| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:03.22 | Walfred Solorzano | Good evening, Mayor, City Council. It is now 530 and welcome to the special and regular City Council meeting of January 16, 2024. We are broadcasting live on the city's website. We're also on Zoom and we are on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:23.35 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, city clerk. Call this meeting to order on January the 16th at 5.30 PM. We have the following closed session items, conference with real proper negotiators, Jean Hiller, press and terms, council with legal counsel, existing litigation, government case Portche versus City of Sausalito conference with legal counsel existing litigation Whiskey Springs Villa HOA versus the city of Sausalito conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation one case, could we please open public comment on any of these closed session items. |
| 00:00:55.99 | Walfred Solorzano | For any members, currently we don't have any members of the public in-house in council chambers, and there are any Zoom members. You can use the raise hand function. There are no members of the public right now. |
| 00:01:09.15 | Steven Woodside | All right, and could we, for the record, please call the roll? |
| 00:01:12.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember, sorry, let me do that. Councilmember Blauskne. Here. |
| 00:01:15.77 | Steven Woodside | Bye. |
| 00:01:18.75 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman. Here. Councilmember Kelman. |
| 00:01:21.42 | Jill Hoffman | Here. |
| 00:01:23.24 | Walfred Solorzano | Here. Vice Mary Cox. Here. And Mary Sobieski. |
| 00:01:26.94 | Steven Woodside | here. So we will now close public comments since there is no public comment, and we will adjourn to closed session. |
| 00:01:35.19 | Unknown | cube. Recording stopped. |
| 00:04:37.29 | Steven Woodside | meeting back to order. There are no announcements outside of closed session, aside from Happy New Year. I went to announce that on the agenda items 3C and 4C have been removed. I'm sorry, 3C and 5C. Thank you for the correction, Vice Mayor. As well as I'm sorry to report that item 3B is also being removed. The applicant indicated today via email that she is no longer interested in being appointed to the commission. Items 3 and 5C will come back on February the 6th. So we would like to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. So if we would kindly all rise and recite the pledge. |
| 00:05:22.36 | Walfred Solorzano | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. |
| 00:05:23.68 | Stephen Woodside | All right. United States of America. |
| 00:05:26.39 | Walfred Solorzano | to the republic which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:05:26.58 | Stephen Woodside | These are all the... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. God. |
| 00:05:35.27 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. And I'd like to approve the agenda. Is there a motion? |
| 00:05:41.33 | Melissa Blaustein | So I move approval of the agenda as amended. |
| 00:05:46.66 | Steven Woodside | City clerk, would you kindly call the roll? |
| 00:05:50.46 | Walfred Solorzano | We don't need to do a roll call. Well, |
| 00:05:52.87 | Steven Woodside | All right. All in favor, say aye. you |
| 00:05:55.00 | Walfred Solorzano | Aye. |
| 00:05:55.87 | Steven Woodside | Aye. Agenda is approved. First item on the agenda are interviews for boards and commissions. The first interviewee is Michelle Dumont for the planning commission. Is Ms. Dumont here? Please come up to the podium. Welcome. Please come up to the podium and kindly spend a minute introducing yourself, and then we'll spend the rest of our time asking questions. |
| 00:06:25.30 | Steven Woodside | We have it. Very pretty. |
| 00:06:36.19 | Michelle Dumont | ready and eager to talk to you, hopefully as a member of the planning committee. Cating my efforts is what makes softball videos really acceptable. My admiration for our community runs deep, seeking ways to get back We can really believe the essence of our city. For me? Our thoughtfully designed building gardens seamlessly blend with our natural surroundings, creating an emplastic city that I probably call home in here. Paul's call. And every morning I wake up in this amazing place and I always remember it's our city, but it's also an iconic place where a million visitors come at the beginning. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Architecture from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and over 15 years practicing architecture and design, I've established myself in the band area |
| 00:07:18.93 | Stephen Woodside | Yeah. and a master's degree. |
| 00:07:24.77 | Stephen Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:07:30.48 | Michelle Dumont | Amen. As a designer of buildings and spaces, that range across all scale with multiple building technologies and the resident provided, I listed several projects. |
| 00:07:40.55 | Andrew Davidson | Bye. |
| 00:07:43.74 | Michelle Dumont | Some of us are definitely visible people, and that's a skill I can have. to this commission. Currently, I'm working on a remodel of the home in San Francisco, and I thought it would be right on. doing the scale that I love. For caregivers for the project, the time to listen to my history. I joke and I call it my superpower because it costs collaboration to bring people together. It's something that we're usually taught as children, but it's something you have to communicate with practice and it really is the most important thing in bringing people together. So this is a few items. Sustainable growth, community engagement, and respecting our city's history are really important. I'm the most passionate about. |
| 00:08:22.81 | Stephen Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:08:29.93 | Michelle Dumont | And I was also honored to serve on the Los Angeles Groups and Housing and Health Advisory Committee. |
| 00:08:30.03 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. |
| 00:08:36.14 | Michelle Dumont | So I got to observe everything and learn a lot about Sal Salado really quickly. And this has really inspired me to keep here tonight and get back at a much larger capacity. And to be clear, I'm not just passionate about buildings. I'm passionate about the old community, too. And that's why I'm motivated about the self-intimation. to ensure that cell cellulite obtains its distinctive identity and continues to be brought Thank you. |
| 00:09:05.65 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:09:06.21 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:09:08.45 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Ms. Zipanta. Are there questions from the dais, please? |
| 00:09:11.56 | Jill Hoffman | Always. Hi, Michelle. Nice to see you. Thank you for being here. I Really great resume. Thank you. For those of you who don't see it, we got this printout, which is actually really beautiful and thoughtful. Thank you. So you're passionate about people and you're passionate about buildings. How do you feel about space? And I ask that because one of the things on our docket this year is about public spaces. and the trade-offs between, I think, beautification and resilience. What are your thoughts on some of those trade-offs and how communities like ours can address those? |
| 00:09:51.70 | Michelle Dumont | But making sure that there is time and effort away. Thank you. Thank you. What one person considered a vehicle can be very different to someone else's. But the most important role is that we provide spaces for our community. |
| 00:10:24.34 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Other questions from the dais, please. |
| 00:10:31.85 | Melissa Blaustein | Sure. Have you watched any recent planning commission meetings? |
| 00:10:37.15 | Michelle Dumont | Yeah. |
| 00:10:46.43 | Michelle Dumont | I think there are a lot of things to consider, but a lot of the time we don't have. So I think it's important. |
| 00:11:04.89 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:11:06.24 | Steven Woodside | Are there other questions from the dais? I have a question then. Have you gone before planning commission in another community in your role as an architect? |
| 00:11:35.13 | Michelle Dumont | But a lot of work is really trying to and cherish it. There's a lot of history in the process. So no, but I have on the floor design review. I can send you a message. |
| 00:11:52.91 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. |
| 00:11:53.61 | Michelle Dumont | And I found that it was extremely Thank you. Thank you. in one such meeting. He's going to keep his friends. and we all stood around. |
| 00:12:05.93 | Melissa Blaustein | Her mic is not on. |
| 00:12:09.79 | Steven Woodside | Sorry, that was our fault. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. |
| 00:12:17.35 | Andrew Davidson | and, |
| 00:12:18.06 | Steven Woodside | We'll let you answer this last question, if you'd like from the start on the microphone. Just repeat. |
| 00:12:23.59 | Michelle Dumont | Can you hear me now? |
| 00:12:24.52 | Steven Woodside | We can, yes. |
| 00:12:25.28 | Michelle Dumont | Okay. Did you hear anything I said? |
| 00:12:28.40 | Steven Woodside | I'm going to pull it. |
| 00:12:30.41 | Michelle Dumont | I see. Okay. So the last question, have I been in front of a planning commission in another city? And generally the work I've done in San Francisco, we try to maintain as much of the history as possible. So there's the ability to notify your neighbors and have that 30-day review. Um, There's so much history there. We really want to make sure our clients under my clients understand that we want to maintain as much of it as possible. Another example, I've gone before design review boards in the Santa Lucia Preserve in Carmel. And that is you go with the landscape architect and we had great success recently on a project because we didn't use a screen. We printed out large drawings. We came together. And everyone could really understand and see. So those are, you know, those, I realized we can't do that all the time, but the in-person meetings and the engagement, that's what I try to always look for is how to better engage with the people I'm communicating with. |
| 00:13:37.71 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much for being here and for applying. Thank you. |
| 00:13:41.02 | Michelle Dumont | Thank you. |
| 00:13:41.05 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:13:41.12 | Michelle Dumont | Thank you. |
| 00:13:41.15 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:13:41.17 | Michelle Dumont | Thank you. |
| 00:13:41.22 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:13:41.35 | Michelle Dumont | Thanks. |
| 00:13:41.40 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Our next candidate for the Historic Preservation Committee is Virginia Irwin. Is she here? |
| 00:13:51.83 | Steven Woodside | City Clerk, is she appearing by Zoom or was she coming in person? |
| 00:13:58.08 | Walfred Solorzano | Virginia. Christina, that might be. Let me see if Christina Irwin is her. |
| 00:14:05.38 | Steven Woodside | If Virginia Irwin is on the Zoom, if she could kindly raise her hand in the Zoom function so this city clerk can see you. |
| 00:14:16.89 | Walfred Solorzano | I'll ask you to unmute. If you can unmute yourself, please, Chris or Virginia. |
| 00:14:29.82 | Walfred Solorzano | Now somebody else is. Sorry, hold on. wives |
| 00:14:41.06 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm asking the person that's Christina Irwin to unmute. Grusso. |
| 00:14:47.15 | Christina Irwin | Hi, good evening, I'm sorry. We can hear you, hold on. |
| 00:14:47.34 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. We can hear you. Hold on. The volume is very low. Can we do anything about her volume? City Clerk. Can you say something, Virginia? |
| 00:15:02.17 | Christina Irwin | Can you hear me now? Is the volume better? |
| 00:15:04.60 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Could you, the floor is yours and then we'll follow up with a few questions. |
| 00:15:11.50 | Christina Irwin | already We can. |
| 00:15:12.61 | Steven Woodside | We can hear you if you can introduce yourself and your interest in joining the Historic Preservation Committee. |
| 00:15:17.83 | Christina Irwin | I think that you have commented or asked me on the wrong item. My name is Christina Irwin and I'm here to talk about the housing element programs. |
| 00:15:26.40 | Walfred Solorzano | I see. Okay. So you're not Virginia. All right. We're just trying to make sure. |
| 00:15:28.76 | Christina Irwin | Yeah. |
| 00:15:28.97 | Stephen Woodside | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:15:30.35 | Christina Irwin | Yeah, thank you. |
| 00:15:31.14 | Steven Woodside | Yes, would you like? |
| 00:15:31.29 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 00:15:33.94 | Steven Woodside | Uh, so does that mean that we don't, can't find Missouri? Yeah. |
| 00:15:36.31 | Kieran Culligan | Can't find Missouri? All right. |
| 00:15:38.08 | Steven Woodside | So is Craig Merilis on the, oh, there he is. Hello, Craig, Mr. Merilis, I apologize. Yes, just to let you know, we're here to interview. We're not acting on EDAC tonight. That item was taken off the agenda, but we're glad you're here. Thank you. If you kindly introduce yourself and you're interested in joining EDAC, we'll follow up with some questions. |
| 00:15:57.86 | Craig Merrilies | Thank you, Mayor Sobieski and Council Members. My name is Craig Merrilies, and I'm here tonight to stand before you be questioned and hopefully give you thoughtful answers about the Economic Development Advisory Commission. |
| 00:16:11.91 | Steven Woodside | All right, questions please for Mr. Marilies. Please. |
| 00:16:15.03 | Walfred Solorzano | Bye, Spare. |
| 00:16:16.03 | Melissa Blaustein | What is your interest in serving on the Economic Development Committee, and what is your understanding of its role, and how would you contribute to that role? |
| 00:16:25.19 | Craig Merrilies | Okay, three questions. I have a long history of working on economic policy matters, including development questions, and have done so by working with diverse communities, often ones that are at odds with each other, groups that go to war. And I can't say everybody was always totally satisfied with the result, but it's like the struggles that you all go through trying to find common threads and look for ways to get people to agree on things that benefit the entire the entire constituency, the entire city, county, state. I've worked at local, state, and federal levels, uh, on those kinds of projects. I'd love to do some work here. I'm recently retired, and I have more time available and would like to put some of that to work for the service of the city. |
| 00:17:36.36 | Steven Woodside | Got it. Other questions, please. Please, please. |
| 00:17:38.75 | Craig Merrilies | Thanks. |
| 00:17:38.84 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:17:39.82 | Ian Sobieski | Hi, Greg, nice to see you. I know you've actually already been quite involved in the city of Sausalito. Could you maybe talk a little bit about that work? |
| 00:17:46.48 | Craig Merrilies | Yeah, I think you probably are referring to my work with the Working Waterfront Coalition and land development questions, housing questions, and economic development. And, you know, that all came about largely as a result of my experience building one of the last houseboats in Sausalito before the untimely passing of the owner there that had kept that going for many, many years. So after Ian's passing, we had our houseboat, but we were one of the last ones to be built there in the yard. And it gave me a wonderful impression of... the challenges and the problems with that area in the city, but the also the incredible potential that area has. So. It was a firsthand experience and I'm glad, better off for it, I think. |
| 00:18:49.80 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions? Council Member Hoffman? |
| 00:18:53.12 | Jill Hoffman | So Craig, thanks for being here. What are some opportunities you think that we should explore for economic development that perhaps we haven't spent enough time on? I, |
| 00:19:05.88 | Craig Merrilies | I can't say that the council hasn't at times, discuss all, I think, the important aspects of economic development. You know, it may be questions of balance, emphasis, but I don't fault the council for not being aware of reviewing and considering all the good options, but getting the balance right and sometimes getting the particulars, that's the hard part. And that's what you guys are doing day in and day out. I think that, It's often thought that industrial and maybe maritime work is kind of grungy, low value. old fashioned kind of work. But I think the past few years have taught a lot of us that that kind of work, the kind of physical work, the kind of manual labor, now supplemented with the latest high-tech kinds of technology is becoming more and more something that we wanna be able to do in this country, whether it's train young people to be engineers, machinists, all of which require you know, really advanced training at this point and the marine ship and, and, uh, The working waterfront is where some of that's happening and a lot more would, I think, only serve to benefit the city and make us known and have generate significant revenues for the city. There's a lot of people looking for that kind of work to do and we happen to have a place to do it. Most people don't. |
| 00:20:51.06 | Steven Woodside | Do you, Mr. Marilos, I guess I'll ask the last question. Do we have, do you have any ideas? like Councilmember Kellman was asking, around how to revitalize the working waterfront. activity there in the context of landlords charging rents that are above what people can pay. |
| 00:21:10.67 | Craig Merrilies | Yeah, that's part of the conundrum. I think a lot of that has to do, meaning the higher than... optimal industrial rates that are being charged has to do with land use policies that predate all of you. And that involves the struggle to enforce zoning as it exists. I think, Mr. Mayor, you had some firsthand experience with how frustrating that can be, despite the best of intentions, to try and make sure that we have conforming uses. And, you know, naturally folks are always trying to slip in around the edges and make the most money, regardless of what the city's policy is. But oftentimes I think that's money for them and not in the best interest of the city. And, you know, So your work and the work that we have yet to do for enforcement and coming up with coherent land use policies that make sense to people. The Marinship Specific Plan is a challenge to read. It's a challenge to enforce. And, you know, we might, you know, benefit from having a more straightforward approach to land use, if that's possible. |
| 00:22:24.60 | Steven Woodside | Our time is up. Thank you for all your work on behalf of Sausalito and for your interest in applying to the Economic Development Advisory Committee. |
| 00:22:31.72 | Craig Merrilies | Thank you for your kind reception. |
| 00:22:34.59 | Steven Woodside | We're done with any views. The next. |
| 00:22:36.63 | Walfred Solorzano | We might have Jackie Spencer Davis who was – |
| 00:22:41.18 | Steven Woodside | I'm sorry you missed that. That has been pulled from the agenda. She has indicated she's not interested in declining the opportunity for that appointment. Sorry, city clerk, but that just happened a few minutes before the meeting. Thank you for trying to catch a possible error. Our first agenda item is now special presentations and mayor's announcements. I just have two. One is to acknowledge the promotion of our own Stacey Gregory to chief of police. Congratulations. |
| 00:22:43.84 | Walfred Solorzano | because she was... |
| 00:23:12.62 | Steven Woodside | The ceremony on Saturday was on a rainy day like today, and it was standing room only at the Spinnaker. An incredible crowd of residents and well-wishers came to salute her and the other officers who received promotions, Lieutenant Brian Mather, Lieutenant Brandon Rogers, Sergeant Nick Wright, Sergeant Edgar Padilla, Corporal Adam Clarice, and Corporal Ryan Walsh. They should all be congratulated for their promotions. |
| 00:23:42.83 | Steven Woodside | The testimony from the police chief is that the morale in the police department is high and positive, and everyone is excited about moving forward. So the next mayor's announcement is that yesterday was Martin Luther King Day. The city council is approving a proclamation that was given to today, that was given to the organizers of that event. I was there at the community center. It was acknowledged by the crowd at that event and very well received. Councilmember Boston, did you have an additional announcement? |
| 00:24:20.16 | Ian Sobieski | I wanted to share some exciting news from our community development department, which is that Thanks to their hard work, they just received a check of $160,000 back to our Community Development Department as a result of an old SB2 grant that they followed up on continuously from 2019. So I just wanted to give them acknowledgement of that new sum of dollars that will help to continue to support our department and our general fund. |
| 00:24:42.47 | Steven Woodside | I can thank you. Thanks for the encouragement. But if we could keep the encouragement from the audience limited. Thank you. So now we move on to the consent calendar. These are items that are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, and are expected to have unanimous council approval. They may be acted in one motion in the form, as I will read them. There will be no separate discussion of these consent calendar items. However, the council, before it votes, any council member can ask for an item to be removed from the consent calendar. The consent calendar items are 3A, ratifying the proclamation, honoring and observing Dr. Martin Luther King Day. That was the... for an item to be removed from the consent calendar. The consent calendar items are 3A, ratifying the proclamation honoring and observing Dr. Martin Luther King Day. That was declared on January 15, 2024. 3B and 3C have been removed A 3D adopt a resolution declaring to police vehicles as surplus and authorizing the city manager to dispose of said equipment at auction. 3 E authorize the city manager to enter into into a professional service agreement with Dixon resources unlimited for on call parking consulting services, not to exceed $30,000 and 3 F. concerning our city council calendar. canceling the August 20 meeting and November 5 regular meetings. calling special meetings for January 22, February 10 and March 30. and then establishing three special Saturday meetings on June 1st, July 30th, and October 29th. Are there any consent items that anyone wishes to remove? |
| 00:26:10.89 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, Mayor. As we discussed earlier today, I'm going to request that agenda item 3F be removed from consent for discussion by the full council. And then I do have a question, a clarification for the city manager around item 3E. I'm hoping the city manager could explain the scope of said consulting services articulated with S to Dixon parking. |
| 00:26:12.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:26:36.29 | Steven Woodside | Mayor Mrakas, Mrakas, Mrakas Mrakas Mrakas |
| 00:26:42.38 | Chris Zapata | We can respond to 3E. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? |
| 00:26:46.57 | Steven Woodside | I'm not sure your microphone is on. |
| 00:26:48.84 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 00:26:51.29 | Steven Woodside | Madam, kindly, if you'd ever not make comments from the audience, it is appreciated. They're positive. It is nevertheless somewhat disruptive. |
| 00:27:00.72 | Chris Zapata | So the best person to respond to 3E is Chief Gregory. So Chief, can you come on up? |
| 00:27:14.80 | Steven Woodside | Hello, Chief. |
| 00:27:15.79 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:27:17.62 | Steven Woodside | Councilmember Kelman would like you to clarify something regarding the Dixon contract. |
| 00:27:21.82 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:27:24.79 | Jill Hoffman | want to know what the scope is. |
| 00:27:25.95 | Unknown | Oh, so it's on an as needed basis. There's no specific project. But as Wayne, I was hoping that he'd be here today so I can introduce him to you. But as we move forward with some of the projects that we have on our future list of to do's for parking, their expertise and knowledge of our city is invaluable. so there's no, we might not spend any money out of that agreement, but it's there in case we need it because Wayne is a one, one man show and still learning and getting his feet wet here in Sausalito. So it's an insurance policy. |
| 00:27:26.27 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, what the? |
| 00:28:04.98 | Jill Hoffman | So I maybe sorry, just a little clarification. So what but what what do they actually do? I mean, are they are they parking services? Are they coming up with a parking? the fees involved or they didn't doing what Elliot used to do? What's the so |
| 00:28:19.43 | Unknown | So they would help Wayne, who is the new Elliot with tasks and projects, um, and provide their information, you know, the information that they know about Sausalito, as well as the information that they have on parking in. you know, California and the United States. Um, so they would be that key expert opinion on how to move forward, whether it's, you know, contracts with ALPR on vehicles, um, anything and everything that we could deal with, they'd be, they they're the go-to they're the front runners and the information, um, that parking has, you know, to offer. |
| 00:29:09.43 | Jill Hoffman | I won't ask any more questions of this, but maybe city manager, we could get a... sort of an update on a consent item or maybe a one-way communication about So the parking services within the police department so that we fully understand that scope. |
| 00:29:22.93 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. Happy to do that, Councilmember Kelman. We can give you some sense of what we think we might be needing to do in the future and really round out the information that you're asking for tonight because there are many unknowns in terms of parking, but I will say this. The parking enterprise in the city is a $3 million operation, and in order to manage that properly right now with a new person to provide the support for that is why Dixon is being asked to help. One of the things that we also want to do is be transparent, because some of these contracts are essentially within the city manager's authority, but this is something that we needed to bring to council for council's full understanding of what we're trying to do. So I'll give you an example of a different help that we could get from Dixon. If we have a particular project that is challenged by parking to have some analysis done quickly and readily by someone that's a professional, whether it's a redo of the Valhalla, whether it's looking at technology around our parking lots, Dixon would be a good go-to person to have on call as necessary. So that's why I would recommend support for this tonight. |
| 00:30:08.96 | Stephen Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:30:30.11 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, City Manager. So let me just make this request publicly then. We have a strategic session coming up on February 10th. If you could include a report out on parking, I'm sure it'll be interesting for us as to revenue as well at that session. I think that would be very helpful. So we have a little bit more granularity and clarity about what exactly. this type of contract entails. Okay. |
| 00:30:49.68 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 00:30:49.70 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:30:49.73 | Chris Zapata | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:30:49.82 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:30:51.54 | Steven Woodside | So council member coming, I heard you went to pull three F off. Is three E okay to stay on consent? |
| 00:30:56.33 | Brandon Phipps | Yes. |
| 00:30:56.69 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. All right, so 3F will become item 5G on the business items, and we will now entertain public comment on the consent calendar. Anyone wishing, city manager, can you please provide... City. Is that what you recommend? All right, we're going to take a five-minute recess, please, just to get direction on |
| 00:31:22.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:31:23.18 | Steven Woodside | Recording in progress. Ready for public comment on the consent agenda. City Clerk, would you please advise on how to make public comment? |
| 00:31:31.58 | Walfred Solorzano | If anybody in the audience wants to make a public comment, there are some speaker cards located over at the desk by the TV. You can fill it out and bring it back over here. If you're on Zoom, there's a raise hand function, and you can just press that. So right now in the house, we have public comment on consent. |
| 00:31:52.54 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:31:54.45 | Steven Woodside | The city clerk called on you. |
| 00:31:54.70 | Walfred Solorzano | doing in the city. |
| 00:32:01.27 | Babette McDougall | Thank you very much. Dabette McDougall on 15 Girard Avenue. I would just like to say that I would like to see this relationship go forward. It sounds promising, especially because the data is not just available to you within a closed session environment or within the police department confines. but hopefully that it will be shared with the citizens as well so that they, we all. may become better educated. to the importance of parking to the city and if there were ever some changes. to be brought forward in the near future medium term future. then there's a better, immediate understanding of the implications of the trade-offs and how to mitigate that. Thank you. |
| 00:32:43.84 | Walfred Solorzano | next speaker on Zoom, Kieran Culligan. |
| 00:32:52.72 | Kieran Culligan | Hi there. Good evening. Kieran Culligan. I'm a resident, also a resident. I'm also a board member on our public schools nonprofit foundation. And in honor of item 3A, I just wanted to call out one of the most shining examples of diversity in our school is our public school named after none other than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And so with the timing is important because on Februarynd, we have a gala upcoming that's going to support the school. It's the first we've done with our new unified public school and all of the proceeds go to Rise Up to support the foundation. So the whole community is welcome. Council members, people listening live, city staff, we'd love to see you there. There's going to be food from Davie Jones, a big auction, music from Sips and Sounds in Marin City, and everything goes to support school programs. So please check out riseup94965.org. And the link is also in Currents. So thank you for honoring Dr. King on this day. |
| 00:34:00.93 | Walfred Solorzano | See you now for the speakers. |
| 00:34:02.90 | Steven Woodside | See no further speakers. We'll close public comment. And I would look for a motion to approve the consent agenda. |
| 00:34:10.14 | Melissa Blaustein | I move, we approve, well, we have to move three up somewhere. |
| 00:34:15.25 | Steven Woodside | Or even move to 5G. |
| 00:34:16.70 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. I move we approve consent calendar items 3A, 3B, 3D, and 3E. |
| 00:34:27.34 | Steven Woodside | 3B was removed. So it would be... |
| 00:34:29.73 | Melissa Blaustein | Oh, sorry. 3A, 3D, and 3E. |
| 00:34:34.36 | Steven Woodside | your second. |
| 00:34:36.68 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:34:36.72 | Ian Sobieski | again. |
| 00:34:38.39 | Steven Woodside | All in favor? |
| 00:34:39.59 | Ian Sobieski | Hi. |
| 00:34:40.13 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:34:40.23 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:34:40.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:34:40.97 | Steven Woodside | All right, the consenting. Thank you. Calendar is approved unanimously. There are no public hearing items. The next agenda item is our business agenda, 5A, a study session and presentation regarding the draft environmental impact report for housing element programs. We will turn the podium over to our director, Brendan Phipps. |
| 00:35:02.30 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you very much, Mayor, and good evening to you, council members, members of the public and staff. As always, happy to be here this evening, this time to introduce item 5A regarding a study session and presentation on the city's draft environmental impact report for housing element programs. As council may recall, on January 30th of last year, the city council adopted the city's sixth cycle housing element. I will note, once certified by HCD, City of Sausalito was the first and only jurisdiction in Marin County with an adopted and compliant housing element. Following adoption and certification of the element, the city directed DeNovo Planning Group to prepare a housing element program's EIR to address the implementation of programs of rezoning discussed in the housing element. Since that time, DeNovo have been leading the environmental evaluation with specific focus on certain programs, those being 4, 8, 16, 17, and 19. And DeNovo will be speaking to those programs in more detail during their presentation. De Novo staff. as well as staff have now completed the draft environmental impact report for the project. On January 5, DeNovo filed the notice of completion with OPR. That's the Office of Planning and Research. And the city filed the notice of completion um Excuse me, the notice of availability to comply with other state noticing requirements. Based on the January 5 release date, the 45-day comment period on the EIR will end on February 20, 2024. For those interested, the draft EIR is published on the state clearinghouse website as well as on the city's housing element webpage. As now... As we are now within the public comment period for the EIR, DeNovo and city staff have coordinated the study session to provide high-level information on the purpose and structure of the draft environmental impact report and to solicit any comments from city council, members of the public, or any other interested parties. So I'll note, while the consultants and staff can provide clarification on the process and the purpose of the draft environmental impact report, we will not be providing answers or responses to comments provided at this meeting. Rather, all questions and comments provided will be included in the record and will be appropriately addressed prior to the adoption of the EIR. So to ensure an accurate record, we have a court reporter here in attendance this evening who will be transcribing your comments. To support their efforts, please make sure to speak clearly and slowly when making your comments and to please provide your name for the record. With that said, to complement the item, we are joined here this evening by both Beth Thompson and Christina Irwin of DeNovo Planning Group. Thank you for virtually attending this evening, and they will be providing a short presentation on the draft EIR and next steps. I believe Ms. Thompson will be speaking first. So Beth, the floor is yours. |
| 00:38:04.96 | Steven Woodside | Director Phipps, if you might just give the council members an opportunity to ask you any questions before we get too deep into the presentation. There may not be any, but let's just see. Do any council members have a question for Director Phipps? |
| 00:38:15.89 | Melissa Blaustein | I do. Thank you. |
| 00:38:17.34 | Steven Woodside | by Spare Cox. |
| 00:38:18.56 | Melissa Blaustein | Director Phipps, I wanted to clarify the purpose of the EIR. So the EIR is to perform an environmental analysis of the housing element that we've adopted. for. |
| 00:38:30.57 | Brandon Phipps | Right. |
| 00:38:30.59 | Melissa Blaustein | Right. And so there's not, as part of this process, we're not modifying any of the programs, policies, or content of the housing element that we've already adopted and that has already been certified. |
| 00:38:45.36 | Brandon Phipps | Absolutely. You're 100% correct. And that's an excellent question. The programs that were already adopted and certified by council is what is the subject of this environmental impact report? |
| 00:38:56.91 | Melissa Blaustein | And then I noted with interest in the executive summary that it was actually not possible for us to perform some of this analysis prior to adopting the housing element because some of the – development that may occur and other factors were not yet known until we actually started our implementation process. Would that be an accurate statement? |
| 00:39:20.91 | Brandon Phipps | I believe that is an accurate statement, Vice Mayor, and thank you very much for the comment. You know, there were certain things that became more clear as we move forward in the process. |
| 00:39:30.90 | Melissa Blaustein | And so really this timing is ideal in the process. |
| 00:39:35.32 | Brandon Phipps | I agree. |
| 00:39:36.34 | Melissa Blaustein | All right, thank you. Those were my overview questions. |
| 00:39:38.75 | Steven Woodside | Are there other questions? Councilmember Kelman. |
| 00:39:40.67 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, thank you for being here and nice to see the DeNovo team. So in light of your comments about some of the comments and with the court reporter, what type of comments would you like to receive from counsel? What would be most helpful and can you help us fashion some of our comments questions? |
| 00:39:59.82 | Brandon Phipps | I invite counsel to provide any comments as they see fit, based on the draft EIR that we have provided. I'm not sure that I understand. |
| 00:40:09.58 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so we're not, as Council Member Cox just mentioned, we're not changing the opportunity sites, we're not changing the programs and policies, and so comments on the program or policy would be inappropriate or irrelevant at this time. Right? That would be a type of guidance you might give us. |
| 00:40:09.76 | Brandon Phipps | SO WE'RE GOING TO GET A |
| 00:40:25.91 | Brandon Phipps | Correct. You know, that being said, we're very open to any comments that council has. And I'm not in a position to restrict those comments. But I agree with your assessment. |
| 00:40:37.71 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:40:38.03 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 00:40:40.12 | Melissa Blaustein | Yes, just as a follow on. There is included in the EIR a mitigation and monitoring program, some recommended mitigation measures. And so those are new to us, and comments on those would be perhaps more germane than commenting on the content of the housing element. Would you agree? |
| 00:40:58.28 | Brandon Phipps | Certainly. So comments as to the set of opportunity sites or inventory sites included in the element, I would generally say are not relevant to this study session. What is relevant is the new document that has been generated by De Novo Planning Group in collaboration with staff and legal counsel. and the means or actions taken in connection with some of those mitigation strategies that we've mentioned, all of that would be helpful. and the means or actions taken in connection with some of those mitigation strategies that we've mentioned, all of that would be helpful. |
| 00:41:29.20 | Steven Woodside | I see the city attorney is the attorney jumping on his video, which means he has something to say. |
| 00:41:31.56 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 00:41:33.90 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah. And in response to one of the comments, one of the council member questions earlier, you know, the purpose of the the draft EIR today is to study. the programs of implementation. They are not necessarily to study the actual adoption of the housing element. So we are analyzing the environmental effects of the programs that are laid out. in the housing element in order to best determine how to undertake those programs. So that's just a clarifying point. |
| 00:42:06.12 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, City Attorney. Director Phipps, I had a question. You said that the city of Sausalito was the only municipality in Marin to adopt its housing element by the required statutory deadline. Not doing so, my understanding is, would have exposed Sausalito to potential penalties, including something called the builder's remedy. Is that correct? |
| 00:42:24.95 | Brandon Phipps | That is correct. It also creates a longer time period for the city to adopt required upzonings or amendments to the general plan and the zoning ordinance. City of Sausalito is a result of our prompt action or appropriately timed action has three years. If we did not adopt within the state timeline, we would be subject to a one year rezoning timeline. |
| 00:42:51.83 | Steven Woodside | So all the other municipalities of Marin, with the exception of Sausalito, now have that penalty opposed. |
| 00:42:56.95 | Brandon Phipps | I won't be making that statement. |
| 00:43:00.03 | Steven Woodside | they were exposed to it as potential. |
| 00:43:01.42 | Brandon Phipps | but it is more likely that they will be exposed than less likely. |
| 00:43:04.94 | Steven Woodside | And they're also potentially exposed to the builder's remedy. |
| 00:43:08.08 | Brandon Phipps | If they did not receive a letter of substantial compliance from the state within 120 days after January 30, 2023, that is correct. |
| 00:43:19.78 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Director Phipps. Are there other questions for Director Phipps before we move on to the consultant? Thank you very much, sir. |
| 00:43:26.63 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 00:43:28.40 | Steven Woodside | Welcome de novo to the podium. And again, yes, I... |
| 00:43:30.14 | Brandon Phipps | And again, yes, I will open the floor to Beth Thompson. |
| 00:43:39.81 | Steven Woodside | Thompson, welcome. |
| 00:43:41.31 | Beth Thompson | Thank you. And if I may share my screen, that would be great. |
| 00:43:51.62 | Beth Thompson | you. Bye. Well, good evening, Mayor, members of the Council. It's a pleasure to be back before you with the draft program EIR for the Housing Element Programs implementation. And so we'll go over a few items tonight. We'll discuss the Housing Element Programs project. So what this project specifically entails. We'll discuss what an Environmental Impact Report, or EIR, is, the findings of the element program's draft EIR, and then also let the community know how to comment on the project and the draft EIR. There is a long public comment period, so we are in the midst of that public comment period. So tonight's not the only opportunity to provide input on this. So there will be opportunities to provide comments in writing as well as additional meetings to consider the adoption of the project and the response to the comments we've received on the project. So the Housing Element Programs Project focuses on implementing specific programs of the housing element. So it doesn't look at the housing element as a whole. Rather, it looks at the programs where we have enough detail and the city is ready to take the step of considering adoption of the implementing actions for those programs. And so the implementation programs that we're looking at are programs 4, 8, 16, 17, and 19. And implementing these programs will result in three primary actions, a general plan amendment primarily Revisions to the land use element, as well as some to the circulation element and some other of the elements. Revisions to the zoning ordinance, so revising Title 10 of the city's municipal code, and then also adoption of objective design and development standards that would add Title 10A to the city's municipal code. And I'll just go through each of the programs briefly and how, what, what those programs entail and how that feeds into these actions that the city council will be asked to consider in the future. So Program 4 is probably the most interesting program to most people. This ensures that the city has adequate sites to accommodate the regional housing need allocation throughout the planning period. So this program, Program 4, requires the city to redesignate and rezone enough sites to accommodate its regional housing needs allocation, or RENA. And so during the housing element process, we identified the capacity the city had to accommodate housing on its existing zoned sites for housing, as well as projects that are being considered and accommodating some development through ADUs and SB9 units. However, there was still a shortfall. So program four identifies how the city will close that shortfall and meet that gap to ensure that you have adequate sites to meet the state's requirements. And so program four would both amend the general plan to establish overlay designations. So your land use map will have new overlay designations identified on the land use map. And then the zoning code will also be amended to establish new overlay zones. And the zoning map will be amended to identify where these overlay zones will be applied. And there's four different types of overlay zones. There's the housing 49 zone, and this allows development of housing up to 49 units per acre. That's applied to about 4.2 acres. The housing 70 overlay zone, which will allow development up to 70 units per acre. and this is applied to about 2.6 acres, the housing mixed-use zone that would also allow up to 49 units per acre, and then the housing mixed-use 70 zone that will allow up to 70 units per acre. Now, the two mixed-use zones are required to accommodate 100% residential projects, and they do require a minimum of 85% of residential uses. So, when future development happens on sites that have the overlay zone applied, that development has to be consistent with the overlay zone. So the underlying zone doesn't apply as much as the overlay zone does because that establishes the minimum densities that will be required for development of those sites and then also the maximum densities that could be accommodated. The zoning does include some requirements for the development standards, and then the bulk of the development standards that will address the development of these sites are contained at the odds. |
| 00:48:06.26 | Steven Woodside | are contained in the odds. Just a moment, Ms. Thompson. There's a question from a court reporter. |
| 00:48:07.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:48:08.15 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 00:48:12.88 | Steven Woodside | So, Ms. Thompson, we have a court reporter in the audience who is trying to keep up with you. So if you'd kindly just slow down a little bit. |
| 00:48:20.07 | Beth Thompson | Absolutely. |
| 00:48:21.64 | Steven Woodside | And it probably would help to turn her microphone up as well. So thank you. Thank you. Do you need her to repeat anything court reporter? Could you please back up for about 30 seconds and start again? |
| 00:48:36.49 | Beth Thompson | Sure, I'll just go back to the four overlay zones. So there will be four overlay zones established in both the general plan and in the city's zoning ordinance. And there's the housing 49 zone. This will allow development of up to 49 units per acre and it's applied to about 4.2 acres in the city. The housing 70 zone, this will allow up to 70 units per acre and it has to be applied to at least 2.6 acres in the city. The housing mixed use 49 zone, which allows both residential and non-residential uses at up to 49 units per acre. And this will be applied to 10.1 acres in the city, or almost 10.2 acres. And then the housing mixed use 70 zone that allows up to 70 units per acre. And this is applied to about 0.3. acres in the city and both of the mixed use zones do allow 100% residential uses so part of the requirement under state laws when you're rezoning to accommodate the cities. The gap in the arena, particularly for the very low and low income units that you do allow 100% residential uses on those sites and to ensure that the city gets enough residential density and does not have to seek additional sites in the future, a minimum requirement of 85% of residential uses is also required on those sites. So that's program four. Program 8 also addresses accommodating the arena, and it specifically looks at the public property conversion to housing. So there are a number of sites in the housing element that are city-owned. And so implementing Program 8 would make those publicly owned sites available for development during the 2023 through 2031 planning period. And there are also a number of sites that are constrained by either, let me scroll down to this specific note, Ordinance 1022, the Fair Traffic Initiative, or Ordinance 1128. And so these specific sites would also go to a vote of the people for consideration. And so the housing element programs EIR does look at as part of the opportunity sites and as part of the sites that are being considered development of those sites and the environmental implications of those sites as well. Laura Leone, Program 16 is a number of edits to the zoning ordinance and this looks at changes that address design standards just to ensure that there are specific requirements and clarify the procedure for projects that do not Laura Leone, are not allowed to have discretionary review or do not require discretionary review. ensuring that the height limits and setbacks are adequate to accommodate the maximum densities identified by program four. And then a number of changes to accommodate a variety of housing types. And most of these housing types, such as emergency shelters, employee housing, low barrier navigation centers, transitional housing, supportive housing, these all have specific standards in state law. And so a lot of these changes are specifically to incorporate those requirements of state law into your zoning ordinance and to ensure that those are appropriately reflected and applied. And then we also ensure through the zoning ordinance amendments that the city is making those sites identified by program four available. So any. |
| 00:51:49.84 | Steven Woodside | I know it's Ms. Thompson. I know it's a people speak at their natural gate, but the court reporter is struggling to |
| 00:51:55.70 | Beth Thompson | Okay. I'll, I'll slow down. |
| 00:51:57.49 | Steven Woodside | So, Please repeat the last two sentences. |
| 00:52:02.34 | Beth Thompson | Absolutely. So the program for our program 16 does include changes to accommodate a variety of housing types. And these are mainly changes that reflect the requirements of state law to ensure that the city standards for emergency shelter employee housing agricultural employee housing Lo-Barrier Navigation Centers transitional and supportive housing are consistent with those standards required under state law, so this. Lo-Barrier Navigation Centers these uses are already allowed in the city because state law requires it this just makes sure that the city zoning ordinance does provide correct guidance to. Lo-Barrier Navigation Centers people who are interested in building these types of uses. |
| 00:52:45.01 | Beth Thompson | Program 17 addresses implementing the state's density bonus law. Once again, these are specific requirements in state law that are mandatory, and so it just ensures that the city's zoning ordinance provisions reflect the current state law. The city's density bonus component of your zoning ordinance hasn't been updated for a while, so this just ensures that that's in sync with state law. And then Program 19 addresses objective design and development standards, and you'll have a future workshop to really specifically discuss the objective design and development standards. The housing element programs EIR does look at the sites where the objective design and development standards could be applied, primarily the overlay sites that are being identified because these sites would have increased capacity with implementation of the housing element programs. And the objective design and development standards apply to housing projects that qualify for expedited or streamlined ministerial review under state laws and to the housing projects on the opportunity sites. And these will provide the city with form-based development standards, and they're applicable specifically to new multi-unit developments, in the existing multifamily and commercial mixed use zones. So the R2, R3, commercial neighborhood, commercial residential, and community commercial zones. The changes for these existing zones basically reflect and implement the city's existing general plan and zoning ordinance standards so they establish those standards in one place. They don't necessarily change how those uses are necessarily allowed, but they just reflect the current requirements for those and consolidate all of those in the objective design and development standards. So in the In the housing element programs, the IR, we have a number of figures, and there are sites throughout the city that are accommodated through implementation of these housing element programs. And the primary sites that are affected by the overlay zones are those sites that are highlighted as having a housing overlay. So you have sites in your housing element that are allowed to develop under your existing program. Zoning and your existing general plan land use designations and these wouldn't necessarily have any change in capacity with implementation of the housing element programs project. However, the sites that have the new housing overlay applied will have an increase of the capacity both residential and then in some cases for some of the mixed use sites, some additional non-residential development as well. So regarding that capacity, the housing elements |
| 00:55:23.07 | Steven Woodside | Sure. Ms. Thompson, again, we just need you to slow down a little bit. Did you miss anything, court reporter? just pace yourself a little bit slower. This session is being recorded, but I understand that there's a legal procedure for taking an official transcript. So if you would kindly just proceed, but a little slower. Thank you. |
| 00:55:45.23 | Beth Thompson | Thank you. So the housing element identified the capacity that was required to be accommodated or required to be accommodated through the overlay sites to meet the city's regional housing need allocation. So in Program 4, there's a discussion of that realistic capacity. And so when the state's looking at the capacity of the city's sites, the state is not looking at the maximum possible development that could happen on those sites. The state is looking at what they consider a realistic capacity. So typically a reduced development potential to account for some component of the site potentially being used for infrastructure, not being able to be used to its fullest potential. So the housing element anticipated a total of 908 units would be accommodated through implementation of your existing sites as well as implementation of the program for rezoning efforts for the opportunity sites. we, For the purposes of the environmental impact report, we look at the maximum density that would be allowed on those sites. So there's some additional capacity that could occur. So the program EIR looks at the potential for a total of 1,076 units on these sites to accommodate the maximum capacity that would be allowed at those maximum densities for each of the overlay categories. There's also the potential for an increase in non-residential square feet of about 16,852 square feet. So there's some additional non-residential capacity that's also evaluated in the Housing Element Programs EIR. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Christina Irwin, to talk about the Environmental Impact Report. |
| 00:57:43.37 | Christina Irwin | Christina Irwin- Thank you, Beth. I really appreciate it. Good evening, Council members. My name is Christina Irwin and I'm going to talk with you about what an environmental impact report is and where we are in the process and how the public can continue to engage in the commenting process. First of all, an environmental impact report. is guided by the California Environmental Quality Act. also known as CEQA, And it is an informational document that identifies the potential environmental effects of implementing a project. and CEQA lays out very clearly the elements that need to be included in an EIR, so it is Every document is guided by state policy. The EIR allows public participation and highly encourages public participation in the environmental review process. An EIR does not advocate or promote any project. What it is is a disclosure document for informational purposes so that decision makers can understand what the ramifications, the environmental ramifications of approving a project are. And if there are mitigation measures that are also required as part of the environmental analysis, those are disclosed to the decision makers and the public as well. As both Beth and Brandon noted, no specific development projects are being proposed as part of this project. What is being proposed are rezoning efforts and implementation of the programs that Beth just shared. |
| 00:59:27.56 | Sarah Osowitz | you know, |
| 00:59:27.76 | Stephen Woodside | Bye. |
| 00:59:27.78 | Sarah Osowitz | . |
| 00:59:27.83 | Stephen Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:59:35.29 | Christina Irwin | So where are we in the process? We kicked off the process, the CEQA process quite a while ago. We prepared what is called a notice of preparation, alerting the public that we will be preparing an environmental impact report that analyzes the environmental effects of the project following the issuance of that notice of preparation There was a 30 day public comment period in which the public were invited to provide comments on the scope of the EIR. That is to say recommendations about what the EIR should analyze, should consider, and disclose to the public in the document. We've taken those comments, we've evaluated them, and we are responding to those comments and performing the analysis as part of the draft DIR. As Brandon noted, We issued the draft EIR on January 5th. So we are partway through the 45 day public review process. And these review timelines are guided by CEQA. and we're complying with the law. Following the close of the public review cycle on February 20th, we will prepare a final EIR. That document will include Um, responses to the comments that we have received on the EIR And it will also include a mitigation monitoring and reporting program that will lay out the mitigation measures that need to be implemented as part of the project, when they need to be implemented and by whom. And it's a way for the city to track actual implementation of the measures to reduce environmental effects. Following preparation of the final EIR. The document and the project will go before the decision makers for consideration of approval of the project and certification of the final EIR. Along with that, The Council will consider the adoption of findings of fact and statement of overriding considerations, which lays out what all of the effects of the project would be, and some rationale about why the project should be approved. as well as the EIR certified. Adoption of the mitigation monitoring and reporting program will be considered. I'll... After those processes are complete and the project is approved and the certification of EIR has occurred, we will issue a notice of determination, which is a statutory requirement to notify the public and the governor's office of planning and research that a project has been approved and final decision has been rendered. So, what is included in our EIR? CEQA dictates the the topical areas that should be considered and evaluated as part of a project. There's quite the list, I believe, 17 technical areas in addition to mandatory findings of significance, including a disclosure of cumulative impacts. and a description and analysis of potential project alternatives. So these topical areas |
| 01:03:24.01 | Stephen Woodside | least |
| 01:03:25.88 | Christina Irwin | are all included in the EIR. There are impact discussions for each of them. and where appropriate, There are also mitigation measures. We had some topical areas that we could um, mitigate to a less than significant level once we added in mitigation. So that is to say the project would create a potentially significant impact we would then apply mitigation to that impact. and then make a determination about whether that mitigation measure reduces the impact below a level of significance, below specified thresholds that are identified in the EIR. or if mitigation would not get the impact below that threshold And that is disclosed. In this case, we had four topical areas where mitigation would be required to get impacts down to less than significant levels. Biological resources primarily address special status species, nesting birds, riparian habitat, and wildlife corridors. And the mitigation roughly for that topic is to survey potential development sites as development proposals are proposed later on down the line. and evaluate whether or not these resources exist, and then how to implement mitigation accordingly. geology and soils, we identified a potentially significant impact to paleontological resources, also in the cumulative setting. That is really to say that sometimes we don't know what an undiscovered resource is until we discover it. in construction. So this is really a safety net and mitigation outlines the procedures that are necessary to reduce impacts on potential finds of paleontological resources during construction activities. Hydrology and water quality addressed erosion and siltation, as well as a number of other items that are discussed in the EIR. But mitigation was identified to reduce erosion and siltation on project sites by following stormwater pollution prevention plans and and having low impact development standards followed and really adhering to a number of the city policies that are already in place. Noise and vibration identified a potential construction related vibration impact And that is to say that Sometimes when construction is too close to adjacent buildings, there can be a vibration impact, a noticeable impact. That distance though is very, very small. 26 feet. I believe. So you have to be really, really close and loud, but their measure lays out. the plan to mitigate those impacts should they occur. Now there were some topical areas where we had to apply mitigation as is required by CEQA, to apply mitigation to any potential significant impacts But even after we did that, we determined that the impacts would still be significant and unavoidable. That is to say that the impact would exceed the thresholds that are established in the EIR. |
| 01:07:33.84 | Andrew Davidson | I am. you |
| 01:07:36.49 | Christina Irwin | One of those areas of significance finding was for cultural and tribal cultural resources For all of the topics under that heading level, we determined that there would be significant and unavoidable impacts. the concept of, um, potentially disturbing historic resource as the city has a number of historical areas and historic buildings that are noted and disclosed in the EIR. but any damage or destruction of a historical resource cannot be rectified once it's lost. it's lost and we've determined that that is a significant and unavoidable impact. Archaeological resources and human remains are of a similar vein in that We have disclosed where we know archaeological resources are, but sometimes you run into things that are previously undiscovered. and Although the mitigation for archeological resources lays out a very logical plan about how to address such a find, and the potential for finding human remains, although low, is also laid out as a mitigation measure as dictated by state law. Any sort of a loss to those resources would be significant and unavoidable. That is to say, we couldn't get it below a threshold. For tribal cultural resources and historic tribal cultural resources, the city worked with the Federated Indians of Great and Rancheria and consulted with the tribe, as is required by state law. We worked with them to help identify potential mitigation measures that could reduce potential impacts to known resources. But similarly, any loss of such a resource would be significant. and potentially could not be replicated. So we have determined that that is a significant and unavoidable impact. Transportation and circulation analyzes vehicle miles traveled, and that is in compliance with state law. What we determined is even though implementation of the project, the rezoning of these sites would reduce the vehicle miles traveled for both employees and residents. That reduction would not get below the threshold VMT number that is required, that's 15% below the regional average. and therefore the impact would be significant and unavoidable. In utilities and service systems, we identified a potentially significant impact to water supply facilities and water supply. The reason that you're seeing that is not that there isn't enough water. What it does say is that the Marin Municipal Water District has an urban water management plan. that does not yet reflect all of the housing element updates that are going on within its service area. And as these housing element updates are being approved the district will rightly analyze the effects of adding on those new customers and determine what facilities are needed to ensure adequate water supply. because it hasn't been added to the urban water management plan. um, within the Marin Municipal Water District's jurisdiction. conservatively, we determined that that would be a significant impact. |
| 01:11:54.01 | Christina Irwin | So that is an overview of where our impacts and the types of mitigation landed us in the EIR analysis. Moving forward, We, are in the middle of our 45-day draft EIR public comment period. Tonight we are having an informational meeting and welcoming public comment. The draft EIR public comment period will close on February 20th. And then moving forward, we hope to have certifications before you in late spring 2024. Because that's where we are headed. In order to comment on the draft EIR, We request written comments that can be in the form of email or regular mail. And the address and addressee is on the screen here. Comments can be sent to Brandon Phipps, And his email address is bphips, that's spelled B. P-H-I-P-P-S at Sausalito.gov. and we'll be accepting those comments until February 20th. Finally, to disclose where all of the documents related to the housing elements programs are. Those documents are on the city of Sausalito's sixth cycle, Housing Element. update web page. And that can be found here at Housing Elements Marin dot org slash city. dash of dash Sausalito. And that concludes our presentation about the EIR and the project itself. So I will turn it back over to asking for public comment. Thank you. |
| 01:13:57.06 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much, Ms. Erwin. Questions from the dais, please. Let's start with... Councilmember Blavstein. |
| 01:14:03.42 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you very much, Mayor Sobieski, and thank you to our consultant team and to Director Phipps for your exhaust your presentation and your hard work on the EIR preparation. I had a few questions in particular about the mitigation programs that you mentioned. I'm quite concerned about some of the significant and unavoidable impacts that you mentioned when you were going over some that may come up in particular. the tribal resources and human remains, for example, Can you give an idea or a guide into what we might do to mitigate those impacts, even though they may be unavoidable? |
| 01:14:44.63 | Ian Sobieski | You're muted. |
| 01:14:50.62 | Steven Woodside | Is anyone going to respond to Councilmember Blossene's question? |
| 01:14:55.61 | Christina Irwin | There we go. Yes, and thank you for asking your question about mitigation, particularly cultural resources mitigation. So... To address archeological resources and tribal cultural resources, and you mentioned human remains as well, I will talk first about tribal cultural resources and how we might mitigate that. Mitigation measures are identified in the executive summary and throughout the EIR. But for this topic, the types of mitigation that we would implement here are to prepare a tribal cultural resources awareness brochure and a training program for all personnel involved with developing actual projects on the ground, and that is to alert construction crews what type of resources are sensitive, what they look like, and also involve the local Native American tribes that have been in the area and have expressed interest in working with the city. And so, The type of program for the training is laid out in Mitigation Measure 3.4-2. Um, Further, we would implement an avoidance and minimization element to that. which is to first avoid any resource that is found. stop construction on the site. within a certain distance. a notified construction contractor. and notify the city as well. And from there, we lay out exactly what would happen on the ground. about how to avoid or minimize effects on resource. For human remains, it's a little bit more straightforward in that the Laws in place require notification of the coroner. within a certain amount of time. And if, you know, the, Human remains are determined to be of Native American origin. The contractors and the city must contact the Native American Heritage Commission. within a certain timeframe. So that there's a lot of notification that happens from there. and then determination about how to actually deal with the resources |
| 01:17:37.02 | Ian Sobieski | Oh. |
| 01:17:41.97 | Christina Irwin | are also laid out in the measures. |
| 01:17:44.20 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, I don't know if I imagine that you were brief that there wasn't that we did find a former Miwok burial ground in Thosolito. So I just wanted to be especially mindful of that as we're conducting the IR because it's something that we've seen previously. Also on the risk mitigation piece, I'm quite concerned about the potential impact to water facilities, given the climate challenges that we're already facing with respect to the future of water and what that looks like. Could you, for purposes of the public to better understand, talk about what that might mean in terms of not being included in MMWD's current plan and what we as a community would need to do? |
| 01:17:44.74 | Linda Fitch | Thank you. |
| 01:17:44.75 | Christina Irwin | know. |
| 01:18:23.89 | Christina Irwin | Well, I will first say that water supply planning is a joint effort between local municipalities and their water districts. Um, The city of Sausalito is clearly describing what the anticipated growth in the city will be, and that has happened both as part of the 2040 general plan, and now here as implementation of the housing element programs. MMWD. will bear the some responsibility at least, to update the urban water management plan. to look at the jurisdictions within their service area and do the hard math to determine exactly where the water is going to come from, what the demands look like, whether or not supply is able to meet those demands. Close coordination with the district, doesn't hurt. and can be quite helpful, especially when providing just additional information about how the city anticipates to grow. |
| 01:19:33.01 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. And then I have another question with regards to the public comment and response time, because we've received a number of correspondences from the community about wanting as much transparency as possible into the EIR process and being given significant opportunity to weigh in. So in addition to you just sharing online the page where we submit comments, thank you for doing that and for providing Director Phipps' email, where will those comments be available so that all community members might review what their friends and neighbors have posted? And what will the process be for us in reviewing those comments before we approve the final EIR? And how will they be taken into consideration in your assessment? |
| 01:20:08.87 | Christina Irwin | So those written comments are going to be gathered and collated. We are going to number each of the letters and identify the specific comments in each of the letters as many letters have Many comments about different topical areas. We will include those letters, all of them, including this public transcript in the final EIR. We will address all of the comments in writing in the final EIR. So the public and decision makers are able to see both the comment that was provided by the public and our response to those questions or comments. |
| 01:20:54.92 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you very much. I don't have any further questions. Thanks again for your hard work on the EIR and the housing element. Thank you. |
| 01:20:59.74 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 01:21:02.19 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. For members of the public, I did just want to point out that the you Um, mitigation measures are contained in the executive summary. hundreds of pages document. They're in the executive summary. pages 24 to 51. Um, I wanted to follow up on the question about the water. But when we first were assigned our RENA by our regional housing needs analysis quota by the Housing and Community Development Department, We communicated that to Marin Municipal Water District. Isn't that right? that. |
| 01:21:51.30 | Christina Irwin | That is my understanding, yes. |
| 01:21:54.67 | Melissa Blaustein | Yes, and we in fact shared our plan, our general plan, with all of the agencies for comment Isn't that right? I believe that is also. |
| 01:22:05.22 | Christina Irwin | I believe that is also correct, which is excellent practice. |
| 01:22:09.77 | Melissa Blaustein | And so by sharing our planned growth with MMWD, we are giving them the opportunity to weigh in and communicate to us if, in anticipation of a particular project, they anticipate they will not be able to provide a will-serve letter. Isn't that right? |
| 01:22:29.13 | Christina Irwin | MMWD is welcome to comment on this EIR. Our analysis is included and demonstrates what the demand for water will be as part of implementation of the programs, and we welcome their comments. |
| 01:22:49.16 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. you And yet, at impact 3.15-2, you classify this impact as significant and unavoidable. |
| 01:23:03.98 | Christina Irwin | Indeed, we did. And the rationale behind that is impact 3.15-2 is a cumulative impact that will look at all of these areas within Marin Municipal's water district service area. In that case, we have looked at as far out as we can as part of this project and what is known at the top right now about moving forward with other projects within their service area. So, Our analysis is conservative. in that um, We are looking to identify the maximum possible impact. It is important to be conservative here and on such an important topic. And that is why we concluded a significant and unavoidable impact, because out of an abundance of caution, We think that the district should update their urban water management plan to identify capacity in the cumulative scenario to serve future regional development. And because of that, that their current plan does not reflect that yet, conservatively, we are concluding a significant impact. |
| 01:24:35.00 | Melissa Blaustein | But it is avoidable if they update their urban management plan. So it's not unavoidable. |
| 01:24:42.68 | Beth Thompson | Can I just chime in? It's unavoidable in the context that the city itself cannot adopt the updated urban water management plan, so that has to go through Marin Water. This reflects that this is out of the city's control, that the Marin Waters Plan needs to address the RHNA for the other jurisdictions in Marin. There are only several areas that are excluded, so they have to plan for that additional water. And so you could include a mitigation measure. The city would not be able to fully implement nor enforce it. |
| 01:25:17.83 | Melissa Blaustein | So I will say that we objected to our RHNA number on the basis that we have concern that MMWD would be unable to meet all of the water needs of 724 new units in Sausalito together with all of the other. new units required throughout Marin, And that was, and that, And isn't it true that the EIR adopted in support of Plan Bay Area found that was not an unavoidable impact. |
| 01:26:01.81 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:26:01.84 | Beth Thompson | So you first, |
| 01:26:01.84 | Christina Irwin | So you break up a good, |
| 01:26:02.24 | Beth Thompson | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:26:03.26 | Christina Irwin | Go ahead, Belle. |
| 01:26:03.98 | Beth Thompson | Go right ahead, Christina. That's fine. |
| 01:26:07.00 | Christina Irwin | So you bring up a good point about needing to look at regional development. Planned Bay Area, as you know, is an enormous area regional undertaking and does identify a number of impacts and conclusions, even though some of those that are unavoidable Um, or it could be mitigated. |
| 01:26:29.23 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, and I would suggest that this is an issue that would be more appropriate for us to respond to in writing and responses to comments. |
| 01:26:37.33 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, thank you. I'll curtail that discussion, but I do wanna turn to a similar issue with um Marin Sausalito Marin City Sanitary District so you also see uh classify that impact at 3.15-1 as significant and unavoidable um But... Um, That plant was just completely revamped and upgraded, and there are plans to close that system. And so the likelihood of any development exceeding the capacity of that system is appear to be remote. And so can you explain why you considered that to be a significant and unavoidable impact? |
| 01:27:25.39 | Christina Irwin | Thank you, I'm happy to clarify our conclusions on impact 3.15-1. The impact addresses a number of utilities, water, wastewater treatment, storm drainage, electricity, and the like. for water. we conclude it's significant and unavoidable. But for waste waters, storm drain capacity. electricity and power, we concluded that those are less than significant impacts. |
| 01:27:53.87 | Melissa Blaustein | significant. So the table at 3.15-1 says the level of significance after mitigation is significant and unavoidable. |
| 01:28:05.52 | Christina Irwin | It does because it identifies the level of significance before mitigation And we tried to Be transparent with our conclusions about explaining which things would be significant and unavoidable. we concluded a significant and unavoidable impact |
| 01:28:24.59 | Melissa Blaustein | I don't know. |
| 01:28:26.04 | Christina Irwin | due to the water issue. |
| 01:28:28.15 | Melissa Blaustein | But this is in the after mitigation column. So in that. Entitled Level of Significance After Mitigation, it says significant and unavoidable. |
| 01:28:38.54 | Christina Irwin | Yes, ma'am, and that's correct for water. and determinations were made for wastewater, storm drain and electricity. that the impact would already be less than significant. There's no need for mitigation measures. |
| 01:28:52.04 | Melissa Blaustein | So I'm just pointing out, I think there's a typo in your table because under the wastewater section, it says significant and unavoidable after mitigation. |
| 01:28:55.52 | Christina Irwin | Thank you. |
| 01:29:01.27 | Christina Irwin | Thank you. We'll take that comment and clarify our text. |
| 01:29:05.37 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 01:29:06.00 | Melissa Blaustein | Vice mayor. |
| 01:29:06.49 | Ian Sobieski | What page is that on just so that we can take a look? |
| 01:29:08.88 | Melissa Blaustein | Page ES-49. Thanks. Okay, and then my last question has to do with Program 4 and your slide presentation at Slide 4, where you listed the range of densities for the overlay zones, Housing-49, Housing-70, Housing Mixed Use 49, and housing mixed use 70. And you listed a range of density between 43 and 49, housing 49 between 50 and 70 for housing 70 etc etc I'm sure you're aware of the case of Martinez versus City of Clovis from May of 2023, in which the court held that zoning, a zoning overlay that allowed both high density and lower density options did not satisfy housing element law requirements for minimum density to be established for sites designated for to accommodate a carryover portion of the arena allocation. And I wanted to be sure that in your opinion, this range of densities in Program 4, does not violate housing element law in the way the city of Clovis' housing element was found to violate housing element law. |
| 01:30:32.04 | Beth Thompson | And that is correct. Modifications to the zoning ordinance are made to require minimum densities. So, where you have an overlay zone and you allow development at lesser densities based on the underlying zone, I think that would be problematic under Clovis. But given that you will be establishing a minimum density requirement that meets the standards of the government code for these rezoned sites, It should not be an issue. |
| 01:31:00.83 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, thank you. Those were my questions. Thank you. |
| 01:31:03.19 | Steven Woodside | Vice Mayor, Council Member Kelman. |
| 01:31:05.73 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Hi, guys. Thank you for all your hard work. It's a little follow on with prior questions here. Let me start with my favorite topic, sea level rise. So I'm looking at Impact 3.10-2. which provides implementation of the housing element programs would not conflict with any land use plan, policy, or regulation adopted for the purpose of avoiding or mitigating an environmental effect. I am just curious as to how something like this interacts with SB 272, which is the new statewide law requiring that a local government has to have a sea level rise plan on or for January 1st, 2034. But it also requires that BCDC and the other regulators must have a plan in place by 2024. And so since this is not final and your conclusion is that there is no significant impact, I'm wondering how we should be thinking about a topic like sea level rise with these pending requirements coming up at the end of the year. |
| 01:32:30.84 | Christina Irwin | Yeah, I would say thank you for your comment and for noting that there are pending requirements out there in the future. Two things. One, we have a greenhouse gases chapter that also talks about climate change and the effects of that. That is Section 3.2. Seventh. in our EIR. Um, And I will let Beth, talk a little bit more about the upcoming changes to state law. |
| 01:33:02.92 | Beth Thompson | And so where you have upcoming changes to state law, those aren't adopted regulations that the project currently has to comply with. So there's not a conflict in the context of the EIR. Definitely in terms of the city's planning and developing a program to address sea level rise, you do want to consider where you're allowing development and how that development is structured. |
| 01:33:26.94 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so the EIR as drafted wouldn't consider, because I know we intentionally, of course, didn't put anything in a FEMA flood map zone, but the county and the state have overlays indicating potential flooding areas under one of six sea level rise scenarios. The IR doesn't speak to any of that at all. I'm wondering, should it, and if so, where? |
| 01:34:00.18 | Beth Thompson | So typically we would not speak to that in an EIR. There's specific thresholds for looking at flooding impacts. We look at the 100 year floodplain, we don't necessarily look at at other iterations of that. And that's something we can definitely address in the final EIR. |
| 01:34:16.13 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. I think the just commentary, I think 272 is intended to update our thinking around FEMA flood maps, which are extremely antiquated and out of date. Yes, okay, so let me just move on then. So you mentioned, Christina, the greenhouse gas emission section, and I know that impact 3.7-3, less than significant. Just to clarify, does that conclusion evaluate greenhouse gas emission increase both from vehicles and from concrete and other building materials? |
| 01:34:57.62 | Jill Hoffman | concrete being one of the largest emitters of GHG emissions in the world. |
| 01:35:01.74 | Christina Irwin | Yeah, at this time, because there are no specific projects proposed, like we don't have a building proposed under this project, We are evaluating primarily vehicle emissions and then usage emissions after that that are associated with things like energy. So that is what is included there. We don't differentiate specifically by the source such as concrete. |
| 01:35:32.57 | Jill Hoffman | Well, let me ask you slightly differently though. When you reach the conclusion that it's not significant, you are either mitigating or saying that the causation is not significant. So what causation are you dismissing as not significant? |
| 01:35:48.26 | Christina Irwin | What our conclusion determines is that the emissions are below the threshold of significance. That's what the conclusion reflects. But we can take a look at the text and see if there's some clarifications that we could make. |
| 01:36:03.59 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, the emissions from what I think would be relevant here, given the city's existing low action emission plan and climate action plan, which are part of the city's guidance. Okay, back to a question that the vice mayor had. In addition to asking about water in our RHNA appeal letter, We also- |
| 01:36:24.86 | Sarah Osowitz | Council members, I'm sorry, can I jump in here a second? I've been trying to unmute. My name is Sarah Osowitz. I'm your deputy city attorney working for Sergio Rudin. Sure. Welcome. I apologize for jumping in just like that. I just haven't been able to get the system unmuted. And I wanted to respond to a couple of points you just made and try to assist you in giving you a bigger picture to your causation question. Fantastic. So the first thing I wanted to say is that this, and we This wasn't part of our earlier discussion, but we we can certainly share this with you. There are two different kinds of EIRs. Project level EIRs that certainly would look at something, for instance, like the amount of concrete needed to build a roadway, an office building, a warehouse, or a programmatic EIR where we don't actually have a specific project proposed at all. And we're looking basically citywide. Some programmatic EIRs are specific plan areas. But the information level It is. It's too macro for the type of specific analysis. that you're referencing. And the purpose of a programmatic EIR is to essentially allow the city in future So look at a project and say, well, we didn't anticipate that level of concrete. That's problematic. That's more of an impact than we anticipated in our overarching GHG announces. So you cannot rely on this EIR for that project. You will need to do supplemental or subsequent or additional environmental review. But for the purposes of the housing element implementation program, There are no specific projects. There is no specific impact, it's just a general concept of what if the maximum capacity of dwelling units were built in certain areas of the city that were walked through by both Beth and Christina. And so, yes, absolutely, these issues can all be addressed in greater detail. And any comment that you might want to submit planning and land use planning and sequel planning consultants can work on addressing those in the final year, but only to the extent that Uh, and, you know, I think, you know, I I guess the best way to say this is this is an 80,000 foot document and some of these questions are two feet questions. |
| 01:38:57.77 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Sarah, for that perspective. I appreciate that point of view. I'm going to carry on. Just going back then to the letter that we wrote on appeal, we talked about water. We also mentioned geologic hazards and the slope of the community in large part. And my question is not to be too specific as to the EIR, but I am wondering how the EIR handles that as a geologic resource within the city and a known geologic resource within the city, that being very steep hillsides in excess of 30 and 40 percent. Thank you. |
| 01:39:39.40 | Christina Irwin | So, When the city was going through the housing development process and identifying opportunity sites and potential areas for rezoning, That was one of the considerations about which sites were added to the site's inventory list. If an area was simply too steep to build on, it was eliminated as a potential opportunity site. That information is included in Appendix D, of your housing element. And there is kind of a |
| 01:40:16.52 | Stephen Woodside | and they're not going to be able to do that. It's kind of... |
| 01:40:17.34 | Andrew Davidson | Bye. |
| 01:40:17.39 | Stephen Woodside | Yeah. |
| 01:40:18.23 | Christina Irwin | checklist of things that were considered when identifying the sites |
| 01:40:21.60 | Stephen Woodside | I hope. |
| 01:40:24.83 | Christina Irwin | That said, slopes, landslides, instability, expansive soils, those were all addressed in the geology and soils section, section 3.6, and disclose about what types of soils, what types of hazards may be present. Thank you. |
| 01:40:47.51 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:40:48.06 | Jill Hoffman | Great. So Christina, last question then. So then 3.6 would be the section that would include anything about subsidence? Correct. Thank you very much. Thanks, guys. |
| 01:40:58.54 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions from the dais? All right, seeing none in a moment, we'll put public comment, but I received a request to have a little bio break. So we'll stay in a recess for. minutes and we will reconvene at 8 48 and you may use in the public the recording stopped of an interest in making a public comment to raise your hand and or submit a public comment slip to the city clerk. |
| 01:41:16.95 | Unknown | Recording stopped. |
| 01:41:26.62 | Steven Woodside | provide the public instructions on how to provide public comment on this item. |
| 01:41:34.82 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, members of the public who would like to comment, you can fill out one of the speaker cards over by the television on that desk. Bring that over here, and we'll call you when it's your turn. If you're on Zoom, you can use the raise hand function, and we'll call you. |
| 01:41:55.55 | Walfred Solorzano | So let's start. Sorry. We'll start with Babette McDougal. |
| 01:42:08.59 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. I have a number of questions. First of all, may I just ask, were you able to see the letter I submitted late arriving, ma'am? Did you see it? Thank you. So, Appreciate that. I'm not sure. So it was meant to be sort of a broad overview of some of the problems that have truly vexed the housing element around. this time. compared to previous years. Did I understand correctly from this presentation that the public comment period actually began on January 5? to best of my knowledge and those of my neighbors, And I've had four meetings today that included this housing element. Thank you. public meetings or meetings around town. And none of us got this thing until last weekend. I mean, we didn't find it until last weekend. Did I misunderstand that? I just wanted to ask that, and I realize you're not. even though your document that says that you're have said that you have adopted a policy of not responding to public comment directly, There's nothing in a policy that I was given via the Public Records Act that actually supports that. There's only one bullet. And that whole thing that addresses the public at all, and it says, please fill out the slip. So. I don't quite understand why we're not talking to the public. Traditionally, we have always responded So that's just something to think about. And the reason for tendering the letter as I did is that this whole process has been vexed with inadequate noticing. I'm sorry that you feel that you've done a good job, but it turns out that Most of the people in town didn't know about most of it. And myself is included. I received no noticing. And I'm right above city hall. Most of the people in this town got no noticing of the housing element meetings, most of the people. That's not acceptable. There's only one way to remedy that, and that's the traditional noticing method. Thank you. |
| 01:44:15.41 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker is Daniel Chidor. |
| 01:44:23.85 | Brandon Phipps | Hi, Daniel Shador, Gables Inn Sausalito and Hotel Sausalito. The property owners in the historic district have spent decades and tens of millions of dollars working with the city to preserve the downtown historic district. Um, At this time, my big issue question is, I'm not understanding how the Historic Preservation Committee is interacting with this EIR and protecting the historic district as its mandate. And as I read the EIR, it states the draft EIR you are reviewing has stated significant impact unavoidable to the historic district in section 3.4-1. And I know the EIR has alternatives. It's what alternatives exist. I also reached out to the California Office of Historic Preservation, and I'm wondering if they've commented on the EIR or the draft and made comment. Obviously, what I'm concerned with is that you've put parcels in the historic district into the overlay, the opportunity zone. And what that does is circumvent our historic preservation committee as well as designer view and potentially puts them into a ministerial process. I'm not opposed to development, But in the historic district, it requires an oversight of architecture in harmony with the historic district. And that's why I'm concerned is that the ministerial process will be used and we won't be able to control what takes place in the historic district. Thank you. |
| 01:45:55.07 | Walfred Solorzano | Our next speaker is Linda Fitch. parts. |
| 01:46:05.40 | Linda Fitch | I'm Linda Fotch. I'm a resident of Sausalito, and I'm the owner of Housing Opportunity Site No. 201. |
| 01:46:08.49 | Walfred Solorzano | and the only |
| 01:46:14.95 | Linda Fitch | The questions that I have are first one on... Page ES 15, and this is about the sites that are proposed for rezoning subject to vote of the electorate. and it refers to ordinance number 1022 and i didn't see online that any um anything that changed the ordinance 1022 from what i'm reading now which says it does not apply to cc or any residential zoning districts if that's true then Thank you. the designated sites there need to be re-looked at. They're not correct. My other comment is on page ES23. And that's about the date of availability of the EIR. You're saying it's January 5th. I believe they, in the document, say it's May or something. And I also didn't see it on January 5th, but like I bet Medugl said. But those are my comments. |
| 01:47:37.65 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker, Jeffrey Chase. |
| 01:47:46.02 | Jeffrey Chase | Hello, Mayor. Hello, City Council and citizens of Sausalito. Anybody watching on Zoom? Happy New Year, and it's good to see you all here. |
| 01:48:00.42 | Jeffrey Chase | I feel that to set the stage for the idea that everybody needs a place to live, and when that's obstructed, then it leads to million dollar settlements and more going to people that we still are dealing with to make sure that Everybody. that we're dealing with as Camp Cormorant one, two, and three. It started in December of 2020 that the people that we continue to follow up. Uh, In Leviticus 25.10, it says, declare freedom throughout the nation and to all its citizens therein. It's on the Liberty Bell. cracked, of course. And it goes on to speak. of, The fruit trees that are given in equal portions to all the people. Equal value, it doesn't mean equal land. You know, if there's no water and there's a million acres, it's not as valuable as 10,000 with the flowing waterfall. And even in Ezekiel 47, It says... The land is divided by tribes, by families. It's not individual because people have to watch each other for this. And even the strangers who live amongst us. That's the Palestinians, too, have equal land, and that solves an issue that's going on. So thank you. I don't understand all the housing element. Very confusing to somebody like me, a layman. Thank you. Thanks. |
| 01:49:55.91 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, Alice Merrill. |
| 01:50:01.14 | Alice Merrill | Hello, everybody. I think it's confusing, too. And I'm guessing that this has... if you were in the housing element, you would understand what this is. But my comment is that I come to these meetings to find out what's going on. And I find out that you have, this is complicated and it's deep and people who know what they're talking about will want to have something to say. And it started on the 5th of January. And here it is the 16th. And this is kind of the beginning of when anybody might have heard of it. unless it's been very well noticed in places that I haven't noticed. So I think that if you're going to have a noticing period when people can comment that it should be the whole period instead of just part of it. And, you know, that's kind of my thing all the time is that fairness thing. Thanks. |
| 01:50:59.16 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, next person, Sandra Bushmaker. If you can... |
| 01:51:04.88 | Michelle Dumont | Thank you. |
| 01:51:08.64 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, everybody. Good to see you all again. |
| 01:51:08.71 | Walfred Solorzano | Good evening. |
| 01:51:12.25 | Sandra Bushmaker | Uh, something piqued my interest during the presentation by the, um, by the consultants, and that had to do with Program 16 And listed in Program 16 were height limits. So my question is, are we anticipating changing the height, 32 foot height limit in Sausalito? And does this program address this? Does the EIR address this potential? Or is it not a potential at all? And I also noticed in the list of considerations, views was not listed. And so with regard to height limitations and view corridors, I think that, um, I think that's a good question. If we can't address the impact of height on view corridors, then I think we're missing something, but it may not be permissible under the EIR law. I'm not, I just don't know the answer to that question. But number one, are we anticipating a change in the height limit in Sausalito? And number two, if we can't consider views, what recommendation does the consultant have for how we address height limits in Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 01:52:28.56 | Walfred Solorzano | Do you know further speakers? |
| 01:52:31.23 | Steven Woodside | further public comment then we will close public comment and bring it back up to the dais for discussion Council Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 01:52:39.23 | Melissa Blaustein | I would like to ask a couple of questions as a follow-on to the public comment. Do we have Beth or? |
| 01:52:49.98 | Steven Woodside | Ms. Thompson and... |
| 01:52:54.75 | Steven Woodside | Could you please unmute yourself, Ms. Thompson? And Ms. Erwin? |
| 01:52:59.44 | Melissa Blaustein | There we go. |
| 01:52:59.77 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you. |
| 01:53:00.20 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Um, so Thank you, Beth. I guess it's on slide five of your presentation that you do address Program 16. And when I saw the references to design standards, including height limits, I assumed that was in deference to the density bonus law, which we've already adopted. and did not entail any plan Bye. the city council or city management to change the zoning ordinance 32 foot height restrictions. Is that accurate? |
| 01:53:37.09 | Beth Thompson | So let me go to the project description of the EIR because we do discuss this in a little more detail in the project description. We do anticipate that not necessarily changing the height limits for the existing zoning districts, but where we have the overlay zones allowing Lauren F. Greater heights and this would also be encapsulated in the odds, and so if you look at table to for it identifies the proposed heights and setbacks for the new overlays and those would be above 32 feet would be a max of 45 feet or four stories. |
| 01:54:17.39 | Melissa Blaustein | So I, you know, I attended every single housing element committee meeting and helped finalize the housing element. And I don't recall, including in a program, and increase. in any zone, including the overlay zones, beyond the 32 foot height limit. discuss that the overlay zones would necessarily be subject to density bonus law, which could result in a net increase beyond the 32 foot height limit if the proper um, if they met the requirements to gain those density bonus concessions. But I don't recall ever Um, authorizing Thank you. a program that would result in a height limit above 32 feet, even for overlay zones. |
| 01:55:13.75 | Beth Thompson | So this doesn't sound like a comment on the EIR itself, but rather a comment on the project. |
| 01:55:13.92 | Melissa Blaustein | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:55:20.27 | Beth Thompson | They're... is a need and there's a discussion of reviewing these densities, the standards to ensure that you can accommodate the maximum density. So as part of the odds process, the odds team reviewed Erika Endrijonas, The Capacity Collective, What the setbacks and heights would need to be to accommodate the densities established by the housing element and there was some discussion of that during the housing element update that. Erika Endrijonas, The Capacity Collective, Once those zones were applied there would need to be specific standards developed for those to accommodate those those densities. |
| 01:55:53.91 | Melissa Blaustein | But we have not yet updated the zoning ordinance, and so we have not yet identified and adopted those standards that you referenced. Correct. That is part of the proposed project. Okay. And so we haven't actually yet adopted any revised standards, even within the overlay zones, for our zoning ordinance. |
| 01:56:15.58 | Beth Thompson | Correct. Those would be considered by the Planning Commission and Council after the EIR process is completed. |
| 01:56:21.67 | Melissa Blaustein | And the housing element, as written, includes a buffer for the required housing. number of units. And so it's possible that if some of our other zones pan out in terms of adopting revisions to SB 1022 or 1128, then we may not need to exercise the maximum density within each of the overlay zones. Would that be a true statement? |
| 01:56:53.26 | Beth Thompson | So Program 4 commits the city to rezoning specific acres at specific densities. If you wished to alter Program 4, you would probably want to go back to the state and discuss the revised approach. But yes, there's definitely the potential if the city identifies other methods to accommodate your regional housing need allocation, you would have an opportunity to go and make really specific adjustments to your housing element just to focus that discussion at the state level. But that's the project is looking at accommodating the arena through application of the four overlay zones. |
| 01:57:32.04 | Jill Hoffman | up. So, Beth, it seems somewhat inconsistent that on one hand, to the vice mayor's question, on one hand, Program 4 says let's throw everything in the kitchen sink to see if we can meet this. But elsewhere in the housing element, it says we may not need to utilize all of these tool sets to meet this. and I think what we're expressing is at least I speak for myself perhaps a caution around creating ambiguity as think what we're expressing is, at least I speak for myself, perhaps a caution around creating ambiguity as to what we intended. And those seem to be inconsistent to me. |
| 01:58:06.35 | Beth Thompson | So, Program four is clear in the densities and acres that would be applied to each density in the rezoning effort. |
| 01:58:21.17 | Beth Thompson | Yeah, that's |
| 01:58:21.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:58:22.18 | Beth Thompson | Thank you. |
| 01:58:22.69 | Jill Hoffman | So are you saying that by default, that density in some instances can only be met by a lifting of the height restriction? |
| 01:58:22.77 | Beth Thompson | I think |
| 01:58:29.18 | Beth Thompson | Correct, yes. When the odds... project was looking at these these densities, this was the recommended height limit. And they looked at some higher heights. Thank you. Then they tested a number of scenarios and came up with the 45 feet as being adequate to accommodate the densities. And in some cases there would have to be modest size units to be built within those heights. |
| 01:58:54.29 | Melissa Blaustein | I think that was our intention in identity. So we used rotary housing as our benchmark for identifying what the highest density could possibly be on a site. And rotary housing is housing that has a density of 70 units per acre, but is not above 32 feet. And so. when we were identifying potential sites elsewhere in town, we were using that as a metric, but we were very cognizant of the square footage so as to not violate Sausalito's existing 32-foot ordinance. So I'm not sure where the disconnect was between the work that the working group did to identify opportunity sites and densities for them and the work that the consultants did to identify the required height to meet those densities. |
| 01:59:56.17 | Beth Thompson | And I think it would be good to, since we are focused on getting comments on the EIR, I think when you have your workshop to discuss the odds, this would probably be a great topic for discussion at that time, since those odds are really what are helping people. address and determine how the shape and form of buildings that will be built under these overlay zones. |
| 02:00:20.32 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, and along a similar vein, my last question has to do with view corridors. Is there, are we, are we, in your view, contemplating dispensing with the protection of view corridors within overlay zones or anywhere in Sausalito? |
| 02:00:41.52 | Melissa Blaustein | other than the revisions to the objective design standards which will necessarily Um, implement a standardized approach to evaluating view corridors. Thank you. |
| 02:00:57.06 | Beth Thompson | And I will, I think Christina is ready to answer this question since the aesthetic section does discuss view corridors. |
| 02:01:07.99 | Beth Thompson | Do you need to be unmuted here? Let me see. |
| 02:01:12.33 | Christina Irwin | Hey, thank you, technology. Um, To address your question, we do indeed address view corridors and scenic resources in Section 3.1 Aesthetics. as well as identified the view corridors that were identified in the Marinship Plan, and that is on Figure 3.1-2. So in that regard, we demonstrate where those view corridors are in that plan. how it relates to public space, and we have an analysis about views in the city. |
| 02:01:57.88 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. I did see that. That does address my question. Those are all of my questions. And my thanks to the public for their comments that prompted additional questions. |
| 02:02:10.60 | Steven Woodside | Please. |
| 02:02:11.12 | Jill Hoffman | So I'm going to follow up on the vice mayor again. So maybe just for the sake of everybody in the room, I know you guys know how it works, but the objective design standards have not yet been approved. You're saying, what I'm hearing you say, is that they could potentially mitigate some of the impacts that we are seeing. But because it's not approved yet, How do you... how do you think about them within the context of the EIR in terms of mitigating impacts? Is it ignored completely because they're not approved or is it anticipated Down the line. |
| 02:02:47.15 | Beth Thompson | For the purposes of the EIR, we analyze the development that could occur kind of within that general footprint envisioned by the proposed odds. So we don't necessarily look at them to... mitigate impacts as much as what form would development take under the odds and how, what would be the environmental implications of that development? |
| 02:03:11.15 | Jill Hoffman | but the odds are not established yet. Correct. |
| 02:03:13.39 | Beth Thompson | Correct. They're part of the project. So they're being reviewed as part of the housing element programs project. |
| 02:03:20.83 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so you're saying if the odds as currently contained within the housing element project were to be approved, this is the XYZ result. Okay. All right. So then let me switch gears and just address the question from a member of the public around if you could just articulate how the, oh, sorry, how the, I reverted to my East Coast roots, how the historic district operates in the impact of the overlay zone and how we might consider historic resources within the context of overlay zones. |
| 02:04:01.50 | Jill Hoffman | So I'm just paraphrasing one of the questions from the public about the fact that Oh, are you immune? Beth. Okay, Beth is on mute. |
| 02:04:11.90 | Sarah Osowitz | Can I be unmuted? |
| 02:04:17.63 | Steven Woodside | Can we just leave them both unmuted and allow them |
| 02:04:21.23 | Sarah Osowitz | Sarah, go ahead. Yeah, I can answer that question. And the answer is actually far more positive than I think it's possible to perceive I believe Christina used the phrase abundance of caution. To be perfectly honest, there is extensive historic resource mitigation in the EIR. We do not in any way expect a significant impact to historic resources as a result of the implementation of the housing element programs. The only reason that the EIR concludes a significant and unavoidable impact to historic resources. is because we cannot guarantee, guarantee a hundred percent that no one will ever seek to demolish a historic structure in any area. wherever. I'm not saying where we know there's a historic structure. I mean, in some area where there's a housing opportunity site and we later find out that a proposed project would result in the demolition of a property that we now know is historic. So basically it speaks to what we cannot anticipate, what we cannot know. If in the future, a building we didn't know was historic is proposed for demolition to build housing, The demolition of such a historic structure is a per se, as a matter of law, significant impact. We do not expect it. It is not proposed by the project. We just cannot know at the 80,000 foot level, whether it might in the future possibly happen. |
| 02:06:04.37 | Jill Hoffman | So, Sarah, thank you for that. Can I request a very stripped down lay person's version of that articulation? I think sort of the question here in the room is we have a historic district. The housing element provides for an overlay zone. That means some aspects of these historic resources will be potentially compromised. What is the process within the city? We have a historic preservation committee, planning commission. How does that get reviewed? How does the public get to weigh in? or is it, some sort of default it will happen because there's an overlay zone |
| 02:06:48.09 | Sarah Osowitz | So there are three pieces, I think. The simplest answer is that there are the mitigation measures that are already in the EIR, that is the draft EIR before you now. So that's one piece. The second piece is the city's code and I defer to Brandon and Sergio. the city's code as it applies to already designated historic structures and anything that might impact them. And then the third, is subsequent discretionary review of a project under the California Environmental Quality Act, just like this one, must look at potential impacts to cultural resources and must impose all feasible mitigation measures. |
| 02:07:31.93 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 02:07:37.43 | Steven Woodside | Are there any other discussion or questions on this topic? The recommended action is to receive the presentation and accept public comment. |
| 02:07:47.52 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. I would like to make a couple. |
| 02:07:51.78 | Steven Woodside | Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 02:07:53.23 | Melissa Blaustein | I did want to respond to the issue of lack of notice. So I was not on the city council when the housing element committee was formed. and when it conducted its meetings, but I attended every one of those public meetings, and there were dozens of them, in which every single component of the housing element was thoroughly vetted, considered, debated, and voted upon. Um, I it was also published in the current and then there were various public meetings held by the city council to consider various the progress of the housing element to hold consultant to task for getting it done more quickly. There were and so there was lots of feedback by. in public and at which members of the public had an opportunity to participate. Now, much of this happened during the Zoom era. And so people were not sitting in chambers like we are today. We're fortunate to have this available to us again, but I did want to point out the very transparent process that was undertaken both in appointing a housing element committee in the meetings held by the public meetings held by the housing element committee and the meetings held by the city council so. we do still have more opportunity to consider how best to implement the housing element and that will happen as we update our zoning ordinance and as we adopt the objective standards. So there is still more opportunity for the public to weigh in but the process thus far has been as transparent as I've seen in many of the municipalities for which I work. So I just wanted to make that clear in response to some of the public comments. And we take this responsibility very seriously. We worked very hard. to ensure we had a motto of not of no one area would be overly impacted over another area. So we did our very best to spread out the impact of identifying 724 new units of housing throughout Sausalito and not overly impacting any single area so those the the imp and we also went out and interviewed many members of the public regarding did they want to build did they want you know where could we put these units so i just um it is our commitment to address any concerns and a couple of you have written to me and i will absolutely meet with you offline on an individual basis but i just wanted to make that clear for all members of the public And. I know the mayor already thanked you, but I type 130 words a minute. Some of tonight's comments, I'm told, were at least 220 words per minute. So bravo to our court reporter for her Herculean effort in keeping up with us. |
| 02:11:13.40 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. Are there any other comments from the dais? |
| 02:11:18.51 | Jill Hoffman | My comment, Mayor, is really to staff. I think we need to see the odds that has to come to council Within this process, I mean, I don't know when it is on the agenda, but it's very difficult to fully appreciate the potential impacts and the different levers that can get pushed and pulled without also seeing those in front of us so I would love an update from director Phipps or the city manager as to the timing of that. |
| 02:11:45.38 | Steven Woodside | Could we ask just right now, Director Phipps, I know we are working on trying to agendize out for the entire year many things that we anticipate coming down the pike, since there are key deadlines to meet for ballot initiative, ballot measures and otherwise. Do we have some guidance to Councilmember Kelman on this subject? |
| 02:12:03.91 | Brandon Phipps | So, Council Member, thank you very much for the question. Much appreciated. I can tell you that we are working hard on bringing a draft version of the odds before the Planning Commission sometime in February. Based on Planning Commission's action in connection with the draft odds, we may or may not be able to bring the item before Council's action. prior to the closure of the comment period. I would estimate, however, that it's more likely that council will hear the item sometime in March based on the annual calendar. |
| 02:12:36.27 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Director Phipps. So while we have you up there and we have the consultants, are there any other ongoing city decisions in draft form that should be considered in parallel with this EIR? |
| 02:12:53.59 | Brandon Phipps | My short answer is no. |
| 02:12:56.49 | Jill Hoffman | questions. I shall take that. Thank you. |
| 02:12:59.78 | Ian Sobieski | you |
| 02:13:01.35 | Steven Woodside | Any other comments from the dice before we move on? I just... |
| 02:13:03.88 | Ian Sobieski | I just... I want to thank staff for the amount of time that's been put into both the housing element and the EAR and the members of the housing element subcommittee that sit on our council, which would be Vice Mayor Cox and Council Member Kelman, who have put in several, probably hundred additional hours to help us get through this process. And I would just direct staff as well to be as proactively seeking comment as we may. So that means including it maybe in every occurrence until the comment period ends, making sure that it's adequately posted around City Hall and to the extent that we can really trying to seek additional public comment or just make sure that folks are informed since I do appreciate that we have made a lot of effort to do so so far and I appreciate the vice mayor's comments but I wanna as well respond to the community concerns and do what we can in response. |
| 02:13:10.51 | Andrew Davidson | the housing. |
| 02:13:12.39 | Walfred Solorzano | Bye. |
| 02:13:12.62 | Andrew Davidson | that. |
| 02:13:54.22 | Steven Woodside | Seeing no other comments or discussion, we will move on to item 5B, the auditor presentation and receipt on filing of the fiscal year 22-23, basic financial statements and report on internal control over financial reporting. Director Hess. Would you unmute yourself, please? |
| 02:14:17.66 | Steven Woodside | Stand by while we figure that out. Okay. All right. |
| 02:14:19.92 | Angeline Loeffler | All right. |
| 02:14:20.63 | Steven Woodside | animated. |
| 02:14:21.25 | Angeline Loeffler | Awesome. All right. Good evening, Mayor, Council, members of the public. Tonight we have our external auditor with us remotely via Zoom. from Badawis and Associates. We are going to share the results of our audit. Our fiscal year ended June 30th, 2023 audit. As required by state law, our books are audited annually by an external independent auditor who comes in and assesses our account balances. also looks at our internal controls and gives a statement as to whether they are designed effectively or not. With that, I would like to introduce you to Ahmed Badawi with Badawi & Associates, the audit partner on this engagement. He's got a presentation to share with you. And after that presentation, we will be available for comments or questions. |
| 02:15:21.09 | Angeline Loeffler | You guys go ahead and unmute Ahmed. |
| 02:15:27.88 | Angeline Loeffler | There we go. |
| 02:15:29.88 | Ahmed Badawi | Thank you. |
| 02:15:30.68 | Angeline Loeffler | Good evening. |
| 02:15:32.26 | Ahmed Badawi | Good evening. My name is Ahmed Badawi. Thank you for the introduction, Chad. And today I will be presenting to you the results of the fiscal year 2023 audits. If you allow me to share my screen, I think I have permission. I would go ahead and do that and get started. |
| 02:15:55.09 | Ahmed Badawi | All right, you should be able to see my screen right now. So I'm gonna go ahead and get started. So again, thank you for inviting me to the meeting today. I will present to you the result of our art of the city of Sausalito. What I'm going to cover today, I'm going to let you know who the engagement team was. Thank you. What were the deliverables and the scope of our audit? Areas of primary audit emphasis, the type of audit opinion we issued, and summarize for you the numbers and the financial statements, provide you some of the required communications as your independent auditor, and then finally, see if you have any questions or comments for me. So starting with the engagement team, this was a composition of our engagement team. I acted as the engagement partner. We always have a quality control reviewer, and this person is in the background. Their role is to review the audit teamwork, make sure that we adhere to professional standards. They also provide a secondary review of the financial statements. We also have an IT specialist, and this is strictly an information technology professional who focus on the security embedded in the city's IT system and infrastructure. We also had an audit manager and three professional staff assigned to the audits. As for the deliverables, we were mainly engaged to provide an opinion on the city's basic finance statements. Also, the city is subject to what we call government auditing standards, which require us to issue a report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance with laws and regulations. We performed the agreed upon procedures on the appropriation limit schedule. That's the GAN limit. And then finally, the communication was the governing body, which is what I'm doing today. And normally we issue a letter also summarizing that communication. |
| 02:17:44.82 | Ahmed Badawi | As for areas of primary audit emphasis, some of the areas are pretty standard in most of our audits. So for example, the first one, the risk of management override of controls. This is a risk that exists in almost every audit. Management is usually the one responsible for designing and implementing. and monitoring internal controls, and they are oftentimes in a position to override those. So we designed audit procedures to minimize this risk to an acceptable level, So we make sure that we assign more experienced staff to more complex areas of the audit that we incorporate an element of unpredictability so we don't let management know ahead of time about all the procedures we're gonna be looking at. We look at the accounting principles and how they're applied and their consistency. We examine journal entries prepared by management, make sure that they're properly supported, We review any estimates made by management to make sure that they're free of bias, evaluate business rationale for any unusual transactions, and also do fraud and related party inquiries. Another area of focus for us is revenue. Revenue by default is an area of a higher risk as well. we rely heavily on confirmations. So we send confirmations to the county, to the state, to other franchisees and so on, and asking them to confirm amounts submitted to the city. We reconcile those to the city's accounting records and make sure that we are able to tie them back. Proprietary funds, we do a lot of trend analysis and ratio analysis on the revenues of the proprietary funds. Another area of risk that we considered during our audit was a turnover risk. The city have experienced turnover in staffing in the finance area, so we just had to consider that And again, part of it was just making sure that we're looking at all the journal entries as much as we can. scanning the generator ledger for any unusual transactions, doing a lot of analysis of Prior year comparison, budget to actual comparison, ratio analysis, and so on. So those were the main risks that we dealt with during our audit. As for our auditor's report, we have issued an unmodified opinion. The opinion state the standards that we followed, which are the generally accepted auditing standards and government auditing standards. An unmodified opinion means that we believe financial statements are fairly presented, that all accounting policies have been consistently applied, that all estimates are reasonable, and that all disclosures are properly reflected in the financial statements. I wanted to summarize for you some of the numbers in the financial statements. On this slide here is just a snapshot, a summary of the city's assets over the last three years. Please keep in mind this is really a 30,000 foot view, so we're not focused on any specific fund. This is all city funds combined, just looking at it as a snapshot. I don't see any major fluctuation over the last three years. Like most of our cities, the two largest assets are usually the cash on investments and the capital assets. This is fairly consistent with every municipality, every city we audit. I would say that fluctuations were not significant year over year. On the next slide, there is a summary of the liabilities over the last three years. And I would say the most significant would be the increase in net pension liability. This is a result of CalPERS performance on investments and also changes in assumptions, most notably the discount rate that has caused the net pension liability to increase. Otherwise, again, numbers are fairly consistent year over year. On this slide here is a summary of the city's equity over the last three years. Equity is just assets minus liabilities. And we divide the equity into three categories. The first one, the net investment in capital assets. This is the amount that is not really in a spendable form and unlikely to become spendable any time in the future. This is how much the city invested in streets and roads and bridges and buildings and so on. The restricted amounts are the amount that have legal restriction by a third party. So this would be any unspent grant proceeds, TDA funds, gas tax, those types of revenues. And then the unrestricted amount is the amount under the council control, and this is currently a deficit, $10 million. Obviously, the most significant factor in this deficit would be the pension liability and the OPEP liability. |
| 02:22:52.19 | Ahmed Badawi | If we were to just look at revenue over expenses year over year, again, this is just really taking all the city revenues and expenses, not one specific fund. I would say that the most obviously can see that the short is increasing quite a bit during the year. And mostly this is the result of changes in pension, pension expense, CalPERS activity, and so on that is causing those fluctuations. |
| 02:23:24.63 | Ahmed Badawi | Another thing that we look at is what we call the net cost of service to tax revenue. So the net cost of service is the cost of the city running its own departments without basically using tax revenues. So you will look at a department like public works or community development, and you will see how much does it cost to run them and whether those departments are able to bring in any revenues on their own in the form of grants or fees or so on. And the net will be what's going to be covered by tax revenues. So you can see that tax revenues in the past have not been sufficient for the net cost of service. In 2023, it is exceeding the net cost of service. This is the amount that is reported on the financial statements. I do caution that sometimes those amounts fluctuate quite a bit. For example, one year you may have something like ARPA funds that may offset the net cost of service and reduce it. Another year you don't have it and you see it increasing and so on. But what I would say from this slide is that what is consistent is that the tax revenues are increasing year over year. And that's obviously a good sign. Um, If we were to just focus on the general fund, obviously the general fund is where most of the city's unrestricted resources reside. So this is a measurement of the city's liquidity. What we do here is we look at the unrestricted fund balance and we compare it to annual expenditures. The idea is to see how long can the city continue to pay its bills just using existing fund balance. And we have determined that the city probably have about six months worth of expenditures in its fund balance. And that is a decent amount of fund balance. The minimum recommended ratio is about no less than two months. Anytime you go less than two months, it's obviously There are some red flags there. So the city is at six months. That's a comfortable place to be. The next few slides are gonna focus on pension and OPEP. So on this slide here, you see that your pension liability over the last three years, and you can see the fluctuation from 32 million back in 2020, or 2021 to 20 million to back to 35 million. A lot of it has to do with CalPERS in the prior year had a very good year. This year, not as good. Also, the change in assumption are making these numbers fluctuate significantly. Wanted to bring to your attention that the pension liability is an estimate. And one of the most significant assumptions in coming up with this estimate is the discount rate. So we wanted to show you what the numbers would be if the discount rate is either increased or decreased by 1%. Currently, the discount rate used is 6.9%. That's the discount rate used to determine the city's pension liability. So you can see how significant the number will change with one increase, 1% increase or decrease. |
| 02:26:48.09 | Ahmed Badawi | Similar to pension, the city also offers OPEB benefits, the retiree medical benefits. So on this slide here, it's a summary of the city's assets invested in the plan, which are on the first column on the left, the city's liability, the total liability of the plan, and then finally the unfunded portion on the right. over the last three years. Currently, the city have about 5.3 million unfunded. |
| 02:27:17.84 | Ahmed Badawi | Again, this number is an estimated number similar to pension. Discount rate is also a significant assumption. So I wanted to show you what the numbers would look like with a 1% increase or decrease. In addition to the discount rate, the healthcare trend rate is also a significant assumption in determining this number. So I wanted to show you also within 1% increase and decrease. The last part of my presentation is the required communications as your independent auditor. On this slide here is a summary of the responsibilities between the audit firm and city management. Our responsibility is mainly to provide an opinion on the financial statements, whether they are fairly stated in accordance with US cap or not. |
| 02:27:59.77 | Stephen Woodside | where the |
| 02:28:04.53 | Ahmed Badawi | Part of doing that is to also evaluate internal control over financial reporting including the tone at the top, and we mean by that whether management is sending the right message to the rest of the organization about The importance of internal controls, the consequences of committing fraud, Thank you. Also evaluating whether management take corrective action to address audit finding and issues and whether the governing body cares about management addressing those audit findings or not. We're responsible for evaluating compliance with laws and regulations that could have an effect on the financial statements. We're responsible for ensuring that the city's financial statements are clear and transparent. And then finally, we are responsible for communicating with the governing body. Management have a lot of responsibilities in this process. Our audit does not relieve management from its responsibility towards the financial statements. Management is still the one responsible for the completeness and accuracy of those financials. Also responsible for establishing and maintaining internal control over financial reporting, making all financial records available to us, establish controls that will prevent and detect fraud, inform us of any known and suspected fraud, comply with laws and regulations, and take corrective action on any audit findings. |
| 02:29:28.70 | Ahmed Badawi | As far as independence, it is solely our responsibility to maintain our independence. We adhere to the AICPA standards and the California Board of Accountancy rules. We evaluate any relationships that we may have, any firm member may have with the city staff or city personnel in general. We also evaluate any additional service that we offer the city that may impair our independence. Financial statements is a service, compiling the financial statements is a service that does impair independence if no safeguards are put in place. And we do put safeguards by having an independent reviewer reviewing those financial statements. As far as timing, we believe that the audit was performed timely in accordance with the engagement letter that we agreed to with the city. I wanted to highlight to you that every year there are some new accounting standards that the city will consider whether they apply to it or not. In fiscal year 2023, there were three new standards that the city have taken into consideration. |
| 02:30:39.31 | Ahmed Badawi | I mentioned earlier that some of the numbers in the financials are estimated numbers, so I just wanted to highlight to you some examples of those numbers. Claims liability, useful life of capital assets, pension, OPEB liabilities, all of these are estimated numbers. Also wanted to bring to your attention some of the more sensitive disclosure in the financials. So I highlighted some of the notes that I think add some more clarity and some rather complex numbers. |
| 02:31:15.95 | Ahmed Badawi | I'm pleased to say that we encountered no difficulties during the audit. We had some adjusting entries and management has posted all of those adjusting entries with the exception of a couple that were considered to be immaterials. there were no significant risk or exposure We normally communicate with legal counsel. We ask them to confirm any outstanding litigations, and we make sure that disclosures are in the financial statements, especially if those litigations are not the standard ones covered by insurance. We're pleased to say that we had no disagreement with management. We did identify a material weakness related to the statement of opening balances. So what this means is that the city, after issuing the financial statements in 2022, discovered that there were several errors that needed to be corrected in those financials. So the way to correct them is by restating the opening balance in the 2023 financials. So the city had a few of those restatements, and that normally reflects that the internal controls did not work timely to detect those errors prior to the issuance of the financial statements. |
| 02:32:31.97 | Ahmed Badawi | Right before we issued the financials, we obtained representations from management, basically a letter from management acknowledging that they have taken responsibility for the financials, that they have recorded all transactions, they have disclosed to us unknown facts, and so on. We're also not aware that management have consulted with any other CPA or accounting firms regarding audit matters. Other than our engagement letter and their presentation letter, we had no other communication with management. There were no material uncertainties relating to events and conditions, and we have not become aware of any instance of fraud or illegal acts. Just finally on my last slide here is a summary of the new accounting standards that are coming the city's way. Every year with management, we will be discussing those standards and how they may or may not impact the city. I think other than that, I'm obviously available for questions. And I want to say thank you very much for allowing us the opportunity. |
| 02:33:33.09 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Mr. Badawi. Are there any questions from the dais? |
| 02:33:40.61 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you for the substantial audit, which I know required a lot of time and hard work. And thank you to the City of Sausalito staff for your cooperation in the audit and helping us to demonstrate where we are financially. We had a number of questions, and this might be a question for Director Hess, but it might be a question for you, sir. There's been a lot of consideration around the current status of our fiscal picture. And based on your audit, it seems that we are in a strong financial position. In fact, much stronger than we were, say, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Could you just reiterate the amount of money that we have that is not yet classified for going into the 2023 budget? I understand the number is somewhere around 10 million, and I just want to confirm that based on the audit. |
| 02:34:30.75 | Ahmed Badawi | I think this will probably be a question for Shad. I don't know what's going into the the budget. |
| 02:34:39.12 | Angeline Loeffler | So I think the question at hand is the general funds unassigned fund balance. I'm not sure. If I can share my screen real quick, I think I can tell you what they're referring to. |
| 02:34:49.97 | Ian Sobieski | Exactly what the question at hand is. Thank you, Director Hess. Yeah. |
| 02:34:52.74 | Angeline Loeffler | Yes, so the general fund currently has an unrestricted fund balance of $10 million, $8 10 million, eight, I'm sorry, $10,882,266. . that is very similar to what we had last year, a slight increase of that unassigned on the balance. I'm not sure. Let me see my screen, can I be sure? Let me go ahead and share that. So I think what you're referring to is right here. as far as that unassigned fund balance. And as noted in his presentation, that represents just over 50% of our general fund expenditures. I'm not sure. I think your question is, for him to elaborate on the standing, is that an adequate amount of fund balance? Is that what you're looking for, council member? Yes, thank you. |
| 02:35:44.34 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, I mean, obviously, I look at it the same way. I look at my personal finances. Six months is probably okay. It could always be more. |
| 02:35:58.97 | Ahmed Badawi | We have cities that are in the six to eight months or four to eight months. And I would say that's the majority of our cities, but we definitely have some that have a year, year and a half and two years worth of fun bounce. I don't know if that's ideal, but There are really a lot of variation, but I would say that you probably fall within the average within what most of our clients would have. |
| 02:36:26.65 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:36:30.31 | Steven Woodside | Vice Mayor. |
| 02:36:32.25 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. I just wanted to clarify one of the things on your presentation, which was you had identified a material weakness related to the restatement of opening balances. And I just wanted to clarify that when you go back into your report, it reports that – there were errors actually in the in the issuance of the 2021 to 22 financial statements. So that was long before our current finance director was hired. And that there were some of the fund balances were closed late or but the essentially you said the city had inadequate controls over the closing process and therefore they had to restate some of the opening balances, the following fiscal year is that an added is accurate overview of your comment on that issue. |
| 02:37:41.02 | Ian Sobieski | There is an accurate overview. My comments are obviously not intended for the current |
| 02:37:41.15 | Melissa Blaustein | There is an argument. |
| 02:37:48.97 | Ahmed Badawi | director of finance, we look at it from a city perspective. The city's 2022 finance statements were issued with those errors in them. And the comment is saying that the city's internal controls did not work timely enough to detect those errors prior to those financials being issued. I probably want to say that probably Director Shedd is the one who discovered a lot of those errors as we went through the audit. Nonetheless, they were discovered after those 2022 financials were issued. And that's what the comment is focused on. |
| 02:38:28.77 | Melissa Blaustein | So while things were late or not completely accurate, there weren't any misdeeds by city employees. It was simply... accuracy of reporting. Would that be a fair statement? |
| 02:38:45.19 | Ian Sobieski | the way we see internal control. |
| 02:38:46.96 | Ahmed Badawi | that they're not just focused on safeguarding of assets, but also we focus a lot on internal control over financial reporting, over how the numbers are reported, over whether errors are being detected in a timely manner. So yeah, the concern is not about safekeeping or safeguarding of assets, but it is about controls over financial reporting, producing the financial statements, making sure you have adequate accounting records. |
| 02:39:20.60 | Melissa Blaustein | And management gave you several actions that they've taken to improve the situation, including more technical training for the accounting department, more detailed account review and reconciliation process sooner, and building a more complete month-end and year-end and close schedule to ensure an accurate and timely close process. And is that what you observed in your review of the most current financial statements? |
| 02:39:45.32 | Ahmed Badawi | So, again, the management plan was provided to us after we concluded our audit for 2023. So this would be something that we will actually be visiting in 2024 and see if the plan was put in place and whether it worked or not. in our opinion we actually say that we have not audited the management response But in our opinion, we actually say that we have not audited the management response, but obviously something that is normally followed up in the following year to see if it worked or not. |
| 02:40:23.67 | Melissa Blaustein | And I'll just wrap up with, certainly, we closed our books and completed our audit. before the end of 2023, which I think is the first time I've seen that happen in at least a decade. And so wouldn't you agree that's an upstat in terms of timely Um, a timely year-end close schedule to ensure an accurate and timely close process. |
| 02:40:52.50 | Ahmed Badawi | No doubt. I mean, not only that this is the first time, but the first time also while changing audit firm, that usually add to the burden on city staff because the audit firm is new, is asking more questions and gathering more documentation. so city staff were able to not only work with a new audit firm but also meet deadlines. And obviously, the credit goes to the city staff for this, for being prepared and responsive and able to produce quality documents that are acceptable to the audit firm. |
| 02:41:32.63 | Melissa Blaustein | Well, thank you, sir. We appreciate your report, and we certainly appreciate the outcome of your report. |
| 02:41:39.06 | Ahmed Badawi | Thank you. |
| 02:41:39.17 | Steven Woodside | work on. Are there other questions from the diocese? |
| 02:41:44.79 | Jill Hoffman | I have one follow-up question, which is, a bit looking backwards, but it's the topic of internal control. So what, if any, control is in place when we budget for an item and the monies do not get spent what controls in place to prevent the movement of that unspent budgeted amount into another fund or department how does one sort of track that and because what happens for us up here is, we'll be asked to approve something, and then a year from now, we'll be reminded we approved that budget, but perhaps it was never spent. And I'm just wondering what, from you as an auditor, what your perspective is on the right control to make sure that those monies stay where they were originally allocated. |
| 02:42:45.22 | Ahmed Badawi | Obviously, I think that having a strong policy about what happens when the budget year is over and the money is unspent, whether it's just it becomes subject to reappropriation or stays where it is. We see that, we hear that concern oftentimes where you have a lot of staff salaries that are scheduled, but these positions are vacant and the money doesn't get spent. Again, it all depends on the policy, but obviously at some point, this money is reflected in fund balance and will have to be reviewed at some point. It's not something that our audit focused more on the actual numbers, what did occur versus what will happen based on a budget. But we do compare the actual results every year to what was budgeted. We do inquire about items that exceeded the budget. There is disclosure in the finance statements about funds and line items that exceeded their budget. We sometimes also inquire the other way around when there were large budget amounts and no expenditures or significantly lower expenditure. but oftentimes we would not necessarily like it would not be a finding for us that something was budgeted high and then the spending didn't occur because there can be a variety of reasons why the spending didn't occur whether you couldn't find a qualified contractor timely or just there's always there are many reasons for that |
| 02:44:39.87 | Joan Cox | Yeah. Thanks very much, Mr. Badawi or Chad, either one of you. Of the 10 million the general fund unassigned balance. about what of that, I think this is probably for Chad, about what of that number is attributable to the Measure O slash Measure L sales tax. that we, or is any of it? |
| 02:45:08.93 | Angeline Loeffler | Yes, I can share that response. |
| 02:45:11.23 | Joan Cox | So even though that's a tax, I'll just recap for Bula, that that's a tax that was implemented mainly for to fund capital improvements because of the structure of the vote. It goes into the general fund, but we as policy at the city council level attribute or we allocate that to capital improvements. So I just want to make sure that even though it's lumped in with unassigned, it's still, I guess, informally earmarked for capital improvements. |
| 02:45:41.23 | Angeline Loeffler | Are you guys able to see my screen now? |
| 02:45:43.17 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 02:45:43.96 | Angeline Loeffler | Okay. Of the 10 million, |
| 02:45:46.73 | Steven Woodside | You're always in your menu, not your PDF. |
| 02:45:49.53 | Angeline Loeffler | Nope. Thank you. |
| 02:45:50.04 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:45:50.34 | Angeline Loeffler | Okay, you're not seeing the PDF. I am sorry, let me re-share. |
| 02:45:50.39 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:45:55.05 | Angeline Loeffler | I'll raise the technical difficulties here. I'm going to share screen One. |
| 02:46:00.77 | Joan Cox | On. I think Walford maybe. |
| 02:46:02.74 | Angeline Loeffler | Chad, let me try it. Are you guys able to see it here? |
| 02:46:05.09 | Joan Cox | I'm not sure. |
| 02:46:05.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. it. |
| 02:46:05.93 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. |
| 02:46:05.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:46:06.03 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. |
| 02:46:06.05 | Walfred Solorzano | You want a driver or you want me to drive? |
| 02:46:07.10 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. I'll drive if I can. Are you guys able to see my screen? with the PDF on it or not? |
| 02:46:12.35 | Joan Cox | No, that's the list of your PDFs. Okay. |
| 02:46:14.62 | Angeline Loeffler | Okay, you're seeing this screen then. Do you see the financials now? |
| 02:46:20.46 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:46:20.97 | Andrew Davidson | Uh-huh. |
| 02:46:21.26 | Angeline Loeffler | Yes? Okay. So I've... Of this 10,882,000, Measure L, which is our penny sales tax, represents 691,000. of that $10,892,000. So this year we did present the three funds that make up the general fund that we report on the front schedules, the general fund proper. which is our operating account. So that funds police, Department of Public Works, library, et cetera. We have our Measure L sales tax, the penny, sales tax that we are collecting to repair our roads and infrastructure with. and then our pension trust fund is included in that general fund. And that has a restricted fund balance of $3,576,000. |
| 02:47:10.46 | Joan Cox | Thank you. And then as a follow up also, as part of that, is there also a portion that's attributable to unfilled but allocated allocated, meaning we budgeted for it, employee positions that we haven't yet filled. |
| 02:47:29.28 | Angeline Loeffler | That would be an that would close into fund balance, so any unspent So we budgeted a million dollars for salaries, but we only spent 800,000. at the end of the year, that unspent proceeds would just close or roll into our unassigned fund balance. to be appropriated in subsequent years. So any savings, any salary savings that leads to a surplus, goes into fund balance. |
| 02:47:57.17 | Joan Cox | Right. Okay, thanks. And so that's what that's also included in the number that we've been given as the of the unassigned balance. |
| 02:48:08.61 | Angeline Loeffler | That's any previous year's savings. Yep, any previous year's surpluses are all captured in that fund balance number. I'm not sure. that we can see here on page. 129 of the printed book. or 135 of the PDF. |
| 02:48:26.43 | Andrew Davidson | Okay. Okay. |
| 02:48:27.43 | Angeline Loeffler | If we look at current year general fund, Let me go to the next page here. Here's our revenues and expenses. Here you can see in the current fiscal year, We had a net change in fund balance of the general fund of $1.6 million, meaning we had more inflows, more resources come into the general fund than we had go out. In the operating portion of that account, we had a deficit spend of 86,000. But because of that million dollar transfer that we made from the general fund proper to our pension trust fund, that's the leading cause of that deficit. You can see that movement here. a transfer out of general fund proper over to our pension trust fund. That does get eliminated, but you can see overall, we had an increase of 1,688,000. in the general fund, a positive increase, more revenues than expenses for this fiscal year. |
| 02:49:26.56 | Steven Woodside | I just had two questions. What is the amount of cash in the parking fund? And what was its performance last year? |
| 02:49:35.57 | Angeline Loeffler | THE END OF |
| 02:49:39.33 | Angeline Loeffler | So if we look at page, 38 of the printed book, page 44. of the PDF. We can see here our parking fund has cash of $1.1 million $1,307,000. Yeah. Um, the performance of that parking fund would be found on, page. 46 of the PDFs. page. 40 of the printed books. I'm not sure. Parking Fund brought in $2.6 million of revenue. in fiscal year 23, They had expenses of $453,000. Now I do want to note that that does not include salaries. In fiscal year, 23 salaries for parking enforcement was in the general fund. That changes in 24. We made a $2 million transfer from the parking fund into the general fund. And we still had an increase in net position of $237,000. So we had a very... rootful year in the parking fund, We increased our net position. We transferred $2 million over to the general fund. and we still have $1.3 million of cash available in that fund. |
| 02:50:50.60 | Steven Woodside | Got it. And just to emphasize the parking fund is separate from the general fund. |
| 02:50:54.77 | Angeline Loeffler | That is correct. |
| 02:50:57.18 | Steven Woodside | And then just the question, this is, I have no idea what our auditor will say this, but I was just curious if he might opine, since he mentioned that he does this for many cities. Are you comfortable qualitatively just summing it up for everyone? In your experience, is Sausalito's finances average, above average? Are we in a good financial picture from your assessment of liabilities and revenues, cash on hand? What's your impression? |
| 02:51:31.45 | Ahmed Badawi | Yeah, so obviously our opinion is only our written opinion that is in the financial statements. But if you just ask me my personal assessment based on the cities that I see, of course, as the auditor, I'm always cautious. I'm not going to say you have no risk or that I see no issues. Pension liability is always a concern. The numbers fluctuate significantly. And next year, you may find yourself having even a bigger liability with higher contributions that needs to be made. So things can change very quickly. That's why I'm saying six months in the general fund is good. One year is definitely better and will make the city more comfortable. But I would not say that this should be your goal. But obviously, I'm always cautious about saying everything is just great because things can change. But I would say that, yeah, compared to we work with almost 40 plus cities. And again, the ones that we get concerned about are the ones that have low fund balance, that the revenues are not exceeding expenditures, that it's a consistent trend. And it's also that they don't have industries, they don't have potential for newer revenue sources and things like that. I don't see any of those things in Sausalito. I don't So, yeah, our opinion did not disclose that we have any concerns about the city's financial condition. But please keep in mind that we're not financial forecasters. Our opinion will only consider 12 months from the date of the opinion as to whether the city is financially viable or not. So that's a very short period of time. We just really look at can the city just continue to pay its existing bills for the next few months? But it's by no mean a long-term assessment of the city's financial position. |
| 02:53:45.20 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Are there any other? comments Oh yeah, I meant questions, yeah. Any other questions? Thank you. All right, so we're opening up for public comment on this item. City Clerk. |
| 02:54:04.85 | Unknown | none |
| 02:54:08.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Oh, that's right. You did. Yeah, right here, 5B. Yep, you're right. Yeah. Babette McDougal. |
| 02:54:22.34 | Babette McDougall | Good evening. Thank you again for acknowledging me. So I just want to ask a general question because it reflects what seems to be a growing sentiment, not just in our own community, but within the region generally. And that has to do with being in this extraordinary time known as the housing element. So the question is, How would an auditor, when you mentioned that there's no evidence of fraud or illegal acts, I would assume that if someone were embezzling funds out of the city coffers, that the sharp eye of an auditor would capture that rather quickly and track it down and, find evidence of fraud, for example. But when we have citizen participants in government, whether they are appointed or elected, and they seem to champion a certain cause. Um, because it appeals to them. And then it's somehow revealed that there was payoffs in, Is that ever revealed by an auditor's study? And if so, how? |
| 02:55:28.41 | Ian Sobieski | Um... |
| 02:55:29.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:55:29.36 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:55:30.59 | Walfred Solorzano | but we're, Thank you. No, we're not answering any questions. Thank you. |
| 02:55:35.09 | Melissa Blaustein | public comment. |
| 02:55:35.82 | Babette McDougall | you Oh, that's unfortunate because your own policy does not prohibit this. It only says fill out the piece of paper. So this fellow is not allowed to answer either. And so we're marked at this time zone limit while you guys run out the clock ad nauseum at times because you're not adequately prepared or you just want to repeat one another or embellish each other instead of moving on or submitting your questions and comments ahead of time so that we can be more expedient. There needs to be an equitable sharing of how this time is used. Thank you. |
| 02:56:12.39 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:56:12.40 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 02:56:16.12 | Walfred Solorzano | We have online, we have Petsa. |
| 02:56:35.27 | Walfred Solorzano | Pat, if you can unmute yourself. Thank you. |
| 02:56:53.97 | Walfred Solorzano | She doesn't seem to be responsive. It's past tense, so maybe. |
| 02:57:01.26 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, but she's getting a prompt to unmute herself and not getting any response. |
| 02:57:14.59 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, now I don't see what she should. You will too. |
| 02:57:21.08 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, we're clicking ask to unmute and she's not doing it on her end. So I'm not sure what might be going on. |
| 02:57:30.03 | Joan Cox | Walfred, where, sorry, where is the prompt? Where does it appear on her screen, the unmute? Bye. Thank you. Where do you think? |
| 02:57:44.86 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:57:44.88 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:57:44.95 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:57:46.30 | Joan Cox | Okay, sorry. |
| 02:57:47.83 | Walfred Solorzano | about that. |
| 02:57:50.23 | Joan Cox | Okay. We might want to have a tutorial at some point. |
| 02:57:55.70 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:57:56.98 | Joan Cox | from our city clerk. |
| 02:57:58.68 | Steven Woodside | Well, look, if there's no objective, are there any other public comments? |
| 02:57:58.72 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:58:04.00 | Steven Woodside | See none. Well, so we could begin our discussion if there is any. If you can keep working that, I would welcome her comment as you work that item technically. So in the interest of time, let's continue our discussion. But if Pat Zook and you can work that out, then we will hear her comment. So on the dais, is there discussion or comments on what we have heard today? |
| 02:58:29.41 | Steven Woodside | not buying the Zik anytime. Bye. |
| 02:58:31.91 | Melissa Blaustein | I mean, for myself, I would say thank you to the auditor and primarily thank you to Chad Hess for his really hard work and really competent work in the last year to, you know, starting with revising our opening fund balances to accurate amounts, to enabling us to invest over a million dollars into our pension trust fund, to facilitate the policy we put in place in 2018 to kind of, flatten the curve on our pension obligations, and to creating the monthly reports that you provide to us with the vice mayor's recommendation to increasing the amount of interest we earn on monies that sit in our various accounts. you know I am contrary to public comment I'm actually very very proud of the work that the city staff and the policies that the city council has adopted to enhance our financial position over the last year. And I think the audit The clean audit report, the first clean audit report we've had in several years, actually bears out that effort. And I look forward to continuing that practice of excellence. And I would move to receive and file the fiscal year 2022-2023 basic financial statements and report on internal control over financial reporting. |
| 03:00:11.73 | Ian Sobieski | I'll second that motion. I don't have much to add except to say that I'm thrilled to see that we are in a stronger fiscal position than we were in prior years. That's very much in part to our city manager, Chris Sapata, as well as our director, Chad Hess, and the entire finance department team, and the result of hard work from our department heads in cutting back on some of our budgets and making some necessary changes. So I really appreciate everyone's efforts here. I'm thrilled to see a clean audit, and I'm happy to support the vice mayor's motion and move us forward. |
| 03:00:46.64 | Walfred Solorzano | Before we continue, I think Pat Sook might be able to. All right. We welcome him. |
| 03:00:50.18 | Steven Woodside | We welcome Ms. Zuck's comment. |
| 03:00:59.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:00:59.70 | Chris Zapata | Mayor, if I could. |
| 03:01:00.21 | Walfred Solorzano | Pat, you're... |
| 03:01:00.24 | Chris Zapata | Pat here, and maybe you can speak. |
| 03:01:00.80 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. Thank you. |
| 03:01:02.01 | Steven Woodside | Yes, city manager Zapata. |
| 03:01:04.58 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. If Kat can't come on anytime soon, I will call her, get her questions, bring it forward, make it a matter of the public record, provide a response if we need to, and also want Chad to tell the public how they can access the audit document itself. |
| 03:01:22.42 | Angeline Loeffler | Certainly. The audit report will be posted to the city's website under the finance department's page. We'll get that up tomorrow. We also have bound copies that will be coming, and as a past practice, we have put them in the library so somebody can go down and check out the printed book. I don't know when that will be available. Probably within the coming week we'll have a bound copy there. But you can always check it out tomorrow online. It's also attached to the agenda for this evening. But it'll be up tomorrow on the finance department's page. |
| 03:01:57.83 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:01:57.85 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:01:57.90 | Steven Woodside | your colleagues. |
| 03:02:00.84 | Jill Hoffman | I'll just echo the thanks to Chad. If anybody's not sure where we are fiscally, since Chad has been on board, things have gotten extremely clear and transparent. And if you have questions, I urge you to go and review those documents, or review the meetings, if you have further curiosities. But he has done an extremely diligent job in cleaning this up. So thank you, Chad. |
| 03:02:10.05 | Linda Fitch | Thank you. |
| 03:02:10.17 | Stephen Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:02:28.08 | Angeline Loeffler | Thank you. |
| 03:02:32.28 | Steven Woodside | I'll second that. Any comments? |
| 03:02:35.05 | Joan Cox | Thank you. echo those positive comments about Chad's work. Thank you. |
| 03:02:39.89 | Steven Woodside | All right, well done. We will move on to our next agenda item, which... We have to vote on the motion. Oh, I'm sorry. Thanks for reminding me there's a motion that's made and seconded to accept and receive and file the report. So all in favor? |
| 03:02:54.91 | Linda Fitch | Bye. |
| 03:02:55.78 | Steven Woodside | I know. |
| 03:02:57.03 | Linda Fitch | Bye. |
| 03:02:57.83 | Steven Woodside | Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Item 5D is the introduction of waiver of the first reading of Ordinance 2024-01, an ordinance of the City Council and the City of Sausalito Municipal Code readopting Chapter 2.60 Military Equipment Use Policy. |
| 03:03:18.06 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. Vice Mayor, before we start that, it's after 10. Can we just look at our agenda and figure out what we're gonna do? |
| 03:03:25.53 | Steven Woodside | Yep, it's look to the sense of the council about whether you wish to stop working at this moment or seeing estimates of the length of this item and whether you'd like to hear this from Sir Rogers. |
| 03:03:40.86 | Ian Sobieski | note that we have members of the public here who are very interested in the item with regards to Edwards who have been here since the beginning and probably want to comment. Yes. So if we were going to hear an additional item, I would suggest that we hear that item, although I would be very mindful of time. I'm hoping. |
| 03:03:48.06 | Andrew Davidson | Yes. |
| 03:03:48.57 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:03:55.28 | Melissa Blaustein | I would love to hear 5D and 5E. In terms of the new 5G, I'd like to just agree on the next three meetings or so so that we can defer that discussion. |
| 03:04:03.98 | Steven Woodside | So yeah, hearing, I'm sorry, go ahead. |
| 03:04:07.22 | Ian Sobieski | I just, I don't, it depends on how long the Edwards, I don't know. Thank you. |
| 03:04:11.42 | Melissa Blaustein | I know this is very short. Thank you. |
| 03:04:16.53 | Jill Hoffman | through this and see and confirm it short. And then if we have to give it, we'll |
| 03:04:20.99 | Steven Woodside | All right, so that sounds like the plan. We'll hear from 5D and 5E, and that will probably be our meeting this evening. So Officer Rogers, please proceed. |
| 03:04:33.24 | Brandon Rogers | Yes, good evening. I'm Brandon Rogers, lieutenant for the Saucyde Police Department. I want to thank you for letting me speak tonight about the annual excuse me, annual renewal city of Sausalito municipal code chapter 2.60. Military equipment use ordinance. At the December 5th, 2023 regular council meeting, a public hearing was held to present the 2022-2023 military equipment use report per government code section 7072 in Saucydeo Municipal Code Chapter 2.60. A staff report was presented and a public hearing was held. There were no questions asked or public comments made about the 2022-2023 annual military equipment use reports. |
| 03:05:25.84 | Brandon Rogers | So the fiscal impact of the 2022-2023 report is that the police department is asking for $468 to replenish beanbag rounds that were used during training during that period. And then the police department is also asking the city council to renew Sausalito Municipal Code Chapter 2.60, the military equipment use ordinance. And I'm open for any questions you may have. Questions please for Officer Rogers. |
| 03:05:53.97 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 03:05:59.10 | Steven Woodside | There are no questions. I was there. We will open the floor for public comment. |
| 03:06:06.84 | Steven Woodside | See you then. Closing public comment. Is there any discussion from the dais? |
| 03:06:12.36 | Melissa Blaustein | Mayor, I move we receive and file the fiscal year 2022-2023 basic financial statements and report on, oh, sorry, I'm at the wrong item. |
| 03:06:21.93 | Linda Fitch | Sorry. |
| 03:06:23.48 | Melissa Blaustein | them. I move we introduce by title only and waive first reading of ordinance number 2024-01, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Sausalito re-adopting Sausalito Municipal Code Chapter 2.60, Military Equipment Use Policy. |
| 03:06:40.10 | Steven Woodside | Is there a second? Second. Any discussion on this motion? Seeing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, say aye. |
| 03:06:49.03 | Brandon Phipps | Aye. Opposed. |
| 03:06:50.97 | Steven Woodside | as your passage unanimously. Well, now here, item five E. Adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager toward the construction contract composed of the base bid plus three bid alternatives for the 2023 pavement improvement project Edwards Avenue, an amount of $1,050,530. Authorize a construction contingency for the project in the amount of $121,920. and authorized the city manager to award the professional services agreement with the CSW Stuber Stroh Engineering Group for a contract construction management amount not to exceed 107,000. $550. Please proceed, sir. |
| 03:07:32.20 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. I'd like to thank you, the City Manager and Director of Public Works, for this opportunity to bring before you the award of the 2023 Payment Improvement Project Edwards Avenue. I'm Andrew Davidson, senior engineer in your Department of Public Work. This evening we will be asking you to award a construction contract for the resurfacing of Edwards between Marionave and Alexander. and to award a contract for construction management and inspection for this project. Next, please. A little history. As part of the 2022 Streets Resurfacing Project, the city resurfaced portions of Gerard, Johnson, and Platt. Edwards was included in the initial list of roads to be resurfaced. However, because Edwards is very steep, includes concrete paving and sanitary sewer work, It was separated from the 2022 project. This was also done so that we could get the work on Gerard and Johnson started and completed. It started in October of 2022 and followed and completed the following month. Next slide, please. Location map, there's Edwards for the project. High side is Marion Avenue to the west. Low is Alexander to the east. Next slide, please. Whenever I mention Edwards, I'm talking about the project within the limits. The existing street is concrete with some locations that have had asphalt placed on top. The street is narrow and gets very steep as you go east down the hill. This portion of Edwards is also one way from uphill to downhill, west to east. Where there is asphalt on top of concrete, the asphalt is separating. and crumbling away from the concrete. The concrete's highly cracked and parts are breaking away, spalling. and there are vertical displacements in the surface. Edwards is past its useful life, and unfortunately, we cannot maintain the existing roadway with a less costly treatment. It must be removed and fully replaced with a new structural section. Replacement will be both with asphalt and with concrete. The flatter uphill 600 feet of Edwards will be replaced with a new asphalt roadway, while the steeper and narrower downhill 300 feet will be replaced with a new concrete roadway. The intersection of Marion will be partially asphalt and partially concrete. in conjunction with the city sanitary sewer staff. It was determined that the existing sanitary sewer main within the project limits requires replacement and the existing sanitary sewer maintenance holes require either rehabilitation or complete replacements. The approximate length of sanitary sewer main that needs to be replaced is 1,100 feet. Additionally, the city will be installing new lower sanitary sewer laterals, clean outs, backflow and backflow preventers. This is going to be a complex project, the roads needing to be partially or fully closed during demolition and placement of new asphalt and concrete. Next slide, please. The original budget for the project was identified with the 2022 street resurfacing project and was presented to the Council in March of 2022 as $2.49 million dollars. this in Sorry, this included Edwards as well as Gerard, Johnson and Platt. Now we're gonna need an additional money from the Sewer Enterprise Fund to take care of the sewer work in NWRDS. And you can see that in the table of about $530,000 just for the sewer. Next slide, please. The city received three bids for the Edwards project, the lowest being Majoran Gelati's bid of $1,050,530. All bids were determined to be responsive and responsible, so we are asking you to award the cons... construction contract to Majoran Gelati as the low bidder. The cost of the 2022 project was $715,000, as you can see on the table. The cost of the Edwards project with construction contingency and construction management and inspection is estimated to cost $1,280,000. So it looks like we'll have about $1 million left in the allocated budget, which we may wish to use to construct the retaining wall at the intersection of Edwards and Marion. This wall is currently under design. Next slide, please. |
| 03:12:00.31 | Andrew Davidson | The photo on the left shows where Edwards narrows and where the proposed transition between asphalt and concrete roadway will occur. The photo on the right shows the location where the retaining wall that we've just spoken about may be constructed. We had originally intended to include the wall in the Edwards project. However, we decided to remove it for several reasons. Specialty construction. It's likely that the wall will require it be constructed by a contractor that specializes in various types of retaining walls. Cost During the earlier stages of design, retaining wall estimates were coming in between 1.5 and 2 million dollars. and delay in order not to delay this roadway project any further. The retaining wall was removed with the anticipation of going out to bid as a separate project. later this year. Next slide, please. 2024 payment improvement. The director of public works made a presentation to you in October of 2023 about proposed 2024 pavement improvements, where he mentioned that the city's current pavement condition index is 58. And that to maintain that current payment condition index, it's estimated that an annual budget of $1.8 million is needed. And actually to increase the city's payment condition by five points, it's estimated that an annual budget of $2.9 million is needed. Next slide, please. So the 23-24 CIP allocation for streets work is $1.95 million. Now, our 2023 pavement improvement project that's before you this evening is not part of that allocation. That money was already allocated except for the sewer piece. Next slide. |
| 03:13:51.82 | Andrew Davidson | Over the next month or so, we plan on visiting the field and verifying streets to develop a list for a 2024 pavement project. We hope to maximize the number of streets that will receive treatment by looking where lighter treatments may be employed to extend the life of pavements, such as microsurfacing, slurry sealing, crack sealing, and digouts. We hope to include some streets that are in poor condition and require full pavement replacement. But as you can see, those are quite expensive. We anticipate coming to the city council for approval of the list of streets before moving forward with a design. Next slide, please. So here's the recommended motion before you this evening. There are seven elements. And before we get to that, let's go to one more slide, please. Lastly, as mentioned earlier, this is going to be a complicated project. If the council approves this item tonight, staff, the contractor, and the construction manager will work closely with residents along Edwards. And those who use it. the roadway will be closed to allow the concrete sections to cure. This is one of the more difficult roadways to repair, and we will need to work together with the council. Omergency Servances and the residents to mitigate as much as we possibly can the construction and conveniences associated with the project. So that concludes my presentation, and I'm available for questions, and thank you very much. Thank you. |
| 03:15:16.76 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Councilmember Blofstein. |
| 03:15:18.62 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you very much. Nice to see you, Andy. Great. Always great to hear from you. Appreciate the time and effort. I have driven and walked on Edwards many times, and I appreciate the attention to it because it is long overdue. I wanted to ask specifically about the retaining wall because I know that it is now storm season. Look outside. And typically, just remind us, isn't that one of the sites that you often check on when there's going to be a storm for potential erosion? |
| 03:15:46.47 | Andrew Davidson | Well, there's always erosion off of that slope. It continuously abrades. So yes, we always walk past or drive past that slope, along with many other places in the city of Sausalito. So that's not unique, though it's very visible. And you will see sediment running down the street on Edwards and wrapping around on the second and going into storm drains. So it is something we need to address. Going a little bit further than that, the cost of the walls, it's really high. The lowest cost wall, all it would have done was to catch debris. It wouldn't have stabilized the wall. Um, And... So at some point it was going to fail anyway. So that's one of the reasons we're going with these bigger, more expensive walls. So. |
| 03:16:30.69 | Ian Sobieski | And so you would say that that location is at risk of a potential mudslide? |
| 03:16:35.72 | Andrew Davidson | Any side, any exposed surface in Sausalito on a hillside is at some risk. |
| 03:16:41.51 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, this is a question for Director Hess. Is he still on? Is he gone? Did we lose him? I'm here. Could you remind me what the cost of the landslide that we experienced at Salita Boulevard was to our community? |
| 03:16:54.10 | Angeline Loeffler | to |
| 03:16:54.83 | Ian Sobieski | you |
| 03:16:54.98 | Angeline Loeffler | Was that in 2019? Was that the 2019 one? |
| 03:16:55.16 | Ian Sobieski | Was that in Yes. |
| 03:16:57.86 | Angeline Loeffler | Yeah, I think we were out several million on that. I don't have the specific number in front of me, but it was expensive. |
| 03:17:04.36 | Ian Sobieski | But several million dollars. |
| 03:17:05.96 | Angeline Loeffler | Yeah. |
| 03:17:06.17 | Ian Sobieski | And then, Andy, what's the estimated cost for the repair for the hillside at Edwards? |
| 03:17:11.01 | Andrew Davidson | Right now we're looking one and a half, two million. |
| 03:17:13.05 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. And just to clarify, so the allocated amount, we have enough to do the pavement repair, and then what do we have left over potentially for the hillside? |
| 03:17:21.71 | Andrew Davidson | About a million right now. |
| 03:17:22.89 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. Okay. This evening, potentially, we could approve moving forward on that as well, because I didn't see it in the... Recommended. |
| 03:17:29.01 | Andrew Davidson | No, it's not part of this project. |
| 03:17:31.11 | Ian Sobieski | Okay. |
| 03:17:31.58 | Andrew Davidson | That our intent is to bring it, to get it to bid documents, to bid it, and then bring it before you. |
| 03:17:37.77 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, and what direction would you need from us to move that forward? Just to ask you to bid it out immediately or? |
| 03:17:43.81 | Andrew Davidson | Our plan is to bid it as soon as we're able to. We're not holding back on it for that purpose. So we do plan on moving it forward. |
| 03:17:50.75 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, thank you. |
| 03:17:54.53 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah, so your presentation and your staff report both say that we have monies allocated for this project that will exceed the cost that you have obtained for the... for this project by about a million dollars. |
| 03:18:07.00 | Andrew Davidson | by a map. Correct. |
| 03:18:09.14 | Melissa Blaustein | And your staff report recommends utilizing any surplus funding from the original allocation and the award of the resurfacing to the installation of the uphill wall, which is expected to start in the summer of 2024. So that's your recommendation in your staff report. It's not part of your recommended motion. And so I think the question from Councilmember. Exactly right. |
| 03:18:23.77 | Andrew Davidson | Amen. |
| 03:18:28.95 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 03:18:28.97 | Ian Sobieski | Exactly right. Thank you. |
| 03:18:31.06 | Melissa Blaustein | Blaustein was, can we at least give direction that you, rather than returning that surplus to the general fund or to the Measure L fund, that we actually allocate that towards the Marion Wall project, and then you come back to us and tell us how much more you need when and if you're able to design and bid it out. |
| 03:18:51.84 | Andrew Davidson | So |
| 03:18:51.91 | Steven Woodside | Certainly. |
| 03:18:52.17 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. |
| 03:18:55.06 | Steven Woodside | Please. Thank you. |
| 03:18:56.19 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So you said you had three bids. What were the other two bids? |
| 03:19:01.78 | Andrew Davidson | One was about $300,000 more than the Majoran Gelati bid. So 1.3, 1.4. And the other was a lot more. I just don't remember those numbers. |
| 03:19:13.74 | Jill Hoffman | Who else do we use for roads in Sausalito besides Majoran Gelati? |
| 03:19:18.45 | Andrew Davidson | We don't pick folks. We go out to bid with large projects like this. So other firms that have done work in the city of Sausalito, Gelati Construction or Gelati Brothers did the gate. The gate six project out of the intersection with one on one. I think a lot of construction did a twenty seventeen project out on. Uh... third main and fourth Thank you. |
| 03:19:45.21 | Jill Hoffman | Who did Gerardo? |
| 03:19:45.92 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. Who did Gerard? That was Maggiore Gelati last year. |
| 03:19:49.23 | Jill Hoffman | Who did Johnson? Ms. Erdogan Gelati. Thank you. |
| 03:19:52.96 | Andrew Davidson | So those three streets were done under one project. Majoran Gelati was the low bidder for that project. |
| 03:19:53.01 | Jill Hoffman | So AND I THINK IT'S A GREAT Oh. Okay, so let me ask you this. But those are three separate companies that you're referencing. I understood. Yes, thank you. So here's my question, though. But the same folks who did Girard are the ones that were selected for this project is what I'm hearing. |
| 03:20:14.76 | Andrew Davidson | They're the low bidder, correct. |
| 03:20:16.04 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so my question view is sort of quality control because we had a lot of complaints on the Gerard project around seams, around the storm drains and around the sidewalks. When Director McGowan came in to present the project for our budget to consider, there was some dissatisfaction with the quality and so I'm just wondering kind of how some of that selection process, it seems like we have the same We have the same bidders come in winning the contracts, and I want to make sure that we're getting the highest quality work each and every time, not just the lowest bid. What is our process for ensuring that? |
| 03:20:53.54 | Andrew Davidson | Part of that will be having the construction manager inspector. We didn't have that with the last project. So we will have it for this project. So that's one way. George Rolotti is a good contractor. They come in, they work hard, they bang it out. So I generally, and they're very prideful of their work. I don't need to defend them. They could do it for themselves. |
| 03:21:16.35 | Jill Hoffman | They can do it for themselves. Yeah, I just want to have a sense of who's doing the work around town and how we're selecting when we kind of concede past work, prior work, things like that. So I just want to have a sense of how we make decisions around what contractors we bring in. |
| 03:21:30.83 | Andrew Davidson | And again, when we go out to bid, we are required as long as those are responsive and responsible bidder, then we go with the low bidder. Unless there's a real risk really big red flag and then we would have to do something. |
| 03:21:43.44 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and then a question for Director Hess. And I had sent these emails to Chad and to Kevin, but I didn't hear back. So I was just wondering, what's the total available for roadway repair in 2024? And what was the total cost estimate of our top five projects? So I was trying to just give a perspective on, you know, this is an expensive project, but it's a high-risk area. Where does it fall into our overall game plan for infrastructure, for interest of transparency? So I don't know, Andy, if you have that, you probably don't. But Chad, if you do, that would be very interesting for us. |
| 03:21:43.54 | Andrew Davidson | SO. |
| 03:22:12.48 | Angeline Loeffler | not. |
| 03:22:15.87 | Angeline Loeffler | Yeah, let me look it up real quick. Because your question is, how much are we expecting to spend on infrastructure in 2024? Yeah. |
| 03:22:22.10 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:22:22.24 | Angeline Loeffler | . |
| 03:22:22.27 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 03:22:22.88 | Angeline Loeffler | Yeah. Yeah, let me check. |
| 03:22:28.83 | Melissa Blaustein | While he's checking, can I address your question on... How do we ensure quality? Yeah, for sure. So as a general law city, we are required to take the low bid when we do a design, bid, build project like a roadway. But we could implement a process to pre-qualify bidders so that if we had a lot of complaints or various other criteria, we could evaluate and thereby weed out the pool of potential bidders for projects that we're particularly worried about ensuring quality for. Yeah. |
| 03:23:00.84 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, and just to be clear, I'm not attacking or addressing any particular contractor. I only know the names I see on the... whatever things are going to go in the middle of the road. I just want to make sure that we don't have folks come in afterwards and say, hey, this thing with the seams there didn't work, and the sidewalk is crumbling, and the storm drain didn't line up, and the pavement stopped right there. Sorry you missed that meeting, but we had lots of those comments, and I'm just trying to avoid future comments that are similar. |
| 03:23:35.22 | Angeline Loeffler | So the overall budget for Capital expenditure infrastructure improvement is just over 5 million. 5,036,000 was the budget request for fiscal year 24. I don't have a handy breakout of what was Rhodes versus what was other smaller improvements, the bulk of it is roads. So I think 2.9 million of that was specifically just roads. in the 24 budget. |
| 03:24:04.83 | Steven Woodside | I was a member of Hoffman, please. |
| 03:24:06.32 | Joan Cox | So, Andy, I know that, and I'm not going to use this acronym right, and I'm not going to probably, so correct me, but like every year as part of your ongoing process of updating our roads, you have a way that you index roads that are more at risk than others. And I seem to recall Edwards has been like at the top of the priority list. but the complication of the the different angles and the elevation has made it difficult to actually you know get it to this point. Is that correct? |
| 03:24:40.83 | Andrew Davidson | So you're thinking about the pavement condition index for all the streets here in Sausalito, and that's prepared every couple, every four years, something like that. Edwards is about a 28. It's, as I said, it's going to be a hard street to construct. It's going to be inconvenient for folks. And that's probably maybe why it hasn't been done. I don't know when it was originally built in the 20s, maybe. But it's going to be very impactful for the people who live and use Edwards. It's one way. It's narrow. Bye. So. Thank you. |
| 03:25:15.90 | Joan Cox | It's steep. |
| 03:25:15.91 | Andrew Davidson | It's Steve. |
| 03:25:17.08 | Joan Cox | Okay, first of all, the 28, is that the index against the 70 or higher number as Good Roads? Correct. So, something that we had in the payment index presentation we had back in October, I think it was like. |
| 03:25:24.75 | Andrew Davidson | Correct. |
| 03:25:31.30 | Andrew Davidson | So it's 58. The city has an average PCI of 58. A 70 would be considered good. |
| 03:25:33.68 | Joan Cox | Overall. |
| 03:25:38.56 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. |
| 03:25:38.59 | Joan Cox | Right. |
| 03:25:38.64 | Andrew Davidson | Right. Thank you. um, |
| 03:25:40.06 | Joan Cox | And so, yeah. And so then – so Edwards is an index of 28. So it's pretty bad. It's a – We all agree. And then we were talking about what – the number that Chad just had, but – |
| 03:25:44.51 | Andrew Davidson | So it's a free bet. It's a free bet. Thank you. |
| 03:25:52.75 | Joan Cox | but we have specific projects for specific roads that we allocate money for. But we're also talking about, and also as part of that conversation back in October, what we need to allocate annually to get our number up just five points, which is what you just indicated, which was instead of 1.6 million a year, we really need to do 2.5. 5. |
| 03:26:10.50 | Andrew Davidson | 2.9, 1.8 and 2.9. |
| 03:26:12.36 | Joan Cox | 2.9. And that's just all of our roads. That's to get our total index up to still a subpar 60-something. |
| 03:26:20.17 | Andrew Davidson | That would be the network. That's correct. |
| 03:26:21.52 | Joan Cox | But that's better than 58. |
| 03:26:23.18 | Andrew Davidson | Yeah, it's better than 58 and Edwards would be at 90 something, you know, so. |
| 03:26:27.56 | Joan Cox | Great. Well, okay. My next question. Do you have a timeline? Like how long is it? Not that I'm not going to hold it to you, I promise. But what's the timeline for people in the room and watching that are looking at how long they're going to have to be hoofing it up that hill to get home? |
| 03:26:42.04 | Andrew Davidson | Well, so the construction project has an 84 day calendar. window. The amount of time that Edwards is closed is not going to be 84 days. We've got. the preparation, the sanitary sewer work. I believe the first part of the roadway work, that's the reconstruction part, will probably be the lower concrete piece to get that in. Unfortunately, that's going to be the pain for people because that has to sit and cure for a number of days. They'll pour the concrete and it's got to be left alone. The upper two thirds, 600 linear feet plus or minus is going to be asphalt. So that's going to be inconvenient, but that's just a matter of hours. Once that's played. |
| 03:28:09.02 | Unknown | Recording in progress recording stop recording in progress |
| 03:28:13.57 | Joan Cox | We're on a technical update. |
| 03:28:15.92 | Andrew Davidson | I'm unmuted. |
| 03:28:18.40 | Joan Cox | Okay. It's an internet issue. Yeah, yeah, yeah, same thing. |
| 03:28:20.27 | Andrew Davidson | Yeah. |
| 03:28:20.51 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:28:20.61 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:28:20.68 | Melissa Blaustein | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:28:20.71 | Unknown | to the next day. |
| 03:28:22.45 | Joan Cox | I think we're good. Am I good to keep going or do I need to pause for a second? Okay, thank you. Okay, so this is, I think my last question. So the wall, the retaining wall that we're talking about, Uh, do those need to be done contemporaneously? The work, the work, the road and the wall. |
| 03:28:41.87 | Andrew Davidson | No, and that was a discussion we had or I had with the designers. Hey, can we do these? Can we do these? Thinking about breaking it up so we can do it, are we going to be able to do it? The answer is yes. We won't be damaging the new road. Because it's going to be... you know, a little inboard from the street. |
| 03:28:56.81 | Joan Cox | Okay, so they don't need to be done at the same time. |
| 03:28:58.44 | Andrew Davidson | No. |
| 03:28:59.12 | Joan Cox | And that's city property that we're talking about, that retaining wall. |
| 03:29:02.31 | Andrew Davidson | So we're going to need to get some easements, potentially because the property line is not all the way at the top of the slope, and we need to protect to the top of the slope. Otherwise, we're kind of in trouble. So we'll be working with the, I think it's one property on her and what I've heard so far from that individual, they've been receptive. |
| 03:29:21.65 | Joan Cox | Great. Thank you. Thanks for your work on this. |
| 03:29:23.42 | Ian Sobieski | Follow-up question to Councilmember Hoffman's question. If we're not doing them at the same time, is that going to result in additional closure time for Edward's? for. to the road. |
| 03:29:34.22 | Andrew Davidson | I don't think so. That's the wider part of the street, right? There may be times when it's closed, but I don't think it's going to be as... Nearly as big as what we're going to have with the roadway. |
| 03:29:47.06 | Ian Sobieski | Okay, thanks. |
| 03:29:49.96 | Steven Woodside | If there are no additional questions, then we'll open the floor of public comment. |
| 03:30:01.99 | Rob Cox | Good evening. Good evening. My name is Rob Cox and my wife Maggie and I are long time long time residents on High Vista Road, which is the road just above. Edwards Avenue, which we use every day to access our house. And we commend the council and the committee, as well as the city staff are working so hard on this project on Edwards Avenue. Now with its complexities and the road resurfacing and also the sewer issue. But we think equally as important is this wall issue. Um, The. City consultants over 28 years ago recommended a retaining wall in this area due to a landslide in that. in that part of Sausalito. And as a matter, it's really as a matter of public safety that we need a wall in that area. And then there is also the issue of the sloughing off of topsoil down that slope into the storm sewer system. for the city of Sausalito, which has not been a good thing as well. And we note the discussion we've just had about what the city staff has recommended with respect to the budget. And with respect to the design of the wall, and we appreciate all that, we're glad to hear that that is in process. And we urge the council members and city staff to expeditiously work to get this wall into place as soon as possible. Earlier today, I submitted an email to council members and city staff about a proposed amendment to try to add to the ones that you're considering and hopefully approve tonight with respect to Edwards Avenue. on this question of building the wall, and we hope you do so. High Vista Road is a private road. on that same slope. And a few years ago, residents built a wall, and we're happy to cooperate with the information we have from that experience. |
| 03:32:18.85 | Stephen Woodside | My name is Stephen Woodside. I also live in the same neighborhood and my neighbor, Rob, does a great job presenting our concerns, which I agree with. I'm here though to say thank you, thank all of you. uh, and the Mayor Sobieski, congratulations. And I see all the rest of you on the council are former mayors. So I appreciate very much the hard work. that you perform every day, staying up late. It's now 20 to 11 past your normal time to try to finish a meeting. I very much appreciate it. I also come from the perspective of being concerned about the landslides generally. And Member Hoffman led a effort Also in 2019, to create a task force with serious recommendations, including areas like this, which were deemed hotspots that required attention. Doesn't mean that you need walls everywhere, but they do need to be looked at. and assessed and mapped so that we can collectively throughout the city make some progress and gain public safety. Thank you. |
| 03:33:30.33 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Jeffrey Stafford. |
| 03:33:35.33 | Walfred Solorzano | you could unmute yourself. Thank you. |
| 03:33:40.42 | Jeffrey Stafford | Hi, thank you. Yes, I just want to thank you for prioritizing Edwards Avenue. It is indeed in pretty rough shape. I have neighbors that are scared to drive down it and they go out of their way to take Marion instead. Um, Which shouldn't be. I do also want to bring attention to the fact that the retaining wall is actually much scarier than Edwards. Um, but I understand the idea of not wanting to put the two together and delay Edwards. But I do hope there is some priority towards the retaining wall as well. My mailbox is right at the bottom of that retaining wall and that intersection there. And when I'm there getting mail and I hear cars going by on the private road above, You can hear rocks and dirt and everything crumbling down. And it's pretty scary. It was always kind of I knew it was a private road and it was always kind of interesting to me to think about, oh, is that a problem of the private road or is there a problem of the city road? in retaining wall, but it sounds like that's also being addressed. But, and then lastly, The turn that's there is actually very sharp. And I was hoping that there might be an opportunity to through the design of the wall. maybe improve on the severity of the sharp turn, Going up from Marion, along that wall, where currently I imagine a fire truck and ambulance probably has to do like a five, if not a nine point turn to get up there. So Um, That's all I have. Thank you. |
| 03:35:16.44 | Steven Woodside | No further comments? Seeing no further comments, we'll have a discussion from the diocese. Does anyone want to make a discussion or a motion? |
| 03:35:25.32 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I just ask the city attorney, this recommendation of staff to utilize any surplus funding from the original allocation toward the installation of the uphill wall was a recommendation in the staff report, although it was not uh part of the recommended motion so Thank you. Can we add that to the recommended motion, or can we give direction on that, if that's the consensus of the council? |
| 03:35:50.50 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, I think you can give direction to staff to follow that course of conduct. I think ultimately, you know, there may be need to be some other future appropriation actions that need to happen and will need to come back to council in order to effectuate that direction. |
| 03:36:08.89 | Melissa Blaustein | Agreed. I just want to make sure that money is segregated, if that's the will of the Council. And then in terms of the recommended motion, this is a one-page motion. Can I just move to adopt a resolution, you know, essentially adopting the recommended motion in the staff report, or do I have to read the whole thing? |
| 03:36:29.06 | Sergio Rudin | You can say that you move the recommended motion as in the staff report, |
| 03:36:35.23 | Melissa Blaustein | All right, so with that, I will move the recommended motion In the staff report. including adopting the recommended Resolution. And I will also move that we direct staff to utilize any surplus funding from the original allocation and the award of the resurfacing to the installation of the uphill wall. and to return to us with any additional appropriation that may be needed to carry out that project. |
| 03:37:07.43 | Steven Woodside | Second, |
| 03:37:07.70 | Ian Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 03:37:07.73 | Steven Woodside | you So we have a motion on the floor. It's been seconded. Is there any discussion on the motion? |
| 03:37:15.12 | Steven Woodside | Seeing no discussion, we'll simply call the question. All the papers say aye. eye. Opposed. I think Passes unanimously. So, given the hour, we could push item 5F, the budget calendar, to a future agenda item. The question then is simply 5G pulled off of consent, which is an internal matter. It's our city council schedule. Do we wish to discuss that item in full or in part? |
| 03:37:47.86 | Melissa Blaustein | May I recommend that we put item 5F on consent for our next regular meeting on February 6, unless there's any objection to that, given that everybody's already read the staff report for this evening, and that for the budget, sorry, for the... meeting calendar that we agree that we adopt the schedule through February 6 and place the balance of the calendar for consideration at our February 6 meeting. |
| 03:38:26.94 | Jill Hoffman | Vice Mayor, can you just clarify that we wouldn't really be doing anything then other than to approve the special meeting on the 22nd and the 10th? |
| 03:38:34.44 | Melissa Blaustein | I would like to approve the special meeting on January 22, the meeting on February 6, and the workshop on February 10. and then leave it until February 6 to adopt the balance of the calendar or discuss alternatives. |
| 03:38:49.86 | Ian Sobieski | Yeah, that's right. |
| 03:38:50.45 | Steven Woodside | If I might suggest then, given the press of business on the 6th, and if there is some discussion, it might be more appropriate to talk about our calendar at our priority planning session on the 10th. It would dovetail with an assessment of our work and our priorities and how we want to operate the rest of the year. |
| 03:39:07.29 | Ian Sobieski | Sure. |
| 03:39:07.80 | Steven Woodside | So. Okay, with that in mind then, I would think we don't need a motion. We have direction on the next three meetings and we will move this item to our- |
| 03:39:16.34 | Sergio Rudin | public comment. |
| 03:39:17.70 | Steven Woodside | public. |
| 03:39:19.33 | Sergio Rudin | Sorry, public comment. |
| 03:39:21.15 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:39:21.28 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much for the reminder. Any public comment on this item of our |
| 03:39:21.91 | Melissa Blaustein | Exactly. |
| 03:39:26.12 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:39:26.23 | Jeffrey Stafford | THE FAMILY. |
| 03:39:26.29 | Melissa Blaustein | Absolutely. 5F and 5G. |
| 03:39:35.54 | Sandra Bushmaker | I apologize. I meant to have public comment during the free speech section. At the end, I can say what I want to say now or go away and come back later. I'm just... But if you tell me to go away, you do so at my risk. I'm worried about losing her. |
| 03:39:53.33 | Melissa Blaustein | you Thank you. |
| 03:39:54.88 | Sandra Bushmaker | So, |
| 03:39:55.50 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:39:56.08 | Sandra Bushmaker | Is it okay? |
| 03:39:57.17 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:40:00.70 | Walfred Solorzano | That's up to the mayor. Yeah. All right. Feel free to pop it with your mute button now, Ms. My new job. |
| 03:40:06.31 | Sandra Bushmaker | My mute button is on a different machine. |
| 03:40:07.18 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm sorry. |
| 03:40:08.58 | Sandra Bushmaker | How about this? |
| 03:40:08.82 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm not going to go. |
| 03:40:09.21 | Joan Cox | Thank you. fish. |
| 03:40:09.88 | Sandra Bushmaker | No. |
| 03:40:09.97 | Joan Cox | I can go away if you'd like. |
| 03:40:11.25 | Walfred Solorzano | I love it. |
| 03:40:12.31 | Joan Cox | How about this solution? Leave your microphone on, just don't say anything. Fine. On this. And then the next thing is going to be public comment, I think. Let's do that. |
| 03:40:16.61 | Sandra Bushmaker | Fine. |
| 03:40:17.14 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:40:21.39 | Walfred Solorzano | So thank you for that. perfectly great. So do you have any other problem? |
| 03:40:39.57 | Unknown | See you then. |
| 03:40:41.61 | Walfred Solorzano | that's the reaction. I don't think we need a motion on that. We now move to the portion of the agenda for comments on the agenda. And I don't know if you don't, but there's a public comment on this. |
| 03:40:54.47 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. First of all, congratulations, Mayor Sobieski, and I hope you have a good year. Um, Part of the technical difficulty was the lateness of the hour. And this is to urge you to revert to a prior, the prior protocol of taking public comment First. I know several people tonight who would have had something to say. but couldn't handle. um, Staying coherency. until 11 o'clock. I know why the Public comment was moved. And I urge you to certainly test it out. by moving it back. to the start of the meeting. Thank you very much. |
| 03:41:38.65 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm going to go. Peace. So, I'm sorry. |
| 03:41:41.77 | Steven Woodside | City Clerk, would you like to manage public comment? Thank you. |
| 03:41:45.72 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:41:45.73 | Steven Woodside | Sorry. |
| 03:41:45.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Jeffrey Chase |
| 03:41:48.16 | Jeffrey Chase | Yes. Hello, Mayor and City Council. So I want to second that, that... This was a very technical meeting. I think I understood maybe half of it, which is pretty good for me. But that the public comment is at the beginning and it sets the tone from We the People. Thank you. Uh, Especially as the year goes on and who knows what kind of controversies come in to keep us awake. All right. So thank you and good night. |
| 03:42:26.28 | Walfred Solorzano | And we have Senator Bushmaker. |
| 03:42:31.28 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi. 26 years ago, we moved the public comment to the beginning of the agenda. And it worked very, very well for many, many years. And I would like to encourage you to do the same. Now. Thank you. |
| 03:42:47.56 | Walfred Solorzano | I'll tell you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:42:48.58 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 03:42:48.61 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:42:48.64 | Sandra Bushmaker | Yeah. |
| 03:42:48.69 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 03:42:50.70 | Sandra Bushmaker | Okay. Thank you. |
| 03:42:52.03 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 03:42:52.10 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 03:42:52.69 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 03:42:52.88 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 03:42:57.01 | Babette McDougall | It's been a long day for everybody. Thank you. Thank you for acknowledging me. Well, it turns out I just want you to know that when I speak to you from this lectern, I am usually representing the body politic to the extent that people have checked in with me and made known their wishes. but prefer to stay watching on the closed circuit television. public input. in general, has got to be reinstated by the city council. COVID is over, and the people want to come back. They just don't like the way the council has gotten in the habit of comporting itself. And it started before the five of you. So it's not like I'm trying to point a finger here, but we need to reinstate the public engagement process. It's vital. It's vital. It's vital to the survival of our communities, small d democracy. And that really is important. So I'm asking you to consider it strongly. Move this public comment thing back to the beginning like it used to be. You want to implement the two-minute thing because you think we're responsible for you guys running long in your meetings? Fine. But the point is, Let public comment come back and reengage the citizens when they say something. that requests a response. kindly respond. That's kind of an unfortunate thing to learn. that we don't get to hear about the, housing element, EIR, until we read the final draft. We finally see our comments then. This is really not the way it was meant to be. So that's it. And then on a personal note, I want to say thank you to each of you. Some of you have really, Oh, over the last year. And I just want to say thank you for being here for the citizens of Sausalito. This is the start of a new calendar year. We are halfway through the current budget cycle. I say let's just go forward and make Sausalito better than it's ever been. And we can do that working together with our elected leaders and the citizens that put you here to do that work. Thank you. |
| 03:45:06.36 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, seeing none, other speakers. |
| 03:45:09.26 | Steven Woodside | Seeing no other public comment, we'll move on to council committee reports. Any reports from anyone? |
| 03:45:20.05 | Melissa Blaustein | Um, Yes, I'm opening my, okay. On Thursday, I attended the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission meeting as the city council liaison to that committee. And we presented our quarterly report regarding our waterfront management plan and our eelgrass restoration plan. Um, together with the Richardson Bay Regional Agency. And, um, We raised an issue with BCDC, which is the acronym for that agency, which is that in our settlement agreement that we negotiated in 2020, it requires us to mitigate eelgrass loss at a ratio of 1.2 to 1. Since undertaking, and interestingly, VCDC required that of us in our settlement agreement, but did not require it of the RBRA in their settlement agreement. And now that we've actually hired some biological experts to assist in this effort, and we have prepared an initial restoration plan, which has been vetted by three regional experts, all three opined that this 1.2 to 1 goal, which is enunciated as a goal in our settlement agreement, is likely infeasible. Immediately after receiving that information in July from these agencies, BCDC staff in December inexplicably announced that they would no longer treat this as a goal, as enunciated in our settlement agreement, but would treat it as a requirement. knowing that it's likely infeasible. And so I raised this issue during my public comments and three comments BCDC commissioners asked staff for further information about why is it that Sausalito is being treated differently from RBRA? Why is it that this goal is now a requirement? And why is it that this was agreed to in the first place? Did we have, and why has it changed? And the answer is we didn't have any biological consultants advising us. And very little is known about eelgrass. We are learning as we go. So I have drafted a letter with the help of Katie Throe Garcia, our sustainability manager, to answer those questions from the city of Sausalito's perspective. I've asked Councilmember Hoffman to weigh in on the content of that letter, and I would like consensus from the council that I can send that letter on behalf of the council as the liaison to BCDC. That's the gist of the letter and the communication I'd like to advance. |
| 03:48:21.25 | Andrew Davidson | you |
| 03:48:23.09 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you very much for handling that and representing us well. So you're aware that SFEI, the San Francisco Estuary Institute, applied to the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority for a proposal to advance a living shoreline project that included restoration of eelgrass. and I just want to make you aware of that as a possible additional benefit to the conversation that we have one of, I think, seven Living Shoreline projects that were picked out of this restoration authority. |
| 03:48:47.86 | Stephen Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:48:47.88 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:48:47.91 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 03:48:47.96 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:48:53.95 | Melissa Blaustein | So I'm wondering if it might be appropriate to just put this on our calendar as a business item at some point in the future so that we can all better understand our schedule. |
| 03:49:04.19 | Jill Hoffman | Stop talking about it. |
| 03:49:04.35 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. I'm talking about it. It's not agenda. Awesome. |
| 03:49:07.25 | Jill Hoffman | So I thought we had a consultant. That's my second question. |
| 03:49:09.65 | Melissa Blaustein | do have a consultant, Robert Mooney. |
| 03:49:11.20 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:49:11.22 | Jill Hoffman | It was a woman, Kathy Sikors. |
| 03:49:12.83 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:49:13.38 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:49:13.38 | Steven Woodside | I think we should... |
| 03:49:13.39 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:49:14.79 | Jill Hoffman | that. |
| 03:49:14.84 | Joan Cox | us |
| 03:49:15.18 | Steven Woodside | Comport with our recommendation for our city attorney. |
| 03:49:15.22 | Joan Cox | Comport with our rent. Thank you. I think it's under future agenda items, perhaps. |
| 03:49:22.76 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, I would recommend you put this on the agenda for a future agenda item. Bye. |
| 03:49:27.82 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any other committee member reports? |
| 03:49:30.20 | Ian Sobieski | I have a quick, just a reminder to members of the council that we will be having our first Marine County Council members and mayors committee meeting on January 24th, which is next Wednesday. It's also open to members of the public, by the way. And this time it will be on Zoom and we will be hearing from our Transportation Authority of Moran Executive Director Ann Richmond, as well as our Bridge District Executive Director Dennis Mulligan. So if you are able to join on Zoom, council members will be at six as usual, and I hope to see you there. |
| 03:49:57.08 | Jill Hoffman | Mayor, thank you for that. One thing to add. So I am a member of the BCCC Regional Elected Officials Task Force for Sea Level Rise and was made aware that there's money, SB2 monies, for projects and planning and conveyed that to Katie Tal Garcia, our Sustainability Resilience Manager, and hopefully we'll be able to pursue some of those funds because apparently the Ocean Protection Council wants to literally give them out. So we should prioritize that. |
| 03:50:27.93 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Is that it? Any other committee reports? Is there a public comment on any of the committee reports? |
| 03:50:30.80 | Stephen Woodside | it's not. |
| 03:50:37.97 | Steven Woodside | City clerk, nothing. All right. |
| 03:50:42.27 | Walfred Solorzano | I don't think we do public comment on committee reports. Do we, Sergio? I'm not sure. |
| 03:50:45.90 | Steven Woodside | Well, in any event, there are no there is no public comment. Item eight is the combined city manager reports, city manager information for the council and future agenda items. Is there public? We take public comment on this first. Is there any public comment on these items? |
| 03:51:07.40 | Unknown | See you then. |
| 03:51:08.45 | Steven Woodside | Seeing no public comment, we'll move on to the city manager information |
| 03:51:11.16 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:51:11.20 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:51:11.21 | Chris Zapata | TODAY. |
| 03:51:11.40 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:51:12.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:51:12.23 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. Thank you, public, for being here tonight. Thank you for all your work. I want to say to you that there's more work to be done. There are three appeals pending to the city council. So at our last agenda setting committee meeting, a pretty vigorous discussion was held about the upcoming Monday, January 22nd meeting, which is a special meeting to consider the Pine Street appeal, which will start at 7 and has been posted that way way given that we didn't have one meeting in january the recommendation was made that we have two additional items at six o'clock no closed session but two additional items for the council's information and consideration they're a part of the pending council agenda list and starting at six uh the items being discussed would be catastrophic based insurance, which I think is extremely timely given the weather and Saucyotl's history, and then the pending request for proposals for facilities that we need clear direction on. So those are two items scheduled for six, but if they don't get resolved before seven, a hard stop is the advertisement has been made for the Pine Street Appeal to be heard at 7 p.m. So that's a Monday meeting that is really important that everyone be aware of. The start time in particular, which is 6 o'clock. The second thing is the city council has agreed on a February 10th strategy session, which is a Saturday. So I want to make sure that the public is aware of that as well. That's always an open to the public affair where the council does a lot of its work to build a consensus and help us build a work plan and therefore identify budget priorities and work for the coming year. So that's on February the 10th and it will start at eight o'clock. That concludes my report, Mayor. |
| 03:53:03.43 | Joan Cox | I have a follow up on that. When we were polled as city council members for our time, we were when we polled for start time of seven for that special meeting. Because I don't I don't remember being repolled for a start time of six. |
| 03:53:21.45 | Joan Cox | I recall that we were polled and that there were specific times that we were talking about. So I could be wrong. But the other thing is, Special meetings, as my understanding, special meetings are for special work, not regular work at the city council meeting. And this is a different night. This is not our regularly by resolution scheduled night for a city council meeting. I'm just wondering about One, we're changing the start time from what we were polled. And number two, we're putting regular city council work on a special meeting instead of having it at a regular meeting. So I don't know if the attorney wants to weigh in on that or parameters on that. Thank you. |
| 03:54:12.86 | Melissa Blaustein | I will say we scheduled the special meeting because of the unavailability of all council members for another Tuesday night meeting. in January, so we scheduled it on a Monday to accommodate Council members pre-existing commitments. |
| 03:54:29.78 | Joan Cox | Because it wasn't a regularly scheduled time. because our regularly scheduled meetings. by resolution, our meetings are first and third. And so that's, we canceled the first meeting, and now this is the third. Tonight's the third. And we wanted to have a special meeting to get, anyway, to address, I thought, the appeal, which is not regular city council business. It's something... you know. Different in a different category. |
| 03:55:00.71 | Steven Woodside | in a different category. |
| 03:55:01.62 | Joan Cox | So. |
| 03:55:02.33 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Councilmember Hoppin. On the consent agenda for the December 19th meeting, we passed a... direction from the entire city council to cancel the January 2nd meeting and find another date in for a special meeting. So it was the special meeting is a substitute for the January 2nd business meeting and so we comprehend doing business at that special meeting. |
| 03:55:26.23 | Sergio Rudin | I don't know if you still need an answer. Generally, you're allowed to do any business at a special meeting with some limited exceptions. Those include passing ordinances and... uh, passing contracts for executive compensation, uh, calling special meetings on salaries of, uh, local agency executives. And I think there may be one other one that I am blanking on. But in general, you can conduct most regular agency business at a special meeting. |
| 03:55:53.94 | Steven Woodside | So, you know, I apologize, I thought it was the direction of the Council to find a substitute for the January second meeting, which was the first day everyone was back so I think staff operated in good faith, as did we all to try to find a business meeting to do our work. and, Everyone's schedules are very busy and it was a gargantuan effort to find any time. And so I'm glad we did find a time that we could do this. |
| 03:56:21.82 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. Thank you, city manager. That is conducts, that completes our business here tonight. And we're gonna adjourn. Thank you very much. Thanks for catching it. The future, just seeing if you're paying attention this late hour, item eight C future agenda items. Does anyone want to formally add anything to our list of future agenda items? |
| 03:56:27.33 | Jeffrey Stafford | I'm adjourned. |
| 03:56:28.16 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 03:56:37.54 | Ian Sobieski | I was approached by some members of the board of the Social Center for the Arts as a request to have a conversation about their lease potentially at some point in the new year. So I just want to flag that and make sure it's on the list of future agenda items. |
| 03:56:50.91 | Steven Woodside | Okay, that'll be added. else council member |
| 03:56:55.75 | Joan Cox | What specifically about their leaves? |
| 03:56:59.09 | Ian Sobieski | I think they just wanted to have a discussion about where they stand on their lease and the changes in the terms, or sorry, the upcoming. |
| 03:57:03.77 | Joan Cox | that upcoming escalation of their rent? So they want to come and talk to us about not escalating the rent? They just want to come in. |
| 03:57:11.68 | Ian Sobieski | They just want to come and talk to us about the lease. I don't have specifics. Okay. |
| 03:57:14.40 | Joan Cox | Okay, because the lease is for another five years, I think, right? It's five years. It was five years when we started, so they've got another three years on the current lease. So, okay, got it. |
| 03:57:24.20 | Steven Woodside | any other future agenda items? Ready when? All right, so now we get to complete this meeting. Five minutes past 11, we will adjourn. And see you again on January the 22nd at 6 p.m. for a special city council meeting. |
| 03:57:35.05 | Stephen Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:57:40.98 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, and I will bang the gala. |
| 03:57:42.70 | Unknown | Recording stopped. |
| 03:57:45.60 | Walfred Solorzano | That's right. What did you say? |
| 03:57:47.66 | Steven Woodside | Would you? |
Kieran Culligan — Neutral: Highlighted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. public school as an example of diversity and promoted a February 2nd gala fundraiser for the school foundation. ▶ 📄