| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.03 | Steven Woodside | We're about to call the media order and have you say your various things. Okay. |
| 00:00:04.57 | John Flavin | Okay. |
| 00:00:05.09 | Steven Woodside | So we're just calling the meeting to order. Would you like to know too early? |
| 00:00:08.84 | John Flavin | Sure. |
| 00:00:09.77 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:00:12.84 | Joan Cox | Well, that's a good problem to have. |
| 00:00:15.19 | Steven Woodside | It is. All the clocks in the chambers are incorrect. |
| 00:00:20.92 | Joan Cox | And in the conference room. Yeah. Well, |
| 00:00:23.77 | Steven Woodside | Your watch is fine. |
| 00:00:25.34 | Joan Cox | There's been a lot of power out of |
| 00:00:26.96 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:00:27.27 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:00:27.37 | Steven Woodside | Fair enough. All right, now we'll call the meeting order, please. Mr. City Clerk, would you call the roll? |
| 00:00:31.77 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, Council Member Blasin. Thank you. |
| 00:00:36.45 | Mary Griffin | Sure. |
| 00:00:36.46 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:00:36.56 | Mary Griffin | Thank you. |
| 00:00:37.24 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member Hoffman? Here. |
| 00:00:39.69 | Mary Griffin | Here. |
| 00:00:40.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Kelman. Here. Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 00:00:41.49 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. you |
| 00:00:43.06 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:00:43.25 | Steven Woodside | Here. |
| 00:00:43.38 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:00:43.40 | Joan Cox | here. |
| 00:00:44.09 | Steven Woodside | And Mary Sobieski. Here. We'll have to approve the participation remotely by our colleague, Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 00:00:50.71 | Joan Cox | Thank you. As I reported at our last meeting, I underwent major surgery two weeks ago. I am not yet allowed to drive. I am still recovering. And so I appreciate the accommodation to attend this meeting from my home. |
| 00:01:07.36 | Steven Woodside | Okay, let's have a vote on approving the vice mayor's participation. I move that we allow her to participate remotely under that exemption. Thank you. |
| 00:01:15.75 | Jill Hoffman | Second. |
| 00:01:17.35 | Steven Woodside | Okay, it's moved and seconded. We have to do a roll call vote on that matter. So city clerk. |
| 00:01:22.67 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Blossy. Thank you. |
| 00:01:23.93 | Ian Blaustein | Yes. |
| 00:01:24.29 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Council member Hoffman? Yes. Council member Kuhlman? |
| 00:01:26.21 | Ian Blaustein | Yes. Yes. |
| 00:01:27.95 | Walfred Solorzano | you Fresh Mary Cox. |
| 00:01:29.15 | Ian Blaustein | you |
| 00:01:29.17 | Janelle Kellman | you |
| 00:01:29.18 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. Amir Sobieski. Yes. |
| 00:01:31.04 | Steven Woodside | Yes. All right, moving on, we're going to attend to the following items in closed session and then take public comment and then adjourn to a closed session. The items in closed session will be a conference with real property negotiator negotiator. The property in question is the MLK school site. The second issue is conference with real property negotiation. The negotiating party is the Sausalito Yacht Harbor. And the third is conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, Paulson versus the city of Sausalito. Vice Mayor, did you have a comment about? |
| 00:02:00.86 | Joan Cox | Yes, thank you, Mayor. I will be recusing myself from the first item Um, conference with real property negotiator concerning the 100 ebbtite and 610 Coloma street site due to the proximity of my home to that site. |
| 00:02:18.00 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you, Vice Mayor. We will now take public comment on the closed session items. |
| 00:02:24.82 | Walfred Solorzano | Members of the public who might be on Zoom or on the Internet, you can use the raise hand function. We don't have anybody in the house. And at this moment, there are no public conferences. |
| 00:02:35.63 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll close public comment. We'll adjourn to closed session, and we will return at 6 p.m. |
| 00:02:39.91 | Sergio Rudin | and it's not. |
| 00:02:39.97 | Joan Cox | And... |
| 00:02:40.02 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 00:02:40.11 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:02:40.88 | Sergio Rudin | as part of |
| 00:02:42.10 | Joan Cox | Like the movie, I am home alone. |
| 00:02:46.96 | Steven Woodside | City Attorney. |
| 00:02:47.99 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 00:02:49.90 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, we'll move the process. |
| 00:02:50.15 | Joan Cox | And then city attorney, will you text me when I can join the closed session after the. |
| 00:02:50.94 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 00:04:23.67 | Steven Woodside | Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the July 30th City Council meeting. We're going to call this meeting to order. We've returned from closed session. There are no closed session announcements. We'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. but please, we apply to the United States of America |
| 00:04:39.70 | Sergio Rudin | I've seen it in England. |
| 00:04:41.42 | Steven Woodside | to the group's all really well. |
| 00:04:43.97 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 00:04:44.04 | Steven Woodside | When a patient undergone indivisible liberty to be judged for all. |
| 00:04:44.31 | Sergio Rudin | . |
| 00:04:51.87 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. We're now opening a public hearing, which is to conduct a formal tally of received ballots associated with the potential formation of the downtown Sausalito Property Business Improvement District and consider adoption of a resolution of formation to establish the proposed district if the weighted return ballots support the formation of the district. Director Brandon Phipps. |
| 00:05:14.12 | Janelle Kellman | I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, before we get started, I have a quick question for the city attorney. Um, My whole experience on this council has been that we would always do a motion to adopt the agenda, and I noticed we've stopped doing that. I referred to the robber's rules of order, and it seems that we. We have to do that, but we've no longer been doing it. So city attorney, Is that a misstep on our part? |
| 00:05:36.06 | Sergio Rudin | So there is no requirement in the Brown Act that you have to formally adopt the agenda. You just have to not talk about items that are not listed on the agenda. The city has not adopted Roberts Rules of Order. The city has, in terms of its procedural rules, adopted Rosenberg's Rules of Order. So you still have the right to move items around on the agenda if you need to. And you can make that request at any time, including when the agenda item is called. but there's no formal requirement with the agenda. |
| 00:06:06.45 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you. Just curiosity because when I was mayor, we did that and the mayor after me and the mayor before me. So just curious about that. So perhaps at the end, we can talk about doing that again. |
| 00:06:17.74 | Steven Woodside | Director Phipps. |
| 00:06:19.57 | Brandon Phipps | Good evening, Mayor. Vice mayor council members members of the public and staff nice to see you all again and as always pleased to be here this evening today to introduce item one a regarding the tallying received ballots, as described by mayor. and Council's potential consideration of a resolution of formation to establish the proposed district based on weighted returned ballots. First, I'd like to touch on the history that we've gone through on this project, which extends back to February of last year, approximately a year and a half ago, when the City Council authorized the release of an RFP for consulting services associated with the potential formation of a Sausalito Property Business Improvement District, or PBID. we have come a long way since then. Interviewing and selecting a firm, conducting an initial district investigation, creating and endorsing a proposed district boundary and budget, and most recently on June 4, adopting a resolution of intent to establish the proposed downtown Sausalito PBID and initiate the balloting process. Thank you, council, for your continued support throughout this process. That brings us to the item before Council this evening, the conducting of a formal tally of perceived ballots associated with the formation of the district and the consideration of the adoption of a resolution of formation. going back in time. a bit again, but more recent past. Since the aforementioned June 4 meeting occurred, where a resolution of intent was adopted by counsel, CDD staff carried out and implemented a balloting process for the potential formation of the district. As a part of this process, city staff distributed a ballot package by mail to all property owners located within the proposed PBID boundaries. These ballots were sent out on June 13th of this year. The ballot packets included the district's management district plan, a ballot form individualized for each property owner, a cover letter, an instruction sheet. included the district's management district plan, a ballot form individualized for each property owner, a cover letter, an instruction sheet, a notice of assessment form, as well as a prepaid return envelope. Staff have received and filed returned ballots since they were initially distributed. And as of 4.51 this afternoon, 34 ballots have been received and have remained sealed in City Hall as required under Government Code Section 537-53. With that in mind... I'll briefly touch on the summary of the meeting format this evening to ensure we're all on the same page. And city attorney, please feel free to jump in to clarify any items as you see fit. After this brief presentation to Council and questions from Council members, City Council will open this item to public comment and members of the public will provide public comment as they see fit. Following the public comment period, City Council will close the public hearing and staff will tally received ballots in real time in the City Council chambers. Following the tallying of ballots, the final ballot results will be reported. And if no majority protest exists, or in other words, if the weighted returned ballots support the formation of the district, City Council will have the opportunity to engage in a discussion and deliberation in connection with the consideration of the adoption of a resolution of formation to establish the proposed PBID. Conversely, if the weighted return to ballots do not support the formation of the district, council will not have the opportunity to adopt a resolution of formation and the proposed district may not be formed. Regarding next steps. If the city council does adopt the draft resolution of formation to establish the proposed district, staff will work to do a number of things, including recording the notice and map of the district and its establishment with the office of the Marin County Recorder, which will constitute the levy of assessments of real property in the proposed district. Staff will also assist in holding the first meeting of the interim board of directors of the PBID, which will include the PBID steering committee members. And at that meeting, The interim board members will do a number of things, including the election of the interim officers that will actually make up the interim board. They will set the name of the district management nonprofit corporation. They will file the management corporations and corporation papers with the secretary of state, and they will... approve, adopt the corporation's bylaws. The interim board members will then submit the approved bylaws to the IRS and will work to enter into a contract with the city of Sausalito to administer the district, its funds, and services on a day-to-day basis. That does it for my brief introductory presentation. Thank you. And I am available to answer any questions. |
| 00:11:16.33 | Steven Woodside | Questions, please, for Director Phibbs. Anyone on council member, come in. |
| 00:11:21.36 | Janelle Kellman | Sure. Thank you, Director Phipps. I am looking through the Management district plan. Can you just let everybody know where we might find the contribution percentages per participant for the bid. |
| 00:11:39.25 | Brandon Phipps | Do you mean, thank you for the question, do you mean on an individual parcel by parcel basis? |
| 00:11:44.90 | Janelle Kellman | Yes, and just to cut to the chase, I'm looking for the city's contribution in writing. |
| 00:11:49.98 | Brandon Phipps | by assessment amount? Understood. On the last page of the management district plan, you'll find a full list of all of the parcels within district as well as their reporting or associated assessment values. if you were to do the math, you will see a 50-50 split. between the assessment imposed on the city of Sausalito and those properties, as well as the assessments imposed on all other properties within the district. This is partially supported by what you'll see on page three of the MDP, which is the benefit zone revenue summary, which shows a breakdown of assessment values between benefit zones. It should be noted that the split between benefit zones is not an exact 50-50 split. This is due to the fact that City of Sausalito happens to own properties in both of the districts. However, Sausalito owns all of the properties within Benefit Zone 2, so they pay 100% of that assessment, and they only own some of the properties in Benefit Zone 1, so they pay a very small portion of that assessment. If you were to do the difference between the two zones, we see a difference of approximately $25,000. So we can logically assume that city's share of assessments in benefits on one is equal to approximately $12,000. |
| 00:13:08.03 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, and then for each of the two zones, what percentage of the city owned property are actually parks? |
| 00:13:16.50 | Brandon Phipps | Do you mean by assessment value or by land value? |
| 00:13:19.01 | Janelle Kellman | by land use. |
| 00:13:20.14 | Brandon Phipps | by land use. Ooh, I'm not certain about that. How many, how many? |
| 00:13:22.84 | Janelle Kellman | How many, what percentage is actually a retail with a tenant that we have a commercial use of. Sure. |
| 00:13:29.32 | Brandon Phipps | I would say it is all parcels that contain retail uses minus the three parks. |
| 00:13:34.76 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, and how what percentage of the overall zone do those three parks comprise? |
| 00:13:39.85 | Brandon Phipps | I haven't conducted that math now. |
| 00:13:41.78 | Janelle Kellman | Is there a map that would illustrate that very clearly? Certainly. |
| 00:13:44.56 | Brandon Phipps | Certainly. |
| 00:13:45.05 | Janelle Kellman | And where does that map? |
| 00:13:45.93 | Brandon Phipps | in the management district plan. |
| 00:13:47.38 | Janelle Kellman | And is it the green or the white, which I can't quite tell what is what? |
| 00:13:50.80 | Brandon Phipps | The green or the white? I think that you may be referring to a previously drafted district map that showed the petition results summary. |
| 00:13:58.92 | Janelle Kellman | I'm on page 13 of the management district. document management district plan pdf attachment to page 13. |
| 00:14:05.43 | Brandon Phipps | understood. I think there it's not all spelled out. Each of those questions is not specifically answered at the management district plan, but the management district plan contains all the information to answer those questions. |
| 00:14:18.38 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, so in your expert advice directing and informing the public and the council, what would be the best way to have the clearest record of exactly what we are funding and for the benefit of whom and the percentage of the contribution for the city and to what type of property that the city is contributing to? And my question is because we already pay Department of Public Works to maintain our park areas and I am curious as to whether or not we are paying twice and a duplication of effort. |
| 00:14:53.66 | Brandon Phipps | question. And thank you for the question. I'll first state that Any benefits or services provided to the parks or any area within the district funded by district funds are going to be over and above the services that the city already provides. That is kind of gets to the crux of what a special benefit is. So whatever services DPW is currently providing will continue on those parcels, but we will be augmented and improved upon by the special benefits that the management district corporation, management district nonprofit corporation chooses to implement. |
| 00:15:08.99 | Bill Hines | and Thank you. |
| 00:15:28.39 | Brandon Phipps | Um, |
| 00:15:29.00 | Janelle Kellman | Let me to answer your question. |
| 00:15:29.39 | Brandon Phipps | But to answer your question, I think a little bit more directly. |
| 00:15:32.19 | Janelle Kellman | Yes, because I'm quite confused because 56% of the budget is for demand creation. And I'm not sure that our parks require demand creation. |
| 00:15:38.87 | Brandon Phipps | I will note that the council has endorsed the management district plan, as well as the engineers report. So I did not anticipate this kind of discussion of management district plan. |
| 00:15:48.42 | Janelle Kellman | I'm sorry, they just came to me and I thought it would be great for everybody to be on the |
| 00:15:51.88 | Brandon Phipps | Yeah, and I think that's excellent. So where I was going is... Staff is here to answer any questions and we're happy to be as transparent as possible in connection with this process. If that means responding to a specific set of questions provided by council at or after this meeting. Happy to do that and happy to find those very specific answers in the management district plan document that's been endorsed. |
| 00:16:16.33 | Janelle Kellman | I THINK THAT'S A GOOD |
| 00:16:17.11 | Brandon Phipps | We could make a web page, whatever would help counsel. I'm happy to take direction. |
| 00:16:21.26 | Janelle Kellman | Fair enough. My apologies, Director Phipps. I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I just, I know you're well versed. And as I read it, I was missing information. So I should have prepped you first. |
| 00:16:30.22 | Steven Woodside | Appreciate that. Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 00:16:35.28 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I did want to address Councilman uh, partially addressed one of Council Member Kelman's questions regarding parks. You know, we used to employ a full-time Tree. maintenance person for the parks. And we stopped doing that back in 2016. And so, Thank you. What I understand is that we would have the money, if we agreed to this, to consider Again, having someone retained to assess the health of our various trees in our parks, something that's sorely needed for viña Delmar Park. by way of brief examples. Um, That was just an example of some of the services that our public works have had to stop performing due to budgetary constraints that it's my understanding would be potentially available to us again. as a supplemental Um, service not currently provided were this PBID to be adopted. Um, I did have a question. for the city attorney, we received a lot of correspondence saying even if we even if a majority of the businesses vote in favor of the PBI we should delay our adoption decision until September. And I wanted to ask you if that's feasible under applicable statute. |
| 00:18:13.48 | Sergio Rudin | I do think that it is. You know, you can vote to continue the public hearing and vote to continue this agenda item to a subsequent date. Again, given the... The fact that you have opened the public hearing and given the fact that you have the ballots to tally, I would encourage you to. Close the public hearing and tally the ballots. That way you close the protest and balloting period so you have some definitive answers on what your options are with respect to moving forward there. Um, But otherwise, I think once you have the results of that, you can vote to continue your deliberation discussion of the item. |
| 00:18:54.03 | Joan Cox | I just wanted to have the information. The various letters that we received were form letters, none of which explained why we should postpone the decision. But I just wanted to know whether we had the power to postpone the decision. Thank you. |
| 00:19:10.54 | Steven Woodside | Are there other questions from the diocese? Councilmember Blaustein. |
| 00:19:13.67 | Ian Blaustein | Thank you, Mayor Sobieski, and thank you, Director Phipps, for your report. I appreciate it. I know that there have been many presentations on the PMID and many discussions, so I'm happy to see you yet again. So I, and this question might be more for Director Hess, but I'm looking at the revenue projections. Just wanted to reinforce or have a conversation about each of these areas. So Director Hess, if you're on here. You have a revenue projections through TOT of an increase of about $320,000. Sales tax revenue increase of around $76,000. parking around 40,000. So your assessment is that we should see increased revenue through the bid of over $600,000 as a result of this. |
| 00:19:54.31 | Chad Hess | over, Over the life of the bid. Yes. So over the life, the five-year life of the bid, I'm, I am projecting an increase in revenue. of about 807,000. And less the bid expense. Let me share my screen just so it's clear what number I'm looking at for the public. One second. All right. |
| 00:20:14.64 | Ian Blaustein | So the 600,000 number is the net revenue less the bid expense. |
| 00:20:18.96 | Chad Hess | So right here, this is our projected increase. across those three revenue sources. So we've got TOT revenues, sales, tax, and parking. The five-year increase in revenue is about $807,000. And then our bid assessment over the five years is projected to be 650,000. So the net of that is 156. net positive to the city. I would stop our discussions there on this line right here. This line, less current expenditures. That line is assuming that we continued on with the CDA contract. as well as the destination Sausalito contract. We have not funded the CDA contract, so I would stop right there as a net positive 156. |
| 00:21:03.75 | Ian Blaustein | So you're saying the net positive after the five years in the bid is an additional $156,000 to the city. Correct. |
| 00:21:09.42 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:21:09.44 | Ian Blaustein | And just for the record, how much are the merchants should we move forward on this paying into the bid? |
| 00:21:14.40 | Chad Hess | They would pay equally. They would pay about $650,000 as well. |
| 00:21:19.39 | Ian Blaustein | they're not receiving net revenue as a result, right? |
| 00:21:22.88 | Chad Hess | demand creation should increase their revenues. Yeah. |
| 00:21:24.94 | Ian Blaustein | Sure. Sure, but what we're seeing here is that the merchants are willing to give money to increase the city's revenue through the bid process. |
| 00:21:33.35 | Chad Hess | Yes, I would agree. |
| 00:21:34.75 | Ian Blaustein | Okay. And overall, this, according to your projections, is a net gain for the city financially. |
| 00:21:39.61 | Chad Hess | It is a net gain. |
| 00:21:40.43 | Ian Blaustein | Yes. Okay, great. I just wanted to confirm that. Thank you, Director Hess. |
| 00:21:44.16 | Steven Woodside | Are there other questions from the diaries? All right, Director Phipps, where do we go next? Council member Hoffman. |
| 00:21:53.63 | Jill Hoffman | I'm This is for Director Hess. And this was – there's also been some emails about a net revenue increase of $1.2 million to the city. But we talked about this earlier. And your – well, your assumption was that that was just the two bid assessments added together over the five years was $1.2 million. It's not a new – |
| 00:22:20.39 | Gail Schell | Yeah. |
| 00:22:21.98 | Jill Hoffman | We're not getting 1.2 right. |
| 00:22:23.96 | Chad Hess | Correct. Correct. I don't know where the 1.2 is coming from, but that's approximately what the total bid assessment would be over the five years. |
| 00:22:31.97 | Sergio Rudin | Okay. |
| 00:22:32.95 | Chad Hess | But yeah, like I said, the net benefit to the city is revenue under assessment. So right here. Revenue over under assessment, $156,000. |
| 00:22:39.72 | Jill Hoffman | Revenue over, under $1,000. Sorry, and that's $156,334 that's listed on that line. |
| 00:22:47.33 | Chad Hess | That is correct. In your tattles. |
| 00:22:49.37 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. I won't. |
| 00:22:50.57 | Ian Blaustein | Just follow on on that. Sure. Just when you were making these assessments, Director Hess, they were rather conservative, correct? Can you talk a little bit about your projections? |
| 00:22:56.91 | Chad Hess | Thank you, Barry. Yeah, very conservative. So we're estimating a 1% growth. |
| 00:22:59.04 | Ian Blaustein | Thank you. Very conservative. |
| 00:23:03.43 | Chad Hess | which is very, very conservative. So what we did is we took the base rates of TOTs in fiscal year 23. We assumed that they held constant for 24, and then FY25, we increased it by 1%. through Fiscal year 29. So we were increasing The PLT revenue 1% each year, which is very, very conservative. yielding 322,000 of additional TOT over that five year period. Sales tax revenue, we assumed an increase of 1% as well over that same time period. generating 76,000 in additional revenue. And then our parking, I think, is really where we stand to gain the most. Again, we're assuming a 1% increase in revenue over that five-year period, yielding $407,000 from Parkman. |
| 00:23:51.15 | Ian Blaustein | So then, Director Fibbs, I would have another question for you since you were overseeing the bid processes. When you were reviewing case studies of other cities that have initiated a P bid such as this, have they typically seen higher than 1% growth annually? |
| 00:24:04.18 | Brandon Phipps | I would say higher than 1% growth annually is, um, is something that is very much to be expected and something that can very easily be exceeded. Thank you. |
| 00:24:13.59 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 00:24:13.71 | Brandon Phipps | And I will just note from more of a qualitative standpoint, if this district's activities result in the filling of just one vacancy in the city's central downtown district, and that business performs on average around the same, at the same level that other businesses perform in the district, we will vastly exceed our 1% estimate. And if that happens twice or three times, that will compound even more. |
| 00:24:42.40 | Ian Blaustein | Great. Thank you so much. |
| 00:24:45.27 | Steven Woodside | if they're a council member of the conference. |
| 00:24:46.75 | Jill Hoffman | I do have Thank you. So the parking where you where you're looking at the parking increase in parking. Did you take into account plans to remove parking from downtown that we're going to talk about in about an hour. |
| 00:24:58.46 | Brandon Phipps | No, this financial model does not project changes to parking supply, nor does it take into account increases in the cost of parking. |
| 00:24:58.48 | Jill Hoffman | No. |
| 00:25:08.54 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 00:25:11.04 | Steven Woodside | So for instance, if there's more demand and prices are higher, that's not part of the model. |
| 00:25:15.42 | Tadis Antonovicis | No. |
| 00:25:15.68 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. you and you have a 1% growth rate, but you think that that's conservative. Correct. And even in the most conservative model, it makes money for the city. Correct. Are there any other questions? |
| 00:25:29.92 | Jill Hoffman | So conversely, with regard to parking, if you lose 35 parking spots out of our highest you know, out of our highest revenue-producing lots, this number that you projected for parking is not accurate. And as you said, it's not accurate if that occurs. It's also not accurate if we raise the parking fees to cover the loss. |
| 00:25:49.07 | Steven Woodside | Correct. |
| 00:25:49.09 | Jill Hoffman | record. Okay. |
| 00:25:49.71 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Councilmember Kalman. |
| 00:25:54.91 | Janelle Kellman | Apologies again for before. I have some governance questions. Okay, so let me know if this is, ready for conversation. So you said that the next step is that there is a PBIT steering committee Right. And then is that steering committee anybody who wants to go? Anybody that attended the prior meetings? |
| 00:26:15.04 | Brandon Phipps | So this would be, we'll call it the... first meeting of the interim board of directors. that meeting at that meeting, we will invite members of the steering committee, relevant property owners and business owners within the district. And it is that group that will make the initial appointments through an election of interim officers. So those interim officers through this election process will become members of this interim board of directors. |
| 00:26:45.42 | Janelle Kellman | And can council members attend that meeting? |
| 00:26:48.67 | Brandon Phipps | I would not have, I don't see any issues with counsel being present at that meeting. |
| 00:26:53.84 | Janelle Kellman | But we'd have to watch the Brown Act. OK, and then have you seen in your experience, and again, apologies, I should have asked you earlier today, where a larger contributor to a PBID has more votes or weighted votes based on a contribution? |
| 00:27:12.13 | Brandon Phipps | Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that that is something that the steering committee has kind of responded favorably towards. And I think that that makes logical sense, at least in my mind. What has been discussed previously in connection with the makeup of this interim board is that the city will have two seats on that board, whatever it is. And that would be partly motivated by, based on city's high percentage of property ownership and weighted assessments. |
| 00:27:39.89 | Ian Blaustein | Thank you very much. I just had a follow-on. That's been a blast. Sorry for the back and forth, but just on the parking piece, Director Huss, what's our average occupancy of lots one and two at this point, are they typically full? |
| 00:27:41.91 | Cheryl Pop | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:27:51.95 | Ian Blaustein | percent. |
| 00:27:52.14 | Chad Hess | Lot two has a higher occupancy than lot one. Lot one's occupancy rate varies greatly depending upon the time of year. Um, looking at my calculations. January, we're about 60%. occupancy. |
| 00:28:06.99 | Ian Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 00:28:08.12 | Chad Hess | We rise up to about 80, 83, 84 during the peak seasons of July. So I see capacity in the data. |
| 00:28:14.01 | Ian Blaustein | Thank you. And is that around the potential number of... parking spaces that would be lost. |
| 00:28:20.42 | Chad Hess | Potentially, yes. |
| 00:28:21.62 | Ian Blaustein | Okay, so if we were to create demand for full occupancy of those lots, we would likely make up for the missing revenue through the demand generation. |
| 00:28:30.75 | Chad Hess | I would agree. |
| 00:28:31.60 | Ian Blaustein | Okay. And if we were to see another business open, potentially overseeing our revenue projections, that would impact parking as well. Right. Director Phipps. |
| 00:28:39.64 | Brandon Phipps | assuming that the people who, um, Shop at that business, utilize that business, drive cars and park cars in Sausalito. |
| 00:28:46.70 | Ian Blaustein | So just to confirm all of the assessments that we've made thus far and projections regarding the bid show that they are a net gain fiscally for the city. |
| 00:28:55.19 | Brandon Phipps | in a conservative scenario. |
| 00:28:57.04 | Ian Blaustein | Great. Thank you. |
| 00:28:58.44 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Director Phipps. Do you have another question? |
| 00:29:01.60 | Jill Hoffman | I do have a follow up on that. So, um, Based on the questions that Councilman Blaustein just asked, it seems to be that she's saying that there's no net revenue loss in the loss of 35 parking spots. Is that your assessment? |
| 00:29:23.15 | Brandon Phipps | Apologies, council member. |
| 00:29:23.45 | Sergio Rudin | Exactly. |
| 00:29:25.16 | Jill Hoffman | Council member. Anybody think that we're not going to lose revenue if we lose 35 parking spots? I'm talking to Mr. Phipps and Director Hesch. I would |
| 00:29:31.47 | Brandon Phipps | Yep. |
| 00:29:31.70 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:29:31.74 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 00:29:31.77 | Sergio Rudin | Right. |
| 00:29:32.14 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. I would say all all sequel. Yes, you would, you would reduce your revenue. |
| 00:29:39.90 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. That's it. |
| 00:29:41.41 | Steven Woodside | if you have 35 spots that are empty and no one's parking there and you remove them, Where does the lost revenue come from? |
| 00:29:49.29 | Brandon Phipps | Oh, the excuse me, I was functioning under the assumption that revenue was being generated by those spaces. |
| 00:29:53.93 | Steven Woodside | see and council member glassine's question was about occupancy rates suggesting that there are some periods of time when we don't have 100 occupancy So, Let's move to that. |
| 00:30:02.23 | Jill Hoffman | No, that actually, okay, let me follow up on that. |
| 00:30:03.63 | Steven Woodside | Let's save the discussion for the discussion part. I think... |
| 00:30:06.10 | Jill Hoffman | I know this is a question for the... Well, are you cutting me off? I mean, you're... |
| 00:30:07.68 | Steven Woodside | Well, I'm asking if you have a factual question. I have a question based on yours. Go right ahead. |
| 00:30:10.58 | Jill Hoffman | I have a question based on yours. Thank you. Okay. So, okay. So... We have, Lots in town. Sometimes they're full, sometimes they're not, but we know on a monthly basis and on an annual basis how much revenue we earn from these lots right And so the fact that we have flex capacity sometimes in the lots obviously means we're not making as much revenue. But if we lose 35 spots, which is... If we have a hundred and... 80 spots in lot one. |
| 00:30:44.06 | Chad Hess | 81. 181. |
| 00:30:47.20 | Jill Hoffman | you. We have 181, if we have, how many do we have in lot two? |
| 00:30:52.01 | Chad Hess | I don't know that number off the top of my head. |
| 00:30:54.29 | Jill Hoffman | So the point being on any given day, regardless of what time of year it is, we never go down below Look to me like on our chart 58% occupancy in our in our lots. |
| 00:31:08.04 | Chad Hess | Yes. |
| 00:31:08.75 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:31:08.84 | Chad Hess | Yep. |
| 00:31:09.06 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So the loss of parking revenue, every time we lose a parking spot, if we don't replace it somehow, we're going to lose revenue. |
| 00:31:17.34 | Chad Hess | marginal revenue, in my opinion, because we are not full in those lots throughout the day or throughout the year. But you agree that- |
| 00:31:24.26 | Jill Hoffman | But you agree that- |
| 00:31:25.81 | Chad Hess | There is going to be some. I get it. |
| 00:31:25.86 | Jill Hoffman | There is. I get it. I get it, but if we permanently remove a parking spot, Permanently remove it. On an annual basis, we won't earn any money off that spot, right? |
| 00:31:35.35 | Beth Swerke | Bye. |
| 00:31:35.36 | Chad Hess | Sure. We will not warrant- That is correct. But other spots are available for patients to park in. |
| 00:31:41.42 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, yeah. I gotcha. I understand. Okay, thank you. |
| 00:31:48.00 | Steven Woodside | Are there any other questions? There'll be opportunity for public comment later, madam. So, Mr. Phipps, now we take public comment, I believe. Yes, thank you. So city clerk, could you please open public comment on this matter? |
| 00:32:02.85 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you, city council. |
| 00:32:04.07 | Walfred Solorzano | Just as a reminder, members of the public who are on Zoom, you can use the raise hand function and we'll call you in the order that we receive it. So everybody, two minutes. Please head up to the dice. I'm going to give about three names. Hank Baker, Kieran Culligan, and Don Daglow. |
| 00:32:04.25 | Brandon Phipps | Yeah. |
| 00:32:04.27 | Fred Moore | Thank you. |
| 00:32:30.80 | Hank Baker | Mayor, city council? My name is Hank Baker, resident and business owner of downtown Sausalito and also on EDEC committee. Um, Before you is a proposal that is a shared risk between the business community and the city. And the business community is willing to step up and put their dollars where their mouth is. This is not a guarantee. but it certainly is a very, very well calculated risk. downtown. needs some help. downtown. Landscaping has been dead for a while. the stickers all over the poles. Um, Dirty sidewalks, dead flower baskets don't give a positive impression of what Sausalito is and can be to our visitors who are supplying more or less half of the revenue to the city. This is an opportunity to fix that. First of all, thank you to the the Public Works Department They have stepped up and they've taken care of dead landscaping. They've taken care of the stickers on the poles and it looks great. But there are still a lot of other things to be done. And the PBID is one way of funding those improvements and the marketing necessary to get more people here and therefore to get more money into the city tills. Thank you. |
| 00:33:58.77 | Kieran Culligan | Kieran Culligan. Hi, Kieran Culligan, Saw Sue to Resident. Let's talk about FUD, starting with the Wikipedia description. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt. FUD is a manipulative propaganda tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics, polling, and cults. FUD is generally a strategy to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information that is a manifestation to the appeal of fear. Let's talk about a real example. Today, a certain city council member emailed hundreds of Saw Sue to residents with the following. Quote, a table attached to this agenda item labeled revenue projections sets forth the fiscal analysis. This table, as well as the staff report, shows that at the end of five years, the return of the city's $650,000 investment is projected at $156,000. That is a projected, bold and underlined, negative 76% return on investment over five years. By illustration, if the city invested this money in a CD with a 4% return on investment, in the end of five years, we would the city invested this money in a CD with a 4% return on investment, in the end of five years, we would have approximately $1 million in our general fund. The bolded statement about negative 76% return on investment is beyond wrong. The city is projecting a plus 24% return on investment off by 100 percentage points. The $156,000 is on top of what the city is making back on their investment. The math about investing $650,000 in a CD and getting $1 million in five years Also wrong by about $200,000. I don't have time to get into it. Maybe these numbers were just passed along by your friend, Arthur Anderson, and you didn't check them. But in any case, it's incorrect. It's misleading. It's reckless. And it deserves a retraction. Thank you. |
| 00:35:43.56 | Steven Woodside | Let's please not have applause or boos from the audience, either one. Let's give everyone the... Same treatment at the podium. Thank you, Mr. Daglow. Go ahead. |
| 00:35:55.07 | Don Daglow | Don Daglow, EDAC member. I've lived in three different Sausalito neighborhoods and I've worked in town for 16 years. I think what I want, I want to tell a story to illustrate this because we've heard the numbers, we've heard about projections. 45 years ago, I was a young assistant superintendent of schools in a bedroom community. in Southern California. Native Marinite, but I was down there. My mentor took me aside and said, Kid, you've got to understand, if you're going to be an administrator in this school district, We're a veteran community. We do not have a business base. All we have is state grants, federal grants, and property tax. That's all we've got. And that's what you have to work with as an administrator. In Sausalito, we are very fortunate. We have a long-established business community. 25 years ago, I was part of another business community in Marin And the business community there was out to maximize their own money, and they did not try to act in the interest of the community. And I was shocked. at this. I was appalled to see this behavior in meetings. And I spoke up and I was asked not to return to those meetings. The Sausalito business community is part of the community. They act proactively. When I came down here and started doing business here, I was so relieved. to see that approach. That felt like Marin to me. as a Marin native. The numbers are being carried well. This is our defense, cooperation. against the fact that property tax is the thing we all want to avoid raising, We all want to defend homeownership and homeowners. collaborating with the business community to build income for the city is the way to do that. Thank you very much. |
| 00:37:47.42 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:37:47.47 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:37:47.49 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, sir. Who is next city clerk? |
| 00:37:49.04 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Sue Fisher King, Sandra Bushmaker, and John Flavin. |
| 00:37:58.95 | Sue Fisher King | Good evening, Mayor Zobieski and Vice Mayor and City Council members. This is the first time I've ever done this, so forgive me. |
| 00:38:01.40 | Walfred Solorzano | there and |
| 00:38:06.32 | Sue Fisher King | I've lived here for 40 plus years, and I'm speaking from the standpoint of being a San Francisco business owner for 40 plus years. |
| 00:38:14.20 | Bonnie McGregor | or the other. Thank you. |
| 00:38:16.20 | Sue Fisher King | And I have lived and worked, not lived, but worked on a street in San Francisco, which is not unusual, that is in a merchant district. And there are many of those areas in San Francisco that support the merchants or businesses on that street in that area. And they all have names. I happen to be Sacramento Street. I've now moved to Fillmore Street. but they're all merchants associations in those areas. And what came to my mind when I first started reading about this business improvement district is that it appears to me, that by establishing our merchant districts, We have solved these problems. by the cooperation of all the merchants of whatever business they're in, on our streets and having them join together in associations where we meet regularly, make plans for our future together, raise money through dues, through events that we plan, and we end up having enough money to hire PR people to help us put on our events. And overall, when you think about it, when you think of Union Street, which is an institution, and the Union Street events, and the Fillmore Street events, and the Jazz Festival, etc. All of those things are merchant-sponsored events, and the city doesn't get involved in any way except maybe to close the street. So I'm just saying that I was never raised in this business to be working with the city of San Francisco, for example, to have them helping me establish my business or keep my business running. or in any way involve the city with my business. Nor would I like that. So I'm just stating from my standpoint what this has appeared like. Thank you. |
| 00:40:03.40 | Walfred Solorzano | Schneider Bushmaker. |
| 00:40:04.26 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, everybody. Good evening, council, audience. I'm not against business improvement districts. I'm against this one because it involves the city at 50%. And we are in a deficit. Spending. mode this year again. And so, It seems to me that we need to be cautious I object to the the maps, They seem to be gerrymandered. in order that the city has a 50% interest. and a 50% responsibility. I also would like to object to the Karen Hollweg, Apparent lack of transparency, I know we've had a lot of meetings, but it has been rather secret who's been on the steering committee. And it was only until one council member pressed staff at one of the meetings that names were read. but that has never been published. And so the public does not know who's on this steering committee. And it appears that the city is only going to have two seats. on this new board. What if the board is 15 people? Divided by two seats, that is not a 50% representation. I think the city should have a 50% representation on this board. I think. Given the. uh, Engineer's report. And I want to ask how many of you actually read all pages of the engineer's report and understood everything and the assumptions raised in that? I will say that I've read it I do not understand it. And there are many, many questions that come up in my mind. So, I would like to see this matter tabled until we can get our finances in order. until we can be more sure that the city will have a 50% representation. I would prefer a zero or 3% as in most jurisdictions where BIDs are used. It's excessive to have This amount of obligation on the city shoulders. And lastly, I would like the wait weighted ballots described. . |
| 00:42:10.15 | John Flavin | Thank you. |
| 00:42:10.18 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. |
| 00:42:10.72 | John Flavin | Thank you. |
| 00:42:10.82 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 00:42:10.98 | John Flavin | Love them. Paraphrase Winston Churchill. never have so many funded so few. And I am very suspicious of the structure of this bid. I think there are going to be five to six groups that are going to dominate and they're going to use the money. This smells like you've got your cronyism going. So to combat cronyism, be transparent. Make the... bid come out once a quarter and report how they're doing. They've laid out their requirements. They laid out their objectives. They've laid out their performance. So track them. Don't do like you did with the Sausalito Center for the Arts. Do the deal and just forget about them. You got to follow and do what these, check these people. It's... It doesn't pass my sniff test. Maybe I'm wrong, but I do think you need to follow up. Thank you. |
| 00:43:15.71 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, next we have Carolyn Revell, Scott Thornburg, and Charles Melton. |
| 00:43:25.28 | Carolyn Revell | Good evening. I'm Carolyn Revell. And as you know, I have long supported this PBID and Sausalito Beautiful. of which I'm a board member also. Our board members are enthusiastic about the bid. I'm not sure. Such a district will create revenues to provide an extra level of services for our downtown over and above those the city can provide. As Council Member Cox pointed out, that will allow, for example, a higher level of maintenance of our trees that the city revenues so far have not been able to maintain. And there will, of course, be a lot of other beautification programs that the management plan suggests planting and maintaining additional trees as I've said, colorful planter boxes, hanging baskets, new trash receptacles, perhaps with attractive designs, embellished by artists, Other beautification Efforts can include artistic tiles on the stairs. We've been talking about that. So I think there's a range of improvements over and above what the city can provide through its budget for our parks and downtown. And I urge you to vote once the ballots come in to create such a bid. Thank you very much. |
| 00:44:36.05 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. |
| 00:44:36.29 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you. |
| 00:44:36.30 | Walfred Solorzano | on the road. |
| 00:44:36.66 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you. Good evening, Council. Scott Thornburg, Chair of EDAC. One of the questions that came up earlier from Council Member Kellman was around how this may support our parks. And I think that's a fair question. So one of the things that EDAC did previously in our support of partnering with the city on its marketing efforts previously was also supporting our Parks and Rec department and many of their events. And actually in this year's budget, we removed, there's no line item for advertising and marketing within Parks and Rec. We also removed the CDA contract. So there is no marketing happening at all. And I would argue that that is an area where the bid could step up and really support our parks department and the city overall is in helping to drive more people to events that are happening in that downtown area. The parks and rec department have put on several really fantastic events just this year, as you all know, I'm sure seen many of you there. And I think we could really support them by investing a little bit more. Also, to a comment that was made just a minute ago about transparency and reporting, I completely agree. You know, we, I think, need to be transparent. We need to be. reporting out on our successes. And the thing that I'm most excited about with the bid is that it is a test, right? We're committing to five years and only five years. And if we don't like it, we don't have to renew it. And if it's not working before then, we don't have to continue. And I think that's a really wonderful opportunity for all of us to be able to invest in something that we can trial. And as a part of that, under state law, my understanding is that there are several checks and balances under state law to enforce reporting and transparency, like with our other commissions and in the city. So Brandon's nodding his head, I think they even have to follow the Brown Act also. So they would be posting agendas, the whole community would have an opportunity to participate. So I hope that alleviates some fear. I really believe in this community, and I believe in our businesses. And I hope you do too. Thank you. |
| 00:46:36.15 | Charles Melton | Thank you. |
| 00:46:40.32 | Charles Melton | Charles Martin. Thank you. Charles Melton, M.D.: Good evening, my name is Charles Melton I just want to address a couple points are raised previously about the reporting requirement, I agree in oversight. Charles Melton, M.D.: The individual speaking before said that this didn't pass a sniff test because there wasn't oversight. From my understanding, In the management report that was created by the diocese and given direction to it. It actually includes strict reporting requirements. So it's there. It's going to be transparent to the community. I believe it will be transparent to the community. A previous speaker also spoke about merchant associations on specific streets in San Francisco. That might work for the city of San Francisco, a really big city with lots of shops. This is Sausalito. We're a small town. We're a small city across the bridge. That's what makes La Salita really unique and different. And that's why we need to think differently. We can't copy what the city across the Bay does. We have to be unique. And that's exactly what this PBID does. This PBID was created with input from the community, from our city counselors with their wise guidance and from our business community And let's just take a moment to pause and reflect on how unique this really is. Our businesses are asking to be taxed. In what other city does that occur? This is unique. This is different. our businesses have stepped up to the plate. And as a taxpayer here in the city, I want my downtown improved too. I would like my tax dollars to go and improve downtown. I would like to see every parking spot filled as council member Hoffman has his vision for it. Would absolutely love that, to have more revenues come in to fix our infrastructure. I would love to have events in Gabrielsen Park in the winter when demand is low and be able to fill those parks. Ultimately, I believe that tomorrow is a day too late. We can't kick the can down the road or vote later. We have to solve this issue today. As Councilmember Hoffman said, if we are in a deficit, we have to make strict decisions. I believe that decision is by investing in our downtown, our main revenue source for our city, and throwing everything we can at it. And that's what this P-BIT does very thoughtfully, very carefully, and with robust public input. Thank you. |
| 00:48:44.55 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, we have Sharna Brockett. Cass Green and Adrian Brenton. |
| 00:49:05.68 | Sharna Brockett | Hi, I'm Sharna Brockett, and I've been a resident here for, I think, 12 years, maybe over that. And I'm in full support of the PBID. I think I've expressed this before, and I think a lot of us have felt the same, but every time I walk down Bridgeway, I feel frustrated because we are the jewel of the bay and our downtown waterfront could be so much more. And I know I'm not alone. |
| 00:49:21.20 | Councilmember Blaustein | because... |
| 00:49:28.48 | Sharna Brockett | I'd love to see our downtown thrive and I'd like to see it attract profitable businesses that appeal to both residents and visitors. |
| 00:49:35.36 | Councilmember Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:49:35.47 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 00:49:35.50 | Councilmember Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:49:36.71 | Sharna Brockett | I'd like to see our mini, mini empty storefronts filled. And I think people have mentioned it here, but P bids are a proven model that have worked in other places that have older struggling downtowns. I've mentioned Petaluma over and over again, every time I comment. The San Diego Gaslamp, or Little Italy is an example, old Pasadena, Santa Barbara. I was just up in Bend, Oregon. They have a business improvement district and beautiful art, murals, lots of events going on in the evenings. Really, really, it was really, really fun to be there. They lead to increased civic pride, economic development, and they increase our tax revenue. |
| 00:49:58.41 | Councilmember Blaustein | and |
| 00:50:13.74 | Sharna Brockett | and property values and I want to also mention that my understanding is that businesses contribute 40% to our tax base and residents property taxes contribute 25% so supporting our businesses will in the end help Sausalito increase its tax base. And I also just want to mention that this amount that we're going to that the city needs to contribute to the P bid is my understanding is less than one half of a percent of our general fund. So I just want to put that in perspective we're not talking about it's a very small fraction of our general fund. So, you know what, if we want to see our downtown, if we want to see it more beautiful and attract higher quality stores or high quality stores for our residents and for our visitors, then we need to do something different. What we're doing right now is not working. Thank you. |
| 00:51:09.26 | Walfred Solorzano | I screen. |
| 00:51:11.23 | Cass Green | Hi gang, here we finally are after a year and a half and I'm very excited. I'm very hopeful for how the ballots will turn out. And the businesses are very hopeful too, because we believe a rising tide lifts all boats. I think creating the PBIT is the right thing to do for Sausalito, it's right for its businesses, it's right for its residents, and it's right for its guests. So I want to thank all of you, all five of you, for all the work that you have done. You've had to be in every one of these meetings just as much as I had, and you've had to work really hard to do that. And I want to also really thank the whole PBID team. who have made phone calls, met with people, Um, uh, you know, reached out to people and worked really, really hard to make this happen. So again, it's the right thing to do, and I hope tonight that we implement it. Thank you. |
| 00:52:09.89 | Walfred Solorzano | Adrian Burton. |
| 00:52:11.88 | Adrian Brinton | I'm Adrian Brenton, resident for about 11 years now. So really interesting tonight to hear the gentleman stand up and kind of comment about cronyism and that. That's really something I've only seen in kind of anonymous emails that have gone around, sometimes maybe not anonymous. There was one recently that was not anonymous that talked in the same kind of language. You know, Through this process, I've known a lot of our business people in town. I've got to know a lot more of them through this process. they're a huge part of our community. They are in many cases, our neighbors. They've been having business in town for decades. They're on the EDAC. Yes. They're on the P bid. Yes. They're, you know, they'll probably be helping run the P bid. We're a small town and this is how it works. This is how this process has gone. From the very beginning through each of the meetings, the same people have been getting up and promoting this. And I really feel like, you know, These are people we should be trusting. They're our community. They want to make our town better. And when our town does better, we do better. If we have a downtown full of businesses, our tax base goes way up. So we can put this money in. It's not going to make a huge amount of money based on the projections. The projections are conservative, I believe, after reading them. You know, this is well worth the investment. And I honestly think that with the amount of energy behind this, the amount of trust this is building in our community by doing this with our businesses. It's going to outperform what we're talking about. And again, you know, just reiterate, When our businesses are successful, Sausalito is successful as a resident. I would love to see that. Thank you very much. |
| 00:53:51.56 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. Next we have a Willie McDevitt best work and Stephen Woodside. |
| 00:54:03.51 | Willie McDevitt | William McDevitt, Ph.D.: Good evening Council members i'm Willie mcdevitt one of the owners of 30 l portal I live in petaluma was involved in from the formation of the p bid in petaluma so long ago I don't remember what year it is, and it has been a phenomenal success. William McDevitt, Ph.D.: is a business person. when we all everybody that is involved in paying the tax is probably saying well we want to get more out of this than we put in which is the point of the the whole thing and in Petaluma it's been beyond its wildest expectations in terms of return on investment benefit to the community bringing in more better restaurants, keeping their storefronts occupied. And when they're leased, when one is empty, it's not empty for very long. Those are all the things that make it work. And in our case for in above tide, you know, we have three main assets. One is the view, the others are people and the third is the town. And without a thriving great town, The other businesses don't benefit from us and we don't benefit from them. And in the case of this, somebody talked about what a 1% increase would be. In the case of In Above Tide, a 1% increase of occupancy would yield the city, if the numbers are right, somewhere around $7,000. So this is real money. There's a lot of smart people saying, I'm willing to pay this tax because I'm going to get more out of it than I pay. And I think the same would be true for the city. And I support the formation of the PBIT. Thank you. |
| 00:55:56.35 | Beth Swerke | Hi, my name is Beth Swerke. I'm a nine year resident of Sal Salido. Thank you all for your time and for the work that you've done towards this. It's really incredible to sit here and listen to all the businesses who desperately want to pay you pay money to have this happen. So I hope that we can support them Um, I'm coming from the view of a resident who goes on walks down there and wow, beautiful sight at first and then real dirty and just has so much potential. I just came back from touring a small town somewhere else. It's a tourist city, very similar to ours. It was clean, it was beautiful, it was thriving. And it just was empowering and a beautiful envision of what our city should be and deserves to be. Um, This will revitalize Art on Town. We all know that. I won't repeat what everybody else said here tonight. I think what's important though is to remember this is going to be a benefit for the city financially. We've been sitting here brainstorming ways to increase budget and, do things that we can get revenue in this town. Here is one. It is an easy one. It is an obvious one. Appreciate you doing it. And just want to reiterate what others have said. It has passed the sniff test in some really amazing tourist towns, and we should be included in that list. Thank you. |
| 00:57:12.32 | Steven Woodside | Hi, Mayor Sobieski. May it please the council. My name is Steven Woodside. I'm a proud Sausalito resident and I'm supporting the P bid. I'd like to provide a little historical context that that I lived through. Back in the 1990s, when Governor Pete Wilson was in charge, most of the property taxes for this city and every city in the state were shrunk dramatically. And Then when Governor Jerry Brown was in power, another mechanism that would have been perhaps useful here, redevelopment, was eliminated. So the two sources of revenue that might have been available to revitalize the downtown, to do the kinds of things that are contemplated by the PBIB, They're not there anymore. You have very, very few options left, and this is one. So I encourage you to do it. People have mentioned other towns and how, you know, as a measure of either success or concern. I want to give you information that I just got today before coming here from the city of Capitola. Very similar to us in size, budget, et cetera. They've had a P bid. They call it a business improvement area. Um, under the same law, It's about $145,000 budget. They have two paid people. That's it. They provide all kinds of outreach and marketing as well as improvements in the town. Thank you. And that city this year will generate over $2.1 million in T.O.T. At least a third, probably more, is in the actual business improvement district. So there's precedent out there for success. Time will tell whether this works, but you should really pursue it. Thank you. |
| 00:59:08.81 | Walfred Solorzano | Next, we have Alice Merrill, Jeff Chase, and Marie E. Dawkins. |
| 00:59:21.21 | Alice Merrill | Hello, everybody. I'd very much like to have this PBID be very successful. Personally, I don't know what they are because I'm not in business, but I think it's fine. I hear that people appreciate it and approve of it and want it to happen. I just understand that most cities are |
| 00:59:30.07 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:59:30.16 | Councilmember Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 00:59:43.44 | Alice Merrill | The city isn't the one who instigates it. It's usually the businesses who put it together for themselves. And I would feel more comfortable if that were the case, if it hadn't come from here, if it hadn't come from a night when nobody knew what it was, we had people giving presentations about who they were and how they did this. That's the part that bothers me is that the city is pushing it, presenting it, being a 50% part of it. When we have roads that are falling apart and, um, cotholes and and chippets and all kinds of things and that it's just not that We need to pay attention to that and we can trust the businesses to take care and to care about what they're doing. And. they, I'm all for it. I just don't think that we should be the ones who are doing it. They should be, and we should be fixing our roads. Thank you. |
| 01:00:50.09 | Walfred Solorzano | Jeff Chase. |
| 01:00:56.74 | Jeffrey Chase | Hello, Mayor. Hello, City Council. Hello, citizens of Sausalito. The Anchorage still survives. Because you've taken away two minutes or three minutes before the meeting, for people to speak on any topic. I will... meld the idea of the businesses and the dwindling anchorage together. Melissa. A good Jewish boy said you cannot serve both God and mammon. You will, that's called money. Dollars, shekels, Euros. Gold. silver, furs, Boats. Furniture. Double pensions. That's for our ex-police chief, by the way. You will love one and you will hate the other. So I don't love to hate. And I don't hate to love. So I love you guys, the businesses that were not able to support the people that were here before they were. And that was the boats of Sausalito. 24 of them are still out there. There's one now. It's a city worker that's on the Sausalito side, and no more boats on the Sausalito side. Well, I am telling you now, I will be on the Sausalito side, and soon. The businesses, I wish them all the best in the world. But the idea that they should attract tourists, again, from all over the world, and to pump carbon into our atmosphere, and to destroy the climate, and to make it hotter every day in August. is truly insane. Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eshad. We are one. Thank you. |
| 01:03:00.35 | Walfred Solorzano | We are one. |
| 01:03:01.14 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Who's next, Mr. City Clerk? |
| 01:03:03.17 | Walfred Solorzano | you All right, Marie Hawkins. Dawkins? Sorry. It's all right. Very similar. |
| 01:03:11.24 | Marie Dawkins | Hi. |
| 01:03:12.37 | Steven Woodside | speak into the microphone, man. Thank you. |
| 01:03:13.57 | Marie Dawkins | Thank you. There's a controversial meeting I perceive. |
| 01:03:17.46 | Steven Woodside | I think the microphone has an issue, Madam. Hold on for one moment. |
| 01:03:23.40 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:03:24.48 | Marie Dawkins | you you |
| 01:03:25.73 | Steven Woodside | Then I'm just talking. |
| 01:03:26.96 | Marie Dawkins | I'm not. |
| 01:03:27.03 | Steven Woodside | Talk to big boys. |
| 01:03:27.45 | Marie Dawkins | That's the biggest thing. Your phone doesn't work. |
| 01:03:30.36 | Steven Woodside | But people online can't hear you. So if you would just hold on for one moment. |
| 01:03:33.88 | Marie Dawkins | Okay, let's wait until the microphone gets... I think it... |
| 01:03:36.08 | Steven Woodside | I think it- |
| 01:03:37.04 | Marie Dawkins | It's good. |
| 01:03:37.05 | Steven Woodside | It's good. Can you check and see if it works, please? Can you please speak into the microphone and see if it works? |
| 01:03:44.16 | Marie Dawkins | you |
| 01:03:44.18 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 01:03:44.21 | Marie Dawkins | Yeah. |
| 01:03:44.36 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:03:44.39 | Marie Dawkins | Let's do it. |
| 01:03:45.36 | Steven Woodside | I'm so happy. |
| 01:03:46.07 | Marie Dawkins | Thank you. |
| 01:03:46.78 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:03:46.79 | Marie Dawkins | Thank you. |
| 01:03:47.36 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. you |
| 01:03:48.24 | Marie Dawkins | Bye. is Marie Dawkins. I'm a newer resident. of Sausalito. I lived in San Rafael in the 90s. So I'm not new to Marin County. I moved to Alaska. when I was 19 years old. after graduating from an East Bay High School. and doing one year at Shabot Ka. While in Alaska... I was able to complete my bachelor's degree. I'm... business, public administration, and law. while raising three children and working 10 years for the office of the governor. |
| 01:04:41.40 | Marie Dawkins | The first thing that alerted me when I decided to speak with the fact that your interim counsel This representation by the council members, which I concede, were voted into office and therefore are supposed to also represent The citizens. Business... and counsel. But it's the citizens who also will bear the brunt of Any loss in parking? Increase in fees. Et cetera. eye. Perceive a need. four. a at-large citizen representative on the interim. . or whatever you're going to call that. business improvement. quiet. um, |
| 01:05:42.55 | Marie Dawkins | The next issue that I have |
| 01:05:46.49 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:05:46.72 | Marie Dawkins | Thank you. |
| 01:05:46.77 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:05:46.87 | Marie Dawkins | Thank you. |
| 01:05:46.93 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Have to wait. Thank you very much. |
| 01:05:47.24 | Walfred Solorzano | Right. |
| 01:05:47.26 | Marie Dawkins | All right. |
| 01:05:47.30 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:05:47.43 | Marie Dawkins | You have to wait. |
| 01:05:50.67 | Walfred Solorzano | Teresia Ancona, Mike Monsef, and Babette McDougal. |
| 01:06:05.32 | Teresia Ancona | Good evening. I'm here actually just representing myself, Angelino Restaurants. And You know, I walk, basically I'm in town every day. Every waking moment of my life is spent here. Although I don't live here, my home is basically just a crash pad. And, you know, I would like to see improvements in the downtown. I would like to be able to walk on the sidewalk and not have the sidewalk be sticky. I would like to see better garbage cans that perhaps raccoons and skunks and Other rodents don't get into that. We don't have to confront them in the evenings. I would like to see planters that actually have plants in there and trees that are alive and vibrant. I would like to see stickers removed from, you know, signs and posts. I would like to see graffiti being taken off of historical buildings. I would like to see beauty and just beauty. the jewel of what Sausalito is. People come here and It's shameful, the state of the... downtown. I want to be proud of where I spend all of my time. And if it requires a special district and special funds to do that, then I don't see why we shouldn't because clearly the city can't provide those services because every day They're there. The sidewalks are dirty. The garbage cans have raccoons and skunks and rats in them. You know, there are a bunch of empty planters. There are all of these issues and it would be nice to have them. fixed. Thank you. |
| 01:07:57.77 | Mike Monsef | once said. Mike Monsef, I think, in front of this audience. I am the only one probably know what's happening downtown to detail. The people are really going suffering. And I know most of them and I managed quite a few buildings and I know the tenants they're all talking about. I mean, They lost 20% in July. The last 30% in July. of their revenue compared to last year. So. I don't know how you're going to go about it. But please do something. That downtown needs some attention. I, for one, I'm going around to find a good tenant for some of the building, some of the area that is vacant. And I tried to bring him in. But... When they see the disaster in downtown, there, as everybody said, there's so many issues that needs to be addressed. Whether it's the right approach or wrong approach, we need something to be done. and you are sitting over here, you're responsible. to arrange that. Thank you. |
| 01:09:27.94 | Walfred Solorzano | about McDougal. |
| 01:09:35.48 | Babette McDougall | Thank you for allowing me this moment. Thank you. |
| 01:09:39.41 | Babette McDougall | I just want to say that everything that has been said so far on both sides of the room, I totally am in agreement with. the pros and the cons, no question about it. I am in favor of having the city find a way to step up. I have spent the last two meetings saying, hey, I've been speaking in favor of this, but the city needs to step up. I don't like the idea of people trying to call out and intimidate others because they want to draw an emotion known as fear. I think that is just so tacky. I mean, we're better than this. but I definitely would not want to say thud. I would never want you to think of me as a thud. That's for sure. So look, Something has to happen. What are the red flags here? The red flag is, I have now done the research, that having a government entity step up fully 50% or having a government entity step up at all is extremely rare if non-existent. That's number one. And when I hear from citizens, that's what they are concerned about. Now couple that with the fact that the city has so far failed to deliver risk assessment models Like, what if something goes south? What if this high value geographic locale actually suffers an incident? What if? What are you prepared to do to offset that? What will you be forced to offset if you don't think about it now? Because city and citizens are the same thing. So anything that the city goes on the hook for, it automatically accrues to the citizens, your constituents. And so far, you've been actually ignoring the majority of your constituents, I've learned, since July 4th. Hundreds of people have been imploring you. to act in certain ways that you just blatantly disregard. Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry to say that, but it's true. I think the reason why the last meeting ran so well is because the senior attorney was present the whole time. |
| 01:11:36.59 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you very much. The next person is Lloyd Silverstein. |
| 01:11:47.86 | Lloyd Silverstein | Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers. I had not planned to speak tonight, so I'm unprepared. I want to read you a little article here I just found this evening from a newspaper, and this is dated November 7th, 1946. My grandfather at the time was the president of the Chamber of Commerce, and they were talking about putting in parking meters in Sausalito. So my grandfather, a little wrong-sighted in this, was against it because he felt it would harm the city. And the city overruled him because he felt it would harm the city. And the city overruled him because they said it would be a big revenue generator each meter. would generate approximately $80 a year in revenue. So we've come a long way since then. I have a unique perspective on this. I am a property owner here in Sausalito as my family has been for 80 years. But I'm also a merchant, a business owner in San Francisco. And I founded our merchant association in Hayes Valley about six years ago. I was on the union square business improvement district for many years and saw how effective that was. Hayes Valley is an interesting dynamic. Half of our community is not in a community benefit district and half is, and I invite all of you to come over and take a look at Hayes Valley and see what Hayes Valley, which is basically three blocks long, looks like, East of golf street that's in the civic center CBD. The streets are clean. The streets are safe. The stores are full. The other two blocks, a little bit different. The streets are dirty. We have full-time police there to try and stave off the crime that happens there. And I've spent half of my days over the last six years trying to raise money to try and keep our community and our benefit district safe. Yep. to bring in that as part of us because we've really taken a hit so i can see across one street from another, the difference this makes. And I really encourage you, if the tally isn't our favorite, to vote for this. Thank you. |
| 01:13:44.67 | Walfred Solorzano | Now we have people on Zoom. Morgan Pierce. |
| 01:13:53.16 | Morgan Pierce | And he's... |
| 01:13:53.33 | Walfred Solorzano | Can you hear me? |
| 01:13:53.84 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 01:13:54.58 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, continue. |
| 01:13:55.46 | Morgan Pierce | Great. Good evening, Mayor Sobieski, Vice Mayor Cox, and members of City Council. My name is Morgan Pierce. I'm a resident of Sausalito, and I'm speaking to you this evening as president of Sausalito Beautiful. Like you, I'm eager to see the results of the voting for the PBID program, as I hope the majority of the business owners canvassed will be in support of this endeavor. South Florida Beautiful has been an advocate for this program from its inception. We see it as a welcome opportunity for collaboration between local businesses and the city through a unique public-private partnership. It is this partnership that is critical to the program's function And the city's role as majority landowner validates their commitment to the effort and offers leadership and support that is critical to establishing trust and achieving success. I'd also like to clarify something. There may be some misconception that Sausalito Beautiful benefits materially from the implementation of a PBIT. We do not. However, our mission to beautify Sausalito and improve its public green spaces will benefit. And we are prepared to share our knowledge and our resources with the businesses and the city in the pursuit of these improvements. Saucydo-Brutiful encourages you to continue your support for the PMID program, and should the resulting votes be in its favor, we ask that you please approve its implementation. Thank you. |
| 01:15:09.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, next speaker is Vicki Nichols. |
| 01:15:15.36 | Vicki Nichols | Good evening, Mayor Sobieski and council members. This has been a really interesting discussion. I particularly liked the last, not Morgan's comment, but hello, Morgan, but the previous person with the Hayes Valley Association I was just going to say as a 40 plus year resident, this is not a new issue. chambers have been trying to revitalized downtown for a number of years. While I don't have any opposition and I'm not lobbying for one thing or another, I think You know, you can try anything once. I think there's legislation built into this. If you find it's not successful, It can be either amended or undone. but I think it should move forward. But I wanna add a different aspect. I'm hearing a lot of people that feel very emotional about this, and I don't blame them. They're newer to the community. They're seeing the downtown not look its best. I don't know that this is going to be the be all fix all for everything. So I would encourage EDAC. to work with the owners down there, as Mike Monsef mentioned, to bring in I'm not sure. tenants that will excite the residents to come downtown. You know, we have a lot of shops that are primarily oriented toward tourism. If there was something different that had more of an appeal, I think I think you start with the landlords. They're the ones that are going to bring the businesses in. If you have to give them some incentives or whatever, I think the mix of businesses down there is critical. for making this even more successful than just what you can do with your business district. So thank you and I appreciate all the good work. This is the. most work and the most concrete up. process brought forth I think it has the most potential. So I hope it works out and it can be tried But if it proves, you know, if it's not realistic and we can fix it, I would say Penaluma, it looks great. And that's an excellent example. We're working on our odds, our objective design standards now. |
| 01:17:20.94 | Walfred Solorzano | And that's our final speaker. |
| 01:17:22.49 | Steven Woodside | public. |
| 01:17:22.73 | Walfred Solorzano | THE OTHER PROCESS. |
| 01:17:23.03 | Steven Woodside | the country. |
| 01:17:23.41 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:17:23.46 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. All right, we'll close public comment, and now we'll tally the ballots. |
| 01:17:31.19 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you very much, Mayor. |
| 01:17:32.15 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I'm supposed to say some magic words. I'm closing the public hearing. And now we will tell the dots. |
| 01:17:40.31 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you very much, Mayor. We have prepared a ballot tally sheet for this meeting. What I will do is I will share that tally sheet in real time within the chamber on this screen up here. That will display, actually, let me just share that now. |
| 01:18:00.08 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. As you can see here, the ballot sheet displays all APN numbers within the proposed district area. It contains the assessment values associated with each of the APNs. It has a space that is currently blank for ballot response, yay or nay. And when we put in a yes or no, that will reflect the assessments added to a support or opposition cut or split. And at the conclusion of the tallying of the ballots, we will have a final tally which supports the total assessment weighted by property between the support position and the opposition position. So with that, I would request that my colleague Maria Hernandez open each of the envelopes. I would request that she hands the opened envelope or ballot sheet to the city clerk. The city clerk will then read the APN number and how that particular ballot or APN has voted in connection with this district, and I will input the response into this table. We will do so until all ballots have been tallied. Thank you. |
| 01:19:18.01 | Brandon Phipps | And with that, we are going to open the first ballot. |
| 01:19:28.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Brrrr. |
| 01:19:33.55 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-131-04. Okay. |
| 01:19:42.73 | Brandon Phipps | I have located it. How did that property vote? |
| 01:19:45.19 | Walfred Solorzano | No. Hold on. Yes, no. Sorry. |
| 01:19:58.37 | Joan Cox | Yeah. Community Development Director Phipps, may I suggest that the city clerk look at the vote and that someone else also validate the vote so that we have two people who are agreeing that the vote is yes or no. |
| 01:20:16.16 | Walfred Solorzano | I'll have Maria look at it. |
| 01:20:16.21 | Joan Cox | Oh, my God. |
| 01:20:16.44 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 01:20:17.73 | Joan Cox | Thank you, just as a procedural protection. |
| 01:20:20.17 | Brandon Phipps | Yeah, appreciate that. Thank you, Vice Mayor. |
| 01:20:23.06 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-063-25. And me and Maria confirmed that they voted yes. And just to backtrack on the previous one, Maria is looking at it and confirms that. It was a no vote. |
| 01:20:53.48 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-171-02. And Maria Hernandez and I confirmed that they voted no. |
| 01:21:14.97 | Walfred Solorzano | We have multiple APN numbers on this one. There are two. We have 065-071-26. And the other one, do you want the other one? OK. And the vote on that one was yes. Maria and I have confirmed. And then the other APN numbers is 065-071-27. And again, that is a yes vote. |
| 01:21:43.20 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 01:21:44.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Tell me. |
| 01:21:54.18 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-133-09. Maria and I confirm that it is a yes vote. |
| 01:22:16.42 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-132-04. And Maria and I do confirm that it is a no vote. |
| 01:22:42.24 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-132-14. Maria and I do confirm that it is a no vote. |
| 01:23:09.31 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-071-01. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:23:35.59 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-133-11. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:23:57.44 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-133-17. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:24:18.95 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-071-02. Maria and I do confirm that this is a no vote. |
| 01:24:41.97 | Walfred Solorzano | We have multiple APN numbers. We'll start with there are two. The first is 065-131-01, and that is a yes vote. The second APN number is 065-133-12. And Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:25:17.80 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-063-24. Maria and I do confirm that this is a no vote. |
| 01:25:40.68 | Walfred Solorzano | We have multiple APN numbers here. There are two, first being 065-131-16. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. Second APN number is 065-131-17. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:26:21.16 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-133-19. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:26:44.80 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-133-18. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:27:08.02 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-131-14. Maria and I do confirm that this is a no vote. |
| 01:27:31.41 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay. APN number 065-131-09. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:27:52.74 | Walfred Solorzano | There are multiple APN numbers in this one, in this ballot. There are three. We'll go with the first one, 065-131-02. And it is a yes vote. Maria and I do confirm. Next APN number is 065-131-03. And again, Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. And the third and final APN number on this ballot is 065-133-08. And Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:28:44.85 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-133-24. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:29:08.29 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-132-16. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:29:32.44 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-132-19. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:29:58.65 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-131-07. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:30:14.68 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 01:30:25.09 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-131-08. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:30:48.29 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-131-03. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:31:12.78 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-172-132. Sorry, let me start over. APN number 065-172-13. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:31:42.95 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-071-24. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:32:05.48 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-133-10. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:32:34.99 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-131-10. Maria and I do confirm that this is a no vote. |
| 01:33:03.61 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-133-25. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:33:26.28 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-072-13. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:33:51.71 | Walfred Solorzano | There are multiple APN numbers on this ballot. There are two. The first being 065-063-45. Maria and I do confirm that they voted yes. |
| 01:34:13.86 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 01:34:14.25 | Walfred Solorzano | The second APN number on this ballot is 065-063-46. Maria and I do confirm that they voted yes. |
| 01:34:41.62 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-133-11. Maria and I do confirm that they voted, that this is a yes vote. |
| 01:34:56.14 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:34:56.15 | Walfred Solorzano | Last one. |
| 01:34:56.51 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:34:56.52 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Okay, last and final ballot. |
| 01:35:05.38 | Walfred Solorzano | APN number 065-171-0102. Maria and I do confirm that this is a yes vote. There are |
| 01:35:19.14 | Brandon Phipps | on. |
| 01:35:19.52 | Walfred Solorzano | No more ballots to be counted. |
| 01:35:20.98 | Brandon Phipps | it. Thank you very much, City Clerk. If I could just briefly summarize the results of the ballot tally, we are showing an 87.42 percentage of support to the tune of an assessed amount of $82,355.76 and an opposition percentage of 12.58 to the tune of $11,850.90 as far as the assessment amount goes. Thank you very much. |
| 01:35:48.11 | Joan Cox | Bye. And Community Development Director Phipps, can you just clarify, the city did not participate in this voting, is that right? |
| 01:35:56.38 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you for the clarification, Vice Mayor. You are absolutely correct. The city has not voted in the ballot process. |
| 01:36:05.05 | Steven Woodside | Great. Director Pips, do you have any other report or is it now back in the council? |
| 01:36:10.61 | Brandon Phipps | Nope, that does it for me, Mayor. I'll put it back to you. |
| 01:36:14.10 | Steven Woodside | We're bringing it back up here to the dais. And so we have a thing to act upon. I'll make a motion to... Adopt the resolution that is in the staff report for the formation of the downtown Sausalito property business improvement district that is a resolution of intent number three four dash two zero two four. |
| 01:36:37.03 | Jill Hoffman | for the next. |
| 01:36:37.39 | Steven Woodside | Is there a second? It's been made and properly seconded. So now we can have discussion on the motion. |
| 01:36:43.09 | Jill Hoffman | I have. |
| 01:36:43.19 | Steven Woodside | Council Member Hoffman. |
| 01:36:43.95 | Jill Hoffman | I have a question for director Phipps. Director Phipps, how many properties were, are in the district other than the city properties? |
| 01:36:57.77 | Brandon Phipps | Just give me one moment. |
| 01:36:59.17 | Babette McDougall | Sure. |
| 01:37:06.19 | Janelle Kellman | And council member, is your question also going to relate to what happens to those who didn't vote? Yeah, that's my next question. |
| 01:37:12.94 | Brandon Phipps | So we have within the district 42 unique landowners, 68 parcels in total. There are approximately, or there are 56 parcels in zone one. Part of that 56 is accounted for by a few city owned parcels. So I would say around 50 unique parcels within benefits zone one. |
| 01:37:36.87 | Jill Hoffman | with them. Great. And how many responses did we have on the balloting? |
| 01:37:43.11 | Brandon Phipps | Sure. We received 34 ballots as of 4.51 p.m. today. I don't believe we received any additional ballots after that. I will note that certain landowners, and as Walford City Clerk read out, certain landowners on multiple parcels. So that number of 34 ballots received translates to something like 40-ish total parcels weighing in in the process out of the estimated 50. |
| 01:38:16.97 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, and can you please read out the number of yeses and the number of no's that we just balloted? |
| 01:38:24.69 | Walfred Solorzano | Just for verification, I'd like to note that at 5.05 p.m. when I went back into the office, there weren't any further ballots after the close of the office. |
| 01:38:32.59 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you, Mr. City Clerk. I'm going to do a quick tally of yeses and nos based on that ballot tally sheet, so please bear with me. |
| 01:38:54.73 | Brandon Phipps | I see 30 yes. |
| 01:39:10.06 | Brandon Phipps | And eight, no ballots. And just to clarify, again, a single ballot may contain multiple parcels because they have the same ownership. Thank you. |
| 01:39:24.89 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. So discussion, who wishes to be recognized? We have a motion on the floor that's been seconded. Is there anyone who wishes to be recognized? Otherwise, I'll call the question if there's not any discussion. Go ahead, Councilmember Kellman. |
| 01:39:38.45 | Janelle Kellman | So I just really, really want to thank everybody for such an open, honest, candid conversation about the state of our downtown. This is the seventh hearing we've had on the bid. And I think this is the first time we had a really honest conversation about the lack of some maintenance down there and some issues as reported by visitors and businesses alike and I just really It meant a lot to me, and I want to thank you for that. And maybe we need a bid, and I suspect it sounds like we will try that tonight. We for sure need an audit of our downtown maintenance. And I wanna just frame it that way because I don't know that this is gonna solve all our problems. I don't want anybody going into it thinking it will. It sounds to me like we have a council prioritization component to this as well, and we need to do our work. I heard one of the business owners say, I want better garbage cans, clean sidewalks, planters with plants, trees alive and vibrant, stickers and graffiti removed. Yeah, I want that too. And it's long overdue that we pay attention to that. I want to acknowledge California has over 100 property-based improvement districts. and that having a government entity step up the way we are is rare. I was not able to find another example of this. The average contribution by host city to a PBID does vary significantly based on the specific services and enhancements planned for the district. Typically, For the record, host cities provide contributions through in-kind support, such as city services, which are public safety maintenance and beautification projects, rather than direct financial contributions. For example, the downtown PBID in San Diego and the downtown Burbank PBID focus on supplemental services that are beyond what the city typically provides, funded primarily through assessments and property owners, rather than significant direct city contributions. In Petaluma, The city's contributions to the property-based improvement district primarily include in-kind support, such as staff time and materials, rather than direct financial contributions. And I'll also note with interest that, as Capitola was mentioned, it sounded like they had a much smaller budget and were able to do a lot with that budget. Thank you. But I also want to take the opportunity to offer is that we really do need to do something differently downtown. We probably have close to a million cyclists that come through Sausalito every weekend. and we have fought against them for years. We have Waterfront and we have the GGNRA. We should be an outdoor community. We should be a vibrant outdoor community. Yep, we have no waterfront access downtown. We had no bike services downtown. Look at Tam Junction. Look at Hookfish on any weekend. It is jam-packed and it is not cheap. Look at Junction, look at the Fairfax Beer Gardens, vibrant outdoor restaurants. I mention this because this may be one step that is needed, but it is not the only step. And I hope that if we move in this direction, it becomes part of a bigger project. I mentioned, it is worth knowing how much time the city council has spent on this. This is the seventh meeting. Our top initiatives from the strategic planning session we held several months ago, Number one, money reserve policies. We looked at that. It's through a consolidation. We looked at that. Property lease philosophies. Haven't gotten there yet. Options for potential catastrophic insurance carriers, haven't gotten there yet. Hillside and Ordinance, haven't gotten there yet. The P-bid was 10th on the list. Yep, we brought it back. And I think it's time that we as a council have to reprioritize some of what we're doing so that some of these issues that we're dealing with tonight through a PBID get addressed in more proactive fashion. I am going to vote for it tonight because I do want to give it a chance. I don't think it's the cure-all, but I am so buoyed by the number of both residents and business owners who are here tonight. But I do wanna see some specific guardrails, and I'm gonna list those now for consideration from my colleagues. I did a quick search in the management district plan for the word report or reporting. I did not see any requirements. So I think we do want that report once per quarter and we wanna be tracking very clearly and everybody seems open to that, so why not do it? I think the city should have a representative vote equal to 50%. That's how much we're putting in. It's extremely unusual. Let's go for it, guys. We're partners in this together. A public distribution of the steering committee meeting notices, I know it's a Brown Act. I don't remember ever seeing the prior ones. So let's just make sure we double down on that public notice. We really do need to define what special services are. That's not me saying that that's a requirement of the P bid. The P bids are for special services above and beyond what cities provide. I do think we need to cross reference for the parks and rec budget. I want to make sure we're not duplicating some of our spend. I love the idea of an at-large citizen representative. I already mentioned the audit of the downtown maintenance. And I'd be remiss if I didn't flag a little bit of the oddities around the engineering report, which came very late in the process, not until May, after the fifth meeting. And I think that engineer has had some interesting prior experiences that we should be aware of. So those are my comments for consideration. Again, thank you all. This was a really candid, insightful conversation. I really appreciate it. |
| 01:45:17.93 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Councilmember Kellman, who wishes to be recognized next. Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 01:45:24.38 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Mayor. I heartily endorse everything Council Member Kelman Um, recommended. I'm not sure that the City's representative vote should be 50%. You know, I really, um, commend the business owners for stepping up and the energy that they're investing in this, So I'd like to hear from fellow council members about the city's representative vote, but I endorse everything else that council member Kelman said, and she repeated guardrails that we gave direction about previously. And so I'm concerned that that direction is not reflected in the staff report or the resolution Absolutely, we need to have quarterly reports. The meetings should be Brown Act meetings. Um, I do want to respond. We heard a rather pointed comment from a member of the public that there were all these questions about the engineers report, and the engineers report was confusing and unclear. As Councilmember Kelman pointed out, this is the third time we've seen the engineers report. There's been plenty of time for any member of the public who had questions. regarding the engineer's report to us. those questions of us or of staff or even of the of our consultant, and I've not seen any of those questions Same thing with respect to the list of steering committee members. The members were read out. I know Council Member Hoffman wrote them down. um, But anytime someone wants to know who's on a committee, all they have to do is ask. Um, The members of our community asked me about two different standing committee members. And, um, The city manager is going to tell us who's on those committees later this evening. So we're very interested in being transparent. All people have to do. is ask. Um, And I'm encouraged that if for some reason we believe the bid is not working, we don't have to continue it even for the entirety of of the initial five-year term. And so for these reasons and the reasons enunciated by Councilmember Kelman, I also am in favor. of giving this concept a shot. I would like to figure out a, there's already been a motion in a second. And so I'd like to separately ensure that we memorialize the direction to staff that There'll be quarterly reports that the meetings be Brown Act meetings that the special services the city will provide be specifically defined. And separately, I do endorse Um, an audit of the downtown maintenance. Some of the things I heard tonight are not the first time I've heard them. regarding the rats regarding having to avoid the rats attacking the garbage at closing time for some of our later evening businesses, So it is an issue. And I see the city attorney has I'm going to turn on. His camera, meaning he has a response, hopefully to something that I said. |
| 01:48:40.26 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, I'm turning on my camera to address some of the comments made by the council members regarding the management district plan and the issues relating to the governance of the owners association. At this particular meeting, the council cannot make changes to the management district plan. You can, however, make changes to the proposed assessments, the amount. Additionally, you can make some changes to the boundaries of the district and you can choose whether or not to adopt the resolution information. Um, that being said, um, you know, the council did adopt the management district plan as part of the, resolution of intention to form the district. That plan requires already that the meetings of the owners association be compliant with the Brown Act. Uh, additionally, um, There are governance requirements related to reporting in the PBID law. The council is required by law to receive a report from the owners association which they prepare every fiscal year that details the activities. With respect to the special benefits, both Prop 218 and the PBID law of 94 requires that the engineers or sport spell out exactly what the benefits are and that the owners association is only allowed |
| 01:50:03.05 | Councilmember Blaustein | or something. |
| 01:50:05.28 | Sergio Rudin | to, use the money generated by these assessments for those purposes that are set forth expressly in the management district plan. So annually, you should be receiving a report indicating compliance with the requirements of the management district plan. That being said, you can request that staff provide more frequent reporting than required by law. And there are some other directions that council has given that staff can certainly implement without requiring changes to the management district plan. |
| 01:50:35.69 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:50:35.70 | Joan Cox | Maybe. |
| 01:50:36.14 | Steven Woodside | I just want to make sure Vice Mayor is finished with her comments. I'm, |
| 01:50:38.93 | Joan Cox | I'm finished. I want to just make sure that the clerk or the city manager has in mind some of the direction that we've given outside of the adoption of the resolution. |
| 01:50:51.36 | Steven Woodside | Do you want to be mindful of giving everyone a chance to speak? Is it very painful? |
| 01:50:54.35 | Janelle Kellman | It's a clarification of the city attorney. I'll be quick. So my understanding of the state law, Sergio, is that the city retains oversight and final approval authority over the budget and activities. Can we, through that authority, request monthly or quarterly reports? Because the statutory requirement you articulated is only an annual report. |
| 01:50:56.09 | Steven Woodside | I'll be |
| 01:51:14.50 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 01:51:14.60 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 01:51:14.65 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 01:51:14.82 | Sergio Rudin | Uh, Correct. You can request additional reporting from the owners association. Additionally, you can request additional reporting from the city representative who will be participating in the owners association. So, you know, again, it's a question of how frequently the council wants reporting on the activities of the owners association be brought before the council. |
| 01:51:38.24 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, City Attorney. Who wishes to be recognized next? Okay, Council Member Hoffman. |
| 01:51:44.10 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. So to be clear, I'm not against business improvement districts, and I think they've been used effectively in other towns. have not been supportive of this one because of the way that it was presented to the city council and primarily that it was run by a steering committee, apparently, that was not appointed by the council, that nobody knew who it was until I asked at some point at a public meeting for our economic director to read off the names. So I didn't think that that was fair or appropriate in the way that it was. rolled out and I had questions about, and that underline, undermine the credibility, frankly, of the whole effort. The other lack of specificity in how the money was going to be used and in addition to the Fiscal analysis that we received from our finance director. So You know, I don't in this time of significant deficit. So we're in about a 1.23 million dollar ongoing deficit. So these are hard costs. They're not going to go away. And frankly, they come from the failure to effectively manage what the city is doing. And not changing that habit is going to keep us into deficit. And so any priority that we have that comes before the city council, any question that comes before the city council, that has to do with the spend, We have to look at it through that lens. Is it going to bring revenue? Or is it going to further our deficit? There's no question. This spend is going to further our deficit. We are currently in deficit. This year. This is not a budgeted item, so we will be in another 117,000 this year. Um, in deficit that will drive our deficit further. And when you look at the return on investment, which is what I was looking at, After five years and $650,000, $650,000, $715,000, our return is going to be $156,000. $156,334. Now, that's an estimate. Some might say that's an underestimate at a 1% growth. Other people might say it's an overestimate if you look at some of the wide wide swings we've had in our economy in the past five years and before that the past 10 years. So This is my perspective. And I think this is, you know, the lens through with I which I look at matters that come before the city council. There's some other red flags on this that that came up, you know, with the very first meeting in December, which this remark consistently not consistently sorry substantially different from what we thought we were going to get when we told. um the the eat our edat group to move forward with assessing across saucley about where we might have a business improvement district At no time did we understand prior to that December meeting that it was going to be the city was going to pay 50% This is a, this is, a, Drastic departure from other business improvement districts, as Councilmember Kelman talked about, The Petaluma Downtown Business District that we talked about tonight, their budget in 2022 is reported $63,000 annually. And that's with no. That's with no contribution from the city of Petaluma The Bethesda, Maryland, which has been talked about at various points throughout this process, as a model. That is a program that's administered by the county, by Montgomery County. Their annual revenue is $1.7 billion. The county created a program to support unincorporated downtowns, which Bethesda is one of them, They allocate about $3.4 million in 2023 to directly to Bethesda, Maryland. against an annual return on investment, well not return on investment, but annual property tax from that district of little less than a million dollars. So in San Diego, Little Italy, we've talked about that numerous times. in this that was a district that was formed in 1996 the bid funding for that district was 116 000 And so- And that was in 2023, that was 5% of the funding little italy came from their bid there's no information online about what the breakdown is from the city of san diego but we all know you know the revenues of san diego far outstrip sausalito so |
| 01:56:32.20 | Jill Hoffman | other you know other red flags are very fuzzy you know justifications for what the spend is going to be annually so 30 i think for overhead and administrative costs um you know marketing budget which is i don't think the 60 percent or 70 percent of the overall budget you know are these things that are priorities for the city of ca of sausalito yes revenue is important to us But we have a financial analysis that doesn't really hold up with whether or not this is a priority spend for Sausalito in our time of present deficit. So these are some of the reasons that I am skeptical about this particular bid, not bids in general. I'm surprised to hear is nowhere in the staff report, nowhere do we know that we could have lowered the assessment tonight. We have the option to lower the assessments. So. That would alleviate a lot of my concerns about this, to lower the city's assessment to something that's comparable to what what other cities are doing or what other districts are doing would I think alleviate a lot of the concern and, confidence in this that people have. So, and frankly, it would allow you know, in a better way, I think, for the bid if it's formed to come back and show us a success. But at this point, I'm still skeptical about this particular bid and the way it was formed, and particularly the particularly the breakdown of assessment. And certainly 100% agree that if we do go forward, the way to it has to be a 50% vote from the city. I sat on Richardson Bay Regional Agency for three years or two years before we had to withdraw because OF THE WORLD. we were contributing about 37% We had an equal vote with the other five members on RBRA. They consistently outvoted us and made decisions that had a negative impact on Sausalito. So I know that. If the contributions are off, and the votes are equal. That is not a good representation model for anybody that's contributing. So anyway, those are my thoughts. |
| 01:58:50.87 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Council Member Hoffman. Council Member Blastie. |
| 01:58:53.33 | Ian Blaustein | Sure. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you again to all of the community members who joined us for the seventh hearing on our business improvement district really appreciate the discussion and the passion and a lot of the comments that were brought up. with regards to the state of our downtown concerns from our business community. And look, I could spend time arguing every fiscal point, making the comments regarding our spend, that we agreed with EDAC, that we wouldn't have a marketing budget, that we would get rid of the CDA spend, blah, blah, blah. But what I really want to focus on, and the reason that I'm so supportive of this BID is because the way it was formed was from our merchants and from the people in our community who are responsible for 50% plus of our general fund. And I hear comparisons to other communities, and I understand that there might be concern about the city's contribution But I would remind everyone again that the business community partnered with us to encourage an increase in our TOT to 14%, which is one of the highest in the region. The business community, we made a lot of promises to for a number of years, and they seem to be consistently let down. And they came back to us and said, hey, please believe in us. We want to tax ourselves and we want your help in doing that. And I've heard folks say I'm from the dais and generally, you know, isn't that the job of a DPW to clean up our parks? Shouldn't our parks and rec already be doing that? And I see this as a continued contribution from the city to further improving our parks and further cleaning our streets and continuing to do our job as a community to improve our downtown and make it a place that people really want to go to. And I'm really grateful that we have a business community that wants to tax themselves and give us this opportunity to try for five years and to see what happens. And I think that this is going to be and could be a really great thing. And I appreciate the concerns about tracking and I would support all of Councilmember Kelman's comments and the vice mayor's comments about having more reporting, having a park and rec audit of our budget so we're not doubly spending because that would be a mistake and let's be thoughtful about how we do spend this money. But guys, the people that are going to be sitting on this committee are the people sitting in this room with us right now. And the people that we know and the merchants who have served our downtown for decades. You know, we heard from Lloyd Silverstein's property manager since 1947, reading from his father's Chamber of Commerce letter. And, you know, Cass Green, who shows up for every meeting, and people that are really stalwarts of our community. So I have a lot of trust in that this will be a transparent process and it'll be a good investment. So I welcome the amendments from Council Member Kelman But I... Don't know that I necessarily support changing the percentage of vote. I would continue to open that conversation, but I am going to be voting in support of the PBIT. |
| 02:01:40.19 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Councilmember Blasthain. So, Thank you. It's been a long journey. I also just want to echo Councilmember Kelman's specific points. I support the quarterly reporting. the Audit of Downtown Services having the meetings be Brown Act, support all those. I also support the qualitative goal. It's a message really that indeed, one of our competitive advantages as a town is our location. And it would be great if the bid could support some of the activities that the council member had articulated, like the mountain biking and the access to the water. Those would be phenomenal things. It's those things like that, that make me think this bid has a real chance because there's some real low hanging fruit to be transformational. Uh, Change is hard. This has been a real slog of a lot of meetings because there's so much skepticism. in the elements of the community. And I get it and I'm a sympathetic to it. It has a root someplace, comes from somewhere. People of good heart and experience are skeptical and they've seen things fail, I guess. And they've seen cronyism and they've seen Ill will. uh, I haven't been around Sausalito as long as many members in the audience. So I can't speak to where this anger comes from or the cynicism or the skepticism. But I do know that if we don't do anything different, nothing will change. I think change is hard and it happens step by step. trusting step. by trusting step. And I know we don't have unanimity on this council about this, but I do think that this is a step towards trust. And I believe that as... Council member Blaustein said, we know who you all are. You are the people who feed us and sell us things and give us a place to go. I witnessed at the beginning of this process that that same skepticism was And anger. that were in some elements of the community were in the hearts of some of the now proponents of the BID. Literally, some of them were very negative on the business improvement district. And I would ask them why, curious. And they would explain to me a hurt, an insult, an offense that they viewed came from the city. or came from residents on the Hill. directed towards them in some prior year. Maybe it was around what council member Valstein said, the implicit agreement they thought they had when our TOT tax was raised, that some portion of that would be used to market the town. Now, I would not have entered into an agreement that wasn't written down, but that was the handshake agreement that they felt they had with the city and felt offended by. Uh, But in the conversations I had with them, often they would explain what they were angry about. But then when asked, well, what should we do to fix it? They would describe and environment. That was the bid without calling it such. A cooperative environment where the community acts together to make things better. That's what this bid is. I know in the audience, we have some members that are concerned about our relationship with Sacramento and the county. And espouse local control. that we need local control. It is local control. for the primary important stakeholders downtown. We residents are stakeholders, but so too are the business owners who every day show up to do that work on our behalf. They're there every day. They are part of our community. And last city council meeting, we narrowly accepted letting them serve on EDAC. and only as non voting members on other, and not even as non voting members on other committees. I felt that was a small step too. because it's acknowledging that just because you don't have your residence here doesn't mean you're not a stakeholder in Sausalito. doesn't mean that you're not part of the community. If you're a business owner here and you live in mill Valley or Novato, I think you're part of the community. I think if you are spending investing in your store, it's like investing in your house. The state law won't let you vote. You got to decide somewhere how to put the criteria for voting. So I get it. But I would call upon people of goodwill that are skeptical about this to think about the meta meaning that this sends to our community and the possibility of changing the culture by degree here. It's a lot more than dollars and cents. I happen to strongly disagree with my colleague who thinks this isn't going to make us a lot of money. I think it's going to make us buckets of money. I think it's going to drive interesting demand. I think it's going to unlock creativity. It's going to generate more TOT, more sales tax, more parking revenue in the off season when our lots are empty. We're flying an empty airplane. But what's really exciting is that we are turning with an open hand of trust and we're empowering a group of people to have local control. And that's why I'm opposed to the 50-50 vote business, even though we are contributing half, because I want the businesses to feel and power to make those decisions nimbly. You can see how excruciatingly slow the city council process is. I would never want that then for sure the bid would fail. The bid would fail. What the city council though would be good at is assessing if the bid is successful. So I'm all in favor of empowering, the bid to experiment, be nimble, be dynamic. And on the basis of the reporting things that I'm in favor of, to be assessed about their success. So those are my comments for now. Is there anyone else who wishes to be recognized? |
| 02:07:27.04 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:07:27.58 | Steven Woodside | Councilmember Hawkins. |
| 02:07:28.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I have a, I'm, I'm curious as to why you think that a 50% vote or a, 50% I guess weighted vote from the city would slow things down. I mean, for me, it would speed things up because you would have the 50% you know, vote. approve something and you would move forward very quickly, much more quickly. If you had the confidence that the city council, you can move forward. So, I mean, we didn't, I wasn't in favor of designing it this way, that the city would have 50%, you know, financial investment in this bid. I think that's, that's such an anomaly. It's, you know, it's interesting, but I don't. I mean, the decision would be made at It would be the representative from the city at the meeting our proposal would come forward, we're paying 50%, and then... we move forward. So to me, I'm puzzled by that. I'm just asking, because it was on the table |
| 02:08:29.69 | Steven Woodside | Sure, right. My answer to that, Councilmember Hoffman, is that As you know, I'm on some corporate boards and we don't do a shareholders meeting for every decision made by the company. You have a board of directors that you elect. And and they're the I just know how excruciating this is. Like, I thought we'd be more nimble on city council. So I just feel that that's my own answer. I agree. It's true. Yeah. So so and you know, I got to just I forgot to say one thing that I think is pertinent. The entire city contribution here is one hundred and twenty four thousand dollars. |
| 02:08:52.31 | Babette McDougall | I agree. It's cruciating. |
| 02:08:53.96 | Mary Griffin | Thank you. |
| 02:09:06.57 | Steven Woodside | the entire per year. Thank you, Ms. Bush, right here. It's per year, but it's like one employee. It's matched by another employee contributed by the private property owners. I think this is a small risk for a potentially huge benefit. That's my answer. Council Member Kelvin. |
| 02:09:26.29 | Janelle Kellman | I also want to recognize the vice mayor who had her hand up. Oh, I'm sorry. She wanted to speak before me. |
| 02:09:28.91 | Steven Woodside | if she wanted to. Thank you very much, Councilmember Kelman. Councilor Vice Mayor Cox, please. |
| 02:09:35.10 | Janelle Kellman | Oh, you're on mute. |
| 02:09:35.96 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 02:09:36.10 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 02:09:36.49 | Joan Cox | Sorry, I was just going to address if even if two city council members sit on the, governing board They don't have the authority to spend money on behalf of the city. It would take a vote of the council. And that's what is excruciating. this council vets things a half a dozen times before it's able to make a decision. We're looking tonight at a reimbursement policy for like the fifth or sixth time. And, you know, we keep having to pull it off the agenda. Someone wants to make a change. It is, it has taken us months just to consider a reimbursement policy for those of us who want to volunteer our time to attend conferences. And so it is excruciatingly difficult to, for this city council, to make decisions. And so I endorse the mayor's comments on that front. |
| 02:10:32.06 | Steven Woodside | That's right. |
| 02:10:32.26 | Joan Cox | I also would like to call the question. |
| 02:10:34.40 | Steven Woodside | Okay, well, thank you for that. I feel I was obliged to recognize Council Member Kellman, and then we'll call the question. |
| 02:10:40.54 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you, Mayor. And I appreciate your comments, and thank you, Vice Mayor. I think it is worth considering the equal representation of the amount contributed. And I actually feel that way even more strongly after your comments because of your urging of a new way of looking at things and a new way of participation and a real partnership here. And I think that's a real nod to how the city is doing something, I think, special and unique in this instance. And I also think that having representation from the city means that hopefully when we do the audit of downtown, we'll actually be more effective. I think one of the reasons that these meetings have been so excruciating is because we need to double down on the attention to detail. I mean, the fact that I'm listing out things that we talked about at probably five of the prior six meetings, is excruciating for all of us um and so on my hope in urging that we have um fortunate city representation is that we won't have this and that things will be adequately conveyed and then we will be able to connect the dots on some things that are currently siloed and then the garbage cans will be cleaning the graffiti will be removed and the outreach will be better and will actually be more expeditious is all an experiment, so I offer that for consideration. |
| 02:11:52.28 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. The question was, thank you very much. Question is called by Vice Mayor Cox. So city clerk, can we please call the roll? |
| 02:11:59.27 | Janelle Kellman | Well, Mayor, I think I put that in my offering, and that was unresolved. So do we have three people who are welcoming to that? |
| 02:12:06.69 | Steven Woodside | I believe there's a motion on the floor. If you want to make it- |
| 02:12:10.12 | Janelle Kellman | I don't know if your motion included that or not. |
| 02:12:11.57 | Steven Woodside | No, my motion does not include any of those things. We have some directions. The ICT attorney said our motion is around approving the formation of the bid. We can provide direction on things like the report and whatnot. That's the motion. So. The question? City question. |
| 02:12:29.91 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Blosting? |
| 02:12:32.17 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 02:12:32.19 | Janelle Kellman | Yes. |
| 02:12:33.81 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member Hoffman? No. |
| 02:12:35.77 | Janelle Kellman | No. |
| 02:12:36.00 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Kelman. |
| 02:12:39.18 | Janelle Kellman | I'm not going to hold it up, but I'm frustrated that we didn't have a more robust conversation about the 50% representation. I think that was a very fair offer for a unique effort, but I will give a yes vote, but I'm frustrated on that point. |
| 02:12:50.63 | Joan Cox | it. |
| 02:12:53.20 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 02:12:54.90 | Joan Cox | I will vote yes as well. And I would like to... continue to consider the question of percentage of representation. So it's not before us. this evening, but I would like to see us consider that at a future date. |
| 02:13:10.77 | Walfred Solorzano | And Mayor Sobieski? Yes. |
| 02:13:13.72 | Janelle Kellman | Mayor, we have an outstanding question regarding the steering committee, which council members can't attend, but because of Brown Act, not all of us can't attend. I would like to offer up, if it's within my term, that I would like to attend that meeting. |
| 02:13:23.99 | Steven Woodside | I love it. You're a city attorney. Did you hear that Councilman Kellman's question. |
| 02:13:32.10 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, I did. I don't know if it was a question or more of a comment that she would like to attend these meetings. |
| 02:13:38.52 | Steven Woodside | I guess the whole the rubric of the question is a little guidance to us all for city council members that wish to attend the steering committee, given that we also need to comply with the Brown Act about who attends. |
| 02:13:49.56 | Sergio Rudin | Yes. Yeah, we would either need to notice that as a meeting of the city council or, you know, you would have to have less than a quorum of members attend. |
| 02:14:00.07 | Steven Woodside | Is it possible for me or us to assign to people that have expressed an interest to attend to attend? |
| 02:14:06.52 | Sergio Rudin | I think that's fine, yes. |
| 02:14:08.24 | Steven Woodside | So you can be one of those people. I'd be happy to join you. Great. Congratulations on a new step forward. Okay. |
| 02:14:25.81 | Steven Woodside | I want to thank my colleagues for that discussion and for the heavy lift that the last nine months has been in looking into this endeavor. So now we're going to move on with our regular city council meeting. The. We'll start with mayor's presentations and special announcements. So I want to read this, the community. Uh. This is from our sustainability director. Join the city of Sausalito as we explore projected flooding and sea level rise impacts across our community. The community-wide event will be held September 7th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Spinnaker. Spend the morning learning about coastal vulnerabilities and what adaptation strategies are possible along our shoreline. Speak with adaptation professionals and local leaders. We will have activities for kids and a raffle for prizes. Light refreshments will be provided. An online community survey will also be available after the event for those who cannot join us in person. All are welcome and RSVPs are encouraged. An event flyer is at the back of the room. For those in person or for information, you can go to Sausalito.gov slash Shoreline Plan. That's all one word. We look forward to seeing you there. Is Ms. Garcia in the room actually? No, she's still closed. Okay, well, maybe they're on the table, I hope. Okay, so those flyers are on the table. That's the special announcement. There are no action minutes. We will now consider the consent calendar. There are- Mayor- Yes, Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 02:15:42.35 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:15:42.37 | Councilmember Blaustein | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:15:55.36 | Jill Hoffman | Mayor? Thank you. Just a procedural question. Do we need to close the hearing and start the regular meeting? |
| 02:16:01.86 | Steven Woodside | I already closed the hearing. Oh, you did? Yeah, you did. Vice Mayor Cox, do you raise your hearing? Thank you for checking. |
| 02:16:03.02 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, you did? Yeah. |
| 02:16:04.43 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 02:16:04.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:16:04.53 | Joan Cox | that. |
| 02:16:04.56 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 02:16:04.60 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:16:04.63 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:16:09.07 | Joan Cox | I raised my hand regarding the consent calendar, Mayor. |
| 02:16:12.56 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I was just going to read the titles. That's all right. 4A, accept the resignation of Shira Barnett from the Library Board of Trustees and appoint... and appoint Timothy McLeod to the Library Board of Trustees for a retroactive three-year term ending on April 11, 2026. For B, appoint Edward Schultz to the Marine Commission on Aging commencing on July 31, 2024, ending on June 30, 2026. For C, ratifying the legislative letter opposing, unless amended, AB 3093 land use housing element streamlined multi family housing. Item 4D approved the city of Sausalito's response to Marin County civil grand jury report titled cyber preparations, are we there yet. 4E approved the city's response to the Marin County civil grand jury report sea level rise, the water upon us, we cannot run, we cannot hide May 31st 2024. 4F approve the city's response to Marin County civil grand jury report with power comes responsibility youths under age 16 operating class to e bikes a safety risk for G adopt a resolution declaring certain computer equipment surplus and authorizing its disposition. Or H adopt a resolution approving an encroachment agreement for the location of a 19 seat parklet and new signage balcony well lights and awnings that would project into the public right away and authorization to serve alcoholic beverages in the public right away at 813 1517 bridgeway. Item four, I adopt a resolution of authorizing the city manager to execute the construction contract with Hardeman Construction for block 303 Sewerge Improvement Project for the base bid plus the bid alternative number one in the amount not to exceed $692,150. Item 4J, adopt a resolution adopting a list of projects for fiscal year 2425 funded by Senate Bill 1, Road Repair and Accountability Act 2017, and an estimated amount of $184,249. Item 4K, adopt a public official reimbursement policy required by government code section 53232.2. 4L, authorize city manager to execute a side letter license agreement with a Sausalito Yacht Harbor for the use of 47 parking spaces in Bay Street parking lot for public parking. 4M authorize a city manager to execute amended and restated lease agreement with New Village School for lease of MLK property 100 Ebtide. 4N approval of first amendment to amended and restated lease agreement for 300 Spencer Avenue with AT&T and authorize execution by city manager. The city attorney advises that we should remove item 4 L and for M They will appear at the end of the meeting with an intent to continue, and there will be an opportunity for members of the public to comment on the items then. With the exception of items 4L and 4M, the South City Yacht Harbor parking agreement and the New Village School lease agreement, are there any matters that members wish to remove? Vice Mayor Cox. Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 02:19:20.82 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Mayor. I would like to remove items 4-H and 4-K. |
| 02:19:26.32 | Steven Woodside | Okay, items 4-H and 4-K will also appear on the business agenda at the end of today's meeting. |
| 02:19:30.76 | Joan Cox | And Mayor, I will announce that I will need to recuse myself from the discussion of item 4M. |
| 02:19:36.66 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Sorry. Go ahead, Council Member Blas. |
| 02:19:40.76 | Ian Blaustein | I have to recuse myself from item 4i while I am a renter. I do live very close to that location, so I'm in the interest of caution choosing to recuse myself from item 4i, so if you want to do the agenda without that. I am not going to pull item 4f, but I do want to note that I believe that this requires a more robust discussion, and I know that this is the e-bikes with power comes responsibility grand jury report. I am aware that members of the board of supervisors are putting together a potential committee to consider this issue. So I'd like to ask that we have a more robust conversation about it or have it be agendized in the future and maybe refine the response at some point. But keep it on for now. |
| 02:20:15.42 | Councilmember Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:20:15.44 | Steven Woodside | Gunders in the |
| 02:20:20.01 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so you're not removing it, though? |
| 02:20:22.17 | Ian Blaustein | No, I just wanted to make that note. |
| 02:20:23.81 | Steven Woodside | All right, so item 4L will now be item 5B. Item 4M will be 5C. Weissmare Cox, which were the two items again? |
| 02:20:30.73 | Joan Cox | 4H and 4K. |
| 02:20:33.01 | Steven Woodside | So 4H will be 5D and 4K will be 5E on tonight's agenda. Okay, so we'll now move on to a motion to approve the consent calendar. |
| 02:20:44.43 | Joan Cox | You're out. Public comment? |
| 02:20:46.81 | Steven Woodside | absent the items that needed to be recused from- |
| 02:20:49.68 | Joan Cox | Did you want to take public comment, Mayor? |
| 02:20:51.69 | Steven Woodside | Yes, thank you very much for catching me on that. So with the exception of items 4H, 4K, 4L and 4M, are there any public comment on the consent? |
| 02:21:02.79 | Ian Blaustein | Thank you. Don't we have to remove mine and vote separately on that? Or I guess we're going to take public |
| 02:21:06.50 | Joan Cox | We're going to take public comment first. |
| 02:21:08.87 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:21:08.90 | Alice Merrill | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:21:10.18 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, for a public comment, we do have Sybil Boutillier and Babette McDougall. |
| 02:21:21.34 | Sybil Boutillier | Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. I'm so excited that you're going to be appointing Ed Schultz as my successor and the new commissioner on aging from Marin County to represent South Salido. I think you'll be very pleased to have him on board. He has a terrifically deep and rich experience working with older adults in various settings and is thoughtful about policy and what is needed to maintain wellbeing as we age He has abundant energy and has been volunteering with Salcelito Village and has agreed to work with H. Finley Salcelito as well. You've chosen someone with a great attitude. and a desire to accomplish meaningful change to enhance the lives of older adults in South Salido and Marin. And as for myself, I've been deeply honored to represent you on the Commission on Aging. I've been invited to continue on the Commission's planning committee as a public member, and I will do that. But mostly I'll be focusing my attention now on H. Fennelly, South Salido, and the next steps there. Once again, I want to thank you for supporting this important work, appointing this great guy, and thank you for the opportunity I've had representing you for 15 years on the commission. |
| 02:22:55.26 | Babette McDougall | Well, I wasn't formally invited, but here I am, Babette McDougall, a multi-decade resident of Sausalito. So forgive me because I only have one inflated lung going so fast. Don't chop me off at the knees, Walfred. Come on. See, you know I'm going to wrap up and move on. So, all right. As you have hopefully seen from my written comments for the public record, hopefully they got in in a timely fashion. I realize it's been a busy day and we didn't have power in most of this neighborhood. today. So it was difficult, but it's important for you to know that it's not fair to load a consent calendar with items that were pulled from the consent calendar not just this year, but previous iterations, and then put them on as if suddenly it's okay to just ramrod them through. They're asked to be pulled because the citizens want to weigh in. And it's very unfortunate to see this complete disregard for the democratic process, Mr. Mayor. I wish you would really consider standing on the right side of history at this point. Thank you. |
| 02:24:02.78 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public comment. |
| 02:24:04.76 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we will close public comment on the consent calendar. And with the exclusion of item 4I, which City Council Member Thaustein is recusing herself, we will have a vote to approve the consent calendar without 4H, 4I, 4K, 4L, or 4M. Is there a motion? Yes. |
| 02:24:20.92 | Walfred Solorzano | So moved. I think, sorry, Vice President. Vice Mayor Cox recused this from 4N also, correct? |
| 02:24:27.54 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Yes, but we're not voting on that right now. So I move- I have to leave |
| 02:24:34.96 | Ian Blaustein | Dias city attorney, Sergio. No. |
| 02:24:36.90 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:24:37.07 | Sergio Rudin | No, you do not have to leave the dais because it is a consent calendar item, but we do need to have a motion that votes on that item separately. |
| 02:24:44.02 | Joan Cox | And that's the motion the mayor enunciated. That's the motion I'm making. |
| 02:24:48.38 | Sergio Rudin | Very good. |
| 02:24:51.42 | Steven Woodside | Roll call please Mr. City Clerk. |
| 02:24:53.00 | Joan Cox | Was there a second? I didn't hear it. |
| 02:24:56.26 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:24:56.27 | Walfred Solorzano | Council Member Blossom. you |
| 02:24:58.22 | Joan Cox | Yes. |
| 02:24:58.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Thanks. Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. Councilmember Cummins? |
| 02:25:01.49 | Jill Hoffman | to be able to get the |
| 02:25:03.16 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 02:25:03.21 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 02:25:04.81 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. I'm Marisol B.S. Thank you. |
| 02:25:06.65 | Steven Woodside | Yes. We'll now hear item 5I, which is the consent calendar item adopting resolution around the Block 303 sewer improvement project. |
| 02:25:14.48 | Joan Cox | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:25:14.53 | Sergio Rudin | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:25:14.58 | Joan Cox | I move approval of item 4i. |
| 02:25:17.28 | Steven Woodside | Did I say five, four I, sorry. Four I, there's motion, I'll second it. It's made and seconded. Roll call please, Mr. City Secretary. |
| 02:25:24.29 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, who moved in second? |
| 02:25:26.03 | Steven Woodside | Vice mayor and me, made and seconded. |
| 02:25:29.98 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member Blossin is recused. Council member Hoffman. Yes. Council member Kalman. Yes. Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 02:25:38.55 | Cheryl Pop | Yes. |
| 02:25:40.54 | Mary Griffin | Thank you. |
| 02:25:40.56 | Cheryl Pop | . |
| 02:25:42.06 | Mary Griffin | Yes. |
| 02:25:42.44 | Cheryl Pop | Thank you. |
| 02:25:42.90 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm Mary Sobieski. Yes. |
| 02:25:44.23 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. We will now move on to the business item. First, 5A, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to award a construction contract for the Ferry Landside Improvement Project. The development landscaping. Director McGowan. |
| 02:26:00.03 | Kevin McGowan | You're welcome. I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you. |
| 02:26:01.65 | Steven Woodside | But... |
| 02:26:01.72 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. you |
| 02:26:03.59 | Kevin McGowan | Good evening, Mayor, members of City Council. I'm Kevin McGowan, Public Works Director for the City of Sausalito. I'm hoping... We can bring up the presentation and I'll run through some quick slides for you. so that we have plenty of time to talk about this specific subject. There we go. |
| 02:26:23.99 | Kevin McGowan | Great. Next slide, please. Sorry. All right. Just to run through some of the background with this project. And this slide shows the downtown area around the ferry and lot one, which is directly adjacent to the Golden Gate Bridge ferry dock and gangway. In 2017, the city entered into an agreement with Golden Gate. Transportation District. to make improvements to the landside portion of the Sausalito Ferry. The agreement included conditions to enhance the shoreline ferry plaza, improvements to bicycle access, and increase the area available for staging and processing for ferry passengers and bicycles. The land side work is being funded by a $2.4 million grant partially from the Federal Transit Agency and the district. The city has a local match of about $100,000 for this project. Next slide, please. Over the last seven years, there have been many contributions to the development of this design. This includes the local professionals group, which includes Bill Hines, Michael Rex, and Jock Ullman, our design consultant BKF, and many city departments and their staff. In addition, Golden Gate Bridge Highway Transportation District, San Francisco Bay Conservation District, Sausalito Planning Commission, the Historic Preservation Commission, the Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee, City Council as well have added their input to this specific project. All these groups and the people within these groups deserve to be recognized for their efforts to move this project forward. So many thanks. Next slide, please. Starting in 2020, the local professionals group have been meeting with staff to develop a plan for the Ferry Landside area. And on February 6, 2024, the City Council approved the plan for the project. Our consultant, BKF Engineers, have taken that conceptual plan and developed the construction plans for the project, which was advertised for bid in the month of June 2024. This project is categorically exempt from SECRA per Section 11.5301. The bid documents for the project needed to follow the federal process. This includes additional paperwork and processes related to federal standards, such as disadvantaged business enterprises and small business enterprises, which are included in the process. Next slide, please. The plan developed includes the expansion of the plaza hardscape area, the installation of asphalt paving on the northeast side of parking lot one. Improvements to close Tracy Way and install, excuse me, install an area for some permanent bike parking in the plaza, as well as the installation of accessible ramps and bollards for the plaza expansion. The award of the construction project is based on the lowest base bid amount. The bid documents did include additional alternatives, which the city can add if it so chooses at the time of the award. The engineer's estimate for the bid was $1.26 million. That's for the base bid by itself. Next slide, please. The bid package included four alternatives. Alternative one was to replace the existing sidewalk area on the northeast side of Humboldt with a standard concrete sidewalk. Bid alternative two added a gravel-paved surface to Tracy Way to be more a pedestrian-friendly walking surface. Alternative three changed the standard bollards to lighted bollards in the plaza area. And alternative four was a deductive change to the bid to eliminate the majority of the work to close off Tracy Way as it connected to Anchor Street. Contractors are required to submit costs for each of these with their bid. However, the award is based on the base bid amount by itself. Next slide. A portion of the construction is located in the San Francisco Bay Conservation Development District, or BCDC's jurisdiction. And the city applied for a permit for these proposed improvements several months ago. BCDC has required minor changes to the project, and as of this afternoon, we received the permit from BCDC on the project. So that's good news. Staff is also, thank you. Staff is also seeking assistance to develop the plats and legal descriptions for the vacation of Tracy Way and anticipating requesting approval for vacating that roadway in September. Next slide, please. On July 22nd, 2024, staff received and opened three bids for the reference project. The apparent low bidder, Bauman Landscaping Incorporated, is a registered small business enterprise and, if awarded, will be performing the majority of the work for the project. Submitting a bid requires that the bidders requires the bidders to include necessary forms and documentation to comply with FTA requirements. One of the forms was inadvertently left out of the bid. However, the low bidder has submitted this form within five days of opening the bid. Since the form submitted does not materially change the bid, the lack of receiving this form with the bid is considered an irregularity. and can be waived by the awarding agency. This information has been forwarded to the FTA for review And we are waiting their response. We do recommend that the city manager execute the agreement with the contractor after receiving favorable review from the FTA. If the FTA does not agree with the city's position regarding the waiver of irregularities in the bid, the low bidder may be considered as non-responsive, and the bid may be awarded to the second low bidder. Staff recommends authorizing the city manager to award the construction contract to Bauman Landscaping after receiving approval from the FTA. They also recommend awarding bid alternative two and three. With this award and other expenses, such as the construction management services, the project is still within the original budget for the project. Next slide. The original design concept included separating patrons boarding the ferry with their bikes and pedestrians boarding the ferry. The idea was to split the flows and decrease the congestion in the plaza area by having bike returns on the northeast side of parking lot one. That's represented by the red line on the screen in front of you. On May 21st, 2024, Sausalito Police provided input about the current design, which has the bike return on Humboldt Street. This area is currently used by tour bus staging, drop-off, and pick-up. During the heavy tourist season, This summer, an average of 175 bikes per day have been parked in the current bike return area on Tracy Way. Tourists also appear to be utilizing e-bikes more often, and with the tourists returning to San Francisco with their e-bikes, the need of having bike parking appears to be decreasing compared to the pre-COVID era. Next slide, please. Based on input from the police department, the design team has been meeting weekly to identify possible areas to consider for seasonal bike return staging. Bill Hines will be addressing the next few slides to describe an alternative for the bike return staging area, which can address not just bike staging, but also other issues. Before I turn it over to Bill, and we also have David Parisi, who should be joining us on this call or at this meeting. Please keep in mind that there are three permanent bike facilities for this project. One of them is behind parking lot two, which accommodates a total of 16 permanent bike stalls. And in the new plan, it also provides an additional 38 bike parking areas. And there is also an additional 16 bike parking stalls at the end of Tracy Way. So with that, I'd like to turn over to Bill Hines, if he's in the audience or. He snuck up on me. |
| 02:35:37.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:35:37.75 | Kevin McGowan | I will turn it over to Bill |
| 02:35:39.09 | Jill Hoffman | TO BE ABLE TO BE ABLE TO Thank you. Before you leave, I just want to, one question about this slide. So you said 38 additional spots and that's the square, that's the square right down there where you have your cursor. |
| 02:35:49.64 | Kevin McGowan | In the plaza. |
| 02:35:50.55 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, on the plaza. Okay, so 38 spots there with some kind of pretty rack. |
| 02:35:55.73 | Kevin McGowan | Right. Yes. |
| 02:35:56.78 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:35:57.03 | Kevin McGowan | Pretty, I'm not too sure yet, but we'll get there. |
| 02:35:57.10 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:35:59.56 | Kevin McGowan | Thanks. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Bill. All right. |
| 02:36:06.03 | Bill Hines | So who's advancing slides for me, or is that me? Okay. Here's the next one. Great. Um, so Kevin did a great job of describing the design and the recommend. gives us the functional footprint with this design to do a number of things. The current plans that were put out to bid show the bike parking on Humboldt. Um, that's a completely workable solution. As we heard, however, though, in outreach with Maddens and folks around that area, there was some concern about kind of having the bikes together with the tour bus parking over on Humboldt. So through this process of working with the police department and David Parisi, we identified that we can essentially hold all of the functions that need to be held with the bike parking in the east side of lot one. Um, All of this can be done in a temporary fashion. And essentially what we're proposing with the solution is putting a row of removable bollards along the entrance to the lot to basically close off the farthest eastern bay of parking. And there would be a corresponding row of removable bollards right by the Yacht Club driveway. And these two sets of removable bollards basically comprise a bike parking area where you can park over 200 bikes. It allows you to keep the sidewalks free for pedestrian circulation. And through the middle of the area, underneath the shade of the existing trees in the parking lot, we're able to form the entire queue that's necessary to load onto the ferry. So if I may, I can come up and point to these in closer detail. |
| 02:38:16.76 | Bill Hines | This is the area where folks would arrive. This is the row of renewable ballers that is designating a safe area for bikes behind those ballers. These are the racks that can accommodate over 200 bicycles. And this line underneath the trees is the queue that is directed toward the Geat Club driveway. |
| 02:38:47.77 | Bill Hines | We made We made a couple of really minor tweaks or refinements with this design to facilitate this scheme, one of which was just lengthening the Yacht Club crosswalk at their driveway a little bit further. and nudging those two trees up a little further to the Northeast. And what that allows is the entire queue to form again, along that tree line, And, you know, there can be a rope across the driveway bollards. This can be operated by a Golden Gate Bridge district employee, or it could even be operated by somebody who is operating the bike parking area. And basically when the rope is opened, it allows an entire queue of bikes to utilize the Yacht Club driveway and crosswalk. Um, and, uh, they proceed past the driveway and proceed all the way down the ferry dock. And I'll just point to the line that you can see down the ferry dock, the arrowhead on that line. is basically right where the kind of gate is. So we think it's possible to completely evacuate that queue and get them moving out onto the dock. and when the rope is open, we think that movement of people is gonna happen fairly quickly. Um, they're, they're going to be pointed at the doc. when that rope is pulled back, they're going to move, you know, probably over the span of a few minutes and queue up on the ferry dock. The rope is closed. Another queue of people can form behind that area. And, The improvements to the Yacht Club driveway that we had seen in, um, you know, the previous design, all of that's retained in the scheme. We have the expanded sidewalk at the Yacht Club driveway, and we also have the expanded drive aisle there, which makes the maneuvering in and out of the Yacht Club driveway quite a bit more improved than the status quo today because of that landscaping configuration and the tightness and congestion in that area. |
| 02:41:12.65 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Director McGowan. |
| 02:41:16.43 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Bill. Appreciate that. We'd also like to have David Parisi, if he is on the call, to talk to us a little bit about some of his work in this regard of taking a look at some of the traffic aspects. David, are you on the call? |
| 02:41:32.95 | David Parisi | I am here, yeah. |
| 02:41:32.98 | Kevin McGowan | I think. |
| 02:41:33.03 | Sergio Rudin | I see his name up there. |
| 02:41:35.31 | David Parisi | And my video is not coming on. Thank you. |
| 02:41:38.47 | Kevin McGowan | That's okay, I think we can hear you, David. |
| 02:41:40.15 | David Parisi | Thank you. |
| 02:41:40.20 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 02:41:40.62 | David Parisi | OK, great. Thank you. Yeah. Based on the police input and local architects group, This plan was developed, and I think some of the refinements that we've been able to come up with are can be quite successful. They include near anchor way, providing some ballers that direct the bicyclists into the parking area for bikes, Actually, now I can start my... video. I'm allowed to do that. Thank you. And Kevin, if you could point to these areas, that'd be fantastic, thank you. As Bill mentioned, the queuing of bikes would occur behind a facilitated area outside of the Yacht Club. So bicyclists would no longer be cued across that crosswalk as per the previous design, but would be behind the rope. As Bill mentioned, when the facilitator opens up the rope or gate, The queue will be moving across that in a matter of minutes to get to the waiting ferry. If there's a case where somebody needs to get in or out of the Yacht Club driveway during that cube movement, facilitator can offer that movement, stopping the bicyclists at that point in time. This overall design would require a removal of a parking space as Kevin's pointing out right now. Because right now the movement with that car is coming out and taking a right turn is actually not allowed, but 90% of the people do it today anyway. It's navigable. It works today. But we want to make it a little bit more convenient. So the idea would be to remove one parking space to allow the cars exiting and entering concurrently at the same time with the double yellow line in between them at the same time. So those are some of the highlights. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Bye. During Q&A. |
| 02:43:49.31 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. I'm happy it's a small room, so I can kind of jump between different things. So thank you very much. Next slide, please. And just to add a few things, Bill and local professionals group, also, they don't necessarily look at one specific thing. They look at really the big picture. So there are opportunities there in this area to even take a look at bus tour drop off on Humboldt and changing that in the future. That's not part of this construction right this second. But I just wanted to enumerate that the local professionals group, they do take a very big effort to try to look at all aspects. So next slide, please. So as you know, staff has been working closely with many different stakeholders, including BCDC, as well as Golden Gate Bridge Highway Transportation District. We're lucky to get the permit today, and we're just examining that. There seems to be no real major problem with the permit itself, so nothing needs to change on the bid documents. Staff has been in constant communication with Golden Gate Bridge Highway Transportation District. one of their staff did attend the bid opening, and we have forwarded all paperwork related to the grant to them upon receipt. We are waiting for confirmation that waiving the irregularities in the bid is acceptable from the granting agency. A notice to proceed will not be sent until we have this confirmation in hand. So this concludes our presentation at this point in time. Both Bill and I and David Parisi are here to answer questions, and I know that Michael Rex is also in the audience. He's part of our local professionals group. Our police chief is here as well. There are questions regarding this project. |
| 02:45:34.55 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Director McGowan. Who wishes to be recognized for questions? Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 02:45:43.30 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to dig down a little bit more into the, um, omission of a form from the bid documents. The applicable regulation actually gives the bidder five days to submit that form. Isn't that right, Director McGowan? |
| 02:46:02.46 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, that's true. |
| 02:46:04.08 | Joan Cox | And the FTA grant agreement only requires that we can port with the public contract code and with the applicable Code of Federal Regulations, isn't that right? |
| 02:46:18.73 | Kevin McGowan | I believe that is correct, yes. |
| 02:46:20.58 | Joan Cox | And so the FDA did not reserve to itself the right to force us to accept a bid that's $100,000 higher because of a minor clerical irregularity. Isn't that right? |
| 02:46:34.54 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, I believe that's the case. |
| 02:46:36.92 | Joan Cox | And I do want to point out that, um, applicant, and this just happens to be an area that I practice law in. And so I do want to point out that, um, Applicable case law actually has overruled a city that declined to waive a minor bid irregularity as not being protective of the public FISC. I would like to recommend to the Council that we adopt the resolution as included in our packet by the city attorney without making notice to proceed contingent upon receiving approval from the FTA and I am asking you, Director McGowan and the city attorney, whether you have objections to that after hearing this line of questioning. |
| 02:47:35.05 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. I'll let our city attorney guide us on this. |
| 02:47:39.20 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, I do not have any concerns about that. it seems like we will likely hear from the FDA sooner rather than later. And I don't think that the award of the contract should be contingent on you know, waiting for the FDA to provide the city with a response, simply because they may decline to provide the city with a response. So, and I do agree with Vice Mayor Cox that the applicable case law does support the city's position that it has the authority to waive this as a minor irregularity. |
| 02:48:15.16 | Kevin McGowan | I'd like to offer that we do want to respect our fellow agency at the district as well and try to work as closely as we can with them. So that was one of the reasons to at least wait for the FDA to respond. |
| 02:48:30.52 | Joan Cox | So, but Director McGowan, isn't it true that Golden Gate Bridge District has already weighed in and in agreeing with our perspective regarding this minor irregularity. |
| 02:48:41.57 | Kevin McGowan | No, their local staff has said that they don't believe that we should award it to the low bidder based off of the fact that the form wasn't submitted precisely with the bid. |
| 02:48:53.89 | Joan Cox | I saw a different email from the city attorney. I think the mayor saw the email as well. in which they agreed with our perspective. |
| 02:49:03.90 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, I did meet with their general counsel who agreed that, you know, with my interpretation of the relevant regulations in this matter. |
| 02:49:11.54 | Joan Cox | And Director McGowan, I apologize if you were left out of that loop. So things have been moving very quickly. We only just received the bids. last week. And so I think that perhaps the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. And so There's no need to change anything in the draft resolution that's attached to the staff report. I just wanted the city attorney's concurrence that we can simply adopt that resolution. without making it contingent upon any further communications, although we should absolutely continue to collaborate and communicate with the Golden Gate Bridge District and with FTA, but I just wanted to clarify that we need not make our award contingent on that. city attorney, and it sounds as though you agree with me on that. |
| 02:50:02.05 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, I agree. |
| 02:50:04.01 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:50:04.14 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 02:50:04.24 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you, those were my questions. |
| 02:50:06.10 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 02:50:07.31 | Steven Woodside | Okay, who wishes to be recognized next for questions? Councilmember Kellman. |
| 02:50:10.84 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. Thank you, Director McGowan. Nice to see you again on this matters. Is there our fifth hearing on this? Fourth hearing? |
| 02:50:18.16 | Kevin McGowan | Quite a few. I lost count. |
| 02:50:19.26 | Janelle Kellman | Yes, same. Just a quick, trying to figure out just the budgeting. So on one of the slides above, you detailed 2.5 million available to the city. And here we're seeing 1.4 plus 258,000. Why do we need to have a contingency amount authorized if we have 2.5 worth of budget? |
| 02:50:47.29 | Kevin McGowan | So the contingency is used for the construction aspect and what it does. It allows the city manager to sign off on change orders in the field. So for example, if we do this project and we find a, um, we find something under the ground that wasn't anticipated. That change order amount is used to address that specific amount. So in this particular case, we're noting, in fact, we can take the slides off at this point. Thank you so much. We're noting a contingency in the amount of a little bit above 15%. So it's a little bit more than what we normally would. Just anticipating there could be some unexpected things in the ground itself. |
| 02:51:34.91 | Janelle Kellman | True. Okay, two questions, one for you, one for Mr. Hines. For you also, I thought I saw an email exchange months ago between us regarding how much money to date we've spent on this project. Do you have a recollection of that total cost so far for the city? |
| 02:51:50.52 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, you can actually take a look at the staff report. Our total that we have spent, or at least authorized to spend so far, is $458,515. So that's under the contract amounts that we have for BKF, their amendments, SWA, and others. |
| 02:52:10.99 | Janelle Kellman | So then is that total then get added on to the numbers in the final slide that was just up? |
| 02:52:17.67 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, those are in there. |
| 02:52:19.93 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, so 400K plus 1.4, 1.8 plus 258. Okay. And then thank you. And then I have a question for Bill real quick. Hi, Bill. I see throughout the plans a number of trees, but I don't know that we've ever committed to a number of trees. Can you just tell me the tree plan for the area? Is that in budget? Do you know? |
| 02:52:47.59 | Bill Hines | As far as I understand, yes, it is. |
| 02:52:51.41 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, do we have any detail? Because the last thing I'd wanna do is authorize a concrete heat sink and not have planned for trees. And so I would love a commitment tonight from our council on a number of trees of a certain size and I wanna know how much they're gonna cost. And so I don't know if maybe at some point you can help us work through that. |
| 02:53:14.27 | Bill Hines | happy to help you work through that. The recommended scheme has always shown a certain number of trees along the waterfront, the trees along the walkway in front of the Yacht Club, and trees in the bioretention basin along the east side of the parking lot that's going to shade that expanded walkway that we're building, as well as the trees in the Tracy Way Landing Plaza that are intended to pedestrianize that space and reduce the longest crosswalk across Bridgeway through a left turn pocket. |
| 02:53:49.64 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, thank you. So maybe for director McGowan, as we heard earlier tonight with the bid trees are often left behind and we don't adequately plan for their installation or their maintenance. So I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for, but it is some level of reassurance and specific articulation of a tree plan for this project. |
| 02:54:12.46 | Steven Woodside | I normally wouldn't, but because I actually asked this exact question of Bill, is it not the case that irrigation is built into the sidewalk for the trees that you have on the drawing? |
| 02:54:16.00 | Janelle Kellman | I'm just wondering, Bill, |
| 02:54:16.98 | Councilmember Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:54:21.55 | Steven Woodside | That's what I thought was a super expensive part of this whole thing. |
| 02:54:24.32 | Bill Hines | Correct. The scope of what BKF and RHAA has put together implies that these trees are going to be irrigated and maintained. I'm not familiar with the absolute specifics of the project specifications, but there's typically always a maintenance requirement and a warranty period associated with this work. |
| 02:54:48.52 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, I just want to make sure that that is included in the bid, because that is the things that gets left behind and are very expensive and then it gets excluded. So before we leave here tonight, we're not leaving here tonight until we figure that out. Thank you. |
| 02:55:01.34 | Bill Hines | You have any other questions? I'll just add that I echo your sentiment. I have had to participate on a few blue ribbon committees to do greening after the fact, and it's always unfortunate that it can't be conceived with the project. |
| 02:55:01.43 | Steven Woodside | Do you have any other questions? |
| 02:55:15.00 | Bill Hines | And a lot of the work that we did to help corroborate this budget and urge the project to go to bid was to make sure that we got all of this sort of cooked in, you know, to the pot. |
| 02:55:29.05 | Steven Woodside | So while we're asking other questions, could someone look into the paperwork to satisfy Council Member Kellman's specific request? And maybe you can definitively answer her question here in the next half hour. I'll do my best. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? |
| 02:55:47.48 | Janelle Kellman | And I'll just note, it is mentioned on page four under base bid, installation of trees. But, you know, it's not going to be good enough. So let's sort that one out. |
| 02:55:59.73 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 02:56:02.26 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, thank you for that. So I have, I'll have a follow up when we figure out when we return to the tree issue. So on, I had a question on with regard to your slide that showed the parking along Humboldt. And I think that's slide. find it real quick. I think that's, sorry, that's slide 11. Slide 12. |
| 02:56:27.20 | Kevin McGowan | Dislaved 12. Did you want to bring that up? |
| 02:56:31.19 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I think it's... Slide 12. So my question is, That's not part of, that's not part, obviously the plan that we looked at before. Right. So that's correct. Yeah. So this is a new proposal, which I think is very interesting. |
| 02:56:43.13 | Councilmember Blaustein | So, the |
| 02:56:43.22 | Sergio Rudin | That's correct. |
| 02:56:43.79 | Councilmember Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:56:48.23 | Jill Hoffman | So my follow-up question is how, Can we use the unused, I guess, construction, if we have any money left over, we have contingent, you know, on the off chance we might have any money left over. Can we use that to re-stripe or whatever we need to do to change, convert that into what it is now, which is bus parking? and turn it in and angled parking on one side and bus parking on the other one. how, you're not, I know you're not gonna be able to give me a cost right now, but, is, can we restripe it and get the parking spots in the current hardscape that's there? And about how much would that cost or how much would that be budgeted at? |
| 02:57:30.08 | Kevin McGowan | as long as whatever it is we're proposing is compliant with the grant language. And we would need to double check this with Golden Gate as well as FTA. As long as that is in compliance with the language of the grant, I think that we can move forward with it. if we're simply talking about striping, and not putting down a micro seal or putting down a slurry, first, I think we're probably looking at the $25,000 to $30,000 range because it is thermoplastic, which is a plastic material. |
| 02:58:01.47 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, great. Thank you. Bill has his hand up, yes. |
| 02:58:06.60 | Bill Hines | Thanks. I just want to add that the so so your question was about adding those parking spaces that we saw at Humboldt, you and I can go out there this evening with a can of spray paint and do that. |
| 02:58:16.89 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:58:21.60 | Bill Hines | Um, However, |
| 02:58:23.88 | Jill Hoffman | I'm with you, Kevin. |
| 02:58:24.10 | Bill Hines | In order for it to work, you need two-way circulation on Humboldt and two-way circulation on Bay. And one of the things that we learned in talking with some of the downtown businesses, the Maddens in particular, is that people use Bay incorrectly and will often drive the wrong way down it. |
| 02:58:25.60 | Sergio Rudin | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:58:44.85 | Bill Hines | So my answer is you could conceivably you know, promote a perpendicular parking on that street, but you have to change the circulation and you have to address the buses as part of a comprehensive solution before you can do those things. So yes, you can do it, but there are a couple kind of significant steps in there. And I don't think it makes sense to necessarily link the two because there's more work around Anchor, Humboldt and Bay that will need to happen in the future, probably together with the shared parking agreement and some other things. |
| 02:59:23.31 | Jill Hoffman | Have we done the measurement to know that there's enough room there for two-way traffic on Humboldt? |
| 02:59:30.13 | Bill Hines | Yeah. |
| 02:59:30.85 | Jill Hoffman | And it is... |
| 02:59:32.12 | Bill Hines | Yeah, there's like a 58 or 60 foot right away, which, you know, overhanging parking spaces with two travel lanes is a very, very, you know, typical standard. |
| 02:59:45.37 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, follow-up question. Understand nobody, I mean, this is kind of out of the blue, but why does it- |
| 02:59:49.87 | Kevin McGowan | Before we move on from that particular question, I think some more study is needed on the specifics of how that area needs to be improved related to buses. So if we're going to put buses on anchor and then have them rotate through to Bay Street to pick up, |
| 02:59:51.10 | Jill Hoffman | From that. |
| 03:00:06.43 | Kevin McGowan | There might be a need to take a look at the configuration of Humboldt to see if it does need to be two-way or should it be one-way. So before we determine, you know, whether that works for two way or not, a little bit more study is needed. |
| 03:00:19.30 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you for that. No, I appreciate that. |
| 03:00:19.62 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. And then lastly, Bill doesn't get any spray cans. No, no, no. |
| 03:00:27.07 | Bill Hines | You probably want to charge for that parking too. That's another step in this process, like actually numbering the spaces and figuring out how it works with the kiosk. |
| 03:00:34.17 | Jill Hoffman | that works with the key Okay, thanks. Okay, thank you for that. Yeah, I appreciate it. |
| 03:00:40.33 | Steven Woodside | Can I call on Vice Mayor Cox? Are you finished? Or you have other questions you want to ask? |
| 03:00:42.12 | Jill Hoffman | Um... |
| 03:00:46.12 | Steven Woodside | Go rush. |
| 03:00:46.40 | Jill Hoffman | No, that's okay. I do have some questions about, actually, sorry. |
| 03:00:50.69 | Steven Woodside | Vice Mayor, you'll be after the Council Member Hoffman. You're a rec. |
| 03:00:53.03 | Jill Hoffman | These are questions about the bike parking the bike parking area, the proposed new bike parking area and parking that one. As I understand it in our prior conversations that I have with you, full disclosure, with you and with the chief earlier prior to this meeting, this is – it's a – I don't want to say temporary, but it's a flexible system. And it will be, the idea is that it's going to be seasonal. |
| 03:01:24.95 | Kevin McGowan | Yes. |
| 03:01:25.27 | Jill Hoffman | and it will be removed during low season. And it will also be flexible with the ability to be responsive to safety concerns or risk management with regard to circulation in this area. |
| 03:01:42.65 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, that's correct. It is intended to be temporary, seasonal, and it should be in a fashion that can be moved around in case we need, like Bill mentioned before, in case you need more bike parking. |
| 03:01:53.06 | Jill Hoffman | Mm-hmm. Okay. And in response to concerns that may arise about congestion in that area and Risk management. Yes. Okay. Thank you. That's it. I think that's it for now. I do have a three question now. |
| 03:02:01.97 | Kevin McGowan | Yes. |
| 03:02:07.96 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I'm sorry. Did you have another question? No, please. A question for later. Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 03:02:09.16 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 03:02:14.52 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Mayor. I did want to follow on to Council Member Hoffman's uh, questions and I was very concerned to hear Bill Hines say that Humboldt has to be two way and that Bay has to be two way because I had a conversation with the professionals 10 days ago, and there was no mention that Humboldt had to be two ways and Bay had to be two ways, only that the Maddens were seeking to have Bay Street be two ways. So I'm very happy to hear the public works directors say that this requires more study, which leads me to my question, which is, Um, We know. that if we adopt this plan as revised this evening the plans and specifications that we have to identify or it's our goal to identify alternative by parking for the spots displaced by bicycle parking. My question procedurally is, Given the length of time that this project will take to build, Is that a decision that we can Karen Grove, undertake the additional study on and come back and figure out the best solution without having to make that decision this evening, so I don't know if that goes to the city manager or to the public works director. |
| 03:03:38.06 | Kevin McGowan | I'll just step in. Yes, the timeline for construction, is that we'd like to build most of the hardscape work here in the fall so that we don't end up building some of the work in the wintertime, which would not be a good idea. But the intent for answering your question is we will have time before the next heavy tourist season when we'll have bikes coming in. So we're looking at from, you know, the fall until April or or May when we'll have to establish another bike corral or a staging area. So there's time. |
| 03:04:12.99 | Bill Hines | Thank you. Vice Mayor, if I may respond to your earlier comment. When I talked spoke about two way circulation, I was stating that if the intent is to add the perpendicular parking there, it would need to change the two way circulation, most likely. But the project doesn't propose to change any of the circulation. |
| 03:04:34.69 | Joan Cox | I'm clear on that. I'm questioning as did the public works director, whether even putting perpendicular parking there instead of buses. if we find another place in town to cue the buses, whether we would need two-way streets on Humboldt and Bay. to accommodate diagonal parking, I don't believe we would. I'd like to see the further study on that. that clarification that we have the time to thoroughly consider all of our options. and to make the decision that is logistically and financially most sound on behalf of the city. My last question has to do with the plans and specifications in our that. packet versus what was included for the contractor to bid on Um, One of the... One of the approvals we are making tonight is approval of the plans and specifications. I would like to be sure that the plans and specifications we are approving this evening include this new Um, approach to handling bicycle parking on the east side of lot one, since that was not part of what was initially transmitted to potential and the contractors forbid. So I just want to be sure that what's before us tonight to approve, we only enjoy design immunity for plans and specifications that we approve. And so I wanna make sure that the plans and specifications we approve are indeed the plans and specifications that include this option for handling bicycle parking with the bollards and the ropes, even though we will have to likely enter into a change order with a contractor to carry that out. |
| 03:06:39.63 | Kevin McGowan | That's correct. We will need a change order for that specific piece. |
| 03:06:43.92 | Joan Cox | But are the plans and specifications that you've asked us to approve this evening. Um, Are those with the new because what's in the presentation that you this is the same thing we went through. six months ago. What's in the presentation is different from what's in our staff report. And so I just want to be, I want, I would like clarity on what it is. we're approving by the resolution, approving the plans and specifications. What plans and specifications are we approving? Are we approving the amendments contained in the presentation that we saw tonight? Or are we approving the plans and specifications that were bid by Bauman? |
| 03:07:27.00 | Kevin McGowan | You are approving the plans and specifications for Bauman who submitted a bid. or the original concept. If there's going to be a change associated with it, we'll have to enter a new change order after that. And we can come back to the council to get approval for that change order if necessary. |
| 03:07:44.08 | Joan Cox | Okay, I would like to see us do that. I'd like to, because of the interplay of various aspects of circulation, pedestrians, bicycle, cars, I would like to be sure that we approve whatever the final design is so that we enjoy design immunity. And by the way, Director McGowan, I didn't actually say good evening and thank you for your presentation earlier this evening, so I'd like to say that to you now. |
| 03:08:11.50 | Kevin McGowan | Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. |
| 03:08:14.55 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Vice Mayor. Who would like to go next with questions? Councilmember Blaustein. |
| 03:08:19.34 | Ian Blaustein | Thanks Director McGowan and thank you to the members of the working group, Bill Hines and also Mr. Parisi for all of the time and energy that you put into this project. I really... It means a lot. I know it's been probably thousands, definitely hundreds, if not thousands of hours at this point at time to get us here. So I was thrilled to see that we had a bid that came in within budget. I just wanted to clarify a couple of things about that. So the base bid is 1.316. And then we list the cost for the alternatives as well as a contingency. But just for the transparency of the public, because there were a lot of questions about the alternatives and the note in the staff report speaks specifically to decisions around Tracy way. What's the process for addressing. each of those alternatives as they come forward and the process for construction after the base built. |
| 03:09:11.39 | Kevin McGowan | So at this point in time, the four alternatives are on the plate. If the council wants to award any of those. now would be the time to do so. So staff is recommending including bid alternative two and three at this point in time. Now to try to clarify that quickly, alternative one was to put concrete over on the Humboldt Street side for a sidewalk. Alternative, alternative two had to do with Tracy way and putting down gravel pay. Alternative three had to do with changing the bollard lights so that they're lighted. And the last one, alternative four, had to do with a deductive change order. And we set that up to make sure that we could build this project. We would want to delete some of the items if we had bids that came in over our budget. |
| 03:10:01.59 | Ian Blaustein | Mm-hmm. Okay. So, and this still leaves us with significant or at least substantial contingency. It does. We move forward with those two. What's the total contingency? |
| 03:10:09.32 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 03:10:09.35 | Sue Fisher King | with the |
| 03:10:09.42 | Kevin McGowan | Yes. |
| 03:10:12.85 | Kevin McGowan | Total contingency, as noted in the slide in your staff report, is 258,511. |
| 03:10:19.56 | Ian Blaustein | Okay, great. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that cost because it wasn't necessarily clear. |
| 03:10:25.96 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions? Vice Mayor Cox. |
| 03:10:28.96 | Joan Cox | Yes, apologies, that reminded me of another question. So bid alternate one is to widen the concrete sidewalk on Humboldt Avenue. And it includes the installation for a bike parking area, but we're now no longer going to put a bike parking area on Humboldt. Director McGowan, why would you like us to still approve Alternate One? |
| 03:10:53.25 | Kevin McGowan | No, we're not asking you to approve bid alternative one. We're asking you to approve bid alternate two and three. |
| 03:11:00.84 | Joan Cox | I'm sorry, I think I misheard you. I thought you said one and two, so. |
| 03:11:05.24 | Kevin McGowan | No, two and three. I was just going over what the alternatives were. |
| 03:11:06.19 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 03:11:09.48 | Joan Cox | I understand. Thank you for that clarification. |
| 03:11:12.53 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 03:11:12.55 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Hoffman has her hand up. |
| 03:11:15.15 | Babette McDougall | Um, |
| 03:11:15.37 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:11:15.82 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:11:15.84 | Jill Hoffman | Just for your information, that's slide eight on your presentation. So if anybody wants to look at it, it's slide eight. And that's accurately set forth on slide eight. So thank you for that. So that was also my question. So I think that was answered. My question was, are we still, it was part of the original bid, but you've taken it out. So thank you for that. And I appreciate that. OK, thank you. |
| 03:11:43.77 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions before we go to public comment? Okay, let's have a public comment, please, city clerk. Thank you. |
| 03:11:54.35 | Walfred Solorzano | We all call out three names. Thank you. |
| 03:12:01.07 | Walfred Solorzano | Bonnie McGregor, Gail Schell, and... |
| 03:12:10.47 | Walfred Solorzano | And Hank Baker. |
| 03:12:29.40 | Walfred Solorzano | Bonnie McGregor. |
| 03:12:31.69 | Steven Woodside | Mr. McGregor, please approach the podium. |
| 03:12:35.73 | Bonnie McGregor | Thank you. |
| 03:12:40.89 | Bonnie McGregor | Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I am Bonnie McGregor, as I think everybody knows by now. And I'm not going to belabor things. I'm anxious to get out of here earlier than we did last time. I think we've talked this thing. We could talk and talk for the next two years and not come to 100% agreement on anything. We did get agreement on the whole project in January, and then we all agreed on the change for Tracy way later. So, and there have been some discussion tonight, and I think a lot of these things can be handled with change orders, and I think the project needs to be given a temporary go. And we can make assessments and reports on things like that down the road and make whatever changes are necessary. I've learned over my few years here that anything that is written down by people can be changed by people. So I vote for moving forward and voting on this. Let's get that bid to the contractor. Let's get this thing done before the rain starts. |
| 03:13:50.64 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 03:13:52.98 | Gail Schell | I am Gail Schell. I am a lowly resident of Sausalito. I love volunteering with Sausalito Beautiful. I care a lot about the community, and I've really enjoyed getting to know a little bit about you by coming to these city council meetings. I want to thank you for all the time and the considered attention that you've given to this project. It's very impressive. I really appreciate your willingness to move forward at each step. And I'm really excited to be here today, learning that we have a plan that is within budget, that allows for changes to occur along the way as needed, is really, really exciting. um, You have the opportunity to make this great change happen for all of us. And I really hope that you will continue to move forward. I urge you to adopt the resolution recommended in the staff report. Thank you so much. |
| 03:14:47.17 | Hank Baker | Frank Baker? Hank Baker, downtown business owner and resident and member of EDAC. You don't get a second chance for a first impression. and I think that's a good thing. They're a series of touch points. So what are those touch points? Dirty trash cans. Um, uh, newspaper racks with dated, uh, dated newspapers in them, flower baskets with no flowers, stickers on signs, That's the front door that our guests to Sausalito see when they get off the ferry. That's probably something we want to change. And this seven-year effort by some very talented folks, both on staff and not staff, is your chance and our chance to change that dynamic and to make those touch points and make that first impression the best one we can and hopefully have some of these guests leave more money with us so that we can proceed with the important things that the city needs to do. Thank you. |
| 03:15:56.15 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, Bjorn Hansen, Scott Thornburg, and Kieran Culligan. |
| 03:16:12.67 | Bjarne Hansen | Hello, I am Bjarne Hansen. I'm a 44-year resident of Sausalito. Thanks for the work that you all do. I'm always for improving the city that we've lived in for a while, and I just love the looks of the place. It was really interesting to me tonight to hear the business owners contributing 40%, so anything that makes it nicer for them, that they can do better business so we can get even more tax money from them. Perhaps our taxes go down a little bit. Anyways, that's a hope. We'll see if that happens, but I don't think so. I'm in big support of improving the fair and ending. Thank you. |
| 03:16:52.24 | Scott Thornburg | Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. There are a number of ways to get to downtown Sausalito that do not require parking. Thought I would list a few. Golden Gate Transit buses, Marin Transit buses, tour buses, Golden Gate Ferry. which has multiple routes a day, all of those. Blue and Gold Fleet, you can bicycle. You can take a ride share with Uber or Lyft. You can carpool with someone. You can get dropped off. You could take a taxi. There are hotel shuttles. There is a, for parks and rec, at some of their events, they've offered resident shuttles in the past year. And God forbid, you could walk. There are a number of ways to get to downtown Sausalito to support our community and our businesses and to be together as a group, as a community. What we don't need is more parking lots. We have lots and lots and lots of parking. Most of it is unused in the off season. And I think one of the things that I'm excited about, thank you for advancing the bid here tonight. I do think that that will allow us to maximize our parking in the off season, which will allow us to really take best advantage of our downtown area. But I don't think we should prioritize parking and I don't think we should prioritize cars over the greater beautification and benefit of the community. Thank you. |
| 03:18:19.64 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:18:19.66 | Kieran Culligan | in Culligan. |
| 03:18:23.35 | Kieran Culligan | Hi there, here on Kelligan, still a South City resident. I peddled myself down to lot one today just because it felt like a super important day for our town, for the doorstep, to Sausalito and I went there at two 30, right? Beautiful sunny day. light winds. peak month. 2.30 PM busiest day. Because remember, I'm the parking analyst guy. Busiest time of day. And there were 62 open spaces in Lot Wadda. tons of open spaces in lot two and lot three and lot four. And it was a reminder to me of, you know, one, the economics and how it works with demand, which means like on that day today, it's granted not a weekend, but we could have had 60 fewer spaces in that lot, no Saucelio Yacht Harbor deal, and there'd be zero impact to the city's finances, even on a peak month day. But we do have peaks and we have busy summer days. We have busy days even in the winter when it's Christmas or New Year's. And we have awesome things like the Sausalito Yacht Harbor agreement that will actually add capacity, more spaces than we already have. We have ideas that I've heard about floating around for re-striping in lots three, that's gonna buy us another 12 or 13 spaces. There's other things we can do in terms of advanced approaches and how people pay for parking, how we do enforcement. So there's tons of opportunity from a capacity standpoint, And from a revenue standpoint, we're going to be in the positive here. So let's create a huge win, a funded effort to improve the waterfront for our residents, for our visitors, to support our businesses who are so important to the town. And we're going to improve this for ourselves, but also for the planet. So let's move forward. I think we've worked through all the issues. We're going to do something great here. |
| 03:20:06.83 | Walfred Solorzano | We're going to... Next, we have Charles Melton, Sharna Brockett, and Cass Green. |
| 03:20:20.36 | Charles Melton | Good evening. My name is Charles Melton. I first want to thank Councilmember Kelman for bringing up trees. I also love trees. Also, you masterfully at a previous meeting got another member behind the council to donate two trees to the ferry project. So let's include that in the calculations and take that out of the budget. But I appreciate you bringing trees up. I do ride the ferry, and I'm actually very supportive of this plan because it does put my safety first. It expands the crosswalk in front of the Sausalito Yacht Club. So when I'm walking by there, cars can actually have more visibility about me. My safety is worth it. It's priceless. It's worth more than one parking space. It's worth more than 300 parking spaces. I value my safety. So thank you for including these plans and putting public safety first. I'm also supportive of this plan because Los Lado residents have already paid for it. Our tax dollars, our federal tax dollars have gone to fund this project What could be more fiscally responsible than keeping our tax dollars here in Sausalito? If this plan is not approved, some other city is going to benefit from our tax dollars. Let's be fiscally responsible and keep our Sausalito tax dollars here in Sausalito where we can benefit from them. And also, as we're talking about being fiscally responsible in the parking spaces and those issues, from my understanding, the city received a parking plan or parking report from Dixon. This has been a while now, this report's been there, but it includes multiple steps to enhance the number of parking spaces and also enhance the amount of revenue that comes from those parking spaces. Yet no action has been taken on that. So I encourage our city council to consider that in further agenda items. No one plan is going to solve everything. It's not going to be done. We've talked about that tonight. There's multiple steps that need to be taken to improve our downtown. This plan and improving our access to our ferry is one of those many steps that can be taken. So I support this plan. Thank you for the long conversations we've had about this. Thank you to the volunteers who've dedicated their time putting together this plan. And thank you for your thoughtfulness in getting this plan approved, accepting a bid, and getting shovels into the ground so we can have a wonderful front doorstep to our city. Thank you. |
| 03:22:25.05 | Sharna Brockett | So I'm Sharna Brockett and I'm a resident and I also love trees. Um, And want to see more of them want to see that we're keeping that area cool for the future with trees and shade. Um, but I also just want to say, we've come here so many times. There's so many people here. We've come, we've showed up. That's a heard five times, six times. I don't even know. I've lost count. Um, so I just want to remind everybody after seven years, uh, you know, we've been working on this project and it continues, the funding continues to be at risk. So in November, we received a letter from the golden gate transport, uh, highway division authority. I'm sorry. I don't think I got that right, but the. They basically are saying this critical importance of time sensitivity for this project. And then we got a second letter in March saying, from them again saying, look, you're on the cusp of losing this $2.4 million. And we urge you to proceed with haste. So I just want to remind everyone about that. I also want to just comment on the parking. I'm really excited to see this deal with the Yacht Harbor and the Maddens. I know that was a lot of work and so excited that they want to come to the table and partner with the city, a private city partnership. And it's going to make up for the parking that we need to lose. And it's actually going to add some. And it's also going to help us with the revenue. And then I want to lastly, I want to say don't get hung up on the softscape and the bikes where they're going to line up. This can move, right? I will personally come down and help you move those racks. And let's keep Tracy way in this Tracy way is beautiful. We've all been to Europe. We've all been to places where we see these beautiful tree line promenades where There's artists and people playing music and people walking along eating ice creams. We can have that here in Sausalito. We deserve that. So let's get this thing over the finish line. Please approve the bid so that we can start construction in the fall. before the rain starts. And thank you again for so your hard work on this. Thank you. |
| 03:24:32.75 | Cass Green | Hi, this, we are really supportive of this plan. and would like it to move forward. I'd love to see the deal with the Yacht Club, the Yacht Harbord also move forward for the parking. I think that the hotel and the other hotels in the area will be, you know, we're all gonna be impacted by the construction, we're gonna be impacted by the loss of parking. But we believe that this is the best step forward for Sausalito, that this is going to be an incredible improvement. And now with the P bid, I can't wait to sell the beauty of Sausalito to the rest of the world. So please approve the bid. Thank you. |
| 03:25:16.23 | Walfred Solorzano | THE FAMILY. Next three people we have is Adrienne Brinton. Willie McDevitt and Mary Griffin. |
| 03:25:29.14 | Adrian Brinton | Adrian Brinton, South Slater resident, who's probably way too interested in parking and I've been thinking about parking. Way too much lately, because it is a super important revenue source for us. And it's also super important to our businesses to have enough parking. And yeah, these changes are hard. Seeing that, you know, putting the bike queue in parking lot one solves one really important set of problems that, you know, the police department brought up. They wanted to see better flow the yacht club, even though I don't agree with their position, they were very adamant about the issues that they had with it. You know, and this solves those problems at the cost of some parking spaces. And I'm really glad we're having a conversation about the peak demand dynamics around our parking and the fact that they are empty a huge amount of the time. And as the mayor mentioned, flying the plane half full and filling those parking lots in off hours is a massive revenue opportunity for the city. The Sausalito Yacht Harbor deal, I mean, amazing. When I walk around down there and I walk through that parking lot and I see the massive amount of empty space sitting there in the middle of our downtown, It's sad and seeing that we're actually getting to where we can have a partnership with the property owner there to be able to utilize that space better to the benefit of the city. Amazing. And also get that ticketing revenue, right? So many people parking that lot right now. And, and as we get that ticket revenue, that is also going to help replace some of this revenue. So, The parking issues in Sausalito go really, really deep. I was recently asked to join a committee on parking. We've been discussing some of the issues. We still have the Dixon report. We really have an action very much in there. There's a whole list of policy changes that we can make that will also recoup spots. We've got people parking in the lots overnight, over busy weekends, using various loopholes that we can close. Those will all gain spots back too. So there's a ton of work to do on parking. There's a ton of opportunity on parking. So I think we're giving up a couple spots here. I think we can definitely make it up and we can make up the revenue as well. Thank you. |
| 03:27:36.65 | Willie McDevitt | Hi, William McDevitt again. I'm going to ask you to approve a plan that I don't like. Um, There are three reasons. It's within budget. That's all three. Thank you. Thank you. So, you know, this has gone on for a long time. I think it's a really great compromise. And, you know, not approving it means you get 100% of nothing. And if you do approve it, everybody gets a little of something. Thank you. |
| 03:28:12.85 | Mary Griffin | Good evening. Thank you. And thank you to the local professionals group and to the city and to the council for all the work on this. And I've lived here for 38 years and been an architect for 45 years. And I think I could count on one hand the time I've heard of a project. being fully funded and coming in under budget. And so please let's not stare this. opportunity and wasted. It seems like a great thing for Sausalito. And if we can do this before the LA Olympics, so let's go. |
| 03:28:48.32 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, next three people are Cheryl Popp, Todas Antonevicious, and Beth Swerg. |
| 03:28:57.18 | Cheryl Pop | Thank you, counsel, for all your patience and everything you've done on this. I'm Cheryl Pop, a longtime Sausalito resident, homeowner, and a homeowner. community activist, and I'm a downtown business owner. Sauceletta Books by the Bay is at 100 Bay Street. It is right in the middle of this huge thing, and I am so supportive of this project. I urge you to approve the construction bid for the Ferry Landsign project, which did amazingly come in under budget, no less. This major enhancement to the downtown area is not costing the city. It is a gift from the federal government, There's even a Big contingency built in. Why risk losing this generous funding? I don't think you want your legacy to be one of losing millions of free dollars offered by the government, losing an opportunity to vastly improve a downtown, a downtrodden downtown landscape. So I urge you to move forward decisively with the Sausalito Ferri Landside Improvement Project Let your legacy be one of meaningful change, enhance safety and beautification. Let's act now to ensure that we don't lose this grant money. approve the hardscape, The soft state, as we've all heard, can be refined over time. It's flexible. It can be adjusted, including the bike queue configurations. I wanna put a plug in for Tracy Way Closure. It makes total sense and is such an important, vital part of this overall vision. It provides for a more attractive downtown, but also a more communal one that promotes open space along the waterfront. Transforming Tracy Way into a pedestrian promenade will make the area safer and more inviting for everyone of all ages for all generations to come. Will dramatically enhance the downtown experience for visitors and residents alike. So adopt the resolution recommended by staff report. It's time to move forward. You have done your due diligence. There is no rational reason to delay this important project further. Thank you. |
| 03:31:01.70 | Tadis Antonovicis | Hi everyone, my name is Tadis Antonovicis. I'm a proud resident of Sausalito. I urge you to approve the bid for the Ferry Landside project, including Alternative 2 and 3. My primary reason is this, it's going to make downtown beautiful and better. It's going to make me want to spend more time downtown. It will make me want to bring other people downtown to show off this amazing place that the people of Sausalito put together. And if I feel that way, many other people do too. Residents, tourists alike. Doing this project is going to bring more people downtown every day of the year, enjoying it, spending money, bringing in more city revenue. We've been talking a lot about our deficit and doing nothing and sitting on our hands won't solve our deficit. Growth and investment in the appeal of our downtown will solve our deficit. And it's a grant that's funding this investment. That's a no brainer. We've been talking a lot about parking on the point of parking spots that we may lose with this project. Director has said earlier today that the lot one is only full 60 to 80% on average. What that tells me is that we need to stop focusing on the 35 spots that might go away. What we need to do is focus on filling the other 146 spots in lot one. Those 146 spots are just not getting filled. Doing this project will fill more of them. increase our parking revenue average across the year, it will go up. Let's approve this bid and fill those 146 parking spots. Thank you. |
| 03:32:30.68 | Beth Swerke | Hello, I'm Beth Swerke, nine-year resident. You've heard and know all the reasons to move forward with this and approve this tonight, so I won't take my time. listing them all out. I will share why I and a lot of people are here. We are desperate for positive change. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling overwhelmed with national politics and feeling not quite sure where or how best to focus my energy. How beautiful. That's so many in this room, in this community. You guys have decided to focus our energy on local politics and enhancing this extraordinary town. They say in a divided world, real change happens at the local level. So I got involved this year and a lot of people in this room have gotten involved. And we've been so inspired by this project that enhances our community. I feel energized. I see that change can happen. I also have been flabbergasted by how slow this change comes. People have joked tonight about this being the seventh and fifth meeting on these matters tonight. That's not funny. That's slowing us down. Enough with the roadblocks. That's doing a disservice to our city. Let's make this positive change for our residents and our businesses. Approve the please approve the staff recommendation, including bid alternatives two and three. This will positively impact our community and our businesses and has come in under budget. Please break down ASAP. Thank you. |
| 03:34:00.22 | Walfred Solorzano | Alright, next three are Dan Daclow, Mike Monsef, and... Fred Moore. Sorry, Carolyn Riveau. |
| 03:34:12.08 | Don Daglow | Don Daglow, EDAC member. My family has been involved in Sausalito for 120 years. And one of the things that troubles me about the area where we welcome people so much to town is that it looks like it's about 60 years old. It's been jerry-rigged ever since and adapted and just band-aided. This is a plan that I believe will address that. I've had the chance to ride the Star Ferry in Hong Kong, to ride the ferries around Seattle and the islands in Puget Sound. What there is of a Newport ferry, river ferries in Europe. What each of them had in common were all sorts of different levels of sophistication and complexity, but they all looked like they were working as they were intended to work. |
| 03:34:33.65 | Walfred Solorzano | Bye. |
| 03:35:01.19 | Don Daglow | And they all looked as if somebody was still paying attention to them. We have suffered from having an area that didn't look like we were all paying attention, even though all of us in this room know that people were trying and making a sincere effort to do it. It just the the political coordination wasn't there. The opportunity wasn't there. We have the chance to fix that. I would respectfully recommend that we do so by approving this. Thank you. |
| 03:35:28.56 | Mike Monsef | My name is Mike Monsav. I've been here for 50 years. It makes me, first I want to make a correction, it's not seven years. This plan was on board for approval since late 1950s and And I got acquainted with it in 1973. 1979. So. I really appreciate what you have done. I'm so happy. I thought this is a dream for me because when I was a president of Chamber of Commerce, I wrote an article and I said, I have a dream. It was about the time of birthday of Martin Luther King and some, This was part of my dream. And somebody wrote a dream, wrote, Martin Luther King had a dream, Mike has a nightmare. Stunned. So I want to tell you, how far this one has been going. I am so happy to see, and this is a legacy of this administration, to let it happen. And it's happening, folks. It's happening. And thank you to Mike Racks, because this is one of the guys who's been into it. from the beginning. Every time I've been in a meeting, I've seen him over there. Again, I appreciate it. I hope you approve that. And don't be nitpicky on every item. Let's get it done. |
| 03:37:00.31 | Carolyn Revell | Given the hour, I will only endorse what my colleagues have been saying. go ahead and approve this contract. And thank you, Janelle, for raising the issue of trees being an important part of the project. One last thought. I do try to get my 10,000 steps in every day and I walk along the plaza through the queues of bikes and people. And I have a wonderful vision that you're all going to implement of a plaza with the separation of the bikes and the people and places for people to sit under trees and really enjoy our wonderful view. Thank you for all the work you've done and also for the local professionals group and their work. Thank you. |
| 03:37:39.51 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, Fred Moore, Michael Rex, and Steven Woodside. |
| 03:37:45.82 | Fred Moore | Good evening, council members. I support this agenda item and ask that you vote yes to approve the bid contract to start the ferry landing project. During your deliberations, please don't become a victim of analysis by paralysis. Don't cater to the desires of a few over the interests of the many. And finally, do not overlook the roadway toward good while seeking a path toward perfection. I've worked in real estate development for 45 years and I would be long since retired had I allowed myself to take on projects with risk rather than only looking for projects with perfect balance budgets, no neighborhood opposition, no imported dirt, confirmed parking counts, environmentally clean, free of easements, etc. The perfect projects are few and far between. Your approval tonight will allow a solid design development plan to go forward, which will enhance both resident and visitor experiences in the downtown. Our existing infrastructure is tired and an impediment to enjoying the space. Tracy Way is an area which morphed over time without any overall design plan. Tonight you have an opportunity to bring cohesive to the various elements in downtown. The improvements for the ferry landing, Tracy Way and the surrounds, may undergo a process of evaluation over time of what does and doesn't work. Thankfully, the design before you tonight allows the flexibility to adjust and change while still maintaining its design integrity. I ask that you vote yes tonight to move forward. The improvements I believe will make you proud, our citizens proud and visitors impressed. I hope by Christmas, I can stroll my grandson down Tracy way promenade, sit in the plaza, enjoy the view of the ferry while eating an ice cream. A yes vote is a right vote. Thank you. |
| 03:39:47.51 | Michael Rex | Oh, I'm Michael Rex, a member of the local professional group. I'm also a businessman in town. I've had my architectural practice here for over 40 years. And I was glad to hear tonight that we're recognized now as being a member of this community. um, I've also have been pursuing creating a, finer place downtown at the most beautiful part of our town. where our community can gather. For over 30 years. Okay. So tonight's an exciting night. for me and I think all of us. A couple of things, this new bike parking that you just see tonight on the east side of lot one is the best place we've found yet to put the bikes. And it addresses Madden's concern. It addresses the police concern about the congestion that we that was identified between buses and bikes on Humboldt. We even met with some of the key leadership of the Yacht Club, and they're saying it's better than what they saw before. Um, I'm absolutely confident that We can make create more parking on Humboldt Street. Yes, it needs more study, but I'm confident we can make that work and pick up more parking. And we have ideas of where the buses could go. I want to clarify briefly. The alternate one, alternate one is an add-on to the But concrete to widen that sidewalk and humble concrete, but in your bid, there's a price to widen the sidewalk with asphalt. That should be a credit. that could be applied to this change order, we're going to need to put the bikes on the east side of lot 1. There should be money coming back. Tracy Way has to be... |
| 03:41:52.11 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay. |
| 03:41:52.23 | Michael Rex | Thank you very much. Vacated. Thank you. |
| 03:41:52.40 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you very much. |
| 03:41:53.04 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 03:41:53.48 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:41:57.63 | Steven Woodside | I'm here really in gratitude for the way the community has stepped forward. And tonight I've noticed that even the person who doesn't like the plan is for it. Are you approving it? It's a real credit to so many people, but I do want to. single out as already has been singled out Michael Rex who just spoke. He's been spearheading this for so long and has energized a lot of the community in a very, very positive way. supported by so many, it's hard to single anyone out again. But I will say Bill Hines has also had to take a few licks along the way, but he's really persevered and it's wonderful to see that we finally have come together. Anticipating a favorable outcome, I do want to say to the mayor, you have really, really worked hard to keep this on track. And you deserve the praise of the entire community. I also want to say to Joan Cox, there was skepticism when you were asking a lot of bid questions a couple months ago. But I think hopefully now people appreciate how your expertise has contributed to a bid that is under budget. So, again, thank you all. |
| 03:43:14.00 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, okay. Amis Venberg, Jeffrey Chase, and Babette McDougall. |
| 03:43:23.79 | Amis Venberg | Hello and good evening. I am representing the Chamber of Commerce and also Poggio and Copita. I would just like to highlight that at Poggio, I look at Bay Street every day and see about 10 to 20 cars take a left. So... That really should happen because it happens all the time. Losing parking is a hot subject for any business member, any member of the business community in particular downtown. Um, And we've discussed this ad nauseum in our board meetings. We really believe in this project. We would love for it to move forward. We think that It needs to happen. We'd like it to happen this year. So it happens before next season. We understand that the funds are at risk if you don't move forward. So we would ask for you to move forward with that. I think there's a lot of value in continuing to look at the bicycles and where they're best placed, their safety concerns. And we see people go down all the time. So please do give that extra consideration. Thank you very much. |
| 03:44:38.14 | Walfred Solorzano | Jeffrey Chase. |
| 03:44:45.87 | Jeffrey Chase | Hello again, Mr. Mayor, and nice to see the room packed. I hope this microphone makes it through my whole little speech here. This time. I'm in favor of the ferry. Boats, bicycles, and buses are... the three B's I travel on. About the parking, I think it's time for a parking lot moratorium. I think everybody that is driving a car, especially one, per person in the 2000 pounds of steel in Sausalito, in Novato, in San Rafael. in California, in the country, in the world, is making a mistake. When I Did the prayer? The prayer is for the oneness. of the people and we are punishing ourselves As a Detroiter, I grew up with cars. I've had cars. I don't have one now. So it doesn't feel too hypocritical to be talking about that. There's three spaces THE FEDERAL. One where they sleep. One way they're going, and one where they're stuck on Highway 101 during rush hour. |
| 03:46:09.29 | Jeffrey Chase | The other one is about trees and greenery. Right now, we have a fence around South Dunphy Park. perhaps related to the protest, of the Anchorage and of the homeless. Gavin Newsom just vowed to sweep the homeless, putting his fist into his open hand. Do not think that we are not gonna fight back in Ross where he lives. in Ross High School, where his kids go to school, in California, where he's threatening us. We will and we are. Thank you very much. |
| 03:46:46.88 | Walfred Solorzano | Let's do it. |
| 03:46:53.65 | Babette McDougall | Thank you for acknowledging me. Thank you. |
| 03:46:55.88 | Babette McDougall | So I... Sorry. Absolutely. I'm supportive of this project for all the reasons that you've heard told here this evening. I don't know if our city attorney is still tuning in or not, but I think if not, then perhaps it's the vice mayor who could weigh in, someone, ideally the city attorney, because audibly, I think it's a good idea to Clarify the point of Tracy Way. We've had so many discussions in the last several months. So we know that Tracy Way's ultimate disposition has to be settled by a public vote. So I think it would be a good idea for anyone who has any confusion about the wisdom, in fact, including it in this broad scope plan as we see it now. but acknowledging that it is a pending proposition if this is indeed how it now stands. I think if the city attorney thinks it's wise, because it does have to do with requiring a public vote. So I just want to put this out there because I think people would like to see this go forward. You know, I don't know if you folks can read, some of you don't know because you weren't here perhaps, but when Jazz and Blues by the Bay first started, we used to use Tracy Way for the farmer's market on Friday nights, and it actually added to the wonderfully festive spirit of jazz and blues and probably the sum of that wonderful energy Thank you. had a lot to do with its successful launch that we still enjoy today. So I see a bright future for everyone personally. I think it would be really a prudent thing to do to audibly acknowledge the disposition, the pending disposition of Tracy Way just for the record. Thank you. |
| 03:48:38.02 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:48:38.11 | Sergio Rudin | All right. |
| 03:48:38.16 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. |
| 03:48:38.21 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 03:48:38.33 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Now we're going to go to Zoom and we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 03:48:46.09 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, everybody. Again. I just want to tell you how much I appreciate all the effort that's gone into this project, and I really appreciate the public input on this project, both pro and con. And I appreciate the patience of the council to listen to both sides of this particular issue. So there is something that is of concern to me, and it has to do with risk management and our dedication to reducing our risk, which has a direct impact on our city insurance. I don't hear a lot of discussion about safety studies, nor have I been able to find anything in this project that devotes city resources toward, or any resources for that matter, toward a safety analysis of this plan. I think it's really, really important that we do that. And I haven't seen anything in the paperwork. public paperwork addressing the Sausalito Yacht Harbor's safety concerns that were presented to the council. So basically I think that that we need to address that for the sake of risk reduction. We need to look at the safety issues. And I don't see that front burner, and I'd like to see it front burner. Thank you. |
| 03:50:06.89 | Walfred Solorzano | Vicky Nichols? Thank you. |
| 03:50:09.92 | Sergio Rudin | Thanks. |
| 03:50:10.11 | Walfred Solorzano | you |
| 03:50:16.03 | Vicki Nichols | I'm going to not talk about the pros and cons, but just a couple of questions. It sounds to me that I'm pretending I'm sitting here as a planning commissioner. that there are some missing aspects to this plan. You know, I'd say it might be more of a concept notwithstanding the time that's been spent to do this, which I appreciate it. But in the matter of the trees and in the parking, I hear the parking come up as a new issue, which means that it's not written into any plan. It's written in as a concept, which is always sort of a problem if you ask me, because it's the documentation. So that aside, that's just a personal thing that bothers me about what you're looking at what's being discussed by the applicant as a concept but not in the design or the plan as written that can be documented. it seems like there's a great comfort level of the public. Oh, well, it's just a detail. Yeah, it is a detail. So because of that detail, I would like to hear from the public works director. That was the plan change that I didn't know about tonight. None of us did really until we saw it presented. I want to know exactly where the intention is to keep the Sally Stanford fountain. There's been a lot of discussion about this. We thought there was resolution. I'd just like that acknowledged on the public record. And a reminder that this is within the historic district. So when we're talking about Tracy way, Some of those sidewalks are surrounded by historic walls. that is officially documented as a point of historical interest, and those are character defining features. So at least as you move forward, we would love to at least be able to review this and look at it. and make some comments. Thank you. And by we, I mean the Historical Preservation Commission that has purview over this. |
| 03:52:07.86 | Walfred Solorzano | Sam Rubin. |
| 03:52:11.17 | Sam Rubin | Yeah. Thank you very much. Just really want to add my voice to the overwhelming chorus in support of finally, after years and years and years of deliberation, to finally approve a contract for the ferry landing. As a member of former member of the Sustainability Commission current member of the mayor's blue ribbon committee on parking, the parking issue keeps coming up. And the reality is. By turning the entrance into Sausalito and the gateway to Sausalito into the magnificent Welcome, that it could be for all the visitors that are critical to our tax base. We have an opportunity to more than make up for any lost revenue from the parking, even if that wasn't already done through the agreement with the Sausler Yacht Harbor to replace those spots with the ones very close by. So rather than take up more time, I just want to add my voice to the chorus in support and ask that you approve it, including the closure of Trace Way. And I just want to say thank you to everyone who has put so many hours and so much work. into putting this plan together and through sitting through all these meetings and all this deliberation. And I'm hopeful that we can finally move forward before we risk losing the funds and end up having to pay for this out of our own city coffers, as at some point the ferry landing will have to be replaced. Thank you. |
| 03:53:37.91 | Walfred Solorzano | Morgan Pierce. |
| 03:53:42.53 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:53:42.57 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. Can everyone hear me? |
| 03:53:46.73 | Morgan Pierce | Yes. |
| 03:53:46.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 03:53:47.04 | Morgan Pierce | Great. Good evening, Mayor Sobieski, Vice Mayor Cox, members of city council and city staff. My name is Morgan Pierce. I am a resident of South Slita. I'm speaking to you this evening as president of South Slita Beautiful. First of all, we wish to thank all of our community members who have dedicated timeless hours towards creating a welcome solution to beautifying Sausalito's front door. We're thrilled to see that the bids for the ferry landing improvements have come in below budget and are eager to see our community move forward with the implementation of this important project. As advocates for the maintenance and improvement of our public green spaces, we applaud you for your vision and fortitude and seeing this project to fruition. There is an adage that states, we don't build the church for Easter Sunday. We should accept that we can't accommodate every visitor wishing to park in Sausalito on the busiest days of the year. And we should be okay with saying that's all right, particularly when it results in a better environment for our residents, guests, and business owners. As you deliberate the awarding of the contract, please recognize that the improvements will be successful regardless of how pedestrian and bicycle circulation is handled. These are fluid elements that will in fact change over time and will require us as a community to flex with them and exercise creativity in their management. We encourage the city council to award the construction contract to Bowman landscaping, approved bid alternates two and three, and join us in celebrating the execution of this major improvement for our city. As many have noted, we have a limited time to utilize the funding offered, so please act now. Thank you. |
| 03:55:22.13 | Walfred Solorzano | Martha Loftus. |
| 03:55:26.97 | Martha Loftus | Hi, can you hear me? |
| 03:55:28.47 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 03:55:29.28 | Martha Loftus | Okay, thank you. I think I was on double mute. So I want to apologize for not being able to be there in person tonight. I had every intention to be there, but I've been exposed to COVID. And rather than exposing all of y'all, even with a mask, I'm here at home. I do want to add my voice to echo the overwhelming response and enthusiasm to moving forward and approving this proposal, including bid alternates two and three. Let's move forward. Let's approve this. Let's celebrate ourselves and the success and doing something that's grant money that's free to us, although I will echo comments that we have paid for it with our tax basis. and those of us that are relatively new within the most recent couple of years have a very high tax basis for living in our beautiful town. So thank you very much. And I appreciate your consideration and approval. |
| 03:56:32.78 | Walfred Solorzano | Michelle Dumont. |
| 03:56:38.54 | Councilmember Blaustein | Hi, I'm happy to be here tonight again, supporting this really wonderful project and all the local design professionals and community members that are Sitting in the chamber with you tonight and everyone that's worked so hard on this, I urge you to vote in favor of the Ferry Landing project, including the closure of Tracy Way, It was really great to just hear how this used to be a farmer's market. I would love to see that happen again. And really this project is about building a community, continuing to invest in our community, The new ferry landing in Tracy Bay will together become a stunning entry point that reflects a charm and spirit of Sausalito. Now is the time to make this a reality. I just heard that we've got a permit. That's great news. Let's pour the concrete. Let's continue the positivity. Thank you so much. |
| 03:57:34.80 | Walfred Solorzano | Peter Van Meter. |
| 03:57:40.94 | Peter Van Meter | I would like to say that as a 50-year resident, 22-year advocate of this project, It's thrilling to finally see it come to this point of moving ahead. I want to thank the massive public outpouring that's been made throughout this process. and I cannot. add to the eloquent comments and support that have been made by the public here today. Also want to thank in advance the city council for moving this ahead to construction so we're going to see it actually be completed and this in fact will submit your legacy as one of the people group of people who did something most important for the city of Sausalito. So thank you again. and much appreciation. from someone who's been behind this for so many years. We really are very, very happy. |
| 03:58:32.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, no further public comment. |
| 03:58:35.06 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you city clerk. We will close public comment and to get things started. I'll put a motion on the floor, which I'm reading from the staff report. The staff report is, and the motion I'm making is to adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Sausalito authorizing the city manager to number one, approve the plans and specifications for the Ferry land side improvement project on file at the city clerk's office. Number two, the city council waves any irregularities in the bid and authorizes the city manager to execute the construction contract with Bowman Landscaping Incorporated for the Ferry Landside Improvement Project for the base bid in the amount of $1,316,450, plus bid alternatives two and three for a total construction contract of $1,416,000 from FTA and GGBHTD funds. endpoint three authorizes the city manager to execute change orders for an in a contingency amount from FTA and GGBHTD funds. Endpoint three authorizes the city manager to execute change orders for an in a contingency amount of up to $258,511 for the Ferry Landside Improvement Project. That's my motion. |
| 03:59:31.91 | Ian Blaustein | Second. |
| 03:59:32.33 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 03:59:32.57 | Steven Woodside | And the motion is made and seconded, and that serves as the beginning of our discussion. Councilmember Cole of Weissmere. |
| 03:59:37.43 | Janelle Kellman | Weissmere. Yeah, and Vice Mayor, we see your hand up. I'm going to cede to you. I'm hoping that you can re-explain exactly which plans we should be voting on based on the bid. I know this language in the resolution on file at the city clerk's office is opaque to me, so please. |
| 03:59:54.34 | Steven Woodside | Weissmere Cox. You're muted by Sparrow Cox. |
| 04:00:00.30 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to clarify that although the recommended motion says adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to approve the plans and specifications, The actual resolution has the city council approving the plans and specifications. So I wanted to clarify that in your motion, Mayor. |
| 04:00:17.37 | Steven Woodside | I'll modify my motion to make it compliant with the vice mayor's comment. |
| 04:00:21.12 | Joan Cox | Okay. And then, um, The plans and specifications we are approving tonight are the ones that were transmitted that include the bicycle parking on Humboldt. We will be entering it, as I understand it, the plan, what we're going to do is give direction to staff. And the reason we're authorizing the city manager to execute change orders is that we're going to direct that staff. enter into a change order with Bauman to adopt the plans presented by the working group in the presentation tonight, which contemplates the bicycle parking on the east side of lot one. And my request is that when we do that, we make sure that the, city manager or the public works director brings that change order back to us for approval so that we're actually approving the revisions to the plans. that include the bicycle parking in lot one and not along Humboldt. |
| 04:01:34.86 | Steven Woodside | So for the purposes of my motion, let's let the record reflect what the vice mayor just said in terms of the definition of the project plan and specifications. in item one. |
| 04:01:43.70 | Janelle Kellman | Can I ask the Vice Mayor for more clarification? Thank you, Vice Mayor. So we're not approving removal of more spots from lot one, but the suggestion is to allow the city manager to then execute a change order that would remove the spots in lot one. |
| 04:02:05.46 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:02:05.49 | Janelle Kellman | you |
| 04:02:05.51 | Joan Cox | We're directing staff. to proceed with a change order that uh, and tails. removal of more spots from lot one on a temporary annual basis as described in the public works directors presentation. Thank you. |
| 04:02:22.96 | Bonnie McGregor | Thank you. |
| 04:02:23.60 | Joan Cox | And then I'm also asking that we direct staff to come back to us with alternative plans for |
| 04:02:23.72 | Bonnie McGregor | And then |
| 04:02:31.76 | Joan Cox | Um, accommodating that parking elsewhere, perpendicularly along Humboldt, through perhaps a revised agreement with the Sausalito Yacht Harbor, through re-striping of Lot 3, whatever those options may be, I'd like to see us further explore those and identify the best logistically and financially feasible proposal. |
| 04:02:57.85 | Janelle Kellman | And so, Vice Mayor, if we wanted to, as a, I'm trying to figure out how best to have a conversation beyond what was actually presented. So now we've got all these moving parts. I, for one, would like to see us execute on parking on Humboldt Street. And so I would want to see a change order for parking and recoup some spots there. So I don't know if that's an amendment to this motion or if it's one of the things we're |
| 04:03:23.25 | Joan Cox | It's not an amendment. |
| 04:03:23.30 | Janelle Kellman | It's not an event. . |
| 04:03:24.03 | Joan Cox | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 04:03:24.06 | Janelle Kellman | So, |
| 04:03:24.75 | Joan Cox | We have a lot of people. |
| 04:03:24.79 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 04:03:24.97 | Joan Cox | to adopt we have to we can only approve the project that was bid. And then we can direct staff to make changes and to bring back those changes to us. |
| 04:03:34.51 | Janelle Kellman | I see. Okay, thank you for that. |
| 04:03:37.06 | Steven Woodside | Any other comments by Samara Cox before I recognize Council Member Hoffman? Or do you reserve? Okay, Council Member Hoffman. |
| 04:03:45.48 | Jill Hoffman | I think it's a follow up actually on some of the comments from Councilmember Cox. to be precise in our language, we're not removing any parking spots with regard to bike parking. We're asking for a change order for a flexible, you know, movable enclosure that can be responsive to... different conditions at the time to be administered by our public safety officers and also in conjunction, I think, with some sort of safety review on putting those multimodal, forcing them into one. congested area. I know that we've received a letter from our tenant in that area, and I think we need to be responsive to that and sensitive to that, and also in the context of reducing our risk management and understanding and our risk assessment and understanding that we need a safety report in order to show that that's a reasonable decision. going forward. I can help craft that language. I saw you were nodding your head, so you didn't- I am. I agree. |
| 04:05:00.77 | Joan Cox | I am, I agree that that is the direction to staff Council Member Hoffman, separate from the resolution we're being asked to adopt this evening. |
| 04:05:07.45 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, that's mine. Okay, thank you. I think you agree with that language that I couched in. I do. Absolutely. So what I can do is I can draft that and I'll provide that specific language to Walford for inclusion in the minutes and also with regard to our public works director and city manager. Great. |
| 04:05:09.77 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:05:09.80 | Vicki Nichols | there. |
| 04:05:10.00 | Joan Cox | you. |
| 04:05:11.54 | Vicki Nichols | I do. Absolutely. |
| 04:05:30.91 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:05:30.93 | Janelle Kellman | Any other comments? Yes, well, just more clarification based on trying to understand what we've received versus what might change. The closure of Tracy Way was that bid out. and approved, so we have design immunity as to that. |
| 04:05:45.29 | Joan Cox | Yes, one of the alternates actually has to do with putting gravel on gravel paid material on Tracy way to allow the area to be more of a pedestrian friendly walkway, but we envision. uh, that in order to finalize all of the legal aspects of the closure of Tracy Way, that will come back to us at our first meeting in first or second meeting in September. |
| 04:06:14.08 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, so I'm sorry, this is more of a discussion. So on page eight of the presentation, this is just an image, but the depiction is of a paved walkway of Tracy Way, which raises all sorts of climate concerns for me, drainage, et cetera. The devil is in the details to make this as the dream that everybody has here. And so I don't want to just leave those to a whim. So vice mayor, that becomes something that we articulate as to the gravel, or it's a change order that comes back, |
| 04:06:45.55 | Joan Cox | So that's up to the council. The bid alternate that you're being asked to approve this evening and that is the subject of the motion is? I think it's the subject of the motion. Um, Actually, I don't think it is the subject of the motion. Yes, it is. It's plus bid alternates two and three. That was the subject of your motion. And bid alternate two is to place gravel paved material on Tracy Way to allow the area to be more of a pedestrian friendly walkway. So that was part of the plans and specifications that were the subject of the bid. by the contractor, as I understand it. |
| 04:07:20.90 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, and then I'll just note like the broken record that I am with trees, that trees are not in the bid and trees are not free other than the two you're giving us, Mayor. Perhaps more. Anybody? So how do we make sure that that direction is given because trees are going to like the loudest? |
| 04:07:36.93 | Steven Woodside | I think now Director McGowan has the answer we asked him to bring us an hour ago. Director McGowan. |
| 04:07:42.23 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, trees are part of the package. Speak for the trees, please. Definitely. You can even see it on some of the exhibits that we have. You kind of paraphrase them quickly. You know, we have 25-gallon trees that go in in the plaza, five of them. They tend to be live oaks. I can get into the specifics if we have to. We have three trees going in in the area near Sausalito Yacht Club. Okay. And we also have six trees going in at the end of Tracy Way. There's also a bioretention area that has bushes and trees in that area as well. So we have quite a few different trees, species, plants, and irrigation. You had also asked a little bit about cost. The costs for these are not broken down specifically. We have a planting sub-item, which is a lump sum item for putting the plants in at $90,000 from Bauman Landscaping. We also have a bid item for irrigation at $70,000 for making sure that these are irrigated. |
| 04:08:44.60 | Janelle Kellman | And so are those on your presentation on page eight, where you have the expenses, the category, cost, and comment, or is that on a different document? I do note for the record that the trees as articulated are called out in the plans on page six of the presentation. So when we go back to wonder where those are, I see those as articulated by Director McGowan. |
| 04:09:05.48 | Kevin McGowan | On page five, you can see the diagram of the general plan. As far as the specifics, those are located in a separate document, which is included with your packet, which is the plan set. You can take a look at those to find out the size, the location, and the species of the plants themselves. I can direct you to those plan sets, but didn't want to take up everybody's time on that much detail. |
| 04:09:30.67 | Janelle Kellman | Okay, fair enough. I think that's on the record, and my friends at Saucer the Beautiful have heard Director McGowan. |
| 04:09:37.86 | Steven Woodside | anyone else specially recognized for mayor I saw that the city |
| 04:09:39.82 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:09:39.83 | Joan Cox | Mayor, I saw that the city attorney turned on his camera. |
| 04:09:42.77 | Steven Woodside | City Attorney. |
| 04:09:44.14 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, so there has been some pretty detailed discussion about which plans and specifications are before you and given staff included in their staff presentation design changes that are likely not reflected in the plans that are in the packet. My suggestion here to deal with that issue and ensure the city has appropriate design immunity is that your motion one. adopt the resolution as drafted in the packet. that resolution authorizes the city manager to execute change orders for the project, so you can direct the city manager to execute a change order with those design changes and also direct staff to come back with a resolution that approves the revised plans and specifications as a consent item on our future agenda. |
| 04:10:28.72 | Steven Woodside | Okay. So city attorney, can I amend my motion with that second bit that you just described? |
| 04:10:35.71 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, you can. I believe Vice Mayor Cox had had had some some comment on that issue. |
| 04:10:42.64 | Steven Woodside | We'll be ahead of me on it as usual. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. |
| 04:10:45.71 | Joan Cox | In our packet, so I have the privilege of having the entire packet printed out for me. the plans and specifications in our packet. the plans and that is what we're approving. And those are what are the subject of the, resolution that is also in our packet. Simply approving the resolution, I think addresses everything the city attorney just said. What I was trying to do was give the direction to the |
| 04:11:11.63 | Sergio Rudin | Right. |
| 04:11:16.70 | Joan Cox | city manager of what those change orders would look like based on discussion. |
| 04:11:24.39 | Sergio Rudin | And perhaps this may be a question for the public works director to confirm that the changes that were described in the staff presentation are fully included in the plans and specifications. |
| 04:11:36.83 | Joan Cox | Karen Hollweg, They are not city attorney, so this is something I mentioned now twice this evening, so I asked that of that, so this the public works director clarified earlier that the drawings in the presentation are not part of what we're approving tonight. We are giving direction tonight to implement those drawings by way of change order. |
| 04:11:57.58 | Sergio Rudin | There you go. |
| 04:11:57.65 | Joan Cox | Thank you. The drawing the plans and specifications we're approving tonight are those that were transmitted to the. three contractors who provided bids and that are attached in our packet this evening. you know, all of the, all of the division, uh, zero and one specifications are in our packet and thumbnail sketch, you know, eight by eight and a half by 11. the printouts of the plans are included in our packet tonight, As I mentioned earlier, those contemplate bike parking along Humboldt. We are tonight directing that staff return to us with a change order to facilitate bicycle parking in lot one as better described by council member Hoffman. |
| 04:12:53.32 | Sergio Rudin | Now that would address my concern with respect to the design immunity issue. As long as the council approves the revised design in some form, whether that's the change order or, Mayor Mrakas, M.D.: The separate resolution, I think the city would be adequately protected. |
| 04:13:07.99 | Steven Woodside | So I'll just add a fourth point to my motion, which is, and check me here by spare. Thank you. directs a change order to see manager to make a change order that aligns with the presentation concerning modified bark parking that was made by staff today |
| 04:13:24.83 | Joan Cox | Yeah, I'm not. So the presentation that was made by staff is not what's in my written materials, so I'm not clear. this is the same issue we had six months ago where the working group continued to refine the plans up to the point of the presentation. So what was published with the staff report is not what we saw. tonight. That's why I had proposed that staff come back to us with a change order. If you're comfortable, directing staff and granting design immunity to the plans provided in the presentation this evening then that presentation needs to get attached to this |
| 04:14:06.05 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 04:14:06.48 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:14:06.51 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:14:06.61 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:14:06.81 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:14:06.93 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:14:06.98 | Steven Woodside | support. City Attorney, is that satisfactory? |
| 04:14:10.29 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, and additionally, the design review, sorry, the design immunity statute allows the council to delegate authority to approve plans and specifications as part of any discretionary decision. So as part of the city manager approving a change order, If that is the direction the council gives, I also think that that would accomplish the purposes of the design immunity statute. |
| 04:14:33.46 | Joan Cox | So then that would be the fourth point prong of your motion, mayor, which is to... |
| 04:14:33.56 | Sergio Rudin | So, they're... |
| 04:14:38.64 | Steven Woodside | I made that. And Councilmember Blastine. Happy to second that. Thank you very much, Councilmember. |
| 04:14:41.93 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:14:41.95 | Ian Blaustein | Happy to second that. enthusiastically because I'm thrilled to see this move forward. Thank you. |
| 04:14:45.39 | Steven Woodside | because I'm here. Thank you. |
| 04:14:47.60 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:14:47.62 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:14:47.67 | Joan Cox | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 04:14:47.74 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:14:47.78 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:14:47.82 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 04:14:47.97 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:14:48.00 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:14:48.04 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:14:48.46 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 04:14:48.56 | Joan Cox | Does the city clerk have that motion in mind or do we need to repeat it? So I need, |
| 04:14:53.41 | Steven Woodside | I can repeat the whole motion. Oh, do you mean your council member Hoffman's motion? |
| 04:14:57.37 | Joan Cox | No, I'm asking if the city clerk Was listening to |
| 04:15:01.30 | Steven Woodside | I'll just read it it's the recommended motion from the staff report so adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of South solito authorizing. The city manager to one approve the plans of specifications for the fairyland side improvement project on file at the city clerk's office. To see Council waves any irregularities in the bid and authorizes the city manager to execute the construction contract with bowman landscaping incorporated. for the Ferry Landside Improvement Project for the base bid in the amount of $1,316,450 plus bid alternatives two and three for a complete construction contract of $1,416,000 from FTA NGGB HTD funds. Point three authorizes the city manager to execute change orders for a contingency amount of up to $258,511 for the Ferry Landside Improvement Project. And now point four directs the city manager to execute a change order for the design specification aligning with that presented by staff today for bicycle parking on the east side of lot one. |
| 04:16:06.22 | Joan Cox | I'm going to have. And that delegates to the |
| 04:16:06.91 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:16:06.93 | Steven Woodside | And- |
| 04:16:07.30 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah. All right. |
| 04:16:07.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:16:08.01 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:16:08.09 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 04:16:11.10 | Joan Cox | city manager the authority to approve the plans and specifications that accompany that change order. |
| 04:16:19.16 | Steven Woodside | and that delegates to the city manager power to approve Duh. |
| 04:16:24.60 | Joan Cox | plans and specifications, that accompany that change order. |
| 04:16:29.76 | Steven Woodside | accompany that change order. |
| 04:16:31.58 | Joan Cox | I WANTED TO BE ABLE TO BE ABLE TO |
| 04:16:31.85 | Steven Woodside | City Clerk. And now that's it. Now, Councilmember Hoffman, what did we get from that? |
| 04:16:31.89 | Joan Cox | I can't. |
| 04:16:32.07 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:16:36.22 | Jill Hoffman | So the language that I had proposed with regard to the bike parking, I think that needs to be in the motion. |
| 04:16:41.94 | Steven Woodside | Can you elaborate on that? |
| 04:16:42.97 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. So my language was authorize the city manager to issue an a change order. for seasonal... bike parking in parking lot one using a flexible movable system that may be used in a way to maximize parking spaces in lot one. Furthermore, the bike parking plan will be flexible and will be implemented in a way that reduces safety risks and is consistent with a risk management assessment. as well as the city's tenants use Of their leaseholds. In addition to this, it will be accompanied by a safety assessment on the location, the best and safest location in parking lot one as administered by our safety experts, the chief of police. |
| 04:17:43.57 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so you got that recorded on the record, Seaclake, I know it's a lot. Any objection to that, Vice Mayor? |
| 04:17:50.51 | Joan Cox | I want to clarify that I would like to clarify that that is as depicted as in the presentation made to the city council tonight, right? So that there's a, |
| 04:18:03.11 | Cass Green | Connection. |
| 04:18:03.43 | Joan Cox | And then I do want to reiterate that that that includes the approval, the delegation of authority from the city council to the city manager to approve the plans and specifications that implement that change. |
| 04:18:18.08 | Steven Woodside | the direction. Okay, all right, so that is the motion. |
| 04:18:22.60 | Joan Cox | I decided the city attorney is looking perplexed. Are you good, Sergio? |
| 04:18:22.91 | Steven Woodside | I understand. |
| 04:18:26.25 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, I'm a little... concerned about the requirement that that language imposes to conduct a new safety study and also who would be responsible for determining whether or not the design comports with a safety study. and whether or not there is authority or budget in the project to conduct a safety study, because we do not have a contract in place for that. Um, |
| 04:18:52.15 | Joan Cox | I thought she had talked about that being conducted by the chief of |
| 04:18:52.22 | Sergio Rudin | I thought. |
| 04:18:57.79 | Joan Cox | police. |
| 04:18:58.50 | Steven Woodside | I think it's an undefined term, but is the chief of police in our state? |
| 04:18:59.39 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. A safety study for circulation issues is a term of art. And my concern is that from a risk management perspective and from an immunity perspective, that we have to make decisions that are reasonable and don't create dangerous conditions. specifically if there are dangerous conditions created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury that might occur. And so we're going to all these links to A, reduce our litigation risk, B, increase safety, and C. in a public way, make sure that everybody's on the same page, that we are moving forward in a way that is the, with risk management and risk reduction as part of our decision-making process. |
| 04:19:53.00 | Joan Cox | So instead of safety plan, can you say safety evaluation? Sure. By the chief of police with the assistance of Parisi as necessary, but. Yeah. I mean, I don't think we have to, I don't think I have to say the chief of police, the The safety evaluation rather than it, because the safety study implies hiring another consultant to do another. |
| 04:19:53.53 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 04:19:53.71 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:20:03.06 | Alice Merrill | Oh. |
| 04:20:03.30 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:20:14.25 | Joan Cox | work. We're just simply ensuring that we've done the evaluation necessary to ensure. I'm fine with the safety evaluation. Okay. Right. |
| 04:20:22.91 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so yes, Councilmember Buster. |
| 04:20:25.50 | Ian Blaustein | I mean, I'm obviously not opposed to safety. I think it's really important. And I know we've been in collaboration with our police department, but I just want to make sure that this is not going to delay implementation of construction because I mean, or that it would be done in cohort with the direction to staff. |
| 04:20:43.04 | Jill Hoffman | biggest concern. I wouldn't think so. I mean, we're going to have the current system that we have right now. And then we have till next spring, right? That's when we're going to be implementing the new bike parking, right? The |
| 04:20:54.02 | Vicki Nichols | Right. |
| 04:20:55.02 | Jill Hoffman | The current corral is the current bike. Yes, the director, public works director said that in his presentation. So I wouldn't expect that to slow us down. Agreed. |
| 04:21:07.96 | Steven Woodside | Okay, let us call the question on the motion. |
| 04:21:11.20 | Walfred Solorzano | on some of our blasting |
| 04:21:12.47 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, enthusiastically. |
| 04:21:14.42 | Ian Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:21:14.44 | Walfred Solorzano | I don't remember Hoffman. |
| 04:21:15.84 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. After seven years. Yes. |
| 04:21:18.53 | Walfred Solorzano | Summer coming |
| 04:21:19.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:21:19.39 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, with trees. |
| 04:21:19.50 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 04:21:20.52 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Cox. Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.25 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.27 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.29 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.32 | Walfred Solorzano | HELLO. |
| 04:21:22.39 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.42 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.46 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.48 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.52 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.59 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.61 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.69 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.73 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 04:21:22.76 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.88 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.93 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:21:22.96 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF |
| 04:21:23.10 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:21:23.74 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay. |
| 04:21:24.40 | Steven Woodside | Mayor Sobieski. So thank you very much, my colleagues. Did you say yes? I'm still just saying, I haven't voted yes yet. I'm just taking my prerogative to actually get a hoo-yah here. Thank you, Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 04:21:27.94 | Willie McDevitt | Did you say yes? |
| 04:21:38.14 | Steven Woodside | thank you vice mayor cox thank you councilmember blousey and thank you councilmember kelman it is thank you community thank you pioneers of this idea it is a step forward It is a positive step. I enthusiastically vote yes. The motion carries unanimously. Congratulations. |
| 04:22:13.50 | Steven Woodside | We will now go on to item 5B. uh adopt a resolution approving the encroachment agreement for the location of a 19 seat parklet and new signage balcony walls and awnings that would project into the public right of way and authorization to serve alcoholic beverages |
| 04:22:32.57 | Janelle Kellman | Hey, guys, please allow us to finish the meeting. Actually, let's take a... |
| 04:22:36.79 | Steven Woodside | three minute bio break. since we all need it and we will be back in |
| 04:22:44.17 | Steven Woodside | with comment otherwise adopt a resolution approving an encouragement agreement for the location of a 19th street parklet and new signage balcony walls, awnings that would project into the public right-of-way and authorization to serve alcoholic beverages in the public right-of-way at 8, 13, 15, 17. Could you kindly pull the doors shut bridgeway proposed under project 2024-00082. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, |
| 04:23:11.94 | Sergio Rudin | upstairs. |
| 04:23:17.19 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:23:17.27 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 04:23:17.66 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:23:17.70 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 04:23:18.17 | Steven Woodside | We can, we have to take public comment. |
| 04:23:18.19 | Michael Rex | We can. We just keep going again. |
| 04:23:21.70 | Steven Woodside | Hello, sir. |
| 04:23:23.06 | Michael Rex | Bye. |
| 04:23:23.96 | Walfred Solorzano | See you, none. |
| 04:23:24.82 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. We haven't heard the presentation. |
| 04:23:28.43 | Ian Blaustein | We don't have to hear the presentation, do we? If we're going to just take public comment on it? I think that was. Well, I can tell you why I pulled it. |
| 04:23:32.92 | Steven Woodside | That's how you... |
| 04:23:34.35 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:23:34.69 | Steven Woodside | Yes, this was pulled by, I don't know by who, was it pulled by you, Vice Mayor? |
| 04:23:37.85 | Joan Cox | Yes. |
| 04:23:39.03 | Steven Woodside | Go ahead, Vice Mayor. |
| 04:23:40.33 | Joan Cox | I pulled it because the plan still includes the, um, tables along the wall. serving alcohol outdoors in a very crowded For whatever reason, my video has stopped working. The city attorney told me I have to be visible. I can try and join. by phone. I don't know why my video has stopped working. |
| 04:24:09.50 | Steven Woodside | I can hear you, Vice Mayor. |
| 04:24:11.04 | Joan Cox | Okay. Okay. |
| 04:24:11.90 | Steven Woodside | I hear you loud and clear. |
| 04:24:13.40 | Joan Cox | Okay, so I would prefer to see us have the tables and chairs in the parklet that has been approved. by the Planning Commission and remove the tables and chairs that block the pedestrian walkway along the outside of the fish and chips restaurant because that area is so crowded. so frequently and I'm concerned about having people coming and get, there will be more coming and going with the service of alcoholic beverages. Um, Then Um, occurs right now. And so I think it's only two tables or something that are currently being used because there is no parklet. With the parklet, I don't think the two tables that are right up against the exterior of the building remain necessary. So it's just because of the long lines that I see queuing, the very crowded walkway, the difficulty of traversing when there are people lined up outside. And the presence of the new parklet, I think, removes the necessity for the tables to be outside. |
| 04:25:27.21 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so Councilmember Blaustein wants to be recognized and then Councilmember Hoffman wants to be recognized and then we'll come to you soon. |
| 04:25:31.99 | Ian Blaustein | respectfully the planning commission has heard and appealed this item a number of times i think it's been back and forth maybe four times and continued and so if we are going to hear it as an agenda item i'd like to actually hear it as an agenda item and have a discussion about it and not rush through it at 10 51 after we've heard about substantial items because i i for one am not going to be able to give the full consideration that it probably deserves if it's being pulled so i i would put i would suggest that we not hear the two consent items that have been pulled and just take public comment on them if we can. I mean, I appreciate hearing why it was pulled vice mayor and I hope that you don't think that I mean. |
| 04:26:08.71 | Joan Cox | Yeah. I completely agree with you. I had to do research and go back through the record when I saw it on the agenda because I was concerned about the logistical ramifications of it. So I had to do my own research. And so I fully endorse that this needs more than five minutes. |
| 04:26:29.87 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so we'll put this on the business agenda on September 3rd. |
| 04:26:33.99 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:26:34.04 | Ian Blaustein | AND YOU CAN SEE THAT. |
| 04:26:35.45 | Steven Woodside | Okay, with you, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. |
| 04:26:38.04 | Ian Blaustein | Thanks for staying new. |
| 04:26:39.77 | Sergio Rudin | And Mayor, I believe you still need to take public comment on this. |
| 04:26:42.37 | Steven Woodside | on this. Thank you for the reminder, Roger. Yeah, Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 04:26:44.05 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:26:46.91 | Steven Woodside | Did you want to make public comment, sir? |
| 04:26:49.12 | Sandra Bushmaker | That's okay. Yeah, I do. I do. |
| 04:26:51.96 | Steven Woodside | No. |
| 04:26:53.17 | Sandra Bushmaker | I do. Bye. |
| 04:26:55.10 | Steven Woodside | I just- Hang on for one second. |
| 04:26:55.13 | Joan Cox | I just want to. I hear you, Sandra. He was talking to someone in the audience. |
| 04:27:00.46 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, okay, is there any public comment here in the audience? And then we'll go to Zoom. Mike, Mr. Rex. |
| 04:27:08.08 | Michael Rex | not speaking as public. I'm speaking as the representative, the owner and the applicant, Michael and Isaac Lappert. I want to clarify that the tables and chairs, there's three tables, six chairs. They've been approved by the city years ago. for and includes serving beer and alcohol. And the Planning Commission approved they could stay there because they were taking the place of a handicap ramp. and steps and landing that were taken out so the sidewalk Remains the same width it's always been. The parklet is added additive. So I'm surprised that it's coming up at this 11th hour beyond 11th hour to delay this to September. We need to be under construction October 1. And so I asked that You approved the project, which is simply asking for an encroachment permit. or agreement for the parklet. We're not adding anything new or changing anything with that existing approval for those six chairs and three tables. Thank you. |
| 04:28:23.20 | Steven Woodside | Any other public comment in the room? Ms. McDougal. Mr. Chase. I'm sorry. I should honor the city clerk calling people, Ms. McDougal. I'm sorry, Mr. Chase. The city clerk called on you. And I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. City Manager. Sorry about that. |
| 04:28:25.46 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 04:28:39.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:28:39.05 | Jeffrey Chase | This is specifically for the fenced area of South Dunphy Park. or |
| 04:28:43.74 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:28:43.76 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 04:28:43.77 | Steven Woodside | the, |
| 04:28:44.09 | Jeffrey Chase | That was a parklet for the trees. |
| 04:28:44.11 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 04:28:47.92 | Jeffrey Chase | is what we're talking about. And since you have taken away the opening remarks for the people before the meeting, which are in every other single council chamber and the board of supervisors in Marin County, this is the only place Sausalito where there are no opening remarks. |
| 04:29:05.81 | Joan Cox | We have public comment later in the agenda, Mr. Chase. I'm speaking about the parklet. |
| 04:29:08.04 | Steven Woodside | Chase. Sir, you're... |
| 04:29:10.52 | Joan Cox | I'm speaking about |
| 04:29:11.14 | Steven Woodside | You're not your comments about the park. Yes. His comment is about Dunphy Park. Mr. Chase. So it's up to you. |
| 04:29:11.16 | Joan Cox | No, you're not. His comment is about Dunphy Park. |
| 04:29:18.60 | Steven Woodside | The open items will be in just about five minutes if you wanted to reserve your open comments, not on the agenda. |
| 04:29:24.10 | Jeffrey Chase | Okay, well, yeah, I'll do that. I'll do that. |
| 04:29:25.08 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. Bye. that. I'll do that. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Ms. McDougal. |
| 04:29:35.19 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 04:29:35.21 | Babette McDougall | Boy, that man's tall. Thank you very much for acknowledging me, Mr. Mayor. I have no vested interest in this project at all. I just happen to know Sausalito. And I know that Lappertz was actually started by the old man Lappertz. Son Michael came along much later and took it on. So it still exists. And Lappert has proven to be a wonderful corporate citizen in our community, Michael Lappert himself. is involved in local politics where he lives locally in Southern Marin as well, in addition to the businesses. that he has maintained, established by his dad in the very beginning, a very long while ago now. The people love his businesses. I personally, I feel that we can trust him to do the right thing. to move our image of the city for it. And I think that's the bottom line for saying. Yeah, this is a good idea. If you... ultimately decide that it deserves further, more scrutiny, further vetting, I'm for that too, but I just want to make sure you know that as so many of you are new. The truth of the matter is the Lappert name is a long-standing name in this community. One of the longest. Thank you. |
| 04:30:49.27 | Walfred Solorzano | Then we send her a Bushmaker. |
| 04:30:51.40 | Sandra Bushmaker | Just real quick, I just had a question about whether there is going to be remuneration paid to the city for the use of the city street insurance. by the applicant. And I don't know that that was addressed. I'm afraid I did not. Read the agenda item, the attachments. But that is a question that I have about loss of city revenue. from, those parking spaces that are currently in front of the business. Thank you. |
| 04:31:22.92 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, no further public comment. |
| 04:31:24.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:31:24.10 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:31:24.12 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, we'll post public public comment. Is there any discussion or action on this item? So motion to continue it then to September. So moved. |
| 04:31:34.06 | Sergio Rudin | So moved. |
| 04:31:34.67 | Steven Woodside | there's a motion to continue the item to September 3rd. We do need to call the roll for that. |
| 04:31:39.78 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, who seconded? |
| 04:31:41.87 | Sue Fisher King | You didn't have them? |
| 04:31:45.74 | Councilmember Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:31:45.75 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:31:46.43 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member Blossington? |
| 04:31:50.50 | Councilmember Blaustein | to end. |
| 04:31:51.83 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, Councilmember Hoffman. Thank you. Council member coming. Yes. Vice Mayor Cox. Yes. And Mary Sobieski. |
| 04:32:00.86 | Steven Woodside | Yes. So item four. |
| 04:32:06.93 | Steven Woodside | I'm sorry, four, I'm getting too old, I need my glasses. |
| 04:32:09.70 | Joan Cox | It's five. |
| 04:32:10.90 | Steven Woodside | It's a public, adopted public official reimbursement policy required by government codes. |
| 04:32:17.48 | Ian Blaustein | But let's just take public comment on this and hear it at the next, if we can. |
| 04:32:23.59 | Steven Woodside | unless there's a name. Who pulled it? Thank you. |
| 04:32:25.51 | Joan Cox | I mean, I pulled it. I wanted to remove. It says that it's retroactive. A policy that we haven't yet adopted should not be retroactive, in my humble opinion. Again, I would really prefer. |
| 04:32:38.10 | Steven Woodside | I prefer that we just push it. All right, we'll push it then. |
| 04:32:38.42 | Ian Blaustein | THE END OF |
| 04:32:38.45 | Joan Cox | that we just put in. |
| 04:32:38.98 | Ian Blaustein | All right. |
| 04:32:39.30 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 04:32:40.16 | Sergio Rudin | you |
| 04:32:40.17 | Ian Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 04:32:40.34 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:32:40.63 | Steven Woodside | there seems like, Vice Mayor, there seems to be a desire to have further discussion on even that issue. And so we... Okay. |
| 04:32:45.69 | Sergio Rudin | Okay. |
| 04:32:46.23 | Steven Woodside | We'll take public comment on this issue and move to continue it. Any public comment on... this item. Seeing none in the room, seeing none online. We'll close public comment. I'll move. I move. |
| 04:32:58.32 | Joan Cox | I move we continue this to our meeting of September 3, 2024. |
| 04:33:02.67 | Steven Woodside | second, and please call the Royal City Clerk. |
| 04:33:04.59 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, who made the motion? |
| 04:33:06.06 | Steven Woodside | the vice mayor and the council member of Boston. Councilman? |
| 04:33:10.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman? Sorry, Councilman Blossin? |
| 04:33:15.63 | Ian Blaustein | Yes. |
| 04:33:16.47 | Walfred Solorzano | That's when we're coming. Yes. That's Mary Cox. |
| 04:33:18.83 | Ian Blaustein | you |
| 04:33:18.85 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 04:33:18.94 | Ian Blaustein | Yes. |
| 04:33:19.26 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:33:19.46 | Walfred Solorzano | you |
| 04:33:19.51 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm Marisovia. |
| 04:33:19.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:33:20.05 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:33:20.08 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Okay, next item is 4L, authorize the city manager to execute a side letter and license agreement with the South City of Yacht Harbor for the use of 47 parking spaces in Bay Street parking lot for public parking. Is there any public comment on this item? Thank you. |
| 04:33:34.75 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, there is. We do have Sean and Brockett, are you still here? |
| 04:33:45.28 | Joan Cox | Before we take public comment, Mayor, may I just say that I pulled this item to facilitate further negotiation of this agreement. |
| 04:33:52.69 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you for saying that for the record. I should have invited that. |
| 04:33:56.57 | Sharna Brockett | I think I'm, you know who I am, Sharna Brockett resident. I just want to say that I fully support this agreement with the Yacht Harbor. And I really want to thank the Maddens for coming to the table and creating this private public partnership with the city. Uh, it adds 47 spots and it will create a net increase in parking. especially when we remove the parking spots from lot one. So it's a really great deal. I know that this deal has been a long time in the works, and I think we should improve it and not nickel and dime it or be too nitpicky. And anyway, that's my opinion. Thank you so much. |
| 04:34:34.60 | Walfred Solorzano | Adrian Brinton. |
| 04:34:40.41 | Adrian Brinton | Hi, Adrian Brenton again. Thank you. Yeah, again, definitely support this deal. I think it's very good for the city. It's good for downtown. It's good for the businesses. And we should approve it tonight. I know it's really late. This is a key piece of mitigating the parking where we're making the changes for the ferry landing. We are losing those spots, and it sounds like now, you know, that there's potentially agreement even to lose more spots. We can gain spots on Humboldt potentially. This is all on the table and ready to sign. I highly encourage City Council to sign it tonight and move forward. Thank you. |
| 04:35:16.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Scott Thornburg. |
| 04:35:23.31 | Scott Thornburg | Hi, thank you. Similarly to these comments, I would just say I would love for you to approve this tonight. I think it's a really key part of enhancing our downtown. This is a great public-private partnership, as we've just said. This also, I think, I know there was some concern about the term length for the agreement, and I would just say my understanding is that this is the first time this has ever come up. And I think the community would have come up before now if they were open to it. And now that they are, I think we should be thankful for that and try it and give them an opportunity to see what partnering with the city is like, give all of us an opportunity to try, again, try something new. and really lean into that. And if it's not working, we can adjust. And I think we will then also have more data about the performance of revenues from that lot that we can make adjustments going forward. I think we need that length of a term to test and understand that as much as the owners of the South Sea Yacht Harbor do. So Yacht Harbor do. So thank you. |
| 04:36:27.11 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah. |
| 04:36:27.18 | Scott Thornburg | Yeah. |
| 04:36:27.48 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. We have a Peter Van Meter online. |
| 04:36:35.04 | Peter Van Meter | This is absolutely essential to the contract that you authorized tonight. You have to add parking. This has a net increase of approximately five spaces. After you do the bike parking on the east side of parking lot number one, So you're going to have a net increase in time. This agreement with the Susso Yarn Harbor has been under private discussion for actually years. It's come to fruition finally in a form that you can adopt tonight. You must move that ahead. I don't see any reason for not moving that ahead. You've adjusted the parking as requested by the Yacht Harbor relative to Humboldt. Put it into the parking lot number one so that problem is solved. And so the solution is at hand. So. Authorize execution of this side letter agreement and move the whole project forward. Thank you. |
| 04:37:30.88 | Walfred Solorzano | And Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 04:37:36.72 | Sandra Bushmaker | Just real quick, because the term of the agreement is only one year, And either side can withdraw. I just want to put it on the record that if the Yacht Harbor decides they don't want to deal with this any longer, and withdraw or the city decides to withdraw we're going to lose revenue from 47 spaces. or I should say 50% of the revenue from 47 spaces. uh, Add that to the loss of the spaces in parking lot one. And I just want to make sure that we understand what we're doing here. Thank you. |
| 04:38:14.50 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public comment. |
| 04:38:16.09 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll post a comment. Is there a motion? |
| 04:38:20.32 | Joan Cox | I move we continue the consideration of this item to September 3, 2024. Or such date as staff |
| 04:38:26.63 | Councilmember Blaustein | or |
| 04:38:29.47 | Joan Cox | is ready to return to us with the data that we need to fully evaluate our options. |
| 04:38:36.95 | Steven Woodside | made by Vice Mayor Cox, seconded by Council Member Kellman. He's called it all. |
| 04:38:42.87 | Walfred Solorzano | Can someone blast him? Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Council Member Hoffman? Yes. Thank you. Councilman, Vice Mayor Cox. Yes. |
| 04:38:52.07 | Steven Woodside | Yes. Okay. The next item is item four. M authorized city manager to execute amended and reset at least agreement with new village school for the lease of the MLK property at 100 abtide. |
| 04:39:03.20 | Joan Cox | Mayor, I have to recuse myself from this item. I'm going to turn off my camera. And if someone can text me when I can rejoin the meeting, I will do so. |
| 04:39:13.46 | Steven Woodside | when we're done with this item. Yes. Probably comment on this item. |
| 04:39:15.17 | Joan Cox | Yes. |
| 04:39:18.81 | Steven Woodside | Any public comment? City clerk. Thank you. |
| 04:39:20.06 | Walfred Solorzano | Anybody? Bye-bye. |
| 04:39:20.92 | Steven Woodside | Babette McDougal. Ms. McDougal. |
| 04:39:30.46 | Babette McDougall | Well, it's late and sometimes I guess it just plays out this way. Thank you for acknowledging me. The reason I would like to address you right now is, as I have said in my written comments, but I'd like to make them audio for those that are not able to access the documents. So the truth of the matter is, earlier this year... It was suggested, it was in fact instructed by the council that our staff team should develop launched this development of a policy that helps us to understand how we should be negotiating the city's real estate portfolio generally. So it's a little troubling to know that there's been no movement on that front, or none discernible anyway. I've not seen a draft. This having been said, I think it's a little dicey to keep moving forward in these various lease negotiations and agreements, knowing that we don't have a framework for bringing this persistent undervaluing of the city's real estate, except in rare instances, to a standard that will make the city proud and more profitable and maybe further out of deficit spending that much sooner. There are some bottom line considerations for wanting to get this policy in place. And I just urge you to move forward with the policy before we get too carried away with one-offs, no more one-offs with real estate negotiations. Thank you. |
| 04:40:59.99 | Steven Woodside | No further public comment? Any public comment online? Thank you. All right, we'll close public comment. Is there a motion? |
| 04:41:08.47 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:41:08.48 | Steven Woodside | I moved. |
| 04:41:08.52 | Janelle Kellman | I would. I'm motioning to continue to a date uncertain, I think. |
| 04:41:11.52 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'll second that. |
| 04:41:14.71 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, Councilmember Councilmember Blossy |
| 04:41:18.68 | Alice Merrill | Yes. |
| 04:41:20.78 | Walfred Solorzano | I also remember Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 04:41:21.83 | Alice Merrill | Yes. |
| 04:41:21.88 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. Councilman Rick Hellman. |
| 04:41:23.62 | Alice Merrill | Yes. |
| 04:41:23.89 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Vice Mayor Cox. She's recused. Oh, that's right. She's recused. And Mayor Silvioski. |
| 04:41:28.48 | Steven Woodside | Yes, I just texted her to rejoin. So let's see if she'll rejoin. |
| 04:41:33.66 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:41:33.68 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:41:33.71 | Bjarne Hansen | Thank you. |
| 04:41:33.78 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. David Miller, And then we have at least one here in the audience, but this is your time for members of the public to come in items that are not on the agenda. David Miller, So please, Mr chase. David Miller, And then we have at least one here in the audience, but this is your time for members of the public to come in items that are not on the agenda. |
| 04:41:58.82 | Jeffrey Chase | Hello city council. Hello chief of police, Stacey Gregory. So I did mention before that I was going to move my boat to the Sausalito side. I think I did that two weeks ago. It's a 10-hour. limit on sailboats there. There is a boat there now from a person who works for the city. I don't believe in grandfathering in, and that was a con job, as is saying that the former chief of police is not getting two pensions. He is. So that was disingenuous to say that. It's not happening. It is happening. And that this Movement. is also involved in the political run, whether there's gonna be any opposition to the city council incumbents running In November. that I have to be on the Sausalito side to run for city council, which I did last time. I lost for a good reason, which is I did not. Melissa lost the first time she ran. It's not. that easy to do. It's not, there's no books on it. We'll have to figure it out. So if And when the Sausalito Police Department and the Mayor, City Council and City Manager decide to take me away or try to from the Sausalito side, not only are they obstructing my civil rights, not only are they perhaps bringing another black swan event to Sausalito, but they're also obstructing an election. So you can see I'm a little worked up today. I mean, this is a lot from my own personal issues, not having to do with politics, but this is really good therapy for me to talk with you folks. Thank you. |
| 04:44:01.42 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Is there anyone else here in the audience? Anybody in the audience? Matt McDougal? |
| 04:44:06.99 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. file for 22 years here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:44:12.88 | Steven Woodside | Mr. Chairman. |
| 04:44:13.65 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. Yes. Shalom. All right. I'm leaving now, but it's up to you. |
| 04:44:21.13 | Babette McDougall | He's... Thank you. A lot of competition. Thank you. So thank you for acknowledging me. So I want to take this moment. First of all, I'd like to publicly apologize for mispronouncing. Steven Woodside's name at the last council meeting. By the time I realized that my mouth had not engaged my brain and I incorrectly pronounced his name, I had already been needed again. So. So I want to make sure it's clear that I apologize for that. The other thing that I would like to encourage you to strongly consider is officially inviting the citizens back to the council chambers. The hue and cry I heard over the July holiday, July 4 holiday. was that, yes, we'd like to have a town hall meeting, and there's only one place to have it, in the People's Hall. That's the council chambers. We want back. So this idea of reestablishing open debate in the democratic process, is actually a welcome opportunity. It's wonderful that so many people went back in. And it's wonderful that they'd like to have their town hall meetings here. So I'd like to urge you to seriously consider the wisdom of just as you reinstated the Pledge of Allegiance. which is a wonderful start. It's only by us putting our shoulder to the wheel that we ultimately get that liberty and justice for all, that that ever in search of a more perfect union is realized. And we aren't going to give up because we don't scare that easily. So I say, let's just get in. involved and let it happen. I think you're going to be delighted. I think you must see you have an informed citizenry. And I think you'll be pleased with the outcome. So I urge you to consider it. Thank you. |
| 04:46:07.85 | Walfred Solorzano | Sandra Bushmaker. She's online. |
| 04:46:12.33 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi. At the last meeting, it was announced, and I'm forgetting by whom, that the mayor appointed a parking committee. And the parking mayor couldn't remember who he appointed to the committee. So he was going to send a one way communication to the council. And I have seen nothing about who was appointed to the committee. and what the scope of this committee is. And I would very, as a member of the public, who's very active, as you know, with your business, I would like to know, number one, who's on the committee, and what the scope of the committee's activity is. Thank you. |
| 04:46:51.99 | Steven Woodside | No further public comments. Okay. Well, Ms. Merrill, please. |
| 04:46:59.90 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. That was good, the parking. The parking has got to be figured out for the people who... Work here. so that the people who They aren't parking in the spots where the people who live here want to use the services. because the people who park here are now parking in the places where the people who live here want to be. Go. For instance, drivers. The people who work at Drivers are parking all around the neighborhood and moving their car every two hours to not get a ticket. and then the people who live here who want to come to Drivers They're shopping, don't have anywhere to park. so easily. And also I have at Ming, at Michelle, at Ming, Ming at Michelle's asked me every time I see her, are you helping me with my parking problems? Cause she really thinks that. And And Stacey said, well, they can just buy a thing for $6 a day. They can have, you know, $6 a day and you can park for free. When you are making $18 an hour, $6 a day is kind of a lot of money for your whole year. You got to figure something out, I think, for the people who work here. Thank you. |
| 04:48:22.39 | Walfred Solorzano | All right, no further public comment. |
| 04:48:24.03 | Steven Woodside | We'll close public comment then and go to committee reports. I guess I was going to start actually with the parking one since that was missing from the city manager sending the one-way communication, but the people on the, which I never gave him, which was another missing piece. He couldn't send it if I didn't give it to him. So the people on the parking committee are N.S. Bogney from Saxolito, Mark Flattery, Keith Weisselman, Sam Rubin, Levi eastman hank becker amy spenberg and adrian brennerton so i conceived of this not as a committee that was balanced among whose only thing was about being as big as possible it was about who was willing to do the work of uh representing not just themselves that's the charge but to to actually people who would have connections in town in the business community, who would be willing to do the work of going out and talking to their neighbors and figuring out what their concerns are, and are emotionally and intellectually capable of putting themselves in their neighbor's shoes, to try to come together and not simply advocate for themselves at the table, but to look at the Dixon study, that's the charge, and see if there's any low-hanging fruit there that we could implement quickly to make parking better. Things like what Alice Merrill just mentioned, the employee parking situation for driver's market is acute and a real problem. We could probably solve their problem, but maybe create some for so uh as we talked about earlier uh city council is good for many things but um because of the brown act and otherwise being able to hash out all the nuances uh isn't our strong suit whereas an independent group like this that actually it has a stake in the problem uh might be able to come up with some recommendations so it's a working group and, you know, there's nothing magical per se about the number, but those are the people and that's their charge. I'm not part of the committee and I don't go to their meetings. I am there. I designate myself the liaison. So I get there at their service if they need to get information from the city. |
| 04:48:24.13 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 04:48:31.59 | Councilmember Blaustein | That was great. |
| 04:50:26.94 | Steven Woodside | So that's the parking report. Vice Mayor, I know you wanted, maybe you could report out on our insurance committee, subcommittee. |
| 04:50:35.55 | Amis Venberg | Um, |
| 04:50:40.66 | Steven Woodside | You don't have to, but I remember we had a couple of things from our last meeting. |
| 04:50:46.33 | Joan Cox | I don't have my notes in front of me, Mayor. It's 1115 at night and I am |
| 04:50:50.13 | Steven Woodside | And I don't either as Councilmember Hoffman points out, the most important thing to note is we have insurance and actually in earnestness, the team, we do these weekly insurance meetings at noon on Friday because they are morphing into a risk management committee as well. |
| 04:51:08.81 | Joan Cox | So that is one thing, Mayor, is that... The city has... decided to hire a a vendor, risk manager recommended by PRISM, while we continue our search for a long-term employee. I had thought that was going to be part of the city manager's report. I didn't, I'm not sure that I was intended to make that report. But those are the types of things that we discuss at our weekly meetings on Fridays. |
| 04:51:40.30 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Vice Mayor. Any other committee reports about Councilmember Blaustein? |
| 04:51:44.37 | Ian Blaustein | Yeah, I attended the Transportation Authority of Marin's meeting last week, and notably, they are working on the countywide transportation plan, which is the first time that a countywide transportation plan has been considered. And there was a workshop and robust discussion. So that is evolving and is very exciting. Also, myself and the mayor and Councilmember Hoffman attended not a committee, but a celebration of the sea lion at the Trident on Thursday. So just another big shout out to the Sausalito Foundation and all the members of the staff who were involved in making that possible. Thank you. |
| 04:52:19.23 | Janelle Kellman | I'll just add a... I remember coming. I attended the Marine Clean Energy Board meeting last Thursday. We talked about community development grants, access for under-resourced communities to EV chargers and solar rebates. And then we also, just a matter of business, looked at buying the building that it's located in. Also honored to host the North Bay Division of Cal Cities. I am a vice president. I serve with Council Member Hoffman. And the mayor came and gave up any remarks, and the city manager came. And that was really interesting. We heard about some of the climate bond and what's entitled underneath the climate bond. And then we talked a little bit about some upcoming propositions. And then also just flag, not related to council work, but I actually love this topic of insurance and catastrophic risk. So with my nonprofit, we're actually hosting something called the Economic Risk of Climate Change for California Communities here in Sausalito, October 15th at the Spinnaker, in coordination with the Environmental Defense Fund, the Ocean Science Trust, the Stanford Door School, and UC Santa Cruz, and the Department of Insurance. So if you're interested and want to be a community rep, let me know. We're going to try to solve some of your problems. |
| 04:52:19.74 | Ian Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:52:19.85 | Steven Woodside | remember coming. |
| 04:53:34.31 | Steven Woodside | Any other community reports? |
| 04:53:36.43 | Chris Zapata | None? Okay, we'll close. |
| 04:53:37.75 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:53:37.77 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 04:53:37.82 | Steven Woodside | it's |
| 04:53:38.04 | Chris Zapata | manager report. |
| 04:53:38.73 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:53:39.39 | Chris Zapata | Yeah. |
| 04:53:39.44 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:53:39.57 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor, members of the council, members of the public who are still with us, but this will all be part of the public record. The city council went through their strategic planning session in 2023 and has six priorities, but foundational priorities for the city still include finance. You set up a finance committee this last meeting. Still include insurance. Vice Mayor Cox, you're right. There's an insurance report attached. We didn't just get it. We have work to do. And then infrastructure. So the risk management report is in your packet, but I want to talk about infrastructure a little bit. You approved an item tonight, $184,000 of other people's money to help our road program. Our roads are rated at about 58, which is deemed poor. So the idea of infrastructure still is ingrained in my brain, our roads, our sidewalks, our buildings. So we continue to work on infrastructure and to help us get to a better place. What I've done is I've enlisted the aid of some thinkers in our community, some local thinkers, to help Kevin McGowan and I pull together some ideas about how to improve our infrastructures, our roads and sidewalks and stairs in particular. So one of the things that we've done is we've recruited this group of thinkers led by a gentleman named Sam Chase, who's a local engineer. We've added Jose Sanchez, who's a local engineer. We've added Ray Withey, who is important and interested in city finances, and Ron Albert. And that's the kitchen cabinet that I've started with to help me, help Kevin, help us noodle around ideas about how to improve our infrastructure. I understood that, you know, it wasn't a city council priority, but I think, as I said, it's a foundational priority along with finance and infrastructure. So that concludes my report, Mayor and Council. Thank you. |
| 04:55:28.11 | Steven Woodside | City Manager, future agenda items for anyone? Council Member of Austin. |
| 04:55:32.20 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 04:55:32.21 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:55:32.85 | Ian Blaustein | Yeah, I noticed that Mill Valley is hosting a town hall on the BAFA bond. And I think we need to have a conversation since that was approved for the ballot on the very substantial potentially. Yeah, anyway, just I think we should have a conversation about the bond or or an open town hall. But I'd like to just bring that forward as something we discussed. |
| 04:55:43.05 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 04:55:45.68 | Councilmember Blaustein | A DECISION. you're going to be a little bit Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:55:50.96 | Ian Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 04:55:51.25 | Janelle Kellman | to be a presentation. |
| 04:55:51.97 | Ian Blaustein | you |
| 04:55:52.29 | Janelle Kellman | I appreciate it. |
| 04:55:52.88 | Ian Blaustein | Thank you. at the very least a presentation. And yeah. |
| 04:55:55.79 | Steven Woodside | Can you note that city clerk, please? Council member Kellner. |
| 04:55:58.91 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah, thank you. So it was a big night for us tonight. And I will just express just we spent a lot of time focused on the downtown. It feels like the agendas have been very focused in that area almost exclusively. And I would like to return to the strategic elements that we discussed as alluded to by the city manager. So specifically, I'd like to see that hillside ordinance. I want to know what's going on with the geologic hazard report. I want to, roads should be coming back to us until we improve that rating. I hope now that we can continue to look at other infrastructure. And I welcome you to, at any given moment, come down Montemar and enjoy almost bottoming out, you know, as you come up that road or come down Woodward. And these are emergency escape routes that we need. So roads and resilience are two things I'm just gonna keep hammering on. We had a big milestone tonight, congratulations to everybody. And now I hope that we can come back to a lot of strategic concerns and look forward to continuing the hard work. |
| 04:56:58.85 | Steven Woodside | I guess I'll add just because it just because I you prompted it is sometime in the future, not the next meeting, but eventually when we should have EDAC back and give them a new direction, since we now will have a downtown business improvement district EDAC's focus could be directed towards the partnership and other areas of town explicitly by the Council or not. It's up to us, but we can give them that direction. |
| 04:57:20.53 | Janelle Kellman | Just so I have to be clear, infrastructure, resilience and roads. That's what I wanna hear about. |
| 04:57:26.22 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thanks. Vice Mayor? |
| 04:57:28.65 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:57:28.67 | Joan Cox | Yes, I wanted to... remind us that we had spoken earlier this year about inviting the Sausalito Marin City School District to come make a presentation to us. So I was hoping we could do that perhaps at our first meeting in September. |
| 04:57:51.53 | Steven Woodside | He's not that city clerk, Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 04:57:53.66 | Jill Hoffman | I would like to just reiterate Councilmember Kelman's points about how we spend our council time. I think it's – I do understand and know that I believe the Marin City School District is looking for a – they're trying to put something on the ballot for parcel tax. but I would like for us to focus on city council, our limited time, our precious time on our priorities and our city council time. So and this is not specific to, because I think we all got an email about this issue, but I think we have to be specific in our filter about what we put on our agenda and how we task our staff. Because every time we put something on the agenda, the staff has to prepare it and they have to prepare a staff report. And so that takes time. And so maybe, I don't know if we need to talk about priorities again. I mean, we did it in, January, we have some huge housing element issues that we have to get done. And time is running out and we can't continue to waste time. Not waste time, but we can't continue to devote time that's not... City Council priority issues so that that's I would hope that as part of our future agenda item suggestions that Council members are disciplined and look at our priorities before they suggest items be added to our future priority list so. |
| 04:59:30.44 | Steven Woodside | You still have your hand up. |
| 04:59:32.28 | Joan Cox | Oh, it just didn't lower. Sorry about that. Yeah. |
| 04:59:35.40 | Janelle Kellman | Yeah. |
| 04:59:35.47 | Steven Woodside | That's really good. |
| 04:59:35.50 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you. |
| 04:59:35.55 | Joan Cox | for, |
| 04:59:35.75 | Janelle Kellman | Thank you, Mayor. I also just want to repeat a request that I've made to the city manager, that we've all actually made to the city manager, that when we hit the budget again, and I know the treasurer's report was pulled from tonight, I think we would very much like to see a per department accounting and budgeting so we can understand what our staff needs, if someone feels under-resourced, where they are with metrics. So some statements were made tonight about maintenance or about Parks and Rec. I think we need to hear directly from department heads, and we should give them the opportunity to tell. they are with metrics. So we some some statements were made tonight about maintenance or about parks and rec. I think we need to hear directly from department heads and we should give them the opportunity to tell us all about the good work that they are doing. I would love to hear from them. And then the other thing I said at the top of the meeting, I really like it for us to just go through the motions of approving the agenda together so that we're unified in moving forward with the conversation for the evening. We have all had it as as mayors. I don't know what happened to it, but if we could bring it back, I think it's a good practice. |
| 04:59:35.77 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 04:59:36.24 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 05:00:27.17 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll close future agenda topics. There's public comment on all those items. The committee reports, city manager reports, future agenda items. Public comment, Ms. McDougall. |
| 05:00:41.28 | Babette McDougall | just get my own chair and set it up, you know. All right. First of all, I just want to say that I am fully in support of Councilmembers Kelman and Hoffman with their razor focus laser focused. razor sharp focused. on priorities as were outlined during the strategic planning sessions. that there are priorities, there's been Otherwise, we're calling it lip service. And it can't be lip service. And I just want to hearken back. to the close of the former budget year, Kelman's Battle cry was, we're going to kick it off the next meeting. It's all about our priorities. And that just stuck with me. So I just want to say, bravo, that you keep bringing us back to the focal point. of what's going to make the city sustainable over the long term. Thank you. |
| 05:01:39.90 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Anyone online, city clerk? No public comment. Okay, we'll close public comment. And that brings us to the end of the meeting our next scheduled meeting will be september the 3rd uh but just to comment it's been a push for the first half of the year congratulations to my colleagues on making it this far and getting a lot done but also i really want to acknowledge the city staff which has gone through an insurance crisis and pushed a bunch of things through uh the dais here and uh and managed the operations of the city so well so, I know there are only a few of you here, but on behalf of all of us on the city council to the entire city staff, thank you very much for all your hard work and for doing well, the ups and downs. Sausalito is better for it. And we really appreciate you. Enjoy the August break with us not around here and see you in September and have a great summer recess. Good night. |
| 05:02:32.55 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
Kieran Culligan — In Favor: Resident. Criticized a council member's email containing incorrect financial calculations about a negative ROI, calling it misleading and reckless. ▶ 📄
Don Daglow — In Favor: EDAC member. Contrasted Sausalito's cooperative business community with others, arguing collaboration builds city income and defends homeowners. ▶ 📄
Sue Fisher King — Against: Longtime resident and SF business owner. Argued merchant associations, not city involvement, successfully solve these problems in San Francisco. ▶ 📄
Sandra Bushmaker — Against: Resident. Opposed due to city's 50% contribution during a deficit, perceived gerrymandering, lack of steering committee transparency, and complex engineer's report. Requested tabling. ▶ 📄
John Flavin — Against: Resident. Suspicious of cronyism, urged transparency and quarterly performance tracking, unlike the Sausalito Center for the Arts deal. ▶ 📄
Carolyn Revell — In Favor: Sausalito Beautiful board member. Enthusiastic about PBID providing extra services like tree maintenance, planter boxes, and artistic improvements beyond city budget. ▶ 📄
Scott Thornburg — In Favor: EDAC Chair. Noted PBID could support Parks and Rec marketing, emphasized it's a 5-year test with state-mandated transparency and Brown Act requirements. ▶ 📄
Charles Melton — In Favor: Resident. Highlighted unique nature of businesses asking to be taxed, strict reporting requirements in the plan, and need to invest in downtown as main revenue source. ▶ 📄
Sharna Brockett — In Favor: Resident. Supports PBID as a proven model to revitalize downtown, fill empty storefronts, and increase tax base, noting city contribution is less than 0.5% of general fund. ▶ 📄
Cass Green — In Favor: Business community member. Excited and hopeful, believes a rising tide lifts all boats, thanked council and PBID team for their work. ▶ 📄
Adrian Brinton — In Favor: Resident. Trusts the business community as neighbors and part of the community, believes the investment will outperform conservative projections. ▶ 📄
Willie McDevitt — In Favor: Petaluma business owner involved in successful PBID there. Stated smart people pay the tax expecting more in return, and a 1% occupancy increase at his business yields significant city revenue. ▶ 📄
Beth Swerke — In Favor: Resident. Impressed businesses want to pay for this. PBID will revitalize downtown, is a financial benefit, and has worked in other tourist towns. ▶ 📄
Steven Woodside (Public) — In Favor: Resident. Provided historical context on lost revenue tools, cited Capitola's successful BID as precedent, encouraged council to pursue it. ▶ 📄
Alice Merrill — Against: Resident. Feels uncomfortable that city is instigating and contributing 50%; believes businesses should do it themselves while city fixes roads. ▶ 📄
Jeffrey Chase — Against: Resident. Spoke about the dwindling anchorage and criticized attracting tourists for increasing carbon emissions and climate impact. ▶ 📄
Marie Dawkins — Against: Newer resident. Perceived a need for an at-large citizen representative on the PBID board to represent residents who bear brunt of parking loss/fee increases. ▶ 📄
Teresia Ancona — In Favor: Angelino Restaurants representative. Desired improvements like clean sidewalks, better garbage cans, live plants, and graffiti removal that the city currently doesn't provide. ▶ 📄
Mike Monsef — In Favor: Property manager. Stated downtown businesses are suffering with significant revenue drops, vacancies are hard to fill due to downtown's state, and something must be done. ▶ 📄
Babette McDougall — Against: Resident. Acknowledged pros and cons. Major red flag is city's 50% contribution which is extremely rare. Criticized lack of risk assessment models and ignoring constituent concerns. ▶ 📄
Lloyd Silverstein — In Favor: Property owner and SF merchant association founder. Compared clean, safe, full stores in SF CBD area to dirty, struggling area outside it, strongly encouraging a yes vote. ▶ 📄
Morgan Pierce — In Favor: President of Sausalito Beautiful. Supports PBID as public-private partnership, clarifies SB doesn't benefit materially but mission aligns. Asks for approval if votes are favorable. ▶ 📄
Vicki Nichols — In Favor: Longtime resident. Sees PBID as something that can be tried and amended if not successful. Encourages EDAC and landlords to work on tenant mix to excite residents. ▶ 📄