| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:02.14 | Ian Sobieski | Recording in progress |
| 00:01:46.90 | David Kahnmeier | kind of duplex that we slowly are fixing up. And we rent half, live in half, which is great. Helped us like be able to live in this community. I think it's like one of the good things Sausalito has is some of that kind of dense housing. And then beyond that, I've worked as an architect in Sausalito for about seven years. I was employed at Royal Rocket for about 60 years where I was a project manager on a larger like mixed use project here in Sausalito. And I went back and forth with City Council and Planning Commission on that quite a bit from the design through permitting. And then since I left Roe Rocket a couple of years ago, City Council and Planning Commission on that quite a bit from the design through permitting. And then since I left Roe Rocket a couple of years ago, slowly made my way out and I've worked for myself now and I have my own business in Sausalito as an architect, even though I work kind of, all the, like, kind of throughout the US. Especially, we did a lot of second homes, so that's kind of what I do, which, you know, does fit with Sausalito somewhat. and everything. Um, I grew up in a small town, uh, in upstate New York, um, which is one of the reasons I really love Sausalito. Um, it's, I love the kind of, uh, you know, I, I know everyone on my street. Um, we have deer, um, |
| 00:03:06.74 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 00:03:07.38 | David Kahnmeier | lots of quail, things like that, and open space. And so, and then I love the, you know, I love the waterfront. My wife and I, I'm active sailors. And I love kind of the, you know, just the water of Sausalito and playing out there and sailing, things like that are really important to me. I think that's, you know, big reason why a lot of people live here instead of Mill Valley. And Um, I think and Yeah, I just, you know, I really like the town and would love to help out. And I think my experience as an architect, um, |
| 00:03:42.38 | Sybil Butchillier | Mm-hmm. |
| 00:03:42.75 | David Kahnmeier | would help kind of like expertise in visual design as well as kind of going through planning commission hearings, civil, and like historic preservation committee approvals. I've kind of been on the entitlement of some larger scale projects. Recently, another project I've worked on, we won like an AIA award for bill architecture on Lake Tahoe for a house. So I think good design is really important. Even if it's sometimes more modern, it's sometimes kind of fun to do things like that and ruffle some feathers with some of that. But good design is good design, I think. And contextually, anything can work. And I'm a veteran too. I was in the U.S. Air Force for four years that a lot of people don't know about. This feels like a lifetime ago. I think that's... Everything. about me. |
| 00:04:35.53 | Steven Woodside | Great. Thank you so much, David. So we'll bring it back up to the dais for questions. |
| 00:04:38.99 | Ian Sobieski | David, thank you for applying. Thanks for being here. Is your specialty then residential homes? |
| 00:04:45.25 | David Kahnmeier | Yes, mostly residential architecture, yeah. |
| 00:04:49.32 | Ian Sobieski | Do construction, renovation, both? |
| 00:04:51.51 | David Kahnmeier | A little of both. I prefer new construction because it's much simpler, but I have done quite a bit of renovations as well. |
| 00:04:58.82 | Ian Sobieski | And then in your work, it sounds like you've had to work on the applicant side. in different municipalities and dealt with their different processes. |
| 00:05:04.56 | David Kahnmeier | dealt with there. different. So I've done a lot of like TRPA with TRPA, lakefront, does projects on lakefront Aspen, San Francisco, a lot of stuff in the Adirondack Park in New York, where I grew up. So a lot of varied experience getting through a lot of um areas and a lot most places where i have worked have been um quite scenic um so there's a lot of preservation of views things like that which are uh really similar here um so i think it's uh and just kind of working all over i think it's good to see uh how some how some are quicker than others and you know everywhere has its ups and downs so |
| 00:05:25.57 | Unknown | . MAKING A LITTLE BIT. |
| 00:05:46.85 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I can't remember. |
| 00:05:48.13 | Joan Cox | you |
| 00:05:48.14 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 00:05:49.11 | Joan Cox | David, welcome back. I recall that Rocket modeled the Marin Theater around some historic buildings from the Marin ships. |
| 00:05:58.32 | David Kahnmeier | Yes, we use the kind of scaffolding and stuff as kind of language for the skin. |
| 00:06:05.27 | Joan Cox | And so you did some historical research into the Marin ship in order to be able to put those designs together. Do you have a vision You know, one of the things in your application talked about your the outstanding waterfront, access to outstanding waterfront activities. Do you have anything in mind that you'd like to bring to bear in the marine ship? |
| 00:06:24.97 | David Kahnmeier | Um, Not particularly at this time. I think for me, it's really important to have access to the waterfront for everyone. I think I would say it's definitely being somewhat underutilized in some of the areas. There is a lot of flooding and issues down there that are a little hard to deal with. But I also love the fact that it is a working waterfront. I love that the boats, as a, as a sailor, like my book is repaired there. So I really love that aspect. And I would never, I would hate to lose that and where it just became tall housing. But we also need houses kind of. for people. So I don't know. But I think there's a good answer that pleases everyone. |
| 00:07:08.72 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:07:10.56 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:07:10.58 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:07:10.80 | Melissa Blaustein | other questions from the dais? If we have 20 seconds here, 101 Caledonia Street. |
| 00:07:16.25 | David Kahnmeier | Yes. |
| 00:07:16.59 | Melissa Blaustein | Lessons learned. |
| 00:07:18.81 | David Kahnmeier | Lessons learned, for sure. You know, I think it's a great space and... Hopefully real soon we'll get something in there because as a member of the community, I really want another place to go to. We go to the same places a lot. I want to get something in there as well. |
| 00:07:43.76 | Ian Sobieski | But just following up on that, it's just such a great question. Could I just ask, is there one lesson learned from that experience about how to avoid, you know, a design that encourages a structural vacancy? |
| 00:07:55.05 | David Kahnmeier | I think so. I can touch on this quickly. with the process getting it in there and I think converting it. You know, I think the hard part was the theater was like not used much before, like 39 people went a day, I think was the numbers. One of the really hard things is there's no on-site parking, and you have to park adjacent down by the waterfront by the park. So that makes it hard for certain businesses. And I've always had parking. I've always found parking relatively close to on Calivano or anything, but. I think like lessons learned sometimes, you know, I think we bifurcated the project into two, got the probably more undesirable one listed. And there's some heartburn on the ground floor. I think, you know, there should be causes maybe on, you know, allowances of tenant improvements. Like so you can kind of put a little bit more, you know, umph behind what does go in there and goes in there. And maybe like you, you charge people if like things sit vacant, um, I think could be a good thing. And maybe even for housing, um, you know, if nobody sits in it, um, and. I think, you know, I think it's. Thanks. Yeah. |
| 00:09:08.30 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, David. I really appreciate it. Thanks for coming in. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And now we'll hear from David Marlett. Welcome, David. Thank you so much for being here and we'll have you start the same way. Mr. Kahnmeier did by just giving us a little bit about your background and your interest in the planning commission. |
| 00:09:26.10 | David Marlett | Sure. Thank you very much for inviting me and for this opportunity. I'm David Marlott. I have an eight-person architectural firm in the Marinship. We do primarily residential work. We're doing some historic preservation and work in San Francisco, in the city, with the Clay Theater and some other projects in the Panhandle area. My firm's been here for about 10 years, and my wife and I also live in Sausalito on Tamales Street for the last 10 or so years. After 10 years of building my business and having our home in Sausalito, my primary motivation is to give back a little bit to the community. And I think this is a way that I can hopefully participate and bring something to the commission. In particular, like the previous architect, we're fairly regional. We've done a lot of work pretty much throughout the Bay Area and hundreds of projects and dozens of jurisdictions far from the Bay to Tahoe. I think that as a local architect, I have experience with small residential projects in Sausalito and around, so I know the zoning codes very well and understand structurally what's being brought before the commission and maybe help my fellow commissioners better understand some of the physical realities of what's being presented to them. As a regional architect, I think I can also bring a perspective on how other communities are dealing with various zoning issues, particularly related to accessory dwelling units or housing. There's a lot of changes in social leaders' regulations that are coming up in 2024, and I think I can bring my voice to that and help the commissioners. And then finally, on a sort of non-architectural note, For 11 years, I was on the board of directors and president for two years of the Lycée Francais de San Francisco. called at the time. And I just mentioned that because that's a 22 person French-American board, and we navigated it for 11 years. I feel like I've learned something about working with broad constituencies, consistency, and being sure that all voices are heard as much as to the greatest degree possible. And so I think that's another ability that I can bring to my commission, to my fellow commissioners. Thank you very much. |
| 00:11:58.59 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much, Councilmember Cox, and then Councilmember Cowan. |
| 00:12:01.72 | Joan Cox | You mentioned you've been here since 2013, so I'm sure you're aware of our landslide in 2019. I don't know if you're aware of our landslide task force, but I wondered if you had any thoughts about mitigating some of the challenges of building on steep perhaps unstable slopes in Sausalito. |
| 00:12:18.85 | David Marlett | Well, not too specific to the precise properties, but Sausalito has a like all of Marin County, in fact, has a lot of structures that were permitted in the 50s and 60s and 70s, maybe not quite as well documented as they could have been, and they find themselves in situations. As architects, even in Oakland Hills and in Marin County, we have to deal with that by seismically upgrading drilled pier type footings. I don't think there's any physical constraint in Sausalito that can't be solved by, you know, proper engineering. |
| 00:12:58.34 | David Marlett | Thank you. |
| 00:12:59.12 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:12:59.13 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:12:59.15 | Steven Woodside | I was remembering |
| 00:12:59.59 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Hi, David. Nice to see you. Thank you for coming. So you've mentioned you've done a bit of work here in town, and you also mentioned accessory dwelling units. I'm assuming you're familiar with the ADU that recently went in on Pine Street, nestled between two very different looking buildings. What are some challenges you think Cisocely is going to face with some of the policy and legislation around ADUs? And what would be sort of your approach to making sure that areas like Caledonia don't lose their historic character? |
| 00:13:31.47 | David Marlett | Yeah, I am familiar with that. And I have an ADU under construction on Glenn. Don't need to leak, oh, sorry. Thank you. Yeah. It's a fascinating, and I fundamentally don't know the answer because we are compelled in California generally in the commission to adopt what are called objective design parameters or objective design. And as an architect, I might argue that objective design is an oxymoron, but it's the law. And so I understand how that ADU got there. I understand very well that there was really nothing locally that could have been done about that. I know other towns such as Tiburon are trying to uh, apply objective design that requires the ADUs to have the same material as the primary dwelling unit, for example. That doesn't work either if you want to put in a better primary, a better material. I don't think there's an easy answer that I can just offer like that. But I do think about it a lot as a practicing architect. And I know that that's going to be one of the major challenges really for the uh, commission in 2024. |
| 00:14:44.06 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any other questions from the dais? Okay. Thank you very much, David. Really appreciate it. |
| 00:14:48.50 | David Marlett | Thank you. Thank you very much. |
| 00:14:51.10 | Steven Woodside | Okay, Casey O'Neill. Is he on Zoom? He was here last meeting. |
| 00:15:00.43 | Walfred Solorzano | I don't see Casey online. |
| 00:15:02.46 | Steven Woodside | Okay. What about Eric Halverson? |
| 00:15:06.27 | Walfred Solorzano | I think he wasn't going to be able to make it again. |
| 00:15:09.44 | Steven Woodside | Okay. All right. Do we yet have Levi Eastwood? |
| 00:15:17.24 | Walfred Solorzano | Brian Nope. He's opting out, yeah. |
| 00:15:22.45 | Ian Sobieski | He interviewed him. I remember. |
| 00:15:23.31 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:15:23.33 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:15:23.48 | Chad Hess | Yeah. |
| 00:15:23.53 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 00:15:23.57 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:15:23.58 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:15:23.80 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 00:15:24.04 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, and he said he's opting out of this one actually. Of the Planning Commission in particular. |
| 00:15:25.64 | Steven Woodside | Of the planning commission in particular. Okay. That's fine. And then Shanek and Mara were about seven minutes ahead of schedule. So is there a way to |
| 00:15:32.49 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, actually she, she opting out also. So I got those notes that they're opting out. So I just wanted to give them the option if they change their mind. |
| 00:15:38.60 | Joan Cox | Thank you. And Walford, who else did you say opted out? |
| 00:15:44.64 | Walfred Solorzano | Um, |
| 00:15:45.94 | Joan Cox | Viva East. |
| 00:15:46.09 | Walfred Solorzano | Levi Eastwood. Yeah. |
| 00:15:46.72 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:15:47.24 | Joan Cox | opted out of. |
| 00:15:47.97 | Ian Sobieski | And again, |
| 00:15:48.22 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:15:48.25 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:15:48.27 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:15:48.37 | Ian Sobieski | that we're going to have |
| 00:15:48.69 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 00:15:50.43 | Ian Sobieski | THANK YOU. |
| 00:15:51.04 | Steven Woodside | EDEC if I |
| 00:15:52.03 | Ian Sobieski | call. |
| 00:15:52.40 | Steven Woodside | Okay. All right. |
| 00:15:53.13 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:15:53.25 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:15:53.28 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:15:53.47 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:15:53.87 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, I think you're right. |
| 00:15:55.58 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:15:55.60 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 00:15:55.76 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, I guess we'll move on then to the, but we're quite ahead of schedule for the next round of applicants. But if we have, if any of them are, |
| 00:16:07.85 | Walfred Solorzano | Jane Farley's online. |
| 00:16:09.14 | Steven Woodside | Okay, great. Well, then we'll get started with her. |
| 00:16:15.56 | David Marlett | Thank you. |
| 00:16:16.28 | Jane Farley | Hi, everybody. I'm unmuting. Hold on. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Moses invited you to start your video. Start video, okay. you |
| 00:16:26.36 | Steven Woodside | Great. Fantastic. Okay. |
| 00:16:27.71 | Jane Farley | Thanks for allowing me to come on video because I had a flourish of clients. I do art therapy with kids and families, and there was a big rush this week before the holidays with a few extra appointments. So, Should I introduce |
| 00:16:42.03 | Steven Woodside | That would be great if you could introduce yourself and tell us about your background and what about the Economic Development Advisory Committee interests you in particular. |
| 00:16:50.44 | Sybil Butchillier | Right. |
| 00:16:50.76 | Jane Farley | Thank you. |
| 00:16:51.74 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:16:51.77 | Jane Farley | So my name is Jane Farley and I am born and raised in San Francisco and Marin. Tamal Pius High School graduate, and I own a home in Sausalito and am renting a art studio on Caledonia, 501 Caledonia. And let's see, a brief history. I spent about 12 years as a corporate designer, multimedia developer in San Francisco for accounting firms in the late 80s and 90s. And then I decided to go back to school and study psychology and work with kids and families as an art therapist. So at the core, I'm an artist, but I love both art and science. I'm a little bit of a left-right brain odd duck. Um, I I'm also partly retired and really feel like I want to give back to the community. So I have done some work helping to develop a market fest in the past and I volunteer as much as I can in Sausalito like for the toast of Sausalito on Caledonia. I made a booth and brought a whole lot of art supplies and help kids and families come up and just do free art because that's what I wanted to do. So I love to help. I'm great at communications training at art development leadership. And what else? Yeah, so I'd like to volunteer some of my time and see what the needs are. and listen and learn and see how I can help out. So if you have any specific questions or of me, let me know. |
| 00:18:43.54 | Steven Woodside | Great. Thank you, Jane. Do we have questions from the dais? Always. |
| 00:18:48.51 | Melissa Blaustein | Jane welcome thank you. I want to talk to you about SCA. It's been a big component of our sort of revitalizing downtown strategy. I'm wondering if you could share your thoughts given your background as an art therapist and some other ideas that you might have for the downtown area. |
| 00:19:07.35 | Jane Farley | Definitely very great, great, great. I really love to bridge communication gaps and when I see it, The SCA, I participated in the paint out for the plein air Festival, really, really love the teamwork and the the whole startup and the presentation and the experience of being in that space. It was dead for so long there and now it's so vibrant and so beautiful and it feels very inclusive and very well done on a lot of levels. And I don't know a lot about the future or what they're planning because I just haven't tuned in that much, but I would like to see more community interaction, more interactive community events. And I would love to sort of maybe help create some collaboration either with Marin City, with diversity, with kids, with the Salty's, with whatever. And I know there's a lot of that already going on, so I'm probably repeating some ideas. But I do think that interactive community art events can be exciting because whether it's murals or looking at dead spaces or dead areas and getting some different leaders, whether it's through schools or through, the arts community, not just for events for adults, but to also include kids. And most specifically, I was interested in the dancers in Marin City and things like that. So I'm not sure, but I would love to listen, learn and participate and bring whatever support I can to the leadership and development of any art in Sausalito because I love it. |
| 00:20:50.21 | Steven Woodside | Other questions from the dais? |
| 00:20:52.83 | Ian Sobieski | you Thank you. I guess I would love to follow up on that. Jane, thank you so much for being here and for volunteering. Do you have any ideas for the economic development of other areas of town like Caledonia Street, where you have your studio? |
| 00:21:07.39 | Jane Farley | Yeah, well, unfortunately, I mean, I think there's a lot of great work going on on the other end. And I kept bugging because I've been volunteering to set up, do the Christmas lights. And I did, you know, I always contact Monica, who I call the fairy godmother. I love Monica. And I volunteer. I just say, hands up always. Just ask me and I'll do whatever you want me to do because I think she's a very beautiful person and just so giving and and anyway I kept saying what about us down here because I for three years had this gallery which now I close because long story but I am doing art therapy here and painting but I just said what about you know bringing the lights or the fun down to the end like there's a couple of us including the Portuguese center the nail salon, Jane's gallery, and you know, other by the park, but it all stops right at the park. So I stopped moaning because I tried to communicate and no one really wanted to listen to that. So I was a little sad because it is a really beautiful long street and I would like to see whether it's me or anybody else for people to come down to the end of Caledonia. I think the Portuguese Center is kind of, I don't know why they're not more involved, but the any of the the works that come down the street, there's just a little more room to add more people and more support and more. This big old space can be used for something in future that's going to be great, I'm sure. So Did I derail the question too much? No, you answered it. |
| 00:22:41.22 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you very much. |
| 00:22:43.26 | Jane Farley | Okay. |
| 00:22:44.69 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions from the dice? We have 12 seconds. Okay. All right, great. Well, thank you very much, Jane. Thank you for volunteering and thank you for your time. We really appreciate it. Thank you, Mayor. Take care. |
| 00:22:53.99 | Jane Farley | Thank you. |
| 00:22:56.71 | Steven Woodside | Okay, do we have Christy Ritt on? |
| 00:22:58.65 | Walfred Solorzano | So Christy written, so that's it for economic development advisory committee applicants. Eric Halverson is not going to be showing up for HPC. And right now we do have Julianne Krim. We're waiting for her. I know it's a little bit early than expected, but we can give her, we'll give her a phone call right now and |
| 00:23:22.46 | Ian Sobieski | We have. |
| 00:23:22.93 | Walfred Solorzano | We have two people that are confirmed and then others that haven't responded. So there's four applicants left, two for the library, two for sustainability. Right. So we're waiting on those. And so they've been, we've reached out to them several times. So we'll try to see if we can get those last four through. I know it's a little earlier than expected, but we'll give them calls right now. |
| 00:23:31.71 | Steven Woodside | Right. |
| 00:23:42.81 | Chad Hess | Okay. Let's see. to read. take a 10 minute pause while we wait to hear back from them. |
| 00:23:52.03 | Ian Sobieski | I just had a question, Mr. City Clerk. Is Eric Halverson withdrawing or is he So he's still interested. |
| 00:23:58.56 | Walfred Solorzano | He didn't indicate that he would draw, but this is the second time that he's done this a few other times. |
| 00:24:02.99 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. All right. Fair enough. And Casey O'Neill. |
| 00:24:08.63 | Walfred Solorzano | Casey O'Neill withdrawing, waiting to hear back from EDAC. So Casey withdrew from the Planning Commission. |
| 00:24:19.85 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, he applied for EDAC. Applied for a second one as well, I think. |
| 00:24:26.16 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:24:26.18 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we can just take a 10-minute recess and see if we hear, I guess we had told them five. |
| 00:24:26.23 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 00:24:26.43 | Chad Hess | Take care. |
| 00:24:26.89 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:24:26.96 | Chad Hess | I'm just... |
| 00:24:27.18 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:24:27.21 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:24:57.50 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:24:57.52 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:24:57.54 | Chad Hess | Okay. |
| 00:24:57.76 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:24:57.86 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:24:57.97 | Steven Woodside | Should we? All right, great. Welcome back. We'll continue on with our sustainability commission applicants, and we have current sustainability commissioner David Cooper here. Yes, please. And the process is typically that you give us a little bit of your background and why you're interested in serving on the sustainability commission. |
| 00:25:15.41 | David Cooper | Sure. Well, thank you for the opportunity. I've been on the commission now, and this is an application to continue on as the newly elected vice chair, once we get a quorum and can vote for that. Um, My background is in environmental finance. I do a lot of work in the clean technology sector and food and agriculture. mostly for underserved or at-risk communities in rural and developing areas. I work with a company called Mission Driven Finance, and we mostly work with impact investors and philanthropies looking to create social and environmental change. The Commission has been a great opportunity to work with the city and mainly through the three priorities of the Climate Action Plan, the Energy Reduction and Low Emissions Action Plan, and then lastly, the General Plan and how the Commission can advise the Council in terms of what types of action to take when there are actions to be taken. The other areas that we worked as a commission that I was involved with, which were action trackers, and our action trackers were our subcommittees, and then they were a to-do list and an accomplishment list, and that could be then updated to the city council on whenever the city council requested those types of priorities and where we are and how we're sort of working through those. And I think lastly, where the commission made a lot of headway was in the general sort of building code around the all-electrification program with former vice chair Mark Palmer, and then the transportation recommendations. When Greg and our former commissioner Andrew Cornelio were in the position of making recommendations around EVs and the commuter use cases and the city use cases as well. So looking forward to rolling this term over and continuing the good work that we've been doing. |
| 00:27:13.40 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:27:13.43 | Chad Hess | Thanks. Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:27:15.64 | Joan Cox | Thanks, you had. Two questions. One, I'd like to hear a report card, your report card for the city of Sausalito after your work on the Sustainability Commission for the years that you've served. And two, you mentioned electrification, and I was just speaking with Peter Van Meter the other day about the infeasibility of electrification. Because we just don't have the resources to go all electric. So I'd like to hear some of your thoughts on that, even though there's a trend in that direction at the moment. |
| 00:27:42.91 | David Cooper | Yeah, I'll address the second question first, because this is a very typical sort of statewide and national challenge with which the infrastructure is aging. The infrastructure cost to make those improvements is very high. And cities all over the state and in other sort of areas of the nation struggle with this type of public versus private use case. in what is the best decision, who pays for it, which grants are available, contractors. I know the city has made some effort with a contractor here locally to do some of the microgrid or underground use cases. As a transportation committee, we struggled with this and we had great advice with Greg Thompson, who's very knowledgeable about this. I've done countless EV infrastructure charging finance for smart startups and more seasoned programs. And working with local government, working with grants, and other types of what we call a stack capital to try and get these projects done because they require sort of a multidisciplinary approach with a lot of different stakeholders. So it's not easy is the answer. And the city has taken um, the recommendations, I think, very consistent with what's going on in other areas and is putting the effort where they can. Obviously, land is challenging. Some of these solar and microgrid arrays take a lot of land. Therefore, it has to be city-owned or some sort of public-private type of arrangement. And then, of course, we have a very difficult use case here because we have aging infrastructure, multifamily, we have high density, we don't have very convenient areas for chargers to go in for residents, particularly in a multi-family setting. And for a commuter setting, it gets challenging because those cars sit all day long and they tie up those chargers versus the commuter traffic and or the tourist traffic, which use them on an on-demand basis. So it's a very complex story here. And I think that the transportation study that we did and the types of contributions that the various commissioners put into it tried to come up with a best-case scenario for all those three use cases. And that's typical of everything I see even in San Diego or Los Angeles or other large cities trying to work through these very common problems. And it really takes a village. I use that as sort of a metaphor because there is no one right way, in my opinion, to finance these, to participate with these types of EV infrastructure. Certainly on a national level, there is a lot of money in the climate action plan that was, that's made available funds. And those contractors that are able to tap those funds can get into these communities and start doing that infrastructure conversion. depending on what the availability and opportunity is. So my answer to that is it's not easy. And the city's done a good job, in my opinion, of trying to prioritize and execute around what it can and how it can. And then on the other part of the, I guess I sort of answered my own question or your own question, which is the city's done a great job in terms of the transportation plan. I agree with you, the energy is tough. And particularly in a building code setting, other communities that we looked at and got sort of advice from. They've struggled with that as well. But certainly within the context of the state of California and the emissions goals they have, we'll continue to see more of that electrification attempt to get into the city code. |
| 00:31:20.19 | Steven Woodside | Thanks a lot, David. Thanks for your service on the Sustainability Commission as well. It's been great to work with you, so I appreciate it. Okay, are any of our other applicants either online or in person? Samantha Schubert, Julianne Kramer, Rhonda? Hi, great. Great. Perfect. Fantastic. Please come up. Tell me your name. Okay. Welcome Rhonda. Thank you so much for being here. |
| 00:31:43.16 | Walfred Solorzano | Actually, yeah, that's fine. |
| 00:31:45.22 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Yes, please. Yeah, absolutely. And the way the process works is we'll just have you give a little bit about your background and what interests you in the position, and then we'll have some questions from the deck. |
| 00:31:54.57 | Rhonda | I'm a retired teacher. And I feel that libraries are becoming a way of the past, and I wouldn't want to see that. And I want to see if there's anything I can do to help keep libraries open for us and for our kids and for us older people, definitely. So... I'm not sure. I didn't expect this. I thought it was a smaller setting. But I was supposed to come last time, and I looked for that Zoom link everywhere, and I couldn't find it. So I'm sorry. I missed the last time. And I couldn't find it today either. So I came in person, battled the rain and the traffic and so on. |
| 00:32:50.19 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much for being here. I have a question. Could you share with us one of your favorite experiences with the Sausalito Library? |
| 00:32:59.76 | Rhonda | You know, the newspapers, coming here and finding newspapers, coming here and seeing the little children's library with people in it. I don't use the technology at all, but I'm afraid that that's becoming a must. I love the paintings in the library and down the hallways. But everything seems to be online now, and I want to see if we can do something about keeping libraries open for... for us. |
| 00:33:44.80 | Steven Woodside | questions from the dais? |
| 00:33:48.04 | Melissa Blaustein | Sure. Hi, thank you for coming down. Sorry you couldn't find the Zoom link. So what are some audiences that you think, if you are a member of this committee, you would want to bring to the library? What type of programs are you interested in specifically promoting that either currently exist, you want to do more with, or don't exist and you want to spirit out? |
| 00:33:49.77 | Steven Woodside | Amen. |
| 00:34:13.58 | Rhonda | Um, I love to travel, and I would like to see some kind of presentations, travel presentations, maybe once a month, inviting an author who writes about travel. Do we have that already? But I don't know about it. I think that would be wonderful. and inviting authors over to come, just like they do in bookstores. That would be a wonderful addition. And advertising it, because I don't know what the library offers. Not fully. So we need to look at ways in order to engage the community and bring them to the library for something that's interesting to them. And I think travel is one thing. Having authors come and present their books, you know, current authors. That would be wonderful. |
| 00:35:16.26 | Rhonda | ways to do that. |
| 00:35:18.55 | Steven Woodside | Any further questions from the guys? Okay. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you for making your way through the rain. And I'm sorry you weren't able to find the Zoom link last week. |
| 00:35:22.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:35:22.18 | Amy Svenberg | Thank you. |
| 00:35:22.60 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:35:26.92 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:35:28.63 | Steven Woodside | Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Walford, do we have any of our other applicants? |
| 00:35:32.53 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, Julianne Krim is online. |
| 00:35:34.94 | Steven Woodside | Great. Hi, Julianne. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. We'd love to have you as well share you know, a little bit about your background and what interests you about the Library Board of Trustees. Yeah, absolutely. |
| 00:35:45.76 | Julianne Krim | First of all, thank you guys so much for having me and happy early holidays. A little bit about myself. My name is Julianne. I am a health care startup founder and a resident of Sausalito. |
| 00:35:45.77 | Steven Woodside | I'm sure. |
| 00:36:00.22 | Julianne Krim | I am really interested in being more involved in the Salt Toledo Library Board of Trustees because The public libraries have played such a huge impact in my childhood, and it has such a positive influence into who I am today. And now being a mom, I want the same sort of experience for everybody in the community. I think public libraries are such an under-taps resource for communities, but a powerful potential resource for communities. And so I just want to be part of something that is positive, that creates great experiences for our residents, and be able to take where we are today and bring that to the next level. |
| 00:36:47.16 | Steven Woodside | Great, thank you very much. I'll bring it back up to the dais for questions for Julianne. |
| 00:36:54.01 | Melissa Blaustein | You guys okay if I just ask the same question, Julianne, that I just asked the other applicant? And thank you and happy holidays to you as well. Interested in your thoughts about programs that you see in the library that you like and you want to help continue to support or something you knew you want to bring based on your interest and expertise. |
| 00:37:15.02 | Chad Hess | She's frozen. |
| 00:37:17.55 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:37:23.07 | Walfred Solorzano | Go Frozen. |
| 00:37:32.99 | Walfred Solorzano | Just in case, is Samantha Schubert in here? We'll need a voicemail. She hasn't confirmed. Thank you. We'll wait for Julianne. She will be the last applicant. |
| 00:37:43.76 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. is true. |
| 00:37:46.55 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:37:46.58 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:37:47.07 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:37:47.49 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:37:47.83 | Jill Hoffman | Samantha Schubert is the last one. that the host has opened a breakout room and for me to wait to be assigned. I don't know if that means anything about why she's frozen or what she's |
| 00:38:01.46 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:38:01.94 | Walfred Solorzano | That's odd. I'm not seeing that. |
| 00:38:03.27 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:38:08.74 | Ian Sobieski | But you don't see her in the waiting room? |
| 00:38:10.91 | Walfred Solorzano | No, I think she's going to log back in. Yeah. |
| 00:38:34.89 | Chad Hess | We'll just give it a minute. |
| 00:38:36.60 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, as long as council desires. |
| 00:38:46.30 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, but Samantha is just, we've left nothing but voicemails and it doesn't look like Samantha is present. |
| 00:38:47.28 | Sybil Butchillier | Yeah. |
| 00:39:00.34 | Ian Sobieski | Her time was 6.06. |
| 00:39:10.65 | Chad Hess | but she also never confirmed that she was going to participate on what I hear from now. |
| 00:39:14.43 | Walfred Solorzano | We just have voicemails. So I wouldn't imagine. |
| 00:39:15.82 | Chad Hess | So, |
| 00:39:16.03 | Steven Woodside | I wouldn't imagine that we should expect that. |
| 00:39:16.86 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:39:16.91 | Walfred Solorzano | We should expect that. Yeah, same thing with Katie. Katie called it, which is part of sustainability. |
| 00:39:21.80 | Steven Woodside | There is a chance that Julian will rejoin, so we'll give her until maybe 6, and then we'll adjourn to closed. Yeah. |
| 00:39:28.51 | Walfred Solorzano | She was mortified by her room. |
| 00:39:31.04 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:39:31.14 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:39:31.27 | Ian Sobieski | her classes. Oh, that's fine. We have no problem. She must just start closed it whatever time we were going |
| 00:39:32.98 | Steven Woodside | That's fine. We have no problem. |
| 00:39:34.38 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 00:39:36.03 | Steven Woodside | That's fine. Just get one. Come back. |
| 00:39:38.06 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:39:38.88 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:39:42.28 | Ian Sobieski | I thought I was going to be late. I got here. It was the quickest I've ever gotten here, and I did not speed. Because Stacy's cracking down. |
| 00:44:25.47 | Steven Woodside | return back to the regular city council meeting to move forward with our closed session agenda this evening on tonight's closed session we have two items conference with real property negotiators property 731 bridgeway at old city hall and Conference with Real Property Negotiators, Property 610 Coloma Street, Suites 723 and 735. I will go ahead and open those items up for public comment. |
| 00:44:53.01 | Walfred Solorzano | Again, for members of the public, if you want to speak on any item, please fill out one of the speaker slips located over by the television and return it over to the city clerk area. Right now, we have no speakers for public comment for sorry for closed session items. |
| 00:45:08.74 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'll close public comment at this time. Thank you. |
| 00:45:11.30 | Joan Cox | Mayor, thank you. I'll announce that I will be recusing myself from the second item on closed session due to the proximity of my home to that property. |
| 00:45:21.33 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, we will adjourn to closed session and return at 7pm for open session. Thank you. |
| 00:45:51.41 | Sybil Butchillier | Amen. |
| 00:46:07.38 | Sybil Butchillier | Okay. |
| 00:46:14.36 | Steven Woodside | You guys ready? Okay, welcome back from closed session where we have no announcements and we will now return to a regularly scheduled city council meeting on December 19th and we're beginning at 7.04 p.m. So if we could have folks quiet down in the chambers, we can get started. And the first item on the agenda, as always, is our Pledge of Allegiance. So... I am going to ask our interim finance director, Chad Hess, who's in town from South Dakota, to lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance. |
| 00:46:48.91 | Chad Hess | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:47:03.56 | Steven Woodside | Sorry, our finance director, pardon me, he's no longer interim. One of my favorite things that we did this year. That's very true. Okay. The next item on the agenda is special presentations and mayor's announcements. So I'm Walford, do you have the proclamation? |
| 00:47:23.81 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:47:24.89 | Steven Woodside | Okay. I can do mayor's announcements after the consent calendar and circle back. But so we, the next item is action minutes of the previous meeting for which we at this time have none. So we'll move on to item number three, which is our consent calendar items on the consent calendar considered routine. and non-controversial are expected to have unanimous council support and may be enacted by the council in one motion in the form listed below. There will be no separate discussion of consent calendar items. However, before the council votes on a motion to adopt the consent calendar items, council members may request that specific items be removed from the consent calendar for separate action. Items removed from the consent calendar will be discussed later on the agenda when public comment will be heard on any item that was removed from consent. So this evening on the consent calendar, we have three items. Item 3A, adopt a resolution requiring planning commission to render a report within 40 days on proposed text amendments to the Sausalito municipal code title 10 zoning chapter 10.54 design review Procedures and enacting section 8.34020. Item 3B, accept the annual report on construction traffic road fee for fiscal year 2022-23 under the Mitigation Fee Act, and adopt a resolution making finding pursuant to California Government Code 66001. And finally, item 3C, which is cancellation of the January 2nd, 2024 regular city council meeting. At this time, I will bring it back up to the dais to see whether any members of the council would like to see any items removed from the consent calendar. Vice Mayor Sobieski. |
| 00:48:57.63 | Ian Sobieski | don't want to remove it, but just want to highlight that 3C cancels the January 2nd meeting. But we are as part of that item, it does highlight that city staff is going to look to schedule a special meeting in January to make up for it. So that will still to do two meetings in January, at least |
| 00:49:14.27 | Steven Woodside | noted. Thank you for Thank you for sharing that. Okay, so I will now open up the consent calendar for public comment. And when our city clerk returns, he will explain how to receive public comment. |
| 00:49:39.67 | Chad Hess | Let's see. He's coming back from his office. |
| 00:49:53.17 | Steven Woodside | Well, I have the script for how you give public comments. So I will share that with all of you while we wait for our city clerk. Video or audio public comment participation is limited to two minutes per speaker. Please fill out a speaker slip and hand it to the city clerk or raise your hand. in the Zoom application and you will be called upon when it is your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, press star nine. Each speaker will be notified when the time has elapsed. Ms. McDougal, we are now taking public comment on the consent calendar. |
| 00:50:25.80 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Is there anyone in the chamber? Yes, please. Ms. McDougal. We're taking public comment at this time. No problem. Nice to see you. |
| 00:50:51.17 | Babette McDougall | So I know my letter was late arriving mail. Did anyone see my letter by chance? Thank you very much for acknowledging. My name is Babette McDougall. I'm at 115 Girard Avenue. The first time I came to Sausalito was 1986. And then I was up in San Anselmo, came back by 1990, and I've been here ever since. So, About this consent calendar problem, and I'm just going to use this final meeting for the calendar year to say, you have some really important items on the calendar Consent calendar. that really belong in front of your publics. Most of the things that are being asked to do a well, what's called a pro forma exercise for. are in fact not a pro forma exercise. And it's quite unsettling to see the huge number of things that you folks seem to feel that you are uniquely qualified to answer for without ever engaging the public. And this is really troubling. So I just hope that as we wind up this year, and move toward the next year, that those of you who continue to stay on will realize that this is not the way traditionally we handle our politics in the city of Sausalito. Those, yes, thank you, Ms. Cox, because I know that you're aware of this. And I just want to make sure that we're all aware that in fact, as more and more people become engaged, I personally was invited to visit six homes over the weekend just to talk about these political issues that are not being daylighted. So I think the good news, the upshot from that is that more and more people are starting to pay attention. And hopefully that means that as the calendar rolls into the 24 year, that more and more people will be here. to help us work together as one body. Have you announced who's going to be our next mayor and vice mayor yet? |
| 00:52:43.37 | Steven Woodside | That is item 9B, 8B on the seating agenda. |
| 00:52:45.17 | Babette McDougall | I just wasn't sure if there was any advance. Okay. So thank you for allowing me to address this in terms of some of the specific items. I see that they've already been addressed by some of the neighbors. In our community, and since there's this council protocol that one should not keep repeating oneself over and over just to run the clock out to hear yourself speak, I'm not going to repeat what you've already received in writing about these things, but there are several that I'm not in favor of at all. Thank you. |
| 00:53:10.66 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much, Ms. McDougall. City Clerk, do we have public commenters online or? |
| 00:53:16.19 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, right now we're talking about consent calendar? Yes. Seeing none. |
| 00:53:19.84 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Okay. I will close public comment at this time and ask for a motion of approval for our consent calendar. So moved. Do we have a second? |
| 00:53:29.79 | Melissa Blaustein | I'll say it. |
| 00:53:42.28 | Melissa Blaustein | You okay? Pastor Member Cox moved my second. Let's run. Thank you. |
| 00:53:50.29 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 00:53:51.07 | Chad Hess | Yeah, I'll be sure. |
| 00:53:54.80 | Walfred Solorzano | Take a short break. |
| 00:53:58.92 | Steven Woodside | Many of you know that earlier this year, we lost a very active member of our community who has given quite a bit of time and also dedication and heart to the city of Sausalito. I think you all probably at some point had the opportunity to interact with Bill Werner. And at the time of his passing, we did close the meeting in his honor, but given the level of engagement and the amount that he contributed to Sausalito, I really wanted to do a little bit more. And on December 11th, it would have been his 85th birthday. So I have a proclamation declaring that December 11th, 2023, Bill Werner Day, and I'm going to just read it and then I'll present it to Pat Suck, who's here with us this evening. Whereas Bill Werner was a standout citizen and resident of Sausalito who contributed in numerous ways throughout his 50 plus years of living in this town. And whereas Bill served on the Sausalito Design Review Board, the Sausalito Planning Commission, the Sausalito Parking Policy Task Force, the Police and Fire Facility Needs Assessment Task Force, the Waterfront and Marinship Steering Committee, the America's Cup Task Force, the General Plan Advisory Committee, and even more. And whereas Bill also served on the Marin County Civil Grand Jury and contributed to numerous grand jury reports to provide recommendations for Sausalito to better its role as a city. And whereas Bill donated his time and expertise to redesign the downtown bathrooms for the city of Sausalito out of the goodness of his heart. And whereas Bill Werner loved this town and donated his time and expertise to the best of his ability without self-promotion or the prospect of personal enrichment. Now, therefore, the city council of the city of Sausalito hereby honors and remembers Bill Werner and his many contributions. The mayor and city council do declare December 11th, 2023, which would have been his 85th birthday, Bill Werner Day in Sausalito. |
| 00:56:02.02 | Melissa Blaustein | Mayor, would it be okay if I said something about |
| 00:56:04.60 | Steven Woodside | I would love it if you said something about Bill, please. |
| 00:56:04.84 | Melissa Blaustein | I'd love it if you said something. So I love that there's so many people here tonight. I've had the pleasure of serving with Bill on the Planning Commission, and I both have extreme gratitude and blame him for sitting up here today. Bill, like many of you, was just a tireless advocate for the city of Sausalito. He was so bright and so creative and so warm and curmudgeonly friendly in his way. And he was really, truly a beautiful human. And I remember he once said to me on the Planning Commission, somewhere in my ninth or 10th year serving, he said, I definitely don't always agree with you, but I like talking with you about it. And that's what Bill, that's what he was like. And when he suggested I get on the general plan advisory committee with him, I should have run for the hills, but I didn't. And there we surfed together again with some of you. And then that, of course, led me here. So I just I want to thank Pat and I want to thank Bill because I know he is watching and taking notes for being such a wonderful exemplar of what it means to love this community. And I owe a huge debt of gratitude to him for his mentorship and his guidance and his support. And so I couldn't thank my colleagues more for really doing this on his behalf. So thank you. |
| 00:57:28.76 | Steven Woodside | Does anyone else want to say anything about Bill, if you had the chance to work with him or know him? Go ahead, Councilman McCox. Mm-hmm. |
| 00:57:37.43 | Joan Cox | So I, too, had the pleasure of serving with Bill on the Planning Commission and then serving on the Planning Commission while he was on the Historic Preservation Committee and then. serving on the city council while he was in various committee roles Not only, and he also was on the design review board decades ago before we eliminated the design review board. So, you know, I endorse everything Janelle said about his heart belonging to the community, but it also belonged to the people. You know, he loved to engage in a good debate, even if he disagreed with you. And he and I didn't agree on everything, but we would get together and raise a glass every now and then regardless. And. He was one of the smartest men I ever met. He was one of the most cultured men I ever met. He traveled up to Oregon every year for the Shakespeare Festival and around the world for various events and festivals. Weren't you both from Yale? |
| 00:58:42.30 | Sybil Butchillier | Yes. |
| 00:58:42.82 | Joan Cox | Yeah, so he was proud of that history. He designed our downtown restrooms, which not everybody appreciates what a boondoggle they were before someone came along and designed them properly. And actually designed and watched a building get built that represents our downtown appropriately. And so, and he did that gratis for the city. He served on the Ferry Landing Committee for years, gratis for the city. So, what we have reaped from him and from his generosity is immeasurable. And I will always be grateful to him for that. |
| 00:59:25.01 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:59:25.97 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, please. So, you know, obviously echoing what the other comments were and just to reiterate what a, what a pillar he was really in our community and, um, How smart he was and how he, whenever you would call him and ask for advice, it was always, you know, just a great contribution to whatever it was you were trying to do. And always stepped up when he was asked to do that. And so what a huge part of our community he was for so long. And, of course, we will miss him. |
| 01:00:03.35 | Ian Sobieski | Well, I unfortunately never met him in person. I got put through my paces by Bill Werner during the campaign where he asked me many a tough question and challenged me and everyone to think in this particular case, what downtown wants to be. So he articulated that and he did it from a designer and artist's point of view, whereas it shouldn't be anyone's particular idea. He said, what does it want to be? That was the question he kept asking and it sticks with me. And I thought it was a very beautiful question. |
| 01:00:35.82 | Steven Woodside | And I had the opportunity to be Bill's neighbor as well. So I got to know him as a friend in addition to a pillar of this community. And I dearly miss him in both capacities. And we're really grateful to have had him be a part of our community in Sausalito. And we miss him very much, Pat. So thank you for being here with us when we honored him tonight. And I appreciate everyone in the chamber for allowing us the opportunity and the time to do that because his work really merits that. Okay, we'll move on to public hearing items. And the first item on the agenda is 4A, authorize the city manager to award the infrastructure, modernization, utility savings, and sustainability program consultant services agreement to Climate Tech LLC and execute the energy services agreement in the amount of $0. So we have our sustainability manager, Katie Tho Garcia here. |
| 01:01:21.21 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Katie Thau- All right, good evening everybody just have a PowerPoint that it looks like no one is busy pulling up right now. Good evening Mayor Blastie and Vice Mayor Sobieski members of the Council and members of the public, my name is Katie Thau-Garcia and I'm the resiliency and sustainability manager here at Sausalito. Tonight I'm here to present item number 4A. I'm not going to reiterate the title because it's long enough. So we can go ahead to slide number two. All right, so the city of Sausalito has deeper infrastructure needs and sustainability goals than the current budget can accommodate. The city manager and staff have been tasked and challenged to utilize a back-to-basics approach to source and implement alternative solutions, including funding, that will support the city's efforts to proactively renew infrastructure, promote sustainability, and improve budgetary relief. In response to this need, staff have looked into utilizing Government Code 4217, which is a procurement policy that allows public agencies to enter into a range of services related to energy conservation and infrastructure improvements. The code allows jurisdictions to pick their vendor partner based on their own best value criteria, allowing you to work with your preferred partner without having to default to a low bid. Energy conservation projects chosen by jurisdictions typically include a design-build retrofit project in multiple disciplines like HVAC, lighting, roofing, windows, electrical, irrigation, plumbing, and anything else related to and necessary to operating or utility costs. Next slide, please. on september 5th 2023 city council authorized the release of a request for proposals for the infrastructure modernization slide please. On September 5th, 2023, City Council authorized the release of a request for proposals for the Infrastructure Modernization, Utility Savings, and Sustainability Program in effort to address both the infrastructure and sustainability needs outlined in the General Plan and the Climate Action Plan. The RFP sought qualifications and proposals from qualified design and build firms capable of providing comprehensive energy conservation measures according to Government Code 4217. Subsequent proposals were evaluated, interviewed, and selected by staff in anticipation of hearing this item. Sorry, in anticipation of hearing this item, staff issued the mandatory two-week public hearing notice on December 4, 2023. Next slide, please. Following the RFP process, Climatex proposal was found to be competitive with a back to basics approach, focusing on power resiliency, dual purpose solar structures, smart city technologies, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and securing and leveraging additional funding to help implementation through the use of state and federal funds. Next slide. Climatech proposed a two-phased approach compliant with Government Code 4217. The first phase, which Council is considering tonight in this item, would have Climatech conduct a comprehensive energy analysis of city infrastructure. The purpose of this is to identify potential energy generation and operational saving opportunities and estimate program costs to implement the recommended energy conservation measures in a comprehensive energy analysis. Once this is prepared, the analysis of potential energy costs and consumption savings would be presented to Council to consider in a public hearing item During which Council would need to find that the anticipated cost to the city for the project would be less than the anticipated cost to the city of electrical consumptions that would have been consumed by the city in the absence of the project. So once Council makes these findings in a future public hearing item, Phase 2 could then begin and would include energy management system recommendations and implementation of certain renewable energy generational projects directed by Council following the approval of the comprehensive energy analysis. So following the approval of Phase 1. As my final point in this presentation, I would just like to make the distinction and reiterate that council is only considering phase one right now. And Climatech is proposing this approach at no cost to the city. Um, So that's the amount of $0. So thank you. That concludes my presentation. I believe members from Climatech, Tyler and Byrne, are here to help answer any questions if need be. Thank you. Thank you very much, Katie. OK, I'll bring it up to the dais for questions. |
| 01:06:13.57 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 01:06:13.93 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Thank you. |
| 01:06:14.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Councilmember Kilman. Okay, thank you for being here. Great report to the point, I love it. Four questions for you. So I know this is just for phase one. Is there any obligation to proceed to phase two? if we agree to this, and is there a cost if it is too? Good question. |
| 01:06:30.82 | Katie Thau-Garcia | There is no obligation to proceed to phase two. Those clauses are outlined. I'm not exactly sure where in the proposal, but we made sure those were included. So council upon hearing phase one could choose to back out. Under phase two, I believe the energy conservation requirements would be considered for future funding. And Climatech would help the city of Sausalito secure state and federal funding in order to meet those. But we don't actually know how much they would cost right now because that would be included in phase one. |
| 01:07:10.56 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, so you read my mind on the second question, which is, will they be recommending grants? And it sounds like that would be part of it. |
| 01:07:11.25 | Katie Thau-Garcia | I'm going to... |
| 01:07:15.91 | Sybil Butchillier | Yeah. |
| 01:07:16.06 | Melissa Blaustein | Is there money from the state or county for these types of assessments right now or not even assessments, but to take action should we find low hanging fruit? |
| 01:07:26.37 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Yeah, absolutely. So one of the grants the city has already applied to the Strategic Growth Council's climate resilient community grant. Climatec would be well suited to assist the city in or help us apply to future. funding rounds of that grant in addition to multiple other ones, but that's just an example. Okay, and then my |
| 01:07:48.97 | Melissa Blaustein | My last question is I told you I'm committed to removing silos. So we as a council approved the facilities infrastructure assessment. And this sounds like there's a lot of overlap. How might we as a city evaluate multiple offerings at the same time. And I don't want, you know, we're paying for one. We wouldn't be paying for the other. How do we make sure we get the most out of this? |
| 01:08:11.11 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Yeah, that's a great question and one that I Considered this is specifically related, Government Code 4217 is specifically related to energy conservation. So anything related to energy conservation that would be included in the RFP that you just spoke about could be eliminated. But that is yet to be determined with a Phase 1 approval. |
| 01:08:36.97 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:08:37.07 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Thank you. |
| 01:08:37.30 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm sorry, and one sort of side question, maybe it's for the consultant. So, I'm sorry. traditionally you would probably look at, um, you know, weather stripping and your quality of your windows and, you know, what type of light bulbs and such. Does part of this assessment also look at our physical infrastructure and determine where we have heat sinks and where we might need more passive solar cooling and things like that? Yes. Great. Thank you. |
| 01:09:01.81 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Councilman Killman. Other questions from the dais? |
| 01:09:06.96 | Jill Hoffman | How long do you expect it to take to complete phase one? |
| 01:09:10.91 | Katie Thau-Garcia | That's a great question. I don't have that online. Tyler? I would invite Tyler up here to help answer that. I think it's varying on how many buildings we want because the city does have quite a bit of infrastructure. It would vary. Okay, so I'll let you address that. That's a question. |
| 01:09:28.24 | Tyler (Climatech) | Good evening, Council members. Good question regarding the duration. So typically after the kickoff meeting with the city, that can take either eight to ten weeks to complete the entire process for the energy assessments. Looking at your infrastructure and the collaboration meetings with staff as well and looking at funding sources. |
| 01:09:49.23 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so you said six weeks? |
| 01:09:52.42 | Tyler (Climatech) | Yeah. Eight to ten weeks. Eight to ten weeks. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Yeah, that was a joke. I was like ten weeks. |
| 01:09:53.37 | Jill Hoffman | Eight to ten weeks. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Yeah, that was a joke. I was like. Eight to ten weeks. We're going to ask you. It's a 10 weeks. What can I ask a question of our city manager sorry but i'm pivoting off a question that Councilman Kellman asked. We are looking at doing a facilities assessment. Is it possible to combine these two efforts. |
| 01:10:12.35 | Chris Zapata | Thanks for that question, Councilmember Hoffman. We should. Not as if possible, we should do that. But obviously there's some cutouts with respect to the government codes that Climatech would be working on. And the infrastructure question is also regarding buildings and things like streets is much broader. So we should combine them and figure out what makes sense to not be redundant. |
| 01:10:24.69 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:10:27.86 | Jill Hoffman | but, |
| 01:10:35.03 | Jill Hoffman | Is that something, Tyler, that you might be able to join in? |
| 01:10:40.45 | Tyler (Climatech) | Yeah, I do not know the scope of that RFP itself, but there are potentially elements such as HVAC windows, roofs, that could be combined within our assessments. |
| 01:10:50.30 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, that would be something, a direction that I would like is that you would comment on that effort as well and where we could capture some of those efficiencies. So thank you. |
| 01:11:00.78 | Tyler (Climatech) | Real quick on that point, a lot of the facility infrastructure assessments are even deeper, meaning they're looking at structural upgrades, they're looking at overall use and purpose as well. So, you know, we can discuss how that can be integrated and looked at, but we look at those energy components specifically. So there will be some benefit of looking at deeper infrastructure through that RFP. |
| 01:11:22.81 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you. |
| 01:11:24.43 | Jill Hoffman | No further questions. |
| 01:11:26.48 | Steven Woodside | Other questions from the diocese? Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much, Katie. And thank you, Tyler and the Climate Tech team. It's great to see you. Really happy to see this on the agenda. We'll open it up now for public comment. I'm sorry? |
| 01:11:43.04 | Walfred Solorzano | Should we say public hearing just to? Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:11:45.60 | Steven Woodside | instead of public comment. We'll open it up now for a public hearing. |
| 01:11:47.19 | Sybil Butchillier | THE FAMILY. |
| 01:11:50.65 | Walfred Solorzano | Um, seen, uh, seen none. |
| 01:11:54.23 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'll close public comment then at this time and bring it back up to the dais and I will just close the public hearing and close the public hearing. Thank you. Great. And I will just start by saying I'm happy to initiate a motion to authorize the city manager to award the infrastructure modernization utility savings and sustainability program consultant services to climate tech with the direction as indicated by Councilmember Hoffman to as well work with the existing RFP on facilities assessment and include commenting on the facilities assessment in the breadth of that. |
| 01:12:27.82 | Ian Sobieski | Second. |
| 01:12:28.25 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay. And now we can have a discussion from the dais. Yes, Councilmember Cox. |
| 01:12:33.09 | Joan Cox | I fully endorse this project. I'm so pleased to see the city relying on government code section 42. 17, it really provides a much greater latitude to municipalities to both undertake the consulting work to identify what the need is and then hire the firm that's best qualified to actually carry out the consulting work without going through a normal design build or other type of procurement. So kudos to Katie and her team for undertaking this process, and I'm very much looking forward to the assessment. |
| 01:13:09.51 | Steven Woodside | Other comments from the diocese? Councilman Hoffman? |
| 01:13:13.91 | Melissa Blaustein | Fully in favor. Thanks. Fantastic. |
| 01:13:17.22 | Jill Hoffman | I'm in favor, but I want to. I want to comment on something and maybe ask for input from the council on maybe how to approach this. Maybe we can't. So we do a lot of things in phases, right? And we do a lot of things in phases of, let's see how this goes. Let's bring this back. This is phase one. We're going to make a decision later, phase two or phase three, on whether to go forward on something. So somehow those phases get lost and the impression from the public or the impression from the council is that It's not phased. It's we have decided to go through to the final project. And so I'm wondering how to, approach that and make it clear in the record and the expectations among the public that this is going to be a phased project. I'm happy. |
| 01:14:04.45 | Steven Woodside | I'm happy to weigh in and offer a suggestion, which is that- I wasn't finished yet. |
| 01:14:06.37 | Jill Hoffman | I wasn't finished. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. And when it comes back to us, we're going to look at the phases in the context of the ability of our staff. in the context of our |
| 01:14:16.03 | Steven Woodside | budget. |
| 01:14:16.89 | Chad Hess | Thank you. So. |
| 01:14:19.01 | Steven Woodside | I was just going to say, I'm having, having worked with climate tech a little bit and had some conversations around what this would look like and what it would mean. And having worked with Katie. I think that they are very accustomed to providing very detailed reports back to the city council. So if we want to give direction that says we'd like to see a full review of phase one with an eye to the impact on its budget and hear that within a certain within a date certain, then. That could absolutely be part of the direction that we get. Go ahead, Council Member Cox. I didn't mean to. |
| 01:14:48.78 | Joan Cox | No, that's all right. I was also going to offer that that government code section provision itself requires that. there be a showing. that undertaking the recommended process in the manner recommended reaps a money savings to the city if it had otherwise proceeded in a different course. And so there's a built-in a cost saving mechanism into the statute that requires us to make certain findings that we will be saving money by... proceeding. in the recommended path. I'm not sure. above what we otherwise ordinarily would have spent. |
| 01:15:28.62 | Steven Woodside | But I think that's great to add into the direction. So the motion, as I mentioned, is to authorize the city manager to award the infrastructure modernization utility savings and sustainability program consultant services to Climate Tech. and execute the energy services agreement in the amount of $0 with the additional direction from Councilmember Hoffman and others that there be a clear comment on our existing facilities assessment and where to capture those existing. Efficiencies within that RFP, as well as be sure that there is an extensive reporting back after phase one and what our steps are for phase two as it relates to the municipal and the state code. And we do have a motion and a second on the table for that. And before we do take a vote, I just want to say I'm also thrilled to see this on the agenda. I really appreciate the emphasis on energy savings with regards to our climate action plan and our low emissions action plan. But also Climate Tech has a lot of experience working specifically on using smart city technology to reduce emissions. And so I'm hopeful that this will be the beginning of creating a more robust smart cities approach that saves money for the city going forward. So we'll go ahead and take a vote. All in favor say aye. Bye. Bye. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much, everyone. And thank you, Climate Tech, for being here. And thank you to Katie. So that closes the public hearing for this evening, and we can now move on to business items. So item 5A, consider appointments to... The Community Safety Disaster Preparedness Committee, Economic Development Advisory Committee, Historic Preservation Committee, Library Board of Trustees, Pedestrian Bike Advisory Committee, and Sustainability Commission. So I think we can start with the community safety. I'm just going to, could you put on the screen perhaps, Walford, how many vacancies are for each of those commissions and the names of the? It's in the staff report. I just think it'd be helpful for members of the public as well to have it on the screen. |
| 01:17:19.05 | Chad Hess | I know. |
| 01:17:27.27 | Melissa Blaustein | the full university. As we know, we met people last week. |
| 01:17:31.98 | Chad Hess | you |
| 01:17:32.25 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:17:32.27 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:17:32.94 | Joan Cox | And this is another weekend. |
| 01:17:34.04 | Trish Smith | Thank you. I thought it sounded good. |
| 01:17:42.49 | Chad Hess | Do you want to? |
| 01:17:43.56 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 01:17:49.92 | Chad Hess | There you go. |
| 01:17:50.96 | Steven Woodside | Fantastic. Okay, great. So we'll start with community safety and disaster preparedness. We have seven vacancies and four applicants. So given that we have seven vacancies, as well as one alternate, I would move to a point Elizabeth Carter. Levi Although Levi applied for something else. |
| 01:18:11.21 | Joan Cox | for something else. Yes. |
| 01:18:12.11 | Steven Woodside | Elizabeth Carter, Jane Kendall, and Gwiel Kamak to the disaster community safety and disaster preparedness. That's who I would nominate. So I think we need a second for the nomination. |
| 01:18:12.12 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:18:16.41 | Joan Cox | I'm sorry. |
| 01:18:21.31 | Joan Cox | And what about Gulna Hall-Kamuk? I mentioned her as well. Oh, OK, yes, all three. |
| 01:18:23.58 | Steven Woodside | I'm sorry. . |
| 01:18:25.10 | Joan Cox | THE END OF |
| 01:18:25.17 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:18:25.29 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:18:25.30 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:18:25.32 | Joan Cox | Yes. |
| 01:18:25.86 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Second. Do we have additional nominations to put forth? |
| 01:18:30.70 | Ian Sobieski | I don't think you need a second for the nominations. |
| 01:18:33.02 | Steven Woodside | I don't think you do. Yes. |
| 01:18:33.76 | Ian Sobieski | Yes, you just put forth the nomination and if there are additional nominations. |
| 01:18:37.89 | Steven Woodside | So then we should vote on those three. So do we need to take, city attorney, do we have to take a roll call vote for these appointments, |
| 01:18:47.33 | Sergio Rudin | You do not have to take a roll call vote, but let me pull up the city code provision on this really quickly. Thank you. |
| 01:18:58.38 | Sybil Butchillier | Amen. |
| 01:19:03.39 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, you announced one name for each vacancy. Each person whose name has been announced by the mayor or city council member shall be denominated and eligible for appointment. Um, I'll actually the city clerk or recording secretary shall take a roll call vote of the members of the city council as to the appointment. So yes, you do need to take a roll call vote. |
| 01:19:19.37 | Steven Woodside | That's what I thought. So we'll take a roll call vote on the appointments of Elizabeth Carter, Wood, Ward, Jane Kendall, and Glenelg Kamak to the Community Safety and Disaster Preparedness Committee. |
| 01:19:30.49 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay. |
| 01:19:30.58 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:19:30.59 | Walfred Solorzano | remember, |
| 01:19:30.90 | Steven Woodside | . |
| 01:19:30.97 | Walfred Solorzano | talk. |
| 01:19:31.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:19:31.22 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. Councilmember Cullman? Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski? Yes. And Mayor Lawson? |
| 01:19:33.73 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. . |
| 01:19:38.73 | Steven Woodside | motion carries unanimously and we will inform these nominees that they have been appointed to the Community Safety Disaster Preparedness Committee. I will note that that leaves four vacancies outstanding and one alternate and we will continue to conduct interviews to fill those positions when we return in January. So if you have interest, I know I've heard from some members of the public that there are folks who would like to consider applying. So I wanted to put that out there and now we can move on to the Economic Development Advisory Committee for which there are seven vacancies and one alternate. |
| 01:20:08.48 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 01:20:08.56 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. And I will now open the floor for nominations. I would nominate |
| 01:20:12.04 | Joan Cox | Levi Eastwood. |
| 01:20:13.37 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 01:20:13.39 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:20:13.40 | Sybil Butchillier | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:20:13.68 | Joan Cox | Thank you. and Daniel Chador. and Hank Baker. And Chantel Shanann. |
| 01:20:29.59 | Steven Woodside | Are there other nominations from the floor? |
| 01:20:33.11 | Jill Hoffman | I had a clarification. Yes. So we have room to appoint eight people, right? Seven vacancies on one album? |
| 01:20:42.08 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. Mm-hmm. |
| 01:20:42.73 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. And so I know that there's different terms. In other words, it's numbers of years for each of, I don't know how many different terms there are. There's four different levels. So I don't see that noted up there or how we would figure out who |
| 01:21:03.93 | Walfred Solorzano | All the vacancies are expired. So my assumption, sorry if I'm incorrect, it's three-year terms for everybody. |
| 01:21:09.78 | Jill Hoffman | No. There are one-year terms, two-year terms, and three-year terms. unless we want to change that. I mean, so it's not agenda. |
| 01:21:19.20 | Steven Woodside | There's not agendized for this evening, so you can't right now. |
| 01:21:20.62 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:21:20.67 | Joan Cox | Yeah. I would be in favor of changing that, quite honestly. That was sort of a ramp-up approach. So I'd like to see this come back to us at our next meeting to – Well, I'd like to go ahead and make appointments for terms as long as exist, but I'd like to have that come back to us to just convert the terms to three years. |
| 01:21:42.37 | Ian Sobieski | I think you could just put that on consent at the next meeting. |
| 01:21:45.19 | Joan Cox | Yeah. Okay. Great. And I did not mention Jane Farley, who interviewed tonight. I don't know. So that's five people. Are you nominating her? |
| 01:21:47.10 | Steven Woodside | Bye. |
| 01:21:52.36 | Jill Hoffman | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:21:52.93 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:21:52.95 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:21:52.98 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 01:21:53.00 | Ian Sobieski | Bye. |
| 01:21:53.85 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 01:21:53.88 | Joan Cox | Yes. |
| 01:21:54.81 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, but let me weigh in for a second. I don't think we can put on consent because we would have to talk about who's going to get the two-year term, who's going to get the three-year term. Like we have to slot that, right? |
| 01:22:04.68 | Ian Sobieski | I think the council member's suggestion is we, essentially taking a vote on these people. Right. And on consent, the next January meeting is when they'll actually be appointed to a three-year term. We'll change the terms to three years and appoint these people subject to the first meeting in January. |
| 01:22:09.66 | Tyler (Climatech) | Right. |
| 01:22:09.93 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:22:09.96 | Tyler (Climatech) | Thank you. |
| 01:22:21.28 | Jill Hoffman | if we want to do all three-year terms. Correct. |
| 01:22:23.38 | Ian Sobieski | you know. |
| 01:22:23.78 | Jill Hoffman | So then everybody's turned out on the same, Thank you. |
| 01:22:25.74 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 01:22:26.03 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 01:22:26.08 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 01:22:26.14 | Jill Hoffman | if we |
| 01:22:26.50 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:22:26.55 | Jill Hoffman | DON'T. |
| 01:22:26.62 | Joan Cox | We'll have to figure out how best to do it. Got you. |
| 01:22:27.19 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, gotcha. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I think that's right, sorry. |
| 01:22:28.83 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 01:22:29.23 | Steven Woodside | . |
| 01:22:29.27 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:22:30.97 | Steven Woodside | So then we have Levi Eastwood, Daniel Chador, Hank Banker, Chantel Shanahan, and Jane Farley. I will add Casey O'Neill. |
| 01:22:31.12 | Jill Hoffman | I agree. |
| 01:22:42.77 | Steven Woodside | you what did he want to be on a different Thank you. |
| 01:22:44.40 | Joan Cox | Oh, okay. No, I just, my notes didn't reflect. I'm so sorry. Yeah, I endorse that. |
| 01:22:48.98 | Jill Hoffman | you I wasn't writing these down. Is there any way there's no way to highlight these? So that we can see who's... That's okay. Can someone just read off who's been... |
| 01:22:58.48 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 01:22:58.66 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:22:58.71 | Steven Woodside | I can't, I've been keeping it. Levi Eastwood, Daniel Chidoar, Hank Baker, Chantel Shanahan, Jane Farley and Casey O'Neill. |
| 01:22:59.39 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 01:23:04.77 | Ian Sobieski | that. And you said Jane. Yes, I did. |
| 01:23:09.72 | Steven Woodside | Yes, I did. |
| 01:23:12.53 | Ian Sobieski | at our team. |
| 01:23:12.80 | Steven Woodside | We I'll note that we did not that Christy Ridd and Eric Halverson did not join us for an interview. Right. So I want to make sure that that is noted. |
| 01:23:19.33 | Julianne Krim | Right. |
| 01:23:23.77 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so we will now take a roll call vote on these nominations for the Economic Development Advisory Committee. |
| 01:23:28.63 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? |
| 01:23:29.51 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Yes. |
| 01:23:32.82 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Kelman? |
| 01:23:34.62 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 01:23:34.64 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:23:34.66 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 01:23:34.86 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Sobieski. Yes. Mayor Blasdine. Thank you. |
| 01:23:37.51 | Steven Woodside | YES. |
| 01:23:37.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 01:23:37.90 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:23:37.91 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:23:37.93 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:23:38.76 | Ian Sobieski | And similarly, Mayor, will we continue interviewing for the additional vacancies that are here? |
| 01:23:42.93 | Steven Woodside | Yes, of course, we still have one regular appointment and one alternate city attorney. When are we to take public comment on, do we have to do it for each of the appointments or can we do it on the item as a whole? |
| 01:23:55.46 | Sergio Rudin | You can do it as an item on the whole, |
| 01:23:58.67 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'm just going to take public comment before we move on. |
| 01:24:05.72 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Hi. Nice to see you, Scott. Thank you. |
| 01:24:09.82 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you. |
| 01:24:09.88 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:24:10.53 | Scott Thornburg | I'll just mention Scott Thornburg, Chair of EDAC. Thank you for interviewing candidates tonight. I think we have more vacancies listed than we may actually have available. So that may be something we want to clarify in a thought meeting. Also, thank you for considering term lengths. I did send my recommendations to the council for consideration as you have that conversation, given what I think works going forward and our recommendations as a committee. So it's in line with what you're saying, basically through your terms. |
| 01:24:50.07 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:24:50.10 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you. |
| 01:24:50.26 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:24:50.27 | Scott Thornburg | Thanks. |
| 01:24:50.34 | Joan Cox | Yeah. Would you mind saying I did not, I missed your email. |
| 01:24:53.33 | Scott Thornburg | That's okay. I'll clarify. So my recommendation, and we've kind of run this by the existing committee, and there was alignment there, is that we would basically convert the existing members to, we would consider wherever they are in their term now as a first term, a first three-year term. and then the incoming members that you would be appointing now would be starting a new term, a new three-year term. And then the incoming members that you would be appointing now would be starting a new term, a new three-year term, but we would transition everyone to a three-year term with the option to extend a second term. And then I also provided some recommendations on how we would manage vacancies going forward, basically at the direction of the council. So we provided some notes, and I'm happy to provide some that again. It's been a few weeks since I said that. |
| 01:25:44.66 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Scott, I appreciate that. So I just wanna, I'm wary that we may over a point then if that's not the correct number of agencies. |
| 01:25:48.83 | Walfred Solorzano | Bye. |
| 01:25:48.85 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you. |
| 01:25:49.69 | Walfred Solorzano | I do have a note. Scott Thornburg, he was turned out. And so you never sent in an application |
| 01:25:57.71 | Scott Thornburg | So there are a number of, there are There are a number of, because of the way that the committee is structured now, there are a number of one, two, and three-year terms. Because we have not had this process in the last several months, we've been operating under the assumption that we are continuing as a committee, and so that's what we've done. So yes. |
| 01:26:26.21 | Unknown | It's okay. |
| 01:26:27.91 | Scott Thornburg | If we need to reappoint certain members, then I'm sure we can. encourage those that have turned out to do that. Those terms are not listed anywhere. And so we have our notes, but it would be really helpful, I think, to review what is on record with the city so that we have specific details here. |
| 01:26:47.54 | Walfred Solorzano | So what's on, sorry, if I can, what's on record is Malcolm Morgan turned out, Rachel Stout turned out, Scott Thornburg turned out, John DeRay turned out, and Tom Riley turned out. |
| 01:26:59.42 | Joan Cox | So what we had decided before is that when it comes to boards and commissions, we would give people who had finish their first term the opportunity to reapply for a second term. I'm not sure that was clear to members of EDAC since we didn't receive applications for reappointment from members who were termed out. So I'd like to recommend that I withdraw my motion for this evening. that we postpone consideration of this item until next month. that we get a report from the city clerk about who is termed out and is eligible to reapply or not, and that anyone who is termed out be given the option to reapply so that we consider reappointing them if that's something we'd like to do. |
| 01:27:40.12 | Ian Sobieski | Could I add to that the liaisons council member Hoffman and myself maybe work on this issue to try to sort it out with with the city clerk. |
| 01:27:49.57 | Joan Cox | And apologies to the applicants for the false start this evening. This is something we should have thought about ahead of time. So apologies for that. Thank you. |
| 01:27:58.23 | Steven Woodside | And thank you for that clarification, Scott. Thank you very much, Scott. And again, thank you to everyone who has demonstrated interest. And if we could follow up with all of the members of the EDAC whose terms have expired to remind them if they're so interested in the apply. |
| 01:28:09.89 | Walfred Solorzano | As a note, though, it was on Currents and it was on a lot of our other items. And the other committees, people who had expiring terms actually did reapply. |
| 01:28:20.00 | Steven Woodside | Okay, well, we will |
| 01:28:20.98 | Joan Cox | what, |
| 01:28:21.19 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:28:21.92 | Joan Cox | We will revisit that in January. I'll just say, I think it was confusing for EDAC since they had different term limits. And so I'm not sure everyone realized they had the opportunity to reapply for a second term, given how we structured the term limits. So just let's clarify that and we'll. |
| 01:28:37.90 | Melissa Blaustein | And if the subcommittee could examine whether somebody who may have turned out on a three year or a two year could now come in and apply for a three year, that would be. or any such. Great. Sounds great. |
| 01:28:49.12 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Great. Okay, so we'll move on to the historic preservation committee, where we have one vacancy and one alternate. And I will entertain nominations now from the floor. |
| 01:29:00.26 | Joan Cox | I nominate Brad Cornelius. |
| 01:29:04.93 | Steven Woodside | Okay, and do we have a nomination for an alternate? |
| 01:29:07.28 | Jill Hoffman | David. |
| 01:29:07.43 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Korma was a, yeah. |
| 01:29:09.95 | Jill Hoffman | I think. With David, his first preference was the PC. |
| 01:29:12.01 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 01:29:12.04 | Chad Hess | But his first preference was a piece of paper. |
| 01:29:13.52 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:29:13.56 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 01:29:13.57 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:29:13.61 | Chad Hess | That's a special. |
| 01:29:14.94 | Jill Hoffman | So I would say I would say we hold the alternate until after we make the appointment to PC. |
| 01:29:21.25 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 01:29:21.29 | Steven Woodside | Okay, that's fine. Okay, let's take a roll call vote now on Brad Cornelius. City clerk? |
| 01:29:30.41 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. Councilmember Common? Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski? Mayor Blalstein? |
| 01:29:31.28 | Steven Woodside | Yes. That's what we're talking about. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, moving on to the Library Board of Trustee Applicants, for which we have Julianne Crim, Sydney Dowell, Bethany Mergulia, and Randa Amara. Does this also reflect the existing members who have applied or expressed interest? |
| 01:29:57.69 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:29:57.70 | Chad Hess | as we received |
| 01:29:59.74 | Walfred Solorzano | The only person we have an alternate, Timothy McLeod, who whose term is expired. |
| 01:30:06.83 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I just wanted to note that we received correspondence from our librarians suggesting that we might change the status of Timothy Mythcloud from alternate to a regular member. And then appoint, the suggestion of the librarian was to appoint Bethany Mergold to continue as a regular member. And so I would endorse that. |
| 01:30:29.07 | Joan Cox | So we did not receive an application from Timothy McCloud. |
| 01:30:31.64 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Is his term expired as an alternate? |
| 01:30:36.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:30:37.07 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay. |
| 01:30:38.86 | Joan Cox | So I would go ahead and maybe tonight appoint Bethany Margulia as recommended by the librarian, and then we can reserve appointment of the alternate. |
| 01:30:38.91 | Chad Hess | So, |
| 01:30:39.11 | Steven Woodside | to the next episode. |
| 01:30:49.51 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Sure. Great. OK, we'll take a roll call vote now on the appointment |
| 01:30:55.45 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:30:55.47 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:30:57.69 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:30:57.71 | Joan Cox | Are there only two vacancies? There's one vacancy and one alternate. One alternate. And because the librarian recommended Tim McCloud, I was going to give him an opportunity to apply. |
| 01:30:59.08 | Steven Woodside | There's one vacancy and one alternate. |
| 01:31:09.08 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll take a roll call vote now on the appointment of Bethany Mardula. |
| 01:31:12.46 | Walfred Solorzano | Council Member Cox. Yes. Council Member Hoffman. Yes. Council Member Cohen. Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski. Yes. |
| 01:31:13.45 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to the pedestrian and bicycle advisory committee and I will entertain nominations from the floor. I nominate. |
| 01:31:27.78 | Joan Cox | both Jenny Silva and Kieran Cully. |
| 01:31:29.92 | Jill Hoffman | I have you. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. |
| 01:31:29.94 | Steven Woodside | I hear you. |
| 01:31:30.14 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:31:31.73 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 01:31:33.50 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I have one clarification with regard to Um, THE END OF THE END OF THE Jennifer Silva, she's a 94965 resident. And I just wanted to... note that that's a non voting So is that Because it's non-voting, do we want to appoint her as the alternate? Do we want to take a voting spot for a non-voting appointment? I just ask for clarification. Thank you. |
| 01:32:04.65 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, the council has created seats for a liaison position for non-residents to certain boards and committees, I believe, including PBAC. |
| 01:32:05.04 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:32:16.31 | Sergio Rudin | Um, So the council could appoint that person as a liaison, but I I don't think that they could be appointed to serve a vacancy or to serve as an alternate. |
| 01:32:27.57 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, then she's appointed as a liaison. Right. Okay. |
| 01:32:31.23 | Joan Cox | All right, thank you. So I move appointment of Kieran Culligan. |
| 01:32:31.37 | Jill Hoffman | All right, thank you. |
| 01:32:34.51 | Joan Cox | to one of the vacancies and Jennifer Silva as the liaison. |
| 01:32:39.77 | Steven Woodside | Okay. And I will again note that this leaves additional vacancies on our pedestrian bike advisory committee, and we are still seeking applicants. It's an excellent group of very motivated and passionate individuals. So if you're interested in bikes and pedestrian safety in our town, please consider applying and we will consider applications again in the new year. Okay, I will now take a roll call vote on the appointment of Karen Culligan and Jennifer Silva as the liaison for 94965. |
| 01:33:05.25 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox. Yes. Councilmember Hoffman. Yes. Councilmember Kelman. Yes. |
| 01:33:06.15 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Yes. Yes. |
| 01:33:09.30 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Sobieski? Yes. |
| 01:33:11.53 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Okay, and now we'll move on to the sustainability Commission and I will note that we received a note from the chair and staff endorsing the appointments of existing serving members David Cooper and Mark Palmer and Palmer's I will begin by nominating those two for the Commission, I believe that leaves one alternate if there are nominations from the floor. |
| 01:33:30.66 | Joan Cox | I would nominate Mark Moore as the alternate. Thank you. |
| 01:33:37.19 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. I'm fine with that, but recall he felt he may have a complex, and I don't know if we resolved that. |
| 01:33:43.00 | Joan Cox | I don't know if we did, but if not, he could resign. Expressed interest handed out his business card. And recused. |
| 01:33:49.65 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:33:49.67 | Chad Hess | Embrace. Thank you. |
| 01:33:51.52 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:33:52.70 | Ian Sobieski | We interviewed this person last? Yes, last time. Yes, yes. I hope I didn't mix it up. I didn't have any comments next to Mike Moore, but did have next to Mike Palmer. |
| 01:33:54.54 | Joan Cox | Yes. |
| 01:33:54.86 | Chad Hess | Last time, yes. |
| 01:33:55.98 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:34:01.63 | Steven Woodside | Mark Palmer has served on the commission. He's actually, I think the chair this next year. |
| 01:34:04.75 | Ian Sobieski | next year. |
| 01:34:06.07 | Steven Woodside | Yes, Mark Palmer and David Cooper. |
| 01:34:06.09 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 01:34:06.34 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Mark Palmer. Mark Moore is 20 years renewable energy expert, nonprofit to write grants to build renewable energy for disadvantaged Native American communities. |
| 01:34:15.96 | Ian Sobieski | but we also need, then I need to nominate Mark Park. |
| 01:34:18.62 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:34:18.64 | Steven Woodside | I have already moved to nominate Mark Palmer, David Cooper, and then Mark Moore as an alternate. |
| 01:34:22.18 | Ian Sobieski | I missed that, thank you, ma'am. |
| 01:34:23.21 | Steven Woodside | you So we'll take a roll call vote at this time. |
| 01:34:26.18 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilman Cox. Yes. Councilman Hoffman. Yes. Councilman Coleman. Yes. Vice Mayor Sobieski. Yes. |
| 01:34:27.18 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Yes. That's when we're coming. Yes. Yes. Okay. Motion carries unanimously. And thank you, everyone who is interested in supporting and volunteering in our community. We have an excellent group of candidates and we're very lucky. |
| 01:34:41.34 | Joan Cox | And Mayor, may I ask, so we interviewed Planning Commission candidates tonight. We have a vacancy in January. |
| 01:34:46.23 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I think we had planned to wait until January to make that appointment. Great. So, OK. At the time that Mr. Graves term formally expires. OK. He's still sitting. |
| 01:34:55.61 | Ian Sobieski | He's still sitting. Yeah, it expires at the end of January, and we're going to interview more candidates, if any, at the first meeting of January. |
| 01:35:02.13 | Steven Woodside | Understood. Thank you. |
| 01:35:03.04 | Ian Sobieski | of. |
| 01:35:03.32 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:35:03.76 | Steven Woodside | Great. Okay, we'll now move on to item 5B, which is authorize the city manager to execute a professional services agreement with New City America, Inc. for Property Business Improvement District Formation. So we have our Community Development Director, Brandon Phipps, to get us started. Please. |
| 01:35:19.58 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Mayor, Councilmember, members of the public, and staff. As always, pleased to be joining you this evening, and I'm here to introduce item 5B regarding authorizing the city manager to execute a professional services agreement with New City America Inc. for Property Business Improvement District, aka PBID, Formation-Related Consulting Services. As part of this item, staff is also requesting council's endorsement or suggested modifications to the proposed business improvement district boundary, budget, and financial commitment from the city as developed, proposed, and endorsed by the PBID steering committee, and feedback as to whether Council generally supports the formation of a property business improvement district in the city's downtown central commercial district. This item is coming before you now as the previously approved contract for phase one with New City America Inc. This was related to the district investigation process has concluded and staff have one a desire to share the results of the investigation process with you all today and two require some direction from council as to how to proceed with next steps associated with district formation. And to complement this item, we're joined here this evening by both Cass Green, an active member and representative of the PBID steering committee and stakeholder within the proposed district as owner and operator of In Above Tide, as well as Marco Lee Mandry, president of New City America Inc. and district formation expert. |
| 01:35:52.31 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:36:52.42 | Brandon Phipps | So before I give them the floor, I'd first like to briefly summarize some of the actions that have been taken in collaboration with Marco and the steering committee as related to the proposed district. And also give a really big thank you to all of the business owners, all the property owners, Chamber of Commerce members, Economic Development Advisory Committee members, Sausalito Beautiful members, Sausalito Center for the Arts members and organizers, and community members who contributed their time to attend our steering committee meetings, of which there were five, to those who asked questions and who have provided feedback. So thank you very much, everyone, for all of your input. Hmm. So back in July, PBID investigation process began in earnest with our first steering committee meeting. Much of the first meeting was related to educating attendees as to what a PBID is and the benefits that it can provide to a targeted neighborhood and district. But the overall charge of the district throughout the investigation process, excuse me, the steering committee, was to gauge support for a P-bid via solicitation of responses to a city distributed survey, as well as develop the district's primary elements, including the district boundary, the district proposed budget, and the financial commitment from district members, which include property owner, city of Sausalito. I think the most important element of this process was the survey results that we received throughout the investigation phase. The results of the survey indicate that there is more than sufficient support from property owners within the city's downtown Central Commercial District to support the formation of a property business improvement district. Specifically, staff receive support from a weighted average of 44% of property owners within the proposed district boundaries, which does not include city property. And based on common practice, this percentage of support is generally more than enough to merit further exploration and implementation of a district formation process and potential formation proceedings. So in general, even a 30% threshold can be considered sufficient to moving on to the next phase. So in tandem with the survey's positive indication for a district, the steering committee collaborated on creating and providing feedback on potential budgets that would apply to the district. And based on steering committee input and the feedback of Marco and his team, staff developed three primary budget options, which were initially presented to the steering committee on October 5. ultimately however a final budget option was endorsed by the steering committee which has the district's total assessment at a little over $265,000, broken out between two benefit zones, which each contribute approximately 50% of the district's total budget. So the budget commits the city to approximately 50% of the district total budget, which was an element of the budget that was also unanimously supported by the steering committee committee, partly based on the fact that the city is the largest of property owners within the district. And as part of the budget approval process, the steering committee also endorsed the priority services that would be provided within the district and with the district's assessment dollars and as to what percentage of the budget each primary service would be allocated. So specifically, the steering committee endorsed a budget with marketing at 60%. Civil and Sidewalks at 10%. Administration at 25% with a contingency of 5%. So if the council endorses the primary elements of the district, including the area, budget, level of financial commitment, next steps will include drafting of the management district plan, which is essentially the document that underlies the district that formally represents the X's and O's of the district, if you will. Um, additional next steps include initiation of a petition and balloting process, which will also more formally gauge district support over and above the more informal survey process that we've already conducted as a part of phase one. So to provide some high-level perspective on the results of the survey, I think it's fair to say the high level of support received from the survey responses are somewhat dependent on the proposed budget, the district area, and the financial commitment of district members, including the city, that I've summarized here and further detailed in the staff report and associated attachments. Marco will also speak to the details. But with that in mind, any suggested modifications to the proposed district boundary and financial commitment from the city may adversely impact the district support and significantly reduce potentially the level of support for the district's formation as indicated by the survey results. Conversely, if council would like to suggest modifications, I believe there's opportunity to modify the total assessment budget and the relative weight of each priority service without significantly impacting overall district support. Although it would be ideal to get final council feedback on the budget specifics this evening, those figures can be finalized at a later date as staff works with Marco and his team in drafting and ultimately having the steering committee approving of the underlying document, the management district plan. Regarding staff's recommendation, we recommend City Council authorize the PSA with New City America to provide phase two district formation related consulting services and endorse the proposed district boundary, endorse or suggest minor modifications to the proposed budget as you see fit and endorse and suggest the minor modification to the financial commitment from the city, which would cap the city's total budget contribution at 50% of total assessment district funds. Thank you for the opportunity to present this evening and introduce the item. I will now give the floor to Cass Green to provide additional information and feedback as a key representative of the steering committee and district stakeholder. And I will be available following presentations to answer any questions from council. Thank you very much. |
| 01:43:11.98 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Director Phipps. Welcome, Cass. you |
| 01:43:14.35 | Cass Green | Thank you. Thanks very much. Think of slides. Yeah, they're coming up. Great. So I'm Cass Green, I am the vice chair of the Sausalito's Economic Advisory Committee. And I just have some overview slides. |
| 01:43:20.80 | Ava Crisanti | Thank you. |
| 01:43:30.34 | Cass Green | overview slides, I should know that by now. So why did EDAC, oh, next slide there, thank you. Why did EDAC pursue a bid for Sausalito? Well, if you remember in the winter of 2022, EDAC conducted a survey within our membership to decide to suggest what our priorities should be for the for that year. Subsequently, the and we've presented those to the City Council. Subsequently, the City Council came back and gave us direction and said that the property business improvement district establishing a property business improvement district Was it the timber? their number one priority for EDAC. So since then we've been working with CitySAP and the city consultant to survey businesses and landlords to see if there was enough support to actually even move forward with the establishment of a P-BID. And we have discovered, and Marco's gonna go into the detail, Susan Nemitz- That the support is strong, but I will say that it is hard fought that there is distrust within the businesses towards the city. Susan Nemitz- And but with the help of a lot of people, especially Sam is here, Sam to bar he's been able to work with people and and bring them on board so next slide. So Sausalito's businesses, as you probably know, already contribute substantially to the city of Sausalito's revenue. Business taxes account for 44% of Sausalito's total revenue and 60% of Sausalito's tax revenue. So it's pretty substantial. Without a vibrant and flourishing business community, Sausalito's residents would be paying higher taxes and assessments for the city to operate at its current operational levels. The P bid will be hopefully will be a public private partnership which will build demand increase business tax and parking revenues, creating increased demand for Sausalito businesses enhances the city. ability to serve its residents because so much of the city's revenue are generated by the business taxes. Next slide. So here's a slide that shows the contribution of the business taxes to the total amount of revenue of the city of Sausalito. And you can see that they are substantial at almost $13 million or 44% of the total. Next slide. Of those business taxes, they are broken down into seven different categories. You can see that the TOT, which comes from just the four hotels in town, is almost 2.25 million. Many of the other taxes, you can't break them down because they're spread throughout the city, but many of those other sources of tax revenue are indeed coming from the downtown area. Next slide. We do not believe that the P bid will require any new city investment. The funds for the P bid will come from taxes on downtown Sausalito property owners, as you know, including the city. The businesses believe that this investment will be successful and are asking for your support to be able to tax themselves to generate. the $132, $575 a year that the city would be taxed as part of the P bid. could easily be found within the $12,877,000 in business taxes overall, or even within just the TOT taxes, the 2.249999 annual TOT taxes. However, the city's contribution would not require new funds because you're already supporting the businesses in the downtown, and this would just be a migration and a continuation of that support. Next slide. So I want to conclude with the, this is a great saying for Sausalito since so many people sail here, but a rising tide lifts all boats. I've been in business for, in several different businesses for a long time. And that has always been my attitude is that you work for the entire community because a rising tide lifts all boats. So the creation of the PBID will allow for the consolidation of expenditures, the continuity of investment, And also importantly, the ability to pursue grants from foundations, local, state and federal governments to support and demand demand creation. throughout the city, not just in the district. It'll increase the city's business taxes and the parking tax, parking fee revenue. you And so we endorse the city staff report and we ask that the council authorize the 43 1,500 next phase with the contract with New City America, and as well as endorsing the proposed district boundary and the proposed budget with a 50% contribution from the city, 50-50 split. Thank you. |
| 01:48:28.75 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:48:28.77 | Steven Woodside | Marco? Thank you very much, Cass. Thanks. |
| 01:48:34.30 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Hi Marco. Welcome back. Nice to see you again. |
| 01:48:39.43 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. First time I've been on site here, so I appreciate that. And we have another PowerPoint, right, Brandon? Thank you. Okay. So I'm going to walk you through the PowerPoint, but as way of introduction, I work in multiple areas in the Bay Area. We form 93 districts, so we have a good idea. It's not every time we form a district or we investigate a district, it'll actually go to the end. But we think that there's a lot of strong support. And I can usually tell when we first get going because we look at this establishment of this steering committee, which a lot of people have had questions about. Steering committee is just a group of interested business and property owners. And I know that EDAC and I had probably one year of meetings with people from EDAC before this contract was ever brought and approved by the city council. So there's a lot of preliminary work on this. But I want walk you through because i was charged with doing an investigation the contracts were based upon an investigation determine if there were what in my professional opinion to be somewhat significant support for the establishment of this district and then secondarily would be the formation phase and i would tell you that the pbid uh has been – it's not the greatest piece of legislation in the world, and I would tell anybody that. I work with Chris in a number of cities, and some were charter cities, some were general law cities. So there's an extremely high threshold that's required in order to get to the balloting. The entire process is regulated by the state constitution under Proposition 218 well as the government code you have to do an investigation which we've just completed and we're given our presentation tonight and then if the council decides to go forward and do the formation we have to come up with a management district plan that has to be endorsed by the steering committee economic development the city manager needs to weigh in on it the city attorney needs to weigh in on the city council needs to weigh in on it. The city attorney needs to weigh in on it. The city council needs to weigh in on it. And then once that plan has been approved by the city attorney's office and an assessment engineer, then we have to begin a petition drive. The petition drive requires 50% of the property owners by dollar amount to sign a petition just to get to the balloting. The petition does not create the district, the balloting does. So we're looking through a number of large or very high thresholds in order to get to a point in which the property owners, which ideally would include the city too, would sign a petition and then go into the balloting phase. But let's walk through this and I'll show you what the results of the survey were. Next slide, please. Let's go to the next slide because I can't even read that. So this was the survey that we sent out to all the property owners. And what we don't ask them, are you happy? Or we don't say, is everything going great? Those are not special benefits. So we have to really articulate specific services that would convert or provide a special benefit to real property owners within the district. So ask things like cleaning, safety, marketing promotion, social media, etc. All those different things are asked in this survey. Also parking valet, parking management, etc. And we asked all those questions and we got a pretty high level of support. Next slide. So we have in the district as it stands right now with Benefit Zone 1 and 2, 50 district parcels and 44 property owners. It's a pretty small area. There's other areas that I've done where we have 1,300 property owners. I'm working one in San Diego right now where there's probably 1,000 condo owners. But that's just the nature of doing this. Anybody who has a property within the proposed district, we ask them to weigh in. We also ask the tenants, if their property owners were not local, to get their landlords to weigh in too, so we could have as great a response as possible. Next. So the district totals that we have here, as what was alluded to, so the top, we look at what is the data in the district? And you might say, well, what is the assessed valuation? The assessed valuation is not relevant in the state of California because we have Prop 13. Prop 13 sets assessed valuation as to when you buy the property. So someone who might have owned the property for 50 years versus somebody who bought it three years ago are going to have completely different assessed valuations. So we look and say, what does each partial have in common? It has lot size, linear frontage, and building square footage. So that's the way we make our determination as to whether or not we believe. the potential weight or the dollar amount will be supportive of the district. And you can see from the outline that we had, and I think that Brandon had articulated it, We have an average of about 44% support, and there is some opposition and there is some no opinions. But in doing this as many times as I have, we always look at, do we have an average of 30% on the part of the property owners to move forward? Now, of course, the property owners are going to ask, what is it going to cost me? But that's the stage that we're heading into. In fact, the investigation was not supposed to go into what the cost would be, but we had moved so quickly through the survey and we'd move so quickly through the investigation phase that people requested in September, tell us what the options are. And so I gave the property owners options one, two, and three. Next slide. This shows you the blue is the city owned property and the predominance of the blue on the water side is all city. But there aren't a lot of buildings there. There's pride up predominantly linear frontage and lot size. And on Bridgeway, you can see the green that you see where the people that said that they were supportive of the concept of district. The yellow were the people that said that they weren't sure. about whether or not they weren't opposed, but they weren't supportive at this point. The red were the people that were opposed. And we try to do this to make it as visual as possible so people can see exactly what the responses were. There were some that were negative, and then people went and spoke to them and said, this is what this thing is all about. And then they wound up flipping into being yes. So we have all the data. We have all the surveys. I look at every single survey that comes in. So it's not my staff. I have a staff of 14 people, but I need to be able to know what the people are thinking. Sometimes they just write a long treaties of two paragraphs to say how pissed off they are at the city or the world in general. And they write that on the survey. So I read those things, too. Next slide. |
| 01:55:16.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:55:19.03 | Marco Lee Mandry | This shows the different benefit zones. We had, when I was asked to come back by the group, the steering committee, which consisted of 20 to 30 people for each meeting, which is pretty good turnout for the level of property owners you have in this district. And people came back and said, look, the city is a large property owner here. We believe the city is going to benefit through the general fund, through increased parking meter revenues, as well as TOT revenues, as well as sales tax revenues. Because sales taxes are generated not in the residential areas, they're generated in the commercial areas. So people came back and they said, can you create a scenario in which Bene zone one benefits don't two are equal. So we created benefit zone two, which generated about one hundred and thirty two thousand dollars. My mistake in this to benefit zone one was one hundred thirty two thousand. But eleven thousand of that is city owned property within benefit zone one because the city happens to own property up and down bridgeway off of the water. Next slide. So we looked at all the district totals and the district total assessment, and I first came up with, I think it was $160,000, about $210,000, and $265,000. I've done this enough to know that if you undercapitalize the district, it will not be able to make an impact. You need to generate enough revenue to make an impact. Otherwise, it's a waste of everybody's time. And then people in a few years will be pissed off at me as a consultant by saying, you did this whole process. You didn't generate enough revenue. So they settled on 265. They wanted the benefit zone one or the bridgeway side to generate about $132,000 in property assessments. And they wanted the city to match that. So since I was working with the city and working for the steering committee and for all intents and purposes, I did what they requested. And this is the budget that we came back with. Next slide. That was called option three. And based upon this, we have marketing and promotion, which we're really calling demand creation. And demand creation means how do you attract people to stay in the hotels? Because you have a physical plant that's already built. There's not going to be, no one's going to build a, eight-story high-rise in the downtown. I mean, it is what it is, and it's not going to be that much bigger than it is. And I say that as someone who did the financial district in San Francisco in 2019 before the entire collapse of the financial district from COVID, but that's a completely built-out district. There's really not going to be any new development because it's a historic district north of Market Street. So I looked at what everybody wanted from the survey, and stated over and over again, they wanted to create demand. They wanted more people coming here to sit in the restaurants, stay in the hotels, as well as spend money up and down Bridgeway. And civil sidewalks was how do we try to mitigate the impact of those extra people that are coming in? You do not have the problems that a lot of other places, I've done 11 districts in Oakland, and trust me that Oakland is not Sausalito, as you well know. They would be far more defensive. They would need much more safety and much more cleaning. because of the condition of the city. That's not the case here. So what people want to do is really activate the physical plant, which is basically your downtown. to create more people to come over here. It's the same issue when I did Fisherman's Wharf in 2005. It's the most popular tourist spot in San Francisco. But people say, why would Fisherman's Wharf need a community benefit district, which we call BIDs in San Francisco? And the people in Fisherman's Wharf said, people come here once when they're visiting, they don't come back. Or people from the region don't come here. And so we want an ongoing flow of people coming back. So all those restaurants and the retailers, regardless of what they're selling in Fisherman's Wharf, they wanted them back. So Pier 39, as well as Fisherman's Wharf, created a million-dollar district just to do that and to market and promote. Next slide. So the assessment fee, and you can see the difference between benefit zone one and benefit zone two, building square footage and benefit zone one is 17 cents, lot size is six cents, frontage is $5, if I can read that right. And then they wanted to equalize zone one and zone two. Well, you don't have the building square footage in zone two, which are basically city parking lots. And so you have building square footage, we put it 18 cents because you have so few buildings. Lot size is 12, which is twice what it is in benefit zone one. And the frontage is $6 a linear foot. It was that formula that allowed it to equalize what was being generated in benefit zone one. So that's how we came up with that methodology. Next slide. And I'm sorry, I can't read that. So we're talking about now the party responsible and what the next steps are, and I went over If the council decides that this has merit and it's something that is good for the city of Sausalito, then if they move to the formation district, then what we would do is spend the time in January. And this would be the job of New City of America as well as the steering committee. And we have ongoing participation by at least one city council member as well as Brandon at all of our meetings to come up with a management district plan, which we would finalize based upon council action tonight. What will the budget be? Two benefit zones, city's contribution. And then we would come up with a management district plan. Once that management district plan was then approved, by the steering committee, which probably be late January, early February, I would give it to the city manager and the city attorney. They would review it. I'm sure you would all get a copy of it. And then once that plan was approved, then we need to launch a petition drive. We need 50% of the dollars. Half of 265 is $132,000. We need $132,000 in petitions signed in order to get to the balloting. As you recall, a few years ago, when the governor, they attempted to recall the governor, they did it with 15%. This 50% is a very, very high threshold. In fact, it's higher thresholds for the petition drive than it is for the balloting, but the petition doesn't create the district. There's no minimum turnout for the balloting. So it's once you have the petition, ballots go out to all property owners, whether they're supportive or opposed, and then they can return them. They have to sign them and check yes or no. And then they do that through a public hearing process. The city clerk will count those ballots, report back to the city council, and it's up to the city council if they want to move forward with the district. Whether the city council signs a petition or half a petition or full petition based upon the city's contribution or decides to wait in the balloting is up to the city council. All I can do is present a plan based upon what the steering committee has given me input on. If everything goes forward and the proposals that the continuation would be about five months, the public hearing process is at least 60 to 80 days. so if we're going to get this done by let's say the end of may beginning of june we would have to have all this expedited begin the petition drive ideally sometime in the middle of february late later february use march and april to actually get the petition signed and then the city council would set a public hearing date and then they would mail out the ballots for the city clerk. There's at least 45 days that are required for property owners to have those ballots within their hands. Then they return them. They don't return them. They don't count. So we try to encourage everybody to participate as much as possible. Next slide. And this goes more into detail for your benefit just to understand what this entire process is. There's been a few questions asked. I've seen them through emails as well as through phone conversations as to who's this nonprofit corporation? How is the board created? What is the function of that board? The Property Business Improvement District Act, which is in the streets and highway code, states that the PBID would be administered by what's called an owner's association, which would be a nonprofit corporation that has a contract with the city. It really doesn't spell out much more than that, besides the fact that there will be an owner's association set up. And doing this probably 50 times in setting up the corporations for the various businesses, business improvement districts, community benefit districts that we've created. We normally, the process is that let's assume that it goes forward. The petitions meet the threshold. The balloting, the weighted return ballots are in support. What happens then is that somehow the property assessments that are being paid to the county need to be transferred to the city and then to the property owners and the business owners. That's done through this agreement between this new nonprofit corporation as well as the city council. Normally what happens, you'll say, well, who's on, who decides who's going to be on? When I would just go to the steering committee, there's 20 to 30 people to say, who wants to be on the board? It would be an interim board of directors because the only way you would get on the board through the bylaws normally is that you paid one full year of assessments. We won't know that until next June, June 2025, because people pay their property taxes in December and April. And you won't know that from the county to make sure that someone's qualified. So probably in the summer of 2025 is when you would have an actual board of directors. The interim board of directors, though, would set the name, file with the Secretary of State, approve their bylaws, submit those to the IRS, choose interim officers, open up a bank account, and submit an agreement. It's called a disbursement agreement to the city council for review. So when the funds are actually transferred through the county, to the city, there is an entity that the city can send that money to, which then is consistent with the management district plan. And the funds are expended on the basis of the management district plan, which the city council has already approved. So that's the process. So the first time you'd see revenue coming in would probably be the fall of 2025, excuse me, 2024, assuming that we got this all done by May. And at that point, you would have an interim board of directors. The city as a property owner could easily be on that board because the city would be a pretty heavy property owner. And then they would start to implement marketing promotion, look at and do requests for proposals for administration. People also had mentioned to the $66,000 is a lot of money for administration. I would tell you that that has to cover insurance, office rent, office supplies, computers, everything to run the corporation. That's what administration is. It's not like someone's going to walk away with $66,000. They have to run this corporation and try to leverage more money for the corporation because $265,000 isn't a ton of money. But the main district that we run in the Little Italy area of downtown San Diego, our assessments are $1.2 million. Our budget this year will be $3.5 million because we've been really entrepreneurial in the way we approach bringing money into the organization, which then goes for improvements and funds improvements into our area. Next slide. That's it. So I'm happy to answer any questions that people have. I will turn the floor back to Brandon or whoever you want me to. |
| 02:06:28.04 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much, Marco, for that highly detailed and exhaustive presentation and for all of your work with our community members and on getting the research here. So Councilmember Cox had our hand raised first. |
| 02:06:28.50 | Marco Lee Mandry | my, |
| 02:06:34.81 | Marco Lee Mandry | Okay. |
| 02:06:40.55 | Joan Cox | I had just a couple of questions to lead off. So one of the elements in your budget was civil. Yes. And streets, but the city has already adopted an overall streets improvement, capital improvement plan. So is that beautification of streets or what is that element comprised of? |
| 02:06:46.99 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 02:07:01.91 | Marco Lee Mandry | and, |
| 02:07:02.00 | Walfred Solorzano | THE END OF |
| 02:07:02.03 | Marco Lee Mandry | it's, The idea is that if you attract more people, more people are going to bring more trash. And let's say the city is emptying out the trash cans once a day or something. But you do an event, you're going to have a lot more trash. You bring more people, you're going to have a lot more trash. So we call it civil sidewalks because I hate this concept called clean and safe because the opposite of it is dirty and dangerous, which you don't want to really mark your town as that. So it puts some money in there for trying to mitigate the impact of the new demand. So civil sidewalks isn't wasn't one of the strongest part. It's not capital improvement because the district under the state statute can only last for five years. Thank you. |
| 02:07:42.82 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:07:42.90 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 02:07:42.97 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:07:43.12 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 02:07:43.14 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:07:43.66 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 02:07:44.15 | Joan Cox | And then I was very interested to hear what Cass Green said about the $132,000 allocation to the city, which is, you know, Um, Recently, we spent $150,000 on marketing, and she had said that we would simply shift funds presently being spent from spending, for example, on that marketing program, I'm assuming, to being spent on the pbid so i just wanted clarification about that sort of zero sum analysis that Cass enunciated. |
| 02:08:21.73 | Marco Lee Mandry | I would ask Cass to come up and |
| 02:08:24.46 | Joan Cox | Because I think that was a big source of concern from residents who are concerned that the city is treating the businesses as a favorite as opposed to spending its money across all the needs, particularly those of the residents. So if your position is that the city is not increasing its expenditure on behalf of businesses, I just wanted to hear a little bit more about that. |
| 02:08:52.46 | Cass Green | Well, it's looking at the money, the funds that the council has allocated to EDOC for marketing, for events, all of that. Our belief is that those funds would just be, would move over and be a continuation in the P bid. Go on, I'm sorry. |
| 02:09:08.36 | Joan Cox | So that we- So it'd be no new money invested by the city in order to move forward with the P-bid. you |
| 02:09:15.90 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 02:09:16.15 | Joan Cox | you |
| 02:09:16.17 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 02:09:16.73 | Joan Cox | That's correct. |
| 02:09:19.16 | Steven Woodside | that you Can I have a follow on question to that? And then I'll let someone else go. But in the recommended action from staff, it says that the cost should not exceed $43,500. Is that just directly to New City America? Director Phipps, can you respond to that? |
| 02:09:37.08 | Brandon Phipps | That is absolutely correct, Mayor. |
| 02:09:38.85 | Steven Woodside | And at this point in its current iteration, that's the only that we would see before the establishment of the district and the recommendation cast of the steering committee is then that the funds would come from what is currently allocated for marketing for EDAC and rather be redirected into the bid fee. |
| 02:09:58.19 | Brandon Phipps | Yep, that's correct. |
| 02:09:59.03 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thanks for that. And go ahead, Councilor Cox. |
| 02:10:00.50 | Brandon Phipps | I had Council of Records. |
| 02:10:01.14 | Joan Cox | Yeah, and so the next step, obviously that $132,000, so tonight we would be spending $43,000 on a professional consulting agreement, but we would not incur the $132,000 until and unless there were enough Prop 218 votes from landowners, and by the way, the votes come from property owners, not from businesses, correct? Correct. So it has to be enough property owners to... |
| 02:10:25.59 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 02:10:25.61 | Cass Green | Thank you. |
| 02:10:25.63 | Brandon Phipps | Right. |
| 02:10:25.88 | Cass Green | Thank you. |
| 02:10:32.36 | Joan Cox | past the establishment. And as I understand it, Prop 218, requires... 25% typically not to go on the ballot. 25 to 50, it goes on a ballot. If it's over 50, it passes. But can you refresh us on what those numbers are for a Prop 218? |
| 02:10:50.30 | Brandon Phipps | I'll defer to Marco's expertise on that. |
| 02:10:54.70 | Marco Lee Mandry | So it's like a normal election. If you don't vote, you don't count. And I've done districts where they hit a 50% threshold on the petition and only 45% of the property owners by dollar amount return their ballots. And they still won. So there's no minimum turnout. We always try to make sure too. And under the PBIT law too, it says that no property or can expend more than 20% of the total budget. So if I owned a ton of property and I let's say I own 25% of downtown, I could only use 20%. that. |
| 02:11:32.64 | Joan Cox | Those were my initial questions. |
| 02:11:34.04 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you, Mayor. |
| 02:11:34.65 | Steven Woodside | did we have other questions I have a few but go ahead we're coming |
| 02:11:37.58 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. So hi, team. Thank you. Full disclosure, I have a lot of questions. I sent these to staff. Staff was not able to get me the responses back. So I'm going to ask them live. So I'm sure other people may have the same questions. So my apologies, not trying to grill you. I just am a curious person. Okay, so anybody feel free. The first question I have is, what is the purpose of uh the bishop the business improvement district so when i look at the survey questions um and i think you just explained some of this accounts member cox i'm looking at you marco um the it seems like this is really a marketing uh tool is that accurate this is not about infrastructure it's not about sidewalks or some public comment about planting more trees This is a... |
| 02:12:19.52 | Marco Lee Mandry | It is not about capital improvements and infrastructure. |
| 02:12:22.44 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. |
| 02:12:22.82 | Marco Lee Mandry | because you only have a five-year term. And it could be, for example, some districts that I do, they put it all into maintenance and security. That's all they want. Nothing else. But this group here would prefer to create demand. And so that's why their priority was marketing promotions. |
| 02:12:39.44 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Okay, that's... Sure, of course. It does include |
| 02:12:43.97 | Ava Crisanti | Thank you. |
| 02:12:44.24 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:12:44.56 | Cass Green | You have to speak into the microphone. |
| 02:12:45.40 | Melissa Blaustein | the microphone. |
| 02:12:46.21 | Ava Crisanti | Thank you. |
| 02:12:47.31 | Cass Green | Yeah. It could include planting trees. we've tended to use the term demand creation. creation of demand for people to come in and rent, creation of demand for people to buy properties creation of demand for people to come to the city So it's not just marketing. That's too narrow a word. It's a fuller demand creation, which definitely could include beautification. |
| 02:13:12.08 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, thank you. Thank you, Cass. That's okay. I'll have more that you'll probably want to comment on. So I asked, so there's a lot of emails around how much tax base the business contribute, and then talking about how a portion of this that pays for itself. So then I asked Chad to give me the HDL tax numbers by district. What I don't have is a map that shows me the overlay of the HDL districts with the purported districts that are being outlined today. so if you have that Brandon I know you were cc'd on the email maybe you can articulate that I want to know how the overlay of the HDL districts with the purported districts that are being outlined today. So if you have that, Brandon, I know you were CC'd on that email. Maybe you can articulate that. I want to know how much tax revenue is being developed by the district that this would be covering. |
| 02:13:47.96 | Brandon Phipps | Yeah, so that's an excellent question. Thank you for the question, council member. HDL has developed geographically or geo-fenced areas within the city to represent geographic tax generation. You may have seen the downtown Central Commercial District geo-fence, which shows, at least based on my data, Q2 revenues this year of $139,568. I was able to collaborate on this with Chad, and I'll thank him for his input on this. Those numbers may not actually reflect Measure L revenues and the retired Measure O revenues as a result of Measure L, so they may be slightly reduced, and it's fair to say that The geographic, the geofenced areas that HDL has provided does not also comprise all square feet of city of Sausalito. I actually have the map of the central commercial area, and I'll just speak to it as related to the proposed district boundaries. The geofenced area contains the majority of the commercial corridor within the downtown central commercial district, which is about 99.9% of all businesses, excluding the Spinnaker. The city property is not included in that geofence, but it is irrelevant to the number of businesses that are represented as there are no businesses that locate on the city's parking lots. So I would say it's a pretty good representation of the businesses that locate within that district. |
| 02:15:24.64 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, thank you. That's very helpful. And so you don't count the city revenue from parking to be part of that revenue with HDL's numbers? |
| 02:15:31.72 | Brandon Phipps | Correct. And HDL's number shows sales tax for businesses only. Parking revenue would be kind of outside of HDL's purview. |
| 02:15:39.64 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, and then following up on what Cass had mentioned that Councilmember Cox, that this money would not be any new allocation, it would be money that would be that we allocated to CDA, two meetings ago would now go into the P-bed However, the CDA money is meant to apply to all businesses in town, and this is only going to apply to a segment. How do you address that? |
| 02:15:59.30 | Brandon Phipps | Yep. Excellent question. Also, thank you very much. So the buckets of services that the district is going to support must, those monies must be directed towards the district itself. So in other words, if we did transfer the CDA marketing contract into the funds that underlie the district into those marketing assessments, you're correct. We wouldn't be able to address support events that don't have a clear nexus to that district. So, you know, for example, the boat show may not be an appropriate, you know, marketing endeavor for the district. However, that's really up to the board, the interim board or the final board who are, appointed or elected to be a part of that district. |
| 02:16:49.38 | Melissa Blaustein | Great, so let's pause. |
| 02:16:51.17 | Brandon Phipps | And- |
| 02:16:51.44 | Melissa Blaustein | Who is on the board? How is it chosen? Who was on the board? Who made this decision? |
| 02:16:56.25 | Brandon Phipps | Yeah, so there's a difference. Thank you for the question. So let me take a half step back before I address that one. I'd just like to make an important point, one that I think is really valuable for the district as related to the potential services that a benefit district provides. The budget that you see and may be approved is not necessarily the extent of the full budget that could be developed by the administrative elements of the bid. For example, any bid as a 501c3 may go after grants that would add monies over and above the approved budget. And those monies, if not associated with assessment funds, can be applied as the district sees fit. So for example, let's say we get $100,000 marketing grant for City of Sausalito. Those monies, as separate from assessments, can be applied in every part of City of Sausalito if that is what the members of the board decide. So this is foundational, what we're talking about, the budget. And it can grow based on the grants that we get. That being said, to address your other question, the steering committee and the ultimate board that will manage this district are very different entities. The steering committee is an organically created body, which really was open to anybody who would like to attend. So it was predominantly attended by business owners, property owners within and around the city's commercial districts, primarily within and around the central commercial district. But of course, and as you see here today, members of EDAC, members of the chamber, members of the Center for the Arts, Sausalito Beautiful, et cetera, also, you know, were able to attend and provide feedback. The board, I think as Marco briefly alluded to, would be Thank you. also were able to attend and provide feedback. The board, I think as Marco briefly alluded to, would be initially self-appointed. And then after one full year of assessments, they're able to be formally appointed. And that is self-appointed, self-elected, Marco? Yep. Self-appointed, self-elected initially. But that would only occur following the petition and ballot process. And I'll clarify, a successful petition and ballot process. |
| 02:19:17.73 | Melissa Blaustein | And so that self-appointed board would be the entity that is the steering committee of non-city employees that make decisions and track receipt of tax dollars from the county and then provide a disbursement for review to the council? |
| 02:19:30.86 | Brandon Phipps | I think, again, I wouldn't call it a steering committee. They are kind of separate entities. One is kind of organic. The other is self-appointed, at least for the first year. And that board, as members and stakeholders within the district, would ultimately decide how those funds are going to be spent. |
| 02:19:51.67 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, last question. Who made the determination that the city would come up with 50%? |
| 02:19:58.70 | Brandon Phipps | That is going to ultimately be up to city council. |
| 02:20:02.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Well, who made the suggestion and what? |
| 02:20:04.08 | Brandon Phipps | The steering committee made the suggestion. I won't speak for the entirety of the committee, but one of my suspicions is that the members of the committee want to see the city as a collaborative participant in the success of this district. They are also the largest property owner by a large factor. And as such, I think logically it makes sense that we contribute our fair share. And 50% was a distribution that seemed to be equitable. Yeah. based on steering committee's feedback. |
| 02:20:38.10 | Melissa Blaustein | Let me sort that out. So the city, you've said, doesn't produce revenue from the city-owned properties. So just because we're the largest landholder, we're not benefiting from directly as a business or a property owner. We're not benefiting from any marketing dollars the same way that somebody else within the PBID would benefit. So I'm trying to understand the logic behind us being 50% contributors. |
| 02:20:58.83 | Brandon Phipps | Yep. Also excellent question. So the city benefits both, I would say, directly and indirectly, but this is based on the revenue types that we're talking about. So direct benefits, I would say, parking revenues, increased demand in the district area will result in increased parking revenues directly to the city, right in our pocket. A piece that is unique to the city and doesn't necessarily apply to the other property owners are the other revenue sources that we get from the overall success within the district. So if we're talking about performance metric tracking, you know, there are both objective and, well, excuse me, qualitative and quantitative measures that we can use. However, you know, of the most important quantitative measures, I would say we can track metrics such as transit, transient occupancy tax, sales tax, business license tax, which would highlight and demonstrate the success of the district if we see continued increases in those revenues. Of course, we get a piece of all of those taxes, and your average property owner does not. They pay those taxes. So I think both direct and indirect impacts. |
| 02:22:09.25 | Melissa Blaustein | I promise this is the last question. I do promise that. We're ready for whatever question. Why not just stay with the CDA contract and ask for a match from business owners who want to be highlighted or some other dynamic to ensure that everybody, all businesses in the city were taken care of? |
| 02:22:11.54 | Brandon Phipps | We're ready for whatever questions. |
| 02:22:12.66 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:22:24.13 | Brandon Phipps | I would say the CDA contract and marketing in general is only one piece of, you know, the multiple spokes that contribute to a business improvement district. And I agree, you know, if it's council's position that marketing is the only thing that this district needs, you know, perhaps this isn't something that we would like to look into further. I think that based on direction from council and some of the economic development priorities that at least I've heard in my time with the city, you know, multiple spokes are required in order to really catalyze the further and continued success of this district. |
| 02:23:09.41 | Joan Cox | Okay. Just as a follow on to that, didn't we offer other businesses in the city the opportunity to participate in the bid, for example, the Caledonia Street businesses and didn't they decide not to participate. |
| 02:23:23.73 | Brandon Phipps | Correct. Thank you, Councilmember Cox. So we initially cast the widest net that we possibly could within and around our commercial districts to get a sense of, you know, where is the support? Where are the highest concentrations of support for this kind of district? And the survey responses did not indicate that our, you know, more northerly waterfront areas and our Caledonia commercial corridor, we're going to have high levels of support. And there was not a willingness based on the numbers. So we chose to remove that area from the district because the district would not achieve success or they would have a much lower likelihood of success if we included that area in addition to the downtown central commercial district. So we decided to concentrate the district area where support was the highest. |
| 02:24:14.68 | Steven Woodside | Other questions from the dais? Yes, Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 02:24:22.86 | Jill Hoffman | I wanted to follow up on the statement that no new money. So my recollection is, and we can look back through the minutes, I suppose, but the CDA contract had expired. It came before the city council, and the city council's decision was to extend it for, I think, six months to And only to get it through the priority setting conference to decide if that was something that we wanted to fund as opposed to other higher priority items. So, and I think the number was 60,000, maybe for six months. So, you know, that doesn't cover the 132, even in my limited math ability. so I don't I don't know if somebody wants to weigh in and say the claim of no new money and clarify that for me I welcome even in my limited math ability. So I don't know if somebody wants to weigh in and say the claim of no new money and clarify that for me, I welcome it, but I don't think that's an accurate statement. If anybody wants to weigh in, now would be the time. Sure. |
| 02:25:26.16 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:25:27.00 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:25:29.28 | Cass Green | It's not just the CDA contract. It's the whole about approximately $150,000 a year that since EDAC was established that the city has funded. So it's for the events. It's lots of things, not just the marketing contract. I think what we're trying to do here is is create an institution that can continue on beyond just every and you know i'm the one who got the lights downtown i'll tell you going around door to door asking for money from the businesses. is not the way to create a more beautiful Sausalito, a more active Sausalito, a more pop, you know, people spending. It doesn't work. And so what we're trying to do is get away from the, time to time to time, you know, going up door to door year after year. and creating an institution that we can all support, that we're taxing ourselves, to really beautify in continuity the city of Sausalito. |
| 02:26:27.94 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I had another follow-up. as well. I do have some questions. And so... going back to what what and i'm you know all i have is a staff report to go on right and so i'm asking questions and follow-up questions of what's lifting this listed in the staff report And the breakdown in the staff report, and we just talked about it, specifically says we're talking about 60% of the total spend of the $200,000. is going to go for marketing 10% sidewalks 25% for administration at $66,000 a year with the contingent tendency reserve of 5%. to me, back to Councilmember Kelman's point, This is a marketing. ask and isn't it more efficient If we're just gonna do a marketing ask or marketing spend, to save the $66,000 in administrative costs. And this is 66,000, by the way, for one year. We're talking about this annually for five years. And so also... you know The criticism I have in the staff report is that nowhere in the staff report does it say this is a five-year contract. or five-year obligation. And so when you're talking about notice to the public, And, you know, people understanding what this actually means and how it's going to be administered. I feel like the staff report and the public notice was inadequate in this instance. |
| 02:27:55.88 | Jill Hoffman | Isn't that right? So anyway. That's my usual right. So, but back to but back to the point right so we as a city council are looking at what's the most efficient way to deliver what you say that you want. And so why is it efficient for, to create a non, you know, going through 18 months of trying to create a nonprofit, an independent nonprofit. That's going to take. $66,000 times five. when we could just allocate those funds. So that's, I mean, I'll let you answer that. I have several more questions. |
| 02:28:34.64 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you for the question. I will first say that, you know, we try to clarify benchmarks as much as possible and not get ahead of ourselves. The item before council this evening is really whether or not we're gonna enter into a phase two, which may or may not result in a successful petition and balloting process. So council is not deciding on whether or not we will enter into a five-year financial commitment to this evening. Council will have that item before them following the successful petition and potential successful balloting process. But you're absolutely correct. If the city chooses to enter into a well as a participant in this district and ultimately form the district, that will be a five year commitment. |
| 02:29:22.28 | Jill Hoffman | So my next follow-up is I was also surprised to see in the staff report reference to a steering committee that was directing many of these decisions in the direction that the staff was taking and what was being presented to the city council when the city council had not actually appointed a steering committee. Normally when we proceed on these kinds of efforts, We appoint a steering committee. and the council appoints a council liaison, maybe two sometimes. So, you know, I had a conversation this morning with Marco about how did this steering committee come about and why is the steering committee you know, directing these big decisions, right? These are big decisions. How was the, so do I have it right now? I guess we've had it heard it three times. that the steering committee was people that interested and probably property owners, that showed up and gave direction to our consultant and that's how he proceeded. |
| 02:30:24.93 | Brandon Phipps | So I have a list of members, if you'd like me to read them off, that were attending the majority of meetings and that represent the kind of primary property owners within the district. If that would please counsel. |
| 02:30:32.81 | Walfred Solorzano | Bye. |
| 02:30:38.99 | Jill Hoffman | you know I don't Thank you. |
| 02:30:42.85 | Brandon Phipps | But I suppose the answer is yes. I mean, but we're not only relying on the feedback from the members of the steering committee, we're relying on our consultants' expertise in forming, I think it was 90 districts. So he's quite seasoned at this, and I believe has provided very good direction moving forward the process. |
| 02:31:00.18 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 02:31:00.20 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:31:00.24 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 02:31:03.81 | Jill Hoffman | Let me ask directly to the consultant. Marco. Thank you. This is a question for you. So. Um, particularly the first map that you produced. That was what we're looking at now as benefit group, I'm not saying right, benefit group one, benefit zone one, sorry. That was benefit zoned one, correct? |
| 02:31:27.07 | Marco Lee Mandry | on the show. |
| 02:31:31.42 | Marco Lee Mandry | The first map included Caledonia and included the city property. So it was pretty big. Okay. And then in September, we realized there wasn't a lot of support in Caledonia. So the steering committee said, no, let's cut that out. |
| 02:31:34.07 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. |
| 02:31:44.04 | Marco Lee Mandry | We really want to focus on the core area. |
| 02:31:46.84 | Jill Hoffman | Right, but when we talked this morning, you said the first map that you produced was of the benefit zone one that mainly included Bridgeway, but did not include the city properties on the other side of Bridgeway that are now part of zone two. Is that correct? |
| 02:32:01.80 | Marco Lee Mandry | You know, with the Spinnaker restaurant was always attending the meetings, too. And they're clearly on city property. So there was never an attempt to say, no, the city should not be involved whatsoever at that point. And then when the 50-50 question came up and they asked me to do that, you just don't have enough. City doesn't own enough property and benefits own one. So there was always an interest because most of the people in that parking lot, if they're not using the water, they're coming into Bridgeway. So at that point... So there was always an interest because most of the people in that parking lot, if they're not using the water, they're coming into Bridgeway. So at that point, for me to generate that, I took the city parking lots and we cut them at an area that was kind of close to Casa Madrona. And so that's the way we put the district together. |
| 02:32:42.35 | Jill Hoffman | And that was at the direction of the steering committee. Correct. |
| 02:32:45.38 | Marco Lee Mandry | And let me, if I can clarify, when I walk into a city, I don't know who I'm supposed to talk to, right? And I don't go to the city manager and say, Chris, who should I talk to? EDAC and the chamber already had some type of database. The first meeting we had, we had 25 people at them. So at that point, I figured that this was a good turnout. But then we sent out the survey to, I think, 44 property owners. And at that point, we also asked, would you be interested in serving on the steering committee? Because we were trying to solicit their support. And if they said yes, then we invited them to the steering committee. So it's been a completely open and transparent process. Anybody who could come in and they were opposed to it, they were welcome to come in. So we didn't designate a steering committee. What we did is we invited business and property owners to come in so they could give input. And if they would have said, no, this is a horrible idea. This stinks. We already pay enough in taxes, etc. I would have come back to the council and say there's no support for it. |
| 02:33:42.20 | Jill Hoffman | So, okay, so thank you for that. But my question is, when you had the first map, so Spinnaker was part of it, and is Spinnaker still a part of it? I'm sorry, it was not clear on the map that I looked at. |
| 02:33:54.98 | Marco Lee Mandry | Spinnaker is in the city property, and right now that's in benefit zone, too. |
| 02:33:58.79 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And what about the yacht club? |
| 02:34:01.24 | Marco Lee Mandry | I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. I would defer to either Brandon or someone on the city council. Maybe Ian knows if the Yacht Club is included. I don't know that off the top of my head. |
| 02:34:11.11 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 02:34:11.12 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 02:34:11.23 | Jill Hoffman | What about- |
| 02:34:11.75 | Marco Lee Mandry | Center for the Arts? I believe Center of the Arts is, is that right next to the restrooms? Thank you. |
| 02:34:17.56 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 02:34:17.72 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yes, they're part of that benefit zone too also. |
| 02:34:20.71 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And so the first map that you did, then what was the percentage of the city owned properties that were included in that assessment? |
| 02:34:29.59 | Marco Lee Mandry | We never asked the city. Brandon and the city manager had a survey, and they said this is up to the private property owners to determine whether or not they want to do this. The city is funding the effort, but we want to see what the private property owners think. |
| 02:34:42.77 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, well, you remember we had a conversation this morning, right? |
| 02:34:45.65 | Marco Lee Mandry | It was not that long ago, yes. |
| 02:34:47.34 | Jill Hoffman | It was just this morning. And I took a bunch of notes and I said, if anything changes in the notes that you're giving me now, please let me know so that we can clear this up before the meeting, right? Yeah. Okay. In that conversation... |
| 02:34:48.72 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yes. |
| 02:34:57.55 | Jill Hoffman | we had, my recollection is, and my notes indicate, that there was a map that we started with, that we meaning the collective effort, that the city owned some property, but it wasn't the majority, and that the steering committee specifically directed increase the city owned properties so that we can get the city's contribution up to 50%. Is that a clear summary of our conversation this morning? |
| 02:35:20.18 | Marco Lee Mandry | That was after three months. And so when I came back with the three options I had mentioned, I think 150, 180 and 210, people said, what about the city? The belief was that the city would be generating revenue from additional parking meter revenues, as well as TOT, as well as sales taxes. There was a strong sentiment and it was unanimous that they wanted the city to be an equal partner. So I don't argue with people who I'm trying to get together to come up with a plan so I can present to you. Thank you. I said, okay, I'll come back with a 50%. The only way to do it was to include that as benefit zone too. We didn't go the whole length of all the parking lots. We basically stopped around Casa Medrano. |
| 02:36:00.98 | Jill Hoffman | So do you have any idea what the percentage of the city owned properties were before you did that recalculation at the direction of the steering committee. |
| 02:36:08.81 | Marco Lee Mandry | At the top of my head, no, I don't, because it was in flux all the time until we took out Caledonia. Then all the numbers changed. The boundaries changed, changed, too. So I just don't remember at the top of my head. |
| 02:36:20.89 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:36:21.01 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 02:36:21.69 | Joan Cox | Jill, can I just ask one quick follow up on that? And we're free to redraw those boundaries tonight if we so choose. |
| 02:36:28.86 | Marco Lee Mandry | That's why we're presenting this to you. |
| 02:36:30.90 | Joan Cox | Thanks. |
| 02:36:34.51 | Jill Hoffman | Do you have other questions, Councilman Brafman? I do. If you can't, give me just a second. I've got to go down through my notes. So we also discussed other cities that you have, Marco, that you've been in and the percentage, the general percentage of city owned properties in those other cities where you've worked, correct? |
| 02:36:52.55 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:36:52.57 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yes, we did. |
| 02:36:53.31 | Jill Hoffman | And my notes indicate that that was somewhere between 15 to maybe 25% |
| 02:37:01.12 | Marco Lee Mandry | The high end, I think I told you, was like 45% of that industrial zone in Los Angeles. Yeah, because the city owns so much property there. |
| 02:37:05.92 | Jill Hoffman | Right. Right, but that was the outlier. And what was... |
| 02:37:10.93 | Marco Lee Mandry | Pretty much, yes. |
| 02:37:11.77 | Jill Hoffman | And so what's the general norm of percentage for city-owned properties? |
| 02:37:15.81 | Marco Lee Mandry | You know, I can go some cities at zero and then other cities is 25 to 30 percent because their downtown city halls are usually in the middle of downtown. So it really depends on what city you're looking at. And so I can't there's no average. It all depends what the footprint is and where the city hall or city assets are located. |
| 02:37:15.91 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:37:28.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:37:28.23 | Jill Hoffman | Oh. |
| 02:37:35.72 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so we discussed this this morning. Do you not recall telling me that the average or the median of percentages for cities is usually 15 to maybe 25%? |
| 02:37:46.00 | Marco Lee Mandry | That's the districts that I have done. Yes, I did say that. Thank you. Because that's the case. Do you believe that to be true? |
| 02:37:49.57 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:37:52.61 | Marco Lee Mandry | No, it is true. I don't believe to be true. I've done enough these districts to know. |
| 02:37:53.56 | Jill Hoffman | I don't believe to be true. Okay, thank you. |
| 02:38:04.08 | Jill Hoffman | So- When you get to, I mean, one of the issues that people are concerned about is if the city is funding this 50-50, you know, who then manages the funds? with the, you know, once you get to the nonprofit, right? How is that managed? And And it Okay. just to speed things up, my notes indicate from this morning that Usually it's 50% the governing board that makes all the decisions, is 50% property owners. And the other 50% is usually made up of interested community members. |
| 02:38:44.91 | Marco Lee Mandry | what I had stated was it could be two thirds, one third, it could be 60%, it could be 50, 50, because it really varies on whatever community I'm working |
| 02:38:52.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. and it's not. |
| 02:38:52.74 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 02:38:52.77 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And so who makes that decision? |
| 02:38:55.10 | Marco Lee Mandry | When they select their bylaws, the new interim board of directors, I can say, okay, it should be two-thirds, one-third. And they'll say, no, we want more business owners. So it's up to them. And they determine, is the business community stronger? Are there a lot of absentee landlords who aren't present? So based upon those factors, they determine what the good ratio is. In the district we did in Little Italy, it started out at two thirds, one third, and now it's about 55, 45, because the bylaws can change from year to year. |
| 02:38:57.82 | Jill Hoffman | Mm-hmm. Thank you. |
| 02:39:00.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:39:27.41 | Jill Hoffman | So- I think, I mean, what it appears to me to be is that once you get to the governing board, and even though the city's paying 50%, of these of this money. The city will have no input or control, or at least very little input. over how these funds are spent. |
| 02:39:45.67 | Marco Lee Mandry | The city does because the management district plan is presented to the city before you mail out the ballots. You can always adjust the management district plan because there's a menu of services. Let's call them bundles of services. And the city could say, well, I think that's way too much in marketing, and I'd like to adjust that or something. Ultimately, you guys decide. if the management district plan is approved, because that's what you mail out to all the property owners. |
| 02:40:10.33 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And. Okay, thank you for that. But as far, okay. And then as I understand it, there's annual reporting requirements. Correct. From the nonprofit. |
| 02:40:21.46 | Marco Lee Mandry | I'm not sure. Under the state statute, yes. And it's subject to annual reviews and those reviews have to be posted on their website. All their meetings are subject to the Brown Act as well as Public Records Act. |
| 02:40:33.73 | Jill Hoffman | And so going forward, what would be the ability if the district is not performing or for whatever reason it's not? |
| 02:40:43.03 | Marco Lee Mandry | There's a clause in the legislation that says that every year the property owners can petition to take it out. And it's done within, I think it's a 30-day process before the fiscal year where they can petition. In the same way they petition to create the district, the property owners can petition to take the district apart. Okay. |
| 02:41:04.50 | Brandon Phipps | Just add to that there's an opportunity, let's just say if the budget or the bucket of services, primary services that the district provides is not exactly to the liking, you can also augment those on a year to year basis. |
| 02:41:17.73 | Jill Hoffman | The city council can. |
| 02:41:20.16 | Brandon Phipps | No, the board may. |
| 02:41:21.40 | Jill Hoffman | The board may. So what then authority does the city council have going forward? |
| 02:41:27.16 | Marco Lee Mandry | So let's say that, and the reason why the management district plan is important, and people have mentioned the $66,000 in administration, when the property owners vote, they're voting on a menu of services. So there will be a component within the plan that says over the life of the district five years, you can adjust those categories up to a maximum of 10% over five years. It's like 2% a year or something like that. There will also be a provision that allows for a 5% increase in the assessments, which the board then would make a recommendation to city council. If we had inflation like we had over the last year and gasoline costs a lot more money, utilities cost a lot more money, the board might decide that just to stay even, they need to increase the assessments by 5%. That's a recommendation to the city council. The city council is the one that says no, or they say, yes, we'll do that. |
| 02:41:35.68 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 02:41:35.75 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:41:35.76 | Sybil Butchillier | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:41:35.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:20.03 | Jill Hoffman | So one thing I think I believe you also said this morning was that even though the district is only in existence for five years, at the end of that five years, it can be extended for another 10 years. |
| 02:42:31.25 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yeah, this is what the state legislation is written. So it says the P bid can be formed initially for five years and every year after that five year period, it can be renewed for up to 10 years. |
| 02:42:43.72 | Jill Hoffman | Is there, there's, so the two, the two benefit zones, right? There's a zone one and there's a zone two. Zone one is where it's, I don't know directions, but it's, it's. It's Bridgeway. Bridgeway, Bridgeway up to Princess and then a little bit further south. |
| 02:42:52.51 | Walfred Solorzano | Right. |
| 02:42:56.12 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 02:42:56.73 | Jill Hoffman | And then benefit zone two is all city owned property. |
| 02:43:00.39 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 02:43:00.83 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Is there anything that indicates that the money that is used for, that's collected, that's assessed, that it has to be used equally between the two benefit zones? or I'm unclear about the term, I guess, benefit. Are these just assessment, really just assessment zones? |
| 02:43:25.08 | Marco Lee Mandry | They're assessment zones, correct. |
| 02:43:26.21 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, got it. |
| 02:43:27.16 | Marco Lee Mandry | And the anticipated benefit is that a lot of the property owners are not going to be deriving benefit from increased parking meter revenues for example but the city will and if it needs to be cleaned on a regular basis more so than what public works is able to do then that was part of where the civil sidewalks money comes in too |
| 02:43:45.31 | Jill Hoffman | And so, |
| 02:43:50.66 | Jill Hoffman | One of the comments that I heard back was from one of the Caledonia property owners was that if they had to do the assessment, they would have to pass that on to their tenants because of, you know, the economics of it. And so has there been any discussion at the steering committee level about passing those assessments on to their tenants? |
| 02:44:17.24 | Marco Lee Mandry | I brought that up. I said, look, it's not up to me to decide or the city to decide the relationship between a landlord and a tenant. That's up to the landlord and the tenant. So it could be 50-50. The property owner can pass it all the way through. If they have a gross lease, they can't. If they have a triple net lease, they can't. I don't know what all those leases are. Those are proprietary. But I think that there was enough enthusiasm on the part of business owners and property owners that they said, this is something that benefits all of us. Okay. |
| 02:44:48.26 | Jill Hoffman | Because, I mean, we have three tenants, right? Four tenants, five tenants in this district, I think. Yeah, I believe so. And so, you know, I was wondering if there was a standard of the steering committee about a position of that these costs should be passed. |
| 02:44:53.66 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yeah, I believe so. |
| 02:45:02.26 | Marco Lee Mandry | We don't get involved in landlord-tenant relationships. |
| 02:45:06.01 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, got it. |
| 02:45:07.02 | Steven Woodside | Those are all my questions for you. Thank you. |
| 02:45:07.82 | Marco Lee Mandry | All right, thank you. |
| 02:45:08.46 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:45:08.58 | Steven Woodside | Sorry, Yuga. Okay. Thank you very much. I have a few, and then I'll give it over to you, Vice Mayor. I just, just, I want to, I want to clarify a couple of points because I, I, I, my understanding is that there's quite a bit of city involvement in, in the, PBID and also in the creation of the PBID in terms of it. So Brandon, could you just director Phipps, could you come up forward for a second? Um, Have you been participating in the steering committee meetings? |
| 02:45:32.18 | Brandon Phipps | Every meeting. |
| 02:45:33.11 | Steven Woodside | And would you consider yourself a member of the steering committee? |
| 02:45:35.90 | Brandon Phipps | I would, and I would hope to potentially become a member of the board. |
| 02:45:39.32 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so you would say the city's involved in the decision making as it relates to what the district looks like? |
| 02:45:44.70 | Brandon Phipps | Yes, but I would add that it is a collaborative process with the entire steering committee and with the entire potential future board. |
| 02:45:48.11 | Steven Woodside | Okay. And your vision for this might mean that going forward, if we did have a board, you would be able to work on increasing revenue or increasing marketing, but have the support of these merchants who are also on the steering committee. |
| 02:46:01.90 | Brandon Phipps | Certainly. |
| 02:46:02.49 | Steven Woodside | So it would decrease, it would increase your bandwidth to work on other measures and, for instance, take away some of the work you might have been doing on the CDA process. |
| 02:46:09.48 | Brandon Phipps | I think that's one of the indirect benefits of this district. And yes. |
| 02:46:15.50 | Steven Woodside | Okay. And then Cass, I wanted to ask you because you were responsible for the lighting, right? That we going out and getting all of those lights for us. And I appreciated what you said about that. This is to create a sustainable, uh, ongoing community supported program that can grow our, our downtown. So when you say the budget is for marketing, I mean, can you, can you kind of elaborate? Cause I think that that's getting taken a little bit out of context. When you talk about marketing, do you mean projects like also planting trees? Do you mean events? Do you, is it, or is it just online marketing? |
| 02:46:45.02 | Cass Green | No, it's not. And we were, we, have been changing our language to not use marketing and use demand creation because it is, it includes beautification. It includes, you know, I can tell you a lot of people want a lot more lights. You know, it just includes the things that you would do to make people want to come to Sausalito and spend money here. |
| 02:47:07.29 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 02:47:07.76 | Cass Green | Yeah, so it's not, it is not at all just online web marketing. |
| 02:47:12.59 | Steven Woodside | So you would support maybe a changing of the nomenclature of what your goals are to demand generation specifically? Yes, I've been pushing for it. |
| 02:47:16.42 | Cass Green | I would. THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:47:19.10 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Yeah, because I just wanted to clarify whether or not there was a difference between what you're trying to establish here and what CDA does. Yes, there's a big. |
| 02:47:27.20 | Cass Green | Yes, there's a big difference. |
| 02:47:28.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:47:28.05 | Cass Green | Thank you. |
| 02:47:28.18 | Steven Woodside | And then I just wanted to kind of follow along on what the role of EDEC has been in this, since it is a city appointed body, right? So have you been the representative of EDEC or the representative of In Above the Tide or both through this process? |
| 02:47:39.54 | Cass Green | Both, but we've had former chair Riley has come to most of the meetings. Scott Thornburg, the current chair, has come to most of the meetings. Monica Finnegan has come to most of the meetings. So several members of EDAC have come to the meetings. |
| 02:47:54.95 | Steven Woodside | which you can't. |
| 02:47:54.98 | Cass Green | What was you told us to do this? |
| 02:47:57.04 | Steven Woodside | Right. So we we did city council did direct you to go forward in this process. Okay. Yes, that that would be clear. And then Marco just to get a point of clarification from you as well, since you've done this in 93 other cities. Have you seen iterations where the city is very involved, for example, in the use of the funds if they are a board member or where they have additional oversight so that we might be able to be more engaged around how the funds are being spent. Yeah. |
| 02:48:00.63 | Cass Green | Thank you. we're doing this. Yeah. |
| 02:48:20.93 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yeah, because I think the partnership with the city is the critical factor in all of this because everybody benefits. But, for example, we do a lot in San Diego with our board of supervisors. It's not really done up here in Northern California, but we get. substantial amounts of money for from our supervisors for projects, mostly public space development. There are tons of opportunities for public space development all around right now, you have the Kwanzaa and the you have the menorah, as well as the manger scene around the little plaza, but so much more can be done, and I think that's where the partnership with the city would be really critical. |
| 02:48:59.73 | Steven Woodside | And have you seen increased cost saving because of the partnership with the city for things like bandwidth? I mean, we're a smaller community, so we have a limited staff. So I'm just trying to understand whether it would be, I believe it would be beneficial to have the staff working in partnership with the merchants to do some of that work that maybe our CDD department could take on. |
| 02:49:14.68 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yeah, absolutely. We work in a city, Chula Vista right now, and we're planning a huge plaza and piazza. And Ian was just at one of our dedications of a piazza in Little Italy about three or four weeks ago. He happened to be in town. I said, what are you doing? Come, we're dedicating this. And he saw the mayor, Mayor Gloria was with me. We were all up on the stage. We raised $180,000 of non-assessment district revenues for this piazza within six months. People are anxious to do things like that, put their names on things, give back to the city. |
| 02:49:43.72 | Steven Woodside | Okay, and then I have a question for our finance director, Chad Hess, if you would approach the podium, just a point of clarification. |
| 02:49:55.16 | Steven Woodside | What percentage of our general fund comes from business tax revenue? |
| 02:49:58.32 | Angeline Loeffler | Ooh, do you have that? All right. Business license is 7.16% of all city funds, excluding sewer. |
| 02:50:11.95 | Steven Woodside | Okay, and then the TOT tax is what percent of our general tax? |
| 02:50:14.55 | Angeline Loeffler | GOT tax is 7.73% of all city revenues, excluding sewer. |
| 02:50:19.87 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so overall though, our downtown businesses, our businesses in general are responsible for about what percentage of our general funder are responsible? |
| 02:50:26.26 | Angeline Loeffler | Yeah, if we count the TOT, the business license combined, that's about 15%. And then also sales and use tax is 21% of city funds, excluding sewer. |
| 02:50:38.50 | Steven Woodside | So just about half of our general fund is. |
| 02:50:41.28 | Angeline Loeffler | from the |
| 02:50:41.35 | Steven Woodside | TODAY. |
| 02:50:41.43 | Angeline Loeffler | axes. |
| 02:50:41.98 | Steven Woodside | some |
| 02:50:42.25 | Angeline Loeffler | taxes from the businesses that are generated. |
| 02:50:42.26 | Steven Woodside | taxes from the businesses that are generated. And Marco, in your opinion, would we see an increase in tax revenue with the implementation of a PBED? |
| 02:50:50.85 | Marco Lee Mandry | This community is so well organized. I don't see how you could not. And, you know, people are, some people aren't coming back from COVID. So I think it's a really critical point right now. And I've looked at some of your TOT up and down over the last four to five years. You have to give people a reason to come back. And I think this will be critical to do, to doing it. I mentioned to you when I, um, I didn't know this originally, but I had my honeymoon here 37 years ago. And the last time I came here is when Chris called me and said, what are you doing? I've been to the Bay Area and I came and saw Chris. But if I had something that was marketing, promotion, Sausalito because X, Y, and Z is happening, I'm up in the Bay Area all the time. And I know my wife and I would come here if there was some type of event or art show or something like that. But we don't know about it. And so the key thing is marketing isn't just advertising, social media. It's the totality of everything that brings people to an area and then manages them coming in and out. So yeah, I would see those numbers go up. |
| 02:51:50.13 | Steven Woodside | Okay. So in your professional opinion, you think that we'll be able to pay for the cost of a business district based on your assessment of our community through increased revenue? |
| 02:51:57.37 | Marco Lee Mandry | Based upon parking meter revenues, TOT, and sales taxes generated on Bridgeway? Yes, I think so. Easily. |
| 02:52:03.72 | Steven Woodside | and in your opinion it will be revenue generating. |
| 02:52:05.89 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yes, because we also, Jill and I had a talk about how 11%, right? That's what you get on property taxes right now. A lot of people say I pay my property taxes, but 89% don't go to the city. So you have to find other ways to raise money. And the easiest way to do that is with sales taxes, hotel taxes, and parking meter revenues. |
| 02:52:26.68 | Steven Woodside | Thanks a lot, Marco. And thank you to the whole team. Thanks. Vice mayor. |
| 02:52:31.76 | Ian Sobieski | a great tour de force of questions. I'm not sure what I have left to ask, but I do want to focus in on that last point. We only get 11% of every dollar of property tax revenue. but we get 14% of every Hotel stay. revenue. So to Cass, just if I can ask you, Is it correct that Are you willing to share what you pay in taxes from in above tides approximately? |
| 02:53:00.50 | Cass Green | Yeah. I mean, I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but I haven't. You're we're about half of your TOT. |
| 02:53:02.95 | Ian Sobieski | on. So about a million or a million? |
| 02:53:07.59 | Cass Green | I think it was $956,000 last year, something like that. |
| 02:53:11.86 | Ian Sobieski | And then what's your vacancy rate in the winter and then the |
| 02:53:14.76 | Cass Green | Oh, God, it's horrible. Mark's here. He's going to be cringing. |
| 02:53:18.42 | Ian Sobieski | So in terms of total calendar days, so out of 365 days, what's your approximate vacancy rate? Is it 24%, 35%, 40%? I go there for winter. |
| 02:53:28.43 | Cass Green | Or I go the first is occupancy rate. We're at about 76, 77%. |
| 02:53:34.07 | Ian Sobieski | So you're 25%. Thank you. |
| 02:53:35.42 | Cass Green | Yeah. And it's now. Yeah. This is the time. |
| 02:53:36.88 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. Yeah. So if we- |
| 02:53:39.99 | Cass Green | We could fill more rooms. Yeah. I'm sorry. |
| 02:53:42.22 | Ian Sobieski | So, and that's okay. So we have roughly $2.5 million in hotel tax across the city. If we increase just the hotel, occupancy by 30% that would pay for the PBIT all by itself. Yeah. Not counting for parking, not counting for sales tax, not counting for anything else, just the TOT. |
| 02:53:55.83 | Cass Green | Yeah. |
| 02:54:02.21 | Cass Green | That's correct. |
| 02:54:04.00 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:54:05.96 | Steven Woodside | And we have a follow-up question from Councilmember Cox. And does Councilmember Kelman have one? Because I think she said that this is my very last question, I promise. |
| 02:54:08.17 | Chad Hess | I'm sorry. |
| 02:54:15.14 | Steven Woodside | Go ahead, Council Member Cox. |
| 02:54:17.57 | Joan Cox | My follow on would be if property owners are unhappy with the benefits being generated by The P bid. they have an opportunity each year to petition to dissolve the district. Thanks. |
| 02:54:32.76 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm trying to ask questions that I don't know the answers to and not trying to make a point with my questions. So forgive me here. I think the consternation is that Two meetings ago, we looked at the CDA contract. We had the exact same conversation. We were told the exact same thing. And I'm struggling to understand what we're trying to achieve or that is different. and what we do with the CDA contract. So can you just clarify If we were to engage in the P bid, CDA contract goes away. We no longer are funding that. Is that correct? |
| 02:55:06.79 | Brandon Phipps | I'll say that's that. Thank you for the question. I would say that's not really a decision for staff. That would be a decision for council. |
| 02:55:13.48 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, so you don't think these things are duplicative. You think that they are complementary. |
| 02:55:18.44 | Brandon Phipps | I just think that they are categorically different. |
| 02:55:21.00 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. And then we're hearing a lot about TOT. Why don't, is it possible Marco to do a program that's just aimed at enhancing developing our four hotels and given the arguments that were made on behalf of the TOT, why don't we focus there? |
| 02:55:38.60 | Marco Lee Mandry | So in 2008, I formed the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District. And at its height, it generated $30 million a year before COVID. So yes, that mechanism does exist within the state legislation too. I know though that rather than just putting all the burden on the visitors to the hotels, it was something that I think all the business and property owners wanted to participate in. Because normally, if you create a tourism improvement district, only the hoteliers are on that board and it excludes other people because they're the ones who are generating the revenue. |
| 02:56:12.40 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, and if we have more time to evaluate this proposal, and there's this paragraph at the end of the staff report that said that this is formed, it's likely to have positive impacts on the revenue generation potential may result increases in COT sales tax, business license and parking revenue. Again, heard the exact same thing when we talked about CDA, which we did approve. Is it at all possible to give us a crystal ball, anything where we can have some business case that we can make and present to the community and hash and rehash a little bit, given that that statement's in the staff report? |
| 02:56:46.41 | Marco Lee Mandry | A lot determines on how quickly the Bay Area turns around from COVID. So I have no crystal ball on that. I mean, I'm blown away at what's going on in San Francisco and Oakland right now. I don't think anybody would have anticipated that. But under normal circumstances, yes. If you have an organized group of property owners and business owners and community members that have a sustainable budget, then they can take that revenue and really try to enhance the area, the place that they're trying to really build up. So that's the formula is doing it. And then they need to be entrepreneurial once they form their nonprofit, their 501c3, to say, how do we leverage $265,000 to do even more things? So the more entrepreneurial they get, I think the better product you're going to get in the end. |
| 02:57:33.64 | Melissa Blaustein | And then the idea would be that the city would have the same amount of contribution every year. Would that change annually? |
| 02:57:39.33 | Marco Lee Mandry | If you adopt the management district plan, whether it's 30%, 40%, 50%, 54%, whatever it is, that you're locked in for the term of the district because you have voted to, you acknowledge those assessments are going to be funding special benefits. So at least in this case, a five-year district requires that you have to do this all over again in three and a half years because it takes about a year to put it together and put it on the tax rolls. After that, it's a little bit easier on a 10-year district. It's much more cost-effective that way. |
| 02:58:09.21 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. And so in a perfect world, you'd be able to help us understand how to measure success. |
| 02:58:14.09 | Marco Lee Mandry | you |
| 02:58:14.12 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 02:58:14.41 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. And I think that Brandon had alluded to that too. I think you can quantify sales taxes, particularly with the HDL, the geofencing. You can also look at parking meter revenues and you can also look at TOT. Those are quantifiable. |
| 02:58:26.49 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, TOT is the easiest, right? Because we know where those are located. When we talk about percentage of overall sales tax with the general fund, it's hard because it's not all coming from the same area. |
| 02:58:35.56 | Marco Lee Mandry | Plus your geofence or something like that. All right. |
| 02:58:37.09 | Melissa Blaustein | All right. Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:58:38.03 | Steven Woodside | I appreciate it. |
| 02:58:38.19 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:58:38.22 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 02:58:38.24 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:58:38.61 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, I will now, can you, if you're planning to make public comment, will you raise your hand on Zoom and in the chamber so that I can give a sense of how long we should allow? Okay. Oh, sorry, go ahead, Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 02:58:50.79 | Walfred Solorzano | And if you're going to make public comment, please fill out one of these speaker forms and hand it back over here so I can call your name. |
| 02:58:54.32 | Steven Woodside | I want to back over here. |
| 02:58:58.12 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 02:58:58.13 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 02:58:58.42 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 02:59:04.51 | Jill Hoffman | What's the vote necessary to dissolve the bid? What's the vote number? Where's Marco or Brandon? Sorry. Oh my God. |
| 02:59:16.56 | Joan Cox | Like, Thank you. |
| 02:59:17.59 | Jill Hoffman | Right? |
| 02:59:17.76 | Joan Cox | Lieutenant, did you hear the question? |
| 02:59:20.04 | Marco Lee Mandry | Oh. |
| 02:59:20.44 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:59:20.48 | Marco Lee Mandry | Okay. |
| 02:59:21.15 | Walfred Solorzano | Again, remember, everything's weighted. |
| 02:59:23.51 | Marco Lee Mandry | So if you got 50% of the property owners by dollar amount, to sign a petition for disestablishment, that would trigger a balloting. And then the balloting, so it's the same way you set it up is the same way you take it apart. |
| 02:59:37.03 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so 50% of the businesses would have to agree. Property owners. |
| 02:59:39.83 | Marco Lee Mandry | Property owners. |
| 02:59:40.54 | Jill Hoffman | property owners would have to put it on. |
| 02:59:42.72 | Marco Lee Mandry | I mean, this is not a good thing and we want to take it out. |
| 02:59:44.44 | Jill Hoffman | want to take it out. And the city's 51%? |
| 02:59:48.30 | Marco Lee Mandry | Right now, you haven't determined that. There was a recommendation in the staff report as to what you were, but I don't think the city would be leading it one way or the other, support or, I mean, establishment or disestablishment. I think that, you know, at least from what I've seen is the city saying, let's see what all these people want. |
| 02:59:53.75 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:00:03.81 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, but I'm just trying to determine the process. So there was kind of an offhand comment. Well, if you don't like it, you can, the property owner, or not you, but the property owners can get together and put it on the ballot, but you would need all of the property owners because if the city is 50%. |
| 03:00:16.64 | Marco Lee Mandry | The city's 50 percent of them. |
| 03:00:18.19 | Jill Hoffman | So if the city's 50%, the other 50% is all the other property owners. |
| 03:00:23.23 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yeah. And trust me, there's other districts that have actually had their owners association taken away and given to somebody else because they didn't manage it properly. So all that because remember, ultimately, you have the contract with the nonprofit corporation. If they're not doing things appropriately or they're not consistent with the management district plan, the city council, the city attorney and the city manager have the ability to say, we'd like somebody else to run this thing. Got it. Okay, thank you. Thanks very much. |
| 03:00:49.24 | Ian Sobieski | Just following it, Marco? Thank you. Yes. Just elaborating on Councilmember Hoffman's question, just to understand that. I think that might be pivotal. If the city is 50% of the district and votes to say terminate the district, |
| 03:00:49.73 | Marco Lee Mandry | Marku? |
| 03:01:05.62 | Marco Lee Mandry | What I had mentioned previously is that if I'm not mistaken in the legislation that says that any one property owner cannot be more than 20%. |
| 03:01:15.04 | Ian Sobieski | Got it. |
| 03:01:15.31 | Marco Lee Mandry | Because they didn't want one major property owner to force the district on everybody else. |
| 03:01:19.39 | Ian Sobieski | Got it, but dissolving the districts also? |
| 03:01:21.67 | Marco Lee Mandry | I always tell people give it at least three to four years to figure out if it works. Okay. And then after that, if you don't want to renew it after five years, you don't renew |
| 03:01:31.21 | Ian Sobieski | It has to be affirmatively renewed. |
| 03:01:33.06 | Marco Lee Mandry | It's like running for Congress every two years, right? You have to do the whole thing all over again. |
| 03:01:37.94 | Ian Sobieski | So it has to be affirmative to renew. We can't not by the board, but by the city would have a vote. |
| 03:01:39.88 | Marco Lee Mandry | Yes. new management plan, New petition drive and new balloting. Thanks. |
| 03:01:48.84 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Hold on. Don't sit down. I have a follow-up base on that. So based on what you just said, The city is going to be assessed 50% of the cost but we can't be more than 20% of the owner group. |
| 03:02:02.41 | Marco Lee Mandry | signing a petition. |
| 03:02:04.18 | Jill Hoffman | Signing a petition. Right. Okay, so... were signing the petition were only 20% of the votes. |
| 03:02:09.85 | Marco Lee Mandry | You're using 20% of your 50%. |
| 03:02:12.95 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, that doesn't make any sense to me. we're either a 50% owner or not. And so we're 50%. |
| 03:02:18.25 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. Excuse me, but- |
| 03:02:19.62 | Jill Hoffman | I'm just trying to clarify this. |
| 03:02:21.09 | Marco Lee Mandry | But whether you're whether or not you are the city or it's me and I have 30 percent of all the property, I'm maxed at 20 percent under the state legislation for signing a petition. |
| 03:02:26.27 | Jill Hoffman | THE FAMILY. |
| 03:02:33.29 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 03:02:34.18 | Marco Lee Mandry | So I have to give up 10%. I can't use it. I can only use 20% of my, or two thirds of my $30,000 or whatever. I think it's in the, |
| 03:02:40.41 | Steven Woodside | I think it's in the interest of needing to garner enough petitions to be diverse. So it's like when you gather 500 signatures and they have to be 500 residents and you can't have one person represent 50 residents. |
| 03:02:44.24 | Marco Lee Mandry | It's like, |
| 03:02:49.49 | Marco Lee Mandry | with the residents is the idea. |
| 03:02:54.70 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:02:54.75 | Marco Lee Mandry | Right. |
| 03:02:54.97 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:02:55.60 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:02:55.73 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 03:02:55.80 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:02:55.82 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 03:02:55.83 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:02:55.92 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:02:55.97 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 03:02:56.09 | Steven Woodside | All right. Given the number of public commenters and the hour, we're going to limit public comment to one minute. So please don't repeat what others have said and try to be as concise as possible in your remarks, and we will open public comment. |
| 03:03:10.47 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, we're going to start off with Carolyn Revelle. |
| 03:03:13.13 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 03:03:17.50 | Carolyn Revell | Good evening. I'm Carolyn Revell, an urban planner, 17-year resident, representing Sausalito Beautiful tonight. Our board supports the contract with New City America to create a property business improvement district for downtown Sausalito. I attended monthly meetings with the consultant and have been impressed with the professional way that he developed a procedure for moving forward based on extensive experience creating over 90 bids nationwide. I also visited the, flagship bid that the consultants New City America manages in San Diego's Little Italy. revitalizing an historic area after 30 years of decline. with vibrant piazzas, trendy restaurants, cafes, upscale boutiques, galleries, public art, farmer's markets. The services a Sausalito bid can provide include enhancing the physical appearance of our downtown. through attention to design and streetscape improvements, trees and banners and piazzas again and and all the beautification efforts that have been discussed. So Sausalito Beautiful endorses the bid. And thank you very much. I prepared for a few minutes. |
| 03:04:23.67 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:04:23.74 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 03:04:24.02 | Steven Woodside | Carolyn, I appreciate it. Great job. |
| 03:04:28.60 | Walfred Solorzano | Babette McDougall. followed by Scott Thornburg. |
| 03:04:41.91 | Babette McDougall | Thank you, Babette McDougall, Girard Avenue. So This year, when I've come to participate in these council meetings, I always speak as a citizen of Sausalito, a resident citizen of Sausalito. But full disclosure, I actually have served on the Chamber's Board of Director, including the Executive Board. So I'm familiar with that organization as well. And I've often spoken on their behalf when there's been no one else here to do that. But tonight I have to say, I am here to speak on behalf of the citizens who feel that this is not ready for vote. It, As one of you pointed out, this came around as a concept only in June. and nothing substantive in terms of fleshing out. And for those who are watching on the television, I would like to urge you to take a look at Sandra Bushmaker's letter that she filed. articulate seven excellent points. These are important points. The citizens are the ones that bear the brunt financially if something goes south where the city has authorized itself. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:05:44.43 | Walfred Solorzano | Scott Thornburg followed by Teresa Ancona. |
| 03:05:47.32 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you. I was going to clarify a bit on the CDA. I am a fervent supporter of the bid. I think it's a great way to consolidate some of our expenses. To answer some of your questions about it's not I think it's not only CDA funds, right? Where we as we discussed about a month ago, you are getting multiple requests from different organizations. And I think this is a nice way to consolidate some of those expenses that you're already paying for. That does include CDA. I think a really important point that they touched on is also that while the city would be funding part of this program, though some of the city's contributions could be passed through as a part of those lease agreements potentially. But also, By establishing a nonprofit, it allows them to go after grants to fund additional programming, like events. And it's not just marketing. And so I think the CDA contract is a little broader, yes, but this would allow you to do more on top of that. So thank you. Thank you, Scott. |
| 03:06:51.90 | Walfred Solorzano | Teresa Ankana followed by Tom Riley. |
| 03:07:00.59 | Teresa Ancona | Good evening. So I'm Teresa Ancona, and actually I'm going to be representing a lot of hats today. Chair of the Chamber, member of EDAC, property owner, business owner, and I really feel like the PBID is an opportunity for the city to partner with the downtown merchants and businesses and property owners. You want to talk about entrepreneurs, you're looking at entrepreneurs. We're in the business to make money. And if we make money, you make money. And that's the idea behind this. We all, and we all, Hold. Business is well established in this town. 40 plus years of business owners and entrepreneurs trying to do our best to generate money for all of us, including yourselves. So we're asking you to trust us that we know how to do that and partner with us. Be a good partner. Thank you. Thank you, Teresa. |
| 03:08:01.27 | Walfred Solorzano | Tom Riley followed by Shauna Brokaw. |
| 03:08:04.28 | Tom Riley | Good evening, Tom Riley, Atwood Avenue. I'm here in support of the bid. For the past several years, the city has been investing a commensurate amount in marketing, events, collaboration with the Chamber, in promotions, putting money towards the lights, and two great results. Such great results. So the way I would frame this is We now have the business community saying we will match the city investment a dollar for dollar. we will double because we want these results. What are the results? San Francisco's sales tax and TOT revenues are at 67% of pre-COVID. The Bay Area on average is at 77%. Sausalito is an outlier. We are at 122% of our pre-COVID era. sales tax and TOT revenues. That comes from the investment we made in marketing events, collaborating with the chamber. We're on the upswing. And now is the time to double down with the business community. They're going to match us a dollar for dollar and we'll see even greater returns. |
| 03:09:08.50 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:09:12.08 | Walfred Solorzano | Shauna Brocco, followed by Carlito Berg. |
| 03:09:17.45 | Sharna Brockett | I'm in full support of creating a business improvement district. I think we've all walked downtown and downtown bridgeway and been frustrated because we can know it can be so much more, especially with our waterfront. We'd love to see it filled with profitable business businesses and have our empty storefronts filled. So please approve this. We've seen it. I mean, if you've traveled around, I know in Petaluma, Thank you. My brother lives up there with his family and when they moved there about 15 years ago, their downtown was old and it was stodgy, nothing was happening. But if you have, have you gone up there lately, it is happening. There's restaurants, there's high quality retailers, there's residents, there's visitors. I mean, there's all sorts of things that is a possibility for us here. And the business improvement district model has proven to be successful in that way. So I highly, um, you know, ask you to support it. I am glad that they clarified about marketing. I am a marketing person and I really want to see clean sidewalks, clean sidewalks, no goo on the garbage cans. Um, have a power rusher come every day, every week, whatever's needed. Thank you. I'm in support. Bye. |
| 03:10:23.04 | Walfred Solorzano | Carlito Berg, followed by Dan Daglow, Don Daglow. |
| 03:10:31.26 | Carlito Berg | Hello, everybody. Very nice to be here this evening. You know, last night I was watching Harry Potter and I have to say that every single time I get up here, I get a little wingarvium nerviosa to talk to you guys. So, you know, I saw a bunch of comments about how this is a bad idea and, you know, we can't expand the pie and it's not possible and we're spending too much money and all this sort of stuff. And to me, that's sort of a scarcity mindset. The entire point. of, Sausalito and the entire point of our business community is that we can expand the pie and we do it every year and we're going to continue to do it. You know, I recently had two tenants, one who's raising a large AI ag tech fund and then another who, after 40 years in business, was a partner, had to hang it up. And at the end of the day, the future is really for the bold people who are going to venture into those businesses and really, you know, get into it in the city. And for me, That isn't even... Thank you very much. I'm just supportive. |
| 03:11:36.50 | Unknown | John Daglow, followed by Amy Svenberg. Hi, I'm Don Daglow. I'm a member of EDAC. And I just wanted to focus on one point, which is the numbers that we've been talking about. I've been able to serve as a CEO in business for about 30 years. When I joined EDAC, I got the chance to start digging into the numbers of exactly how business works. and business numbers and taxes affect the overall budget. of Sausalito. and frankly how it displaces risk from homeowners in terms of exposure to future payments. If the businesses do better, more taxes come from there, there's less pressure in any community. When I studied those numbers and then I look at this plan, I first of all, I was incredibly surprised at how much money we make as a city. And I was surprised at how variable it was and how by pushing certain parts of the business community, we can generate a disproportionate amount of money that can proportionally both help the city and add safety for residents. Thank you. |
| 03:12:41.85 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Amy Svenberg, followed by Tom Dantiano. |
| 03:12:47.57 | Amy Svenberg | Thank you. everybody. I am in support of the bid. We are a tenant at 739 and 777 Bridgeway, two big properties, but I am not a landlord. But I have talked to my landlord and we've agreed to share costs if this goes through. And that's because we believe in Sausalito. We're a huge part of the community. We support everybody in this community and this business community loves Sausalito. I mean, you can see it. So we really hope we have your support and we thank you for your partnership. |
| 03:13:21.41 | Walfred Solorzano | Alright, so I'm going to |
| 03:13:23.03 | Tom Viviano | Tom Viviano followed by Jeff. Hi, Tom Gangitano, 48 years running Gene Hiller menswear in Sausalito. And for the last 32 years have leased the city hall building from the city. From October through March, this city is dead. And we've experienced, I've experienced that for over 40 years. And we put on events during this time to stimulate business. And this is how we create revenue. We do it for us. We do it for the restaurants. We do it for all the businesses in town. We participate with everybody. We highly regard networking our businesses together. We do not have a structural plan for marketing this town. This would be the way for us to have a structural plan to market this town intelligently and produce revenue. Thank you. |
| 03:14:22.19 | Walfred Solorzano | Jeff, followed by Willie McDevitt. |
| 03:14:26.85 | Jeffrey Chase | Good evening, Jeff Shirosh, Spinnaker Restaurant. So I come to this meeting and, of course, come to this a little differently than most because initially when Council Member Sobieski came to myself, Yoshi Tomei, and Mark Flattery of In Above Tide, we were all three against it, to be honest. And the reason being is we were part of the hospitality committee since 2004. At that time, we were charged with, of course, promoting Sausalito, promoting, of course, tourism, bringing people to town, and we had a TOT budget of $400,000 at the time. Speed ahead a few more years, we increased the TOT again, and the TOT went from 12 to 14%. Now we're at $ point two million dollars. At that time, of course, funding became came into Sausalito in different ways. But overall, of our discussions with Council Member Sobieski, we changed our minds and went and of course are now for the bid process, understanding we need a constant mechanism for marketing promotion of Sausalito to continue our business and to grow our businesses, to hire TOT from two point two to two point eight million. |
| 03:15:38.53 | Walfred Solorzano | Willie McDevitt. |
| 03:15:45.47 | Willie McTavitt | Willie McTavitt, I've been on a bunch of public company and private boards, including being an owner of in above tide and to be successful very simply is to develop a strategy. and implement it. And to do that, you need to fund it long-term, a strategy, is not a short-term program. process. The P bid funding mechanism allows that to be done. And thank you all for volunteering. |
| 03:16:19.57 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 03:16:22.97 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. We have no more speakers in-house, but we do have some on Zoom. I'm just looking at the audience. And yeah, okay. So Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 03:16:30.98 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:16:35.98 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi Sandra. Good evening council. I don't think the city is really clear on what it's doing with this nonprofit. Having done nonprofit legal work in my career, I know that the board of directors governs the whole thing. And the government, and the, Consultant said that the self appointed board of directors is going to deliver and create the bylaws and that determines the function. The city must have an impact on this particular item. I'm also upset about the third time. This is the third time that EDAC has come to the city council. outside the budget process to ask for money. And I'm very, very concerned that we are not following our budget process in giving money. And if Sausalito has recovered 120% from pre-COVID, why do we need a BID? And can't we do a BID with just the the merchants forming their own organization and having a merchants association and move forward in that way. I'm very concerned. I received no notice of any of these meetings. And I think that that's the problem. |
| 03:17:47.71 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, that's it for the speakers. |
| 03:17:49.62 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we will close public comment and we can bring it back up to the dais, but I'll just start by putting forward a motion to authorize the city manager to execute a professional services agreement with New City America for property business improvement district formation related consulting services, as well as endorse the proposed district boundary and endorse or suggest modifications to proposed budget and financial commitment, including a modification to the nomenclature for marketing to be demand generation. |
| 03:18:16.00 | Ian Sobieski | Second. |
| 03:18:17.36 | Steven Woodside | and then I'll bring it back up here for discussion. |
| 03:18:22.44 | Steven Woodside | Who would like to get us started? |
| 03:18:35.74 | Melissa Blaustein | not going to make an alternate motion yet, but let me throw out some thoughts. I thank you everybody for coming. on the holiday week and giving us your comments and being so passionate about it I thought, Tom, the way you framed it, that we need a structural plan to market the city. makes a lot of sense, right? We have been kind of throwing a bunch of different ideas around for a while, and I gravitate towards the idea of having a plan and structure. I think the consternation that I've heard from the community is around three things. It's the city's contribution, the amount and the timing. It's the use of funds, and it's a governance. My questions were really because I didn't know the answers to any of those based on the staff report. And I don't know that I feel entirely comfortable with the answers that I got tonight because I think we could package them probably a little bit in a more sophisticated fashion. Thank you. So I think it's a I think it's a really solid idea. I think it needs polish. I think we need metrics. How do we measure success. I think we need to understand from our city manager and from our community economic development director What does happen with EDAC's other requests? What does happen when the chamber comes to us? What does happen with CDA contract? What are the spokes on the wheel that Director Phipps mentioned? What's the big picture? That wasn't clear to me tonight. I'm seeing pieces of it. I'm starting to see the light. which is why I think it's a good idea, but I haven't seen the full package yet. So I think the idea of what the funds would be used for is also really important when I heard business improvement district having just approved the CDA contract. I thought, yes, we're going to power wash the sidewalks every day we're going to make sure there's no gum on those trash bins we're going to plant more trees we're going to make sure that the sidewalks are even. That's not what I am hearing in the staff report. And so I wanna be very, very specific as to what my colleagues and I think the money should go to, or at least direct the money should go to, and also get the feedback. Is that what you also think the money is? I think it's what I'm hearing. I think there's opportunity for the council to develop the bylaws and improve the bylaws and make sure that we are the ones who are directing the work and the use of funds. I think it is an important point to know, many of you may not know this, that 44% of our property tax goes to Southern Marin Fire District. We get very little of our property tax, ultimately, once it goes to the county and elsewhere. We get, I think it's actually 9% goes to us. and so we do have to think about where our tax revenue is from and that's why this conversation once it goes to the county and elsewhere, we get, I think it's actually 9% goes to us. And so we do have to think about where our tax revenue is from. And that's why this conversation is so important. And I like the idea, I think it was Don you made, the comment around um sort of taking some of the pressure off uh it's actually a really great beneficial uh synergistic opportunity so my um suggestion again i'm not making alternate motion yet but would be maybe to continue it to the next meeting to fine tune it to have clear metrics to understand what happens with other components like the cda contract to understand why we're not or how we could support support our tot and our hotels even more to understand the use of funds to look at the contribution percentage and understand, I think Marco said that average is 15 to 25%. Let's truly understand why we would be that tremendous outlier at 50% and then understand the bylaws. So I think it's a great idea. I think it needs some more polish, but I am eager to hear what my colleagues have to say. |
| 03:22:12.18 | Sandra Bushmaker | question. |
| 03:22:15.64 | Ian Sobieski | Oh, sorry. Well, I was just what I would have to say, I might have more thoughts, but you had Spinnaker here tonight, Poggio, Gene Heller, Angelinos. Teresa summed it up best. She said, trust us. I mean, how much are we going to micromanage this from the dais? We have processes, brownout restrictions, agenda, setting a million priorities here. We have a group of businesses that have gotten themselves together and said, we want to tax ourselves. We want to tax ourselves and we would like the city to match us. And your match, you can zero out other things that you're currently spending money on. So it's probably going to be neutral. But then you're going to make even more money on direct measures like parking revenue and sales tax and a TOT tax and others. So I think that's what I would have to say, but what I would like to contribute is, the way things die around here is exactly this, looking at gift horse in the mouth, refining it forever until you exhaust the people that are trying, taking time out of their day to pull this together. All these people would rather not be here on the 19th of December, right before the Christmas holiday. And the process of bringing it back to the council is many times is there already is a process for that council member Kalman, where we're gonna have to approve it again, formally, before it actually gets put into place. But the constant reviewing is the way that we exhaust the good people of Sausalito. We've talked a lot, even before I got elected about what's the right way to do things in Sausalito. And oh my gosh, look at this room. I mean, why don't we trust them? It's 132K. And we can, if it doesn't work, we turn it off. |
| 03:24:04.46 | Melissa Blaustein | Vice Mayor, I will only point out, you know this, 132K by five is in excess of half a million. We had a recent meeting where you yourself asked that On a contract of that amount, things come back. And I felt the exact same way. And so We talked about this, what are the shoes under the foot? So what I'm recommending or suggesting are there ways to fine-tune this to make it a cleaner process and more understandable and articulate for all other because you can see this argument about every single contract that comes to us leave it with the experts. |
| 03:24:39.28 | Ian Sobieski | I could, but by the way, that thing you're referring to is not coming back. Right. He made a point of it not coming back and it's not. We authorize that money. It's not. And what I'm saying is we're not talking. You could, except we're not New York City. We're a city of 7000 people. We know our people. We know our neighbors. I just named some of them. And I'm just my point of view is trust them. Let's trust them. |
| 03:25:05.16 | Jill Hoffman | Sure. |
| 03:25:08.32 | Joan Cox | Thanks. I did want to make a point of clarification. This is not EDAC coming back to the city council. Karen Hollweg, At with its handout again that the city council directed EDAC at the beginning of the year to focus on a B ID as its top priority, and so this is EDAC coming back to the city council carrying out the Charter. directed of it by the city council. I've worked with other municipalities. I am a municipal lawyer. And so I guess I'm unique in my experience, knowing that PBIDs are a proven model that have shown positive results elsewhere in revitalizing older and struggling downtowns and neighborhoods, including towns such as Petaluma. San Diego's Gaslamp Corridor. Old Pasadena and Santa Barbara. P-bids can lead to increased civic pride, economic development, and increased tax revenue and property values. I hear the business owners saying trust us. I am impressed by the size and numerosity of businesses represented in public comment tonight. in public comment that we received in numerous emails, not one of the businesses that showed up here tonight opposed the BID for which they will be paying 50%. I heard with interest that the city's contribution could be passed through lease agreements and that the PBID increases eligibility for grant funding. Um, And I also found it notable, I think it was Mr. Daglow who said that the P bids displaces risk to homeowners as general fund contributors, because the more revenue that we garner from sales tax, from TOT, and other things the PBID will influence, the less pressure there is on us to tax our homeowners in order to meet our general fund needs. It's impressive. I think one of the advantages of a PBID is that it allows a long-term funding strategy rather than the piecemeal annual allocation. I do have the business community coming out to me every year with their handout asking for the city to renew its commitment to the business community through funding of marketing and other programs. This is a way to have the business community be more self-funding and more self-governing. Um, It's impressive that the business community will match the city's investment dollar for dollar. I do hear the concern that this is not fully gelled, not fully... you know, finalized. However, I also heard the consultant say we are on a tight timeline. So I want to remind us that what we're being asked to approve tonight is simply the $48,000 consulting agreement. We are not being asked to approve the P B I D. since that will ultimately be up to the property owners, including the city. And so we have time to fine tune as we work with the consultant. Ultimately, we will get to decide about the boundaries about and many of the other components that will go out to the voters to. provide their feedback. And so this is not the last, it's not the second of the last, it's not the third of the last time. we will hear this and have an opportunity to weigh in. So I look forward to learning more as we proceed with the process, but I'm in favor of, of approving the consultant contract this evening in the amount of $48,000. |
| 03:29:05.29 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Councilman Rohal. |
| 03:29:05.89 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm sorry, point of order, just a question. Is our job tonight... |
| 03:29:06.27 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:29:06.41 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:29:10.81 | Melissa Blaustein | Just to do that, the staff recommendation also says that we could endorse the proposed issue boundary, the proposed budget. and the commitment from the city you |
| 03:29:19.39 | Steven Woodside | The motion on the table is to follow the recommended action of staff. Again, the motion is to authorize the city manager to execute a professional services agreement with New City America to provide property business improvement, district formation related consulting services at a cost not to exceed $43,500, as well as endorse the proposed district boundary and endorse or suggest modifications. The modification suggested to the budget was a change in the nomenclature from marketing to demand generation so that it might express items such as cleaning the sidewalks, planting trees, or otherwise. |
| 03:29:19.40 | Melissa Blaustein | MOTOR. |
| 03:29:51.60 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, and so we are endorsing the boundaries and the budget, but we still, of course, are going to have to vote again. we'll have a chance to vote again if we don't agree after this has had months more of engagement in the broader sphere. But there's a chicken and egg situation because the businesses want to know what the city is up for. So it's not meaningless to endorse the boundaries in the budget. Indeed, if we don't want to do 50%, we should say that here and now that just because we say we're going to do 50% doesn't mean, you know, until you sign the check to buy the house and sign the deed, you can always back out. So we can back out, but it's just courteous. These are all business people. They know how it works. You put your offer on the table that you're sincerely pursuing. And we, of course, reserve the right to change it. But we shouldn't vote for something. We shouldn't say this is okay if we don't think it is. I personally think 50% sounds fair. |
| 03:30:46.34 | Steven Woodside | Councilmember Hoffman? Thank you. |
| 03:30:48.97 | Jill Hoffman | you. So I think principally, I'm optimistic about this effort. I was disappointed in the staff report. The staff report raised more questions for me than answered the questions. I think the staff report was misleading, and I think the staff report gave inadequate notice to the public about what we were actually gonna vote on tonight. Because we're not just voting on a $43,000 contract. Once we start the process of preparing this for the ballot, It's going to a ballot of the property owners. So It's not coming back to the city council until the very end, until after The businesses vote on it. And if the businesses is if more than 50% of the ballots are returned in favor. then it will come back to the city council for a final vote. That's what I, okay, am I wrong in that, Marco? |
| 03:31:44.97 | Walfred Solorzano | you're missing the petition component. |
| 03:31:47.65 | Jill Hoffman | Can you ask him to come up to the... Yeah, come up to the... |
| 03:31:51.33 | Joan Cox | Thank you. you |
| 03:31:51.80 | Jill Hoffman | Come up to the weekend to do it. |
| 03:31:53.03 | Joan Cox | the components |
| 03:31:53.98 | Jill Hoffman | the petition. |
| 03:31:55.26 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 03:31:56.29 | Jill Hoffman | Well, the components of petition are different from the governance and how the money is being spent after. Thank you. |
| 03:32:02.43 | Marco Lee Mandry | So, |
| 03:32:02.77 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:32:02.89 | Marco Lee Mandry | The process is a management district plan. It gets approved by the city manager and the city attorney's office. Then there's a petition drive. We're going to have to go back to the city because there's no way we can raise 50% of the revenue through the petition drive just with the private property owners. So the city will have to then decide, let's say we're at 35%. We're asking the city then to kick in 15% or their 50% or something like that. |
| 03:32:03.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:32:26.09 | Jill Hoffman | 50% of what? |
| 03:32:28.74 | Marco Lee Mandry | Right now, the motion is that the city would match it dollar for dollar, correct? |
| 03:32:32.67 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 03:32:33.01 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so it doesn't mean you have to put your full weight of 50% in, but you can put a portion to your 50% in. You have to get over this 50%. by dollar amount threshold. And the city's, part of that. I'm not saying the city's all of it. |
| 03:32:46.71 | Sybil Butchillier | I'm sorry. |
| 03:32:46.80 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:32:48.21 | Marco Lee Mandry | But the city is part of that. So it's going to come back to you with the resolution of intent, and then the balloting occurs, and it comes back to you again. And then you still have to vote after the balloting is done as to whether or not you want to levy the assessments on the benefiting properties. So there's three times that it's going to be coming back to you guys. |
| 03:33:06.59 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 03:33:06.88 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 03:33:07.21 | Jill Hoffman | All right. Thank you for that. No, I appreciate that clarification. Okay. Thank you. So |
| 03:33:07.23 | Marco Lee Mandry | All right. |
| 03:33:12.82 | Jill Hoffman | I go back to, I still don't think this is adequate notice. And I still think that we need to do a little bit more work on what this actually means. when it's approved and when the when the if we actually even form the district. Right. And so you get back to what's actually listed in the staff report. Right? The staff report, nowhere in the staff report does it say The city is going to be contributing $600,000, $660,000. something thousand dollars over five years, nowhere. And it doesn't say it in the resolution. That's the end result of what's proposed before us right now. Now. You know, I think you know, saying we've been down this road before, right? where it's phase one of something and we say, okay, let's look at it. Right? And then it comes back and we're like, no, we remember back in December of 2023, we said we were going to look at this again. And then we have a huge fight at the city council level. We all have to go back and listen to the record again. People come in, they're all mad. or boisterous in our chambers. And we're like, no, we were very clear that we're doing a stepped approach. And it's very clear to me right here, we don't have an actual plan once we get to the benefit zone, right? We have things that people in this room still do not agree on. We have a staff report that specifically says, 85% of this is going to be 60% marketing, 25% for administrative costs. That's what the staff report says. That was a notice to the public. In this meeting, we have had people say, including our consultant, including our staff representative, That's not quite right. We don't quite think that that's what that's gonna be used for. I mean, All I can go. I haven't attended all the meetings as, as it is. And I, and I understand that when, when you're deep into it, as some people that I, because I've been part of these efforts before. Right. But I'm looking at this with fresh eyes. As members of the public are looking at this with fresh eyes, with some skepticism, I would like to start this process with confidence of the public. I know that the businesses in here and the people who have been going to the steering committee for a number of months have a certain level of confidence in that. I don't, I personally don't have that confidence right now. I think that we can get there. I think that if we, and I agree with actually the vice mayor that, you know, Sometimes if you want to kill something, you just keep delaying it, right? That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to get to a level of specificity and also adequate notice to the public. Right. You know, if we have public coming back and saying, well, you never told us this is a one point two million dollar spend nowhere in the staff report, nowhere in the resolution does it say that that was the end goal. So And that's, you know, I think we can articulate this better. |
| 03:35:59.44 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 03:35:59.46 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 03:35:59.54 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 03:36:00.47 | Jill Hoffman | and be better representatives up here in our votes. And I'm sorry that the staff report wasn't as clear as it should have been or as inclusive in the information as it could have been. So that's my position here tonight. Not that I'm a no, I don't ever want to go forward with this. I believe there's been one, inadequate notice to the public. And number two, we're not even clear amongst ourselves what we want to do with this. |
| 03:36:26.12 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. So I... Thank you. I just wanted to, I mean, I understand we've received a lot of correspondence on this topic, both for the PBI and the folks that came out tonight. I'm very happy to see so much engagement. We also did receive some consternation from the community about fiscal considerations. But what we've heard here and what I have deep trust in given the work of our finance director, for example, in the last 12 months to put us into a much stronger fiscal position than we've been in, and the endorsement of our ability to be able to make up for these funds and also create more revenue through the generation of the PBID, I would hope that that helps address some of those concerns. I have confidence in our budget department. I have confidence in our finance team. I have confidence in our consultant. And most importantly, I have a lot of confidence in our business community. There are people here who have been doing business in our community for 40 plus years. That's longer than I've been alive. Your business has been here. Your business has been here since I was, you know, walking these streets at two years old. And I remember going into it and it meant something to me and it still means something to me. And it means a lot to our community. And revenue generation is good for all of our residents. And as we've heard from our council members this evening, yes, you know, a lot of our property tax does go to Southern Marin Fire. We don't see those revenues. And most of our revenue really does come from our business community and from our parking. And so when we get visitors, we get revenue from parking and then we get more business community revenue. But what's astonishing to me is that they're saying we want to pay more money for you to give you more money later on. So we're basically getting these folks to opt in to contributing more money to the city that then we can match. And I think that that's a really good foundation for a strong partnership that we are finally starting to rebuild after many years of sort of a fraught conversation between our business community and our city. And you know what? We should be walking hand in hand here because we need each other to succeed. And this is a demonstration of that. And I appreciate the concerns of that. Maybe we need to address the boundaries of the district or the fiscal considerations, but I believe if it comes back three more times and we have an opportunity to continue this discussion, that will happen. So with that, I'm gonna call to question the vote because we do have a motion and a second. And to reiterate the motion for the public to understand again, It's to authorize the city manager to execute a professional services agreement with new city America to provide property business improvement district formation related consulting services at a cost not to exceed 43,500 as well as endorse the proposed district boundary and endorse suggest endorse modifications to the proposed budget with the nomenclature change of. of demand generation instead of marketing for the 60% and financial commitment from the city. |
| 03:39:05.47 | Melissa Blaustein | So I will. Mayor, I'm so sorry. like we did recently, I wonder if you might entertain a couple friendly amendments, because I've expressed that I'm not comfortable with it as it is, and I don't think it's as polished, and I am in favor of it. So I'm wondering if you'd entertain some things that would get me a little more comfortable to this. I've, depends on what they are. I mean, I've called the question. |
| 03:39:26.02 | Steven Woodside | but I'm all happy to hear from you. |
| 03:39:26.89 | Melissa Blaustein | We can hear from you. Sure. It could be a four or four one or three one. |
| 03:39:29.08 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, sure. I mean, we'd love for you to be happy with it. If you, |
| 03:39:30.68 | Melissa Blaustein | Happy birthday. you Yeah. So, I mean, I think it would be very helpful to have some language around the council developing the bylaws and approving the bylaws. I think it would be, I'd like to drill down on the use of funds to be not just- |
| 03:39:46.49 | Ian Sobieski | Point of order, council member, I was just wondering, maybe you could just introduce each of these as a motion so it kind of keeps it tight. and we could take them one at a time in terms of the- |
| 03:39:54.12 | Melissa Blaustein | Oh, sorry. I was just doing what you had done where you had some suggestions and I was trying to put them in the friendly amendment. |
| 03:39:58.25 | Ian Sobieski | friendly amendment well it was a start offer please please proceed yeah sorry whatever whatever you prefer no no whatever you prefer okay |
| 03:40:01.29 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, sorry, whatever you prefer. Actually. |
| 03:40:04.57 | Ian Sobieski | If you think that's a better way of going, I defer to you. |
| 03:40:05.88 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. PB, Sarah Silver PB Sarah Silver PB, Sarah Silver PB Sarah Silver PB Sarah Silver PB PB Sarah cleanliness, improving the sidewalks, improving planting trees. Sasha Costanza- It's also the beautiful actually made that suggestion and they're probably comment, I want that to be written into this, so that we understand how it's being used. |
| 03:40:38.45 | Sybil Butchillier | writing. |
| 03:40:38.96 | Melissa Blaustein | lighting right that's a big part of this that the cast has been really spearheading almost single-handedly and then I also think that there needs to be at least some statement from the council as to why we would exceed you know the standard of 15 to 25 percent contribution in this case this is not that's just not what Marco has told us he has done in his 93 different iterations of this product. And so I'm just think if we had some language in there, that might be so we could reference it later on when it comes back to us, as I'm sure it will on three different occasions. So those would be mine, I would say we need some more metrics around success. I think we need some more granularity around the use of funds. And I think the council needs to be able to develop and approve the bylaws. It's really just three things. |
| 03:41:24.92 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:41:25.47 | Ian Sobieski | Could you summarize them again? Because that was a lot. |
| 03:41:27.96 | Joan Cox | I'll summarize it. Please, yeah. That the council develop and approve the bylaws. that the council developed more specificity about what, the meaning of Demand creation. Demand creation is including cleanliness, planting trees, sidewalks, lighting. and explanation of the city's 50 percent of the justification of the city's 50 percent contributions |
| 03:41:53.76 | Ian Sobieski | So that last, so the second one, could you read that again, please? |
| 03:41:57.24 | Joan Cox | The Council developed more specificity around the term command creation, including cleanliness, planting trees, sidewalks, lighting. |
| 03:42:02.03 | Ian Sobieski | demand creation. |
| 03:42:07.47 | Ian Sobieski | So you're looking for when it comes back to us? |
| 03:42:10.27 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 03:42:10.52 | Ian Sobieski | you in the, I guess, petition phase. |
| 03:42:13.14 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:42:13.15 | Melissa Blaustein | The partition language, I guess. |
| 03:42:13.68 | Ian Sobieski | that the definition of marketing be spelled out. |
| 03:42:14.67 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:42:14.83 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Demand creation. |
| 03:42:17.69 | Ian Sobieski | the man creation be spelled out? |
| 03:42:19.25 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, I think so, so that we don't get hit back again when we have other so-called marketing. |
| 03:42:22.35 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. looking to Marco, does that make sense in your process? |
| 03:42:27.97 | Walfred Solorzano | people are taken away. See you on Saturday. Thank you. |
| 03:42:30.86 | Joan Cox | And are we allowed to create the bylaws? |
| 03:42:31.40 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:42:31.50 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 03:42:41.98 | Walfred Solorzano | I love it. |
| 03:42:44.47 | Melissa Blaustein | So we, |
| 03:42:44.95 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:42:44.96 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:42:47.46 | Melissa Blaustein | Makes sense. We review them. |
| 03:42:50.43 | Joan Cox | Okay, so I would change, develop a review of the bylaws. Council review of bylaws. Thank you. |
| 03:42:57.06 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 03:42:57.08 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 03:42:58.14 | Ian Sobieski | And then this last one, explanation. When do we give this explanation and who gives it? |
| 03:43:02.82 | Joan Cox | I think it would be part of the ballot explanation. |
| 03:43:08.20 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, so it would also be in the petition, an explanation of why 50% is why it is. So Marco presumably would write that or does that make sense to you, Marco? |
| 03:43:16.11 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:43:16.13 | Sybil Butchillier | of the market. |
| 03:43:16.92 | Walfred Solorzano | BROADER. |
| 03:43:20.98 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. manager. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:43:24.96 | Ian Sobieski | Bye. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Are you all comfortable with that? Okay. I am. |
| 03:43:26.29 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay. |
| 03:43:26.69 | Steven Woodside | Are you all comfortable with that? I am as well, so I'll reintroduce it. |
| 03:43:31.76 | Jill Hoffman | I had one clarification question. Um, As I heard the motion that was made, we're approving the boundaries tonight. Yes? Because there also was part of our conversation that's going to come back to us three more times and we can do some more edits, but I don't think so. |
| 03:43:47.47 | Steven Woodside | Thanks. Thank you. We're endorsing the proposed boundary, but I believe that in the permitting process, we can make changes if we. |
| 03:43:53.81 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. When you put an offer in on a house, you're saying you're going to buy the house and you stay on a contract to buy the house, but you don't buy the house until. you actually buy the house. So here we're endorsing the boundaries and we shouldn't take it lightly because as you point out, This doesn't mean nothing. It is endorsing the boundaries and anyone who knows for sure They aren't okay with 50% shouldn't endorse today's boundaries because that's bargaining in bad faith. But the chicken and egg is that the business community needs to know what the deal is that they're signing up for. So we are endorsing the 50%, but reserving the right that after all these steps, after demand creation is defined, after there's more feedback from the community, after there's more engagement, for all we know, the businesses might change their mind and not vote yes. But we can also not vote yes, just because we're moving it forward. |
| 03:44:40.42 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and just... I... Marco, is that correct? I just want to make sure I just want, listen, I want to make sure that, that we have this right, right. So is that correct, that even if we endorse the boundaries tonight via this motion, that at some point later when these things come back to us, we can still adjust as we move forward? |
| 03:45:02.58 | Walfred Solorzano | I would assume that when it's admitted to the city manager, plan to all of you for review. We have to come back and articulate it. Thank you. |
| 03:45:14.16 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so that's a little bit different than my question. |
| 03:45:16.03 | Ian Sobieski | I think what she's asking is, |
| 03:45:16.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:45:17.75 | Ian Sobieski | It's going to come back for another vote from us. We have to approve the petition. We don't approve the petition. Well, okay, so this is |
| 03:45:22.86 | Jill Hoffman | Well, OK, so this is a problem we had with the ferry landing, right? We just went through this where we, as a city council, got very, you know, All of us, five of us were upset that the final product didn't come back to us for final review and thumbs up or thumbs down before it went forward. |
| 03:45:40.14 | Ian Sobieski | that's it. Can we let Marco answer the question? So when does it come back to us for another vote? Yeah. |
| 03:45:45.00 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. As much as you've loved getting up and down for the last hour, hour and a half, you may as well stay for until we get to the votes. |
| 03:45:50.67 | Marco Lee Mandry | I believe. |
| 03:45:51.03 | Melissa Blaustein | Stay up there. |
| 03:45:51.80 | Marco Lee Mandry | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:45:51.94 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm not sure. |
| 03:45:59.36 | Marco Lee Mandry | Once the management district plan is approved, you cannot initiate the petition drive without the support of the city manager and the city attorney. I would assume at that point it's a public document, and I would assume, too, it could be shared with the city council. So if the city council had any questions about the management district plan before the petitions went out, then at that point, we can clarify things in the management district plan and amend it before the petitions go out because the petitions must be combined with the management district plan. So you'll have a chance to review that management district plan before you approve the petitions being distributed. |
| 03:46:27.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:46:27.56 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 03:46:33.20 | Ian Sobieski | And after it goes out, the city still has to vote to get, as you said, to get over 50%, since we're 50% of the district and 100% of the businesses aren't going to vote. The city is going to have to affirmatively vote some portion of its property to cross the necessary 50% threshold. |
| 03:46:48.91 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. Correct. |
| 03:46:49.53 | Ian Sobieski | To make that vote, the city council will have to vote. |
| 03:46:52.18 | Marco Lee Mandry | you |
| 03:46:52.23 | Steven Woodside | Correct. |
| 03:46:52.54 | Marco Lee Mandry | Thank you. |
| 03:46:52.54 | Ian Sobieski | And it can withhold that vote insisting on changes if it so chose. |
| 03:46:52.67 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. |
| 03:46:55.73 | Marco Lee Mandry | That's correct. |
| 03:46:56.38 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:46:56.98 | Steven Woodside | Okay, at this point, we have a motion with amendments. So I'm going to call a question unless, Councilman Hoffman, do you have a friendly amendment you would like to offer to the motion? I'd love to give you the opportunity if there were one you wanted to add. |
| 03:47:04.05 | Jill Hoffman | Love to give you a shout. Well, I don't know that there's a mechanism to do it. I mean, my friendly memo would be that this comes back to us for a final vote, review and vote before it goes. What's up? Well, that's different trying to get something on the agenda. you know, is different, very different than we have a process and we're, we're bringing this back to us. So |
| 03:47:26.39 | Joan Cox | How about if you just clarify that the city manager will bring the management plan to the city council for approval before it? is finalized. |
| 03:47:34.89 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, sure. That's fine. That's different than what Marco was saying. It was, we had a chance. |
| 03:47:38.96 | Joan Cox | We assumed the city manager would bring it to us, but let's just direct the city manager, bring the management plan back to us before it's approved. |
| 03:47:41.05 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:47:41.42 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:47:41.46 | Steven Woodside | was. |
| 03:47:41.66 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:47:41.69 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:47:41.80 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry. |
| 03:47:43.45 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Okay, so now we will vote and I'm going to restate the motion with all of the amendments for everyone to understand what direction we're giving for the record. So the city council authorizes the city manager to execute a professional services agreement with New City America to provide property business improvement district formation related consulting services at a cost not to exceed $43,500 as well as endorses the proposed district boundary and endorses the modifications to the proposed budget with the change in nomenclature demand generation. and financial commitment from the city with the following amendments. That the council develop more specificity of demand creation and definition, including items like cleanliness, planting trees, sidewalks and lighting that the council that the council have a review of the bylaws that the petition language that is circulated explain the 50% contribution by the city, and that staff is directed that the city manager will bring this management plan. back to the city council. So with that, I will roll call vote. |
| 03:48:49.23 | Ian Sobieski | Just fixing the word, you said council will specify demand creation. It's actually the consultant and whatnot that's defining it in the terms, not the council. |
| 03:48:59.50 | Jill Hoffman | Sure. Okay. Sorry. And it will come back to the council for a final vote before it proceeds. Yes. |
| 03:49:06.03 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 03:49:06.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:49:06.10 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. |
| 03:49:06.14 | Jill Hoffman | Final proof. |
| 03:49:07.91 | Ian Sobieski | Hmm? What's the it? Okay, sorry. |
| 03:49:10.81 | Steven Woodside | Great. Okay. Staff is that clear? Great. We'll go ahead and take a roll call vote now. My last one. Yeah, who's on first? . you |
| 03:49:23.23 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member Cox? Yes. |
| 03:49:23.26 | Steven Woodside | Councilmember Cox? Yes. |
| 03:49:24.95 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Councilmember Hoffman? |
| 03:49:26.59 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 03:49:26.60 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. Thank you. Councilman Coleman, Vice Mayor Sobieski. Yes. |
| 03:49:31.25 | Steven Woodside | Yes, it carries unanimously. Five zero. Yay, we did it. Great job, everybody. |
| 03:49:41.67 | Chad Hess | So much coming up and now we want the item six |
| 03:49:47.18 | Steven Woodside | Thank you everybody who came out and bared with us through that. And we'll move on through item six, which is communications. |
| 03:49:53.35 | Walfred Solorzano | This is. |
| 03:49:54.57 | Steven Woodside | What? We have cake? |
| 03:49:57.18 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm going to keep them around here. |
| 03:49:58.15 | Steven Woodside | Oh, you guys, there's cake here for the end of the meeting. If you stick around, it's a large cake. There's a changing of the guard coming. It might be good. There could be. All right. Just thought I'd try. It might be red velvet cake. |
| 03:50:09.47 | Walfred Solorzano | We don't know. |
| 03:50:10.06 | Steven Woodside | Marco is going to stay. He's had so much fun with us. All right. |
| 03:50:15.90 | Melissa Blaustein | Amy, you can't leave. Amy, you better stay. |
| 03:50:18.02 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 03:50:18.19 | Melissa Blaustein | Amy, you better stay. |
| 03:50:19.04 | Steven Woodside | I'm going to go to the next day. |
| 03:50:19.31 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:50:19.91 | Steven Woodside | Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. Uh-huh. Okay. Bye, guys. Thank you. Okay. |
| 03:50:20.98 | Melissa Blaustein | . |
| 03:50:26.68 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Nice to see you too. Well, my, my parents are staying for the record. My parents are still here. So. And my brother. All right. So now we'll move on to item six, which is communications. This is the time on the agenda for members of the public to provide any public comment for items that are not on the agenda. If you would like to provide a public comment, fill out a speaker slip or raise your hand in the Zoom application. The city clerk will call on individuals who have raised their hands in the order they were raised. After you're called on, you will be unmuted to allow you to share your comments. Do we have any communications related public comment at this time? In house. Oh, simple butchillier is here. Yeah. |
| 03:51:05.71 | Teresa Ancona | Sybil Butchillier is here. Thank you. |
| 03:51:08.41 | Steven Woodside | Hi Sybil, nice to see you. |
| 03:51:12.07 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 03:51:16.23 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you, counsel. I just wanted to bring forward again a issue that I would like you folks to resolve at your first opportunity, and that is the appointment by the city council of the representative to from the city for the Marin County Commission on aging my term which I. went on for 15 years. ended this in June. And I know that you have received at least one candidate, which has been endorsed by H Family Sausalito and Sausalito Village, and that has not had an opportunity to be interviewed yet and considered for appointment. And she did put in her application in June. And I know you've been dealing with the city Thank you. committee positions and that that's taken up a lot of time, but I hope that you'll be able to deal with this appointment as soon as possible because I'm getting a lot of pressure from the county saying, you know, why aren't you doing something to get somebody in here to, you know, pick up that piece. So thank you very much and I hope that This will happen soon. |
| 03:52:43.22 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Symbol. |
| 03:52:44.38 | Sandra Bushmaker | you |
| 03:52:44.68 | Steven Woodside | You don't want to serve 15 more years with us? |
| 03:52:44.82 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 03:52:48.21 | Steven Woodside | I know, I know. Okay. |
| 03:52:50.10 | Walfred Solorzano | On Zoom we have Eva. |
| 03:52:54.59 | Chad Hess | I've |
| 03:52:56.95 | Ava Crisanti | Hi, it's Ava Crisanti. And I'm sorry, I didn't prepare too well for this, but long day. And it brings me no pleasure to have to communicate to other cities that There is a pretty severe crisis going on right now in Gaza. And today there were 35 speakers at the Marin County Board of Supervisors speaking in support of a ceasefire resolution. And there was one speaker against. And this is unfortunately necessarily a growing movement I do want to point out that Many Jewish people and many Palestinian people join together. to make these comments and to work on the petition and high school students and college students walked out of class multiple times. to come to the Board of Supervisors and plead the case on the part of what's happening now. If you're interested, the petition is available. And also, if you want to just learn more about the situation, I would like to... recommend Two writers I like, Rashid Khalidi, some people pronounce his last name, Khaldi, is really quite an amazing writer on the topic. And Shal Magid, and I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name correctly. He's a professor at Dartmouth. But, you know, for people who are constantly being told this is a very complicated issue. These are two writers who, one Jewish and one Palestinian who helped demystify |
| 03:55:00.93 | Walfred Solorzano | No further comments? |
| 03:55:02.25 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'll close the communications period and move on to Item eight, city manager reports and other council business. The first item here is public comment on items. Oh, sorry. Councilmember Committee reports. Do we have any... Okay. |
| 03:55:17.76 | Joan Cox | I will quickly say that we were scheduled to make our quarterly enforcement committee report to the board. B.C. D.C. forgive me, I don't know the acronym BAE. conservation |
| 03:55:33.38 | Ian Sobieski | That's good. |
| 03:55:34.40 | Joan Cox | Development Commission last Thursday, but the meeting or last Friday, but the meeting was canceled due to lack of a quorum. So we will be making our report in January. And I'll come back to you with more information on a later date. Thanks. |
| 03:55:34.43 | Ian Sobieski | DEVELOPING. |
| 03:55:53.67 | Melissa Blaustein | Any other committee reports? Just one. I serve on the same BCDC, Regional Elected Task Force on Sea Level Rise. And today at our meeting, we discussed SB1 grant program, which provides funding for local, regional, and tribal governments to develop sea level rise adaptation plans and projects to build resilience along the entire coast of California and the Bay. And they are strongly encouraging cities to apply for this money. It's not a competitive grant process, which means we're not going up against our neighbors for this bucket of funds. And I think it will really enhance the work that we have ongoing with Katie. So I will be happy to keep you guys all on the loop. for I did already. |
| 03:56:33.49 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. Okay, any other committee member reports? |
| 03:56:36.56 | Trish Smith | THE FAMILY IS |
| 03:56:36.61 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 03:56:36.65 | Trish Smith | Thank you. |
| 03:56:36.68 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 03:56:36.72 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 03:56:39.18 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we will move on to item eight, which is city manager reports and other council business, we always begin this item with public comment on all of the items listed under eight so for point of clarification will hear eight B city manager information for Council eight see future agenda items. 8D, Presentation to Outgoing Mayor by Chris Zapata. 8E, Presentation to Outgoing Vice Mayor by Chris Zapata. 8F, City Council Selection of Mayor. and 8G city council selection of vice mayor. So do we have any public comment on any of those items at this time? |
| 03:57:10.84 | Walfred Solorzano | See you then. |
| 03:57:11.75 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll close public comment and we will go to our city manager with information for the council. |
| 03:57:17.35 | Chris Zapata | I'll be very brief, Mayor and Council members of the public. On January 23rd, the countywide point in time count for run house persons is happening. I want to point you to a status update I provided to you today on our insurance situation. And I also want to acknowledge the service awards and the exemplary employee awards that were given at the city employee gathering last week on Abbott will have that in our current so you'll see all that where we highlight all the people that have done great things in our organization for our community. Thank you. |
| 03:57:55.18 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:57:56.67 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Sorry, I have a follow-up on that. Of course. By all means, please. City Manager Zapata, thank you for telling us that the biannual... Point in time count is going to go forward this January. January 23rd. Um, I... have done that count twice. I haven't seen any email. Usually they send out an email, hey, you did it before. Do you want to be on a team again? Did anybody at the county let you know how they're going to comprised the teams and especially I'm concerned in light of the erroneous report that was assessed to Sausalito for the last point in time count. Was that discussed at all or do we need to engage with the county on that issue? |
| 03:58:38.15 | Chris Zapata | with the kids. You know, Council Member Hoffman, precisely for that reason is why I reported on it tonight. I met with Gary Nadja Reese about the Dorothy Gibson House, and he informed me that there would be a document coming out to city councils and police departments and other folks involved in the point in time count, which is going to be had on the 23rd. So I wanted to say this as quickly as I could so that, you know, we could ask the questions we need to ask. So everything that you've inquired, I will inquire of him. |
| 03:59:07.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I'll follow up with you as well. Thank you. |
| 03:59:10.80 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to HC future agenda items. Do we have any future agenda items? |
| 03:59:21.28 | Joan Cox | Great list. Great list, guys. I think we already have the appointment of Sybil's successor on there, but I'd like to see us move that up to a consent item as soon as possible. |
| 03:59:33.02 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, agreed. Great. Perfect. |
| 03:59:35.47 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:59:35.51 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:59:35.54 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:59:35.62 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:59:35.84 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:59:35.86 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Great. Okay, we'll move on to item 8D, which is the presentation to outgoing mayor by Chris Zapata. |
| 03:59:46.41 | Chris Zapata | I'm going to apologize for this, but I don't want to give it any short circuit because to serve as mayor of a community for a year is truly something that is a gift. But in service to the community, city government is a team sport. And so everything that I'm going to talk about that we have Mayor Blaustein as our mayor and our city council, the city council and our staff working with various partners to do is a reflection of the entire organization. But we have one mayor, and that is Mayor Blaustein. And since being appointed by her fellow city council colleagues as mayor, she's chaired 26 meetings this year, and some of them have been pretty long. And so one of the things I will say is on the city staff side, we truly appreciate her and the city council embracing a back to basics approach in the council meetings for most of the year. And the theme of back to the basics was focusing on finance or people and infrastructure. And so with respect to finance, Mayor Blaustein was a city council designee to work with our community in expanding, extending, and successfully passing Measure L, which will bring in an estimated $24 million over the next eight years to help address our current and growing infrastructure needs. The city council and she were instrumental in us hiring a new finance director and making sure that we balanced our budget this year, and we were in the black for the first time since the pandemic. That excess was close to a million dollars and almost 7,000 less than a million under the council and her leadership. We put that excess of $1 million into a trust fund for pensions, which is something that is really important as we see our pension costs rise and go in the next few years. And also under the city council and Mayor Blassey's leadership, we prepaid our annual pension costs because that saves us about 3% when we do do that. Under the mayor and council, the city council approved the investment of idle cash in treasury funds and negotiated new interest income with the Bank of Marin to generate stronger revenue, be opportunistic. We transitioned to a new city auditor, an independent third-party auditor, and this year we'll complete the auditor three months earlier than we did last year with no significant findings. And so that's a kudos to the mayor and council. Under the other financial end, we worked and completed and executed the largest city property lease in the city's portfolio with Licee Francais at a market rate, which will result in $4 million new dollars, not $4 million, $4 million new dollars over the lifespan of that 20-year lease. On the people's side, you know, a three-year agreement with SCIU with the 36-hour work week, resulting in work-life balance and retention of staff. A two-year agreement with the Police Officers Association, creating stability in the police department. Negotiating completed agreements with other departments and confidential and and non represented employees to ensure strong, strong service. Hired a new city attorney in a new law firm, Sergio Rudin and Bess Besson Krieger. Hired a new city human resources manager, Catherine Nikitas. Hired a new city clerk, Walfred Sorosano. And renewed a three year commitment to the city manager. Thank you. In respect to some other important items, Sausalito under the leadership of the mayor and council, first city in Marin County to have the state accept the Sausalito housing element. You know, that's a big thing. And, you know, under her leadership began discussions with the state about funding, new funding for housing and the potential use of the corporation yards as a housing site. Thank you. And also following through on the work began by the prior council, including Mayor Kelman, Mayor Hoffman, to work with the state and the county to ensure support of the city in terms of the homelessness challenge that we faced and garnering a commitment of a million dollars in funds. That's important. and then Mayor Blaston worked really hard to connect us with Marin City, our neighbors and part of our community and stakeholders in Marin City. Some examples of that are the first ever Saucelito Marin City Wellness Day. She was very supportive of the Jazz by the Bay extension in September, which was spearheaded by Felicia Gaston. She championed, you know, park uses by Marin City nonprofits. She really pushed forward on some diversity, equity, and inclusion needs in our city to the point where we have our first organization-wide, city-wide diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging program. She supported DEI program for the Sausalist Center for the Arts. On climate and sustainability, she continued the work of Mayor Kelman, the Sustainability Commission, the Sea Level Rise Commission, and Sea Level Rise Committee to hire the lady you saw tonight, Katie Tho Garcia, our Resilience and Sustainability Manager. Very big, big thing. She serves on the TAM board as part of their EV committee. She's worked with the county on microgrids. She's continued the discussions implemented by Council Member Kelman about electric ferry boats and worked very hard with many stakeholders to bring Sussler up to code for single-use plastic enforcement. In terms of a smart city's vision, She was very adamant and, you know, we're going to get this to the finish line. So tonight, the relationship, she started with corporate partners such as Honeywell and MasterCard and the representation of Sausalito at Global Smart Cities to work with microgrid leaders in Sausalito to look for grants, but also to get to the beginning of the first phase of our climate check agreement, which was approved tonight. So congratulations on that. As Mayor Blaustein has to represent Sausaleno and willingly did so in a number of regional, Bay Area, national and worldwide groups. She's the chair of the Marin County Mayor Council Member Group. She spoke at various summits. She's active in the U.S. Mayors Conference, the National League of Cities. worked real hard with folks to create relationships with some federal organizations like the EPA, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, and the Small Business Association to create relationships and strengthen potential funding opportunities that we want to know and we want them to know us. She worked very hard on this idea of a city-inclusive entrepreneurship program. And she's a strong supporter of Sister Cities. She and Council Member Cox cooked a full-on dinner for the Sister Cities program for the Dignitarism Society. She's traveled to both Casaskai and Sakai Days to support and strengthen our cultural relationships. She's been a willing and ultra responsive person to the media. Some requests pretty difficult and serious, but some fun. One of the fun ones was the first Toast to Sausalito event that she was interviewed. And if you haven't seen that, I would Google that. It was quite entertaining. She evaded sharks and swam from angel. was interviewed. And if you haven't seen that, I would, I would Google that. It was quite entertaining. She evaded sharks and swam from angel Island to save the sea lion, raising 10,000, for the Sassalo Foundation. And finally, on behalf of the organization, we really appreciate that Mayor Blaustein has voiced her strong support and built relationship with city staff, acknowledging the work done in service of the Sassalo community. So with that, we have an award for her. |
| 04:07:39.53 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 04:07:39.75 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 04:07:39.77 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 04:07:39.90 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 04:08:04.84 | Steven Woodside | Take care. |
| 04:08:05.81 | Chris Zapata | No, you come down, Mayor. |
| 04:08:07.14 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:08:07.17 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 04:08:07.21 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I will. |
| 04:08:08.69 | Chris Zapata | And. |
| 04:08:09.11 | Steven Woodside | I don't want to embarrass them. Uh, |
| 04:08:11.39 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 04:08:11.75 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. That was... That was really amazing. |
| 04:08:15.41 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, that concludes my comments. I don't know if the council wants to say anything else, but then it concludes mine. |
| 04:08:22.02 | Steven Woodside | Oh, go ahead. |
| 04:08:23.14 | Melissa Blaustein | No. I have a quick little story about outgoing mayor Baalstein. I think the year was 2017. or they get a knock on my door on a rainy day. And here is this very articulate bubbly, motivated individual is telling me she's running for city council. And I said, awesome, let's do it. How do I back you? Then I said, what's your name? I just was so excited to see this happening. And Just luck would have it that we got to run together and get elected together. And my honor to have served with you as my vice mayor. And it's just been a pleasure to see your style grow and evolve and how deliberate you have been in driving consensus up here. And I know it's not easy. And I don't say I'm proud of you because that would be condescending. I'm really excited with how you have served us and really grateful for that as well. And so I just want to thank you. I know we give a lot of credit to Scott Thornburg and EDAC, but the truth is you probably did more to bring in some press for Sassana this year. I have watched the thing on your wine tasting, but I know you have done many such wonderful opportunities. And so thank you. I know it's tireless and you were tireless, including swimming across the bay. So just thank you for all your hard work. And I know you can get your hours back and sleep in a little bit, but you will be missed. Thank you |
| 04:09:56.03 | Ian Sobieski | Thanks for saying that, Janelle. Thanks for saying that, Janelle. That was really very splendid and I am proud of you and I, but more than that, I, uh, have had the benefit of learning from you, which I, uh, really enjoy. I love, uh, entrepreneurship, working with entrepreneurs because you never, um, you're always impressed by what they invent and, uh, and your engagement with all these issues for the first time, like all this doing life for the first time has been really, uh, educational for me. I've learned a lot from you this year, uh, serving, holding your coat and, uh, and it has been an honor and a privilege. So congratulations. |
| 04:10:33.41 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 04:10:39.17 | Joan Cox | So this was my first year back on the council and, um, Melissa came to me after I was elected and asked whether I support her for mayor. And so we went to church together. And on the walk back from church, I was warning her about how much time it takes to be the mayor. Because when I served as mayor, it was, you know, I had a full-time job, but this was more than a full-time job. And so I warned her that it was going to take everything she has and more just to fulfill the obligations, even though many people don't see that from the outside. And she assured me, |
| 04:10:51.60 | Unknown | Uh-huh. |
| 04:11:17.35 | Joan Cox | that she was equal to the task and she has proven herself to be equal to that task. And I'm very tickled that I did support her. I have watched her grow and evolve as a leader. And one of the most important qualities she has demonstrated is patience. |
| 04:11:32.96 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 04:11:33.28 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Pat Benatar sings love is a battlefield. well. Being on the city council is sometimes a battlefield, and it takes a leader who can take some barbs and some swords and some jabs, as well as praise and accolades. And Melissa has demonstrated herself able to do that. And so congratulations on a very successful term as mayor. |
| 04:11:56.30 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 04:12:03.83 | Jill Hoffman | I just want to echo everything that's been said and thank you for all your hard work. Cause I know that you've worked tremendously hard this year. So well done. |
| 04:12:11.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I won't say much because I'm so moved by what everyone has said, but I... I think all of you know, I really grew up in Mill Valley, but went to, grew up on the streets of Sausalito, you know, walking, look down Main Street. Here we are on the swings and caval, what are they called? Monkey bars. That's our Sausalito Nursery School song. And when I was little and Herman Prevett was taking pictures of me for buttons that I still have, I never imagined that at some point he would be taking pictures of me at events representing the city that I love so much. And that has been so formative in making me the person that I am and serving this community has and will continue to be the greatest honor of my life. And that's for a variety of reasons. But probably chief among them is the people that make up this city, whether that's our phenomenal city staff who give so much every day and show up no matter what and are so committed to providing the best possible services. Or our city volunteers who give their time, which would otherwise be billed at probably upwards of thousands of dollars an hour. Marketing experts like Scott, who runs EDAC, and tech CEOs like Tom, who give all their time because they love this city, or my colleagues who spend hundreds of thousands of hours reading my new planning detail documents or finding opportunity sites in the housing element for a fun weekend, or the people who just live here because they love it and they love to get up every morning and walk along the waterfront and take in the beauty of where we are or the people who visit it and remember it forever because it means so much to so many people and it will always mean so much to me so i just want to thank everyone it's been an honor to serve alongside so many i can't believe how accomplished our city council is it's actually a running joke nationally about how good our bench is everyone talks about it they're like everyone up there is so good who's going to be the next mayor i can't even imagine i mean it's actually a running joke nationally about how good our bench is. Everyone talks about it. They're like, everyone up there is so good. Who's gonna be the next mayor? I can't even imagine. I mean, there's a lot of excitement. And it's been, it's been truly an honor. I want to thank my parents who are here because it's, and my brother who's here from San Paulo, Brazil, who really helped me get to this point. It means a lot that you guys showed up for me, dropped me off at nursery school every morning, and then, you know, still are here at almost 11 PM. So thank you so much, everyone. And I'm really looking forward to just taking a seat back and serving as a council member and taking a breath and a break, but it's been truly an honor, so. |
| 04:14:44.65 | Steven Woodside | Next item on the agenda is the presentation to our outgoing vice mayor. |
| 04:14:49.39 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor, members of the council, members of the public. I'm not sure how this got on the agenda, but it's a worthy item. I was told that this doesn't normally happen. But anyway, I want to say a few words about Dr. Ian Patrick Sobieski, Vice Mayor of the City of Sausalito. some people don't know this but Vice Mayor Sobieski was really the driving force behind the city investing money more wisely he pointed to us Some people don't know this, but Vice Mayor Sobieski was really the driving force behind the city, investing money more wisely. He pointed to us, the opportunity and treasuries and doing better with idle cash. And so I really thank him for that. He also was very, very instrumental in convincing our finance director, Mr. Hess, to come to this city. So I will be forever grateful for those two things. And I'm sure the community will too. So we have a small gift. |
| 04:14:56.56 | Sybil Butchillier | I would just... |
| 04:15:03.04 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 04:15:03.07 | Scott Thornburg | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 04:15:03.28 | Sybil Butchillier | Thank you. |
| 04:15:03.34 | Ava Crisanti | Thank you. |
| 04:15:39.73 | Chris Zapata | to provide for the vice mayor. |
| 04:15:44.35 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. It's cooler than a pen. Stay tuned. |
| 04:15:49.11 | Chris Zapata | And thank you for all your time, Vice Mayor, on the agenda setting committee and, you know, certainly working with your colleagues on the Council on the Dias. So thank you. |
| 04:15:49.13 | Steven Woodside | And thank you for... time by. |
| 04:15:57.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Oh, it's cooler than |
| 04:16:00.75 | Chris Zapata | Cooler than a pen? |
| 04:16:01.34 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 04:16:02.56 | Walfred Solorzano | It is a letter opener. |
| 04:16:05.88 | Ian Sobieski | a letter opener with the seal of the city on it. Love it. Yeah. Old school. |
| 04:16:08.48 | Walfred Solorzano | Love it. Yeah. Old school. Thank you. Yeah. . |
| 04:16:16.90 | Steven Woodside | Well, I'm thrilled that we got to honor our vice mayor because that's a great segue into our next agenda item. I'm very excited about the city council selection of our mayor. I'm going to just go ahead and nominate our incredible vice mayor, Mr. Sobieski. And I don't, do we need a second or do we just? We just vote, right? |
| 04:16:38.86 | Ian Sobieski | That's right now. Yeah. |
| 04:16:40.02 | Steven Woodside | Oh, other nominations. Seeing none. Okay. And I believe we have to take a roll call vote. So city clerk. |
| 04:16:48.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox? |
| 04:16:49.76 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 04:16:50.09 | Walfred Solorzano | you Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. Councilmember Kelman? |
| 04:16:52.44 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 04:16:52.71 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:16:58.21 | Melissa Blaustein | I want you to feel it. I want you to really feel it. |
| 04:16:59.95 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm not sure. |
| 04:17:00.03 | Sybil Butchillier | I'm going to do it. |
| 04:17:00.24 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 04:17:00.35 | Sybil Butchillier | Yes. |
| 04:17:02.55 | Melissa Blaustein | you |
| 04:17:02.57 | Sybil Butchillier | . |
| 04:17:05.03 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor. |
| 04:17:05.96 | Ian Sobieski | Vice Mayor Sobieski? With gratitude and humility, I accept yes. |
| 04:17:10.80 | Walfred Solorzano | airblasting. |
| 04:17:11.78 | Steven Woodside | Enthusiastic yes, five zero, our new mayor, Ian Sabieski. |
| 04:17:22.06 | Ian Sobieski | Well, thank you very much. The next agenda item is the selection of... |
| 04:17:25.58 | Chad Hess | That's past the gavel. Thank you. There you go. |
| 04:17:28.96 | Ian Sobieski | The next agenda items is selection of the vice mayor, and I too would like to open nominations by nominating Councilmember Joan Cox. Are there any other nominations on the floor? Seeing no other nominations, let's go ahead and please take a roll call vote. |
| 04:17:44.57 | Joan Cox | Council Member Cox. With gratitude, I will vote for myself. Yes. I'm not sure. God. |
| 04:17:51.03 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 04:17:52.03 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:17:52.04 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 04:17:52.11 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:17:52.13 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:17:52.15 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. this. |
| 04:17:52.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:17:52.35 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:17:52.38 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:17:52.75 | Joan Cox | That's what I'm saying. |
| 04:17:52.97 | Walfred Solorzano | coming. |
| 04:17:53.44 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:17:53.46 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:17:54.95 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 04:17:55.98 | Walfred Solorzano | Bye. Councilmember Blaustein. Yes. And Mayor Sobieski. |
| 04:18:01.21 | Ian Sobieski | Yes. Congratulations, Vice President. Bye-bye. |
| 04:18:08.28 | Ian Sobieski | I look forward to being a team together with you, Vice Mayor Cox, and with all my colleagues who we've been on a journey together. It is now time to move on to adjournment, and we'd like to honor a resident who passed away and close in their honor. So I felt to break a little bit from tradition to actually ask one of her good friends to say a few words from tradition to actually ask one of her good friends to say a few words. So Trish Smith is here. Trisha, please honor Miss Mastrangelo. |
| 04:18:45.54 | Walfred Solorzano | She She's on here. Okay, there we go. Thank you. |
| 04:18:50.85 | Ian Sobieski | Please unmute yourself. There you go. You're good. Hang on. Can you do an audio test there? |
| 04:19:01.69 | Walfred Solorzano | Go ahead. She |
| 04:19:02.89 | Ian Sobieski | Just please unmute yourself. She did unmute herself. Apparently there's a problem with her microphone. And. |
| 04:19:21.19 | Trish Smith | Can you hear me now? |
| 04:19:22.10 | Ian Sobieski | We can. Please proceed. |
| 04:19:23.89 | Trish Smith | a miracle. It's a miracle. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. you know, we'd, Charlotte Master Angelo on December 9th. And I know you all know her and love her. |
| 04:19:48.08 | Trish Smith | I'm hearing it in replay. Did you hear that too? |
| 04:19:51.00 | Ian Sobieski | We can hear you just fine. Oh, okay. |
| 04:19:52.55 | Trish Smith | Oh, okay. I was getting a little replay. Anyway, I'm just going to take I promise it would just be about a minute and a half a little about beloved Charlotte. And we all know she carried herself with an incredible grace. with her hair always perfectly quaffed from Scott's and a smile always present. But it was when you worked or played with her that you really found out how incredibly perceptive, curious, and funny she was. She was born in Washington state near the Canadian border. And she actually came to Sausalito in San Francisco on a road trip with her family in 1946, turned around and came back in 48, and started living in Sausalito. She had a career as a legal secretary in the financial district, and that's where she met her husband, Tally, in 1958, and they married shortly after. She joined the women's club when she retired. And she led the refurbishing and maintenance of the Rose Garden in Gabrielson Park. And she was instrumental in beginning the tradition of decorating Vigna del Mar Plaza for the holidays, along with Vera Musas. They turned the reins over in 2022. Charlotte also served on numerous city committees, most notably and proudly the Underground Committee. She kept active even in her nineties by her letter writing, and that's pen and paper writing. to the city to get even as recently as a bench at the bus stop on Second Street in front of what used to be the Valhalla. What many of us remember and enjoyed was a tradition she and Talley started in 1990, and that was hosting a 4th of July breakfast party in their gardens. coffee, donuts, her famous coffee cake, and those libations for the hearty souls that were participating in the parade. Sausalito is more beautiful place because of Charlotte and all of us who loved Charlotte dearly are better human beings for having had her in our lives. So I did have a few photos and I don't know if I can share my screen. No, it's disabled, but there were pictures of just about all of you at the 4th of July pre-party. |
| 04:22:06.49 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you very much, Tricia. I had the honor of meeting her at her 4th of July party. we hear on the city council are charged with taking care of the little town that she loves so much and devoted so much care to. And even when we disagree, we all are devoted to the same task of trying to take care of that town as best we can. We took a small step towards more trust in town here tonight, I believe, and at Arbinger's well for the new year. So for those who celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas. For those who all celebrate the new year, Happy New Year, we'll adjourn in the honor of Charlotte, Master, and Angelo. Happy New Year. See you in 2024. This meeting is adjourned. |