| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:02.07 | Walfred Solorzano | Good evening, Mayor. It is now 5.30 p.m. |
| 00:00:05.43 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Walford. I'll call this meeting to order and ask, would you call the roll? |
| 00:00:10.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member Blaustein. |
| 00:00:12.62 | Steven Woodside | here. |
| 00:00:13.99 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 00:00:15.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:00:16.23 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Councilmember Sobieski. Thank you. |
| 00:00:18.58 | Councilmember Sobieski | here. |
| 00:00:19.77 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Woodside? Here. and Mayor Cox. |
| 00:00:22.68 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Wilfred. At this time, we will adjourn to closed session, and we will be hearing items D1 through D3. D1 is conference with labor negotiator. Agency designated representative is Charles Sakai, and employee organization is Sausalito Police Association. Item D2 is conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, name of case, yes, in my backyard versus city of Sausalito. And item three is conference with real property negotiator. Property is 731 Bridgeway. City negotiator is Chris Zapata and Lamour Bonilla. Negotiating party is Jean Hiller, Inc. Are there any? Comments on closed session. |
| 00:01:08.63 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, Mayor, there are no public comments. Also, do we have to have Councilmember Silvieski, |
| 00:01:15.48 | Steven Woodside | No, his participation is already properly noticed on the front of the agenda. We don't need to take any... All right. With that, we will adjourn to closed session. Thank you. |
| 00:01:29.81 | Steven Woodside | You know when you're ready. |
| 00:01:32.84 | Walfred Solorzano | Good evening, Mayor. |
| 00:01:34.73 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. We're on. |
| 00:01:38.19 | Morgan Pierce | Yeah. |
| 00:01:38.70 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm not sure. |
| 00:01:38.77 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 00:01:39.76 | Steven Woodside | Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Sausalito City Council meeting for Tuesday, January 21st, 2025. Walfred, will you call the roll? |
| 00:01:53.53 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Blalstein. |
| 00:01:55.03 | Steven Woodside | Here. |
| 00:01:56.00 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 00:01:57.46 | Steven Woodside | Here. |
| 00:01:58.70 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Sobieski. |
| 00:02:00.23 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 00:02:01.65 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Woodside? Here. Mayor Cox. |
| 00:02:02.97 | Councilmember Sobieski | THE END OF |
| 00:02:04.79 | Steven Woodside | Here, we're gonna have the Pledge of Allegiance. Morgan Pierce, would you lead us please? |
| 00:02:13.02 | Morgan Pierce | much. Thank you. United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, another God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:02:18.81 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. One nation. |
| 00:02:20.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:25.65 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. We held a closed session this evening. There are no closed session announcements. Is there any public comment on closed session items? |
| 00:02:36.36 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Eva Krasan. |
| 00:02:44.80 | Steven Woodside | Ava. All right, I don't see anyone approaching the post. |
| 00:02:57.67 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we're not there yet. This is closed session. |
| 00:03:03.87 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry for the confusion. So we have none. |
| 00:03:06.97 | Steven Woodside | Okay, none. |
| 00:03:09.00 | Walfred Solorzano | by Bette McDougall. |
| 00:03:09.94 | Steven Woodside | I don't know, Babette. Okay. |
| 00:03:12.44 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 00:03:25.06 | Steven Woodside | It's on. |
| 00:03:25.72 | Babette McDougall | Oh, no. Yes. Babette MacDougall, Girard Avenue. So regarding the closed session, once again, I'd like to implore this council to become much more open with the citizens. in particular the constituent citizens, about how much money it is costing the city of Sausalito to try to do the housing element in a way that does not conform with the way the citizens of Sausalito feel that this should be run. Now we're being sued. to have no control of the housing element at all. Please daylight this data. It is not helping to keep it quiet. Thank you. |
| 00:03:56.59 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:03:58.66 | Babette McDougall | you |
| 00:03:58.68 | Steven Woodside | Any other comments? |
| 00:03:59.77 | Babette McDougall | you |
| 00:04:00.35 | Steven Woodside | On closed session. |
| 00:04:01.33 | Walfred Solorzano | See you then. |
| 00:04:02.02 | Steven Woodside | All right, thank you. We're going to move on to approval of the agenda. I'm going to make a revision to the agenda. So the order in which we're going to hear items on the agenda is first is after our consent calendar, we will first hear item five B first mid-year budget discussion. We will then hear item for a introduction of amendments relating to accessory dwelling units and then item five a. Sustainability Commission presentation, and that is to accommodate the schedule of our esteemed colleague, Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 00:04:36.65 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you, Mayor. And at this time, I'd like to make a brief statement. I have some travel plans and my flight leaves after midnight, and I received a... a message today that they wanted us to check in two hours before boarding, which is at 1130. So I thought I was going to be in plenty of time and, uh, And anyway, based on that, I'm going to have to leave the chambers between 9 and 930. So I apologize. And I'm going to quietly excuse myself at some point between 9 and 930. So. Don't be alarmed when you see me quietly leave the dais. I'm leaving so that I can get home and get a ride to the airport so that I can make my flight. So apologies for that. I thought I had plenty of time, but it turns out not. |
| 00:05:23.66 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. And so with that, I will seek a motion approving of the agenda as amended. So moved. Thank you. |
| 00:05:29.18 | Shelby Van Meter | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:05:29.45 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Will you call the roll, city clerk? |
| 00:05:33.82 | Walfred Solorzano | on somewhere in Blasting. |
| 00:05:35.15 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 00:05:36.01 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman? |
| 00:05:37.19 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 00:05:38.04 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Sobieski? |
| 00:05:40.11 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yes. |
| 00:05:42.48 | Walfred Solorzano | That's what I remember. |
| 00:05:42.73 | Steven Woodside | You're on mute, council member. Yes. Okay. |
| 00:05:46.66 | Walfred Solorzano | Vice Mayor Woodside? Yes. And Mayor Cox? |
| 00:05:47.76 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 00:05:49.26 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:05:49.31 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 00:05:49.58 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:05:50.63 | Steven Woodside | All right, moving on. We have no special presentations. I do have one announcement, which is that we hope you will join us Saturday, January 25th from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Bay Model for the second community workshop of the Shoreline Adaptation Plan. The meeting will feature a formal presentation by our consultants on Sausalito vulnerability and sea level rise adaptation strategies, followed by moderated breakout groups and opportunities to connect with adaptation professionals. An event flyer is at the back of the room for those in person, or more information can be found online by visiting Sausalito.gov front slash shoreline plan. We look forward to seeing you there. All right, next on the agenda is communications. This is the time for the city council to hear from citizens regarding matters within the jurisdiction of the city council that are not on the agenda. Except in very limited situations, state law precludes the council from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning items of business that are not on the agenda. So with that, are there any communications city clerk? |
| 00:07:00.19 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, yes, we'll start with Eva Cressan. |
| 00:07:02.65 | Steven Woodside | All right. |
| 00:07:03.02 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 00:07:08.30 | Morgan Pierce | All right, who's next? City clerk? |
| 00:07:10.53 | Walfred Solorzano | Babette McDougal? |
| 00:07:19.47 | Babette McDougall | Thank you, Mr. City Clerk. Babette McDougall, Gerard Avenue, Sausalito. I'm going to read something into the public record It was written in 1904 by a woman in Colorado by the name of Mary Stewart. Keep us, O Lord, from pettiness. Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed. Let us be done with fault-finding and leave off self-seeking. May we put away all pretense and meet each other face to face without self-pity and without prejudice. May we never be hasty in judgment and always generous. Let us take time for all things. Make us grow calm, serene, gentle. Teach us to put into action our better impulses, straightforward and unafraid. Grant that we may realize that it is the little things that create differences, that in the big things of life we are as one. And may we strive to touch and know the great common woman's heart in us all. And oh Lord. Let us not forget to be kind. I just want to point out for those that might find that a familiar refrain, this is called the collect or the collect that is read at the start of every Sausalito Women's Club meeting followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And I raise it here today within this council chambers because there is so much division in this community right now. And we need to come together. So that big wedge that got driven during the campaign season, the us and them, the positives and the negatives, it's time to come together and heal. We are one community. We used to be one residential community. We can be that again. And I urge you forward in that regard. Thank you. |
| 00:09:04.37 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:09:04.72 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 00:09:06.29 | Walfred Solorzano | Next, we have Aaron Roller. followed by a Shelby panometer. |
| 00:09:11.71 | Aaron Roller | Welcome, Aaron. Hello, I'm Aaron Roller, and I want a better Bridgeway. I appreciate following Yvette McDougall's because I have an announcement in the same spirit about the division of our community. As you know, I helped launch the Bridgeway Bike bike lanes project in 2018. Did so with the guidance of everything I could find in the community that made sense. First of all, driven by safety for the children that we were helping bike to school, observations of other people using it. But also the general and bicycle master plan, the PBAC charter, council support, Infrastructure maintenance needs and costs. Suggestions to go find grant money, and we did so. In July 2023, City Council guided us, well, approved unanimously to pay parametrics to do a study. And that's now been going forward. And in that, there were three bullets. Conduct public outreach for all residents. That there should be no specific action taken without public outreach for all residents that there's there's be no specific action taken without public outreach all design alternatives are to be examined by public safety so we went out and have been doing outreach and really against our better judgment, we went out to next door. And Kieran, they're now pedestrian and bicycle advisory committee chair, received this direct message on next door from a prominent community member, Jackie Amarikos. Kiran, you know nothing of Sausalito or me. Your kids have a new school in Sausalito because of me instead of a condo development. Now I regret what I did because now you all are moving here and I want and you want to ruin our town. I stopped the condo development single handedly. I've been here for 25 years. I will stop the removal of the Bridgeway median until my last breath. So will all of us older residents in this town. Go move to Tiburon. We don't want you here or your young kids. This is an adult community. We do not want changes. We love Sauce Leader the way it is. We have run others out of town, of our town, who try to ruin our town. Thank you, Mayor Cox, for following up and taking action on that and giving the kind words. And to my fellow residents, please remember, we're volunteers. We're trying to do the best. It's okay to have differences. Thank you. |
| 00:12:15.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Next speaker is Shelby Van Meter. And followed by? By Morgan Pierce. |
| 00:12:22.28 | Shelby Van Meter | Good evening, everyone. I'm Shelby Van Meter for Cloud View Circle. I have the privilege of being known as the founder of Sauce Little Beautiful. Of course, many others were involved. There's always more to the story, but here I am. It doesn't seem possible that January 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the Soslita Beautiful and 12 years since the beautification initiative began. It's been a productive first decade as we've watched the list of completed projects and community support grow. When we came to the city with a list of resident complaints 12 years ago and called for action, we offered to help you the city responded and beautification was named the first of 10 city priorities, two years in a row. Can you imagine that? It was the commitment we all needed to get busy. Over the past 10 years, the organization has been persistent in encouraging a community-wide sense of responsibility for how our town looks, advocating for budget items, initiating and leading projects, and raising money for improvements. We and you know that beautiful, well-maintained landscapes are critical to the overall well-being of the community and essential to economic vitality and civic pride. pardon me Soselida Beautiful remains committed to the principle that peace well-being of the community and essential to economic vitality and civic pride. Pardon me. South Slater Beautiful remains committed to the principle that people made improvements should complement the area's natural beauty. The organization was built to last. and we think there's a good chance it will continue far into the future. We hope our public-private nature of our relationship with the city makes longevity certain. Aside from pointing out Suslita Beautiful's anniversary, thank yous are in order. Thanks to you, Mayor, City Council members, and City staff, past and present, for being our co-producers. Thank you to the dozens of volunteers who continue to generously donate their time and talent to fulfilling the mission. Board members, Green Thumbs, Adopt-a-Park leaders, project managers, fundraisers, and planting crews. Our gratitude extends to a growing list of donors we count as part of the team. A lot has been accomplished, and such a lot remains to be done. The need for landscape renewal and maintenance is never-ending and demanding, as we so well know. |
| 00:14:40.86 | Unknown | I was like, |
| 00:14:43.05 | Shelby Van Meter | But this we do know, that beauty is much more than an aesthetic. that stewardship is a responsibility, that partnership is a necessity, and that enthusiasm and fun are contagious. Thank you all, and best wishes for the new year. |
| 00:15:00.78 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Shelby, and welcome, Morgan. |
| 00:15:04.65 | Walfred Solorzano | Then followed by Fred Moore. |
| 00:15:07.43 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. Good evening, Mayor Cox, members of council, members of staff, and members of our community, and Happy New Year. My name is Morgan Pierce, and I am here this evening as president of Sausalito Beautiful. We are excited to share with you that Sausalito Beautiful has reached its 10-year milepost as a local volunteer organization and as a successful and willing partner with the city, enhancing our public green spaces and streetscapes. These spaces include Southview Park, Caledonia Street, and Mulcahy Park, Johnson Street, Tiffany Park, Bolinar Plaza, the O'Connell Seaton Poets Corner and Langendorf Park, to name a few. Over this decade, we've enjoyed a constructive working relationship with the city. specifically with the Department of Public Works. And we look forward to continuing the success as we move forward. Since our founding, we have also enjoyed the expertise of many volunteer board members, including founding president Shelby Van Meter, from whom you just heard, And in addition to our board, we have a roster of 350 local volunteers who should be recognized for their generous and tireless efforts in keeping our parks and public green spaces tidy in concert with DPW staff. In the past year, our volunteers have donated over 600 hours to these endeavors. And if you extrapolate that over a decade, it's a significant contribution. We've also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through private donations that have been utilized in the improvements to these important spaces. And we are grateful to our many donors who share our passion for this community. Most recently, we provided $35,000 for street trees along Caledonia Street, and $30,000 to replace a disease hedge at Poets Corner, which includes $10,000 to construct a retaining wall that wasn't even part of the original scope. At this time, the dawn. of our next decade of advocacy, we would like to express our interest in continuing our successful partnerships in shaping a vision for Sausalito that is green climate responsive, safe, welcoming, and a global model for fiscal and environmental stewardship. And below are listed some of the ways we intend to do this. Through our Green Thumbs volunteers, engage our volunteers in continued maintenance and improvements to our parks and public green spaces in collaboration with DPW staff. Strategic partnerships collaborate with other like minded groups and individuals to extend our reach and increase our impact and work with DPW to assess issues with current street trees, identified practical mitigation efforts and incorporate smart planting practices for new trees. Unification advocacy, lobby the city to support improvements to Saddle Salina's green infrastructure, and inspire our supporters to commit private funds for our public initiatives. We also have a lot of ideas under community design vision, working with the city. We're glad they have this design representative in the Department of Public Works. And we have a lot of goals for 2025, raising funds for Humboldt Street, raising funds for Ferry Landing and the Tracy Way landscape, raising funds for Marinship Park, and working with the city to share costs for new street trees along Bridgeway, Princess Street, and Caledonia Street, and working with the city to identify ideal locations for easily accessible public storage space for the tools used by our volunteers in maintaining these spaces. Thank you very much for your consideration, your advocacy, and for your collaboration as we work together to make Saucelita beautiful for the future. |
| 00:18:13.75 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Morgan. Next, we'll call Fred Moore. and then Sybil Boutelier. |
| 00:18:20.92 | Fred Moore | Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. Again, I want to thank you for all the hard work you're doing and looking forward to the hard work that you'll continue to do in 2025. As you go through the various action items you have before you and looking at the website for the city, one suggestion might be to try to, in this digital world, upload the public record portions of litigation. I think that may help dispel some of the rumors and misinformation that's circulated around people by making assumptions of what's going on in that litigation. I've also noticed in the last four years a lot of references to the Brown Act. And it's been frustrating from the observer to see how that's used by groups and individuals as a weapon against what I see as very dedicated city council members doing the very best they can to comply with the law being overly transparent in all their actions and so I hope to quote the previous comment about being kind I hope in 2025 I don't hear the brown act brought up once by people who are trying to undermine some actions of the city council and again I appreciate all the hard work you do in the time you guys put in thank you and have a fun vacation |
| 00:19:28.42 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Fred. Sybil. And following Sybil will be Damian Morgan. |
| 00:19:38.58 | Sybil Boutelier | Good evening, Mayor Cox, Vice Mayor and Councilmembers. I want to give you a good piece of news. Recently, H. Fannie Salisalito received a letter from... somebody in Italy that represented a coalition of five countries that were developing best practices for age-friendly services throughout the European Union. And they were writing to say that they had included one program from the United States of America, and it was Sausalito's Age-Friendly Building Permit Fee Waiver Program. And so they've published a map of the world with different programs. And there's Japan, all over Europe, different countries. But the only one in the United States is right here in South Salido. And so I think we should be proud of the innovation that is happening here. Um, for healthy living and especially for older adults. Thank you so much. |
| 00:20:44.46 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Sybil. Damian Morgan and then Ava Krasamp. |
| 00:20:54.76 | Damian Morgan | Thank you. |
| 00:20:54.77 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 00:20:54.97 | Damian Morgan | you Good evening. Thank you. at the beginning of the meeting, um, We all read The Pledge. At the end of The Pledge, it ends with justice for all. Um, something that I'm very aware of is RIPA data, R-I-P-A, RIPA data. Racial identity Profiling Act, Racial Identity Profiling Act. This, I don't think this community has heard a report from Sausalito Police Department, I don't think. Saltito Police Department is Uh, They have to, by law, keep this data and gave it to the state of California. but it's not coming before us. I don't think. Correct me if I'm wrong. So, What I'm getting at is George Ford, there was an awakening, right? so-called awakening. Thank you. some laws, policies been put in place. The Department of Salcido is keeping this data, getting to the state, but it's not coming before the residents to understand what's happening in our community. I'm born and raised in Marin City. I'm here every day. Most days, it's all my community. Thank you. What's happening in town with the RIPA data is very important, it's useful. to help us understand what's happening with Police Stops RIPA data, Racial Identity Profiling Act. The county numbers for RIPA data County of Marin, all departments are off the charts. Not surprising, I'm sure. Some of the worst numbers in the state of California are here in Marin County. Surprise, surprise. Marin County has always had some of the worst numbers in the state of California. I'll wait till you guys are done. |
| 00:23:00.42 | Damian Morgan | The county in Marin has always had some of the worst numbers in the state, which is why in 2017, RaceCounts.com, the Advancement Project, deemed Marin County for a study, a report, the most inequitable county in California. But why would anybody care? Because are you affected by being the most Um. in Equitable County, California. Well, you probably think you're not, but you are. in California, Marin County, the most inequitable county in California. So I ask you, Mayor Joan Cox, to have the Sausalito Police Department Present. RIPAA data. because it should be finished now from the previous year. Thank you. |
| 00:23:55.33 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Damien. And the last... Comment card I have in the chambers is Ava Crasat. |
| 00:24:01.76 | Ava Crasat | What? Thank you. I do want to follow on Mr. Morgan's comments. RIPA data is very important, but there's a longer record that I obtained from the district attorney in this county. It's 32 years of arrest referred to prosecution. And it shows a very, very steep bias against black individuals by the Sausalito Police Department. It's extreme. And for many years, I have come before the city council and the good God-fearing white people of Sausalito, and I have asked them to at least agendize this. And it has not happened. So when you agendize the RIPA data, please do also agenda is, uh, the actual longer record, it's 1989 through 2020. And the numbers are shocking. Thank you. It makes, you know, it makes... counties and parishes across the Deep South look positively progressive. So anyway, the other issue, I was very happy to ride from the East Bay on my bike tonight in the cold to come and speak to you in person. because I am still having difficulty getting answers from... your city attorney regarding the incident that took place on September 26, when I was violently removed for no reason at all by your police officers, apparently from the documents that I can find through CPRA at the behest of Melissa Blaustein. and the JCRC. Why was I removed? when I was only civilly trying to address a crowd after an event had already ended. And at a public event where I had every right to speak, I was trying to relay A question. about the cost of the war, which had not come up at the candidate forum. And for that reason, when I had only very mildly raised the issue And you can see it very clearly on the videotape at marincountyconfidential.substack.com. I was grabbed by two of your police officers. I've repeatedly submitted questions about this to your city attorney. because he does not wish to answer my questions and because Ms. Blaustein has provided no explanation and no apology for the way I was violently treated and the manner in which my First Amendment rights were violently abrogated. I am now in the position of having to sue just to get some answers. It does not have to be this way. But apparently, THAT IS HOW Ms. Hoffman, I would appreciate it if you would pay attention. That is how. We. are progressing. |
| 00:27:04.43 | Steven Woodside | All right, your time is up. Thank you. |
| 00:27:08.79 | Walfred Solorzano | Online we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:27:15.56 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, Council. Good to see you all again. And I just want to, I'm talking about fire safety and you know, the fires in Los Angeles are still raging. They're contained somewhat. Fires have broken out in San Diego County. And we are. Sitting ducks, in my opinion. At the last meeting, I requested that the city work with Southern Marin Fire to get a mailer out to each and every citizen here in Sausalito about what to do with preparedness. what documents to get together, when you get your go bag, what you should have in your go bag. All of this information is already available. It just needs to be put together in one way. document or one mailer and sent to the residence. I did notice that Southern Marine Fire in a posting on Facebook did have some of this information. But If people aren't looking at Facebook and looking specifically at the Southern Marin Fire Post, They're not going to see it. I think it's important enough that we get this communication out to the residents. While we have a teachable moment, I mean, with these fires on our website, on our view site, on the news almost every night, this is a time when people should be have an open mind figure out how they're going to get ready in Sausalito, when and if, and I say when, the fire occurs. I'm hopeful it won't be. But nevertheless, We are sitting in a very, very vulnerable area, and I'd like to see the public uh, an outreach to the public to make them aware to make us aware of exactly what we need to do to get ready. With an evacuation warning, with an evacuation order. I think that would be very helpful to the well-being of our community. Thank you. |
| 00:29:11.81 | Steven Woodside | Walford, before we move on, I'm going to exercise my privilege under the communication section of the agenda to briefly respond. to statements made. I will speak more about this during committee appointments at the end of the agenda, but I do want folks to know that I am planning to resurrect the Community Disaster Preparedness Committee. We already have three members on that committee. I'm inviting various people to apply to join that committee, including former Councilmember Janelle Kelman, who has expressed interest, and I would like to take this opportunity to invite former Mayor Sandra Bushmaker to apply to join that committee. She was instrumental in 2018 at creating and disseminating the very type of materials that she's discussing this evening. And then I also want to let people know that on February 4th, Southern Marine Fire Chief Tubbs will be here in our council chambers to make a presentation to us on disaster preparedness and to update us on the impact of the fires in Southern California. All right. Thanks. Walford. |
| 00:30:20.17 | Steven Woodside | I could just add one thing. I know I've received mailers from Southern Marin Fire inspections at my home. I'm hoping that that's widely, those notices and advice materials are widely disseminated. And I know at our Saturday session we received a report from Chief Tubbs and his assistant on one of the things was that very fact. So I think the suggestion is a good one. I think it has been done, and it needs to be renewed, and we need to be as aware and up-to-date as we can be. So thank you. |
| 00:30:59.89 | Steven Woodside | Thanks, Walford. Who's next? |
| 00:31:01.16 | Walfred Solorzano | Michael Dumont. |
| 00:31:07.01 | Michael Dumont | Hi, good evening. Can you hear me? |
| 00:31:09.60 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. |
| 00:31:09.95 | Michael Dumont | Thank you. Good evening. My name is Michael Dumont. I'm here on behalf of the Sausalito Community Boating Center to provide a quick update. I just wanted to let council and city staff and the public know that this past weekend we conducted the soft opening of our facility. We're now open for public water access from sunrise to sunset. We welcomed about 15 to 20 people who launched a wide variety of canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, etc. at our facility over this weekend and another 40 to 50 individuals who visited the facility, learned about our site and have future plans to launch their boats here for public water access to Richards Bay. Next steps for us is that we are meeting with parks and recreation staff later this week to work on rolling out our initial batch of programming later this spring and early summer. So we'll have more updates on that in the future, but we wanted to quickly provide this update on the soft opening. And we'll be doing a grand opening celebration on opening day on the Bay, April 27th. Thank you and have a great evening. |
| 00:32:21.55 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Michael, and congratulations. |
| 00:32:24.15 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public speakers? |
| 00:32:25.73 | Steven Woodside | Okay, with that we will close communications and move on to the consent calendar. Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, are expected to have unanimous counsel support and may be enacted by the counsel in one motion. in the form listed below. So on our consent calendar this evening, we have 3A, adopt the minutes of the City Council meetings of January 7 and 11, 2025. 3B, adopt a resolution accepting the Marin Ship Park Tennis Court's reconstruction project as complete at a cost of $373,007 from various funds, and direct the city engineer to file the notice of completion. 3C, adopt a resolution requiring multi-way stop at the intersection of Spring Street and Woodward Avenue pursuant to Sausalito Municipal Code Section 15.04.050 and directing installation of additional stop signs. 3D, adopt a resolution establishing a no parking zone pursuant to vehicle code section 22507 opposite the driveway of the Glen Grove Estates, 265 to 285 Santa Rosa Avenue. 3E, receive and file Saucel Police Department's Crime and Traffic Report calendar year 2024, fourth quarter and year end report. 3F, adopt a resolution to amend consultant services agreement with DeNovo Planning Group. for preparation of an amended housing element, general plan amendments, and rezoning documents, preparation of the new EIR for the amended sixth cycle housing element in an amount not to exceed $102,479 from the general fund, 3G, adopt a resolution approving an encroachment agreement for a three-foot-tall retaining wall in the public right-of-way at 501 Bonita Street. 3H, adopt a resolution declaring certain computer equipment surplus and authorizing its disposition. And 3I, approval of First Amendment to City of Sausalito lease, Old City Hall, 731 Bridgeway with Jean Hiller, Inc. to add option for additional five-year term on same terms an authorized city manager to execute before we move on to any questions on the consent calendar we do have a slight revision amendment to item 3i and I will invite the city attorney to read that amendment into the record Thank you. |
| 00:34:39.72 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, thank you, Mayor. Thank you. |
| 00:34:41.60 | Steven Woodside | You're... Voice is very muffled, city attorney. |
| 00:34:44.74 | Sergio Rudin | Okay, let me see if this is, can you hear me now? |
| 00:34:47.74 | Steven Woodside | Yes, thank you. |
| 00:34:48.95 | Sergio Rudin | Okay, so staff recommend a revision to the agreement that is in your packet to add a new section dealing with the minimum monthly rent provision. It would add new language that would modify section 4.1 of Article IV rent to add the following language after the first paragraph. the language would read. Effective March 1st, 2030, and each successive March 1st for the remainder of the term of this lease, the MMR shall be increased based on the rate that has been determined by the Consumer Price Index for the most recent 12-month period, not to exceed 5%. Consumer Price Index, used in this section, is the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, CPIU, San Francisco, Oakland, Hayward, all items 1982 through 1984. Equals 100, not seasonally just as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Department of Labor. |
| 00:35:36.52 | Unknown | 100. |
| 00:35:41.54 | Sergio Rudin | So that would be the additional link. which that would be added to this First Amendment. |
| 00:35:46.38 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, city attorney. It's my understanding that staff has conferred with the less sore and they have agreed to the addition of that language. |
| 00:35:57.68 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, my understanding is tenant Gene Hiller has agreed to that language. |
| 00:36:01.63 | Steven Woodside | Great. OK, at this point, I will open it up to questions from city council. Okay, no questions. I'm going to open it up to public comment. First speaker is Eva Corzant. |
| 00:36:21.68 | Ava Crasat | Thank you, I am referring to item 3E, Receive and file Saucedo Police Department's Crime and Traffic Report Calendar. 2024 fourth quarter and year end report. You know, in other municipalities, there would be a table with a binder in the back where this report would be printed out. But I did take a look at it, and I believe it is incomplete, and thus it should not be on consent. It should be agendized. I understand that you are reporting only one citizen complaint. I know that to be false. I am noticing that you recorded only one use of force incident, which I know also to be false. If you approve this on consent, if you do not remove it from consent, you will be approving, essentially, receiving a report that has multiple falsehoods in it. I also want to point out that It is clear to me from reading the settlement, which you did not announce in any, you did not agendize the settlement from the Portage case. The exorbitant $21 million claim against the city of Sausalito because they couldn't figure out how to conduct themselves, or their police officers could not figure out how to conduct themselves. That case was settled for. over $600,000 last June. And I reported on that. That was not reported in any other local media. It's at marincountyconfidential.substack.com. Now, the details of that settlement... Include. uh items that melissa blaustein you should have made available to the public joan cox you should have made available to the public The rest of you should have made available to the public. And now one of these items is a quote-unquote educational program that you were required to implement. And I have asked your city attorney for information about that. He has not responded to me. And it appears that you are in violation of the terms of the settlement. Now it is clear from the body cam from the September 26 incident, that you, not only didn't implement this program, But in the event that you had, it had little to no effect. The program was supposed to educate your white constituents how not to call police. on people who are not doing anything wrong. And in that event, you utterly failed, not only because the body cam shows multiple white residents of Sausalito complaining that I, was somehow in need of being arrested, of Asian descent, I was advocating on behalf of other Asian people at the September 26th event. But also, apparently Melissa Blaustein was critical in demanding my arrest. Thank you. |
| 00:39:22.33 | Unknown | was critical. demanding my arrest. |
| 00:39:26.23 | Ava Crasat | And so therefore the educational program has not- Please step away. Your time is up. Yes, I appreciate that. Time, please step away. This should be removed from the agenda. Thank you. |
| 00:39:27.93 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:39:27.95 | Sandra Bushmaker | program does not. Thank you. |
| 00:39:30.92 | Steven Woodside | Bye. |
| 00:39:30.95 | Morgan Pierce | educational |
| 00:39:31.71 | Steven Woodside | Hey, |
| 00:39:31.93 | Morgan Pierce | I'm sorry. |
| 00:39:31.96 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:39:32.08 | Sandra Bushmaker | Bye. |
| 00:39:35.68 | Steven Woodside | All right. Next is Cynthia Egging. |
| 00:39:46.43 | Cynthia Egging | So greetings, council and Madam Mayor. I just the topic I'm going to bring up is the completion of the renovation on the tennis court at Renship Park. I just want to know, has anybody tested the fountain if it's still testing positive for human fecal matter at that location? Thank you. |
| 00:40:03.64 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Next is Jeffrey Jacob. |
| 00:40:13.61 | Babette McDougall | Ooh. |
| 00:40:21.76 | Jeffrey Chase | Madam Mayor, City Council and Citizens of Sausalito. Thanks for this opportunity to talk with you. I will second the police reports and that it's very clear that that we do not have enough local news sources now to be able to cover the council meetings, let alone the police stops and everything else going on in this small town. that my friend Greg Taylor here found a bunch of old newspapers. There used to be a few you can still see, MarinScope, building right next to the Taste of Rome. We do have a worker, Tabitha, the director of communications, that puts out a newsletter as well. But something that is free speech and free press. is very important. So I'll also talk about, this is 3F. I was so happy and I want to remain that way. about the lack of bringing consultants in. that, when I talked with the city clerk, Walfred Solorzano, and he was giving me the information on why people would not be hired by Sausalito instead of being consultants, which is by far less transparent. To go and learn about your government, you guys make it a little easier. To learn about a corporation, working for the government, quite a bit harder. As we noticed in the inauguration, the governments and the corporations seem to be working together, hand in fist now. This consent calendar item is... |
| 00:42:24.04 | Jeffrey Chase | $102,479. for housing elements environmental impact report. This is not for any proposal. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am on this, to build an actual place for firefighters, policemen, workers here. This is just environmental impact report for any housing that they might build here. It is entirely unnecessary as almost all of these consultancies are. I think that to be an honest alternative to what's going on at a federal level, we have got to be honest with ourselves here first. Thank you very much. |
| 00:43:10.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, next is Damian Morgan. |
| 00:43:17.94 | Damian Morgan | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. regarding the police item, there's a lot to unpack here, you know, with regarding the, The PRA that was pulled from the DA's office, 32 years worth. It's true. I read it. I saw it. I have it. I've experienced it. I've lived it, actually. Lived experiences. The 32 years of data, along with the two years of RIPA data, 34 years, 35 years of stark, excuse me, of stark, stark data. Dada. for pulling over black folk in Marin County. Amen. I'm not asking you to care. People say, why don't you care? No, I'm asking you to care. I'm asking you to Review it. Look at it. bring the RIPA data, two years of data, to this council. Let's talk about it. I am also aware of the settlement of July of 24. I did read the document based on The city, I imagine, along with the police department, having a I don't know, training or a class. I'm not sure exactly what it is. But from my knowledge, it hasn't happened yet. So I wanna know, I'm asking you, Mayor, When will this take place? I'm asking you not to have an all-white, nicey-nicey folk on this committee. I'm asking you to have people, part of this, people with lived experiences who would tell the truth. get into the weeds of this. I do understand, I'm not a fool, I do understand that Nothing will change. Thank you. |
| 00:45:08.08 | Steven Woodside | Pardon me. Hold my time, please. Could you close the door? There's a light shining in my eyes from outside. |
| 00:45:08.72 | Damian Morgan | Hold my time, please. |
| 00:45:20.89 | Damian Morgan | do understand what's the meaning of insanity, right? Do understand that not much will change. unless we're forced to change legal action, lawsuits, the county, So as we get into this class or whatever you want to call it, that's all you're supposed to put on based on that settlement. I have read it a few months ago. I'm just waiting to see what's going to happen. If we don't talk about it, it probably won't happen. So, Hopefully. This will happen soon. And lastly, even in Tiburon. Tiburon and Mill Valley. put policy together. That's stated. when white residents called the police the police won't go. When they say, hey, there's a suspicious black person in my neighborhood on my street. Saucer Mill Valley and Tiburon won't go. They'll send them some paperwork because they know it's silly, it's ignorant, it's stupid, it's Klan-like, KKK-like. So I ask you to also think about putting a policy with the department that if someone calls and says, hey, this is suspicious, there's Damien on my street. |
| 00:46:33.49 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Mr. Morgan. You won't. |
| 00:46:34.14 | Damian Morgan | He won't go. They won't show up. |
| 00:46:36.71 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. And Babette McDougall. |
| 00:46:52.72 | Babette McDougall | Thank you, Babette MacDougall. I'm painfully aware of the time I was reminded that city Convened a retreat on a weekend Saturday, and of the five hours invested, my public comment consumed 30 minutes. I'm proud of that. I'll aim for a higher number going forward. In the meantime, I want to look at this consent calendar. I'm sorry certain things really weren't pulled. For example, I'm glad to see that we are negotiating the city's property And the real estate portfolio hopefully is growing, and we are benefiting from that. But I wonder when the citizens get to see the official policy that was requested, I think, two years ago now? And I still haven't even seen a draft of what is going to be this assessment of our facilities going forward. Is that ever going to be made available to the public? That's great. |
| 00:47:40.33 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:47:40.34 | Babette McDougall | Question one. |
| 00:47:40.68 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. And that has to do with item 3. Walford, I can't hear her because you two are conversing. Would you please step out from behind me? |
| 00:47:41.80 | Babette McDougall | I'm just gonna stop you from a... |
| 00:47:48.38 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, you can ask him after the meeting or send him an email. |
| 00:47:52.39 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 00:47:52.43 | Steven Woodside | we recently |
| 00:47:52.97 | Babette McDougall | my time. |
| 00:47:54.64 | Steven Woodside | We paused your time as soon as I stopped. No, he didn't. I'm sorry. |
| 00:47:55.99 | Babette McDougall | No, he didn't. I'm sorry. |
| 00:47:57.40 | Steven Woodside | Yes. About 10 seconds, sorry. |
| 00:47:58.69 | Babette McDougall | Okay, he's just reset it. Thank you, Walford. Okay, so that has to do directly with item 3i. Every time something comes up about a real, Sausalito Center for the Arts or one of the other properties, it doesn't matter. I'm in favor of everybody being here who's here. I love Jean Hiller. I'm glad to see the Sausalito Center for the Arts try to become a center for us going forward. I am not opposed to this. What I am opposed to is the lack of transparency on how these leases are being negotiated. We are citizens of this town. This is our money. We are the people who are enfranchised to oversee the good health of this financial situation. So I'm asking you to please daylight these policies sooner, not later. I think it's been two years, and we're still waiting for a draft. Okay, so the other item has to do with things that really don't matter right now. I just want to thank you for your time. I yield back. |
| 00:48:52.62 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Anyone online, city clerk? |
| 00:48:55.71 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public speakers. |
| 00:48:57.06 | Steven Woodside | All right, so I will entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar unless anyone would like to make comment. So moved. |
| 00:49:06.27 | Sergio Rudin | Second. |
| 00:49:06.61 | Steven Woodside | you Thank you. City Clerk, will you call the roll? |
| 00:49:09.38 | Sergio Rudin | And Mayor, that is approval of the consent calendar with the changes right into the record. |
| 00:49:14.00 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:49:14.05 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:49:14.07 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:49:14.10 | Councilmember Hoffman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:49:14.14 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:49:14.24 | Sergio Rudin | Bye. |
| 00:49:14.29 | Steven Woodside | Thanks. |
| 00:49:14.32 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:49:16.89 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Blaustein. |
| 00:49:18.45 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:49:18.88 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Councilmember Huffman. |
| 00:49:20.80 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:49:22.15 | Walfred Solorzano | Council member Sobieski. Yes. Vice mayor Woodside. Yes. And mayor Cox. |
| 00:49:26.32 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 00:49:27.92 | Steven Woodside | Yes, that motion carries 5-0. We'll now move on to item 5B, the first mid-year budget discussion and provide direction as desired. And we welcome Chad Hess, our finance director. |
| 00:49:42.79 | Chad Hess | All right. Good evening, Mayor, Council. Um, members of the public. My computer looks like it had just froze as I press the share button. Are you guys able to hear me? |
| 00:49:55.78 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:49:55.80 | Morgan Pierce | Yes. |
| 00:49:56.26 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 00:49:56.57 | Chad Hess | Okay, well, I've got to wait for my computer to unfreeze here. I apologize. |
| 00:50:01.94 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. This happens a lot, so we need to get you a better internet system, Mr. Hess. |
| 00:50:03.75 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:50:06.95 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 00:50:06.97 | Chad Hess | I think it's my computer. It's not the internet. |
| 00:50:07.00 | Steven Woodside | I think it's my computer. |
| 00:50:09.97 | Chad Hess | My computer is acting up. Alfred, can you share? |
| 00:50:11.53 | Babette McDougall | Well, thank you. |
| 00:50:13.08 | Chad Hess | On your end. |
| 00:50:13.16 | Babette McDougall | on your own. |
| 00:50:14.68 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:50:16.05 | Babette McDougall | Yeah. |
| 00:50:36.62 | Babette McDougall | All right. |
| 00:50:37.70 | Chad Hess | All right. No, not yet. I can only hear you guys. But if you are on the general fund summary, |
| 00:50:38.04 | Babette McDougall | All right. |
| 00:50:44.15 | Chad Hess | So, On this slide, you guys can see the first six months of the fiscal year for the general fund. Here you can see that revenues are exceeding the budget or exceeding the prior year, I'm sorry, by $589,000. or a 7% increase. Again, I want to draw your attention to building and planning revenues. Those are exceeding the prior year by over 230,000. for the first six months. Again, interest earnings are exceeding. the prior year, but are slowing down again based upon the lowering rate of the Fed. The two other revenue streams that are below the prior year would be transient and occupancy tax. as well as the Friends of the Sausalito Library under our contributions. All right, well, I've got my computer back. Can I share again, Alfred? |
| 00:51:38.72 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah, let me stop sharing. |
| 00:51:40.32 | Chad Hess | Thank you. Thank you. Sorry about this. All right. Has that come through? |
| 00:51:47.44 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:51:49.00 | Steven Woodside | Not yet. |
| 00:51:50.21 | Chad Hess | All right. |
| 00:51:50.89 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 00:51:51.31 | Chad Hess | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:51:51.38 | Steven Woodside | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:51:51.41 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 00:51:51.55 | Steven Woodside | it. |
| 00:51:51.75 | Chad Hess | Thank you. There we go. Okay. Thank you. Alright next talking about general fund revenues, these are in line with prior years. Again, you can see that the large inflows take place in December and April. February is when we're going to see our business license dollars come through, January and February typically. And then again, the negative revenues that you can see in August and October are from the reversal of our accruals from prior years. Looking at general fund wages. Here you can see the green line, which represents our current fiscal year, fiscal year 25. Those are trending in line with the budget as expressed as the dotted red line. um, December wages are typically higher than other months due to the vacation payouts for several, or for a couple of our Labor classes. And then wages are in line with prior year. And it should be noted again that the 23-24 has three payroll months in November and May. And that's why we have those spikes in those particular months. looking at total general fund expenditures, I'm not sure. Again, those things are in line with the budget. You can, again, see July is our is where we pay our insurance premiums as well as our pension payments. Um, Thank you. All right, MLK rentals. Um, |
| 00:53:17.71 | Chad Hess | Thank you. issue. I got the wrong title in here. I apologize for this one. Here I've got the parking fund. So, The MLK revenues, again, represents a very stable revenue stream for the city. Um, Each month, the tenants pay timely. And those rents are available to pay down the COPs. as well as subsidize some of the general fund's operations through a transfer its operating profits to the general fund. Looking at the parking fund, the parking fund revenues are exceeding the prior year by 153,000. I do want to draw your attention to the slides up here we are seeing late. Decline in parking revenues for November and December. compared to the prior year. all prior months of this fiscal year have exceeded the prior year with that exception. So I do want to draw your attention to that. It is something that we will continue to monitor. And we will inform counsel if this trend continues. Next, I want to look at our budget adjustments that we're going to bring forward. So on the slide here, you can see our original budget as it was presented. adopted. for our 7-1. what he said. 2024 fiscal year. As I update you today, we have closed that budget gap from our original million dollar deficit. to about 34,000. And additional adjustments will be made as we bring this forward. in a future council meeting for your adoption. Here we can look at our revenues. Again, it should be no surprise that we are going to increase our property taxes by that $550,000. And that is again for the excess ERAF that is rebated from the county. The other changes that I am proposing, again, Planning revenues. and are building revenues. are doing very well this fiscal year. So I am recommending that we increase both of those budgets as well. I'm, Here I have an interfund transfer, an increase. There are two components of this. is an increase of $25,000 from the Gene Hiller Fund or the Old City Hall Fund. to make the transfer in, transfer outs reciprocal. I had a slight error in the previous budget. The other $200,000 represents the increase in the transfer from the parking fund. And now we're also going to see, if you read my staff report, I talk about paying all of the pension UALs. out of the general fund rather than transferring it out of the parking fund. or paying it out of the parking fund. So that increase in transfer in is offset by a reduction in expense. for the parking fund. So at the end of the day, things will equal out between the two funds. It's just where we recognize that pension UAL payment. Now, looking at the expenses, here you have a very high-level departmental change or a departmental view. You can see where those departments are at for the current year, current six months. their current budget and again their mid-year budget. Most apartments are making minor adjustments. There are a couple of significant ones that I want to draw your attention to. The first one here is the engineering. In this line item, I... had a position control issue with my original budget. and I was missing a position in this category. So that brings that position back into the budget in addition to the benefits. And then there's also increase for professional services due to a traffic study that needs to be completed every so many years. And that was unbudgeted for. The other Item I want to draw your attention to is right here under the police department. This is that UAL payment that I was talking about on the revenue side. So we're going to increase the transfer in and we're going to increase the expense here. So it nets out. In the parking fund, I'm recommending We increase the transfer out. but we eliminate that expense. So again, it balances out. The other item I wanted to draw your attention to is right down here under economic development We're recommending an increase in the budget on this line item to accommodate the PBID funding under economic development. Um, Again, you can see here revenues are improving in the general fund. We are currently doing a comprehensive fee study Once this is reviewed and completed, we'll bring it forward to council. At that time, it will be recommended for adoption. And again, that is to increase some of those fees for service. . for our community members that engage with permits and activities and so on and so forth. New information is learned. As we learn information, we're going to update this budget, and we're going to continue to bring that information forward. And again, A couple of changes on the expense side. We talked about wrench recognizing the UAL payment and the general fund rather than the parking fund. a budget error. in the engineering department. And again, the P-Bed. um, In addition, just a brief update on the care plan cost and revenue efficiencies. The goal is to balance the budget through operating efficiencies. There are going to be small wins over time. And they're going to add up. Some examples are telecom and merchant services. We've been making very good progress on cleaning up some of those legacy expenses. Evaluating purchase more carefully. And then again, we are restarting our police alarm billing. This is a revenue source that kind of fell off the cliff a couple of years ago due to turnover. We are bringing this back, and it's going to generate revenue for the general fund. So some positive updates there. Next, I'm looking at the parking fund. The parking fund, again, is performing well. I am recommending a slight increase in the budget. and of 103,000 combined with interest earnings and parking revenues. Here you can see that change in the budget due to the retiree benefits or the UAL payment. And then here you can see the reciprocal transfer out. So those two net out, it's really for financial reporting, ease of financial reporting. So the parking fund is doing very well. I am recommending those slight adjustments. Over here on the MLK fund, I'm really not recommending any changes. There was just a slight reclass between a retiree benefit and wages. And then on the Old City Hall Fund, this fund is performing as intended. Um, We are requesting additional dollars for the maintenance and repair items in that facility. The HVAC is being replaced. The roof has been replaced. We have doors that are being replaced. This is really an investment in this facility. to get it back up to a better standard. And then it will be In much better shape for years to come for our tenant who is looking to engage that tenancy for a longer time. Looking at the Tideland Fund. Um, We are making a slight budget adjustment. for interest earnings and rentals. to the tune of about 30,000. And then we are recommending that we make a slight budget adjustment. um, We're going to decrease some of our supplies and materials. Overall, we are projecting a positive increase in balance of $442,000 for this fund. Again, the Tideland Fund generates significant revenues over time. And they again continue to accumulate. On one of the attachments, you can see cash balances by fund. There is over $1.3 million in that fund. So I encourage our council members to find ways to deploy those resources to benefit our community. At this time, I'll go ahead and open it up for discussion. and your questions. |
| 01:00:43.24 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any questions of Mr. Hess? |
| 01:00:48.14 | Steven Woodside | Just one. This differs in its bottom line, if you will, by about a couple hundred thousand from the last time we reported a few. a few weeks ago. |
| 01:00:59.31 | Chad Hess | Exactly. That is correct, yes. I've been digging deeper into things and really trying to make sure that we have a really tight budget this year. I want to balance it and Yeah, it's going to happen. We will get there and then we're gonna control our expenses at the departmental levels to really balance this budget this year. It's important to the, to the community. |
| 01:01:21.33 | Steven Woodside | And you undertake this on a regular ongoing basis, as I'm understanding it, and you periodically report to the council. |
| 01:01:29.90 | Chad Hess | Yeah, my goal is to report quarterly to council. If these reports or these graphs that I'm showing are helpful or useful, please give feedback. I can produce them quarterly or monthly if required. My goal is to give you guys as much information as you need in a format that's usable. Anybody, either on McDonough's, or the community, please offer suggestions or comments. |
| 01:01:56.73 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 01:01:59.18 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. Chad, so for these revenue generating, what we call, I think we call the enterprise fund. So, and this is going to be a collective question, but you can answer individually if that's easier for you. So for the MLK, so. what we call the enterprise funds. In other words, these are revenue generating capital assets. So the MLK is the MLK facility at the other end of town that, you know, we charge rent for these things. These are buildings that we rent to people that they do require capital investments. In other words, we have to pay for their upkeep. And so we're doing facilities assessments for these buildings that we rent all over town. And they require, as you said, for the Gene Hiller, the old city hall, which is the Gene Hiller building, they require new roofs. They require investments from us. And so... their revenue generating, as you said, and we're working on that. How do you expect we're expecting that assessment? I think at the first of February, I think the city managers told us, how do you expect that to affect these revenues that you just talked about? And we expect that |
| 01:03:16.97 | Chad Hess | Sure. |
| 01:03:19.00 | Councilmember Hoffman | evaluation. |
| 01:03:19.12 | Chad Hess | So the reports, they were in town either last week or two weeks ago doing the assessments of MLK. The Saas-Lito Center for the Arts. |
| 01:03:29.33 | Babette McDougall | Yeah. |
| 01:03:29.39 | Chad Hess | and the tidelands facilities. I have seen a draft of the SCA building And MLK is hopefully coming later this week. Those drafts are being reviewed by staff. We're offering comments and feedback, and we hope to bring them forward to council as soon as we can in February. I don't envision these reports affecting the revenue side of the equation. I do project that it will affect the expense side. We will have a better idea of what is that deferred maintenance And what is the cost and a recommendation of when those costs should be incurred. And gives us a really nice timeline of what that cash flow investment will look like over the next. 10 to 15 years. Thank you. |
| 01:04:11.04 | Councilmember Hoffman | A network. |
| 01:04:11.21 | Chad Hess | I'm impressed with what we're seeing, and I think you will be too. |
| 01:04:14.55 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay, and that will also affect, I would assume, our parking enterprise. That also requires a capital investment to upkeep the parking lots, yes? Yes. |
| 01:04:23.16 | Chad Hess | Yes, yeah. So it is going to cost dollars to upkeep our parking lot. And then also, I think a discussion needs to be had on our parking technology, the infrastructure that we use to collect our fees for parking. I believe an investment there should be discussed as well. |
| 01:04:40.84 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay. Thank you. So when do we expect to see this sort of assessment of, you gave us the bottom line of what we can expect to see with regard to revenue, but the capital reinvestment into these revenue generating revenue streams. Thank you. |
| 01:05:04.65 | Chad Hess | you. |
| 01:05:04.72 | Councilmember Hoffman | Um, When do we expect to see that sort of balance sheet? |
| 01:05:08.89 | Chad Hess | As soon as I can get these reports in their final draft, I will bring them forward as a discussion and we can have that conversation that really hard discussion on how do we want to allocate our resources to get these facilities in a better shape so they continue to produce revenue well into the future. |
| 01:05:26.91 | Councilmember Hoffman | And that's part of the bottom line discussion that we should be having as a continuing conversation. |
| 01:05:33.07 | Chad Hess | I agree, yes. Yep, budget talks need to continue on. They need to evolve. I think we need to bring this forward you know, much more often. And I think the bringing back the finance committee is a great opportunity. And I welcome more discussions here at the full city council. |
| 01:05:49.79 | Councilmember Hoffman | And do you think that will be part of our discussion as we move forward with our, we've now had our mid-year budget, but then, At some point. We're going to start our 20 |
| 01:06:00.59 | Chad Hess | 526. |
| 01:06:01.45 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah, 2025, 26 budget discussion. And we usually start that in April. |
| 01:06:06.80 | Chad Hess | We're having some preliminary discussions within our finance department on the wage side of things. So we're starting to gear up for that. And then we're going to bring in the departments very soon, but it'll be brought forward March, April is my goal. |
| 01:06:20.78 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay, thanks. I had a follow-up discussion question to Mayor Zell. So I had a question about the ERAF funds. And I'm not gonna remember what that stands for. It has to do with property taxes, and it has to do with education. |
| 01:06:30.61 | Chad Hess | . |
| 01:06:30.65 | Shelby Van Meter | Thank you. |
| 01:06:38.26 | Chad Hess | And education. |
| 01:06:39.68 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah. The educational property tax. |
| 01:06:42.49 | Chad Hess | Yeah, I'm not going to remember what ERAF stands for either. It's in the staff reports, but it's dollars that are taken out of our property tax settlements, put into a pool. They're allocated out to the schools within the county. And then once they're, state basic need aid is met. the excess in that pool is redistributed back to the paying agencies or the contributing agencies. |
| 01:07:08.08 | Councilmember Hoffman | And so you're accounting for it in our budget this year. It was somewhat... It wasn't accounted for last year. |
| 01:07:17.81 | Babette McDougall | you know. |
| 01:07:18.30 | Councilmember Hoffman | no control over it, but you're, since we got it and we've gotten it in the past, we now know But we really have no control over it, and we don't know if we're going to get it next year, but we assume that we are. |
| 01:07:29.22 | Chad Hess | So yes. |
| 01:07:30.03 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. This is our first summary. |
| 01:07:33.10 | Chad Hess | So, we have not been budgeting for it from what I can tell. I went back to the past five years, and I don't believe we've been budgeting for it. We may have, and I'm just not seeing it in fire directors' work papers. |
| 01:07:48.68 | Babette McDougall | Yeah. |
| 01:07:48.88 | Chad Hess | I don't think we have them. This year I am bringing it forward as a budget item. It is revenue that we are receiving. We've received our first settlement of over $300,000. for excess e-wrap. It is a topic in the state legislature that they may want to pull this back from the five counties. Maybe. Maybe not. But it is revenue we're receiving this year. I think we should count it. And I'm recommending that it's in our budget. We need to monitor this. I think we need to be very cautious and monitor it going forward, but It's a I believe it's a secure revenue this fiscal year. and it should be in the budgets. |
| 01:08:27.64 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay, I think that's all I have right now. |
| 01:08:29.09 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:08:29.60 | Chad Hess | Thank you, Councilmember. |
| 01:08:30.24 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:08:30.38 | Babette McDougall | about, and |
| 01:08:31.52 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 01:08:31.57 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 01:08:31.66 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:08:31.79 | Steven Woodside | Vice Mayor, he's just going to clarify something that he already mentioned last week, but was raised again tonight. |
| 01:08:37.63 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, and I just, with respect to ERAF, it's a revenue source that those five counties are entitled to under the current state of law and have been for a number of years. But periodically, as I know from personal experience, it's been... questioned at times. So it's understandable if in the past it hasn't been budgeted and now that you see it's coming in on a more steady basis from your perspective, you're willing to continue to see it as a revenue source. |
| 01:09:10.57 | Chad Hess | I believe it is. You know, with my discussions with the county, unless the legislature decides they're gonna pull it, You know, I haven't seen that discussion at this point in this season. I think we monitor it. Do we want to flag it as a revenue source that, potentially volatile? I think so. I think a good exercise of going through all of our revenues and kind of assigning How volatile is this? You know, sales tax revenue is very volatile. You know, we've seen that with the pandemic. So this is one of those revenue sources I think we count. But we monitor. |
| 01:09:44.05 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Director Hess. Thank you. |
| 01:09:45.77 | Chad Hess | All right. |
| 01:09:46.03 | Steven Woodside | and council member blaustein please |
| 01:09:48.19 | Unknown | Thank you, Mayor Cox. So Director Hess, thank you. I know you and I spoke earlier today and I just wanted to reiterate and kind of get some background. I wanna make sure that it's noted that it The staff report, which I thought was very well put together, thank you so much for doing so much to make clear that you are putting a real emphasis on balancing our budget effectively this year. But you talked specifically quite a bit about the $37 million in the unfunded pension liability, and you also included in there the safety fire plan. Could you maybe talk a little bit about your recommendations and strategy and also why you inserted what I will refer to as a don't panic surrounding the $37 million and what you suggest we might do going forward to pay down that debt and put us in the best possible situation. |
| 01:10:32.60 | Chad Hess | Yeah, so you're correct. In the staff report, I have several paragraphs that – that are around this pension debt or pension obligations. that the city of Sausalito has. And, As you read that, there are two primary components. There's the UAL payment. which is the unfunded actuarial liability, and then there's the normal cost payment. The normal cost is a projection that Kelpers projects That's the contribution. that we pay payroll. into the system. And that's helper's best estimate of, If you contribute a dollar today, we can meet this pledge or this obligation to your employees in the future. And if everything works out, you know, with Kelper's assumptions on mortality, on investment returns, on cost of living adjustments into the future, This normal cost that we contribute each year should cover the obligation that we promised. Well, if anything goes awry, if we achieve less than a 6.8% return on our investment, Well, there's a change in our assumptions. Now we've created an unfunded liability. if our assumptions on mortality are wrong. That's a change in assumptions or a change in the actual experience. And all of these things affect pensions that are really outside of our control. Now, The point that I want to make is Each year, we, Add on a new layer of amortization. There's always these changes. And if you look at that report tonight, I can pull it up on the screen if that's helpful. And maybe you could decide if that's helpful. Each year we add a new base or a new layer and there's a new amortization and this payment just keeps getting kicked out and re-amortized. So will we have a UAL payment? Yes, we're always going to have a UAL payment because there's always going to miss their projections. Is it something to panic about? I don't think it is. It's in our budget right now at three, three, three and a half million. It's going to go up a little bit next year. But then we're going to see relief because Kelper's had a really positive year. So again, that's going to lower our UAL payment in fiscal year 26, 27. I think we have an opportunity at that point to really ask ourselves, how do we move forward? We've got a higher payment in our budget for this pension payment. Do we keep paying that higher amount and get aggressive at paying down that debt? Or do we take those dollars and invest them elsewhere? But there are a lot of strategies that the city can deploy to manage that UAL payment. Section 115 trusts are a great example. doing advanced discretionary payments and being very strategic on what layers we pay off, we can affect What is that UAL payment in subsequent years? But, I don't think we need to panic. I think we need to be aware of it. We need to be aware of, okay, what are the next two years of UAL payments and focus on those, make sure we can manage those. And be aware of the changes that are happening regarding the CalPERS system. I don't think we need to panic, but I think we need to just be aware and I think we need to have a broader discussion about pensions. So that was my way to maybe plant a seed for it to turn into deeper discussions on pensions and how we want to approach them. But again, I don't think we need to panic over it. |
| 01:13:54.11 | Unknown | And at one point you had suggested that even if we had the opportunity to pay down the entire UAL and it's in fact in the staff report, that would not be a recommendation that you would give because of the amortization. |
| 01:14:03.10 | Chad Hess | No. Yeah, I think a reasonable goal that the city should strive for in the future, I don't think it's something we can get to today or tomorrow, is around 90% funded. I don't think we should ever strive for 100% funded. Because if we get 100% funded and they have positive year, positive year, positive year. we would become super funded. And at that point, there's no getting dollars out of the CalPERS system. So I think getting us close to a 90% funded activity And then if we have additional resources, we want to put at this, I believe a Section 115 trust is the perfect spot for them. once we reach that funded status. Right now, we're paying 6.8% on our pension debt. which is much, much, which is a higher rate of return than we're receiving in our section 115. So. I, I, I believe we should pay down the CalPERS system. and not invest more in our Section 115 trust at this point. But that's my opinion. And it's open for discussion. |
| 01:15:01.52 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:15:01.54 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Yes, Councilmember Hawley. |
| 01:15:07.02 | Councilmember Hoffman | man. |
| 01:15:08.73 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:15:08.74 | Councilmember Hoffman | Sure. Okay, thanks, Chad. So this is interesting. I just have a couple follow-up just on that conversation. So I've talked about this a lot and about the pension vulnerability that we have. And our past conversations have been that one of your highest concerns and highest risk for us has been the amount of our unfunded pension liability. Mm-hmm. |
| 01:15:11.68 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 01:15:16.74 | Babette McDougall | Yeah. |
| 01:15:33.69 | Chad Hess | So. |
| 01:15:34.43 | Councilmember Hoffman | Um, And so what I'm hearing you say, or has that opinion changed? |
| 01:15:39.22 | Chad Hess | It's still a risk. It is still a risk. |
| 01:15:40.72 | Councilmember Hoffman | It is still a risk. Let me make sure. But I don't. |
| 01:15:43.10 | Chad Hess | I don't think it's panic button. |
| 01:15:44.45 | Councilmember Hoffman | And again. But I'm just saying, I haven't panicked in the past, but I'm just trying to... like risk prioritization, right? And so this is a very interesting conversation. So what I heard was on risk, risk prioritization and strategy-wise, what I heard was a goal of 90% funded and not put any more in the 115 trust. |
| 01:16:10.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:16:11.01 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:16:11.05 | Unknown | and I'm not sure. |
| 01:16:15.03 | Councilmember Hoffman | And I think from strategy-wise, I think that's a good, you know, something. a good prioritization or something that we should really talk about. I think the returns, like you said, the returns have been very positive maybe It looks like, we always lag two years, right? Right. Right. In the CalPERS calculation. |
| 01:16:37.09 | Chad Hess | Yep. |
| 01:16:37.83 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:16:37.86 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 01:16:37.98 | Councilmember Hoffman | So that gives us some time to really hone in on the strategy. So- |
| 01:16:41.73 | Chad Hess | We have a lot of people. So yes, fiscal year 27 is going to be the year where we see that benefit of the positive year that just ended. So, We have time. We have some time to discuss it, and I would love that opportunity to do a workshop or a working group, and we can discuss pensions. We can bring in experts to help us better understand pensions. options. It is something we need to address, but I don't think it's our number one rep. I think our insurance is. at this point in time. Thank you. |
| 01:17:10.58 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah, good. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for that. |
| 01:17:10.60 | Chad Hess | Yeah, good. Yeah, especially- |
| 01:17:16.56 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I see no further hands raised. I'm going to... |
| 01:17:20.06 | Councilmember Sobieski | Oh, I'm sorry. Mayor, can I be recognized? |
| 01:17:23.74 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, you may, can you speak a little louder please? |
| 01:17:27.22 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yes, I will try to. Director Hess, are you still there? Yes, I am. Just a quick high-level summary, just for the headlines. Well, one question. Wait. I'm sorry, I want to... |
| 01:17:38.44 | Steven Woodside | This is not comment period, this is questions. |
| 01:17:41.02 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 01:17:41.24 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Council member. |
| 01:17:42.26 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thank you. That is my question. I have a question. feeding off of what we were just talking about, I'm not sure. Whenever you have this UALB UN, what is the UL stamp? |
| 01:17:54.59 | Chad Hess | Unfortunately, and, you know, the |
| 01:17:55.25 | Councilmember Sobieski | actuarial liability. |
| 01:17:56.62 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 01:17:56.63 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thank you. It's actually amortized over some number of years, right? Like something like- It is. Yeah. |
| 01:18:01.07 | Chad Hess | It is. Yeah. Yes, it's amortized over Actually, let me share my screen because I think it's it's relevant. And I'll show everyone the amortization basis. But, Ian is correct. If there is a change assumption. here you can see on this chart here Here's our net investment gain, 630. 2021. This is the year that Kelper's had a very positive return. And you can see here on this amortization period, there's 18 years left. Now, if we go down, this is the last one on this report, 630 2023. Here you can see that we had the investment gain or loss. And we added a positive layer there. They didn't meet their expectations. And there's 20 years left. But yes, you're right. Each year we add a new 20 year amortization and this thing just trying to keep kicking out another year. helpers did change their their methodology for amortization. They previously had much longer amortization periods So that's why you see some of these longer bases. Up on the top half, you see 24, 25. Now their standard amortization is 20 years. |
| 01:19:16.86 | Councilmember Sobieski | Got it. So I know it's a very gross approximation, but it's much like if you have a a 30-year mortgage and you have a certain amount of principal on the mortgage, you could get a vague approximation of your Andrew Roth, Annual obligation by by dividing the principal by the number of years and taking a swag on the interest payment so. Andrew Roth, A rough amount so. |
| 01:19:36.90 | Babette McDougall | Yep. |
| 01:19:39.05 | Councilmember Sobieski | It's not like the 37 million number which you just quoted is callable today, right? It is the basis on which the, |
| 01:19:46.84 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 01:19:46.88 | Councilmember Sobieski | that you know, |
| 01:19:46.93 | Chad Hess | Yeah. That's the present value. And we pay 6.8% interest on that each year. |
| 01:19:53.86 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yeah. and Yeah, in discussion, we'll talk more about that. So just at the highest level, I wanted to make sure I understood Your mid-year adjustment headline statement is that we have about $518,000 in in new expenses that we hadn't budgeted. We have $1.5 million in new revenue. We haven't. expected. Thank you. |
| 01:20:20.04 | Chad Hess | That is correct. |
| 01:20:20.61 | Councilmember Sobieski | So the initial projected deficit that we Approved last year of a million dollars is now $33,000. And your commitment here tonight, you're saying is... that you're going to balance this budget. |
| 01:20:35.53 | Chad Hess | I'm going to balance this. It has to be balanced. It has to be balanced. I'm going to hold my departments to it. So, |
| 01:20:41.47 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thank you, Director. |
| 01:20:42.04 | Chad Hess | We'll get it balanced. Yes, sir. |
| 01:20:42.06 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 01:20:45.40 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, thank you. I'm gonna open it up to public comment. The first speaker card I have is Ava Crescent. And I don't see her. The second speaker card I have is Jeff Jacobs. |
| 01:21:17.92 | Jeffrey Chase | Good evening again. Let's talk about money for a minute. |
| 01:21:25.18 | Jeffrey Chase | The most important thing In this council meeting, after having attended so many of them, is that these seats here are filled up. Right now, we are nowhere close to that. I'm not gonna say it's because there's two policemen there with guns. in the corner I understand. So this is a comment about the budget. Yes, this is going to be about money. |
| 01:21:47.90 | Steven Woodside | So this is a comment about the budget. Okay, yes. |
| 01:21:52.02 | Jeffrey Chase | We're gonna talk about money. The anchor. Bridge is still there. There are a dozen people who I don't understand exactly why you aren't discussing sustainability. I saw that on the agenda, but I guess I came in late. But the sustainable people are the poor. The sustainable people are not the rich. Every time that you decide that you're going to make money off of parking, you're encouraging people to travel by automobile, one to a car. Half of the money in Sausalito goes towards the police and fire. Okay. |
| 01:22:38.66 | Morgan Pierce | I'm going to refrain from calling out. |
| 01:22:39.83 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. I... Madam Mayor? that right now we are going to have to deal with something on a federal level. I would like to be able to understand this budget discussion, and right now I don't really. But in the same way, that a doctor might not have a thriving practice if people are well. There might not be as many police if there are people breaking laws. that a lawyer might go out of business if there's not criminals, and family dissolution, and people fighting amongst themselves. that war makes a lot of money. Peace. Not so much. So I want this to be understandable to the people I don't want this to be hidden behind words, amateurization, unfunded liability, that right now the police chief, former police chief John Rohrabacher, is getting too Pensions. that he is no longer here, that the idea that Sausalito cannot hire people and has to hire consultants is because they would have to give pensions. That is not true. You can hire people that the amount of money that's being spent in Marin 15 years has doubled. in every city and in the county. You are taking responsibility for things that people can be responsible for, Madam Mayor. |
| 01:24:18.11 | Steven Woodside | Mr. J. You can be responsible for me. I'll call on Cynthia Egging. |
| 01:24:21.42 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 01:24:24.71 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:24:24.74 | Jeffrey Chase | you |
| 01:24:24.76 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:24:24.96 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. have people interested in us. Yeah. God, heaven's glory. |
| 01:24:34.07 | Cynthia Egging | Hello, my darling town government. Yes, I'm really looking forward to balancing the budget. This town can make a lot of money. I noticed down there by the ferry park, it looks like they're opening things up. We can have open air art markets. We can make a lot of money. This town can make a lot of money. Yes, and we're a tourist destination. We're a worldwide destination. Let's look hot. Let's keep bringing it up. Thank you so much. I love you. |
| 01:24:58.64 | Steven Woodside | All right, thank you. Anybody online? THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:25:01.90 | Walfred Solorzano | That must be all. |
| 01:25:03.01 | Steven Woodside | All right, Babette McDougall. I did not get a speaker card for her. |
| 01:25:07.98 | Walfred Solorzano | You fill that one speaker slip and put A through Z in, so. |
| 01:25:10.79 | Steven Woodside | No. |
| 01:25:11.01 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:25:11.38 | Walfred Solorzano | All right. |
| 01:25:13.02 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. Thank you. So first of all, I'd like to say thank you, Chad Hess, for working so hard to make the budget more understandable to more of us. I really applaud the efforts. I still would like to ask for some clarification going forward. I don't know how to read how much we're spending on legal fees. I don't see how to pick that out as a line item yet. And I don't understand specifically how the legal fees, especially to two particular law firms in the last two years, I don't understand how that gets accounted for. project by project, incident by incident, or is it just lumped under legal expenses? I don't know, but I sure would like to see how we're handling that because it's adding up, you know, just like the consultant fees are adding up. So that's question one. But overall, I have found a much better, easier time of it this round than I have in previous rounds, so I appreciate that. The other thing that I can't quite figure out how to track over time are the telecommunications, IT, and other electronic software, hardware upgrades that are necessary to our community. I know we pay some person by the hour, which is kind of like double dipping because every time they recommend a purchase, they get a commission. So I mean, The industry standard is for the professionals in the field to actually get paid on the bank and via those very nice commissions. The hourly thing is like double dipping. So I still don't see that clearly defined on our budget. So I'd like to see more of that going forward if it's possible. And then finally, I just want to remind this council that it was only last year after raising several taxes on the residents that there was a promise that there would be no new taxes going forward. I believe it was last year's mayor who made that proclamation. Correct me if I'm wrong. And now I hear all this talk about all the revenues that we're going to generate by increasing taxes on residents. |
| 01:27:04.23 | Unknown | now. |
| 01:27:10.72 | Babette McDougall | Well, doesn't that just fly in the face of your campaign pharmacists? I don't know. I'm having a hard time following some of the logic and also some of the ability to just know how to better read a balance sheet. |
| 01:27:15.03 | Unknown | I don't know. |
| 01:27:22.57 | Babette McDougall | So I'm asking for, you know, just remember, not all of us are wizards with numbers. And thank you for trying to keep it simple for us. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:27:31.01 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:27:31.80 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:27:32.27 | Steven Woodside | Ah. Anybody online, city clerk? Yes. |
| 01:27:34.52 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, first person we have online is Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 01:27:34.97 | Sandra Bushmaker | Um, |
| 01:27:40.00 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening again. I thank you for making this a little bit more understandable and we're I'm happy to see we're moving toward a more balanced budget. I've got a couple of things that may be better answered during our budget discussions, but I'm going to put them out there anyway for thought. I just want my first question was the easiest one. Are parking revenues down due to the ferry landing improvement project enclosure of Tracy what closure. of Tracy Way. That's one. And number two, there was considerable discussion last year during the budget cycle about Eliminating Duplication in the internet and online promotion of the city. And I just would like to know how that project is coming because we have duplication. We're paying fees for services not necessarily received. And I think we need to clean up those expenses. And then the last one, which is the one I have the most trouble is that 2.750 inter-fund transfer, 2.750 million inter-fund transfer. Now, I recognize that, of course, my dog starts barking as soon as I start talking. Hang on a second. |
| 01:29:00.82 | Sandra Bushmaker | I just wanted to clarify something. We have these funds from which we have deposited money enterprise receipts. Those funds also have money from prior years where previous funds have been, receipts have been deposited. So when we take a 2.75 million inter-fund transfer and call it a revenue, I get confused because I'm thinking income. And it's not necessarily income for the present year. So maybe this is something that can be just clarified through further discussion. In other words, when we take something from the MLK fund, I would like to know how much of that is current income for this current fiscal year and how much was sitting in the fund at the transfer. In other words, It is confusing to me to hear the 2.750 be labeled revenues when some of it is not current income. I guess it's the best way I can phrase that. It's not new money. Some of it is not new money for the current fiscal year. There, that's my question. I think that would be very helpful for us to know And also, as we're facing our facilities are assessment, we need to know what money is in those funds for that purpose and how much it's going to cost us. So I'm leery about transfers out of those funds at this present time. Thank you. |
| 01:30:42.45 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Anything further, city clerk? |
| 01:30:46.08 | Walfred Solorzano | Sorry, yes, we have Jacqueline Armikis. |
| 01:30:52.88 | Unknown | Hi, good evening, Council. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, great. My concern is, the funding history of the pension, the accrued pension liability, on page 19. um, What I have noted is since fiscal year Uh, June 30, 2014, up until June 30th, 2023. the funded ratio has gone from 83.1% 64.8%. And Chad had mentioned earlier that he would like a goal of 90% funding ratio and My concern is How is that going to be achieved? And I believe we need to hit a panic button as far as this unfunded pension liability is concerned. Thank you. |
| 01:31:56.65 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Anyone else? City Clerk? Thank you. |
| 01:31:57.97 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public comment. |
| 01:31:59.25 | Steven Woodside | All right, thank you. I will close public comment and bring it up here for discussion. The action tonight is to receive the and receive the report and provide direction for fiscal year 2024-2025 mid-year budget. I will say that this is not the only time we're going to hear this. This is the first time we're hearing this. Um, So. Go ahead, start, Council Member. |
| 01:32:25.32 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:32:25.41 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:32:25.54 | Unknown | I'll stick to my three minutes or under. So please start the clock for all of us as well. Yeah, Walford, will you do that, please? Great. So again, I want to give a big thank you to Director Hess and the Finance Department for the excellent work and emphasis on truly balancing the budget this year. I think that the staff report is evidence to the fact that you are hard at work to make that successful. And I think for those of us sitting on the dais, what we should really take away here is that it looks like we have an excess fund balance of 8.5 million and we need to think over the next several meetings and before we balance and approve our budget in july what is it that we want to do with this these additional funds so i think our strategic planning session that was very well facilitated by our mayor and our visiting facilitator last week gave us some insight into that and we've had a lot of conversations about infrastructure about insurance and I appreciate that now knowing that we do have these funds I feel that the hard work falls to each of us to think about where do we fill in the gaps how do we address some of our biggest concerns going forward and what does that look like so i'll just say i look forward to having that conversation with each of you i appreciate again the attention to detail and commitment to balancing the budget and the hard work of staff to bring this forward and i know we'll have a number of constructive conversations about how to spend the excess balance from the Thank you. Councilmember Soto |
| 01:33:53.02 | Steven Woodside | Biesky. |
| 01:33:55.96 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thanks, Ayesha. going to use some amount of time to actually ask Chad, a question. Director Hess. |
| 01:34:04.18 | Steven Woodside | Okay? |
| 01:34:04.48 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 01:34:04.50 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:34:05.17 | Councilmember Sobieski | Are you still on Drake or Est? |
| 01:34:06.98 | Morgan Pierce | Yes, sir. |
| 01:34:07.28 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 01:34:07.30 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 01:34:07.32 | Chad Hess | Thank you. |
| 01:34:08.13 | Councilmember Sobieski | So the transfers that are part of the budget, that were part of the budget last year and the year before, and historically, are they operational profits from the enterprises or are they- |
| 01:34:17.68 | Chad Hess | Yeah. |
| 01:34:18.02 | Councilmember Sobieski | money from previous years. |
| 01:34:19.48 | Chad Hess | it's current year revenues. So the parking fund has, we transfer a big portion of the current year program. profits, if you will, over to the general fund. There are additional revenues or profits that are kept within that fund. So we could transfer more if we wanted, but it is, the parking fund is still contributing or adding up in fund balance. It's current your earnings. your profits that were transferring. Same with Gene Hiller. With the exception of this year, because we're spending a lot on the repair and maintenance, but every other year it's been operating profits for that year. |
| 01:34:55.56 | Councilmember Sobieski | And in fact, before some changes you made, We were in the funding position, I believe, where most of the parking expenses were in the general fund, but all the revenue was in the parking fund. Is that right? |
| 01:35:04.86 | Chad Hess | Yeah, yeah. We moved the wages over to the parking fund. you |
| 01:35:08.24 | Councilmember Sobieski | And there were a lot of |
| 01:35:08.44 | Chad Hess | And there were a lot of other expenses, you know, like the credit card fees, they were being charged to the general fund. So we're trying to get better at, |
| 01:35:08.94 | Babette McDougall | Bye. |
| 01:35:15.59 | Chad Hess | at tracking those expenses and we are getting better. But yeah, it's all current year income that we're transferring. Well, pretty. |
| 01:35:22.14 | Steven Woodside | Council Member Sobieski, can I ask you to speak up, please? I have a hard time hearing you. |
| 01:35:22.16 | Chad Hess | No. |
| 01:35:26.07 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yeah, okay. So the question that I think Chad answered was, |
| 01:35:31.37 | Steven Woodside | No, I heard the question and answer. |
| 01:35:33.28 | Councilmember Sobieski | So, director has this is just good news so there's a lot of bad news out there in the world and my comment is simply it's nice to get some good news so we've two consecutive years of big surpluses, and here we look like we're on the path to a balanced budget, even though we had a big increase in our insurance expense not just, of course, from our capital risk, but also the personnel risk caused by that horrible incident with the Parks and Rec Consultant and And of course, the encampment that created a bunch of other expenses. So staff has done an amazing job at covering our insurance risk, attending to problems. Managing expenses, I know Director Hessio and your team had a big part of that. you've managed to uh, Get leaner. while at the same time getting better and generating a lot more revenue. So it's another sunny day and a good news For everyone who believes in the quality of our little town, it's good news. Congratulations to you and to the city manager. This is positive. We have a lot of blocking and tackling to do, happy position to need to figure out what to do with some of our challenges. I will point out though, Our deferred infrastructure bill, not just in parking and MLK, but across the whole city is really big, and it's not going to be paid for from our operating budget. So we're going to have to, figure that out. |
| 01:36:55.39 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:36:55.41 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thanks. |
| 01:36:55.68 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. Who would like to go next? |
| 01:36:58.80 | Steven Woodside | I'll just say tonight I'm not prepared until I hear much more from the public as to what the public thinks the priorities are to make any real comment about the direction. Although we did have a strategy session just a little while ago that I think was productive and will help us. And we had a lot of input from the public at that session. I do think that we're dealing with kind of three pots of money, so to speak. We've got a fund balance from last year, and that's a certain amount that has been now audited. We have audited financials from last year to confirm that. We have now some good news that Chad is going to work hard along with everything else so that this year's current budget will be balanced. And then we have some funds that are unallocated that are in the bank, so to speak, but it's not a lot of money. So we're going to have a hard time, I think, prioritizing. We're going to struggle up here, and I think the community is struggling with What are the priorities that we should spend first? And I will simply say, generally speaking, it's not just because the fires in L.A. have recently caused me to think this, but I've thought for a long, long time that we should prioritize in many of these individual cases the public safety impact of them. So, for example, do you pave the roads that are going to be most used in the event of an emergency before you pave roads that are lesser used? Maybe that's a way of looking at it rather than saying an index should be raised throughout the city to a level. I'm just giving you some of my preliminary thoughts as to how I would start looking at these things. But it's going to be tough. And we've got a few months, but not many, to really come to grips with our budget for next year. and it's going to be a challenge for all of us to come together as well as we can. |
| 01:39:02.48 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Councilmember Hoffman, any comments? Yeah, thank you. |
| 01:39:07.35 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:39:07.37 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:39:07.39 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 01:39:07.96 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah, I'd like to thank, you know, the finance department and Chad. Lots and lots of hard work, I know. And coming through a lot of columns of very small numbers. And really, really looking for money in lots of drawers. And let me just say, with some really antiquated systems. So thank you to him for all of his hard work on that and the challenges that he's facing and the challenges that we face ahead with our lots of aging infrastructure and aging facilities that we're desperately trying to get a handle on. So, and thanks to our staff and our public works staff for all of their hard work and looking at our infrastructure because it's just a huge job. And, you know, trying to get a handle on, you know, just a tremendous amount of work that we need to do just to see where we are, just to get where we are from ground zero and moving up. Yeah. I appreciate all the enormity of that job and where we're at and just building the context and presenting that to us and figuring out where we need to go from here. So I feel like we're close and we're getting there and the hard work that we're doing. And the shifting sands sometimes that we have to deal with. And, um, And I appreciate that. and where we're at now. So I feel like we're doing some good work. And we're getting there. and I'm cautiously optimistic and so let's see I think in the next few months we're going to get a really great picture when we get the facilities assessment back hopefully some of the assumptions especially you know the ERAF God God willing you know that doesn't go away that's a big chunk of I think the assumptions and the movement that we're moving toward a balanced budget. So hopefully that holds. Hopefully the facilities assessment isn't too, you know, not too much of bad news. I completely agree with the vice mayor's comments and how we're going to prioritize, you know, the cost of some of these infrastructure things and the risk that we face. You know, the wake-up call. I mean, there's always a wake-up call, right? But the fires, you know, the storms that we have and the hillsides are always a risk here in Sausalito. So prioritizing public safety and infrastructure is, you know, is always, to me, one of our biggest priorities and it's costly. And so to me, that's, $8 million doesn't really buy you much. And when you're looking at also the cost of facilities assessment, that's why my questions are always, we have a fund, what does that fund fund? You have to look at that first and what's that gonna cost, so. That's my perspective. Thank you. |
| 01:42:11.07 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:42:11.55 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:42:11.61 | Steven Woodside | Mm-hmm. I'll echo the thanks from my fellow council members to our staff. Chad, boy, you really do a lot of good work to make the information you're providing more accessible and understandable to me and to you. through the public and to the city manager and to the department heads. Thank you for really working hard to bring us the data we need to make intelligent decisions about how we best manage the city's future. So, As we mentioned earlier, we are going to be receiving a facilities evaluation in March 2025. We're going to be receiving a storm drain assessment within the next several months. We already have other recommendations, such as from our landslide task force, our geologic hazard report, our ADA transition plan, these are and our and our pensions. So we are queuing up this information to be presented to the Council. between now and the conclusion of preparing our budget for 25-26. And the city manager will be providing us some recommendations about how best to leverage the existing funds we have, the revenue stream that we know we will have from Measure O, now Measure L. And so how best to address in the long term these goals and to really utilize our various enterprise fund, the parking fund, the city hall fund. the Tidelands Fund, and various other funds so that we're not in a position of transferring unused at the end of each year, but we're actually utilizing those revenues in the best manner possible. So I'm really looking forward to embarking upon this big project that has really been in the works for a couple of years and bringing it to fruition this year. And so at this point, I agree with my fellow council members. The direction to staff is to continue to gather the data that allows us to best decide how to use the surplus from last year and the fund balance that we now enjoy. All right, and with that, we'll conclude this item and move on to... our Community and Economic Development Manager, Brandon Phipps, for introduction of amendments to the Saucedon Municipal Code Title X, Accessory Dwelling Unit Regulations, and Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit Regulations. |
| 01:44:53.65 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:44:55.91 | Steven Woodside | This is the public hearing, yes. |
| 01:45:00.18 | Babette McDougall | and |
| 01:45:00.90 | Steven Woodside | I haven't yet opened the public hearing. We're gonna hear from Director Phipps. And I'd appreciate if people don't call out from the audience, please. If you have a question, you can talk to the city manager or fill out a speaker card. |
| 01:45:15.04 | Unknown | Good afternoon, Mayor. Excuse me. Evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, members of the public and staff. Happy to be here this evening, as always, this evening to introduce Council Item 4A that has been moved, as stated by the Mayor. Introduction of amendments to the Sausalito Municipal Code, Title X, related to accessory dwelling unit regulations and junior accessory dwelling unit regulations. Another year has gone by, which means another year of new housing policy in the state of California. Changes to ADU policy this year have been primarily enunciated in two pieces of legislation, those being AB 2533 and SB 1211. These new laws went into effect on January 1, 2025, and makes changes to ADU and JADU policy, primarily as related to unpermitted ADUs and JADUs, as well as replacement parking standards. These updates also add new definitions into our code for clarity and ease of implementation, as well as restructures relevant code sections so as to be consistent with the similarly restructured state law. Principal Planner Kristen Teichy is present this evening to discuss details associated with this ordinance update. And with that, Ms. Teichy, thank you for joining us this evening, and I will give you the floor. |
| 01:46:50.51 | Unknown | Good evening, Council Members. Nice to see you. I think this is my first visit since the new year. So can we have the next slide, please? |
| 01:47:01.32 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:47:01.34 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:47:01.41 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you and welcome. |
| 01:47:02.50 | Unknown | Bye. So tonight, the staff was requesting that the council conduct a public hearing on the proposed proposed ordinance amending chapter, uh, title 10, chapters 10, 4, 4, 8, 0, 8, 0, and 10, 4, 4, 0, 8, 5. addressing accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units. that after the conclusion of the hearing that you move to approve the draft ordinance as proposed or with modifications? and continue for a second reading on February 4, 2025. Next slide. |
| 01:47:41.03 | Unknown | So, The city's ADU regulations were last updated in 2023. This brought the city into conformity with state law and direction from HCD. In 2024, the governor signed yet two new bills into law, further amending the ADU and JDU regulations. These laws went into effect January 1st, 2025. Cities are required to bring their regulations into conformity with the new statutes or the state law will govern. Additionally, HCD has provided some direction and format and requires that the regulations be a standalone type document that we can't have internal references to other sections of our municipal code. Next slide. To comply with state law and HCD preferences, the city attorney prepared us a draft new ordinance for Council Review. This includes a complete reorganization of 10-44080 ADUs and its merger with the JADU section, 10-44085. The new ordinance format will make it easier to incorporate future mandated requirements of the state if they pursue additional amendments. Generally, for the R1 districts, the rules remain largely the same. There's very little. change that affects them. Next slide, please. So what changed AB 2533 further limits the city's ability to deny the legalization of a non permitted. ADU or JADU that was installed without permits from the city or any review. The new law is applicable to any non-permitted unit installed prior to January 1st, 2020. The prior cutoff date was in 2018. Next slide. So what changed? The state law prohibits the city from requiring replacement of onsite parking when a garage or carport is replaced with an ADU or JADU. The amendment to this expands this to prohibit us from requiring non-covered parking spaces like a driveway from being replaced as well. They amended definitions and added livable space to better regulate installation of new ADUs within existing multifamily structures. And they expanded the number of detached ADUs permitted on existing multifamily property from potentially two to potentially up to eight. Next slide. Additional amendments to comply with HCD direction for a standalone ordinance and as permitted under state law include the following. We expanded the definition section, 104480, to improve implementation of the provisions. We added zoning tables identifying permitted and required FAR, lock coverage, impervious surfaces, We added a front yard setback of 10 feet, and this is largely because we have a special setback along certain streets in Sausalito, and so we just acknowledged that as a blanket setback. That's something the council can consider. Next slide, please. We added architectural requirements and we limited a new ADUs to 50% the size of the primary dwelling unit. Next slide. So the city's authority with regard to the changes you can propose tonight, This ordinance as drafted largely mirrors state law. The city may impose less restrictive, more generous rules than the state law, but not more restrictive rules in areas where the state law is silent. The city could impose regulation, and this is reflected by the inclusion of the zoning standards that I discussed earlier. Next slide. Examples to where the city may vary, we could allow a larger than 1,000 square foot maximum size for a unit, that's out of state law. We could increase the square footage of the permitted by right ADU. Currently the city has to allow at least one ADU up to 800 square feet, depending on what fits on a property. And we could remove or modify the front setback requirement we proposed tonight in the ordinance. Next slide. |
| 01:52:03.57 | Unknown | The city can change FAR lock coverage limits and impervious surfaces applicable to the ADU to be more lenient. We can waive any onsite parking requirement across the board. We could modify proposed architectural requirements, remove them or be more stringent to some degree. And we can require an ADU permit from planning for units that are subject to building permit only. Next slide. It's acknowledged Sausalito does have a unique environmental characteristics and that the California's regulations being a sort of a one-size-fits-all doesn't necessarily fit well with everything to do with Sausalito. and some of its limitations. However, the way this code is written, it doesn't provide us with a lot of opportunity for addressing and personalizing the ordinance to accommodate the city's unique characteristics. Next slide. So our recommendation tonight, oh, the Planning Commission recommended on December 11, 2024, adoption of this regulation, subject to the removal of Section 1044.080.f8 architectural requirements. The Commission found that they were not supportive of requiring an ADU to match the exterior of a primary residence. They thought that it would disallow creativity and conflict with uniform building code if the existing materials on an older home were no longer permitted. Next slide. So at this point, staff recommends the council review the ordinance, hear from the planning of the members of the audience and move to approve a draft ordinance as drafted or subject to additional modifications. that we continue the ordinance for second reading to February 4th, 2025. You authorize that. A summary of the ordinance to be published five days in advance of the second reading and 15 days after its adoption. And if the council wishes to investigate options to implement more locally sensitive regulations, we still recommend that you adopt a draft ordinance tonight and that you further direct staff to investigate what we may be able to do. And if we can come up with some things that would be more personalized to Sausalito, we will return with a man. |
| 01:54:23.03 | Steven Woodside | amendments. Thank you. Before I turn it over for questions, this presentation is such a helpful blueprint, but it's not attached to the staff report or to the agenda item. And so I'm unable to access it. Is there a way someone can email it to us? And in the future, can we please include presentations as a part of the agenda when it's published on Wednesday? No problem. So I'm going to probably ask you to scroll through this, but maybe the city clerk can email it to us while we're sitting here. Thank you. Okay. All right, I'm gonna open it up to council questions. |
| 01:55:02.89 | Steven Woodside | Sort of first a big picture question. what the current law and the new the new amendments essentially are saying to a city is that one can get an over-the-counter permit with no design review planning commission review council review as long as you meet these criteria is that the |
| 01:55:28.53 | Unknown | That's correct. |
| 01:55:29.09 | Steven Woodside | That's your understanding. And what you're presenting to us is the, an update that I will say, um, |
| 01:55:30.37 | Unknown | and, |
| 01:55:34.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:55:34.26 | Babette McDougall | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:55:38.29 | Steven Woodside | Hesitate to characterize it as liberalizing the law, but it is actually making it easier a little bit to Construct an idea. It's removing some of the things that previously might have prevented in my understanding that correctly. |
| 01:55:56.43 | Unknown | I don't believe so, except for the updates that the state law required. We largely have the same rules that we had previously adopted. Um, you have to keep in mind that With the exception of the one ADU, potentially up to 800 square feet, being sort of exempt from complying with all zoning standards. A lot of the time people still have to meet the zoning criteria of the district. So that does limit the number in potential for some ADUs beyond that one. |
| 01:56:30.89 | Steven Woodside | So depending on the zoning of the underlying property, that may determine if you can have one at all or how many might be permitted. |
| 01:56:41.98 | Unknown | Well, No, regardless of whether it will exceed the zoning, they can have one unit on most residential property. Uh, up to 800 square feet. |
| 01:56:56.03 | Steven Woodside | Okay. And then there was a recommendation from the Planning Commission to, how was it phrased? I don't remember exactly what you had on the slide. Yeah, can you bring that back? |
| 01:57:05.77 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, can you bring that back up, Walford, that slide? It showed what the Planning Commission recommendations were. |
| 01:57:12.33 | Unknown | They'd like to remove the architectural requirements. Thank you. |
| 01:57:15.47 | Steven Woodside | That is, that the ADU resemble the other residents on the lot. |
| 01:57:23.82 | Steven Woodside | And is, is the words might make a difference because you just said resemble. And I think I remember the word match was on your slide. And what, what, |
| 01:57:36.16 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Yeah, it's not this one. It's go back. Thank you. |
| 01:57:40.55 | Unknown | I think that's my personal writing. The way it's written is that it needed to utilize materials that were similar to the or the same as the existing residents, like roofing material siding. |
| 01:57:41.00 | Steven Woodside | That was just my... |
| 01:57:55.97 | Unknown | Thank you. to have a |
| 01:57:57.00 | Sergio Rudin | The language is in attachment four. It is the materials and colors of the exterior walls, roof and windows and doors must be the same as those of the primary dwelling. the roof slope must match that of the dominant roof slope of the primary dwelling, Um, There's other requirements related to roof slope. There's a requirement the exterior lighting must be limited to down lights or as otherwise required by the building or fire code. The ADU must have an independent exterior entrance, apart from that of the primary dwelling. And the interior horizontal dimensions of the ADU must be at least 10 feet wide in every direction with a minimum interior wall height of seven feet. So those are the architectural design standards that the Planning Commission recommended be removed. |
| 01:58:42.78 | Steven Woodside | So with respect to same materials, if an owner wanted to put fireproof materials that did not match the existing structure, that would be out? |
| 01:58:53.75 | Unknown | Well, they have to meet uniform building codes. |
| 01:58:53.89 | Steven Woodside | The... |
| 01:58:56.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:58:56.06 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:58:56.72 | Steven Woodside | Well, but also you asked us to provide direction about the city's ability to adopt ordinance language in line with state law that's subject to Sausalito's unique geographical characteristics. So disaster preparedness could perhaps be one area where we could seek some resources latitude in how we implement state law. |
| 01:59:22.00 | Sergio Rudin | And I will say one of the biggest challenges over the last two years is the state law has been modified to state explicitly that you can only impose objective standards. as part of your design regulations. Um, I think it was generally assumed that public agencies could only impose objective requirements because of the ministerial review, but now the law is even more expressed that they really do have to be objective and not require the application of you know, independent judgment by the Staff. |
| 01:59:53.96 | Steven Woodside | So, Walfrey, can you go to the last slide? Because that's really where staff says, if the council wishes to investigate options to implement more locally sensitive health and safety-based restrictions, we can give direction that the staff And, |
| 02:00:06.72 | Steven Woodside | I think that concludes my questions, but I'm sure we'll have a robust discussion about this very topic. |
| 02:00:06.79 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 02:00:12.42 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. All right, great. I saw that Councilmember Sobieski had his hand up and then. |
| 02:00:12.90 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think. |
| 02:00:17.84 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:00:17.86 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thank you, Mayor. if we're staff is, if we want to accept the Planning Commission's recommendations. I'm not sure. what do we have to do to do that? Do you have language boilerplate or? Is the staff's recommendation not to accept it? What is the path forward to accept the record? |
| 02:00:39.32 | Sergio Rudin | So if the council wishes to introduce the ordinance with the recommendations of the Planning Commission, I would recommend that you introduce by title only ordinance number, I believe this one is 01 Dash 2025. Um, what's the full title here? Um, and Oregon City City Council. |
| 02:01:01.61 | Steven Woodside | You're happy if we get there, city attorney. |
| 02:01:04.47 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, sure. Yeah. So it's as set forth in attachment five, basically. So you have the ability to do that if we so chose here today. |
| 02:01:11.47 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:01:11.79 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, absolutely. That's all. |
| 02:01:13.75 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thank you. |
| 02:01:15.25 | Unknown | Okay, Councilmember Blaustein. Thanks. This might be questions for Brandon. I'm so maybe if you want to approach our 80 use a fundamental piece of our housing element strategy. |
| 02:01:28.23 | Unknown | They're part of it. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think identifying opportunity sites is more fundamental. |
| 02:01:35.21 | Unknown | I mean, how much of a role would you, I mean, Brandon's been kind of, not to say that you don't know about this specifically, |
| 02:01:43.07 | Unknown | So I appreciate the question, and yeah, I appreciate your sensitivity to this very important policy document that we're currently in progress on an amended version of. I will say as related to the way in which we satisfy our RENA, one of the ways that we do that is by selecting opportunity sites and allocating density to those sites. Another way that we do that is through, I think, I'll call it more ministerial housing development processes such as those folded into ADUs and JADUs, so kind of smaller scale development that we generally see on lower density residential parcels. And with that in mind, the this is an important part of our housing element strategy as our ADUs, JADUs, and expected future ADUs and JADUs do fulfill, do take part in some of the units that were required, that RHNA number, that 724 number that were required to zone for by the end of the housing element cycle, or by the, really the start and the outset of the housing element cycle, and that we must have it built by the end of the cycle. So short answer is yes. |
| 02:02:56.85 | Unknown | Thank you. And isn't it true that we receive significant public comments suggesting or encouraging that we might lean on the inclusion of more ADUs or encourage ministerial approach to ADU development as part of our strategy? |
| 02:03:09.27 | Unknown | Yes, yes. Appreciate your sensitivity to that as well. We want to support streamlined housing development to the extent possible, and ADUs, JADUs is one relatively low-hanging way that we can do that. |
| 02:03:24.32 | Unknown | And if we move forward tonight and don't, what happens if we, for example, don't adopt the recommendations from staff for the ordinance, where does that leave us with regards to our local control around the ADUs? |
| 02:03:37.02 | Unknown | So I think one primary thing will happen, and that is that our local policy will default to the blanket state policy. That's one thing. So we will be losing a form of local control there, our ability to essentially customize our local ADU ordinance. And I would say perhaps a second impact that is |
| 02:04:01.01 | Babette McDougall | It would be. |
| 02:04:01.60 | Unknown | less objective, which is that, you know, or maybe it is objective on a piece of paper, it will show the city of Sausalito has not adopted our ADU updates and that could be interpreted as cities non participation. |
| 02:04:14.87 | Unknown | And when you were at the planning commission as they discussed the ordinance and made the recommendations with regards to the modifications or lack of requirement of modification for color conformity, slope conformity, was that. recommendation pursued by the planning commission in order to streamline the ability to more quickly have an edu approved or built |
| 02:04:37.72 | Unknown | I believe that that was part of the reason, Councilmember. I can also state, I believe, part of the justification, and I try not to speak for the Commission, but in this instance, I believe part of the justification was to guarantee design diversity. Yeah. |
| 02:04:54.94 | Unknown | Okay. Thank you very much. |
| 02:04:56.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:05:00.73 | Steven Woodside | I had a couple of questions. There is a fire sprinkler aspect of this that says that the construction of an ADU does not trigger a requirement for fire sprinklers to be installed in the existing primary residence. But are detached ADUs required to have fire sprinklers? |
| 02:05:24.09 | Unknown | They can be. I think it states something to the effect that they can't be required if they're not required in the primary residence. |
| 02:05:26.80 | Steven Woodside | So |
| 02:05:31.02 | Steven Woodside | So... So it says fire sprinklers are required if they're required in the primary residence. Right. But, you know, a lot of the damage in the, the few homes that survived in the Palisades and in Eden were ones with fire resistant materials and fire sprinklers. And so my question to staff is, can we require that any new. |
| 02:05:49.45 | Unknown | and |
| 02:05:56.57 | Steven Woodside | New detached ADU include fire sprinklers. |
| 02:05:59.88 | Sergio Rudin | No. Um, it's government code 66314. |
| 02:06:02.46 | Steven Woodside | It's government code 621. |
| 02:06:05.58 | Sergio Rudin | Um, D12, accessory dwelling units should not be required to provide fire sprinklers if they're not required for the primary residence. So, unfortunately, this is |
| 02:06:13.87 | Steven Woodside | Unfortunately, this is both. |
| 02:06:16.94 | Sergio Rudin | um, So, The language of the law continues, the construction of an ADU shall not trigger a requirement for fire sprinklers to be installed in the existing primary dwelling. So, If so, Under the fire code, typically for new construction, if the lot is empty, the primary dwelling would be required to have fire sprinklers. And so both the new construction, primary dwelling unit and the ADU would now be required to have fire sprinklers. But if you are building a ADU on a lot that has an existing dwelling, then typically the grandfathering provisions, you know, that would prevent a retrofit for the Primary dwelling unit will also prevent the city or any other agency from requiring sprinklers be installed. |
| 02:07:07.87 | Steven Woodside | So as part of this offer in the staff report recommendations that we can direct staff to assess the city's ability to address concerns associated with disaster preparedness and or health and life safety factors Can we ask that you research a way to require, you know, even if minor... renovations are made to an existing dwelling that it include a requirement for fire sprinklers such that then if there were a subsequent ADU application, that would also because we are so densely populated and so close in proximity to one another that Just because my neighbor decides not to have a fire sprinkler, my building might burn down. And so I really think that's something, is that something that we can ask staff to further explore? |
| 02:08:03.30 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, and I think that as a practical matter, the city does have to update its building and fire codes every three years and local amendments that, increase or lower the threshold for what may be considered a significant improvement that requires retrofits is something the city could study and consider at that point. |
| 02:08:23.55 | Steven Woodside | Okay. And then did you have an opportunity to look at the legislative history for this requirement that the ADU match in terms of the primary residence? because something that we often required as an eight-year planning commissioner myself was that detached ADUs or other accessory structures such as garages do match because it creates less visible massing on the site when you have matching materials rather than something that's you know something turquoise next to an otherwise beige background. |
| 02:09:03.88 | Sergio Rudin | I think that the concerns of the planning commission are valid with respect to the unavailability of certain materials. And so using the same materials may, be difficult, but I do think that there is you know, room for the council to adopt design requirements related to say color, which are generally pretty easy to replicate regardless of material. or you can, you know, requires say like a panel of options um you know either either people use fire protective materials or they match the existing material would be like a potential alternative for the council to consider. And of course, I'm not, I'm not a designer, but I'm sure that there's plenty of other choices you could consider and study as well. |
| 02:09:44.60 | Michael Dumont | Thank you. |
| 02:09:44.64 | Steven Woodside | Of course, I'm not. |
| 02:09:50.58 | Steven Woodside | So rather than wholesale removing section 10.44.080F8, we could revise that requirement to match, you know, to the extent possible, um, some sort of language that requires a close match. I'm not worried about architectural creativity for an 800 square foot unit. So I personally don't think that's important, but I do think I would like to comport with state law where possible, you know, if feasible. So, and... But with the provisos that if the materials are no longer available or no longer permitted under, for example, updated fire protection regulations, that that would be an... and alternative. So can we give direction to you if we so choose to modify that recommendation in the manner I'm describing? |
| 02:10:52.12 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, if you want to adopt with changes, we will need to read either read language into the record today specifically So you. introduce the ordinance with the changes you're proposing. Or alternatively, you can give direction to staff to come back with language and we will redo first reading. |
| 02:11:12.84 | Steven Woodside | So your staff report already says that we can adopt the ordinance as drafted and direct you to come back with some proposed revisions. So we can include that in the list of proposed revisions, language to... accommodate the Planning Commission recommendation in a manner that is consistent with the intention of the state statute. |
| 02:11:33.02 | Sergio Rudin | Yes. So basically, with the process required under state law for enacting ordinances, you have to have a first reading. and a second reading. If you make substantive changes between first reading and second reading, You have to come back and redo first reading so the public has notice of the changes. |
| 02:11:51.23 | Steven Woodside | No, I'm aware of that. I'm suggesting that we undertake first and second reading as drafted. but give direction. to address these things that I've mentioned, such as fire sprinklers and... Um, not wholesale removing section 10.44.080, but modifying it in a way to accommodate a situation where existing materials are no longer permitted, for example. |
| 02:12:17.22 | Unknown | I just. |
| 02:12:17.57 | Sergio Rudin | Okay. Yeah. So this, to the extent that Um, you would like to go that direction, that is certainly something you can do. We would if we Thank you. make further changes to this legislation after council adoption, we would go back to planning commission. with our suggested recommendations and then come back to council. and do revisions at a later date. |
| 02:12:41.74 | Steven Woodside | Right. And so my last question has to do with the multifamily residents where they could allow between two and eight additional ADUs. Can you please advise how many existing residences in Sausalito would be eligible for that provision of the new statute? |
| 02:13:04.30 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, that is something that we would need to study with staff specifically to determine how many multifamily parcels exist within the city. Secondly, how many of them realistically have the capacity to expand and build up to eight ADUs without, you know, addressing things like constraints by the site, the existing buildings, slope, topography, etc. Because the reality is, is not every multifamily site, even though it's allowed by law, is going to be able to, in practice, develop at that density. |
| 02:13:37.68 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thanks. I know that Councilmember Blaustein had some follow-up on the Planning Commission recommendations. |
| 02:13:44.09 | Unknown | Yeah, I just wanted to say I'd like us to have a conversation because that's not the direction I'm comfortable with giving. I really think that we need to do. Hey, we're in questions right now. We're about to have discussion. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to state because. All right. |
| 02:13:51.97 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:13:57.69 | Steven Woodside | Yes. If I can just follow up procedurally. If we like the ordinance overall, but we have three or four concerns, can it be introduced and we give general direction to come back with some changes? Or how specific do we have to be now? |
| 02:14:12.86 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 02:14:23.82 | Steven Woodside | So, |
| 02:14:23.97 | Sergio Rudin | So if there are issues that the council |
| 02:14:26.96 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:14:27.02 | Sergio Rudin | wants studied and put into this ordinance prior to adoption. My suggestion would be you know, you would introduce this item. and give direction to staff to make the revisions, and then we could redo first reading and then have council adopt. If you're generally comfortable with this and think that certain areas need study, such as the issue of the multi-family, I think you probably should adopt this ordinance as written because As staff have pointed out, we do need to get our regulations into compliance. So if you have some minor revisions that you would like to make this evening, and we can make them on first reading and you want to adopt them, I think that's pretty straightforward. you know, bigger concerns that you want staff to study, go back to planning commission with big, Big picture changes. You know, I would suggest that we adopt this as written in the interest of expediency and then staff will continue the work. |
| 02:15:33.46 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:15:33.48 | Steven Woodside | Mm. |
| 02:15:38.88 | Sergio Rudin | Hopefully that answers your question. |
| 02:15:40.99 | Steven Woodside | It does, and the mayor has asked me or asked the question that I had on the tip of my tongue, which is, is there a deadline? Thank you. |
| 02:15:51.79 | Sergio Rudin | The new state laws regarding The new state ADU laws went into effect January 1st, 2025. So... I think there's not a specific deadline, but Until... this ordinance is adopted, potentially, you know, Interested individuals may try to argue that there is a loophole under state law. And so there is some You know, some time is of the essence doing this work. |
| 02:16:25.94 | Unknown | Can I suggest something? I provided you with the original draft of the ordinance as well as the amended draft attached to the Planning Commission resolution. If you want to go through the original draft and just see if you can make some minor changes to the architectural section that would make you more comfortable. I think that would be acceptable as a modification for tonight's hearing. Thank you. And just bear in mind that it cannot be discretionary. We can't make discretionary. You can't assign staff the job of picking the material, or it needs to be an objective standard. |
| 02:16:48.40 | Morgan Pierce | Yeah. |
| 02:17:00.25 | Steven Woodside | Understood. And are we allowed to flat out remove the section of the state ordinance related to architectural requirements? |
| 02:17:10.59 | Unknown | I don't believe that was part of the state ordinance. That was something that they're silent on. And when I was working with the city attorney, she wanted to include it. to give you that option. |
| 02:17:21.27 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah, so the state allows local jurisdictions to set architectural standards, but doesn't require them. And. The Planning Commission studied the language that is before you this evening. Thank you. made a recommendation that you remove it. So I think we've gone through the state planning zoning law requirements, the planning commission. render their recommendation on the proposed language and study the issue thoroughly. So your choice is yours. |
| 02:17:44.46 | Steven Woodside | Your choice is yours. I didn't realize. that you had presented to us something that was recommended by a city attorney colleague and not required by the state. |
| 02:17:54.43 | Unknown | Right. When I was giving my presentation, I said to address the idea of having an ordinance that stands alone and to bring other areas into consideration we made the following amendments as well and sorry if i wasn't clear that that was something we included |
| 02:18:14.25 | Steven Woodside | I was clear about the FAR and setbacks. I wasn't clear about the architectural standards. I see that. Councilmember Sobieski has his hand up. |
| 02:18:22.34 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thank you, Mayor. Just a question for you, Sergio. Was that Planning Commission recommendation unanimous, provided. |
| 02:18:31.02 | Unknown | Yes, it was. |
| 02:18:32.17 | Councilmember Sobieski | Thank you very much. |
| 02:18:35.76 | Unknown | Just in the process of this and in the interest of putting forth our best foot with regards to the housing element, if we were to additionally amend to add further restrictions or to go back and make modifications, would it send a negative message stage CD are they watching our ad ordinance is this something we need to be aware of as we're thinking about implementing our housing element as a whole. |
| 02:18:56.91 | Sergio Rudin | So the answer is, is state law actually requires that after adoption, the city submit its ADU ordinance to HCD for review and that the HCD make findings and report back to the city. So, yes, they are watching it. Typically, the review process at this time last year took months. So I anticipate it'll be a similarly lengthy review process by HCD. That being said, um, I don't have concerns about the limited architectural standards that are proposed in this ordinance Whether the council includes them or excludes them, I think that those are not going to be significant issues for HCD. |
| 02:19:42.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. All right, I see no further questions. I'm going to open it up for public comment. Do we have any speaker cards? |
| 02:19:50.97 | Walfred Solorzano | have no speaker cards. |
| 02:19:51.93 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, anybody online? |
| 02:19:56.20 | Morgan Pierce | Sorry? |
| 02:19:58.38 | Steven Woodside | I don't have anything about the, this is not on my agenda with, you know, open the public hearing, take comment, close public hearing. None of that is on the agenda. So I'll go ahead and open the public hearing to the extent one is required. City Attorney. |
| 02:20:15.83 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, please. Thank you. |
| 02:20:17.85 | Steven Woodside | Are, is there an, I see no public comment in the, council chambers is there anyone online wishing to make public comments OK, I don't have a speaker card for you, but please come forward. Please come forward. |
| 02:20:39.89 | Babette McDougall | I did submit one speaker card to the city clerk, so I apologize if it did not get passed along to you. All right, Babette McDougall, Girard Avenue. I have an ADU on my property, and I have a lot of questions about it. I have made an appointment with our community development director to review my questions in the near future. I agree that accessory dwelling units are a really good way for Sausalito to move forward to try to achieve some mileage on this housing element thing, primarily because they are smaller and we are a small community. And we're lucky to have little corners to tuck a place in if we can. So I encourage it wholeheartedly. I would like to request that we do look seriously at the fire hardening of our community. I think my house could stand some fire hardening, that's for sure. Even though it was built back in 1910 of old growth redwood, that's still not good enough. So I am encouraging us to look carefully at the ADU situation and proliferation of more ADUs. I think we have more little spots that we can tuck in. We have density issues to face, this densification word that we learned during the retreat period. So this densification thing is really something that Sausalito has yet to come to terms with. So I again want to urge you to think seriously about helping to promote. a more equitable distribution and helping homeowners, actually be able to afford to create those ADUs. Thank you. |
| 02:22:10.60 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:22:11.37 | Steven Woodside | Is anyone online for a bit? |
| 02:22:12.54 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 02:22:15.25 | Steven Woodside | All right, Ms. Bushmaker. |
| 02:22:16.37 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 02:22:17.65 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:22:17.68 | Sandra Bushmaker | I'll keep this quick. I do agree with adoption of the ordinance and coming back with certain recommendations. I would like to see the study be done for future amendments that include can the City Council or the City require objective fire safe materials and two Can there be some sort of I don't know exactly what the word would be, requirement that there be an evaluation of whether the ADU and the JADU have any impact on the evacuation routes? in the city. because we are adding more density by adding ADUs. And we're certainly adding more people even with ADUs and JADUs. So I'm concerned about the evacuation routes, and I'm wondering if the city can make any kind of objective requirements that would impact whether or not you approve ADU or JADU based on the evacuation routes. |
| 02:23:25.71 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any further public comment, City Clerk? |
| 02:23:31.34 | Walfred Solorzano | No further public comment. |
| 02:23:33.10 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'm going to bring it back up here. I'm going to go ahead and move that. I'm going to close the public hearing. I'm going to recommend, I'm going to move that we introduce and read by title only the proposed ordinance amending the Sausalito Municipal Code sections 10.44.080 and 10.44.085, with the exception of 10.44080F8 architectural requirements. and that we continue the proposed ordinance for a second reading to February 4, 2025, and authorize a summary of the ordinance to be published five days in advance of the second reading and for 15 days after its adoption. And then I'm gonna make a separate motion for direction to staff, but that's the- I'll make it alternate motion, but go ahead. |
| 02:24:31.10 | Sergio Rudin | David Miller, And mayor, if I understand your motion correctly you're voting to introduce the ordinance as it reads set forth in attachment five the planning Commission recommendations. |
| 02:24:31.11 | Steven Woodside | And... |
| 02:24:39.69 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 02:24:39.74 | Babette McDougall | Yeah. |
| 02:24:39.92 | Sergio Rudin | Thank you. |
| 02:24:40.02 | Unknown | Thank you. With the exception of the architectural recommendations. |
| 02:24:43.38 | Steven Woodside | No, I'm adopting the Planning Commission recommended Okay. removing the architectural recommendation. |
| 02:24:51.23 | Steven Woodside | That's your motion. |
| 02:24:52.48 | Steven Woodside | That's my motion. |
| 02:24:52.51 | Steven Woodside | That's my question. |
| 02:24:53.52 | Steven Woodside | Does anyone want to second my motion? you |
| 02:24:55.97 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 02:24:56.55 | Steven Woodside | Me too. okay so i'll take i'll take council member blaustein second and um i will now open it for any discussion on the pending motion or an alternative motion |
| 02:24:58.62 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:25:08.24 | Steven Woodside | And you're ready with the clock, city clerk? Okay, anybody? |
| 02:25:12.97 | Unknown | wish to discuss the pending motion? I'll just explain why I was so passionate about the architectural review guidelines, which is that we are in a very serious housing crisis and a affordability crisis in Sausalito with regards to our housing supply. And one thing that we seem to be able to find consensus on as a community is that a widespread allocation of ADUs across neighborhoods and across different areas of the community is an appropriate solution. way to start adding more affordable housing units in our community and more housing for our workforce, for our teachers, for our firefighters, for our city workers. And while I understand the compelling motive for ensuring architectural development, I don't know, making it look nice and match accordingly. The cost for building an ADU can be quite extreme. And there are a number of, for example, modular potential units you could buy that maybe are made from a different material but would make the cost more approachable. And I just want to advocate wholeheartedly for making it easier for us to provide and build more housing that will allow us to meet our RENA numbers and do that in the fastest way possible and I also want to add I completely agree with all of the disaster preparedness and fire concerns that were brought up and not only do I think we need to consider this with regards to ADUs but I would like to see us take up as an agenda item And I notice, we'll get to this when we talk about electrification as well with the sustainability commission, But we should really think about all of our building standards and perhaps take a step forward from a disaster preparedness angle of what can we across the board implement to be more fire safe. I've been reading a lot about the lack of funding for Zone Zero programs and how critically important the zero to five feet from your house to the road or to the fire area is. And whatever we can do in our building code to enforce, actively zone zero will be better positioned moving forward from a disaster preparedness lens. So glad to see that we are going to move forward with this. I'm sure that people will present. I hope that people will present beautiful and diverse designs of 80 use in our community. And I appreciate the concern from the Dias and I appreciate the support for including |
| 02:26:58.32 | Unknown | THE END OF |
| 02:27:29.67 | Steven Woodside | I, um, I agree with the motion and will certainly support it as the lesser of two evils. I think if we were stuck with the one size fit all of the state, we'd be much worse off than the proposed language that staff has worked so hard. I don't think it adequately addresses fire safe concerns. I think, however— |
| 02:27:54.90 | Steven Woodside | I'm going to make a separate motion on that. |
| 02:27:56.67 | Steven Woodside | You're going to make a separate motion on that. That's great. So having said that, I'm prepared to vote yes on this. And I just hope people understand that just like the housing element itself, we are presented with a challenging choice. And we're not between a rock and a hard place. We're between a forest and an ocean. And it's not easy to accommodate all the need for housing in our community and certainly not under the state law as I read it generally. I'm not happy with the state law. I think it puts tremendous pressure on the staff. |
| 02:27:57.67 | Steven Woodside | on that. |
| 02:28:12.31 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:28:32.93 | Steven Woodside | and on this city to respond to do what I think should be done, which is we do need to build more housing. We just have to do it sensibly, primarily for people who have a harder time affording housing today. |
| 02:28:49.12 | Steven Woodside | All right, I endorse that. Anything from you, Councilor? |
| 02:28:52.04 | Councilmember Sobieski | Councilmember Hobbs, Yes, I was just going to say that I wanted to thank the planning commission for the work they put into this and it was influential to me that they were. voting unanimously on their recommendation. So I very much appreciate, Mayor, that you are taking this approach of adopting their recommendation and then providing an alternate direction in addition to that. So I support this motion as well. |
| 02:29:12.88 | Steven Woodside | All right, so I'm gonna go ahead and call the question. Will you take role city clerk? |
| 02:29:18.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Hoffman is absent. Councilmember Blasen? |
| 02:29:23.93 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:29:23.98 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. Council Member Sobieski? Yes. Vice Mayor Woodside? Yes. And Mayor Coffey? |
| 02:29:26.78 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yes. |
| 02:29:31.59 | Steven Woodside | Yes, that motion carries 4-0. Now I would like to, I'm going to frame this as directing staff rather than a motion. So I would like to direct staff to assess. So because the state ADU, JADU law is generally drafted as a one-size-fits-all set of regulations and does not provide for personalization to accommodate Sausalito's unique characteristics, as mentioned by our Vice Mayor, I would like to direct staff to assess the city's ability to to adopt ADU and JADU ordinance language in line with state law that is sensitive to Sausalito's unique geographical characteristics and infrastructure and assists the city in addressing concerns associated with disaster preparedness and or health and life safety factors that are applicable to certain areas of the city, including but not limited to consideration of the use of fire-safe materials, consideration of fire sprinkler regulations, consideration of the accessibility of each property site by fire protection and rescue. vehicles and the impact of any proposed additional units on the ability of that site or that neighborhood to evacuate. I would like the city staff to consider whether it's appropriate to impose further regulations on FAR, lot coverage, impervious surface tables, and required front yard setbacks. So that's my recommended direction to staff. And does anybody endorse or have anything further to add? |
| 02:31:25.46 | Steven Woodside | I don't know how you came up with all of those so quickly. Yeah. |
| 02:31:29.70 | Steven Woodside | You haven't worked with me very much. |
| 02:31:31.98 | Steven Woodside | That's true. But I think you've covered the main things that I was concerned about. And I'm not terribly optimistic that we can thread that needle consistent with the state law as much as perhaps we would like if we had the independent authority. But I think if we can not overburden the staff, but take a good look at where can we go to protect on the issues you mentioned. And it's important that we do that. I also just want to say absolutely support a concerted effort to really take a hard look at these. We've got hopefully Chief Tubbs and staff coming to the same meeting where we're going to be talking about the housing element. And the confluence of these two issues, it's not a coincidence that right now, foremost in the mind of a lot of people, is how will Los Angeles rebuild? How will Paradise rebuild? How will parts of Santa Rosa rebuild and Glen Ellen? And the list goes on and on. And it's only going to be. worse if we don't protect ourselves against a catastrophe like that. So that's highly motivating, I think, and might cause the legislature Sorry, I'm going too long, but I do support your direction. Mayor. |
| 02:32:56.01 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Anybody else wish to weigh in on direction or? Okay, I think we're good. Is that direction clear for staff? All right, I see Director Phipps raising his hand. Thank you so much. We're going to move on to the next item, and I really do want to thank Katie Tho Garcia and the Sustainability Commission for your patience in putting your presentation to the next item. the end of the agenda. And welcome. |
| 02:33:25.34 | Katie Thao Garcia | No problem. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilmembers, members of the public. I'm Katie Thao Garcia, the city's resiliency and sustainability manager. I'm here to provide an introduction for the Sustainability Commission. In 1993, the Sausalito City Council established the Waste Management Advisory Committee, which was later named to the Commission in 1998. And in 2007 was Reestablished as a sustainability commission. Sarah Silver, Today, the sustainability Commission is a seven member voting Commission with one alternate and one nine four nine six five liaison in 2023 and 2024 Councilmember Blaustein was our Council liaison and since taking on my role, I have served as the staff liaison. The commission is currently divided into several subcommittees, which include public outreach, electrification, transportation, water, and waste and reuse. The commissioner's expertise generally aligns with the subcommittees. However, the commissioners are able to join any subcommittee of their choice. Since serving as a staff liaison, I have been consistently impressed with the high level expertise on the Commission, and I've greatly appreciated their knowledge and to complement my own and their willingness to serve their community. Mark Palmer, the chair of the Sustainability Commission, worked with the city and county of San Francisco for nearly 16 years as their green building program manager, and has now served on the Sustainability Commission for almost four years as our expert in building electrification and energy codes. Chair Palmer is here tonight to present the commission's 2024 milestones and 2025 priorities and asks and considerations of the council. Thank you, Mark. |
| 02:35:17.63 | Mark Palmer | Thank you, Katie. Thank you. Mayor Mrakas, MADAM mayor council members staff and members of the public mark Palmer so susledo sustainability Commission my pleasure to bring you up to date on our annual report to city council on our accomplishments for the last year and some of our goals for the coming year, could you put the presentation up, please. |
| 02:35:57.49 | Mark Palmer | Thank you. Next slide, please. Just as a quick introduction to the commission, we, as Katie said, have a wide range of experiences and knowledge on our commission and it's My pleasure to serve as chair this year. I also want to call out. Um, Councilmember Blaustein for being our City Council liaison for the last two years. We've really appreciated her involvement, and she's also a former sustainability commissioner. We're very happy about that. Next slide, please. So I want to give you some milestones over the last year. Next slide. Climate adaptation is kind of on the top of everybody's mind right now. Community engagement, supporting the shoreline adaptation plan that Katie is working so hard on in the face of sea level rise. Next slide. We also have additional moves in the realm of climate adaptation. Resiliency hubs, we're coordinating with MCE. Oh, no. making sure that we have The ability to provide power and emergency services during disaster preparedness. Virtual power plants, battery storage, And I've heard a lot tonight about resilient building design and passive sustainability. Next slide. On the other side of the coin from adaptation is mitigation. And we're very involved in trying to improve our transportation footprint. Currently, 63% of the climate pollution that's produced in Sausalito is from transportation. We are very proud to announce that we have now four level two electric vehicle charging stations here at City Hall. with more to come at Dunphy Park and lot two. I'm not sure. We are also about to receive some planning assistance from MTC for municipal fleet electrification. Next slide. Um, Continuing on climate mitigation, talking about building energy, which represents about 27% of our climate pollution here in Sausalito. We are Very happy to see the base phase kickoff of the Climatec Infrastructure Modernization Program, as well as Katie's grant funded four heat pump water heaters now installed at City Hall and MLK. Um reducing lifetime climate pollution by over 200 metric tons, 100% grant funded. Thank you. Next slide. Continuing on with building energy and climate mitigation, we have been collaborating for the last year and a half on the development of the Marin Countywide electrification roadmap. We're publicizing and getting the word out there on rebates and incentives that are available for heat pumps and modern heating and cooling systems. We also just on our last meeting received a report from community development on all the permits that have been issued for heat pumps and gas appliances in the last two years. Very interesting to see. You'll notice the photo on the bottom right hand side is a floating home with heat pump for heating and cooling. Next slide. As Katie mentioned, 32 years ago, our commission was established as a recycling advisory committee, and it's been one of our core competencies for decades now. We work very closely with Bay Cities Refuse, and we're currently assisting businesses in compliance with SB 1383, mandatory recycling and composting. We've also submitted environmental findings and health findings regarding a possibility of a synthetic turf installation in Sausalito. Next slide. We're very happy to have Katie on board. None of this work or hardly any of it would be possible without her deep involvement and fundraising capabilities. She's brought a lot of funds in to further our cause, and we're very, very happy to be working with Katie, and she's doing a great job with our commission. Next. Our focus area is coming up. We're collaborating on business outreach, four big areas, the shoreline adaptation plan, mandatory recycling accomplishing for businesses, the county-wide electrification roadmap. and the Marin County Green Business Program. We are also monitoring progress of the Climatex Utility Savings Project, and we look forward to subsequent phases. Next slide. We will be recommending green building reach codes for the 2025 Sausalito building code update. This happens every three years. We get the chance to update in concert with the state code updates. So we'll be recommending some amendments, local amendments, in terms of green building. We are collaborating on the daylighting of Willow Creek, and we're considering to do research and advocacy on recycling and composting, docfoam alternatives, Low impact development and green infrastructure, native water use, green and healthy building codes and carbon free transportation. Next. have a challenge uh one of our challenges is that the quarterly meetings that we've accepted this year uh the commissioners are expressing a lack of continuity and momentum on our commission and city goals we do look forward to city council receiving and filing our commission meeting minutes and your feedback today would be most helpful next our asks of city council you know our climate emergency plan resolution that was passed three years ago now calls for considering consistency with not just the general plan but with the climate action plan and the emergency resolution And the devastation in Los Angeles serves as a stark reminder of the challenges all climate vulnerable communities face. And so we ask you to please approach every decision you make as a triple line proposition, taking the economy, the ecology, and the equity into full account. Next slide. Furthermore, we're asking you to adopt the countywide electrification roadmap, holistic plan to transition buildings equitably and rapidly to zero emission, all electric and more energy efficient future. We also ask you to support community development and the chief building official working with Marin County to adopt green building reach codes as part of the 2025 green building reach code update. And we have a couple of vacancies and some upcoming appointments or reappointments that we would like certainly to be agendized by the council to keep our good work moving forward. Next slide. That's the end. Thank you. Any questions? |
| 02:43:33.16 | Steven Woodside | Yes, thank you so much. I'll open it up to questions. I had a couple if no one does. Okay. So, um, I wanted to ask of staff, um, Are we planning to adopt, I guess the city attorney, are we planning to adopt green building reach codes as part of the 2025 Sausalito building code update? |
| 02:43:60.00 | Sergio Rudin | So one of the issues is the California Restaurant Association versus City of Berkeley case, which overturned the city of Berkeley's natural gas ban that was enacted as part of its reach codes. So we will definitely need to review any sort of energy efficiency proposals to make sure we're not running afoul of applicable federal law. It's not to say that all reach code proposals are going to be illegal, but we just need to be mindful that. Um, We are doing things that are not likely to be overturned by courts. So, yeah, that is something that I assume that I will be working with staff and the sustainability commission members to evaluate any proposals that they may have. |
| 02:44:48.66 | Mark Palmer | Could I respond briefly? |
| 02:44:52.12 | Steven Woodside | Um, No, we don't know. No, I'm we're considering your asks. So I'm we're not going to be able to say yes or no to your asks tonight. Sure. You know, in terms of your ask regarding monthly to quarterly meetings, that's something we have to confer with staff about. Sure. |
| 02:44:55.48 | Mark Palmer | No. |
| 02:44:55.72 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:45:15.31 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. The you know, approach every decision. I think with economy, ecology, and equity, we can certainly do that. I don't know where we stand on the Marin County-wide electrification roadmap. Is there anyone who can provide me... Did you want to answer that, Councilmember Sobieski, or you're wanting to ask questions? |
| 02:45:38.07 | Councilmember Sobieski | No, I'm just in line to ask questions when my time is up. |
| 02:45:41.97 | Steven Woodside | Okay, so city attorney, are you able to address the request that we adopt the Marin County wide electrification roadmap? Or is that a similar answer to the- |
| 02:45:52.01 | Sergio Rudin | So I actually cannot answer that question because I have not seen that document and I Yeah. |
| 02:45:58.93 | Unknown | Thank you. Sure. Mr. Palmer is actually an expert in building electrification and very well versed on the Marin ordinance. So I don't know if he and Katie can answer that in together, but they have been closely following our status on it. I don't know. |
| 02:46:11.49 | Steven Woodside | I don't want to put staff on the spot in terms of staffing and manpower resources by asking them tonight. I just wanted to understand to undertake this tonight. I just wanted to understand where we stand and what the level of effort required would be to do this. |
| 02:46:27.55 | Mark Palmer | of the... The roadmap is just that. It's a roadmap. There are 10 action items, and none of them are mandatory, but it's a mission statement, if you will, that the city is in sync with the county in trying to achieve. Uh, various actions toward total electrification. It ends up being over a period of years. There are short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. But as I understand it, there's been a proposal made to have a formal presentation to city council by Christine O'Rourke with O'Rourke Communications who puts together the climate action plans and the greenhouse gas inventories for all municipalities in Marin County including the county itself and we're happy to to share more information about that going forward there's no deadline on it we want to put that in front of the council to consider its adoption and I understand that you don't have all the details right now but that's on our wish list |
| 02:47:34.51 | Steven Woodside | Okay, great. I'm gonna turn it over to Council Member Sobieski for questions. |
| 02:47:38.93 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yes, Mr. Palmer. Again. |
| 02:47:40.74 | Steven Woodside | Again, we really have a hard time hearing you. Thank you. |
| 02:47:43.45 | Councilmember Sobieski | Sorry, I'll try to speak closer. Can you hear me now? |
| 02:47:43.47 | Steven Woodside | Sorry. Yes, thank you. |
| 02:47:47.28 | Councilmember Sobieski | Mr. Palmer, I just was wondering in your list of priorities, The city, we recently passed the budget for climate tech to be doing some work providing electrical charging stations for vehicles, and the city is going to be purchasing vehicles both for the police department and for the Department of Public Works near term. To what extent are you actually involved in helping those helping our city employees who are busy with many things and don't have necessarily expertise in the latest of vehicle management for electrification, at least know what's available so they can help make better choices. |
| 02:48:28.78 | Mark Palmer | Well, as I understand it, staff has been working with the chief of police and in talking about the latest proposed vehicle purchase that we heard about it previous Council meeting. We are. |
| 02:48:28.97 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yeah. |
| 02:48:47.33 | Mark Palmer | encouraging the best we can to electrify all of our transportation. And it's kind of, as you saw at a previous council meeting, it's sort of the chicken and egg movement. proposition. Do we get the electric chargers first and then buy the vehicles or If we buy the vehicles, we don't have the chargers first. It seems to me it's really not the chicken and egg. You need the chargers first. Thank you. And so that's part of the Climate Tech program. We will be installing, as I understand it, several charging stations at the police department for their use. And we're certainly encouraging them and giving them some alternatives to consider for their police vehicle purchases. |
| 02:49:35.30 | Councilmember Sobieski | What about the Department of Public Works, which also had been several meetings? |
| 02:49:38.98 | Mark Palmer | A. To my knowledge, why we haven't had a direct conversation with public works of staff at might have different information about that, but I haven't personally been involved with any discussion of public works yet. |
| 02:49:53.16 | Councilmember Sobieski | I don't know why I'm thinking this, but I have this recollection of seeing something somewhere that they need five new vehicles. So, uh, I wanted to just make sure it's on you and your radar that |
| 02:50:03.92 | Mark Palmer | We are expecting the MTC planning assistance very soon to help a holistic plan for the city to be able to accomplish this. |
| 02:50:17.22 | Mark Palmer | Thank you. |
| 02:50:18.47 | Steven Woodside | Okay, Vice Mayor. Any questions? |
| 02:50:22.05 | Steven Woodside | Just a quick question. You have some very specific plans in place here, a very general one that, in fact, it's coming up will be a second phase of the shoreline adaptation, sea level rise adaptation, et cetera. Do you foresee in this coming year that your commission will be extensively involved directly with that? Are there other specific things in connection with that that you're going to be bringing forward to us? |
| 02:50:27.58 | Steven Woodside | in. |
| 02:50:55.54 | Mark Palmer | Well, yes, the commission itself is mostly involved in supporting the outreach that Katie is doing and getting people coming to the meetings and being a source of knowledge to share with community members at the meetings. So we are definitely involved with that. I believe it will be staff that will be coming to you with proposals on particular projects based on proposals that have been made by the consultants that are working on the project. We certainly are supporting all the efforts toward understanding how best to live with rising sea levels. |
| 02:51:38.59 | Steven Woodside | That helps me understand the scope of your work that you foresee, at least during the next few months. |
| 02:51:46.24 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I see no further questions. I'm gonna open it up for public comment. I have no speaker cards. |
| 02:51:53.63 | Walfred Solorzano | And Carolyn Revelle. No, she's back up. Right. |
| 02:52:00.85 | Steven Woodside | Anyone online? |
| 02:52:01.32 | Walfred Solorzano | and it's not that much. |
| 02:52:04.14 | Steven Woodside | No. All right, I'm going to close public comment. bring it back up here The action is to receive and file the special presentation and provide direction as desired. I'd like to recommend that we accept the report and that we confer with staff about the ability, so specifically with the city manager and with Katie Fogg Garcia, regarding the ability to undertake some of the requests, specific requests made of city council. I can certainly direct staff to Calendar for us the interviews and appointments of an alternate a nine four nine six five liaison and timely reappointment for the upcoming expiring appointments |
| 02:52:58.09 | Unknown | we still need a clock. Thanks. If you didn't check out the slide, we have a name. volunteering their time and just experts in the field so we're so blessed and of course katie leading the charge it's just been incredible i appreciate uh the mayor's recommendation i would go a step further and just ask that we directly agendize um the reach codes and and the green building standards i think it deserves immediate action and a conversation. I don't know if that would be after we confer with staff, but I would really like the sustainability commission has been asking at least me as the liaison for this for a few years now. And I think that we can absolutely make it happen. And it's another opportunity for us to actually be ahead of what the state is already going to require us going forward. So we can be an example as we were with the single use plastics ordinance to the County and to others on some of the things in the electrification roadmap. app. So, um, us going forward so we can be an example as we were with the single use plastics ordinance to the county and to others on some of the things in the electrification roadmap so um i would i'm again very supportive of the sustainability commission's goals and vision and would like to see us specifically agendize the electrification roadmap as well as the reach codes |
| 02:54:08.19 | Steven Woodside | All of those sound good to me. With respect to green building, is that something that we would benefit from some sort of workshop where we could really take a look at what the alternatives are, and that way the city attorney isn't just running blind? |
| 02:54:13.87 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 02:54:27.29 | Katie Thao Garcia | if you want me to chime in here. Um, sure. The countywide electrification roadmap, we can have somebody from the Marin Climate and Energy Partnership present a presentation to to Council to dive into that a little bit more and then start the preliminary discussions about what could be in the building codes when they become available. |
| 02:54:53.46 | Unknown | that wouldn't be a burden on staff, correct? Because you would be able to get someone from the county to do it. Okay, correct. Okay. |
| 02:54:58.98 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:55:02.31 | Steven Woodside | Karen Hollweg, Okay, great I think that concludes this item. I'm going to move on to city manager reports, council member reports, city council appointments, other council business. I'll take first we'll start with the city manager information for council. |
| 02:55:22.03 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor, members of the council, members of the public. I'll be brief. I have three things to report on. One is the mayor, the fire chief, the police chief, the public works director, and I met with Mark Van Gorder of PG&E Friday ago to talk about the outages in Sausalito, to talk about what the future improvements might be, to talk about how we communicate better, and to get them to commit to meeting with our business community who were impacted by the last outage. So we got a good response from them. I thought that the interchange of information was pretty clear and pretty candid. So that was a good first step, but there are many more to follow. I'd also like to point out that the Southern Marin Fire District invited the city managers of Mill Valley and Sausalito and the police chief of Sausalito and our public works staff to meet with the Marin Municipal Water District to talk about water supply infrastructure and things that we see happening in L.A. and further as it relates to Sausalito and our service area, how we would in fact have the infrastructure or not in place to deal with the emergency like a big fire. The news was not positive. A lot of old infrastructure in Marin City, a lot of need in Marin City or Marin County. And so there is really, I think, a need to have more communication about what is realistically available to communities in times of big events like the ones in L.A. in Marin County, because right now my read on it was there's a lot of work to be done, some more investment that needs to be done if you're ever going to be able to deal with an event like that in the future. I'd also like to say that the city council meeting of September, or pardon me, January the 11th, was referenced earlier by a couple of council people. the report that was compiled and prepared, summarizing that. September, or pardon me, January the 11th was referenced earlier by a couple of council people. The report that was compiled and prepared summarizing that day, that positive and fruitful day, which lasted until 2 o'clock, is complete. We'll get that on the agenda for the council and the public to have on February the 4th. That concludes my report, Mayor. Thank you. |
| 02:57:30.60 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any public comment on the city manager report? Okay, seeing none, anyone online? |
| 02:57:39.26 | Walfred Solorzano | Actually, Senator Bushmaker. |
| 02:57:45.55 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:57:45.59 | Sandra Bushmaker | . |
| 02:57:49.98 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi again. A thought has been occurring to me as I walk my dog in the hills of Sausalito and I I am concerned about our fire hydrants. And whether our fire hydrants are serviced, are our fire hydrants ready to be operational? Do they need to be tested? Can we get the caps off? I haven't seen in almost eight years any service of fire hydrants in my neighborhood anyway, and I'm curious whether we can work with Southern Marin Fire. I just don't know whether these things need to be tested or what. But as you know, we had issues in Los Angeles and San Diego with fire hydrants, excuse me, Los Angeles. |
| 02:58:33.48 | Unknown | I mean, I'm not sure. |
| 02:58:33.53 | Sybil Boutelier | . |
| 02:58:33.68 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:58:35.17 | Sandra Bushmaker | with fire hydrants being non-operational for a variety of reasons. And I would just like the security to know that our fire hydrants are fully functional and ready to go. Thank you. |
| 02:58:47.54 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any other public comment, city clerk? Thank you. |
| 02:58:50.20 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:58:50.24 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:58:50.39 | Walfred Solorzano | in. |
| 02:58:50.64 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to council member committee reports. Any reports from council members regarding, it's the beginning of the year, so I don't know how many committee meetings there have been yet, so. |
| 02:59:03.55 | Unknown | Okay. I mean, I attended the PBID meeting today. I was my first as the board representative there, and we had a fruitful discussion about incorporating the long-term board and the rules for RFPs, et cetera. There are a number of committees that are hard at work. It's a volunteer group, but the business community seems enlimined by the PBID. I also attended the TAM Executive Legislative Committee meeting where we talked a bit about Transportation Authority of Marin's legislative agenda in Sacramento, which is now going to be discussed at large with the board in a future agenda going forward. |
| 02:59:35.87 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you very much. OK, seeing none others, I'm going to open it up for public comment. Babbitt McDougall. |
| 02:59:53.35 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 02:59:54.44 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. I was sorry to miss the PBID meeting this morning. I had a health appointment I had to keep, but I want to just ask questions. Generally speaking, I'm glad to know that Council Member Blaustein was present. With regard to the items that you raised, do we see some clarity coming forward on how soon we actually see the PBID jumping into action and sustainable activity? Or are we waiting to see the plaza be completed before we start to plan the official rollout? Was there anything mentioned in this direction that can be addressed at this time? Thank you. |
| 03:00:30.76 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any other public comments, city clerk? Anyone online? |
| 03:00:33.90 | Walfred Solorzano | See you, man. |
| 03:00:34.76 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we're going to move on to appointments. I mentioned earlier that I am resurrecting the Community Safety and Disaster Preparedness Committee. That committee currently has three members who were appointed on December 19, 2023. Elizabeth Carter Ward, Jane Kendall, and Gulna Hall-Kamuk. There are five vacancies, including an alternate. I am planning to invite Bonnie McGregor, Janelle Kelman, Sandra Bushmaker, Rob Cox, and Tom Clark to apply for those positions. We'll see who else may apply. It's my intention to interview and appoint additional members ASAP. The staff liaison will be our emergency office coordinator, Mike McKinley. I have spoken with Chief Tubbs and Chief Gregory, and they will be also staffing and attending these meetings, which will be held in the monthly and the city council liaisons will be vice mayor stephen woodside and council member melissa blaustein I do want to make a few additional announcements of appointments tonight. I'm going to defer some until Council Member Hoffman can be with us. But in the meantime... I'm going to replace Janelle Kelman, who's no longer on the council, on a couple of committees. So Stephen Woodside will join me on the Housing Ad Hoc Committee. And I'm also going to appoint Vice Mayor Woodside to the Risk Management Committee, which no longer meets with me, which no longer meets weekly, but will meet at least monthly and will provide regular updates to the um city council um I have retained Councilmember Sobieski on the Finance Committee, and I am retaining him on the EDAC Committee. I am appointing Councilmember Blaustein as the other EDAC committee. Um, Lisa Smith- Liaison so and she's already mentioned well i'm pointing you to everything you ask for so okay she is also the representative for pbid. |
| 03:03:03.21 | Cynthia Egging | Thank you. |
| 03:03:03.23 | Babette McDougall | So. |
| 03:03:03.58 | Katie Thao Garcia | Thank you. |
| 03:03:03.60 | Cynthia Egging | Okay. |
| 03:03:03.65 | Babette McDougall | Okay. Thank you. |
| 03:03:03.99 | Katie Thao Garcia | Thank you. |
| 03:03:04.02 | Babette McDougall | She is... |
| 03:03:07.11 | Steven Woodside | for TAM |
| 03:03:08.76 | Babette McDougall | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:03:09.11 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. for disaster prep, I mentioned, and then MCE, Marine Clean Energy. So I won't appoint you to anything more. Nothing else, please. Okay, if you can undertake those appointments, that would be greatly appreciated. And that's all of my appointments for this evening. |
| 03:03:12.79 | Babette McDougall | and, |
| 03:03:17.62 | Unknown | but if you- |
| 03:03:27.73 | Steven Woodside | All right, future agenda items. Any future agenda items from anyone? We've already mentioned sustainability. Obviously, we've given direction on that. We've also given direction regarding addressing our ADU and JADU ordinances. |
| 03:03:46.31 | Steven Woodside | Just a comment about the process. Obviously, there are... There was or is a long list of, quote, future agenda items, and I know the mayor is interested in making sure that we not just track the list, but we make sure we assign follow-up. so that we don't just have a list that grows without triaging it and making sure that we're making progress. So my understanding of the process is we can comment at this time and suggest future agenda items. That doesn't in and of itself set an agenda, except it's up to us to really monitor and move that forward as well as we can. So it's a process thing, but I know when this came up before, I really wasn't clear as a member of the public what that meant. And now that I understand, I hope people understand that we have a lot on our agenda already. So, Enough said. Thank you. |
| 03:04:48.41 | Steven Woodside | Yes, so we do have attached to this evening's agenda a list of future agenda items. Many of those future agenda items are now going to be subsumed within the priorities that the council established. at its January 11th strategic planning session. Beyond that, we will be refining the future agenda items list to not only include what the request was, but what the status is. Are we referring it to the Finance Committee? Are we referring it to the Sustainability Commission? How are we moving forward with the requested future agenda items? I see Council Member Sobieski has his... Hand up. |
| 03:05:31.56 | Councilmember Sobieski | Yeah, I would just add a request or a consideration for accelerating the hearing of the appeal for the New owner of the Wells Fargo building. Thank you. |
| 03:05:45.04 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. That is scheduled for February 18. |
| 03:05:49.39 | Councilmember Sobieski | Okay. Now, that is, if that's as soon as we can do it, then so be it. Of course, if there's any opportunity to do it sooner, that's what I'm... would suggest in open forum. A quick resolution allows people to move forward positive or negative. Thanks. |
| 03:06:10.07 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any other future agenda items? Okay, I'm gonna open it up for public comment. Babette McDougall. |
| 03:06:23.26 | Babette McDougall | Thank you, Madam Mayor, for recognizing me, Babette McDougall, Gerard Avenue. I would like to suggest two issues that somehow keep kind of falling off the edge of the table, it seems. We've spoken about it over the last couple of years since I began to regularly attend these meetings. The first is ethics. We don't seem to take any count on ethics. Standard empirical measures of best practices. when we first spoke about creating this policy governing the city's real estate portfolio and how to go forward for criteria for negotiation. best practices when we first spoke about creating this policy governing the city's real estate portfolio and how to go forward for criteria for negotiating into the future. It was suggested then that we consider including standards of ethics, empirical conduct regarding best practices, and it was acknowledged that at least the best practices part might be included. I realize that there's some disagreement on the quality or whether there's any necessity to adhere to a set of ethics. Even being a member of the Bar Association, you're required to stand by a code of ethics. So why not by representing the city of Sausalito? So I would like to please ask us to think about it. Because we're living in times where ethics And best practices really matter. It cannot become a deterioration of a free-for-all like it has become in our town over the last year and a half. We have to stand firm to a standard And I'm sorry to see that none of you have a very interested look on your faces whenever I raise this question. but it's an important question and maybe you're a little too young or maybe you feel a little too old to think about it now. But there are the rest of the citizens in Sausalito that get left on the hook when the city blows it big time because they don't have their big kid pants on when it comes to negotiating a real estate contract. And it has to be equitable for all sides. It can't just be a sweetheart deal for the people looking for a sweetheart deal. Thank you. |
| 03:08:27.43 | Steven Woodside | Any other public comment? City Clerk? |
| 03:08:30.47 | Walfred Solorzano | I've seen none. |
| 03:08:31.60 | Steven Woodside | I'll just note that local officials in California, such as us, are required to periodically undertake ethics training offered by various organizations throughout California. New council members are required to do so within six months, and that Sausalito public officials are fully compliant with the ethics training requirements by the state of California. |
| 03:08:55.95 | Steven Woodside | I should just add, sorry, that I will be this Friday attending the California City's ethics training, so pretty early in that six-month period. And then also I'm old. |
| 03:09:08.67 | Steven Woodside | Ask that people not be commenting or step outside if they'd like to chat. Thanks. |
| 03:09:14.76 | Steven Woodside | And I'm old enough to say that I voted for the Fair Political Practices Act when it first was presented in 1974. And public officials have been subject to that act ever since. And the Fair Political Practices Commission has undertaken to adopt a huge volume of rules that we're all bound by and continue to be bound by, and it's important that we stay abreast. I think we all here on the dais agree with that and are in compliance to the extent we can be going forward. Thank you. |
| 03:09:56.70 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Vice Mayor. Okay, with that, I'm going to move on to other reports of significance. I'll just announce that the Lunar New Year this year commences on January 29th, next Wednesday. And I will close by wishing our city clerk a happy birthday tomorrow. All right, and with that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you, everybody. |