| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:01.84 | Walfred Solorzano | Seeing none. |
| 00:00:03.10 | Unknown | very well, we'll now go into closed session. |
| 00:00:06.36 | Mary Griffin | going to handle. Thank you. |
| 00:00:08.30 | Unknown | Barbara's first. |
| 00:00:09.03 | Mary Griffin | Yeah. I saw him. |
| 00:00:09.72 | Unknown | I still don't. I'm leaning now in open session. Thank you. Just to announce that four of us met in closed session on all of the items listed on the closed session agenda for today. There were six items. We do have one announcement regarding an action taken on item C3, Naples doing business as the Spinnaker. versus the city i'll make that announcement in a moment but first we had one recusal i |
| 00:00:40.62 | Unknown | As I have been doing, I recuse myself from the one litigation matter that involves a location very close to my house. Okay. |
| 00:00:49.04 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:00:49.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:00:49.80 | Unknown | So, and the announcement with respect to the Naples case is that by a vote of four to zero, with one person absent, we've authorized the law firm BBK to represent the city in that matter. That's our existing city attorney's firm. And Sergio, you're Not expected to say anything now, but you are here for the meeting. Thank you. |
| 00:01:11.72 | Sergio Rudin | Yes, and thank you. I think that covers the closed session announcements. |
| 00:01:16.07 | Unknown | So nothing else to announce on closed session. So we'll start now with the Pledge of Allegiance. |
| 00:01:27.00 | Unknown | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:01:36.66 | Carolyn Revell | This is. With Liz. |
| 00:01:44.45 | Unknown | And Ms. Clerk, do you wish to call the roll? |
| 00:01:49.52 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox. Here. Councilmember Hoffman. Here. Councilmember Sobieski. Here. Vice Mayor Blaustein absent today. |
| 00:01:59.29 | Unknown | She's absent. |
| 00:02:00.30 | Walfred Solorzano | Mayor Woodside. |
| 00:02:01.24 | Unknown | here. And then I'll ask for a motion to approve our agenda for today. |
| 00:02:07.17 | Jill Hoffman | So moved. |
| 00:02:09.19 | Unknown | And second. And since we don't have Ms. Blaustein here, we can do it on a voice vote. All in favor? |
| 00:02:16.18 | Jill Hoffman | I... Thank you. |
| 00:02:17.21 | Unknown | That passes four to zero. And now I would like to make a brief special presentation We have... A local resident. actually two local, I should say three local residents who are here. One is officially named Grand Champion Jendu Turn Left at Echo. but most of her neighbors and friends call her Rennie. So if I could ask Rennie to come up with her guardians, Um, I just think, um, This is a nice thing to start a meeting with someone who is a champion and a resident. of our town. So Aubrey Smeka and Dana Barton. I might ask you if you wouldn't mind describing your dog and the recent award that your beautiful animal has won. |
| 00:03:25.28 | Unknown | And we can start. I'll put you down the floor. Thank you. And we thought, well, we didn't know what the last week's time. Thank you. and so we don't with our fabulous neighbours. And we were showing some dogs from Canada all over North America. And then, um, Also, sweetie. So would you just help with feedback? Thank you. We'll see you next time. Julie and April, she also won a big award at the National Center. and the APC reaction. Thank you. |
| 00:04:07.77 | Unknown | No. |
| 00:04:08.03 | Unknown | I'm just going to throw that. And we're happy that you're talking about this. Let's allow you to wear a vulnerable group. The pure way dog and there's reciprocity. So try to get We do all. So... Thanks for inviting me. |
| 00:04:24.39 | Unknown | Well, thank you very much for being here. |
| 00:04:32.56 | Unknown | There's no question that we have many, many interesting people and many interesting activities in our town, and this is just but one. And thank you for coming down. uh, You're certainly welcome to stay as long as you wish. Your dog is extremely well behaved, and we thank you for that. We'll now go on to... Let's see, we do have a couple of additional presentations. Jill, you have one. |
| 00:04:58.80 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, I have a very important announcement about a subject that many people have been interested in, and that is the drive up mailbox at the post office. And this is an update. I've talked to the postmistress at our post office, and I've talked to the police chief here. Just a quick update about why the drive up post office box was removed. There was a lot of vandalism at that mailbox. Some mail was being stolen out of the mailbox repeatedly, and there was some. subsequent vandalism at the mailbox, the post office had tried different methods to secure the mailbox that were unsuccessful. And so that's why some checks were stolen and cashed. and actual amounts of the checks were changed. And so not only the checks were cash, but the amounts were changed in cash. And so the postmistress, who was very helpful and responsive, said that they had to move the mailbox to secure the mailbox. So that's why it was moved closer up to the door. But she was very receptive to finding a place and finding solutions so that we have a roll-up mailbox somewhere. There are two mailboxes in town. but they're right hand roll up mailboxes. in front at Johnson and Bridgeway there's a right-hand mailbox in front of the gas station, but it's a right-hand mailbox. And so I said, well, we really need a left-hand mailbox so that the driver's side can email it. One thing she did say is that they're going to put the mailbox at the post office closer down by the curb somewhere, but it's still likely going to be a right-hand. roll up, but the police chief and the postmistress and I had a call yesterday, and we're going to try to find a left-hand spot somewhere here in town. likely on a one-way street, so that we'll have a left-hand drop and we're going to announce that hopefully before the next May meeting, May 5th meeting. where that's going to be in town. one possible location that i've discussed with the police chief the postmistress and our city manager that it might be here at city hall and it might be somewhere in this parking lot maybe near where the library drop box is i don't know we're talking about that and we need to you know coordinate that with the post office but stay tuned but we're working on returning that to sausalito a roll up hand uh so we're on at your city council uh working hard on solving this uh this thing of high interest in sausalito so that's an update |
| 00:07:32.97 | Unknown | Thank you, Jim. |
| 00:07:33.67 | Jill Hoffman | You're welcome. |
| 00:07:35.27 | Unknown | And just a brief explanation, the vice mayor is not here but might return from an awards ceremony. She's being acknowledged this evening as the North Bay Business Journal, one of 40 under 40, having a significant impact on our on our region. So that's the reason she's not here right now. But hopefully if the meeting doesn't last too long, She won't be here, but if the meeting lasts a long time, she might join us later. And speaking of... long meetings we have a number of speakers here on the public communications these are matters not on the agenda I believe all of these speakers are related to the Pelican Harbor And I certainly welcome you here. Thank you for being here. We look forward to hearing from you. But I did promise one of the speakers that I would ask this question. If you are willing to not repeat everything that's said by a person before you, that would be greatly appreciated. And if you'd just rather, with a wave of your hand, acknowledge that you agree with the previous speaker, that's fine too. however you wish to do it. It just saves time so that we can get to the rest of the business. But again, we do wanna hear from you. This is a very important matter. I do believe this will be on our public agenda, either on May 5th or May 19th, in terms of how we will be. We're in some dealings now, that we are awaiting documentation, et cetera, et cetera, to find out more about the transaction and what role the city might have in that transaction. And again, that would be on a full public agenda, either on the 5th or the 19th of May. assuming we get the information that we've requested in that matter. So having said that, I'll just start calling in the order in which I've received them, Steve Harris. |
| 00:09:41.12 | Unknown | Are you here to speak on Pelican? Public comment. Sure. Come forward. I, I understood that many of these cards that I have are designed to speak on Pelican but go ahead. |
| 00:09:53.71 | Steve Harris | Okay, sorry about that. |
| 00:09:55.26 | Unknown | No, no, no problem. |
| 00:09:56.04 | Steve Harris | Um, Good evening, mayor and council members and staff. My name is Steve Harris. I'm a field representative for the North Coast States Carpenters Union. I'm here to talk about labor standards and why this should be implemented in Sausalito. I have noticed a lot of public projects come into the area and developers like this feed on this and make their money and leave while taking advantage of workers. They, uh, In some cases, workers are taken advantage of the wages and benefits. These workers need to take care of their families and support their other ones. This is why it's important to have labor standards implemented in Sausalito, such as health care, local hire, apprenticeship programs, and even a livable wage. And thank you for your time. |
| 00:10:50.48 | Unknown | All right. Thank you. And I apologize for not recognizing you. We met before. Thank you. I think these now will be on Pelican, but let's see what we can accomplish here. Rob McCullough. |
| 00:11:08.32 | Rob McCullough | Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Rob McCullough. I'm a resident at Pelican Harbor. I'd like to briefly raise a process concern regarding the anticipated consideration of a lease assignment for Pelican Harbor, which is located on public trust lands. Over the past several weeks, a number of questions have been raised regarding compliance with permitted use live aboard limits, sanitation and safety infrastructure and potential conflicts with local short term rental restrictions. Related inquiries have also been submitted to both the San Francisco Bay conservation and Development Commission and the California State Lands Commission. In addition, there appears to be a history of unresolved compliance questions at a comparable marina within Sausalito. I'm not asserting conclusions, but I believe this underscores the importance of ensuring that compliance issues are fully understood and verified before any new lease assignment is approved. I would like to also note there appear to be questions regarding how certain waterfront facilities are classified versus how they're actually operating. For example, whether facilities described as marine service centers are functioning as a practice with high density liveaboard and marinas. I raise this not to draw conclusions, but to suggest that confirming permitted use and actual operations may be an important part. of a fully informed decision. Because the city is acting as a trustee of the public land trust, I respectfully suggest that decisions of... this type be based on complete and verified information. Accordingly, I would suggest that when this matter comes before you, the council consider allowing sufficient time to ensure that all relevant information, including pending public records and any applicable regulatory input is available and reviewed. A short continuance if needed would help ensure the council's decision is fully... informed and defensible. Thank you. |
| 00:13:11.40 | Unknown | Thank you very much, Mr. McCullough. And to the extent you and others have information of that nature, please make sure that it is submitted um to the um city clerk so they can be distributed uh and we can have a full record before us and the |
| 00:13:26.23 | Unknown | Mr. Mayor, could I just ask the gentleman to potentially mail that his comments in? I don't see them attached to the agenda. And I think it'd be beneficial to have it on the record. |
| 00:13:26.37 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:13:34.94 | Unknown | to do it. |
| 00:13:35.14 | Unknown | Would that be okay? |
| 00:13:36.70 | Unknown | Please do. |
| 00:13:38.96 | Unknown | Absolutely. And we have read them and we thank you all for that form of communication as well, especially when it's submitted early. We have a chance to read it before the meeting. So, again, targeting some one of our May meeting dates. It's likely to come back, assuming we have a complete enough record to make appropriate decisions. Thank you. |
| 00:13:38.99 | Skip Klaeger | Yeah. |
| 00:13:39.02 | Unknown | Absolutely. |
| 00:14:02.13 | Unknown | Um, next speaker, skip clear. |
| 00:14:12.05 | Skip Klaeger | Skip Klaeger. I just wanted to briefly thank the city council, the city attorney's office, and it's my hope that you will move through The. the closed section. so that we can figure out what's happening as early as possible. |
| 00:14:36.84 | Skip Klaeger | I'd appreciate it. Thank you. |
| 00:14:38.27 | Unknown | Thank you. And as I said earlier, that's our intent is to be able to discuss this in May in an open, fully open session. Thank you. you Lauren Derrimer. |
| 00:15:03.10 | Lauren Derrimer | I am Lauren Dreamer. I am a tenant in Pelican Harbor, and I own one of the last wooden boats that many of you know about that has been there for over 33 years, predating the last two owners. I, as well as all of my fellow tenants, are here with big concerns about this pending sale to our neighbor next door who has already proven to not care about investing in his property, big concern because I have been in council meetings where letters of intent have been processed by you all for the extension of that marina, and he can't even meet what's currently going on. So that is just in general a big concern. I think you have a marina that not only has a lot of historical relevance to this town as one of the marinas that had all the original wooden boats in that marina, but tenants that have been there for decades that are very responsible, who care about boats, who care about the city, and so I think we wanted to find an appropriate buyer who is, doesn't have the rap sheet that Cameron has. And I just want you all to know that we know what's going on, We know that he's an escrow slated to close on May 4th, and it's a big concern that we have. In addition to that, I personally have concerns from an ADA compliance standpoint, having cared for my boyfriend who had cancer, who couldn't use the call car at the gangway. And I know that for regulations for ADA compliance, it has to be anything over a 1 to 12 ratio needs to be addressed, which we all know is an issue in king tides, depending on what the tide's doing. So I just want you to thoroughly review this because I think that if you just ask any number of us, we could give you a handful of much more appropriate buyers who have, who value not only the Marina, their tenants, but also the future of, of the waterfront in the city as a total. So thank you very much. |
| 00:16:52.33 | Unknown | Thank you, Lauren. The next speaker, your lettering is very small. I think it's Jacob Swartz. Did I get that right, Jacob? Okay, thank you. |
| 00:17:06.86 | Jacob Swartz | I'm here on behalf of Pelican Harbor as well. Not only am I a tenant, but I also work here in Sausalito. I want to share my story with you today, as I hope that you take that with you in your decision-making process regarding Pelican Harbor. When my father was diagnosed with brain cancer, obviously a terminal diagnosis, I sought out a place of refuge and solace. Where I found that was at Pelican Harbor. What I found was the sailing community, an activity that brought me comfort and calm and peace at a time not only when I was dealing with the loss of my father, but also the time leading up to his loss. When you think about how to go forward in the dealings with Pelican Harbor, I ask you to lead with your hearts, not with what makes monetary sense for an individual owner or for the city. This harbor that we have here is deeply rooted in a community that has a strong heart and deeply cares about Sausalito. What you stand to lose is the very threads of Sausalito that keeps us together and knits our fabrics that make this community so special. If you act with monetary interest in mind or the interest of a single buyer who has not continually been up to code or been in good standing and good faith with how he has his actions, you will lose a piece of the community. So I just ask you to please lead with your heart, lead with good conscience, and make sure the stewardship of this marina is something you can all feel good about when you go to bed at night. Thank you. |
| 00:18:53.86 | Unknown | Thank you, Jacob. Thank you. Next, Dave Litwin. |
| 00:19:06.11 | Doug | My name is Doug, D-O-U-G. I'm sorry. It's okay. I've been called worse. Okay. Um, Greetings, City Council. I want to thank the mayor for the email he sent yesterday, which I assume most people have read. And I want to quote from... One paragraph, if I can get it to show here. You wrote, like raising a child or tending a garden. Nurturing a community requires care. education, and adjusting to change in a way that fosters healthy growth, development, and mutual understandings that enable that community to thrive. Thank you. And I agree. Me and my fellow Pelican Harbor residents, I've been there 12 years, represent way more than 150 collective years of living in that place. And apart from any of the technical compliance or regulatory issues that you'll be facing, Discussing I wish to focus on a key intangible issue. key intangible issue. What makes Sausalito so special It's not just the weather and the waterfront and the dining or the views, it's the people who make who live here and make this their home and love the Sausalito lifestyle. The changes facing Pelican Harbor now are threatening that very lifestyle. It seems clear that depending on the outcomes of these discussions, many long-term Sausalitans at Pelican Harbor will be forced to move, thus tearing apart the community that has been built up over many decades. So please, Take that into account, this crucial intangible, as you make your rulings. Thank you. |
| 00:21:02.33 | Unknown | Thank you very much. I'm sorry, Doug, for mispronouncing your name. |
| 00:21:08.36 | Doug | It's okay. |
| 00:21:09.25 | Unknown | Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else here in the in the chambers to speak on Pelican Harbor. Seeing none I do have one more speaker card on a different topic Alice Merrill. |
| 00:21:27.47 | Alice Merrill | Hi, everybody. I just happened to read that letter from Jake Beyer. And it was very elucidating. And I'm hoping that you guys listen to him because we have a lot of development in this town and we have a lot of I'm of different things that are coming along as we know, but I think it sounds like he did his homework and, Some people don't think he did his homework, but It's a letter that is out there for people to read, so if he's more satisfied, then he wouldn't be writing that about a lot of the things. I just hope that you take it into advisement that, you know, people out there care about things. that you need to address sometimes. |
| 00:22:14.25 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:22:17.59 | Unknown | And the letter is indeed, was submitted in time and does appear on the agenda and can be accessed on our website. Yeah, it is. |
| 00:22:24.58 | Alice Merrill | Yeah, it is. And as opposed to what he said in the letter that it hadn't been on before, but this time it is. And I happen to read it. Thank you. |
| 00:22:33.31 | Unknown | Thank you. Any other public comments online? |
| 00:22:38.28 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, we have Kieran Culligan. |
| 00:22:42.87 | Unknown | Kieran? |
| 00:22:43.92 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:22:43.99 | Kieran Culligan | Yeah. |
| 00:22:44.00 | Walfred Solorzano | Yeah. |
| 00:22:44.04 | Kieran Culligan | Bye. |
| 00:22:44.11 | Walfred Solorzano | I'm sorry. |
| 00:22:44.31 | Kieran Culligan | Thank you. It's windy, so I'm going to... quieter spot on my way home, but I wanted to comment on a couple things. Juan, thank you to City Stocks. I've been hitting them up. with lots of fixed requests, especially with vegetation growing and they've been super responsive They've definitely made our roads. safer in a lot of spots, so huge thanks to them. Second item. Sorry. I commute a little out of breath. The second item is about the street repaving, particularly on Bridgeway. between Nevada and Easterby, and then the southern part of town, so the 2nd Street stretch. I went out with some. Residents, we took measurements. And if the city had repainted those lanes as was in the engineering documents, We actually would have made the bike lanes disappear in some spots. They would have gone down less than five feet. That's bad for a whole lot of reasons, but similar to the AB 413 topic, it would have opened up the city to a whole bunch of liability. There's plenty of California cases we can now point to where cities have removed bike lanes without due process, and that creates significant multimillion- dollar liability should anything go wrong. So I'm just requesting really close attention on the restriping issue, just kind of like putting a blanket 11 feet doesn't work given the quirkiness of our town. So I'm asking do no harm, don't widen lanes if they're already less than 11 feet. If they're wider, bring them down to 11. And then I'd love to see city council take on the topic of lane widths because even 11 feet is too wide for complete streets. I can give you all sorts of information about complete streets design guidance that we unfortunately aren't following today. And I'd love to see. So those are my big ones. Thank you for all of your attention to these important matters. |
| 00:24:30.96 | Unknown | Thank you. Any other comments online? |
| 00:24:34.15 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, next we have Dioris Van Menz. |
| 00:24:40.15 | Dioris Van Menz | Hi, City Council. Thank you so much for taking the public comments. My topic is similar to Kieran, so I'll keep it short. But first, just thank you so much for the safety improvements that were made on Bridgeway downtown. It makes a big difference when I'm walking there with my family. I feel much, much safer. So thank you for that. Indeed, I saw the micro-sealing and restriping effort happening, and I was quite concerned that the bike lanes would get smaller. I would very much love the city to make sure that the bike lanes, at least the size that they are, and definitely near MLK Academy, where a lot of people, a lot of parents bike with their kids. It's one of the, unfortunately, one of the most unsafe stretches of Sausalito. So please can we make sure that the bike lanes don't shrink any further? And ideally, if we can have traffic lanes that are a little less than 11 feet, that would do a lot of good for safety. I understand that might be a bigger conversation, but yeah, those are things that I think a lot of people with kids in this town would care a lot about. Thank you very much. |
| 00:25:53.54 | Unknown | Thank you. Any other comments online? |
| 00:25:56.56 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, next we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:26:00.31 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, Council. I'm talking about Pelican. I'm hoping that the Council will have a change of ownership that benefits Pelican, that benefits our maritime history, While I'm not a resident of Pelican Harbor, my boat is next door close to the at Taj Mahal. I do respect the Pelican, its heritage, and the people who live there. And I don't want to see a new owner who disrespects the law, who disrespects the tenants, and who disrespects the necessary maintenance. Please do your job. Thank you. |
| 00:26:37.89 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 00:26:39.01 | Unknown | Thank you. Any others? |
| 00:26:42.31 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes. Next we have Adrienne Britton. |
| 00:26:44.89 | Unknown | Adrian? |
| 00:26:47.26 | Adrian Brinton | All right, thank you very much for taking my comment. I just also wanted to comment on the lane striping issue I actually went to Tiburon the other night for dinner and noticed when I was driving downtown, The lanes were quite narrow. And one effect that that had is that people drove very slowly. And what I find on Bridgeway now, especially with the temporary striping where it's wider, is that naturally people drive a lot faster. And I think that, you know, we lower the speed limits along Bridgeway. And I think that by bringing the lanes down to a more reasonable size, It actually encourages people to drive more slowly. And also given that this is one of the busiest bikeways in the entire Bay Area, Having a little bit extra room for bikes makes everyone safer. When I'm passing bikes in my car, But oftentimes it feels really tight. And I think that actually slowing the traffic down and giving a little bit more room would make everything safer. Thank you for your consideration. |
| 00:27:53.05 | Unknown | Thank you. Any other comments? |
| 00:27:54.64 | Walfred Solorzano | Seeing none. |
| 00:27:55.43 | Unknown | Okay. So that concludes our public communications on matters not on the agenda. Now we'll turn to item three, the consent calendar. We have several items. on the consent calendar. Typically these are approved in one motion. Why? Because they're not controversial or they've been reviewed before and they're coming back to us for final adoption. So having introduce that topic. Are there any recusals or any reasons that we can't take this in one motion? |
| 00:28:30.18 | Jill Hoffman | Mayor, I'd like to remove item 3C for further discussion. |
| 00:28:37.97 | Unknown | That was discussed last meeting, and we asked that the report on the actions be put in writing and back on the consent calendar. We made that decision last meeting. |
| 00:28:53.55 | Jill Hoffman | I have some questions about the staff report and the and the budget balancing action plan. I have some questions for staff and some questions about the staff report. |
| 00:29:08.92 | Unknown | So you want to remove this. |
| 00:29:11.34 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:29:12.03 | Unknown | and have it discussed again. |
| 00:29:14.41 | Jill Hoffman | at the end of the staff, at the end of the at the end of our calendar tonight. |
| 00:29:24.77 | Unknown | Yeah, or May 5th. That's fine. |
| 00:29:26.98 | Unknown | out. |
| 00:29:28.60 | Unknown | Yeah, you can take it off. That's fine. |
| 00:29:30.81 | Unknown | I'm reluctant to pull this off since we simply asked for a description based on our decisions made at the last meeting. |
| 00:29:38.34 | Jill Hoffman | I don't think you can refuse to pull it off. I'm asking I'm pulling it off consent calendar. So the choice would be either pull it off and hear it at the end of the calendar tonight, or I'm, |
| 00:29:43.09 | Unknown | Well, it's there. |
| 00:29:47.41 | Jill Hoffman | I'm, saying that we can, or we can put it on May 5th and I can follow up with staff and ask them my questions. in the intervening time period. |
| 00:29:56.29 | Unknown | So I'm pulling it off this one. and not considering it tonight since we do have a full agenda. and we'll reschedule it for one of the May dates, although I must say If you go back to the record, we discussed this and we asked simply that a written report of what we decided and what was discussed at the last meeting, come back on consent so that we could all see it in writing. But having said that, we'll take it up again in May. So that's off for tonight. Any other, um, comments from the dais on these items. Members of the public, do you have any comments on any of these items? Items 3A through |
| 00:30:35.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:30:35.34 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:30:41.90 | Unknown | See. Jay. Seeing none in the chambers, anyone online? |
| 00:30:50.59 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, we have Karen Culligan. |
| 00:30:54.00 | Unknown | Kieran? |
| 00:30:55.66 | Kieran Culligan | David Myers, Again, real quick, Karen Culkin, South City resident, the I don't remember the item, but it has it involves the culverts. using the engineering firm, CESWST2 or something along those terms. That's the same engineering firm that created the drawings. that involve these striking issues. that a number of us have been talking about and are worried about. So I just encourage making sure they're kind of going around to similar issues again of close oversight, given what we saw there. Thank you. |
| 00:31:24.48 | Michael Smiley | Thank you. |
| 00:31:26.02 | Unknown | Thank you. Any other comments on items on the Consent calendar. |
| 00:31:31.84 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, we have Adrienne Britton. |
| 00:31:33.71 | Unknown | Adrian? |
| 00:31:39.46 | Adrian Brinton | I'm sorry, I did not mean to have my hand raised. I don't have a comment. |
| 00:31:46.33 | Unknown | So that was a false alarm. |
| 00:31:48.22 | Walfred Solorzano | No more public comments. |
| 00:31:49.20 | Unknown | Okay, thank you. |
| 00:31:49.22 | Walfred Solorzano | of the |
| 00:31:50.23 | Unknown | I just want to remind all of us on the dais, and so the public is aware that we have adopted protocols with respect to these consent items. And it reads, as much as possible, Should a council member wish to remove an item from the consent calendar, he or she shall provide notice to the city manager at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting, so that the responsible staff member can be prepared to make a presentation and answer any questions at the meeting. Those are our protocols. Having said that, And excuse me, is there a motion to approve the consent calendar with the exception of item three C. |
| 00:32:30.02 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:32:30.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:32:32.40 | Unknown | Second, |
| 00:32:32.84 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:32:33.01 | Unknown | All right. All those in favor, say aye. |
| 00:32:36.69 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 00:32:37.33 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:32:37.84 | Unknown | That passes for zero. |
| 00:32:43.49 | Unknown | We do not have a formal public hearing, but we do have public business items beginning with item 5A. And this has to do with the capital improvement. project and just by way of reference uh we're now we're actually beginning to discuss the budget for the next fiscal year we usually start with capital improvements to get a sense and to give some direction so that as the public works department and others prepare their budgets they have the benefit of thoughts from the public as well as members of the council So, Mr. McGowan. |
| 00:33:27.23 | Kevin McGowan | Good evening, Mayor, members of City Council. I'm Kevin McGowan, Public Works Director for Sausalito. And I think we would like our city manager to start with a few slides first. So he's got a few things to say, and then I'll take it from there. |
| 00:33:40.71 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Director McGowan. Can you put the second slide up, please? |
| 00:33:54.14 | Chris Zapata | I'm sorry, we have them backwards. We didn't change them. Go back to the. Yeah, no, my problem. I was trying to get you ready, but thank you. I will start with some narrative for the public. There you go. The presentation tonight will mirror the staff report that you have in front of you. With the exception of a few things in there, I want to point out one error that I neglected to catch, but I will certainly catch it for you right now, and that is that we don't have 21 miles of sewer collection system anymore. That is part of a sewer collection transfer that occurred last year. All right, next slide, please. |
| 00:33:54.19 | Michael Smiley | No. |
| 00:34:32.65 | Chris Zapata | I'll give some comments. Kevin will walk through the completed projects, the active projects, the proposed projects, and then some comments, and then we'll take recommendation from council. As Mayor Woodside pointed out, this is integral to the building of our budget for us to understand what the city council believes it wants to invest in infrastructure or other facilities so that we can, in fact, build a budget for 2627 considering that direction. Next slide, please. Let me just say Sassuro is about 135 years old or twice as old as me. And our infrastructure is fading, but I'm not. And it's challenged simply with, obviously, besides age, rising costs, climate change, limited resources. And again, our infrastructure includes transportation, drainage, not sewer collection, building facilities, green infrastructure, stairs, and digital infrastructure. And again, it includes 26 lane miles of road, 15 parks, 42 stair systems, five public buildings, and six lease buildings, and not 21 miles of sanitary sewer collection. Next slide, please. So this has been a priority for the city council for a number of years, going back to Measure O, when the city council put that on the ballot and was endorsed by the community. And obviously the certificates of participation that involved park improvements. So all of these are really speak to the city councils wanting to catch up with a lot of deferred maintenance. The city council also directed us to complete a facilities assessment, the Bureau of Veritas Facility Study. Again, I note that the sewer collection system is no longer part of the capital improvement program going forward. So the numbers that you're used to seeing that incorporated, you know, one to three million dollars of sewer improvements in the capital program won't be there so you'll have a smaller uh capital improvement number uh the city council finished a 20 to 2026 strategic plan we'd like to make sure that our improvements align with that i believe that this coming year you'll be looking at updating that to a 2026 2031 or 2032 strategic plan which is really important for planning and projecting next slide please I've been here five years. After four months, it was apparent to me that there was significant need in infrastructure. And the council heard a presentation that identified an estimated $99 million in basic infrastructure gap. That's a big number. And you won't do that in one year or two years or three years or five years. But it's important to be aware that there's a need there. That resulted in Measure L being put on the ballot to expand and extend the Measure O financing that was approved by the voters prior. That generates about $3 million a year. And I'm very proud to say that the city of Sausalito has always used that money for infrastructure. They've kept the promise to the voters that it would be for infrastructure, infrastructure, and it has been. The city council, knowing that we were improving, working more on our capital improvement program, allocated two new positions three years ago that were project managers, and last year approved two consultants for assistance in project management. So in a best-case scenario, we have four people or four entities working on our capital improvement program to assist existing staff. Last year, it was historic. You approved an unprecedented investment of $17.7 million in funding. You see a lot of that happening as you drive through our community. Those projects are happening because you approved that capital improvement program and the use of Measure L and other funds. Next slide, please. Mr. McGowan will take it from here and talk about the actual program in front of you for consideration tonight. |
| 00:38:40.66 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, city manager Zapata. And it's my fault I put in the sewer stuff in the first slide. So thank you, Chris. But I think it was my fault on that one. My apologies. So you may have heard some of these these comments before on capital improvement programs, but I'm going to reiterate them. You may hear me say a couple of things several times. So the intent of the capital improvement program is to make investments into the city's infrastructure throughout the entire city. Funding for this effort comes from various sources, including measure L, tideland funds, construction impact fees, and many others. Currently, we have 34 active projects, which will extend into the next fiscal year, and will need an estimated 2.8 million in general fund accounts, which could be Measure L, it could be construction impact fees or others, in order to support them. The big achievement happened over the last year, which we just mentioned, was moving that sanitary collection system on to the district. So that was a very big achievement. A lot of you worked on that for many years, so many thanks. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. The Capital Improvement Program integrates several different plans and studies, including the Pavement Management Program, the Storm Drain Assessment Study, Sea Level Rise Studies, and the Facility Assessment Study, with the intent of providing safety and quality of life for services here in Sausalito. Next slide. So we will bring this up several times tonight that the CIP is a fluid document. It's something that changes over the year. which, for example, the budgets shown in the CIP, especially for the future years, are very preliminary estimates, which get refined as the projects get developed. The methodology for developing the CIP includes factors such as safety, avoiding emergencies, meeting council's goals, and aligning with the budgets that we have. Next slide. Staff has always welcomed the input of city staff for developing the CIP projects and programs, as well as the Council, the city's committees, such as the Planning Commission, as well as sustainability, as well as the general public, and we welcome all of that. from the public many times, especially for the road resurfacing programs, because 21 miles is a lot of roads to to to review each year. Timing to develop the CIP this year has been a bit of a challenge, but we anticipate addressing the Planning Commission for concurrence with the general plan in the next month. Next slide, please. The Capital Improvement Program is a planning document, which can change throughout the year and does change over the five year period. similar to other cities in the county, as well as throughout the state, We have a need for many improvements to our roads, buildings and public spaces, but we have a limited amount of funding to facilitate these improvements. The CIP is utilized to develop a list of possible improvement projects and estimates. and estimates the amount of funding needed to support those projects. The CIP also prioritizes these improvements in order to provide a recommendation to you as the council to decide on what to move forward with. Sausalito's five-year capital improvement program is updated annually. Some other jurisdictions don't do this, but we do because we want to make sure we keep on top of these things. Next slide, please. All right, in 2025, the city finished the facility assessment study, which included more than 980 tasks for city-owned facilities, including leased facilities. These are included in the CIP, or at least some of them are, because the facility assessment study was a 20-year document. And we only are incorporating five years of that. So how does our little program here work? And I just wanted to run through this quickly. Each of the active completed and proposed projects have an individual summary that we have each year. Each of the estimates that are listed on those summary of projects rolls up to a summary per category, such as roads, drainage, facilities. And that gets rolled up again into a final summary that estimates the total amount per each fund. that's used for the budget so that we can anticipate how much money is needed for these projects. I'm not sure. Next slide, please. The capital program adopted by the council in fiscal year 2526 was one of the largest programs in the city's history with an allocation of $17 million. One reason for the substantial cost related to many of our projects is moving them from the design phase to the construction phase. And you can see that throughout town as well, because you can see Dunphy Park is almost finished. You can see Bridgeway is pretty much finished up out in front of us here. And we have other projects. I'll kind of run through a couple of them. Um, we have four 29 and a half Johnson street, which is physically finishing up. We have a gate five study, which is finishing up as well. And we have other important projects where our residents have stepped in to offer us some help, such as planting new trees in downtown. Attachment one is a list of these projects and more details on these projects can be found in exhibit one, which is the monster document that's included in your package. Uh, next slide, please. In preparation for next year's CIP, we reviewed all of the completed projects to determine if surplus funding was available. This year, we found about $500,000 is available to be dedicated to next year's budget. of interest is a project is a project we identified last year as the Humboldt Street Boardwalk. And that's the little picture off to the side of the screen. The boardwalk was constructed by the property owner back in the 70s and 80s. and it is theirs to maintain. Staff has alerted the property owner of our concerns related to the boardwalk and its safety And they have an engineer who is examining the support structure. The owner does anticipate implementing improvements in the very near future. So we've taken that one off the list and the money that we assigned to it gets put back into the general pot. Next slide. Public Works is also managing 34 active projects. Some of these projects will need additional funding in the next fiscal year. For example, the Bridgeway pedestrian crossings from Princess to Richardson may need construction funds in the next fiscal year to construct maybe some medians or whatever the design comes up with. parking lot one may need additional funding depending upon discussions between the two consultants assigned to the project itself. All are noted in attachment to in your package, which is basically a list. Next slide, please. Similar to reviewing the completed projects to identify additional funding, staff reviewed the active projects to identify funding that may not be needed by the end of this fiscal year. And we identified approximately 1.2 million available for the next fiscal year. The majority of this funding comes from two slide projects which came in under the original budget. However, over the last year, there have been there has been a decision to occupy fire station two. for the Southern Marin fires wild land fire crews. This was not originally anticipated in last year's CIP. We had only anticipated doing... other type of work on the building itself, such as replacing the siding and some other things. However, if we're going to Do some tenant improvements on this building. Additional funding is needed, which we anticipate to be about $700,000. And that's before the end of this year. So it goes out to bid. It goes out to bid in the next week or so. With this modification, we estimate an additional $1 million can be allocated to the next fiscal year. This also illustrates how projects can change over each year to adapt to the Council's direction. Next slide, please. This year, our finance director has indicated that a total of about $4 million is available in fiscal year 26-27. from the general fund sources. that we kind of talked about before, Measure L and construction impact fees. Um, That's for new projects, not including the $1 million mentioned earlier, allowing a total of about $5 million that can be allocated to fiscal year 2627. Next slide, please. So not to get into too much of the math, and hopefully I've explained it a bit in the staff report, If we take out what we need for the current active projects from that 5 million, we have about 2.3 million available for new projects in fiscal year 2627. Next slide. The draft five-year CIP shows a total of 88 projects on the list. With only 2.3 million available, it's not possible to fund every single project in the CIP. So we've got to do something about that by Looking at priorities. Priorities in staff size should be Safety related projects should come first. otherwise accessibility and maintenance type of projects and community, community development imp sorry. Community improvement projects should be also included. Next slide, please. On page nine of your staff report, There is a list. of proposed future projects for fiscal year 2627. Staff recommends concentrating on safety projects for the next year, as well as continuing the road resurfacing program. Specifically, most of the studies and engineering related to the Gate 5 area, and that's the flooding area, continue to show that some kind of a pump system as well as a tide gate system is needed to address the high tides and the flooding in the area. Staff recommends pursuing a detailed design for the pump station, as well as the tide gate system in the next fiscal year. After that, there may be additional need for funding for the actual construction, but we need to get started on a design at this point. land acquisition and further details will arise as that project is developed. Other improvements are noted on the list on page nine, such as the development of a parks master plan. and improvements to Cloud View Park, which some of our residents have brought this up before. So, If council directs staff, to proceed with these projects, additional funding allocations will most likely be needed. Remember, we still have to kind of balance some of what I'm presenting in the draft CIP with how much money is available. So there still is a little bit of balancing to do between our finance director and myself, and we work closely together before the budget is finalized. Next slide, please. We do have several projects on the CIP list which have been pushed out over the years. In the staff report, we mentioned that that three projects at the Sausalito Arts Building were on the facility assessment study and noted for implementation in the next fiscal year. Thank you. However, these projects are moved out at least one year, and another project, the restroom improvement project, which wasn't on the original list, has been moved up. Why? Because it has a safety implication and it needs to be addressed. In addition, we have not addressed some of these substantial projects over the last several years. the signal system at Spring Street. was damaged in a windstorm more than four years ago. This system needs to be replaced and will require a large capital outlay to implement It would be good to identify a funding source for these improvements in the future so that we can have a signal system that functions as intended and is not on a simple timing loop. which is what it is now. We've tried to go after some grant funding for that project several times and have not been successful. Next slide, please. As mentioned earlier, our finance director has identified $4 million in the next fiscal year from general fund sources. There are other options to address allocations of additional funding, which can include the use of the parking fund, allocations such as from the Tidelands Fund, or at least concentrating on those type of projects. And private placement utilizing Measure L funds as well, which may come into play with, excuse me, Cloudview Park. Next slide, please. All right, getting towards the end here. I hope this presentation was fairly clear. The CIP process can be really complex. With me diving into too many details, I tend to put people asleep. So I don't want to do that this evening. And I appreciate your patience. Staff is recommending the allocation of funding to address the gate five projects and to address flooding down there by designing a pump station and a tide gate system based on the result of the current study that's happening right now. We intend to address the Planning Commission in the next month to seek their concurrence, that the CIP is in conformance with the general plan, and we will work with the Finance Department to further balance and refine the CIP to be included in the budget for the next fiscal year. This concludes my presentation. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to Do my best to answer them. |
| 00:53:54.55 | Unknown | So we have questions. from the dais and then we'll, of course, hear comments from the public. |
| 00:54:01.95 | Unknown | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Director McGowan, congratulations on all the work going on across town. People are noticing. And thanks for your leadership. Do I understand from one of your slides that the budget that we, the previous CIP was roughly $10 million, or rather the projects being done were 10. And you said it came that with 500 K's now left over or something like that. elaborate on that a bit. |
| 00:54:24.53 | Kevin McGowan | I think that I have mentioned in the staff report that we have completed approximately $10 million worth of capital projects. |
| 00:54:34.22 | Unknown | And that $505,000 may be allocated to the next fiscal year. |
| 00:54:37.88 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, because some of those went under budget. And more specifically, the one at the boardwalk down there at the joinery. |
| 00:54:40.58 | Unknown | So, |
| 00:54:46.47 | Unknown | Yeah, so I just want to underline that because it's news to me and I think good news that Amazingly, these capital improvement projects actually came in under budget and we have $500,000. under budget that we can apply to future work. Is that Thank you. |
| 00:55:01.79 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, sir. |
| 00:55:02.10 | Unknown | Fair. All right. Well, congratulations all the more so. Uh, the I claim that the painting that's going on seemingly, seemingly soon on second street and elsewhere. Is that part of, past CIP, the future CIP, current CIP, what's |
| 00:55:20.26 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah. It is part of the active projects of the 2024 street resurfacing. And to address some of the questions that came up earlier in open time, I've been in pretty much good communication with Kieran and others. We would like to walk at the site with them when it's closed. when it's laid out for striping so that we can remeasure it. It's called cat tracking, and it gives us a little time to take a look at it. look at the alignment, see if we have the correct alignment before the actual stripes go down. I've alerted Cure into this as well. And so I'm anticipating that in the next week, we'll probably pull him in and say, okay, let's take a look together and see if we're all on the same page. |
| 00:55:58.88 | Unknown | Do you think you could report on that to us in some form or fashion or in the community? |
| 00:56:02.31 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah. |
| 00:56:02.97 | Unknown | uh, And then related to that, when we're doing these roads, projects. Some details surprise people when they're done and they often make sense, but there's often a story to be told. So this question about the line, the painted language, not the width of the asphalt, but the painted language for this and other road resurfacing projects. Uh, do we have a policy on that? |
| 00:56:25.83 | Kevin McGowan | I think we've discussed this before in the past here in council where we had our traffic engineer present and there was a question about whether to use 10 and a half foot lanes versus 11 foot lanes. His recommendation was to use 11 foot lanes. However, if we need to re-examine that, we can pull in our traffic engineer and take another close look at it. |
| 00:56:45.19 | Unknown | So the current policy is 11 foot lanes. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah. And if we want to look at that again, we have to agendize it and have a discussion about it. Thank you. And then just for my own edification, $800,000 for a traffic light. To a layperson, it seems like a lot of money. So can you explain why Spring Street traffic lights estimated cost is almost a million dollars? |
| 00:57:04.58 | Kevin McGowan | It needs a new foundation. So in the wisdom of Sausalito in years past, they put the old signal in the median area, basically with a streetlight foundation and not a signal foundation. The new signals that are now required require much more stringent structural engineering to them, a larger base and more steel, and they're more expensive to install. In our case, luckily, we already have a design that's ready to go. We have a new controller at this area. And With any luck, my estimate of $800,000 will be too high, but I would love to at least go out and bid it and get some numbers. |
| 00:57:47.68 | Unknown | Okay, thanks. And are there any alternative designs for a streetlight system that's somehow cheaper? but just as effective? |
| 00:57:56.35 | Kevin McGowan | There's always alternatives, but I don't know if they will be cheaper. |
| 00:58:02.36 | Unknown | Thank you. Other questions from the dais? |
| 00:58:08.51 | Jill Hoffman | So, It's challenging to see that we no longer have adequate budget to carry out our five-year CIP plan. that we adopted. When we adopted that, we anticipated we would have the monies in our budget to carry it out. That's why we adopted it. So... other than the unforeseen fire station to cost which is significant, what are the other costs that prevent us from carrying out. from Tate, that require us to take such a haircut on our CIP plan. |
| 00:58:45.62 | Kevin McGowan | Well, I think the way your question is phrased may be missing part of the point. In some of our active projects from last year, we started the design phase that did not include the construction. The simple one that I can think of, and I think I mentioned it earlier, was that we are We are looking into putting in pedestrian crossings from Princess to Richardson. pretty much hot topic here in Sausalito, Now, in order to anticipate that we might need some type of construction or median I've got to put in some money there for this next fiscal year to say, okay, let's allocate some money for construction just in case. Maybe we're just going to implement striping for medians. Don't know yet. But to be clear, We couldn't have anticipated that last fiscal year. Last fiscal year, we were only dedicating for design. Now there's several projects like that and we can run through it, like I said earlier, sometimes the detail gets to be a little too much. But there are several projects like that, that, hey, we started this phase. Now we're moving to the next one. And that requires funding. Those are the active projects. The new project. We'll have a similar dialogue. We might start a new project that's additional funding, not in 26, 27, but in 27, 28. For instance, those pump stations that I'm recommending down on gate 5 We can implement a design now for 150,000 bucks but, it's gonna take much more to construct it. And that'll be in the future year. |
| 01:00:23.92 | Jill Hoffman | I understand that the distinction between what we can spend in any given fiscal year but I was really asking about our five-year plan. So our five-year plan ostensibly would include design. and construction, even if those occurred in different fiscal years. And so my question is, how did we get, sideways on our five-year plan. So. In other words, We knew when we adopted our plan that we were going to need to design and construction. And when we're in the hospital, We adopted our plan, we said, hey, we're going to take some money from tidelands where we can. money from these other enterprise funds parking fund. for improvements to the parking lots. So I'm just wondering, other than the fire station, which I think is a total $1.4 million Ask. Um, how else we got sideways on our five-year plan. not just on the current fiscal year. |
| 01:01:20.64 | Kevin McGowan | So I, I'm, not sure I believe we're sideways. Okay. Um, but maybe I'm not addressing you correctly. |
| 01:01:28.20 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I'm wondering if it's a cash flow issue, because obviously what you're telling us is You have all these projects that we had planned to do this coming fiscal year that we're not going to be able to do. And yet. That was part of our five-year CIP plan. |
| 01:01:43.28 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, but you didn't dedicate funding for the budget. For 2627. |
| 01:01:49.80 | Jill Hoffman | And so I guess then what I'm asking is when we adopt a CIP plan, should we not also Be ensuring. that we have the funds available to carry it out. |
| 01:02:00.99 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. I think that's a policy decision for you to discuss. because Let's just say we talk about the pump stations. Maybe there's funding that becomes available from the federal government. And in order to be ready for something like that, it's best to get that design ready. |
| 01:02:18.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:02:19.73 | Kevin McGowan | So, |
| 01:02:19.97 | Jill Hoffman | When you present a five-year plan to us, Don't you have an underlying assumption that we can spend $4 million per year, for example, from Measure L? I mean, what is the basis upon which you present to us a recommended CIP plan. Is there not some budgetary foundation for your proposal to us? |
| 01:02:41.03 | Kevin McGowan | Yes and no. Okay. So yes, in that in years previous to last fiscal year, we were targeting around $5 million. That seems about right. However, last year was a bit of an anomaly with the 17 million. Now, the CIP between All of us here in the room, it's just a list. That's all it is. And it's a guess on the cost itself. So, yes, and to answer your question, it would be great if we had not only set aside money for this fiscal year, but for next fiscal year as well. but I'm not sure if that's realistic. So, I don't think I have a great answer for you other than it's something that you should discuss. Okay. |
| 01:03:29.85 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:03:29.90 | Kevin McGowan | I'm not sure. |
| 01:03:29.97 | Jill Hoffman | Um, Regarding SCA and the restrooms and other repairs needed there, are you aware that we are in the process of seeking additional funding for to support that SCA structure in the way of leases, I am not. Telephone leases. I am not right now. So I think that's something. |
| 01:03:50.27 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:03:52.56 | Jill Hoffman | where you should be aware of that so that you can be thinking about how we will fund some of the needed repairs at sca um and i'm wondering about other our other cost centers such as mlk so we received some some pointed correspondence from folks concerned that were taking in all this revenue at MLK, but we're not using the revenue to undertake needed repairs at MLK. Um, And we have the Bureau Veritas report that tells us what the needed repairs are. And so are you taking into account our cash flow. In other words, I know that the finance department told you that you can spend $4 million, but did they tell you what you can spend within our various enterprise funds that we have? |
| 01:04:49.04 | Kevin McGowan | We'll need to work together with our finance director to nail that down. Right now I was concentrating on general fund accounts. And I welcome any input on what We have and what we can spend. Remember, we do have a Facility manager down there as well and we'll definitely use them to help us out with it |
| 01:05:08.77 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and then my last question was about the private placements. I'm wondering if you've discussed this with others in terms of, is this really the right time for us to be considering A private placement I know that the city manager raised this as a possibility to a couple of years ago, and at that time, it turned out not to be the right time. when we investigated rates of return or whatever parameters it is that you would examine. So I'm wondering... You mentioned that. Is this the right time for us to be considering a private placement? |
| 01:05:41.64 | Chris Zapata | Let me answer that question, please. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you for your question, Councilmember. I'll put that slide up again. The last one that says potential funding, so the public can see it as well. |
| 01:05:57.15 | Chris Zapata | Again, and let me stress what Mr. McGowan has been stressing is that a capital improvement program is a plan, and certain things happen within a plan, and MLK is one of those places where things have happened and are happening. The whole idea of trying to make sure that that revenue stream which comes from the tenants there is adequate for debt service is really important. And we'll talk about that in another item further on down the agenda. But Martin Luther King hybrid enterprise fund is really one that we have to watch. And one of the things that the finance director this year has put money back into it because she felt like we had overdrawn it and didn't want to see that happen. And as we look at the Veritas report, the Veritas report talks about improvements to it, improvements to it, but all of a sudden we talk about maybe putting affordable housing there. And so that changes the conversation. in terms of the program and what you might spend that you might have planned for, because you wouldn't want to put money into the bus barn if you're going to convert it into housing. So there's a fluidity to this that I think needs to be constantly stressed. There's different things that happen throughout the year. As it relates to the private placement funds, that was not, in my mind, ever discounted as not the right time to do it it was more we couldn't get to it with all the other things we were doing but it certainly is an idea that you know you could consider in the future because it's a function of not so much Thank you. Well, interest rates are one function of it, but there are mitigating factors that offset the interest rate costs that a group of folks have advised me on that like the idea that you save money mobilization-wise, there's economies of scale. And so at some point in time, I thought you could consider using a portion of Measure L, not all of Measure L, but a portion of Measure L to borrow against it, do the cost benefit analysis, and maybe get a dollop of money to fix things, building streets, et cetera. And so that to me is still a live idea, council member. I don't think it's a dead one at all. That's why I put it up there. |
| 01:08:20.02 | Jill Hoffman | All right. Thank you. |
| 01:08:26.29 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Just a couple of questions. Thank you. And I think we're having this for information tonight, not necessarily for action. Yeah. OK. So I think with regard to how we... how we use funds from our revenue generating assets. That's what we're going to talk about in five. d city manager so specifically so thank you for previewing that uh for us uh councilmember cox so to get back to um lane widths um that councilmember sopieski talked about i do recall that we talked about those earlier versus 10 and a half versus 11 we talked about those previously um some of the issues that we talked about when we had that discussion was that we had 10 and a half versus 11 was that a tenant have as a calming, Uh, traffic calming issue was that we had traffic lights at every intersection And that we use those lanes. That's the main thoroughfare coming into town and lots of big trucks coming up and down those lanes. At this time, we were going to leave that at 11. instead of thinking about going down to 10 and a half. And that's why, and that there's bike lanes and there's also parking at those wets. And that's why we left it at 11. So that, that was why I think we decided as a council at that time to leave at 11. And so, Thank you for that presentation. And I also had questions about, the five million and also as a policy Um, Rolling into our next. sort of as a preview as our next item on 5B, when we have issues that are coming up, like new things that we want to fund and how that rolls into our CIP. And so we're thinking about, I think we're going to discuss an additional discussion We're talking about whether or not we're going to fund you know, at, how we're gonna look at what we're daylighting on Caledonia street. Um, you know, measure, either measure L funds or whether or not we're gonna look at and designer, right? a landscape designer. So how would we, how would we roll that into Would we think about doing that this year from this year's CIP Or would you roll that into next year's CIP? Would that roll up into what we're talking about tonight? and next year's budget, or would that be taken out of this year's budget? |
| 01:10:53.29 | Kevin McGowan | So one of my jobs is to try to anticipate that. Yeah. And so in your active project list, which I think is attachment to, in the very back of it, it does have one of the projects, which is implementation of AB 413. And I have thrown in a rough number of 95,000 for the next fiscal year, anticipating that we will have to do some type of construction there. It could be bulb outs. It could be other things in order to address these issues. Is that the exact number? No, because we haven't started the study yet. |
| 01:10:56.29 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:11:01.73 | Jill Hoffman | to me. |
| 01:11:28.96 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. Yeah, let me help with that, Kevin, please. Good question, Council Member Hoffman. It's two things. One, it's what Kevin said, but it's also in order to meet some deadlines that we need to meet, the money would come out of this year's budget. |
| 01:11:42.50 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 01:11:43.12 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:11:43.26 | Jill Hoffman | So, and that's why, and so I'm jumping ahead, right? And so I shouldn't jump ahead. Is that, are you telling me that? |
| 01:11:48.57 | Chris Zapata | I'm saying it's a good question. |
| 01:11:49.96 | Jill Hoffman | I'm just trying to get my head and conceptually around, you know, are we talking about this year's budget or next year's budget? And so, and where that, respectfully where that where that question on the next of sort of where that's going to lie on The next agenda item, but also something that we talked about during our retreat about how we approach. um, how we approach our budgets and how we approach, um, our capital improvement projects, right? And what buckets do we put these things in and how we approach these asks as we move throughout the year. Um, because we haven't really been very good about being disciplined, if they're not on the budget, what do we do with it? And if it emerges throughout the year, then how do we approach that? And this scene in five B sort of seems to be one of those things. And I'm just trying to wrap my head about around, how do we approach that? Because it's coming up as a very next thing on our agenda. So. Um, thank you for that explanation, city manager and, and Kevin, I appreciate that. Um, So I think we'll look at it when it comes up next. |
| 01:13:01.35 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:13:01.40 | Jill Hoffman | Good. |
| 01:13:01.71 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. Thank you. You had mentioned that this may be just for your review, but I always welcome your input on projects as well. If there's something I've missed that's not in the staff report, Thank you. Please let me know so I can make sure to include that. Thank you. |
| 01:13:15.58 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:13:17.34 | Unknown | A couple of questions. Last year at this time, I recall that one of the asks that you made was for some additional temporary staff in order to handle the 17 million or whatever it is of a rather large number of projects in this current fiscal year. How has that worked out? |
| 01:13:30.04 | Kevin McGowan | of, |
| 01:13:36.05 | Kevin McGowan | It's been good, and we really appreciate the additional help. We're utilizing Swinerton Management Group to help us with it. They have two engineers that are helping us with specific things. and it's worked out well. Some things have to come back to our Public Works Department, such as Not just... Yeah. putting out the bid specs. So we still have some staff time there that we have to deal with, but having the additional project managers has really helped move the thing along. |
| 01:14:06.04 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Even though we budget on an annual basis, we try to project long term. Big picture, one of the early slides said that as a few years ago, there were almost $100 million estimated needs. Um, Is there any way that you can see right now that we would be able to meet those needs in the next five years? |
| 01:14:31.27 | Kevin McGowan | No. you |
| 01:14:33.61 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:14:33.85 | Kevin McGowan | That's just me. |
| 01:14:37.31 | Unknown | questions or comments from the public. |
| 01:14:46.22 | Robert Woodrum | Thank you. |
| 01:14:46.82 | Unknown | Can you come to the mic so that those who are and... The next speaker will be Michelle McCalla. You've submitted a card. If you wanna speak to this item, It's helpful to have a card. Otherwise, we'll call you up. |
| 01:15:03.14 | Unknown | So to the point of the big picture, I was wondering if there's any factoring into the CPI for the demands of the housing element from the state. planning, master planning, factor, 10%, whatever. |
| 01:15:24.02 | Unknown | It's a great question. Normally, we're not able to respond right away, but I'll just suggest the following, that there are many demands that the state has imposed upon us. that are not factored into long-term thinking about our existing capital needs. Um, We probably spent upwards of a million dollars just to do the preparation of the housing element and the environmental work and the legal work. it's not a capital improvement budget. sadly, it's a cost that we had to incur. Similarly, we have mandates for daylighting, for example. We're gonna be dealing with that later. It's not part of a capital improvement project anticipated let's say at an earlier point, but once the mandate's there and once we have to react to it and deal with it, We have to factor that in. Some of it would be capital. Some of it might be other sources. I hope that helps. understand it. I wanna just say one thing about falling asleep during these. I got up this morning at 5 a.m. in Tokyo. and cross the date line. etc, etc. And I find this so interesting, it will keep me awake. No, not really. But it is complicated. It's hard to understand year by year and then long term needs. Some of the costs might be spread over two, three, four years from design to bidding to maybe there's adjustments, et cetera. So we're at a stage now where we're trying to look ahead at the next year, the next year, but keeping in mind the long-term needs. It's hard to get your head around it, no matter how hard we all try, and we appreciate the input from the public because you know better than almost anyone else in your neighborhood what you see as the greatest capital need and you should speak up. And we try to listen and do the best we can to accommodate needs. So I'm sorry to take so much time explaining it, but I think it's important for us all to be on the same page as to where we are in the process. Michelle? |
| 01:17:53.12 | Michelle McCullough | Good evening. Thank you, Mayor Woodside. That was a great introduction to what I'm about to say. But... Oh, my name is Michelle McCullough. I'm a 10-year resident of Sausalito. I'm a friend of MLK and I'm a socio parks and recreation commissioner. and a proud Northside resident. So first, I want to say thank you to Director McGowan. I really appreciated your meat and potatoes presentation because it's a lot of information and it's not so easy to digest. But I really appreciate how you presented it. I also appreciate the education around it, knowing that the CIP Capital Improvement Program is fluid. I think that's really important for all of us to know. It's a collaborative process. I also appreciated knowing that we get ahead of it, unlike other cities, because we update it every year. So thank you. On that note, and as a proud Northside resident, 34 active projects and 88 new projects. Wow. So thank you for the 34 active. What I appreciate was the MLK gym floor being redone. and the Coloma Street pedestrian improvements. However, moving forward, I really would like our city council to prioritize capital improvements, ta-da, on the north side. And here they are, my specific asks. They are safety related and they are also community improvement related. So, Coloma Street, Gate 5, pump station and flooding, I see it every year. It affects businesses. As a resident, flooding in my neighborhood, I'm on Tamales Street when it rains. Just all the rain comes down the hill. Our crawl spaces get flooded. And new neighbors that I have up behind me on Buchanan Street, in my neighborly way, I'm trying to find out what they're doing, right, with drainage. That's their responsibility. And we're learning what is the city's responsibility. So how often do those city drains get cleaned, please? Please. dig into those city drains on the north side in nevada valley the other ask is also for the new restrooms at sca because i think that's a safety thing right there. And last comment around the 2026 Strategic Planning Workshop summary report that you provided, a recap that just happened in January. As a businesswoman, I really appreciated seeing economic liberalization in marinship. Let's revisit that. Ordinance 1022 and get educated. Thank you so much. |
| 01:20:07.26 | Unknown | Thank you. I have no other speaker cards. Are there comments online? |
| 01:20:15.04 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Babette McDougall. |
| 01:20:20.56 | Babette McDougall | . |
| 01:20:20.73 | Unknown | I bet. |
| 01:20:20.80 | Babette McDougall | I bet. Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Director McGowan, for going through the CIP. I wanted to just point out with regard to the CIP, as have some of the. Folks here in town also noticed that reading the CIP is actually a useful exercise for residents. It's probably the one place, this was suggested to me, and I'm going to pass it along, |
| 01:20:44.08 | Alice Merrill | and I'm going to be |
| 01:20:45.86 | Babette McDougall | where you actually get to match money with the priority of actually making something happen. And especially with regard to city-owned which is, of course, what this is addressing. Now, For example, when we go back into the next round for the housing element, which will surely come just like the seasons of the year. And, uh, And once again, we may end up finding ourselves being thrown against a wall and in a corner because we need to find someplace like a city owned lot where we feel like we have maybe better control over what the outcome might be. Well, we've already seen that it's been kind of an awkward move forward, but just take the issue of City Hall. If you look up, you know, this servicing and the improvements that are scheduled for City Hall at 420 Litho, Do those are those commensurate with a commitment to keep that city building what it is now, which is a treasured place where the locals love to come. a library that we enjoy using. I know that we don't have walls that have great state of the art electricity in them. So maybe we need to look at, you know, how to go forward with technology improvements. |
| 01:21:48.41 | Unknown | it. |
| 01:21:55.28 | Babette McDougall | However, I just think calling out the CIP as an example of seeing how the city prioritizes its spending is a useful exercise. And that's really the bottom line of this message. Thank you very much for your time. |
| 01:22:08.31 | Unknown | Thank you. Other comments? |
| 01:22:10.97 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, we have bread. |
| 01:22:12.34 | Fred Moore | Thank you. |
| 01:22:14.55 | Unknown | Is that Fred Moore? |
| 01:22:16.15 | Fred Moore | Yes. Good morning, Council. Just a quick, maybe not overly important task, but it was great to hear the fact that there were some completed projects that were under budget. However, what I took from the Director McGowan's presentation was that a good portion of the $500,000 was due to shifting the humble boardwalk maintenance and repair responsibility back to the homeowner versus the city. So if it might be helpful to update the report to identify those projects, which actually did come under budget that were completed in order to not only apply the contractors and the city staff who helped make sure those projects were completed at budget or underneath. I think that would be a beneficial item to put to the report. |
| 01:23:01.72 | Unknown | Thank you. Fred, I saw nods of approval from Mr. McGowan. Other comments? |
| 01:23:11.59 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, next we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 01:23:16.35 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Kevin McGowan for that detailed and intense report. Like you said, it's a moving target. It never stays the same. I would like to see, however, one item added, and that is we could call it a preventive Vegetation Management Program that is an annual program to help our neighborhoods. We can't always delegate vegetation management to the Southern Marin Fire District. I mean, I haven't seen them around here for quite some time. I do know that in my neighborhood we had a recent Project completed. upon my request. in order to remove vegetation from the curbs. Because the curbs were holding the leaves and when the street sweeper comes by the leaves are not removed because there's vegetation growing into the curbs and gutters. So I just would like to see something like that added to our proposals to our agenda. for capital improvements. And that way we would make it a regular thing. It would be done. annually, hopefully. Before we have overgrowth and then we have a small project turning into a very large project. So that's my two cents worth right now. I know it's a very complicated matter. We can have a huge wish list and not have the money to do it. And that's always a problem. All right. Thank you very much. |
| 01:24:59.60 | Unknown | Thank you. I just want to add one thing. We did have a presentation a couple of months ago on the fire prevention vegetation management programs that both Southern Marin Fire and Marin Fire Safe have undertaken. And I know all over town, there's been quite a bit of removal of vegetation along our streets. And certainly in the GGNRA, they gave permission to our Southern Marin Fire to go into their property and remove substantial amounts of undergrowth, brush, et cetera, chip it and haul it away. So, um, For those who are interested, there are the ability to arrange that on your own property in conjunction with your neighbors. It's called the Chipper Program. And it's funded not by the city, but by Southern Marin Fire. So it's a very, very effective program. So those who are interested should take advantage of it. Just thought I would add that at this point. Any other comments on the capital improvement? |
| 01:26:04.00 | Walfred Solorzano | Doors fan men's. |
| 01:26:08.00 | Unknown | Joris. |
| 01:26:09.52 | Dioris Van Menz | Hi, Silicon. So yes, thank you very much. Just a quick comment. I saw that you're prioritizing safety as part of the capital improvements, which is great. I did notice that... virtually all bicycle safety projects are unfunded. And as somebody who drives through town, who walks through town and who bikes through town, I find that biking is actually the most unsafe with the current infrastructure. So I would love to see a bit more attention to cyclist safety as well in these projects. Thank you. |
| 01:26:45.68 | Unknown | And, sir, we did receive, I think from you as well as others, written communications which are posted on the website to that very point. |
| 01:26:58.12 | Walfred Solorzano | No more public comments. |
| 01:26:59.96 | Unknown | And any further comments from members? Okay, members of the public here, seeing none, back to the dais, any further comments or direction to our public works director? |
| 01:27:17.96 | Jill Hoffman | I would like to see moving forward. that we pair our capital improvement plan with a cash flow forecast slash plan so that We aren't starting projects in one year. planning to um, Continue them. fund them from a subsequent fiscal year And then, not already being aware of what cash is projected to be needed to carry out the existing CIP for that subsequent year. So I'd like to start. tying. a forecasting process to our CIP planning process. |
| 01:28:08.99 | Unknown | Sure. |
| 01:28:10.56 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, and just to follow up on that, when we adopt a CIP project list, when it comes to us for action at a city council meeting for a project, if we're modifying that project or if we're having a new project, if a staff report comes to us, you know, not unlike the next one that we're going to talk about, I'd like to see how that project is, you know, where it is in our approved CIP list for that year and what funding it's coming out of. or if it's not funded, you know, the explanation of this is not funded and this is going to require additional X monies from our, we're asking that it's coming from the general fund or how we're funding this thing and how it's, you know, where it falls on our priority list or how we prioritize this. in whatever action we've taken in our strategic plan for that year. So if it's outside our strategic plan, then What's the justification for that elevating up to the city council in a staff report. So that's, that's just an ask going forward, I guess, for the rest of the year, because we've already set that as a policy in our, in our strategic plan for this year. So thank you. |
| 01:29:18.13 | Unknown | I guess my two cents are just to congratulate you again on, uh, being the python eating the pig here, the big $17 million allocation that we, the city council, put into the pipeline is a big set of projects to process. And I think it's good news that you're on budget or slightly under budget. And, and that speaks to your leadership. So congratulations to you and the department on that. I think it's worth underlining because we do talk about budgets and operating budgets and CIPs that we've not missed the opportunity to really emphasize that really there are two financial things we manage here. We have managed our operating budget. That's paying the police and the employees, the personnel that provide services, and there's the capital improvement budget. And that's kind of separate. And it's how we make long-term investments in our infrastructure. So when we talk about the Sausalito's budget being balanced, we talk about the fact that our operating budget has been balanced for years and actually a little bit in surplus. And that's how we accumulated all this money that we currently allocated to a big infrastructure spend the $17 million you're talking about. Whereas our baseline had been roughly 5 million a year. We're able to do 17. That sounds like a big number and we see the benefits around us, but I'm looking to my colleagues in the community because I don't want this good news and this apparent surge in activity to obscure the fact that as the mayor pointed out, we have huge infrastructure issues. Bill from 100 plus years of not keeping up with our needs. roads to get them to 80 is 40 million bucks, the sewers, I mean, sorry, storm drains, another 20 billion, 20 million for stairs, the sea level rise issue, 10 double digit millions of dollars. We're talking about an easily identifiable more than a hundred million dollars of infrastructure spending investment that we could make that we don't have visibility on how to raise. So at our strategic plan, we didn't pick $10 million a year out of thin air. We said we need to figure out how to increase our 20 ish million dollar a year budget. a lot by $10 million, like a 50% increase, not to increase spending on operations, but just to increase investment in our infrastructure. So when the mayor asked you, do you see any visibility on how we can ever get to that $100 million of deferred spend that we need? We don't have a plan because currently, if you had a fundraising thermometer, that's new ideas for how to get that $10 million. We haven't started filling that, but that's really our charge. We haven't implemented a policy that we can count on filling that. We've been talking beginning to talk about it and removing that direction because of the unanimity around that being a goal. But this will be, as we talked about trade-offs in our operating budget and capital spend, a continuing theme, and it's worth separating the two. our well-managed operating budget, but our capital improvement budget, while extremely well-managed, needs to find funding sources if we're going to tackle our big challenge. |
| 01:32:16.03 | Unknown | just. A couple just quick comments. Number one, I want to applaud you and the staff for putting public safety. As a priority, when we have limited funds, we try to emphasize spending on those things that actually affect public safety. And so far, that seems to be the case. And I want to thank you and your staff for doing just that. As to the big picture gap between what we think we need and what we have funding for, we are starting a few things. One thing I'm particularly interested in is considering establishing an enhanced infrastructure financing district. And I know the city manager is anxious to move forward with an analysis of what it would take to do that. That may provide exactly not what we need, but a lot of money that could stay here. in our community from the property taxes that are generated a greater share to apply to guess what infrastructure so these are these are things we have been thinking about we have a long way to go but thank you for what you've done so far and thanks for the report any other comments Seeing none, again, thank you. And we'll move on to the next item. |
| 01:33:41.19 | Unknown | Okay, this is the daylighting issue, item 5B. We do have a staff report. |
| 01:33:52.27 | Chris Zapata | Yes, Mayor, if I can lead into that before Kevin steps up here and get the slideshow ready. I want to point out a typographical error, and I apologize for it, that the staff report asked for $64,680, but the title in the agenda says $34,000. That was the old amount. based on some of the input we've been getting from the public about looking at this in a more broad fashion, thought that adding $30,000 to that ask would create some opportunity for the council to be flexible if you so choose to do that. But that typo is something that is an inverted. I apologize for it. But the staff report reflects $60,000 as an ask from the council on this item. |
| 01:34:39.55 | Unknown | If I could just interrupt for a moment. Could you explain that again? Are you saying that that dollar amount would cover not only the traffic engineering work, but... landscape architect, for example. |
| 01:34:53.44 | Chris Zapata | Yeah. that's the intent you know whether it's traffic mitigation whether it's design work whether it's complete street work uh you know the work that we have going on with parisi is 34 000 worth and so to add a little more um flexibility to the item today i stuck 30 000 more dollars in there for the council to consider so that if in fact you do want to go that way then we could adjust the the contract. And again, apologies for the title problem. |
| 01:35:25.03 | Unknown | Thank you. I'm Mr. McGowan. |
| 01:35:27.49 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. Good evening again. I only have three slides, so this shouldn't take too long. So item 5B before you this evening relates to Assembly Bill 413. Assembly Bill 413 is a state law intended to improve the ability of motorists to see pedestrians crossing the street. and pedestrians to see motorists coming their way. The state law requires a no parking zone within 20 feet of a marked and unmarked crosswalk. There is a provision in the law that notes that a local authority may establish a different distance other than the 20 feet noted. Your counsel requested Uh, An additional study be performed for Caledonia Street and areas in downtown. with the intent of possibly reducing that distance and not impacting the parking as much in these critical areas of town. Staff secured a proposal from parametrics to perform the study at a cost of about a cost of $63,400. In order to execute this agreement, an additional funding allocation is needed. Next slide, please. So here's just some graphics for us. I only threw these together just a little while ago. Caledonia Street has parking on both sides, which will be impacted by the strict implication of AB 413. A total of 22 parking spaces will be removed based off of this law. Next slide. Actually, let's go back one. I'll just kind of explain the picture quickly. So where the red arrow is on the screen, that could be me with my grandkids someday trying to cross the road. And somebody in the vehicle may not see me ready to cross the road. You can see that there's a parked car there, which kind of obstructs whoever is stepping into the initial crosswalk. The lower right-hand corner is an illustration of a larger vehicle parked not next to the crosswalk, but close to it, which also obstructs the view a little bit. And my upper picture there, which was a little drawing, didn't come out too well, but it also illustrates the same thing. Next slide, please. This change in parking on Caledonia can impact residents and local businesses. To address this concern, staff requested the consultant examine other areas adjacent to Caledonia to determine if more parking can be achieved to offset the losses due to AB 413 on Caledonia. Pine Street is currently a one-way street and may accommodate more parking by altering the parking configuration from parallel to perpendicular or angled. This study would examine this street and others if we need to. to determine if more parking on the side streets is available. So that basically concludes my quick presentation. Taking a look at the pictures on your screen, this is basically Pine Street closer to Bridgeway. You can see there's already angled parking there. So we know that it works in some cases. And going back up the street towards, uh, So it's Benita. There's possibly more parking spaces there available as well. We don't want to impact people's driveways. We don't want to do that. We just want to take a look to see if it's possible to put in angled parking. So that concludes my presentation. and welcome your questions and comments. |
| 01:39:08.03 | Unknown | as Gox. |
| 01:39:08.87 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you, Director McGowan, for that presentation. I wanted to revisit some of the traffic calming suggestions that we had previously provided. So If you flip back a couple of slides to that first picture that Director McGowan had put up, Um, where. Can someone flip back two slides? Oh, go forward one. Okay. So... Hypothetical. Suppose that these two crosswalks were illuminated, had flashing lights, just like we now have on Bridgeway. Now, even though you can't see a person who's standing, who's being blocked by that car, With the flashing crosswalk, you know, oh, someone's crossing the street. I need to stop. Is that correct? Is that another way to address, is that a way to address this challenge of a pedestrian otherwise not being visible because of the car parked at the intersection? |
| 01:40:07.82 | Kevin McGowan | It can definitely help alert drivers that somebody is entering the crosswalk. |
| 01:40:12.34 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:40:12.36 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:40:12.37 | Jill Hoffman | OK. And so. |
| 01:40:13.15 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:40:13.39 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:40:13.44 | Kevin McGowan | Sorry, keep going. |
| 01:40:14.28 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So that's one example of a traffic calming approach. Another example is lowering the speed limit. We see that this road is marked 20 miles an hour. Another suggestion I think I made a couple of years ago was to reduce it to 15 miles an hour. Again, because even if someone doesn't see someone Preparing to cross if they're only going 15 miles an hour. There's plenty of time to slow down and stop. for pedestrians entering their crosswalk. |
| 01:40:44.72 | Kevin McGowan | I'll let our traffic engineer comment on the speed issue. There's something called a safe stopping distance. And for 15 miles an hour compared to 20, I think at 20, we're at 95 feet compared to 15, which I didn't look up. So let's look those technicians, figure that one out. |
| 01:41:02.97 | Jill Hoffman | So really my overarching question to you is, in considering Bonita Street and Pine Street as alternatives for parking stock, can we also... have parametrics or a landscape architect carry out the direction of the council from a couple of years ago to examine these other traffic-calming mechanisms that could also Help us make the findings necessary to show compliance with 413? Yes. Thank you. |
| 01:41:37.64 | Unknown | Other questions? job. |
| 01:41:43.01 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Kevin. And so in the staff report, and I recall this, that in July of 2025, um, July, 20, 22, 2025, we provided direction to staff to install No parking delineation for marked and unmarked crosswalks within the soft salio in compliance with AB 413. and the technical memorandum except for marking these areas on Caledonia Avenue and those on Bridgeway close to downtown And that we directed staff to develop an additional study and that's so that we would comply with a B 413 and that we directed staff to conducted a develop an additional study of the parking on Caledonia to determine if a shorter no parking distance in front of the crosswalk could be pursued. you know, in compliance with the state law. Um, developing and incorporating design as discussed, um, including requiring hiring a design consultant, additional funding, estimated up to 30,000, which I think is what we discussed. you know, the last time and now we're back to Talking about maybe, you know, a design... a further design professional. But here's my question. Did we ever do that study? Was that study ever done? Thank you. |
| 01:43:02.29 | Kevin McGowan | That is what we're talking about today. That's that stuff. |
| 01:43:05.61 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Thank you. |
| 01:43:06.44 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:43:06.52 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. And so that, so are we talking about whether or not we want to have that study done and, and have parametrics do it? |
| 01:43:13.39 | Kevin McGowan | or the action tonight is requesting an additional allocation to fund that study. |
| 01:43:20.53 | Jill Hoffman | the study about whether or not we can do an additional study of parking on caledonia to determine if shorter no parking distance in front of the crosswalks and further parking okay Okay. And so I'm not I'm not clear about whether or not the design professional or landscape professional would be able to do that instead of parametrics? Or would they both be working together on that? |
| 01:43:47.04 | Kevin McGowan | We would. We definitely need a traffic engineer. So we need somebody to take a look at the state law and whether it is safe to reduce that distance. The landscape architect can be accompanied with the traffic engineer. |
| 01:44:06.75 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Okay. |
| 01:44:09.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:44:10.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Kevin. |
| 01:44:13.87 | Unknown | No questions. So just to be clear on what you're asking for tonight, it would be additional allocation of funds in order to support a study that would include parametrics as well as another design professional. |
| 01:44:32.67 | Kevin McGowan | I have not reached out to a landscape architect to be included with this at this point in time. So that would be a separate agreement at this point. |
| 01:44:41.48 | Chris Zapata | If I can speak to that, Mayor, but the request is is augmented. The thirty four thousand is one request, but adding another thirty thousand dollars would allow Kevin to do that. And that's the request tonight is to approve sixty thousand dollars as opposed to thirty four thousand dollars as mistakenly put in the title. |
| 01:45:01.27 | Unknown | So if we were to approve that, that would enable you to go forward with the two professionals, the traffic engineer, as well as I'll call it design. professional. |
| 01:45:13.68 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, sir. |
| 01:45:14.15 | Unknown | just to be clear. Okay. Um, I have no further questions. You have it yet. Go ahead. |
| 01:45:22.54 | Jill Hoffman | I have a follow-up. This is a follow-up based on the staff report and this is just the funding. So I'm looking at the staff report and, And this is, I think it's page three, and it's the chart, it's the graph of the funding part. And so it looks like 119,000 total, it's 55 Measure L, And then the next line is measure L 64,000. And then the total is one 19. And then that's the fund. And then the next part is phase two expenses, 26,000. And then the line under that is 63,000. And an additional design is 30,000. And then that subtotal phase two is also 119,680. Can you explain that to me? Sure. |
| 01:46:06.87 | Fred Moore | Thank you. |
| 01:46:07.04 | Kevin McGowan | THE END OF THE YEAR. So we originally had a, don't you love capital projects? We originally had a capital project that included studying all of the crosswalks within Sausalito. And we had a report from parametrics that examined all of those, told us where to put the No parking zones close to the marked and unmarked crosswalks. That was included in the original amount of $26,280. So that's already been done. Okay. Now, the second part is $63,400 for parametrics to study Caledonia Street and the downtown analysis. So that's the traffic engineer portion. |
| 01:46:49.09 | Jill Hoffman | And that's what we're talking about tonight. Correct. Okay, gotcha. |
| 01:46:51.60 | Kevin McGowan | And, What our city manager Zapata suggested is that we have an additional 30,000 to utilize for a static review, which is a landscape architect or somebody to help us with those specific characteristics. And I just mentioned we haven't solicited that yet, but that'll happen fairly soon. |
| 01:47:13.49 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 01:47:13.79 | Kevin McGowan | THANK YOU. |
| 01:47:13.96 | Jill Hoffman | you. Thanks for explaining that to me. |
| 01:47:15.84 | Unknown | I guess I did have a question, Director McGill. I'm sorry. uh, So, So what's before us is funding and directing some studies, what's before us is funding and directing some studies, but there's also the question, but could we potentially give you direction here to actually implement AB 413 and while we're doing those studies that is, prohibit parking immediately adjacent to the crosswalk areas. And would you be able to implement that if we gave you that direction? |
| 01:47:46.01 | Kevin McGowan | Yes. |
| 01:47:46.94 | Unknown | Would you do that with temporary signage? Or how would you implement that? |
| 01:47:49.97 | Kevin McGowan | Our road maintenance crew is able to go ahead and mark curbs in red. |
| 01:47:54.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:47:54.24 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah. |
| 01:47:54.31 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:47:54.75 | Kevin McGowan | and move it that way. tricky spots associated with the green marking, but we could take care of it in house. |
| 01:48:02.02 | Unknown | Okay. And so we could give you that direction to implement AB 413 while we did this design study. Thank you. Associated with the, this notion of an architect versus the engineer. Uh, are you aware? Cause I've seen a drawing going around about a diagonal and perpendicular parking on some of the cross streets and parallel streets, the Caledonia, that would actually take advantage of their lane width and could actually, even with the loss of parking from a full implementation of AB four 13, increase total parking for their businesses and residents around there by something like 50%. Have you seen those drawings? |
| 01:48:37.48 | Kevin McGowan | I have not. I would welcome somebody sending that to me. |
| 01:48:40.40 | Unknown | Okay. And then did you see, again, I wish I had, normally I'd put, normally I use my I show it, but I don't have a drawing, but I've seen drawings that also involve not something aesthetic, but a built environment involves some ball belts at the cross box that actually narrow the cross box and hence increased visibility because you have a landing pad. that someone can stage at before they cross it that also came from a landscape architect and i'm wondering uh whether you've seen those well if you've seen the particular ideas or You know, is that even in the realm of what a traffic engineer does versus what a landscape architect does? |
| 01:49:16.58 | Kevin McGowan | The answer is yes and yes. So the traffic engineer would make a recommendation to put in bulb outs in order to make have the pedestrian. move closer to where they're going to actually cross the street and have better visibility. In the same time, we can use a landscape architect to put in additional plants and make those bulbouts look better as well |
| 01:49:34.56 | Unknown | Okay, and then my last question is, we just redid Bridgeway. uh, looks, you know, an improvement for sure. Uh, Do you know, is there an actual plan. for Bridgeway Caledonia. the cross streets that sort of makes them all work together? Or do we, are we doing this kind of piecemeal or really do one side of the in the street to make it safer, but we hadn't actually thought the implications on the other. And I mean by that, like on Bridgeway currently, where we have a lot of those big yellow signs, we have those little islands in the middle. And part of why we have some of those is that we preserve the, you know, the way it's always been done turn lanes and the one and two way streets on the feeder streets. And if some of those were one way, that would have affected Bridgeway, but of course you don't want to, just make streets one way willy nilly either. It's all has to all be kind of integrated together. So is there somewhere a plan for sort of an integrated circulation of Caledonia Bridgeway and all the cross and parallel streets? |
| 01:50:36.80 | Kevin McGowan | So we have to step back a little bit in time and take a look at the Bridgeway project and why we put that in place. There were a bunch of accidents out there between pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. And the intent was to make that area safer. That plan didn't include expanding out and looking at different cross streets or other things. It was only singular at that point. We did have a study several years ago about Caledonia. And I think Parametrics, who was Parisi at that point in time, took a look at some circulation elements. But those two were still separate type of projects. So we haven't really stepped back and looked at a bigger picture. |
| 01:51:14.85 | Unknown | Got it, okay. So we had two different projects that weren't integrated. Thank you very much. |
| 01:51:21.99 | Unknown | So members of the public, I have no speaker cards, but I suspect Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. |
| 01:51:31.51 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:51:33.25 | Steve Harris | you |
| 01:51:33.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:51:33.36 | Unknown | I have so many stacks from the previous I've lost track. So Terry Lang, you're first. |
| 01:51:33.38 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:51:33.43 | Steve Harris | I'm not. |
| 01:51:43.62 | Terry Lang | Hello, Mayor Woodside and City Council members. My name is Terry Lang, and I'm a business owner on Caledonia Street. My business is Tivoli Decor. Over the last 20 years, I've spent a lot of time on Caledonia between my husband's frame shop, my children attending Sparrow Creek, and now the last eight years at my own store, stores, plural, because I actually have two. I want to start by saying I fully support improving safety and meeting daylight requirements. I also want to thank the city manager for including additional funding for landscaping it's an important step in the right direction But that said, the way the current proposal reads, it still feels very similar to how Bridgeway turned out. And I think we can all agree that Bridgeway is somewhat lackluster in the design and overall experience. Caledonia is different. It has character, charm, and a real sense of community. And this is an opportunity to build on that, not destroy it. I encourage you to take more, a more cohesive, design-forward approach, and think beyond striping and signage. and consider a true streetscape vision. One that includes benches, greenery, thoughtful pedestrian spaces that enhance both safety and vitality. I would also respectfully request that stakeholder feedback be incorporated before finalizing any plans. We can meet the requirements and still do something exceptional for Sausalito. And I do have two questions. Would adding stop signs help Caledonia meet daylighting requirements or reduce the need for some more impactful changes? And with the $60,000 allocated for parametrics and the landscape include final design work or would there be additional costs be required to complete the full design plan? |
| 01:53:41.94 | Unknown | Robert Woodrum. |
| 01:53:48.30 | Robert Woodrum | I'm Robert Woodrum. I own Sausalito Picture Framing. You all know my resume. Everything she said, I agree with. I was hoping to pinch some of that, but she got up before me. We desperately need parking on Caledonia. We don't need to lose it. If there's any way to do this reasonably and save a few spaces, please do that. If we can do it in a more pretty way than just red stripes and, I don't know, obnoxious signs, please do that. I have been asking for a stop sign at Litho for years. It's never been a possibility. Is that a possibility to put a couple of stop signs on the street? That slows people down and gives people a chance to cross more safely. That's about all I have to say. Thank you. |
| 01:54:43.26 | Unknown | Thank you. Yoshitome. And, Yoshi, I bring greetings from your friends in Sakai Day. |
| 01:54:52.73 | Unknown | Yeah. laughter |
| 01:54:55.51 | Yoshitome | Thank you, Mayor. Ah, Yoshitome, 107 Canada Street, Sushira owner. I can't stand it. This is a crisis state pressure on the daylight, the traffic safer enforcement. However, what the Borizia has done is, for me, it's really ugly. It's urgent work. I think we, South Korea, have much more smarter people over the places who can do better jobs. Instead of just painting corner red marks on it, we can do much more, Caledonia area, including City Hall area, entire parking inventory, parking size, parking policy, and we can do better job of trees sidewalk everything else too how we can keep vitality of a caledonia street and the beautification please please do not show sighted let's look at the long term, what we can do better on the Caledonia area. We can do better than this. Let's investment a little more, research more, We can do better. Thank you. |
| 01:56:08.97 | Unknown | Thank you. Joseph Irland. |
| 01:56:19.21 | Joseph Rowland | Hi, good evening. Thank you, Stephen, Mayor Stephen and the City Council. |
| 01:56:24.00 | Unknown | Can you hear me? We can think. |
| 01:56:25.71 | Joseph Rowland | Thank you. My name is Joseph Rowland and I'm the owner of J. Rowland Salon on Caledonia Street. I realized that there could be some limited options with regards to daylighting, but I realized that it must be implemented |
| 01:56:33.40 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:56:41.50 | Joseph Rowland | The time is of the essence. And I'm in favor of public safety and a safer Caledonia Street. I'm here to voice and urge the city council to expand the staff's current principal proposal and vote for a more comprehensive architectural landscape, urban design study. The true vision of Caledonia street is a thriving business community for the residents of Sausalito. Focusing on a simple engineering plan is not the solution. |
| 01:57:12.10 | Unknown | And you're welcome. |
| 01:57:16.77 | Joseph Rowland | As I mentioned, I own J. Roland Salon and eliminating 22 parking spaces on Cavalonia Street to implement daylighting would have a measurable negative impact. There are currently on Caledonia Street, three businesses planning to open and five commercial vacancies. As a new tenant of only two years, I can tell you that looking for a commercial space, there's three things we look for, and that's location, location, location. |
| 01:57:52.66 | Joseph Rowland | A vote for the study to include engineering architectural landscape design compliant with daylighting that offers offsets. The loss of 22 parking spaces is a winning longterm plan. The potential for offering significant revenue opportunities to the city and further experience for residents, visitors, and businesses, a healthier community also means a healthier city finance. Thank you. |
| 01:58:21.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:58:21.79 | Joseph Rowland | Thank you. |
| 01:58:22.23 | Unknown | Next speaker is Carolyn Revell followed by Adam Driver. |
| 01:58:32.39 | Carolyn Revell | Good evening, Mayor Woodside and council members. Sausalito Beautiful has advocated to enhance the pedestrian environment on Caledonia Street since our founding 10 years ago. Our primary emphasis has been on trees, planting street trees and we're currently exploring additional locations for new trees. The state requirement to daylight the corners of Caledonia Street offers an opportunity to further enhance the street. Intended to increase pedestrian safety at the intersections, the requirement will, as you've heard, incur the loss of 21 parking spaces, which would be a disaster for the merchants. I join with the representatives of the newly formed Merchants Association in advocating for an urban design study to augment engineering studies that will explore ways to increase the number of parking spaces by looking at a wider area and provide opportunities for enhancements at the intersections by landscape, bulb outs, and so forth. Expanding the scope and including a landscape architectural firm in the project as the lead consultant can produce a comprehensive plan that not only improves traffic flow and pedestrian safety, but creates a complete streetscape with coordinated design elements such as benches, trash receptacles, lighting, and landscaping. Let's take advantage of this opportunity, the opportunity presented by the state mandate, to think creatively. I urge you to allocate the additional funds that the state mandate, to think creatively. I urge you to allocate the additional funds that would be required to include a landscape firm in this study. Thank you so much. |
| 01:59:59.02 | Unknown | Thank you very much. Adam Driver is the next speaker, followed by Alexander Blaylevin. |
| 02:00:12.39 | Adam Driver | Thank you, Mayor and City Council. I don't want to be redundant, so I'm going to keep it relatively short. I agree with pretty much everything that's been said here. the way that I would frame it is, I think that we need to think about the efficiency of the space and The timeline of this plan. I think that the Bridgeway plan achieved what it set out to do, but it did not set out to do what it could have. I think that a larger plan that incorporates the entire neighborhood, The traffic flow, the beautification. everything involved that engages all stakeholders would be in our best interest and in the best interest of the city. future revenues, future businesses, um, And I would also say if there's going to be a short term daylighting solution, Please take into account for our own good. We need green zones, 20 minute zones. We really need those. We rely on those. So if you're gonna paint red, please also bring out the green paint because we really, we really, we can't lose any of those, please. Thank you. |
| 02:01:22.20 | Unknown | Thank you, Alexander Blayleman. followed by Michael Smiley. |
| 02:01:33.24 | Alex Bleileben | Hello, City Council. Thank you for engaging in this important discussion. My name is Alex Bleileben, resident here and member of our Economic Development Advisory Committee, and have had the pleasure with working with several of the Caledonia Street merchants that just spoke and who I think will be speaking. Councilmember Cox also under your leadership last year to make that a priority, which I appreciate having now spent some time and learned about some of the issues. I would urge you all to think about daylighting as a catalyst, not as a minimum requirement. This can be a catalyst for what I really do think is a generational opportunity for us to think more encompassingly, more thoughtfully, more strategically about a really vital economic corridor. As has been said from several folks, the way that Caledonia interconnects as a corridor around must be considered in a long-term, thoughtful, strategic way. You can't just paint red kind of in one corner and then expect that it doesn't ripple through i also agree with something that terry said which is um i really appreciate the staff bringing in the proposal to bring in a landscape architect urban design firm it still reads a little bit like a traffic engineering study and every time that we have implemented traffic engineering studies i feel like we have pursued a more minimalist approach. We have taken away green space, not added green space. We have removed parking, not added parking. We don't address the fundamental economic and community needs that we have, such as vacancies up and down Caledonia. So I urge you to think about this from a design first and a landscape perspective. We can create a long-term vision that's thoughtful. And instead of lurching from bucket of red paint to red paint and from traffic engineering to traffic engineering, probably put it into the context of the whole. Councilmember Sobieski, I too have seen some of the images I think that you've mentioned. I think a couple of years back, a firm here, Estoullier, did some study just on cross streets. And they thought you could open up over an acre of underutilized pavement, just on the cross streets. That's more than 200 parking spots, extra greening, et cetera. So I encourage you all, please don't let this moment go by. Let's take advantage and engage with the landscape architecture firm. Thank you. |
| 02:03:35.65 | Unknown | Thank you. Michael Smiley, followed by Sharna Brackett. |
| 02:03:46.72 | Michael Smiley | Michael Smiley, 186 Casno Avenue. I'm here first of all to support the council and the staff in your efforts to rationalize the parking over a larger area rather than just painting curbs as part of this daylighting effort. But in addition, I also urge you to prioritize community design as the key component of the effort. by making a qualified urban landscape architect the team lead. with a traffic civil engineer providing technical support and guidance. I'm a landscape architect, and for over 50 years, I've designed urban streets in large and small cities all around California and the U.S. In nearly all of our projects, we were the prime consultant, with a team of engineers and others providing technical support as our sub-consultants. In the 1990s, I was the lead design consultant of a project you probably know well, the Embarcadero in San Francisco as we see it today, after the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway. Most people say it turned out pretty well. It may surprise you to know that civil traffic engineers did not lead that project. It was conceived as a civic design project with landscape architects in the lead and the engineering team providing immense technical input and implementation responsibilities. For Calonia Street and elsewhere, daylighting projects provide an opportunity to recapture small bits of space and shift the balance of our streets from auto dominance to people friendly. We call that finding lost space. Seating, traffic calming, bicycle parking, street trees and ornamental planning, public art, sidewalk merchandising, and so many other small ideas that make a big difference. I call these things city comforts. Design matters. Please view this daylighting project through a design lens and make a qualified urban landscape architect the prime consultant. |
| 02:05:46.67 | Unknown | Thank you, Mr. Smiley. |
| 02:05:50.72 | Michael Smiley | Thank you. |
| 02:05:50.78 | Wayne Kwan | Thank you. |
| 02:05:52.23 | Unknown | Michael Smiley is his name. Thank you very much. And, um, I think everyone who's been on the Embarcadero and anyone who remembers the Embarcadero Freeway can say, what a difference. Sharner Brockett. |
| 02:06:13.75 | Unknown | Mr. Smiley, I'm not sure that, did you submit a written communication to us as well? Would you be able to submit what you have to the clerk so we can have it on the record exactly as you? Thank you very much. Ms. Brockett. |
| 02:06:30.44 | Sharna Brockett | Yeah. Good evening. Just want to reiterate that, you know, in terms of the daylighting, I would like to see that happen. I am concerned that things are not safe and that it's 14 months after the enforcement period. So I can appreciate it's not, we really don't want to lose those parking spots, but I am worried about safety. So I hope that you can make the right decision around that and figure out how we can make our crosswalk safer. I also just want to reiterate that I think when people think of landscape architecture, they think of plants. It's not just plants. It's so much more. It's about place. And it's a place that includes how people move on foot via cars and via bikes. And I really like having somebody like that to think of that entire system and how it works together. So I just wanted to reiterate that. And then I feel like we've been here before. We keep asking, we want good design in this town. And so I think any time that we have landscapes, streets, anything that really connects with people in terms of our urban landscape, that we should be hiring a designer. And of course, working with engineers, but the designer really should be central to everything we do. And so we've been asking for that. I'd love to see that be a priority for everything in the public space going forward. Thank you. |
| 02:07:58.93 | Unknown | Okay, do we have comments anymore in the room, seeing none online? |
| 02:08:05.73 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Warren Wells. |
| 02:08:09.98 | Unknown | Hello, Warren. |
| 02:08:11.23 | Unknown | I'm Mayor Woodside, members of the council. I want to speak in support of implementing AB 413 daylighting requirements of 20 feet, no parking, advance the crosswalks. As Director McGowan said, city staff could paint those road curbs in house immediately and that would immediately improve the pedestrian safety in Caledonia. That said, in response, you know, we've heard a lot of people commenting today, we would fully support a broader look at Caledonia Street. You know, this is truly the heart of Sausalito, and we would love to see a holistic look to improve both aesthetics, beauty, and safety of Caledonia. Some suggestions for policies that might include Council Member Sobieski asked about curb extensions. These can improve visibility, safety, and actually, in fact, by installing curb extensions, that actually reduces the AB413 daylighting requirements from 20 feet to merely 15 feet for a cross-hook with extensions. Another option for daylighting, and one that can be done without just the red paint, is planters or bicycle parking. The bicycle parking is something town of San Anselmo has done given the lack of bicycle parking in this portion of Saucedo, that could be a boon. And we give people an alternative to driving downtown for people able to. Councilmember Cox also suggested lowering the posted speed limit to 15 miles per hour on this segment. That's something we would fully support. That actually could be done by ordinance without a traffic survey using California Code 40802B1 as this is considered a local street per the statewide functional classification. And actually, when you reduce speed limits, when you reduce speeds, Research shows that yield rates increase significantly. And since these are all two-way stop-control intersections, pedestrians do have to rely on drivers to yield. So I'll also say we would certainly be in favor of a longer look, but I think there are important pedestrian safety improvements to make as soon as possible. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. |
| 02:10:07.15 | Unknown | Thank you. Other online comments? |
| 02:10:10.15 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, next we have Babette McDougall. |
| 02:10:12.84 | Unknown | Ms. McDougal? |
| 02:10:16.11 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:10:16.13 | Babette McDougall | Thank you very much for acknowledging me. Again, I want to say thank you so much for moving forward, too, with this whole daylighting concept. And I really am pleased to hear so many of our neighbors say it's an opportunity for something. |
| 02:10:29.22 | Walfred Solorzano | Uh-huh. |
| 02:10:29.37 | Babette McDougall | Really cool. because it is. I love Yoshi's idea about a more integrated plan. And I think if we just follow the example that he has said over the years on Caledonia, we see what can be done aesthetically. And I so agree with Sharma that, you know, having a designer at the helm helps to guide that aesthetic that we're all really anxious to realize. Keep in mind that Caledonia is always known as the locals street. It's like the locals shopping district. We often hear that. And so that character that we would like to bring out in Caledonia, not only that, I think the name Caledonia all by itself, it's just a cool name. It's a cool word. And I think we can really have fun with this. And I love the idea that our local citizens are coming forward to say, let's just don't do a daylighting law, which we must do and we want to do. Let's just do it beautifully so that everything looks so integrated and that that local district is the real showcase for Sausalito going forward. And then it ends up sort of bringing the rest of the town into the mix, just much more organically. Thank you so much for the chance to share that. |
| 02:11:40.10 | Unknown | Other online comments? |
| 02:11:41.66 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 02:11:41.68 | Walfred Solorzano | Next, we have Fred Moore. |
| 02:11:44.18 | Unknown | Fred Moore. |
| 02:11:46.34 | Fred Moore | Good evening again, Mayor and City Council. I respectfully urge you guys to not approve Parametric's proposal tonight, working on the daylight improvements. I totally support and applaud Michael Smiley's comments, and I probably should end right there because I think he's encapsulated all the comments that are pertinent to this situation. But you know me, I'll probably continue on. with a goal to support the local businesses that give Caledonia's character. I think the city should seriously consider placing the landscape architect in the lead design role with parametrics only for technical support. A landscape architect, as you all know, is uniquely equipped to evaluate curb extensions, traffic patterns, balneards, pop-outs, raised islands, and other tools in a way that meets the state daylighting requirements without sacrificing the charming character of the street. Parametrics approach risk over-designing the corridor that thrives precisely because it feels welcoming, walkable, and locally rooted. An overly technical design could unintentionally disrupt that balance and harm the very businesses we're trying to protect. While the range of legally compliant options may be limited, a landscape-led approach offers the best... possibility of producing a solution that is not only safe, but visually coherent and aligned with Caledonia's existing character. I appreciate your thoughtful consideration for these and all the other comments you've heard tonight. Thank you. |
| 02:13:20.69 | Unknown | Thank you. There's online. |
| 02:13:23.74 | Walfred Solorzano | Next, we have Mary Griffin. |
| 02:13:25.70 | Mary Griffin | Thank you. |
| 02:13:27.67 | Unknown | Hello, Mary. |
| 02:13:29.07 | Mary Griffin | Hi, hi, thank you very much, Council. I also support Mr. Smiley and Sharna and all the people who have said This should be design led. because we see what happened on Bridgeway, but Caledonia has had its problems too. I found the outdoor seating that's left over from the pandemic. That should be folded in. There should be a whole idea about making Caledonia less automobile dominant and more shop, sidewalk, pedestrian, bicycle, So I think, Getting a real design while making it safe, and we all want it safe, and we all know the intersection by drivers is not But another thing is the, The bridgeway changes have changed the traffic patterns. And so I think that needs to be fed in as well. But please make it a design-led study that really enhances one of the very most charming aspects of Sausalito, which is Caledonia Street. Thank you. |
| 02:14:29.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:14:29.05 | Mary Griffin | Thank you. |
| 02:14:29.59 | Unknown | And Mary, just for the record, you've been an architect for how long? |
| 02:14:33.22 | Mary Griffin | 40 years and I live right up the street and I just crossed that street twice with a three-year-old this afternoon to get soft serve. I'm there all the time. So thank you. And let's but I know how important those green parking areas are. and just how important it is to let the community enjoy that street. |
| 02:14:53.84 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:14:56.42 | Walfred Solorzano | Next, we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 02:15:00.64 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hello again. I do support the design led project for Caledonia Street. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but I do think we need to you know, like we were talking about Pelican, you know, have something that really respects the heritage of Caledonia street and its, uh, uh, draw for the locals. So, and I do think A mechanical compliance with the statute is going to not do that. So I do support the design. I do not want to see block after block of Caledonia with chartreuse signs and yellow flashing lights. uh, like we have on Bridgeway. Thank you. which I find very unesthetic. and unwelcoming. So, Those are my points and I'm sticking to it. Thank you. you |
| 02:15:57.32 | Unknown | Other comments? |
| 02:15:59.45 | Walfred Solorzano | Next, we have Adrienne Britton. |
| 02:16:02.00 | Unknown | Adrian? |
| 02:16:04.10 | Adrian Brinton | Hi, Adrian. Thank you very much for taking my comment. Yeah, there's such great comments and it's hard to kind of come this late, but I'll just say that you know the state is requiring us to make our streets safer and we don't want to lose parking there's a natural tension there. You know, I hear all of our business owners that need parking and rely on parking, I use the green zones outside drivers regularly to run in and grab stuff. At the same time, You know that we're lucky that we have a lot of space on the streets around this area on the side streets, and those can be reconfigured there can be, you know, more designs that actually increase parking and make Calendonia a better place to be as a pedestrian. So I really think that the idea of having a designer is super important. Landscape design is such an understatement, as others have said. We really need an urban design that takes into account the space we have and the needs we have and optimizes the way we use it. And, you know, we've optimized it for cars and driving through as fast as we can for years. And I think it's time we change that. And it's time we optimize for pedestrians and businesses in that area. And we allow people to park. in areas where it doesn't impact that Thank you for your consideration. |
| 02:17:28.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:17:30.15 | Walfred Solorzano | Next, we have Kieran Culligan. |
| 02:17:32.16 | Unknown | Kieran? |
| 02:17:39.60 | Unknown | Karen, we're not hearing you. |
| 02:17:43.99 | Wayne Kwan | Can you hear me? |
| 02:17:46.17 | Unknown | Let's move on to the next. Can you hear me? Now we can sure. Okay. |
| 02:17:51.14 | Kieran Culligan | Thank you. |
| 02:17:51.16 | Unknown | Thank you. Good. |
| 02:17:51.97 | Kieran Culligan | But just wanted to start by saying, Um, So much appreciation for the great ideas. that are out there in terms of what this area could be. Tons of potential. Tons of ideas. We'd love to see it studied. with an urban design, lens. But there's a stark reality of where it is today. we aren't just daylighting for fun. Like there is a state law that we have failed to, to implement. You as a city council heard this topic and delayed implementation on July 22nd of 2025. A week before that, I don't have all the details, but I know from a public records request, that a driver failed to yield. and hit a pedestrian and injured a pedestrian in the crosswalk. at Tourney in Caledonia. Exactly. One of the intersections that you delayed implementation of. that's a huge liability risk. Maybe it's not for that incident in particular, but you now have evidence, data of actual notice of a dangerous condition. or the failures to implement. I'd like to see some discussion around the liability that the city could be facing on this because it adds to safety reasons as well as risk management reasons why it's important to paint the curbs now You can do it tomorrow, literally. and then start to implement these greater ideas. And so there's no reason that we can't do both. And the people of our town And my kids, I don't have a three-year-old, I have a six-year-old, I guess they're just as reckless, if not more. I want this place to be safe. so I can enjoy it. And that trumps some of the other concerns. And I don't wanna see any more delays on this topic. Thank you. |
| 02:19:34.79 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:19:34.82 | Kieran Culligan | Thank you. |
| 02:19:38.18 | Unknown | any additional comments online? |
| 02:19:39.94 | Walfred Solorzano | Seeing none online. |
| 02:19:41.27 | Unknown | And we do have one more speaker card, Alice Merrill. |
| 02:19:49.83 | Alice Merrill | Thank you very much. What I'm going to talk about is the residents who live on all the little side streets and who live on California. I'm hearing all of a sudden it just was like, oh, you guys, do you remember that there are a lot of residents? And this isn't just about businesses. And clearly I care about the businesses. I work at one. And they're all important. And so I just really want you to remember that the residents are there And we usually have Vicki talking about the residents, but she doesn't live on Caledonia and Eminon, and neither do I, but just the same. Please, please remember them and make sure that they don't get lost in the beautification of Caledonia. The street is wonderful. The street is important. I remember my parents talking about how it was the residents serving way back when all of a sudden 100 T-shirts came up, T-shirt stores downtown, and we had to change our place. But we still have people who live there. Thank you. |
| 02:21:08.45 | Unknown | Just to note, there are I think almost 40 written communications we received on this topic in addition to what we've heard tonight. Thank you. Any other public comments? |
| 02:21:19.36 | Walfred Solorzano | Seeing none. |
| 02:21:20.24 | Unknown | Okay, I'll bring it back to the dais. Who wants to go first? |
| 02:21:26.79 | Unknown | Mr. Mayor, thank you. gosh, I'm really heartened by by all this public feedback, I, uh, I think people appreciate that there was an investment in Bridgeway. but they also saw the limitations when we didn't take the opportunity to have a design step with a certain tool. I'm an engineer. I like engineers, but, you know, use the right tool for the job. And I think what we heard here tonight really impressed me. People like Michael Smiley and Alex from EDAC and Adam Driver and Carolyn Revell and Jay Roland, all talking about the need to do this kind of the opportunity. if we actually put do this project through a design lens. The notion is if you build a building, an engineer could build a building. I mean, builders do it, but if you want a building that works better, you hire an architect and if you want to build. a circulation pattern involving people, cars and bikes. You should hire a landscape architect. They're also sometimes called urban planners, but that's a step Historically, we just haven't done it's part of our culture. We get by with hiring the builder to build our house or the engineer to do the project because technically it can meet the law, but it doesn't meet the opportunity. It meets the law, but it doesn't meet the opportunity and Caledonia is too precious to miss the opportunity. The implementation of a B 413 is real obligation on our part that is going to deprive the area of critical parking spaces. We need to have a opportunity to mitigate that. But in mitigating it, we can also take advantage of the built environment in that way to not just mitigate it, but make the entire place better. And as with all our projects, whatever plan we support, isn't going to necessarily be implementable overnight. But if we have phase one of such an effort be the parking mitigation, and have a plan for how that could evolve as we get money to improve the streetscape, the entire pedestrian experience, then we could have a, Caledonia Street and its environs. that is improved for the residents. the businesses, visitors and is safer. So, So I think we shouldn't miss this opportunity. And where I'm coming from is, you know, I'm gonna make two motions. uh, One is that we implement AB 413 right away because it's a safety issue. But the second and more critical one that I think that I'd like to start with is I don't think we should improve 30k in addition to the parametrics amount. I think we should approve that total amount, 60,000 or 68,000, whatever it is, for a streetscape study with a landscape architect in the lead and a traffic engineer in support with the goal of increasing parking in the area of Caledonia and the adjacent streets. So my motion, which I'd like to just make to kick things off, is approve 68K for a streetscape study with a landscape architect in the lead and a traffic engineer in support with the goals of increasing the parking in the area of Caledonia and its adjacent streets, accounting for AB413. and making a streetscape plan for the future of the area that complements it. |
| 02:24:35.69 | Unknown | is. Is there a second? I'll second it. |
| 02:24:43.65 | Jill Hoffman | I agree with the motion. Um, I disagree with just blindly Redlining. Tomorrow. |
| 02:24:52.97 | Unknown | That's not in the motion. |
| 02:24:54.13 | Jill Hoffman | Right, that's why I'm responding. Yes, that's why I was about to second. The mayor beat me to it. |
| 02:24:54.96 | Unknown | I am. |
| 02:25:01.22 | Unknown | Sorry. |
| 02:25:01.67 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:25:02.11 | Unknown | I didn't hear one, so. |
| 02:25:03.16 | Jill Hoffman | Um, But I think we have to be you know, our businesses on Caledonia Street, really depend on parking. you know, Unless we're going to, if we're going to go out tomorrow and start painting curbs red, we need to make contingency plans for folks to park who patronize those businesses. with clear signage or clear direction or something. to ensure that we don't adversely affect the economic viability of our businesses while we undertake this very important overarching analysis. Um, . I don't have the solution. You know, Kevin had identified some potential |
| 02:26:01.13 | Jill Hoffman | backup plans like Bonita Street or Pine Street or, but those won't happen overnight. So I just am I'm very cognizant of what Adam Driver said about, you know, if we're gonna, paint things red, make sure we paint other things green. Um, That being said, You know, my hairdresser like Mr. Rowland used to be on Caledonia Street and Thank you. When we painted a bunch of curbs green, she lost the ability. You know, I had to park down in lot two and walk up. to visit her and not everybody easily park in the lot, too. So I'd love to hear from Director McGowan. that if we gave direction, to carry out the requirements of AB 413 right away, what could we do right away to address the loss of 22 parking spots for our businesses? |
| 02:27:05.23 | Jill Hoffman | If I could follow up before we get into this, because I don't principally, you know, I'm not, Um, I think I'm going down the same road principally as as unintended. Right. Right, the same street as Caledonia that we're talking about. But refining some of the, I think, what you generally put out. in your in your motion but I have some of the same concerns that council member Cox just address because if we're talking about that the that AB 413 will take out 21 parking spaces, if that's what we're going to lose, and we're going to start painting curbs tomorrow. you know, where are those... where we're gonna lose those parking spaces? So that's number one with starting tomorrow, and that's what she was asking. and then the wording of your motion with regard to Caledonia and the area I would want to see and give further direction of Yeah. you know, principally talking about parking on Caledonia, because we have, and not moving those parking spaces off Caledonia and do beautification. street scaping and landscaping on Caledonia and moving the parking off Caledonia because people. A lot of people... And the businesses, frankly, need people to be able to go to Caledonia and park on Caledonia. So some people were talking about, and we've had a lot of discussion in the past about, um, whether or not, and we had a couple of people talk tonight about moving parking off Caledonia and having Caledonia be mainly pedestrian bikes. And I, I want to be clear that I think Caledonia needs to retain as much parking as we possibly can for our businesses, for our residents who need to be down there and park as close as they can to businesses, and for residents who need to park as close as they can. We have a lot of people who actually live on Caledonia and live on the second floor. Um, and then, um, and then the maximum, but absolutely let's go after the parking on the side streets. If we can get more angled parking on pine street, let's do it. We just had some conversations last summer about removing parking on Pine Street and doing more streetscaping on Pine Street and more gardens on Pine Street. So now we're pivoting to getting more parking on Pine Street. So I support that, especially since we're losing parking on Caledonia because of AB 413. I just want to, be cognizant of that in the language of the motion Councilmember Sobieski. So thanks for starting us off in our conversation. And with that, Director McGowan Thank you for approaching the podium. |
| 02:29:51.98 | Jill Hoffman | And can I just add one thing to what Councilmember Hoffman just said, which is I completely endorse everything she said with the proviso that We also have to be aware that our residents in that neighborhood the side streets for parking in the evenings and so we have to be, we have to, you know, I'm sorry. |
| 02:30:13.56 | Michelle McCullough | Be- |
| 02:30:14.35 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 02:30:14.39 | Michelle McCullough | Thank you. |
| 02:30:14.42 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, by permit. And so... We need to be sure that whatever we do to our businesses on Caledonia doesn't have unintended consequences of adversely impacting our residents who live in the neighborhoods adjoining Caledonia Street and use the side streets for parking. And thank you, Dr. Director McGowan, and welcome back. |
| 02:30:35.24 | Kevin McGowan | I just thought hearing you folks deliberate, maybe I could add something. that would you consider directing staff to return to the council next meeting or the meeting after with a few sketches are diagrams showing What we can do as far as Pine Street, how many parking spaces are available, and show you a diagram of where The removal of parking needs to be as well. Just some more detail showing some things of what can be done from what we know right now. Um, The other streets are basically two way streets. Pine Street is just the only one way street. So I didn't want to get into a full analysis within a two week, but something simple that we can return to you with might help. |
| 02:31:17.60 | Jill Hoffman | I think that would be helpful for And especially if we're talking about doing red paint right now, like that would be like fat, like I would be in favor of that. But I would want to see a schematic. I mean, that would be super helpful for me. I agree. |
| 02:31:31.98 | Jill Hoffman | would like you to also consider whether we can have permits for our Lots, lot three, lot four, that could be temporarily issued to businesses for their customers during the pendency of this study, some creative approach like that or lot five, whatever. |
| 02:31:55.47 | Kevin McGowan | I would need to reach out to our police department for assistance on that one. |
| 02:31:58.98 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, if you could coordinate. I see Mr. Kwan is here. Officer Kwan is here this evening. Yeah. |
| 02:32:04.56 | Unknown | If I may speak to the motion, I support the motion. for the reason that The essence of it is put a design professional in the lead. Not one of us. but a design professional. Um, I lament that we aren't back in an earlier age when the first engineer in California, female engineer, was also the first female architect. and members of the audience know who I'm talking about, Julia Morgan. She was a consummate designer. She had a sense of place. She was an architect. She was an engineer. She designed the original Silomar grounds. There's an engineer's cabin there, the Hearst Castle, the women's club in Berkeley, which is now the Berkeley Club, et cetera. We had in one person... these capabilities. And not so terribly long ago, my guess is that Mr. Smiley is such a person. I'm serious. You had a sense of place. You had a sense of design. I don't know your background, but I do know what you accomplished. I had the good fortune of meeting twice John Carl Warnicke, who was a preeminent placemaker, architect. He designed so many things I don't know where to start, but he did the layout for the UC Santa Cruz campus. He did a lot of the Stanford campus, the modern parts of it, the Kennedy flame at Arlington. He had a sense of place. He was considered a contextual architect. What that means to me is he had a sense of design. And while all these suggestions that have come from the audience and from us are important, they're good, they need to be taken into consideration, We need to look first to the designer. to get that sense. Now, as to What? I want to distinguish the fact that I don't think we are delaying implementing a law we implemented red lines all over the place except on Caledonia Street and the reason we made the exception is that Caledonia Street is a very special neighborhood it has unique characteristics it is not just parking or temporary parking It's pedestrian friendly in most respects. It's a place where there are all kinds of businesses that many of us frequent. There's some dry cleaners to optometrists to dentists. There's residents who live on the second floor. There's nearby parks. I mean, I could go on and on. I don't need to convince all of you that it is a special place that requires special attention. And we would miss an opportunity if all we did was, an engineering solution that maybe got some bulb outs and some things and I think those may be part of it. But let's take this one opportunity that we have to do it right. We have an example in history here recently. My time is up, but I'll just say when the Ferry Landside project was designed by design professionals, it was a magnificent design. And it took how many years and months to get through it? Because we delayed. but not for the right reasons. This time, I think we're not delaying making it safer. We are taking the opportunity to make it safer and much better in the long run. So that's why I support. Support your motion. Thank you. |
| 02:35:55.94 | Unknown | Could I just call the question then on my motion as I read it? |
| 02:35:58.65 | Jill Hoffman | May I just go ahead and add... maybe a second motion, which is that we continue this item to one of our meetings in May to hear back from Director McGowan. with the sketches for implementation for immediate implementation of the uh, red painting requirement of AB 413. I am mindful of those residents who spoke up about concerns about how long it has taken us to carry this out on Caledonia Street. So I'd like to make a second motion. |
| 02:36:39.91 | Unknown | Just a point of order because that's unrelated to mine. Can we settle this first and then take well as I do like some comments and |
| 02:36:44.45 | Unknown | Well, I think what I'm hearing is a second motion, which he has the right to make. And if it gets a second and it's approved, it takes precedent. |
| 02:36:54.12 | Jill Hoffman | It gets heard first, but it's actually No, it's not a friendly amendment. If this second motion passes, I'm more comfortable saying yes to the first motion. So I believe that doing something immediate is, |
| 02:36:59.93 | Unknown | If they do. |
| 02:37:00.30 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:37:06.91 | Jill Hoffman | is a precursor to AND I THINK THAT'S A approving a longer range plan. Okay, so I mean, But maybe I won't get a second. That's my emotion. |
| 02:37:14.61 | Unknown | BUT. that that's that's a second motion i think under the rules uh if there's a second we will um |
| 02:37:22.69 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 02:37:22.74 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:37:22.76 | Jill Hoffman | on it first. |
| 02:37:23.06 | Unknown | it first. |
| 02:37:25.69 | Jill Hoffman | My second motion is that we continue to a date to one of our May meetings. The... portion of the action sought from us tonight to approve the to undertake the restriping of those areas on caledonia street required by ab413 so that we can see The plan. from Director McGowan for implementing that. requirement immediately. |
| 02:38:00.96 | Unknown | I'm sorry, could you please repeat it one more time? I'm afraid I just didn't follow it. |
| 02:38:04.15 | Jill Hoffman | I'm asking that we continue to a date in May our consideration of the of the... painting red of the curbs on Caledonia Street, as required by AB 413, so that we can review and evaluate the plan by director McGowan for providing the parking that will be eliminated through that re-striping process. |
| 02:38:39.44 | Unknown | So I'll call the question on- |
| 02:38:41.80 | Unknown | I'm going to ask you a question since we're discussing the motion. I just had a question about it. And it's maybe, Director McGowan, you don't know the answer. But Terry mentioned the question of wanting to have a stop sign for years for other reasons. If stop signs were placed... on Caledonia with that albeit the the need to remove the parking spots or would it be a temporary measure |
| 02:39:06.34 | Kevin McGowan | Unfortunately, I don't know. I would need to research it with our traffic engineer. As you recall, you have to have warrants to go through the stop sign study as well. And that'll take some time. |
| 02:39:15.40 | Unknown | our city attorney just clicked on. |
| 02:39:17.58 | Sergio Rudin | In my opinion, I think that it's unlikely that adding stop signs is going to meaningfully alter the equation. The text of the law is that you can't park within 20 feet of the vehicle approach side of any marked or unmarked crosswalk. or 15 feet if there's a curb extension present. So whether there's a soft sign or not doesn't seem to be directly relevant. |
| 02:39:40.56 | Unknown | So, just to discuss your motion. |
| 02:39:44.95 | Unknown | We're discussing it right now, the second motion. If I can jump in. |
| 02:39:45.18 | Unknown | I really- |
| 02:39:48.61 | Unknown | I have a comment too, Meft. |
| 02:39:49.60 | Unknown | Okay. If this is a, as part of or connected to or in any way detracting from our ability to move forward with a design-led professional, I wouldn't support it. I don't know. |
| 02:40:06.55 | Jill Hoffman | I don't agree. |
| 02:40:07.51 | Unknown | And that's not the intent. |
| 02:40:08.67 | Jill Hoffman | That is not the intent. You're just asking that. |
| 02:40:09.77 | Unknown | You're just asking that we come back with some as a separate motion, which is, I think it was gonna be your second motion, was to do some striping. |
| 02:40:14.29 | Jill Hoffman | and the |
| 02:40:18.55 | Unknown | Okay, so we're going to have several motions tonight. Let's get them straight. Right now we're having a motion on |
| 02:40:26.26 | Jill Hoffman | And taking immediate action to comply with the requirements of A, B, 413. Is it AB or SB? AB. AB 413. to address the safety concerns raised by our |
| 02:40:40.53 | Unknown | and to get a report from- |
| 02:40:41.76 | Jill Hoffman | And to get a report from Director McGowan in May. So I'm asking for a date in May, which is what he offered... |
| 02:40:43.10 | Unknown | Director McGowan. Director McGowan. |
| 02:40:49.85 | Jill Hoffman | so that it moves forward promptly. So we would delay the repainting until he presents that plan in May and then move forward with that as an interim stopgap measure while we undertake the longer. |
| 02:41:02.81 | Unknown | Okay, and I think it presumes that we agree to moving forward with whatever Mr. McGowan comes up with. |
| 02:41:04.46 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:41:10.54 | Unknown | And I don't know that we will. |
| 02:41:12.21 | Jill Hoffman | I don't know that we will, but if we don't, we'll take some other action at that time. |
| 02:41:12.49 | Unknown | I agree. |
| 02:41:16.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:41:16.06 | Unknown | I'm wondering if you would accept a friendly amendment of establishing a date certain when AB 413 will be implemented on Caledonia. that will give staff some time to come up with both emergency temporary solutions including green curbs and other mitigation measures that like you outlined with parking lot three and four and whatnot and also put a little bit of pressure on the design effort to come up with solutions |
| 02:41:38.62 | Jill Hoffman | My challenge is that we last heard this in July of 2025. We are almost a year later. So when we don't establish a date certain and create some pressure and urgency, It takes more time than we think. I'm asking you to establish a date certain. to implement. I can't establish a date certain to the design effort because I don't know who we're going to hire and what |
| 02:42:02.46 | Unknown | not the design effort. This is your motion, just the implementation of AB 413. On Caledonia, if we establish a date certain. than we know that we are. going to implement it at a certain date. And there's some pressure on the organization to mitigate the parking loss and press forward. |
| 02:42:21.21 | Jill Hoffman | I'd like to establish that date in May when we hear back from Director McGowan so we know how long it will take to carry out his recommendations. Or if we disagree with them, to take some other steps. I just want to keep this moving forward. |
| 02:42:34.62 | Unknown | I agree we should move forward on what short-term interim measures may be appropriate, but not prejudge it tonight. I am not in favor of what I think would be a separate motion coming forward to simply start restriping or repainting right now. I think we should put design first. |
| 02:42:53.29 | Jill Hoffman | I agree. That's why I want to see the interim measures from Director McGowan. |
| 02:42:57.34 | Unknown | to see if there are some. |
| 02:42:58.47 | Jill Hoffman | if there are some things we can do interimly to address the immediate safety concerns of our bicycle and ped bicycle and pedestrian Speakers. |
| 02:43:08.75 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, and just basic safety, admittedly. |
| 02:43:10.48 | Jill Hoffman | MR. |
| 02:43:12.20 | Jill Hoffman | So. Yeah. |
| 02:43:13.40 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:43:14.85 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:43:14.97 | Jill Hoffman | Shall I call a question? |
| 02:43:16.54 | Unknown | I think let's take a vote. We can do this on a roll call. |
| 02:43:19.06 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:43:20.58 | Unknown | just Thank you. Roll call. |
| 02:43:21.81 | Jill Hoffman | Well, |
| 02:43:22.90 | Unknown | Thank you. Your voice goes fine. |
| 02:43:25.57 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. Councilmember Sobieski? Yes. Vice Mayor Blaustein being absent. |
| 02:43:26.62 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:43:33.92 | Walfred Solorzano | Mayor Woodside. |
| 02:43:34.68 | Unknown | Yes. Okay, so now to reiterate my motion that I made before and you seconded, Mayor, to approve $68,000 for a streetscape study with a landscape architect in the lead and a traffic engineer in support with the goals of increasing the parking in the area of Caledonia and its adjacent streets, accounting for AB 413 and making a streetscape plan for the area that complements the area. |
| 02:43:36.47 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 02:43:57.23 | Unknown | I did second that motion. And do we need further discussion? |
| 02:44:03.03 | Jill Hoffman | Um, The only... My only concern is how we're defining the area, Caledonia and surrounding area. can we say primarily Caledonia Street and adjacent streets? and directly adjacent streets. primarily Caledonia, and will you accept a friendly amendment to say primarily Caledonia? primarily Caledonia Street and directly adjacent streets. |
| 02:44:32.95 | Unknown | The phrasing right now is with the goals of increasing the parking in the area of Caledonia and its adjacent streets. |
| 02:44:39.89 | Jill Hoffman | I can, will you accept a friendly minute and say, Caledonia Street. and adjacent streets. |
| 02:44:46.89 | Unknown | you |
| 02:44:46.91 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:44:46.94 | Unknown | The motion is. That's exactly what my motion is. Is it the area? It's increasing the parking in the area of Caledonia. Not the area of. Not the area of. The streets. |
| 02:44:49.22 | Jill Hoffman | Is it? area. Not the area of. Thank you. just. So take out the area of just say Caledonia Street. |
| 02:44:59.51 | Unknown | So you want me to say increasing the parking on Caledonia streets and its adjacent streets? |
| 02:45:03.72 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, please. |
| 02:45:05.72 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:45:06.57 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:45:07.65 | Unknown | increasing the parking. on Caledonia Street. |
| 02:45:12.90 | Jill Hoffman | and adjacent streets. |
| 02:45:15.97 | Unknown | I'm not sure that makes sense. |
| 02:45:18.02 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, it does. It does. I'll explain it to you later. |
| 02:45:20.86 | Unknown | the parking. on Caledonia Street and its adjacent streets. instead of increasing the parking in the area of Caledonia and its adjacent streets. I'm afraid I just don't see the distinction. So maybe I'll just decline. |
| 02:45:34.88 | Unknown | Well, I see the distinction and it's calling for an increase in parking on Caledonia Street, which I think is virtually impossible. |
| 02:45:34.92 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:45:44.27 | Unknown | Alice, you agree with me. |
| 02:45:46.61 | Unknown | I'll just leave it as is, if you don't mind. Thank you. |
| 02:45:52.26 | Unknown | the motion is as originally proposed by mr sobieski i've seconded it let's um have a roll call |
| 02:46:00.16 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox. |
| 02:46:01.34 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:46:01.36 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Hoffman. Yes. Councilmember Sobieski. Yes. Vice Mayor Blaustein being absent. Mayor Woodside. |
| 02:46:05.02 | Unknown | Okay. Yes. okay, is there a third motion? |
| 02:46:16.70 | Unknown | Okay. Okay, we can move on. Thank you very much. This is a helpful. discussion. Not everyone will be happy tonight, but hopefully soon we'll be moving in the right direction. |
| 02:46:28.63 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Director McGowan, for volunteering to come back. to the lion's den in less than a month. |
| 02:46:42.38 | Unknown | So moving from parking to parking, resident parking benefit. Well, let's take a C. This is a report on the resident parking benefit program. We do have a staff report. Are you ready? |
| 02:47:02.48 | Wayne Kwan | Yes, I am. |
| 02:47:03.26 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:47:03.98 | Wayne Kwan | Are you ready? |
| 02:47:04.64 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:47:05.03 | Wayne Kwan | Thank you. |
| 02:47:05.10 | Unknown | you |
| 02:47:05.15 | Wayne Kwan | Thank you. you |
| 02:47:05.50 | Unknown | you |
| 02:47:05.52 | Wayne Kwan | Okay. And I have the PowerPoint. |
| 02:47:12.30 | Unknown | So this is from the police department. |
| 02:47:16.49 | Wayne Kwan | That's, |
| 02:47:17.05 | Unknown | Proceed. Thank you. |
| 02:47:19.98 | Wayne Kwan | Great. |
| 02:47:20.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:47:21.28 | Wayne Kwan | Hello and good evening, Mr. Mayer. members of city council and city manager. My name is Wayne Kwan and I'm Parking programs measure with the South Steel Police Department. I'm here tonight to talk to you about the Saucedale Resident Parking Benefit Program. Next slide, please. |
| 02:47:42.29 | Wayne Kwan | So what is the purpose of this presentation? The purpose of tonight's presentation is to provide a comprehensive review of the resident parking benefit program, including its history, how it operates today, and why it is currently in the transition phase. We'll also walk through resident usage data liking them in context. and the accessibility features of the new system. Finally, I'll present four options for council consideration, along with the associate physical impacts. Tonight's action is for council to review and Provide direction to staff on how you would like the program to move forward. Next slide, please. |
| 02:48:27.95 | Wayne Kwan | Let's talk a little bit about the background and the current rules. This program has been in place for possibly 50 years and was originally created to encourage Saucyere residents to come downtown to shop dime and support local businesses. It has since evolved through multiple ordinances and changes in Parkinson's technology from the stickers to pass cards and now to a cartless system. Today, the benefit provides the resident with up to three hours of free parking between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. and 100% free parking from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. No active parking session is required between 10 PM and 7 AM. It's important to note that this benefit is only valid in downtown municipal parking lot to one through four. Next slide, please. OK, let's take a quick look at some data. In 2025, the program recorded approximately 18,000 700 resident parking sessions. The estimate annual value benefit of that of those sessions is about $180,000. As you can see from the chart, the majority of the parking sessions fall in the two to two or three hour range. and 95% of all sessions fell three hours or less. This tells us that majority of Sausliu residents are honest and stay within the benefit of within the rules as intended. Next slide, please. |
| 02:50:02.56 | Wayne Kwan | Let's talk a little bit about what this means for the city parking revenue. The city generates approximately 2.5 million annually in parking revenue. about 70% of that comes from the off street municipal lots from one through four. pretty much the steak bread and butter. resident parking brandford program represents about 7.2 percent of the total annual revenue and about 10.6% when looking specifically at municipal parking lot revenue. So as you can see from a chart, this parking benefit program represents a small percentage of the city's overall parking revenue. but it provides a meaningful benefit for social residents as a reason to visit downtown more often Next slide, please. |
| 02:50:53.65 | Wayne Kwan | So why is the system transitioning now? The reason we are transitioning to a new parking system is primarily driven by the need to replace outdated parking equipment. Our current T2 system is outdated technology and it's past this useful life cycle. In short, the current parking system is no longer functioning as needed to continue to collect consistent and maximum parking revenue for the city. Back in November 2025, Council approved a new agreement with a new parking meter vendor to replace all of the outdated T two meters. The new vendor is called Flowbird. As you can see, you have a picture of the brand new meters here. the bright yellow, highly visible, No physical button is simply a touch screen. So it's very similar to using an iPad. You basically follow the prompts on the screen, And or just your parking section. This new vendor parking system is expected to improve reliability, system uptime, and allow us for better parking programs administration, which is very unique to Sauce Leo. So this is actually one of the very few vendors that were able to incorporate the Saucy-Deal Benefit Program into its meters. I'm sorry, please... |
| 02:52:16.46 | Wayne Kwan | Let's talk a little bit about what Park Mobile is. Clark Mobile is a mobile app that's available on all smartphones. You simply download the app from the App Store. As part of this transition, we are excited to add this resident parking benefit program onto the ParkMobile app as an alternative payment option. So I do want to be clear about this. So Park Mobile is an additional contactless option completely separate from the pay stations. They work independently. Residents choose one or the other. And Port Morgans are already being used in other cities in the Bay Area, such as San Rafael, in San Francisco. is simply an alternative option to pay for those who embrace technology, it's not required. Residents who prefer not to use a smartphone or the app can still go to the pay station and start their parking session. Next slide, please. So let's take a little closer look at how each of these options work. So option A, |
| 02:53:26.66 | Wayne Kwan | Option A is Park Mobile. So Park Mobile, the person can simply start their parking session from their phone. They do not need to go to the pay station. and for the purpose of the resin Parking benefit program. All they have to do is sign up for Park Mobile with the same email address that they signed up for the Resident Benefit Program with us. If they forgot, somebody call us and we'll let them know. No need to visit a pay station. I do wanna point out that there is a 45 cents convenience fee, which the app charges. That 45 cent does not go to the save-tossed layer. That is simply a service feed for using the app. Option B is the pay stations. So, Pay station is where residents will select the resident parking benefit program on the pay station. However, because it's a membership program and is a discounted parking rate, they would need to go through a verification process. The verification process will be a six digit pin issue Find a sauce, Leo. Please spark. Smartphone and app is not required if choosing to go to the PlayStation. And there's no 45 cents feet. Next slide, please. |
| 02:54:46.70 | Chris Zapata | Wayne, can you clarify the 45 cent charge? Is that ongoing one time? Every time they use it, tell me. Before you go, |
| 02:54:54.97 | Wayne Kwan | five cents is per transaction. However, Park Mobile also offers a subscription for $3.99 per month. is not required to subscribe. But... personal choice for a user who use the app 10 or more times a month. it'll be wise to subscribe as the 399 will be cheaper. |
| 02:55:22.74 | Wayne Kwan | Okay, resident support during transition. To support this transition, the Sausseo Police Department will provide clear instructions both in print and online. Staff will also be available by phone, and resident can also schedule in-person appointments at the Saucer Hill Police Department as needed. In short, we'll do whatever is needed to ensure a smooth, supported, educated transition, particularly with residents who may be less familiar with technology. Next slide, please. Let's take a quick look at the long-term vision. The new pay station is simply an interim step. As you can see on the chart, we are Halfway there. We're in the middle. The long-term NGA vision is that the city is working towards a more advanced parking technology system using license plate technology. License Plate Recognition, or LPR for short. which would allow for a more seamless automatic verification of the resident benefit program. The city has already been awarded $500,000 in grant funding from MTC. For future parking improvements, this was awarded back in March of 2025 However, this is federal money. And in order for us to use the fell money, Implementation depends on completing the Caltrans funding process, which may take six to 12 months. Next slide, please. |
| 02:56:55.42 | Wayne Kwan | Policy considerations. As Council considers the future of the program, I want to note, There are a few key factors to keep in mind. This is a long standing program that provides a direct parking benefit to Sauclil residents. At the same time, parking in these downtown lots is a premium resource. that must both serve both residents and visitors. Visitor and tourist parking is a significant source of revenue for the city. and also help support the local economic activity. Any changes to the program may have an impact on utilization turnover, We are mute in public perception. Next slide, please. Now I'm gonna present four options. Option one, Maintain the existing program. Keep everything the same. Style is quill. This would maintain a long-standing parking benefit to Sawseel residents, and this preserves the current balance between resident benefit parking and visitor access. The city will continue to provide approximately 7.2%, which is $180,000 in annual parking value to residents. However, this will require the SALS-Lead Police Department to continue to manage and administer the program's rules and verification process as we discussed. Next slide, please. |
| 02:58:24.89 | Wayne Kwan | Option two. Option two will expand the program to provide 100% free parking to residents at all times. While this will maximize the resident parking benefit and simplify the program, it would eliminate parking revenue from the city And could reduce turnover particularly during peak demand periods The annual parking value to residents were most likely to increase However, the requirement for breast cancer to go through the verification process that we discussed will no longer be required. as we can simply issue the resident a parking permit to cover the free parking. This option represents the highest potential revenue loss and expect transient parking revenue to decrease. Next slide, please. Option three would be to eliminate the program entirely. and require residents to pay standard parking rates, just like everyone else. This would maximize potential revenue for the city. Improved turnover. but it will remove a longstanding community benefit and could impact resident access to downtown. This requirement would also require no longer require the verification step as we discussed, as president will pay just like everyone else. revenue gains would also depend on how much residence demand converts to paid parking. Next slide, please. Option four. A reduced parking rate for residents is a hybrid approach. The resident would receive the first hour for free and then followed by a 50% discount for every hour thereafter. This provides a middle ground option Maintain a benefit while recovering some additional revenue for the city. However, it reduces the current benefits and introduce a more complex person structure We'll have to revert back to the verification process. as if not like in option one. Next slide, please. This line summarizes the estimate of financial impacts of each option. The current program provides approximately $180,000 in annual parking value The other options will either decrease or increase the amount depending on how the program is structured. Again, these are point-level estimates and actual outcomes would depend on user behavior and demand. after pre-selling all four options, the staff recommends that counsel keeps option number one. Next slide, please. that concludes the presentation. I'm happy answering questions. |
| 03:01:19.80 | Unknown | And just so we're all clear, by the way, that was very detailed. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. There's applause at the back of the room from your boss. um, Option one, just to be clear, is the status quo with respect to the three hours of free parking. If you use the app, you're paying a service fee. right? |
| 03:01:43.27 | Wayne Kwan | That is correct. So option one is status quo, keeping the exact rules of the Saus Deo Resident and Parking benefit program. The app is an addition. We never had the app program on the app before. |
| 03:01:56.13 | Unknown | So you could go up to the kiosk or the machine. Correct. Put in without paying any additional 45 cents. That is correct. And what is the advantage of an app? You could be sitting at a restaurant and... getting a couple hours of additional parking. |
| 03:02:10.46 | Wayne Kwan | The advantage of the app is you don't have to go to the pay station. So during busy times, you don't have to wait in line. You can start your parking sessions right from your phone, right from your car, or maybe even while you're walking to the restaurant. All you need is The parking lot zone number, which is on the signs at the parking lot and the space number that you parked in. |
| 03:02:33.75 | Unknown | And are you aware of any other cities that offer essentially some number of free hours parking? Thank you. For example, San Francisco. |
| 03:02:43.48 | Wayne Kwan | San Francisco is pretty much all transient parking. |
| 03:02:47.31 | Unknown | In other words, everyone pays. |
| 03:02:48.88 | Wayne Kwan | Correct. |
| 03:02:51.08 | Unknown | Do you know of anyone around? the Bay Area that offers to residents this kind of benefit. |
| 03:02:57.73 | Wayne Kwan | I am not. This program is unique to SOS Leo. |
| 03:03:01.01 | Unknown | Thank you. Those were my questions. |
| 03:03:07.90 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:03:07.92 | Unknown | Mr. Sobies. Yeah, just technical question. |
| 03:03:09.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:03:10.53 | Unknown | aside from the resident. I think it's a The question I just have is about the technology. So when someone pays for a parking spot, number 12th. and they pay for an hour or two hours using the app. And then they leave after. 90 minutes instead of two hours. uh, And someone else comes and parks in that spot, but doesn't pay. you know. that they haven't paid or is it that you've, that, that space is, you know, that that space has been paid for two hours. So whoever occupies it, say they come in, they pay for three hours, they park for 10, they leave, someone else parks for free or, you know, Because there's no license plate reader. That parking spot is paid for for three hours, whoever's occupying it. |
| 03:03:59.10 | Wayne Kwan | Yes, I can't thank you for the question. There is no status light on the spaces. So we are currently on a pay by space system. So every single space has a number associated with it. The public has no idea where that space number is paid for or not. Only our enforcement officers do. So the way it works is when somebody starts a parking session where they started from their app on park mobile or they start the parking session on the pay station, they have to input a parking space number, for example, space 100. Once they start that session and pay the appropriate rate, whether they're resin or transient. that space number status turns screen. on our enforcement handheld. So that's how our enforcement will know the space is paid for or not. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:04:54.42 | Michael Smiley | Thank you. |
| 03:04:54.48 | Wayne Kwan | Thank you. |
| 03:04:54.60 | Michael Smiley | Thank you. |
| 03:04:54.65 | Wayne Kwan | Thank you. |
| 03:05:01.25 | Jill Hoffman | And so Wayne is, Sorry, this is gonna... Thank you. This is going to be a system through the transition period until we get a new system that's going to be paid for by the MTC grant. or is this going to be the system going forward? |
| 03:05:21.82 | Wayne Kwan | This is... So this system that we're upgrading right now is brand new pay stations for our muni lots one through four. that has already been purchased, and that agreement has already been approved and moving forward. the $500,000 for the MTC grant. |
| 03:05:43.39 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 03:05:43.83 | Wayne Kwan | is for phase two. |
| 03:05:46.17 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 03:05:46.96 | Wayne Kwan | That's for completely different parking equipment, such as meters for our streets, replacing all the single space meters on the streets, parking. license plate recognition cameras for our enforcement buggies, And if there's money left, a way of finding signage. |
| 03:06:08.43 | Jill Hoffman | OK, so this is going to be the system for a while. |
| 03:06:11.58 | Wayne Kwan | Correct. |
| 03:06:12.17 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And then, so everybody that used to have those parking cards, The resident parking cars, that's no longer what we're going to use. |
| 03:06:19.38 | Wayne Kwan | So the current system... uses a parking card. |
| 03:06:24.88 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:06:25.10 | Wayne Kwan | Thank you. So all the residents that have signed up for the program, they have a parking card in their possession. |
| 03:06:31.21 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:06:31.36 | Wayne Kwan | And, um, They use that parking car to go to the machine to purchase their session. So it's kind of like a monopoly credit card. |
| 03:06:39.02 | Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. |
| 03:06:42.47 | Wayne Kwan | There's credits on it. It doesn't cost the resume. what we're so the only thing that we're changing It's instead of, with the new meters, the new machines, instead of using the car to start their parking session, they would verify their resin via a six digit pin, |
| 03:07:01.70 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:07:01.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:07:01.99 | Wayne Kwan | So we're reducing the need to purchase more cards. |
| 03:07:05.23 | Jill Hoffman | Got it. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. And yeah, there are other towns, by the way, that have free parking. Mill Valley has a parking resident shopper vehicle permit, by the way, and you can get free parking as a Sausliya resident in Mill Valley. |
| 03:07:16.28 | Unknown | It's just... |
| 03:07:22.31 | Jill Hoffman | Just throw it out there. And San Ensemble just started a two-hour free parking for residents, too. And San Rafael has some free parking for residents on certain days. So just throwing that out there. But we were at the forefront. I just want to say that. And I think we have the oldest free parking system. So thank you. Thanks, Frank. Great presentation, by the way. |
| 03:07:40.85 | Chris Zapata | Mayor, if I can augment a little bit of Wayne's information to Councilmember Hoffman's question about this investment and the grant. That's a million dollars you're putting into your parking enterprise, half of it from the city and half of it through a grant. And my recollection was last year we were in a hurry to get this implemented, and so you bit the bullet and funded it, and we're getting the grant soon, right? |
| 03:07:41.07 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. But... Thank you. |
| 03:08:09.83 | Wayne Kwan | Okay. |
| 03:08:10.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:08:10.08 | Wayne Kwan | Thank you. |
| 03:08:10.10 | Unknown | you |
| 03:08:10.15 | Wayne Kwan | Yes, hopefully. |
| 03:08:10.77 | Unknown | Thank you. one more question, by the way, Thank you. Excuse me. when you say resident, do you mean actual resident or do you mean, uh, someone living in 94965. in the zip code. |
| 03:08:26.50 | Fred Moore | I'm sorry, I can repeat that. |
| 03:08:26.92 | Unknown | I repeat it. resident or do you mean someone living in 94965 so there are plenty of you know Muir Beach is 94965 so do they get free parking The rule is 94965. So anyone in the 94965 can apply for this card. |
| 03:08:44.96 | Wayne Kwan | That's correct. I've learned that recently. That's correct. |
| 03:08:51.81 | Unknown | Any other further comments or questions, excuse me? Public comments, I have two cards, Carolyn Revell Andrew Denison |
| 03:09:06.78 | Carolyn Revell | Hello again, I'm speaking now as a member of the Downtown Sausalito Association Board. And, uh, we had our meeting on Monday and, uh, Amy. Svenberg brought up this issue. The board voted in favor of continuing the just supporting this resident parking program. I'm glad to hear that. And of the different options, the board supports option one, keeping the system as it now is with the three hours free and pay after that and free at night. We were very impressed with how conscientious Wayne has been with understanding the concerns Some older residents such as myself who have trouble with the technology And Amy Svenberg of Poggio's suggested that she could hold a coffee at Poggio's for anybody. We would work with Wayne to find an appropriate time and people could come there and he could demystify the system of using ParkMobile. There are other options as well as the pin, as Wayne explained. But that's an offer of the Downtown Sausalito Association to hold an information session in coordination with this program. Thank you very much. |
| 03:10:16.32 | Unknown | Thank you, Andrew Dennison. Hello? |
| 03:10:20.15 | Andrew Dennison | Thank you. Hello, Councilor Andrew Dennison here, resident. Support the resident parking program as is option one, I think is what he mentioned. I think it's been fantastic for me and a lot of my friends that like to go downtown. Also speaking as a musician that plays at No Name often and tries to pull people from San Francisco quite often to come to our shows. The Park Mobile is actually very cool, and I think it would be an excellent addition. Everyone gets it. It understands. It's very simple to use, and so I want to just voice my support for that as well. |
| 03:10:53.14 | Unknown | Thank you. Sharna Brockett, followed by Alice Merrill. |
| 03:11:02.51 | Sharna Brockett | I just want to say I think it's great that we can have ParkMobile. I've used it a lot in different towns, and it is awesome. You can be at a restaurant and realize you're going over and can just – put some more time on it. So want to just commend Wayne and all the work he's done to really figure this out and help bring our parking technology into into the current into what it needs to be and super excited to see option one continue thanks |
| 03:11:27.92 | Unknown | Thank you, Alice. Alice Merle. |
| 03:11:37.71 | Alice Merrill | I can't believe I'm up here again. Okay. So this is good. I think I can learn it. And having the pin. I am just sort of turning into a little NIMBY here. What, we are giving free parking to people in Bolinas or where, where did you say, is this true? Yep. That's. Is it really nine? I mean, is that how it's described or is it within the Saucydo City limits? |
| 03:12:09.45 | Unknown | Apparently, it has always been the case that if you were in this zip code, you could get three hours of free parking in Sausalito. |
| 03:12:19.76 | Alice Merrill | Oh, be darned. Well, that's a new one to me. Thank you very much. |
| 03:12:23.26 | Unknown | Sure. |
| 03:12:27.37 | Unknown | I'm seeing no more speaker cards. Online comments? |
| 03:12:32.66 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 03:12:36.45 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening again. This will be my last time tonight, I hope. I'm in favor of option number one. I also would like to know how we get our six digit pin number. Because I don't want to pay 45 cents every time I use this. service. And I don't want to sign up for another subscription because I don't, it's not worth it to me. But in any event, I think that if we could find out how we get our six digit pin, whether the city is going to send them to all cardholders. or whether we have to contact the police department or just how that's gonna work, I would appreciate knowing that process. Thank you. |
| 03:13:21.12 | Unknown | may be a little bit out of order, but Mr. Kwan has indicated he has an answer for that question. It might be useful for all of us to know. Thank you. |
| 03:13:30.82 | Wayne Kwan | So, What we're doing is we're uploading all of the current members that have already applied or been approved members into the new Flowbird pay station systems. So basically, it's essentially an account and then each account will have a six-digit pin associated with the back office system. you |
| 03:13:54.99 | Unknown | And will the- |
| 03:13:56.58 | Wayne Kwan | They would reach out to us. They would reach out to the Salisbury Police Department, the parking authority, to get that code. What we'll try to do, I think, you know, is once we're ready to issue these pins out, we'll announce it in current. We'll also posted on our website. Um, So yeah. |
| 03:14:18.36 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:14:18.93 | Wayne Kwan | Okay. |
| 03:14:18.99 | Unknown | favorite I hope that helps. Okay. Yes, Ms. Cox. |
| 03:14:20.15 | Wayne Kwan | I hope that's good. |
| 03:14:23.52 | Jill Hoffman | Officer Kwan, you previously emailed residents who have a parking card you have their email addresses. Is it possible for you to email the six-digit PIN to those who are already... listed in your system. |
| 03:14:39.35 | Wayne Kwan | versus Yes, it is. It'll probably require much more manpower and legwork because that initial email was an announcement email where we did a email blast. |
| 03:14:44.75 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 03:14:52.94 | Wayne Kwan | In the case of a PIN, we would need to email each individual member individually. |
| 03:14:59.55 | Jill Hoffman | So it's quicker for you to have someone call in and have to talk to an officer rather than emailing the residents what their PIN is. |
| 03:15:09.95 | Wayne Kwan | I think what I'll discuss with my team and see how we can, um, possibly do both. |
| 03:15:15.80 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you for a wonderful report and presentation. You're welcome. |
| 03:15:21.35 | Unknown | Mr. Sobieski. Yeah, just another question for you, Wayne. uh, Well, the six digit pen, once it is used, to approve a parking. event. then be disabled for the period of that parking event? Or if someone else has the same number, will they also be able to park for free? |
| 03:15:40.75 | Wayne Kwan | So every member will have their own unique pin The pin will reset at 7 a.m. each day. So once it's used that particular day, it will no longer be valid. |
| 03:15:52.84 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:15:53.27 | Unknown | that. day. |
| 03:15:53.81 | Unknown | So if the pen is handed out, posted on the, free passwords.com or whatnot. Uh, it can't be misused by 10 people to park on the same day. |
| 03:16:04.27 | Wayne Kwan | That is correct. Thanks. |
| 03:16:05.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:16:05.30 | Wayne Kwan | Thank you. |
| 03:16:05.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:16:10.21 | Unknown | Any other public comment? |
| 03:16:11.20 | Walfred Solorzano | Next, we have Adrienne Britton. |
| 03:16:13.16 | Adrian Brinton | Okay. |
| 03:16:16.40 | Adrian Brinton | Hi, thank you again for my comment. I wanted to say thank you very much to Wayne Kwan for all the work on this program. Um, I was down the other day and I put in the park mobile number into the app and you know, there was a log line at the pay station and, It was extremely easy to use, so I just wanted to put a plug in for that. I thought that parking down there for 45 cents was an incredible deal, actually, even though normally I park for free with my parking car. I know that some people don't want to use an app and having the pin is great, but I think prioritizing using the app is a great way to do it. The residential parking program is great for our merchants because it encourages people to come downtown and a lot of a lot of residents don't don't see a reason to come downtown this gives them a reason to makes it easy. So I think we should definitely support option one and continue the program. And I'd love to see us prioritize having people use ParkMobile. and use pins only when that's not convenient or possible for them. But yeah, this is a great program and I'm really happy to see it continue. Thank you. |
| 03:17:28.91 | Unknown | Additional comments? |
| 03:17:30.57 | Walfred Solorzano | Next, we have Babette McDougall. |
| 03:17:37.30 | Unknown | Ms. McDougal? |
| 03:17:38.48 | Babette McDougall | Thank you, sir. Well, I just ran right back in front of my screen because actually I did not put my hand up. I don't know why my computer's doing that. It did that last time too. |
| 03:17:48.73 | Unknown | do. |
| 03:17:49.03 | Unknown | Well, |
| 03:17:49.10 | Unknown | I'm going to be |
| 03:17:49.77 | Babette McDougall | I'm all in favor of this program, but thank you very much for calling upon me. |
| 03:17:49.85 | Unknown | . |
| 03:17:49.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:17:53.91 | Unknown | Okay. Anyone else? |
| 03:17:56.81 | Babette McDougall | Seeing none. |
| 03:17:57.43 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:17:57.65 | Unknown | Okay, let's bring it back to the dais for hopefully a motion. |
| 03:18:03.34 | Jill Hoffman | I move we maintain the existing resident. parking benefit program recognizing its long standing history and its balance between providing a parking benefit to Sausaluda residents in downtown municipal parking lots 1 to 4, while preserving parking availability for visitors and supporting tourism-related parking revenue for the city. You're certain. |
| 03:18:20.38 | Unknown | There's a second. Do we need any more discussion? Okay. All those in favor, say aye. |
| 03:18:30.29 | Jill Hoffman | It's option one. Yes. |
| 03:18:32.13 | Unknown | I. |
| 03:18:32.35 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:18:32.38 | Unknown | Aye. That's unanimous for zero. |
| 03:18:36.30 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry. |
| 03:18:36.65 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 03:18:38.41 | Unknown | So I think that concludes item 5C. We'll now move on to 5D. |
| 03:18:45.58 | Chris Zapata | Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to kind of start by giving respect to Sausalito for being a place where there's an entrepreneurial spirit. That's reflected in some of the decisions that have been made in the past. For example, you know, the city council that purchased the school's property and created the MLK campus. once you got done with the debt service on that. Currently, that spins off about 1.4. schools, property, and created the MLK campus. Once you got done with the debt service on that, currently that spins off about $1.4 million. So that's something that Sassalo does. You just talked about parking, which also creates revenue above and above beyond expenses at some point. So all of that has been great. But one of the things that I promised to do last year during the budget conversation was to bring back the conversation to fund transfers to the general fund from these funds that were once upon a time called enterprise funds. But they are not true enterprise funds. They are designated that way, but they're actually not. The enterprise fund is a utility fund like sewer, where all the money that goes into it must stay within it. These are monies that could be used for any general fund purpose, the way they're structured today. And they have been. The city has used fund transfers from parking MLK to augment the general fund revenue stream to provide services and projects for the community for the last easy 15 years. But the question is, should you continue to do that, given what you know now? And what you know now is a little different. In addition to the debt service that's required to extinguish the certificates of participation for the park improvements that were done in 2015. You know that, and you know that that's ending in 2031. But you also have completed a facilities assessment, and that facilities assessment gives you a sense of the capital needs for these different funds, whether it's parking lots, whether it's improvements to the gymnasium at MLK, whether it's other things that involve Old City Hall or the Bank of America building. So what I've tried to do is bring to you a reasonable approach that would help our budgeting. Instead of having a conversation about should we or shouldn't we have a policy. You did that with the reserves. We had talked about a practice of 25%. You put that into a policy, formally adopting that. And so it's easy for staff to look at what's 25% of the general fund budget, and we can just run that off. When it comes to general fund transfers from either parking or MLK or other funds, there has been some nebulaness to it. There has just been the practice. So what I would suggest you consider as a practice is to take... what you have on an annual basis know what that fund balance is. And I gave an example in parking. In parking right now, there's over $2 million in that fund. But on an annual basis, you might do you know, a million and a half, $2 million in revenue, but what are your actual expenses associated with that fund? And within that fund, you should always pay that off first, like a utility would, and then at the end of the... subtraction of obligations, whatever is left over, if there is any left over, then that could be eligible for a fund transfer. So having that in a formal policy would allow us to say, okay, let's look at the Veritas report. Let's look at what the parking capital needs are amortized over whatever period of time. Let's look at the operating costs, which we do, the personnel, the equipment, and then let's make sure that we account for those Thank you. amortized over whatever period of time. Let's look at the operating costs, which we do, the personnel, the equipment, and then let's make sure that we account for those. And then on the flip side, because there is work that the general fund does, whether it's insurance, legal analysis, utilities, IT, all those things should be deducted out and credited to the general fund. And so you have a true accounting and a sense that I think will help you in budget years on a go-forward basis where you can actually know what's in the fund annually, what the expenses and revenues are annually, and then what, if anything, is left over that you could transfer into the general fund for services? And there'd be no question about why you do it or if you should do it. But I think a policy is really something you ought to consider. |
| 03:23:24.35 | Unknown | So we have before us, obviously, the written report. We just heard from the city manager. Are there questions? |
| 03:23:35.18 | Unknown | I'll just... The recommended policy then is the paragraph under the heading It says proposed general fund transfer policy. That would be adopted by us as a policy on an ongoing basis. Could be changed? by an action of the future council. but it's a policy that gives you direction as you prepare the budget each year. |
| 03:24:01.24 | Chris Zapata | Correct. And that's what you did with the general fund reserve. You had a 15% policy, you had a practice of 25%. And then you changed the 15% policy to make it 25%. And this is something similar. It makes our budget process more certain. |
| 03:24:19.97 | Jill Hoffman | But excluded from the policy are administrative expenses, insurance expenses, other... overhead expenses, correct? |
| 03:24:30.57 | Chris Zapata | Well, let's talk about that, Councilman. |
| 03:24:33.98 | Jill Hoffman | Because I'm looking at your example on the next. |
| 03:24:36.90 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, that was excluded. That has been excluded. That ought not to be excluded in the future. |
| 03:24:42.58 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so this doesn't talk about... |
| 03:24:46.60 | Unknown | It says all personnel expenses. |
| 03:24:49.23 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, it doesn't say administrative insurance and other overhead expenses. And so I'm wondering if that should be clarified. |
| 03:24:57.03 | Chris Zapata | Yeah. Well, if that's not clear, I apologize, but I thought it was. That's why I gave you the example. Ongoing expenses. |
| 03:25:05.94 | Jill Hoffman | But in the example, not included were the insurance administrative, that's what made me |
| 03:25:11.34 | Chris Zapata | Maybe that's what's throwing you off. And so I show you no capital money this year. And so if you look at that example and you take all of those out, what you could allocate to those expenses into anything in a general fund would be in excess of a million dollars from parking this year. |
| 03:25:34.36 | Jill Hoffman | So... I think this may be |
| 03:25:37.75 | Unknown | I think this may be... |
| 03:25:39.99 | Jill Hoffman | Like legal services. Oh, I guess those are professional services. |
| 03:25:40.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:25:44.18 | Jill Hoffman | I think that the policy on the second page of the staff report needs to be homogenized with the examples of expenses on the third page of the staff report. |
| 03:25:56.72 | Chris Zapata | Understood. Thank you. |
| 03:25:57.49 | Unknown | and, |
| 03:25:57.75 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 03:25:57.76 | Unknown | To be clear, they would be included as, if you will, charges against the funds. |
| 03:26:05.22 | Chris Zapata | Correct. |
| 03:26:07.30 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. Thank you. And so in a nutshell, The policy says that until the MLK fund, has paid the COPs, THE admin, you know, Kevin's time. the professional services for operations and maintenance, I'm not sure. the capital expenses, |
| 03:26:31.95 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:26:32.24 | Jill Hoffman | allocated for that year until those have all been paid there would be no transfers made or no transfers budgeted. until the, it's clear that all of the expenses for that year are being met. That's correct. |
| 03:26:53.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:26:53.08 | Unknown | Any other questions? Sure, I'll ask you, City Manager. So in your example of the parking fund, the current balance in the parking fund, the first line in the staff report is $2.4 million. then you have revenue of 2.6 and expenses of 1.5. you say under your policy, the eligible funds for transfer are 1.1. That's the difference between the new revenue and the new expenses. But the existing balance itself is a consequence of previous years. revenue minus expenses. So wouldn't the initial balance, the $2.6 million, also be eligible for transfer to the general fund? |
| 03:27:30.27 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, could be. And that's why it's important to show you what's in the funds, because I think every year you should look at what's in your parking fund. It's a fund balance that hasn't been obligated or your title is fun or your parking fund, etc. So, yeah. Thank you. |
| 03:27:45.63 | Unknown | Okay. And then you say it's eligible for transfer, but shouldn't the possibility that it be transferred? That's a decision for you all to make. |
| 03:27:56.71 | Jill Hoffman | That's a council decision. |
| 03:28:00.07 | Unknown | we're establishing a policy. So the notion is, you know, these funds are set up to actually provide for their own maintenance. and excess revenue was to go to the general fund for the general welfare. And this has actually been a point of confusion. So it's up to us, but to clarify that, which is that you would pay for all its expenses and its balance is. for the general fund to then use. |
| 03:28:23.00 | Unknown | I think. |
| 03:28:23.23 | Unknown | Exactly. |
| 03:28:23.31 | Jill Hoffman | Well, that wouldn't work for the Tidelands Fund, which can only be used for certain |
| 03:28:27.09 | Unknown | Absolutely would not. You're correct. I mean, but that Tide Lens is an unusual fund in that regard. |
| 03:28:31.56 | Unknown | John. He distinguishes that in the in the policy. Can I can I just make a comment. I think the way the city managers approaching it is that John. That excess, if you will, would be available for appropriation every year. What you're saying is it should be automatically |
| 03:28:48.57 | Jill Hoffman | Transferred. |
| 03:28:49.25 | Unknown | transferred, I don't think we get to that action until we adopt a budget. So it's a technical thing. |
| 03:28:56.62 | Unknown | It's practical and the reason I ask only is that there's |
| 03:28:56.64 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:28:59.27 | Unknown | perennial confusion on this subject where people, uh, |
| 03:29:01.78 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:29:03.93 | Unknown | confuse the purposes of these funds and don't, and somehow view the revenue from say the parking business, the city runs as different from the revenue from the tax on hotels, which generates a lot of money. And so we have no problem having the tax from hotels go into our general fund. And we spend that for the librarian and for the police, but somehow there's a question mark on the revenue from our parking operation. And we just went through trying to optimize that as a business. So by leaving it in the parking fund, it implies somehow that it's supposed to be used for parking, parking stuff, instead of supporting the general welfare. I mean, if we could have free parking for all we would, but we charge for it because we want the revenue. So residents pay lower taxes for the services they the profits from the parking business in this fund. |
| 03:29:57.44 | Unknown | We want to make sure whatever policy we adopt is very clear so that we don't have that annual or maybe during the year debate. Um, |
| 03:30:06.82 | Jill Hoffman | We're having a discussion. Do we want to take public comment before we have this discussion? |
| 03:30:09.92 | Unknown | But I were trying to end. |
| 03:30:11.38 | Jill Hoffman | They were supposed to be answering questions. |
| 03:30:12.49 | Unknown | Interesting. Sorry. |
| 03:30:13.45 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:30:13.49 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:30:13.67 | Unknown | Right, but you picked up an issue that we asked about. You've jumped on that issue to make sure we're clear. Questions first, and then we'll hear from the public. Yes, sure. |
| 03:30:27.88 | Jill Hoffman | And so city manager, I saw, I mean, I think one of the reasons that you thank you for the staff report by the way it's um very nice very nicely done and those issues are laid out something we've been talking about for a long time and you did mention the veritas report in here and that's the facilities assessment study that we did which is the delayed or deferred maintenance that we have over 20 years on all the city-owned properties so that's that we had done last year, I think it was finalized. And so there's that we had done last year i think it was finalized um and so there's the deferred maintenance on um these properties, the parking our parking lots, our old city hall, the Martin Luther King campus. and the Bank of America building is laid out amongst some of the other properties. The distinction is that these four properties are revenue producing properties for the city. And so, Do you have anything in this? Also, you laid out here on on page four, sorry, page three, the professional services the insurance expenses, the administrative expenses, And then the capital improvement program obligations for current and future projects So the capital improvement program Does that include the Veritas numbers in your mind or is that another number? |
| 03:31:52.48 | Chris Zapata | That's the new information that helps inform what the fund will look like at the end of all the deducts. I call it a sinking fund. That's an old school way of saying you put money aside for bigger expenses. And when you get to that, then you don't have to have one big draw. So whatever the Veritas report says, for instance, if it's Old City Hall and it says you're going to need to spend, you know, 200,000 five years from now, then you'd put $50,000 aside for the next, let me do my math, four years. And that's, that would have to be factored into that annual number where you would say, this is what is left for you to invest just like you would, as Councilman Sobieski said, any other revenue stream. |
| 03:32:42.71 | Jill Hoffman | It's like a reserve study for a HOA, where they say you have to put away this much each year to be able to... |
| 03:32:43.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:32:49.87 | Jill Hoffman | So your policy would include putting away monies each year towards... Carrying out. Right. Zero Veritas. |
| 03:32:59.30 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you for that. Appreciate that. Thank you. |
| 03:33:01.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:33:01.29 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:33:02.57 | Unknown | Sure. Yeah, I have a question exactly on that point too, because that this is, you know, This is my... cheesecake is what I've been looking for when I first advocated for this, uh, amortization model for our 10-year model. And this is leading up to the 10-year model. So congratulations to staff. But I have a question for you. Pfff. If we do, as you suggest, which is take the Veritas study, let's say, for example, or let's say our parking lots. And we know that to have our parking lots up to a level of PCI of 100, you know, perfectly repaved parking lots is going to cost I'm just making these numbers up, but let's say $10 million to redo all our parking lots to a PCI of 100. That could be what? such a study would say, similarly with Veritas, it would say these are, it has of course, life and safety repairs, but it also has as we know, a range of different kinds of repairs. If we amortize that expense into our funds, then what we would be implicitly saying as a council with this policy is that we're going to have pristine parking lots, but not storm drains. Rhodes. and other infrastructure, because those don't have a fund to have this policy in. The current triaging we're doing, because we don't have the revenue to tackle that $100 million bill that we discussed, infrastructure bill, is that we are taking money from some of our revenue producing assets that could definitely stand for repair and improvement and using it to support storm drain repair and road repair and wildfire risk repair. mitigation. So I am concerned about this one line. about kind of automatically taking a report that. of course promotes the best in class repair and using that as the amortization number. I feel like there needs to be as part of this study, a decision just like we decide we're gonna accept a PCI of 60 for our roads. We have to decide what building quality index we're gonna allow for our buildings or parking lot pavement quality we're gonna allow for our parking lots. Thank you. |
| 03:35:12.73 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:35:12.75 | Jill Hoffman | this. |
| 03:35:13.03 | Walfred Solorzano | question. |
| 03:35:13.10 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:35:13.49 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:35:13.56 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:35:14.15 | Jill Hoffman | It is. |
| 03:35:14.37 | Unknown | It is, because it's not one of those rhetorical ones. I'm really going to ask him then, is something like that possible with the Veritas report we have today? |
| 03:35:14.98 | Walfred Solorzano | Thank you. |
| 03:35:23.95 | Unknown | And with the mechanism here in your policy, can you figure out a way of doing this? And if not, can we hear it again when you do? |
| 03:35:30.30 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, I think at the draft CIP discussion, the Veritas report shows $490,000 in improvements needed. You on the fly can say, this year we're not doing that. We're doing $160,000 in a restroom, and that's what you should budget for. And if you look at the delta between $160,000 and $490,000, then you would think about that in future years. But it's not something that I believe you would one- size fits all. There are going to be anomalies in this whole process that you as a council are going to have to decide whether you do or don't want to allocate revenues for them. I'll give you another example, the MLK campus. The Veritas Report says X, Y, Z, do this, do that, the other. And now you know you're going to try to put some affordable housing there so you won't spend that money on the bus barn because that would be money wasted because you're not going to have that as that facility in the future so you do need some flexibility in it but you should have some type of plan for replacement whether it's 60 percent 70 percent 80 percent or 100 percent quality that's up to |
| 03:36:34.96 | Unknown | you. So it could be modified step four in your policy, which currently says all expenses, including replacement and amortization of major capital products to be. All expenses approved by the city council. |
| 03:36:48.26 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's exactly right. |
| 03:36:49.12 | Unknown | Sure. |
| 03:36:50.13 | Jill Hoffman | I think we each year get to decide what capital improvements we will undertake or budget for in each fund. |
| 03:36:58.08 | Unknown | It could be part of the CIP or even five years CIP. |
| 03:37:00.83 | Jill Hoffman | EXCITED. Exactly |
| 03:37:02.20 | Unknown | So maybe that is the one, well, we'll get to discussion, but. you |
| 03:37:04.73 | Jill Hoffman | I'm, |
| 03:37:04.75 | Unknown | Thank you very much. |
| 03:37:04.97 | Unknown | Thank you very much. Though to point out the language, you're asking about the language, and it doesn't specifically say in the language, as proposed that this that part of it is subject to an annual decision by the city council |
| 03:37:23.34 | Unknown | So it sounds like we can do that and we'll discuss whether to do that in discussion time. |
| 03:37:27.93 | Unknown | OK. Any other questions at this point? I have no speaker cards from people in the room. Anyone online? |
| 03:37:39.93 | Walfred Solorzano | You have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 03:37:41.38 | Unknown | Okay? |
| 03:37:45.15 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening again. While I have not studied the staff report in detail, I have a couple of comments. Um, raised by Council Member Sobieski's comments. uh, during the questioning period. If you choose to sweep the overage out of each account. When do you true up these various uh, accounts. In other words, how are you going to know whether when and where there's going to be an overage. Are you going to connect that with the budget year of June 30th? when you true up all of the various at, accounts. You see, I don't know if you're following what I'm saying. I'm just trying to figure out. When you have a policy that you are going to be removing excess from various accounts, from various funds, let me use that word, When are you going to determine that? And like was brought up, when we have $99 million worth of infrastructure and $53 million from Veritas on the over 20 years on the city owned properties. Where are you going to account for that in the various funds? I know I may be asking something that can't be answered tonight, but it seems to me that The true up of the various funds needs to be ascertained at a certain time of the year. And secondly, the amortization of these delayed and deferred maintenance and infrastructure projects needs to be addressed. |
| 03:39:41.21 | Unknown | I think we'll deal with that in discussion in a moment. Ms. Bushmaker, are there other public comments? |
| 03:39:48.77 | Walfred Solorzano | Yes, we have Adrian Britton. |
| 03:39:56.53 | Unknown | Mr. Brenton. |
| 03:40:00.18 | Adrian Brinton | Thank you for taking my comment. I definitely agree with Ms. Bushmaker on her comments. You know, the thing is here, we're not talking about which money we take Which pocket we take our money out of, you know, we put these money, the money into these funds and in a perfect world we would collect money from parking, we would put that money into the parking fund and we would pay for the parking lot and we would move on. We're not in that world because we don't have the money to pay for our long term infrastructure. We're able to keep our year over year budget working by not investing as much as we need to in our infrastructure. And the real question is, how do we get that money to actually pay for those things, not which money are we taking the pocket, which pocket are we taking the money out of? So I hope we can get back to the discussion of how do we actually increase the pie? How do we actually earn more revenue in our town so we can pay for the infrastructure we need to pay for? You know, it's a big question and it's a difficult question. I'm really glad to hear this discussion happening because it's kind of highlighting the real core of the issue rather than talking about you know, we're taking the money here, we're taking the money there. Why are we not paying for this? Why are we not paying for that? You know, the reason is that we need to actually increase the pie so we can pay for the infrastructure that we have and actually maintain it to a level that we can be proud of. So I'm really glad to hear that conversation happening. And hopefully this policy will support us in moving that in that direction. |
| 03:41:38.04 | Unknown | others online. |
| 03:41:39.66 | Walfred Solorzano | Seeing none. |
| 03:41:40.60 | Unknown | Okay, let's bring it back. Let me just take a stab at a couple of things at the outset. As far as the concept of truing up, The way I've always looked at budgets is you start with a budget at the beginning of the fiscal year that you've adopted, hopefully before the end of the last fiscal year. And it's an estimate. Right? And you may be truing up Every meeting. Thank you. depending on circumstances that were not foreseen or perhaps were not 100% predictive of what the reality is. So you do ongoing truing up. in the sense that you may make budget adjustments overall. You may recognize new revenue that wasn't there. A new grant fund, for example, there may be good news. There may be bad news. And secondly, as the independent auditor suggested, You want to make sure you're doing internal to each department truing up before the end of the year so that there is no, quote, overspending by an individual department. And that is another Um, if you will, policy and some suggestions that were made by the city manager on how to avoid that problem from occurring again. which only happened at one period of time. Lastly, I just have to say The confusion is, I think, by the use of the word enterprise fund. These are not and never have been, as far as I know, true enterprise funds, where you have a lockbox. You say all the income that goes in must pay for that enterprise. That's never been the case here. And I really, frankly, don't like to use the word enterprise because it creates that level of confusion. These are... income sources. that you need to pay debt associated with the income property, for example. and all the other expenses, and that's the idea here. If the income exceeds the expenses, that's good news. It's available to allocate to other important priorities. So that's how I see it and I think that's what this policy is designed to straighten out eliminate confusion, And frankly, if we could avoid the use of the word enterprise at all, I'd be much happier. I don't know what to call it. I'm not prepared to... you know, try to reword this right at the moment. It's getting late. But having said that, I think that's really important for us to, make sure we're on the same page as to what this policy is designed to do. It's to clarify so that as you approach the budget every year and during the year, We know what these funds are. how they must be spent in order to meet obligations. And if there's anything extra, it's up for grabs. That's how I see it. |
| 03:44:46.65 | Unknown | ahead. Thanks. Thanks, Cox. |
| 03:44:48.64 | Jill Hoffman | I just want to add some historical perspective, because this has been a longstanding issue going back. before any of us were on the council to the measure F COPs for the MLK. um, I thought that election happened the year you were elected. you |
| 03:45:11.96 | Jill Hoffman | I was in 2014. |
| 03:45:12.77 | Jill Hoffman | support. Anyway. |
| 03:45:15.54 | Jill Hoffman | Anyway. Yep. |
| 03:45:17.97 | Jill Hoffman | the city |
| 03:45:19.24 | Jill Hoffman | Just saying. |
| 03:45:19.67 | Jill Hoffman | in order to fund the upgrade of its parks throughout town, took out a loan. took out COPs. with the collateral being the MLK. park uh, asset, And the community objected and put ballot. put an initiative on the ballot. to decide once and for all whether the city could encumber the MLK property in order to pay for improvements not related to the MLK property, but for parks throughout town. And the voters ultimately voted yes, the city could do that. But that's how long at least this um, concern about how best to use the monies, the revenues generated by our income producing properties has the debate has lasted. And so I really appreciate this policy as a step in the right direction. It's, you know, it's, I don't care what it's called, whether it's an enterprise fund or something else. I do think it's more responsible of us to ensure that we are undertaking a the steps necessary to preserve the asset so that it continues to be an asset, a revenue-producing asset, and revenue generating asset If we don't expend the monies, as we saw from correspondence that we receive today, if we don't invest the monies necessary to fix the floors, replace the carpet, prevent leaks at the MLK buildings, we'll lose one of our most lucrative leases there. the Lycée Francais. And so this policy really assures that we are budgeting for the appropriate use of revenues first to maintain the asset before we transfer monies for other uses. So I'd like to propose in connection with I'm not sure. AND, AND, our earlier discussion that number four be modified to say city staff will account for all expenses approved by the city council, including replacement amortization of major capital projects in each fund before any general fund transfer can occur. And I'd like to add a number seven. No transfers will be made without city council approval. So I don't want this to be an automatic process each year. whereby the, fund, excess fund balance is transferred to the general fund. I want that to be a conscious city council decision. Those are my initial comments. Thank you. |
| 03:48:00.58 | Unknown | Those are certainly acceptable from my point of view. I'm seeing a nod. all around. So thank you for that. Um, Any other comments? |
| 03:48:15.12 | Jill Hoffman | Um, I agree with the the name of the what we call these things has always been a little bit confusing um These are, um, these, the distinction of these, these four funds that we're talking about is in the way that they're different from TOT or other, you know, revenue producing, um, streams that come into our general fund is that these are assets, capital assets are owned by the city, which, and so they're revenue producing revenue producing capital assets, right? They're things that need maintenance. and they need maintenance to continue to produce revenue. And there are things they need big maintenance. So, um, you know, especially the MLK campus. So the MLK campus has, we have, I don't know how many tenants over there. We have three big tenants and we had the bus barn that has a lot of little tenants and then we have. quite a large tenant, the Lycee Francais, and then we have another school that's a tenant So. When you have tenants, you have to maintain their building Um, and those are. that's the capital asset part of it. We have to, uh, that was the Veritas report. So there's millions of dollars of, um, of, you know, maintenance work that you have to do. You have to replace the roof. You have to work on the floors. And if there's a big issue, you have to fix it. So. that's when you talk about the fund, the money needs to stay in the fund. The money needs to be spent on the maintenance. and you can't transfer money out of that fund without doing the maintenance. And so we spent millions of dollars on MLK campus when we redid the park. and the parking lots of that campus need to be redone. Same thing for Old City Hall. That's the Gene Hiller building. We rent that to Jean Hiller, but we have responsibilities as a landlord to maintain the physical of that building. Um, same thing for Bank of America building. We have to pay for that, even though we're not making enough rent to pay for the, the, maintenance on that, we still are responsible for some of the maintenance on that. So in the parking lots, parking is a revenue generating, but we have to pay for the maintenance on the parking lots if we don't maintain the parking lots, the physical parking lots, we're not gonna continue to make money off the parking lots because people aren't gonna be able to park there. So that's why you need to keep money in the account to ensure that you're able to cover the maintenance on that to keep generating the revenue from that asset. And that's why these funds are a little bit different and need to be treated differently than other So, um, revenue funds that come into the city budget, obviously. And that's why it's a little bit different when you look at the Veritas report, some of the other things that we own that we need to have maintenance and look at the maintenance are a little bit different than these big four revenue generating assets that the city owns. and why I agree wholeheartedly with the way that this has been broken out and the way the city manager has presented it to us and the amendments that Councilmember Cox has come up with, I support those as well. |
| 03:51:27.97 | Unknown | So is there a motion to approve the policy as amended? So moved. Okay. And... Second. |
| 03:51:32.36 | Jill Hoffman | So, |
| 03:51:32.63 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:51:36.66 | Unknown | All right. We have a motion and a second, and I don't see the need for additional debate. Let's do this by roll call. |
| 03:51:39.26 | Jill Hoffman | and, |
| 03:51:49.43 | Walfred Solorzano | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Councilmember Hoffman? Yes. Councilmember Sobieski? Yes. Vice Mayor Blaustein being absent. Mayor Woodside? |
| 03:51:58.24 | Unknown | Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. City Manager. |
| 03:52:03.05 | Chris Zapata | You're welcome. |
| 03:52:03.71 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:52:08.96 | Unknown | So this brings us to our last business item. It's the introduction and waiver of the first reading of ordinance number 06-2026, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Sausalito, re-adopting military equipment use policy 705. |
| 03:52:30.54 | Brandon Rogers | Thank you. |
| 03:52:30.58 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 03:52:31.61 | Brandon Rogers | Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Brandon Rogers, and I'm a support services lieutenant for the Slausel Police Department. I am here to present the 2025 annual military equipment use report. And here's a little background for why we're here. So per government code section 771, the city council shall annually review the adopted military equipment use policy and also approve funding acquisition or use of military equipment and shall vote on whether to renew the policy. |
| 03:53:02.47 | Dioris Van Menz | you |
| 03:53:02.54 | Brandon Rogers | So per Sausalito Municipal Code to dot 60 dot oh one oh. and Government Code 7072, the Saucydo Police Department shall submit to City Council an annual report covering each type of military equipment approved by the city council within one year of approval and annually thereafter for as long as the military equipment is available for use. Next slide, please. So this is a summary of the current equipment we keep at the department and have for use. So we have one Colt AR-15 SRD-55 rifle and a suppressor for that rifle. We have six of the Remington 870 less lethal shotguns and approximately 240 beanbag rounds. We now have three defense technology 40 millimeter LMT tactical shot launchers and approximately 46 impact sponge rounds. Next slide, please. So the equipment used in the line of duty last year in 2025, none of the equipment was used in the line of duty in 2025. Next slide, please. However, we did use some of the equipment for training as we purchased the launchers this past year. So we had to have initial training for the 40 millimeter tactical shot launchers. We use training rounds and approximately 200 or sorry, 25 of the impact sponge rounds were used for the initial training. In December, we hired Two new officers that came from the academy, and they had to receive training on the launchers as well as the shotguns. Next slide, please. So the total annual cost and source of funds, the initial purchase of three of the 40 millimeter impact launchers and munitions was approximately $7,748. 40 impact rounds were used for training at a cost of $1,400. 30 beanbag rounds were used in 2025 for training at a cost of $187. dollars and 20 cents. There are no additional costs associated with the maintenance, transportation, or storage of the military equipment. and no other equipment was purchased in 2025. And the source of the funds is the general fund. Next slide, please. So we receive no emails or letters were received from the community with concerns or complaints about any of our military equipment. Next slide, please. |
| 03:55:32.69 | Brandon Rogers | So an internal audit is conducted every year. We didn't find any violations of the military equipment use policy and nothing was wrong with any of the equipment. Next slide, please. And moving forward, there is no intent to acquire any new equipment in 2026 other than to replenish the bean bag rounds and the 40 millimeter rounds that were used. in 2025. Approximate cost to replace all those munitions is $1,587.20. Next slide, please. any questions or comments. |
| 03:56:10.41 | Unknown | One comment, I'm sorry you had to wait until this hour to present that. A very clear report and interesting to note, the equipment, while you trained on it, did not use it. |
| 03:56:22.20 | Brandon Rogers | Thank you. |
| 03:56:22.22 | Unknown | So we're happy about that. And we have to do this every year, correct? Absolutely. Okay. Those are my questions. Any comments? I know. |
| 03:56:33.75 | Jill Hoffman | you No. |
| 03:56:35.36 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:56:35.92 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:56:35.97 | Unknown | Excellent presentation. |
| 03:56:38.20 | Unknown | Okay. Any public comments? |
| 03:56:43.72 | Unknown | Seeing none in the chambers, any online? |
| 03:56:46.91 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Babette McDougall. |
| 03:56:49.42 | Unknown | Ms. McDougal. Is your hand still up intentionally or unintentionally? |
| 03:56:54.75 | Babette McDougall | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It was on purpose. |
| 03:56:57.47 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:56:58.32 | Babette McDougall | Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I just want to say, I want to thank and commend Sausalito PD. I think that we are a town that is really fortunate to be able to run our own police force as we do. At any given day, we're just a tiny little village, yet on any given day, we're also exposed to the problems of a really huge city that's complicated by the. you know, the huge breadth of ages that come on any given day by the, remarkable diversity of every kind of person who comes here. So there's just no telling on any given day what we might be expected to rise and meet in the moment. And that's why Sausalito PD has really come forward. to show that we can trust our public safety people to look out for us. I'm really pleased that they do such a thorough job and they managed to remain reasonably engaging, polite, and friendly on any given day. And I'm sure it's not an easy job at all. So, Thank you so much to our chief of police, Stacey Gregory, and thanks for your team and all you do. And with that, I yield back my time. |
| 03:58:11.86 | Unknown | Thank you very much. Any other comments? |
| 03:58:14.07 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 03:58:14.08 | Walfred Solorzano | Seeing none. |
| 03:58:14.66 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 03:58:14.91 | Unknown | So is there a motion? |
| 03:58:23.42 | Jill Hoffman | I move we introduce by title only and waive first reading of Ordinance Number 06-2026, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Sausalito, re-adopting military equipment use policy 705. Second. |
| 03:58:36.98 | Unknown | Okay, no need for further discussion. A voice vote, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye, okay, that passes unanimously, four zero with council member Blousting not present. Let's move on now to reports and other council business. It's 9.15, so we're a little behind the schedule. but hopefully not too many reports. |
| 03:59:02.60 | Jill Hoffman | I wanted to report in response to comments earlier about our vegetation management, our lack of a vegetation management program that Councilmember Hoffman and I on Saturday attended the meeting of the Marina Vista and Terraces of Sausalito. Homeowners Association with Deputy Fire Marshal Marshall Lau, to to hear a report regarding all of the amazing efforts undertaken for all of our neighborhoods by Southern Rind Fire, including um, participation in the FireWise program. Um, attendance at any HOA meeting to which they're invited, assistance with chipping, They have now surveyed every home in Sausalito and provided a door hanger or other advisory regarding the recommended steps to render that community, that property. Thank you. uh, compliant with Zone Zero and other requirements. And so to my mind, they are very active And then Councilmember Hoffman and I reported to the HOAs, the recommissioning of Station two. on Spencer Avenue. One of the major purposes of which is vegetation management, particularly in that high growth area. They will be positioning a fire truck up there full time. during high fire hazard season. I want to thank and commend Southern Marine Fire for its efforts on behalf of the city of Sausalito and thank Councilmember Hoffman for attending this forum. |
| 04:00:51.16 | Unknown | Thank you. That's good information to hear. Ms. Hoffman. |
| 04:00:55.36 | Jill Hoffman | Let's see. I have a couple. Last week I attended the North Bay Executive Uh, North Cal city's next North Bay executive committee annual regional meeting. Um, it was in San Anselmo and we had, uh, Natalie Rogers, who's the mayor of, um, Santa Rosa is our president this year. We had a presentation on Proposition 1, which was passed last year, it was a two-bill package creating um, historic modernization of the state's behavior, behavioral health care system. So it was very interesting. It was actually a two bill, um, a two bill act and it had Behavioral Health Services Act and a behavioral health bond. And it invested 4.4 billion to expand behavioral health treatment facilities and also updated reforms in Mental Health Services Act. across the county there are enhanced in Marin County as well, enhanced services for behavioral health services. You'll see an increase in that. even down to Sausalito. with regard to our police and extension of behavioral health services. So that was very interesting. Coming up this week, I'm going to the city leader summit in Sacramento this week. I'll be there up there actually tomorrow. I'm meeting with our, state assembly member Damon Connolly tomorrow at noon. So if you guys have anything for me to talk with Damon about, text me or let me know. And we'll be getting reports from him about what's on. what's coming to us and I'll report on that at the next meeting. Um, And also exciting, I have been appointed as the Vice Chair of the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee for the CalCities statewide new committee is brand new so I'm the first Vice Chair of that committee. were meeting at the Cal cities conference. And the first subject is veterans homelessness. And I got an email from our chief about what Sausalito before, like the minutes after I got, well, not minutes, but shortly after I was got the email that I'd been appointed. to the affairs about what we had been doing to help homeless in Sausalito, homeless veterans in Sausalito and on the water. So um that's i'll be making that report during our um during our um presentation at the cal city's um city leader summit in sacramento um on thursday and um by the way there's going to be a uh forum for the candidates running for governor at the city leader summit also on Thursday. So I'll guess I'll report back on that at our next meeting. Let's see what else is there. I think that's all I have right now. Thank you. |
| 04:03:53.39 | Unknown | any other. |
| 04:03:53.64 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 04:03:53.66 | Unknown | Yeah, Jill, you forgot you were going to give a summary of our meeting with |
| 04:03:57.42 | Jill Hoffman | Oh yeah, I'm so sorry, it's right here on my list. |
| 04:03:58.66 | Unknown | That's on my list. |
| 04:04:00.22 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, I totally was over. Okay, so our last meeting, we had members from the SSWA come and talk to us about how they wanted to pivot away. They sent us a letter about they wanted to pivot from. having WRT finish out the shoreline adaptation plan, and they had another idea about how to move forward on that. Mayor, you were out of town, so you wanted Councilmember Sobi Enesky and I to meet with a representative, and so we met with Jim Madden. Carlo Berg, And we had a very productive meeting, I thought, and they had, um, uh, gave us a pretty good report on where they thought they wanted to go. Um, and I have a copy of that and they had already talked briefly with Alexandra, um, who is covering the sustainability manager position here. I think I've got that right, Katie, the city manager, I forget that name right. The, anyway. And they talked briefly with her about what they thought they wanted to do and how they wanted to roll it out. And they talked extensively with Ian and I about it. um, and the approach that they want to do and how they wanted to drill down even more specifically about sea level rise and measurements in Sausalito. Yeah. in addition to what they might get from GSA measurements And I think that I'm not opposed to their approach. And we thought that the next step would be to direct, um, staff to meet with them and more comprehensively talk about it and if it sounded good to staff. to come back maybe to the city council agendize it for direction from city council to pivot to that new direction. |
| 04:05:42.52 | Unknown | And I think we did mention at the last meeting that we were taking something off the agenda and we try to bring it back in May, but we haven't specified the date yet. So that's |
| 04:05:52.92 | Unknown | The amazing fact that we learned is that some of the data that I thought was done as part of this study that we all saw was actually data that was legacy data was gathered by the government and what, uh, Yeah. |
| 04:06:06.43 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Some of the GSA stuff. |
| 04:06:07.68 | Unknown | the attendees pointed out is that they have a proposal from a certified firm that can do like millimeter level topological maps of our actual shorelines, we get an actual shoreline map. So that and other things are included in the proposal that council member Hoffman, |
| 04:06:23.59 | Doug | Yeah. |
| 04:06:23.97 | Unknown | And I saw that the, you know, it's going right in the future agenda items of thought is we would give it to staff. And. asked to have it be put on a future agenda. |
| 04:06:33.92 | Jill Hoffman | and maybe even placement of actual tide measurements that we might include and things like that. |
| 04:06:40.62 | Unknown | for our portion of the Bay as opposed to generic. |
| 04:06:44.06 | Jill Hoffman | Along our shorelines, yeah. |
| 04:06:45.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:06:46.48 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. So that might be a benefit. So anyway, the next step I thought would be, or we thought would be to, um, have our staff meet with them more specifically and then, and agendize it and come back and talk to us. |
| 04:06:59.15 | Unknown | Okay. And that's likely to happen, and we can say that that's a future agenda item, but not yet determine the date. Okay. Any other comments, committee reports, minutes? |
| 04:07:10.32 | Jill Hoffman | you. Thanks. Yeah. I will attend tomorrow evening's MCC MC meeting. |
| 04:07:18.57 | Unknown | I'm planning on attending also if I can stay awake. Okay. |
| 04:07:20.38 | Jill Hoffman | Great. |
| 04:07:22.20 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, and I sorry, remember to fill out your MCCMC survey. If you haven't got it, I'll forward it to you guys. |
| 04:07:30.79 | Unknown | I haven't seen it. Okay. I'll fill it out. Okay. |
| 04:07:31.82 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:07:34.84 | Unknown | So, only one report that I will give, and I'm not officially involved other than I did attend, and went to meet with our sister city and had a meeting with the mayor there, which was quite a wonderful experience. And, you know, this Sikai Day, what did I say? Sikai Day. |
| 04:07:57.88 | Michelle McCullough | but we have three. |
| 04:07:58.95 | Unknown | Thank you. That's right. Sakai Day, Japan. And I just recommend, these are not boondoggles. The people who attend pay for themselves. It's a relationship that each one of the cities has different emphasis. And in this case, Sakai Day is the most recent sister city. They have one of the longest bridges in the world that finally connected them across the inland coast. see in Japan. Fascinating people, fascinating culture. They've grown a lot after the bridge was built. Does that sound familiar? Yep. And it was a wonderful experience, and I recommend it to members of the public if you have an opportunity to join one of these delegations. This particular relationship involves homestays between youth, high school youth. That's the main thrust of the relationship, and it's very, very productive. So if you're interested in hosting a family, they're there. |
| 04:08:52.52 | Unknown | very, |
| 04:08:59.03 | Unknown | Let's see, are they coming here? I'm trying to remember now. I think we're sending people there this time. We had the Japanese students last year. So OK, that's the end of that report. So any public comment on those items, 6A through D, our reports? |
| 04:09:19.57 | Walfred Solorzano | We have Sam. |
| 04:09:19.97 | Sandra Bushmaker | Bushmaker. |
| 04:09:20.95 | Unknown | Okay, Ms. Bushmaker. |
| 04:09:22.94 | Sandra Bushmaker | I thought I would be done for tonight, but I suppose I should have been more specific when I was talking about the vegetation management issue. I'm speaking specifically on Sausalito Boulevard from the 100 block to the 500 block. plus on the uphill side. Fortunately, staff was able to come out and deal with issues from about 100 Sausalito Boulevard up to about 308 Sausalito Boulevard. And so that relieved a lot of pressure in the gutters. But we still need a lot of attention from from the about 331 on up to the 500 block. In fact, some of the, if you've driven up there lately, some of the bushes, have grown out to the point where it is very difficult to get through. Um, and there's tremendous amount of debris in the gutters. So I didn't want to not recognize what, Southern Marin Fire has done, but just that this one street seems to be getting lost in the shuffle. Thank you |
| 04:10:35.00 | Unknown | Okay. No further comments? |
| 04:10:38.93 | Walfred Solorzano | Seeing none. |
| 04:10:39.55 | Unknown | Okay, so we'll move on appointments. Just a little pivot for this period of time, member Cox and members Sobieski will be dealing directly with um Pelican issues even though this is a moving issue and a moving group of people who will be assigned from time to time to deal with the next phase. But we are hoping to bring this back in public sometime in May. So that they will be a subcommittee to deal directly on with that issue along with the city attorney. I think that's it for tonight. It is... 929 and... The meeting is adjourned. |
| 04:11:30.85 | Babette McDougall | Welcome back. |
| 04:11:31.78 | Unknown | Well, thank you. |