| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:08.92 | Walfred Solorzano | Mayor Sobieski and Councilmembers, this meeting of June 18, 2024 is being held in Council Chambers located at 420 Little Street. Staff members and members of the public are also participating through Zoom. This meeting is being broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:29.00 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, city clerk. Councilmember Blastine has informed that she is going to be late for the closed session. She probably will actually be a few minutes late even for the open session, but should be arriving shortly after 7 o'clock. Could you go ahead and please call the roll? |
| 00:00:41.95 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Blasin, as Mayor Sobieski noted, she'll be here later. Councilmember Hoffman. Councilmember Kelman. Here. Vice Mayor Cox. Here. And Mayor Sobieski. Here. |
| 00:00:52.83 | Steven Woodside | here. Thank you very much, city clerk. We're going to go ahead and have the first item be interviews for the Park and Recreation Commission. Thanks to everyone who is here. And we will begin with James Kavanaugh. |
| 00:01:08.24 | Rupert Hanson | Thank you. |
| 00:01:08.29 | Steven Woodside | Yes, please just come to the podium. Sorry, thank you for coming in. And if you'd kindly just spend a minute introducing yourself, then we'll ask you questions with the rest of our time. |
| 00:01:08.32 | Rupert Hanson | Yes. |
| 00:01:17.62 | Steven Woodside | Why do you want to be on the Parks and Rec Commission? Who are you? Where do you live? Why do you want to volunteer? |
| 00:01:26.47 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 00:01:27.70 | Doreen Gunnard | Hold on. Your mic. |
| 00:01:29.64 | Steven Woodside | We just need to fix the mic. So, sorry. |
| 00:01:35.41 | Steven Woodside | Ooh, it's hot. We'll be right back. |
| 00:01:38.38 | Casey Peterson | Thank you. |
| 00:01:39.14 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:01:39.31 | Joan Cox | Is it on? Oh, please turn it on. Maybe just a minute. |
| 00:01:45.45 | James Kavanaugh | I've been working in the city since 79. |
| 00:01:45.80 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:01:45.82 | Peter Van Meter | I don't know. |
| 00:01:51.42 | James Kavanaugh | In 1986, we started a Well, earlier than that, we started a video production company and set the MLK property. I'm here 12 hours every day working. I live on Filbert, but... It just seems like time to step up to get more involved. I'm already doing a bunch of things, if I can... These are cards from my dance. I put a dance on every Sunday morning in the old gym. It's free to associate a residence. Please come. Um, I've made My business is video production. A lot of corporate work, but sometimes things are other things, movies and such, which are in the library. This is one on, but doctors who use poetry in their practice. It's very popular. There's even using graduate courses. And this is a movie about Sausalito, or the soul of Sausalito. Bruce and I finished this in 2015. And I was so full of further ideas and I'm working on a second one right now. So that's a lot. And then probably the biggest, the blue sky, there's a group of us have gathered to talk about. building our own community center. I think. South Stater deserves one. So it's a big, it's a big deal, but, um, it's worth talking about. And I, I condensed it into one page. Anybody like to read my edition of this? I've also, I've recruited, uh, the assistance of people from local centers who've already done it, of course, Mill Valley, but Brilliant game. Just finished a center... a year ago. And the woman who helped start that has promised a tourist and answered all the questions that might come up All this feels like to me is like it's time to give back to where I spend my whole life. And that's why I'm here. That's why I'm here. |
| 00:03:50.04 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Mr. Kavanaugh. Are there questions, please, for my colleagues? |
| 00:03:50.14 | James Kavanaugh | Thank you. |
| 00:03:55.45 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. Thank you also. Hi there. Thank you for the frequent emails we receive from you and your updates. Appreciate it. |
| 00:03:56.37 | Steven Woodside | Thank you all. |
| 00:03:56.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:04:02.29 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:04:02.32 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:04:02.86 | Councilmember Kellman | Can you tell us a little bit more about your idea for a community center and maybe some things you think are currently serving that purpose that you think are doing well today in the city? |
| 00:04:15.81 | James Kavanaugh | I don't think Salasio actually has a center, a real place to meet. There's certainly nothing like Mill Valley does, of course. And I think it's doable. It seems clear to me that it would have to be at the MLK campus. It's the really only big, flat, available space. And I know there's the housing element issue. It seems to me the housing element actually could be an opportunity to take the obligation of the housing element and then do something for ourselves, let's build our own center. I have details in here about square footage and solar panels, because it seems to me relevant half story underground parking and, It would be a lot of money and a bunch of time. I think, though, it is a good idea and we at least deserve it. to talk about it. um, I was talking to Rainer Needleman about it, and she said she thinks it's a great idea because raising her kids here, she was always having to drive into another town because it was not the facilities. The community center would be in part for sports, but only in part. I see a great hall where we could actually have a New Year's dance and have large gatherings. The whole town couldn't fit any one room. A lot of people could fit in a hall like they have in Mill Valley. |
| 00:05:40.30 | Steven Woodside | Oh, Thank you. Are there other questions? |
| 00:05:43.91 | Joan Cox | Have you had any involvement with the Park and Rec Commission in the past? |
| 00:05:49.26 | James Kavanaugh | Well, in putting on this dance, it's their gem. So we started that in 21, during COVID, when the place was empty. So at first we were dancing with masks on, and we got to that point where it was loud to dance without. And that's as close as I've gotten to it. I couldn't tell you the mandate, I presume it means better parks and better recreation. Right? Yeah. What else could it be, right? So I... I don't know. I feel like this is my wheelhouse, this kind of thing. I've been doing stuff like this my whole life. I, Thank you. Thank you. I volunteer more than I should. But... Everybody can understand that. |
| 00:06:36.09 | Steven Woodside | Well, thank you, Mr. Kavanaugh. That's all the time we have. You and everyone else deserves more, but we have to get through our list. And just to set expectations, the actual appointments we made at our meeting later in the evening, this is just going to be interviews. So just so you know, the next person is Ms. Stacey Cray. |
| 00:06:57.75 | Steven Woodside | So similarly, Ms. Gray, if you just kindly take a minute to do that. |
| 00:07:00.59 | Stacey Cray | It's all. So I bought a house in Sausalito in 2014. I also had a place in San Francisco at that time. And I was, we were renovating the house. We lived in this very small house, my ex-husband and my two kids, and fell in love with the city. I didn't, I sort of went back to San Francisco kicking and screaming and kept the house and have lived there intermittently for the last 10 years. And then recently I bought a house on Cloud View Road. Um, and part of the reason I bought another house was because, um, the house that I have has a hundred stairs from the driveway down to the, um, entrance of the home. And I have a son who has a neuro neurological issues and it has an accessibility issues. So I was looking for a house in Sausalito that was on one level and had a view. And I found it. But the reason that I applied was that I saw in Currents that you were looking for artists. And I am a singer-songwriter. I'm very involved in theater in San Francisco and also in New York. I've been writing a musical for the last eight years now. And I'm really deeply involved in the New York theater scene, musical theater scene. So I'd love to see some musical theater and some theater in general in Sausalito. And I think there are opportunities... when folks come out here to maybe get them to come somewhere in Sausalito to do a, a community concert and that sort of thing. I'm also very interested in, um, in, in improving the, the, the, uh, public spaces in, in Sausalito, they're wonderful. they could be more accessible. And some of them are a little bit run down. Just taking as an example, the little playground that's up where I live on cloud view, like I don't know what that is, except sort of a scary place that nobody goes and it seems like it, you know, it could be a nicer place. And maybe just connecting the areas like I sort of dream of a sauce leader that's a little bit connected, more connected with all these roads that were never built in the kind of. semi-dilapidated staircases and how do we make sure that seniors and people with disabilities can access at least some of those spaces. So those are, I mean, I think I love the jazz and blues by the Bay. Like there's just so many things you're doing right here at the arts festival, the new art, building, whatever that is, Um, it's just, and it's such a great town and all of these applicants are so incredibly well-qualified. It's just, I just feel it's an honor to be here and chat with you about this. |
| 00:09:22.51 | Katie Garcia | And, |
| 00:09:26.74 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I'll kick it off with the first question. Do you have a specific idea on how to bring more live performance, especially dance to Sausalito? Dance. Or you say you're a dancer? |
| 00:09:39.92 | Stacey Cray | I said music. Well, I mean, there are certainly avenues to doing that. I mean, one, I'm also a member of the battery at San Francisco, they bring a lot of artists, and I'd be happy to coordinate. I'm sure there are other Sausalito members to just sort of create a team. They do things over here anyway. And so often they'll have a person from the, who's a pretty big deal musical artist come over. There also could be outdoor performances. My mom has actually been very involved in the, she was the president uh, a theater in Half Moon Bay called Coastal Rep. She's still around and helping me. And so she has a lot of experience with outdoor activities. And I think like in Dunphy Park and some of the other places there could be, you know, you could have Shakespeare in the park, um, during the summer, which would be lovely. |
| 00:10:30.87 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:10:31.00 | Stacey Cray | Thank you. |
| 00:10:31.14 | Steven Woodside | Vice Mayor. |
| 00:10:32.39 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Have you met any of the folks who run the Sausalito Center for the Arts at the Bank of America building? |
| 00:10:38.82 | Stacey Cray | I ran into that, you know, like having as, as Sausalito goes, right. I went to have dinner at Poggio and went across the street and was like, what's going on here. And of course there was an event. And so I chatted with some of the people that were there, but I haven't had a chance to, really connect, um, more deeply. And I hope to do that sometime soon. |
| 00:10:53.85 | Joan Cox | Lovely. Thank you. |
| 00:10:58.21 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Ms. Gray. Thanks. Thank you very much. |
| 00:10:59.18 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 00:11:01.43 | Steven Woodside | Ms. Sonia Salzman, please welcome. So similarly, welcome. If you kindly summarize for a minute yourself, introduce yourself, then we'll ask you some questions. |
| 00:11:11.39 | Sonia Salzman | For sure. Thank you so much first for giving me this opportunity to do an interview. I'm super excited to be here with all of you and these other wonderful applicants. My name is Sonia Saltzman. I was born and raised in Mill Valley and recently moved to Sausalito. And so when I saw this opportunity, I really jumped at it to get more involved in the Parks and Recs Department. A little bit about my background. I currently serve as a senior program coordinator at the Youth Leadership Institute. And in this position, I coordinate the Marin County Youth Commission and Marin Organizing for Racial Equity. And so my background is very focused on youth development and creating inclusive spaces and communities for Marin County residents. And so I'm very excited about this opportunity. And one of the reasons why I am applying to be a commissioner is to make the parks and recs more inclusive and have more representation. I'm also very passionate about a little bit about what Stacy talked about making Sausalito more ADA inclusive, especially with kind of the physical. Groundwork Um, And so, yeah, I think I'm just very passionate about public service and really getting more involved in the Sausalito community. And so that's primarily why I'm applying. And I appreciate this opportunity. |
| 00:12:28.72 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Questions, please. |
| 00:12:32.64 | Councilmember Kellman | I'd be interested in maybe some examples of some events that you help coordinate or executed in your current work. |
| 00:12:40.03 | Sonia Salzman | all. |
| 00:12:40.76 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:12:40.77 | Sonia Salzman | Yeah, of course. In my current role, I work a lot with the county of Marin to host community events. And so some of the events we've hosted is our annual May Wellness Festival, which is hosted at Terralinda every year to promote wellness and mental health resources specifically for young people, but also just the overall community. Another event we recently hosted in April was the Cultural Fusion Fair, which brought together music, together music dance food and just opportunities for people to engage in cross-cultural dialogue and then another event um that we've done is community forums, as well as working with the Board of Supervisors to host events regarding civic engagement. And so kind of a diverse array of events that I think are really connected to the Parks and Recs Commission and some events that we could potentially see in Sausalito as well. |
| 00:13:35.47 | Joan Cox | Yes, I see from your resume how involved you are in Marin County. Yeah. And I see that you're part of Marin Women's PAC. |
| 00:13:39.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:13:45.25 | Joan Cox | which of course weighs in on our elections. every year. |
| 00:13:48.86 | Sonia Salzman | Definitely. I love them. I've been actually working with Laurel to host an event in October of next year to get young people more civically engaged. And so we're hoping to host a forum with local community members and giving that opportunity for those conversations, as well as getting young people to pre-register to vote. So I love that. |
| 00:14:08.79 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 00:14:09.11 | Sonia Salzman | ATTENTION. |
| 00:14:09.49 | Joan Cox | at a couple of the events with high school kids who are getting involved in the political process. I just think it's fantastic, the work that they're doing. |
| 00:14:16.15 | Sonia Salzman | Thank you. |
| 00:14:16.25 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:14:16.27 | Sonia Salzman | Thank you. Definitely, definitely agree. |
| 00:14:18.06 | Joan Cox | Thank you for that. |
| 00:14:18.82 | Sonia Salzman | Yeah. |
| 00:14:21.67 | Steven Woodside | Other questions? In your youth outreach, do you work actively with the school district or is this completely separate from the school district? |
| 00:14:30.39 | Sonia Salzman | Um, it's both. So primarily we work with the county of Marin, but we also do work with, um, the different school districts to get young people involved. So there's a lot of working partnerships. Um, but yeah, the school districts are included. |
| 00:14:43.54 | Steven Woodside | Do you have any... Thank you. formal association with our school district here. |
| 00:14:47.91 | Sonia Salzman | I do not. Thank you. Yeah. |
| 00:14:52.41 | Steven Woodside | I think that's all the questions we have. Thank you very much. |
| 00:14:54.03 | Sonia Salzman | Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate it. |
| 00:14:57.39 | Steven Woodside | is Danielle. Kenan is next. Hello, welcome. |
| 00:15:06.59 | Danielle | Thank you for having me. Yeah, welcome. My name is Danielle and my favorite day of the year is the Sausalito Super Bowl. |
| 00:15:07.86 | Steven Woodside | You're welcome. |
| 00:15:13.09 | Sharna Brockett | Thank you. |
| 00:15:13.12 | Kathy Nikitas | Uh-huh. |
| 00:15:14.72 | Danielle | Every year I have a countdown, I have a special outfit. Um, I truly think Salsalito is one of the, if not the most magical community in the world. And, um, I've been a member of the Salsalito community since 2016. by way of Craigslist. I was moving from Ohio, then Mill Valley, looking for a place to live, and I typed in water into the entire housing section of the Bay Area. and landed on a houseboat for four years and kind of was exposed to that magical community. I then bought a motor yacht after that, lived in Marina Plaza, different community, also wonderful. then on land, and now I'm up on Harrison. But it is an absolutely delightful community. My most passionate involvement recently has been with the Sausalito Cruising Club. I did spend three years on the board there, was vice commodore last year. and really enjoyed helping plan events there, music, bringing community together. And most recently with Scott Jampel, who does Sal Salido Liquor Company, we purchased Keep Sal Salido Salty with the attempt of reviving it, joining the Historical Society, really joining and learning everything about Sal Salido and to share it with the world. Um, and also our, our wonderful community that's here and the adult Easter egg hunt is my second favorite day of the year. Nice to see you all. |
| 00:16:49.56 | Steven Woodside | Fantastic. |
| 00:16:51.38 | Danielle | Oh, sorry, one more thing. I'm a graphic designer. I'm a graphic designer. I lead a team of 25 people internationally. I really believe in positivity and collaboration and assuming good intent. And I think those are key qualities for a role like this. um, Mainly snacks and enthusiasm is what I bring. So if you need that, that's what I'm here for. |
| 00:17:13.36 | Steven Woodside | Thank you for that. And thanks for your help with the cruising club. I'm a member there as well. It sounds like you have a lot of energy and like to do a lot of things. So if you're on the commission, what are you imagining that you're going to want to do? |
| 00:17:25.51 | Danielle | anything and everything that might be needed. I really have a passion for bringing things together and bringing people together. And... Kind of the area I fit is what I call glimmers of bringing that extra special magic and delight of just that, that extra fun. Um. I do act very much as a cheerleader in an organization of of really, you know, embracing team members, supporting each other and, um, making magic, hopefully. |
| 00:17:58.36 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 00:17:59.69 | Unknown | Mayor? |
| 00:18:01.26 | Councilmember Kellman | So can you tell us a little bit more about what you want to do with keep Sausalito salty and what that means to you and, |
| 00:18:07.54 | Danielle | Oh, gosh, yeah, absolutely. Keep Salced to Salty is a very much a passion project. It is really looking at what makes our town what it is, and making sure that history is preserved and shared and celebrated. I mean, I think we have roughly 2 million visitors coming through. How do we tell that story and get those, you know, wonderful things about our town across in a way that's, that's meaningful, um, in a way that, you know, continues to embrace our history and look forward as well. |
| 00:18:46.34 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions? |
| 00:18:47.52 | Unknown | Can I double up? Did you say you make good snacks? |
| 00:18:48.68 | Steven Woodside | So you've. |
| 00:18:50.79 | Danielle | Yes. |
| 00:18:51.13 | Unknown | Can you expand on that? Oh, yeah. |
| 00:18:52.71 | Danielle | Oh, yeah. I make a great charcuterie board. I also do, yeah, cheese boards, wine. Machine bits. |
| 00:19:00.82 | Councilmember Kellman | I mean, she mentioned it as part of the application. |
| 00:19:02.67 | Danielle | It's true. It's true. Thank you for asking. |
| 00:19:03.99 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you for asking. Thank you for offering. |
| 00:19:08.39 | Steven Woodside | Well, thank you very much. |
| 00:19:09.62 | Danielle | Thank you for your time. |
| 00:19:11.97 | Steven Woodside | So Avalon Johnson. |
| 00:19:19.24 | Steven Woodside | I'm sorry, for anyone who's expecting Karina, she withdrew or was not able to attend, actually, just from a... |
| 00:19:23.65 | Unknown | I'm sorry? |
| 00:19:23.93 | Steven Woodside | The next candidate, the vice mayor asked, Karina Hughes is not here. |
| 00:19:23.95 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:19:28.73 | Steven Woodside | Oh, you are here. Well. Okay. I'm glad you spoke up. Then my order is different than the one that's in the binder. There is one candidate, |
| 00:19:38.75 | Avalon Johnson | Should I step in? |
| 00:19:39.17 | Steven Woodside | who is not able to come, but I think that might be Stella Benton at the end, actually. |
| 00:19:43.96 | Avalon Johnson | I'm Avalon. |
| 00:19:44.56 | Steven Woodside | So go right ahead. Sorry for the mix up. |
| 00:19:46.39 | Avalon Johnson | Hi. |
| 00:19:46.48 | Steven Woodside | Welcome, Ms. Johnson. If you'd kindly introduce yourself for a minute, then we'll ask you our question. |
| 00:19:49.79 | Avalon Johnson | Yeah. My name is Avalon Johnson. I moved here in 2021. Like a lot of people, probably my first visit to Sausalito was on the ferry. And it just was wonderful. I paddle outrigger canoes. And we are living in Palo Alto. And I paddle in San Francisco. And I don't know if you realize, but when you're in San Francisco in the fog Alto and I paddle in San Francisco. And I don't know if you realize, but when you're in San Francisco in the fog and you look across the bay, you see the sunshine. And I'm like, I'm living over there. I'm living in Sausalito. Well, I live in Hurricane Gulch. That tells you something, right? I'm like. |
| 00:20:31.94 | Karina Hughes | Thank you. |
| 00:20:32.55 | Avalon Johnson | Oh my God. So, Yeah, it's a little colder than I imagined. I do a lot of sports. I do outrigger canoeing. Um, run the trails of Mount Tam. I have taken up to running the stairs of Sausalito. I think being able to step out your front door and to be able to go to the Highlands or to spend five minutes and go to Mount Tom is just an amazing thing. I have canoes that blew water. I love anything that has to do with the water. And as someone almost turning 65, I feel that, There are a few things I would love in Sausalito, such as, you know, I'll run into the city and there's outdoor facilities that you can do little exercises on. And I see everybody doing it. Or I lived in, when I lived in LA, I worked at USC, which in case you don't know is in the hood. And I would drive home in the evening and I would pass these outdoor parks and they were full of people. And they would just have like an elliptical machine that's not really an elliptical machine and everybody would be It was amazing because everybody would use it. And I feel that here we have a lot of adults who would probably use outdoor gyms, it's not complicated, right? It's just a little thing, a little step, a little, anything. And I feel that That would make a huge difference. And as you can tell, I love anything to do with sports. I work full time though. So that's it. |
| 00:22:21.36 | Steven Woodside | All right. That's amazing. That's wonderful. Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Johnson? One of the centers of I know an enthusiasm of Councilmember Kelman is trying to have more aquatic physical activities like rowing in town. I see your outriggers every afternoon. |
| 00:22:42.10 | Avalon Johnson | Yeah, that's our competitor, by the way. |
| 00:22:42.57 | Steven Woodside | That's not okay. Right? Do you have any notions about actually capitalizing on Sausalito's brand and genuine foundation of merit of aquatic rowing and other physical activities on the water. |
| 00:22:59.83 | Avalon Johnson | Well, the thing is we have C-TREC, right? And C-TREC offers... It's a gem. So I, you know, when you ask this question, I can't think of anything that we could add that C-TREC doesn't have because C-TREC is amazing. if there is outreach with C-TREC that would bring in a little bit more of the community, you know, because I know C-TREC exists, but, and I assume everybody does, but maybe not everybody does. So bringing, you know, something to interact with C-TREC would be amazing. But honestly, I really am like set on these little steps that you could walk on or little machines that you could use just distributed throughout some park somewhere that would just bring people together. |
| 00:23:53.49 | Steven Woodside | So following up on that particular idea, have you interacted at all with Sausalito Village or with age-friendly Sausalito? |
| 00:23:58.96 | Avalon Johnson | spread. Yeah, my neighbor is a member. As I said, I work full time. So I have not. She's a member, she says, you know, it's a way for people to come up and bring the senior citizens together, but I have not interacted with it. |
| 00:24:16.44 | Steven Woodside | These are great ideas, and I hope you'll mention it to your neighbor, because I think that would be a wonderful addition to the care that's provided for South Sea residents as they age. |
| 00:24:21.73 | Unknown | All right. |
| 00:24:22.16 | Avalon Johnson | Thank you. |
| 00:24:26.10 | Unknown | All right. |
| 00:24:27.13 | Steven Woodside | Other questions for Ms. Johnson? |
| 00:24:31.36 | Unknown | Sorry. |
| 00:24:31.48 | Steven Woodside | Thank you for your time and thank you for being here. Ms. Hughes, now we got the right order. Welcome. Thank you for being here. If you'd also kindly just... Thank you. Tell us about yourself for a minute. |
| 00:24:43.49 | Karina Hughes | Thank you. Hello, everyone. It's a pleasure being here. And I think where I would begin, so I'm Karina Hughes. I was born and raised in the Bay Area and I've been coming to Sausalito my life, my entire life. I am invested in Sausalito emotionally. with property in my community. I love the community. And I think it's the people here that make it. So special. I volunteer with Sausalito Beautiful. I'm a volunteer on Thursday nights. that's what we're talking about meditation practice. And so I'm doing that. locally here. um, And I've been involved in a number of different activities like Botching League. And yes, I'm a member of different groups through which I have met many people and I'm engaged, right, with the community. One of the things that is important to me is the parks, the health of the parks, and their importance to both visitors and to local residents. So that's why I'm involved with Saucyuta Beautiful and getting out and digging up the weeds and doing what I can do on different days with my local residents. In a point in my life where I'm able to have a little bit more time to spend. So I show up here. I've been Zooming off and on for years into city council. So I like to be kept, I like to be involved as best I possibly can when I can. My father was a World War II vet. He served in the Pacific. The marineship is really important to me, the legacy of the marineship. The nexus of this beautiful topography, the place where we live, the gem that is Sausalito is extremely important to me, and the health of this society and this community. this was an opportunity for me to step forward and maybe do a little bit more. My next, my, My wheelhouse is branding, business, advertising, marketing. So I come into this from a little bit different perspective in that I'm looking at what is that nexus between the visitors and our residents and what will continue to make this city not just prosperous and profitable right but is engaging for uh residents so that's why i'm involved in different things as well um uh i think that's that's it but i love this city and i love the community and um so just want to help as much as i can |
| 00:27:32.45 | Steven Woodside | as much as I can. you Thank you. Questions for Ms. Hughes? |
| 00:27:36.79 | Councilmember Kellman | Sure. Are there any particular types of events or projects that you could see yourself spearheading? We heard some great examples from other applicants tonight. Anything you want to talk about? |
| 00:27:44.65 | Karina Hughes | CONSTITUTIONS. Yeah. Um, so in, in the business world, uh, I was involved in doing things like everything from, uh, building and running an onsite event for 300 people with 14 speakers. Um, I've been involved in working with different innovation teams and accelerators. Um, I don't have an idea around what I might spearhead for Sausalito, for the parks and racks, but, um, But I've been involved in many different activities in which it required the management of multiple people coming together to produce things from t-shirts to banners to sound production and everything else. And that comes from also being in advertising and radio, television, print background. That was one example anyway, so. |
| 00:28:45.20 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions? |
| 00:28:47.83 | Karina Hughes | Thank you. |
| 00:28:47.85 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:28:48.08 | Steven Woodside | Thank you for being here very much. Thanks for volunteering. So, Ms. Michelle McCullough, welcome. |
| 00:29:00.52 | Michelle McCullough | Hello, thank you for having me. I'm Michelle McCullough. |
| 00:29:01.08 | Steven Woodside | I don't know. |
| 00:29:03.96 | Michelle McCullough | And well, let's say, so I'm born and raised here in the Bay Area. I grew up in Walnut Creek. went to school in San Francisco and Oakland, lived in San Francisco for almost 20 years. I had a business. on Union Street in San Francisco for over a decade and then decided in 2016 to move to Sausalito. which I never thought I'd be living here. And I'll tell you why. When I was a kid, my parents brought us to Sausalito because their best friends lived here. And you have to imagine as a kid, I never thought that I would be able to afford to live in Sausalito. But thankfully, I was able to build my business in San Francisco. I just sold it last year. So I've had the privilege to really take the time to walk around the city for the last year. and really take it in. and see what is it that I want to do next. I definitely identify as an entrepreneur. I'm the daughter of immigrants. My father and mother met in San Francisco in an ESL class. That's how I got my name, Michelle Maybel. I speak Spanish. My father immigrated from Iran and my mother immigrated from El Salvador. And I'm married to an Italian man, so now I speak Italian. And interestingly, I met my husband here. Little by little, I started to realize that I was always meant to be here because I truly feel that there is something I meant to build in the city. but I don't know what it is yet. I'm a firm believer. And if you build it, they will come. So what, really ignited my interest and how I could serve this community. First started as an entrepreneur, workshop in the library, How to start a business in Sausalito. As I started to meet more members that serve this community, I realized that my background in project management event management, talent acquisition and talent development, might be useful to this community. as well as working for a landscape design company. and being pretty good at getting a lot of stuff for free when you put on events. |
| 00:31:02.00 | Katie Garcia | When you put |
| 00:31:03.52 | Michelle McCullough | And that comes from working for a nonprofit for five years. So I've got a mixed background from working as a TV host, TV correspondent, of event production, film production. James might be familiar with my talent agency because Similar to James. I'm also very interested in bringing film to this city. I think it would be great to have films in the park. outdoor screenings are really a great way to bring the community together. And because so many. classic films were filmed here in San Francisco in Sausalito. I want the younger community to understand What's so exciting about Sausalito? Why my parents partied here? What was so exciting about it? Well, let's look at the plant. It's revival and rock and roll and music coming back. Let's look at my favorite, the Sausalito center of arts. I buy art there and I get to meet the artists and I get to Meet other people in my community that have similar interests. I'm a big fan of the yard sale because I love picking and garage sales and finding goodies. And I'm the type of person that is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and get dirty. So if it's pulling weeds or picking up poop at the dog park, I'm all about it. I have a dog. You've probably seen me around town. It's a big old Rottweiler. And I've seen some questionable things at the dog park and other things behaviors that I think are kind of strange. And I feel like that's because we're not really respecting each other in this community. I see different communities kind of colliding. And I think parks and rec bring us all together in that way. So I'd really just like to apply. |
| 00:32:47.69 | Katie Garcia | TODAY. Thank you. |
| 00:32:50.10 | Michelle McCullough | my love for this city, my entrepreneurial spirit, and my project management to Parks and Rec. Thank you. |
| 00:32:59.82 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. That's Member Kelman. |
| 00:33:02.69 | Councilmember Kellman | Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for all of that. And sorry, we have a long list and it's arranged by everybody's application. So I'm scrolling and trying to keep track. You guys are all so accomplished. I'm trying to It looks like I'm trying to read my screen. But I did see your work with the International Latino Film Festival. And I do have a little bit of envy when Mill Valley has their film festival. And I would love to hear your thoughts on how we might bring the International Latino Film Festival to Sausalito. |
| 00:33:32.22 | Michelle McCullough | So I'll tell you, unfortunately, the International Latino Film Festival is no longer. I was the San Francisco director of events for five years until my former boss ended that festival and moved down |
| 00:33:33.03 | Councilmember Kellman | the interesting thing. |
| 00:33:42.82 | Michelle McCullough | to Mexico that transformed into the San Francisco Latino film festival, which my agency sponsors. Thank you. So that would be very easy. We would just have to find places that we can screen. But I'll tell you what, Lucho Ramirez, who is a good friend of mine in the |
| 00:33:53.16 | Stacey Cray | places. |
| 00:33:57.97 | Michelle McCullough | president of that nonprofit. would love to, to connect with the city and it would be very easy to bring Spanish films to Sausalito and it would bring me no greater joy to do that. And outdoor screenings would be a great way to introduce this community to Latino film. |
| 00:34:15.27 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:34:15.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:34:15.96 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:34:17.11 | Michelle McCullough | THANK YOU. |
| 00:34:17.16 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:34:17.20 | Michelle McCullough | Thank you. |
| 00:34:17.24 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:34:17.47 | Michelle McCullough | Thank you. |
| 00:34:18.43 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions? Thank you very much. Thank you. |
| 00:34:20.96 | Joan Cox | Thank you so much. I don't have a question, but I do wanna thank you for your participation in the teaching series here. |
| 00:34:27.62 | Michelle McCullough | Oh, I'm all about it. Tessa's doing a great job, Nikita, who I met, and it's encouraging me to really meet more of the business owners in town and support local business. Yeah. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. |
| 00:34:40.63 | Steven Woodside | And our last person is Frank Millian. |
| 00:34:44.65 | Frank Millian | Welcome, sir. and thanks for having me. Welcome. My name is Frank Mylan. I live up on Cloudview. I relocated here to Sausalito. when I retired in 2012. I spent my entire career in the private aviation sector. I was a pilot starting as a pilot. And then moving into senior management, I ran several various companies that provided business aviation services to those owners of the aircraft, And since retiring, I wanted to stay in the business and give back to some of the companies. And one of the things I'm currently doing is conducting aviation safety audits, where I go into an operation. and we review their operating standards to see if they are up to par with industry best practices, and if they have a very active and productive safety management system. It takes a couple of days to get it through. If they get through the audit successfully, then they will be issued a certain safety rating that they can actually put on their website saying that they meet the standard, etc., etc. My interest in being part of the Parks and Recreation Commission is that I'm very, very active in sports. I currently and have been for over 30 years playing a men's hardball league. I play in national tournaments. I've won eight World Series rings. I play a lot of pickleball down at MLK. And I understand that there's an interest to expand the pickleball courts over to Marin Marine ship. And I just would like to offer a player's perspective to any growth that the, you know, that you might have in pickleball. And that's, that's my story. |
| 00:36:27.66 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 00:36:27.69 | Frank Millian | I should. |
| 00:36:27.89 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:36:28.04 | Frank Millian | please. |
| 00:36:28.62 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:36:29.29 | Councilmember Kellman | Yes, I also play pickleball and I will also be looking for you. Thank you. |
| 00:36:33.12 | Frank Millian | Not Wednesday, Friday, every morning. |
| 00:36:33.21 | Councilmember Kellman | THE FAMILY. When you're in the middle, you're in the middle What time? So I know he's going to be on my team. Are you kidding me? So a question for you. You guys all probably know that the Parks and Rec Department is one of the only departments that has the opportunity to be revenue generating with its events. You mentioned pickleball, one of the fastest growing sports. Do you have any thoughts about how we might build out a pickleball reputation, so to speak, in Southern Marin and whether that would be a direction you would want the city to go in? |
| 00:37:04.29 | Frank Millian | Well, I mean, you could, like in Marin City, they have the pickleball courts over there and those cost money. You have to pay in order to reserve it for an hour or whatever it is. So there's possibly a revenue generation that could come from opening up the new courts. I understand that there's, There's lights over there, which means that You're you'll be playing the evening hours, of course, there's a cost associated with that. So to participate in that, you know, a fee could be charged for use of the courts from whatever hours that the lights would be on. That's one thing you could also have. I mean, there's so much popularity in the pickleball community is that you could you could actually have, especially if you have enough courts, you could put together tournament play. And I think you'd be a lot of interest in that because people are just out there, you know, playing around and having fun and all that kind of stuff. But some of them are really serious. And I think you could get some serious activity if you had some kind of a tournament play. And I played in so many tournaments, I could certainly aid in putting together how the tournament would start and how it would end. |
| 00:38:14.20 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:38:16.48 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions? I want to ask you some aviation questions, but I'll set that aside. and talk to you about it another time. I used to be an aircraft designer, so... But that's all the time we have for questions. So thank you so much. |
| 00:38:28.23 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 00:38:28.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:38:29.48 | Steven Woodside | Thanks. And thanks to everyone who is here. Ms. Benton, Stella Benton, she was not able to make her point in time. So that is the end of the interviews. And really do appreciate your volunteerism. Later in the, today, we will be selecting the candidates for parking, for the commission. But no matter what, thank you. And please stay involved. It's really good to see you all here. We're now going to move on to our closed session. So we're going to discuss two matters. The Conference with Legal Counsel on Existing Litigation, Yes, in My Backyard versus City of Sausalito. Actually, that is the only matter we're going to be discussing. So we'll take public comment on that matter. Is there any public comment, city clerk? |
| 00:39:11.28 | Walfred Solorzano | If any members of the public would like to make a comment on closed session, please fill out one of those slips over by the television. On Zoom, seeing none, and here in council chamber, seeing none. |
| 00:39:23.66 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Thank you, City Clerk. We'll close public comment and move on to closed session. We'll resume at 7 p.m. All right. We will resume the public meeting. Welcome to everyone who's here. Just an announcement that Council Member Blasdine is running late. She will join the meeting when she arrives. There are no announcements from closed session, and we'll begin today's meeting with a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. |
| 00:39:28.86 | Walfred Solorzano | There's just... |
| 00:39:46.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:39:57.36 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Yeah. And we will now have a few announcements. I will start with the good news that we are proud to announce that our own Mr. Jim Gabbard is going to be this year's 4th of July Parade Grand Marshal. Jim. |
| 00:40:18.61 | Steven Woodside | Jim has been a resident of Sausalito since the early 1960s and spent his first 30 years living on a boat. He is best known for his 50s dance parties on Kofi TV 20, which he owned until 1998. He is a pioneer of FM radio broadcasting and was inducted into the Bay Area Hall of Fame, Radio Hall of Fame in 2006. Among his many accomplishments, he has been Grand Marshal of the Lighted Boat Parade for 38 years and is a founding member and vice president of Sausalito on the Waterfront Foundation. Jim has served as Commodore of the Sausalito Yacht Club, Chair of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, and President of the Sausalito Art Festival. We're excited to honor his commitment to Sausalito during our Independence Day celebrations, not least because of his help in making the fireworks happen this year. So congratulations to Jim, and we'll see him on the 4th of July. Uh, Also, as an update and bit of celebration, we've asked Reason Bradley to come here this evening to give us an update on the Sea Lion sculpture reinstallation. So, Mr. Bradley, I think I saw you here, or is he in the hall? Hello. I see. Good timing. City manager. There he is. Reason, you're up. Mr. Bradley, you're up. Thank you. |
| 00:41:31.54 | Reason Bradley | All right. |
| 00:41:31.79 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. So please give us an update. |
| 00:41:33.63 | Reason Bradley | Okay. Hi, I'm Reason Bradley. I got tapped to help with the Sea Lion project when it fell off of its pedestal a year and a half ago. So, We looked at the whole project and I learned quite a bit my whole life. I grew up in Saucel, and the sea lion was just there. And I saw it wash off into the rocks. And so I offered to help. fix the sea lion and repair it. And in that, I learned that this is the second time that this has happened. And so when we got our hands on the sea lion, we got it all cleaned up and found that it was corroding and it had never been protected from electrolysis. So electrical currents have been eating away at it and it's degraded a bit over the years. So we did a full restoration on the sea lion and, um, Then we included zincs into it to help protect it for a long time. And we designed everything with the same material. So we don't have dissimilar metals in the project. And the hope is that if we take care of it by changing the zincs, it will last a hundred years and not fall off the rocks every 20 years. So we kind of approached it with that. idea that we could create something that has a little more longevity. In that, we found the hardest part was the whole permitting process and getting approval for getting the sea line put back on the rocks. But it sounds like we've made some good hit with that. And so at this point, we've designed a whole, basically a mold to design this cone-shaped form for the concrete to get poured and cast into. And that'll have the these big bronze bolts cast into it that it'll sit on. So it's it's been really kind of a fun project for us. You know, we've learned quite a bit about the history and some of the metallurgy and, you know, how how it got installed. The first time I think was kind of in the middle of the night with some concrete and some people carried it down and and set it in there. But yeah. Times have changed and we've approached it in a whole different way. So I think that we're getting very close on the 24th and 25th of this month. We're supposed to go out and pressure wash the whole site and drill into some of the rocks and put a fiberglass rebar in instead of steel. So it's it's non-conductive. And and we got some really good concrete design that's supposed to do real well in saltwater. And so that was the goal basically is kind of how do we make this not happen again. So the hope is that we'll be long gone. And the sea lion will still be there. |
| 00:44:24.64 | Steven Woodside | Great. Thank you, Rees and Mr. Bradley. |
| 00:44:29.99 | Joan Cox | Thank you. May I just say, reason, it takes a village. And we know that you have a whole team of people helping you in this effort. So will you kindly convey our gratitude to them as well? |
| 00:44:40.91 | Reason Bradley | Well, thank you and and i'd like to thank everyone in Sausalito because it's been it's not just us there's been a lot of people involved in this that have made it happen and so it's fun to see the whole Community rally around that so. |
| 00:44:53.52 | Steven Woodside | He has a question. |
| 00:44:54.14 | Reason Bradley | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:44:54.43 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:44:54.51 | Reason Bradley | Thank you. |
| 00:44:54.65 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:44:54.80 | Reason Bradley | Thank you. the 24th and 25th. you |
| 00:44:56.99 | Jill Hoffman | Any of your team here? |
| 00:44:59.19 | Reason Bradley | No, but there's... |
| 00:44:59.22 | Jill Hoffman | No, but there's... Thank you. Let's go. |
| 00:45:01.40 | Kevin McGowan | Sure. |
| 00:45:01.62 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:45:01.65 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:45:02.17 | Mary Hudson | Thank you. |
| 00:45:02.21 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 00:45:02.24 | Mary Hudson | you know. |
| 00:45:02.88 | Reason Bradley | Yeah, the sculpture itself. What about the date? The date? The 24th and 5th is when we're going to put the past the concrete and then July 1st is when they're talking about putting the sea line back on the pedestal. Yeah. Thank you. |
| 00:45:25.97 | Mary Hudson | Do you have anything to add? Yeah, I'm Mary Hudson. I'm on the board of trustees for the Sausalito Foundation. So this has been the third time we've been through the episode of the sea line needing to be restored and put back out there. And it's been a really good experience. The community has been hugely supportive. We have raised lots of funds, enough funds to take care of the restoration and the installation, and also to establish a long-term maintenance to take care of the electrolysis problem that Reason just described. We don't know quite yet how much funding is going to be left for that, but we'll find out soon. And I want to say it's been a pleasure, by the way, for us to work with the city staff. You've got a couple of dynamite people. Katie Togarcia, who stepped in when it really wasn't her job, and then your new project manager, Sarah Kerstifar. They've both been great. Now, I just want to say that we're planning a party. And, um, You'll all be getting invitations. And it's partly due to the fact that the Trident has stepped up, as they did with financial support for the project. Now they're going to allow us to use the entire Trident restaurant for a big celebration when when C-line is back in. That date is tentatively set. the celebration date tentatively set for July 17. And it will be a no-host, not a no-host, complimentary drinks and food, and you'll all be getting invitations. Any questions? |
| 00:47:07.96 | Steven Woodside | Any questions? Thank you. |
| 00:47:10.96 | Mary Hudson | Thank you. |
| 00:47:11.00 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. And then just one note of personal privilege. There was an issue brought up over the past several meetings concerning a allegation of a conflict of interest regarding my participation in business improvement district and that unfortunately took the form of a sworn complaint to the fpc. And I would like just to report to my colleagues in the community that that complaint was formally closed and rejected by the fpc its case number 042 to 024 01318 and you can go to the fpc website and see its current status is closed complaint rejected so that's just a matter of interest for everyone. We'll now move on to the action minutes of |
| 00:47:54.57 | Joan Cox | Mayor, before we move on, may I? Sure. So we have an item on our agenda tonight, 5C, and the proponent reached out to the agenda setting committee around 4 o'clock this afternoon to ask that we continue the item. I'm sorry. So the item is on the agenda. We will take public comment on the item. But I am formally moving to continue the item to our first meeting in July. Thank you. |
| 00:48:23.31 | Councilmember Kellman | I will second that. |
| 00:48:24.02 | Steven Woodside | I think that we should save that motion for when the item is actually in front of us. I mean, you've given notice that you're gonna make that motion. |
| 00:48:24.03 | Joan Cox | I think. |
| 00:48:32.18 | Joan Cox | I've made a motion. There's a motion pending with a second. |
| 00:48:35.22 | Steven Woodside | Well, I just look to the... City Attorney for guidance on that it seems like it would be a courtesy to have councilmember Blossin here, even though it seems like there may be a majority for that action. Nevertheless, it seems like the appropriate time to continue item is when the item is actually going to be heard. |
| 00:48:54.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:48:54.73 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:48:54.74 | Unknown | I think. |
| 00:48:56.48 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, since you do have to open the item and take public comment on it, I would recommend that you vote after the public comment is closed. |
| 00:49:05.07 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, City Attorney. So we'll table that motion and bring it up again during the item at hand. Sorry, Ms. |
| 00:49:11.27 | Councilmember Kellman | Sorry, attorney, if I may, mayor, this is a matter of adopting the agenda. Is that what the vice mayor was articulating? |
| 00:49:18.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:49:19.92 | Councilmember Kellman | So we're just looking for a continuance, not any type of on the marriage. |
| 00:49:24.97 | Joan Cox | It's on the agenda for direction. So all I'm seeking to do is continue the item at the request of the proponent. So I don't know why we wouldn't entertain that request from the proponent. We've certainly done that in the past. |
| 00:49:38.96 | Steven Woodside | Thanks, but the appropriate time for that is when the agenda item is being heard, not now. You signaled you'll make that motion, but- |
| 00:49:46.97 | Joan Cox | I've already made the motion. The motion is pending and it's been seconded. |
| 00:49:49.88 | Steven Woodside | Think of motions proper city attorney. |
| 00:49:52.46 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, I am concerned about The council voting to take action on an item on the agenda before you take public comment. So I would suggest that we take public comment before we vote. To continue this, to discuss it, you know, or take any further action on the agenda item. |
| 00:50:07.98 | Joan Cox | City Attorney, I'll just point out that at the end of every evening, many meetings this year, we have announced that we are continuing an item in advance of taking public comment on that item. numerous items as we reach the end of the evening. |
| 00:50:25.53 | Unknown | Yes. Um, I, I acknowledge that that has occurred. Um, |
| 00:50:30.71 | Joan Cox | So I don't know why this motion would be treated differently from how we've conducted business the rest of this year. |
| 00:50:36.84 | Steven Woodside | Well... I... I think we were giving notice that that was our intention. And I know we've sometimes been a little sloppy in our process, but the actual definitive action of continuing the matter is when the item is being heard, not So it was fair notice to the audience that we were going to continue the matter. And so people could decide. That's why I'm doing. |
| 00:50:54.78 | Joan Cox | That's why I'm doing this now. |
| 00:50:56.03 | Steven Woodside | That's why I'm doing this notice that there probably is going to be a vote to continue the matter. But that's going to be a vote later in the evening when Councilmember Blaustein is here, I presume. |
| 00:51:04.75 | Joan Cox | So city attorney, are you telling us not to vote on this pending motion, given our course of conduct in numerous prior meetings this year? |
| 00:51:14.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:51:15.26 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:51:15.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:51:16.53 | Unknown | I would suggest that if you're |
| 00:51:19.97 | Sergio Rudin | is best practice for us to wait for the agenda to be called, for us to take public comment, and then for us to have have a vote on whether to continue the item or not to continue the item. |
| 00:51:32.61 | Joan Cox | Are you instructing us not to take action on this pending motion that's been seconded? |
| 00:51:37.64 | Sergio Rudin | That would be my recommendation, yes. |
| 00:51:40.37 | Steven Woodside | All right, I'm going to take that recommendation as the parliamentarian's guidance to us and move on with the discussion. |
| 00:51:44.24 | Councilmember Kellman | Yeah, so Mayor, I'd like to just put onto the record though, Mr. City Attorney, we defer to you on every occasion and I just put for the record, this is an inconsistent practice based on prior action by this council and our mayor and vice mayor on prior actions. So I feel uncomfortable with this and I just want to put that in for the record. Thank you. |
| 00:52:02.82 | Steven Woodside | So the action items of the previous meeting, adopting the minutes of the June 4th, 2024 city council meeting, is there a motion to approve the minutes? |
| 00:52:13.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Uh, |
| 00:52:13.53 | Steven Woodside | I'll make that motion to approve the June |
| 00:52:14.63 | Walfred Solorzano | Who? We have to pull a comment first, just in case you're not. |
| 00:52:16.93 | Steven Woodside | you Oh yes, thank you very much, city clerk. Are there any city, any public comment on the adopting the minutes from the June 4th, 2024 city council meeting? Seeing no public comments in the room. How about online, Mr. City Clerk? |
| 00:52:31.08 | Walfred Solorzano | See none. |
| 00:52:32.15 | Steven Woodside | All right, we'll close public comment, and we will now ask for a motion to approve the Minutes. I'll make the motion to approve it. Is there a second? I'll second. All right. A motion made and seconded. Any discussion? No discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. you |
| 00:52:46.22 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:52:46.59 | Steven Woodside | Bye. |
| 00:52:46.76 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:52:46.79 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:52:46.81 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:52:46.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:52:48.35 | Steven Woodside | All right. The minutes are adopted. Now we move on to the consent calendar. These are for items generally considered routine and non controversial, and they require no discussion. They're expected to have unanimous council support and may be enacted by the council in one motion. in the form listed below. There'll be no separate discussion of consent items. However, a city council member may request that an item be removed from the calendar. And we will then discuss it later in today's meeting. The first item is the Juneteenth National Freedom Day Proclamation, which I will read out loud in a moment. The second is the Gun Violence Awareness Day Proclamation. The third is the Alzheimer's Brain Awareness Month Proclamation, which I will also read out loud. the, Fourth is a reappointment of Mr. Andrew Junius to the planning commission for a three year term commencing on July 1, 2024 and ending June 30, 2027. Three E is waiving the second reading and adoption of ordinance three dash 2024, an ordinance of the city council of the city of Sausalito setting fees for sewer services for fiscal year 2024, 25 through fiscal year 26, 27. Pursuant to article x three eyes and a d section six of the california constitution on the proposed sanitary sewer fees for fiscal year 24 25 through 26 27. 3f adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to award the construction contract of 429.5 johnson street tenant improvement project to mars construction in an amount of 309 000 and authorize a construction contingency for the project in an amount of $81,000. Receive and file the employee retention recruitment update is 3G. Before I read the proclamations, is there any item that anyone wishes to remove? |
| 00:54:32.31 | Jill Hoffman | I don't want to remove this item, but item 3D, which is reappointment of Andrew Junius, The staff report, I sent an email to the city manager and our city clerk. The staff report had some inaccuracies in it. It looked like it was part of a staff report that was copied, cut and pasted from last summer. And so also on process. And I had expected the process for appointments to second terms on the planning commission to be included in the staff report. but that's why I was looking through it because we sort of, we had a lot of discussion. expected the process for appointments to second terms on the planning commission to be included in the staff report. That's why I was looking through it, because we had a lot of discussion about this last summer. So. I believe our current policy is that if you are up for your second term on the Planning Commission, that we are not going to post that as an open position. We are not going to take applications, and we're not going to vote on that. We're going to merely reappoint, absent some other issue, if the commissioner elects that they would want to do a second term. Is that okay so. Thank you. |
| 00:55:41.74 | Joan Cox | That was not my understanding. My understanding was we were not going to abdicate our responsibility for reviewing and considering an appointment, but that we would put it on consent. But we're not going to just automatically reappoint without considering other applications. |
| 00:55:58.98 | Jill Hoffman | Fair enough. So my question then is, did we post this, and did we solicit applications for this position and post it as open? |
| 00:56:09.46 | Walfred Solorzano | So the city website continually gets applications. There was no opening period because there was no vacancy or term expiration. And it was directed that we put on the agenda to reappoint Mr. Andrew Junius. |
| 00:56:27.70 | Jill Hoffman | So I think that's an ambiguity in our process. And it seems to me that we haven't correctly followed the process. And I just want to be clear, because I don't want to have questions about it later. |
| 00:56:42.47 | Steven Woodside | I asked the same question. So my understanding of the answer, Councilmember, is that we recently had those interviews for the open division that David Marlott was posted and that there were those applications still In the middle from there were a few candidates. That and that's what city clerk also verified is that the that he would still accept these and so. It certainly our prerogative if you if anyone so chose to pull this off consent not appoint Mr genius and instead make a motion to appoint one of the people we recently interviewed a few months back. |
| 00:57:15.65 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I think my concern is a little bit different. I think if we're going to consider, as I believe that's what our vice mayor just said, is that we're going to consider other appointments. based on prior applications or maybe even new applications. I think if it's unclear to me, then it must be unclear to other people. Notice this as an open or not open, but as a, well, a re-employment. And if you're interested, either indicate that if you've been, you know, if you've been interviewed before, are you still interested? So I think it's a, I understand it's a fine tuning of sort of how we're taking direction. I just want to make sure that we're following the same process and we're fair and open and transparent about the way we're doing business. And so I'm not going to, what I would request is that we follow that process, which I think the vice mayor just indicated. this term is expiring, the first term is expiring. Perhaps it is notice that the term is expiring. You know, he has indicated that the current and sitting member can serve two terms. He's indicated that he is willing to do another term. But, you know, anybody interested should either present an application. And if you've been interviewed in the last whatever year, if you're still interested, you know, let us know. I mean, I think I think that's what we're doing. Is that anybody just, I mean, I think that's what we're doing. |
| 00:58:52.66 | Steven Woodside | I think in this case we had our application so recently that we are welcome to appoint someone else if we want to pull this off consent. |
| 00:58:59.36 | Jill Hoffman | We haven't properly noticed it. We haven't properly noticed it, too, that this seat is expiring, that it's open, and that, you know, if you're interested, submit an application. I mean, I think that we should follow that. If that's our process, I support that. But I think we need to clearly follow that procedure from now going forward. And I would hope that that would be in the minutes. And I would hope that that would be in the minutes, and I would hope that for any future cycles for the Planning Commission that someone would be able to easily find this process and follow it. |
| 00:59:02.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:59:33.80 | Steven Woodside | So you're giving that extra clarification to our city clerk for future process. |
| 00:59:38.64 | Jill Hoffman | everybody and if it's in the minutes then we should be able to reference it and say no at this meeting we clarified and this is the process and I would expect Commissioner Junius's application beyond the next City Council meeting |
| 00:59:50.71 | Steven Woodside | So you're asking it to be pulled from the agenda? Yeah. |
| 00:59:53.02 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, yes. Yeah, and properly notice and follow the procedure that we outlined. |
| 00:59:55.15 | Steven Woodside | Properly noticed. So we'll pull that out. I'm actually just going to put it first on the agenda because it's a business, because otherwise there'll be a vacancy at the next city planning commission meeting. So we'll hear that matter first on our business agenda. the- |
| 01:00:10.55 | Jill Hoffman | No, it doesn't need to go in the business agenda. Just put it on the consent calendar. |
| 01:00:13.27 | Steven Woodside | No, the question of whether, we have to have a proper discussion about the matter. I think there's more to be said. Oh, okay. From the consent calendar, we're putting out the first business item, |
| 01:00:17.36 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, sorry. Oh, okay. |
| 01:00:21.57 | Steven Woodside | of this meeting anything else to come up consent. It should, I hope, be quick. If it's not quick, I mean, it seems like... |
| 01:00:29.25 | Jill Hoffman | I think I just... Thank you. |
| 01:00:30.13 | Steven Woodside | I just summarized it. They're quick or it's not quick. I don't think that we need a lot of discussion about the process, but let's just either agree or not and move on. So let me just read out loud the proclamation of the city of Sausalito declaring June 19th, 2024 as Juneteenth National Freedom Day, whereas on September 22nd, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Okay. |
| 01:00:30.35 | Jill Hoffman | I just summarize it. |
| 01:00:34.30 | Unknown | Great. |
| 01:00:51.43 | Steven Woodside | officially ending slavery, changing the status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African-Americans in the Confederate States of America. And whereas in remembrance and celebration of the June 19 1865 announcement of the abolition of slavery. We celebrate Juneteenth. also known as emancipation day or freedom day as the true anniversary an oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, and whereas those who were freed from bondage celebrated their long-overdue emancipation on June 19th, today our city commemorates, on the 19th, our city commemorates Juneteenth, a chance to celebrate human freedom, reflect on the grievous and ongoing legacy of slavery, we dedicate ourselves to rooting out the systemic racism that continues to plague our society as we strive to deliver the full promise of America to every American. and whereas on Juneteenth we We dedicate ourselves to rooting out the systemic racism that continues to plague our society as we strive to deliver the full promise of America to every American. And whereas on Juneteenth we recommit to our shared work to ensure racial justice, equity, and equality in America, we commemorate the centuries of struggle and progress led by abolitionists, educators, civil rights advocates, lawyers, activists, trade unionists, religious leaders, public officials, and everyday Americans who have brought our communities closer to fulfilling its promise. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Ian Sobieski, Mayor of the City of Sausalito and the City Council of Sausalito, hereby proclaim June 19, 2024 as Juneteenth National Freedom Day and encourage the community to unite in solidarity and continue to fight for justice. That proclamation will be read aloud and given at a Juneteenth celebration tomorrow. I would also like to rectify having missed reading last month at the last city council meeting, the proclamation of the city of Sausalito about Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. Whereas over 6 million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia that deprives people of their precious memories, thoughts, and identity. During National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month, we honor the extraordinary courage and strength and resilience of people facing this devastating disease. We recognize the support of families and caregivers who stand by their loved ones' side and help them age with dignity. We resolve to continue advancing scientific research and treatment options to ensure a brighter future for all Americans facing Alzheimer's. And whereas Alzheimer's remains a leading cause of death in older adults, it exacts an emotional, physical, and financial toll on the entire family of those who are diagnosed, especially for African Americans and Latinos who are more likely to develop symptoms of dementia than other races and ethnicities and for individuals with Down syndrome who are at higher risk. of Alzheimer's. And whereas we recognize the millions of Americans who are living with the impact of this condition every day, and all the incredible caregivers, doctors, researchers, and advocates supporting them. And whereas we call on the people to support those living with Alzheimer's, and the many people who continue to show extraordinary and tireless effort to combat this disorder. Now, therefore, the mayor and city of Sausalito, the city council of the city of Sausalito, proclaim June 2024 as Alzheimer's and brain awareness month in the city of Sausalito. So with that reading and with item 3D removed and put at the beginning of our business calendars, our motion to approve the consent calendar. Public comment. Oh, thank you very much, C clerks. |
| 01:04:09.12 | Walfred Solorzano | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:04:11.31 | Joan Cox | I also had a question about one item on the... you |
| 01:04:13.74 | Steven Woodside | A question, please. |
| 01:04:13.76 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you. And I think Kevin McGowan is here. My question is on item 3F. We are approving a construction contract in the amount of $309,000. We have a contingency in the amount of $81,000. typically contingencies are 10 or 20%. This contingency is a huge percentage of the total project. And so I was wondering why such a large contingency. |
| 01:04:40.47 | Babette McDougall | in the book. to be a resident. |
| 01:04:44.96 | Steven Woodside | Hello, the Vice Mayor has a question for you. |
| 01:04:47.19 | Joan Cox | Sorry, I didn't realize you weren't in the room. This is on item 3F for the Mars construction contract. We're awarding a contract in the amount of $309,000 and authorizing contingency in the amount of $81,000. Typically, contingency is 10 or 20%. This is a very large percentage contingency, and I was just curious as to why. |
| 01:05:06.16 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, it's a remodel project interior work. It's a little bit different than our normal roadway projects or to have a normal 10% contingency work. And since we don't know everything about the building, especially when we open it up, we are recommending that you have an additional contingency in order to address these inconsistencies as they come up. |
| 01:05:26.42 | Joan Cox | And is this covered by our grant funding? you |
| 01:05:29.07 | Kevin McGowan | Yes. |
| 01:05:29.38 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:05:29.43 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:05:29.71 | Joan Cox | OK, I'm good. Thank you so much. |
| 01:05:33.61 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. I was gonna actually ask for a graph to be shown from the last consent item, but I think I'll just ask Chad, just be prepared if you would, I'd love to see the churn slide from the consent item shown as part of the business item on finance when you get a chance. There are public comment, please, from the audience. |
| 01:05:51.70 | Walfred Solorzano | Jeff Jacobs. |
| 01:05:55.78 | Jeffrey Chase | Greetings, Mr. Mayor, City Council, City Employees. Citizens of Sausalito. And those anchored out on Rainbow Bay This is about item number 3A, Juneteenth. Juneteenth. is the belated discovery that the slaves had been freed. It was more than months after the war ended. It was years after the Emancipation Proclamation. as well. For the first 30 years, It was called Jubilee Day. My 27 foot sloop is called Jubilee 2. And I'd like this item renamed. to Jubilee. Isaiah 61 says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings unto the humble. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty of the captives the opening of the eyes to them that are bound. So Jubilee means... that the captives and the slaves are set free. Sausalito Police Department has been much better, especially on houseless people in anchor outs the past few years. I appreciate that. We still have millions in prison in America, more than per capita than any other country. The debts are forgiven. that everything does not revolve around money. Even the farmer has to wrest the land. for a year. and that everybody is given an equal portion of land to live on. Not equal in area, but equal in value. Sounds like a good message to me. |
| 01:07:57.32 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Any other public comment? Yeah, Bette McDougall. |
| 01:07:58.13 | Peter Van Meter | Yeah, Batman. |
| 01:08:07.26 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:08:08.02 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:08:08.03 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:08:08.05 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:08:08.07 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. Are we allowed to speak to any of these things that were just |
| 01:08:11.66 | Steven Woodside | Any of the consent calendar items. |
| 01:08:13.33 | Babette McDougall | Including the one that is going to be pulled |
| 01:08:15.20 | Steven Woodside | Except for Mr Junius' item, that's going to be the next business item. |
| 01:08:18.29 | Babette McDougall | All right. |
| 01:08:19.09 | Steven Woodside | So no comments on that here. |
| 01:08:20.81 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:08:21.18 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:08:21.25 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:08:21.74 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:08:25.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:08:25.04 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, yeah, we have online, we have a civil boot. |
| 01:08:33.70 | Steven Woodside | Is Boutier, go right ahead. |
| 01:08:38.81 | Sibyl Boutier | Uhm? Good evening. Can you hear me okay? |
| 01:08:44.60 | Steven Woodside | We can hear you just fine. Please go right ahead. |
| 01:08:46.63 | Sibyl Boutier | Thank you. So we greatly appreciate your willingness to focus a moment of attention on the proclamation, Alzheimer's Month Um, and its meaning for the elder community here in South Salido and throughout Moran. There's no adult daycare for folks with memory issues in the county of Marin at this time. So if family members need respite from daily care, They need to arrange for their loved ones to be transported to San Francisco or Roanoke Park. for daycare programs, and elder advocates are working to resolve this. But we also need more residential home-like care settings for folks who need more assistance and can no longer be cared for at home by family and friends. These and more support services for family caregivers and better benefits for paid caregivers are all needed as according to the Alzheimer's Association in 2024, one in nine persons over age 65 are living with Alzheimer's disease. So I want to thank you for acknowledging this important issue. By proclaiming the month of June, Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, And of Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 01:10:13.62 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, Scott Thornburg. |
| 01:10:19.56 | Scott Thornburg | Hi, good evening, Council. Thank you for your attention tonight. I just wanted to say congratulations to the city manager for a great staff report. The numbers around staff churn, I was really impressed by, and I just wanted to thank him publicly for the hard work. I know it's a challenging time, and just wanted to say thank you to him. Also, in one of our recent budget discussions, I do think there was a stray comment around cuts to staff. And I just want to publicly say from the community that we really value our staff. We really appreciate the hard work. And I would encourage you to discontinue any consideration. of cutting back any of our staff members as part of your budget discussions this evening. The report from the city manager, I think was exceptional and shows the hard work and dedication of our staff, and we should really be applauding them in their efforts. So thank you for that and enjoy the rest of your evening here. |
| 01:11:19.30 | Walfred Solorzano | And Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 01:11:22.03 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, counsel. Thank you so much for the proclamation regarding Alzheimer's and other brain issues. You may not be aware, but I'm a long-term care ombudsman for the County of Marin, And I routinely visit the facilities to which I'm assigned, many of which have memory care issues. And I think it's really an important thing. I endorse Sybil's comments about the need for further care in this area, and I hope we you know, raise it to our consciousness here in Sausalito. So just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the proclamation. Thank you. |
| 01:12:01.30 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, no further public comment. |
| 01:12:02.31 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:12:02.41 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:12:04.28 | Steven Woodside | All right, we'll close public comment on that, and we will vote on the consent. Oh, I think you had a question, Vice Mayor? Did I mess it up? No, I was going to make a motion. Oh, yes, okay. Let's have a motion, please. |
| 01:12:09.38 | Joan Cox | Oh, yes. I move approval of consent items 3A through 3C and 3E through 3G. Thank you. Second. |
| 01:12:22.07 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:12:22.81 | Steven Woodside | All right, any discussion? Seeing none, let's have a vote. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? |
| 01:12:27.34 | Melissa Blaustein | Bye. |
| 01:12:28.65 | Steven Woodside | None opposed consent calendar is approved. There are no public hearing items. The first business item will be the reappointment of Andrew Junius to the planning commission for a three-year term commencing on July 1, 2024, ending July 30, 2027. Is there any staffs available to answer any questions? I guess the city clerk already answered some. It's formally on the table for any discussion. |
| 01:12:54.60 | Jill Hoffman | So I'll just summarize my comments before. I am concerned that it's not clear what our process is for reappointment to second terms for the Planning Commission. So we had some discussion about this last summer. And the vice mayor summarized it. I'm not gonna be able to summarize it You want to repeat your summary? I mean, I think we need to know, I think there was a, we didn't, I think we are deficient in our process this time around. I think we need to notice it, that this term is expiring, We're going to do a reappointment and that if you are interested in it, you should put your application in or that you should notice |
| 01:13:40.42 | Joan Cox | Yeah, I think we did not want to abdicate our appointment authority by automatically reappointing without consideration. And so when someone's term is expiring, we make it known that the term is expiring and we invite the... Thank you. existing holder to reapply but we also open it up to other applications so that we're reappointing with full knowledge but because they are embarking on a second term we're going to put it on consent so that unless there's a reason not to reappoint it's it's a matter of routine. |
| 01:14:18.02 | Jill Hoffman | So I would like that summary highlighted in the minutes, please. And therefore, next time this comes up, we can just pull it up in the minutes or maybe somebody could add it to their notes. And that this is noticed properly in the next agenda. And I would expect that this would be on the consent calendar at the next agenda. And it's not – this isn't a comment. at all on Commissioner Junius, I want to make sure that that we're following the process. equally for everybody that comes up, and especially the next time it comes up that we're acting consistently going forward. |
| 01:14:53.40 | Steven Woodside | Any other discussion about what to do with this? Because I agree with that process. What do we do with this reappointment? Do we want to do it today or not? |
| 01:14:59.45 | Jill Hoffman | attitude. No, I don't think I think I think we're we're insufficient in our noticing process because we didn't notice it as open and we didn't solicit new applications or people that we've already interviewed so I think it needs to be. On the next agenda. I mean, you guys are the genociding, so however you want to do it. Well, |
| 01:15:18.04 | Joan Cox | Well, If we put it on the next agenda, I would like to extend Commissioner Junius' term until such time as he is reappointed. or not. |
| 01:15:31.39 | Steven Woodside | not. |
| 01:15:31.44 | Joan Cox | That way we don't have a vacancy on the planning |
| 01:15:33.74 | Steven Woodside | I thought that came up before city attorney, sorry to bother you and I'm sorry to nitpick on this, but this was exactly, I thought the dynamic we had before and that was a problem. Cause I- |
| 01:15:41.84 | Joan Cox | event ratified the actions taken during the time of extension in order to address any challenges. |
| 01:15:48.96 | Steven Woodside | Are we, is that possible to be done, City Attorney? Thank you. |
| 01:15:53.56 | Sergio Rudin | So, given the scope of the agenda item, I don't think that you can, you know, discuss or consider appointment of other individuals. You know, this is a consent calendar item for the reappointment of one specific person. My suggestion here would be that if you want to appoint him for a fixed term until you know, for the next month to address that risk, that would probably be the safest and more conservative approach to dealing with that problem rather than ratifying the actions after the fact. |
| 01:16:25.02 | Sibyl Boutier | It sets a precedent. Thank you. |
| 01:16:29.76 | Steven Woodside | It's fine. |
| 01:16:30.20 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:16:30.23 | Steven Woodside | I think sorry, someone needs to be muted. |
| 01:16:32.83 | Joan Cox | it's |
| 01:16:33.56 | Steven Woodside | So vice versa. |
| 01:16:33.57 | Joan Cox | City Clerk, how is anybody able to talk? |
| 01:16:37.07 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, I forgot something to do then. |
| 01:16:39.18 | Steven Woodside | So vice mayor, is that your- |
| 01:16:40.98 | Joan Cox | My motion is that we move this item, that we continue this item to the consent calendar for next, for our first meeting in July, that we reappoint. Oh. |
| 01:16:55.92 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, this was just a discussion. Sorry. That's okay. |
| 01:16:57.23 | Joan Cox | I'm sorry. You've asked me for a motion. |
| 01:16:59.80 | Steven Woodside | I was actually just seeing if that was where you were kind of going. I want to give Councilmember Blaustein an opportunity to Chime in and then Councilmember Kellman. |
| 01:17:07.54 | Melissa Blaustein | No, that's okay. I'm fine with that. I just had wanted to clarify or suggest because previously, when we, for instance, were waiting to fill appointments on Parks and Rec or otherwise, typically, commissioners sat, but I understand that was discussed, so you addressed that concern. I just wanted to make sure we had the ability to continue the planning commission's next meeting. |
| 01:17:25.62 | Steven Woodside | That's Reverend Kelman. |
| 01:17:26.93 | Councilmember Kellman | Nothing more, Mayor. I think the Vice Mayor articulated it correctly. |
| 01:17:30.48 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so now we will take public comment. Thank you. . I'm not sure. So public comment on this matter, please, city clerk. |
| 01:17:40.65 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, well, we'll start with Michael Rex. |
| 01:17:49.72 | Michael Rex | I'm Michael Racks, local architect. The appointment of a planning commissioner, they play a very important role in our government services. I think it's important that planning commissioners be, it'd be when their term expires. I agree with what I heard It should be advertised as an open seat. I don't agree that it should automatically be be continued because they wish it so. I think each commissioner, when their term expires, They continuing their term would be based on the merits of the service that they served for the previous years. And I'm very pleased to hear that you're opening it up when that first term expires and that you consider all applicants. And putting it on, I agree with Sergio that the best approach here, so we don't have an empty seat, is you continue, if Andrew is willing, on a temporary basis until you can hold those interviews and consider the applicants who apply. And I don't quite understand why you put that on the consent calendar next time. But I'll leave that up to you. Thank you. |
| 01:19:11.42 | Walfred Solorzano | Babette, Dougal? |
| 01:19:20.54 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. So I'd like to pick up on a word that the city attorney used. First of all, I'd like to first acknowledge and thank him for being ever present at tonight's meeting. Clearly he is needed more than he knows. So he used the word conservative. So now he's offering conservative advice. which frankly I feel pretty good about. Because in a way, it echoes what Council Member Hoffman is also discussing, and that is the conservative, which is the tried and true, absolutely legal approach to public meetings. Quite honestly, I have a very different approach of this precedent that was set Last year, when Ms. Blaustein gaveled the meetings and Ian Sobieski served as vice mayor, you consistently voted no, sir, according to Rosenberg rules. That disqualifies you from reopening the question, as you did two or three times as the year advanced. I don't understand why you threw the meeting into illegal territory like that. It only got called out once or twice, but you never got called on the carpet for it. by choice. So here we have a problem. You set the stage for precedent with Ms. Feller. you automatically re-upped her term. You didn't even consider anybody else. You looked at her hard work. You thought you couldn't live without her going forward. It would be a disaster if she wasn't still on the team. So you re-upped her. That set a precedent. whether you like it or not. And that's the way I remember this thing playing out. not the way Vice Mayor Cox currently characterizes it. Thank you. |
| 01:20:56.99 | Walfred Solorzano | And we do have on Zoom, Andrew Junius. |
| 01:21:04.11 | Andrew Junius | Good evening, City Council. Thank you for the quick opportunity to speak. I'm certainly in agreement with the returning to standard procedures in which case, you know, certainly the position should be noticed and anybody interested should be able to apply. I think I actually asked the clerk to do that about a month ago. Apparently it didn't happen. I believe that it had happened. That's why I thought why I was on the consent calendar because nobody else had applied. But in any event, I'm totally in agreement with the process. And I hope, and we'll see what happens. But thank you for the opportunity to comment. |
| 01:21:49.80 | Steven Woodside | All right, no further public comment. All right, we'll close public comment. And now, does someone wish to make a motion? |
| 01:21:58.62 | Joan Cox | I do want to address Ms. McDougall's comments. So prior to reappointing Christina Feller and others, we interviewed Planning Commission applicants that evening. And so we did interview people and then reappointed Christina Feller. So I don't know if not all members of the public attended the interviews, but it was that process that resulted in the process that we're confirming this evening. So I move that we move item, 3D to the consent calendar for our July 16 meeting. that we that the city clerk advertised the, uh, opening coming up on the Planning Commission, that he distribute to the City Council any applications received, and that we hold interviews the evening of July 16 in advance of the regular meeting, and that we reappoint Andrew Junius as a Planning Commissioner for the period commencing with the with July 1, the termination of his Um, term. to July, 16, July 17, 2024. |
| 01:23:30.61 | Steven Woodside | So, |
| 01:23:30.67 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:23:30.79 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 01:23:30.94 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:23:30.98 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:23:30.99 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:23:31.28 | Councilmember Kellman | I'm happy to second that. |
| 01:23:31.97 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:23:32.02 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:23:32.09 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:23:32.12 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:23:32.40 | Steven Woodside | Okay, motion made and seconded, any discussion? No discussion, then we'll call the question. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed. |
| 01:23:39.33 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:23:40.90 | Steven Woodside | Okay, motion carries unanimously. We'll now move on to the business item 5A, the fiscal year and 2025 budget review. City Manager. Yeah. |
| 01:23:49.10 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:23:49.15 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:23:49.46 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor, members of the council, members of the public. I'd like to begin this presentation by thanking our finance director and his team, Chad Hess, and our city departments for working to put together the draft budget book that you have in your packet, as well as doing the strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat analysis and looking at budget reduction scenarios, which are all part of the budget packet this evening. I'd also like to say that, you know, budgets reflect the city's values. And when you look at a budget as a resident, as an employee, as an elected official, and you see where you put your money, your resources, you can understand where the values are. And in Sausalio's case, it's always been safety, infrastructure, and quality of life, which is pretty standard in a lot of communities. And when you start your budget process, which is a series of estimates and projections in transit, we get professional help from, use our own experience and past facts, you start with an audit. And in particular, Sausalito, when I got here three years ago this month, you know, there was some need to look at our audit findings, which were really not good at that time. They've since become better through the work of Chad and team. And, you know, the audit is the basis in the beginning for the budget process. So this past year, you may recollect that we got our audit done by the end of December, which was at least two months earlier than the prior year. So that truly was helpful in our budget process. And given that this is my third year in Sausalito, beginning this month, it's my 40th year working on budgets. so I want to tell you all that you don't come to a community and know everything about its finances, its management of its finances. And certainly I didn't come to Saucelito with that. I have begun and am learning it. So I really want to thank the prior councils and administrations that worked before I got here and Chad got here and other people got here to create a strong financial model. And let me tell you about some of the things that they did before 2021. You know, a tourism and occupancy tax that was implemented creates revenue for services. You know, passing Measure O was something that creates resources for infrastructure. You know, being an early adopter of Section 115 trusts, you know, creates a path to dealing with pension challenges. And then the idea that the city would need to have 5% set-asides and 10% set-asides in emergency counts to build reserves was done by prior city councils and city administrations. In the case of this city team, you know, there are things that have been happening to strengthen our financial positions, and that's shown in a lot of the budget data that Chad has put together for you to see. Number one, you know, after coming out of the pandemic, there was obviously, you know, a concern about what would happen to our service levels, what would happen to our budgets with threats to not only our sales tax or tourism and occupancy tax or business license tax, you know, a big, big, big concern. And suffice it to say that the city had enough financial strength to not dip into its emergency reserves or its budget stabilization funds. So that's a good, good sign. And you can see that in the buildup. In 2017, the city council had $6.9 million in the 5% and 10% reserve, along with unassigned cash. And we built that to $10.8 million in 2023. That's a significant trend to the positive. That $7.7 million, you know, is in addition to the 5 and 10 percent. I want to make that clear. And it's unassigned cash that you can use in whatever way you see fit in the general fund. You also worked on infrastructure by expanding Measure O to Measure L and creating an additional quarter cent on top of it to create eight years of revenue for infrastructure. And when you do the math on that, that arithmetic is about $24 million over the eight-year life to address infrastructure. You know, we've rebuilt the whole finance department, and one of the things that the council, you know, asks us to do, and we've completed it, is hire a new independent auditor, and that's Bedowian Associates. You have taken real care of your 115 trust in terms of a plan that you developed before 2020. You had targets and goals. Last year, you put a million dollars into it. So at this time, you have about $5.9 million, $5.7 million in your pension trust fund in combination with your other Post-Employment Benefit Fund. So that's good. In addition, through the direction of the council and the work of Finance Director Hess, you know, we've taken idle cash, invested it more aggressively and more safely to get a higher yield, renegotiated our arrangement with the Bank of Marin. And so this year you'll see our investment and our interest income rise from about $560,000 in 2020 to about 1.5%. $1 million this year. Next slide, please. So all that's the good news. But, you know, this year has been a bit of a challenge. I think it's been made clear over the last eight months that we've faced an insurance concern that we've been working around the clock to try to address. In addition to the insurance concern, there's been rising pension costs as a result of bad markets. And because the economy hasn't been as strong as it was during the COVID bounce back, our sales tax projections are down. So what that means is you're at a crossroads of taking a budget and looking at it and saying, if we want to maintain service levels, which I've recommended, that you use unassigned cash. In order to use unassigned cash, you have to know what's in your amount there, and that's the $7.7 million that I referenced earlier. You also need to look at your reserve policy. There's been this practice in Sausalito where you have a formal policy of 5% and 10%. And I've been told that, you know, anything above that, you know, try to get to 25%. And then anything above that, try to get to using that money to put in the pension trust or into one-time projects or one-time expenses. So, you know, that's got to be done, and that's what's scheduled for June 25th as the first item on your agenda, because tonight we're going to ask you to use your unassigned cash reserves to balance your budget and maintain service levels. One of the other things that's important is if the city council does not want to do that, and you want to live within your means and make up that two plus million dollar gap, then, you know, either you have to spend less or cut. And so in that scenario, I asked all of our departments to look at a 10 percent savings scenario. So in your packet, you have that as well. Earlier I talked about bifurcating that $2 to $3 to $4 million at the time we didn't know deficit with the use of 115 trust funds. I received direction to stick with the plan that we had to continue building that for the spiking years of 26, 27, and 28. But I was also given direction to look at the administration of our trust fund by PARS. So we will do that. So all that is to say we're here tonight, but there has to be work done in the future that's based on tonight and what we have talked about in prior years. And one of the key things is to have a... strategy session as early as possible in January as we get our mid-year review, complete our audit, so the city council can start to give us the priorities and the things that they believe are important so we can start to build next year's budgets and the budgets after that. And because we have the insurance challenge in front of us, you know, we have a lot of work to do in terms of lowering our risk profile. We have requirements that we're going to talk about tonight to enter into a pool that is going to give us the best rate we could get at this time. We're going to have to do a March report to them that shows what we've done to manage our risk, to lower our risk, to not be a risk to the pool. So every month we're going to have to do a risk assessment and build that toward a six-month presentation that's going to be required by our new pool. And, you know, I think that's a healthy approach and a necessary approach, and we'll relish the opportunity to do that. This idea of building a finance tool that would integrate our infrastructure needs and our service costs, as well as our insurance costs in the future, that's a work in progress. It needs to be given some priority. and obviously the involvement of the mayor, Councilmember Hoffman, and former Mayor Withey and our finance director and the city manager is critical to making that part of our budget conversations in the future. We were told that our grant Receipts are not where the council would like them to be. So we did some analysis of it, and I don't disagree with that. We have had a low success rate. We've applied for 23 grants in two years. We've asked for $21 million in change in other people's funds, and we just have not had a success that we want to add to things like infrastructure and climate change and resiliency and all the things that are important to our community. The other thing that I think is important is whenever you see a deficit, and it may be something that's a future trend, you want to be mindful that it's not the city manager's problem, it's not the city council's problem, it's not the finance director's problem, it's our problem as an organization. And so asking our organizations to involve themselves in an exercise that's mandated, that by the end of the month, each department meet, look at ways to build ideas. involve themselves in an exercise that's mandated that by the end of the month, each department meet, look at ways to, you know, build ideas that would create revenue or create efficiency or save money. That's an ongoing exercise that we started. We anticipate being done with that. end of June, formulating our review of it in July, and having that be part of ongoing budget discussions in the future. Because any time you get to a situation where your revenues don't match up with your expenses, something is amiss. It could be short term, could be long term. But we need to really look at it as something that we can, as an organization, start to bring the creativity and the knowledge of 79 city employees into this process. Next question. Next slide, please. Yep. So that concludes my comments. Chad's going to run through the presentation of more of the financial end of it. That was just to kind of set the table for what he's going to tell you. And appreciate the community's attention to this because without this attention and this rigor, we will not do as good a job as we can in preparing a budget that you can adopt next Tuesday. So the plan is to have the deep conversation tonight. to answer your questions tonight. We come to you on the 25th of this month, next Tuesday, talk about our reserve policy, provide you information on what we recommend. Listen to your feedback on that. and then adopt the budget and all the related budget documents that go with it, spending limits, the position control sheet, et cetera. But also, at that time, we would need to develop agreements with our new insurance carrier and adopt those as well. So tonight's a big, big meeting, an important meeting to talk about what our financial picture is and what it looks to be and what it's been. So with that, I turn it over to Chad. |
| 01:36:05.54 | Chad Hess | All right, good evening, Mayor, Council, members of the public. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the fiscal year 2025 budget with you. To begin, I just want to review a quick terms sheet just to make sure that we're all talking the same language as we move forward. This was presented at a previous budget session as well. So again, a budget surplus when receipt exceed disbursements in a fiscal year or an accounting period, we have a surplus. A budget deficit is an excess of disbursements over receipt. in an accounting period or a fiscal year. And that's when the government spends more on goods and services than it collects in revenue. Now, fund balance, as Chris has talked about earlier, is the accumulations. of prior year surpluses. So this is the accumulation of resources over the government's history. Now, these resources in fund balance are available to be expended. But now there is a portion, again, the reserves, and that's a portion of the fund balance that are set aside for true emergencies. These resources are really only to be spent after all other resources are consumed. So it's really that last dollar that we got tap into. Now, also, I'm going to try to use the term resources available in excess of reserves And this really references that gap term called unassigned fund balance. And this is really the resources that are available to the government above and beyond the 5% and 10%. reserve. Now a quick demonstration in terms of a graph. So fiscal year one, we had a surplus of of a half a million dollars. And you can see that that blue line, the fund balance represents that surplus for that year. Move into fiscal year two, where we had a $200,000 deficit. And you can see on that screen that did consume some of our prior year surplus and our fund balance is now at 300,000. Fiscal year three, really bad year. We lost 400,000 and now that brought us into deficit territory. This is debt spending. We have gone below. zero in terms of fund balance. We're using other people's money at this point. We are not here. We have available resources or surplus resources. Fiscal year three, we had another positive $200,000 increase in resources that brought our fund balance back above zero. So just wanted to set that terms and kind of have a basis for our discussion. Now, A mistake was made. I own this heir. And I acknowledge that I made a mistake and there is I'm learning that had taken place, and I own that. So yesterday, as I was working through my insurance budget to answer a question, I noticed that I inadvertently doubled up my SIR. SIR stands for Self Insurance Reserve. So the dollars that we will set aside to pay claims that are under the insurers SIR. Now, I doubled this up, essentially, instead of setting aside 750,000, I doubled it and set aside 1.5 million. That was leading into our $2 million deficit in the general fund. So, I apologize to the community, to council for making this error. I Certainly didn't mean to cause this panic of a $2 million deficit. We still are in deficit spending. but it has been reduced by 750,000. So again, Any Changes that I've made to this slide are noted in red font, just in complete transparency. This updated slide deck was requested to be updated. for members of the public and council. So, With that, I will move on. So we're gonna start with the general fund and here is the slide that was originally presented. I'm gonna go ahead and just move forward to the next slide. |
| 01:40:08.71 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, the next slide. Yeah, pull on to clarify. Yes. If you have questions, we're just gonna let him get through his presentation. |
| 01:40:10.15 | Chad Hess | Yes. |
| 01:40:10.74 | Steven Woodside | CLARIFICATION. |
| 01:40:10.97 | Chad Hess | Yep. |
| 01:40:15.16 | Steven Woodside | That was my thought is just to manage time. So, okay. So you go through your whole presentation and then we'll ask you questions. |
| 01:40:16.63 | Jill Hoffman | I agree. |
| 01:40:22.30 | Chad Hess | All right, so OPEB and pension liabilities is one of our challenges as we've discussed in the past. This hasn't changed. We are still facing an increase citywide of $470,000 for UAL payment And our OPEP direct payments for retirees will be $300,000 in fiscal year 25. under the insurance, We have new information that has become available just today. and that we're going to have to talk about this evening. We are still planning to participate in PRISM GL1 with a $500,000 SIR. Um, We have been officially access to join PRISM. under this GL1 program. So we are able to take advantage of this pool And that takes our worst case scenario really off the table by using private insurance carriers. I'm not sure. Our insurance, we were looking originally at using the state plan because we did not have pricing from PRISM at that time. And that was first-dollar coverage. Prism has since come back to us with some additional information. And that is going to be a discussion point that we need to have this evening. PRISM has come back to us with property insurance. which is a very favorable quote. much lower than we received from HUB And we will show you that on a future slide. That is still an increase in what we've paid in the past, but it is much, much lower than what we were facing. um, in the private market. So the impact on the general fund for increased insurance costs is $687,000. for fiscal year 25. For the entire enterprise citywide, that increase in insurance costs is just under a million, 983,000. over what we paid with Bay City. And again, no surprise, we had a softening of sales tax and then also a reduction due to one of our significant sales tax contributors we've talked about in the past. Now, I did add a new slide here. This is gonna come up as we start talking about insurance This is California labor code section. 4850. And this pertains to individuals who work in police, fire, really that public safety space. um, Anybody who is injured in the course of their general duties, is entitled to salary in lieu of temporary disability payment So really the city is responsible to pay their full salary. for at least the time that they're disabled. but not to exceed one year. I'm not sure if you're a This will become important as we discuss workman's comp and the options that we have available to us. All right, so here's a slide that I've reworked. Originally, we had planned to use PRISM's general liability. We also plan to use hubs, workman's comp. This is the state plan. And then the property premium was 418,000. simply because we did not have any indication from PRISM. So I'm going to move forward to the next slide and this will give you an update. . basically as of today. What we have here is HUBZ Premium is still at $1.2 million for a $500,000 SIR. $25 million limit. And there's no aggregate claim limit. This is much better coverage. than what we would see under the hub plan. Workman's Comp Hub Prism, I'm sorry, has come back to us and has offered us coverage, with a $350,000 SIR for premium coverage of 130,000. and an additional 35,000 for 4850 coverage. This is the coverage for those individuals working in our police department. those payments can be very significant. It is truly their full wage and benefit. or up to a year. in the event of a disability. I'm not sure. We did get some additional pricing from the state fund plan. You can see here that their pricing has come down a little bit, but under this plan, it does not offer 4850 coverage, the city would be responsible to those expenses out of pocket. in the event of Public safety injury. We would also have to include insurance from the private market for the next year. POL and EPL coverage as employment practice. coverages. So this is a new slide and we're going to see this come together here on the next slide. Just show us our options. So on this slide here, you can see that my original budget, and this is where I made So right here, you can see this is what I had for the PRISM general liability. This number is a combination of their premium. plus the set aside. for those claims. I inadvertently included that in this line item for PRISM. And it was also here, which did result in our significant general fund deficit of $2,052,000. What I had intended to do, you will see here in this third or the second column, This is what I should have done. I should have had 1,045,000 for, PRISM coverage. . 450 for Hobbs. And then just a single $750,000 SIR set aside. So our true general fund deficit should have been 1.3 million when we started this discussion. And for that, I apologize. Now, today we have received more information, and we did discuss that real briefly on The next slide. We did get original indication from PRISM for PRISM properties. as well as Workman's Comp. I'm going to advance to the next slide here. because we now have even more information that came available at 5.30 this evening. City Manager Zapata has mentioned We have really been working on this. nonstop trying to bring this together. So here's what we have as far as options on the table. And this is one of really our decisions. that will need to be made. Um, The primary difference is between this column here, this third column. in the fourth column. is on this last column, we go with the state plan. So this would be the state workers' comp plan dollar coverage. But again, no coverage for $48.50 in the event of injury for public safety officers. I'm not sure. On this column here, we would join PRISM's Workman's Comp with a $350,000 self-assured intention. We would add that additional rider for $35,000 for $48,50. And then here, because it is a higher SIR, we would need to set aside some additional dollars to pay those claims. based on analysis, um, the city attorney and I agree that about 250,000 seems appropriate based upon some of our prior year's losses. or that set aside under this plan. Now, when we look at the total reduction So, This is our reduction from the original budget. is 980,000. compared to 1,600,000. This now brings our deficit because of the improved pricing under Prism property. and PRISM Workman's Comp, Our general fund deficit is now down to 1,072,000. or 900. and 90,000 based upon which workman's comp plan we choose to go with. So that will be a decision point that we will need to make. which plan we go to and what is our risk appetite. I'm not sure. for potential losses under the 48-50 coverage. Now, moving on to revenues in the general fund, this slide has not changed. We have seen this before. Again, our significant changes are the reduction in sales tax, again, due to reallocation of a major contributor. as well as a softening economy based upon our HDL's recommendation. Also, we do have a reduction here for intergovernmental revenue. Again, these are grants that we receive from the state government, the federal government. A lot of this revenue is kind of unpredictable. Last year, we were very fortunate and received a couple of unbudgeted grants that were recognized in the mid-year budget review. I'm not sure if you're not sure And this year, we do not anticipate anything or we are not aware of any grants that are available or state dollars. available. Overall, we're projecting about a 4% decrease in revenue. or fiscal year 25. Moving forward, here is our original slide. This slide is assuming the the error that I made. and then also has old information from our insurance providers. So I've replaced this slide with our new slide here, which does reflect a lower cost, here we were on the assumption that we would take the state's plan when these slides were prepared. I think there should be some discussion about maybe taking the prison plan and we can discuss that during. a little bit later in the slide deck or this presentation. So we have updated where the insurance was coded. You can see here this red item or this red number has changed. One thing I do want to call everybody's attention to is a change in salary, just to be transparent. And you can see that down here in red, the methodology that is used for salaries and benefits has changed So when looking at the salaries and benefits for 24 and 25, They are not apple to apple. In fiscal year 24, we budgeted using full employment and top step for all positions. This number did overstate our salaries and benefits. because we were budgeting very high on the spectrum. Um, of those wage allocations for all of our positions. Making the change in fiscal year 25, I have continued to budget for full employment because our goal is to fill all of our positions. We want do fill all of our open positions and really provide great service to our community. but I have changed where I budget their wages. I budget their wages at a more realistic based upon where they are currently at. position by position and then factor in their steps and their colas So I'm becoming more precise in that budget. reflecting of salaries and benefits. So it's becoming a more realistic reflection of the cost and helps us to make better decisions. If we had an apples to apples comparison, The actual change in salaries is closer to 1.1 million. that I'm simply assuming or consuming some of my budgetary slack was inherently built into fiscal year 24. So again, we are trying to just improve our budgeting process. But again, in full transparency, I wanted to disclose that. Our next slide here is the slide that Maristil BFD. had asked that I include or have available. This here is the Sausalito turnover rate. And I am going to pause real quick and let HR manager Kathy Nikitas have just a real quick comment. on this slide. |
| 01:52:12.16 | Kathy Nikitas | Hi. Thank you, Chad. I'm Kathy Nikitas. I'm the Human Resources Manager. And that site is just really just a simple way of showing that we're getting better at holding on to our people. And that is a value that is beyond dollars. But if we look at the dollars, we can estimate an average cost of recruitments. And that involves advertising. That involves staff hours. Sometimes that involves consultant hours as well, because we're still getting a little bit of, a little bit of help in that area. So for the most simple position, |
| 01:52:39.23 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:52:51.97 | Kathy Nikitas | Thank you. it could cost $1,000. For a department head-level position, it could cost up to $10,000. So we just cited an average of $4,500 to about $6,000 for the average recruitment. We looked at the period of August 2021 to July 2022, and we had about 21 full-time employees leave at that point during that period. I went just with full-time employees because that's what we absolutely need to keep going, and I felt like it was too much apples and oranges to be looking at part-time employees versus full-time employee recruitments. So that represents roughly a 35% turnover rate. Ideally, we could look at having a 10% turnover rate, but that might not be realistic. And so I would be happy if we saw 15% for sustained for a couple of years at least. So 35%, that was pretty hefty when you look at our full-time employees. The following 12-month period, we were down to about 14 full-time employees leaving. So that became about 20%. For the last, it's about a 10-month period, we're at 14.9%. And I will say that out of that, two of those people leaving, and we're talking about 10 employees, two of those were people who have actually been gone for almost a year at that point, but I felt it was fair to include them in the numbers because we want to be accurate and transparent. That also includes one person who left and came back within a week and a half because the grass isn't always greener on the other side. So while there were 10 people who left, really, again, two of those people would have been pushed to the prior year as far as when they started not working with us. And one of those people came right back, so it made our recruitment costs certainly lower in that situation. So we're going in the right direction, and all of the things that we've been doing that the city manager has spoken about and that Director Hess has been speaking about, are helping hold on to employees. There's always going to be turnover. People retire. People move across the country. We had one person do that in this group of 10. So that's always going to happen. You can't look for zero turnover because things happen in life. But we want to just keep it to a minimum and control all the things that we can control about the things that minimize that. |
| 01:55:49.22 | Chad Hess | Thank you, Kathy. |
| 01:55:50.29 | Kathy Nikitas | Thanks, Chad. Thank you. |
| 01:55:52.26 | Chad Hess | All right. Moving on. So on this slide here, this was our original budget. And again, this included inaccurate information for our SIR set-asides. And then this had old assumptions for insurance. Again, our pricing just came in. just the other day. Here I have updated our general fund expenses. This is by department. A couple of things that I want to point out here, this non-departmental, this is where we house our insurance costs. They are not allocated out to departments at this point in time. So our experience is baked into here. That updated our number and has greatly lowered our general fund expenses. A couple of the significant changes that I want to talk about, finance department is seeing an increase. This is due to the risk manager position, his or her, whoever we hired, I'm sorry, their benefits and wages and benefits will be under the finance department. So that is one change. That is significant. Engineering is seeing a slight change. This is really due to a full year of employment for the new project managers. over the prior year budget. Um, In the planning and zoning department, we are seeing a drop in professional services, which is helping the budget. So that is a reduction in planting and zoning of about 14%, 15%, 200,000. Economic development, this is kind of a new department that we're showing here. This included the CDA contract. Destination Sausalito, and the lights. The CDA contract has been removed from that So you can see here that was a reduction in our general fund budget. Public works has seen an increase, mainly due to costs of supplies. That's really driving Supplies and utilities are driving up the public works budget fairly significantly due to electric rates, water rates, and then just general supplies and materials in general. All right, on the next slide here, Again, here, this is an attempt to reconcile that total change from fiscal year to fiscal year. I'm not sure. So if we look at the total change, and let me go up a couple of slides here, I'm not sure. Right here, here's this number, this 1.5 million. that's looking at total change from fiscal year 24, which got a surplus, to fiscal year 25, which is now a projected deficit. We have a swing of about 1.5 million. On this slide here is where I try to justify or do an analysis on what are the driving factors in that that can move. So again, here you can see that total change of 1.5 million. Um, really the decrease in property tax or decrease in sales taxes of about half a million dollars 36% of that. Um, the decrease in intergovernmental revenue, 160,000 of identified grants. This was the state grant that we received for the housing element study costs. Increase in UAL to the general fund and then increase in insurance costs allocated to the general fund. The insurance cost alone is 43%. So, of that thing. And if you add these up, they do exceed 100%. If you add up all my percentages, Again, because I've identified more items Um, that explain the game than the things. All right, here is general fund, fund balances over a period of time. So again, this is referencing what Chris mentioned. City Manager Capata in the earlier presentations We have been slowly building up fund balances. So you can see that reserves and unassigned fund balance |
| 01:59:43.13 | Katie Garcia | We have. |
| 01:59:49.42 | Chad Hess | has slowly grown over the course of several years. as well as our total fund balance. So we've got 10.8 million, As of fiscal year 23, audited numbers, And then total fund balance of $15 million in the general fund. And that will play into my next slide here. Again, this slide has been updated Our worst case is no longer relevant. This was assuming that we had to go with Hub and we were not allowed into prism. So this is my updated slide. I have updated that worst case. And this is assuming that we have a really bad year So I've added additional dollars in terms of FIR assuming some claims so If we look here, this is fiscal year 23. This is our starting point. These are audited numbers. Here you can see that we have a 15% reserve that's going to be a the 10%, the 5%. We are projecting or recommending that we THE END OF THE END OF THE increase that. reserve. to 25% and we're gonna bring that as a formal action counsel at the next meeting. So if we look here again, these two lower red or two, I'm sorry, two lower blue bars or buckets. This is our reserve. This represents roughly $5 million or 25% of our general fund standards. General fund expense is roughly around $20 million. Above that, we have our non-spendables. And then we have our section 115, I'm sorry, pension asset. That represents about uh, $3.7 million. And then this really bright blue bar, that is going to be our resources in excess. of our reserves. So those are really available for, that we're going to be the city's needs and in this insurance predicament is certainly one of those needs. So here you can see if we look at our fiscal year 24, Um, This is considering our half a million dollar surplus that we are projecting In fiscal year 24, you can see here that we've got So, you know, an increase. in, in, in Reserves. And then here we are consuming some of those reserves if we look at our best case because of that unbalanced general fund. with a deficit just around a million dollars. Here would be maybe a work base if we had maybe a half a million dollars more in claims than what was in our budget. So this again, we are consuming some of those resources available in excess of reserves. but we would not be getting anywhere near our reserves. Um, You can see reconciliation of all city funds. Um, I removed this slide and updated it. Here you can see that updated insurance or the updated general fund expenses, This has been reduced because of the reduction in planned insurance costs. which has reduced our savings and fund balance again to just under a million. Um, because I have over-healthed or doubled up my my revenues and my general liability. I'm not sure. self-improve. fun. This number here has been reduced by 750,000 because of my error. that I disclosed earlier in the presentation. Moving forward here, you can see a mix of other infrastructure and operations. This has not changed from previous slides or previous presentations. This bill is reflective in the budget book that was available before the meeting. The final slide here, this simply changed because I needed to update the totals, and I apologize that this did not. Um, update or I didn't note in red, This number has changed. This total line has changed. And then the stains and balance sort of thing. and our ending balance would have changed. So those three numbers were updated from the previous slide. I just want to make sure that I call attention to that. for full disclosure. The final slide to talk to you here for interest earnings This is really reflective of what Chris made reference to in his remarks. Here you can see on the illustration of interest earnings So, you know, I think that's a good thing. on the city's idle tax over the previous five years Fiscal year 24 has seen a much, much better return simply because we're being more intentional on how we invest those idle resources. And finally, we'll expand a little bit more on the soft legal care plan. CARE stands for Cost and Revenue Efficiency. What we are doing is we've met with department heads, as Chris had mentioned, And we've asked them to discuss with our team ways that we can either reduce costs or generate additional revenues to the city. Information is due back, as Chris mentioned, by June 30th. Um, City Manager Zapata and myself will evaluate the ideas and rank them. based upon impact and effort. to identify ways that we can have really significant impact. and reduced our efforts to help balance this budget moving forward. Ideas will be presented to council. in September after their recess. With that being said, I'll go ahead and end my slides there and open it up for comments. |
| 02:05:21.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. it. Okay, we'll open it up for comments. I just want to congratulate you. Sorry, yes, thank you, questions. Congratulations, you and the. team and on the insurance matter in particular with all this splendid presentation. So I'm sure we have lots of questions, but also want to just acknowledge the hard work of You and the numerous other people that were involved, Sergio, Christine, the manager, Kathy, many others in, really pulling a rabbit out of the hat under a tough situation on the insurance so and my vice mayor who was on the committee that we did very little compared to the hard daily. daily work of so many people. It was having a front row seat on it. I just gotta say to my colleagues, |
| 02:05:58.72 | Unknown | That was a good one. Thank you. |
| 02:06:02.55 | Steven Woodside | you would have been super proud of our staff and the city and to the residents, super proud of our staff. really hard working on this matter. It was impressive and has been bearing fruit. So anyway, sorry for the comment for the question. Does anyone want to start with some questions? Councilmember Cullin. |
| 02:06:20.30 | Councilmember Kellman | Great. Chad, thank you, and thank you, city manager. I know you guys have been very busy, along with the city attorney, on the insurance work. |
| 02:06:26.19 | Steven Woodside | THEIR OWNERS. |
| 02:06:26.51 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 02:06:28.04 | Councilmember Kellman | So I'm going to start there for now. Can you just back up a second, Chad, and Explain what the SIR means in practical terms for the city. |
| 02:06:39.59 | Chad Hess | Yeah, so the SIR, Self-Inference Reserve, In terms of a homeowner policy, think of it as your deductible. Really, that is who is going to pay the first dollar of any incurred law. So when we're talking about an SIR of 500,000, That would mean if somebody is walking down and Trips falls on sidewalks, soothes us, for a million dollars. we would be responsible for the first 500,000 that claim. If they sue us for $200,000, we would pay the whole claim because that is under the SIR, self-insurance reserve, of our policy. |
| 02:07:22.33 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay, so city attorney, as we know, is here tonight since we've been making them work hard. So I think it's worth understanding |
| 02:07:26.65 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:07:32.32 | Councilmember Kellman | Our claims to date, given our insurance woes, how many of them would come under the recommended SIR such that they would be out of pocket? |
| 02:07:43.64 | Sergio Rudin | So realistically speaking, most of the claims and settlements the city has had are, typically under a half million dollars. So I would say that a fair amount of your claims and the dollars that you would pay are under the self-insured retention. or would be under the self-insured retention for PRISM. As you folks are likely aware, you know, Bay City's raised the city's self-insured retention to half a million dollars in October of last year on the private marketplace, the lowest self-insured retention the city was able to locate was $400,000. And that policy would cap coverage after $3 million. So, Again, a lot of the city's claims in terms of volume You know, some of them are as low as five or $10,000. You know, they may be a you know, a, a small slip and fall or some sort of sewage backup in a home, you know, that results as, as a result of like cleaning done by public works, you know, these are, um, tree damage type claims or tree, you know, falls onto private property. Um, so those are small dollar claims, you know, even under, uh, $50,000 SIR that the city has historically enjoyed those kinds of claims would be coming out of the city's pocket entirely. |
| 02:09:06.67 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay, so let me just pause for that. Thank you, Sergio. So what I would like to see, and Chad, you and I talked about this over today, so I'm not just bringing this on you. What I would like to see is, |
| 02:09:13.30 | Sergio Rudin | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:09:15.83 | Councilmember Kellman | I'm in aggregate how much if the city adopted plan a how much would the city have to pay out of pocket if the city went for the upfront dollar amount, how much do we potentially save because if we pay. And this is a question, I want to know if this is an accurate way of looking at it. If we pay for a plan that has a higher deductible, but the average of 23 claims a year that we have been filing causes us to pull money from the general plan, we haven't done ourselves any favors. Um, But we could, because it's a cheaper plan, then use those monies for risk mitigation. So I'm trying to understand the trade-offs that you're presenting to us. |
| 02:10:02.22 | Chad Hess | So are really two options for general liability are, are. Prism with a $500,000 SIR or hub with 400,000. The hub is five, four or five times as expensive as Prism. |
| 02:10:18.98 | Councilmember Kellman | Can you put slide 13 back up? |
| 02:10:20.29 | Chad Hess | Yes, I sure can. |
| 02:10:21.61 | Councilmember Kellman | Right, because you talked about a first dollar. |
| 02:10:21.63 | Chad Hess | Thank you. You see? |
| 02:10:24.07 | Councilmember Kellman | Right? |
| 02:10:24.09 | Chad Hess | Yep. Now that's under the workman's comp. |
| 02:10:24.92 | Councilmember Kellman | I'm going to go. Yes. |
| 02:10:27.15 | Chad Hess | But yes, let me go back to slide 13. |
| 02:10:29.14 | Councilmember Kellman | So each of these should be so my comment or my question. I'm sorry, Mayor, I don't mean to give a comment, but I'm really trying to figure out, you know, with the breakout of our of the claims to date that that causes to lose our insurance, how much that would have cost us under both of these scenarios and There's different types. There's workers' comp, there's slip and falls, there's litigation. We should see those broken now and understanding the cost for each so that we can then weigh which of these plans is better for us, number one. And number two, it would seem that if we spent, Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. into risk mitigation. Am I understanding this issue correctly? |
| 02:11:21.58 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay. |
| 02:11:21.97 | Sophia Collier | I know. |
| 02:11:22.24 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:11:22.55 | Sophia Collier | Yeah. |
| 02:11:23.03 | Chad Hess | I'm sorry. |
| 02:11:23.19 | Sergio Rudin | Chad, if I may help with this one, maybe you can put the slide that actually has our proposed premiums. |
| 02:11:23.34 | Sophia Collier | Bye. |
| 02:11:23.39 | Chad Hess | . |
| 02:11:23.47 | Sophia Collier | Thank you. |
| 02:11:23.52 | Chad Hess | Yeah. |
| 02:11:28.79 | Chad Hess | Yeah, let me bring that up. No, that's all right. |
| 02:11:33.62 | Councilmember Kellman | I'm just trying to understand where we're going to be out of pocket. based on historical costs. |
| 02:11:39.23 | Chad Hess | Yeah, this slide I think would help. Thank you. |
| 02:11:41.92 | Sergio Rudin | Yes. |
| 02:11:42.04 | Chad Hess | Yes. |
| 02:11:44.94 | Sergio Rudin | So, Historically, the city has enjoyed a $50,000 self-insured retention, which means that typically after the city pays for the preliminary cost of investigation, Um, and maybe some initial defense costs and discovery work. The Bay Cities basically handled the rest of the settlement of a claim until completion. Um, You know, at this point, there are really are only two options for the city, either private insurance, which we would obtain through hub, which would provide us with a 400k self-insured retention, meaning the city pays for the first 400k of losses for any claim that is filed against the city. Um, versus under Prism, you would pay 500k out of losses for any general liability claim. So those general liability claims- |
| 02:12:37.64 | Councilmember Kellman | What was the SIR under the pool? |
| 02:12:41.18 | Sergio Rudin | Under the pool, it was 50,000. |
| 02:12:43.88 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay. |
| 02:12:43.92 | Sergio Rudin | Okay. Before October. |
| 02:12:46.11 | Councilmember Kellman | So the council is going to need to consider where we might... have some, I don't want to call them reserves, but extra funds to pay above and beyond the 50,000. Because we haven't reduced our litigation or risk because we haven't hired a risk manager yet. We want to, but we, sensibly are still kind of subject to the same risk profile. |
| 02:13:06.61 | Chad Hess | Yes, and in the budget, I'm setting aside |
| 02:13:10.07 | Councilmember Kellman | you |
| 02:13:10.14 | Chad Hess | to pay those claims. |
| 02:13:10.16 | Councilmember Kellman | Yeah. Okay. And where are you setting that aside? |
| 02:13:15.03 | Chad Hess | Yeah, so I set that aside in what's called our – it's an internal service fund under GAP. But what it is, is the standalone fund where we accumulate resources to pay these claims. So we've had this for a number of years. but we haven't really been accumulating resources because we've had such a favorable small SIR of 50,000 that we didn't need excessive resources. In this budget, I am proposing we transfer $750,000, that SIR set aside, to the cell the internal service fund, our self-insurance fund, pay those claims that we as the city would be responsible for. So I am setting dollars aside to pay those claims in this budget. |
| 02:14:03.23 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay, and if we look at the last- |
| 02:14:03.74 | Chad Hess | If we don't spend them, then they are there to roll over to the next year or spend on additional risk mitigation activities. |
| 02:14:14.47 | Councilmember Kellman | So thank you, that makes sense. I just want to make sure that that amount of money would cover what we incurred last year. If we imagine there's no reason to envision a change in circumstance. |
| 02:14:27.41 | Chad Hess | Yeah. I believe it will. I don't have a crystal ball. And again, I... could be completely wrong, but I believe that would be sufficient. to pay those claims. It could be famous last words. I hope not. I mean, |
| 02:14:38.78 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay. |
| 02:14:43.09 | Chad Hess | Yeah, I ran out of crystal ball polish. |
| 02:14:44.12 | Councilmember Kellman | Yeah, we're trying to figure it out. Okay, just two more questions. Let me switch so others can move on. |
| 02:14:46.46 | Chad Hess | Okay. |
| 02:14:51.39 | Councilmember Kellman | So you've mentioned personnel costs. Today we talked about the manner in which you were envisioning the personnel costs, the costs as of today, not as of fully built out departments. But I thought I heard you say something differently in your presentation. |
| 02:15:08.32 | Chad Hess | No. Okay. So this slide here, I think is what you're, what you're referring to. So I, I have. I'm projecting for full employment. our goal is to employ all of our positions or fill all of our positions. So I'm assuming that we, achieve that goal. The change that I've made is what do I budget for salary for those individuals? That was the change from fiscal year 24 to fiscal year 25. |
| 02:15:30.98 | Katie Garcia | Bye. |
| 02:15:35.54 | Chad Hess | both assume full employment, that's Kathy's goal. is to fill those positions and provide great service to our community. And that's reflected in the budget, but where I budget them has been scaled back to a more realistic level in terms of dollars. |
| 02:15:52.97 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay, so you're changing the methodology between last year's budget and this year's budget? |
| 02:15:57.10 | Chad Hess | Yes. you in in wages. Because last year, for example, I THINK THAT'S WHEN I I budgeted that the finance director position would be filled. but it was budgeted at the highest wage that I could earn. And I'm not at the highest step. So that was budgetary slack. that we are over budgeting. there's no way that I would be paid the top step. unless I quit and you had to hire somebody at top step. So what I'm doing this year is I'm saying, okay, Chad's going to be here for the full year. And Chad's wage is X. And I anticipate Chad gets a small or, you know, cola. based upon previous negotiations. And that's where I'm budgeting wages. I'm not making the assumption that we have to pay top step. for all positions in fiscal year 25. |
| 02:16:48.82 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay, so it's fully belted out staff, but they're giving lower wages. |
| 02:16:53.06 | Chad Hess | No, I'm budgeting at, I'm not giving, I'm not, yes, I'm budgeting. lower a more realistic wage where they are currently at plus their adjustment for that year. |
| 02:17:05.33 | Councilmember Kellman | It is a... |
| 02:17:05.45 | Chad Hess | Go ahead. |
| 02:17:06.78 | Councilmember Kellman | into account the labor negotiations we undertook and the decisions we made |
| 02:17:09.65 | Chad Hess | Yes, it does. Yes. |
| 02:17:12.42 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. Okay, and then just for everyone's benefit, because we talked about it today as well. I asked about how recent decisions regarding the downtown might impact our budget moving forward. We talked about the loss of 31 parking spots that you had said was average value around $7500. We talked about the BID and the cost and the city's contribution there. And can you just share just from the timing perspective why it's not included in this budget cycle. |
| 02:17:34.96 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:17:35.03 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 02:17:35.06 | Unknown | to be able to do it. |
| 02:17:35.18 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 02:17:35.21 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:17:39.70 | Chad Hess | Yeah, so the bid was not included in the budget cycle. again, because I wasn't sure where we were going with this. I did remove, let me go down to a Let me find that fire. Apologize here. |
| 02:17:55.99 | Chad Hess | Yep. So the CDA contract has been removed. Um, right here. This is basically the CDA contract. We still have the destination Sausalito in the budget and I still have maintenance of those lights in the budget. about $20,000 of the original 90 that we have paid in the past. And that was factored into the bid. the bid calculations that we had talked about. I do not have that full contribution in here because I'm not sure where the council chooses to go. |
| 02:18:29.55 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay, and the last question about revenue. Have you have you taken a look sorry, this is a new question. We didn't discuss this earlier today at the impact of properties coming on and off the tax roll. So if there is a private property, the city acquires like the Bank of America building. We used to collect property taxes on it. We no longer collect property taxes on it. Yeah. |
| 02:18:35.36 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:18:47.84 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:18:48.30 | Councilmember Kellman | Um, similarly, I don't know, let's say the corporation yard city owned. We don't, there's no taxes on it. If it went to a private developer, there would be taxes. Have you looked at that at all in terms of revenue? |
| 02:18:58.49 | Chad Hess | No, no, I haven't. I can certainly look up what the Bank of America building was contributing before our acquisition, and that would be an easy request or an easy ask. I could do some analysis on the corp yard based upon land values, but we would have to make assumptions on improved costs per se. But certainly something we could we could consider. |
| 02:19:19.40 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay. |
| 02:19:21.53 | Chad Hess | We have a lot of properties. |
| 02:19:22.77 | Councilmember Kellman | could go into private ownership. |
| 02:19:24.34 | Chad Hess | Thank you. I agree. You're welcome. |
| 02:19:24.70 | Councilmember Kellman | Right. |
| 02:19:26.52 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. . Vice Mayor? |
| 02:19:29.34 | Joan Cox | I just wanted to actually follow on the second to the last line of questioning regarding FTEs. So can you go back to that slide about our staffing expense? |
| 02:19:39.95 | Craig Merrilees | Thank you. |
| 02:19:39.97 | Chad Hess | Yeah. I think you're after that one, this one. |
| 02:19:47.26 | Joan Cox | Yes, so we have in our packet this evening, SWOT analyses from each of the department heads, many of which discussed opportunities for shared services for going to part-time on some of their employees. And so I'm curious with those suggestions by department heads and knowing that we're facing a deficit, why we would make the assumption that we're going to be Uh, that we're going to have 100% full roster. We never have had. We always have openings. And so I feel as though it would be more accurate to budget for the openings that we know we already have and perhaps I'm certainly not recommending a RIF, but I am recommending a pause on filling empty positions, particularly where department heads see an opportunity to utilize part-time, to utilize additional fundraising, and some of the other strategies that were proposed in the SWOT analyses that we received. from the various department heads. address why we are not factoring into account that reality in our, and I understand you're doing it the way we've done it in the past, but I'm challenged to consider a different approach this year as we're looking at a million dollar structural deficit. Yeah. It may not actually be real. |
| 02:21:19.65 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:21:25.54 | Chad Hess | Yeah, we are. So, yes, you have a great point. We know that we are going to have vacancies. We know that we have turnover. We know that it takes time to fill those positions. Um, Yes, there is going to be salary savings in this budget. But I am. I'm going this direction, assuming full employment with the goal that we can get there. Because in the event that we do reach it, I would need to come back later to council and ask for additional dollars at that point. Um, Our salary savings in the past has been I mean, it varies significantly. If I had to put a guess on what is available in salary savings for fiscal year 25. It's probably maybe in the $300,000, $400,000 range. I don't think there's significant amount of excess like there was last year. But there is some wiggle room within that salary line item. So yes, there is, Yes, I agree that you have a point, but I... truly feel we should budget for full employment. And we can disagree, or you can direct me to rework my budget. to not budget at full employment. Yeah, so |
| 02:22:46.57 | Joan Cox | Yeah, so if we asked for it, would you be able to give us a roster of each department and where it currently stands on number of employees budgeted for and number of employees presently existing? Correct. |
| 02:23:01.76 | Chad Hess | currently filled. Yeah, yeah, that would be an easy task. |
| 02:23:03.67 | Joan Cox | Yeah, that would be a good time. I would like to see that as part of our decision making process at our next meeting. So that we, because I, we've certainly promised the city manager that we're not going to seek a reduction in force. But I don't know that we need to be aggressively hiring for every position. If department heads see an opportunity to save future rifts by maintaining current staffing levels. |
| 02:23:10.55 | Chad Hess | Yeah. |
| 02:23:31.66 | Chad Hess | Yeah, I think creative staffing is a solution. One example in my finance department, |
| 02:23:31.73 | Joan Cox | Thank you. No. |
| 02:23:37.64 | Chad Hess | We've brought on interns. So, local college interns who want to get experience and we're, giving them an opportunity to see government work. So, yeah, I think there are creative ways that we can fill staffing needs. |
| 02:23:47.90 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 02:23:52.30 | Joan Cox | And I also, okay, and I don't want to, I did have a question also about turnover. So, yeah. maybe this is for Catherine, but the 14% turnover that we're still experiencing Is that? in your view, related at all to our The competitiveness of our salaries, are we still seeing a large rate of attrition because we aren't competitive in our salaries, I was hoping we had addressed that through the actions we took in our labor negotiations. |
| 02:24:25.88 | Kathy Nikitas | Sure. I can't say exactly how much of that is attributable to salaries. I think there have been a couple of people who have left because they felt that they could make better money elsewhere. But again, there was retirement. There were one person left definitely for salaries. Another person left because they had a personal situation that they just needed to move out of the area. So left definitely for salaries. Another person left because they had personal situation that they just needed to move out of the area. So I think overall we're doing well with our salaries. But some of the positions that we haven't been able to fill may be due to salaries where, you know, one of them risk manager, as we've, as we've discussed, and that just launched this afternoon at four o'clock by the way, it's out on Cal Ops again. |
| 02:24:47.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:14.62 | Kathy Nikitas | with the new rain. |
| 02:25:15.36 | Joan Cox | Is it your practice when someone leaves to do an exit interview to identify the real reason that they're leaving? |
| 02:25:24.71 | Kathy Nikitas | It is. It is. We have... Thank you. |
| 02:25:28.00 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:25:28.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:28.22 | Joan Cox | that's not going to be a |
| 02:25:29.18 | Kathy Nikitas | We have kind of beefed up that part of our process after being a little bit depressed for a while, but we absolutely are, and I, because we have to let people know this is going to be confidential and I'm going to aggregate information. Um, but I've gotten some, some good responses. Okay. Overall, I haven't seen it be more than 50% or 60%. I haven't seen it be for money purposes. So I think we're doing okay in general, but we can always certainly do better. But I think the work that was done last year for the labor agreements has really, really helped for our stability. |
| 02:25:53.99 | Unknown | you know. |
| 02:25:54.24 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 02:26:12.08 | Joan Cox | Thank you, and thank you for the arrow moving in a positive direction in terms of lowering the rate of. |
| 02:26:19.76 | Kathy Nikitas | Absolutely. It takes a whole team and we're all working on it together. |
| 02:26:23.32 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:26:23.81 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council member Blasdine or Hoffman. Constable Mayor Hoffman. |
| 02:26:32.99 | Jill Hoffman | So, Chad, we also talked earlier today, so thank you for your time. I know you're busy. You're welcome. Um, I principally, we talked about two things and one was, um, If we look at slide 16. Um, that's where we're talking about the change in the, um, the change in the, Budget. for the SIR, general liability SIR. |
| 02:26:56.04 | Chad Hess | Yeah, slide 16 right here. |
| 02:26:58.67 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's, yeah, this is, yeah. |
| 02:27:02.03 | Chad Hess | All right. |
| 02:27:03.88 | Jill Hoffman | Not that slide. |
| 02:27:05.05 | Chad Hess | Not that one. This one, then, I would imagine. |
| 02:27:08.90 | Jill Hoffman | General Insurance. Right here. Insurance news slide. |
| 02:27:11.31 | Chad Hess | Right here. Okay, I'm gonna go to the even newer slide. That's okay. |
| 02:27:17.22 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:27:18.63 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 02:27:18.70 | Jill Hoffman | All right. |
| 02:27:18.87 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:27:24.40 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, that's, oh, sorry. |
| 02:27:25.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:27:25.55 | Chad Hess | So they're |
| 02:27:26.31 | Jill Hoffman | Hold on, is that attached to the agenda? |
| 02:27:29.84 | Chad Hess | So this one was was sent out. And then this one was updated at 5.30 because we got more information from PRISM. |
| 02:27:36.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, gotcha. |
| 02:27:38.04 | Chad Hess | So this is... |
| 02:27:39.52 | Jill Hoffman | My question's still, yeah, my question's still. |
| 02:27:41.09 | Chad Hess | It's still relevant. It's still up here. |
| 02:27:43.02 | Jill Hoffman | So let me ask you this. I think this might be part of the confusion. The top line says PRISM general liability 500,000 SIR, right? And then why is it budgeted there, original budget, the top line? |
| 02:28:01.04 | Chad Hess | Right up here. |
| 02:28:01.82 | Jill Hoffman | Yep. The top line there says 1.795. |
| 02:28:06.51 | Chad Hess | Yep, right here. |
| 02:28:06.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So what does that number represent then? If that's not the SIR, the SIR is the number. |
| 02:28:11.23 | Chad Hess | Thank you. No, so this 1.7 million represents the premium, for PRISM. Plus 750,000. And then I also included that $750,000 down on a second line item. That's my air. So my air is right here. |
| 02:28:32.88 | Jill Hoffman | I got the error. I got the part that I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure. I'm not clear on that number. The $750,000. What is the basis for that number? |
| 02:28:34.00 | Chad Hess | Yep. |
| 02:28:34.39 | Unknown | part that. |
| 02:28:34.81 | Chad Hess | Yep. |
| 02:28:35.06 | Unknown | Thank you. I'm, |
| 02:28:35.78 | Chad Hess | What? |
| 02:28:36.00 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:28:46.45 | Chad Hess | we're looking at previous losses, we're trying to estimate what we think is a reasonable set-aside number. I don't have a... an exact science on estimating this. I could be conservative. I could be way off on that. |
| 02:28:59.27 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 02:28:59.29 | Unknown | I could not. |
| 02:29:03.73 | Chad Hess | It really depends on our experience on what type of claims we receive. |
| 02:29:08.29 | Jill Hoffman | So the $500,000 on the, of the SIR. |
| 02:29:12.98 | Chad Hess | Right here. Yep. |
| 02:29:14.68 | Jill Hoffman | that's, that's, that's referenced later when you're talking about what, um, you know, mechanism of how we're going to insure ourselves. But the 1.795,795,000 or... |
| 02:29:27.62 | Kevin McGowan | That's it. |
| 02:29:30.41 | Jill Hoffman | the intended 1,400 Okay. |
| 02:29:33.85 | Kevin McGowan | No. |
| 02:29:34.04 | Chad Hess | Yeah. |
| 02:29:34.75 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 02:29:34.76 | Jill Hoffman | 45,000. I mean, that's also just sort of an estimate number. |
| 02:29:38.93 | Chad Hess | So this here... |
| 02:29:40.00 | Jill Hoffman | My point is maybe that estimate number because they're just estimates. |
| 02:29:43.91 | Chad Hess | No, this is our premium. The uncertainty around our cost is going to be on this GL and property SIR set aside. This is a known cost. It's pretty firm. It's a little squishy still. We do have certainty on the PRISM property coverages. But this year is still a little squishy as far as the estimate. I don't expect it to go too much farther from that. This represents our premium that is paid July 1st, we are transferring any loss above $500,000. through the pool. So that represents a cost out the door day one. The $750,000 SIR set aside, that is an estimate And it will change based upon our claims experience. If we have zero claims, I'm not going to spend any of that. If we have, A lot of claims, we're going to spend more than that. |
| 02:30:44.49 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, because our limit. Okay, thank you so much for explaining that. That wasn't clear even after we talked this morning. So, or this afternoon. Glad to help. Yep, you're welcome. No, that's good. So, what I don't see budgeted in here though is an estimate for |
| 02:30:51.65 | Katie Garcia | THE END OF Thank you. |
| 02:30:52.20 | Unknown | Try to help. |
| 02:30:52.93 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 02:30:53.03 | Unknown | Yep, you're welcome. |
| 02:30:53.69 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 02:30:59.66 | Jill Hoffman | attorney's fees that we're going to have to pay now to defend our claims. Because before we had a 50, I understand it. We had a $50,000 premium. |
| 02:31:04.57 | Mary Hudson | Thank you. |
| 02:31:04.61 | Unknown | Correct. |
| 02:31:08.94 | Jill Hoffman | Anything over $50,000, we tendered the claim, and the insurance company paid the cost of defense, correct? |
| 02:31:15.00 | Unknown | That is correct. |
| 02:31:16.01 | Jill Hoffman | As well as settling the matter in excess of $50,000. So now I see a significant expense for us just defending claims, regardless of how much they're made for, between $0,000 and $500,000. Would you agree that's correct? |
| 02:31:34.83 | Unknown | you |
| 02:31:34.85 | Chad Hess | I would agree if if if the claim is estimated to be $200,000. the insurer is not going to look at it. We would be responsible to defend and negotiate that claim. One of the job responsibilities of that risk manager would be to help manage this process. We wouldn't have to seek outside legal advice for all claims. Some of those claims, the lower end claims I feel could be handled by a risk manager in-house. But yes, you are correct. Legal costs will be higher to defend those claims under a higher SIR. And part of that set aside of $750,000 is to cover some of those legal costs. |
| 02:32:19.75 | Jill Hoffman | So I think, um, Well, I'll say that later. Okay, so then the next thing is, You would also, agree that even though we have a you know, our limit, our liability limit is $500,000. The SIR is $500,000 per claim many times, even if we tender... in addition to, you know, tender a claim and were covered by the insurance company, we're usually asked to also contribute additional money to settle a claim. Correct. |
| 02:33:04.01 | Chad Hess | So I guess like a counter offer or what, I guess what? |
| 02:33:08.01 | Jill Hoffman | No, we're sitting at this, here comes our attorney. |
| 02:33:10.31 | Chad Hess | Yeah, thank you, Sergio. |
| 02:33:10.92 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Sergio. |
| 02:33:12.45 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, short answer is yes. And really that tends to happen in the event of a coverage dispute where we have a particularly strange claim or we have inverse condemnation type claims where historically, you know, the city's contract arrangement with Bay Cities is that there was a – 50-50. split between the pool and the city for inverse condemnation type claims. In PRISM, there's an exclusion for inverse condemnation claims. Private insurance, there's an exclusion for inverse condemnation claims. Yeah, the kinds of claims that are likely to be covered are going to decrease. And, you know, when we do have pollution type claims or things like that, again, usually there is some sort of exclusion and the pool or the insurer will demand, you know, a contribution. because they will dispute that there is coverage for the particular kind of claim. |
| 02:34:13.61 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:34:15.04 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 02:34:15.06 | Unknown | Thank you, Sergio. |
| 02:34:16.02 | Jill Hoffman | So those are my questions regarding that issue. I'll have some comments on that. And I'd like to move now to the salary and benefits. I think that's slide 19. I don't know what, it might be a new slide. |
| 02:34:32.51 | Chad Hess | 21. |
| 02:34:33.52 | Jill Hoffman | Here we go. Or is that just a news line? |
| 02:34:34.31 | Chad Hess | There we go. |
| 02:34:36.98 | Unknown | No. |
| 02:34:38.11 | Jill Hoffman | OK, so this issue of the percent, the change, the third column over there, the dollar change, And the change in methodology for calculating our |
| 02:34:44.30 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:34:44.60 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 02:34:49.90 | Jill Hoffman | calculating our salary. on the budget. We did talk about that in our 10-year modeling working group. Do you recall that? |
| 02:34:58.92 | Chad Hess | I recall us discussing it, yeah. |
| 02:35:01.82 | Jill Hoffman | And is it your recollection, as it is mine, the, The consensus by at least two of us on that working group was not to change the methodology. |
| 02:35:11.88 | Chad Hess | I thought it was to continue at full employment. but not at top step. I, I, I, That's my recollection. I could be wrong. But that's my recollection and that's why I went with this route. |
| 02:35:22.66 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:35:26.57 | Jill Hoffman | Did somebody, did somebody direct you not to? |
| 02:35:29.09 | Chad Hess | No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This was my decision. Okay. |
| 02:35:32.58 | Jill Hoffman | So let's go back to these numbers then. The 2025 number of 9,948,971 over the 2024 number resulted in the 483,105. But you and I talked about this today. And if you applied the same methodology that you applied in 25, to 24. that change would be, 1.1 million, correct? |
| 02:36:07.16 | Chad Hess | Correct. And that's, yeah, that's what I'm saying down here at the lower in the footnote disclosure, if you will. that this number here |
| 02:36:15.07 | Frank Millian | Thank you. |
| 02:36:15.12 | Chad Hess | if I applied the same methodology would be |
| 02:36:15.14 | Frank Millian | Yeah. |
| 02:36:15.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:36:18.58 | Chad Hess | would be lower resulting in a higher change. |
| 02:36:22.67 | Jill Hoffman | And it would be that 1.1 million. The converse is true too. If you apply the same methodology that you used in 2024 without change to 2025, That dollar change would be 1.1 million. |
| 02:36:37.62 | Unknown | Correct. And then we would have a higher deficit. projective deficits. |
| 02:36:44.57 | Jill Hoffman | Well, it's interesting that you phrase it that way, but I'm just getting to the point the change in methodology is, I think has resulted in the 483 Accounting. but, |
| 02:36:55.42 | Chad Hess | It's on a modular basis. It's a budgetary basis. And I'm trying to improve |
| 02:36:59.05 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry. |
| 02:37:01.23 | Chad Hess | budgetary experience. |
| 02:37:01.24 | Jill Hoffman | Right. Okay, but my point is if you use the same consistent methodology, The consistent response is, You got 1.1 million. |
| 02:37:12.28 | Chad Hess | of change. Correct. |
| 02:37:13.48 | Jill Hoffman | Yep. Okay. |
| 02:37:15.38 | Chad Hess | I'm not disputing that in terms of actual dollars, yes. |
| 02:37:19.43 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Okay, thanks. |
| 02:37:22.30 | Steven Woodside | Are you finished? Thank you very much. Any other questions? |
| 02:37:28.48 | Melissa Blaustein | I just have a few questions quickly for our city manager. And also a big thank you to Chad and to the insurance team for everything that you put together on this. So city manager, in reviewing your presentation and hearing from you, it seems like what you're asking from us is to essentially cover the deficit with the general fund balance that's unassigned. And then give you and your team more time to look at the care model that you're putting together. Could you just clarify that so that we would pass the budget as is, but that doesn't mean we're not going to make considerations and changes going forward? |
| 02:38:03.86 | Chris Zapata | Thank you for the question, and that's correct. When I presented this first to the council, my recommendation was you want to maintain service levels for the community, for the businesses, for the visitors that come here, and drop dollars into your account so that you can provide services in the city. So you don't want to do that, disrupt that at this time. But what you do want to do is take and pay attention to what it is that you'd be looking at in terms of future years. And in future years, it takes, you know, what we did in 2021. And one of the things that I'm really, really cognizant of is there's something called management inertia. I have never been a victim of that. Whenever there's something that is wrong, we try to fix it. And that's exemplified in the numbers you see today. That's why you have $10.8 million in your audited five and ten and unassigned cash, because we cut positions. We raised revenue through different means. So all of those are all important. So what I'm saying is when I need more time is I'm not going to sit in our hands, nor is Chad, we haven't, and we won't. We've been consumed by this insurance challenge. And I think we've made great strides going from a $4 million worst case scenario to a $1 million worst case scenario. We need a little more time, which, you know, we hopefully you will give us. And we don't think that there is, I don't believe and would not recommend that there be any, you know, level of service reduction at this time until we've had time to look at some of these ideas, to look at some of the things that I know that are easily obtained, because a million-dollar problem on a $20 million general fund isn't a big problem. A $4 million problem is a huge problem, and that's what we were staring at a month ago. Two weeks ago, we were staring at a $2 million problem. Now we're staring at a $1 million problem problem and i don't think that it'll take us the whole year to get to some budget solutions to figure out how to make this all sustainable so i'm asking yeah exactly for that council member blaustein mayor and council a little bit of time to work with our team to bring forward the ideas and energy that i know that are our departments are bringing. But in order to do that, you know, and maintain service levels, it's going to take dipping into your unassigned cash for balancing this year's budget. |
| 02:40:28.45 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:40:29.75 | Chris Zapata | open public comment. |
| 02:40:30.98 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:40:31.00 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:40:31.03 | Steven Woodside | No. like you just, we need to move along, so. Can you just ask those questions during the next session? Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. |
| 02:40:50.59 | Chad Hess | Can you turn your mic on? |
| 02:40:52.65 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, thank you so much. I have a bad habit of not turning on my mic. about how to lower, the steps to lower our risk profile over the next five years. And you sent me an email on June 4th And there are seven seven steps on this email, seven steps on the email to reduce our risk. A couple of those steps are included in your slide, but I don't see all of those, all of those steps. And I think these are important for us to talk about, certainly at our next meeting. And here, I'm going to read them off real quick. It's just going to take a minute. And then I would request that you forward that email out to the rest of the council, or at least include this if it's still your plan to lower our risk profile over the next five years. So one was review and update our policies and procedures and practices with an eye toward risk avoidance. Number two, invest in infrastructure, streets, sidewalks, buildings, and stairs to lower risk. Three, divest from sewer operation, as Sausalio did with fire service. Number four, hire a risk manager to assess 10-year history of losses and ensure risk review of current future programs. work with insurance provider, staff and attorney to implement practices and training to avoid lower to avoid and lower claims. Review and create development land and Sorry, review and create development and land use policy to consider the geologic hazard study recommendations for Miller Pacific and ongoing sea level rise vulnerability assessments. Number six, accelerated cybersecurity training by organization. Number seven, review of and possible acquisition of specialty insurance such as parametrics catastrophic coverage. Do you still believe that those are the steps to lower risk profile over the next five years |
| 02:42:44.28 | Chris Zapata | Thank you for that question, Councilmember Hoffman. So the city council did receive that information. It was part of the information that the city attorney and I provided to PRISM. It really showed our rigor and intention to, you know, take this on. And I can say that when we approached them on June the 5th, we were told in May that that underwriting committee did not want to bring Sostito in. But when we started showing them exact concrete plans and steps that we believe were necessary for us in any scenario, including this scenario, we flipped that from a no vote to an 8-1 yes vote. So yeah, those things are all really important. And, you know, some of them have started and they need to really continue, whether it's the landslide task force report that was done by Miller Pacific in figuring out new land use, you know, policy that, you know, mitigates or potentially mitigates people building on steep hillsides where there's no, you know, water. You know, that report is very helpful. You know, hiring a risk manager, that would be very helpful. You know, looking at what we've got, and we've done some analysis of our insurance claims for the last 10 years. And of the 252 claims that we got over 10 years, you can see the trends. It wasn't every year there were 50, 25 claims. It were a few years where there were a lot of claims. And those events, you know, when you look at them as a pool would look at them, created this scenario that Sausalito could be a huge risk. And so we're facing these higher premiums. But I believe that they were isolated events that, you know, we will not see in the future if we do what we said we would do in those seven bullet points and then some. But it's all true. We need to do all of that and then some and then see where we are next year with our insurance costs because, you know, our plan is to make this, you know, the priority as it's been to try to find it but to actually implement it. |
| 02:44:37.34 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 02:44:38.72 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 02:44:38.74 | Steven Woodside | So now we'll open public comment. City Clerk, will you please give her instructions? |
| 02:44:42.35 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. All right. Peter Van Meter. And then he'll be followed by Babette McDougall. |
| 02:44:52.81 | Steven Woodside | Hello, Mr. Van Meter. Please go ahead. |
| 02:44:55.30 | Peter Van Meter | PB, David Ensign, Thank you, I strongly endorse the city managers recommendation that you use the unassigned funds to transition your period of time, while you're solving your insurance problem. And Maintain full staffing both city services you've luckily to do the good performance of prior councils and yourselves, you have that seven to $10 million available and it's unavailable that is available, and this is a kind of circumstance where you need to deploy those funds, thank you. |
| 02:45:24.88 | Walfred Solorzano | A back month ago. |
| 02:45:31.80 | Babette McDougall | Thank you, Mr. City Clerk. I just want to, there's an awful lot that got covered here, and I only get two minutes. So I just want to focus on... There were quite a few comments about the city's real estate portfolio and how valuable that is. There's even been previous ideas about maybe we ought to sell one or two things just to pay off its deficit here or there. Now, I just want to put out one thing. There may be something that could be throw away on that list. I don't know. But when you look at the constitution of that portfolio, why, in God's name, as fiduciary agents, would you ever trade it? Thank you. |
| 02:46:14.73 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, see no further public speakers. |
| 02:46:17.27 | Steven Woodside | All right, we'll close public comment and we'll bring it back up here. I'll kick things off just with a tentative motion to direct the city manager to maintain levels of service, following up on the vice mayor's suggestion to do present at the next special city council meeting some information about whether we were to slow down hiring, whether that would be something to consider, but maintain levels of service. |
| 02:46:43.89 | Joan Cox | May I make a friendly amendment? And also adopt the recommended reserve policy. Thank you. |
| 02:46:49.12 | Steven Woodside | adopt the recommended 25% reserve policy. I guess I would leave it at that. That's the motion. |
| 02:46:55.87 | Councilmember Kellman | So for discussion. |
| 02:46:57.47 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, he needs to be seconded to it. |
| 02:46:58.36 | Councilmember Kellman | I'll second it. |
| 02:46:58.92 | Steven Woodside | it. Okay, so now motion is made and seconded. Now we have discussion on that. Sure. |
| 02:47:03.90 | Councilmember Kellman | Yeah, I really want to thank you, city manager, and I understand comments like the one made by Peter Van Meter around this is what the reserves are intended to do. I know we always want to get to a balanced budget, and we're trying very, very hard. I just want to just urge the team, and perhaps with a hint of caution, that I don't feel – I think the insurance is going to be a bigger problem, and here's why. Because we don't have an accounting of the costs that have been incurred to date sitting in front of us in this budget conversation. We don't have, you know, this is what we've paid out of workers comp. This is what we've paid out of slip and falls. This is where the costs were above the $50,000. And in this instance, moving forward, the city will now be liable. So we, we have that information. We just didn't put it together as part of this packet. And that is a concern because we don't have a full, um, We don't have a full narrative as to how this insurance problem is going to impact us. And therefore, I'm cautious about... accepting or approving the reserve policy until we have that information. But I would be comfortable with the remainder of the of the pending motion. But until we actually have that lined out for us, and I think Councilman Hoffman made the point, I think it was you, said, you know, well, what about the litigation costs? I mean, if this goes, it's not even a settlement, it's a cost of attorneys. So that should be a part of this packet, and we know we have it. |
| 02:48:33.77 | Steven Woodside | Could I modify my motion then to give additional direction since we have a special meeting next to include some sensitivity analysis around what you just said for the reserve policy? |
| 02:48:43.06 | Councilmember Kellman | Yeah, I think it's even more than sensitivity. I think it's an actual audit. We have, we know how much we paid. We know how much we have. |
| 02:48:48.91 | Steven Woodside | The meeting is next week, so I went stuff to give it. That's the direction they have to provide it. But if they don't, we sought to approve the budget. |
| 02:48:55.24 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay, well, are you open to not including adoption of the reserve policy until we have that information? |
| 02:49:02.61 | Joan Cox | I mean, in my view, the reserve policy is sacrosanct. We can dip into fund balance, but I am really committed to |
| 02:49:02.82 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:49:02.83 | John DeRay | I- |
| 02:49:18.34 | Joan Cox | to keeping that reserve policy at that level as a hedge against future. |
| 02:49:25.02 | Councilmember Kellman | I totally agree. I think it should be higher. |
| 02:49:26.56 | Joan Cox | That's what I'm saying. Completely agree. And with that fund balance at its current level, I don't think it needs to be higher this year. |
| 02:49:28.16 | Councilmember Kellman | I can't believe it. But with that |
| 02:49:33.58 | Councilmember Kellman | except for the, pardon me, Mayor, except for the risks that we are unaware of regarding insurance and litigation costs. |
| 02:49:39.94 | Joan Cox | Right. our fund balance is high enough because this is the first year where we're encountering these challenges, I believe we can rely on our fund balance to mitigate those challenges as we gather data and become more confident in our projections. I also hesitate to formally enunciate a an amount that we're going to put aside to settle claims, because in my view that invites claims. And so, |
| 02:50:10.03 | Councilmember Kellman | So agree. Also agree. Don't want that. I want a back looking audit to say, right. If we were under what we're going forward with, we were under that last year. Right. What would we have had to come up with? |
| 02:50:20.46 | Joan Cox | And I also, and it's not my turn to speak, but I'll just, one more response to you is, I also, in looking at the analysis that the city manager provided to us of prior claims, |
| 02:50:30.01 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 02:50:30.03 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 02:50:30.15 | Katie Garcia | the |
| 02:50:33.96 | Joan Cox | you know, a huge majority of our expense and numerosity of claims related to the 2019 landslide and the homeless encampment. And that's a huge majority of the claims that really caused this whole phenomenon to occur. And so I also have confidence, if you look at our track record this year, that our SIR projections are likely adequate. Thank you. |
| 02:51:04.72 | Councilmember Kellman | In the absence of a black swan event. In the absence of another black swan event. If you have an opinion by smear as to the first dollar versus paying a lesser amount, but having to have a higher deductible or a lower deductible, because he presented us with options. Right. |
| 02:51:06.58 | Joan Cox | but you're certainly Absolutely. |
| 02:51:22.32 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:51:22.34 | Joan Cox | you |
| 02:51:22.59 | Councilmember Kellman | So. |
| 02:51:22.96 | Joan Cox | So, I would take the finance manager's recommendation for this year. But we can certainly, listen, we have midyear. And we have September care, we have mid-year. We have opportunities to recalibrate as necessary as we learn more information. |
| 02:51:43.45 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. So my thought was just leave the motion as is, but with a consensus direction that the Reserve policy needs some refinement. It's not just the amount. but, We also need to talk about when we would use it. I mean, I note that we had never, we haven't used our reserves in the pandemic. We didn't use our reserves in the landslide. We haven't used our reserves in the... Great economic recession. We've always used, as the vice mayor said, our excess cash. So we actually want to know what are our reserves for? When is it an emergency? And you could even tie, for example, automatic spending cuts to when you tap into the reserve. So |
| 02:52:17.79 | Councilmember Kellman | Yeah, it's an excellent point. And I think this is maybe what we'll tackle at the next meeting because excess cash for me is a misnomer when I know we have $18 million worth of deferred sewer maintenance and MLK deferred maintenance. And so we're just sort of playing with the money in that respect. Is it really excess cash or is cash that we could have used to fix our roads and our streets and we didn't? And so I really want that's what I want us to be really factual about. And I know these are put into funds and they have these names and they're called reserves and they're called excess cash, but I want to really be pragmatic about how do we fix our roads? How do we make ourselves more resilient? |
| 02:52:51.58 | Steven Woodside | I would like to respond to that because I called for that 10 year model last year, right? |
| 02:52:52.64 | Councilmember Kellman | I'd like to. |
| 02:52:56.08 | Steven Woodside | First person to do that. Yeah, where's the status? Because it's, you know, our overworked staff is turning the crank. They just pulled the rabbit out of the hat of the insurance. So you don't have to city manager what, the timeline is on getting that model done. But the point of it is, my colleague is, I just want to share my narrative is Sausalito has actually been run as a financial organization extremely well. We've had multiple years of surpluses. We don't have a financing problem, finance problem. We do have an infrastructure problem. It's exactly to your point. And we've never made the policy choice of are we going to try to fix our tens of millions of dollars of infrastructure by bleeding off a little bit of excess fund balance every year? Are we really going to solve it? I do think that's a strategic choice for us to make. But this is just about balancing the books. We are not gonna solve the tens of millions of sewer or roads or buildings. |
| 02:53:48.07 | Councilmember Kellman | Yeah. |
| 02:53:48.26 | Steven Woodside | Yes. uh, kneeling around the margins. |
| 02:53:51.11 | Councilmember Kellman | I totally agree with you on that, Mary. I just want to. express and put on the record for the public my different perspective to say oh we never pulled from our reserves and we had excess cash and didn't we do great and we're financially super sound when I'm looking around and I see different maintenance I see potholes I see sidewalks that need work and so I'm not willing to put this blanket nomenclature on and pat myself on the back. I really feel like deferred maintenance is a big issue when you own it. |
| 02:54:16.35 | Joan Cox | But at the same time, I want to recognize the good work we're doing. So we've just adopted new sewer collection rates that include spending $7 million a year on deferred maintenance. We've analyzed, we've done TVing of the entire sewer line system to understand where the most critical repairs lie. And we've enunciated a long-range plan for addressing that. and we've adopted rates for the next three years to finance that. We're also actively working on sewer consolidation so that we turn that role over to the experts who are more efficiently and cost-effectively able to carry those out. So that's one way we're addressing sewers. We're addressing sidewalks by placing the responsibility where it belongs and helping to finance those repairs. We're slowly rolling out that plan so as not to overly burden any group in Sausalito, but we're actively addressing that. We're actively undertaking a survey of all of our buildings and city-owned properties so that we can evaluate what's needed and come up with a long-range plan for addressing that. So I do believe that while we as many municipalities suffer the malady of long-deferred maintenance, we are actively and proactively undertaking that challenge. |
| 02:55:42.91 | Melissa Blaustein | I appreciate that. Thank you. Can I add one thing to that? Thank you. Just as we're talking about deferred maintenance and $18 million in deferred maintenance and the work that we are doing, let's remind ourselves as well of Measure L, which every year is dedicated specifically to infrastructure to address deferred maintenance. And while you are saying there's $18 million in deferred maintenance, which we should own, Measure L will generate $28 million over the 10 years. So that is going directly to assessing and directing that deferred maintenance. So while it might not be excess cash, it is definitely dedicated to and for specifically infrastructure costs and addressing the deferred maintenance. And that's something that we at the council put on the ballot and worked on together and that our voters support it. So we are doing something about it. |
| 02:55:43.40 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:55:43.41 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:55:43.45 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:55:43.46 | Joan Cox | . |
| 02:55:43.50 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:55:43.65 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:55:43.68 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:55:43.70 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:55:43.89 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:56:23.31 | Steven Woodside | Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 02:56:24.62 | Jill Hoffman | So I'm... I'm hesitant to... Talk about emotion with all this... incredible amount of new information that we received tonight and You know, we've talked about this in the past. But. A lot of this information we received tonight that was even updated at 530 we haven't received before. And the budget The budget discussion has been on our calendar for four weeks. So maybe even four meetings. So you know The fact that we're here now, we've received some really significant information tonight, some of it's still in flux. I'm hesitant. when we set a special finance meeting for next week. So my understanding was the finance meeting for next week was to do the deep dive into all of these issues that we've talked about and raised today. But there's additional information that I think is relevant, primarily Right. |
| 02:57:27.30 | Steven Woodside | Member Hoffman, I don't mean to interrupt, but I just want to clarify that. My motion is giving direction for the adoption of the budget at that meeting. We're still not at the meeting. We're not adopting the budget tonight. This is direction as per the recommended motion to adopt that budget with this direction. |
| 02:57:34.32 | Jill Hoffman | What do you mean? |
| 02:57:35.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:57:35.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:57:38.36 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:57:38.38 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. Oh, okay. Sorry. Sorry, okay, forget what I said. Because I misheard you. Yeah, no, thank you for interrupting me. Okay. So with regard for our discussion for next weekend, I would like to have the the priorities that the city manager sent, um, out in either the email or the email to all of us, but certainly in the email to me on June 4th as priorities for discussion. Yeah, to all of us. And that be included as a discussion item as we work through our budget. The next thing, you know, I want to be clear that we don't have $7.5 million unassigned. We now have, I think, I talked to Chad earlier with the new reserve. we have about between five and unassigned. We now have, I think, I talked to Chad earlier, with the new reserve, we have about between $5 and $6 million, I think. So when you talk about, now we're talking about a deficit spend, that's about $1 million deficit spend, so that's out. |
| 02:58:04.62 | Katie Garcia | the |
| 02:58:41.83 | Jill Hoffman | of the reserve, right? So now we're down to about 4 million. Yeah. Well, out of the unassigned, right. out of the unassigned balance. So we upped the reserve to 25%. And that's in one of the slides that Chad gave us. When we're looking at our increased risk, with a $500,000 basically SIR, a $500,000 ceiling. And what we're allocating as, I guess, some sort of reserve of $750,000 to sort of address that, I think that's wildly inadequate. And I think we need to look at the 10 year history that was provided. previously and look at the average per year of claims, and that's gonna get us closer to what we should have for a reserve with regard just to our to stabilize our finances and decrease the risk due to the new wildly higher insurance costs that we're going to have. Also, the litigation costs that we know are coming, because we used to have most of those covered, because our previous limit was $50,000. So I think those two things together, I think are going to get us pretty close to a low remaining unassigned reserve. And I want to be cautious about that for our discussion this week. So I look forward to that further discussion. |
| 03:00:17.34 | Steven Woodside | All right, motions on the table. If something needed to call the question. |
| 03:00:19.93 | Jill Hoffman | I'll see you next time. I'm sorry. |
| 03:00:20.97 | Steven Woodside | Did I miss you? I am so sorry. I had a little bit of a discussion. Please go right ahead, Vice Mayor, my apologies. |
| 03:00:21.46 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:00:21.48 | Joan Cox | I am so sorry It's the sort of figure Please go right. um, I want to correct something I said earlier. I said $7 million per year. We committed $7 million at the rate of $750,000 per year for the sewer. So I want to correct my misstatement. We certainly can't afford $7 million a year on our sewers. And I wanted to address the... |
| 03:00:42.88 | Kathy Nikitas | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:00:52.93 | Joan Cox | fast moving target. And it's not because staff has been late or dilatory in its efforts. So we scheduled the special meeting that's occurring a week from today. three weeks ago, because we knew that we wouldn't receive the information from PRISM until last week. And so I actually want to commend Um, our city manager, Chad Hess, and the rest of our staff our city attorney for actually putting together the facts and figures and projections just in the last week that they've been able to do as we're continuing to get information from PRISM on a daily basis. no criticism to staff we specifically scheduled the special meeting next Tuesday because we knew we wouldn't receive all of the information we needed in order to finalize our budget until and that that's why we needed that special meeting so I just wanted to make that clear this is planned it's still somewhat frenzied but it's a planned frenzy and I think we're on track in terms of the plan that we made to address this moving target. That's the only other thing. |
| 03:02:04.70 | Steven Woodside | All right. Additional comment? The question is called. All in favor? Okay. Say aye. |
| 03:02:06.51 | Joan Cox | Amen. |
| 03:02:09.93 | Steven Woodside | Aye. Opposed? All right, motion carries. We will now move on to item five. |
| 03:02:16.15 | Chad Hess | Can I ask one point of clarification? I do need direction. and using a workman's comp plan. Um, |
| 03:02:25.21 | Steven Woodside | Um, we were directing your recommendation |
| 03:02:27.52 | Chad Hess | I would like to go with Let me just share my screen just to make sure we're all in the same page. |
| 03:02:32.46 | Joan Cox | So it's FISM and not SCIF? |
| 03:02:34.54 | Chad Hess | I would like to go with PRISM. I would like to work with that. |
| 03:02:36.17 | Joan Cox | I would like That's a good recommendation, yeah. you |
| 03:02:39.15 | Chad Hess | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:02:39.16 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. That's your renewal and sustainability program update. Ms. Katie Garcia. Welcome. Great to see you. |
| 03:02:40.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:02:50.94 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:02:51.13 | Kieran Culligan | Thank you. |
| 03:02:56.02 | Katie Garcia | Katie Thau- All right, good evening mayor council members and members of the public i'm katie thau Garcia the city's resiliency and sustainability manager. Katie Thau- As we just discussed the city of Sausalito has deeper infrastructure needs and sustainability goals than the current budget can accommodate. City management and staff have been challenged to source and implement alternative solutions, including funding that will support the city's effort to proactively renew infrastructure, promote sustainability, and provide budgetary relief in a back-to-basics approach while incorporating smart cities technology. In response to this, on September 5th, 2023, Council authorized the release of requests for proposals for the Infrastructure Modernization, Utility Savings, and Sustainability Program. The RFP sought qualifications and proposals from qualified design-build firms capable of providing comprehensive energy conservation measures, according to Government Code 4217. Through the process, Climatech was selected and approved by Council on December 19, 2023. Climatech has worked successfully with cities such as San Leandro, Clayton, Beverly Hills, Ontario, and Santa Clarita, and many more. Since Council approval in December, Climatech has been very busy working with every city department to craft an initial phase of the Comprehensive Infrastructure Renewal and Sustainability Program, which will save the city money through energy conservation measures while helping the city update existing infrastructure. Climatech is here tonight to share this update, and on Thursday they will present to the Sustainability Commission. I will turn it over to Tyler Gertman and Bern Carter to share their preliminary assessment that they have developed today in collaboration with the city. Thank you. |
| 03:05:02.85 | Tyler Gerben | All right, good evening. Good evening, Mayor Sobieski, Vice Mayor Cox, and council members, staff, and community. Appreciate your patience and ability to look through what the city could actually accomplish with savings, additional revenue, and really take care of the immediate deferred maintenance within the city. My name is Tyler Gerben, regional manager for Climate Tech, and with me, Bern Carter, as well. We've been working with a slew of your city staff to help and collaborate and put this together. Next slide. So when we first started and we were selected from the RFP, we were given objectives to really help move the city along. The first major objective was to look at going back to the basics and improve Dr. David A. Infrastructure take care of deferred maintenance 1015 years ago, the city had a focus on fire police. Dr. David A. Four or five years ago more on the parks and now looking at more of building infrastructure and really getting back to the deferred maintenance elements there and by taking care. of those deferred maintenance elements as well, looking at hedging against utility escalations with utilities on the rise, even at what Chad mentioned in the previous presentation, as well as hedging against market volatility. So each year that. cities kick the can on certain projects, to Mayor Sobieski's point before, you know, projects are going up 10, 15% year over year. And that's a risk, that's a financial risk and liability to the city. So one of the objectives was to hedge against that as much as possible. Also to the sustainability efforts and to expedite the greenhouse gas reductions and climate action plan of the city, and then enhance smart city initiatives. So not only taking care of deferred maintenance, but also looking at 21st century technology to enhance and provide more technology for staff to be more efficient, but also increase revenue and look at energy savings all at the same time. So those were the four main objectives that we were given as we were looking at this project. Next slide. So the process to date, I'll go quickly through this. We've accomplished quite a bit with the team. Competitive selection process is done, as Katie mentioned. Legal, Sergio and the team looked at the agreement, which the city council approved, which began our first phase of looking at the energy and water assessment throughout your city. And that started with the utility baseline development. We looked at your water use, your gas use, and your electric use across all your sites, parks, and buildings. And then from there, we went out and assessed your infrastructure in terms of the energy and water consuming systems. So engineering site assessments. So that took about two, two and a half weeks. And we even came back with Ali and Kevin and spent some more time investigating certain other measures as well. So a lot of time invested there. And really, it's been a collaborative process along the way, not only speaking with Chad, but also Wayne in parking to pad and facilities, Kevin Ali, obviously, Katie as well to really bring together a collaborative initiative across all departments on what does this look like? What are the priorities? What are the deferred maintenance elements that need to be achieved? And then what are the technologies that the city needs to really advance itself and through those conversations we really narrowed it down and we're here to discuss that preliminary assessment and get further direction from you as we further you know get into the detailed assessment as the next step in addition we've met with mark and kimmery from the sustainability commission and they've invited us to present on Thursday. So we'll be sharing this information with them and obtaining additional feedback from them. And obviously tonight, the council informational item. When you start these projects, especially when you consider California Government Code 4217, you look at the expenditures of the city in terms of its utilities, water, electric and gas, which is the main chart on the left-hand side. In the middle, which I'll come back to, is the energy used by site. And on the right, it's the total annual utility spend that the city spends just on utilities, not on operating, not on maintenance, which is an additional expenditure above and beyond this number. $442,000 is spent on an annual basis, and escalations are occurring year over year on these numbers. If you look at the middle, I want to bring your attention to the middle pie chart there. When you look at the top three, you have City Hall, you have MLK, streetlights are 17% of your overall energy use. However, they're all LEDs already. So you want to take a look at the fourth, which is your police station. And that's going to come to fruition as we go along in this presentation. But that's where the low hanging fruit is, is to see savings in those three areas. And just the fact of, you know, cost of doing nothing, keeping status quo, the city would pay at a nominal 5% increase year over year, $31 million in utilities if it kept status quo. So that's a lot of money. And as you look at it, you want to take the biggest bite out of that as you can, as you're moving along with your CIP projects, your facility projects, and even projects like this. So the sites assessed, every single site listed here, we assessed at different systems, irrigation controls, HVAC, we'll talk about those more specifically, but we looked at all those and the highlighted ones represent what was really discussed with staff and collaborated with on an initial phase to focus on as well. But we did look at all these sites that are covered here on the slide. Next picture, please. And then for those sites, what were the systems that we assessed, right? So we assessed the heating, cooling, city hall windows, and the list goes on in terms of these are the systems that consume the heating or the gas, the electric, and the water in addition. And in concert with knowing what systems we assessed, we worked with Ali, we worked with Kevin in terms of their RFP that's on the street for the facility conditions assessment. We will be providing information so that there's no duplication of efforts, a part of that RFP, and providing this information to them once it's finally put together. But overall, when you take a look at all these different measures, it's roughly around $11 million, not just of deferred maintenance need, but sustainability initiatives, resilience, etc. So it's about $11 million for all the different measures here that we assessed in a budget preliminary manner. When speaking with staff, we also had to take into account what are the priorities, like Gene Hill or HVAC failing and getting that replaced. We had to look at various different things that they brought to the table. We also had to look at California Government Code 4217, which is the procurement of this project, which says that the savings has to exceed the overall project price. And so that's why you see this bundle of potential initial phase projects. They're also the lowest hanging fruit and they're focused on your top three energy using buildings as well to save as much money there. And we'll talk about the smart city parking as well, but also enhancing revenue for the city through smart, smart city technology as well. Next slide. Talk about the lighting first, because we're gonna touch on each one of those. City has roughly 1700 fixtures. The city has done a good job of upgrading street lights to LED and some various other lights. Part of the program would be proposed to Uh, and enhanced 762 fixtures to led lighting technology, the remaining streetlights 75 remaining streetlights, as well as the other building facilities, enhancing safety security, but also lowering your overall utility spends. So finishing that up 762 fixtures of led lighting modernization. Next slide. Heating and cooling systems, I mentioned Gene Hiller, that system has been down. and replacing that system. And the HVAC that system has was installed in 1993. It's 31 years old. The average useful life of HVAC is 15 years old. And even the systems here at City Hall as well. So you'd start taking a look at age and replacing the oldest systems, which obviously Gene Hiller has failed and needs to be replaced. And it's one of the priority items that we would address as part of this program. In addition to that, it's about how you control your heating and cooling as well. Building automation, not only standardized for your staff so that they can see it remotely and control various different events, but also improve comfort and make sure systems aren't running when they don't need to run. And one of the key recommendations here, too, is electrifying the heating and cooling systems here at City Hall. This would not only include heating, but also air conditioning with very high-efficient systems these days. So getting rid of the furnaces here getting rid of the boy the steam boiler getting rid of gas throughout the entire city hall and electrifying it is a recommendation within this program as well. Next slide. I saw you cheering over there. And then looking at City Hall windows, some of the windows are just stuck open, not able to close. They're single panes, so very inefficient. But they also have a great aesthetic appeal and the historic preservation or the want to keep that preservation here of this facility. But in looking at all of those different needs here at City Hall, looking to upgrade the windows to dual pane, not only energy efficient, but also keep the aesthetic appeal. You can customize the paint color. You're going to keep the grid perspective of the new windows so that it wouldn't obviously change the look of the building, which is obviously what we heard is very important to the city. So keeping that same look, customizing the colors to really match what the windows and the building looks like now. next. Also, one thing to mention, to improve security as well with the windows is huge, especially as you look at taking on leases with computers and other elements as well. It's really important closing those windows and making sure that they're secure. It's an added security element, too. So the smart city and smart parking, this is two different elements that we've been talking about with the city. The first is the foundational communication network, which will actually go throughout downtown. There's communication issues with existing systems. This would actually patch those and have the ability for technologies to overlay this type of smart city technology. And in the future, the city could do public Wi-Fi. They could do, obviously, the parking, which we'll talk about, GHG monitoring and other elements, gunshot detection, noise detection, different technologies that can be bolted onto the smart city system as you move forward. with us. And that's, it's a similar process that other cities like San Leandro and Ontario and La Mirada have done is that they've actually implemented more of a foundational communication network and then added these types of amenities on top of it. And one of them is a smart parking amenity as well to enhance obviously the revenue to put it in a parking lot five, which currently doesn't have any pay station or any ability to pay. So enhancing revenue there. and then also replacing a lot of the coin operated systems throughout the city and modernizing it to the latest technology to enhance revenue for the city. And parking lots one through five are looking at getting the enhanced parking system as well, which again will improve even just compliance as well with these systems. Next slide, please. These are just some sample solar structures that have been completed at other cities and public entities that I just wanted to show what that typically looks like. Next slide, please. So starting off back to the baseline chart, you know, one, two, three, the energy intensity, sorry, of each site and trying to tackle those. You look at the solar PV here at city hall. The city has an existing system on there right now. It's 15 years old. It's at the end of its term per the contract with Tesla. And the city has the ability to look at removing it or keeping it. We've done the analysis on the system itself. It's actually 20% inefficient. So it's running 20% less than what it should be at today's date with that technology. So it's an inefficient system. And it's basically got five, possibly even 10 years left in it as well. So the recommendation would be to look at having the company remove the system, because per contract they would have to remove the system, and install far superior technology, obviously 15 years later, and create the first net zero energy site for the city of Sausalito, not only financially a good thing for the city, but at the same time, leading the effort in sustainability as well. It would only need a nominal shade structure in the parking lot and no trees would need to be removed. No trees would need to be removed. And also one thing I wanted to point out is the reason why this is able to be net zero energy is the fact that the panels on the roof are 205 watt, and now they're going to be going up to 500 watts. So it actually produces more per square foot, which is really the far superior technology this day and time. So next slide, please. Looking at the number two energy use site, MLK, you see the three different rooftop systems here. This is because of the three different meters and the new NEM metering rules. But this would be the proposed rooftop structures at MLK. Next slide. And then obviously police has limited space on the roof, but this would offset about 50% of its overall load. And this is the number three energy use CIDR system as well. So putting solar on each one of these roofs to really curb the utility spend and expenditures. Next slide. EV charging. So the city has moved forward with two EV systems at City Hall and at Dunphy Park. This would fill in the rest of the sites, at least that was covered within phase one and add the police department. This would be a level three charger depending on the car. This would be for public use as well. It could charge a Tesla in about an hour. So really one of the top end level three chargers and that would be owned by the city. And obviously the revenue would be gained by the city with that as well. Next slide, please. Three level two chargers and with the mandate from CARB to modernized fleets is very important to look at future purchases and investing in EV infrastructure here with level two chargers at City Hall. You have enough capacity at both of those areas for these systems on electrical on a from an electrical perspective. Next slide. So all in all, this is about 50% of the deferred maintenance and sustainability improvements that we've identified in terms of a priority first phase, low-hanging fruit that would drive savings, help procure with 4217, and drive, and we feel this is fairly conservative, but $7.5 million over the life of the program, and obviously enhanced revenues, working with the rector has on projections there for say for the parking. We feel that's very conservative and that could even go up higher as well. But about 7.5 million saved over the life of the program. And then various different funding sources, like we talked about at the beginning of this process, four to five different funding sources typically come together to make this program come to fruition. The Inflation Reduction Act, which is a grant from the federal government, the city would be eligible for that. EV grants, private sector financing or depending on city capital or reserves. PGE on bill financing, which is 0% financing from PG&E, very limited dollar amount here, because of the restrictions of that program, and then any other utility incentives. So really about a lot of different funding sources coming to the table, including some good grant dollars. Next slide. The Inflation Reduction Act is a new federal program that came from obviously the Biden administration and allows for public entities to actually obtain these grant dollars directly after you implement the renewable energy. And so we estimate north of $400,000 in terms of grant money that would come back to the city for implementing the renewable energy portion of this program here that we're presenting today. Next slide. The annual sustainability benefits. So just with the low hanging fruit program that we've collaborated with staff on today, this would accomplish about 80% of the greenhouse gas emissions that the city, you know, basically utilizes on an annual basis. So really taking a big chunk from the sustainability perspective for the city of Sausalito. Next slide. And this is a good wheel chart just to show what are the different benefits of this program, not only taking care of $5.7 million with the deferred maintenance and sustainability initiatives, but hedging against utility escalations, market volatility. Because once we are in contract with the city, which would happen at a future Sausalito council meeting, if obviously the program met your expectations, we would be held at a fixed price for labor, equipment, et cetera. So it's hedging against that as the construction is moving forward. And then obviously, a multitude of other benefits, including improving staff and operational efficiency with the new technology as well. Next slide. Climatec Community Connect program. So along these programs, examples of what we've done at San Leandro in Ontario, but coming alongside Sausalito and really sharing your story. A lot of these projects aren't necessarily like solar. They're not in front of the community and it's about sharing what you're doing to invest in your infrastructure, save money, produce revenue, and obviously save the environment. And we come alongside of you help tell that story as well. And these are just some examples of websites that we've done for other cities. And then next steps. So obviously obtaining your feedback here tonight, answering any questions, and then proceed forward with doing a detailed engineering assessment of these selected elements. And then proceeding forward with obviously the June 20th presentation to the Sustainability Commission, and then potential council consideration September, October. And then there would be an implementation shortly thereafter as well. Thank you. |
| 03:23:22.12 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:23:22.29 | Tyler Gerben | Other questions? |
| 03:23:23.12 | Steven Woodside | Please, for this gentleman. Councilman McCullough. |
| 03:23:27.15 | Kieran Culligan | Thank you. |
| 03:23:27.31 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you very much. Near and dear to my heart. So very much appreciate it. And thank you to Councillor Blaustein, who I think brought this forward when she was the mayor. So one of the things that you glossed over just a little bit is funding. And you have a slide on it, but I really want to drill down on grants. so Department of Transportation, EPA, DOE all have significant grant monies probably slightly more applicable on a per project basis to a lot of these things even at the state level there's weatherization. EPA, DOE, all have significant grant monies, probably slightly more applicable on a per project basis to a lot of these things. Even at the state level, there's weatherization monies coming from the California Department of Community and Development. Is that a part of your project plan to be able to help us apply for grants in each of those different categories? I don't want to leave this to the Inflation Reduction Act Because a lot of those monies are going towards workforce readiness and job training and it's harder for communities of our socioeconomic status to really qualify for that. I'd rather see this grant pursued on a per project basis based on the energy efficiency, this is going to be an HVAC system, this is going to be something that the Department of Transportation would want. Is that a part of what you guys do? |
| 03:24:32.58 | Tyler Gerben | We look at the funding on a holistic perspective. The Inflation Reduction Act is going to provide quite a bit of money for renewable energy and this type of project. And you do qualify for it and you will get the money for it once you install the solar. So that money is more solidified. The other monies like USDOE is actually smaller and far more competitive on a national scale. And so we're seeing very low rates of success, especially with non-DAC elements within the application for grants. When you look at that, we are looking at MCE and and CEC grants for EV, which is already a part of this program. And all depending on to if the city wants to move forward with purchasing a heavy duty electrical vehicle that really boost a lot of the grant dollars as well, because that's a big push from the state of California. So we do look at a lot of grant dollars in terms of it. And is it even feasible to obtain those dollars? But a lot of it would come from other sources of funding, but a lot, you know, there is a good portion of grants mixed in here at this point in time. |
| 03:25:33.99 | Unknown | And we do assist the city with those applications. Yeah. To answer your question directly. Absolutely. |
| 03:25:36.65 | Councilmember Kellman | Yeah. |
| 03:25:36.92 | Tyler Gerben | Thank you. you |
| 03:25:38.88 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay, so when you come back to us, I would like a little bit of a rabbit hole on how exactly you assist us with those. Because those monies are out there and we haven't been very successful in obtaining them. This is also a council, as you saw, that really enjoys budgeting conversations. And so we pay very close attention and I want to make sure that we get to component number four of your arrow, which I don't think we'll get to unless those monies are actually identified. |
| 03:26:01.61 | Tyler Gerben | I agree. And we want to definitely finalize that with Director Hess, City Manager Zapata, and the council as well in terms of how can this funding come together and then the savings that can be achieved from doing a program like this as well. And what does that look like? So we'll be finalizing that. |
| 03:26:17.24 | Councilmember Kellman | Okay. Yeah. And I would just urge you to focus more on the upfront funds for installation, planning, and maintenance over the cost savings ROI that you want us to articulate in the budget. Because we just, as you saw, don't have the excess cash to actually install the panels, even though there's a lot of lease agreements that are out there. |
| 03:26:32.69 | Tyler Gerben | one key component to the upfront capital that's there right now. And what other cities are doing is whether it's, whether it's capital reserves, you have the ability to make that decision, but there's also third party funding, even from like a bank of Marin or a bank of America at four, four and a half percent. And they do these niche programs where the savings would actually, pay for that type of lease payment to get the project done at today's dollar. And so those are some of the options that are being considered because like with the IRA, that's a reimbursed grant. And so the upfront money to be able to do that and then bring the grant behind it once it's implemented is important. So I agree with you on the upfront, and we're looking at all those different options. |
| 03:27:03.31 | Kevin McGowan | And so, |
| 03:27:03.54 | Councilmember Kellman | So, |
| 03:27:09.82 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. Yeah, and MCE is pursuing a lot of virtual power plant type scenarios. It's a really good opportunity. I'm on the board, and so we were talking about generation, and the board didn't have appetite for it, but virtual power plants are very interesting for offsetting grid load, so ways to spin that in the ecosystem are of interest. Okay. |
| 03:27:29.92 | Tyler Gerben | Thank you. |
| 03:27:32.31 | Steven Woodside | Councilor Vice Mayor. |
| 03:27:34.34 | Joan Cox | I just wanted to follow up a little bit on the IRA funds. So my understanding is that in California, a lot of those funds come through the county and not directly to local agencies. |
| 03:27:46.18 | Tyler Gerben | Good question. The Inflation Reduction Act, actually one of the key components of the IRA is that it modified for years when you implemented renewable energy, just like you did with the PPA, with the solar on the roof, that entity got that tax credit itself. What it modified is now what is called the direct pay. |
| 03:28:05.17 | Unknown | Yep. |
| 03:28:05.47 | Tyler Gerben | And so it allows for public entities to actually obtain those dollars directly, not going through the county, not going through the state, directly from the Treasury once the system is implemented and then applied for afterwards. And so that change has really shifted, you know, focus on obviously implementing renewable energy, which is a big push, obviously, from Biden and the administration. But those monies don't flow through the state and down through the county. at least this portion that we're talking about. It's a direct pay directly to you as a public entity. And that rule changed. the administration, but those monies don't flow through the state and down to the county. At least this portion that we're talking about, it's a direct pay directly to you as a public entity. And that rule change occurred within the last two years. |
| 03:28:36.67 | Joan Cox | THE FAMILY. |
| 03:28:37.03 | Tyler Gerben | types of projects. For specific projects like things. |
| 03:28:38.16 | Joan Cox | specific projects like this. Not for all infrastructure projects. |
| 03:28:40.05 | Tyler Gerben | Correct. Not all infrastructure projects for renewable energy, for EV, which sadly Sausalito doesn't qualify for the EV benefit. Right. And for battery storage, which is obviously still expensive and doesn't fiscally make sense at this point in time. But that's why the solar PV would get the credit of the IRA. Thanks. Any other questions before public comment? |
| 03:28:41.96 | Joan Cox | Thank you. THE FAMILY. |
| 03:28:58.41 | Steven Woodside | CHRIS. |
| 03:28:58.68 | Tyler Gerben | Thank you. |
| 03:28:58.86 | Steven Woodside | you're coming. |
| 03:28:59.07 | Tyler Gerben | Thank you. |
| 03:28:59.07 | Melissa Blaustein | Go ahead, Councilor Hoffman. |
| 03:28:59.18 | Steven Woodside | you have to. |
| 03:29:00.03 | Jill Hoffman | with. |
| 03:29:00.25 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:29:03.59 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you for the presentation, and thank you for all your hard work on this. It's clearly you've done a nice job of doing an inventory of what we need. Is it possible for when you come back to itemize many of these things and segregate by building? Because we do have business enterprise funds for buildings that are revenue-generating, positive revenue-generating buildings for maintenance and things, you know, specific to that revenue-generating asset, such as MLK. We have a fund for that. We have a fund for Gene Hiller. I'm trying to think of I don't think we have a fund for City Hall. We're not, you know, so, but anyway, for those, and also with regard to our capital, our capital improvement plan and the plan that Public Works comes up with. And so is it possible to marry that itemized list to the capital improvement plan and the plan that Public Works comes up with. And so is it possible to marry that itemized list to the capital improvement projects that we've already looked at or addressed with regard to what Public Works is going to be working on? |
| 03:29:19.17 | Katie Garcia | Oh yeah. |
| 03:30:12.68 | Tyler Gerben | That can be part of the overall facility conditions assessment, the information that we provide and even the numbers and the, yeah, that can be part of that overall arching. Thank you. |
| 03:30:20.94 | Jill Hoffman | So that would be, I think that's what you're asking. Yeah. That would be helpful for us. And like columns, you know, like across the column, here's how it's going to cost. There's a funny source. How does it fit in our capital improvement project? And that's good. |
| 03:30:22.67 | Tyler Gerben | Yeah, that would help for us. |
| 03:30:31.51 | Tyler Gerben | That's a good question. And the next step in the process is to get that detailed breakout. As long as we're going down the right direction of looking at this type of infrastructure, you'll see it in the savings, lifecycle savings will be broken down as well as the price. Very transparent in terms of this process. |
| 03:30:45.95 | Melissa Blaustein | you |
| 03:30:45.97 | Jill Hoffman | That'd be great. |
| 03:30:46.51 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:30:46.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:30:47.14 | Tyler Gerben | Thank you. |
| 03:30:48.70 | Melissa Blaustein | Hi guys. Thank you. Nice to see you again. Really appreciate this comprehensive audit and consideration. I just was wondering, given that this is this council's first time seeing this type of audit, could you just a little bit speak to what you might have done for a neighboring community so that we can have a real world application of what comes next? |
| 03:31:05.58 | Tyler Gerben | Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For example, we could, you know, city of Clayton's moving forward with the implementation right now, small program, about $2 million that we were able to obtain funding. None of no capital was used. It's third party funding, but they were able to invest about $2 million in EV for their police, solar PV and go net zero energy at their city hall, water irrigation, HVAC building automation, and a slew of other improvements as well. More closer to you, City of San Leandro, over four phases of projects, not only starting off with their main low-hanging fruit, similar to what you're considering in terms of HVAC and building modernization, but they also implemented the Smart City package as well and really did a foundational communication network. That was about $23.1 million that they were able to invest in their infrastructure, and they only spent $3 million in capital as part of this program. That was over 10 years and four phases of bundled projects, but their first phase was very similar to what you're considering here in terms of Sausalito as well. |
| 03:32:11.32 | Melissa Blaustein | And on the battery storage and microgrid piece, I serve on the county's basically a task force on microgrids, and we had actually unsuccessfully applied for a grant for the City Hall to be, I think we spoke with you about this, for the City Hall to be an emergency response center with microgrids. Is there additional funding that you can look for specifically for us around microgrids for disaster preparedness or for |
| 03:32:36.32 | Tyler Gerben | Very good question. So let me go back to the example of San Leandro. So San Leandro, we started the first phase project. It was about five and a half million dollars worth of projects of really critical need. And a grant became available. We helped them apply for it and helped them get that money. So the answer is yes. When there is monies available and when that comes about, that could be an amendment, a second phase. We look at those types of things. We share that with you. We can help you submit applications for that and hopefully be more successful with that in the future. |
| 03:33:08.28 | Melissa Blaustein | And then the last question is just about the smart city measures. I mean, this is something that I'm very passionate about. We've talked about this quite a bit. Is this a long game goal for us or do you see it as something that could be applicable in the first or second round of implementations? |
| 03:33:22.22 | Tyler Gerben | It's now in terms of the implementation, and that's what's going to really move the smart parking element and the increased revenue on that side as well. Having the foundational communication network is imperative, and then you can bolt on the smart parking and the other elements. I could even add additional revenue in the near future. It's a long-term play as a vision, but it's a short-term reality. |
| 03:33:45.11 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Thank you very much. Yep. |
| 03:33:46.74 | Tyler Gerben | Okay, so this open public |
| 03:33:48.03 | Steven Woodside | comment please. |
| 03:33:50.19 | Walfred Solorzano | Steve Bautista, C click Google. |
| 03:33:53.65 | Steven Woodside | Ms. McDougal? |
| 03:34:03.61 | Babette McDougall | Well, that was a very detailed and authoritative presentation. Yeah. I'm just kind of wondering where we are on a couple of things. So I just want to get back to this idea of what is feasible for Sausalito. versus, you know, boilerplate for someplace else where it may or may not be relevant. And oftentimes there's lessons to be had. So where are we in doing this with our own sustainability team? Are these guys consultants that come from the outside and do the work for us? I'm a little confused. Are they part of the staff? So I know we just spent a lot of money on Councilmember Kelman. spearheaded this magnificent effort to really push us out on sustainability, sea level rise, these really important cutting edge things that are already here. This is all very much a part of that same message. So they belong together. They should be aggregated into the same thing. It's all important. Thank you. |
| 03:35:12.98 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:35:13.03 | Steven Woodside | Seeing no further public speakers. All right. We'll close public comment. Any comments here on the dais? Councilman, I'm sorry. |
| 03:35:18.77 | Walfred Solorzano | Actually, I'm sorry. We did have one person. Oh, no, no. Sorry, wrong one. Councilmember Coleman or Boston? No, you go first. |
| 03:35:25.81 | Councilmember Kellman | Oh, I just want to ask another. So you probably know that for our EV charging, we worked with actually a local company, Integrative Charging, and that a unique upfront capitalization model so that they own all the infrastructure, basically kind of a lease situation. There are others. There's another member of the community. He has a company called GridVest Partners. I'm sure you know them as well. These companies that try to reduce the upfront capital expenditure. Can you, is that something you guys could include? That type of model where, when appropriate, we have it already with solar panels. The city doesn't actually have to own the infrastructure, but is able to, have some type of either leasing your agreement or I can't remember exact terms of integrated charging, but something along those lines. |
| 03:36:09.11 | Tyler Gerben | Yeah, and if for some reason it's not included in phase one, then the city can elect to do that type of program through those means as necessary. EV in itself has very little, low maintenance. And you have the ability to actually capture a hundred percent of that revenue as well. So there's some considerations as we walk through this to keep in mind. |
| 03:36:28.85 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:36:28.89 | Melissa Blaustein | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:36:29.04 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:36:29.11 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:36:29.19 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:36:29.23 | Melissa Blaustein | you |
| 03:36:29.26 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:36:29.38 | Melissa Blaustein | . |
| 03:36:29.53 | Councilmember Kellman | for it. |
| 03:36:29.97 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:36:30.59 | Councilmember Kellman | remember. |
| 03:36:31.20 | Tyler Gerben | Thank you. |
| 03:36:31.28 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:36:32.43 | Melissa Blaustein | I just want to say I really appreciate the work that you're doing. And I think this is a great example of partnership to find funding for important initiatives. We don't necessarily have to use our, whether we call it excess cash or not, we don't necessarily have to use our existing funds to start solving some of these really critical climate problems and to use new technology and new approaches to move us forward. I think we can be doing a lot more as a city, and I think this is a first step towards that. So I'm really looking forward to working with you and your team to get us to implementation sooner rather than later. And I think Council Member Kellman and I have both been somewhat disappointed in our grants and our funding that we've been able to receive, and it seems like you are a clear pathway for us to do a better job there as well. So really appreciate that and appreciate your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. |
| 03:37:19.43 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any other comments? All right, well, we'll accept the report. And thank you very much for your time. Thank you. The next day, we'll now move on to 5C, discussion and direction of staff regarding the Marin Ship Blue Economy Innovation District Initiative. Is there a staff report from you, I guess, Director McAllen? Or no? I have a question. City Clerk, City Manager? |
| 03:37:39.59 | Jill Hoffman | City Clerk, City Manager. Sorry, before we start, I have a question. Are we going to continue this item except for public comment, or we're going to actually hear it? |
| 03:37:48.81 | Steven Woodside | There'll be a vote about that after public comment. That's what the city attorney said. |
| 03:37:51.90 | Jill Hoffman | Well, you |
| 03:37:53.68 | Joan Cox | I want to point out that this says that the staff report is to Um, the recommendation. This is not on for action tonight. It's to discuss and provide direction to staff regarding this matter, understanding the required timeframe. |
| 03:38:13.63 | Steven Woodside | That is the agenda item. Discuss and provide direction to staff regarding this matter. So that is the recommended motion. City Manager, is there a presentation from anyone? |
| 03:38:24.38 | Jill Hoffman | Hold on. Sorry. Is it a point of order? It's not a point of order. I don't need to recuse. I'm choosing to recuse. In that case, I have a property within 500 feet, and I believe that the requirement of the FPPC is that if you have a property within 500 feet of an issue that comes before the council, the proper procedure is to recuse until you, there's a presumption that you have a conflict and that you should recuse until you have a written ruling from the FPPC that you have no conflict. So at this point, I'm going to recuse and I'll step back into the council chamber and watch. |
| 03:39:04.54 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Councilmember. You are, of course, welcome to the podcast. |
| 03:39:05.94 | Councilmember Kellman | Councillor Schell, may I ask a question? Does your inquiry into the FPPC prevent you from voting on a motion to continue rolling on a motion that pertains to the substance of the matter? |
| 03:39:18.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:39:18.04 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:39:18.46 | Jill Hoffman | I think if it's a calendaring issue, I can vote on that because that's non-substantive. But with regard to being present while presentations are made, while public comments are being made, I think I need to step out and off the dais. City Attorney has |
| 03:39:34.83 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, typically, if you have to recuse from a business item rather than a consent item, then you announce your recusal, you step off of the dais, and typically you would leave the room. You're certainly welcome to watch the public comments, but you can't participate in the matter in any in any way. |
| 03:39:52.00 | Jill Hoffman | Until next time. |
| 03:39:52.06 | Sergio Rudin | until the EI. |
| 03:39:52.58 | Jill Hoffman | I plan to go into the back room and watch on the monitor back there. I'll watch public comment back there. Okay. |
| 03:40:02.68 | Steven Woodside | Is there a presentation from staff? |
| 03:40:04.11 | Chris Zapata | city manager. Mayor, if I can just be brief, we got this as an agenda request from, I believe it was Council Member Hoffman two meetings ago, and then it was briefly discussed at the last meeting about hearing it, and so what you have in front of you is the information that was submitted by the attorney for the initiative, Mr. Wolf, and very little staff analysis of it because we haven't been directed to do it, but there is a whole lot of public comment that's been attached to it that, you know, is part of the record at this point, so, you know, I would be hesitant to speak about something that I didn't bring forward or that I haven't had the time to vet or city attorney wants away and he can too, but, you know, we're looking to take direction from you all as to what your pleasure is. We've given you some time frames about what would be required if the city council did choose to place this on the ballot, the timing involved in that. And again, early August is when this will all have to be resolved. But in the meantime, our recommendation would be is to give us direction and us to not provide a report because we're not prepared to do that. |
| 03:40:33.05 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 03:41:08.61 | Steven Woodside | All right. Well, I have some questions. Do you know who's written, who wrote this initiative? |
| 03:41:13.53 | Chris Zapata | It came from a gentleman by the name of Mark Wolf from M.R. Wolf and Associates. |
| 03:41:17.06 | Steven Woodside | Do you know if he wrote it, this attorney? |
| 03:41:18.67 | Chris Zapata | I do not know that, Mayor. |
| 03:41:20.20 | Steven Woodside | Do you know if this initiative has been aired at the Economic Development Advisory Committee? |
| 03:41:26.38 | Chris Zapata | I don't believe so. |
| 03:41:27.37 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Has it been aired at any city commission? To your knowledge? No, sir. So we don't know where it came from, except for Mr. Walden. |
| 03:41:38.38 | Chris Zapata | I understand. Well, let me be factual. So Mayor, it came- |
| 03:41:44.97 | Joan Cox | So mayor, it came. The staff report says he represents a group of Sausalito businesses and residents. |
| 03:41:49.93 | Steven Woodside | Just because I was asking CA manager what he knows. |
| 03:41:52.74 | Chris Zapata | Yes. This came at the request of Councilmember Hoffman Three meetings ago, two meetings ago, last meeting, it was brought forward as something you wanted to hear tonight in terms of direction. There was no direction given to do anything but bring it forward. And that's what we've done. |
| 03:42:10.07 | Steven Woodside | Okay. And then in terms of just, and maybe it's for Sergio or for you, to have something go on the ballot, there's a process where you can gather signatures. Is that, Thank you. |
| 03:42:18.94 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, and I'd leave that to the city attorney to lay out for you. |
| 03:42:22.79 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, typically the authors of the measure would come to the city attorney's office, ask for a ballot title and summary to be prepared. Uh, at that point they can go out and gather signatures after they, um, publish that they are doing so. And then after they gather 10% of the signatures of the registered voters in the city, then that is... reviewed, the signatures are verified, and at that point, the council has a choice as to whether or not to place the measure on the ballot. or adopt the measure outright. |
| 03:42:57.84 | Steven Woodside | Okay, that was not done in this case, correct? No, that was not done. So they haven't been filed to gather signatures either, or giving you any indication of signature gathering? |
| 03:43:00.45 | Sergio Rudin | No, that was not. |
| 03:43:07.88 | Sergio Rudin | No, I have not received a request to prepare a title and summary for this particular measure. So that is step one in gathering signatures. |
| 03:43:15.64 | Steven Woodside | So, Chris. something to go on the november ballot what would be the deadline for city council to act |
| 03:43:22.93 | Sergio Rudin | I believe it's the end of the first week of August is the deadline. Let me look at the calendar really quickly. It's that Friday. Thank you. |
| 03:43:30.42 | Joan Cox | Stassi says August 9. August 9. |
| 03:43:30.53 | Sergio Rudin | That's a good one. August 9th, yes. |
| 03:43:33.87 | Steven Woodside | And for that to happen, the city council would have to take what steps? I think there's some sort of resolution we'd have to adopt, but I'm not familiar with the actual acts. So what would be the steps to get from here to there? |
| 03:43:46.32 | Sergio Rudin | From here to there, you would need a direct staff |
| 03:43:49.16 | Steven Woodside | Definitely. |
| 03:43:49.86 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 03:43:50.02 | Steven Woodside | I appreciate it. I actually don't know the answer. And, and. |
| 03:43:52.50 | Joan Cox | Because you didn't read the staff report? |
| 03:43:54.66 | Steven Woodside | Are you really asking me that question? |
| 03:43:55.48 | Joan Cox | question. It's outlined in the staff. If you want the public to hear what the steps are. I |
| 03:43:55.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I would love the public to hear what the steps are. How many in the public maybe would like to know what the process is? There you go. Thank you. An overwhelming majority. |
| 03:44:05.76 | Unknown | There you go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:44:08.04 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:44:08.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:44:08.44 | Steven Woodside | I actually don't know. Thank you. I actually don't know. I really don't. |
| 03:44:13.17 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 03:44:13.35 | Steven Woodside | I do. |
| 03:44:13.39 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:44:13.73 | Steven Woodside | I mean, as you can imagine, |
| 03:44:16.48 | Joan Cox | you |
| 03:44:16.53 | Councilmember Kellman | this half of. Mayor, is there a presentation? |
| 03:44:20.24 | Steven Woodside | I asked that there was a presentation, but there isn't. So that's why I'm asking these questions, because I actually don't know. And so again, city attorney, what are the steps from getting from here to that? |
| 03:44:33.66 | Sergio Rudin | So if you wanted to place the measure on the ballot as is, again, without going through the signature gathering process, this could only go on the ballot as a city-sponsored measure. And In order for that to happen, there needs to be a resolution placing the measure on the ballot. We do need to figure out what the form of ballot question would be. So that would be another. business item and discussion point. Additionally, Again, The city would need to comply with CEQA before placing this on the ballot. Having not spent a lot of time studying this measure, I don't know exactly what sort of sequoanalysis we may need to do. To the extent that it doesn't change existing zoning or development standards, chances are that the city may be able to rely on a CEQA exemption and not dedicate significant resources to CEQA analysis with this particular measure. Um, But yeah, the key issue is that the city would need to develop and have the council approve a form of ballot question, the council will need to pass a resolution placing this measure on the ballot for the November election prior to August 9th. |
| 03:45:50.15 | Steven Woodside | Could that be taken at one meeting? So that for instance, could be our next scheduled meeting on July the 16th. |
| 03:45:56.29 | Sergio Rudin | That could, yes. |
| 03:45:57.52 | Steven Woodside | So it could all happen at that one meeting. If there was action from the city council to prepare that ballot initiative, then it could be done at that meeting or at the July 30th meeting, but no later than the end of the first week of August. |
| 03:46:10.05 | Sergio Rudin | Correct. |
| 03:46:11.09 | Steven Woodside | OK, yeah, thanks for that clarification on the timeline. OK, are there any other questions? |
| 03:46:17.28 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I have questions after Joan. Go ahead. Thank you very much. So Sergio, the staff report outlines two different ways to put |
| 03:46:18.04 | Steven Woodside | after June. |
| 03:46:26.01 | Joan Cox | um an initiative on the ballot one is by gathering signatures and the other is for the city council to place it on the ballot without the need for collecting signatures. Is that right? |
| 03:46:38.65 | Sergio Rudin | Correct, yes. |
| 03:46:39.78 | Joan Cox | And so it's not illegal or improper. to put an initiative on the ballot without gathering signatures, so long as the city council votes to do so. Is that right? |
| 03:46:49.52 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, that is an option this council has is the council can decide that it wants this to be a city measure. |
| 03:46:56.98 | Joan Cox | And, Either way, Ultimately, the decision is made by the people, not by the councils. |
| 03:47:03.69 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 03:47:03.71 | Andrew Junius | Correct. |
| 03:47:06.05 | Joan Cox | Thank you for that clarification. |
| 03:47:08.99 | Steven Woodside | House member of Boston. |
| 03:47:09.99 | Melissa Blaustein | Sure, I have some questions having read the staff report and the measure. But I'd still like to make some things clear for members of the public. Um... So often in the measure itself, the general plan is referred to. So this might be a question for the city attorney or the question for the city manager, because many of us, myself included, Councilmember Kellman included, Vice Mayor Cox, were involved on the general plan advisory committee. So just for clarification and for those here, how many years... Did we have the general plan advisory committee for? I'm asking you. But you guys can answer three years. Sure. We can all answer it three years. Okay. And how much money did we spend on the general plan? Roughly in consultants. |
| 03:47:50.25 | Chris Zapata | I heard it was around $800,000. |
| 03:47:52.21 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, so we spent $800,000 and we spent three years in putting together the general plan. And how many meetings, roughly, did we have, outreach meetings and general conversations around the general plan? |
| 03:48:01.69 | Chris Zapata | That predated me, Councilmember Blaustein. |
| 03:48:05.39 | Melissa Blaustein | 56 general plan advisory committee meetings. Okay. And then we had a number of public workshops as well around the general plan, right? I remember that we had one specific to the Marin ship, for example, at the Spinnaker. I think we had another specific. Okay, so that's that one. And then in addition to the general plan advisory committee and the general plan which we ratified in 2022 and I'm very sorry that you were not able to be part of the vote on that vice mayor since you worked so hard on that. So that's the general plan. Okay, and then we have the Because this measure talks about zoning, we have the Housing Element Advisory Committee. How many years did we work on that for? Two. And how much money did we spend on consultants for the Housing Element Advisory Committee? |
| 03:48:44.45 | Chris Zapata | Still spending. Okay. |
| 03:48:45.53 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, but upwards of $1 million. So we're at over $2 million and almost 100 meetings for these two items, correct? Correct. |
| 03:48:47.59 | Chris Zapata | THANK YOU. |
| 03:48:54.12 | Chris Zapata | That's a fair assessment. |
| 03:48:55.37 | Melissa Blaustein | That's a fair assessment. OK. And if we were going to make changes or zoning changes as a result of what we've worked on for three or five years on the general plan or on housing, we would still then, as a group, have substantial conversations, meetings, and additional funding to talk about any zoning changes, correct? As it stands now, if we wanted to change something in the general plan, because from my understanding of the measure, and forgive me because I don't know who to ask questions to of the measure, given the context under which it was submitted, I'm just trying to understand here. If we were to make a change to the general plan, what would that process require of us? |
| 03:49:32.12 | Chris Zapata | Let's let the city attorney answer that. |
| 03:49:34.27 | Sergio Rudin | So typically if you're initiating a voluntary general plan amendment, one, you have to do consultation with the tribe. You have to notify all potentially affected public agencies. You have to develop your general plan amendment. And there's a number of you know, elements in the general plan, you know, you have your transportation, your and circulation element, you have your safety element, you have your housing element, you have your land use element, and each of them have specific requirements. So Typically, some of what you're doing may depend on what exact you're amending, Um, But Additionally, you will have to have the whatever amendment you're proposed studied under CEQA. to the extent that there are environmental impacts. you will need to prepare the amendment itself, put it out there for public review and comment, take it to the Planning Commission for study and recommendation, and then potentially adopt it by the City Council. |
| 03:50:34.43 | Melissa Blaustein | And then there would be a requirement for public comment and public engagement at each of those levels, correct? |
| 03:50:40.10 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, and the amount does vary depending on what it is. So for example, the housing element has more requirements. |
| 03:50:46.42 | Melissa Blaustein | Let me ask you one final thing just for clarification and importance. on a ballot initiative, is that the same? Do we need, is that level of engagement required? |
| 03:50:55.74 | Sergio Rudin | Um, not by statute. |
| 03:50:59.05 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay, so there wouldn't need to be that level of public outreach, that level of consultants, that level of engagement or workshops. This could all just be passed in one measure without that level of consideration. |
| 03:51:09.34 | Sergio Rudin | Yes. |
| 03:51:10.35 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. |
| 03:51:10.69 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:51:10.88 | Melissa Blaustein | All right. Thank you. That's it. That's my. |
| 03:51:13.04 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:51:13.42 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 03:51:13.49 | Councilmember Kellman | Yes, thank you. Thank you, everybody, for bearing with us. I'm going to respectfully ask my colleagues, it's clear we all have opinions on this topic, that we actually turn it over to public comment and not PB, Sarah Silver, Do what we're doing because it was not our time yet, and I will just say that i'm glad we've had over 100 meetings which I participated in probably 98% of them, having served on both the general plan and the housing element committee. PB, Sarah Silver, So I feel we have very thoroughly vetted this issue. PB, Sarah Silver, Over the last six years, so you can spin it both ways, but I really want to hear from the public that's why I you know my attention here tonight, so can we perhaps open public comment and I will save my questions. |
| 03:51:55.95 | Steven Woodside | Of course, city clerk. Could you please open public comment? Babette McDougal? Ms. McDougal. |
| 03:51:58.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:52:03.00 | Walfred Solorzano | Oh, I'm going by the order that these were received. |
| 03:52:06.46 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:52:06.48 | Craig Merrilees | I thought we were told that you were looking for a presenter and we have |
| 03:52:13.95 | Steven Woodside | Ms. McDougall, you're first in line. |
| 03:52:18.83 | Steven Woodside | that he's a member of the public be a public comment. I know nothing about city manager is |
| 03:52:27.73 | Craig Merrilees | I received the communication from the city clerk asking for the presenters and I notified the city clerk that I would be presenting along with an attorney. |
| 03:52:41.76 | Steven Woodside | is all news to me. I thought I looked to the city. I asked at the beginning of this session if there was a presentation and was told by the city manager there was not a presentation. |
| 03:52:50.00 | Chris Zapata | I wasn't aware of a presentation, Mayor and Council. |
| 03:52:52.65 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm not aware of it either. If I got that email afterwards, I wanted a clarification because you sent me a, were you Craig? |
| 03:53:00.46 | Craig Merrilees | Yes. |
| 03:53:00.53 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, you sent me something for public comment. That's what I assumed it was. |
| 03:53:05.17 | Craig Merrilees | The note I put in your hand. |
| 03:53:06.03 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:53:06.15 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:53:06.17 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:53:06.18 | Councilmember Kellman | this, pardon me, Craig. We know this is going to be controversial, and we know people are going to have strong opinions, and we know that there's going to be disagreement up here. Just for the sake of all the transparency we want, let us have some type of presentation, and then everybody can say we've heard and we consider the process. And there have been examples, of course, none have come to mind at this late hour of when we have, in fact, called people from the audience to say, oh, is anybody available? So if we just respectfully could just hear more, I think it'd be helpful. |
| 03:53:30.85 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. I would like to respond. |
| 03:53:34.57 | Councilmember Kellman | Yes, of course. I was just trying to get out my thought before you issued your response. |
| 03:53:36.37 | Steven Woodside | All right. I just look, this is all pretty unprecedented. The whole way this has come out is unprecedented. We can give Mr. Mayor, there's some amount of time. I would like to give equal time to people that have had the opportunity to study and reflect, but they don't have the virtue of that because of the way this was all unfolded. I mean, a presentation, so, I mean, this is not the way to do business for sure. That's part of my objection to this procedure, but we dutifully agendize it. |
| 03:54:05.75 | Joan Cox | The precedent I would point out is the Sausalito Center for the Arts. where we listened to a presentation from the Saucyotl Center for the Arts, not from staff, regarding the requests of the council. |
| 03:54:20.20 | Councilmember Kellman | I'm just suggesting that this is going to be difficult enough. And I think this would just be helpful if we just heard and recognize your comments, Mayor. Great point. The Vice Mayor makes also a great point. And I just don't want to create any more of the controversy that we're going to hear. |
| 03:54:33.29 | Steven Woodside | I think it is unfair. We didn't know there was a presentation. We didn't give the opportunity for the property owners who were completely blindsided by this, the many businesses in the ownership that knew nothing about this, had no opportunity to be reached out to or engaged, an opportunity to prepare... |
| 03:54:34.69 | Councilmember Kellman | I'm sorry. |
| 03:54:47.57 | Steven Woodside | a presentation to inform the public about why this is bad. So- |
| 03:54:52.61 | Councilmember Kellman | Think of Ameri example, it's a pretty good example of how we needed somebody from the audience who came to give a presentation and wasn't staff and we gave them as much time. And that was your decision as the mayor. I think there's just a parallel here is all I'm suggesting. If you don't want to allow it, I respect that, and we want to allow it. Thank you. |
| 03:55:08.71 | Steven Woodside | I think we should proceed with public comment. |
| 03:55:14.26 | Steven Woodside | Is that Ms. McDougall? |
| 03:55:21.39 | Babette McDougall | First of all, I'd like to applaud each and every one of you. This is the closest we've come yet to real democracy. Mm-hmm. We just might get there. I'm encouraged. I am so encouraged just for that. Okay, so we've gone through an awful lot of stuff here. I just want to say one thing. We have to focus on what is the bottom line question. What are we specifically looking for in our direction? You know, we're here to wrap up the current budget year. We're actually here to transition to the new year. A lot of what we're hearing tonight is the new stuff overlaying the old stuff. Well, that just means the old stuff is still here. But there's also the new stuff. I say we have to be flexible and move forward, and it's going to take some creative thinking. but I'm not opposing anything, I'm encouraging you. Thank you. |
| 03:56:23.65 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. uh Katherine Abbasi then followed by Bruce Hoffman. And then Ken Peterson. |
| 03:56:36.73 | Walfred Solorzano | Catherine, are you here? Thank you. All right then, Bruce Hoffman. |
| 03:56:43.85 | Melissa Blaustein | Can we make sure people in the overflow room can hear who's being called for comments so everyone has an opportunity? I know there's an overflow room. I just want to make sure. |
| 03:56:49.25 | Katie Garcia | to make |
| 03:56:50.42 | Melissa Blaustein | There was I think there was wasn't there did people leave I just want to make sure everyone gets a chance to comment because it's late and everyone's been here making sure. |
| 03:57:00.71 | Bruce Hoffman | Is it okay? Anyway. Good evening, council members. |
| 03:57:08.00 | Joan Cox | Another member of the General Plan Advisory Committee. |
| 03:57:11.65 | Bruce Hoffman | Yeah, and I think I made it to 100% of the meetings. |
| 03:57:12.31 | Joan Cox | I think. |
| 03:57:15.02 | Bruce Hoffman | The It... It occurred to me when I was sitting in the audience. The first time I ever attended city council, I was about 35 years old. I'm now... Two years shy of 80. and It's the same subject. It's exactly the same subject. Um, I wrote a letter. I hope you had a chance to read it. because I'm not going to belabor it or go over it. I just have two points to make. One is that. Um, Most of the property owners in the Marin ship are families. They're longstanding families. They've contributed to this city. They've contributed to the nonprofits in this city. I've got tenants who who have been in my buildings for 20 to 25 years. that. Do the same. they participate in the non-profits of this city. They contribute their time, their money, and their efforts. And I think that from what I read, in the initiative. This is a major stab in the back. to. All of them. The, it's... |
| 03:58:47.73 | Bruce Hoffman | It's an economic... catastrophe. that you know, I think would result from this. I got seven seconds left. Thank you. It's it. Excuse me. Yep. All right. I'm done. Thank you. |
| 03:59:07.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Cam Pettersson then followed by Casey Pettersson. |
| 03:59:11.90 | Joan Cox | Is your mic on, Walford? I'm having a hard time hearing you. Ken Perry. |
| 03:59:15.04 | Walfred Solorzano | person, followed by a |
| 03:59:15.97 | Joan Cox | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:59:16.03 | Walfred Solorzano | C.Petterson. |
| 03:59:16.64 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:59:17.47 | James Kavanaugh | And I believe it. |
| 03:59:21.38 | Casey Peterson | Yeah. Hi, uh, hi council. I'm Casey Peterson, third generation operator at Clipper Yacht Harbor. Um, our property makes up 53% of the waterfront zone. We have 700 slips, 15 landside maritime tenants that support, um, 145 maritime employees. Um, and we supply the property for the Saucy the boatat Show. We're a large part of the Working Waterfront and this initiative does not represent us or our needs. The Working Waterfront Coalition does not represent Clipper or any of the tenants that we have spoken with. As you can tell by the letters written from the biggest maritime businesses in the Marin ship. This group is the working waterfront in name only. It is alarming the amount of opposition from those they claim to protect. For this initiative to be drafted behind closed doors with very little input from community and stakeholders is very upsetting. For this to be put on the agenda with six days of this being in the public is equally as upsetting. Clipper is a certified clean green marina. We have 240 kilowatts of solar on our property. We host the cleanest boat yard in the bay. These are our values. And we are putting the blue economy principles into practice. John DeRay himself said, Clipper is doing this right. Why were we not consulted to have input on this document. I'm here tonight to preserve the historic Marin ship. in which we are a large part as well as make sure it has room to thrive in the future. Those two are not mutually exclusive. I'm asking, I don't understand why this group should have a second chance when the first draft was so careless. you Thank you. I would ask to dismiss this and take no further action on this item. Thank you. |
| 04:01:21.95 | Walfred Solorzano | Michael Rex. followed by Mary Griffin. |
| 04:01:29.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:01:41.43 | Michael Rex | Well, I'm Michael Rex. I'm speaking on behalf of the RBMA and For those that don't know the RBMA, I brought our mission statement here. Richardson Bay Maritime Association is a volunteer nonprofit organization established in 1998. Charlie Merrill, Cameron Dorsey. Barry Hibbon. Thank you. founded it for the purpose of preserving and revitalizing Saucido's maritime heritage and tradition. The RBMA serves as a public resource to promote the working waterfront and traditional maritime skills. We were instrumental in bringing the Matthew Turner to be built in Sausalito. We, uh, Uh, We helped save Spalding when Myron died. We were the matchmaker to bring in the master mariners until a permanent operator could take over. We funded the Charlie Merrill Dory to be built that'll be used at the small boating center. No one talked to us about this, and yet we've been at it for many, many years. I want to read a statement that was voted on by the majority of our board in an emergency meeting last night. Okay? On behalf of the Richmond Bay Maritime Association, We share the Solito Working Waterfront Coalition's intent to promote and preserve the industrial, marine, and art uses in the marine ship. But putting this initiative is currently written on the November ballot as premature. because its impacts have not been fully identified. And there needs to be a broader dialogue within the community and among stakeholders to achieve these shared objectives more effectively. Thank you. |
| 04:03:41.69 | Walfred Solorzano | Mary Griffin, and followed by Sophia Collier. |
| 04:03:45.29 | Steven Woodside | I appreciate everyone's desire to express themselves, but if we could please save our comment and signs of approval to the public comment alone, that would be appreciated. |
| 04:03:55.45 | Mary Griffin | Mary Griffin, I'm an architect and served on the housing element went to a few of the meetings that you people have attended and I admire you for all the meetings, but this does seem very. coming out of left field and hearing the comments we've already heard. So I urge you not to vote. to put the Marinship Blue Economy Innovation District on the ballot for the November elections. The authors of this initiative should gather signatures like other sponsors. Clearly this needs more community input, It has to be coordinated with the housing element all these other projects that we're working on. So please don't bypass the process. This seems very upsetting to have this come out of the blue like this, not or maybe it should be out of the black, not the blue. Okay, thank you. |
| 04:04:41.52 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Sophia Collier followed by Jacqueline Amikas. |
| 04:04:46.55 | Sophia Collier | Yes, Sophia Collier. And my basic, I have two points or two words, CEQA and caution. Because one of the things is we're in a lot of trouble where we didn't necessarily keep an eye on some of those details and that we cannot. We have the YIMBY lawsuit where there was an allegation made hopefully very well unfounded. that we didn't take account of CEQA. And that if we come again, and gosh, maybe it's a close call, and we say, hey, we don't need CEQA now, and then we go ahead with that, we'll be in a position where we're – the lawsuit pretty much writes itself. So I just feel like I urge caution, caution, caution here. And the other thing that I feel like is that what kind of message does this send to the state of California? We're supposed to modify Ordinance 1022 and 1128 by November under one reading of one of the letters. Instead, we put an initiative to this initiative on. That is not the kind of message that we should be sending to the state of California either. So again, it's But the folks, if they support it, they're free to go and get signatures. and put it on the ballot and remove all the risk from the city council that will take all the risk away from us, shift it from Sausalito to the voters to make a decision. That is the way I urge us to act, in a cautious manner. We talked a lot about risk, how to reduce legal fees, how to reduce risk. This is what we need to do. We need to think about how to reduce risk. Thank you. |
| 04:06:21.87 | Walfred Solorzano | Jacqueline Mikas, then followed by Adrian Brinton. |
| 04:06:32.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:06:33.99 | Jacqueline Amikas | Good evening, Council. My name is Jacqueline Amaricus. I've been a resident in Sausalito for over 20 years, as well as a business owner in the Marinship. For over 20 years. Thank you. I want to reiterate what counsel Joanne Cox said. There are two ways that the voters can approve this measure. One is where the city council can agree to put this revision onto the ballot and Thank you. And the other way is by gathering signatures and putting them on the ballot. So either way... The public does have a voice. Council, I don't know. The council is at no risk as far as deciding whether they're wanting it. both of them THE FAMILY. And everyone seems to think that there's an issue with the public not having a say. This will be put to a vote if the council people approve so. getting signatures, you put it to a ballot. There's two ways of doing this. And... I feel that the council should put this on a boundary. to attract businesses Timoring, sir. I happen to be a professional. Thank you. sharp and I think that's a good question. that I don't have to leave. throughout the verberge. But I don't have to vacate and find you on the first getting a job or anything like that. I think that there's been a lot of missing permissions put out into the public by certain stakeholders who want to develop their empty office buildings, under the guise of the housing element. in order to to end. Thank you very much for your time. |
| 04:08:42.98 | Walfred Solorzano | Adrian Brinton followed by Curtis Havill. |
| 04:08:47.67 | Adrian Brinton | Thank you. I'm Adrian Brenton, I'm a South Slater resident. I sent in an email with a pretty detailed discussion about the economics of this. So I'm not gonna speak to that, but I do wanna speak a bit to the process. We're talking about moving this out and taking it off the agenda tonight. you know, why there was a request, why is it being moved? I think that's kind of emblematic of the lack of transparency that we've seen with this process. You know, this process is broken. It's a winner-take-all, all-or-nothing, high-stakes thing that we're doing here. Put it on the ballot, vote it up, vote it down. There's no other choice, right? Right. This isn't the way we should be doing zoning. You know, you guys talked about all of the meetings that we had to get to this point in the zoning. There's a ton of different interests in the Marin ship. This is representing one slice of those interests. We need to represent all of the interests. You know, this is driving a huge wedge into the community, right? There's a big wedge in the middle of the Marin ship and it's being hammered in by this issue. And it's really, really sad to see. Put this, if it's got to go to a vote, put it out to the signatures. That's the first step in finding out if there's actually public support for this. Making people get up here and do this, it's intimidating. Like, it's taken me like 10 times up here talking to you like this to start to feel a little bit comfortable with it. You know, you're not going to get a ton of public input by doing it this way. You do through the meetings. So I certainly hope that we do that. Thank you very much. |
| 04:10:13.84 | Walfred Solorzano | Curtis Havel. |
| 04:10:18.70 | Curtis Havel | Good evening. My name is Curtis Havel. I'm a harbormaster down at Clipper Yacht Harbor. Prior to being a harbormaster, I was a land use professional with the Marin County Community Development Agency for nearly 20 years. I worked as a public servant for so many years because I believe in the process and I was proud of what we did there. I took pride in the fact that my colleagues and I were responsible for administering a process that was transparent, objective, and driven by community input. I thought it was interesting tonight how staff didn't have any kind of a presentation because they hadn't been involved in this process and it is not a city sponsored initiative at this point. The problem with this initiative that the blue economy innovation initiative is that it hasn't been vetted through that process. If the city is going to embrace this and forward it as a city sponsored process, there needs to be an agenda. There needs to be meetings. There needs to be an opportunity for the community to have meaningful input on this. we only found out about this five days ago. So there's been no opportunity. We had no part, the folks at Clipper Yacht Harbor and the businesses that we have at Clipper Yacht Harbor had no part of, providing information and input to the document that came before you in the staff report or along with the staff report. What we're looking for is we want a seat at the table. We want to have input. I think that the businesses along the waterfront would have valuable input with this. Back in 2010, there was the waterfront and Marinship Committee, working steering committee that created a document that the mayor at the time said, this won't be put on the shelf and yet it's on the shelf. Perhaps we could dust that off and use that as a starting point for this community conversation that really needs to occur and really should include the entirety of the waterfront. and not just a limited portion of it. Finally, I think that I totally agree with Councilmember Kelman's earlier comments about democracy. There's hope, there's despair, there's balance. This is democracy. |
| 04:12:23.49 | Walfred Solorzano | Craig Merrilees, followed by Mark Wolf. |
| 04:12:33.09 | Craig Merrilees | I was going to think. Hello. |
| 04:12:36.02 | Steven Woodside | No. Just speak into the microphone. It's a little weak. You got to maybe just, sorry, you have to lean over or pick. How sad is it? Yeah, you got to sort of cut it into it. Sorry. |
| 04:12:38.22 | Craig Merrilees | Mike, huh? |
| 04:12:45.95 | Craig Merrilees | So I was going to thank you for the warm reception, Mr. Mayor, but I had to revise that. |
| 04:12:51.08 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:12:51.09 | Andrew Junius | there. |
| 04:12:54.05 | Craig Merrilees | I am proud to be here with volunteers and supporters for the working waterfront coalition. And, uh, along with the letters that were carefully written, thoughtfully written by architects, political leaders in the area. Um, you know, we're, we're behind this. Uh, we also want to acknowledge and welcome that there are other groups that hold different views. And part of our process being here tonight is hear what's being said. Um, We've heard from people who wanted us to first gather signatures, and we're prepared to talk about that. Our attorney will have more on that in a minute. We're also here to gather feedback, specific suggestions, including taking responsibility for a couple of typos that found their way into the document. But those have been corrected and we've also been getting important feedback from owners and operators in the working waterfront. The problem is real. And the successful maritime and businesses, along with artists in the studios, are slowly being squeezed out or give up searching for affordable housing, excuse me, for affordable office space. Housing too, for that matter. And having attended most of the housing advisory committees, I can say that's a fact. Thank you. We will continue to work on this. We'll do our best to be open. I realize people are concerned about not gathering those signatures, but there are two equally valid ways to do this, and we chose one of them. And. That's what we did. Thank you. Mark Wolf. |
| 04:14:56.69 | Mark Wolf | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I'm Mark Wolf, and I am the attorney that I would say co-wrote, co-drafted the measure. It was a collaborative process. I personally don't live in Sausalito. Kind of wish I did. I live in San Francisco, so I really don't have standing to get into the merits of the measure based on what I've seen in your general plan. It really accomplishes a locking in of policies that have been declared forcefully, repeatedly, unequivocally. not only in this iteration of the plan, but in the prior iteration, as well as in the Marineship specific plan, But I will leave that up to others to debate whether it's good for the city or not. What I do want to say is, yes, there are two ways of doing this. One is you gather signatures. One is you present something that you would like to be enacted or put onto the ballot by the council in a forum and see if you can persuade the majority of the council to do that. The one thing that I think is missing from this discussion currently as you've heard, if signatures are gathered, and they qualify, there's enough of them. It's presented to you and you have two choices. You can send it to the ballot, which is what we're asking you to do, or you can adopt it outright. You don't have to send it to the ballot. And in my experience doing this for a living, It is increasingly common. that people gather signatures, which is very easy to do. There's, professional signature firms that Get paid to do this. They present it to a council, and the council adopts it outright. … without a vote of the people. I am not suggesting that this council that's currently constituted would do that. I am saying that happens very, very frequently. What we are doing. is ensuring that there will be a vote of the people. And this is, I think, four months from now. And in that four-month period, there can be robust debate There can be op-eds, there can be ballot arguments in the pamphlets that people receive in the mail. There can be public forums. There can be a thorough vetting And so that is what we are asking people to do here. |
| 04:17:00.46 | Walfred Solorzano | John DeRay. |
| 04:17:09.62 | John DeRay | THANK YOU. MY NAME IS JOHN DERAY. I'M WITH THE WORKING WATERFRONT At the Working Waterfront Coalition, our experience is that the marineship is at risk. Noncompliant, nonconforming uses have driven up lease rates in the marineship. and conversion of industrial space to office has been rampant. Sausalito industrial Lease rate is double the average for Marin. The Working Waterfront Coalition gets inquiries from companies about looking for space. We connect them with landlords. but mostly they cannot afford the spaces. And there are spaces available. Some. purposely left vacant as part of a rezoning strategy. The intent of the ballot measure is to foster and grow what remains of the industrial maritime and art activities. By working within the marineship vision established by the general plan, Three and a half years. two meetings per month passed in 2022, tremendous amount of public input. Many of the people in this room were not at one of those meetings. I was at all of them when I was on the general plan advisory committee. Our approach was to codify the general plan Uh, essential to maintaining working waterfront that can accommodate a new ocean-based. Blue Economy Zone. which was also presented in the general plan process. The measure does not cover approximately 18 acres of northern marineship along bridgeway that can be rezoned to a mixed use commercial zone that can accommodate any kind of use. All current uses in the Marineship, including nonconforming can remain, even when a new business occupies a space. These legacy businesses remain. And also the new mixed use district, depending on the city's zoning, will be open to all the ancillary uses. We look forward to Seeing this go to the voters, please move forward and let the voters decide. Thank you. |
| 04:19:11.84 | Walfred Solorzano | Sharna Brockett. |
| 04:19:20.72 | Sharna Brockett | Hi, I'm Sharda Brockett and I'm a 12 year resident. I just really wanna employ you to not bring this initiative back to the city council in July when many people are on vacation. Plus 45 days is really not sufficient to create a master plan and actually do the proper land use to have the proper land use practices put in place for the future of this very important, valuable, historic, and vibrant waterfront. There needs to be a meaningful working group. put together with the major stakeholders, many in this room who were not included, to help define what we are going to do with the marineship. We want, um, you know, we want to define, sorry, this is my train of thought here. We want a viable plan that works for all of the marineship and not just a few. So I just really wanna highlight that. And then I also wanna highlight, I went through all the letters, and I think there's some confusion among some of the businesses who signed on to support this initiative. For example, there's a skincare manufacturer who has a letter in support of the initiative. And the letter talks about how the Mirnship has enabled the company's operation to innovate and grow. But unfortunately, this initiative doesn't include skin care manufacturers. It's only for maritime manufacturers. So this would become a legal nonconforming use, which would mean that it would be very hard for them to expand their operations or to modify their space. It would also be very hard to sell this business because nobody wants to purchase a legal nonconforming business or for them to get loans and insurance. So, so much for innovating and growing. And I don't think this person knew that. And there's another one, an entrepreneur who makes bags out of old sale cloth. The same thing. This would not be a permitted use for future entrepreneurs like her. There's an auto repair shop also sending a letter of support. Didn't know that, no, you wouldn't be included in this. Sure, you could stay. You'd be grandfathered in, but you'd still be this legal nonconforming. Anyways, you get the idea. So we really need to take this back to the drawing board. Thank you. |
| 04:21:26.05 | Walfred Solorzano | Alice Merrill, then followed by Carly Tilburg. |
| 04:21:35.94 | Alice Merrill | Hello, everybody. I'm going to start by saying that the fact that the Marineship specific plan is no longer part of the general plan is what worries me. Why did that get written off? Because in the way I see it, it's because the landowners, a lot of them, don't want it. They don't want those restrictions. And if we had kept We, as a city, had managed to keep the marineship-specific plan, which was in place for 30-plus years. However, it was not abided by. Lots and lots of things have been in that shouldn't have been there for that. So we had a problem. Because that was a good thing, and it's the only reason that we have a good, strong group and economy down there, because it was left alone. Some of the landowners, one person said to me, I don't like, it's not very pretty. And I said, well, the landowner cut down all the trees. They wanted it to be not very pretty. So you would say, well, let's do something else with it. The RBMA started by my father. This, he would 100% be behind this. And the RBMA would be great to be involved in this. That would be great. I think that we need to work together. It's true. I think that there are people that's bringing up subjects for people who didn't really haven't talked to each other. I talked to some people tonight that I didn't before, and I think that that's good. I do recommend that we have some counselors, some mediators, people who can keep the conversations going. and I also would love it if we would take some of those things off the shelf that have been done before. Thank you. |
| 04:23:41.39 | Walfred Solorzano | Littleberg, then followed by Lorraine Gounard. |
| 04:23:54.77 | Carlito Berg | Hey, everybody. Your local evil developer here. Nice to see y'all. empty buildings abound. Um, I was sort of thinking about what to say tonight, and I was reading this book by this guy that lived on – on Varda Landing. Excuse me, geez, got a frog in my throat. |
| 04:24:12.93 | Unknown | On Vardaland. Peace. |
| 04:24:16.96 | Carlito Berg | And his name was Alan Watts, and he was a Zen guy. And he had this great story about a monk who was, you know, in his monastery in the middle of winter, and it was too noisy, and he wanted to go meditate. So he rode out to the middle of a lake. And he sat there and he was just about to attain enlightenment. when this boat comes along and hits him. And he turns around, he's pissed off, he's ready to yell at the captain of the boat that hit him, and he realizes it was just the wind that had blown the boat into him. And I think we're all at a point where we're in various stages of that same journey, whether turning around and looking for that imaginary captain that wronged us, whether we're realizing the anger is from within or or whether we're thinking about all the events that had to take place to blow that boat into us. We're here. And the question is, how are we going to move forward? For me, you know, there's lots of things to talk about that are specific to the initiative. There's lots of facts we could talk about. But at the end of the day. You know, this is something that we're not going to solve in 45 days. This is something that we're going to solve with a collaborative effort with everyone together sitting down in a room, hopefully getting some some beer and Cheetos and and making it work. So, you know, I'm here for that. And I hope other folks are. Thanks very much. Don't move this forward. |
| 04:25:49.54 | Walfred Solorzano | Doreen Gunnard, then followed by Rupert Hansen. |
| 04:26:00.86 | Doreen Gunnard | Hello, I'm Doreen Gunnar. I am a 30-year resident At Galley Harbor, the beginning of the Marin ship, actually, really the southernmost point of the Marin ship. I've been living there, raised my children, and continue to reside there on my boat, my sailboat. I THINK THAT THE The problem with this measure is that it is a measure. And we're talking about land use. And land use is so complicated and has so many ways that it could, the unintended consequences are all in there. And as I was reading this thing, I kept saying, oh, well, what about if this happens? And what about if that happens? It just felt really. It's kind of a clunky way to do to make land use decisions, I think, is through a measure. I don't think that it's appropriate. I think that... This is going to take a real collaborative effort in our town to resolve this. And I, I have a real problem with a measure because you can't, you guys can't amend the measure. Once, if it gets passed, you're stuck with it. You guys had the same conversation when we were talking about the cannabis issues last go around when these measures popped up. And I heard you all, come to the conclusion that it was really a difficult thing to do because there's nothing you can do to it if it gets passed. So, Those are the kinds of things that I think that we need to think about. You got to think a little harder. This feels like a little bit of an Enron. without including all the stakeholders. And that is an impossible position going forward. I just don't think you're going to be able to, you know, for this to resolve itself in a good way where we all can be there together and feel like, okay, we worked it out. I think that is possible, but not with this measure. Thank you. |
| 04:28:01.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Rupert Hanson followed by Lee Hunt. |
| 04:28:13.58 | Rupert Hanson | I'm Rupert Hanson. I'm with Cox Wooten, and I represent Silverseas Yachts. The president of Silver Seas learned about this measure 48 hours ago. Silver Seas is one of the largest yacht brokers in this area in Marinship. They are the primary tenant out of Clipper Yacht. And they are largest or one of the largest people, groups that is working with KKMI and many other stakeholders. And they, they were not aware of this at all. The measure says that yacht brokers aren't necessary to be by the water. Well, I've been a maritime lawyer for 44 years. And every yacht broker except one has been by the water. And I mean, I represented both for and against yacht brokers, and they're by the water. And... if this passes. in its form that it currently is. it is going to displace the entire network because it's not just the yacht brokers or the KKMI, It's the whole net network of companies that are involved in maritime. And this idea that you have to have some direct involvement with the water To be maritime is nonsense. Thank you. |
| 04:30:18.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:30:18.69 | Rupert Hanson | And Lee Hunt? |
| 04:30:19.57 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:30:28.87 | Lee Hunt | Good evening. I represent modern sailing school and club. Modern brings about a thousand people to the waterfront every year to do sailing lessons and rent boats. And we're a really good example of a maritime ecosystem business I take my boats to Lisp Marine to get serviced. I bring my boats to Spalding to get hauled out, bottom painted. So the people who are spending money at my business help Spalding. help Lisp Marine, help the ecosystem. And, The people who spend money at my business, my business aid Spalding. My business is aided. by fish, by Le Garage, by all of the other things that make Sausalito's waterfront interesting and fun. And I believe that's the ecosystem that we need to be aspiring to. And I'm asking you Tonight... not to legislate restriction. not to legislate exclusion, let's empower the community to build a better ecosystem. And this initiative is not the way to do it. Thank you. |
| 04:32:03.15 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, and then on Zoom we have Gabe Turner. |
| 04:32:09.58 | Gabe Turner | Hi there. Can you hear me? Thank you. |
| 04:32:12.74 | Walfred Solorzano | you |
| 04:32:12.79 | Gabe Turner | Yeah. |
| 04:32:12.92 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:32:12.94 | Gabe Turner | Can you hear me? Crawford, can you hear me? |
| 04:32:16.75 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, we can hear you. |
| 04:32:17.93 | Gabe Turner | Okay, great. Hey guys, Gabe Turner here. I'm one of the co-owners of Township. which I think many of the council members have been to and visited our members. We're a neighborhood clubhouse. Uh, we have been kind of a haven for a lot of the folks who've, uh, been working from home, uh, before this, during the pandemic, what have you, and now have a community center to go to get work done, socialize, meet their neighbors. And frankly, the blue economy that we speak of in this, in this initiative, uh, Really, those companies that are going to solve our climate change problems are going to be the next great sort of blue economy business are likely going to be created in places like Township. And I know many of these entrepreneurs. I know an ocean tech accelerator. I used to build a – I was down in San Mateo, built something called Draper Hero City, which was another accelerator of these types of ocean tech businesses that this very measure speaks of. And these type of people meet at places like Township. And guess what? Township would not be able to exist in the Marineship if this passes. And so this concerns me, much like the gentleman from Modern Sailing was saying, we're trying to create an ecosystem. And these future founders, these future ocean businesses will want to be in a place that has a diverse offering, that has restaurants, that has recreation, that has marine-based businesses and industrial businesses. And it's got to exist within that very ecosystem he spoke of. And so I really hope you take that into account, that we, if we really want this place to thrive going forward, and we want these industrial businesses to exist, they've got to really encompass a whole bunch of businesses and a whole bunch of folks that want to live and create businesses in this thriving economy. And so really encourage you to not pass this, not rush this through in 45 days. And anyways, hope to see you all at Township again soon. Thank you. |
| 04:34:09.81 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. We do have some people in the audience. Peter Van Meter. |
| 04:34:21.34 | Peter Van Meter | Thank you. Yes, I did put in a slip to speak. There's really one issue that kind of overrides everything here. You've heard a lot of plus and minus discussion about the initiative itself. But the council should not be a party to putting any measure on a ballot. whether sponsored. When it comes back in after signatures and you have a choice of either going to elections adopting it. or most of all, creating an emotion of your own. because then it becomes impossible to overturn. Basically, it becomes so difficult, costly, do it. get rid of an initiative. It has to go to a public vote. So like they say six times in the draft initiative, They want to have it go to a public vote. They specifically call out the fact that the Council should not be able to make any modifications to this. You're living right now under the yoke of a couple of initiatives. 10-22, 11-28. I mean, there's, in things that you would like to do, little tweaks. You know, we'd have 18 more parking spaces if we're able to go six feet into Gableson Park. as an example, because you can't make little tweaks like that because it has to go to a vote. So you don't wanna lock this in forever. It's not the way to do land use planning. Doreen said it much better than I. She was very eloquent, but do not take any action on this. ever. It's that simple. Let them get the signatures. Let them go take it out to a vote. That's what the initiative process is all about. Don't take any action at all. |
| 04:35:58.03 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Lauren DeRimmer. |
| 04:36:12.72 | Lauren DeRimmer | My name is Lauren Dreamer. I won't go too into who I am. You guys mostly know me. I already sent a letter. Everybody knows how I feel about the waterfront. I've lived in Saucena my whole life. And I've worked in maritime and as well as restaurant hospitality across town. Thank you. And one thing that is just maddening to me is that this had to come from the Working Waterfront Coalition. I think... living here my whole life, I'm constantly frustrated that this isn't coming from city council. This isn't coming from the local community and quite frankly, the one thing that nobody said so far that I do You know, I've volunteered in some capacities. I did not work on this initiative, but I've volunteered in some capacities for the Working Waterfront as a professional mariner, and they put it together. And quite frankly, I do think this type of thing, regardless of what happens tonight, is a step in the right direction because I don't know who's coming after you. And quite frankly, I'm really sick and tired of talking about zoning. I swear to God, if somebody mentioned zoning again, I'm going to beat my head against the wall because I feel like we can do a lot with Marin chip with what the zoning currently is. And I think instead of talking about defending it and saving it or defending it or, you know, developing it, we should be talking about fixing it. We should be talking about how can we invest in it? How can we feed the lifeblood of our town and focus on maritime, which is the heart of you know, the houseboats and art and everything else that makes our town great. And, um, The other thing that I think that is really important is that we, trust each other. I think trust is a huge thing. I have a lot of people that even agree are working in silos. And I think that anybody here who has a problem with this needs to get involved in the working waterfront. People at the working waterfront need to meet with other people. I think all of us need to be talking a lot more than just city council meetings. And I'm talking about all the businesses too. You know, I think we're really busy in the summertime. And I think there's a lot of people that want to be involved at Campy. And we need to have another platform for that. So thank you. |
| 04:38:10.92 | Walfred Solorzano | William Foss. |
| 04:38:21.81 | William Foss | Hello there. So I'm William Bill Foss. I'm a half owner of Fish Restaurant, also known as Caruso's LLC for those around long enough to remember Caruso's. Um, rather than talk about how this affects our restaurant, I wanted to defend the people that aren't in the room. Um, when we opened the restaurant, there were 12 commercial fishing boats in Clipper. There are now four. Climate change has caused domoic acid uprising in the ocean, shutting down the crapping season for these guys, which is an economic disaster for them. The issue of water and hydroelectric damming of rivers has now created a second year of salmon closures. So our most noble working waterfront is the fishermen. and we are silently ignoring them and letting them die. in a land of over-regulation and they're being forced to, they just can't survive. So they were not consulted at all in this event, in this, this. this document we're discussing right now, nor were we as a restaurant. We proudly support and buy from them. You know, in a fantasy land, it would be lovely to have an open air fish market down there where they could actually sell directly to consumers. But if we're talking about the working waterfront, Guys, we got to remember the fishermen because they work harder than anyone. and they are completely unrepresented here. Thank you. |
| 04:39:50.22 | Walfred Solorzano | John Coletti. |
| 04:40:00.76 | John Coletti | Good evening, and I appreciate everybody's good suggestions and comments. This is a good discussion. I think this is what our community needs to have more conversations. Due to the lack of direction given for the Marine. Friendship. I think that's something that's been done. I was a little disappointed at the petty politics that the council members were playing early on. And so I think the community should be a little bit more representative of the professionalism that we all want to have. But I think the The discussion on the Marin ship is something that we need to do. thoroughly and it needs to be done. And I think the comments tonight showed that there isn't a direction to have, so we have to make our own. I think this is a very good step the Working Waterfront Coalition did to get a good start. I think there's a lot more that can be done to make that one a much better program. So I urge the direction to modify the initiative and maybe present it further for this election or for a coming election. |
| 04:40:52.72 | Katie Garcia | So. |
| 04:41:03.91 | John Coletti | Thank you. |
| 04:41:08.77 | Walfred Solorzano | And on Zoom, we have Sammy. |
| 04:41:18.56 | Sammy | Can everybody hear me? |
| 04:41:20.21 | Steven Woodside | Yes, we can. Please go right ahead. |
| 04:41:22.57 | Sammy | So it wasn't that long ago that I was studying economics and a diverse economy is a healthy economy. In Sausalito's case, we have a valuable, historic, vibrant, and could be internationally renowned for being a blue economy and supporting our current businesses that we have, as well as inviting additional businesses. We have the current resources, smart, disciplined people. This would require minimal risk with maximum returns for the city. We would keep and improve our business district, lower our financial deficit, and take advantage of our assets. This would be providing important tax dollars and a diverse economy. I read the San Francisco Chronicle article recently, and it was obvious that whoever spoon fed the author is not thinking clearly about Sausalito's potential revenue streams. This could be come from supporting businesses. Sausalito is unique, not like other Marin towns or other shore towns. And we should not thrive to be the other towns. We should keep thriving to be unique. I think what Alice Merrill and Lauren Dramer said was absolutely fantastic. The residents are incredible here. The business owners are amazing. We have generated numerous patents, incredible ideas and projects that we can rely on forever. Our unfair competitive advantage that Sausalito has is our ability to nurture our blue economy and our industrial district. Our planners and neighbors have the ability to make sound economic decisions. This should go to vote. Let's nurture the vitality of Sausalito and increase revenue to the city by fostering blue tech and blue economy businesses. There are plenty of businesses here already and let's increase that community to lower the city's deficit. |
| 04:43:26.56 | Walfred Solorzano | and Culligan. |
| 04:43:35.78 | Kieran Culligan | Hi there. Kieran Culligan, Salcedo resident. I got pretty excited actually when I saw something called Blue Economy Innovation. And I spent 20 years working in the field of innovation. I worked for some of the most storied shipyards on the East Coast on innovation strategies. We didn't have buzzwords like Blue Economy back then, but that's exactly what it was. And today I actually work with a number of different projects, but two in particular that are focused on. on the blue economy. One's public, one is still under wraps. In this time, I've seen many different levers for increasing innovation, allowing for new uses, economic incentives, new infrastructure, reduced bureaucracy, the list goes on. And it's innovation, it's increasingly multidisciplinary. So what's the difference between blue economy and robotics and computer science and computer fluid dynamic simulations, satellite imagery, like it all blurs. And startups pivot, they serve multiple markets. And I worry that the measure does nothing to embrace that if that's really what it's supposed to aim at. So to put it politely, I've never seen a measure like this that is designed to promote innovation. Legislative restriction, as someone called it. And I, you know, prove me wrong. Show me the financial models. Show me letters of intent, project plans. That's going to do that. But barring that, the vibes are off on the process and the content. Let's do this right. 45 days is not enough. |
| 04:45:13.73 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, next speaker is Liao. |
| 04:45:24.14 | Liao | Can you hear me? Yes. We'll break. Yeah, I just wanted to be pretty brief. And I'm a Sausalito resident and artist. And, you know, I think that having it outlined the two ways that any ballot initiative could be presented is great. I think it's very ironic that everyone who is afraid of the council kind of just putting this on without any say and wanting signatures when signatures is one of the easiest ways for the council to simply put on a measure without consulting the residents. I think having The opportunity for all residents to have an actual vote and say on any initiative or any ballot is great. And I think that, you know, allow the people to have a chance to actually vote on something and not leave it up to five people. that are just sitting in front of everyone. So yeah, thank you for your time. |
| 04:46:38.96 | Walfred Solorzano | And Scott Thornburg. |
| 04:46:43.97 | Scott Thornburg | Good evening, counsel. I just, from an EDAC perspective, I just wanted to reiterate my comments that I put in our letter. We have not had an opportunity to weigh in. And though I applaud our members that are also members of the Working Water Front for bringing this forward in an effort to support the Marineship, I do think we would love an opportunity to weigh in I think the rest of our Blue Economy Innovation Subcommittee would love an opportunity to weigh in. So just a flag that we would like to be part of that process. And then separately, I think it would be really great to see what the actual economic impact of this would be. And from from my personal perspective, that piece is missing here. I don't think we have clarity yet. There were differing comments tonight on which types of businesses might be affected and which would not. That's concerning to me. I don't know that we're going to be able to get consensus in the next 45 days. The one thing I will say, though, I'm really encouraged by this showing of support tonight. I mean, we really kicked the hornet's nest here this evening. And I think we have a really robust discussion happening involving a lot of different people. And I hope we will keep that going because I do believe we can come to consensus as a community. And I think that process is going to take time But I hope that we would all be committed to doing that in a way that we can protect our waterfront. And have a waterfront that is not just a working waterfront, but a waterfront that works for Sausalito. And I believe we can get to that as a community with the proper time. to go through that process. So thank you for your attention to this tonight. |
| 04:48:32.62 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. |
| 04:48:32.94 | Scott Thornburg | Sandra Bush. |
| 04:48:33.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Speaker. |
| 04:48:37.24 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi, everybody. I just wanted to comment on the idea of an initiative going to the voters. What better way to prove a democracy than to let the voters vote? And. Just keep in mind everybody that The city council has the authority to modify a general plan and believe me, I sat through all the general plan meetings and the housing element meetings myself. but they can modify. Without public hearing, excuse me, I misspoke. They can modify without public vote The general plan four times a year. So the notion of having an initiative that allows the people of Sausalito to make a land use decision, to me, is a great thing. And I hope we can come together on the details so that we can make that decision as a populace, as a sign of democracy and not autocracy. Thank you. |
| 04:49:36.67 | Walfred Solorzano | Charles Melton. |
| 04:49:42.94 | Charles Melton | Good evening, City Council. My name is Charles Melton, the last-day resident. I really appreciate the robust conversation tonight and the dialogue that this has created in our community. It's great to see such vibrancy and people coming out in regards to this issue. I think we all agree that the ownership is a very vital, important part of our community, and we need to get this done right. I agree, democracy is important. What better way to get voters to express their opinion? Through voting. But yet, our city council has a responsibility to make sure that initiatives and ballot measures that the city council is putting before voters are vetted, are examined, are evaluated, and have a robust public process. That is not what is occurring with this process here. This process is being shoehorned in by an independent group with an attorney from San Francisco with language borrowed from Morro Bay, California, to put this to city council and to ask for action to take place within 45 days. Democracy is slow. Democracy is painful. That's the process. And I know our city council's city councilors are the most thoughtful people in the room. Many of them have served as mayor. All of them have served as mayor at one point. During their time as mayor, Has any initiative, big initiative they've taken, taken less than 45 days? If it's a homeless encampment, if it's a tax measure to raise the TOT tax on hotels, if it's working on the rimship or putting in a ferry landing in downtown Sausalito, how many of those processes occurred within under 45 days? That expressed the critical nature of this. So yes, democracy is slow. Let's have the voters speak about it. But as a government, let's do our due diligence and make sure that what's being put before the voters is accurate, is factual, we can show the economic impact, and most of all, that everyone has a voice in what's going forward on that ballot. That is the role of our city council. Make sure everyone has a voice. And I'm asking for you not to rush that process and to do it with diligence. Thank you. |
| 04:51:50.73 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public comments? |
| 04:51:52.96 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you. We will close public comment and bring it back up for a discussion here on the dais. Maybe I'll start. |
| 04:52:04.40 | Unknown | . |
| 04:52:07.12 | Steven Woodside | I want to avoid rancor. When I first joined on the city council, I said, we need to start talking with each other. there was the issue of a housing overlay in the Marin ship. And when I, it was a hard vote, I voted for it. And I got a bunch of text messages that I was in the developer's pocket. Thank you very much. Can you have it now? Thank you. It's like Verizon. So I said I went to a very blanker. When I first joined the city council, there was an issue of a housing overlay in the Marineship, and as soon as I voted for it, I got a bunch of text messages that I was in the developer's pocket. No one thing defines you. This is... I'm worried that the way this came about, and if it gets put on the, if the city council elects to put on the ballot, it will divide the community and actually prevent the kind of dialogue that we're talking about. Democracy is slow. Slower than I like. But... We need that kind of dialogue. My friend, Lauren, I was really struck by your comments. And I just wanted to say, I think a lot of people missed that on May 23rd, 2023, the city council in this room Considered a proposal from Community Venture Partners. Community Venture Partners is a 501C3 nonprofit charitable organization based in Mill Valley, supported by donations from individuals and nonprofit foundations. CVP provides a broad range of free services, technical advice, and other assistance to community groups and local initiatives. The stated mission is to bring the community's voice to government decision-making on issues about city planning and affordable housing. Early 2019. The Sausalito Working Waterfront Coalition requested their assistance to begin at three years of meetings and discussions with a variety of stakeholders and community groups about the future of Sausalito's landship. In particular, they focused on the preservation of the marine ships maritime industries and the assessment of affordable housing development opportunities and participated in the general plan discussion. At that meeting in May of 2023, we had the opportunity to hire for $25,000 to go and engage in a multi-phase approach where they would raise additional money from from many sources to conduct a five phase operation. Phase one public outreach. Phase two due diligence and asset assessment. Phase three conceptual planning and design. Phase four design development and planning level engineering. And finally phase five final planning documents. This was exactly the process we're talking about. of outreach, collaboration, bringing people together, putting them in the same room. hashing out all the land use details. And this council chose not to do that by a narrow vote. I call on the council to do that or a version of it. It doesn't have to be with CBP, but someone said about getting everyone together with some good food and some wine in one room. The problem is that didn't happen. Obviously there are dozens of eight or 86 letters. saying in opposition to this 56 in favor interestingly not a single letter in opposition disagree with the goals of the working waterfront coalition not a single one and i agree with every single one of their goals Spalding Boatworks is where I had my 50th birthday party. I love that place. I have two boats, I'm happy to say, a motorboat and a sailboat. I love the maritime. I grew up on the water. I love it. But I'm also a money guy, as some of you know. And I know that if you want to preserve an artisan activity like wooden boat building, you probably need to innovate in your economic model. And that's possible, but it requires a trade-off. It requires a quid pro quo, a deal, and we have tools to that. In government, we have a thing called a community development agreement. That's an actual agreement with a property owner that they would Do something for the community benefit in exchange for a benefit. It is a trade. It needs to be negotiated. and the Working Waterfront Coalition and other interested parties could be the legitimate, authentic counterparty to that negotiation with the property. They need to get in the same room. to do that. They need to have a forum to do that. They need a mediator to do that, someone to first do a trust-building exercise where everyone can, you know, see their favorite animal and learn to trust one another before they talk about these hard things. And that's the process that we could have done a year ago, kicked off with a credible character person who had brought an interesting set of support in the community. this process with this, uh, David Myers, This ballot initiative at the last second runs completely counter to what one of my colleagues here on the Council said about measure K measure K that's the ballot initiative that actually got 500 signatures. is not how Sausalito does business. We don't cut corners or push efforts to try to avoid meaningful public input. This feels that way. |
| 04:57:05.24 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 04:57:05.30 | Charles Melton | It feels like a |
| 04:57:05.58 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 04:57:06.75 | Steven Woodside | I would love to announce it now. I don't know whether it would work to have a Mayors Blue Ribbon Committee with two people from the Working Waterfront Coalition, the owner of Clipper, the owner of Schoonmaker, Reason Bradley, and nominees of a couple other people that can actually really care and love about the marinship to get together in that room. I'll supply the wine. We can get a facilitator. And that discussion shouldn't cause the city anything. But I would actually, again, say that I'm in favor of absolutely not doing this, stopping this in its tracks, not rushing it in the next 45 days, but I am in favor of spending 25K or more on hiring the kind of cordial, meaningful facilitator to help bring the disparate parts of a community together with a plan that will actually save the partnership, not near term, but for a hundred years. How do all the beautiful farmland up in Marin get saved? Is it because agriculture is the best in economic use of farmland? We know that's not the case. It's because of malt. It's because of malt. Because of a quid pro quo deal. We could have a maritime land trust where property owners donate parts of their land in exchange for benefits. But here's the thing. They're not going to donate their land if they don't win. We may not like it that some property owners are going to win, but they're going to win in this transaction if we want that. But we're going to win, too. The Marin ship is going to win. You could set aside and endow Spalding Billetworks with a dowry that could help it last for a hundred years. that would preserve that area better than anything else. Ownership is the path to preservation and that's a path that we can, we can do so. Sorry to be on my soapbox, but I actually want to say this because I want the community to come together instead of become a part. And this initiative will drive it apart. And I'm calling on people to come together in a framework to actually have a business plan I love what Bob Silvestri presented a year ago to save the friendship for a hundred years. |
| 04:59:16.94 | Joan Cox | I would like to, so I will share with you why I voted against Bob Silvestri. It was not because I was against urban planning. It was not because I was against the process. You mentioned that he worked with the working waterfront for three years. He then stopped and refused to further work with them because they had the temerity to reach out to meet with Carlo Berg. without him. And so I did not want to entrust the future of Sausalito's working waterfront with someone who's mercurial and lets personalities get in the way of process. And so that is why I voted against that. Also, he wanted to charge us $25,000 for work he had already performed, not for work he would prospectively perform. And so those are my personal reasons for voting against that. But I would absolutely like to see us engage in a multi-phased approach. I agree with Bruce Hough. I have seen this be a ping pong ball, this issue be a ping pong ball for decades. I was appointed to the planning commission in 2008. The first question the city council asked me when interviewing me was, what are your views on the Marin ship? I had to say, The only thing I know about the marineship is I volunteer at the Sausalito Art Festival there every year. I had lived here for 20 years, and I didn't know anything about the controversy of the marineship. um, Bye. in 2012, four years later, I made a video, which you can still find online, about the importance of preserving the marine ship. The various councils that I served on have differing views. This council adopted a housing element unanimously earlier this year, And yet a couple of months ago, two council members started militating to change the housing element and add housing in the marineship where we had voted not to. And so based on the composition of the city council, that's what determines the future of the marineship. people have been calling me ever since this initiative was proposed and telling me I'm the swing vote, and I need to have the courage to act one way or the other. It's not fair to put the future of the marineship on the shoulders of a single person It should be up to the people. That being said, this measure, as currently written, is not the measure to bring to the people. That is why I'm in support of continuing this matter, whether it be to a meeting in July or whether it be to some future date. um, I hear what all of you have been saying about the importance of engagement and of stakeholder feedback. And I would never want us to adopt a measure that doesn't represent vetting. When I, as a council member in 2019 or 2018, adopted measures L and M that year, our BLT and our, and our TOT measures, we went out into the community. Those were city council sponsored measures that went onto the ballot and that were both adopted. But before we wrote them, and as part of writing them, we went out into the community and sought feedback. I went and spoke with business leaders about are they willing to accept an increase in the business license tax. I went to hoteliers and said, are they willing to accept an increase in TOT? More of that work needs to be done for this measure. I don't know whether that can be accomplished in 30 days or not. The reason I moved to continue this at the beginning of the meeting is that the proponents asked for a continuance to give them more time to address the significant community feedback that we've received. I would like to give them an opportunity to do that. I don't know whether we have the votes to do that tonight or not, but I just wanted to share my thoughts and perspectives. Thank you. |
| 05:03:44.17 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. Well said. My colleagues, you know, we are really lucky, fortunate council, because we somehow the last year have managed to pick up so many issues that so many prior councils did not complete. And you can tell that this is a very, this is very friction filled topic, just by the way, commentary began, right? There's just, you could feel that tension in the air. And I, of course, echo the mayor's interest in being collaborative and open-minded as to this. It's fascinating to me because I sat here through a bid process, through a ferry landside process, through an SCA lease, and I heard all these arguments on the other side. And so it just seems that this is a community that feels strongly about the community, and that's great. This is exactly what democracy is about. This is exactly what we should be doing. My perspective on 45 years is actually much longer. So if you'll just indulge me, in May 1989, we passed the Marineship Specific Plan. In 2013, we had a Marinship Specific Plan steering committee. Many meetings went on the shelf. In 2013, the Matthew Turner Kiel was set. Include this in the timeline because the Matthew Turner would not have been built over the course of seven years had it not been for all of the individuals in the Marineship with those skills and those expertise. And that includes everybody in this room who participates in the Marineship, Reason Bradley and others who all came together, right? That type of unification. In 2019, there was a general plan meeting where we included numerous policies that were intended to protect the partnership and that's in the land use. And I personally served on the general plan for three years and then served on a four person working group, working very, very hard. And why did I have to work so hard? Because in 2019, the city council at that time, which I was not a part, said that the marineship specific plan will be superseded with the adoption of the city of South Seattle general plan update. There was no public. voting on that. It didn't go to the voters. There was no CEQA on that particular decision. That council made that decision. And so there's a history of this throughout. You know, at the end of the day, in 2023, we had a housing element that also talked about the marineship. We've vetted. We've been vetting these issues for a very long time. This is exactly the conversation that needs to happen, right? And so I think, Gwendolyn, you said it very well. We're not talking about saving the marineship. Let's talk about fixing it. Let's talk about investing in it. And so many of our, you know, Clipper and KKMI and others are doing that, right? Let's talk about how that's working and what needs to be promoted and where we can make changes. Unfortunately, as a city, we do not enforce what we have down there right now. Many of you know a gentleman named Gary Testa. He had an incredible innovation. It was a coolant that reduced the, I think the energy consumption for servers by 40%. He had just raised a bunch of money. He was doing great. He was over off of Gate 5 Road. And then one day he gets a call, he's being evicted. Because somebody had come to him and offered three times rent that he was offering. This was a steel, this was a three phase power, roll up doors, concrete floor, high ceilings, no bathroom, three times the amount. You know what's there now? Something called the duct studio. I believe it doesn't have a business license tax and it also doesn't look like sales tax off of it. We haven't done our job. And so if you're wondering why we're here, it's because All of you are right. It's a yes and, right? We have to have this conversation. So, you know, I was told, when I looked at the Ferry Landsat, I was told it will create tax dollars. It will drive traffic. I didn't see an economic study on that, right? So a lot of this has to do with believing in the community and believing in the town. And we did, and we passed it. I can't remember if it was 4-1 or 5-0, but I voted for it. And so at the end of the day, this is a town that has had to take measures like 1022, like 1128, and put land use on the ballot. In fact, we're going to have to do that and put land use on the ballot again because of what the housing element requires. So it's not so unusual to have land use on the ballot. Those of you familiar with the process understand that. I think that this is exactly the conversation that we need to be having in light of all the hard work we've been doing. Hopefully this will come to a head. I support the Vice Mayor's suggestion that we continue the dialogue so that we can have the outreach for folks who currently feel that this measure misses the mark. And so we can hear more from more people both in this room and in the Marineship community. So I really appreciate you all staying to the The late hour, this is exactly, I think, the way to democracy, to quote, that McDougal should work. |
| 05:08:36.36 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. And thank you to everyone for your passion and how much you care about this issue. I have to say this is one of the times sitting on the dais where I am really moved by our community and how much you all care, whether it's on one side or the other, about the future of our community and what it looks like. And I really appreciate how much thought and perspective was brought forward. It means a lot. I appreciate the timeline that you brought up and I was reflecting on my, and you also shared your marineship history journey story so I remember when I was running for city council because I grew up in in the community I mean I went to Saucy University School my parents are in Mill Valley and I walked the waterfront I didn't really understand anything about the history of what the marineship was it was just like the waterfront I didn't see it as a separate area and I in 2017 when I was getting involved in the general plan and running for council for the first time, I went to a meeting specifically about the Marin ship and the general plan. And it had a lot of people sitting in this room here and it was at the Bay model. And I remember one Marin ship property owner, but like, you're probably in the room and you'll be like, it was me. I won't remember whom. But we started talking and we and the general plan consultants came into the room and they were like, we're having this conversation so that we can talk about what the future of the Marin ship looks like together and have a conversation. And this property owner got up and said, we have already done that so many times. I am so frustrated. I'm leaving and just left the meeting. It was not Bruce Hoff. I know what you're thinking, but it was not Bruce Hoffman. from the And I remember being really like, what is going on? Why is everyone so upset about this? And I think this meeting is another example of that. And I appreciate so much that we all want to work collaboratively to find the right future for the Marin ship. Because yes, we need to protect the working waterfront. And yes, we need a waterfront that works for Sausalito. And those two things are not mutually exclusive. And I really believe that we can find a path forward based on what people are saying in the room. I mean, it's not the same dialogue that might have been had in 1988 when the Marinship Specific Plan was passed. And I will note as well that the Marinship Specific Plan was a decision made by city council and not by a ballot measure. And we're all holding onto it so tightly, but it was a city council decision. It's even mentioned in the ballot measure itself as a city council decision, even though the ballot measure is arguing against city council decision making. So I think there's a lot, I don't wanna pick it apart. My issue with the ballot measure before us is that we need to have more conversation and that if we wanna have a ballot measure, given the risk associated with it, I'm in favor of signature gathering. However, I don't wanna stop the discussion here. And so I would love to see a blue ribbon committee formed as suggested by Mayor Sobieski. And if this group wants to go forward and follow the democratic process of gathering signatures and then it comes back before us and make those changes in the timely manner as suggested, that that's something that you know, then we would see it in that way. But right now, from the dais, I think it makes the most sense for us to create a conversation that is ongoing about what, how we can effectively use the waterfront. But I don't think that this ballot initiative as, as vice mayor Cox pointed out serves that purpose. We deserve to have a conversation with all of the stakeholders in the room. And I appreciate that all of the stakeholders are here and I cannot, um, given the context of how this came to us, that we didn't have the conversation and the signatures weren't gathered, supported continuing in this measure. So I'm more supportive of Mayor Sobielski's suggestion to have a blue ribbon panel to consider and continue this discussion. |
| 05:12:20.24 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 05:12:20.28 | Joan Cox | So we'll skip that. |
| 05:12:20.78 | Babette McDougall | you |
| 05:12:20.80 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 05:12:25.30 | Melissa Blaustein | Well, thanks. |
| 05:12:25.39 | Joan Cox | Thank you. THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 05:12:26.30 | Melissa Blaustein | more |
| 05:12:26.74 | Joan Cox | Thank you. THE END OF THE END OF THE I do want to address the gathering of signatures versus an initiative by the city council. When someone goes out and gathers signatures, they bring us something. We have no choice in what it says. When we sponsor an initiative, we get to make edits to it and it becomes our own. And so the challenge with the cannabis initiatives at the last election were we had to take it, once they got the signatures, we had no choice but to put it on the ballot. We had to either adopt it or put it on the ballot. We had no choice. We weren't able to dicker, negotiate, collaborate regarding the language. |
| 05:13:05.10 | Melissa Blaustein | But we also weren't, but we weren't liable, right? So if there were CEQA issues or if something came up otherwise from a legal standpoint, or if there was an issue from one of the property owners who was unhappy with the text of it, the city itself, because it wasn't a city sponsored initiative, would not take on |
| 05:13:08.71 | Joan Cox | It's a great day. Of course. I agree. |
| 05:13:19.03 | Joan Cox | liability. Agreed. So I just wanted to point out there are benefits to both ways. And I would love to see a collaborative process as opposed to a take it or leave it process. |
| 05:13:29.80 | Steven Woodside | And for the record, I'm not opposed to something that eventually goes to the voters. That would be fine. Just not like this, not in 45 days. You know, again, I just say we just don't cut corners here. We let the process spell out. You know, so that's my biggest objection. And so, yeah, I'd like, you know, I'll just say it. I don't know if anyone will show up. And we can certainly change who the people, but I'll announce a blue ribbon committee. I will bring the wine, but I will also see if I can find a facilitator. I will not be facilitating it and won't be part of the committee. It'll just have the mayor's name on it, but it's, I would invite John DeRay and Craig Mearlis, Reason Bradley, Mike Linder, a representative clipper of Berg and Schoonmaker, Ethan Hirschfeld, someone from KQMI, John Kurtzweiler from ICB, and Leslie Allen from ICB. That's my starting list. That's my invitation. We could meet. And like I said, I put a structure around it with a facilitator. Let some trust be built and see if some bridges can be built. It won't be done in 45 days. It won't be done for this election, but it may get done and it may help save the partnership for a hundred years. |
| 05:14:42.46 | Councilmember Kellman | Well, I'm going to just for sake of the record, make the motion that we continue it to July 16th. See if I have a second, if not, move on. Thank you. Second. |
| 05:14:52.00 | Steven Woodside | motion made and seconded call the question that's uh all in favor |
| 05:14:57.20 | Babette McDougall | Aye. Aye. |
| 05:14:58.93 | Steven Woodside | opposed nay |
| 05:14:59.64 | Babette McDougall | you |
| 05:15:01.21 | Steven Woodside | Okay. That motion does not carry. So that's where we're at. We are with that as that is not continued. Nevertheless, there's a lot, a lot of interest parties are right here in the room that have been flushed up out of this. And I'm serious. I think there's a real opportunity. And as council member Kelman, Part of her motivation was to actually light a fire under this discussion. I was frustrated a year ago that we didn't because yeah, we may have turned down Mr. Silvestri, but what we didn't do is then try to find someone else. right? But it was there. We... Thank you. Council Member Blossie and I, two votes for it. So we could have found someone else. We could have just reissued the RFI. So let's reissue the RFI. I mean, that's a future agenda item thing, but we'd have to see if we can schedule it. And I'll call you in just a second, my colleague, my friend. But it was, you know, there's, you know, lots of mistakes were made. There are lots of opportunities missed. So I can do the blue ribbon thing, and that's a step. But I would call on my colleagues to consider, and future genetimes, we can talk about scheduling it, issuing an RFI, again, for a more formal designer of some kind who can, like Silvestri or his ilk, help us. |
| 05:15:47.70 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 05:16:17.25 | Steven Woodside | My friend. |
| 05:16:17.79 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the offering. I gladly accept serving the Blue Ribbon Committee. So I think it's important not to ignore the very reality. So a lot of you know I'm an environmental lawyer. I run a climate nonprofit. I do a lot of work in the blue economy in the U.S. and in Europe. We do a lot of work with working waterfronts. When I was the mayor, I launched a blue economy task force, and we actually worked very diligently with the port of Los Angeles and Alticea with an entity called Braid Theory, which is a world-renowned accelerator and incubator in the blue economy space. We had a business plan. We had investors interested. We had people who were creating a pipeline for a cohort. It failed. Do you know why? We couldn't find space. The rents were just too high. And so I just want to make sure we're being realistic about what the ask is here right we we tried and there was a real hard due diligence effort on it and so I applaud and respect and thank you for your suggestion but I also want to just be super pragmatic about why some things aren't working down there and it really is going to take |
| 05:17:21.70 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 05:17:26.00 | Councilmember Kellman | you know you keep saying deals but I gotta say there's gonna be some things that need to be given up on that. So I give the two for perspective. I agree. |
| 05:17:33.07 | Steven Woodside | I accept it. |
| 05:17:33.71 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 05:17:33.76 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I'm inspired by malt. In the city, there are buildings that are bought for artists in a malt model. I'm sorry, I'm inspired by malt for agricultural land that's saved for character and, you know, in a quote unquote sub-economic activity. It can be done. I agree. It's a challenge. But I think it can be done. Malt's an example. In the city, there's a similar thing to malt, I'm forgetting the name, but it buys buildings. And in the arts, for artists, it buys the whole building. And it reserves it as a sub-economic use. I hate using that word, because to me, it's the highest economic use. It's just dollars and cents. And artists are saved. So it can be done. That's what the charge here is, to protect and enhance the marineship. And let's look at some of these solutions. That's the charge to us. Councilmember. |
| 05:18:25.74 | Melissa Blaustein | I was just going to say, we have to preserve those uses and those businesses because they're critical for the fabric of our community and who we are. And so I think we would all welcome solutions and ideas for how to do that, whether that's creating a protected area. whether that's having conversations around shared investment, but not having the space, with all due respect, yes, that's part of the problem, but it's hard to get investment in a space if the space itself is sinking and the infrastructure is failing. And I think we all know that the infrastructure is failing and it requires funding to fix that. And so I think there is a path forward that involves blue economy businesses. It involves public-private partnerships. It involves the entire ecosystem because everyone in this room is part of that ecosystem. And there's a future where we can all coexist in it and we can save those businesses with some sort of model similar. I appreciate the agricultural land trust idea because I think that that could be 100 years and we should be thinking about that. So I don't know if we need to keep talking, but I can. |
| 05:19:25.93 | Kieran Culligan | I want to give Councilor Cummings a blast. |
| 05:19:26.01 | Melissa Blaustein | I want to give Councilman a call. |
| 05:19:26.98 | Councilmember Kellman | That's what- |
| 05:19:27.35 | Melissa Blaustein | Bye. |
| 05:19:27.40 | Councilmember Kellman | Two things. So sea level rise vulnerability assessment is underway. I know a lot of you have been contacted in stakeholder groups. This is exactly the type of infrastructure investment. There's a lot of money out there for this. We just got $250,000 to take a hard look at Gate 5 Road. Again, we got a million dollars from the state to look at this. I'll continue to look for monies. We all will. but I'll also just issue my fellow council members a challenge. We have 400 House votes in our sphere of influence and we currently have zero whole manufacturers in Saucyut. but I'll also just issue my fellow council members a challenge. We have 400 houseboats in our sphere of influence and we currently have zero whole manufacturers in Sausalito to maintain and to make sure that those houseboats stay afloat. That is a built-in customer base. If we can't figure out how to bring that back to Sausalito then we're really digging harder and maybe not doing our job. |
| 05:20:09.45 | Steven Woodside | I should be charged to the Blue Ribbon Committee. All right, we're going to close item 5C, moving on to 5D. Thank you for having me. Receive and file the report. Yeah, we'll get it. We're going to receive and file the report regarding becoming a charter city, direction to staff to become a charter city. |
| 05:20:17.01 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 05:20:17.06 | Katie Garcia | Yeah. |
| 05:20:23.37 | Steven Woodside | We're not going to do it. We're not going to do it. Just following protocol, I imagine we're not, but we're gonna take public comment and probably continue to go. |
| 05:20:37.78 | Steven Woodside | Uh, I think we'll just, I think I'm presuming that we don't want to take these 5D up, so we're just going to do public comment on it. Okay. 5D, public comment on, yes, we'll appoint them. Receive and file a report regarding becoming a charter city, provide direction to staff to become a charter city. We're going to continue this matter to a future agenda, but we'll have to take public comment, so city clerk. |
| 05:20:59.00 | Walfred Solorzano | I bet. Do you want to speak? |
| 05:21:00.56 | Babette McDougall | I do have a comment, but it's... |
| 05:21:04.45 | Steven Woodside | Okay, that'll be in a few minutes, Ms. McDougal. |
| 05:21:07.40 | Walfred Solorzano | I haven't seen none. I've seen none. |
| 05:21:09.69 | Steven Woodside | I do, we do need Councilmember Hoffman to vote on the next item, which is consider appointments to Parks and Rec Commission. She wasn't here. Let me find her. Hold on. |
| 05:21:48.39 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so we want to go through the list. How many commissioners are we appointing? Does anyone know? Five? So I guess I can keep tabs of the people's top five, or how should we do that? |
| 05:22:00.76 | Councilmember Kellman | Want to do a slate? Okay, yeah. Okay. |
| 05:22:02.41 | Steven Woodside | Can someone else count because my piece of paper is so marked up. |
| 05:22:04.61 | Councilmember Kellman | Why don't you start, Vice Mayor? then. |
| 05:22:08.91 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:22:10.11 | Steven Woodside | wait i'm trying to figure out how to do this are you going to count the votes |
| 05:22:12.55 | Unknown | Are you going to count the votes? |
| 05:22:14.51 | Steven Woodside | I might think so messed up here. Okay, sorry. I'll just read it off. You got it right? |
| 05:22:20.22 | Kieran Culligan | Thank you. |
| 05:22:20.32 | Unknown | Is that a record for me? |
| 05:22:22.73 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 05:22:22.75 | Unknown | you |
| 05:22:22.76 | Kieran Culligan | Thank you. Right. |
| 05:22:24.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:22:24.64 | Joan Cox | So I have Sonia, Danielle, |
| 05:22:24.67 | Unknown | Thank you. you |
| 05:22:24.81 | Unknown | you |
| 05:22:24.89 | Kieran Culligan | So. |
| 05:22:25.40 | Steven Woodside | So yeah. |
| 05:22:25.88 | Kieran Culligan | Thank you. |
| 05:22:25.94 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:22:29.48 | Joan Cox | Karina Michelle Brand. |
| 05:22:32.60 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 05:22:39.76 | Karina Hughes | I think that's what I'm saying. |
| 05:22:40.35 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 05:22:41.87 | Karina Hughes | Same slate, one point film. Same slate. |
| 05:22:42.96 | Steven Woodside | Same slate, so times two. Okay, I'll just like this. |
| 05:22:46.81 | Karina Hughes | What did you say? |
| 05:22:47.50 | Steven Woodside | Councilmember Blastie. Abstain. Oh, sorry. I can't remember Hoffman. |
| 05:22:48.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:22:48.40 | Melissa Blaustein | Absolutely. |
| 05:22:52.82 | Steven Woodside | Yes, I'll let you do that. Well, I do my own camps. |
| 05:22:57.90 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 05:23:05.68 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:23:05.69 | Sharna Brockett | of things like that. |
| 05:23:08.29 | Steven Woodside | Oh wow, seems like a winner. So I, that is. |
| 05:23:15.26 | Unknown | you |
| 05:23:15.53 | Steven Woodside | Well, that's done, right? |
| 05:23:15.55 | Unknown | That's right, right? Yeah. |
| 05:23:17.08 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Because you have, okay, Dennis Banks. It won't make any difference, right? I can't do the math, it won't make any difference. I'm going to vote for Stacy. Yeah, that's right. So who are the, it's that slate is elected because you have three votes. Sonia, Danielle, Karina, Michelle, and Frank. |
| 05:23:30.90 | Walfred Solorzano | them. |
| 05:23:35.14 | Steven Woodside | Did you get that city clerk? |
| 05:23:36.73 | Walfred Solorzano | Hi, Sonia. |
| 05:23:37.62 | Steven Woodside | Sonia Salzman, Danielle Keenan, Karina Hughes, Michelle Mokala, and Frank Milian. |
| 05:23:46.31 | Joan Cox | And may I just say in the event anyone is retarded enough to still be up, um, |
| 05:23:52.18 | Sammy | Thank you. |
| 05:23:52.24 | Melissa Blaustein | Um, |
| 05:23:52.57 | Sammy | Thank you. |
| 05:23:53.16 | Joan Cox | that it was a really difficult, we had, amazing interviews and talent from everyone who interviewed this evening. So it was more difficult than it often is to, and I was so happy we were actually able to choose five. |
| 05:24:09.29 | Jill Hoffman | Did we want to appoint an alternate? |
| 05:24:11.25 | Joan Cox | Oh. |
| 05:24:12.69 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 05:24:12.97 | Joan Cox | I would say let's appoint an alternate because the mayor had someone that he wanted to recommend that didn't get on the slate. |
| 05:24:21.24 | Steven Woodside | How about Stacey Craig? |
| 05:24:24.16 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 05:24:24.63 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 05:24:24.65 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 05:24:24.70 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. Great. Sounds good. |
| 05:24:25.58 | Steven Woodside | Stacy Cray is the alternate, Mr. City Clerk. Got it. Thanks for the suggestion, Councilmember Hoffman. All right, item 5. the, I'm sorry, 5F, introduction and waiver of first reading of ordinance 424 regarding relating to the residency requirements of cities, boards, and commissions, and committees. So do we want to take public? Yeah. |
| 05:24:53.12 | Joan Cox | I would like to move that we continue this, but I would like to hear any public comment this evening. |
| 05:24:57.86 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Public comment, please. second, yeah, I think. |
| 05:25:01.10 | Walfred Solorzano | Babette McDougall? Sorry, I missed the first and the second. |
| 05:25:06.28 | Steven Woodside | It was Janelle and, yeah. |
| 05:25:09.17 | Babette McDougall | Thank you for allowing me. So just I'm glad that you're going to continue this if I understand correctly. Oh, sorry. |
| 05:25:15.56 | Steven Woodside | Sorry, please go ahead. I'll keep talking for you two minutes. Let's go ahead. |
| 05:25:19.19 | Babette McDougall | All right, because I think making a broad sweeping statement about a residency requirement is not a good thing. Not in the best interest of Sausalito. and the people who live here. and make their business and home here. So what really is in the best interest is to look carefully. I think the fellow with the end. where he doesn't live here, but he runs a long time running a good business here. That's the sort of special exception that should be made. But you don't throw down a blanket rule that said, it doesn't matter if you live here. It most certainly does matter. Thank you. |
| 05:25:59.83 | Walfred Solorzano | you. All right, we have Scott Thornburg. |
| 05:26:07.13 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you. I'll be brief and just say, I've said this before, but many of our businesses would love to contribute to the city of Sausalito, and this is a way for them to do that. We have many business owners that don't live in town, but have had businesses here for many, many years, and they love Sausalito dearly and want to give back to the community. giving them an opportunity to serve in a volunteer capacity seems like a great way to engage them And I think, you know, what the former speaker just said of, you know, having some qualifications around that. I think that would be fine. But I do think we need to be careful not to be too restrictive there. There's already an interview process that we go through, a rigorous interview process with the city council. So I think that's probably enough. But we, you know, if you have a business in town and you want to volunteer, I think we should support that. So thank you for continuing to track on this matter. I think this has been on the agenda a few times now, but we definitely want to come to consensus soon. So thank you for your attention and looking forward to continuing this matter at a future agenda. |
| 05:27:21.69 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public. |
| 05:27:22.80 | Steven Woodside | All right, we'll close that item. It's going to be continued. We'll move on now to items not on the agenda. This is your time to make comments on items not on the agenda. City Clerk, are there any people who wish to comment? My bet. It's my Google. |
| 05:27:42.34 | Babette McDougall | I don't know if you recall it, my very first time meeting you. I said, well, I'm a Southerner. I have an opinion on everything. So, all right, for this wrap up, I want to start with that risk assessment thing. When I got that phone call, following the last council meeting. from a watchdog who is a compliance officer which I gather is the same thing as risk assessment. They are always attorneys with rare exception. So that might color how we're going about trying to fill this position. And they're the ones that gave the briefing on how to argue the Title VII, for an example. I'm not interested in pursuing that. That was all new information for me. I just shared it as a matter of public record. That's the first item that I wanted to go over. The second has to do with the marine ship definition. I've got to say that I must take issue with having a marine ship discussion at the Spinnaker. No offense. I love the Spinnaker. Don't get me wrong. I love that room. But it should be inside the marine ship proper. Doreen and I were talking, you know, the most public meeting space to the south end of the proper marine ship is the cruising club. And we have very successfully orchestrated meetings at the cruising club. in the past. So it's an option. The Bay model is the best if they're still willing to do it. So that's the other thing. And then the third item that I wanted to... bring home here is strike while the iron is hot. What you got here tonight, thank God, was an open mind and discussion from both sides of the room about why people really care. And this is obviously an issue that is citywide. So everybody deserves to be noticed on the meetings and the special hearings, etc. So this is an important time to bring the citizens together, and what better time than right now? I wouldn't wait too long to push this forward. This marineship issue has been begging for attention. Thank you. |
| 05:29:39.32 | Steven Woodside | Any other comments, city clerk? Yes, you may, of course. Your public comment is open for items not on the agenda. but that's probably- |
| 05:29:47.74 | Alice Merrill | Is if I say that about the Marineship, the fact that I'm not sure still that people on the hill even know where it is so i i really think that somehow we've got to get people down there one time there was a um there was a all city potluck it was for it was for the sister cities i thought that can't happen how are they going to do that all city potluck great idea |
| 05:30:03.84 | Katie Garcia | Thank you. |
| 05:30:19.19 | Alice Merrill | Well, it happened. I went. And it was fun. It was a lot of people. It was a perfect amount of food. It worked. It can happen that people can be brought down there and and can learn in one way or another. And I've always thought that it would be fun to have all the business, all the owners have a, have a day that, you know, come on down and make it big deal that you come on down and you find out about what's there and you peek into all these little places and, We have to get the rest of the town to care or this is just, you know, it's the landowners against the renters and it's terrible. Let's figure out a way to get people down there. I'm going to go home now. I'm sorry. Thank you. |
| 05:31:12.37 | Melissa Blaustein | I wish we could too, Alice. |
| 05:31:13.67 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 05:31:13.72 | Steven Woodside | Namaste. Anyone else, Mr. City Clerk? See none. All right, city manager, it's time for your, oh, I'm sorry, council member committee reports. No? No, that's the vice man. |
| 05:31:24.08 | Joan Cox | I attended my first pedestrian and bicycle advisory committee meeting as city council liaison last night. And there are a number of grant funding opportunities that are going that are being pursued and recommended. that the PBAC is going to recommend that the city council consider as well as Um, The adoption of a plan by parametrics for avoiding accidents at the most at the hottest intersections throughout the city. So both of those things will be coming to the city council, if not in July early in the fall and I look forward to the entire counseling having opportunity to hear more about them. |
| 05:32:09.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:32:09.20 | Councilmember Kellman | Thank you. |
| 05:32:09.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:32:09.41 | Joan Cox | one. |
| 05:32:09.69 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:32:10.50 | Councilmember Kellman | What day is our Cal cities in July? Sussleet was the host for the North Bay Division of Cal cities. There's a luncheon. I think it's July 25th, is that that, Thursday? And it'll be a spinnaker. It's being a spinnaker. So they're expecting about 60 people. Everybody here, of course, is invited. |
| 05:32:29.18 | Steven Woodside | time. |
| 05:32:30.13 | Councilmember Kellman | lunch, so probably noon. |
| 05:32:32.78 | Steven Woodside | Right. |
| 05:32:33.98 | Councilmember Kellman | No, but Cal City's a Thank you. Thank you. |
| 05:32:36.08 | Steven Woodside | All right. City manager, would you have any reports? |
| 05:32:40.79 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. This is forever on tape. I want to say there's a robust quarterly report from the city manager that was compiled by our intern, Libby Hughes. So it's got a lot of information in different departments, including the next work that she's going to do for me, which is to do an evaluation of our stairways and the condition of our stairways. And then secondly, she'll do some work related to bridgeway and some of the clutter that's on bridgeway, but she's done a great job. The department's obviously contributed to this information and that concludes my report. |
| 05:33:17.77 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, sir. |
| 05:33:18.51 | Chris Zapata | uh, |
| 05:33:18.76 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 05:33:18.86 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 05:33:19.18 | Joan Cox | May I just commend the city manager? That was a really impressive report, and there's been a lot getting done, even while putting out a bunch of fires. So kudos. |
| 05:33:30.98 | Councilmember Kellman | Will she respond to your emails and clear your inbox for you? |
| 05:33:37.93 | Steven Woodside | Do my colleagues have any additional future agenda items? |
| 05:33:40.73 | Melissa Blaustein | I just, I've mentioned this at almost every meeting, and it's still not on the future agenda items list. I keep bringing up tabletop exercises and also disaster preparedness presentation from Mike McKinley. And I know that other members of the council have also asked for that, including Councilmember Hoffman, Councilmember Kelman, and Vice Mayor Cox. So, again. |
| 05:33:56.61 | Sammy | So again, |
| 05:33:57.47 | Steven Woodside | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 05:33:58.17 | Melissa Blaustein | I would really like us to have a robust conversation about disaster preparedness, have a presentation from our emergency manager, have more tabletops. I'm going to keep pushing that. |
| 05:34:05.02 | Steven Woodside | keep pushing that. Can you please make sure we look at specifically that on our next agenda setting that request, Mr. City Clerk? Just because I keep missing it too. It's not your point. |
| 05:34:13.94 | Joan Cox | Yeah, so can we just, does the city clerk write down when we say what future agenda items we'd like to have? |
| 05:34:18.87 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, I do, and it's on the future agenda sheet that's part of the agenda setting meeting. |
| 05:34:23.43 | Steven Woodside | Maybe remind us. |
| 05:34:23.46 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. I can't even remind us. Thank you. I'm not part of those meetings. Oh, that's right. That's right. |
| 05:34:25.79 | Steven Woodside | Oh, that's right, that's right, it's our fault. |
| 05:34:27.39 | Walfred Solorzano | Bye. |
| 05:34:27.41 | Joan Cox | Well, can you just start emailing me that list with the matrix every time the agenda setting committee meets so that we can start populating that? |
| 05:34:36.46 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, I already do that. |
| 05:34:38.21 | Melissa Blaustein | Right. It's just on the current future agenda items. It's not listed there. |
| 05:34:41.31 | Steven Woodside | Well, |
| 05:34:41.79 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 05:34:41.89 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 05:34:41.90 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 05:34:42.40 | Melissa Blaustein | But that's fine. |
| 05:34:43.31 | Steven Woodside | the squeaking squeak wheel apology all right public comment please on these uh committee reports city manager report future agenda items any public comment |
| 05:34:51.73 | Reason Bradley | Thank you. |
| 05:34:52.32 | Steven Woodside | No. |
| 05:34:54.95 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 05:34:55.02 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 05:34:55.03 | Babette McDougall | I'm sorry. |
| 05:34:55.07 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 05:34:55.29 | Babette McDougall | Good job. |
| 05:34:55.96 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Ms. Bushmaker. And it's. As Bushmaker has. |
| 05:34:58.71 | Walfred Solorzano | Especially. Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 05:34:59.46 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 05:35:03.42 | Sandra Bushmaker | Here we go. I just wanted to remind you that Dorothy Westby Gibson the Gibson house, wrote a book about the stairways of Sausalito. And so your staff person, your intern, City Manager might find that to be helpful way to start her endeavor. |
| 05:35:22.88 | Steven Woodside | Thank you for that. One of my treasures is a signed copy of that from or Ms. Gibson herself, so |
| 05:35:29.54 | Sandra Bushmaker | She took me around the city and walked me up and down all those stairs when I was running for council 26 years ago. |
| 05:35:37.10 | Steven Woodside | Fantastic. All right. That's it. We will now adjourn. The next city council meeting is on July 16th at 7pm. See you then and happy. |
| 05:35:44.07 | Joan Cox | No, it's not the 20th minute of the week from tonight. |
| 05:35:44.90 | Melissa Blaustein | the 20th. |
| 05:35:46.00 | Steven Woodside | Oh, wow. Thank you. The next city council meeting is a special city council meeting where we will approve and adopt the budget. It is one week from today. |
| 05:35:50.11 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 05:35:50.72 | Doreen Gunnard | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 05:35:54.84 | Doreen Gunnard | At 6 p.m. |
| 05:35:55.48 | Steven Woodside | 6 p.m., not at 7 p.m. 6 p.m. It is at 6 p.m. And it will go out in currents as well. Thanks for the catch. And you guys are sharp for this late at night. Thanks for catching my air. Uh, Good night. Thank you. |
Sibyl Boutier — In Favor: Thanked council for the Alzheimer's proclamation, highlighted lack of adult daycare for memory issues in Marin, and called for more residential care and support services. ▶ 📄
Scott Thornburg — In Favor: Complimented the city manager on the staff report regarding employee churn, expressed appreciation for city staff, and urged against staff cuts in budget discussions. ▶ 📄
Sandra Bushmaker — In Favor: Supported the Alzheimer's proclamation as a long-term care ombudsman, endorsed need for more memory care services, and thanked council. ▶ 📄