |
| 02:51:04.06 | Unknown | I'll chime in. I really respect that point of view, Council Member Kelman. It's, I guess, why there's a diversity opinion up here. We can look at the same thing and see it so differently. Seems to me so common sense. We have terms of office with set in our years. not six years, but three or two or whatever for a reason. And, to me, that reason is obvious that it allows there to be the potential for changes, not the obligation for so. Everything you've said is an argument to be biased towards reappointing someone in thanks for their service. And perhaps you or I might have a higher threshold for making a change than we would for making an original appointment. But to me, it's just obvious that the whole structure is built on, and our obligation is to. Like the Supreme Court has a duty to sit, we have a duty to decide. I don't want to belabor the point. Everything that Council Member Cox said, I could have said. That's the way I just see it, the way it should work. To me, it requires like three seconds of consideration because it just seems so obvious. And I appreciate that you see it differently. But that's just how I see it. |
| 02:52:13.89 | Councilmember Hoffman | So I think |
| 02:52:13.98 | Vicki Nichols | That's right. |
| 02:52:15.24 | Councilmember Hoffman | I think we might all actually agree. I completely agree that if someone's not performing, we need to have a mechanism to encourage off encourage them down a path that leads off a committee if they're not performing. But we need to be able to articulate that if everything, uh, if they are performing, have indicated, um, If they've indicated a wish to remain on the committee and we have no reason to remove them for cause, then we need to have an easier way to Um, re whatever. reappoint them rather than going through all of this. Like it's just too much drama. And people are too upset about it. And you're seeing in the community, people that are upset about What happened last April? with Commissioner Feller, we had a petition within a matter of three days that was ramped up and 120 people signed it. That petition was reactivated. I don't see it on our, on our, um. Thank you. on our public comment tonight. I believe that it's completed and I believe there's now 180 signatures on it. So you know people and we've gotten some you know some public comment and emails i think i saw 13 uh in favor of ex at least extending these two commissioners for now and then Um, And maybe even more, I don't know. That's what I saw that came through my email. So I think there's, I think the public has been pretty clear about, you know, that these people should be extended. I agree, though, that we need to have some mechanism to... remove people if we think that they shouldn't be serving or they're not performing appropriately. So I do notice, I did note that we did extend to members at our June 27th meeting. And I think that's what the mayor referred to at our, our April or August. Sorry, pardon me. No, April 11th was Commissioner Feller and we extended Commissioner Feller and Commissioner Graff. We retroactively Um, extended them. June 27th, we also extended members of the Sustainable Commission and the Community Safety Disaster Preparedness. in emotion. And that's what the mayor referred to at our October 3rd meeting. when it looked like we were going to be revisiting this issue and the mayor said, no, we've already decided that we're going to just extend people absent some reason. Um, through emotion. And so I think that conceptually, that's the process that we should follow. It should be If it needs to be a motion and our city attorney, I believe would prefer that we do take action as a council to extend people, then the process might look like if somebody you're on a you're coming up for your second term process now is that the staff notifies them that member says yes or no I want to extend much like your application that you were talking about. And then it goes on the next consent calendar. and we extend, or if there's an issue for cause, we can remove that from consent, I think that might be the process. you know, going forward. And that's the direction clearly to staff, I think that that might be helpful. to avoid these kinds of, uh, you unnecessary dramas. And I'm ready to make that motion tonight, or if the city attorney for these two commissioners, and that that be our protocol going forward with regard to second terms for people on our boards and commissions. If not, then I would ask that it be added to the next consent calendar. |
| 02:55:59.17 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:56:04.62 | Councilmember Hoffman | if the city attorney says that that's right. |
| 02:56:05.54 | Unknown | Thank you, Tony. not a problem. |
| 02:56:06.65 | Councilmember Hoffman | a |
| 02:56:06.72 | Unknown | RECORDING TO THE FEDERAL |
| 02:56:06.78 | Councilmember Hoffman | that. |
| 02:56:07.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:56:07.49 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:56:07.63 | Unknown | Add it to the next one. |
| 02:56:08.14 | Councilmember Hoffman | So, |
| 02:56:09.38 | Unknown | So I haven't had an opportunity to weigh in. So let me just go ahead. Respond to those comments. Um, that's okay. So I appreciate that we've continued to revisit this issue a number of times, as many of you have pointed out. And I think that we can find consensus on something that works for everyone and takes into consideration Councilmember Cox and Vice Mayor Sobieski's points and also Councilmember Hoffman and Councilmember Kelman's points. So, I am uncomfortable with the idea of just saying, yes, you get to keep going without at least a submission of an application so we can review some sort of credentials as part of the consent calendar. So I would ask or amend the motion to say, if you are seeking a second term, Perhaps we don't have to interview you. but you should at least be required to submit an application for consideration that we can then review because otherwise we don't have any assessment of And my concern about performance mechanisms is, in fact, we don't have any performance markers or mechanisms for whether or not someone is doing well on a board or commission other than attendance. So I think we need to be really clear about what that looks like. Alternatively, we could go through the list that Walford has put forward and just say, You know, I think we're all comfortable with the idea of reappointing the two planning commissioners who have indeed expressed interest and then going forward, institute a policy whereby we do interview everyone who would like to seek reappointment. I mean, I'm open to discussion, but I would like us to find some consensus that everyone is comfortable with here. So let's maybe just continue the conversation a little bit and see what folks' feelings are about that. |
| 02:57:42.23 | Unknown | So yeah, to me again, it takes two seconds. I will vote no on any reappointment unless we solicit interviews and conduct interviews of any potential applicants. for any board or commission. So that just seems like best practice. It feels like my, it's the job I signed up for when I ran for city council is to sit here and to. to decide who the next EDAC is, to decide who the next sustainability commission is, that feels like my job. So it's just the way I see the world. It just seems like best practices. It's what corporate governance is about. So I respect, but do not get the other perspective. |
| 02:58:27.47 | Babette McDougall | I like to compromise. |
| 02:58:27.69 | Councilmember Kelman | I see a compromise the mayor offered around having, take the time to put an application together, put it on consent. Someone wants to put off consent, you're welcome to, but I thought that was a good and strong compromise. And I think in total, I spent 10 years on and off the planning commission and the value of institutional knowledge, whether it was mine or somebody else's, has proven to be very helpful. And I guess that might be where my consideration comes from. |
| 02:58:57.32 | Unknown | So I have a question just for you in the ordinance on the planning commission, since we're talking about it, it says in black and white, that one of the members should be a landscape architect or architect. So for example, if you had a full planning commission that had no such person, And the terms are coming up and you get three landscape architects that apply. Don't you think it's appropriate to potentially replace one of the people that wants to continue to serve? But hey, the ordinance itself says we should have a landscape architect in there. So shouldn't we consider replacing the person with a landscape architect? |
| 02:59:29.50 | Councilmember Kelman | It's an interesting point. Thank you, Vice Mayor. There were four landscape architects and me when I first started. And, you know, sometimes it depends on who's available and who's not. It's an interesting consideration, but it doesn't change my willingness to endorse the mayor's compromises. |
| 02:59:38.06 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:59:48.10 | Unknown | But I'm just pointing out the virtue. Appreciate that. Yeah, thank you. Is that we could actually meet what we wrote down in writing as the goal of our conservation. |
| 02:59:50.36 | Councilmember Kelman | I appreciate that. |
| 02:59:56.89 | Councilmember Kelman | I have to read the language. I think it's more of a guidance than a statute. But |
| 03:00:01.55 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:00:01.57 | Councilmember Kelman | THE END OF |
| 03:00:01.70 | Councilmember Hoffman | So, |
| 03:00:01.79 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you. |
| 03:00:01.82 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay. |
| 03:00:02.38 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you. |
| 03:00:03.84 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:00:03.86 | Sergio Rudin | Can I? |
| 03:00:04.47 | Councilmember Hoffman | I also want to point out that we do have Commissioner Graff who is termed out in January. So if whatever assessment and that's part of why we have staggered, right, staggered appointments is that somebody is always turning, hopefully, and that we'll have the opportunity at that point to interview candidates. And I, you know, and I'm because planning commission is so complicated and we just finished our housing element and these two commissioners have been through that fire and understand why we did this housing element and all of the different things that we're going to have to do moving forward. So anyway, I think the effort to get qualified people is so difficult. And |
| 03:00:04.49 | Sergio Rudin | I also... |
| 03:00:57.98 | Councilmember Hoffman | you know, since council members, Kelvin and council member, you know, Since you brought it up, you were on the planning commission. Can you imagine how you would have felt after your second term or coming up to your second term? And somebody decides for whatever reason, you know, thank you, council member, but I no longer want you. I want this other person that I've talked to for five minutes. I was very worried that was going to happen. |
| 03:01:23.71 | Councilmember Cox | I had had the temerity to run against the mayor. So I was very worried when I was up for my second term that that was going to happen. I was very worried I was not going to be reappointed because I had just unsuccessfully run against the mayor and the vice mayor. |
| 03:01:34.87 | Babette McDougall | Yeah. |
| 03:01:35.19 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:01:38.89 | Councilmember Cox | But I was unanimously reappointed. Yeah. So it was a real validation, but. I was very worried about that. |
| 03:01:45.77 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah. So I mean, it's an interesting point. I totally understand your position, though, too. But having talked to a lot of people who devote tremendous amounts of time, especially planning commission, because it is so complicated, especially historic preservation as well. it's a very specialized thing. It's very, um, time consuming. uh, you know, they make a lot of decisions based on what's in the code, not necessarily what their personal opinion is, but they're adhering to the code. And so because of that, anyway, I would hate for anybody to put that amount of work in and then feel bad because you know, they were told to go home that we're switching horses. I've talked to people actually in town who that happened to. They have never forgotten it. 50 years later, they're still mad about it and have never come back into City Hall again. |
| 03:02:41.03 | Councilmember Cox | No, I totally understand. The other thing I need to raise is that two planning commissioners terms end December 31, 2023. So avoid the issue which caused us to retroactively reappoint Commissioner Feller. We need to go ahead and reappoint before December 31, 2023 to ensure that any projects they vote on are not in jeopardy. So, um, |
| 03:03:13.30 | Councilmember Hoffman | So Councilmember Cox, how do you feel about this? |
| 03:03:13.37 | Unknown | So Councilmember Cox, how do you feel about |
| 03:03:17.05 | Councilmember Hoffman | to reappoint Commissioners Feller and Saad. |
| 03:03:21.30 | Unknown | Feller's already reappointed. It's Luxembourg and Saad. |
| 03:03:24.45 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:03:24.49 | Sergio Rudin | but can we, |
| 03:03:24.52 | Councilmember Hoffman | but- |
| 03:03:25.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:03:25.25 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:03:25.33 | Unknown | PARTICIPATE. |
| 03:03:25.42 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah, I love it. |
| 03:03:25.97 | Unknown | and person. |
| 03:03:26.21 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:03:26.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:03:26.24 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:03:26.26 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:03:26.33 | Councilmember Hoffman | THANK YOU. |
| 03:03:26.41 | Unknown | I'm not sure. |
| 03:03:26.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:03:27.37 | Sergio Rudin | some of the questions that have been posed to the city attorney. |
| 03:03:29.74 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:03:29.77 | Unknown | Thank you. hear you. Yes, please. |
| 03:03:32.15 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, so there have been a couple comments, either directed or questions posed to the city attorney, and I'll try to briefly encapsulate responses. First, yes, it is best practice when terms are expiring for the council to formally make appointments for the subsequent term, whether that's reappointment of a sitting commissioner or appointment of a new commissioner. That is the decision of the council to make. But again, I think Councilmember Cox very clearly raised an issue. and to address that concern, the council should promptly appoint somebody to fill a term once that term has expired or even appoint before the term has expired to be effective upon the expiration of the term. A number of council members have raised comments about the process for removing of city commissioners. Both state law and the city code provide that all commissioners on all city boards and commissions serve at the pleasure of the council. So at any time, the council can direct the removal of a city commissioner or board member by simple majority vote. Additionally, state law provides that a vacancy occurs in office whenever Anybody who is sitting on a city board or commission is absent and not performing duties for more than three months. That's a pretty long period. State law provides that for council members. It's actually shorter than three months. |
| 03:04:51.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:05:02.21 | Sergio Rudin | but if someone is not performing for a considerable amount of time, the council can remove somebody with or without cause. So that is at the council's discretion. Um, So, and lastly, this is a discussion direction item. You cannot take action to reappoint somebody tonight, but if you would like to put appointment of somebody on a future consent calendar, that is a direction you could give this evening. |
| 03:05:27.17 | Unknown | Thank you for that, Sergio. I appreciate it. So I, I just, um, I wanted to, I didn't hear from you, Councilmember Cox, about your thoughts on the reapplication process. Is the interview... necessarily a deal. I mean, I'm just trying to find consensus amongst us because I know this has been a hotly contentious issue. for a while. |
| 03:05:49.63 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah, I would prefer, I think the application is absolutely necessary. critical. I would like the opportunity to decide on a case by case basis. Are we interviewing or reappointing? I don't want it to, it should not be automatic. So |
| 03:06:05.97 | Unknown | So then could we amend my proposal then to say, folks apply, we review it. If we'd like to interview, we can. But for example, I think we've all said in the instance of the planning commissioners here, not want to re-interview. So that allows us the opportunity, but it also streamlines the process. and give some like requirement and perspective and also says to folks, you know, If you're doing a good job, you're going to stick around. |
| 03:06:31.24 | Councilmember Cox | And then the final thing I'd like to offer is that this be done quarterly at least. to only do this once a year, we have, if you look at this list, we have all kinds of people whose terms have expired or completely missions that are not filled. And so I would love to see Walfred transmit this list on a quarterly basis and we evaluate and have the opportunity to interview. |
| 03:06:45.66 | Unknown | I completely agree. |
| 03:06:56.52 | Councilmember Cox | Okay. Thank you. |
| 03:06:57.01 | Unknown | Are we okay with that direction, which says we will apply and if the council feels they want to interview, we can make that decision on a case by case basis. For instance, for folks like the planning commission who have given so much time and energy we could, um, You know, we like I think it's clear we're likely to reappoint, Commissioner said in Luxembourg. |
| 03:07:18.31 | Unknown | I believe I'm in the minority, just to repeat myself. I think the days when Janelle served with for people that were designers, did you say? landscape architects is an aspirational goal. There's no clear, it's not clear anyone would apply to be on the planning commission. It's so much work. And, And everyone who has served deserves great thanks for all the time that they've served. So it's hard to make an assessment since we don't know who out there might be willing to serve our city. But just as a matter of principle, it seems best practice. I can only offer my best practice to solicit our great city to see who might be willing to serve and to make a decision based on the facts that are available. And to cut off that possibility by not even soliciting interest seems to me not in the best interests of the town. So I'm not in favor of that, though I recognize it sounds like I'm in the minority. So, but that's my point of view. |
| 03:08:15.72 | Councilmember Cox | I think specifically with respect to the planning commission, that we should give direction to reappoint by on consent. Commissioner Saad and Luxembourg, Bearing in mind that we will have to interview in January to replace the seat of Richard Graff, who is termed out. So we do have the opportunity to solicit and interview new talent in January. So I would offer that as a compromise. |
| 03:08:43.22 | Unknown | Okay. What does have thoughts on that? |
| 03:08:50.89 | Unknown | I think the vice mayor has made his position rather clear |
| 03:08:54.50 | Councilmember Hoffman | Well, let's do it this way. Let's do direction. I think it's by consensus or- |
| 03:09:01.31 | Unknown | So. |
| 03:09:02.60 | Councilmember Hoffman | Minus one. Or maybe we need to take the vote, I don't know. But do we need to have? |
| 03:09:07.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:09:07.17 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:09:07.27 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:09:08.17 | Councilmember Hoffman | And we don't need a |
| 03:09:08.20 | Unknown | No, we don't need a vote, but I think the direction, oh, go ahead, sorry. |
| 03:09:11.44 | Councilmember Hoffman | Karen Hollweg, yeah that's fine okay then consensus is in direction of staff is to put the reappointment of the two planning Commissioners Commissioner sod and chair Luxembourg on the next city council meeting on consent. for reappointment. Does anybody need to see their original applications? We probably have those. I don't. Okay. Okay. |
| 03:09:34.96 | Councilmember Cox | Okay, I don't need that. Again, only because we've worked so closely together with them on the housing element and other things. |
| 03:09:35.72 | Councilmember Hoffman | Again, Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So that, I mean, I think that's the consensus. I'm not sure that we have consensus on the other parts. So I would suggest then that we move on to the other parts, which is, re-interview everybody every time No. |
| 03:09:56.04 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:09:56.29 | Councilmember Hoffman | Everybody- No, we do have- Go ahead. |
| 03:09:56.88 | Sophia Collier | until we do have an application. |
| 03:09:58.59 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:09:58.92 | Councilmember Hoffman | you |
| 03:09:58.99 | Councilmember Cox | Right, okay, oh, gotcha. And we choose whether or not to re-interview or not. Okay. For each person. |
| 03:10:04.22 | Councilmember Hoffman | For second term. |
| 03:10:05.07 | Councilmember Cox | For a second term. |
| 03:10:05.25 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Per second. OK, that's fine. |
| 03:10:06.96 | Councilmember Cox | you |
| 03:10:06.97 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. That's fine. |
| 03:10:08.12 | Councilmember Cox | Okay. Okay, so we have consensus. |
| 03:10:11.21 | Unknown | Yep. Well, we have a four to one consensus. We need to honor the vice mayor's dissension on this one, which I appreciate very much as feedback and perspective. So. Okay. All right, great. Well, it is after 10 PM. So I think we're gonna have to move the last agenda item on parking tour. |
| 03:10:29.03 | Unknown | I would propose we just go ahead and hear that item. We're not. |
| 03:10:33.40 | Unknown | I would really propose that we not because I'm We're eight hours ahead of you. |
| 03:10:39.59 | Unknown | I think we have to look forward here. I know it's early there, but given what's left on the calendar for the year, this should be a pretty quick item. |
| 03:10:39.97 | Unknown | I have to go. |
| 03:10:49.06 | Councilmember Kelman | Well, we have... I'm happy to move it, Mayor, because I think there is some public comment on here, and I don't think it's going to be as quick. I got a lot of public comment. I don't know if people are on the Zoom, but whatever the majority wants to do is fine. I'm agnostic. |
| 03:11:03.76 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah. |
| 03:11:04.25 | Unknown | I want to hear, Council Member Cox wants to hear it. |
| 03:11:06.90 | Councilmember Hoffman | I would say- |
| 03:11:07.44 | Unknown | I would say agnostic. |
| 03:11:08.72 | Councilmember Hoffman | Well, I let me just I'm amending. We're here and we have a lot of stuff on our agenda in the next four weeks. So I would say we power through. |
| 03:11:19.42 | Unknown | Well, the next six weeks, because we actually also have a meeting on the 19th, which is important to consider. So I think that is full, right? |
| 03:11:25.90 | Unknown | We'd like to power through. |
| 03:11:27.67 | Unknown | You think that was what? |
| 03:11:28.85 | Unknown | like the power through. |
| 03:11:31.43 | Unknown | What was that last? I didn't hear what you said, Councilman Hoffman. |
| 03:11:35.38 | Councilmember Cox | She said the agendas are full through the night. |
| 03:11:38.08 | Unknown | Yes, the agendas are full through the 19th. So I would just say, |
| 03:11:40.01 | Councilmember Hoffman | I'm not sure. |
| 03:11:40.17 | Councilmember Cox | I would just say, |
| 03:11:43.08 | Unknown | Okay, we can power through. That's fine. |
| 03:11:46.33 | Sergio Rudin | OK, I think I anticipated someone from Dixon being able to give the staff presentation on this, but given the late hour, I'm not sure that they are. Oh, Anthony. Mazzica is available and is from Dixon to help assist on this agenda item and answer any council questions. I'll give a brief overview offer the proposed ordinance would Substantially revised Chapter 1524 of the City Municipal Code dealing with parking meters. This chapter was originally adopted in 1946 and many of the provisions have not been revised or modified since. The ordinance would update a substantial amount of the language as set forth in the staff report. and it would delineate the proposed parking, pay parking areas, and they are set forth in 15-24-020 of the |
| 03:12:32.12 | Unknown | or- |
| 03:12:41.16 | Sergio Rudin | Um, ordinance, those would be along the north westerly curb line of Bridgeway Boulevard, Um, from a point approximately 150 feet west of Anchor Street to Litho Street, along the southeasterly curb line of Bridgeway Boulevard from Litho Street to Caledonia Street, along the southwest early curb line of Johnson Street from a point approximately 150 southwest of Feet southwest of Bridgeway Boulevard to Caledonia. Um, along the northeasterly curb line of Johnson Street from a point approximately to Bridgeway Boulevard to Humboldt Avenue. I apologize, this would be much better if we had a map that we could simply put up on the screen. Um, Additionally, along Bridgeway Boulevard, from southeast of Caledonia Street to Bay Street, or to 300 feet north of Bay Street, on Ensign Street from Bridgeway, uh, approximately... 180 feet northeast on Bay Street again on the south side in the same general area. Key to this ordinance, people with valid permits issued for any preferential parking program that's established by the city. would be exempt from payment of the parking meters under this ordinance with respect to their permit zone, provided that their permits are properly displayed. The way that this ordinance is phrased is that it would allow the city to modify its preferential parking programs and permit programs in the future without having to come back and do a code amendment, since those programs are typically established by resolution. Um, Additionally, one of the key features of the program and the ordinance would be that it establishes some flexibility for the city manager to set actual Um, pay rates based on a target of 85% target occupancy, and would allow, staff to set a range of hours of operation and a range of minimum and maximum hourly rates. So that's a brief summation of what the ordinance would do. If you have any questions, please let us know. |
| 03:15:02.45 | Unknown | have a question. Thank you. |
| 03:15:03.99 | Sergio Rudin | Yes. |
| 03:15:04.28 | Unknown | Thank you. And then I'll bring it up to the rest of the dais. I'm curious about employees. So for instance, I've spoken with driver's market about a concern that their employees have to consistently move their car every two hours because of the changes to the ordinance. And I'm wondering, Is there a provision for employee permits? And could we create one under this new code? Because I wanna make sure that they have a mechanism, especially the Caledonia Street employees. |
| 03:15:29.89 | Sergio Rudin | So... one of the ways That this ordinance works is that it exempts persons that have a permit under any preferential parking program of the city. So vehicle code 22507 allows the city by resolution to create preferential parking programs for either local residents or local merchants. So the city could. modify its preferential parking program to allow local merchants to have the same kind of parking privileges as residents. And they could of course get those to |
| 03:15:56.08 | Unknown | All right. |
| 03:16:01.53 | Unknown | Okay. So this ordinance would allow us to do that by resolution. So the next step would be a resolution of future judgment. |
| 03:16:09.06 | Sergio Rudin | state law you to do that by resolution. |
| 03:16:10.97 | Unknown | Yes. Okay. Thanks. Other questions from the dais? |
| 03:16:15.62 | Councilmember Kelman | Mayor, I just want to call to Sergio's attention and get his input. We received public comment from one of the residents on the corner of Napa in Caledonia. So the question is whether the north portion of Caledonia that is heavily residential is left out of the zone where residential permits allow exemption from parking rules enforcement, with the statement being that the new ordinance only exempts paid parking zones, not the two hour unmetered zones. So there's a feeling that the way it's written that those folks at the end of the of Caledonia are kind of in neither one of those those categories. So will this be extended to areas that have two hour unmetered zones? |
| 03:17:02.47 | Sergio Rudin | So short answer is that I think that the council could probably address that concern by a subsequent resolution under vehicle code 22507. without modifying this ordinance, particularly if it relates to Um, two hour parking that is not paid parking. |
| 03:17:22.23 | Councilmember Kelman | So you're saying that your audio is a little bit low right now. You're saying that you would be encouraging us to pass this resolution, pass this ordinance, or this is the first reading. We can end this ordinance since it's the first reading and come back with an updated version that includes coverage. |
| 03:17:38.97 | Sergio Rudin | No, what I'm saying is that this ordinance only addresses paid parking. If the concern is with respect to- |
| 03:17:43.78 | Councilmember Kelman | I'm sorry. |
| 03:17:44.14 | Unknown | So, |
| 03:17:47.38 | Sergio Rudin | Unmetered parking and two hour restrictions and lifting those two hour restrictions for residents, then the best way to handle that would be by a different resolution, not by modifying this ordinance. |
| 03:17:59.09 | Councilmember Kelman | Okay. And was there a reason that we didn't cover both within this ordinance? |
| 03:18:02.92 | Sergio Rudin | Uh, the, the reason is, is that this ordinance only revises the city's paid parking regulations. Um, I think that changing a two hour parking restriction, that's not paid parking would just be a separate action. |
| 03:18:14.49 | Councilmember Kelman | OK, thank you so much. Thank you. |
| 03:18:17.93 | Unknown | Yes, Councilmember Cox. |
| 03:18:20.13 | Councilmember Cox | I appreciated the report description of removing coinage denomination, since we don't use coins for parking anymore. Yeah. I'm dating myself, obviously. But I'm concerned that the hourly rates that we're establishing are between 25 cents per hour and $10 per hour. I don't see a meter. on which we would want to charge $80 a day. Um, I'm not, I'm curious about where the $10 per hour came from. I just don't see us wanting to charge $10 dollars an hour for our meters. We're trying to encourage people to come visit the city, not discourage them or chase them away by charging too much for parking. |
| 03:19:16.39 | Sergio Rudin | And if Anthony Mazzeca is available to answer that particular question from Dixon, I'm hoping he can field that one. |
| 03:19:24.10 | Councilmember Cox | Absolutely. Can anyone hear anything? Hold on. The next question. is also for special events why it's $20 per hour. So again, I don't see charging $200 a day. even for a special event. I just don't see that as being realistic. |
| 03:19:42.23 | Anthony Mazzeca (Dixon) | I can chime in here. Can everyone hear me okay? |
| 03:19:45.94 | Councilmember Cox | Yes. |
| 03:19:46.61 | Anthony Mazzeca (Dixon) | Okay, so the reason that we have such a broad range for the on-street meter, you know, 25 cents to $10, Really, it's just to have exactly that, just a broad range and almost to kind of kind of future proof you know, the ability to even go that high if that need ever arose. That's not saying that that action is going to be taken anytime soon. So that way we don't need to come back, you know, in another, you know, three, four or five years. |
| 03:20:08.18 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 03:20:13.14 | Anthony Mazzeca (Dixon) | and have to redo the ordinance to kind of give the authority to do that. So that's why that it was such a broad range really more sort of kind of future proof the ability to do that. As far as the special event rates, the reason why that's high again, is the ability to go to that high, again, to kind of future-proof but also to make sure that the on-street special event rate. is higher than your off-street special event rate. If you recall when we gave our downtown parking study back in September, We pointed out that one of the major recommendations was to, or industry best practice, was to always have your off-street rates lower than your on-street rights. And right now you have portions of the city where that's not occurring. Um, that falls into that best practice of having your on-street rates higher than your off-street rates. And right now, I believe, |
| 03:21:07.21 | Unknown | You're off. |
| 03:21:09.37 | Anthony Mazzeca (Dixon) | the off-street rates for special events, I believe it's $25. at the lots and it's like a flat rate for certain times of the year, certain events or certain peak seasons. |
| 03:21:19.10 | Councilmember Cox | Well, the $25 rate would not be allowed any longer because it says a flat daily rate may be offered in lieu of an hourly rate, so long as the flat daily rate does not exceed double that of the standard total daily charge, according to the parking meter operating officers. Hours so. Anyway, I'm less worried about the $20 per hour because of the, conditions following that under special events, but I'm still think $10 per hour is too high. And I'm not sure I want to delegate to the public works director or whomever, the authority to um, Charge. $10 an hour. Uh, as a daily rate. Okay. Thank you. What we're doing is we're setting the outside and then we're giving the city manager or their designated representative, The. Um, the power to adjust hours of operation and hourly rates to achieve a target utilization of 85%. But if we're going to start charging $10 an hour, I would want to make a vote to do that, as opposed to delegating that to the city manager. So I'd like to lower that. Well, that's a comment. My question was, where did the $10 and the $20 come from? You've answered that question. Thank you. |
| 03:22:45.94 | Unknown | You're welcome. |
| 03:22:47.50 | Unknown | We have other questions from the dais. |
| 03:22:49.72 | Unknown | I have actually a question for, can I ask you a question? My question is, |
| 03:22:54.94 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. |
| 03:22:55.16 | Unknown | Do it. |
| 03:22:55.41 | Councilmember Cox | Do it. |
| 03:22:56.78 | Unknown | Who are you protecting by that? |
| 03:22:58.72 | Councilmember Cox | We're trying to encourage regional visitors. I happen to have a client who came here on... to see the the blue angels and was here for two hours and was charged $25 to be here for two hours and was shocked. So I have in mind and, and had the opportunity to come a couple of weeks later and said, Nope, Parking's too expensive. I'm not coming back. So, you know, And this is a person of means. So I'm concerned about that manner in which we adjust our parking rates to And if we're going to charge some outlandish amount, I'd like to have a role in making that decision. |
| 03:23:45.63 | Unknown | Right. So can Dixon respond to that? You know, the whole idea was that we were asking you to professionalize our parking management. So it sounded like your answer for why $10 is the right number was to future proof. as you call it, the pay structure. So is $10 just not a realistic number right now? Is there another number that is good for the next five years and maybe it can be revisited five years from now? |
| 03:24:00.78 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 03:24:10.49 | Anthony Mazzeca (Dixon) | Yeah, and that's just kind of tough to predict, right? Because it really all just depends on what the parking demand looks like. Fortunately, we've not seen $10 an hour you know, anywhere near here in California for on street. And, you know, I don't think anywhere in the nation, but we have seen cities that can go up to $5, $6 an hour in certain areas to encourage that turnover, to get that 85%. occupancy. Again, the $10 is again, it was it was made with the idea that, you know, let's just have that broad range and that way you're not having to come back, you know, in two or three years to kind of get that, you know, set set that next range. which you can do. But that's really where it's from. That wasn't to say that we're gonna do that or that it would be necessary to do anytime soon. A lot of this is so that again, we're not having to come back and do another ordinance home. you know, in the near future. So that's why it's as low as a quarter, which, you know, again, also seems not realistic anymore. It goes up to $10. It's just that broad range that the city manager or the designated employee can work within to achieve that 85%. occupancy. |
| 03:25:18.61 | Sergio Rudin | And I will supplement that a little bit. There are cities that have parking structures like Sacramento, where they'll have designated parking zones where the, rate gets progressively more expensive the longer you park there. As a way of encouraging turnover. So for example, it may be $1 for the first hour, $2 for the second hour, $5 for the third hour, and $10 for the fourth hour because they want you to move your car. |
| 03:25:42.34 | Councilmember Cox | I like that. |
| 03:25:44.62 | Unknown | I think that's the kind of flexibility that this is predicated on. Again, just through level set, Dixon's the parking expert. We're hiring them for their expert opinion. This is their expert recommendation. So. |
| 03:25:59.01 | Unknown | All right. |
| 03:26:02.44 | Unknown | Do we have any other questions from the dais before we open it up for public comment? |
| 03:26:09.73 | Unknown | Okay, seeing none. We'll go ahead and open this up for public comment. |
| 03:26:16.17 | Walfred Solorzano | Anybody in the chambers that want to say? All right, we'll go to Bicky Nichols. Bye. Oh, okay. |
| 03:26:26.75 | Sybil Boutier | Thank you. Bye. |
| 03:26:27.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:26:27.17 | Sybil Boutier | you |
| 03:26:27.41 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:26:27.70 | Sybil Boutier | Thank you. |
| 03:26:28.05 | Walfred Solorzano | Absolutely. |
| 03:26:28.58 | Sybil Boutier | Thank you. |
| 03:26:28.63 | Unknown | Just go. |
| 03:26:29.59 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:26:37.32 | Alice Merrill | I don't quite understand what, where this parking is. I have to buy a parking pass because I live on near Caledonia. And if I want a person to come and visit me, I need one. Does that mean that if somebody on Glen is going to need to have a parking pass? to have a friend come and visit them. That's one thing. Is this all over town? The other question is, Why? Where are these? parking lots you're talking about that are that you're talking about. I mean, what are we talking about? I don't get it. I honestly don't know. And so that would be helpful if we knew... what the area was and the thing about drivers and all of the people downtown down there who are parking their cars. It's tough getting out every two hours to find a place to park. And yet if they have to pay a lot to... To be able to park, that's, you know, these are not high paying jobs. And there are a lot of places. So let's find a place where people can park right behind the AT&T building. Let's find some place for employers, employees. And so I just, I'm confused about this whole thing. Thank you. |
| 03:28:09.62 | Councilmember Cox | I don't know, Alice, if you heard, but the city attorney did read out every street to which this would apply. |
| 03:28:16.98 | Sergio Rudin | And I can- |
| 03:28:17.54 | Councilmember Cox | Nine areas. I'm happy to share my piece of paper with you that tells you the nine areas. |
| 03:28:22.09 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:28:22.11 | Sergio Rudin | you |
| 03:28:22.13 | Unknown | you |
| 03:28:22.18 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah. |
| 03:28:22.26 | Unknown | And he doesn't have a map, but he regrets it. |
| 03:28:22.53 | Sergio Rudin | And he doesn't have a Yes, I will just restate. It is primarily areas of Bridgeway, portions of Johnson Street, and Science Street and Bay Street. |
| 03:28:31.85 | Unknown | Uh, |
| 03:28:34.89 | Sergio Rudin | and Princess Street. |
| 03:28:39.53 | Unknown | So primarily areas where there's already metered parking. |
| 03:28:42.38 | Sergio Rudin | Yes. |
| 03:28:43.51 | Unknown | Yeah. Do we have other public comment in the chambers or online city clerk? |
| 03:28:49.16 | Walfred Solorzano | Vicki Nichols? |
| 03:28:51.15 | Unknown | Vicky |
| 03:28:54.80 | Vicki Nichols | Hi, Mayor. I know you're tired. I'll try to hurry here. No, I've got this. I'm still, I'm hanging in, Vicki. Go ahead. |
| 03:28:58.54 | Unknown | No, I've got... |
| 03:28:59.03 | Unknown | Bye. I'm hanging in. |
| 03:29:02.44 | Vicki Nichols | Just to follow up on Alice's comments, we, you know, everyone on our Caledonia area, which is commercial residential loves drivers. We do know though that the employees do need to park on the street, so they just run out and just say, wipe off the chalk marks, there isn't any place for them to park. I would also suggest that at one point, Sushi Ron had 25 employees. So this is a problem for those businesses around that area. And for those of us that live in places that do not have any garages, Perhaps there used to be a condition that they parked down on the Litho lot and now the Area C area has been expanded. You allowed more use way up into Glenn. So you've got more people competing to come down to shop on Caledonia Street in those two-hour spaces. So I think this needs a little bit more looking at about all the and how the streets actually use the And I got to say, these decisions are always made by people that don't live in the area. or don't come there with due respect to Mr. Mazika, I hope I've said your name correctly. And I also agree with Joan Cox. If I really didn't love Sausalito, I would just buy $60 a permit from Mill Valley and go and park wherever I wanted and do my shopping there. So this is not going to necessarily make people come in if these prices get too high. Thanks. Thank you, Vicki. |
| 03:30:42.22 | Walfred Solorzano | Well, for |
| 03:30:42.36 | Vicki Nichols | Bye. |
| 03:30:42.38 | Unknown | ALL FOR YOU. |
| 03:30:42.73 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 03:30:42.75 | Unknown | . |
| 03:30:44.08 | Walfred Solorzano | for the comments. |
| 03:30:46.14 | Unknown | Okay, we'll go ahead and close public comment and bring it up to the dais for discussion. This is the first reading of the ordinance. |
| 03:30:56.21 | Councilmember Cox | I mean, I just- |
| 03:30:57.12 | Unknown | Mark, |
| 03:30:57.34 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:30:57.77 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:30:57.97 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. |
| 03:30:58.10 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:31:01.87 | Councilmember Cox | Oh, on, let's see, on the actual ordinance itself, one, two, on page three, at the top, there are two number fives in front of the paragraph. So you can delete one of the number fives. |
| 03:31:18.05 | Unknown | You can always count on Council Member Cox to find those typos and errors. |
| 03:31:22.50 | Councilmember Cox | I just read my packet. The I would like to see us change our hourly rates range. Actually, you know what I'm going to withdraw that. I'm going to leave that based on the flexible parking approach that Sacramento uses. I'm going to leave. I'm going to remove my request because perhaps for the fifth hour, you would want to charge $10. thank you for this. I do agree with some of the residents of Caledonia Street, the concerns, but my understanding, city attorney, maybe you can answer this. I thought they could get permits. And I believe that Something this council has talked about in the past is coming up with some plan for employee parking where we would offer employers an opportunity to buy discounted passes in one of our lots. I think that is the best way to approach it. It is not right that people that work at drivers are using the spots on Caledonia Street that prevent those of us who want to shop at drivers from finding a spot. that's why it's hard. They have to move their car every two hours. Cause that's not, what the intention is. But I do think the city can do a better job of working with the employers like drivers, Sushirun and elsewhere, my dentist who lives on, who works on Caledonia to, um, provide some system for some discounted rate for employee parking. |
| 03:33:00.41 | Unknown | Thank you, Councilmember Cox. Anyone else? |
| 03:33:04.68 | Unknown | I agree with what Councilmember Cox said. I think we desperately need an employee parking program. I think that's separate and distinct from this modernization of our ordinances. And the use of, you know, dovetailing on Dixon's great presentation from a few meetings ago to bring our parking management system into modernity, providing some flexibility to it to achieve community goals. |
| 03:33:30.33 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:33:30.53 | Councilmember Kelman | Thank you. |
| 03:33:31.16 | Unknown | Council members, |
| 03:33:31.97 | Councilmember Kelman | Council member. Sorry. I agree with what the vice manager said, |
| 03:33:40.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:33:40.20 | Unknown | Okay, Councilmember |
| 03:33:40.96 | Unknown | I'm not sure. |
| 03:33:41.30 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:33:42.40 | Councilmember Kelman | I concur. |
| 03:33:42.92 | Unknown | Thank you. Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and make a motion to approve the first reading of ordinance repealing chapter 15.24 parking meter zones of the Sausalito Municipal Code and enacting replacement chapter 15.24 paid parking zones to regulate street parking in accordance with the California Vehicle Code. And I wanna give direction or perhaps we'll get to it as a future agenda item, but specifically a resolution and a look at employee parking to solve for some of the employees. Caledonia and others. |
| 03:34:14.56 | Councilmember Cox | I'll second that motion. |
| 03:34:15.34 | Unknown | So we had a Thank you. Can we have a roll call vote, city clerk? |
| 03:34:19.66 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox. Yes. Councilmember Hoffman. Yes. Councilmember Kelman. |
| 03:34:22.59 | Unknown | Yes. Yes. |
| 03:34:24.70 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Sobieski? Mayor Blosting. |
| 03:34:28.62 | Unknown | Yes, motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much. I'm glad we hung in there for that item and got through it. So we made it through all four of our business items. Let's all pat each other on the back. And we'll move on to item six, which is communications. This is the time on the agenda for members of the public to provide any public comment for items that are not on the agenda. If you would like to provide a public comment, fill out a speaker slip or raise your hand in the zoom function. The city clerk will call on individuals who have raised their hand in the order that they were raised. After you are called on, you will be unmuted to allow you to share your comments. Remember, public comments are each allowed a total of two minutes. |
| 03:35:06.91 | Walfred Solorzano | First person is Tim Rimbaud. |
| 03:35:13.73 | Unknown | Welcome, Tim. |
| 03:35:15.53 | Tim Rimbaud | Hello, good evening, and I commend the council for their staying up so long today with all the agenda items and especially Mayor Blaustein in Barcelona, Europe. Must be 7.30 in the morning. Thank you. Um, I have had communications with former Mayor Janelle Kelman and Planning Director Phipps, and this goes to basically an ongoing residential remodel I'm doing for myself and my wife on 4th Street, where we've had what we feel are quite excessive fees and we're requesting an abatement. And I was encouraged also, I think director, plan director Phipps was. are quite excessive fees and we're requesting an abatement. And I was encouraged also, I think, director Pundra Phipps was looking to city council for some direction. I could bring in at some point, this isn't the appropriate venue for the details on this, but sort of in a very brief, this was a three year process for lifting a building 18 inches. And we went through three planners inside the city, each one relearning the process. We went through, I think, two or three planning directors in this time. And then when it was finally outsourced to, I believe, LSA or SWA, LSA, or MIG, excuse me, MIG, it went through two planners there. As a result, people were doing the process over and over again. We were up to, I think, at this point, $40,000 in fees for planning approval. And where is the typical in the city? And we submitted a letter some while ago. And other nearby towns are $4,000 to $6,000. That's Mill Valley, Tiburon, Elphidere, et cetera. So we're asking for an abatement of 50%, which the planning director of HIPP thought might be appropriate, but he's looking for direction from you guys. And at this point we've paid 24,000. We have a $16,000 bill. We're coming in for a building permit. We're going to pay another, who knows, 80, 100,000 on that. So with respect, request an evade. Thank you so much. |
| 03:37:23.82 | Councilmember Cox | Thanks, Tim. Thank you. So we can't act on this. Thank you for hanging in. |
| 03:37:26.51 | Unknown | Thank you for hanging in and for |
| 03:37:29.18 | Councilmember Cox | Can we place this as a possible future agenda item mayor? |
| 03:37:33.01 | Unknown | Yes, we absolutely can. And we'll get to future agenda items shortly. And thank you for hanging in with us, Tim, to stay and make your late comment on that. We appreciate it. |
| 03:37:40.77 | Walfred Solorzano | Next person, Stuart Baxter. |
| 03:37:43.75 | Unknown | Hi, Stuart. |
| 03:37:47.71 | Unknown | Somebody else hanging in the council chamber until late. Hi, Stuart. |
| 03:37:51.05 | Stuart Baxter | Hi. Thank you for your patience. This is a request to schedule an agenda item or a topic for the second meeting in January. In a little context, I am Stuart Baxter, along with my husband, Clay Eicher. We have been homeowners up on Wolfback Ridge for around seven years. Wolfback Ridge as many of you know is sort of the spine up by the park and during back Ridge for around seven years. Wolfback Ridge, as many of you know, is sort of the spine up by the park. And during inclement weather, oftentimes you get winds of around 70 miles per hour. Because the utilities are above ground up there, they're very exposed. And we have had several instances where power lines have been arcing and have caused small fires. These overhead lines present a risk of fire not only to the Wolfpack neighborhood, but to Sausaledo in general, as well as the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. For the last four years, we have been working with PG&E, outside engineer, engineers and consultants, and with the support of other neighbors, have developed a feasible plan to underground most of the vulnerable overhead utility lines along Wolfback Ridge Road. This would be what is known as a Rule 20B project, which will cost the city of Sausalito nothing. All the money would be financed entirely by ourselves and our neighbors. To move ahead with the project, we need authorization from the city council to take the first steps. We hope to get this on the agenda for the second meeting in January. We have done the research, have confirmation from engineers and PG&E that the project is feasible, and it does have support from the neighborhood overall. This would benefit the city of Sausalito and reduce the fire risk. |
| 03:39:42.16 | Unknown | And I |
| 03:40:04.72 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you very much. |
| 03:40:07.32 | Stuart Baxter | Thank you. |
| 03:40:07.33 | Walfred Solorzano | Next person, Sophia Collier. |
| 03:40:11.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:40:11.05 | Sophia Collier | Hi, Sophia. Welcome. |
| 03:40:15.81 | Sophia Collier | So I'm here to speak in favor of this proposal and that while I'm not up on Wolfback Ridge, I'm down in the banana belt. And I want to mention that when one of the recent big fire seasons, we actually did have some fires on that hill. And I remember being at my office and seeing the smoke and running home. And I thought to myself, What would I do? And if that fire did come down through the banana belt with our curving roads, And then I thought of some of the seniors who live right there. How would I be able to get those people, myself and those people out? So while obviously this project would not I'm not sure. totally prevent such a situation, it definitely is a good step in the right direction. So I encourage, I know he has worked very hard on this project for four years. It's time for action. Thank you very much. |
| 03:41:12.47 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:41:12.88 | Sophia Collier | Thank you. |
| 03:41:14.56 | Walfred Solorzano | Anybody else in the Council Chamber of Commerce wants to speak? I bet McTizzle. |
| 03:41:23.22 | Unknown | Welcome back, Babette. Thank you. |
| 03:41:25.99 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 03:41:29.75 | Babette McDougall | I'm about to say something that I don't say easily. And I'm going to classify it under tough love. But I agreed to make this presentation this evening because it's important. |
| 03:41:44.87 | Babette McDougall | Yeah. Let me just first invite you all to go back to the codes of Sausalito and reread the definition of what it means to be elected mayor of Sausalito, and also what it means to be elected mayor as vice mayor. They are not automatically one ascends to the other positions. As the code continues, it says, this is an honorific role, number one. And then it proceeds to say each year, these positions must be nominated and elected again. So there is no automatic accession. I bring this forward because I think Having someone come on board the city council for the first time and city government of any level. and then coming forward as mayor. is a big risk. And at the Sausalito Sake at a Sister City dinner, we saw a very good example of how this can really blow up in your face. That was a very embarrassing night. because the concept of protocol was completely lacking. And you had the highest ranking Japanese diplomat in Northern California, if not the entire state of California in that room. And yet how to read that room was completely lacking. completely lacking There's only one reason for a man like that to be present in that room. And that's to acknowledge nearly 80 years of mutual friendship and cooperation between the United States of America and the people and government of Japan. That's huge. And yet there was nothing said. That should have been Kanpai number one. As mayor, Symbols mean everything. The symbolic gesture of representing the city is itself an example of protocol. and the example of how important symbols are. And I'm sorry, I'm exceeding the time. But it's important for you to know that by being so absent of these things, it does not speak well for the city of Sausalito. It doesn't speak well for the mayor. It didn't speak well for anyone that evening. And I personally felt embarrassed. And then the ensuing discussion both sides of the bay. was embarrassing to have to sit through. |
| 03:43:52.83 | Councilmember Kelman | Ben, I'm sorry, your time is up. |
| 03:43:54.56 | Babette McDougall | Yes, I know. Thank you. So I think you get the point. |
| 03:43:58.72 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker on Zoom, we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 03:44:11.55 | Sandra Bushmaker | Real quick. There were five people, I am the fifth, that spoke for two minutes during items not on the agenda. Can we not move this up to the beginning of the agenda where it was for years and years? This takes 10 minutes of your time if five people speak. please, please move this up so that our friends and neighbors who, who may not be interested or engaged in all of the issues on the agenda, can have an opportunity to come to City Hall, speak at the beginning of the agenda, and go home, should they choose. I just would request that we go back to a tradition that has been in place for decades in Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 03:44:59.39 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public comments. |
| 03:45:04.57 | Unknown | Okay, thank you very much, Walford. So the next item on the agenda is council member committee reports. |
| 03:45:12.86 | Unknown | anyone have a committee report they would like to share? |
| 03:45:17.97 | Michelle Cunningham | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:45:19.74 | Unknown | Okay? We'll move on to item eight, which is city manager reports, city council appointments and other council business. |
| 03:45:30.69 | Unknown | Okay, so the first item on that agenda is the public comment on items 8B through 8E, City Manager information for council, appointments to boards and commissions, Um, future agenda items and other reports of significance. So we'll now take public comment on those items. |
| 03:45:51.16 | Walfred Solorzano | Oh, we have civil... |
| 03:45:51.87 | Unknown | for this season. |
| 03:45:54.08 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:45:57.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:45:57.27 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. I brought you here. |
| 03:46:03.33 | Sybil Boutier | Thank you, Mayor and Council members. I just want to mention that I served on the Commission on Aging for County Moran for 15 years as your appointed representative. we did not have term limits at that time term limits were instituted last year just to kind of put the commission in harmony with some of the other county commissions. And it was for a three-year term of three years each, so nine years, which I'd already exceeded. So I came off the commission this year. And in June. And I mean, actually, I'm still on a couple of committees because they asked me to stay and help with legislation and equity, which I'd been chairing in the past. So I'm doing that as a public member. But I did ask at the end of June. for somebody else to be appointed. And I know that you've received at least one application, somebody that I recommend, actually. And so that position has been vacant. And as I said, I have been, you know, still participating and helping. And I've been invited to continue with the executive committee, you know, again, as a public member, but for historical, you know, information and institutional information. knowledge, as you say, but it would be helpful if that went on an agenda item pretty soon. It's not on the same track as the city appointment. It's a county appointment that the city makes. Each supervisor gets two designees and representatives in each jurisdiction gets one. And so I'm just hoping that Sausalito can move forward on that. Thank you. |
| 03:48:15.11 | Unknown | Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Sybil. Do we have any further public comment on items 8A through 8E? |
| 03:48:21.70 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, we have Senator Bushmaker. |
| 03:48:24.35 | Unknown | I'll see you next time. |
| 03:48:24.39 | Walfred Solorzano | Bye. |
| 03:48:24.40 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:48:24.59 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. Hi, once again, I am flummoxed at why you have public comment, unless you're trying to decrease public comment on this item before the item is heard. I find it just ludicrous that you are requesting public comment on items that haven't even been heard yet. Please, please. Reorganize your agenda so that you can have public comment after there's a presentation on any particular item, including this group amalgamation of items in number eight. Thank you very much. |
| 03:48:58.75 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:48:58.76 | Sandra Bushmaker | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:48:58.96 | Unknown | Sandra |
| 03:49:00.21 | Walfred Solorzano | No further comments. |
| 03:49:01.16 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:49:03.22 | Unknown | Great, okay, so we will now hear from our city manager. |
| 03:49:06.56 | Chris Zapata | very brief mayor and council members of the public on Monday, November 27th at 2 PM at the Sossilito village. I've been invited by pastor Paul Maury and Tricia Smith to speak to the community regarding my journey to Sossilito. So I'm looking forward to doing that. And that concludes my communication this evening, mayor and council. |
| 03:49:32.68 | Unknown | Are we invited to attend if we want? |
| 03:49:35.48 | Chris Zapata | Open to the public. |
| 03:49:37.00 | Unknown | Okay, great. Good to know. All right, and then eight C as appointments to boards, commissions and committees. I don't think we have any, but just noting the consent calendar staff direction given regarding the planning commission. And then we'll move on to 8D, which is future agenda items. I think we heard a couple this evening in public comment. One was regarding abatement fees and a review of abatement fees that I'd like to add. And the other was a 20B undergrounding district for Wolfpack Ridge. So I would like to make sure that those are added. Do we have others? |
| 03:50:08.49 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah, the reappointment of our representative to the Commission on Aging for the county. Great. And we can put that under appointments. at our next meeting. Thank you. |
| 03:50:19.29 | Councilmember Kelman | I'll note that the speaker for undergrounding was willing to wait until January, but I certainly think we want to get that moving as soon as we can, especially given the willingness to cover the costs. |
| 03:50:31.03 | Unknown | Yeah, absolutely. Anything else? Okay, so seeing none, do we have any other reports of significance? Seeing none. Okay. Well, thank you very much, everyone. We will adjourn at 10 52 PM. Appreciate it. Have a great night, everybody. |
| 03:50:54.76 | Unknown | Good night, everybody. |
Sybil Boutier — In Favor: Praised Brian Vitale for his range of skills, community culture building, and day-to-day programs like classes and activities. Highlighted his work on the intergenerational grant with Marin City to bridge community divides. ▶ 📄