| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.22 | Unknown | recording in |
| 00:00:04.52 | Unknown | And don't even. It's coming up. |
| 00:00:11.79 | Unknown | Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Hello. Thank you. |
| 00:00:18.85 | Unknown | So, |
| 00:00:18.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:00:19.03 | Unknown | but, |
| 00:00:23.99 | Unknown | It's pretty good. |
| 00:00:25.66 | Unknown | Thanks. Thank you. Can you do it this year? Yes, I love it. |
| 00:00:31.40 | Chris Zapata | I'm good. |
| 00:00:32.03 | Steven Woodside | I'm sorry. We figured. |
| 00:00:38.98 | Walfred Solorzano | Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers. Tonight's meeting of the November 21, 2023 special and regular meeting will be broadcast live on the city's website. It will be also available on Zoom and live on TV on Channel 27, Kipo TV. |
| 00:01:01.67 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I will now call our meeting to order at 532 PM. City Clerk, would you please call the roll? |
| 00:01:07.73 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox. Here. Councilmember Hoffman. Here. Councilmember Kelman. Here. |
| 00:01:09.05 | Steven Woodside | care. here. Here. |
| 00:01:12.76 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Vice Mayor Sobieski and Mayor Blaustein. |
| 00:01:16.04 | Steven Woodside | Okay, the first item on our agenda this evening is closed session discussion. This evening in closed session, we are discussing public employee evaluation, conference with labor negotiator. conference with legal counsel on existing litigation. conference with legal counsel, again, on an existing litigation, conference with legal counsel on existing litigation. So, I am going to now open up the closed session items for public comment at this time. City Clerk, will you remind members of the public how they may make public comment? |
| 00:01:43.29 | Walfred Solorzano | At the moment, we do not have any members of the public in council chambers or on Zoom. But if you wanted to make a public comment, you can use the raise hand function on Zoom or grab a speaker slip from the desk and then return it over to the city clerk's area. |
| 00:01:58.97 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. We'll close public comment at this time and adjourn to closed session. Thank you. Is it recording? We're good? Yes. Okay, great. Okay, welcome back to this regular city council meeting. I will call the meeting to order again at 7.01 p.m. And there are no closed session announcements. Our first item of business this evening is our Pledge of Allegiance. And I am going to ask our outgoing EDEC chair, Tom Riley, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. |
| 00:02:25.36 | Unknown | We have been Susan the God of the United States of America. |
| 00:02:26.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:29.83 | Unknown | And do the result of the horrific death. |
| 00:02:31.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:32.85 | Unknown | one experience, another child, individual, and one. physically and then |
| 00:02:41.09 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. Next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. So I will now ask for a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. We have a second. you All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, great. So special presentations and mayor's announcements. I do have one thing to share. Thank you. When I was in Sakaide to visit the sister city, they commissioned this gorgeous piece of artwork, which is a demonstration of the two bridges. the Golden Gate Bridge and the bridge in Sakaide, which were inspired by the, and worked on by many of the same engineers. So I wanted to make sure everyone saw it and I'm gonna give it to our communications director, Abbott Chambers and have it formally presented and hung somewhere here in city hall. So a big thank you to our sister city Sakaide for this. Gorgeous piece of art. |
| 00:03:32.91 | Steven Woodside | It just arrived today. So, and then just a quick reminder that we have a Winterfest coming up and we have a Christmas tree lighting coming up. So this Christmas tree lighting and Hanukkah menorah lighting this coming Saturday, the 2nd at 5.30 at Vina del Mar Park. And we also have our Winterfest events, which is our fireworks and lighted boat parade on December 9th and our 5K jingle bell race on December 10th, followed by a brunch. So I hope to see you at some of those as we, celebrate the holiday season together. And I will go ahead and move on now to action minutes from our previous meeting. Do we have any public comment on our minutes? |
| 00:04:12.67 | Walfred Solorzano | Once again, for people that want to make public comments, you can, if you're in the council chambers, you can fill out a slip over by the TV and the table, bring it back over here to the city clerk area. And if you're on Zoom, you can just use the raise hand function on the bottom of your screen. So seeing none. |
| 00:04:32.19 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'll close public comment on the minutes at this time and see if there's any suggestions or I'll ask for a motion. I'll move approval of the minutes. Do we have a second? |
| 00:04:41.74 | Ian Sobieski | All right. |
| 00:04:41.79 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:04:41.89 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:04:42.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. All in favor say aye. I motion carries unanimously and we will move on to item three on the agenda. which is the consent calendar. Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial. require no discussion, are expected to have unanimous council support, and may be enacted by the council in one motion 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 a consent calendar item, Council members may request specific items be removed from the 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. This evening on the consent calendar, we have items 3A, receive and file report on Sausalito Center for the Arts lease milestones. Item 3B, review and accept treasurer's report for September 30th, 2023. Item 3C. adopt a resolution authorizing amending the budget the city manager to approve purchase orders for acquisition of a maintenance vehicle 3D, waive second reading and adopt ordinance number 062023, an ordinance repealing chapter 15.24 parking meter zones. Item 3E, reappointments of Nastassia Sed and Jeffrey Luxembourg to the planning commission's. Item 3F, approve the city's response to Marin County Civil Grand Jury reports. |
| 00:06:03.91 | Unknown | There we go. |
| 00:06:04.41 | Steven Woodside | And item 3G, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with HF&H consultants. Would anyone... The council would like to remove any items from the consent calendar this evening. |
| 00:06:16.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:18.27 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. I don't, I don't want to remove anything from the consent calendar. However. I did have some clarifying information that I requested from our finance director. today with regard to item 3A in a Center for the Arts contract. And so I conferred with the city attorney about whether or not this would be the appropriate way to do it. And I wanted to make sure that those items are somehow in the record. And so what I'd like to do is just note the the information that I was provided by the city finance director with regard to the lease and that item 3A is the South Slater Center for the Arts. It's It was an update and a status report on the milestones for the Center for the Arts. And so one of the there's three items. One is that. under Section 5.3 of the lease, there was a revenue share aspect from special events. And my question to the finance director, it was not addressed in the staff report And my question was, have we received any revenue share with regard to set that section of the lease. And the answer was no, and that there's supposed to be a monthly report on that from the Center for the Arts and that the finance director is following up with the Center for the Arts to get those started going forward and also retroactively. So that's the first one. The second one was to confirm the commencement date of the lease. And the finance director confirmed that the commencement date of the lease is 8-19-2022. The third thing is that there's a, escalation provision in the lease, in sections 5.1 and 5.2. And my question was what month then based on the 8-19-2022 commencement date, Does the escalation provision become operative? And the answer is March 1, 2024. So those are the three pieces of information that I would request be specifically set forth in the minutes. But that was, and that's all. Okay, thank you. |
| 00:08:31.07 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:08:31.18 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:08:31.71 | Joan Cox | I endorse that and thank you, Jill, for that clarification. |
| 00:08:37.10 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. I also endorse that. And I guess I just have a question. |
| 00:08:42.70 | Steven Woodside | MS. Should we pull this item and discuss it? |
| 00:08:45.03 | Ian Sobieski | are we going to be able to get |
| 00:08:45.35 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:08:45.77 | Ian Sobieski | Mine was a process question. I'm happy to. If somebody want to pull it? I don't need to. I just want to understand, based on the alternative question for the city attorney, is the idea that this will come back to us in a month, in three months? Because as I read the, what's the plan, the process plan with this? |
| 00:08:51.75 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:08:51.97 | Chris Zapata | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:09:10.24 | Sergio Rudin | Well, so the action that you are taking tonight would be to receive and file a report. You know, the alternatives is, of course, you know, the council can take several alternatives, but they would all need to be agendized separately at a subsequent meeting. So to the extent you want to take any other alternatives, you should give direction to staff to agendize those for future discussion and action. |
| 00:09:36.45 | Ian Sobieski | Sounds like Councilmember Hoffman outlined a few of those. |
| 00:09:39.50 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. No, those were just, those were facts that were not included in the staff report that had to do with the lease. So I don't think that there needs to be any further action at this point. This was an update with regard to the status of the milestones. And those were just three facts that were not apparent. |
| 00:09:58.79 | Joan Cox | And now there will be monthly reporting. moving forward. So that is |
| 00:10:03.18 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 00:10:06.49 | Joan Cox | a process improvement. |
| 00:10:07.99 | Steven Woodside | Mm-hmm. I would also add that another milestones worked. |
| 00:10:09.54 | Joan Cox | So Abby. Thank you. |
| 00:10:10.23 | Sergio Rudin | That would be... |
| 00:10:12.34 | Steven Woodside | Oh, go ahead, Sergio. |
| 00:10:13.54 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, that would be monthly reporting to the city staff. However, those are, of course, public records and can't be shared with the council. Thank you. |
| 00:10:21.92 | Steven Woodside | But for those interested, I would encourage you to take a look at that report because a substantial and impressive number of milestones were in fact completed by the center for the arts and in coherence with the lease. Um, I'm going to pull item 3 because of the substantial public comment that we received on this particular item. I'd like to at least entertain a discussion with respect to all of the letters and calls that all of us have had so that we can have an open. |
| 00:10:43.04 | Jill Hoffman | conversation about it. I would request that that's the first thing that we hear then after the after the closed the consent calendar. Absolutely. |
| 00:10:51.03 | Steven Woodside | Absolutely. |
| 00:10:55.62 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Any further items on the consent calendar? |
| 00:11:01.94 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I will now open up the consent calendar for public comment. |
| 00:11:06.42 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, we have Charles White. I'm sorry. Are we going to comment on 3E right now? 3E is going to be a separate item. So we have Senator Bushmaker. |
| 00:11:12.01 | Steven Woodside | No, three is gonna be a separate item. |
| 00:11:20.75 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, Council. Good to see you all. I hope you're, with regard to 3A, the SEA lease, I hope that your receipt and filing of the report in no way is an excusing the SEA from fulfilling the terms of the lease. There are two substantial milestones that were not met. And I'm just hoping that you are not excusing that performance on those items. In addition to paying the rent that is due for the additional rent forgot what the numbers were, over $15,000, a certain percentage goes to the city for special third party events. So I just wanna make sure that that, It's clear that by receiving and filing this report, you are not excusing performance under that lease. Thank you. Thank you, Sandra. Thank you. |
| 00:12:18.21 | Steven Woodside | Do we have any further public questions? |
| 00:12:18.99 | Walfred Solorzano | For clarification, Alice Merrill, do you want a comment on the consent calendar or item three? |
| 00:12:27.53 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay. |
| 00:12:32.50 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, no further public comments. |
| 00:12:35.32 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I will now ask for a motion to approve consent calendar items 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3F, and 3G. |
| 00:12:42.38 | Joan Cox | so moved with the additions enunciated by Council Member Hoffman. |
| 00:12:49.04 | Steven Woodside | Okay, do we have a second? All in favor say aye. Aye. Fantastic. Okay. So now we'll move on to item three. |
| 00:12:55.01 | Joan Cox | I. |
| 00:12:58.83 | Steven Woodside | E, is there any staff discussion or should we just begin at the dais and then open public comment. |
| 00:13:07.38 | Steven Woodside | Okay, well, I think we have all received quite a bit of comment. And so I thought it made sense and was respectful to the members of the public who had asked for us to, yes, please. Yes, please. |
| 00:13:18.25 | Melissa Blaustein | Just a question for Wofford. How many applications are there for planning commission? |
| 00:13:22.94 | Walfred Solorzano | I think for this year we got about eight or nine. |
| 00:13:29.42 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll go ahead and open this item up for public comment. |
| 00:13:33.62 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, so we'll start in-house. Chris White. |
| 00:13:41.61 | Walfred Solorzano | and then it'll be K. Mitzo, and then followed by Alice Merrill. |
| 00:13:49.89 | Walfred Solorzano | and Michael Rex for it. |
| 00:14:02.16 | Chris White | Good evening, council members. Again. I hope we can stop meeting like this. This is an issue that is now the third time that I will be speaking on this issue. Uh... I represent approximately 175 residents in the Sausalito Boulevard neighborhood who feel extremely disappointed with the way the reappointment of these two hardworking counselors has developed. Without going into all the history, I was here two weeks ago and waited for about two and a half hours, but finally got my message in by Zoom at home. But the essence is, I think, |
| 00:14:35.00 | Chris Zapata | uh, |
| 00:14:50.22 | Chris White | Two weeks ago, there was a legitimate and fair compromise by the council and reestablishing the two commissioners who would like to serve again and for the future to open it up to other applicants, which you've discussed very explicitly and And I think that's a fair compromise. We hear that there's still some question as to whether you're going to continue this process and keep up your word on what you spoke two weeks ago. So I hope this is not true. We happen to know both of these commissioners on a firsthand basis because, as some of you know, there's this monstrosity being built right next to us. And even though a lot of the decisions came down in our favor, as well as for the neighbors, because this house was blocking a lot of houses views and causing other problems. We didn't win every issue. The commissioners were fair, they were honest, they came out to the site. And without exception, we couldn't be more impressed and proud that this city has such a wonderful planning commission. There were two organizations of which I am a commissioner of one, the library, that this city needs to be very proud of. And I hope you will continue to follow through with your commitment that you made two weeks ago. Thank you. |
| 00:16:16.01 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. |
| 00:16:19.59 | Walfred Solorzano | Next person is K. Mitzel. |
| 00:16:24.28 | Kaye Mitzel | Thank you. |
| 00:16:24.30 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:16:24.32 | Kaye Mitzel | Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kaye Mitzel. I live at 119 Sacramento Way, Sausalito, 40 year plus resident, and I'm so happy to follow Chris Wright, because he said exactly what I have to say tonight. And I'll add to that, how many times do we have to show up here to say, reappoint the two planning commissioners. If you insist that there needs to be some mix up and have some architect on, you have an opportunity to do that in January when Commissioner Graff is actually, ends his term. And so that will add to that mix. Again, there's no reason not to reappoint these two commissioners. Thank you. Thank you very much. |
| 00:17:09.76 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 00:17:10.18 | Walfred Solorzano | Alice Merrill. |
| 00:17:13.46 | Alice Merrill | Good evening. I live at 117 Caledonia. And, um, I would reiterate what these other fellows people have said. I am surprised. that this is coming up because The Planning Commission is something that is hardworking and dedicated and the good people, they're good people and they're very, They're very fair. And why? why there's a push to change how they continue with their with their jobs, I don't understand. I don't understand things that are happening right now here in this town. Because, um, it's just constant these days that things are being pushed to be changed. And, um, I'm sorry about that. And I feel that there are factions that are, Starting, you know, I'm not a faction maker-upper. But I... All right. I watch, I pay attention. And I do think that I'm noticing things happening that don't make sense to the just democratic process. Thanks. |
| 00:18:34.37 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Alison. |
| 00:18:35.13 | Walfred Solorzano | Next person, Michael Rex. |
| 00:18:42.44 | Michael Rex | Hi, Michael Rex, local architect. And I urge you to hold interviews. I think it's the right thing to do. Why would anybody ever apply? for positions to serve this community. if they go to the trouble of submitting an application and they're told, oh, we're not even going to interview you. That is the democratic process. And if you want the process to go well, then you need to consider all applicants, including the incumbents, and select who you firmly believe will serve the community the best. And you have nine applicants. Please hold those interviews. That's how it's always done and should continue to get the best possible. Planning Commission. by having the choices and being respectful for the people who submit applications. Thank you. |
| 00:19:36.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:19:37.10 | Walfred Solorzano | Next person, Babette Duggo. |
| 00:19:49.31 | Babette McDougall | Thank you for acknowledging me. So I'm not sure if you had a chance to see my late arriving mail. However, you did, thank you. Thank you for that nod. I just want to say that as my letter points out, if you are going to resent your decision for two, you must resent the decision for all. Otherwise, it is most certainly not democratic. You can't say okay to one and then maybe to two others, then say okay for the two others, and then say, well, maybe not for the two others, but okay for the one. And then maybe one other. I mean, this makes no sense. It's either a consistent policy or it's not a policy at all. It's just... willy-nilly arbitrary decision-making, and you seem to have a really hard time remembering what we do from one meeting to the next. which is a high stress environment. So I would be way more absent-minded if it were me. So I just want to ask you to please be mindful of the implications of what you're doing. They're huge. I think they're much larger than you may realize. Thank you. Thank you, Babette. |
| 00:20:57.54 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker, Jen Johnson. |
| 00:21:08.54 | Jen Johnson | Thank you. I served on the Sustainability Commission for six years, and I believe at the time when you finished your first three years, you were pretty much if you had done your due diligence, automatically went to a second term. um, And then as you finished your second, that position became open and then new applicants were interviewed and appointed. Unless that has changed, if you don't support these two commissioners for reappointment, then you're changing the routine and normal. operations of the commissions. If there is a place opening in January, then interview those applications for that one position. But in the highly politicized push and pull that's going on around the one project. I think this is being influenced by, it's not going to go down well with your voters that you appoint commissioners that may... What am I trying to say? That may vote the way that various people on the council want them to vote rather than having impartial commissioners that have served well continue with their terms. Thank you. |
| 00:22:43.30 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:22:44.14 | Walfred Solorzano | John Flavin. |
| 00:22:55.53 | John Flavin | I'm John Flavin, a resident of Sausalito. I just echo what everybody said. Of course, not Michael Racks, but everybody else that came up here, I echo what they had to say. And they all said, why? Why is this going on? Why is this going through? Do we have a case of judge shopping here? Are people just trying to put the right group in front so they can get what their plans are approved? Because you're going into through lot one is hopefully close to being settled. And then you also have the housing element, all the issues that the general plan enforcement is going to have. You need a crew that's balanced, ethical, and professional. You've got it. So leave it alone. Thank you. |
| 00:23:43.88 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, John. |
| 00:23:45.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Alex Kashif Did you want to... Okay. |
| 00:23:52.65 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:23:57.34 | Alexander Woie | Hi, Dr. Alex Kashchev, South Salido resident. I've known Michael for years and I haven't had a chance to read all the nuances of what's before you, but I've never got an email from him that says urgent call. So I'm just here to support what his position is. And I know, and the reason for that is working closely with him over the years, he's very fair. And so whenever he asks for help, I'm there to support him because he's always asking for the fair middle of the road decision. |
| 00:24:25.32 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 00:24:25.34 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:24:25.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:24:27.21 | Walfred Solorzano | Vicky Nichols? |
| 00:24:33.84 | Vicki Nichols | Nikki Nichols, 117 Caledonia. I wasn't going to speak on this, but I pretty much agree with everything that's been said. But as a previous planning commissioner, I think it's important to note that. I looked at all the applications tonight. I think we'd be doing a clearer job if we had a stated policy. This seems to change every time a new group of, the newer group of council people has come up here. I've never heard this much vacillation on a process. So I think you need to get a process in writing. I think you need to stress what the requirements are for this and qualifications for this position. Having read all the applications, I didn't see a nexus between a lot of the Merck experience and what would be required to be a planning commissioner. So I know everybody wants to help and give volunteer their time to the city. This is not a beginning volunteer's job. You have two experienced people here. And I can't believe this is the second instance of something involving sitting planning commissioners where they've been called out by name personally. So I don't know what's going on. It doesn't feel comfortable to me, but I would urge you to approve these two for their institutional memory. They will be doing the updates, the plans. You're going to need that continuous memory and cooperation. And my God, one of them is a former community development director. So come on. Thank you. |
| 00:26:06.55 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Okay, on Zoom we have CB. |
| 00:26:18.99 | Carlito Berg | Hi, everybody. Carlito Berg. Nice to see everybody. Hopefully people can hear me all right. It's nice to be here this evening, although I'm in my garage working on an old car, so wish I was there with you. Just wanted to quickly state, you know, recently I got on, got the opportunity to serve on the Chamber of Commerce. And I'm excited for that opportunity. and it continued to interact with the city But if I had applied or been asked to apply and my application hadn't even been considered or looked at. that would have discouraged me from applying and I wouldn't have. So for me, You know, I really like both the planning commissioners. I think a lot of the points people are making are totally valid. But it's less a question about how competent they are and more a question about what process actually is. And for me, the process should be something that encourages the current and future people to make their bones and apply and have a meritocratic, democratic process. That's all I'd like to say. Thank you very much. Take care. |
| 00:27:28.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:27:28.08 | Walfred Solorzano | THE END OF THE END OF THE And Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:27:34.56 | Walfred Solorzano | going to mute yourself, please? |
| 00:27:36.70 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hello again. I'm flummoxed here watching all of this. I don't understand why this is a problem tonight. Just two weeks ago on November 7th, you all voted to reappoint these two sod in Luxembourg. to reappoint them to another term. that was passed by the city council and you wanted that to be placed on the consent calendar for tonight. Not only did you just take that action, two weeks ago. It's on the consent calendar. to, ratify that decision. But you just a few minutes ago approved your minutes, which endorsed you. and reflected this decision. I don't understand what you're doing here. It seems to me that you've already made the decision to reappoint these two individuals who have already served and would like to serve another term. And you've endorsed it twice, once by vote on the seventh and again tonight by approving your minutes. Without correction. Thank you. |
| 00:28:43.09 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Any further comments? All right, seeing none. Oh, sorry, Ron Albert. |
| 00:28:47.20 | Sandra Bushmaker | I... |
| 00:28:47.47 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:49.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, my mistake. |
| 00:28:53.16 | Ron Albert | Good evening, Mayor and Council members. I am a former Planning Commissioner and a former City Council person. While I served on the Planning Commission, Sandra Bushmaker served on the City Council. and I can tell you what brought me here. I was here on a completely unrelated item a few weeks ago when that discussion took place and the discussion was at odds with what I understood the custom and practice to be. It may well be that other commissions, the library commission, the art commission, that are less visible, often less generally less controversial, appointments are relatively automatic. But with the planning commission, that was never the case in my understanding. The city council always reviewed applications, did interviews. So this isn't about let's get rid of the two commissioners who are reapplying. You may well choose to reappoint both of them. But it is about process and about reviewing all of the applicants and choosing the best two. I submitted a letter that had some criticisms of the Planning Commission generally, how it had performed. And I said with a caveat that I'm have not been an active planning commissioner observer the past few years. So I'm not here saying you got to, you've got to get rid of those two and put two new people on, but I do think you should follow what I've always understood to be the established custom and practice for the Planning Commission and review all of the applicants before you make your decision. Thank you. |
| 00:28:53.67 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:30:47.61 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. Do we have any further public comment at this time, City Clerk? |
| 00:30:51.69 | Ron Albert | you |
| 00:30:51.71 | Walfred Solorzano | See you then. |
| 00:30:52.62 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll close public comment and bring it back up to the diocese. |
| 00:31:00.03 | Steven Woodside | Vice Mayor, you're reaching for your |
| 00:31:02.07 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, maybe I'll just start off. Thank you for everyone for coming in. And I would like to explain myself. I, at the last meeting two weeks ago, contrary to Sandra Bushmaker's comment, I think it wasn't unanimous. I indicated that I just, it took three seconds of consideration. It just seems obvious to me that good corporate practice, good government practice, good government is about interviewing all the people that apply. As the last speaker just said, there's nothing that prohibits us from reappointing these two excellent commissioners that have worked hard, these two excellent volunteers who've worked hard, attended all the meetings, done all the work. Many of the comments here in the audience, Chris White and others, is in their support. And that's perfectly appropriate. it. And... done all the work. Many of the comments here in the audience, Chris White and others, is in their support. And that's perfectly appropriate. And it actually seems to undermine their credibility not to even consider any other applicant. And for all we know, we have Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. in the applicant pool, and we won't know because we don't look at them. So, you know, the municipal code 2-20-02 of Sausalito says the planning commission shall consist of five members unless the city council determines that it shall be seven members, one member when possible. should be a landscape architect or an arborist. So, I mean, it's even in our code that there's some guidance towards the makeup of who they should be. Um, you know, I've learned a lot how active the social community is. I mean, you're all here tonight to advocate for a certain point of view, right? Isn't it part of the democratic process to allow the public to weigh in through their elected officials about who the planning commission should be? If you had a problem with the planning commissioners, say you didn't like them. Say, Mr. White, that you really didn't like the planning commissioner. Wouldn't you, and, and that person was up for reappointment. Wouldn't you want to have a mechanism where you could come and ask for them not to be reappointed? the system you're advocating for is one where, and I was, |
| 00:33:02.81 | Steven Woodside | I think. Please don't call out from the audience. Let's be respectful of comments. |
| 00:33:07.45 | Melissa Blaustein | So, so I'm just making a point. I mean, this is just the way I see it and reasonable part of why we have five members up here is to get a diversity of opinion and I may very well be the outlier, but I wanted to explain why I'm at the very least gonna abstain. |
| 00:33:21.96 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:33:22.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:33:22.59 | Melissa Blaustein | up. |
| 00:33:23.24 | Steven Woodside | Let's try to, a public comment session has closed. So let's be respectful of comments from the diocese. |
| 00:33:29.86 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, thank you, sir. And, you know, I'm compelled to make these comments because now it's on the agenda. So, I mean, I could shut up, but I mean, it's on the agenda and we're supposed to make comments. I'm just doing my job here that I'm a volunteer for as well. So, and... All I wanted to say is, as I see it, this is a mechanism by which we have democratic feedback into this system. So again, I just put it to you. If you didn't like the commissioner, wouldn't you want to do something about it? I just want to say for the record, I think there should be thanked for their volunteerism and their hard work and should get a reward. In terms of Ms. McDougall's comment about consistency, I advocated for the same thing at the beginning of the year with chair Feller, I had the same point of view, but there was an important distinction because we weren't doing it ahead of time. Ms. McDougal, a sheriff Feller's appointment had been more than a year, almost a year prior. we were in a real quandary that if we hadn't validated our decision, we could somehow undermine our housing element could have exposed ourselves to the builder's remedy. those are serious consequences for instituting a best practice. In this case, the terms don't expire till the end of the year. So we're trying to, as I forgot who said that, I think it was Vicki Nichols, said that we should establish a clear process that's consistent. So that's what at least I'm advocating for, establishing a clear process that's consistent. For this extraordinarily important commission, much more important than any of our other boards and commissions, something that's actually written into the codes of the city, we should always interview. And we should give the public an opportunity to say we don't like that commissioner or we think that commissioner is amazing and has done X, Y, Z. And that's the Democratic feedback. So that's why, just in terms of, to respond to your point about consistency, the threat of the builder's remedy kind of trumped all other considerations earlier in the year. so you know I don't think it's a mark of disrespect to interview other people. I think it's in the business world, we would call this our fiduciary duty to our shareholders to consider and make sure that we're getting the very best. And it's an opportunity for the democratic system to provide feedback. So those are my, that's my perspective and why I, and I said at the time, I would actually you know, very likely, depending on what the interviews were, support these two commissioners for your appointment, But I said two weeks ago that if we went this direction, I couldn't support it. So at the very least, I'm going to abstain from this renomination. |
| 00:36:04.13 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Vice Mayor. |
| 00:36:08.06 | Jill Hoffman | Anyone else? |
| 00:36:09.40 | Steven Woodside | Oh, yeah. |
| 00:36:09.97 | Unknown | I'll go next. |
| 00:36:10.09 | Jill Hoffman | I'll go next. Robman. Yeah, thank you. So, We had a pretty robust discussion about this at the last city council meeting. And I think that was the third time we've talked about this at this level, at the city council level. You know, our vote was four to one to have this heard at the very next City Council meeting for approval on the consent calendar because of last meeting, we would have reappointed them, but it was not properly agendized for us to do that. We had to... move it to the next city council meeting to properly agendize it. But the idea for the last city council meeting, was that it would go on the consent calendar so that we wouldn't have to digress into this conversation again. And so I'm disappointed that we're having to go down this road again and rehash some of the same things that we've been talking about. And I had thought we had at least resolved with regard to these two. these two commissioners in this particular issue. Obviously, we have talked about this as well. We have a seat coming open in January. Of course, we will have lots of, I hope, interviews for that. And I thank people who have expressed an interest in being on the planning commission. I look forward to those and welcome the new members to the planning commission. At this point, I'd like to make the motion. to reappoint Commissioner Saad and Chair Luxembourg to the Planning Commission for their second terms. |
| 00:37:49.70 | Steven Woodside | I'm sorry. |
| 00:37:49.75 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, anyone else wanna weigh in? I know that's a pending motion that needs a second, but let me comment. I don't take this conversation lightly, although it is the third one. I probably have attended over 300 planning commission meetings. Mm-hmm. It's probably more than anybody else in the room. So please know I take this except for maybe Vicki Nichols. it's collectively thousands of hours so I don't take this lightly so let me propose that I actually think we've done what both the vice mayor and Councilman Hoffman have asked for short of voting which is that we wanted to make a process clearer we wanted to there was an openness I think to looking at additional applications I've I have them on my staff report. I'm pretty sure everybody has them on their staff report. I've read them, I assume my colleagues have read them, the public has read them, and now we are free to make our decision. So we daylighted and made visible additional folks who were interested in the positions. And now we have the opportunity to move forward with the decision. That feels to me like what my colleagues are both wanting in the process of what I heard in the last three meetings. So I just want to put that out there. And if you don't mind, Mayor, I'd like to hear from Councilmember Cox, who also served with me on the planning commission and get her perspective. |
| 00:39:18.62 | Joan Cox | So I shared my perspective in January and at our last meeting. In January, I shared my recollection that as a member of the housing element committee and the planning commission, My reappointment was considered in public by the city council each time. It was not a fait accompli. When I was up for reappointment as a planning commissioner, I had just unsuccessfully tried to unseat the mayor and the vice mayor in an election. And so I was very worried that I would not be reappointed as a planning commissioner for political reasons. Um, but I was unanimously reappointed and it validated that The process for me. that the city council actually held a hearing albeit at 10.30 at night, about whether or not to reappoint a planning commissioner. And so in January and two weeks ago, I advocated for a process whereby the reappointment of a standing planning commissioner is not an automatic thing, that it must undertake a process. I would prefer that process to include interviewing all applicants and then selecting the best qualified applicant. At the time that I proposed a compromise solution two weeks ago, I didn't have in front of me the nine applications of the planning commission applicants didn't realize we had nine applications. So, I completely agree with Vicki Nichols that we need a clear, concrete written policy regarding how we reappoint members of boards and commissions. And we already have statutory structure for planning commissioners. We need to include the reappointment process in that we need to amend our ordinance to include that. I take umbrage to the suggestion that this process decision is being made for political reasons. The ferry landing is already out of the planning commission's purview. They will not hear any redesign. They will not perform any further design review Thank you. And in the future, the planning commission will not have design review responsibility for city owned projects, they will be asked to provide recommendations via a study session, but they will no longer have design review responsibility for city-owned projects. It's something I complained about when I was a planning commissioner, that essentially we were a kangaroo court because we made a decision about Vigna Del Mar Park only to have it overruled by the council. And so there's no point in wasting the planning commissioner's time if we're not going to consider their feedback, but having them do a study session gives them a role without confusing their role as giving direction to elected officials regarding city owned property. So this has nothing to do with the ferry landing. This in my mind is process. And when, when people. apply. When we seek applications and people apply, we have an obligation to consider those applications. Now, two weeks ago, because I... was certain that there were not three council members who would see it my way. I proposed the reappointment of Commissioners Saad and Luxembourg, even though one of them cursed at me and threatened me if I didn't go their way on the housing element. So even in the wake of that, I proposed the reappointment of those two commissioners. Um, with the understanding that the appointment process in the future would not be automatic, that we would consider applications and we would consider person by person whether to reappoint. So those are my thoughts. And I consider I continue to feel that way. |
| 00:43:39.84 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Councilmember Cox. There was a lot of question about why we're having this discussion again. And I just read from my script as I opened up the consent calendar items on the consent calendar are routine and non-controversial. I think it's very difficult to consider an item non-controversial when we've received 50 letters plus of public comment on said item, either in favor or opposed. So I think it's our duty as members of the city council at the very least to reopen that conversation and respond to that public comment and have that discussion here. And so that's why we're here again. And I also take this very seriously. And I also very much appreciate the amount of time that the planning commissioners have given and continue to give to our city. And I in no way think that either of them are unqualified or not necessarily doing a great job. But as Councilmember Cox said, we now have nine applications and considering that we have nine applications and considering the number of requests from the community to follow through on democratic process. I'm more inclined now having additional information and that additional feedback. to have a conversation about and have an interview process for those who would like to seek an appointment on the planning commission. I'm always trying to find a path forward to consensus, which is how we came to the decision that we came to at our last meeting. I think what I'm hearing is that there are three of us on the dais who would like to have a continued conversation about this issue and perhaps interview the other planning commissioners before we make the appointment. or interview. I mean, I would like to figure out what, what the path forward is to have that democratic process because I hear Councilmember Kelman's comments, which I think this is an example of and a conversation about whether or not we should have direct appointments, whether we should conduct those interviews, whether we should hear the additional nine interviews. So I, again, I don't consider this routine or non-controversial given the amount of feedback we've received. And I'd like to have a conversation about what the best path forward is, where we can find some agreement that will best represent all of the views of our letters we've received in our community members. So I welcome ideas. Thank you. |
| 00:45:41.14 | Jill Hoffman | So there's a motion on the... There's a motion pending. Is there a second to the motion? |
| 00:45:51.82 | Ian Sobieski | I don't think we're going to have a three vote on that. So I'm not going to weigh in on something that we're not clearly going to have three on. |
| 00:46:04.54 | Ian Sobieski | I will say this, though. I had a very different experience. And. Thank you. to be able to get the There's feels like there's some personal component to this that makes me uncomfortable. This is just my own feeling on this. The housing element, which I spent three years on, was a very rough and rigorous process. And I just very sincerely hope this is not a reaction to that or to decisions I've been made. I will tell you that when I voted for someone they liked me, and when I voted against their project they did not like me. And so I take that very, very seriously. And I will just tell you guys with great consternation that we are, for me, that this is occurring. And the reason I propose that perhaps we have satisfied the process of a version of the process, which is we all have the resumes. And so I would welcome, and maybe, Mayor, my question, perhaps to our colleagues is, If there are individuals who you feel should be elevated in it, then please let us know, you know, who is really standing out for you. I have a lot of consternation around the work ahead of us around the housing element and what needs to be implemented. And I just wanna make sure that this is not a reaction to maybe some things that occurred. And so I just want to, I don't have anything specific. I just want to share with you all and seek your feedback. |
| 00:47:40.36 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Hold on. I have a process question for the city attorney. |
| 00:47:40.95 | Ian Sobieski | Bye. |
| 00:47:41.00 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:47:45.02 | Jill Hoffman | City Attorney, I don't believe that this particular conversation was properly noticed. I think the notice on the agenda and the notice of the on the, notice on the agenda was to reappoint Commissioner Saad. It was not to open up the discussion for further uh, discussion on this issue yet again. |
| 00:48:10.45 | Steven Woodside | But then why would we have the applications for all the other planning commissioners? |
| 00:48:13.84 | Jill Hoffman | That was an interesting pivot with regard to this item on the agenda. I don't know why those were attached other than there was going to be an attempt at this hearing to go against what was on the agenda, which is what has just happened. So I think that's also a question. So I don't know. I think that we have to re-agendize this as a discussion about |
| 00:48:37.60 | Unknown | I think |
| 00:48:38.14 | Chris Zapata | I'm sorry. |
| 00:48:44.86 | Jill Hoffman | whether or not we're going to actually Karen Hollweg, reopen this again, I mean that needs to be properly agendized the the the item on the agenda tonight says reappoint Commissioner sod and Luxembourg. |
| 00:49:00.36 | Sergio Rudin | So I will say that the agenda item as written reads, reappointments of |
| 00:49:05.31 | Jill Hoffman | No. |
| 00:49:07.20 | Sergio Rudin | Nostalgia Asad and Jeffrey Luxemburgo planning commission for three or term advancing on January 1st, 2024 and ending on December 31st, 2026. So it is a proper subject of discussion for the council to discuss why they may want to appoint these two particular planning commissioners or why they may not want to appoint them. I do think that you can't take another action in terms of appointing people who are not mentioned or conducting interviews this evening, I think that would be outside of the scope, but certainly the discussion as to whether or not you want to not appoint these folks and give some other direction, I think would be fair game. |
| 00:49:43.01 | Steven Woodside | Can I? Okay. Vice mayor had been way into it. |
| 00:49:45.34 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, I just wanted to respond to Council Member Kellman's comments. I thought they were well- well articulated and sincere. And so, you know, the Brown Act, just to remind people that may forget, we're not allowed to talk except right here, right now. And I'm always amazed that when things come up, that I don't expect. So to me, it was, as I said two weeks ago, I didn't even really think about this item at all because it seems so obvious to me that we'd want to interview other candidates. I articulated that two weeks ago. I thought I was in the minority and we're proceeding. But as Council Member Hoffman just mentioned, she didn't expect to see any more applications. And yet you're saying, hey, we just saw the applications. I mean, that's how mixed up the process is. So I apologize to everybody that this is how the sausage gets made because there actually isn't, is not a back room where everyone's getting together and sorting this out. What Vicki Nichols highlighted is we don't have a process that is clear. And so as Ms. McDougall mentions, it's inconsistent from time to time. If there are no applicants for the planning commission, then we're begging and, and bending arms for people to reapply apparently. And And so then when we have the issue of abundance and we have a bunch of people applying, we don't know what to do with it. So, It is about making the sausage. And as I mentioned two weeks ago, just on principle, I said, look, I know I'm in the minority, I don't want to vote no against these two candidates, these current commissioners, because as far as I know, are super hardworking. And hell, one of them said they voted for me. So, I mean, it's like I have every reason just to sweep this under the rug. But in terms of process, I just feel like the most obvious thing is to actually just conduct interviews. We may end up in exactly the same place. And I expect many of the people in this room will come and speak again and support, but it'll be after they hear from all the other candidates in our interview. But. Councilmember Kellman, We'll see you next time. To your point, we didn't actually set up a process for me even to opine about these resumes. In fact, I didn't read them all because I thought it wasn't, it wasn't germane anymore. So I, I saw they were attached, but I didn't even, I saw we have one architect and I saw some lawyers and I thought, well, I'm not going to read them because I thought this was a done deal. So I don't think we have a process and I would advocate. It's so simple just to have one. Let's schedule some interviews. Let's come back here and make a decision. We might end up in exactly the same place, but that should be, and I would really codify it. I would encourage us to codify it so that there's no longer a question about how we do these things in the future. And we can, and that's the way to keep politics out of it by being consistent and having it in our code or at least written down. What do you say to that? Ready? You're nodding a little bit, but I'm sorry. |
| 00:52:37.82 | Joan Cox | I just wanted to point out that if we are going to undertake an interview process, we have nine Applications. the terms end at the end of the year. We already have full agendas for the next three meetings or two meetings. I'm worried about not having planning commissioners reappointed, in time to conduct the city's business Um, commencing the first of the year, the very issue that we encountered with Commissioner Feller. So I throw that out there as a challenge to be addressed. |
| 00:53:13.88 | Ian Sobieski | so in the interest of being responsive and collaborating a couple of scenarios. I'll just throw out ideas, not everything. I really appreciate this, by the way. This is a good dialogue that we're having to get to the process and I appreciate it. In light of the timing, |
| 00:53:20.39 | Steven Woodside | I really appreciate this, by the way. that we're having to get to the process. |
| 00:53:26.13 | Ian Sobieski | um, we could move forward with what is on the agenda. and decide today that after this moment in time, the process will be as the vice mayor is advocating for. And we know we have an opening with Richard Graff falling off the commission and move forward from January onward with a new process. And that keeps us in the right timing. It adheres to what we've talked about previously the what's on the calendar and the agenda, and then it also is publicly moves us forward into an established process without missing any deadlines or timeframes. |
| 00:54:05.55 | Jill Hoffman | I would support that. |
| 00:54:07.46 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. That's what I do. |
| 00:54:11.45 | Steven Woodside | So that's very similar to the compromise. So does that mean, unfortunately, we've closed public comment, Ms. McDougall. We've worked. We've closed public comment, Ms. McDougall. |
| 00:54:25.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:54:25.78 | Steven Woodside | . |
| 00:54:25.93 | Unknown | and then. |
| 00:54:26.00 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:54:26.03 | Unknown | Thank you. There's no point in that. |
| 00:54:27.89 | Steven Woodside | Councilmember Kelman, would that mean Thank you. |
| 00:54:30.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:54:30.46 | Steven Woodside | Would that mean that going forward, all candidates would be interviewed for the positions? |
| 00:54:34.47 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:54:36.90 | Ian Sobieski | Sounds like that's the compromise I'm offering. Yes, it's not the one I'm advocating for, but it sounds like there's at least two of my colleagues who are interested in that process. |
| 00:54:49.61 | Jill Hoffman | Well, okay, so I, okay, again, this is going back to the city attorney, but. Um, I think we're going to talk about the process going forward. then yeah, it's a different meaning. But I will say that my and I haven't hit this or I haven't discussed this as much as probably I should have. But you know, this is my ninth continuous year on the council. And I've been through a lot of planning commission interviews and a lot of planning commission evolutions and reappointments. And in all of those nine years, and I think Councilmember Kelman discussed this at the last meeting, every, if a any, if it was anybody on any commission, as far as I can recall, If they expressed a wish to continue on to their second term. then they were allowed to do that. And we did lots of interviews for lots of different people. for open interviews at the same time that we might have somebody going into their second term, but that person was reappointed to their second term. as a matter of courtesy and respect for that person who had given a substantial amount of time to whatever it is they were working on. And so to do that differently with, And I feel strongly that to do that differently with Commissioner Saad and Luxembourg At this point. would be disrespectful to them. And we've talked about this a lot. and I have, I know we've talked to different people in town who have thought and felt that they were being, Karen Hollweg, treated disrespectfully by the city council and they have never come back never ever come back into city hall after that, and so I think that's my primary. Karen Hollweg, You know concern at this point also that Commissioner sod and Luxembourg have been intimately involved in the housing element plan they've been intimately involved in other complex issues that are going on right now at the planning Commission. that will continue for the next two years. And I feel strongly that we need to have experienced people on the Planning Commission, especially given That's. in January we'll be interviewing for new people. I have, you know, with regard to having an open discussion at some point about how we're going to standardize these, these transitions, I think is great. And I would welcome that. And we tried to sort of do that at the last meeting, but we couldn't quite. We couldn't quite I don't know if I can articulate it correctly, I think, during that meeting, but I think that the expectation that this is, this is for as we discussed at the last meeting, this is for these two particular commissioners in this particular situation, and this point in time, and that going forward, we'll have the discussion. and a properly agendized discussion about how to approach the transition of boards and commissions. transition members on boards and commissions to second terms. It would be a worthy discussion. |
| 00:57:46.39 | Steven Woodside | We're here. And I would add on to that, and I'll let you go, Vice Mayor. But part of that is the outcome of revising our code, so it's a formalized and consistent process, that it cannot be, you know, we can't end up in this situation again. But go ahead, Vice Mayor. |
| 00:57:48.57 | Jill Hoffman | And |
| 00:58:01.56 | Melissa Blaustein | Just the thought in terms of Council Member Cox's observation that time is short. And again, I don't have a lot of energy around it. I'm just articulating what seems like best practices. So since it's time, and I hear the smirks in the audience, but I'm just trying to speak truth, my truth. Time is short. And so what about the idea of extending these two commissioners for three months to give us the time to implement our process and interview and maybe even Council on the graph as well, so we have time for people to know and people to be interviewed. and then we have less time pressure and can actually execute this process. |
| 00:58:48.93 | Steven Woodside | So you're proposing |
| 00:58:50.65 | Melissa Blaustein | To extend the term of Council Member Graf and Luxembourg for three months. It's just an idea. It's just a Thank you. |
| 00:58:58.25 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:58:58.26 | Melissa Blaustein | It's not emotion, it's a thought. |
| 00:58:59.97 | Jill Hoffman | It's, It's an interesting idea, and I thank you for that. compromise, but I, you know, the drama that we've had surrounding these particular planning commission issues have gone on for six months now. starting in April. with, I'm not sure if you're Feller. continuing in You know, when we had another conversation, well, we had to have another meeting on May 23rd after that, because of a Brown Act violation with regard to the actions We took a commissioner Feller, which also which is why I'm so focused tonight on not violating the Brown Act and keeping within those confines with regard to what's on our agenda tonight. June 27, we extended members of Sustainability Commission and Community Safety Disaster Preparedness to second terms without declaring their seats vacant. So the practice after May of 2020, 2023 that was to extend people to second terms if they wish to do it without interviews. And then this came up again at the city council level for discussion. It was agendized again. We heard it last month. And here we are again, we're 45 minutes in for another discussion and we still have no action. And so I would just, you know, I would just urge us to at least take action tonight as it's properly agendized, move forward in the future. Um, you know, Thank you. and have an open discussion properly agendized about how we're going to approach this going forward. |
| 01:00:42.36 | Steven Woodside | I had vice-president. |
| 01:00:44.54 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, just in that lieu, I guess I should maybe formalize my comment as just a motion and see if it has any bite. So I would move to extend the terms of Commissioners Luxembourg, Graf, and, or I guess you can't act on Graf, but Luxembourg and Said to expire on March 31st, 2024. And... that's my motion. And separately I'd have some direction on it. agendizing and having this as a process, but that'll be in a future agenda items. That's my motion is to extend the terms of the two commissioners to March 31st, 2024. |
| 01:01:23.00 | Ian Sobieski | May I ask the attorney a question? So Jill didn't get a second, but she didn't fail. Could I amend her motion? |
| 01:01:34.12 | Sergio Rudin | Um, You can propose a friendly amendment to the maker of the motion. And with respect to this motion that is just on the floor, I will note that city code 22020 says that members of the planning commission shall be appointed by the city council for three year renewable terms so. However, council all board and commission members serve at the pleasure of the council and can be removed with or without cause. So certainly that the suggestion that is being made by the present motion is something the council could revision and revisit in March if they would like to. |
| 01:02:15.68 | Steven Woodside | What was your friendly amendment called? |
| 01:02:16.91 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. Yeah, I had that recollection. So thank you for that, Vice Mayor. I had that recollection that we would then have to go change the code. And I know we have limited by what's agendized, but the friendly amendment was going to be some more formal statement on the record that should we have your motion to reappoint Commissioner Syed in Luxembourg tonight with the commitment to creating a new process in the new year before we appoint anybody else to the Planning Commission. And if that can be included in the motion, would you be open to that? |
| 01:02:48.79 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, sure. Okay. |
| 01:02:54.24 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:02:54.26 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Go ahead, Councilman Lecox. Your mic is not on. Thank you. |
| 01:03:00.79 | Joan Cox | That was the first motion and the The vice mayor made a second motion We have to see if there's a second to that second motion, and then that motion gets voted on first. |
| 01:03:11.15 | Steven Woodside | but it seems like the second motion is not amendable. |
| 01:03:12.79 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:03:12.80 | Melissa Blaustein | I think my notion is not legally valid. |
| 01:03:16.59 | Steven Woodside | Oh, I see. |
| 01:03:16.89 | Melissa Blaustein | because the city attorney educated us about the rules. In terms of discussion on this, part of the issue is we have nine applicants and we haven't even solicited |
| 01:03:18.26 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I see. |
| 01:03:29.80 | Melissa Blaustein | uh, the Planning Commission is not just a technical body that works hard to interpret rules. It also under our code has a tremendous amount of discretion It makes qualitative assessments of things, as you know, better than anyone. So it isn't, they aren't just turning a crank. They're weighing in with opinions and judgments. I note that you mentioned two weeks ago that when you were on planning commission, you had, I think you said four architects or something like that on the planning commission at the time. And today we have maybe one. uh, I'm concerned that we want to have a good town and that a nice diversity of opinion is really important. uh, I, as I mentioned before, not knowing this was going to be proceeding, was advocating that we try to solicit having more design type people for planning commission. We have just one. So I would wonder if you would be amenable to an amendment to your amendment. I mean, it's your motion. to your motion that would take advantage of what this city code says. The planning commission shall consist of five members, unless the city council determines by resolution that the planning commission shall consist of seven members. So I'm wondering if we would consider having seven members on the planning commission, creating a few more vacancies where we could really very deliberately solicit for design type people with the design pedigree to help balance the current planning commission in that area. |
| 01:05:04.62 | Jill Hoffman | So I don't think that that action can be taken by motion tonight. But that would, of course, be part of our discussion at the later city council meeting. |
| 01:05:16.63 | Melissa Blaustein | We just had city attorneys weigh in. I appreciate that, Councilman Hoffman. I just want to know what latitude do we have for giving this kind of direction? |
| 01:05:17.98 | Jill Hoffman | I appreciate that, Councilman. |
| 01:05:26.25 | Sergio Rudin | So I think that the council can, as part of future agenda items, give direction that they would like to consider that and have that discussion as a future agenda item. I think under this agenda item, we are discussing whether or not to have appointment of you know, current reappointment of commissioner sod and, uh, um, Luxembourg. |
| 01:05:52.05 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:05:52.09 | Sergio Rudin | I can't remember his name. Sorry. Yeah, so I think the suggestion that you're trying to make is something that should probably be made under future agenda items. |
| 01:06:07.38 | Joan Cox | But would that be an amendment to the motion to move the reappointment of Saad and Luxembourg with direction to staff to return in future agenda items with a concrete process for reappointment that includes interviews of all applicants at the time and consideration of increasing the size of the body to seven. |
| 01:06:30.43 | Sergio Rudin | And |
| 01:06:31.17 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Well, I think that would, Okay, sorry, Sergio, you're going to weigh in. But to me, that would be a future, that would have to be separately agendized. Consensus. |
| 01:06:40.03 | Joan Cox | Consensus. So the motion is to reappoint, but we're including consensus direction to staff to return with those two items. |
| 01:06:49.14 | Jill Hoffman | Sure, I think that one, yeah. Let me, Sergio, I interrupted you or somebody did. that or do we need to break it out as an agenda item and i'm happy to I'm happy to say it's not part of the motion, but by consensus, we add it to that. Yes, direction to staff. Yeah, so it's not part, is that, so let's not have it be part of the motion, but it's consensus, it's a separate consensus direction to staff. And Walfred, that's clear for minutes. |
| 01:07:06.22 | Unknown | you |
| 01:07:06.24 | Steven Woodside | We had a jujite. |
| 01:07:06.96 | Unknown | is death. |
| 01:07:16.28 | Steven Woodside | Right. Okay, so we still have to take a vote on the motion as well. |
| 01:07:19.79 | Jill Hoffman | So, |
| 01:07:22.52 | Ian Sobieski | So I- |
| 01:07:22.76 | Joan Cox | Are you seconding the amended motion? |
| 01:07:25.31 | Ian Sobieski | Maybe. I made the amendment up. And then there's a... |
| 01:07:28.36 | Melissa Blaustein | Well, I think Councilor Cox articulated emotion. Can that be the form of the motion? She's, if she could say it again, but just to be clear, just so we're on the same page. |
| 01:07:38.27 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, but I think I, I think I broke it out. So the, the, the motion I think is to reappoint, uh, uh, chair Luxembourg and commissioner side to a second three year, um, term on the Planning Commission. with direction to staff. to add an agenda item. to discuss process for appointment to planning commissions. right? And then our second consensus direction, regardless of the motion, is that is that the issue of perhaps increasing the number of planning commissioners from five to seven also be an agendized item. I think. |
| 01:08:21.97 | Steven Woodside | That's very clear direction for staff. And I think the motion is clear as well. So I think we can. |
| 01:08:26.16 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:08:26.49 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:08:26.55 | Joan Cox | The first direction did not include that the future process would include interviews of all applicants at the time of considering reappointment. |
| 01:08:36.30 | Jill Hoffman | Right. We're going to talk about that when we talk about our, whenever we set that as an agenda item. OK. |
| 01:08:44.65 | Steven Woodside | Okay. I really appreciate everyone's willingness to engage in a robust, perhaps more so than planned dialogue on this issue, but obviously it is not non-controversial and it deserves a discussion outside of the bounds of the consent calendar. And I appreciate everyone's patience and everyone who came in to share. their feedback. I think that the direction is clear and it seems that we have all contributed good ideas that will hopefully lead to a very democratic process, which encourages even more folks to want to get engaged with and involved in our community, because that's the ultimate goal. We want as many amazing Sausalitans to show up and volunteer and feel appreciated for the work that they're doing as possible. So I hope that that's reflected. |
| 01:09:24.88 | Melissa Blaustein | I would like to say that as well. I mean, this is the way the sausage gets made because of the Brown Act. We're not allowed to talk. I keep saying that because... My friends can't believe the Brown Act when I describe it to them. So I just feel like everyone should know that we're not talking about this offline. We were uncomfortable with aspects of the process. As one of the commenters said, we didn't have necessarily one. I feel like we're feeling our way towards having one that can be professional and robust. So I feel better about this. Great. And last. |
| 01:09:55.07 | Steven Woodside | Great. And last time we had a 4-1 motion, maybe this time we'll have a 5-0 vote. And we truly came to a strong consensus. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and call, do a vote. I don't think we even need a roll call vote in this instance. Just for a record, please. |
| 01:10:06.48 | Sergio Rudin | Just for a record, we have a second for that restated motion. |
| 01:10:09.62 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:10:09.65 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:10:09.67 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 01:10:09.90 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:10:11.17 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:10:11.22 | Steven Woodside | I'm not sure. |
| 01:10:11.56 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, I believe. Council member. Kelman was the second. |
| 01:10:15.86 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 01:10:16.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:10:16.67 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Sergio. Okay. |
| 01:10:18.78 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 01:10:18.85 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not sure. |
| 01:10:19.12 | Steven Woodside | in favor of the I motion is okay. Fantastic. It carries unanimously. Thank you. |
| 01:10:22.53 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 01:10:22.66 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:10:26.46 | Steven Woodside | Very much to everyone for your engagement on that issue and your patience with us. Let's move on to item 5A, which is the informational report regarding Pacific Gas and Electric's company system plan 12 kV system upgrades. And it's our friend, Mark Van Gorder. Oh, and Director McGowan. Oh. |
| 01:10:45.04 | Unknown | Bye. Join the guy. |
| 01:10:46.84 | Steven Woodside | And Director McGowan. |
| 01:10:49.14 | Kevin McGowan | I'm sorry. |
| 01:10:49.31 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:10:49.34 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah, I said, and Director McGowan. Good evening, Mayor, members of City Council. Item 5A before you this evening is a presentation from PG&E regarding the 12KV project update here in Sausalito. PG&E has submitted the necessary encroachment permit application, and staff is ready to issue the permit for PG&E to get started on their project. PG&E has a franchise agreement with the city. which gives them the right to maintain and upgrade their facilities. PG&E has been working Sounds good over there. PG&E has been working with the city for more than a year on upgrades to their current 4kV system. On August 30, 2022, they made a presentation to the city regarding the upgrade project. PG&E has subdivided their upgrades in Sausalito into five areas. They are proposing to start the first area of work, which is located on Platte, Toyon and Curry and the intersection of Woodward. While some of the electrical systems on these roads are currently undergrounded, PG&E is only proposing to upgrade their current systems to provide adequate services for residents here in Sausalito. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Mark Van Gorder and Tracy Craig from Craig Communications to give us a presentation on their project. |
| 01:12:18.44 | Steven Woodside | Hi guys. Welcome. Hi, Mark. |
| 01:12:21.65 | Mark Van Gorder | Oh, I did not mean to jump the gun over Kevin there. |
| 01:12:24.75 | Steven Woodside | So excited to tell us about your communications. |
| 01:12:27.00 | Mark Van Gorder | I was. And in my mind, I knew Kevin was going to give the staff report first, but got lost in all the conversation. So thank you for having us here, Mayor and Council Members. I'm going to go through the slide deck fairly quickly for a couple reasons, but stop me along the way. We've been sharing this information with staff and council for approximately three years. We've given a few presentations. And what we're focused on, as Kevin already alluded to, are a couple of core things that I'll just focus on for the council and for the community who may not be aware. The system in Sausalito is fairly old. It needs to be upgraded over the last 50 years or so. We have Teslas, we have big screen TVs, we have ADUs and all kinds of other things that are using up more and more electricity. And so for reliability, to make sure that the power stays on consistently We have an upgrade to perform here in the city. And as Kevin said, it's an overhead project. We're going to be taking it in phases. It's maybe a bit confusing if people see the maps. If you'd like to go to the next slide. By the way, I'll just say that Tracy Craig is also here with me from Craig Communications. She is here after I'm done with this quick presentation to answer any questions you may have about the outreach program. And Austin Sharp is also here via Zoom, and he can answer any questions that you may have. If we can go to the next slide. Thank you. So I'm going to, it's a little hard to see from this angle. But again, we're upgrading this for reliability. We have the schedule here. The main component of this work, aside from the, equipment upgrades Part of the permit requires that your request and our intent is to engage with the community. to really perform substantial outreach with the community and the neighborhoods as we go through in these phases. So if we can go to the next slide, So again, we have six phases. We're going to be replacing and upgrading about 95 different poles. Depending on the work that needs to be done, there may be transformers on the poles. There may be what we call guy wires. Those are the metal wires that come down at an angle from the poles to support them. And we'll be performing a lot of work that may be on sidewalks or in roadways. And we will be working with city staff to make sure we have approved traffic plans and flaggers and safety measures put in place. If we can go to the next slide. |
| 01:15:11.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:15:12.32 | Mark Van Gorder | So this is a map. This may be confusing to some folks either here in the audience or watching from home. It says phase two starting in February. If you look at the left side, phase one in, I think, sort of the northern part of Sausalito, I think it actually may just be in Marin City, is complete. So we're going to this next phase that Public Works Director Kevin McGowan just covered. And this is where the outreach will begin with letters to residents. And then there's going to be, you know, an opportunity for a website for community, you know, direct residential outreach. Our goal is to make sure that folks are deeply aware of the work that's coming, to have an opportunity to comment on the locations that we have equipment to answer any questions. Next slide. And this is our general construction date. We're shooting for February with an end date for this, again, for this phase one, April 30th. We are cautious about putting hard numbers for dates on the screen here or sharing it with the community. These things can change with weather impacts or other impacts. But this is our target. And the further we go out, the less certain it is. Thank you. We always say subject to change. Next slide. you So here's the meat of it. So we have these letters scheduled to go out to the people in each of one of these phases. We plan to have this email and phone number designated to make phone calls. Craig Communications specializes, and Tracy can speak more about this if there's questions, but one of the things that I love about Craig Communications is they are deeply personally engaging. They track engagements. They give us feedback. We talk directly together with our project team. And so, you know, it's a real good way of sharing information from customers, your constituents about any concerns that people may have. But it's a fairly robust outreach plan. It's something that we've shared with you before. It's something that you've given us feedback on and I'm hoping that, you know, I'm hoping that this is meeting the expectations of the council and the community. So if we can go to the next slide. This is the schedule for the outreach leading up to the start of work. And the last slide, Tracy and her team, are exceedingly available. So what we hear from customers or, constituents frequently is I call your 1-800 number and I'm on hold for 15 minutes or 20 minutes. No one ever answers. And when they do, they don't seem to have a good information that they can share. Craig Communications will be performing this outreach. And these are their direct lines. So I'll stop there. That's our intent to get the work started. the permit, the encroachment permit that allows us to work in your city streets. Yeah, by the way, we have copies for the council. This is all publicly available. So don't feel like you need to take the sneak camera photo. It won't go away. |
| 01:18:36.17 | Chris Zapata | Great. |
| 01:18:41.93 | Mark Van Gorder | So I'll stop there. If you have questions for me, I'm happy to answer them. I think Tracy is probably the highlight of the show for the outreach questions. And then, of course, again, Austin's online with us. Thank you. |
| 01:18:54.67 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Mark. I think we're gonna hear from Tracy Communications and then we'll have questions for Mark |
| 01:18:59.65 | Tracy Craig | No, actually, I think you're going to hear happy Thanksgiving. First of all, all of you, if you celebrate the holiday, I wish everybody watching and the mayor and council a happy Thanksgiving. I also want to note, I got a question back here and I want to make it clear. This is an above ground project. This is not underground. And I just want, I think we weren't too distinct about that. So just wanted to make sure people knew that. And then also council member Hoffman approached me early on and asked me for my cell phone. That is my cell phone up there. In case people watching can't read that, my cell phone number is 510-334-4866. And I welcome calls. I welcome texts. and that includes after hours and evenings as well. So just wanted to make sure that people watching and the council knew that. And then I'll take questions. |
| 01:19:02.72 | Steven Woodside | Most of all. |
| 01:19:57.04 | Tracy Craig | Thank you. |
| 01:19:57.09 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:19:57.12 | Tracy Craig | Thank you for having us. I think it's been a year almost since I've been here. So excited to get going. |
| 01:19:57.19 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:20:02.56 | Steven Woodside | Welcome back. Okay, great. So I know we have a number of questions from the dais who |
| 01:20:03.65 | Tracy Craig | Thank you. |
| 01:20:06.03 | Joan Cox | to get us started. Councilmember Cox? Sure, thank you. Mark, good to see you again. Thank you for always being available and thank you for your regular emails, particularly during the winter months, apprising us of weather and what's going on and what PG&E is doing about it. I wanted to ask a bigger picture question. Thank you so much for this schedule and outreach regarding some planned work by PG&E. You know, I hear marketing campaigns on the television and the radio all the time about PG&E's efforts to underground throughout California. And so my question has to do with why Sausalito is not higher on the list of cities in which undergrounding is a priority. |
| 01:20:51.97 | Tracy Craig | And I think that's going to be Austin that's going to, that's definitely not me because I'm just outreach for this project, but Austin's here to answer that question. |
| 01:21:01.67 | Joan Cox | you |
| 01:21:01.69 | Tracy Craig | you |
| 01:21:01.70 | Joan Cox | you Great. So, you know, many of our residents have difficulty getting homeowners insurance renewals because of the perceived fire hazards, because of our proximity to the Golden Gate, the heavily forested Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the density of the manner in which our houses are grouped on our hillsides, and the difficulty traversing some of our narrow and steep streets. And so I wanted to find out what Sausalito can do to, first of all, what are the metrics for ascertaining who gets the funding for undergrounding, and how can Sausalito elevate its status of eligibility for undergrounding? |
| 01:21:50.66 | Austin Sharp | Yeah, thank you for the question. I assume everyone can hear me. |
| 01:21:54.06 | Steven Woodside | Yes, we can hear you, Austin. Thank you. |
| 01:21:55.89 | Austin Sharp | Good evening, everyone. Good to see you all again. So I'll kind of cover broadly, starting at the back of your question, kind of move to the front. The metrics for where undergrounding takes place is typically solely based off of a lot of risk factors associated with high fire threat districts, potential for fire spread, ingress and egress, things like that. there's a lot of technology that goes into it a lot of consultation through cal fire and the cpuc that's mostly who puts together those and egress, things like that. There's a lot of technology that goes into it, a lot of consultation through CAL FIRE and the CPUC. That's mostly who puts together those high fire threat district maps. So PG&E is really targeting through their 10,000 mile program, the highest of the high risk in these areas. So most of the areas that are getting the undergrounding, it's about 30% of our overall high fire threat system. So not even 100% of that area. It's really kind of Thank you. areas that are getting the undergrounding, it's about 30% of our overall high fire threat system. So not even 100% of that area. It's really kind of extremely targeted. So right now, for example, there is not much in Marin County. Not much Marin County meets that threshold. Most of what we're looking at for next year is in Napa County, in a lot of those hilly areas where there's a lot of wind, a lot of potential fire spread, fuel, all those sort of things. A lot of stuff in Lake County next year, but it's all based off that risk modeling that comes through the Cal Fire and the Public Utilities Commission. So kind of |
| 01:23:00.33 | Chris Zapata | when, |
| 01:23:15.34 | Austin Sharp | answering that question first. And just to kind of cover this project, and we've talked about this many times with council and kind of some of the residents out there through the committees, this project is really reliability-based. It's around upgrading the system so that it can meet the need, as Mark talked about, for EVs charging other electrification usage, as we're seeing kind of the end of the useful life of these facilities out there. So this really what this project targets, anything addressing high fire threat would be in the future. And right now, most of this area is not... designated as a high fire threat district. So it would be very much not something that would be targeted by the underground program. So it's kind of the high level there. I don't know if you have any follow-up questions. |
| 01:24:07.33 | Steven Woodside | Do you have follow-ups, Councilmember Cox? Okay. The Vice Mayor had some questions. Go ahead. |
| 01:24:11.33 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you, Bear. Hi. |
| 01:24:12.91 | Steven Woodside | Hi, good to see you. |
| 01:24:13.28 | Melissa Blaustein | Good to see you. So... Mr. Van Gorder, whoever wants to take it. There is a lot of outreach here. You saw that nice slide with everyone's phone number and email address. My question dovetails with Council Member Cox's question. Yes. undergrounding is something PG&E is not going to pay for. you have too many places that are higher priority. There are a lot of people in Sausalito who would pay to underground the wires near their homes. They're fortunate to have the means to do so, or they feel like it's a worthy investment to make. What they're not able to do is navigate the complicated paperwork process, the 20B process that's required to form an undergrounding district to jump through all the hoops. It's a, just reading a description of the process is tiresome. I would like to underground the, when I bought my house, I thought I would want to underground the wires. But once I read the process, I couldn't understand it and I gave up. You're already going to do a lot of outreach to educate people about the work you're going to be doing in their neighborhood, especially given that you're going to be rolling trucks, taking down wires, putting up new wires, potentially changing views, adding transformers, all trying to minimize that. There's no more opportune moment to help educate people and bring them together to pay for their own undergrounding. |
| 01:25:42.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:25:43.14 | Melissa Blaustein | And I appreciate that your main focus of your outreach has got to be to alert people to what's going to happen. But what I don't understand is there seems to be a huge missed opportunity here where the cost of undergrounding, might be shouldered by some residents. If PG&E would pick up the administrative headache of all that whole 20B project, the city has tried to step forward. right on our own dime with our own staff. The city manager. and others, Noeli and others have reached out to our residents to try to do this. We've created a map. We surveyed the entire population. We've got several hundred people, several hundred residents. that said that they would pay upwards of $10,000 per year to underground the wires in their neighborhoods. But we don't have the depth of staff to try to pull that together. And the 20B project fundamentally, as you know, is resident driven. A resident has to initiate the project. The city is more in the role of... like the planning department, having to be a ministerial adjudicator of the whole process. And so we've talked about this before, and I'm still, by way of my question, asking whether it is possible for you to consider folding into your process, a way of pulling people who want to pay to underground. the ability to underground, help us form districts so that the city doesn't have to be in that role. Take on the administrative burden. Take one of the three people that you're, that you have for outreach full time or, you know, are paid to do that. and help us because right now we have to use our staff people for that. And, and they have other things that they have to do. And we're kind of understaffed for this task. So those are my comments slash question. Could you engage with that subject? |
| 01:27:29.84 | Mark Van Gorder | Let me engage a little bit. I don't know if it'll answer your question directly, but when we met nine months ago, we sat on the table here And my suggestion at the time was that, you know, if you and I wanted to go or, you know, city staff wanted to go, Tiburon does these Rule 20 projects with their neighborhoods regularly. So, you know, they seem to have figured it out. They know how to do it. They do these all the time. And they go neighborhood by neighborhood. Public Works, City Manager Jack Ryan has helped facilitate a number of those. So the first thing I'd say is, know, maybe we can do a field trip. And what is it in Tiburon that they do and how do they do it that makes it so easy? And it's, I mean, it's, We have no problem going with different neighborhoods and talking with them. They understand it. They work with our service planning folks. And so, you know, again, I just offer that I'm available to do that if there's interest from council members or staff to lead a, you know, sort of a delegation of interested neighbors over to Tiburon and say, you know, how is it that you do, how do you do that? How do we work that out? So I just reiterate that I'm available. If that's of interest to the council, we can figure that out. As far as the outreach is concerned, |
| 01:28:45.85 | Unknown | you |
| 01:28:45.86 | Mark Van Gorder | Thank you. I wouldn't be surprised at all if If residents ask that question, I mean, especially the survey has gone out and was asked, you know, would you be interested in, and you have, I think that probably that data of people who responded that they'd be interested. So we, I don't see any challenge. I mean, look to Austin or Tracy, but we have links we have, we could probably print up a one pager, you know, here's the process to get started with your neighborhood, um, to, you know, to engage with PG and E to do an undergrounding project. So, um, I don't see it being a challenge sharing undergrounding information by the residential neighborhoods who have that interest in you, as you said, who have the resources and the money and want to do the underground. It's not it's not cheap. But again, there are people who who do it frequently. So I'll leave it to Tracy and Austin to comment on. |
| 01:29:39.83 | Austin Sharp | Thank you. |
| 01:29:39.93 | Mark Van Gorder | You know, sharing that information. |
| 01:29:42.18 | Austin Sharp | Yeah, I'll jump in real quick and I'll think, I'll address a couple of things that you brought up, Council Member Sobieski. So I think the first is there's kind of a general acknowledgement from the Public Utilities Commission, PG&E, that navigating some of these things is not the easiest thing in the world. But to that point, a lot of it is highly regulated, especially how the dollars are spent and who has to be the lead on these sort of things. So to kind of answer the question you put out there, could PG&E become the lead agency on this? We could not take that capacity on in really any of the applications that are not a rule of 20A, which is the cities or counties using their credits to underground, which that program is also being sunset as well. So really when you're talking about kind of applicant-driven items like a 20B or a 20C, it is incumbent on the applicant to engage with PG&E through their service planning process. And I think to what Mark's alluding to, we can absolutely provide materials that would help people navigate that process and make it a little easier to kind of walk through that and file applications and what materials were needed. But PG&E would not be able to take on that administrative task. And none of the credit communications members would be able to take on that task as well. That's something that would have to go through that service planning application process. And kind of to the broader project that we're talking about here, I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THAT. Part of the issue is that We could not wait for those applications to go in and go through that process, even as we're trying to streamline it and make it more accessible to residents and businesses. Because, again, this is a reliability project. We need to be able to move forward with doing this work. So while we would be able to share information and we'd be more than happy to talk to customers about that and work with our service planning team for any questions that they might have, we would still have to move forward with this work and would not be able to time it with any of the applications. They would just would not be able to move that fast. And really they're, |
| 01:31:44.84 | Chris Zapata | We'll be right back. |
| 01:31:50.80 | Austin Sharp | There's no process that would allow that to take place, even talking back the last year plus that we've been kind of talking about this project. These are two kind of separate deals that have to move in separate timeframes. |
| 01:32:06.26 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you very much, Austin. I know we've spoken about this in the past, and thank you, Mark, also. And I appreciate that you offered to try to include some of this information in your outreach. So the city has taken on, despite its numerous other priorities, trying to carry some water on this. And city staff have been partially repurposed to try to help our residents understand the undergrounding process. But they really do have other things that priorities to do. And, uh, this is a burden on our city. It does seem like it's aligned with your mission. I appreciate Austin's explanation of why it can't be done. But when the CEO of the, when the board of directors, when the CEO publicly announces what the core value is, and the old rules aren't aligned with that core value, I would suggest to you, it's an opportunity to shine and actually win by running this up the chain of command. I think. that there is a real actual opportunity for PGA across the state. to change its relationship with its 20B projects. Because there is a lot of private capital that would help underground wires at no expense to PG&E. that simply is not capable of navigating the administrative paperwork process. And I'm just, I appreciate it's not going to be done in time for a 12 KV project, but But if you solicit that interest and there's nowhere for them then to go, it's just going to die on the vine. So I'm wondering if there's any way we could try to run this request up the chain of command. Thank you. to see if we could have a different kind of relationship with PG&E to help us doing property owner paid for undergrounding in a more streamlined fashion. |
| 01:33:59.37 | Ian Sobieski | Mark, I'm sorry, before you answer, Vice Mayor, maybe it'd be helpful to reference the email that you sent to all of us dated Friday, October 27th about the General Ray case. where in yellow you highlighted that the PUC will vote on undergrounding miles as early as November 2nd as part of the General Ray Case final decision. Perhaps that's what the vice mayor is referencing as an opportunity to work with Sausalito. |
| 01:34:25.34 | Mark Van Gorder | Well, I'm not exactly sure what the vice mayor is referencing, unless you're suggesting that we go to the CPC or what's your ask? |
| 01:34:34.23 | Ian Sobieski | Well, you sent us all an email that said that PG&E is making the electric system safer, resilient to climate change. Decarbonize and optimize to meet California's needs and then the rest of the email articulated how the general rate case that pigeon was undertaking was going to be aimed at doing that. And I think that's what the Vice Mayor is asking you to help us do as well, and so I think he's looking for opportunities to partner. |
| 01:34:53.74 | Mark Van Gorder | So what I... What I heard. And forgive me, maybe we're hearing different things. What I thought I heard the vice mayor ask, maybe you can let me know if I'm on track here, was whether or not we could raise this up to our leadership. And so the way we would typically raise this up, and Austin can comment on this too, is I think we'll take this back, right? Take your recommendation back. elevate the request and ask to our senior vice president. Right. We have regions now. So PG&E is broken up to five regions. Marin County is part of the north northern region. Goes up to, you know, Sonoma, Napa Lake Mendocino, Humboldt. And so we can we can raise that up, make them aware of the ask with regard. Councilmember Kelman to your comment on my email about CPUC. you |
| 01:35:39.34 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:35:40.69 | Mark Van Gorder | the undergrounding that PG&E had submitted to the CPUC was under review. We have a target of 10,000 miles. And so that goes towards our CEO's commitment of 10,000 miles in the highest fire threat districts. And Austin has already gone through the criteria for all that. The CPUC's decision, we asked for 2,000 to stay on track with the 10,000. And they approved 1,200, not our 2,000, but we did get 1,200. So |
| 01:35:47.20 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:36:09.63 | Mark Van Gorder | If there's opportunities to try and go through the CPUC to streamline the Rule 20 B, C options, we can see if that's the right process. I don't know how to do it other than lifting it up to our regional, Vice President. I will also say, and we talked about this at one of our meetings, This issue has been taken up to senior leadership about whether or not PG&E could or would underground the city of Sausalito, albeit it's not in a high fire threat district is defined by the CPUC. So I don't want it to leave it hanging out there that that effort wasn't already made. The outreach that we're conducting here in Sausalito for this overhead project is substantially substantially beyond anything we do anywhere. So that kind of was the the. the compromise of like, okay, we understand the impact, the views, et cetera. We can't do the undergrounding, but we want to do everything that we possibly can to make sure that we're not impacting the viewshed for folks. |
| 01:37:26.80 | Melissa Blaustein | I am going to acknowledge that you've conveyed that to us in the past, and thank you for running up the idea of PG&E paying for it. I would love to. Thank you. uh, accept or celebrate the idea of running up this idea to leadership of not PG&E paying for it, but helping change the process. to allow property owners to pay for their own undergrounding. And I'm wondering if we could actually have a meeting between some representatives of Sausalito and this person, if you could run that idea. Because I think... they may be intrigued by what we've done. our home brew here, the little survey we did. the approach and the surprising willingness of some property owners to pay for it. And I would really like to characterize to leadership where we think on the ground the impediment is. maybe that would be added on to the request. It's not that you represent the idea, but that we actually get a meeting with this person. |
| 01:38:24.34 | Mark Van Gorder | So message received loud and clear. I do see Austin's got his hand up. And so Austin, it looks like you want to chime in on that? |
| 01:38:29.39 | Austin Sharp | you want to. Yeah, so I just want to add in that for the last two years, year and a half. This is not the first time that this idea or request has been brought up. I think when you're looking at mitigating wildfire risk and all the options available, there's already some discussion over how do you streamline the Rule 20B and C process to allow cities and counties to be able to do this. I think that's part of the Rule 28 decision. So a lot of these things are already being discussed. A lot of these ideas are already kind of being bandied about. As Mark mentioned, and I think to, you know, the other question around the general rate case, they're kind of two separate things, and we did not get funded for all the miles that we requested. we are looking at kind of every opportunity to potentially be able to allow, you know, individuals who can do this to be able to underground. It's just like any process, it has to, It has to be streamlined. It has to be kind of broken down a bit. They have to find those pain points and work through a lot of the regulatory things for how the dollars are spent. So I think that's kind of the biggest hurdle right now. And I would just second Mark's offer to... Maybe the solution partially is to talk to Timberon about what they do, because they do all sorts of Rule 20 projects and put them through the process and get them completed. And all of those have some sort of customer or city related funding to them. And they've been doing this for a while, even before acknowledging the ways that we could streamline. So I think there's a lot of that that could be kind of a lot of things could be learned from that for this particular kind of request. |
| 01:40:13.45 | Mark Van Gorder | But and if I can just, you know, just sort of put a fine point on to Vice Mayor Sobieski. |
| 01:40:19.19 | Austin Sharp | Thank you. |
| 01:40:19.21 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:40:19.98 | Mark Van Gorder | I have no doubt. Maybe it'll be in January if we can, perhaps December. That might be pushing a bit, but I'm certain that we can schedule a meeting with our vice president for the region and hear those comments and questions. So I'm happy to, you know, Austin and I can both work on that. |
| 01:40:40.71 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Vice Mayor. Councilmember Hoffman, did you, I saw you turn your... |
| 01:40:43.26 | Jill Hoffman | Um, I, I do have a follow-up question, um, And... Just to comment on the prior conversation you just had with the. Vice Mayor. You know, I think the thought is obviously to facilitate reducing the friction of getting the undergrounding. um, project to be paid for by the homeowners off the ground, right? I don't understand. what I'm sensing as sort of, um, You know, and I understand PG&E is a very large... monopoly for energy and probably a reluctance to take on something new, but based on the comments of your CEO. about doing things new and differently and partnering this would seem to be something under new programs or innovative programs or something like along those lines. And maybe, |
| 01:41:35.08 | Unknown | Amazing. |
| 01:41:37.39 | Jill Hoffman | Tiburon might give some examples, but I would think this would be something that PG&E would want to bring in-house as part of their community outreach and community development operations. based on the comments that we've heard from the new CEO. So I understand that you guys you know, your perspective, but I would hope that when you have the meeting next week, that there would be some concrete. proposals from the PG&E would come prepared with these are the process by which we might go forward with this new and innovative project instead of just listening and maybe getting back to us. But you guys are the ones that are most in the best position to be able to advise how a city like Sausalito, but not just like Sausalito, cities all over California that are, we may not be the highest risk here, but we certainly have high fire risk in Sausalito. We have the denials of insurance to prove it. So You know, I don't, you know, the fact that we may not be at the top of your list and rightly so wouldn't be at the top of your list, but we are, we do have a certain risk of fire here and we are looking at our own ways to fix the problem. And nobody denies that undergrounding is the best way to fix that. question. back to my actual question though, is, so you're gonna be doing a lot of outreach, but if someone's concerned about the placement of the poll, what's the process? Did we get into that already? Apologies if I missed it, but I get a notice in my mail and I say, oh, look, the new poll is gonna be right outside my view living room window with a transformer and 50 new lines. |
| 01:42:59.79 | Chris Zapata | Did we get |
| 01:43:14.22 | Jill Hoffman | I'd like to collaborate with PG&E on an alternate placement. What is the process for that? Or is there one? |
| 01:43:21.46 | Austin Sharp | Yeah, I'll jump in on that first and then Tracy, you can. So yeah, an individual would get a notice and they would have contact information as Tracy laid out. And first off, they would say, hey, you're doing this work. |
| 01:43:24.34 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 01:43:36.17 | Austin Sharp | I don't know what poll is being worked on. It's very difficult to convey like, hey, here's the poll that's five feet down from your home, right? So first things first would be kind of identifying the poll that they would potentially be concerned about or is having construction on. And then seeing if there is a new poll going in, if there's a reframing, a new transformer, et cetera, whatever that work might be. And if they had a question or concern, we might be able to accommodate, yeah, like you said, hey, the new pole is going to go five feet to the left and that alters my view. Is it possible to move it in the original location or where you might be able to move it outside of my view? If possible, we will consider being able to place that, but we do have constraints on where we can place poles for, you know, just stability, for security of the line, for all those sort of kind of, you know, utility reasons. And in some cases, we will accommodate if possible. If we can't accommodate, we'll be able to talk through the customer about why we have to place the equipment where we are placing it. So that's kind of the general process for how we would take it from notification to conversation with the customer to potential for moving it. Because the other thing I would note is sightlines are very subjective. We cannot assume from where we are outside of a home, placing a pole that will impact sight line A, B, or C. And we also cannot assume it will not impact other site lines up a hill or for other homes in the location. So we will try to do our best to find a spot that works for the most adjacent homes, but we will not always be able to find a solution. |
| 01:45:15.85 | Jill Hoffman | So let me ask a follow up on with regard to notice. So I'm looking at the different zones that you're going to be working in. And I know that I think the first one you guys are going to be working on is it looks like Platt Curry and Toyon. Right. So I assume those guys have already gotten notice. Or no, have notice gone out to the people on those streets yet? |
| 01:45:29.42 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:45:29.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:45:29.54 | Unknown | Right. |
| 01:45:35.50 | Austin Sharp | We. No, we need the encroachment permit first, and then we would go through beginning outreach. |
| 01:45:41.50 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, got it. So I live on those streets and I get a notice in the mail, hey, PG&E is gonna be putting up whatever, new lines, changing lines, something And I'm concerned about that. Do I call the number on the notice? I'm just asking for... |
| 01:45:57.06 | Tracy Craig | process exactly right what the process is and and so there's a couple things you can do you can email there's an email where you can say i'd like to talk with somebody about this and know understand exactly what equipment is going to be replaced um you can call and we have an 800 number or you can call me or i have two staff members that i just want to be clear they're not all working full time on this so but they'll answer their phones and um we will set up an appointment and come meet with you along with the PCHN representative and, and tell you what type of equipment will be there and whether we can move it or not. So, and then look at the lines. And then also just to Austin's point, nothing's done in a vacuum, right? So there's going to be neighbors that might, if we say we want to move it three feet to the left, another neighbor might say no. So I think we need to somehow work that out. And we'll be talking with people to get that done. But I think the point is it's very hands on. |
| 01:45:57.20 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. And that's what we're doing. |
| 01:46:47.69 | Jill Hoffman | I think that Yep. So if I send you, I get a notice, I send you an email and say, I live at whatever, whatever, fictional. Fictional place. Yeah, on Platt. |
| 01:46:56.38 | Tracy Craig | additional place. |
| 01:46:58.27 | Jill Hoffman | And I'm concerned about where my house and what new equipment you're going to be doing. Do you send back a schematic that shows exactly where the new pulls and equipment's going? Or how does... How does the process of a homeowner know I know work is going on. I don't know what work is going on. I need to know if this work is going to affect my home. When do you get the detailed information as the homeowner? |
| 01:47:20.76 | Tracy Craig | I think when we call and we go out and meet with you and we'll figure that out, and then yes, we will close the loop and tell you exactly what's going to be put up. I don't know if it would actually be a schematic, so I need to figure that out and I'll let you know exactly what we'll be using to convey that information. |
| 01:47:40.12 | Jill Hoffman | And what's the timeline? So I get, I'm a homeowner up there. or resident and I get something in the mail how much time do I have to interact with PG&E before the polls go up? Because I think a lot of the A lot of the Criticisms in the past have been all of a sudden this poll appeared. I didn't get any notice. And all of a sudden there's a huge transformer now outside my bedroom window. So what I get a notice in the mail. stuff goes up. How was the timeline on that? |
| 01:48:07.94 | Tracy Craig | So the notices, the first letters will be going out not this week, but early next week. So probably the 28th or 29th. And there'll be 90 days before we actually start the work. And of course, it's going to be phased, right? So we have at the least three months to work things out. And we'll prioritize, I think, people where we're starting the work. |
| 01:48:30.95 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 01:48:31.79 | Tracy Craig | Yeah. |
| 01:48:32.06 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:48:33.39 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. Thanks, you guys. Just a couple of follow-ons. In the PowerPoint, you said you're replacing 95 polls and upgrading 95 polls. Does that include the number of new polls that are going in as well, or is that an additional number? Or is it only a replacement and an upgrade? |
| 01:48:50.69 | Mark Van Gorder | Austin, do you know the specifics on the |
| 01:48:53.64 | Austin Sharp | Yeah, I believe that 95 is all inclusive. And I think the new overhead polls was only about 18, something to that effect. So it's inclusive in that. |
| 01:49:06.37 | Mark Van Gorder | It's changed a little bit, so I don't, he, Austin knows the more specific. |
| 01:49:09.73 | Ian Sobieski | So there could be, I'm just wondering, of the 95, how many are new polls and how many are existing? |
| 01:49:14.89 | Austin Sharp | I believe around approximately 18-ish are new poles and the rest are existing. |
| 01:49:21.01 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. And then for whomever, will there be tree removal as part of this project? |
| 01:49:27.07 | Austin Sharp | There will be vegetation management work that's done for access to the equipment. Just giving you an idea overall for the phase that's coming. There's approximately 10 poles that are being worked on. I think there's about, five replacements, so new poles going where poles already existed. So that's not necessarily considered a new pole. A new pole is something where there was not a previous pole existing. Some transformer replacements, things like that. In this particular phase, there is some pre-existing underground cable that PG&E acquired when they took over the electric facilities in the area. So about half of the project is pre-existing underground where there'll be light trenching in some spots plus some box replacement for where we pull in splice and cable and things like that. So during that phase, there'll be probably a little bit less veg work than some of the other ones, but there would be veg work if necessary to get access to the work area. |
| 01:50:22.64 | Mark Van Gorder | we can find out if and where tree removals may be. |
| 01:50:26.49 | Austin Sharp | Yeah. |
| 01:50:26.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:50:26.79 | Austin Sharp | Thank you. |
| 01:50:26.79 | Mark Van Gorder | I don't, because I heard you say tree removal, we as a standard practice, and I'll say this, I think just as a side note, we perform routine inspections of our lines annually and have for decades. And so we have to keep a clearance away from the lines so the trees don't contact them and cause outages or possibly even arcing or sparking type of snows. So that's a CPUC requirement. We do that all the time. So vegetation work, I think, is a little nebulous, a little vague, right? Because is it trimming a branch back or is it cutting a tree down? So let's find out where the tree removals, and I don't know that there are any. |
| 01:50:26.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:51:04.85 | Ian Sobieski | Yep. |
| 01:51:05.02 | Mark Van Gorder | but we can find out if there are tree removals, what and where. |
| 01:51:08.47 | Ian Sobieski | And also branch removal. And then can we assume that if there are branches removed, PG&E will haul away Anything that's taken down? rather than leave limbs on a property owner's property. |
| 01:51:17.62 | Mark Van Gorder | Other than that. So to clarify that, PJ Slauson, PhD.: PGE practice typically is to chip anything that's four inches in diameter or less if it's larger wood on people's private property, it is the. That is property that belongs to the property owners. And we will leave that behind on private property. What we're doing is almost entirely in public right of way. So where we have streets, sidewalks, public access, all that sort of thing, that's where we're going to clean up and remove the debris for safety and free access and making sure that people can come and go and driveways aren't blocked and that sort of thing. So just there's a distinction that we have working in public rights of way versus on private property. |
| 01:52:09.92 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, yeah, I remember last year we had some complaints that there were some tree and limb removal and vegetation management for fire reasons, but the Detritus was left on the property owner's property and it was like $4,000 for them to haul it away. And so I just thought I'd cover that with you. today. |
| 01:52:27.35 | Mark Van Gorder | Yep. It's an issue that I hear very frequently. It's maybe the top number one issue that I, that I hear frequently. And I, we do try to work with our vegetation management teams. |
| 01:52:29.54 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 01:52:33.61 | Ian Sobieski | Sure. |
| 01:52:33.98 | Jen Johnson | Thank you. |
| 01:52:34.03 | Chris Zapata | I'm not. |
| 01:52:37.17 | Mark Van Gorder | to make sure that there's customer engagement. We get a bit off, we're getting a bit off the topic. I mean, we come back at some point in the future, but I hear you, I understand the concerns. And in this case, we'll find out what vegetation work is, may be needed. Thank you. |
| 01:52:50.26 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:52:50.85 | Mark Van Gorder | And we can get that information back to you. And I think we can share that with Tracy and we can share that with neighbors if and where their tree removals may be required or branches. |
| 01:52:58.62 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, and then what permits or approvals are going to be required for the project? Side note, we do actually have owls here in Sausalito, which you probably know are covered under the Mercatory Bird Treaty Act, which is federal law. What's the plan? Should you find a tree or some other thing that needs to be modified and what's during nesting season, which would be of course prohibitive for you to operate under? |
| 01:53:22.72 | Mark Van Gorder | I think you just said it. That might be your background, right? Is it a PG environmental or so you- |
| 01:53:29.31 | Ian Sobieski | That was my job. |
| 01:53:30.07 | Mark Van Gorder | I think you're asking a question you may know more about than me. |
| 01:53:32.65 | Ian Sobieski | Bye. What our plan is here? What permits are required? And on the record for everybody, what will you do? Should you have to pause work? |
| 01:53:38.69 | Mark Van Gorder | Sure. |
| 01:53:40.31 | Ian Sobieski | Sure. |
| 01:53:40.35 | Mark Van Gorder | Cheers. So they do inspect, right? They perform inspections. They'll take a look and they'll see if there's any raptors or other protected species or nesting that, you know, they go through the, they'll go through an environmental review. |
| 01:53:41.28 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:53:53.06 | Mark Van Gorder | And You know, I very frequently have heard projects paused or stopped. If there are species found in in trees that where we feel like the work is going to be Well, I mean, it's just they're protected. So we have to abide by those laws and we have to notify and we have to pause. And so we do have those protections in place and inspections. And yeah, that's part of almost any project that we do. Austin, I don't know if you want to add on more to that. |
| 01:54:24.44 | Austin Sharp | No, I think you did. I think you covered it. Obviously, we have a field specialist. |
| 01:54:30.18 | Mark Van Gorder | I'm sorry, I just heard the question. So the encroachment permit, we need to get the encroachment permit. We don't apply for tree permits to do tree work because again, the CPUC, |
| 01:54:36.36 | Austin Sharp | Yeah, that's the thing. |
| 01:54:45.82 | Mark Van Gorder | Eric Bischoffer, Ph.D.: dictates the work that we have to do and where we have to do it, so what we try to do is we try to do more of notifications in public rights of way to the city and that's why I said we collect that information. Eric Bischoffer, Ph.D.: I don't know Austin I don't know what other permits would be required for this project and not from not many others. |
| 01:55:03.41 | Austin Sharp | No. Thank you. |
| 01:55:04.74 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:55:04.79 | Austin Sharp | I'm not familiar with any others, especially with it being in a public right of way. |
| 01:55:05.03 | Ian Sobieski | you |
| 01:55:08.74 | Ian Sobieski | Just one last question. I think last time we had asked, but you didn't know yet. What's the estimated cost of the upgrade? And do you already have funding for it? Or has the funding been approved? |
| 01:55:18.01 | Austin Sharp | I believe we already shared this information. I believe the approximate cost, and I'd have to look back, was around $8 million. Yes, it's all fun. |
| 01:55:27.62 | Mark Van Gorder | I have to admit that information we shared in multiple conversations, we talked about what would be the cost and what could we do for it. So that was a whole undergrounding conversation. I don't have those numbers in front of me. And I don't know if since that time, because it's been a period of years. costs go up over time for projects. So we could probably try and get that, but I have no idea at the moment what that is. |
| 01:55:52.21 | Ian Sobieski | I mean, because I know that in my own mailbox, I was notified my PG&E rates are going to be going up this year. Does this particular project, will this have any impact on the rates for residents who are getting the upgrade? |
| 01:56:04.90 | Mark Van Gorder | No, this project will not specifically impact the residents who, you know, if they see this work going on, there is an expected rate increase that the CPUC just approved through the general rate case. That is completely unrelated to this project. |
| 01:56:06.01 | Ian Sobieski | this, |
| 01:56:06.35 | Chris White | probably. |
| 01:56:06.52 | Ian Sobieski | I don't know. |
| 01:56:06.55 | Chris White | Thank you. |
| 01:56:06.59 | Ian Sobieski | Check it out. |
| 01:56:21.08 | Austin Sharp | And just for a little context, the actual cost of a rate or a project or anything is spread across all rate payers at PG&E. There is no targeted, you know, hey, we do a project in Sausalito. This will impact rates within Sausalito by X amount. you |
| 01:56:39.31 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. So I understand that we think we all understand and are noticeably disappointed that we won't be able to underground through this project. However, we have heard from you that, and we've heard from your CEO, that resilience and climate change adaptation our key goals for PG&E going forward. and that you are committing more resources than you have to almost any other community in this outreach program. So what I'm wondering is, is there more that we can gain together through your outreach efforts that might help at least educate our community around some of their own solar options, around some steps they might take for fire prevention with regards to these improvements? Has there been any thought beyond just we're putting a poll in front of your house about the role that PG&E might play in your shared goal and our shared goal of creating more resiliency and being more climate friendly? And is that something we could maybe work with you on in some of your outreach? |
| 01:57:35.32 | Austin Sharp | Yeah, Mark, if you don't mind, I'll jump in real quick here. And so I think- |
| 01:57:38.54 | Steven Woodside | Hi, Austin. Jumping right in. Jason. |
| 01:57:41.36 | Austin Sharp | Stop right in. |
| 01:57:41.68 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. All right. Here too, by the way. |
| 01:57:42.42 | Austin Sharp | by the way. OK, go ahead first, please. I'll jump in. So I think From the beginning of this project, really what we've been stressing is that this upgrade provides a lot of avenues for that resiliency and climate kind of stewardship because it will expand the ability to electrify more, bring in more EVs, more EV charging, and really kind of move away from those kind of carbon polluters. So that's one of the big things that we've been trying to stress with this project from the get-go is the enhanced capability of electrification and how it kind of impacts that climate piece. And I think, yeah, there's probably more that we could do. And we could probably talk more about, you know, how are there things, I think, related to what, you know, Council Member Sobieski brought up around, you know, how do we streamline getting people through the Rule 20 process? Or are there other tools that can be used for, you know, how do we streamline getting people through the Rule 20 process? Or are there other tools that can be used for, you know, fire resiliency and things like that? I would say on the solar front, we are not able to provide a lot of guidance there. We do have to leave it open for the solar companies to be able to kind of operate freely. So we are, there are some limits on what we could potentially share around the solar process or solar companies or the use of solar. A lot of that would probably be related to how you go through the interconnection process and things like that. There are probably ways that we could go about partnering on some of those things as we do outreach for this project. But we do want to make sure that our main mission for this is informing the residents. Obviously, they care a lot about their sight lines. They care a lot about what happens in their community. They care a lot about the construction impacts. I'm sure I'll get other questions around environmental impacts, |
| 01:59:28.01 | Austin Sharp | I want to make sure people are aware the project is coming, where the work is taking place, and that they have avenues to get those questions answered. And a lot of what we're doing here are things that we're trying to model with our other programs, because I think we have to acknowledge that, I think someone else mentioned, right, like a poll goes up and no one heard about it or knew what was happening. We have to engage with our residents and our customers and hometowns in a much more kind of organized and proactive fashion. So that's a lot of what we're trying to pilot here. It's a lot of what we're trying to work on. And I think there's probably more ways, more ideas of how we can do that. We're open to any of them. |
| 01:59:54.25 | Unknown | it. |
| 02:00:08.49 | Steven Woodside | I guess what I'm saying is I see an opportunity here for you to use this outreach as a platform for you to start talking more about your resiliency efforts in partnership with us to say this increased electrification will allow for you to have more EV chargers. By the way, as we're clearing your brush, you can think about wildfire season and what the WUI ordinance has, you know, just educational. I would love to talk with you about how that might work because I don't want to miss that opportunity when you're doing so much outreach to our residents and it's in line with our resiliency goals. |
| 02:00:36.32 | Tracy Craig | Of course. And you have my cell phone and I will make myself available at your convenience. I mean, I'll say the one thing that I know just from doing this work for a long time is when you let people when people let you in their home, you have a lot of organic conversations that will obviously spin out into some of those those avenues and topics. And I'll be happy to get information from PG&E that I can share that's in line with what they do and would work with some of your residents. And some of that would be fire resiliency, of course, and figuring out how to clear backyards of extraneous bushes and things. But I'd love to have your input because you know these folks a lot better than I do. So please feel free to call me and I will come over here and meet with you in person. |
| 02:01:20.80 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Do we have other questions? Oh, were you going to say something Austin? I couldn't tell. Do we have other questions from the dais before we open this up for public comment? Councilmember Hoffman, please. |
| 02:01:21.56 | Jill Hoffman | Ghosts. |
| 02:01:32.26 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:01:32.27 | Jill Hoffman | one final opportunistic request. I have a neighbor who has been trying to get a line moved in her house. It goes from the street to her front door, and it's at the top. Yeah. She lives in either phase four or phase six. I can't tell from the map, but she lives at the top of Easterby Street at Woodward. If I called you tomorrow, will you help me find somebody who can come and help move that line? Well, if you call me, |
| 02:02:04.30 | Tracy Craig | Call me tomorrow. I will answer my phone and I will try. I'm not going to make promises, right? Because I think somebody said PG&E is a big company. And so I don't know, but you can call me. I'll answer my phone and I promise I will work with you to try to get attention to the thing. Yeah, I know it's a big company, but you're the only company. |
| 02:02:17.23 | Jill Hoffman | Um, yeah, I know it's a big company, but you're the only person whose phone number I think would actually answer. Well, please. |
| 02:02:22.38 | Tracy Craig | Please call me. Let's finish the test. You can come back and... |
| 02:02:23.15 | Jill Hoffman | Let's, let's, let's finish the test. You can come back and, uh, |
| 02:02:27.27 | Tracy Craig | Report out. But yes. |
| 02:02:28.59 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 02:02:28.82 | Tracy Craig | Absolutely. I would welcome a call from you. |
| 02:02:30.93 | Jill Hoffman | there have been emails, many on this subject. So yeah, I will get, yes. |
| 02:02:33.28 | Tracy Craig | Yeah. them. |
| 02:02:35.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:02:35.20 | Tracy Craig | Sure. |
| 02:02:35.98 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Of course. Of course. |
| 02:02:37.60 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:02:37.97 | Mark Van Gorder | to get out of the way. |
| 02:02:38.04 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. All right, I will now open it up to public comment. Thank you. |
| 02:02:42.04 | Mark Van Gorder | All right. Go find it. |
| 02:02:44.75 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. Once again, if you'd like to speak on this topic, you can, if you're in house, you can hand me one of the speaker's notes. First person, Babette McDougall. |
| 02:03:02.40 | Babette McDougall | Thank you for acknowledging me. I just want to say that this is kind of deja vu for some of us in this room. During the first decade of the 21st century, we had two citizens here in town. who actually, offered to actually bankroll their entire neighborhood for the undergrounding, because that's how keen they were to get these things done. away from the overhead. And there's a second issue that I would like to bring relevant to that. Offering to pay for your neighbors undergrounding can be a very dicey thing. Offering to volunteer your neighbors money for that is also a very dicey thing. Because no sooner did that discussion come up back then. then this council chambers was packed with people who came down from the hill and just said, how dare you? Who do you think you are that you know my finances that well, that you would presume to think that I would be so pleased and so capable to open my checkbook for this amount of money on such short notice for something that I wasn't planning for in my retirement? So, you know, $40,000, $50,000 per household is nothing to sneeze at for most people in this town. All right, that's an item one. And then item two is that in fact about three years ago, four years ago, it was made known that PG&E has a budget for undergrounding. Now let's just track back three or four years ago, that's around 2020, when all those horrible campfires Paradise burned because of PG&E. because of overground overground, hanging wires, just like in my neighborhood. This morning, I tried to take a photograph. It looked like a... It looked like a web. It looked like the kind of net that you fall in when you fall off a tightrope. That's how many wires there are going at sixes and sevens in every direction. And the problem we have, yes, we have fire issues, but we have wind issues. And I think a lot of folks that don't live here don't realize the wind issues and how severe they are. So I'm really skeptical that PG&E isn't bringing more to the table than just their willingness to you know, to enhance our lack of view corridors. Thank you. Thank you, Babette. All right. |
| 02:05:11.55 | Steven Woodside | Right. |
| 02:05:11.63 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker is Karen Culligan. |
| 02:05:15.36 | Steven Woodside | Hi, Kieran. |
| 02:05:24.63 | Karen Culligan | there good evening Um, I'm not gonna start my video. Okay, so quick comments on this one. I live in area one. Just wanna say I have run the math. Being in an old house, old electrical service, I run the math. of what it takes. And basically everyone is going to need a service upgrade if they want to electrify their home, reduce their need for fossil fuels. And so this project is really important in terms of increasing service. So plus one to the mayor's comment of being noticeably disappointed. It's not undergrounding, but we do need this And the other thing I wanted to throw out was, and there's just a huge backlog. So also to Councilmember Hoffman's comment about, I went through the whole process of formally making a request several months ago to increase my electrical service, and there's been zero response. So hopefully this project will make it easier for those things to be approved now that we know that we have more modern technology. infrastructure. So I think there's a lot of goodness there. On permits, take notes. 17.16.070 in the municipal code describes the need for a permit for excavations on recently paved streets. That covers Platt, which is in phase one. So I don't say that as a member or as a person who lives on Platt, sort of, but more importantly, as who thinks about the what it goes into our capital improvement budget like those are really precious funds we just spent good money. David Myers, On on major capital improvements on platinum last year if it's now going to be trenched one I think there's a question if that's even allowed. to be permitted, if you look at 17.16.070. And if we do proceed, I would expect that PG&E is gonna have to make sure that, essentially make sausage a hole on that capital improvement funds that we spent. I know in LA, they required curve to curve repaves whenever there was paving on a recent street. So that's all I got, thanks. |
| 02:07:20.69 | Steven Woodside | guarantee. |
| 02:07:23.14 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. No further speakers. |
| 02:07:25.84 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'll go ahead and close public comment. This is a informational business item. So there's no action to be taken by the council at this time. If we wanted to make additional comments from the dais, that's fine. I would welcome that. |
| 02:07:39.48 | Melissa Blaustein | Could I just ask for an answer to that observation about the paving? What is PG&E's obligation to repave a recently paved street that they need to trench? |
| 02:07:50.77 | Mark Van Gorder | Sure. That's fairly common. So typically that's part of the encroachment permit that we will get from counties, cities, et cetera. It lays out the terms of restoration and totally understood, right? Newly paved streets. I don't know when it was paved, but nonetheless, we were trying to get the pavement condition index up and people want to have their nice, smooth streets. I know I do. and so it's frustrating to folks and so I don't know the gentleman's name but acknowledge him and others who may People want to have their nice, smooth streets. I know I do. And so it's frustrating to folks. And so I don't know the gentleman's name, but acknowledge him and others who may be frustrated to see a newly paved street where we need to come in and perform some trenching. uh, again, work with the public works director, work with the public works staff inspectors, and, uh, will restore the street, you know, per those requirements. It's a very, I don't want to make it sound like it's not important. It is, but it's also fairly, it's a very common, um, thing that we have to do in all the jurisdictions that we work in. |
| 02:08:48.49 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Mark. Okay, do we have further comments from the dais or does everyone I think we weighed in quite a bit, but I wanted to make sure. Okay. Thank you very much to our friends at PG&E for being with us this evening, and we truly appreciate it. And we will now move on to item 5B, which is discussion and direction to staff regarding potential extension of creative digital agency marketing contract with the city. And our community development director, Mr. Brandon Phibbs, is here. to present this item. |
| 02:09:16.30 | Unknown | it. |
| 02:09:16.52 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. in collaboration with a few members of the Economic Development Advisory Committee, whom we will be hearing from as well. |
| 02:09:22.94 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you very much, Mayor, and good evening, Mayor, Council members, member of the public, and staff. Glad to be here this evening, as always, to introduce Item 5B related to the potential extension of Creative Digital Agency's marketing contract with the City of Sausalito. This item is coming before you now as the agreement, Council on City Management previously authorized for a two-year marketing plan with Creative Digital Agency expired on October 10 of this year. As such, staff are seeking direction from council on whether city council will extend CDA's marketing contract. And if so... for what period of time? So to complement this item, we are joined this evening by both Scott Thornburg and Tom Riley. Thank you for being here this evening. We'll be giving a short presentation on the positive impact this marketing contract has had on the city. Some of those impacts, I'll just mention, have already been summarized on the staff report. But before I give them the floor, I wanted to briefly summarize the marketing assets that are currently in use by the city, as well as the Chamber of Commerce. The first of those assets, I think we all know fairly well, is the official City of Sausalito website. That website is paid for by the city and managed by staff. Accessible from the official city website is another marketing asset that is the Sausalito Currents newsletter. The newsletter is managed by staff and is distributed to a listserv of approximately 5,000 email addresses that include both residents and businesses in the city. Based on metrics provided by our director of communications and city librarian, Abbott Chambers, the newsletter is opened by approximately 300 unique individuals every week. So those numbers are quite good, in my opinion. In total, the estimated cost to operate both the city website and the current newsletter is just over $60,000. This is primarily based on cost of staff time, and that is an annual figure. Another city marketing asset is Destination Sausalito. This website is owned and paid for by the city, but managed by Kimber Communications. It is intended to provide information to visitors and groups on Sausalito businesses, focused on assisting visitors in building an itinerary when they visit this beautiful city. The cost of the city to manage this particular marketing asset is approximately $18,000 per year. The last two assets are managed by the Chamber of Commerce. Those are 1. the official Chamber of Commerce website. which provides chamber members news and updates and to the visit socialita website, which is intended to promote tourism and highlight active chamber members. The city does not pay for either of those websites, as well as their management. |
| 02:12:06.61 | Unknown | you |
| 02:12:07.85 | Brandon Phipps | In total. The estimated cost to the city to run our city website, the Currents newsletter, and the destination Sausalito website is approximately $79,000 per year. For reference, the estimated cost to the city to continue CDA's contract is around $75,000 per year. And that's based on the last two-year agreement that was entered into between the city and CDA. With that said, I will give the floor to Mr. Thurnberg, And Mr. Riley. And thank you again for being here this evening. |
| 02:12:43.53 | Steven Woodside | Director Phipps, did you mean 3,000 unique opens or 300 unique opens on the conference? |
| 02:12:48.20 | Brandon Phipps | I hope I said 3,000. |
| 02:12:49.32 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. you You said 300. |
| 02:12:50.30 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you so much for clarifying that. Thank you. The answer is 3,000, which is much better than 300. |
| 02:12:52.19 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:12:55.78 | Steven Woodside | Great. Thank you. |
| 02:12:56.99 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. Scott, come on down. |
| 02:13:03.73 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. Can we get the deck that I sent over last week that has EDAC slides? This is the marketing report. What we're seeing here is the marketing report from CDA. What I'd like to share with you is EDAC's recommendations and a few highlights of what they have shared previously. |
| 02:13:25.75 | Steven Woodside | Right? |
| 02:13:29.92 | Scott Thornburg | So while Walford's pulling this up, I'll just mention, I think this is a really important project. And thank you all for taking the time and staying up late this evening to listen and discuss this. Just as a reminder, a lot of the work that we have been doing is to drive TOT and sales taxes, which go directly into our general fund and can be used to fund resident services and all of the other projects that you continually get asked for on a week-by-week basis. So that is the goal and purpose of the Economic Development Advisory Committee, is to help drive economic development in the city to fund those kinds of initiatives. So let's go ahead to the next slide, please. This is just some really quick background just to mention that the CDA was hired at the request of the council. I was not involved in that decision. EDAC was consulted, but ultimately the decision to hire this firm was made by the city council at the time. We have been managing that contract in partnership with some staff members, and staff has been really helpful in us doing that. We would love to increase the collaboration with staff going forward. But just as a, we can go to the next slide, please, Walford. Thank you. This is really where we've been focusing. So improving resiliency by targeting regional visitors versus international day visitors. We really want people to stay longer and spend more money in our city. highlighting Sausalito events and experiences. So helping them to, again, build an itinerary that would encourage them to stay longer and do more things, see more businesses, support more businesses. And finally, encourage, like I mentioned, extending their stays to fill hotel rooms, restaurants, and shops. So this is again where we see the greatest return on those dollars spent. So next slide, please. A few quick results. I'm not going to go through all of these, but we've seen a number of articles, and this is all included in CDA's report, where they outline specifically more than 1,300 press articles generated in positive coverage for the city of Sausalito. In my 15 or so years of professional public relations experience, I will tell you that that is exceptional for the amount of investment that we're putting in. And so I've been very pleased with their results there, in addition to some of the best of articles that we're seeing here that really highlight all of Saucedo's best features. So next slide, please. |
| 02:15:54.91 | Sergio Rudin | Bye. |
| 02:16:07.60 | Scott Thornburg | As a factor of consideration for this, we've seen a number of local businesses submit letters in support. I did not see that included as a part of your agenda tonight, but I know that many businesses have included letters of support, so I wanted to highlight just a few of those here. I won't read these for you, but there are comments here from Michael Lappert, who owns a number of businesses in town. Savannah Silvestre, who owns Z who owns a number of businesses in town, Savannah Suvestre, who owns Zalta and a number of other businesses in town. Justine Khan, who owns Botany Skin Care, who's operating out of the Marin ship. Teresa Ancona, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and part of the team at Angelino, owner and team. Cass Green at In Above Tide. And then you'll also see Mitch Perkins, who, in partnership with the Economic Development Advisory Committee, launched the Sausalito Boat Show for the first time ever. And we saw great successes there. So this is just a sampling of the comments we've received. I know many of you have seen those directly. Next slide, please. And I'll move quick through these two pieces, but just to say, when you look at how the state of California is performing financially as we come back from the pandemic, when you look at how wider Bay Area, Marin County, and so on, and some of our counterparts are performing, Sausalito is outperforming them financially. We see that we are getting an increase of TOT taxes and sales taxes over and above what we would have seen in 2019 pre-pandemic levels. And we're really pleased to see that. So on the next slide, you'll see that from those dollars that are driven by tourism, what we can track and what we are able to track without partnering with a city contractor like HDL to go through the specific numbers. But what we are able to determine from city revenue statements is that when you look at the amount of revenue driven directly by TOT taxes and so on, and you factor in the percentage of growth between 2019 and 2023, We see that, excuse me, 2022 to 2023. We see the yearly difference of an increase of about 2.7 million dollars. increase in TOT plus sales tax and use tax revenue. So this is all broken out in other documents that were included in the agenda. So if you want to go into those specific numbers, that is all there, and I'm happy to clarify as much of this as I can. I know there are some questions, so I'll stop there, and happy to answer any questions you have. |
| 02:18:59.52 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. Did we get it? Looks like director Phipps is coming back up to the. to the... |
| 02:19:06.73 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. Yeah, please. So I do have a staff recommendation in connection with this item, so I just wanted to close it out. Our recommendation is that Council extend the CDA contract for three to four months and consider potential additional CDA contract extensions at their 2024 City Council priority session meeting in concert with other committee and commission budget requests. So as part of this process, I just want to state if the contract is extended, Stephan, tend to work more closely with EDAC and CDA in order to increase performance metric tracking associated with their actions and have those actions more specifically described on future monthly invoices. I will also note that the recommendation does not provide a specific extension timeline as as we have not yet settled on the exact date that Council will hold their 2024 priority session. So my understanding is that the meeting will be held sometime in late January or early February 2024. So with that in mind... And considering the October 10 contract expiration, three-month extension extends the contract to January 10. A four-month extension extends the contract to February 10. And I will also note that one of staff's alternative recommendations to the city council is for council to direct staff to investigate potentially streamlining the city's marketing approach. Considering the multiple marketing assets the city and other organizations like the chamber currently utilize to market the city's marketing approach, considering the multiple marketing assets the city and other organizations like the chamber are currently utilized to market the city. And this recommendation, of course, can occur in concert with any of the other staff recommendations included on the report. So with that in mind, thank you for your time this evening, and I am able to answer any questions, and Scott and Tom are here as well. |
| 02:20:18.56 | Chris Zapata | and |
| 02:20:55.84 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much, Director Phipps. I'll bring it back up to the dais for questions. I see that Councilmember Cox would like to get us started, so please. |
| 02:21:02.08 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I heard you say that the contract ended October 10. has CDA been providing any services between then and now? |
| 02:21:13.00 | Scott Thornburg | Yes, they have. Thank you. And I meant to mention that. So in our discussions with the CDA team, they have continued to support the city, even though the city has not committed to pay them. Thank you. But they have continued to support the city in good faith for the last little over a month. So since the contract expired on October 10th, they have continued to support the city. Because as you all know, we are going into what is our slow season in Sausalito. So our businesses need us the most right now. And so they have been a good partner in continuing to help us as we determine what we're going to do next. |
| 02:21:51.34 | Joan Cox | And are they planning to charge us if we approve this item for this month or so that they've been continuing to work on? |
| 02:22:00.42 | Scott Thornburg | I would hope that we would want to pay them for their good work. So I would hope that the city would consider compensating them for the work that they have done for the last two months. So that would be my request. They have not indicated that they are expecting that the city pay them. I directed them to... Because we didn't know where things were going to go tonight. So we, we, we had a very candid conversation about that, but they have continued to partner and have not asked for any payment as a, as in those conversations. |
| 02:22:37.09 | Joan Cox | And what is the Chamber of Commerce's position on this renewal? They are supportive. Other than the president, what about the CEO? |
| 02:22:42.20 | Scott Thornburg | There's still... |
| 02:22:44.92 | Joan Cox | you |
| 02:22:44.94 | Scott Thornburg | So they are supportive and they did submit a letter of support to the council where they outlined their hope in alignment with what Director Phipps has mentioned, that they would like to better understand some of the KPIs. As you know, we have a new Chamber of Commerce CEO who we are rapidly getting up to speed and has become a good partner. We are hoping to partner more closely with the chamber and her Daryl as we as we continue this project so that they really understand how we are partnering with them on this initiative. |
| 02:23:19.43 | Joan Cox | And the city is considering adoption of a downtown BID. When and if that occurs, would the marketing efforts for the downtown move from the city to the BID? Is that what you would anticipate? |
| 02:23:36.54 | Scott Thornburg | Yes, that is our goal. So as of right now, as a part of this project, the scope of this project includes all of Sausalito. And so to date, we have supported all Sausalito businesses that are interested in partnering with us. And we've distributed information on how to partner with us through the Chamber newsletter and through the current newsletters. And so we are recommending, though, that as a continuation of this project, where we are specifically driving longer stay visitors that would increase TOT taxes and so on. In other words, those visitors that are staying longer, spending more money and so on, that work would be transferred to the BID. Yes, the BID. We believe that is the best path forward for those businesses downtown to have a very direct influence in the marketing that supports our historic downtown district. |
| 02:24:35.20 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:24:37.63 | Ian Sobieski | Councilman McKillman. Thank you, Scott. Thank you so much for all your hard work and taking on the role as chair now. So just everything you've done behind the scenes here. So what I'm hoping we could kind of talk about tonight a little bit is just a more holistic conversation about what we as a city are doing to promote our businesses and tourism. So the staff report laid out five different avenues that we are participating in. And you were CC'd on an email as was, um, as our finance director, Chad, where the chamber indicated they currently spend about 50k on the Chamber website and and, indicated that they would want the city to help them spend even more. help me prioritize what's in the staff report. |
| 02:25:28.12 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:25:29.08 | Ian Sobieski | help me figure out what is the most effective of those five things. What is the most effective? And if we can only spend money on one or two, What are they? Because from my perspective, I want to speak from my colleagues, there seems to be a lot of duplication. And when I hear that, no, this one promotes visitors, but no, this one promotes businesses, I don't know why, you know, I understand audiences for, for, um, for websites, but it seems to me that you're promoting your business to a visitor, so I get a little confused. So I'm hoping you could help us identify how we can streamline this because it seems like there's a lot of duplication. |
| 02:26:04.15 | Scott Thornburg | Yeah, thank you for that. And I've worked closely with Brandon, Director Phipps, to clarify some of where there is some perceived redundancy. What I would say is there are very different audiences for those groups, as you said. I do think there's an opportunity to further streamline and more closely partner from the city to the chamber. So when I sort of inherited some of the systems that are in place now, and I do see some opportunities where we could streamline, there were, um decisions made previously by uh by the city uh to establish destination Sausalito uh as a separate entity um and not and they chose at that time not to support the chamber um and its assets um um I think we could explore bringing those together and and uh and and could explore uh combining some of those initiatives um I believe the reason that was done at the time is because not all Sausalito businesses are members of the chamber. So there are some limitations and in the chamber is their first priority is to their membership. So there is some discrepancy there between, you know, who would be supported. But I do think that in terms of bringing in high value tourism, our goals are very much aligned. And so I would be very supportive and I think they would be very supportive as well. of at least considering some alignment and bringing some of those resources together. So I think there is room there, and I think we could potentially consolidate resources in that way. |
| 02:27:46.92 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. And do you think it's fair to list the City of South Dakota website and current newsletter as a marketing asset in the same breadth of looking at the CDA contract? Are they... |
| 02:27:58.48 | Scott Thornburg | I don't. And I would say the reason is because the audiences are very different. So the city of Sausalito website is really the Sausalito.gov is really the official city website that is for official city business. |
| 02:27:59.39 | Ian Sobieski | I'm not sure. |
| 02:28:12.72 | Scott Thornburg | The Currents newsletter primarily goes to, let me say it this way. The information that's in the Currents newsletter is geared toward residents and business owners that do business in Sausalito, or those that are involved in Sausalito policy. In other words, tourists and visitors that would be coming in to spend a week in Sausalito, spend a long weekend here, are not reading Currents. I think Avid does a really fantastic job, by the way, in reaching our communities. but it is really a community outreach effort here. not outside of this community. |
| 02:28:48.14 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. CDA gave us this 38-page slide deck, and it's a very attractive slide deck, but I kept looking for you know, a return, the ROI on a per dollar basis. And one of the things that we've talked about, and so I'm going to ask you here, is this recovery comparison is, is interesting, but it's not the same as showing me sales tax data. from pre-COVID |
| 02:29:11.63 | Unknown | from, |
| 02:29:13.60 | Ian Sobieski | post COVID. That tells me exactly how much money was spent in my town. When I look at recovery data, I don't know what other communities are doing or not doing. And so it's hard for me to attribute that to anyone's source. So I know Chad is, I think, still probably on the video, so it's not quite fair to ask you this, but does anybody have some data for me to compare sales tax data from pre-COVID 2017 and 2019 against post-COVID 2022, 2023? |
| 02:29:41.61 | Scott Thornburg | Well, while Chad weighs in here, I'll just mention that our understanding was that a contractor that we were using, HDL, had that tax data. We did not submit requests to them directly as that would incur consulting fees. So we worked with the information that we had, but we would be also very keen to have that data so that we have transparent metrics. |
| 02:30:03.72 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. And then, so then my last rapid fire, just what was the most productive channel that CDA utilized? What was the least productive? And what's the ROI of each incremental dollar spent? |
| 02:30:14.17 | Scott Thornburg | Um, that's a great question. So let me answer the first part first. Um, I would say, um, a lot of the work that they did of the last two years is in PR. So driving these best of articles, top 10 destination types of types of articles that, um, uh, I think have been really effective, um, I would say the second one, along those same lines, you look at a hotel in town like In Above Tide that contributes almost a million dollars a year in TOT taxes into the city. They've been very clear to say that they do a lot of their own marketing, but that the work of CDA to specifically in social media has reached a new demographic for them. And they're very grateful to the city because of helping them reach this new demographic. And so I'd say that's a second one. In terms of what's worked the least, I would say we've not spent as much money in paid advertising. That's an area where I think the city could do more. But frankly, we don't have the budgets for that. So we haven't really invested there. They use our paid advertising very specifically to promote events when we were trying to drive attendance. And that was effective, but we just didn't have the dollars to really invest properly. So your second question in terms of, the ROI, dollar spent per dollar gained, I think is gonna be better answered probably by the finance director who has that specific tax data. That's where we're going to be able to really calculate that. |
| 02:31:40.52 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. Thank you, really helpful. And then Director Phipps, maybe a question for you ultimately is how are you interacting with this contract? How are you directing this work? How does the information come to you to drive policy decisions from within City Hall? |
| 02:31:54.74 | Brandon Phipps | Sure. I mean, I think the answer is we look forward to continuing to collaborate with the new leadership on EDAC. And, you know, frankly, I haven't really dug into the details of CDA's contract and the work that they do in the time that I've been here. But if it is council's will that we extend CDA's contract, and as stated, I would really like to work. closely with both EDAC and CDA to ensure that any assets that are deployed, as far as marketing is concerned, are deployed responsibly and efficiently. |
| 02:32:25.07 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. And I think I saw a finance director Thank you. |
| 02:32:29.23 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. you're a |
| 02:32:30.33 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. I would charge. |
| 02:32:31.70 | Angeline Loeffler | I Yeah, so I do have access to historical sales tax data. that I can certainly download and prepare a report for you and others. . for next council meeting, if that would be. something you'd like to say. |
| 02:32:45.37 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, sorry, you can't just push a button and it comes up. Okay, no problem, no problem. No, no problem. |
| 02:32:47.93 | Unknown | No problem. I think we'd love to see it. I think we'd all love to see that. So he's not a magician. Yeah, he is a magician. Thank you, Chad. Thank you. |
| 02:32:52.13 | Brandon Phipps | It's good. |
| 02:32:56.22 | Brandon Phipps | Yeah, and if I might add, I think that that's an excellent comment from counsel that we would really like to integrate those metrics into how we assess success of this contract moving forward. |
| 02:33:07.96 | Steven Woodside | Vice Mayor, you had a question. |
| 02:33:09.90 | Melissa Blaustein | Yes, either for you, Director Phipps, or you, Jared Thornberg. Did the CDA have any role in Sausalito being named by Travel and Leisure magazine as the most beautiful coastal community in California? |
| 02:33:26.00 | Scott Thornburg | Yes, they did. So a lot of those relationships, when we started this process, Sausalito did I would say did not have those media relationships to to get those kinds of stories. And that's a lot of the work that they've been doing is, we didn't really have a lot of marketing assets. Generally, there were no photos, there were no stories, there were no media relationships, which is how those press stories come to life. They don't really just happen anymore. Maybe they once did, but in the last 15 years or so that I've been doing public relations and marketing work, there are individuals really pitching reporters and taking those stories to the media and bringing those stories to life. And that's a lot of the work that they've done. So yes, so I would say they definitely had a hand in generating both that story, travel and leisure, as well as many of the other best of top 10 type articles. |
| 02:34:18.89 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. In the staff report or in the presentation, there's mention of the city website, Destination Sausalito website, Chamber of Commerce website and visit Sausalito website. Can you help me understand the difference between websites and a marketing effort? |
| 02:34:37.97 | Scott Thornburg | Yes, that's a great question. So a website is really, if someone is already searching for Sausalito, then maybe they find us. They can type in their search browser, Sausalito, and we will show up. But let's say that they don't necessarily know where they would be going to visit. than then they may not know what to, they may not specifically search for Sausalito. They may search for a great place to spend a weekend or they may search for a top 10 destination in California because they're trying to build a vacation itinerary And we may lose them to Carmel or we may lose them to Tiburon. even in the wider Bay area, those folks that are aware of what Sausalito has to offer, maybe they do come here, but many of them, what we specifically worked on was bringing in more California regional visitors, bringing people from the Central Valley and so on. And what we found is that a lot of those folks were looking for a weekend getaway. And so, In that competitive set, when we think about weekend getaways, there are a few other cities that are actively marketing their downtowns. And Sausalito was one of those by investing more resources in telling our story and positioning us as a potential destination for that. We are out bidding them or out competing them. when those folks are looking for that kind of a getaway, both regional and other. So in other words, it's the difference between do they already know what they're looking for and we're just giving them the information or are we actively out there trying to bring them in? |
| 02:36:21.47 | Melissa Blaustein | So is it fair to say, given that we have four websites, that the redundancy, first and foremost, is on the website side, not on the marketing side? . |
| 02:36:30.93 | Scott Thornburg | Right. |
| 02:36:31.05 | Melissa Blaustein | Thanks. Thanks. And then you are a marketing expert, yes? Yes. Could you elaborate a little more on your comment? You made it in passing that in your professional assessment, the results that we've seen are exceptional. Can you help elaborate by what you mean and on what basis you're saying that? |
| 02:36:47.91 | Scott Thornburg | and help them out. Sure, so I've spent the last 15 years or so in marketing and public relations. I manage a team of 12 now doing marketing and public relations around the world. And this is, in my opinion, I think this is exceptional results. And just on the PR category alone, where the number of articles, the number of the quality of the articles, I think also is really strong, where we're seeing key initiatives being driven by the city and its partners featured across the country, where we're seeing, you know, the New York Times just did a big piece about ICB. You have, you know, this summer we did a Pride exhibit. We did a launched Sauce Lato's first Pride. CDA was a really key partner in helping us to get the word out for that. You know, we did the boat show CDA was a key partner and helping us to get the word out about that and drive attendance and sales that then supported the city overall. So. When you look at what our priorities are, they've been a really great partner in helping us to support those initiatives. And the results they've delivered as an outcome of that have been really strong. |
| 02:38:01.92 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, thank you. And just for the record, you're a volunteer on EDAC. You're not paid. by CDA and you're not making any money. |
| 02:38:06.35 | Scott Thornburg | Yes. |
| 02:38:08.89 | Melissa Blaustein | in either direction. |
| 02:38:09.38 | Scott Thornburg | Do not make any money. And yes, I'm very much volunteer. |
| 02:38:13.25 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:38:15.36 | Steven Woodside | Other questions from the dais? Councilman Hoffman. |
| 02:38:20.99 | Jill Hoffman | It's not really a question, but thank you. Thank you for coming. I am one of the council liaisons for EDAC, so I've seen this presentation and I've asked many of my questions at EDAC. So thank you for coming. And I have some comments later, but I just wanted to acknowledge that. Thanks. |
| 02:38:37.67 | Ian Sobieski | Mayor, can I just one more follow-up to the Vice Mayor's question? So the issue we're going to have to overcome here is consistency, and we're out of cycle and budget, right? |
| 02:38:39.12 | Jill Hoffman | Sure. |
| 02:38:48.92 | Ian Sobieski | And earlier you identified that if there was any one thing that we potentially were duplicative on was perhaps destination Sassalito. given the, um, returns that you've seen and we're still waiting on the tax dollars. Could one potential option be for us to take that 18K per year and use that to fund the next three months and therefore we're just money's already been budgeted and we're using it with that? Do you think that would hurt the community in terms of sales tax or visitors? |
| 02:39:21.96 | Scott Thornburg | I don't think it would hurt the community and I don't think it would hurt sales tax or visitors. Those are the 18K just to be clear that is going to a different vendor that is going to Kimber communications. It's been managing the city's website through city staff. EDAC doesn't. |
| 02:39:30.53 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:39:30.55 | Ian Sobieski | Uh-huh. |
| 02:39:38.52 | Scott Thornburg | We provide some CDA specifically provides content for the website, and then they are hosting it and managing it on behalf of the city. I do think that it's worth a discussion with the chamber and their team to see if there's a way to collapse some of those efforts into one and double down. I think we would have a greater impact. So whatever the dollars are, it's not, I think we're paying month to month with them now. I don't know if there's an annual contract, at least I have not seen that, but that's worth looking into the city city manager or others may have more information about that. I don't know. |
| 02:40:14.29 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. And I think chat is in there. |
| 02:40:16.06 | Angeline Loeffler | Who has his hand raised? |
| 02:40:16.10 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:40:16.98 | Angeline Loeffler | Hi, Director Hess. |
| 02:40:17.13 | Ian Sobieski | DR. |
| 02:40:18.24 | Angeline Loeffler | Hello. Yeah, so we do pay CDA monthly. as part of their agreement. And then as far as funding for if you decided to extend this for a period of time, I do have sufficient funding in the budget to carry that expense. You were probably more. Just wanted to throw that out there for you guys too. have information on it. |
| 02:40:38.61 | Ian Sobieski | Where's it coming from, Chuck? |
| 02:40:40.09 | Angeline Loeffler | What? It's in the budget. It's already in the fiscal year budget. |
| 02:40:43.06 | Ian Sobieski | So it's already been- |
| 02:40:44.16 | Angeline Loeffler | It's already been allocated in basically your 24 budget. Thank you. |
| 02:40:49.26 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:40:50.17 | Angeline Loeffler | You're welcome. |
| 02:40:53.10 | Steven Woodside | Thank you so much, Scott. I just have a couple of questions before you, and I really appreciate your time on EDAC on this and your expertise. And Director Phipps, thank you as well for your presentation. And I mentioned expertise. So we all seem to be looking for the appropriate KPIs on this investment so we can understand, are we putting in enough money? What are we getting back for it? But, just so, I mean, cause it's not always, having also worked in communications, it's not always numbers, right? Like you can't, there isn't always black and white. Could you maybe give a little bit of an overview similar to the vice mayor's question, but just like, what are some of the measures that you would say and what you've looked at at measuring CDA from EDOC? |
| 02:41:22.42 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:41:22.47 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:41:22.55 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:41:22.57 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 02:41:22.64 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:41:35.46 | Steven Woodside | that we could think about beyond just the number of media hits. |
| 02:41:38.62 | Scott Thornburg | head. you Yeah, that's a great question. So one of the things for me, when I think about is a marketing campaign successful, is when you talk about what is a brand, generally, it's what is top of mind for you when you think of that organization or that city. So that, in my mind, is also what's top of mind and what comes what comes up in conversation and are those conversations increasing? So some of the work that CDA has done, and I think this is buried in, in, in my opinion, a little buried in some of their results where some of the great work that they've done is increasing social media conversations. where you see a significant increase, both in terms of the number of followers on those platforms, the quality and cadence of content that's there, but also the number of conversations are increasing overall. So where you see Uh, you know, we would have had a very consistent lower cadence for a long time of people talking about social, uh, Sausalito, all of a sudden you see that jump. Um, and once they've started doing some work, um, and a lot of that just comes down to more there, there's more content out there. They're, they're promoting content on, uh, from local businesses, um, and those conversations overall are, are increasing. So I would say that's another one. Um, and then, like I mentioned with, um. Some of our local businesses like in above time that have said they're, they're reaching new demographics that they've not had access to before. Michael Lappert also very clearly said he's seen more Californians visiting his store, his stores in the last two years than in previous years. So, you know, another one, and we can definitely look at others, but there are more details in the CDA report probably than I can repeat clearly right here. |
| 02:43:26.89 | Steven Woodside | And how do you feel like, because I know EDAC has also been responsible for a number of events in our community, the holiday tree lighting, for instance, how do you feel like CDA's efforts have complemented that, if at all? Are you partnering with them on event promotion or are we seeing these results separately because EDAC is putting that effort into those events, for instance? |
| 02:43:45.47 | Scott Thornburg | Yeah, great question. So CDA has been a very key partner in Holiday by the Bay. We also partner very closely and have become to more increasingly become a more close partner. Can't talk. I'm sorry. It's late at night. We have become a better partner, I would say over time with the parks and rec department, supporting their events. The CDA team has always, since they've started their contract, we have promoted parks and rec events. But in recent months, we've become more closely tied to that team and working with them to promote key events like the Taste of Sausalito, And so on. So we see them as a again as a key partner, not just in helping us to promote it, but also somewhat helping us to package and message those events so pulling together graphics to promote our events, pulling together some of the story promoting it. in a consistent, cohesive manner to show all of what SauceLito has to offer. |
| 02:44:44.97 | Steven Woodside | And I know that the city pays for this and it's separate from the chamber, but how do you plan to partner with the chamber specifically on CDA? And also, how would you use the continuation of this contract as a path to streamline our other marketing initiatives? Yeah. |
| 02:44:57.73 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you. Great question. So the chamber CEO currently has a seat, a liaison seat with EDAC. Now that the new chamber CEO is in place and she's getting her feet under her, we are working more closely with her every day. We have a good relationship already and we hope that that's going to continue. We sincerely hope that we can continue to partner as we have been. And that seems to be their intent as well. So we would like to partner as we have been. And that seems to be their intent as well. So we would like to partner with them and look for ways to streamline. and support all of Saucelito. We are in the firm camp of, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats. And when our goals are aligned, it seems like it's a natural place to start to partner together and come together on supporting all of those businesses in Saucelito. |
| 02:45:44.17 | Steven Woodside | And one more question, just as someone who has seen the price points in the industry, would you say that this is a fairly appropriate cost differential? Are we getting a good deal? What is the average cost? Maybe it would be helpful for folks to know what a monthly retainer is for an aggressive public relations firm, for example. |
| 02:46:02.02 | Scott Thornburg | Yeah, so the firm that I worked at previously would very famously say, we don't get out of bed for less than $20,000 a month. So I think you're getting a great deal. So we're paying them, you know, $75,000 a year. And I think you're getting a really good deal for the amount of work that they're putting in. This firm specializes in small destinations like Sausalito that have something unique to offer. And they do a great job of telling that story. |
| 02:46:32.46 | Steven Woodside | Thanks a lot. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and open it up to public comment unless there are any final questions from, okay. All right. So we'll open it up to public comment. Thank you again very much to Scott and to Tom and Director Phipps. |
| 02:46:44.44 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, we'll start with Alex Kashuk. |
| 02:46:56.03 | Alexander Woie | Hello. I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all the hard work and great work you've done. You know, you could have this beautiful town, but if you don't package it and distribute it properly, nobody will know about it. And, you know, every week when I read the newsletter, I think to myself, oh my God, this is so much work and all the marketing that's been done. The only other thing I want to contribute is, you know, I just, I think I have the right team here and they could get it to the right people, is what I'm finding the way we travel and most of our friends travel is where our friends have been on Instagram. So the, you know, we see where they've been and then we go, oh, we, you know, we remember, oh, we've been meaning to go there and we go there. You know, this new ferry landing, I know it's controversial to add anything else to it so i won't but that that area is very beautiful with san francisco in the background and maybe some art piece with a photo opportunity with sausalito on it i bet most people would take a photo with that and put it on their instagram or something like that um |
| 02:46:56.27 | Unknown | I just. |
| 02:47:57.39 | Alexander Woie | Anyways, thank you for all your hard work. It's really showing. When I read that article, I knew there was a big PR push behind that. It was beautifully done. So thank you. |
| 02:48:06.91 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. |
| 02:48:09.73 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, next person, Babette McDougall. |
| 02:48:19.57 | Babette McDougall | a bit. Thank you for acknowledging me. I actually would like to echo what the previous speaker just said. I actually believe that Your group needs a big shout out. When I look at the currents and I see all these media placements, I think, Who did that? This is really cool. So thanks for making those little reports, because that's really hard work. And you've obviously been doing a good job. I also want to speak about the websites because I've gotten so many people that have gotten in touch with me and they've asked this basic question. Like, where do all these new websites actually come from? Who owns them? And why do they only show Sausalito as a developed shoreline? They don't show the natural shorelines at all. They only show infill. That's a little frightening. Actually, a lot of people in town. asked me, do you think ABag and MTC are responsible for these websites? And I said, I don't know. I don't think so, but I don't know. Somebody's putting up those websites. Nobody claims ownership. And when you click through and try to find out who the organizations are, they're mostly just empty pages. which is unfortunate because like this, Winterfest website. What are they calling it? Sausalito Water Fountain. And like all of these websites, a lot of them give impressions that they are organized businesses either for or not for profit, one or the other. Um, one would assume that if one is soliciting fundraising, that there is most certainly a 501c3 tool in place There should be a tax ID number in place. None of these websites have any of that, and yet they're all inviting contributions. So I'd just like to put that out there for future polish. Thank you. |
| 02:50:03.48 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. |
| 02:50:04.02 | Walfred Solorzano | to |
| 02:50:04.21 | Steven Woodside | She's a good one. |
| 02:50:04.28 | Walfred Solorzano | you Okay, and then on Zoom we have... |
| 02:50:06.92 | Steven Woodside | One more in the, we have, Alice would like to make public comment in this chamber. |
| 02:50:18.08 | Alice Merrill | Thank you very much. I just anecdotally, I'm working at drivers for the past, what, 10 or something years. I can say that it's amazing how many people are there from California, not from far away. And I, cause I'm always saying now, where are you from? Are you a visitor? And, and yeah, they're coming from California. So there you go. Thank you, Alice. |
| 02:50:42.89 | Walfred Solorzano | Now, Teresa Ancona. |
| 02:50:45.18 | Steven Woodside | Bye, Teresa. |
| 02:50:52.52 | Teresa Ancona | Hi, how are you this evening? Hey. So I just wanted to let you know that this evening I'll be speaking on behalf of myself as chair of the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber Board, and our president and CEO, Daryl Nymerow, as well. And I just want to express our support and our advocacy of the continued funding and resources from the city for a marketing initiative like CDA. These kinds of programs help to support our local businesses and our community. With that being said, we also believe in tracking metrics for quality control and best practices to monitor the city's return on investment. We would recommend an evaluation and progress report to reassess in six months how the marketing that is progressing. We also feel that a collaboration will help reduce redundancies as well as streamline time and limited resources. and help to increase the marketing impact. Thank you. |
| 02:52:02.38 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much, Teresa. |
| 02:52:06.94 | Walfred Solorzano | Seeing no further comment. |
| 02:52:08.41 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'll go ahead and close public comment at this time. And I'm just going to start off by making a motion just to be effective. Given that we heard from our finance director that we have already budgeted this through March and that's a six month period. And the recommendation from the chamber is six months. I'm going to move to approve the CDA contract for a period of, of six months with the consideration of yes. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I'm just going to go ahead and put that motion on the table. If there's a second or friendly amendments, I would welcome those. And we can have a discussion. |
| 02:52:38.87 | Chris White | I'll. |
| 02:52:39.31 | Ian Sobieski | Mind if we hear from Chad first? |
| 02:52:40.96 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:52:40.98 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. |
| 02:52:40.99 | Steven Woodside | GO AHEAD, JUDGE. |
| 02:52:42.80 | Angeline Loeffler | Yes. So I do have sales tax data, historical sales tax data that I can share. Oh. |
| 02:52:48.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:52:48.89 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. |
| 02:52:48.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:52:49.01 | Angeline Loeffler | What I wanted to do is get you like geographical so I can break the city down. |
| 02:52:49.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:52:49.63 | Steven Woodside | I have. |
| 02:52:49.94 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:52:53.55 | Steven Woodside | Sergio just came on here as if there's something wrong with you sharing the historical sales text data. So let's just let our city attorney chime in real quick. Go ahead. |
| 02:53:00.62 | Sergio Rudin | No, I was going to comment on the on the form of motion, given given that this is agendized as Uh, discussion and direction. Um, to staff regarding potential extension and the underlying agreement expired in October. I do think the staff would need to bring you back a revised contract. There's not a contract in your agenda packet for approval this evening. |
| 02:53:20.68 | Unknown | not. Thank you. |
| 02:53:23.59 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 02:53:23.81 | Sergio Rudin | We would bring that back to you on consent calendar next meeting. |
| 02:53:24.48 | Steven Woodside | that we would |
| 02:53:28.41 | Steven Woodside | And I would also note that from October, because it's six months from October through to March, so that would include the past month that we have yet to pay for. |
| 02:53:36.56 | Jill Hoffman | I have a clarifying question for our city attorney. But Sergio, as opposed to that, we could go ahead and approve a three month extension as requested by Director Phipps. |
| 02:53:51.16 | Unknown | Christmas. |
| 02:53:51.97 | Jill Hoffman | To the existing contract, yeah. |
| 02:53:55.40 | Sergio Rudin | Again, There is not a contract that you can actually physically act on in the agenda packet. So short answer is no. We would need to draft an actual agreement for your approval, and we would need to include that in the agenda packet. |
| 02:54:05.17 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:54:05.18 | Unknown | No. |
| 02:54:12.83 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you. Okay. Director Hess, do you want to share the sales tax data? |
| 02:54:19.71 | Angeline Loeffler | Third time. Right. |
| 02:54:21.87 | Steven Woodside | I can't hear you, Director Hess. Can you get a little bit closer to your microphone? |
| 02:54:24.81 | Angeline Loeffler | Yeah, can you guys hear me better now? |
| 02:54:26.75 | Steven Woodside | Yes, thank you. |
| 02:54:27.75 | Angeline Loeffler | Awesome, all right. So are you guys able to see my screen at this point? |
| 02:54:30.56 | Steven Woodside | There's no way I can see this. |
| 02:54:32.64 | Angeline Loeffler | make it bigger. |
| 02:54:34.19 | Steven Woodside | I see the direction |
| 02:54:35.03 | Angeline Loeffler | graph though and it looks good. Okay. So what I have here, let me just hide a little bit of information here just to start with. So what I have is I have all of our sales tax revenue They are negative numbers just because I export a general ledger data. Revenues are credits represented as a negative number. So don't let that scare you. Here you can see the revenues from 2016 through last year, 2023. Um, to answer the question that Councilmember Kettleman had. from 2019. to 2023, there was a $1.2 million increase in overall sales tax revenue. Now, part of that increase is capturing some measure L sales tax So part of that increase is attributable to that. I'm not sure. Right here in this green box, you can see the We make it green. These are the annual changes. the annual changes that are taking place, during that period. So you can see that you know, from 20, Fiscal year 19 to 20, there was a to $200,000 increase. Last year, sale tax revenues were slightly down, about 100,000 simply due to a slow-awing economy. sales tax revenue is projected by HDL to remain flat. in this coming year as well. um, Let me show the graph. real quick down here. overall sales tax is what I said. Say that again. Yeah, sales tax overall is increasing with that minor drop-off. |
| 02:56:04.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:56:04.37 | Chris Zapata | Yeah. |
| 02:56:09.00 | Angeline Loeffler | of about 100,000 for fiscal year 23. |
| 02:56:14.92 | Steven Woodside | Great. So what that demonstrates is that clearly, well, we can't necessarily, mathematics would tell us that we can't direct, but it is clear that our sales tax revenues have significantly increased in the last three years. Yeah. |
| 02:56:28.98 | Angeline Loeffler | And I would like to get more information for council. I can get geographic data that breaks the town into different zones. And I can give you an analysis based on that. |
| 02:56:29.23 | Steven Woodside | And I... |
| 02:56:35.54 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:56:35.59 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 02:56:37.73 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. |
| 02:56:37.75 | Ian Sobieski | And Chad, can you also just articulate the source just so |
| 02:56:37.87 | Angeline Loeffler | Thanks, man. |
| 02:56:41.21 | Ian Sobieski | again, this is for the record. Some of us know this already, where that 90K in the non-departmental account is for funding money. |
| 02:56:47.32 | Angeline Loeffler | No. Yeah. |
| 02:56:47.76 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:56:47.81 | Angeline Loeffler | Yes. So within our fiscal year 24 budget, I set aside a $90,000 budget for general marketing. So that includes our the EDA contract that was ongoing. I didn't know that it was expiring when I came in at last minute to put this budget together. So it's there. We've got dollars available. in a non-departmental account. It's not part of a department but it's available in the fiscal year 24 budget out of the general fund. So you do have sufficient resources that are budgeted. and allocated to business development marketing efforts. They are not earmarked for CDA. You could choose to spend them on any general business development, economic development endeavor you choose. those dollars are available as of today. |
| 02:57:38.20 | Jill Hoffman | Chad, as a follow-up too, I mean, We're getting ready to do our prioritization and there are always projects, capital improvement and otherwise that we have to say no to because we don't, we're just out of money. We're out of budget. Thank you. |
| 02:57:49.91 | Babette McDougall | Yeah. |
| 02:57:49.96 | Jill Hoffman | All right. |
| 02:57:49.98 | Babette McDougall | Yeah. |
| 02:57:49.99 | Jill Hoffman | So to say that we have money in the budget, We have it in a column for marketing or however it is we have it, but that's the point of the prioritization exercise is to decide whether or not we're going to keep the money in different buckets and what we're going to use it for. I think we're maybe getting a little bit confused up here that when you say you've already allocated the money, I think that the assumption was that rightly or wrongly, that the money had been allocated for the CDA contract, even though the council hadn't acted on it and we hadn't appropriated |
| 02:58:27.30 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. So it's available in the budget for just general business development marketing activities. It is not committed or assigned to any specific vendor or contract. |
| 02:58:41.71 | Steven Woodside | the vice mayor. |
| 02:58:42.54 | Angeline Loeffler | You can pull it back and say, I don't want to spend it on marketing either. You can say, I want to put it in rows. when we do our mid-year budget. |
| 02:58:48.87 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, you faded off there. I'm sorry. |
| 02:58:51.38 | Angeline Loeffler | you THE FAMILY. |
| 02:58:52.19 | Jill Hoffman | So theoretically, it's in our budget. It's unallocated. So as part of our prioritization, we can reallocate that money to a higher priority, should we so wish. |
| 02:58:52.23 | Angeline Loeffler | So- |
| 02:59:01.95 | Angeline Loeffler | You sure can. Yes. During the mid-year budget, you could say, Chad, I don't want to spend that much on marketing business development. Put it towards roads. |
| 02:59:10.42 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, thanks. So I would just like to move the conversation forward by seconding the motion to extend the CDA contract from its expiration date, six months. So I think- |
| 02:59:22.97 | Joan Cox | We can't make that motion. I'm sorry. |
| 02:59:24.12 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm sorry. |
| 02:59:25.62 | Steven Woodside | the day. |
| 02:59:25.88 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:59:25.98 | Steven Woodside | So I amended the motion to direct staff to bring forward the contract for an extension of up to six months. |
| 02:59:26.79 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Most of the time. obviously bringing it back on consent is the detail I think you're referring to, right? Yeah, that's of course. Yeah. |
| 02:59:36.22 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:59:36.56 | Melissa Blaustein | So with that in mind, bring back on consent an extension of the contract for six months past the date of expiration. |
| 02:59:36.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:59:43.97 | Joan Cox | And may I ask for a clarification to the motion? There was mention made about the availability of monies allocated elsewhere, such as Kimber Communications. I'd like to save that. dialogue for another day and just focus tonight. on CDA without identifying, without reducing resources spent elsewhere at this time. |
| 03:00:05.65 | Steven Woodside | I would add a friendly amendment then to say, and direct staff to discuss streamlining of all marketing operations as we priority set for the 2024 year. Thank you. |
| 03:00:14.88 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. In May, I asked the Vice Mayor, the recommendation from staff was three to four months. What was your basis for a longer period of time? |
| 03:00:23.28 | Melissa Blaustein | the Chamber's recommendation, really. It's really about giving the sufficient time. I mean, six months is what the Chamber recommended, so that's why. |
| 03:00:38.35 | Jill Hoffman | So let me follow up on that then. So we have a staff report. And I think the staff recommendation is not to extend this for six months. The staff recommendation, I think, was to extend it for three months. to get it to our prioritization hearing. so that we wouldn't make a decision tonight |
| 03:00:58.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:00:59.06 | Jill Hoffman | or, on the consent, whenever it gets on consent, Um, there were, conflict with what our prioritization exercise would be at that hearing, sorry, at that meeting. And also that it would come to us at that meeting with the analysis of you know, what are the redundancies in the marketing efforts as part of that exercise? I think that's a very valuable exercise. And that's something that I've advocated. at the, excuse me, was there something? Did we know? She was just acknowledging me. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no. OK. |
| 03:01:37.85 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:01:39.90 | Jill Hoffman | So it's something that we talked about at EDAC when this came up about extending this contract and my reservations about extending it without it going through the prioritization hearing with everybody else in town who have worthy causes. specifically the Chamber, specifically Sausalito Village Saasliobutiful, they all have projects that enhance our town and that in addition to all of our capital improvement projects. You know, by definition, if you're expending money on one thing, you're subtracting money from somebody else's column. And so the important thing that I hope EDEC would support is that we look at these things holistically and how in a healthy way. at our capital improvement exercise. when we do that prioritization hearing. So I certainly want to support the efforts. I don't want to undermine my support for that and for the success of this exercise with CDA, but I think that it's irresponsible to allocate funds without looking at it, as I said, holistically in the context of our entire budget regardless of whether or not we have money stashed in some account or another. That's the purpose. of the priority setting conference. so that we make decisions based on the priorities at that time. And certainly... the streamlining efforts we've talked about for a long time that we have. And this is the problem, right? We have chamber's going to come to us and ask for money, yet here's a chamber tonight requesting that we extend this contract for six months without justifying it against their own ask. I know they're going to come to at our budget session. So I think that's the more responsible way to do it. I like to do it. in the way that the staff has requested that we do it. they're looking at it also in a holistic way and, the context of the total effort of the city. Certainly, we need additional metrics, and I've asked for those two in the past, which are I know that the different businesses keep that do their own marketing efforts. I know that they also analyze their own marketing efforts. I know that we have credit card information. I have. that might be available to us that would validate the efforts or not validate the efforts. I mean, I'm agnostic on the whole thing, right? Like, I'm trying to make the best decision I can possibly make for the people of Sausalito and how we spend our money. And so the more metrics I have, the better. And certainly also conversion rates with regard to these efforts, how many click throughs do you have from these marketing efforts to actual sales? Those platforms will have that as well the businesses. So these are all important pieces of information that we don't have right now that would be helpful for us in justifying this type of a spend. And so that's why I would support the staff's request to extend, come back with an extension for three months up until our priority prioritization setting conference so that we can address this in a responsible way. |
| 03:05:01.70 | Ian Sobieski | Is that a motion, Council Member? |
| 03:05:05.28 | Jill Hoffman | Suppose that's an alternate motion. |
| 03:05:07.48 | Ian Sobieski | I'll second that alternate motion. |
| 03:05:10.38 | Joan Cox | I haven't had a chance to comment if I could. Yeah. Let's let council member Cox way in. And I, |
| 03:05:10.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:05:10.57 | Ian Sobieski | you |
| 03:05:10.63 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:05:14.92 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:05:15.98 | Joan Cox | I really came tonight thinking that approval of the three month extension recommended by staff makes sense, but I hadn't realized until the staff report that this expired a month ago. And so we're already a month in and we've not managed to actually have a strategic planning session this year. So I'm not. um, 100% optimistic that we'll actually have a strategic planning session that will result in an outcome in January or February of next year. And so after listening to the, um, and really being impressed by the, uh, management of, um, Mr. Thornburg of this effort, for nothing, no expense to us, and the evident articles and results that I have seen before. in recent months. I'm inclined to support the six month and up to six month extension. Obviously, if we're able to get our strategic planning session done and we come up with a, you know, a holistic marketing effort, we can adjust the contract at that time. But I'm inclined to give us that buffer to be sure that these folks keep us keep us going until we actually are able to finalize that effort. |
| 03:06:53.91 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I just wanted to respond to one of Councilmember Hoffman's comments about the chamber coming before us and asking for money potentially in the coming months as we have these discussions. I just had the opportunity to travel to Atlanta with the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce to represent Sausalito at the National League of Cities. We were launching the City Inclusive Entrepreneurship Program. It provides the city with $15,000. We got another $5,000 all through the chamber. I have watched the CEO work so hard during those two days that we were in Atlanta meeting every possible person who could bring revenue to Sausalito, talking about Sausalito and making bringing money back to Sausalito a top priority. So while I imagine that they will likely ask for our support, I just want to acknowledge the hard work that the chamber is doing to hustle for our community on their own as well. And the same goes for EDAC, the amount of work and effort that you've put in to get revenue back into our community. And the fact that our businesses in Sausalito are responsible for more than 50% of our general fund deserves to be acknowledged because I've said again and again, what's good for the businesses in Sausalito is good for the community in Sausalito. So that's where I fall out on it. And I just wanted to make sure I gave the chamber that acknowledgement. So with that, I will go ahead and I think we've take a vote on the second motion first. Okay. Do we roll call? |
| 03:08:08.87 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox? |
| 03:08:10.67 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:08:10.69 | Walfred Solorzano | No. |
| 03:08:10.91 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:08:10.92 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Council member coming. |
| 03:08:13.88 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:08:13.91 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 03:08:15.48 | Walfred Solorzano | Uh, Sorry, Councilmember Hoffman? |
| 03:08:19.30 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 03:08:20.36 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Sobieski? No. And Mayor Blasino? |
| 03:08:23.34 | Jill Hoffman | No. |
| 03:08:25.44 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, motion fell. |
| 03:08:26.77 | Jill Hoffman | I'd like to make a friendly amendment to the first motion. What, assuming that we do do our priority I'm hopeful that we will and it will be productive. That if we, I mean, here's the problem. If we vote to extend it for six months, but at the prioritization setting conference, we decide that we want to scope it in or we want to amend it, that would be a problem. I think my long-winded amendment would be that if we take an alternate action at the priority What the hell are we calling it? The prioritization and setting conference. If we take an alternate- But it's gonna be called officially on the agenda now. Yeah, so I don't know. Yeah, what the hell are we calling it? |
| 03:09:06.78 | Chris Zapata | I think not. |
| 03:09:07.02 | Steven Woodside | alternate. |
| 03:09:07.41 | Chris Zapata | AMERICAN AMERICAN AMERICAN Yeah. |
| 03:09:12.11 | Jill Hoffman | Um, that, uh, that I'm not sure what the mechanism would be. Is it that we- |
| 03:09:17.02 | Joan Cox | Is it that we- to extend up to six months if this is acceptable, and then with revisions if we decide a different path at our strategic prioritization session. |
| 03:09:36.25 | Steven Woodside | And I would also say that CDA has been working for us for free for the last month. So I'm sure that they're amenable to working with us to demonstrate their value or if we need to amend or change the contract per our goals. |
| 03:09:47.30 | Joan Cox | I really value that amendment. Thank you for that suggestion. Assuming that the. Yes. |
| 03:09:51.47 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 03:09:52.93 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, I was just going to ask Sheriff Thornburg, does the contract have an exit term clause? Do you know? Can it have one? Would they be upset if there was a 30-day exit clause or termination? Yes. All right. Well, yeah. So you just put the clause in there that it can be terminated with some minimal notice and I'm sure they would be fine because they can turn things off. Thank you. I mean, the other one. |
| 03:10:18.36 | Steven Woodside | Great. All right. Great. Okay. So book director is approaching, approaching the podium. Yes. |
| 03:10:23.65 | Brandon Phipps | and that's what we're doing. Thank you. Excuse me, I just wanted to address Vice Mayor's question. There is a termination section in the two year agreement that was entered into between the city and CDA that that allows at least 30 calendar days for a termination of contract. |
| 03:10:40.69 | Melissa Blaustein | So that's in there. |
| 03:10:41.65 | Ian Sobieski | Perfect. |
| 03:10:41.87 | Brandon Phipps | that in the world, |
| 03:10:42.14 | Ian Sobieski | . |
| 03:10:42.19 | Brandon Phipps | you |
| 03:10:42.38 | Ian Sobieski | And Mayor, I'm sorry, didn't Surger earlier say we couldn't actually act on the contract? |
| 03:10:45.97 | Steven Woodside | No, we're giving direction for the staff to come back with a contract with an extension of up to six months. That is the motion on the table. And now we can have a roll call vote. |
| 03:10:46.23 | Ian Sobieski | Bye. |
| 03:10:54.33 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. |
| 03:10:55.44 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Yes. |
| 03:10:57.51 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilman, are we coming? Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski? Yes. Mayor Blastin. |
| 03:10:58.58 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Yes. Okay. Motion carries unanimously. Great job, everyone. Thank you so much, EDAC. Appreciate you being here and thank you, Director Phibs. Okay. So item six on the agenda 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 application. The city clerk will call on individuals who have raised their hands in the order that they were raised. After you are called on, you will be unmuted to allow you to share your comments. Remember, public comments are each allowed two minutes to speak. We will now open it up for general public comment communications. |
| 03:11:40.09 | Walfred Solorzano | Right. Babette McGoogle. |
| 03:11:41.88 | Steven Woodside | I don't know. For a second there, I thought you weren't going to come to the stand and I was concerned. |
| 03:11:49.05 | Babette McDougall | No, no. There's a lot going on right now. |
| 03:11:52.90 | Steven Woodside | It is cold in here. I know. We know. |
| 03:11:56.58 | Babette McDougall | Thank you very much for acknowledging me. And I realize that we're taking longer than the... anticipated time, but I'm glad to have this chance to once again raise the issue of U.S. government 101. because I just recently took delivery of the very two documents that you folks frequently refer to as driving how you conduct and comport yourselves as council members. And they're very interesting to read this Rosenberg rules versus the Roberts rules. I want you to know that when I called out for a point of order, both the Roberts rules and the Rosenberg rules, I'm surprised that neither your city clerk nor your city attorney. spoke in favor of this, but they both allow for points of order. So to not have recognized that point of order was out of process for you. And I'd like to ask you to just remember, even though you're using Rosenbergs, which I don't necessarily encourage now that I've read it, I really think you need to keep a comprehensive, Robert's Rules on Hand because it is the standard in this nation. It is the national standard, just like the observation of the Brown Act is the national standard. There are no amendments on the books to the Brown Act. And it's important. because it does dictate whether you are in formal business settings or informal more personal settings that are still the city's business, it still comports how many council members may be in one location at one time. without being in violation of that Brown Act. So I would like to ask you guys to think seriously about how you're comporting yourself as council members. Thank you. |
| 03:13:40.09 | Walfred Solorzano | Hey, Alice Merrill. |
| 03:13:48.54 | Alice Merrill | Well, hello, everybody. Here I am again. Babette and I seem to like this. Two things that I have noticed. One is that we still have this thing down at the parking lot that is not settled yet. And I understand that you guys have given Michael Rex and the Yacht Club or something. the thing to clear it up, which doesn't include me or other people who have written letters that didn't agree with that, with the big plan, the dramatic plan. And I just, I'm glad to hear that the Corinthians gets to 3000. I was a little worried when he said 300. So, you know, at least people, but it's got to be big and bold and And then the other thing is, um, I know I'm picky and I'm rude sometimes. I apologize. The last meeting, as I recall, Michael Rex said, I think that we should have another meeting and we should, this is my way of saying it, we should have another meeting and we should talk to the Yacht Club first and some other people and work out some details and we'll have it on such and such a day. And not one of you said, Who's making the agenda here? You guys just said, oh, okay. I have never heard you say that. I mean, you had to make it on, you had to put the flag on the agenda before you would do it. So how does Michael Rex get to put something on the agenda? That's my question. |
| 03:15:42.42 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:15:42.43 | Unknown | Oh, |
| 03:15:42.65 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, no. |
| 03:15:42.67 | Unknown | PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE |
| 03:15:42.74 | Alice Merrill | No further speakers. |
| 03:15:43.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 03:15:45.01 | Steven Woodside | No further speaking. |
| 03:15:45.69 | Unknown | Oh. |
| 03:15:55.17 | Ron Albert | There we go. |
| 03:15:57.13 | Karen Culligan | Great. |
| 03:15:57.62 | Unknown | Thank you. Oh. |
| 03:15:58.02 | Steven Woodside | Yay, this is great. |
| 03:15:58.85 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:15:58.97 | Alexander Woie | Thank you. |
| 03:15:59.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:16:00.44 | Alexander Woie | I'd like to say good evening to city council members and Madam Mayor. I thought this would be a good opportunity before the holidays to do a fun review of where the Valhalla has been and where it is now since almost everyone has been involved with the project, including members of the audience. My daughters are away at the grandparents, so they're not available right now, though they have been at a lot of meetings. Next slide, please. So here's where the Valhalla started back in 1893. You can see the flagpoles that we've tried to incorporate into the project. Next slide, please. Here's what it looked like before the Valhalla was there. This is from 1889 in April 9th. You could see the building that's there. We incorporated that into one of the buildings that we built there to have the history. Next slide, please. Here it is again, you know, with the Valhalla and the Jack London house that we see now. Next slide, please. This picture I like because it's in the hallways here. And if you look behind the fishermen, you could see the Valhalla in the background. Next slide, please. This picture I like because it's in the hallways here. And if you look behind the fishermen, you could see the Valhalla in the background. Next slide, please. So here's what the building looked like in 2012 when I took over. It was fairly dilapidated. The sign I found underneath the building, I'll just take a mental note of that. I'll show it later again. Next slide, please. Here's how it looked like when we were in the middle of demo. If you look on the right, you could see all the wood that's piled up. That's what we used to rebuild all the planters that are around the property. That came from the ceiling of the Valhalla. Next slide, please. This is the foundation underneath. Surprise, the building didn't fall over. That has all been rebuilt with cement. You can see all the metals rusted. It's all been cross-linked underneath the sand. I mean, that building's going to stand for another 150 years now. Next slide, please. Here's Hani sitting in front of the building. Most of you remember when it looked like this. That's the exact spot we met and said hello for the first time. Thank you. Is it okay if I ask for maybe two more minutes |
| 03:18:07.47 | Steven Woodside | I mean, I want to see the slides. I just don't want to. I'll ask the council. |
| 03:18:14.93 | Joan Cox | So he's not asserting a position or seeking a decision on something. This is a This is more like an announcement in my view. So I would... We're not being unfair to someone. We'll give you another. |
| 03:18:26.88 | Steven Woodside | We'll give you an update. minute. |
| 03:18:28.62 | Joan Cox | No. |
| 03:18:28.68 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:18:28.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:18:28.74 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:18:29.06 | Alexander Woie | Next slide, please. |
| 03:18:30.31 | Steven Woodside | We'll just cut it in half. Yeah, go ahead. |
| 03:18:32.84 | Alexander Woie | So here's where Sally was standing. These are the planters when we built them. Next slide, please. Here, you know, Valhalla is famous. I don't need to get into this. It's on the cover of our city history book. Next slide, please. Here's Sally's bar in the old days. Next slide, please. So when we approached this, we thought of this as a cinematic backdrop with all the history that was there. That was, you know, famous movie filmed here, a very famous actor. Next slide, please. And so we took this as one of San Francisco Bay's icons, and that's what we tried to rebuild. So now we're going to get into a few of the eye candy slides where you can enjoy what we built. So next slide, please. And so here's from inside on the grass lawn. You could see the old building. On the left, you could see what we tried to remodel after the smelting plant that was there and the ice house that used to be Michael Rex's office. Next slide, please. Here's a view of the deck from upstairs. Next slide, please. Here's Sally's bar. |
| 03:19:33.37 | Steven Woodside | Oh, you preserve the bar. |
| 03:19:36.07 | Alexander Woie | Oh, I have a few more slides. I'm sorry, I'm not going over. |
| 03:19:39.27 | Steven Woodside | Could you send them to us so that we can take a look? |
| 03:19:41.35 | Alexander Woie | I could. OK. What I wanted to mostly share, if I could just have 30 seconds, is I have two things that I regret about this project. One of them is the house is just too big. And the second is that I took this out of public use. And now that it's done, can you go to the next slide real quick? Now that it's done, this is what's there every day. And I really regret taking this out of public use. We have 16 rooms and suites there that could be ready to go within a month of very minimal construction. I just wanna put that out there that this should not have been taken out of public use. Thank you. |
| 03:20:19.42 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. |
| 03:20:20.03 | Joan Cox | RULEGEN, RULEGEN, I'll just share that Janelle and I were on the planning commission, and only three out of five were actually able to vote on this project because two were conflicted out because of where they lived. And so we went through. It was you and me, right? Yeah, we went through our Jewish. |
| 03:20:41.78 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 03:20:41.80 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:20:41.81 | Ian Sobieski | But we saw it too. And yeah. |
| 03:20:41.84 | Unknown | Thank you. Yeah. you |
| 03:20:44.78 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 03:20:45.00 | Unknown | we approved it with a public use. So I would love to tell you about that. |
| 03:20:46.79 | Ian Sobieski | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:20:46.84 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:20:46.96 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 03:20:46.98 | Joan Cox | Yeah, so the prior planning committee. Anyway, it was many, many hours of staff time and commission time to arrive at an aligned upon vision and solution that didn't overly burden Dr. Kacheff's family. So grateful to you for sharing this. It's amazing to see the outcome. Thank you so much. |
| 03:21:12.84 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll move on to item seven on the agenda. Did you? |
| 03:21:16.17 | Melissa Blaustein | I mean, I just can't feel like I need to underline the comment. First off, beautiful slides, but previous city council, we discussed, and it was Councilman Kellman who actually directed or led the direction of city staff to look at local hoteliers for potential hotel sites. So. I hope someone's going to follow up with, uh, the doctor about the obvious potential here for a boutique, something rather. So. I hope that's a direction that the staff will- |
| 03:21:45.72 | Joan Cox | We can't give staff direction right now. Nope, not new direction. We have future agenda items coming up. |
| 03:21:46.78 | Melissa Blaustein | No, not new direction. |
| 03:21:49.97 | Steven Woodside | Fair enough. Yes. |
| 03:21:50.12 | Melissa Blaustein | Sure enough. Yes. |
| 03:21:51.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:21:51.59 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. |
| 03:21:51.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:21:52.01 | Steven Woodside | Yep. Okay. So we'll move on to council member committee reports. Does anyone have anything they would like to report out? Thank you. I have a bunch, so I guess I'll start. Today, I'm a part of the Marin County Microgrid Group, and it's organized by Supervisor Sackett in partnership with a number of folks across Marin County who are working on figuring out how we can create resilient microgrids in our community. Here in Sausalito, we have two residents, aside from myself, who serve on the committee, Alex Shore and Greg Thompson from our Sustainability Commission. And we had an interesting presentation today from PG&E on their microgrid grants program. And we may in fact be eligible, but we need to do some follow up. And I've mentioned this to our sustainability manager. Also, I had the opportunity as part of the mayoral roundtable to travel to Barcelona and participate in the Smart City World Expo where I had a number of conversations with potential private sector partners for the city, including Deloitte, Honeywell, who I'm gonna have a meeting with next week. and MasterCard about opportunities for partnership in Sausalito. And as I mentioned previously, I also traveled to the National League of Cities Conference to launch our CIE program and was able to talk about our efforts for grant writing and our participation in the League of Cities infrastructure boot camps. and we're coming. |
| 03:23:13.05 | Ian Sobieski | I just spent the weekend in Sacramento at the California Democratic Convention and had the opportunity to hang out with, uh, region two, which is Northern California or Marin County. So I got to see, um, some of them in Connelly and, um, our Senate pro tem. Our very own Mike McGuire, Eli Beckman from Cormoran D'Aram, Max Perret from the Valley, Holly Teer from Turan. It was quite the Northern California contingent up there and fascinating. The General Assembly was interrupted by a protest and then they shut it down for the evening. So it was democracy in action. |
| 03:23:48.18 | Steven Woodside | Okay, city manager reports. Oh, before we do that, we have to take public comment on items 8A, 8B, 8C. So that's city manager reports, city manager information for the council, and future agenda items. |
| 03:24:06.03 | Walfred Solorzano | See you now. |
| 03:24:06.49 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:24:06.77 | Steven Woodside | I'll close public. |
| 03:24:06.86 | Walfred Solorzano | Oh, sorry, Karen Culligan. |
| 03:24:09.12 | Steven Woodside | Hi, Karen. |
| 03:24:17.14 | Karen Culligan | Hi there. I am a vice chair of the pedestrian and bicycle advisory committee. I would love to invite you to invite us to come and tell you about what we're thinking about in Q1 of next year. So I was going to call it a fast five minutes, maybe seven minutes, if you all permit us, because there's a lot of great activity out there, some early stage, some later stage. It's not about getting into design on any things, but really just state of play where we see grant funding potential. There's a lot of exciting stuff, ranging from students to seniors, walking, biking, and it's a great opportunity to get grant funding that's just going to generally improve infrastructure in our town, which I think we all can agree is both one, a city priority, and two is in pretty rough shape these days. So yeah, we'd love to come back. I know your agenda is busy, but at the suggestion of Director McGowan, we thought it'd be a good opportunity to come and talk a little bit more in January or somewhere in Q1. So thanks. |
| 03:25:20.42 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. comment at this time. |
| 03:25:23.62 | Walfred Solorzano | See you then. |
| 03:25:24.55 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll go ahead and close public comment, and then we'll move on to city manager information. I understand you have an update on our audit. |
| 03:25:31.91 | Chris Zapata | I do, Mayor. Thank you, members of the council, members of the public. I'll be brief, and Chad's going to help me. We all know that financial management is a cornerstone of what city government has to do. Part of that process is to have third-party independent auditors review our books. In the case of Sausalito, we had a longstanding relationship with a group called Mason Associates. Last year, you directed us to hire them for one more year and go out to bid. We did that. We've since you hired Badawi and associates. And thanks to the incredible work of our finance director, Chad Hess, he has some good news to share with you as it relates to our independent third party audit by Badawi. |
| 03:26:12.24 | Angeline Loeffler | All right. Mayor and Council. Thank you for the opportunity to present. Are you guys able to see my screen? Yes. All right. So before I get into the actual report, I just want to do a quick overview of the audit process just to establish some guidelines. So, The audit process really starts with the auditors planning their approach. That's kind of behind the scenes. They're reviewing our minutes. They're looking at city websites. They're looking at. historical financial statements, just trying to understand the entity. that's going to be a That leads them into our interim audit. Now, interim audit was scheduled in the last week or the first week of July, I believe. And they came in and what they're doing at that point is they're looking at our internal control. our control environment, making sure that we have properly designed controls to safeguard city assets, And then they also look at, okay, if they're properly designed, Are they implemented and being followed as they should be? Now that risk assessment will then lead into the actual final audit, where if we have a risky control environment where our controls are not being followed, It creates a lot more work for them. They have to do a lot more testing to become comfortable the dumber. If the controls are designed well, they're implemented and being followed, that reduces their risk. and then the audit. typically goes a lot smoother because they can gain more comfort in what they're reviewing. After the final field work, which did take place the last week in October, first week in November, it was kind of a split month or a split week. Um, The auditors came in, they asked lots of questions. We gave them lots of support. And there were a few follow-up emails or conversations in the subsequent weeks. The next stage is the audit report. Right now we have a current schedule or timeline with McNeowee and Associates to issue our report December 22nd. which would be before our our goal of December 31st. So that's just a high-level overview of the audit process. Next, I want to go and show you guys our exit conference interview that we had with Vidali back on November 14. I'm not sure. Up here, you can kind of see a little bit of their audit procedures and what they're looking at, some of the tests that they do. But I really wanna bring your attention down to our current year at our prior year observations. These are the findings. These are the control environment findings that give auditors heartburn at night, if you will. So if we look at the prior year, we had timely and accurate year in quote. but we didn't fail. The city was understaffed, not ready for the audit. proposed numerous post-closed entries. The auditor also caught material errors. This year, our audit has gone very well. we were properly closed we did not have any Post-closing entries, we didn't have any open items. And things went. very smoothly. So that implement or that finding has been implemented and resolved and will not be shown on this year's report. The next item was Bank for Conciliaion. The timing of the reconciling items for the finding posted checks that were written after June 30th as reconciling items, reducing cash and overstating AP. That was a major challenge last year. This year our bank cracks have been done timely, done properly, and there was not an issue. that finding has been resolved. We have implemented a better process or a better control and there were no issues with our bank reconciliation for this year's August. Bank reconciliation and treasurer's report timing The June bank record was not performed until October. Preasures reports are supposed to be provided council within 30 days to the quarter was 59 days after quarter end, et cetera. I'm not sure. The investment policy was updated to allow 60 days for those treasurer's reports to be Um, based on what they've seen. that has been that we're going to have implemented as well, and there were no challenges or no issues with the treasurer's reports that they observed. Um, the customer database, we had issues with certain individuals having access to our customer database. That has been resolved through better security within our accounting information system. I'm not sure. Stay on with outdated checks. We still have an issue here. We haven't resolved this, but it is not a significant issue. So there will not be a finding on this. The expectation is that we will get this resolved before next fiscal year end. we have started making some headway or headwinds on resolving these outstanding checks or scale-dated checks. So that will be cleaned up before next year. Um, Check log review, no indication that review by someone other than the preparer, we have put in place better controls that the check logs are reviewed, the check stock is locked up with a key that is outside of the AP clerk's view. So again, we're just strengthening the controls that the city has in place. And the auditors have noted that we have corrected those deficiencies. that's a good question. If we look at our current year – We have no findings. So as of now, we have a finding-free audit. And we hope to issue our report by December 22nd. So, great news for the city of Sausalito that we have a successful audit that is currently taking place. and we should issue our report before the year end, which is six months after our fiscal year end quote. that we're going to be That being said, when we issue the report, They are going to issue the basic financial statements. That's the audit report that you guys have come to be familiar with. And then they're also gonna issue reports, communication charge with governance. That'll be a letter written specifically to you that talks about the control environment and the improvements that we've had. And then they do a couple other reports, the GAN limit calculation, and then some state control and reporting on our behalf. So that is the audit update that I wanted to share with you. I'm available for any questions that you may have. |
| 03:32:26.17 | Steven Woodside | Chad, I think given that it's a city manager report and not a business item, we can't really do a back and forth on the audit at this time. But I think we should, as a future agenda item, have an update on the audit, at least on consent, so that we can entertain a further discussion and questions on that. |
| 03:32:41.58 | Angeline Loeffler | Our plan is to bring the audit report to I'm to counsel the first session or second session in November as a formal presentation. by the auditors and I will be available as well to assist in answering questions at that point. |
| 03:32:55.06 | Melissa Blaustein | a heart emoji on this. |
| 03:32:56.72 | Steven Woodside | Oh, Weissmer wants to give you a heart emoji. Great job. We appreciate that our audit was fantastic and there were minimal items. Sorry, I should acknowledge how much great- |
| 03:33:04.67 | Angeline Loeffler | I already went into this. |
| 03:33:05.92 | Steven Woodside | Heart emoji from me and the vice mayor. |
| 03:33:07.35 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. And I do want to acknowledge my team. I have a phenomenal team with Joan, Peter, and Lemoore. I couldn't do it without them. They are phenomenal. And I just want to give them the recognition that they deserve for this accomplishment as well. Thank you. You, Director Hess, |
| 03:33:23.70 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Director Hess. Okay, so now we'll move on to item 8C, which is future agenda items. Does anyone have anything they'd like to add to it? |
| 03:33:32.78 | Joan Cox | I'm sorry. |
| 03:33:32.98 | Steven Woodside | . |
| 03:33:33.03 | Joan Cox | So we heard, oh gosh, I'm tired. It went right out of my head. We heard council member Oh, we heard from Kieran Culligan asking to come make a report to us. I would like to schedule our various boards and commissions the opportunity to come speak to the council at some point next year, as is appropriate, given what they're handling and what is on their agenda, not just PBAC, but our various boards and commissions. And then of course, I do want to memorialize the two agenda items earlier, a process for appointing reappointing or considering planning Commission appointment renewals as well as. Karen Hollweg, consideration of expanding the planning Commission from five to seven members. |
| 03:33:46.77 | Chris Zapata | I'll be back. |
| 03:34:25.72 | Steven Woodside | Vice Mayor. |
| 03:34:26.42 | Melissa Blaustein | I'd just like to add, I'd love to get a report from the work I know staff has been doing on exploring, following up on city council direction concerning the hotels and the outreach. I know that was made to local hoteliers. What's the report on that? And I would love that to include what outreach, if any, was made to the speaker here tonight who owns the Valhalla. I'll invite you, Alex. |
| 03:34:48.48 | Steven Woodside | And I would add, I've mentioned this before, but a overview of the current status of the Dunphy Park area and Bridgeway Marina, given that the LOI is no longer active. So just wanted to bring that up again. |
| 03:34:56.51 | Ian Sobieski | no longer. And I would add, I was having with Brian Battalion and Chad, an overall report on revenue from our parks. And where we sit on our long-term debt obligation or certificate of participation and ways to maximize revenue from our park facilities. |
| 03:35:17.98 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:35:18.03 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Anything else for the good of the order? I would like a report on the housing element, implementation of the housing element. We are behind. on the CEQA portion of it, which is putting us in jeopardy. And so I would like. A report on that, but also on the overall. plan for implementation of the plans and programs embodied in the housing element, including an update to our zoning ordinance. |
| 03:35:47.24 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 03:35:47.34 | Steven Woodside | Councilman Hoffman? |
| 03:35:48.00 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I was... |
| 03:35:50.77 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:35:50.80 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:35:50.83 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:35:52.40 | Jill Hoffman | I was just going to second that. I think that's on the order of priorities. That's probably number one. |
| 03:35:59.29 | Steven Woodside | Okay, great. And anything else for the good of the order? Okay, it's 1035 and we will adjourn. Thank you. Recording stopped. |