| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.03 | Adrian Brinton | That's strange. |
| 00:00:01.03 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Good evening, Mayor. and council members The meeting of October 15, 2024 is being held at City Council Chambers at 420 Little Street. It's also being broadcast live on the city's website and via Zoom. And it is also on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:23.37 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Mr. City Clerk. We'll call this meeting to order. Mr. City Clerk, would you kindly call the roll? |
| 00:00:32.77 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Blaustein. |
| 00:00:34.35 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, present. |
| 00:00:35.44 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 00:00:37.49 | Jill Hoffman | Here. |
| 00:00:37.75 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:00:37.83 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Kelman. |
| 00:00:40.33 | Steven Woodside | She's absent. She's not present. She's arriving later. |
| 00:00:41.17 | Walfred Solorzano | She's not present. Thank you. Vice Mayor Cox |
| 00:00:45.54 | Steven Woodside | here. |
| 00:00:46.27 | Walfred Solorzano | and Mayor Sobieski. |
| 00:00:47.77 | Steven Woodside | Here in closed session we'll be discussing two items conference with real property negotiator, the Cascade Lee Marina at 1000 and one bridgeway and the second item is conference with real property negotiator the mlk school site 100 ebb tide road. Are there any recusals for this. |
| 00:01:04.83 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Mayor. I will be recusing myself from the second item due to the proximity of my residence to the subject property. Thank you. |
| 00:01:12.90 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, vice mayor. We will adjourn the closed session and return. |
| 00:01:14.84 | Steven Woodside | But- |
| 00:01:15.97 | Steven Woodside | There are no... Sorry, thanks. Yeah, public comment, please, on these two closed session items. There are no public comments. All right, closing public comment. We will now adjourn to closed session and return at 7 p.m. |
| 00:01:16.04 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. |
| 00:01:16.20 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:01:16.24 | Walfred Solorzano | Oh, |
| 00:01:16.47 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Thank you. |
| 00:01:30.73 | Steven Woodside | from closed session there are no announcements from closed session we will adjourn the open session and begin with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. |
| 00:01:41.75 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:01:41.79 | Ray Withy | Thank you. |
| 00:01:42.02 | Steven Woodside | allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:01:43.15 | Ray Withy | Thank you. United States. to the mayor. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. |
| 00:01:50.04 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:01:56.86 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much. We will begin with the special presentation of Katie Thor Garcia. Ms. Garcia. |
| 00:02:07.59 | Steven Woodside | speaking. I don't know if your microphone is working. Could you tap on it to see if it's... |
| 00:02:12.84 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Yes, now it is on. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Sobieski, Vice Mayor Cox, Councilmembers, members of the public. I'm Katie Thau-Garcia, the city's resiliency and sustainability manager. Tonight, I'm here to present information on the shoreline adaptation plan and other recent events related to shoreline resiliency in Sausalito. Please, next slide. You're okay. |
| 00:03:01.15 | Katie Thau-Garcia | I will go over that in my presentation. Perfect. All right. So to give you a brief outline of what I will talk about this evening, first, I will go over a recent history of past events related to sea level rise and shoreline resiliency. Following this, we will dive into the shoreline adaptation plan, remind ourselves of the goals, the scope of work, and deliverables. Next, we will present information. It's the slide before, just the outline. Thank you. Next we will present information on the first community workshop, which took place on September 7th, followed by next steps for the plan. After this, I will talk about other funding recently received by the city and the alignment of this funding with the shoreline adaptation plan. And finally, I will address some conclusions on our work to date. Next slide, please. Thank you. All right. So to go over a few past events in March 2021, then Mayor Hoffman initiated the Sea Level Rise Task Force. And following this, in November 2021, the Sea Level Rise Task Force submitted a report to City Council recommending formal sea level rise adaptation planning efforts. Later, in March 2023, the city received a $1 million grant from Cal OES, thanks to Councilmember Kelman, to create a sea level rise adaptation plan. And later in that same month, I was hired to... as the city's first resiliency and sustainability manager to manage the shoreline adaptation plan, among a bunch of other things. By October 2023, SB 272 was passed mandating local jurisdictions have a sea level rise adaptation plan by 2034 with prioritized funding for those jurisdictions with approved plans. By December, 2023, council approved the consultant contract for the shoreline adaptation plan, the technical and design team, WRT, and the community engagement specialist, Rainwater and Associates. By January 2024, we began work on the shoreline adaptation plan. And most recently, in October of this year, BCDC released their draft SB 272 guidelines, which I will go over later. Next slide, please. All right. So to remind ourselves of the goal of the shoreline adaptation plan, in December 2023, when council approved the professional services agreement with WRT and Rainwater Associates, we also approved the goal that was outlined for this plan. The goal is to prepare a community-informed sea level rise adaptation plan, which includes an update of existing vulnerability assessments, a community vision, and prioritize conceptual adaptation strategies for Sausalito and the neighboring floating homes community. The plan will identify near-term and long-term adaptation priorities along the Sausalito shoreline. The completed shoreline adaptation plan will then be used to leverage further funding to implement projects that were identified in the plan and hopefully meet SB 272 guidelines or at least in part. Next slide please. Together with the technical and design team WRT and the Community engagement consultants rainwater and associates, we make up the project team. The December 2023 Council approved contracts included a roughly 20-month scope of work to finish in late 2025. COB, Elaine McLaughlin, We are currently about a little less than a third way through the project and at the October 29 Council meeting, there will be a formal report with work done on the consent calendar for you at a proof next slide please. So key deliverables from the project staff, that includes the consultants and myself, include a project website, for those of you who haven't checked it out, Sausalito.gov slash Shoreline Plan, community pop-up materials to be used at already scheduled community events, two focus group meetings, three community workshops, a community visioning document based on feedback received from the community, a Sausalito-specific vulnerability assessment, and a final prioritization framework that identifies near-term and long-term adaptation strategies along the shoreline. Next slide, please. Thank you. So on September 7th, we had our first community workshop for the shoreline adaptation plan. The focus of the workshop was to explore projected flooding in Sausalito, sea level rise, and its associated impacts to Sausalito. to provide an introduction and education on adaptation strategies, planning, and how this builds off of previous work. to hear from the community about vulnerabilities, opportunities, and priorities along the shoreline, and to build connections between the project team and the community members. Next slide. So to anybody who attended the workshop, the impact was pretty clear to see. We had roughly 120 participants with people lining up at the door before we even opened. Some people went around back to get into the spinnaker. We had a lot of input that was given and we made connections with the community members and adaptation professionals on the consultant team. Some general sentiments of input that we received from the community was that community members generally who attended the events understood the impacts of sea level rise and were pretty well versed in the projections. Probably in thanks to work done by the Sea Level Rise Task Force. Interest in adaptation techniques were generally in line with Sausalito's character, so supporting things like floating structures. And we heard that there was a high value in maintaining views and public access. And finally, we also heard general sentiments that people were really ready for the next steps. They enjoyed focusing on getting to know the project team and getting education, but they wanted to find out, you know, where we're going. So following the community workshop, everybody was invited to fill out the community survey, which is still open if anybody would like to participate. Next slide, please. So the Shoreline Adaptation Plan remains on time and scheduled to wrap up in late 2025. Our immediate next steps include to synthesize feedback received at Community Workshop One and the community survey, community pop-up events, and workshop number two, which will be coming in probably January 2025. to draft a vulnerability assessment and to draft a community visioning document after workshop two. and to continue to assess the alignment with other city projects and SB 272 guidelines, which are in the draft stage from BCDC and forthcoming. Following the update to council that will be presented on the consent calendar on October 29th, another update will be made to city council most likely. in late winter 2025 following workshop number two. Action at this time will include approving the draft vulnerability assessment and the community visioning document. Next slide, please. So that pretty much wraps up information on the shoreline adaptation plan. Next, I will be talking about three other recently received fundings from the city in terms of grants, either from the state or federal side of things. So since beginning to work in Sausalito and diving really in depth into the shoreline adaptation plan, I've become acutely aware of the issues related to sea level rise, groundwater rise, and subsidence in Sausalito. In late 2023, the city found and applied for funding to continue our understanding of sea level rise and its associated impacts on our infrastructure, particularly on the Gate 5 Road, where flooding acutely persists. In August 2024, the city was notified that we were selected to receive funds from the US Economic Development Administration to complete a Gate 5 Road to Harbor Drive improvement study in the amount of $614,000. Funding is approved to complete data collection of saltwater intrusions, storm drains, and other infrastructure, subsidence mapping, and sea level rise impacts to the area. We have a goal to examine potential solutions in the area, so Gate 5 Road to Harbor Drive, and up to Marin Ship Park. and to expand on the existing planning efforts from the shoreline adaptation plan. Staff will begin to outline the scope of work for this project this fall, and it will be proceeding shortly after. Next slide, please. So following the EDA, notice of EDA funding, the city was also notified from the Ocean Protection Council that we were approved for funding to complete a Sausalito facility vulnerability assessment in the amount of $250,000. The purpose of this is to expand the overall Sausalito vulnerability assessment, which will be completed under the shoreline adaptation plan, and to take a deeper dive into facilities and other infrastructure that might be of risk to sea level rise or storm damage impacts in Sausalito to assess our... basically to assess our risk in those facilities. Funds will be used to build off of the Department of Public Works 2024 facility conditions assessment, which is ongoing, and to model into the future considering sea level rise. A professional services agreement for this work will be forthcoming likely in late 2024. Next slide, please. And finally, we have most recently received award of funding from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to complete planning and designs for the improvement of Turney Street Dock in the amount of $170,000. The project represents one that has been highly advocated by the boating community in Sausalito. We have only just recently received this notice of funding, and we will be working out the scope of work later this year. Next slide please. All right, so now some conclusions about what all of this means. So I just wanna highlight that the Shorley and Adaptation Plan remains on schedule and set to complete late 2025. And this will be prior to three more updates from the council. In addition, significant additional funding was leveraged for these other three projects that I mentioned to build off of the shoreline adaptation plan, which represents a new approach to outside funding brought by myself in collaboration with the sea level rise task force, sustainability commission members, council members, and under the direction of the city manager. And finally, I want to highlight that these are really complex problems. Sea level rise in Sausalito involves getting a lot of people to the table. It takes... really having a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to addressing. So far, they have required collaboration between basically all of the city departments, many commissions, and outside organizations. However, what makes them truly successful is our communities of support, which has been instrumental in getting the funding that we need to do these really important projects. So with that, next slide please. My last one, I just want to end and say thank you to the council, to the community members. Myself, the resiliency and sustainability manager, leans on many community groups, commissions, organizations, businesses, and individuals to help make Sausalito a better place to live, work, and play for us all. Thank you to the many people who have had a hand in supporting this or who have even donated things to raffle off at events. I really appreciate it. |
| 00:15:59.22 | Steven Woodside | And thank you, Director Garcia. I really appreciate your work on this project. Are there questions, please? |
| 00:16:05.72 | Chris Zapata | Yeah. THE FAMILY. Thank you so much. This is really outstanding work. When we hired you, we had the intention of being able to build upon some of the initial efforts and you just slid right in and followed that. I'll just share with the council, the Tourney Street Ram project was something that Katie and I looked at when she first got here and we thought that the Division of Boney and Waterways would be a suitable funder for us. We tried to convince them of that. They did not agree. And I just want to flag that Katie didn't give up, and she astutely identified California Department of Fish and Wildlife as a potential donor. And with that $170,000, not only do we have an opportunity to improve our only public waterfront access, but that means that these bundle of funds is in excess of $1 million for this calendar year. So I just want to congratulate you and thank you for not giving up and pulling on those threads. I did have a question around the Economic Development Administration grant So, and then you touched upon this. Can you just speak a little bit more about how that lays the groundwork for future grants and if you have anything you want to share about your strategy, or a timeframe or what else we might be able to pursue based on that initial grant. Yeah, for sure. |
| 00:17:24.04 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Um, So I guess... I guess I'll start with the scope of work can identify many different ways. to pursue further funding, you know, we could look at storm drains. And, you know, ideally we're going to look at a bunch of different things, but storm drains, saltwater intrusion, impacts to our critical infrastructure related to sea level rise, related to subsidence, related to other aspects of climate change, are all things that could be involved in the scope of work. And I think that sets us up really well to get the implementation funding, right? So this $614,000 is great planning money, but a 2011 study on Gate 5 Road has pointed to some very pricey implementation dollars. So the Economic Development Administration is not unique in their ability to, when they fund planning, they want to see things through to the implementation level. So I think while $614,000 is very exciting, what makes this more exciting is the potential to go back for construction funding. |
| 00:18:42.07 | Chris Zapata | it. And have you given any thought to how this improves the city's risk profile? . |
| 00:18:49.47 | Katie Thau-Garcia | I have after today. I will be presenting this and probably more information in a sit down with our very new risk manager at Sausalito. And hopefully addressing this and figuring out where we can take it. our risk. |
| 00:19:11.95 | Chris Zapata | Congratulations, Katie. Great job. Thank you. |
| 00:19:15.53 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions? I just had one. Is there any focus on the dilapidated docks next to the Turning Street ramp that's on city property? Is that part of your scope at all, or visioning? |
| 00:19:29.77 | Katie Thau-Garcia | So what we included in the grant application is the ramp itself, the gangway next to it, and up to the bulkheads on Humboldt. So it could go all the way that far. as I'm pretty sure includes all of those docs that are in between the the ramp itself and the bullcan. I'm not exactly sure how far this $170,000 is going to get us. So I would... I don't want to say that it will definitely include that. We want to make sure our scope of work is doing as much as possible, but we're not. |
| 00:20:10.59 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. We're not. I'm pleased to hear the scope goes there. Council Member Blasting. |
| 00:20:14.26 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, amazing work. And I think that means that now your department and your role has brought in almost $2 million in grant funding. So that's really incredible. Thank you so much. And I was able to attend the adaptation workshop, and everyone was incredibly enthusiastic. So amazing work. We're all very proud of you and thrilled to have hired you. I just wanted to ask, since I know that sea level rise and flooding is an issue that not just impacts Sausalito, but also impacts, of course, Marin City and the houseboats that are outside of the main realm of the city of Sausalito, what's our plan to share information and best practices learned with our neighbors on this process, and are we already engaging with the county and regional partners to make sure that everyone has the advantages of the grant funding and the work that we're doing? |
| 00:20:39.11 | Eva Crisanti | Thank you. |
| 00:20:58.69 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Yeah, that's a great question and probably one I probably should have touched on a little bit more. I'm really specific to our shoreline adaptation plan. So our scope of work is Sausalito, but our sphere of influence actually goes out to the houseboats. This was done prior to me getting on board with the city. Councilmember Kellen had a great conversation with the county about expanding the scope of work to go out to the houseboats. So they will be included in this. We've gotten some really great feedback from the Floating Homes Association. And then, you know, beyond that, the county has agreed to be involved in that aspect of the plan. So I work closely with Chris Chu on that. At the county. |
| 00:21:52.28 | Steven Woodside | Okay, if there are no more questions, then let's have public comment, please. |
| 00:21:56.77 | Walfred Solorzano | Okay, we have Eva. |
| 00:22:06.09 | Eva Crisanti | Thank you, Eva Crisanti. It does seem to me that the projections you're working with are overly optimistic. We've just seen major flooding in this country in places that were never supposed to flood. And I see Janelle Kelman nodding her head when I say that. And I'd like to point out that the situation is far more serious then anyone on this council or any other elected reps in Marin County are willing to concede. And I must bring up the issue that I tried to raise at the end of the candidate forum, which resulted in your police department, two of your police officers violently ejecting me from the forum. There is an environmental cost, a very steep environmental cost to the war that we are funding that Israel is waging not only in Gaza, But in Lebanon, yes, this is very important. I'll tell you why, Mayor. I'm very happy to explain this to you because none of you have considered it. |
| 00:22:58.94 | Damian Morgan | you But in Lebanon, yes, this is very |
| 00:23:07.44 | Eva Crisanti | In the first two months of Israel's war against Gaza, 281,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions were released. It's now been a year, and they've added Lebanon. So now we're looking at nearly 2 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, and our rate of global warming had already accelerated so dramatically. Now, this is particularly important because The US-Israel relationship comes down even to the local level here in the Bay Area. And this is what the research that I've been doing through CPRA and interviews has shown, that there is a very strong, very, unfortunately, very undisclosed relationship between our elected officials and the lobby that is promoting this current war, which is going to bury us in CO2 emissions. You need to think about this. |
| 00:24:09.44 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker is Damian Morgan. |
| 00:24:22.84 | Damian Morgan | Thank you. As I'm sure you are well aware of that, well aware that the US Army Corps of Engineers has chosen 12 communities in the USA to work with, Marin City being one. The Marin City being labeled underserved is an understatement. It actually is. criminal what has happened in the community I grew up in. I can't state it enough. So they're here and we're hoping, we are actually shooting for a November 1st press conference with Mr. Huffman, I invite you all to come. Sir, this is about our shoreline adaptation. I understand that, sir. It's regarding the environmental impacts to here and to Marin City. And what I'm getting at is, before you cut me off, is that in our meetings with core engineers, Saucido has come up in many conversations. So as Melissa asked, how will we all communicate and work together? Thank you. And we'll be in touch with you regarding sea level rise, regarding the communities. We do all live here, sir. I've been coming to this community for 50 years. So what happens here? I do care about what happens in my city also. So I understand this. I know what a Brown Act is. I've worked in four and a half years, but I have a little leeway for underserved communities and people who want to speak about things that matter to everybody. So thank you. I got a little off course there because he cut me off. So... What I'm saying is, November 1st, we're having a press conference so we all can come together and work on issues together. How does that sound? Work on issues together. what we're hoping for. Hello, Jill. So, uh, Please come. Thanks for the report. We'll see you on the 1st in Marin City. Thank you. |
| 00:26:17.83 | Walfred Solorzano | Next speaker, Jeffrey Chase. |
| 00:26:30.23 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you, Katie, for that interesting report on adaptation, including the use of floating structures, otherwise known as Boats. to deal with this issue. And thank you for talking. I don't know your name, but talking about Israel. Hello, mayor, city council. And a few citizens and workers from the city as well. |
| 00:27:03.31 | Jeffrey Chase | Sukkot is a holiday that's coming up. The Brown Act, thank you for bringing that up. Because Sausalito has chosen... for whatever reason, to be the only town or county to not have the minutes before the meeting for public comment. It has to be a time for freedom of religion. that It's not allowed to prevent prayers, or dedications, prayers or dedications in any religion before the meeting by having chosen not to have three minutes before the meeting and to say every, we have to keep on the agenda. So I'm going to keep on the agenda here about climate change. Thank you, Katie, again, that right now, the only people that are mitigating climate |
| 00:27:33.34 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:27:33.36 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Thank you. |
| 00:27:33.39 | Steven Woodside | THE BEST. |
| 00:27:33.78 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:27:34.57 | Steven Woodside | I got. |
| 00:27:46.74 | Katie Thau-Garcia | We have to. |
| 00:27:57.37 | Jeffrey Chase | the issue here in Sausalito are known as the anchor outs. We use less electricity. We use less car travel. We fly less that if we persist in refusing to mitigate the disasters will get worse and worse. Adaptation is about money. Mitigation is about not doing something. It's like the anchor outs. It's free. Thank you. |
| 00:28:27.82 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:28:27.83 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 00:28:27.97 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:28:28.03 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Is there a... |
| 00:28:30.62 | Steven Woodside | and the other. |
| 00:28:30.87 | Walfred Solorzano | public comment? Yeah, we do. We have online. We have Babette McDougall. |
| 00:28:31.22 | Steven Woodside | it. |
| 00:28:42.55 | Babette McDougall | Can you hear me all right? |
| 00:28:43.91 | Steven Woodside | Yes, we can go ahead. Thank you. |
| 00:28:46.26 | Babette McDougall | All right, so I just want to thank Katie for that nice report. I want to thank Jill. for all that she doesn't want to thank Janelle Kelman for all that she has done between the two women. spearheading this initiative on behalf of our town. I also would like to echo what was said about the frightening amount of flooding that has now taken place in the American South. And although our geography is a bit different here, I think there is good reason to say that, you know, maybe we need to stretch the parameters a little bit in how we consider this whole mitigation effort. I once again would like to call to everyone's attention. What is being looked at around the whole world which is less about these heavy duty concrete walls or these barriers to the flow of water. but instead more sponge-like. more naturally occurring. shoreline interface with water. that over the long term, seems to better mitigate flood problems. I mean, if we experience the kind of back to back storms like what just happened in Florida, Of course, it's a different kind of consideration. But this said, I really want to make sure that you all pay attention to the not so much the seawall concept, which I always hear bantered about, and it concerns me, because these have proven to be abysmal failures throughout the parts of the world where they're employed. So we need to look more organically at our mitigation outcomes. Thank you. |
| 00:30:19.85 | Steven Woodside | No further public comments. All right, we'll close public comment. Is there any other comments from the dais before we move on? All right. Thank you very much. We'll move on to the action minutes from the previous meeting, adopting the minutes from the September 3rd, October 1st city council meeting. Is there any public comment on this item? Yeah. |
| 00:30:35.81 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Jeffrey James. |
| 00:30:44.81 | Jeffrey Chase | Mr. Mayor and counsel, I'm very serious about the absence of a time for prayer. before this meeting for any religion that we do not have it and attempt to cut that off means that we cannot deal on this level with what's going on in Israel. I'm going to mention this because we do not have time for the agenda item. and a prayer. according to the rules, but I'm going to break the rules. That's what anchor outs do. We're illegal boats. Sukkot is celebrated. In John 7. where Jesus changes his mind, He says first he's not going to go, and then he goes. to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of booze. The antidote to grants pass, making homeless people that carry a blanket on public property illegal. We've had some Sausalito Police Department people talk about this with the homeless, and we won't permit going back into the past. that Sausalito Police Department has learned better how to deal with them since Camp Cormorant. So the $50,000. to remove there's only two boats on the Sausalito side. David Lay. And we call him hippie Brian. And I hope he gets well. Today was the day that all the boats were supposed to be off of spinnakers in the eelgrass protection zone. There's exactly one boat there now. All of the other boats are not there. The government has made a promise. And as sometimes happens, they are not going to be able to deliver on that. So we are still there. There are 12 people who are holding very strong. Thank you, Mayor. |
| 00:32:51.62 | Steven Woodside | Any other public comments? No further public comments. All right. Post public comment. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? That would be a minute. |
| 00:32:58.37 | Jill Hoffman | So moved. |
| 00:32:59.70 | Steven Woodside | I think. |
| 00:33:00.46 | Jill Hoffman | Second. |
| 00:33:01.22 | Steven Woodside | All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? The minutes are approved. you moving on to the consent calendar these are generally items considered routine and non-controversial and can pass with an all-in-one motion however any city council member may request that an item be removed from the consent calendar the consent calendar consists today of 3a adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute the fifth amendment to the agreement to purchase of parking equipment and related services with ips group for not to exceed $30,000. 3B, adopt a resolution declaring one VIPs vehicle as surplus and authorizing the city manager to dispose of said equipment at auction. 3C, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute the first contract amendment with HNFH consultants to address sewer customer questions and inquiries in an amount of $20,000 for a total contract not to exceed $94,770. 3D, receive and file the Treasurer's Report for June 30, 2024. 3E, adopt a resolution to amend consultant services agreement with the Novo Planning Group for preparation of an amended housing element, general plan amendment, and rezoning documents preparation for the environmental impact report for the amended sixth cycle housing element in the amount of 154,461 3f waive the second reading and adopt ordinance 5-2024 an ordinance of the city council of the city of Sausalito repealing and replacing chapter 3.30 purchase of supplies equipment and services and procedures for public works projects and amending section 2.08.160 purchasing duty and 3g waiver of the second reading of adopt end adoption of ordinance number 6 2024 an ordinance of the city council of the city of sausalito repealing chapters 2.32 redevelopment agency 5.16 handles and circulars, 5. Redevelopment Agency, 5.16 Handbills and Circulars, 5.20 Miniature Golf Courses, 5.24 Secondhand Goods, 5.28 Operation of Gasoline Service Stations, 11.08 Residential Development Review, 13.12 Fortune-Telling, Palmolistree and Similar Practices, and 17.20 Street Numbering of the Solito Municipal Code. Are there any items that, oh, and yes, city manager. |
| 00:35:15.06 | Chris Zapata | Maryland. |
| 00:35:18.92 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, we have a request to pull item 3E to push to the October 29th meeting. |
| 00:35:24.36 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, sir. Yeah, that was a request passed on by staff that three is not yet ready. And so at the request of staff that will be removed. Of course, anyone can make public comment about that item as it is still an agenda item. It will appear again in a subsequent meeting. Is there any request to move anything from a consent calendar and if not go ahead? |
| 00:35:45.64 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor. I don't have a question to remove. I see Director Hess is here, and I'm wondering if I could just ask a clarification question about the Treasurer's report. to her. So I'm just looking at the city of Sausalito Treasurer's report from June 30, 2024. Sorry, forgive my ignorance. I see a column current quarter par value. and then GASB 72, fair market value. And could you just articulate the distinction between those two or how we should be They're the exact same, but I'm just wondering why they have, there you are, the titles, yeah. |
| 00:36:11.52 | Chad Hess | Yeah. Yeah, so the par value would be the base value of that security, whereas the GASB 72 fair value would be adjusted based on the market value of LEAF. So in most instances, it's going to be the same with the exception of LEAF. There's a scalar factor that they publish for the end of the quarter. |
| 00:36:33.24 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. Okay, and then if there was an opportunity to make suggestions for changes that would have been included in this report? |
| 00:36:41.63 | Chad Hess | changes for |
| 00:36:42.91 | Chris Zapata | different accounts or maybe you weren't pleased with the percentage change. |
| 00:36:47.32 | Chad Hess | This is simply reporting what we hold at that given point in time and just giving an overview of that. Not looking for recommendations at this point, just a file and receive of what our cash positions are and where it's held. |
| 00:36:59.94 | Chris Zapata | Let me rephrase that. By not asking for any changes or recommendations, you are implicitly suggesting that you are satisfied with the results of the Treasury. |
| 00:37:07.24 | Chad Hess | Yeah, I'm comfortable with where we hold our dollars. We are continuously evaluating things, but no recommended changes at this point, from my view. |
| 00:37:14.92 | Chris Zapata | Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mary. |
| 00:37:17.54 | Steven Woodside | Okay, seeing nothing from the consent calendar, we'll move to public comment on the consent calendar items. Mr. City Clerk. Thank you. |
| 00:37:24.78 | Walfred Solorzano | Are you with me? |
| 00:37:33.89 | Ray Withy | Good evening. I want to make three points. The first is a sort of summary point that The Quarter 4 Treasurer's report tells me that the city is in a very strong financial position. we have built and you have enhanced. Fiscal resiliency. Second point, what's fiscal resiliency? Well, it's flexibility. Primarily the development of a very significant cash balance that you've deployed in different ways. Let's take the pension trust fund as an example. many jurisdictions locally. probably in the North Bay, possibly in the state, would envy the position we are in. with regards to our pension obligations. The pension trust fund has been well funded. I think you're going to continue to fund it. And I think you're well positioned, very much so. Okay, such that It's dropped significantly in terms of my anxiety levels about the fiscal position in the city. And then finally, the third point I want to make is on our infrastructure. There is no question that over the years, and you as a council through Measure L, changed the trajectory of the amount of dollars that we could invest in our infrastructure. the key challenge you face. And the key challenge the next council faces is how to exponentially change. that trajectory, because the dollars you need certainly can't be obtained from the general fund. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:39:33.99 | Walfred Solorzano | Jeffrey Chakes? |
| 00:39:34.72 | Ray Withy | Thank you. |
| 00:39:41.08 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to make it official. I'm dropping out of the council race. I filed a lawsuit in federal court, but the hearing will not be until January. However, to add on to that lawsuit, we will be taking a vote on the Anchorage. deciding what we're going to do as the government has failed with their plan, which was not a good plan at all. Yes, I'll be talking about the consent calendar. So what the consent calendars, we'll start with... THE END OF THE END OF THE 3A. That's $30,000 for parking. So right now governments, instead of mitigating against automobile emissions, which contributes significantly to climate change, are making much of their revenue, off of parking. So I would take that off the calendar. $94,000 for questions about the sewer system, up to $94,000, at least $33,000. That would be outrageous. so I don't see that that's non-controversial. $154,000 on 3E, which you've taken off temporarily, but I'd like to congratulate you on 3G, which means that secondhand goods and miniature golf courses... And fortune-telling, palmistry, and similar practices are now allowed in Sausalito. So thank you very much for that. |
| 00:41:21.50 | Jeffrey Chase | The consent calendar is not non-controversial. What can happen, and the clerk and I had a discussion about this, is we can reduce the pensions, especially when people like John Rohrabacher, former chief of police, is getting a double pension at the moment, that we can have, if we need workers for the city, hire workers for the city, not side room deals with no discussion, otherwise known as this calendar. |
| 00:41:46.76 | Steven Woodside | Otherwise, |
| 00:41:50.49 | Jeffrey Chase | Okay. Just because I'm not running. |
| 00:41:54.07 | Walfred Solorzano | We have people online. We have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:42:01.70 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, counsel. I just would like to make a positive suggestion so that the public further understands budgetary issues and spends that exist on the consent calendar. In addition to the amount being put in the caption, I would also like to request the source of these funds. In other words, where do these expenditures come from in the budget? Is it from the particular department's budget? Or is it from Is it outside of the budget and coming from the general fund or other funds? So that is my request that we have an identification of the funds that are being used for these items that appear on the consent calendar. Thank you. |
| 00:42:46.13 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Next speaker is Babette Portugo. |
| 00:42:55.02 | Steven Woodside | Go ahead, Ms. McDougall. |
| 00:42:56.15 | Babette McDougall | Okay, can you hear me? |
| 00:42:57.01 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Yes, we can. Go right ahead. |
| 00:42:58.51 | Babette McDougall | All right. I love it when it works. Okay. So as many of you know, I certainly have questions about your consent calendar. |
| 00:42:58.78 | Steven Woodside | at least. |
| 00:43:05.26 | Babette McDougall | It was very nice of Vice Mayor Cox to respond to me today to explain a little bit about why we're looking at a June 30th. financial report at this time of year. I don't know, maybe someday I'll understand it. In the meantime, I wonder why the city of Sausalito puts so much funding decisions under this thing called consent calendar. I mean, not long ago, somebody raised the issue that you're talking about well in excess of a million dollars just on the consent calendar. Now, today, we're still looking at big numbers. And I love Bushmaker's idea about why don't we identify the funding sources? Because I don't really know how we're going to ever get our arms around this consent calendar the way you all are driving it lately. And I don't know what to make of how we're going to spend all this money on consultants. Quite honestly, it's a rather poor reflection on our staff. It strongly suggests a million dollars for one consultant alone. This is a job that somebody is hired to do. Imagine spending that money on staff instead of consultants, where we have an institutional memory that we're better equipped to move forward on. And finally, I just want to say, going back to this issue of staffing and consultants, why are we spending so much money on consultants? If our staff cannot handle the work, then why don't we look at staffing adjustments? rather than just blowing it on consultants. Thank you. |
| 00:44:31.16 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. commenters. Yeah, Adrian Brenton. |
| 00:44:45.50 | Adrian Brinton | Hello, can you hear me? |
| 00:44:47.09 | Steven Woodside | We can hear you. Go ahead. |
| 00:44:48.88 | Adrian Brinton | Great. I just wanted to say on item 3D, the treasurer's report, We're super excited to see that when we closed the books for last year that we had a surplus. I think half of that surplus came from the city staff and reductions in addition to the other half going from more revenues that weren't expected, but you know, the half that came from reductions, I think we can attribute a good part of that to the hard work of our city staff. So I just want to jump on and say thank you for that. And thank you for, taking our finances very seriously. We obviously have the deficit this year to worry about and deal with. And this having more money coming into the year definitely helps there. So thank you very much. |
| 00:45:32.18 | Steven Woodside | No further public comment. All right. We'll close public comment. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? |
| 00:45:33.11 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. |
| 00:45:36.38 | Jill Hoffman | A follow-up question? Actually, it's a clarification question for our finance director. And it's also, I suppose, for our attorney, city attorney, it's a Bran Act issue. I just want to make it clear, based on some of the public comment, that we haven't discussed in the staff report supporting the treasurer's report, didn't have any report on the pension trust fund. Do you agree with that? |
| 00:46:01.19 | Chad Hess | There is financial information regarding the pension trust fund's balances. |
| 00:46:06.28 | Jill Hoffman | But there's no analysis, and in the three page staff report there was certainly no analysis |
| 00:46:10.82 | Chad Hess | Not on the treasurer's report. Thank you. But it does report the balances. |
| 00:46:12.10 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Got it. And also infrastructure. There's nothing in the three sentence staff report or in the treasurer's report that would directly relate to a report on infrastructure. |
| 00:46:23.66 | Chad Hess | there is a report on the balances of those funds that have available resources. |
| 00:46:28.19 | Jill Hoffman | That's all. |
| 00:46:29.06 | Chad Hess | for us. |
| 00:46:29.55 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and that's the purpose of, Treasurer's Report to report on the balances in our current accounts. |
| 00:46:36.54 | Chad Hess | Correct. |
| 00:46:37.11 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks. |
| 00:46:37.62 | Chad Hess | Yes. |
| 00:46:38.65 | Jill Hoffman | Can I ask? |
| 00:46:39.97 | Steven Woodside | a follow-up I guess I'll make a follow-up comment. This is the second time we've seen the Treasurer's report on consent. You had a detailed staff report at the September 3 Council meeting in which you did go through the investment policy, the various... um, funds held Um, in the trust in the parking fund in the general fund in the mlk fund in the measure l fund is that right. |
| 00:47:11.42 | Chad Hess | Yes, this was presented back in September. |
| 00:47:13.78 | Steven Woodside | on consent on September 3, and we unanimously adopted your report at that time, didn't we? That is correct. Thank you. |
| 00:47:16.36 | Chad Hess | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:47:16.60 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:47:21.76 | Jill Hoffman | A follow-up based on that then. Then why is it on our, why is it on the consent calendar again? That's somewhat unusual that we would have. |
| 00:47:29.78 | Unknown | Let me respond to that. you |
| 00:47:31.67 | Jill Hoffman | Pardon me? |
| 00:47:31.94 | Unknown | Let me respond to that. |
| 00:47:33.36 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and if we're gonna go into deep analysis, and I would suggest that we not veer and violate the Brown Act about a deeper analysis of what this Treasury report means, and an unnoticed discussion. of our Fiscal position or anything else that we may veer into. So, I mean, this legislating by ambush has got to stop. Either – this is gonna be an agendized item and we're gonna have a full discussion of it. or we have a three-page staff report. So if we're going to veer off into something else, I think, once again, We're very excited. |
| 00:48:10.50 | Sergio Rudin | David Miller, Council if I can probably try to help provide some clarity per state law, the city treasurer is supposed to provide a written report that is just the receipts disperse dispersements and fund balances to be provided to the Council. Additionally, there is for public agencies that have investments, there is supposed to be a quarterly report regarding the investments. So. I mean, typically these are pretty perfunctory if they're just the monthly reporting. |
| 00:48:39.05 | Jill Hoffman | This is on our agenda, I guess, for the second time. As a treasurer's report, I'm happy to move on, but it seems like this is being veering off into something. that was not noticed. |
| 00:48:52.30 | Steven Woodside | Well, I'll just make the point that any council member can pull anything that's on consent off of consent if we'd like to have a more thorough discussion regarding it. That is our practice. It's on consent because it's considered routine and customary. But if any council member seeks a... more detailed discussion of any consent item we are welcome to pull it off, and we also typically defer to members of the public who request that we pull an item off of consent. |
| 00:49:25.32 | Chris Zapata | May I, Mr. Mayor? I just have a question for the. |
| 00:49:28.02 | Steven Woodside | I think the city manager had a comment. I want to respect that he asked for the floor, Mr. City Manager. |
| 00:49:29.37 | Chris Zapata | Yes, I want to see that. |
| 00:49:33.62 | Chris Zapata | you're right. Thank you. Yeah, the question is why is it on twice? And the answer is, The code that the city of Sassau operates under requires a city manager to give information that's financial to the city council. It's a requirement. When I see questions regarding the financials of the city, it's pretty important to clear them up. So if the city staff report on the 9th, I believe it was, wasn't as thoroughly reviewed by the public or by the community, and it creates some doubt about the city's intention in releasing information, and then I'm going to release it again simply because in September on the 9th, in that staff report dated, Chad signed it, 8-27, this information indicated our general fund balances, which again are a snapshot in time for 23, 24. And so when you look at that, and you look at them again, what that tells you is our fund balance is increased in the general fund by a couple million dollars. And that informs future conversations that are financial in nature by the city council. I don't want any confusion about what our numbers are because there seems to be some sentiment that we are cooking the books in some way, shape or form. But I told you three years ago, we have a infrastructure issue Easy to see. I told you a year and a half ago, we have $10 million in general fund reserve that we need to figure out what to do. You put together your 25% reserve policy. Now I'm telling you that you have |
| 00:50:58.78 | Adrian Brinton | you |
| 00:50:59.25 | Chris Zapata | better than expected financials at the end of 2024, 2025, and I'm telling you twice so that you can have a real conversation about it in the future and there'll be less confusion about this in the public. |
| 00:51:11.55 | Steven Woodside | We have a motion. |
| 00:51:11.97 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 00:51:12.02 | Steven Woodside | on the consent calendar. |
| 00:51:13.39 | Chris Zapata | May I just ask a clarification? Ms. McDougal mentioned, Director Hess, why is it dated June 30th, 2024? It sounded like there was a reason for this. It's dated August. |
| 00:51:13.42 | Steven Woodside | May I just ask her to say that? |
| 00:51:24.41 | Chad Hess | So it's the balances as of June 30th, we report at the end of each fiscal quarter. It was dated when it was prepared, and it was presented on September. 3rd. So that's why it was dated August, because that's when I completed the report and submitted it to council. for inclusion on the agenda. |
| 00:51:43.06 | Steven Woodside | I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar. Is there a second? |
| 00:51:47.58 | Steven Woodside | SECOND. |
| 00:51:48.19 | Steven Woodside | All right, all in paper, say aye. Bye. I think calendar is approved. We'll move on to the next business item, which is for No public hearing items. First business item is 5A, authorize the city manager to execute a professional services agreement for planning and building services with four-leaf effective July 1, 2024, not to exceed $330,000 through June 30, 2025. Mr. Director Phipps. |
| 00:52:13.57 | Unknown | Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, members of the public and staff. Happy to be here, as always, this evening to introduce Council Item 5A, as stated by the Mayor, a request to authorize the City Manager to execute a PSA with four-leaf for fiscal year 2425. And thank you, Mr. City Clerk, for putting up the presentation. Before I dive in, I'd just like to address the... contract amount of $330,000 and state that the true amount of this contract is in fact much lower, closer to $163,000 based on a large portion of this contract being paid by permit applicants. revenues occurring for the city for our administration of building permit applications, as well as a contract buffer of 10% to maintain insulation in cases of overbillings or the need for a greater amount of services that were initially accounted for. So these things together reduce the true contract amount by approximately $167,000, or just over 50% of the total contract amount. And I'll discuss this further in the presentation, but also wanted to name it up front in order to reduce any potential sticker shock. Next slide, please. As Council may recall, a significant portion of CDD staffing roles were being filled by third-party consultants when I began working for the department. Since that time, significant changes have occurred, specifically as related to new personnel and decreasing reliance on third-party consultants. I would say primarily as related to Four Leaf. Specifically in October 2022, as you can see here, more than half of CDD's staff, including the director role, were filled by four-leaf personnel. Only one staffer from that era is still present with us, and that staffer is our building inspector, Kenneth Henry, who has been with the city for 19 years and counting. Just prior to me joining the department and at this exact time with the staffing you see here, the Community Development Department was spending over $100,000 per month on Fortleaf. Next slide. Regarding new personnel in CDD, as you can see here, we have significantly reduced Four Leaves' role, specifically as related to our planning team, our community development or permit tech role, and our code enforcement officer, and have filled these positions with full-time in-office staff. Four Leaf's role in CDD is currently limited to filling the role of building official as well as providing essential building plan check review services. As a result of these changes, as well as increases to the quality of management within the department as a whole, the Community Development Department has realized tremendous budgetary savings, turning our $100,000 monthly Four Leaf bill into a $25,000 monthly bill, a reduction of 75%. Next slide. Here's a graph that I put together based on four-leaf spilling to the city since the city's initial contract in 2022, which highlights the reduction that I was just speaking to and over $100,000 monthly bill down to $25,000 per month. Next slide, please. As I mentioned at the start of this presentation, the true amount of the fiscal impact of this contract to the city is significantly lower than the contract amount. This is primarily due to the fact that the city does not pay directly for fees associated with building plan check review services. Rather, these fees are paid by the applicant and passed through from the city to the applicant to four leaf. excuse me, the applicant to the city to Four Leaf. These pass-through payments represent about 33% of the total proposed contract amount, which equates to approximately $110,000. So if we subtract the pass-through amount from the total contract amount, we reduce that 330 to 220,000. Moreover, when you factor in other aspects of the contract, such as a built-in buffer and the revenues generated to the city through retaining 25% of our building permit plan check fees for permit management and administration, the amount further reduces to approximately $163,000. less than half of the total contract amount. Finally, the city realizes savings of approximately $214,000 per year. based on leaving the position of building official unfilled. That amount is based on discussions with the HR director, as well as related to the total cost of the building official's salary, plus any benefits that the city would accrue in addition. Next slide, please. So that brings me to staff recommendation. Recommendation this evening is that the City Council authorize the manager to execute a professional services agreement with Four Leaf in an amount not to exceed $330,000 to continue the provision of essential services to support the necessary function of the Community Development Department. And just to reiterate, this agreement is intended to cover costs of contracted staffing or the position of building official, as well as essential building plan check review services. Next slide, please. That does it for my presentation. Thank you, counsel. And I am available to answer questions. Vice Mayor has. |
| 00:57:48.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Dr. Phipps. first question. |
| 00:57:54.95 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Director Phipps. I am shocked. I had not realized... Of course, I wasn't on the council in 2022 that we had one person then who is still with us today. So that is shocking. And congratulations to you for the great efforts in rebuilding your department. I wanted to just highlight something in your staff report regarding the ongoing use of Four Leaf as the building official. we are realizing a salary savings by using FourLeaf as the building official, which amounted to roughly $107,000 for the first half of the fiscal year. Is that right? |
| 00:58:39.62 | Unknown | Correct. |
| 00:58:39.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay. And so, Are there plans to eventually hire an in-house building official? |
| 00:58:48.97 | Unknown | So firstly, appreciate the comments, Vice Mayor. Thank you very much. And to your question, the answer is yes. I have been in touch with our HR director. We plan on re-soliciting for the position of building official. but only after we have a meaningful discussion on potentially increasing the salary ranges for that role. We have attempted to fill that seat in my time with the city, not one, but two, not two, but three times. This would be attempt number four. So in order to make more attractive, |
| 00:59:01.86 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Bye. |
| 00:59:21.55 | Unknown | the role, the position in the city. Increasing the salary is one additional avenue that we might take. And there are some additional strategies that I've discussed with the HR director that, you know, I look forward to digging into her as well, with her as well. Thank you. |
| 00:59:36.49 | Steven Woodside | And then my other question concerned your CDD staffing overview. And again, thank you very much for that table. I did not see code enforcement. And I had thought that code enforcement used to be a function of C, a community development department. |
| 00:59:54.15 | Unknown | It should be there. Maybe I just missed it. Let me go to my slides. |
| 00:59:56.09 | Steven Woodside | Maybe I just missed it. Oh, CE officer. |
| 01:00:02.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:00:02.15 | Chris Zapata | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:00:02.32 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:00:02.37 | Unknown | Code enforcement officer, excuse me for the acronym in this |
| 01:00:02.44 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:00:02.45 | Steven Woodside | . |
| 01:00:04.63 | Chris Zapata | It's an attachment to as well. |
| 01:00:05.98 | Steven Woodside | And so that is also a third-party consultant. So this says that... Well, |
| 01:00:14.49 | Unknown | So I'll just clarify. in 10, 2022, that was a position that was filled. |
| 01:00:20.58 | Steven Woodside | Okay, now. |
| 01:00:21.00 | Unknown | Bye, 4Leaf. And now it is Mr. Van Hook. |
| 01:00:23.13 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay. |
| 01:00:23.41 | Unknown | Thank you. at full-time in-office staff. |
| 01:00:25.88 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. All right. |
| 01:00:27.03 | Chris Zapata | Thank you so much. |
| 01:00:27.99 | Unknown | Thank you, Bruce Meyer. |
| 01:00:30.52 | Steven Woodside | Go ahead. |
| 01:00:30.86 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:00:31.34 | Chris Zapata | Hi, thank you, Director Phipps. So I did a very thorough redlining of the four-leaf contract the first time it came through, and I will just... suggest that it's missing many of those key elements. So let me ask you this, who will be managing this contract? |
| 01:00:49.87 | Unknown | I will. |
| 01:00:50.57 | Chris Zapata | And how often will it be audited? |
| 01:00:53.47 | Unknown | We can audit it as much as counsel desires. I will say, you know, I generally would say I don't conduct formal audits in connection with provisions of essential services. However, I do have constant contact with the contract manager on Fort Leap's side. That's Craig Toll. And I do track. certain metrics as related to the performance of our consultant to ensure that they're providing quality service. |
| 01:01:19.15 | Chris Zapata | So let's talk about those metrics. I don't see them in the contract. One of the concerns we had the first time around that I had redlined was that we wanted the same individual doing the plan check so that there wasn't somebody reviewed it twice and then the third time around it was a different individual. Those type of safeguards are not included here. Are they intended or how else might they be covered? |
| 01:01:43.15 | Unknown | So, |
| 01:01:43.22 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:01:43.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:01:43.25 | Steven Woodside | So, what? |
| 01:01:43.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:01:43.52 | Chris Zapata | or |
| 01:01:43.54 | Steven Woodside | There is a provision that says it's Craig Toll. I'm sorry, what's Craig? Craig Toll is identified as the person responsible for the work in the contract. |
| 01:01:52.57 | Chris Zapata | So he's the only individual who will do any of the plan check work? |
| 01:01:56.02 | Unknown | He's the manager of the contract. |
| 01:01:57.49 | Chris Zapata | So this is my concern. The number one issue that I hear about four leaf from residents is that they have different four leaf contractors working at any given time on their plan check. And so the first time around, we really wanted to make sure if they started it, they continued it. And then my second part of that question is who decides, you know, there's it's more expensive after two checks. Who decides when it goes to checks three plus, which is a higher fee? |
| 01:02:27.09 | Unknown | So I'll clarify, it is the initial check plus two additional checks that are included in the initial review. Any follow on reviews will be charged. I'll also state, and thank you for the questions, I think they're important ones for us to dig into. As related to the number of staff members per project, I did do, for lack of a better term, an audit on exactly this to assess how many staffers are on each project. the vast majority of the time, it's between one and two people. The amount of people that review the contract, however, depend on a few factors. One of those factors is the schedules of four-leaf staff. So for example, somebody might go on vacation. That would be unfortunate, but in order to keep the contract moving forward, in some cases, 4Leaf requires an additional staffer to review. I'd say that is a small percentage of the time. A more likely case is that a project is submitted which requires 4Leaf to review for multiple different specializations. So, for example, 4Leaf has architectural specialists. Fourleaf has engineering specialists. And based on the kind of comments that are needed to fulfill compliance, those specialists are both required. So that is one of the ways in which we increase the number of people who review. Based on my assessment, I do not feel that the number of people reviewing for the contracts is inappropriate or outside of any industry standard. |
| 01:03:59.11 | Chris Zapata | Okay, thank you. On page 14, it says larger complex plan reviews can be negotiated to achieve the best possible pricing. That stands out for me and I'll ask it as a global question. Who is really making these decisions around is this a larger complex plan review or when something is over time or premium time which you can see on page 14 has a multiplier for the rate. How much control are we exerting over the contract and how closely are we watching their work? |
| 01:04:30.80 | Unknown | Yeah, so for larger contracts, I have almost daily correspondence with the four-leaf folks to ensure that we're shepherding projects forward. I would say that generally, as related to larger projects, that takes more of my focus on average in all cases. So scale is definitely a factor, and I would say that the scale of projects, but also the actions of the applicant to fulfill the requests of a four-leaf commenter or achieve compliance is an aspect, too. I have just one example. Worked with and reviewed some comments from four-leaf that were not responded to the first time by applicant, not responded to the second time or the third time, and the applicant comes to our offices asking why we haven't approved their project. And... At that time, I generally review and arrive at those exact comments that have been provided. Communicate that with them and chart a path to success. |
| 01:05:29.14 | Chris Zapata | Who decides the turnaround time for plan check |
| 01:05:33.20 | Unknown | The turnaround time is firstly motivated by the Permit Streamlining Act. We must meet certain deadlines, and those deadlines are generally around 30 days. However, you'll also see on the four-leaf, I think, fee schedule that all reviews attempt to be conducted initially within 10 days, and then following that within an even shorter period of time. And for lack of a better term, I conducted an audit of the amount of time that 4Leaf takes on each of their building plan check reviews. And I note the average is approximately 10 days. which is very well in line with an industry standard. |
| 01:06:16.22 | Chris Zapata | I'm sorry, one more question. |
| 01:06:16.83 | Katie Thau-Garcia | Thank you. |
| 01:06:17.96 | Chris Zapata | Do we know whether 4LIF has the ability to assign somebody who has knowledge or experience with Sosileta Zoning Ordinance? Because that's been also a concern in the past, whether someone has no idea and then it's very slow. |
| 01:06:32.03 | Unknown | Excellent, excellent question. So the good thing for us is building plan check review primarily relates to the building code, which is a non Sausalito specific document. So I would say as related to building plan check, And in all cases, always good to have some institutional knowledge, you know, some grouping of folks who understand how the city works. And we have been contracted with 4L for some time. I believe that the building plan checkers in Sausalito, excuse me, that work for Sausalito via 4L do understand some of the unique aspects of Sausalito and some of the intricacies that make certain plan reviews more challenging than others. For example, building on a 40% slope. Yeah, I'll end it there. Thank you. |
| 01:07:21.34 | Steven Woodside | Don't do it. Julie, raise your hand. |
| 01:07:28.06 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Well, so I was on the dais in 21 and 22, so I'm not as surprised that we had so much of a turnover. And I will note that recent reports from the United States Census Bureau as well as the World Economic Forum recognizes – there's actually terms for it. It's called the Great Resignation in 2021. And in 2022, it's called the great reshuffling. So huge amounts of numbers of people changing industries, for whatever reason, and we certainly saw that here in Sausalito where people quit because they wanted to be closer to home, they didn't want to come into the office. and they didn't want to work here in City Hall as required. So I'm not surprised. There's been almost a complete turnover since then in the four years. That's striking, but I will say... I'm enormously pleased with the department now and where it is now and you specifically as our new CDD director and so thank you I think you're doing a fantastic job and the rest of the new guys you know Matthew and Maria Hernandez and all the all your team over there so. I'm very happy about that. Um, we talked a little bit earlier today and, um, As we discussed, there were some performance questions about for leaf and I think we've talked a little bit about some of the just now with the councilman kelman's questions about controls and performance uh metrics uh and performance reviews with them and so you've talked a little bit about some of those are baked in but we um do you have anything more to add um on that uh issue with the |
| 01:09:06.05 | Unknown | Thank you for the comments, Council Member. You're welcome. Very much appreciated, and I appreciate the question. So as I've learned from Council Member Kelman, it's always nice to bake smart metrics into the way that we manage our contracts. So I would say metrics that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound are metrics that I want to evaluate when we evaluate the contracts that we have with our third-party consultants. Some of the metrics that we've talked about already, I think are important. And I'm just going to summarize those in addition to some of the others that are kind of part of my primary set of smart metrics. So the average number of reviews per project. based on my review. With four-leaf, it's two to three. That is consistent with the industry standard. Average time to complete review, 10 days. First review generally is longer. Second and following reviews are generally shorter. That is consistent with industry standards. Price to city. for the review. In this case, this specific contract, the city receives 25% of building plan check review fees. As related to the contract amount specifically, that would equate to approximately $27,000 based on 33% of the total contract being paid by applicants as pass-throughs. Another one, average four-leaf staff per project, as mentioned, one to two people, primarily based on scheduling and required reviews from specialists. And plan check averages, how many per year, and what are we charging, or what is the average charge, and what does the city get? We average around 150 plan checks per year. totaling approximately $110,000 with an estimated average permit or building plan check fee of $733. So those are some of the metrics that I use and keep apprised of and update over time. I would be open to any additional smart metrics that council would like to suggest. |
| 01:11:09.81 | Jill Hoffman | And Director Phipps, we are currently preparing to put out another job listing for the building official position that Four Leaf is now going to fill, but we're looking for a full-time person for that. |
| 01:11:26.31 | Unknown | Right. |
| 01:11:26.80 | Jill Hoffman | And if we hire a full-time person before the end of the four-leaf contract, Will the four-leaf contract end or will they overlap? |
| 01:11:34.19 | Unknown | That's an important question. Thank you for asking that. So this contract is a not-to-exceed contract, and the city essentially may halt the request for four leaf services you As we see fit. So in the case of course that we are able to hire a full time building official, I would imagine that it would be appropriate for us to reduce that specific service and to maintain the building plan check fee services. |
| 01:12:02.01 | Jill Hoffman | And we also discussed earlier today that we are also Using currently, or we started using currently a new plan check, an additional plan check service. |
| 01:12:15.81 | Unknown | Yeah, thank you for bringing that up as well, Council Member. So I'll just state for Council that we are and have evaluated an alternative contract with an additional firm in the amount of $25,000 for as-needed building plan check, as-needed planning building services, to have an additional option in case our capacities are spread thin, in case four-leaf capacities are spread thin. And as preferred by council, I think I'd be happy to, you know, dig into that specific secondary contract if council would like to explore having those building plan check services provided by a different third party consultant. |
| 01:13:03.75 | Jill Hoffman | And this is good because we have a deeper bench on services and qualified services for Sausalito. |
| 01:13:09.08 | Unknown | Yeah, it keeps us a little bit more flexible and agile. |
| 01:13:12.46 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 01:13:17.64 | Steven Woodside | The whole conversation about staffing made me think of construction contracts that I write. In those construction contracts, we have a staffing list where we list specific names of those people authorized to perform work on this particular project. And I'm wondering... if that type of approach might work for Sausalito as a way to address kind of, building a bank and maintaining that bank of institutional knowledge amongst the folks from Fourleaf who serve as our building official. So I just wanted to ask if that was something feasible that you could explore with Fourleaf, where you actually I don't know if they have 10. Five, you know, they charge $175 an hour for building officials. So I don't know how many they have on staff, but if we could include as a provision in our contract, a requirement that where possible because obviously people do go on vacation or whatever but where possible the building official work will be performed by one of the following two three individuals as a means to better quality control who performs the first second third review and who performs work on particular projects |
| 01:14:40.24 | Unknown | Yeah, thank you, Vice Mayor. I'd be happy to consider something like that. I can just state, based on discussions with Craig, you know, that's something that I qualitatively carry into my requests with him. Objectively, it's the case that it's better for us to have a longstanding building official. in a contracted or full-time in office role. So I would support that, and I'd be open to collaborating with city attorney as to where that might fit in the contract. |
| 01:15:10.03 | Steven Woodside | I mean, it's usually for me, well, it could be under responsible. There's a paragraph in the beginning of the agreement, but it could also be just a staffing paragraph. And the other thing is, I was wondering if you still have access to the red lines that Councilmember Kelman prepared at the last meeting. negotiation of the four leaf contract and whether you might be able to review some of those red lines and ensure that we've addressed those points since obviously she invested some effort and thought into customizing a contract better suited for Sausalito. |
| 01:15:48.52 | Unknown | Yeah, I think that's an excellent comment. Appreciate Councilmember Kelman's efforts. I will just be transparent. I'm not sure that I've reviewed or seen that red line. And I'll also state that we have recently updated our kind of template for professional service agreements. And that's an activity that's been taken on by city attorney. So I've deferred to that updated template as far as those agreements are concerned. As far as specific red lines, again, happy to review. I'd like to. been taken on by city attorney. So I've deferred to that updated template as far as those agreements are concerned. As far as specific red lines, again, happy to review. I'd really like to see the red lines. |
| 01:16:20.16 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so I'm gonna ask Councilmember Kelman to find those and send them to you if she can. I in no way want to imply that I don't support the use of the updated template in general, as a starting point for all professional services agreements, but at the same time, we should customize them to the extent appropriate on a case-by-case basis. So thank you for your willingness to undertake that. |
| 01:16:43.09 | Unknown | Thank you, Vice Mayor. |
| 01:16:44.21 | Steven Woodside | Any other questions? Thank you, Director Phipps. Can we open public comment, please? |
| 01:16:49.84 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Jeffrey Chase. |
| 01:16:52.32 | Steven Woodside | Mr. Chase? |
| 01:17:05.16 | Jeffrey Chase | Hello, Mr. Mayor, again. So I got 7% of the vote last time. I'll be talking to... the mayor and Melissa and your opponents to see who wants that 7% and Consultancy. We just learned Not only. $100,000 a month, it's gone down now, but $25,000 in case they have to hire more. There's nine planning officials in Sausalito that are working for the city of Sausalito. There are dozens in Marin County working for the county. It is an appearance of intense corruption. The cost of government in Marin, has gone up 100% since 2010. By attending these meetings, I find out why. So with the lead of the Anchorage, which will have an election, the people who do not contribute, As much climate change as some of the people there on the dais, maybe all of them. They do not contribute to the corruption of hiring consultants and doubling the budget. We will elect five member board of directors as the government has failed us. We appreciate the honesty of these agendas, of describing what the consultants do and don't do. We understand that this is the process. But. What we have to do, as the houseless people can do for Sukkot, which is observed by the Muslims, Three pilgrimages. by the Christians and the Jews, everybody that is described as houseless builds a booth to live in for one week. That's religious law and cannot be disobeyed by people. |
| 01:19:07.90 | Walfred Solorzano | So, |
| 01:19:07.95 | Steven Woodside | It's a good thing. |
| 01:19:09.94 | Jeffrey Chase | Me. All right, thank you. |
| 01:19:14.46 | Steven Woodside | No further public comment. All right. We'll close public comment, please. Any discussion or a motion on this item? Thank you. |
| 01:19:20.77 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry. |
| 01:19:21.16 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Go ahead, Councilor Ray Boston. |
| 01:19:22.80 | Jill Hoffman | WE HAVE TO BE ABLE TO I really want to just give immense kudos to the Community Development Department and the work of Brandon and your team. And this is a perfect example of how you are reducing costs and improving efficiency. So I am really pleased to see that we are at this point only down to one Fort Leif employee and have significantly decreased our consultant costs. And we'd like to continue to do that as having folks in house with institutional memory and who we can monitor on jobs and otherwise is great. But I am fully prepared to make a motion in support of the approval of the four-leaf contract. |
| 01:19:59.53 | Steven Woodside | Any other comments? |
| 01:20:00.34 | Steven Woodside | I'd like to just go ahead and enunciate a motion that incorporates our comments so that we can then discuss it. So I recommend that The City Council authorized the city manager to execute an agreement for planning and building services for leaf Effective July 1 2024 not to exceed 330,000 through June 30 2025 with the proviso that the Community Development Director review and incorporate relevant comments from the last four-leaf contract provided by Councilmember Kelman and that the Community Development Director make an effort to specifically identify those four-leaf employees who will serve as Sausalito's employees. building official wherever possible. |
| 01:20:50.83 | Steven Woodside | There's a motion. |
| 01:20:51.73 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Excuse me. I'm wondering if we can do, if I can offer a friendly amendment. might alleviate a lot of angst and be clearer later if we acknowledge in the motion that the not to exceed amount also takes into account the true cost, including the salary set off, offset, and the pass-through amounts. And I think Brandon, you had that, or Director Phipps, you had that in your motion. I mean, I'm sorry, you had that in your presentation. And so I wonder, do you remember which slide that's on? I have it up here, but now I can't find it. |
| 01:21:31.67 | Sergio Rudin | And counsel in light of some of the feedback you do have in your packet of resolution authorizing the city manager to execute the professional services agreement. approve that resolution with a modification that you authorize the city manager to execute the professional services agreement. in a form approved by the |
| 01:21:49.81 | Katie Thau-Garcia | and |
| 01:21:51.77 | Sergio Rudin | City Attorney. and direct the city attorney to review the agreement with the conditions that you will have addressed in your comments, including the prior red lines. |
| 01:22:07.97 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:22:08.59 | Steven Woodside | In reviewing the draft resolution in our packet, I'm fine with that. I think that what Council Member Hoffman is requesting is that |
| 01:22:19.90 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 01:22:20.14 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Well, I don't know that it goes in the agreement, though. This is direction to staff in terms of... |
| 01:22:28.34 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, in the resolution. But in the resolution, it would be... Okay, so on slide five, it says, based on the above, only $220,000 of the total contract is paid directly by city funds. But let me just ask a follow-up. Is it less than that, including the offsets from reimbursement? Do you have a final number on that? Let me just make it clear so that it's, we expect that even though it's $330,000 for the contract, we expect, is it $110,000? |
| 01:23:01.02 | Unknown | That would be the amount that is taken up by pass-through payments, borne by the applicant, passed through the city, and given to Fourleaf. So the number of 220, that's purely reducing the 110 from the 330. If we factor in the buffer that I had of $30,000, that brings us down to 190. If we factor in the revenues that accrue to the city as a result of our keeping 25 percent of the building plan check fees, that reduces further to $163,000. Now, you know, how exactly we want to parlay the salary savings into that number, I'm not exactly certain. It's more of a narrative, frankly, for us to understand the meaning of the total contract amount. |
| 01:23:47.11 | Jill Hoffman | Let me follow that. I think the expectation in the presentation today is that that's the expectation. Even though we're approving $330,000, the expectation is the true cost is going to be something around $160,000. |
| 01:24:00.17 | Steven Woodside | the true city paid cost, but we still have to approve the contract in the amount of $330,000. |
| 01:24:05.98 | Jill Hoffman | No, I agree with that. |
| 01:24:07.11 | Steven Woodside | I would suggest that we direct staff to provide us quarterly reports on how we're stacking up in terms of so that you can manage the activity. |
| 01:24:16.07 | Jill Hoffman | I'd like it. I think it should be called out somehow in the resolution. I don't, and I agree that it's approved the contract that the resolution needs to be clear that the expectation of the council as based on the presentation today, because if we don't clearly put it in the resolution, then yes. I believe Councilman Kellman has a solution. |
| 01:24:31.59 | Chris Zapata | I believe you. That may be in the resolution on the now therefore we resolve not to exceed $330,000 and then a separate sentence that says this number is with the expectation that at least X percentage will be recouped in cost recovery or however you like to articulate it. |
| 01:24:53.01 | Steven Woodside | So I believe they're two separate topics. This resolution authorizes the city manager to enter into a contract. if we want to give staff direction not to spend more than blank out of the city's coffers, then we can do that separately, but I'm not sure that belongs in this room. |
| 01:25:10.98 | Sergio Rudin | And I will agree with our vice mayor on that point. Typically- |
| 01:25:16.14 | Chris Zapata | What if it's in the whereas, however? Why don't we put it in the whereas as a statement that this contract is being, or this resolution is being signed with the understanding that this is part of a cost recovery mechanism? |
| 01:25:27.10 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, and I'm okay with that from a legal perspective, just in terms of the way this contract is paid for. You know, it is paid for out of the city's building permit fees, which the city has to follow a specific process to set. and that process is not before you tonight, I think staff are expecting to bring back before you a revised fee study to reset the city's building permit fees to also increase the amount of cost recovery that you may be |
| 01:25:55.97 | Steven Woodside | human. |
| 01:25:57.13 | Sergio Rudin | getting for this contract in the near future. |
| 01:25:59.46 | Steven Woodside | So I amend my motion to include another requirement that the resolution be revised to include a whereas clause that reflects the anticipated level of cost recovery that comprises the total of the expenditure. |
| 01:26:17.99 | Jill Hoffman | And is there, there's an amount that I think our director, Phipps, can provide. I don't know if he can provide it right now. |
| 01:26:25.08 | Steven Woodside | No, I'm not asking for it right now. I'm asking that. So what we've said is that the city attorney is going to revise the resolution to address these three requirements in our motion of approval. |
| 01:26:36.55 | Jill Hoffman | the three-year-old. |
| 01:26:36.97 | Steven Woodside | One is that we identify specific staffing. Two is that we incorporate the red lines, the appropriate red lines from the prior four-leaf contract. And three is that we include a whereas clause that memorializes the amount of the total that's expected to be recaptured through cost recovery. |
| 01:26:57.70 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and that amount is going to be included in that? And that amount will be included, correct. Okay, thanks so much. May I have a second? |
| 01:27:00.14 | Steven Woodside | I'll be included, correct. |
| 01:27:05.61 | Steven Woodside | All the papers say aye. |
| 01:27:06.86 | Steven Woodside | Aye. Aye. Opposed. |
| 01:27:09.53 | Steven Woodside | Thank you for your flip side. Moving on to item five B introduction and waiver first reading of ordinance seven 2024 an ordinance of the city council of the city of Sausalito amending chapter 10.47 marijuana regulations of the Sausalito municipal code. Who's attending this item Mr city manager. |
| 01:27:28.97 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. I will be covering this item. |
| 01:27:33.25 | Steven Woodside | with the city attorney. |
| 01:27:34.57 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, so the city currently allows medical cannabis and adult use cannabis deliveries within the city. Since the Prop 64 was passed and since the city adopted its present ordinance, The Medical Cannabis Patients Right of Access Act was passed, and that caused us to look back at the existing language in the municipal code. There is some language that exists in this ordinance which requires some cleanup all of this is non-substantive. The proposed ordinance before you tonight would remove mention that the city prohibits transport of cannabis under state law, the city cannot ban the transport of cannabis through the city. Additionally, it would remove some duplicative language that discusses how medical cannabis can be delivered. Um, And additionally, it updates the existing references to refer to the current state laws regarding licensure of businesses that can conduct deliveries. So with that, I do recommend that you update the city code to reference the current state laws. If you have any questions, I'm available to answer them. |
| 01:28:53.26 | Steven Woodside | Any questions for our city attorney? Seeing no questions, we'll put it at the public comment. |
| 01:29:00.68 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm not sure. See none. |
| 01:29:03.31 | Steven Woodside | We'll close public comment. Is there any discussion? |
| 01:29:09.17 | Steven Woodside | it seems like a matter of fact updating of our site. |
| 01:29:11.18 | Steven Woodside | I appreciate the city's attorney in keeping us updated to the most current version of this law that continues to evolve throughout the state of California. And with that, I will move. that we introduce by title only and waive first reading of Ordinance Number 07-2024, an Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Sausalito, amending Chapter 10.47, Marijuana Regulations of the Sausalito Municipal Code. |
| 01:29:39.61 | Jill Hoffman | second. |
| 01:29:40.66 | Steven Woodside | made and seconded, all the favor say aye. Bye. Bye. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. now move on to item six communications this is the time for members of the public to provide any comment for items not on the agenda if you would like to make a public comment please return a speaker card to our city clerk or raise your hand in the zoom application Mr. City Clerk, do we have any? |
| 01:30:05.67 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Ray with you. |
| 01:30:14.15 | Ray Withy | Good evening again. I submitted a memo to you. I'm sure you've read everything I've submitted. I've submitted a memo to you with a request that the city manager, in his report to you tonight, address certain misinformation that is circulating throughout our community. Now, I want you to know, in particular, one council member to know, this was a very painful memorandum for me to write. The issue at hand is that There's now throughout the community Accusations that are being made. that the city staff Possibly some of you who are on finance committee. Manipulated. a process, city process. and used city funds. to manipulate this election. We're in election season. I'm used to it. There's all kinds of noise going on. But when our cities die, is directly accused. of issuing misleading information, influencing elections, And in particular, publishing unaudited financial statements, which are just routine. I believe the city manager, even though he probably doesn't want to get involved, needs to update you with the facts about what our audit process is, how it works, and what our routine financial reporting is. So that's my request to you. I put detailed questions in that I would like the city manager to answer. And I realize... I'm putting him in a difficult position. Thank you. So, sorry, Russ. |
| 01:32:15.76 | Walfred Solorzano | Anyone else, Mr. City Clerk? We have online, we have Babette McDougal. |
| 01:32:24.58 | Steven Woodside | Go ahead, Ms. McGregor. |
| 01:32:26.32 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. Can you hear me? |
| 01:32:28.04 | Steven Woodside | Yes, go right ahead. |
| 01:32:29.14 | Babette McDougall | All right. Thank you. So first of all, I'd like to say, Every now and again, I always enjoy listening to Ray with you because In my opinion, he can knock it out of the park when he wants to. This is a good example of that as well. There is a lot of misinformation that is floating around our community. And I agree that because we're in this critical phase running up to our November election. that if anybody should make proactive efforts to nip misinformation in the bud, It should certainly be Aliyaul on the council as well as attended by the city staff themselves. Because as Mr. Withey points out, it does seem to be viewed in many respects as just one big gelatinous organic. Miss. So it would be nice to see some cleanup in action. Now, with regard to misinformation items, it's true that there's a lot of confusion about the way the finances are handled. And this alphabet soup approach to the consent calendar only exacerbates that problem. So be clear about that. Number two, Misinformation in general over the last several days was very discouraging to hear so many people get on their telephones and texts to talk about how there are yet another disinformation campaign lodged among candidates running for office against other candidates. Now, this is really abhorrent as far as the way that Sausalito Sausalito doesn't normally conduct itself this way. And the idea that certain candidates are spending huge sums of money to employ communication consultants and everybody else so that they can look better, sound better, get the sign ballots that they're looking for. you know, sending down these gadgets to take photographs that have not been authorized by the general public. As far as I can sell, there's nothing on plan with the city. So there's a lot of tightening up that needs to be done. And I think starting here, starting now would be a great time to get going on it. Thank you. |
| 01:34:29.10 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public comment. |
| 01:34:30.03 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we'll close public comment and then move on to council member committee reports. Anyone on the dice wish to provide a report? |
| 01:34:39.11 | Steven Woodside | Sure. I will report that I attended a finance committee meeting on October 4, 2024. And we saw a couple of documents at that meeting. One was the treasurer's report, which we approved for a second time tonight. And the other was an audit update dated October 4 from our director of finance. During the meeting, I... during public comment during the meeting a member of the public accused the finance committee of manipulating its agenda in order to somehow influence the election. However, there is absolute precedent for the receipt by the Finance Committee and then the City Council of first of unaudited financials, in October, so in 2020. They were presented to the City Council on the consent calendar on October 26, 2021. In 2021, they were presented to the Finance Committee on October 8. This year it was October 4. 2020 and then to the City Council on October 27 2020 and so. As part of the finance committee, we requested that the director of finance bring back the audit update once it was finalized to a subsequent City Council meeting, and I'm hoping that will occur, if not at the end of this month, at the first meeting in November. And that's my report. |
| 01:36:24.32 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:36:26.37 | Steven Woodside | That's where we're coming. |
| 01:36:27.63 | Chris Zapata | I was wondering maybe, Councilman Hoffman, my apologies. I did miss the sewer committee meeting, but you were able to attend. Do you want to give a report? |
| 01:36:33.94 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, so I am the newly appointed council representative to the sewer committee. Um, and, uh, We talked mainly about the Combined services. It's not a consolidation. It's combined services between the Sausalito-Murton City sewer district and the city of Sausalito and Thank you. merging the systems. I don't know. They don't want to say consolidation, but combining for So anyway, that's moving forward. We hope to have an agreement at some point in the near future, maybe by the end of the year in principle. We hope. And we're working on an area on the south end of town to bring those group of houses, a group of residences into compliance that are close to the water. So that's a project that's been ongoing for a long time. So that's good news, great news, in fact, that we're almost done with that project. Yeah, and since there's been a couple comments from public comment about an email that I sent out to my private email list recently, and if anybody would like to have that or me send it to them, you can send me an email at my city council or my Jill at Jill for Sausalito. Um, email account and I'm happy to share it. |
| 01:38:06.62 | Unknown | Thank you. . |
| 01:38:07.48 | Jill Hoffman | I just wanted to share, I was asked to serve by Supervisor Mary Sackett on her special committee that's focused on the future of safety for e-bikes, and primarily we're looking at e-bike regulations for for kids and teens and how do we move forward with that and what is the county's approach to e-bike safety in light of the new regulations that are being passed and And also of course the numerous requests we've had from members of the public to take action So that committee is going to be meeting once a month So we've had our first committee meeting in September We should be meeting again this month and it's composed of a number of representatives both supervisorial And then staff from state level and some council members so that that's an interesting group. I just wanted to share that out with Thank you. |
| 01:38:48.37 | Chris Zapata | and I think this is sort of related to the sea level rise task force, or maybe I was just asked to go, but Galilee Harbor has received a grant from Marine Community Foundation to examine putting a wave attenuation mechanism adjacent to their docks, and so they're actually working with ESA associates that are part of the project team for Sausalito as well. And so we met to look at the scope and they are very keen on moving something forward and integrating it with a larger project. So there's nothing for me to do, but it's reporting to you that they received this money and they're very excited to do something. |
| 01:39:25.53 | Jill Hoffman | I just want to share one more thing just for full transparency is that a neighborhood group that many of us heard from at the Housing Element Committee meeting last week had asked for me to come and meet with them and answer some questions about the Housing Element. And I invited Councilmember Cox to join me since she was a member of the Housing Element Advisory Committee. And they had submitted some questions in advance, which Community Development Director Phipps provided some great answers for. So there was a little bit of a town hall engagement. And so I think we've shared what most of their comments were, but happy to share that email as well with any members of the council of just the questions and the response from Director Phipps so you're all aware. |
| 01:40:03.30 | Steven Woodside | Any other reports? I had one of my own, as many of you know, I was on the board of Meals on Wheels of San Francisco for many years. really a sophisticated organization to help seniors age in place. They have a new innovative CEO, and I'm still on the honorary board. I've connected them with Sybil Boutier and Tricia Smith to explore the possibility of doing a pilot program in Sausalito to help alleviate loneliness and isolation. So that project's ongoing at May. be appropriate for the city council to passed a resolution in support and there'll be more updates as that evolves, but it could be a, um, exciting addition to the good work that in the Sossedo Village test. Mr. City Manager. |
| 01:40:52.08 | Chris Zapata | Yes. Time for city manager report. Thank you, Mayor and Council members of the public. I do want to provide an update on city infrastructure, in particular park infrastructure. The city council approved $347,000 this past year to Fix Marinship Park. As many of you know, that's the park with tennis courts and lights and the only lit tennis court park in our community. so with that $347,000 of city funds that we are investing in this particular part of our park system there's going to be repair of the tennis courts, repair of the parking lot, repair of the fencing. The tennis courts are going to be configured to allow for pickleball. And at the same time, you know, as all this is happening, we expect to reopen the park in January. In that same vicinity, you have the beloved Varda mural. We've had conversations with the folks that care about the mural, about how to protect it so that it isn't misrepresented. |
| 01:40:52.42 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. That's it. |
| 01:40:57.58 | Katie Thau-Garcia | on |
| 01:41:57.96 | Chris Zapata | mistreated. And then at the same time, you have the green space that's out there that has been fenced off that will be reopened. And there's some conversations that have been ongoing with a group out of Mill Valley to talk about a potential contribution by them in lieu of or in return for use of the field. That's an ongoing discussion. It's gone through the Sustainability Commission. It's gone through the Parks and Recreation Commission. It eventually needs to come to city council to see if there's an appetite to do this. But the concept is they would come in and provide a chunk of money for field preparation and then field usage. The debate has been around artificial fields versus natural turf. And so all of those conversations are happening around the marineship. But the good news is it's going to open again in January to the public. |
| 01:42:48.79 | Steven Woodside | That's whatever you're coming. |
| 01:42:49.87 | Chris Zapata | Yes, Mr. City Manager, that's a lot of great work, and thank you for that report. I have one of my top five questions people ask me, so thank you. It's also a lot of paved area, and after sitting in an all-day workshop around climate resilience and heat events, I am wondering if you would be open to me offering myself up to explore some grants for climate resilience to either have paved areas that are sequestering carbon or reflecting in terms of the type of material. some grants for climate resilience to either have paved areas that are sequestering carbon or reflecting in terms of the type of materials that we utilize. And I'll just say that there's an extreme heat and community resilience program from the governor's office at OPR. And if you don't mind, I'd love to communicate with Andy about it. |
| 01:43:29.56 | Chris Zapata | You're speaking about the potential of an artificial turf field. |
| 01:43:33.39 | Chris Zapata | No, sir, I'm talking about the actual paving of the parking lot, the paving of the tennis courts. This is a great opportunity for us to actually do this in a way that is climate resilient |
| 01:43:42.11 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, my thinking on that, Councilmember, that horse may be out the gate, and the materials may have already been bid and spec'd. And, you know, I'm not sure that it's – given the advancement in the contract, it seems to me like we've missed that opportunity. |
| 01:43:59.93 | Chris Zapata | May I ask that it be considered in future such opportunities? And also there is paint as we restripe and such that actually helps to reflect and it can be quite effective. Okay. Thank you. |
| 01:44:10.23 | Steven Woodside | I mean, I get on that same point. I think what you're saying is whenever we look to repave something, we all think about. |
| 01:44:10.48 | Chris Zapata | I mean, |
| 01:44:17.57 | Chris Zapata | For sure. |
| 01:44:17.90 | Steven Woodside | design detail of how we're doing it. You just put asphalt on it, or did you use some of the techniques that Councilmember Kelman may be aware of and other designers to do something that achieves more than just one goal? That's also a potential. |
| 01:44:18.11 | Adrian Brinton | Thank you. you know. |
| 01:44:19.85 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:44:32.27 | Steven Woodside | stormwater treatment device, I don't know how else you'd characterize it, but that could be a Does that even need to be a future agenda item as a policy direction for public works? |
| 01:44:41.16 | Chris Zapata | Oh, I think it's good business practice, particularly since you have a better chance of finding a grant and have someone else pay for it. |
| 01:44:47.81 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:44:47.88 | Steven Woodside | No. |
| 01:44:47.93 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:44:47.94 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:44:47.96 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:44:48.65 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:44:48.97 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:44:49.02 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:44:49.04 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:44:49.07 | Steven Woodside | Mentally friendly. |
| 01:44:49.73 | Chris Zapata | material. |
| 01:44:50.03 | Steven Woodside | That's what I'm hearing. Any other questions for Mr. City Manager? All right, we'll take public comment then. Oh, no, future agenda items, and then we'll do public comment. Sorry. Any other future gendimes? |
| 01:45:02.62 | Steven Woodside | I would like us to discuss, if necessary, or else just direct staff, that when asked to approve expenditures, we identify from which budget the expenditures will be paid. Many municipalities do that. I think, you know as we have been. rebuilding the ranks of our staff in each department. That's been a more challenging task, but now that our departments are becoming more fully staffed, I believe it's time to undertake that effort to provide more transparency to the public regarding how we are funding the various expenditures that we are |
| 01:45:48.88 | Steven Woodside | I second that. I think that can just be a consensus direction to the city staff. A bunch of nods up here, so please just take that as direction for future staff reports to referring to Ms. Bushmaker's comment on. identifying the source of funds for any expenditure. future agenda item is. |
| 01:46:04.02 | Chris Zapata | THE FAMILY. Maybe I've changed my mind. There's a community called Pacoima. that you may be familiar with outside of Los Angeles, P-A-C-O-I-M-A, and they had a cool pavement case study, and they showed significant heat reduction. So I got out of an all-day workshop on climate resilience, but it's... I think something we can do for our community that would be really interesting. And so, again, I don't know if you want to. I would love to. |
| 01:46:30.29 | Steven Woodside | I would love to add that as a future agenda item because I think we could all, I could stand with some education about state of the art on this question. And obviously the cheapest thing to do is just to repay what's there. |
| 01:46:36.79 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:46:41.95 | Steven Woodside | Some of the techniques you're talking about would probably require direction to our director of public works to do things differently. |
| 01:46:48.67 | Chris Zapata | I'll share this slide deck from today. The other thing, Mr. Mayor, that I'd like to request, sorry, lots of things open. We have the GAD on this list, and then a potential to form the Hillside Ordinance. So I just shared with you a bunch of questions I had asked. I asked the city attorney to share a bunch of questions I had asked that were forming my assessment of where we sat fiscally. And I asked the question about the status of the geologic hazards report. My understanding is that RFP is out, and we expect proposals on 10-30-2024. And then the consultant has 120 days to develop the plan. I'd like to request that we separate that from a hard look at the Hillside and ordinance, because I do think that they are somewhat different One is sort of the overall structural integrity, I think, of the community that includes the historic landslides and fault lines and things like that. And then the other, I think, could maybe have some early crafting and legality around feasibility of being able to construct on certain hillsides. Sonoma, Napa, Redwood City, all have hillside ordinances. So maybe just some preliminary research from the city attorney on the topic to get the ball rolling. |
| 01:48:02.46 | Steven Woodside | Okay, did you get that Mr. City Clerk? Any other future agenda items? Okay, we'll close that and we'll take public comment, Mr. City Clerk, on all the items. Nope. No public comment on all these items. Yes. City Council member reports the city manager information and future agenda items. Is there any public comment from anyone in the audience? We do have some online. |
| 01:48:25.93 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 01:48:26.66 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I'm going to go ahead, Ms. McGill. |
| 01:48:32.58 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 01:48:32.85 | Babette McDougall | Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. You know, first of all, I would like to say that I'm really grateful. Maybe it's because it's a little earlier in the evening than normal. to actually spend some time diving into these various reports that you folks have faithfully offered at the end of every council meeting. because you're really talking about some really juicy stuff that's relevant to Sausalito. So I'm really glad, and I just want to tip my hat to this more thorough and engaged, and to borrow from Kelman's, More rigorous discussion. Isn't that the word you use? Rigorous, or maybe it's not. You have one that I love. And I'm trying to work on incorporating it for myself. But with regard to these overarching problems, I want to just say thank you, Ms. Weiss-Meyer. for acknowledging the comments that Sandra Bushmaker made and trying to put it out there front and center for everyone, that the expenditures and re-dueling how we submit these agenda items going forward could stand some improvement. And I really want to thank you for picking up on that. And I also would like to say, that Despite the disagreements in policy directives that we frequently engage, each other in. And I don't mean just myself personally, but broad speaking in terms of citizens. but also just because Sausalito is really its own kind of personality. So this upcoming election season, when we are all trying very hard to do our best to convince the citizen voters that we all, each of you, deserve another crack at the bat or a first-time crack at the bat, whichever it may be. I would like to again implore you, to employ what has been traditional in Sausalito, which is a very balanced, respectful, fair game. And with that, I shall close and thank you for your time. |
| 01:50:32.82 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:50:32.83 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public |
| 01:50:34.03 | Steven Woodside | comment okay we'll close public comment and that brings us to the end of the evening thank you very much we'll adjourn and see you again on october 29th good night |
| 01:50:41.76 | Steven Woodside | I do. |
Damian Morgan — Neutral: Highlighted Marin City's inclusion in a US Army Corps of Engineers program and emphasized the need for collaboration between Sausalito and Marin City on shoreline adaptation. Announced a November 1st press conference with Representative Huffman to address environmental impacts and encouraged council attendance. ▶ 📄
Jeffrey Chase — Neutral: Commented on adaptation strategies like floating structures (boats) and criticized the city for not allowing pre-meeting public comment time, linking it to freedom of religion. Suggested that 'anchor-outs' (liveaboard boaters) mitigate climate change through low resource use, contrasting adaptation (costly) with mitigation (free). ▶ 📄
Babette McDougall — In Favor: Thanked staff and councilmembers for their work on the adaptation plan. Expressed concern about recent flooding in the US South and urged consideration of more natural, 'sponge-like' shoreline interfaces instead of seawalls, which she called 'abysmal failures' globally. ▶ 📄