| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.03 | Steven Woodside | All be taken. |
| 00:00:02.88 | Deirdre Coyne | Good afternoon, Mayor and Council members. Today's meeting on September 15th, 2026 is being held at 420 Litho Street, City Council Council Chambers. It is also being broadcast live via Zoom on the City's website and cable TV channel 27. Councilmember Cox? Here. Councilmember Hoffman. Here. Councilmember Sobieski |
| 00:00:26.74 | Steven Woodside | Member Sobieski called me and he's attending to a family matter, so he will not attend this meeting. |
| 00:00:33.75 | Deirdre Coyne | And vice mayor Blaustein here, mayor Woodside. |
| 00:00:36.95 | Steven Woodside | here. So we are going to move into closed session for items C1, C4. I will quickly read those items into the record. Item C1 is a conference with labor negotiator. The representative is Kathy Nikitas, who's our HR manager, and this involves unrepresentative employees. This is authorized under government code section 54957.6. Item C2 are two cases conference with a legal counsel regarding significant exposure to litigation. And this is authorized under government code section 54956.9. Then we are dealing with two public employee matters. The first is public employee appointment, interim city manager, as authorized by government code section 54957. And secondly, performance evaluation, same. uh same title interim city manager same authorization are there any public comments on closed session items before we go into closed session |
| 00:01:48.42 | Deirdre Coyne | Seeing none online. |
| 00:01:50.11 | Steven Woodside | and none in the chambers. We will now go into closed session. |
| 00:01:57.95 | Steven Woodside | their meeting and |
| 00:02:05.77 | Steven Woodside | Alice Merrill, would you like to lead us in the pledge? That's the seat I usually look to. |
| 00:02:13.24 | Joan Cox | After the future. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. one nation under God. indivisible with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:02:33.78 | Steven Woodside | I'll ask the clerk to take the roll. |
| 00:02:38.76 | Deirdre Coyne | Councilmember Hoffman. Here. Councilmember Cox? Here. Councilmember Sobieski is absent. Vice Mayor Blaustein? Here. Mayor Woodside? |
| 00:02:43.43 | Babette McDougall | year. |
| 00:02:50.06 | Steven Woodside | Here. And as many of you know, Ian Sobieski's father died last Sunday and Ian's attending to Family Matters and won't be attending this meeting tonight. We did have a closed session on the four items on the posted agenda and there's no action taken to report out from those closed session discussions. In terms of special presentations, we do have a couple of presentations on the regular business item, so there will be opportunity for more discussion of those. In terms of any announcements at this point, for me, I just want to compliment all of the residents who were able to attend on Saturday, the first what might be an annual Make a Difference Day. Several projects around town were worked on by volunteers from all over the city, and it was quite a nice event. Also, I would just have to say that September is extremely busy with events. Please take a look at your calendar. You'll probably have a hard time choosing from many, many events coming up in September and early October. So I won't say anything further about that. I will ask our interim city manager, Mr. Phipps, for your report. |
| 00:04:13.97 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you very much, Mayor, for the opportunity and good evening, council, community members, staff, members of the public. For those of you attending... who are interested in the Pelican Harbor item, I'd just like to make and provide a staff update that further action by the city is ongoing in multiple forms. And we hear you. That action includes a number of items, such as collaboration with code enforcement staff and our legal counsel, ongoing investigation of the issues at hand. We've also issued an audit demand letter of the property owners and are awaiting a response following which we'll have additional collaboration with our council and code enforcement. We're going to continue to keep the community updated on this and we appreciate your feedback and we look forward to providing updates. So I'll start with that. And a few additional remarks. which helped to frame tonight's business. Two of tonight's items, that's the County's El Nino and King Tide presentation, as well as the Gate 5 flood improvement in Item 5B, speak directly to one of the most important challenges facing our community. That's our resilience to flooding, sea level rise, and the increasingly severe winters we're seeing on the bay. I just want to take a moment to discuss the big picture here, because these items, in my mind, are really two sides of the same coin. So first, near term. We're headed into what forecasters expect could be an unusually strong El Nino, with king tides arriving around Thanksgiving. The county's presentation tonight will lay out a coordinated countywide readiness effort. And I want residents to hear a consistent message, which is that emergency preparedness is everybody's responsibility. Sausalito is plugged directly into the county's one Marin framework. We're aligning our own emergency operations, our flood mitigation, and our community communication to be ready before the first storm, working closely with the county and Southern Marin fire. Second. the other side of the coin, the longer term. Item 5B is where that near-term readiness meets the permanent infrastructure the city's needed for a long while. The Gate 5 and Marinship area has flooded for years. subsidence, high tides, storm surge, rainfall, and tonight we begin turning study into action. That's raising Varda Landing, designing a tide gate, and getting temporary pumping in place for this season. While we lay the foundation for the permanent pump station and storage the area will ultimately require. What I'm most proud of in this item How? It's being done. It's a genuine partnership with the property owners in the area. They've come to the table, they've committed to collaborate, and in some cases helps to fund the work itself. That is the model. This is not a hope and a dream plan. It's a strategy that's grounded in engineering, in realistic financing, the sequencing, in partnership with the people who live and work there. Getting the design, the scope, the specific steps, and the funding sources aligned is exactly... the coordinated approach that coastal resilience demands and this work is long overdue. So I'm pleased to report that it's very much underway and you'll be hearing more about that this evening. You'll also see the attorney street dock assessment later on in the agenda. Another piece of that same waterfronts resilience picture. So I'm optimistic about where this is heading. We have the right partners, the clear-eyed plan, stakeholders. Good intentions. real momentum. So that does it for the city manager report, mayor, council. Thank you. for the opportunity to speak. Back to you, and I look forward to getting into the specifics on each item. |
| 00:08:09.79 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much, Mr. Phipps. We'll now turn to the part of our agenda where we hear from the public on matters that are not on the agenda tonight, which means we can listen, but we can't do much about it other than perhaps refer it to staff for further review. But we do intend to hear from you and listen carefully. We ask that your comments be limited to two minutes. We ask that they be related to things within our jurisdiction. In other words, something we may be able to do something about. With that, I'm going to simply call in the order in which this stack appears. First comment from Yoshi Tomei, followed by Leon Hunting. Yoshi. |
| 00:09:10.02 | Yoshi Tomei | Okay, good evening. The today I'd like to address on Caledonia Street area, parking, restriping, all the roads are changing, adapted by city council meeting, I believe July 21st. And at the meeting, I do believe city council direct to city staff to reach out to affected local area residents and business to see how change is coming. I'm a bit surprised by we did not have any public meeting with SWA nor the city staff regarding all the changes. So it's great news we're moving forward. However, we didn't have a chance to give our input into how effective business and the residents. I think it's a little bit oversight. I'm sorry. I know we don't have city management staff and changing around a little bit, but I think it's a major, major effect for local residents and businesses. And I had a separate meeting with Councilman Hoffman this afternoon. We talked about the bit. I think it's very, very important for us. I'm excited for new direction change. And at the same time, we're missing four big steps. So the I peek at it. And one of the area I'm surprised by that Pine Street is one of the biggest one way street. There's no change at all, such as the plans are. right now. So I'd like to see something, why it's not changing to diagonal or perpendicular parking, anything not suggest to Pine Street area. I think which is very close to the restaurant or the businesses are. |
| 00:10:45.96 | Allison Deal | It's not. I know. |
| 00:11:01.18 | Yoshi Tomei | So, please. We thank you for that. |
| 00:11:03.22 | Steven Woodside | Thank you for your comment. And also, it is too bad if there has not been outreach. I know this was also intended to be striping that would then in one area in particular would be kind of a pilot project. So I don't know if those two are related. But in any event, we want the city manager to follow through with you to make sure that, there is more outreach as this very important project goes forward. |
| 00:11:31.48 | Jill Hoffman | Mayor, I sent an email this afternoon to the city manager and... Kevin, our Public Works Department, regarding this and its response to the bid that was issued this week for the Caledonia parking project. |
| 00:11:44.83 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Leon Hunting. Welcome, Leon, to be followed by Skip Klager. Thank you. |
| 00:11:53.98 | Leon Hunting | privilege to follow Yoshi on anything. And I want to thank him very much for all that he's put into this community over the years. Extraordinary work. I'm here to let you know I'm going to be leaving. |
| 00:12:16.47 | Leon Hunting | I'm moving to Idaho to be with my sister and niece. |
| 00:12:18.89 | Allison Deal | I know. |
| 00:12:24.54 | Leon Hunting | very happy. I'm not sure. And I want to say thank you so much. I'm so happy that we have our former city manager. You were our acting city manager, and I worked with both of them, and they've been great. You've been an extraordinary city council. You've had your differences. All councils do, but you're incredible people. You love this community. So I'm sorry. 56 years. So I just want to stay in touch if possible. just love the community. It's so special. |
| 00:13:16.70 | Steven Woodside | Leon, you've served this community in many ways, and we certainly love you and will miss you. I would simply ask that you get your phone number straightened out so we can reach you. |
| 00:13:31.80 | Leon Hunting | Yeah, I'm having trouble with that. |
| 00:13:33.64 | Steven Woodside | Okay, but we will admit you and we understand you'll be with family and you won't be a stranger. |
| 00:13:34.79 | Leon Hunting | So. Absolutely. |
| 00:13:40.36 | Leon Hunting | Thank you. Thank you. And everybody, appreciate this community. It is so special. Put your hearts into it. And my love. |
| 00:13:53.59 | Steven Woodside | Thanks. Thank you, Leon. |
| 00:13:57.92 | Steven Woodside | Skip Cleggar followed by Allison Diehl. |
| 00:14:10.58 | Skip Cleggar | Good evening. I'll try to keep this my customary short. |
| 00:14:18.48 | Skip Cleggar | as brief as possible. I wanted Ew. knowing that you will not respond. I want to ask you what has happened to the demand letter submitted by Ted Hannig. |
| 00:14:34.24 | Steven Woodside | I know we're not to take questions and respond, but |
| 00:14:34.27 | Skip Cleggar | I know. Thank you. I know, I'm not asking for a question. |
| 00:14:37.88 | Steven Woodside | But I will respond. The city attorney, I believe, has drafted a response that should be out, if not today, tomorrow or very shortly. |
| 00:14:40.04 | Skip Cleggar | Right. |
| 00:14:50.46 | Skip Cleggar | Great. Can I get a copy of it? |
| 00:14:52.47 | Steven Woodside | Um, so, I assume so, yes. |
| 00:14:54.07 | Skip Cleggar | No. |
| 00:14:56.09 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 00:14:56.97 | Skip Cleggar | The only other thing that I wanted to bring up was to ask for a solution to address Sausalito's historic inability to follow up on lack of enforcement. And I speak specifically of what has happened with Bridgeway and the city's attempt to enforce its own code and issues there. And again, I don't expect a response. But if you could in some way indicate if the city is going to be willing in the future to generate a workshop or something where the community can get an understanding of what your limitations are. And that's all I have to say. |
| 00:15:44.79 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. And yes, our intent is to have a public session where we address the issues as the city manager reported. We've done a number of audit requests and things like that, and we don't, I don't think we yet have. a complete set of information, but it's being worked on and don't hesitate to reach out to this city manager with any further questions we want to, we want to hear from you. |
| 00:16:08.44 | Skip Cleggar | Thank you. |
| 00:16:09.52 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Allison Deal, followed by Don Russo. |
| 00:16:17.13 | Allison Deal | Hello. you My fourth time now here for Pelican. I just wanted to keep you informed about new violations at Pelican. The first one is there are some unpermitted floating docks being constructed on the premises. I'm not sure if this, I think yesterday there was the city... Ugh. Anyway, I'm not sure exactly what's happening, it's starting, that he is starting to do work without permits. So this was the first thing that we had warned you about, and now it's starting to happen. The other thing is that we've discovered that there are three Airbnbs on our property, and according to your ordinances, there are not supposed to be any at all in the harbor, and there are three. Two of them are sailboats out at the end of the north dockck. And I just want you to understand how dangerous this is. These are just sailboats being rented out to people who maybe have never even been on a boat before, and the only thing that they have to do is come up with the money to rent it. And they're coming out and they're staying on these these boats and they could be coming at night. This is not a easy place to get to. It's a moving dock. It's at nighttime when it's dark. This is a very dangerous situation and I don't know exactly how there could even be an insurance on this because it's illegal for one thing. And it's just a really dangerous situation. So I wanted you people to be aware of it. It's also going on in other harbors in Sausalito. So I would like you to know about it. And I just hope that you would continue to address our problems because they're getting worse and the problems That's all I have to say. Thank you very much. |
| 00:18:20.97 | Steven Woodside | Thank you for your comments, and I know that the city manager was taking notes. Thank you. Don Russo. followed by Alice Merrill. |
| 00:18:34.86 | Don Russo | Hi, how are you? I have a house in Sausalito, and I restored this old 1891 house or something, and everybody told me I was crazy to do it, and I probably am when I did it. And I recently came across some people talking about Prop X, and I looked into it, and I don't understand it at all. And that's why I thought I better start coming to these meetings and meet all of you. All right. So that. You and I can talk, and I want to know why you're for or against it. And while I'm here, I've run into a couple of people, and one of the things I've been the most impressed with is community. And that's what this is all about, and this is what you have to keep, is the sense of community, because it's the most important thing. It's what drew me to Sausalito. It's why I want to stay and I want to continue to stay and I want to make sure that communities protected. |
| 00:19:43.07 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:19:43.09 | Don Russo | Thank you. |
| 00:19:43.37 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:19:43.42 | Don Russo | Thank you. |
| 00:19:43.47 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you very much. Alice Merrill, followed by Chris Langton. |
| 00:19:54.88 | Alice Merrill | Thank you very much. I want to say that we'll miss Leon. That family was a good family. Um, So I remember years ago when we were talking about the first, um, housing element. This is my memory. Could be wrong. Goodness knows that it was discussed. The Bridgeway Marina was... way out of compliance for just about everything. And I, Do remember. that it was the decision to say, well, They charge very little, so let's call that. some of our low income housing. And we'll just hope for the best. and it'll be low-income housing. And then Cameron comes along. and no one paid attention when he starts raising the rent you know, huge amounts. and doing all the things, leaving everything. I mean, it was not just out of compliance anymore. This is a mess over there. And then here we are at Pelican, which is where I lived for 11 years, so I'm... fond of it and feel really bad about what's going on and i just hope I just hope that you guys will. really do the right thing because it's, um, It's just not right what he's doing. People are scared down there. People are scared to come and speak here. And I'm not because I don't have anything there anymore, but I think I would be. And, um, It just, it's just shocking what he's moved in and just sweeping his, himself around and it's not pretty. And if, if he can get away with it, then, you know, where are we going? Thank you. And this is a good community. And I am glad that I live here and that I have lived here. Thank you. |
| 00:21:52.45 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Alice. Chris Langton, and I have no other, uh, public communication cards. There may be someone online, but Chris, proceed. |
| 00:22:03.35 | Chris Langton | Thank you. |
| 00:22:03.38 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:22:04.03 | Chris Langton | You'll note I don't have my guitar today. I'm sorry. First of all, I would like to thank City Manager Phipps for just addressing the fact that the city is working on this problem behind the scenes that means a lot to us i mean to know because it's very difficult to tell if anything's happening or not. And I fully appreciate that it takes time. And so thank you very much for letting us know about that. The second thing I would like to do is just to let the council know basically what is happening at Tasselito. You look at the city seal. It's a sailboat. Sausalito's spirit is tied up with the mariner community. It is an essential part of the mariner community. And Pelican Harbor was the place that probably had the deepest bench of mariners. People have sailed around the world. People have, the average person there can, you know, change a diesel impeller pump in their sleep if they have to. These are real hardcore mariners. And it is true to say that they are here because Sausalito is here and has a reputation of being what it is. But it's also true to say that Sausalito is here because these people have been here And they have always been here. They have been contributing to the entire spirit of the mariner culture and the marine culture of Sausalito ever since it started, back when they were attracted to the willows, where the springs were. And what I would like to say is that that spirit is leaving. The spirit of Sausalito that has been at Pelican is evaporating. People have been driven off by Cameron and his plans to violate the 10% limit on liveaboards and fill it up with boats that are just going to be effectively apartments. It's critical because boaters are restricted to a one dimensional line at the waterfront, whereas people who are looking for residents have the whole land to live on. it's critical that the boaters have a competitive edge so that marina owners won't charge live-aboard prices to people who want to keep their boats. That's part of the principle of the 10% limit level the playing ground for people who have boats because they can only run that one dimensional line. And so I would just like to say that I'm sorry that it's come to pass the way it has, but the spirit of Sausalito is leaving Pelican Harbor and |
| 00:24:27.50 | Allison Deal | and |
| 00:24:42.84 | Chris Langton | Where do you draw the line? for the spirit to leave Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 00:24:48.02 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Are there public communications online? |
| 00:24:55.87 | Deirdre Coyne | First, we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:25:01.13 | Steven Woodside | Ms. Bushmaker. |
| 00:25:02.38 | Sandra Bushmaker | good evening council I want to wish Leon hunting a good time and a good place in his new move, and we will definitely miss him here in Sausalito. I have the feeling that developers and some council members are champing at the bit. for permissions to ruin our town, by overbuilding. Killing 10-22 and the Marineship Specific Plan is the wrong approach to dealing with our issues. Like the other speakers, I'm glad to hear some updates on what the city is doing about the Pelican. harbor issue and the egregious work around the new owner the questionable new owner executed to avoid the council's decision on the water leases. We must deal with this issue. I am aware that there are tenants in Pelican who feel intimidated by the act. by the new owner fearing recriminations for speaking out. The city needs to take action to protect this integral part of Sausalito's heritage and Maritime. have. atmosphere. Was the city duped by this guy? Why did the city fall into this? And how did the city get into this situation to begin with? And with our title, King tides, our subsidence, our El Nino, our flooding. Please, please. People, vote no on Measure X. It's going to radically change our town. Thank you. |
| 00:26:36.79 | Steven Woodside | Other public comments? |
| 00:26:38.75 | Deirdre Coyne | Next we have Anas Pogny. |
| 00:26:45.08 | Steven Woodside | ANS. |
| 00:26:46.33 | Anas Pogny | Hi. Hello, City Council members. |
| 00:26:47.63 | Steven Woodside | And |
| 00:26:51.37 | Anas Pogny | I'm here to talk about concerns about parking for Christmas season. And I'm talking from the DSA and we'd like to start a dialogue with perhaps having some free parking. I have two weeks. Well, actually not maybe all day, but maybe limited to two or three hours a day of free parking. Other towns in Marin have free parking all day so they can do shopping. The malls are free. Mill Valley is free. San Rafael, Corte Madera, everybody has free parking. And if we could have some kind of consideration, that would be great. I think we could have a dialogue with the DSA to see maybe we could chip in to if there is if there's some kind of lag in income that's coming in, but I believe it would help our retail, So I'd like to start a dialogue and get it maybe on the next agenda for the city council. um, And. Thank you for listening. And I'd like to extend my condolences to Ian Sobieski about his dad's passing. |
| 00:28:09.72 | Steven Woodside | Thank you, Ines. Um, I'm not sure about the next meeting, but this is an issue that we should take a look at. I do know this has come up in the past, but often when it does, it's pretty late. It's hard to make a change. It's September. We do have time to take a look at this issue, I believe. Other public comments? |
| 00:28:29.97 | Deirdre Coyne | Next, we have Colin user one. |
| 00:28:38.28 | Steven Woodside | I'm not seeing anyone. |
| 00:28:41.18 | Ginny Irwin | Hello? Hello. Can you hear me? |
| 00:28:45.11 | Steven Woodside | Yes, we don't have a name. We have a call in. |
| 00:28:48.49 | Ginny Irwin | Yes. This is Ginny Irwin calling, and I wanted to make a comment on Measure X. And what concerns me about the way Measure X has been Moving forward, very quickly and Many residents, as you just heard earlier from that gentleman, business owners and artists and maritime workers and people who live and work here We're not part of the conversation. And for something that is going to change this area, Greatly. We need to start talking to each other and not pushing an agenda forward that a lot of people are unfamiliar with. And now we have independent reports that have identified problems and you can get those at the city of South Toledo website. One of the most concerning is language. if I read it literally. could make existing uses and structures throughout Sausalito nonconforming. The legal review said that this could place strict limitations on people's ability to expand or modify their properties. And I don't know if this is a typo or what, but there are other drafting issues as well in this measure. and the legal review found conflicting zoning provisions uncertainty over certain waterfront properties like the ICB building and Arkes shipyards where they describe things as vague and unenforceable. whether these mistakes were intentional or simply just poor drafting, They are written into the initiative and we are being asked to vote on this actual form. And I just don't understand why we're rushing this. This isn't about Things being, we don't want change or development, but we need to get this right. So if we could bring everybody together, let's openly discuss independent findings, correct problems, understand the consequences and find a solution that works for Sausalito. You know, we're not going to get a second waterfront. We do not have another waterfront to replaced. So we really need to take this seriously. And the way that Measure X is written today I'm voting no. And I also want to keep my vote. So that's one of the things that we can do here is we get a vote. So. I'm voting no and I know a lot of other people We've been out. getting to know our neighbors and a lot of people don't know what's going on and it's really concerning. It's really unfortunate. |
| 00:31:22.34 | Steven Woodside | Oh yeah. |
| 00:31:23.25 | Deirdre Coyne | Thank you. |
| 00:31:23.59 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any other comments? |
| 00:31:23.96 | Deirdre Coyne | you |
| 00:31:23.99 | Ginny Irwin | Thank you. |
| 00:31:27.85 | Deirdre Coyne | Next, we have Babette McDougall. |
| 00:31:33.09 | Steven Woodside | Ms. McDougal. |
| 00:31:34.42 | Babette McDougall | Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay. I just want to say that I'm looking at you through a medium that normally allows me to see the timer, but I don't see the timer tonight, just for the record. Also, I too would like to comment about the Measure X situation. I just want to say that it turns out that this Measure X thing is so complicated and so poorly put together, sadly. that the good news is it has everybody's attention. It may not be the right way to go, But at least everybody's finally paying attention. And that matters because we do need resolution to some problems. We have a lot of problems. Maybe Measure X isn't the answer, but at least it forces us to focus on the answer. So if you throw out the baby with the bathwater, Well, then there goes your family. So we don't want to get rid of our family. And along those lines, I also want to make another comment regarding too many people in Sausalito already, and we haven't even started all the hyper-building yet. but I don't know about you. I'm as recently as last Friday and then The 4th of July was the real kingmaker. We have so many people populating all of our streets now, high, low, and otherwise, because they're not on the 101, they're in our town. Last Friday, there was a vehicle that flipped over on the freeway. July 4, well, we all know about July 4. It's happening all the time now. It happens regularly. Our town is maxed out. How in the world are we going to add more people when we can't even control what we have going on now? So I just want to ask you to think about this issue of traffic and the density of people, irrespective of whether we have housing for them or not. Because if we can't control our own streets, then we have no control over our own town. Thank you so much. I yield back my time if I have any left. Thank you. |
| 00:33:25.52 | Steven Woodside | Any other comments? |
| 00:33:27.43 | Babette McDougall | you |
| 00:33:27.45 | Deirdre Coyne | Seeing none online. |
| 00:33:28.75 | Steven Woodside | Okay, that concludes the presentation. |
| 00:33:30.76 | Deirdre Coyne | We just got one. |
| 00:33:33.79 | Steven Woodside | OK. |
| 00:33:34.92 | Deirdre Coyne | John. |
| 00:33:37.98 | Steven Woodside | Sean. |
| 00:33:38.55 | John DeRay | Thank you. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. This is John DeRay. Thank you. for letting me speak here. I wanted to just make a comment about last city council meetings, EFID discussion. I'm wondering if anybody ran the numbers. I did. Um, I took a look at 1.8 million square feet of new development, which I think was in the Goldfarb report. I think Measure X says they're not doing anywhere near the $10 million that they could. at somewhere around 2 million. So using 1.8 million square feet of new development with an average value of commercial property in Marin County of $450 a square foot, you get $810 million of new value. 1% of the 810 million is 8.1 million. Sausalito gets 11.5% of that 8.1 million. That's 931 million, $500 for almost $2 million. square feet of new development, which more than doubles the commercial space in Sausalito, which is currently about 1.4 to 1.6 million, depending on the source you look at. So before you set your sights on what could be called a facade, of an infrastructure financing solution for justification of this massive Measure X development. I think somebody needs to run the numbers. And by the way, good luck trying to get Southern Marin fire. to forego their share of the assessment tax to protect a new 1.8 million square feet of development. I'm surprised we're even asking them to do that. So, you know, to me, this is just another one of the many red herrings that are contained in Measure X that are really trying to fool the residents of Sausalito. Thank you for your time. |
| 00:35:36.96 | Steven Woodside | So that ends our public communication. |
| 00:35:38.97 | Deirdre Coyne | We have one more too. 415-612-7966. |
| 00:35:50.72 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'm seeing none. So we are going to move on now to |
| 00:35:50.95 | Deirdre Coyne | and, They're here right now. Thank you. Thank you. THE RECORDING TO THE RECORDING |
| 00:35:59.03 | Emmett Yeazell | soft speed of |
| 00:35:59.68 | Deirdre Coyne | Thank you. |
| 00:35:59.95 | Emmett Yeazell | Thank you for your time. |
| 00:36:02.29 | Steven Woodside | cannot hear. |
| 00:36:04.42 | Emmett Yeazell | 415-612-7916. |
| 00:36:11.71 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'm sorry. |
| 00:36:14.19 | Emmett Yeazell | Hello? |
| 00:36:14.63 | Steven Woodside | Can you hear me? |
| 00:36:14.64 | Emmett Yeazell | Thank you. |
| 00:36:19.64 | Steven Woodside | I'm, I'm, Yeah. |
| 00:36:21.97 | Emmett Yeazell | Mr. Mayor? |
| 00:36:22.47 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. I'm sorry we are. |
| 00:36:35.47 | Steven Woodside | You can't hear from this person online. We do have one more speaker card, Andy Greer, and that will be it. got other business to attend to as well and eat well |
| 00:36:47.28 | Andy Greer | Um, I showed up a little late, but I just wanted to voice my support for the Pelican Harbor residents. They've come here time and time again, and I think they deserve to see the city council take some action on what's happening with Pelican Harbor. I'm not sure what's going on or how much time that you need to take, but we would all like to see a resolution with the situation that's going on right now. And so... |
| 00:37:20.14 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 00:37:20.17 | Andy Greer | Thank you. |
| 00:37:20.41 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Since you came late, you missed the city manager report. You might want to talk to him a little bit more about that. And having said that, let's move now to the consent calendar. We have a number of items on the consent calendar, items 3A through 3I. |
| 00:37:48.40 | Steven Woodside | Quickly reading what they are. Item 3A is the meeting minutes for September 1, 2026. 3B is adopting a proclamation honoring National Hispanic Heritage Month. 3C is... Adopting a proclamation honoring Jeremy Kuhn. 3D is Adopter of Proclamation Recognizing the International Day of Peace Ceremony, September 21, at Marinship Park, and the introduction of, quote, Worship to Friendships, unquote, Commemoration Concept. Item 3E is the waiver of the second reading of Ordinance 09-2026, an Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Sausalito, amending Chapter 10.42, the Sign Ordinance of Title X of the Sausalito Municipal Code. Item 3F, approved response to the Marin County Civil Grand Jury Report, quote, MCE, Marin Clean Energy. A series of missteps highlight the need for governance changes, unquote. That's the title of the grand jury report and our response, draft responses included. item 3g receive and file social police department's crime and traffic report for the calendar year 2026 second quarter year-to-date report 3h adopt a resolution approving a job description for information technology manager slash liaison and finally 3i adopt resolutions of local support for the Bridgeway improvement project, Spring Street to Napa Street project for the bikeway, roadway, pedestrian improvements from gate six road to Harbor Drive. And authorizing the city staff to submit for regional measure three, RM three safe routes to transit and bay trails grant funding. So those are the items on the consent calendar. And before we have a motion to approve these, these are typically approved with one vote. But are there any comments on any of these matters from the public before we take that action? |
| 00:40:07.97 | Deirdre Coyne | of Babette McDougall. |
| 00:40:10.30 | Steven Woodside | Ms. McDougal? |
| 00:40:13.54 | Babette McDougall | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to make sure I'm clear on something. I noticed in those minutes that there are some rather important typographical errors. So before they're formally published, even though the spirit of the minutes may be approved, perhaps, are they going to be proofread and all the corrections will be made? |
| 00:40:32.66 | Steven Woodside | We would do our clerk a favor if you see an error, if you could communicate directly with our clerk, we'll make sure we don't have typos or we'll avoid them to the extent we can. |
| 00:40:43.61 | Babette McDougall | Okay, thank you. I'd be happy to do that. Thank you. |
| 00:40:47.75 | Steven Woodside | Any other comments on the consent calendar? Is there a motion to approve the calendar? |
| 00:40:54.23 | Joan Cox | So moved subject to the correction to the minutes referenced by Ms. McDougall. Second, |
| 00:41:01.18 | Steven Woodside | I'm... motion in a second, although we have to take a roll call because |
| 00:41:05.52 | Joan Cox | He's not here. |
| 00:41:06.14 | Steven Woodside | Oh, he's not even. Yeah. |
| 00:41:07.44 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 00:41:07.73 | Steven Woodside | attending. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. |
| 00:41:10.84 | Joan Cox | I... |
| 00:41:11.38 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay? No opposed. That passes for Zero with one person not in attendance. We now, we have no so-called public hearing items, but we do have public business items. And let's start with a special presentation from someone we're familiar with, Mr. Zapata and a team from the County of Marin. to help us understand a little bit more about El Nino. |
| 00:41:43.57 | Brandon Phipps | And I'll just say really nice to see you back here in this building, Chris. Thank you for coming. |
| 00:41:47.08 | Chris Zapata | Like, Yes, thank you. Chris Sabata, Assistant County Executive of Marin County. Thanks for having me. Good evening, Mayor Woodside. Good evening, Vice Mayor Blausdnig. Good evening, Mayor or Council Member Hoffman. Good evening, Council Member Cox. You were all mayors at one time, so I kind of never forget that. Thanks for having me. You're taking National Preparedness Month seriously. I can see that you had Stephen Torrance here last week talking about, or last 1st of September, talking about Alert Morin. I know that Senator McGuire is taking this seriously. He held a a seminar or a webcast on El Super Onino, and he had 5,700 people that signed in on it. significant. The Board of Supervisors has certainly taken it seriously. We had a presentation on the 18th and then we're working and had a work meeting with our utility, our water and wastewater districts, because so many things that happened with water. whether it's groundwater intrusion or reservoirs overfilling, it's really important for us to be in sync with them. And then I want to make sure that people understand for the record what Sausalito has done with respect to disaster preparedness, emergency preparedness. And, you know, in my experience, it started with the slide in 2019. You had a landslide task force that put together a number of quality recommendations and a report, and that was a big start. Under many of these council members and then mayor janelle kelman he went to the state and got a million dollars to look at the long-term effects of sea level rise and adaptation so all of that is very very important for us to understand as a backdrop but here we are with something that keeps many of us up at night. It's what keeps me up at night. This threat of Super Onino in conjunction with king tides, in conjunction with atmospheric rivers, in conjunction with all the things that we know are going to happen in certain parts of the county. And as you know, Marin County is about 500 plus square miles. There are lots of around to cover rivers, lakes, shoreline, coastline. The bottom line is, is it's not a one size fits all county. And so each supervisor is very clear that they want to make sure that we come to the districts. We meet the folks that make decisions, provide resources, protect people and, you know, share what it is we think they can help us with. So with that, I'll start my presentation. Can you put up the agenda, please? And I'll try to be brief. I know you're very busy. So we're going to talk about the purpose, our objectives, our components, our implementation, the outcomes, and what the next steps would be. Next slide, please. Next slide. The purpose of all this is to protect life, protect life, protect property, protect infrastructure, and protect essential services. That's first and foremost. We're trying to do this in a way that gives us some room to plan. So there's pre-event work that's going to happen. There's during-event work that's going to happen. There's post event work that's going to happen and there's certainly long term work that needs to be done. The biggest concern we have are events mixed together, what we call cascading events. A lot of rain creates a flood, a flood creates the closure of 101, someone can't get to an ambulance. All of these things could happen in a serious, serious situation where there is king tides, a great amount of and a lack of preparation. So we're trying to to work through that. We're working with our utility companies. We're working, again, with our water folks. And we certainly are working with Caltrans to try to figure out how we work. Because the 101 is that long ribbon of transportation that if, in fact, it gets hampered, it affects everybody. And the folks in Ross get traffic. The folks in Mill Valley will get traffic. And traffic will get in neighborhoods in Sausalito. And we will have serious problems. So we need to work with Caltrans and our utilities for sure. We want to coordinate our readiness with each city. So we were in Fairfax September the 2nd, which was my birthday. It was a nice birthday meeting. Yeah. And we are here in Sastala tonight. We are having individual meetings with city managers of different cities. Our public works team is meeting with your public works director and public works directors across the county. All of that is happening so that we can plan, operate efficiently during an event, which we will have a series of after and post events. Next slide, please. Mr. Phipps said it, emergency preparedness is everybody's responsibility. It's not just the cities or the counties or utilities. People that own property, live here, have a responsibility as well. Stephen Torrance talked about how you could get alerts at the last meeting. I'm gonna talk a little bit more about what I think, what we believe that our personal responsibility looks like. We want to make sure that we understand who's doing what where. That means talking to Michael McKinley, Southern Marine Fire District, the police department, Kevin McGowan, your people as these things ramp up. So that's very important to do. We want to make sure that if we can do some communication jointly in advance, and I immediately thought of currents as a way to get information out. Obviously, the police department has platforms to use, but as much information as early as we can get out, and not to bore people with Super El Nino or the King Tides, but let me just say this. King Tides are expected on Thanksgiving weekend and on Christmas, New Year's. They don't care about vacations, holidays, or lines, so we got to be ready, and as much communication as possible is important. Supervisor Moulton Peters will be having her own district town hall, which will include the cities in her district, so be prepared for that. We want to make sure that everyone knows what resources we have where they are how they can deploy how you ask for them that's super important so we are doing that just this last Wednesday we had a county-wide tabletop exercise where we had a scenario of severe damage and that's to train our organization on September the or November the 15th there will be a county-wide |
| 00:47:55.73 | Allison Deal | I, |
| 00:48:15.09 | Chris Zapata | Tabletop exercise involving utilities, state agencies and cities that's going to help us understand what it is that one looks like before it actually happens. So that's a big one. And then we obviously want to make sure that when we do have an event that we have after action reports that in fact tell people, you know, our people, the policymakers, how we can get better. Next slide, please. Some of the things that help us do this, you know, I was pleased to see the County Public Works Department come up with this. I call it a heat map. It's used LIDAR and GIS, and it just shows where the low spots in the county are, where places that water could get in and breach, you know, what that would mean to certain creeks and, you know, lakes and, you know, streets, etc. So that mapping of hotspots helps us to figure out how we're going to mitigate some of those issues. You know, we want to tell people, you know, sandbags, you know, get them early. You know, make sure you put them in the right places. Know what other resources are available. And then make sure you have your staff and ready because again, uh, Holidays don't matter to... emergency events. So that's one. Our Emergency Operations Center is really working hard to be ready for a series of what we think may be rolling events. You know, I think it's best to say no one can predict for certain, but I quoted Bob Dylan at the board meeting and said, you know, Bob Dylan's song that said, I don't need a weatherman to tell me which way the wind is blowing. We don't need a weatherman to tell us this is going to look to be serious. It's going to be serious in northern California and it'll be serious in southern California. And the concern is, is that, you know, events, you know, come together and create, you know, a bigger problem than we're used to. Much like we saw in January with the king tides and atmospheric rivers happening at the same time. So we want to be as ready as possible. We want to get our resources ready. And certainly our communication has to be very strong. And it has to be in a way that, you know, meets what people need, whether it's alert Marin, whether it's door hangers, whether it's, you know, the fire district or fire department people, you know, walking door to door and letting people know what to do and what not to do. And then use our vulnerability assessment tools to figure out, you know, how we help at risk communities, unhoused persons, the elderly, people with nobody that they know or with limited exposure or relationship with their neighbors. If they get isolated, we want to make sure we can figure out how to help them. And if there is a big situation, we want to coordinate with our hospitals. We want to know that the hospitals are ready and ready to go. So we're planning for that. And so Let's get down to the nitty gritty of what an individual can do to prepare. You need to know how to evacuate. Where would you evacuate to? If you got insurance, you better check that. If you have a go bag with all the important things and documents that you need, if you have to evacuate, you know, sign up and monitor alerts. You know, if there are volunteers out there in your neighborhood or in your community that want to help, make sure you marshal them appropriately. If you've got trees. Thank you. that you have in your yard, you know, winds are a problem. You know, make sure that your trees are healthy. If you've got retaining walls, make sure they're right. And if you're watering the day before the storm, please don't. you want to make sure you appropriately monitor weather conditions so that you don't saturate the ground. Because again, that's a big concern. You get a lot of The weather is predicted to happen more severely December, January, and February. And so if that's not a time to be watering your lawn or your plants, make sure that you're aware of that. Next slide, please. |
| 00:52:17.36 | Chris Zapata | So again, you know, we're doing this in three phases and actually four. It's pre-event, which is where we are now. It's during the event, which is we'll be ready and operating when it happens. Post event, there's always stuff that happens post event that has to be not. It has to happen. when you recover and then long-term, you know, we need to have conversations about you know, sea level rise in general in Marin County. And I think those are all, um, Started in Sausalito. I think I heard our new climate expert, sustainability expert, Dr. Nadia Sitaram, tell me that she thought that Sausalito was one of the cities in the county that was furthest ahead and could be a model for us to work with. So I want to make sure that that's the fourth term, the fourth stage. We also want you to know what we're doing internally. We meet every week. We've been meeting every week for about a month and a half, whether it's public works, fire, emergency management, health and human services, community development, human resources. All of the departments are part of this because it's just not one department that can do it. It takes all of us. we want to make sure that we're making what I just said, specific requests to the sure that we're making what I just said, specific requests to the people that own property, that live here, to get ready, to understand there's a lot of information out there. And again, we are collaborating with cities and towns on the tabletop on November the 15th. Next slide. So we are in the process. This is an actual, integrated action plan that involves those four phases, involves our partners, involves a number of facets such as communication and multiple languages. Very important. You know, we're getting our county departments ready by giving them from assistant director to director EOC 101 training. So they know what they have to do and have to do it. And fortunately, unfortunately, Marin County is a lot of operational readiness, continuity of operation planning that everybody went through during COVID. So, you know, it's dusting off that and staying sharp. And then we have to talk about, you know, when it happens, how we streamline recovery. And so some of you may know the county is part of a county association. They had just sent a letter to the governor asking for a similar report. Uh, uh, permission to streamline permitting during the Super El Nino season, just like they did with other, um, uh, uh, scenarios where there was emergency. So the governor is considering that. I think that's important. And then what we can do here, um, with the Sausalito and the county. Brandon has my number. I know Kevin McGowan. I certainly know Chief Gregory I know the people that fire, they can certainly call the county, call me. And we're happy to help as much as we can and be partners in all of this. Where the city can be a partner at gate six, sometimes there is a need for parking. We had an agreement last year, a year before, where we allowed people to park at MLK when they couldn't move their vehicles to ground where there wasn't flooding. So Thank you. That's when they could happen long term, you know, a lineup or a sea level rise, climate change folks with Katie and your sustainability commission. That's really important. And then I know that the mayors are going to consider this this coming month at one of their meetings. And, you know, it's the question was asked at the water managers and the wastewater manager districts, you know, what could they do? And they asked specifically of me. And, you know, the press came out with a $20 billion number. that, you know, would, you know, involve fixing all of this. So the real answer is, you know, you know, a million here, a million two is not going to do it, you're going to need real resources. And, you know, if you're an elected official, understanding the scope and scale of the need, and, you know, putting together, you know, some type of legislative approach that, you know, allows for some relief to come to Marin County. I think then Mayor Cox told me, we punch out of our weight class. Well, you would need to punch out of your weight class to find resources here, but you have a lot of collective talent on your councils and mayors, so that would be another ask. But that concludes my report. I thank you again for your time and your attention, and happy to answer any questions if you have any. |
| 00:57:02.01 | Steven Woodside | So Ms. Cox, who made the comment about punching out of Sausalito's weight class, you have a question, comment? |
| 00:57:09.49 | Joan Cox | I do. I'm currently working with the city of Pacifica with respect to their pier collapse in the wake of some storms in 2024 and 2026. And one of the key. factors in their ability to recover. emergency funding from Cal OES and FEMA was a governor's proclamation of emergency. Is that something The county can help the cities within Marin facilitate Yeah. |
| 00:57:38.88 | Chris Zapata | The county has made that ask. And that decision should be coming pretty quickly when we expect a positive one. Thanks. |
| 00:57:48.45 | Steven Woodside | kind of a similar vein. We have coming up on our agenda a little small project that might help a little bit, more like a sandbag related level. But looking at the big asks that we're all going to have to make in order to hopefully seek grant funding, et cetera. Are you aware of any sources now that we should be pursuing as a city to try to get a little bit better handle, not on what we need to do, but some engineering, some real ready-to-go projects, because I think we would like to prepare more, but we're hamstrung by lack of funds. |
| 00:58:34.87 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, you know, this question was asked, and I think there are answers, and I heard an answer earlier in the meeting about, you know, infrastructure, financing districts are a bad idea. You know, maybe not. You know, I would disagree with that. There was another thought that occurred to me when I saw Kirito Garcia walk in. You know, you have a grant with the Corps of Engineers and Economic Development Administration to do the technical analysis of, you know, gate five road. And, you know, you get that done. And that, I believe, is in the neighborhood of six hundred thousand dollars worth of study. That sets you up for the big ask, Mayor. That sets you up for someone to say you've done the homework necessary. and then you get the right folks to make the right ask and hopefully get some relief. But those are ways to pursue big longer term solutions. And you started that. So kudos to you for that. See if there's any fruit to be born from it. But your commitment to that was $200,000 in some kind of in-kind assistance. So it's an $800,000 program that you have in play right now. Obviously, I know that Kevin is doing some things out at Gate 5 Road to help the businesses and properties there, whether it's looking at the flap system or, you know, buying temporary or renting temporary pumps. But you're doing a lot of work. But the big, big one is if there was a lot of money there, I think you would see people getting it. That's why there's strength in numbers. So if you have a countywide ask that Sausalu is a part of that covers multiple facets, I think that's an approach that I would recommend. |
| 01:00:14.77 | Steven Woodside | thank you Ms. Hoffman. |
| 01:00:17.83 | Jill Hoffman | So thank you for that presentation. And this is a question for either you or maybe more specific to our Sausalito preparedness for El Nino, but it also goes back to our landslide task force that I formed in 2019 and that our mayor actually served on in the studies that we did on the geologic and hydrologic issues related to landslides, really to a large storm that we had on Valentine's Day in 2019. and the studies that we did and the risk factors. And so obviously within El Nino year, we're worried about storms, water coming down and hillsides coming down. And so we did a lot of work with regard to hydrologic issues and the strata and the makeup of our hillsides and a lot of LIDAR mapping and things like that. And I'm wondering what our issues or what our preparedness is from our Sausalito um, and then I, and Sausalito's, um, perspective. Um, going forward into this year from the hillside perspective, I think we're set on the, Or we're not set, probably not. I don't know how set we are from the shoreline. Um, you know, in the, Yeah. You know, from the, that perspective. Um, and then 2021, I formed the task force, the sea level rise task force that Janelle Kelman obviously sat on as well. Um, and did a great job on that task force. from the Sea Level Rise Task Force side. |
| 01:01:49.14 | Chris Zapata | You probably want Kevin McGowan up here talking about the landslide task force report. |
| 01:01:52.95 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:01:53.39 | Chris Zapata | I should be done. |
| 01:01:54.08 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, I'm just pivoting to that side, but this is an El Nino scope report, so I don't know. Sorry, did I? Well, while we have. |
| 01:02:02.57 | Steven Woodside | While we have Chris Zapata up there, why don't we finish rounds of questions for Chris, and if there are staff members present that can answer other questions. |
| 01:02:12.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:02:12.43 | Unknown | Oh, sure. |
| 01:02:12.93 | Steven Woodside | We are able to ask questions and have a discussion on this. |
| 01:02:13.22 | Jill Hoffman | Oh my God. |
| 01:02:17.12 | Steven Woodside | the preparation. topic. So do you have a question? |
| 01:02:18.49 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 01:02:18.62 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:02:18.65 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm not. THE END OF END OF THE END OF THE END OF THE END OF END OF THE END OF THE END OF THE END OF END OF THE END OF THE END OF THE END OF END OF THE END OF THE END OF THE END OF END OF THE END OF THE END OF THE END OF Thank you. Hi, Chris. It's nice to see you again. We are always happy to have you in Sausalito. So just with regards to the chain of communication for the EOC or the Emergency Operations Center, if you're a resident and you don't know the acronyms, I know that we as elected officials like to be at the top of the phone tree, so to speak. And we aren't always for a variety of reasons. A lot of it is that maybe we don't need to be getting in the way of the firefighters' immediate emergency response. But what is the plan beyond what you generally shared for the county to be in touch with the council in the event of emergency to make sure we can immediately communicate to our constituents? |
| 01:02:59.66 | Chris Zapata | Yeah, you summed it up pretty well, that there is a standardized process across the country that involves how incidents are managed and how the planning and communications go forward. And in those plans, typically the. The situational awareness that needs to happen is, you know, done through a series of briefings. The policy decisions are usually where the elected officials sit after all of that is sifted through. And then it's coordinated with communications and depending on the situation and depending on the entity, it's always been, you know, either, an elected official talking about something that's gone wrong and needs to be fixed, or it's, you know, an administrative person. So it depends on the situation. The county has its training that it does that involves, you know, strict adherence to incident management. And, you know, the elected officials have a role. Uh, It may not be what they want it to be. but they do have a role and it just depends on the situation that occurs. But I hear you saying you'd love for, you know, the mayor and council. In some cases, mayor councils communicate much better than staff. Right. or know more about the staff. And that's what the incident operations and the whole work that goes into that, that's structured, should bring out. The most knowledgeable person working with whomever, whether it's the leader of the police department, fire department, or an elected official to coordinate a response. But if I told, if I told you, you know, electors are going to get, you know, news right away, just like, you know, everyone else does, there's a role and there is a, um, and then, you know, I'm going to go to the next one. a standard process for all this to happen. So bad answer. Sorry. |
| 01:05:00.65 | Steven Woodside | Chris, thank you, but I just want to Note that you were here in January when we had a king tide event that frankly surprised a lot of people. |
| 01:05:10.81 | Joan Cox | They storm surge. |
| 01:05:11.98 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, there was the storm surge. There was a there was both the title uh, storm surge, there had been rain, so there was probably runoff, et cetera, et cetera. And I know we've learned from that, we hope. But the low points in this town are now known. And we're doing our best, I think, and we'll get to this in the next item. But what can you suggest wearing Your former hat as well as your current hat would be the best thing that we can do now. Just if you had to pick one best thing. Yeah. |
| 01:05:48.38 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. So it didn't just surprise you. There was a surprise in a lot of places. It almost overwhelms the Santa Venetia area in San Rafael. And so the county said we can do better. I came on board. And so they completed an after action report. I'd encourage you to get a hold of that, kind of look at it. It has some good guidance on what happened and what to do better. But I always think looking back to look forward is something that is valuable. And, you know, obviously we went through that in January here in Sausalito when I was working here, serving here. And my comment was we were overwhelmed. That atmospheric river with king tides was something that we weren't able to manage and, you know, created a lot of issues for a lot of people. And so looking at how we can do better, which you obviously are doing, but I'm happy to share the county's after action report on Santa Venetia so you could see that. |
| 01:06:47.12 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:06:47.76 | Joan Cox | Not sure Brandon heard that. Okay. Okay. |
| 01:06:50.17 | Steven Woodside | He's nodding. Good listening. Again, Chris, thank you very much for all you're doing and welcome home. |
| 01:06:58.24 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 01:06:58.59 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. Good to see all of you. You look younger. I mean, what's going on here? |
| 01:07:03.13 | Joan Cox | No. The August recess. |
| 01:07:03.61 | Chris Zapata | No. |
| 01:07:04.53 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 01:07:06.54 | Joan Cox | Oh. |
| 01:07:07.06 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:07:07.18 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I think. |
| 01:07:07.97 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 01:07:08.09 | Chris Zapata | Thank you. |
| 01:07:08.11 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you. |
| 01:07:09.48 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 01:07:09.49 | Melissa Blaustein | . |
| 01:07:09.90 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:07:10.30 | Melissa Blaustein | you |
| 01:07:10.37 | Jill Hoffman | Sweet. |
| 01:07:10.59 | Melissa Blaustein | to take a look at the |
| 01:07:10.89 | Jill Hoffman | Before we leave this, can I have an answer from the staff on my question? |
| 01:07:16.53 | Steven Woodside | Right. I just wanted to make sure we got through with Chris's portion. The item here is really a broader item of, we've heard his presentation, we've had a chance to ask questions and further questions really related to our preparation. I think you were focused on land side and management of the hillsides. as one area. |
| 01:07:38.13 | Babette McDougall | Yes. |
| 01:07:39.63 | Steven Woodside | So, Kevin, did you... |
| 01:07:40.07 | Babette McDougall | If you haven't. |
| 01:07:40.76 | Kevin McGowan | you |
| 01:07:42.49 | Steven Woodside | Did you understand the question? Do you have any comments? |
| 01:07:45.08 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. A little bit. Thank you very much, Kevin McGowan, Public Works Director. And it's actually a complex question. And one of the issues associated with the city is the lack of staff. So we can only do so much with the people that we have. And what we generally do before we get to the rainy season is we do our best to clean all of our drainage systems, make sure things are working correctly, and start to anticipate where we're going to get either flooding, high tides, sea swells, whatever else that can affect us. So we work closely with EOC at the county and as well as the fire departments to alert us of where we think we might get. high intensity rainfall, or we might get a storm surge or whatever the case may be. So it's communication between our forces, as well as those at the county and other places, adjacent jurisdictions. So another approach that we also have, if we know we're going to get a lot of weather or, you know, higher tides, that type of thing where we need more staff, we set it up early. We try to get contractors on board from local contractor agencies. bring them in to do either sandbags or whatever it is they may have, equipment, that type of stuff. to address flooding as best we can. And then working closely with the fire department and as well as our staff to help direct them would be important. |
| 01:09:01.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:09:01.68 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:09:01.71 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Sure. |
| 01:09:02.98 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:09:04.73 | Jill Hoffman | Kevin, has the reactivation of Firehouse 2 assisted with this? |
| 01:09:10.71 | Kevin McGowan | has assisted with this. |
| 01:09:12.29 | Jill Hoffman | with the ability to flex for emergency situations. |
| 01:09:17.24 | Kevin McGowan | I believe that the reactivation of Firehouse 2 is generally for wildfire. It's not necessarily for responding to emergencies. I think that would be a good question for our fire department of how they intend to use that facility. PAYING. |
| 01:09:34.89 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:09:34.92 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:09:35.12 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:09:35.51 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:09:36.10 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:09:36.54 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Thank you very much, Kevin. Um, Any public comments on this item? |
| 01:09:46.67 | Deirdre Coyne | We have one online, Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 01:09:48.71 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:09:48.88 | Steven Woodside | Ms. Bushmaker. |
| 01:09:51.61 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, Council. Hi, Chris Zapata from Sandra Bushmaker here. On this issue, while I understand the county, the police department, the fire department and our public works department handle the bulk. of the big issues when it comes to these kind of disasters. and these kind of, uh, Uh, whether and title Impacts. I do believe the city needs to reactivate the Disaster Preparedness Committee to get the information. to help the... the committee to help the residents be prepared themselves I served on the disaster at Preparedness Committee a few years ago. And frankly, the scope that had been expanded by prior councils for this committee was completely overwhelming. And it totally diluted the effectiveness of what I perceived as the function of the Disaster Preparedness Committee, which should be A narrow scope. to help residents prepare themselves for disasters. And that can be done through educational means, but do not If you reactivate this committee, which I recommend that you do, do not expand the scope of the committee so broadly that it becomes ineffective, which is what I observed. as a result of that. at. scope being so large and so overwhelming. Thank you. |
| 01:11:15.41 | Steven Woodside | One comment about that committee, after months of failing to have a quorum because it is a Brown Act or was a Brown Act body, that function has been reassigned to our own police department to convene as needed and to, for the express and, as you put it, narrow or focus purpose on preparedness. So the problem was the committee itself, being a Brown Act body, was simply failing to have a quorum, and it was very frustrating to staff who was prepared to do the hard, heavy lifting. So that's where it stands right now, and I know our police chief and that department are very concerned, not only about upcoming El Nino events, but other kinds of situations where they will be called upon to evacuate, assist people, et cetera. So your point is well taken that we need to be prepared and we need to communicate effectively with our constituents. And I think we're we've got some not only tabletop exercises, but some some plans for some dry runs here and there in town to make sure that communities are better prepared in the event of but we think is going to be a rough winter. Thank you. Other comments? |
| 01:12:42.07 | Deirdre Coyne | Next we have John. |
| 01:12:45.69 | Steven Woodside | Is this John DeRay again? |
| 01:12:51.84 | Steven Woodside | shot. |
| 01:12:55.23 | Deirdre Coyne | John, you're on mute. |
| 01:12:56.61 | Steven Woodside | OK, can you hear me? We can now, yes, sir. |
| 01:12:59.52 | John DeRay | Okay, thank you. You know, it just dawned on me listening to this item and then last week's Gate 5 Flooding item. Um, you know, there are a city's all around California. who are in a panic. about protecting their waterfront properties or waterfront developments Um, And you can, you know, go look on the Internet, Google it, and you can see a list of them. It seems like Only Sausalito. is has a vision to create more development at our waterfront, a lot more development with Measure X. And it just seemed ludicrous to me that we're even having this discussion about greater development at our waterfront when you consider sea level rise, subsidence, water table rise, RUNOFF. and et cetera, et cetera. Thank you. |
| 01:14:02.27 | Steven Woodside | Anyone else? |
| 01:14:03.44 | Deirdre Coyne | Next, we have Babette McDougall. |
| 01:14:07.47 | Steven Woodside | Ms. McDougal? |
| 01:14:08.96 | Babette McDougall | Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm glad we're having this discussion. I'm really sorry. I can't say hello to Chris Zapata in person. It's nice to see him back in town. But I would like to broadly again, referring to remarks I made earlier. The truth of the matter is, historically, For whatever the reason, emergency response, disaster preparedness, They're very disjointed in this town. It seems that it works best if it goes neighborhood by neighborhood and people get together and form their own teams. But looking at many neighborhoods, you know, we have We still have the daylight law that we haven't tackled yet, and yet we've got more and more children. We just had another baby born in my neighborhood. So, you know, we've got children here now again. Thankfully, we've got a school here again now, thankfully. So we have to think about our future collectively. So I'm glad that Sandra, for example, mentioned that we have to look at this holistically because we do. Our emergency response includes having pathways that are open and accessible. It includes having intersections that if they're passable, they may be passable, not because they're cluttered with, you know, things that they shouldn't be cluttered with. They should be opened up so that pedestrians can pass. My guess is if we have really big problems, we're mostly going to be on foot. And we're mostly going to be wanting to make our way down to the shore. I went to a Gate 6 Road earlier this year, Gate 6 Road that had our supervisor there. And they were all really surprised to find out that those of us in the hills have been told... We'll head for the shoreline. We'll take care of you there. They had no idea that we would be coming their way, which I found surprising. So we're not talking to each other enough. So this is really a big subject that's long past due to take it seriously. I hope it will go neighborhood by neighborhood because there's a lot here that we have to address. Thank you. |
| 01:15:59.18 | Deirdre Coyne | Thank you. |
| 01:15:59.22 | Babette McDougall | Thank you. |
| 01:16:00.20 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any other comments? |
| 01:16:02.95 | Deirdre Coyne | Yes, we have 415-612-7966. |
| 01:16:10.73 | Steven Woodside | Is this the same number we were having difficulty with before? Hello? |
| 01:16:18.66 | Deirdre Coyne | Hello. |
| 01:16:18.98 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:16:19.01 | Emmett Yeazell | Hello? Sorry. Can you hear me? |
| 01:16:21.44 | Deirdre Coyne | Thank you. |
| 01:16:21.46 | Emmett Yeazell | Yes. Hi, this is Em at the ASL. Oh, Emmett Yeazell. |
| 01:16:27.85 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:16:29.59 | Emmett Yeazell | Okay. |
| 01:16:30.03 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. um, We're not hearing anything now. |
| 01:16:36.60 | Unknown | Hello? Yeah. |
| 01:16:38.08 | Steven Woodside | Yes, I can hear you guys. We can hear you, but there were moments- |
| 01:16:43.46 | Emmett Yeazell | Good. Violence. Okay, that's technology at its finest. So, I've spoken to you before. Mr. Mayor, about the a line, the double yellow line between Christchurch. and Prospect Avenue. the divider is improper. mismarked or you know, it's wiped out. This is the third or fourth most traveled street in our city. please. Let me know. how we can expect a result Or who can I contact? Please, this is important. |
| 01:17:25.57 | Steven Woodside | Okay, I'm going to ask our city manager to make sure someone follows up with you directly. That's not the subject we're on right now. |
| 01:17:26.26 | Emmett Yeazell | going to ask |
| 01:17:35.35 | Emmett Yeazell | Bye. I appreciate that. But nothing has been done. And I spoke to you last council meeting and you said you'd get on it. And that's the third or fourth time I've spoken to the council about this. Secondly, measure X. I am terrified. that the council seems Resolution. in avoiding the issue. You are the city council, for goodness sake. This measure is flawed. but something. is not. Right. I've written and spoken to you And |
| 01:18:14.52 | Steven Woodside | Okay, we're on the topic of El Nino, sir. So I'm gonna, we're gonna move on now for other public comments on this topic. Thank you. |
| 01:18:14.76 | Emmett Yeazell | I'm passionate about it. Well, |
| 01:18:21.09 | Deirdre Coyne | And I think that's a good thing. Thank you. |
| 01:18:26.00 | Deirdre Coyne | No more public comments online? |
| 01:18:27.41 | Steven Woodside | Okay. This is not an action item. It's a report and discussion item and possible direction to staff. And we've given some and we should all be hopefully better prepared a little bit. But I think it is each of our responsibilities to do the best we can to be better prepared. So having said that, let's move on now to item 5B, which is in some respects a response to what we just heard. |
| 01:18:57.89 | Brandon Phipps | Yeah, thank you, Mayor. And I'll just preface this item briefly. Item 5B, request that council authorize up to $250,000 from the city's emergency reserve fund to move now on the near-term flood improvements at Gate 5, and that is ahead of this winter's storms and suspected king tides. So what this item is aimed at achieving is threefold in summary. Firstly, it authorizes this funding and lets us move on some near-term measures and actions related to sea level rise and resilience. Number two, it keeps faith with our property owners who have stepped up and continues that collaboration. And three, it positions us to advance the permanent infrastructure through the CIP that Kevin is leading. And with that, Kevin, the floor is yours. Thank you. |
| 01:19:46.64 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you, Brandon. Appreciate it. I have a short presentation for you as well. If we can bring that up, that'd be great. So good evening again, Mayor Whiteside and members of the City Council. I'm Kevin McGowan, Public Works Director. for Sausalito and let's go to slide number two. |
| 01:20:02.91 | Kevin McGowan | There we go. Okay. You know, it's actually pretty hard to believe that it's already September 15th and we're thinking about next storm season, but |
| 01:20:11.89 | Deirdre Coyne | One second, Kevin, we have to take the timer off your slideshow. Oh. |
| 01:20:16.36 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:20:22.52 | Kevin McGowan | I'll just talk for a second anyway. It's just hard to believe that. We are looking at storm seasons already. But I think it's good that we're at least talking about it now and getting ourselves ready. On September 1st of this year, the city council received a report from WSP regarding flooding near Gate 5 Road. Based on the report, flooding tends to occur from large tides and storm activities, but it's also exacerbated by subsidence as well as sea level rise and storm surges throughout the bay. The report identified near, mid, and long-term solutions for this specific area. Now, I'm basically taking some of these slides from that previous presentation. Next slide, please. As part of WSP's presentation, the Council to the Council, this graphic, Uh, represented a near term conceptual design that included the installation of a tide gate system At the end of the city's sheet pile canal system off of gate five at the end of Coloma. The rep is... This representation also shows the concept of installing a stormwater pump station. behind the tide gate, behind a tide gate system, which is intended to address storm water that comes off the hillside and can pump it across the tide gate when you have a higher tide. Next slide, please. WSP's report also noted that flooding intrusion was occurring across private properties that front the bay and eventually impacts Gate 5 Road as well as Coloma. A near-term recommendation was presented to Ray's Varda Landing Circle, to address overland flow outside of the sheet pile canal wall system. Next slide. Here's a little picture for us. Now, Varta Landing is a dirt road as it stands right now. And it's not a public street. However, raising the road may easily be achieved just by adding one to two feet of gravel surface on top of the roadway. Nice, small project. Keep in mind that this near-term solution and additional barriers may be needed as the area continues to subside and sea level rise continues to increase. It's staff's understanding that the property owners in the area are working on a plan to raise the roadway at this point in time. City staff are also ready to assist by... processing a grading permit or whatever the applicant may need to get this going, especially before Thanksgiving. Next slide, please. WSP also provided a conceptual plan for a stormwater pump station to be placed near the end of the sheet pile canal. They anticipated that multiple pumps would be needed to address stormwater flows. proceeding with developing of the development of a detailed plan for this pump station and the tide gates is the next step with regard to addressing near-term flooding in this area. The installation of multiple stormwater pumps will require storage areas, for a large wet well. for these pumps so that they don't cycle on and off and cause problems with the pump stations themselves. Similarly, the installation of the tide gate system and pump stations may also require additional right-of-way in order to install a more permanent solution in the area. There's only a 10-foot easement across these properties at this point. Next slide, please. The idea of a tide gate system is not new to the city. in 2002. The firm of Phil Williams and Associates provided a report provided a report about this area, which showed the installation of tide gates Um, at the end of the canal. Next slide, please. |
| 01:24:41.48 | Kevin McGowan | Again, this is just a quick little sketch where in 2002, the report provided conceptual ideas for rectangular tide gates. which may assist with the development of a more precise plan in this area. An engineering firm is needed at this time to develop a plan for the tide gates, which Adam Finkelstein, adequately adequately addresses flow in the area and can be economical, in other words rectangular tide gate systems may not be the best suited for this area, and we need an engineer to to look at that somebody who's familiar with this type of system. clarify, a Tidegate is a device that allows stormwater to exit from a a culvert system to the bay. And when the tide gets higher, they lock themselves off so that No tidewater can get back into the neighborhoods on the inboard side. These systems will require maintenance, which I will address a little bit later in the presentation. Next slide. As mentioned in previous presentations, this drainage system was installed back in the 1940s. which included a wooden open channel system. That failed in the 1980s and the city came back in and replaced it with a sheet pile system which now is showing very severe corrosion because it's susceptible to saltwater on a daily basis. The city has hired a structural engineer right now known as Martin and Martin out of out of Larkspur to review the structural integrity of the sheet piles. And we are expecting a report back shortly from them. That'll help us decide what we need to do with this system, especially talking about a tidegate system. Next slide, please. So how do we how do we address immediate flooding in order to address localized flooding the city in the past year has secured and operated temporary pumps along gate five road and on harbor. This action has helped but not completely solve the flooding issue. The next larger tides are anticipated around Thanksgiving, as you've heard in the past. and staff anticipates renting temporary pump systems to address the flooding in the area. In addition, it is our understanding that the fronting property owners who own Varda landing circle anticipate raising the road. to reduce the Overland flow This will help reduce the impacts to the properties and businesses in the area. the ultimate, the utilization of temporary pumps can cause other problems. For example, the volume of pumping water into the canal at this point in time can impact neighbors on each side of the sheet pile wall. Moving forward with the installation of a tide gate system at the end of the channel, will basically eliminate this flooding. Next slide, please. All right, as noted earlier, staff is ready to assist with permitting and raising Varda Landing Circle. Staff recommends moving forward with securing a design firm to design the tide gate system at the end of the existing canal. Since the easements for the canal system are very narrow, we will need to work closely with the property owners such that additional right-of-way, even for temporary facilities, may be needed. So staff has done this over the last year already. We have a good working relationship with all the folks down there, which is most appreciated. In addition, we recommend securing an engineering firm to initially design the pump station. With the initial analysis, we would request the design firm Evaluate whether purchasing temporary pumps is a good idea at this point in time. or If we expedite the design and try to get it moving forward as fast as possible, maybe putting that money into permanent pumping systems might be more economical. We're anticipating that the design and getting permits for this will be a minimum of 18 months. So that is something that our engineering staff will need to weigh. The cost of renting pumps is about 15 to $20,000. Each time we have a high tide, we do use, either our staff or a contractor help us put sandbags in place as well. So it can be a significant operation. We tend to use the temporary pumps when the tide gets above 6.3 on a mean high tide. If we purchase pumps, the cost is at least $150,000. Next slide, please. The WSP report noted that establishing a wet well system for these pumps is important. WSP noted that there is storage in the current storm drain system, but more is needed. And they also mentioned looking at places like MLK Park, something that's connected to the Coloma Street system. Providing such a system close to the current canal would be ideal. And we and we have shown an additional concept here. I'm sorry that the little. rectangle off to one side of the channel isn't as clear as I'd like it to be. One concept could be maybe putting an underground system that collects the water so that these pumps don't cycle in the future. Our engineer, whoever we select, will look at this aspect. In addition, the storm drain system on Gate 5 Road may need modifications if we intend to provide flood relief for Harbor Drive. So that is an older system shown in yellow on the attached slide. And we may need to study that to find out if it needs to be replaced as well. Again, these are kind of after we get that design going for the Tidegate system. Next slide. The current canal, which is shown on the right, is susceptible to tidal waters. It has a significant amount of siltation generated from the bay most of the time. And there is some siltation from upland sources, such as the hillsides, when we get a heavy rain. Prior to any permanent improvements being installed in the channel, such as the tide gate system or even the pump stations, the invert or bottom of the channel will need to be cleaned of all siltation down to the original concrete. Removal of the siltation will require testing of the material and off hauling to an upland site, which can which also can be pretty expensive, as well as requiring regulatory permits. So that is something that we need to look at. Some property owners have requested that the cleaning occur as soon as possible. Steph. recommends seeking an opinion from the engineering firm that we will be hiring. to determine whether we should be cleaning that channel immediately or put it on a schedule so that We clean it once, put the tide gate systems in and then We're done with that piece. Preliminarily, WSP noted that the cost of the pump station and the Tidegate system would be in the range of $4 million. Our staff report, we noted about $600,000 just for the Tidegate system. Obviously, this is a very rough estimate, and we'll need to take a closer look at that as we move forward. So that concludes my short presentation, and I'm here if you have questions on the general engineering approach. |
| 01:32:40.75 | Steven Woodside | Vice mayor, you have a question? |
| 01:32:42.23 | John DeRay | Thank you. |
| 01:32:42.25 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Yeah. Hi. Thanks, Director McGowan, and thanks to everyone on staff for immediately turning this around after just one meeting. So really appreciate that, given our timeline here. So I just want to get a sense of, I think we all agree that there's a need for emergency funding here, but you brought up a couple of different costs, and I just want to be thoughtful about how we're approaching the costs. You mentioned that the pump rentals is about $20,000, 15 to $20,000 per rental. And a full acquisition would be $150,000. Can you speak to your approach and how much it might cost to, for example, submit the engineering for the tide gates, just so we can kind of balance where we might spend the money and set some guardrails. |
| 01:33:24.81 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, if we can go ahead and get a design ready and submit it to BCDC and others for the Tidegate system, where we put it on an expedited timeframe, let's just say that we might be able to get approval by, let's say March to get going. We would probably utilize the temporary pump systems in place four times. That's about $80,000. If we would have purchased the pumps right away, we would spend $150,000. So it may be better... Like I said, I would rather have our engineering firm take a close look at it. to say, look, Do we want to purchase them right now, or do we want to wait until we put that money into a full on pump station. |
| 01:34:04.77 | Melissa Blaustein | But there's no way I I'm just a little bit alarmed by the, by the March date for the time that we would be able to approve this process, because I know that. Folks like Reason Bradley, who came and spoke to us at the last meeting, have an idea of what the engineering could look like and a way to fast track the work and given what we're up against. Is there a process, and perhaps this is a question for the city manager, where we might fast track the work on the tag gate, at least to provide us some preparation in advance of the forthcoming El Ninos. |
| 01:34:33.98 | Kevin McGowan | So that's a little different than your initial question. You want to know now if we are fast-tracking the engineering. |
| 01:34:36.43 | Melissa Blaustein | Right. |
| 01:34:39.67 | Kevin McGowan | And that is true. If we can get an engineer on board, we can, do whatever it is we need to. to have them produce a plan as fast as possible. Now I think your initial question was whether we purchase the pumps now or are you waiting? And, Honestly, I'm open to anything, but my suggestion was to rent the pumps right now. and hire our engineering firm and have this as one of their very first tasks to say whether we purchase the pumps or not. |
| 01:35:04.81 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. But there is a path where we might be able to at least move ahead with the approval process prior to March. |
| 01:35:11.91 | Kevin McGowan | the approval process being what? |
| 01:35:14.26 | Melissa Blaustein | For interim measures. For interim measures for the tide gates, for example. |
| 01:35:18.04 | Kevin McGowan | Well, I think the, what I'm presenting is that you need a design for a tide gate. Are you suggesting that the owners design this? |
| 01:35:25.43 | Melissa Blaustein | No, I'm just noting that there are property owners and folks that live down there who have preliminary drawings that are potentially... Examples that could be reinforced with an engineering support, but wouldn't require the lengthy process that we might necessarily go through. And I know that our city attorney had mentioned that there's a RFP process whereby we can essentially leave the window open for 10 days as opposed to 30 or 60. So I'm wondering if, if you had considered what would be required of us to move forward at that pace. |
| 01:35:55.64 | Kevin McGowan | So that is different than the original question. And also- |
| 01:35:58.81 | Melissa Blaustein | Well, I think it's a series of questions. They're not all the same. You're giving an answer to each question. Anyway, yes. Thank you, Dresha. I didn't mean to. |
| 01:36:05.24 | Kevin McGowan | I am not aware that these are engineers who have designed these systems. If the city council would like us to move forward, something that is not designed by a civil engineer is, We can do that. |
| 01:36:17.74 | Steven Woodside | If I can just jump in, I don't think we're suggesting anything at this point. This is just questions to try to elicit. |
| 01:36:18.08 | Kevin McGowan | and if I can. |
| 01:36:25.90 | Steven Woodside | what the options are and what's before us tonight. And I think we all have a sense of urgency. So when you hear questions or hear from the audience, I think you're going to hear a uniform concern about moving as quickly as possible. I just wanted to sort of set that up because I think right now we're just questions. They may come from all kinds of places. We'll hear from the public. I know there's at least one engineer sitting in the audience who may have some thoughts on these very topics to add to it. We don't want to confuse things. We want to have some clarity at the end of this process for what we're doing now. And perhaps delegating, in effect, to the city manager with your support and everything else needed to say okay we'll make the decision we'll go either this way or that way we're not expecting the council to make the decision, do we buy or do we rent, for example? I don't know. So, yeah, have you finished the question? |
| 01:37:28.16 | Melissa Blaustein | I have more, but go ahead, go to Councilman Proffman. |
| 01:37:30.90 | Sergio Rudin | And Mayor, if I may supplement one of Director McGowan's answers, I do think that one of the biggest... constraints on moving this forward besides the issue of having needing any city improvement project to be appropriately designed is regulatory permits. You know, these projects likely would need some sort of regulatory approval from the Army Corps and or BZDC. And I know that city staff will work with the partner agencies to try and secure those on an expedited basis. But ultimately, the regulatory permitting for these kinds of improvements to the extent they do require permitting, and I assume that they will. is going to be one of the biggest constraints in terms of moving expeditiously. So we will need to work with the city's partners on those issues. |
| 01:38:26.20 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Ms. Hoffman. |
| 01:38:29.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. And I think this is somewhat in the context of follow up meeting. meeting. Kevin, thank you so much for all your hard work on this. I appreciate that. |
| 01:38:38.57 | Skip Cleggar | Thank you. |
| 01:38:38.92 | Jill Hoffman | In the context of what we learned last year from the flooding, the unexpected flooding, or maybe, anyway, the flooding that we saw and the low-lying areas around Gate 5 Road and the flooding that we want to avoid and that we saw and the flow areas that we know that are vulnerable that we've identified. And that we know that we need to do, we collectively need to do private property owners along with the city in the context of the map that you provided of what's known and what's not known of private property and publicly owned property. And so, Um, And I went down and walked the properties last week as well. And along DJ's auto body shop in that very low area where the canal is. Um, and then I talked to reason Bradley as well and saw some of the schematics that have been drawn up in some of the short term solutions. Right. So we're not talking, you know, we're, we're talking about. I think, and that's maybe what, um, Vice Mayor Blaustein was getting at as well, is we know that we need to do some long-term solutions that, you know, but we also want to make sure that we're getting at what's the solution for what we expect to be a high tide, a known high tide at Thanksgiving, another known high tide at Christmas, but also. what we also expect to be other unforeseen high tides during this El Nino year. Um, and what, um, what the collective, uh, wisdom has been down there amongst the operators, um, and some of the solutions that they've come up with. And I think if I might, that's, that's where I think maybe the vice mayor was going in some of the, the. berms and the solutions that they're coming up with and what we can do temporarily just to get us through. March is going to be too late, I think, because we know that the, the seasonal, the yearly high tides are going to be on those two dates. We know there's going to be other storms outside of those two dates. And we just want to make sure this year. we're not looking for a 50 year fix or even a 20 year fix. We're looking for the, the five year fix or shorter. Right. So that's, I think where we're going. |
| 01:40:48.50 | Steven Woodside | I was, If I can interrupt, let's make sure we're asking questions now and then we can hear from the public. And then we can have a discussion about any direction. And just to remind everyone here, |
| 01:40:55.73 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 01:41:01.75 | Steven Woodside | the request of us is to authorize Um, a basically reserve funding in an amount not to exceed $250,000 for expedited flood improvements at Gate 5 Road, Varda Landing, etc. |
| 01:41:21.16 | Jill Hoffman | And that's just from the city's funds, not the understanding that the property |
| 01:41:23.89 | Steven Woodside | saying that the property and I heard from, uh, uh, Mr. McGowan that we were already planning to expedite permits, but the other question before us as to whether we're instructing staff to proceed with developing design for bid-ready construction and permitting ready construction of some of the solutions that are yet to be developed by the engineers that we would hire. So that's what's before us. |
| 01:41:51.41 | Jill Hoffman | And if I could ask my question. I've laid my foundation for my question, and you've also included the scope as well. So my question, Director McCallum, was, there's two questions. One, Will, if we've addressed some or all of the sediment in the canal, that you addressed that briefly, the canal that you got there shown, if we're able to remove some or all of the sediment in the canal that you address that briefly, the canal that you've got there shown, if we're able to remove some or all of the sediment in the canal that you think the engineer might be able to address that. how quickly we might be able to remove some of the sediment before this season. We may not be able to remove all of it, But we may be able to increase some of the capacity this year that might alleviate some of the volume of flooding. I don't know, but the engineer might be able to. |
| 01:42:42.12 | Steven Woodside | Are you asking him if that's okay? |
| 01:42:43.61 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So that's one question. And then my second question is, Okay, yeah, you can say that, Bauti. I'll ask you my second question after you answered that one. |
| 01:42:54.19 | Kevin McGowan | So thank you very much for clarifying. Now that I understand a little more our vice mayor's question, it helps me a bit more to understand where we're going. I thought initially that we were looking to allocate that money to start the design process. And I'm hearing that, no, what we want to do is look at emergency measures this time. So my apologies if I didn't understand where we were going initially. So, |
| 01:43:18.37 | Steven Woodside | If I can interrupt, though, I think expedited in the area, is what is listed here as the recommended action. but I'm assuming we're going to have to proceed with Um, engineering design, which will be costly. And I don't know that we want to limit the use of those funds. We want to make sure that they're spent in the most effective way as soon as possible, whether it's design, whether it's removal of sediment, whether it's contributing to the elevation of varred landing. I mean, I'm trying to gain clarification myself as to what The problem is we don't have the answer before us and we're not engineers and we need We need good quality engineering before we spend large amounts of money. But in the meantime, we know there are some short-term fixes that seem to be viable. know that's not a question I apologize but I want to make sure we're all on the same page |
| 01:44:26.24 | Jill Hoffman | Pending question and answer coming. |
| 01:44:28.42 | Kevin McGowan | Okay. |
| 01:44:28.47 | Jill Hoffman | No. |
| 01:44:28.50 | Steven Woodside | Yes. |
| 01:44:28.96 | Kevin McGowan | So your general question was, if we remove this sediment, will it make a difference as far as flooding characteristics in the area? Prior to this meeting, I reached out to Eric Slaw, who made a presentation from WSP last time. His answer to this question was removing sediment from the canal would not affect the current flooding characteristics in the neighborhood. The reason is that the still water elevation in the channel is dictated by the bay and not the volume of the storage of the water. So, however... |
| 01:45:04.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:45:06.17 | Kevin McGowan | Let's step back about what you just, you just told me about what you're intending to do. which is put in some temporary measures. And in that case, removing some of this sediment will be needed. We have to. How long will that take? Don't know. It's got to be tested, Let's get our heads together with some of the residents and we'll see if we can figure this out. |
| 01:45:27.36 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And my second question was, um, sort of along those same lines. There was, when I talked to Reason, Bradley, he said he had AND I WANTED TO BE ABLE TO BE A a concept or a plan again, I'm not an engineer, but for, um, check valve wall, which allows certain volumes of water come in and out of the canal at various times at various flood levels that he thought might also help regulate the water and the amount of water that's coming in and out of the canal. And so that I was wondering if that might also be a good way to regulate the volume of water that's coming in during high tides. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, thank you. You bet. |
| 01:46:01.62 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. |
| 01:46:04.32 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:46:05.48 | Katie Thao Garcia | Thank you. |
| 01:46:05.64 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. I just want to level set since there's been a lot of commentary around my question. And I just want to make clear a couple of things about, because I think a lot of us have had conversations with the property owners. I've been down to gate five twice in the last week to meet with a variety of different property owners down there. |
| 01:46:07.05 | Jill Hoffman | Swing pulse. |
| 01:46:20.59 | Melissa Blaustein | And One thing that is rather remarkable about the moment that we're in is that all of them are committed to working together and even to contributing funds to moving forward a solution. So in addition to. their partnership that they require of us on VARTA landing and raising that road, where they've actually said that they would pay for it if the city helped collaborate. There's also this question of the tide gates and moving that forward. And as Councilmember Hoffman said, Reason Bradley, who we've all met with, has an idea for what that looks like. However, all of the property owners acknowledge that there is a need for engineering. No one has said, let's go ahead and just try it and see if it'll work out. So I think we're trying to solve for what can we immediately do there in this unique moment when all of the property owners are not only talking to us, but to each other. And that doesn't always happen. So I think in advance of the King Tides, I just wanted to. Share that. |
| 01:47:11.52 | Steven Woodside | Ms. Cox, you have a question? |
| 01:47:13.64 | Melissa Blaustein | you |
| 01:47:13.66 | Joan Cox | Yes, thank you. A couple of things. Some of the properties involved in this... overall plan are privately owned and some are publicly owned. And some of the private property owners have offered or indicated willingness to pitch in towards the overall solution. Can you include in your planning for this effort, a process by which So that the city is not gifting public funds by upgrading areas that are not city owned. can you integrate into your plan a mechanism by which property owners can contribute monies towards this effort? |
| 01:48:00.15 | Kevin McGowan | While I don't know exactly how that would work, I would rely on our acting city manager or interim city manager to help me. I have a good relationship with everybody down there and I'd say, yep, absolutely. Let's go for it. |
| 01:48:13.35 | Joan Cox | and, |
| 01:48:13.90 | Kevin McGowan | And then, |
| 01:48:14.65 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Sorry, did you want to say something? Thank you. |
| 01:48:16.96 | Brandon Phipps | I'm happy to add to that, council member. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. So I've collaborated with our finance director. What we're going to be doing to create, you know, kind of the genesis for this approach is to create a separate fund account. And we are going to be doing that this week. It will be a separately maintained account. It will be able to receive transfers from other city funds in addition to receiving donations from private property owners and others in the area. One of the hurdles that we need to identify in order to grant the transfer internally is to your point, ensure that the project that we are undertaking does support a greater public purpose, rather than an individual benefit to an individual property owner. |
| 01:48:18.85 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 01:49:04.44 | Joan Cox | So I'm thrilled to hear about the separate account that will facilitate collection from Cal OES, FEMA, and others who sometimes do reimburse for efforts for mitigation efforts taken in advance of an emergency, which not just for... |
| 01:49:04.51 | Brandon Phipps | Thank you. |
| 01:49:19.29 | Joan Cox | following an emergency, which is why I ask our former city manager, about whether the governor will be issuing a declaration of emergency. Next question is, we've talked about kind of two different types of projects. stopgap immediate mitigation measures. perhaps utilizing schematic drawings already prepared by Reason Bradley or others, and then the much more thorough Thank you. really well done WSP plan for a longer term process. Can you coordinate those two efforts so that the immediate mitigation efforts are not just wasted money and effort, but could Uh, be an entree into the more detailed and long-term measures proposed by WSP. |
| 01:50:15.37 | Kevin McGowan | It's a nice question, I think not knowing all the details, I don't have a precise answer. Here's my general thought since I've studied this a bit. If we go and we purchase a tide gate and we put it in at the end of the canal, or the channel. with a bunch of sandbags and leave it there for this wintertime. We could use that same tide gate in the future to put it on a permanent facility. That's how I'm anticipating we're going to go. |
| 01:50:43.47 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:50:44.09 | Kevin McGowan | So the work that we're going to do right now, putting in the sandbags, all that labor, No, that'll have to be removed. But that physical device itself, we could use that at a later point in time. |
| 01:50:54.84 | Joan Cox | So in addition to what you've provided us today, which again is a very thorough engineered approach to a long-term solution, are you able to come back to us with, a plan to be implemented and in place prior to the end of January, which is, well, you know, we're expecting... King Tides, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, but the Super El Nino. is projected to occur around the end of January. Are you able to come back to us with, proposed interim stopgap mitigation measures that we can implement between now and then to better protect our property owners. |
| 01:51:35.91 | Kevin McGowan | I'm hoping to, if they're going to be emergency measures, I'd rather work on that from now until the end of October. |
| 01:51:42.41 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:51:42.85 | Kevin McGowan | I'd rather come back sooner. and let you know, hey, this is what we're going to do right now for Thanksgiving. If we can't make something work, I want to give you a heads up that we can or can. But if we're looking at a sandbag solution, emergency measures, I don't see why we couldn't implement something. And a berm, perhaps, of some sort? If it's needed, yes. The trick is that removal of sedimentation may take a little longer than I'm expecting, so we'll have to... I'll have to get on that. |
| 01:52:11.33 | Steven Woodside | All right. Thank you. Okay, I'd love to hear from members of the public. Thank you, Mr. McGowan. And I see one card coming up. |
| 01:52:28.80 | Steven Woodside | And I was hoping it would be from you, Mr. McCullough. Would you like to come up? And by the way, I'm not sure. You are An engineer, but not a... Uh... expert on water, but you have property, excuse me, your tenant on gate five road. |
| 01:52:47.51 | Robert McCullough | Yeah, yeah. Good evening, mayor and council members and staff. Yeah, we have background. I'm a mechanical engineer. And I'm not a civil engineer. I don't know hydraulics, but I've done a lot of work in fluid mechanics, so I understand a lot of the basics underlying the problem. And by the way, before I start, I want to acknowledge all the hard work that Kevin and Pat have done down there on site with the pumps and the experimentation to try and figure out what the Problem is because it's very difficult. There's not a lot of data on what's underneath Harbor Drive and what's underneath gate five row and how they're connected, but they've learned a lot in the process of deploying these pumps. So as I mentioned, I was a resident of Sausalito up until July of this year. I'm now a resident of San Rafael. But I still have an office on Gate 5 Road. And over my 27 years here, I've had seven offices and Sausalito for my engineering work. Five of them have been on Gate 5 Road. I've been flooded out four times. So I have personal experience. I've lost property. After the last... flood when there people were kayaking in front of my office. My landlord, Mauro Dossalini, who owns the seahorse in my office, asked me if I would look into it from what I could consider. And I spent a lot of time trying to protect him and he now has a seawall around his property and pumps, which I think will protect him up to about nine or nine and a quarter feet. I also looked into the general problem of gate fibro and what the cause of it is. and came up with a couple of solutions that I thought one of them was putting in the tide, a tide gate at the end of the canal and running sandbags up to Waldo point. And that would basically stop the overrunning. Once the tide gets above eight feet, no amount of pumping is going to do anything to save gate five road. That's a simple fact. And just I don't want to digress, but just do I have two minutes or do I have more? |
| 01:54:44.57 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 01:54:44.64 | Robert McCullough | Thank you. |
| 01:54:44.80 | Steven Woodside | I think since there aren't too many public comments on this and since you have expertise, I think we'd all like to hear more from you in two minutes. |
| 01:54:54.02 | Robert McCullough | So the solution for the bigger problem in my mind was to stop the overflow of the tides. And by the way, the sedimentation in the canal has absolutely nothing to do with the problem of tidal flooding on Gay 5 Road. The only benefit of getting rid of that sediment is if you wanted to use that canal as a holding basin for rain, to let it be pumped out, you could. That sediment has nothing, you can imagine, what does a sediment have to do when the tide, when the flood just overruns everything? It's just, it's a red herring. I spent and and I've worked with reason Bradley for the last 15 years on various projects for the government, and I know him pretty well we built a lot of very complicated equipment he's a very talented. I think he's an engineer, even though he's a machinist. He's like a very, very amazing guy to work with. I spent an hour and a half walking around the properties down there today talking about the problem with reason and his solution is to basically put the tide gate on the eastern side of the bridge that the marina has going over there and then fill in Varta landing which would essentially make that a whole berm. I think that's a good solution, and it's a doable solution. Reason could very easily build that tight gate. This is not rocket science, right? We're talking about something you drop in there with three or four check valves, whether they're duck bills or whether they're flappers, it doesn't really matter. But it could be built in such a way that it's easily removable. And if you put the tide gate where he's proposing versus where I wanted to put it, Then you're back 100 feet from the seashore. And that means BCDC has nothing to say about it. You don't need a permit from them. You can go ahead and do it. Okay, so I 100% support Reason's solution. I think it's well thought out. He's a very practical guy. He builds hardware that goes on boats all over the world doing very sophisticated stuff. So, yeah, and I'm happy to contribute whatever I can to support him and work with him on that. Anyway, that's my two cents. Thank you. |
| 01:57:00.74 | Steven Woodside | If you don't mind, Ms. Cox has a question for you. |
| 01:57:08.15 | Joan Cox | Robert, if it suits his schedule, would you be willing to convene a meeting with you and Reason and Kevin McGowan? Yeah, anytime. I saw him nodding his head when you talked about the placement. of the facility, and so I think you all are already on a similar wavelength. So I think a meeting of the minds. |
| 01:57:24.65 | Robert McCullough | Okay. I'm happy to donate whatever time he needs. And also I think the, |
| 01:57:26.74 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:57:29.53 | Robert McCullough | the budgetary numbers that you're talking around, you know, 250,000. I think the the the material for raising Varda landing road two feet is going to be donated by Jill Jilletti or somebody else. So there's no expense for that. The cost of building a temporary dam in there, it's got to be way less than that. This may not pass all the, Civil engineering, kudos, but it'll work. And I just wanted to say that the, you know, what we're looking at coming up with the Super El Nino, there's three basic effects, right? One is the water temperature goes up and the volume increases. They're talking about that having about a four to eight inch level on the tides. The second one is the geoffer stream shifts and the trade winds no longer push water offshore. So that water comes back in. That's another four to eight inches. We're not even talking about storms. That's not even including rainfall. So we're looking at anywhere from 8 to 15 inches above the king tides. |
| 01:58:24.73 | Jill Hoffman | climate change. |
| 01:58:25.86 | Robert McCullough | So, um, Morrow's property, I think is set for nine or nine and a half feet. reason solution would get us up to about nine, nine, nine or nine and a half feet, two. If we get a deluge of rain and it's above 10 feet, which is entirely possible, there's nothing we're going to do. So we are really facing, you're looking at an emergency here. This isn't something we need to study. and do more studies. It's something we need to fix in the next 60 days. |
| 01:58:55.30 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Any other public comments? |
| 01:59:01.43 | Deirdre Coyne | You have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 01:59:03.00 | Steven Woodside | is Bushmaker. |
| 01:59:05.16 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi, counsel. I'm glad to see this is being treated as an emergency and I hope it is. Because Sausalito has a An emergency occurring in 60 days, so we need to focus on the immediate problems and you've heard some suggestions. that need to be implemented right away. Once again, this item demonstrates the folly and irresponsibility of increased building and density envisioned by measure X, we have to defeat this measure. because we are having trouble managing what we have now. I cannot imagine what this would be like with the density and the increased building envisioned by the proposed Measure X. Thank you. |
| 01:59:50.16 | Steven Woodside | Mr. McCullough, you're raising your hand. Did you want to add something? |
| 01:59:54.91 | Unknown | you |
| 01:59:55.24 | Steven Woodside | Let's find out. Is there anyone else online? One more person, and then you'll be up. |
| 02:00:01.98 | Deirdre Coyne | Next we have Casey Peterson. Oh, great. Casey. |
| 02:00:04.90 | Steven Woodside | KC. Yeah, I can. |
| 02:00:07.97 | Casey Peterson | me. |
| 02:00:08.76 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:00:08.78 | Deirdre Coyne | Yeah. |
| 02:00:08.83 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 02:00:08.96 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:00:09.01 | Deirdre Coyne | Yeah. |
| 02:00:09.03 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:00:09.03 | Casey Peterson | I can hear you, Casey. Yes. |
| 02:00:09.52 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 02:00:11.01 | Casey Peterson | Yeah, well, thank you for putting this on the agenda. I wanted to start by thanking Kevin and Pat and Brandon at the city and then Council members Blaustein and Woodside for keeping me in the loop. It's been so exciting to see this public-private partnership seem to be working for the first time that I've seen. Um, Yeah, and I want to keep this moving forward and seen as a win for the city. I don't want to make this some... political win for anybody. I want to see this done because we want the city to be protected. Having guys like that Speaker Robert and Reason I think that's what Melissa was getting at is we have so much real world information and great ideas from the property owners and engineers in Sausalito. They're not going to stamp a set of plans, but there will Expedite that. process and help those people with that data that they need to make that process faster. Um, Yeah, and I agree that making this an emergency, we can't wait 18 months. The amount of damages and businesses lost will just be astronomical if this isn't fixed in that 18 months. taking those guys' ideas into consideration, talking to the property owners. We are the ones who own Varda Landing Road. And we have. had conversations with the majority of the property owners affected from the Um, the easement flooding and we, have agreed to take on the cost of filling Envira Landing Road. The easement is a bigger issue. because that is... public easement, but we would love to see those work together. Filling VARTA is only going to do so much. If you fill Varda and leave the rest, it's just going to come around the corner. But There are temporary solutions. like Robert said, reason could build that tide gate real quick. And even without that, I don't know, we need to think of a bandaid that can happen before Thanksgiving. |
| 02:02:15.66 | Steven Woodside | you |
| 02:02:15.71 | Casey Peterson | Thank you. |
| 02:02:15.73 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Thank you very much and thank you and your, um, your partners out there for being willing to contribute and take care of the Varta Landing Road project, which is one of the small pieces of this puzzle. Any other comments from the public? |
| 02:02:38.91 | Deirdre Coyne | Nothing online. |
| 02:02:39.79 | Steven Woodside | Okay, back to the dais for direction to... Our staff. Oh, I'm sorry, Robert, I forgot. You wanted to add something. Thank you. |
| 02:02:48.92 | Robert McCullough | I did. Yeah. Um, I just wanted to respond to council members Cox concern that Sausalito city funds might be used to enhance the value of private property and that might not be appropriate. I want to flip around the thinking a little bit in terms of the property loss. Uh, West Yost Associates in 2011 came up with a similar study, and about 80% of the new study's conclusions were in that Philip Yost study. So that's been on the Sausalito City's docket for 15 years. and nothing's been done. People are losing significant amounts of property. My personally, I've only lost about 10,000, but I think Morrow's probably 50 to 100,000. I don't know what Heath is. They probably lost a bunch. I don't know what the Anchorage Cafe is, but you go down the street and people are losing money. And I would say that if nothing is done, And you have known about this, not you particular, but the city council. I've known about this for 15 years. There might be some legal liability at this year, and maybe that's something the lawyer should take a look at, too. I don't mean to be threatening. I'm just saying it might be something you want to think about. |
| 02:03:52.84 | Joan Cox | Yeah, it's a fair point. Of course, 2011 was before any of us sitting up here. We're on the council. But my concern was that no one raise a challenge that we simply address this, both in terms of recovering monies from FEMA and Cal OES, as well as ensuring that no one raises an objection to this public private partnership that we just track it appropriately. That's it. No, I think all of us are united up here on proceeding expeditiously using city funds to address as much as we can. |
| 02:04:30.29 | Steven Woodside | I think that's clear if we haven't made it clear in our questions. And just on the... notion that if something is done on private property that benefits only the private property, there could be a gift issue. But in this case, we're all part of a whole. We've got low points, some are on private property, some are on public easements, we've got an easement that has a canal that needs help. So to me, when you look at this as a whole, spending public dollars and private dollars, I think we would not be vulnerable. It's a perfect solution. And it's it's it's wonderful that we've come together as quickly. Kevin, thank you for helping to get this back on our agenda in in one meeting's time. So. I don't know if we, do we need a motion? |
| 02:05:24.78 | Kevin McGowan | Well, before you go there, I had one other thing to add, and that is that when this project originally started more than a year ago, |
| 02:05:26.15 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, I'm sorry. |
| 02:05:32.51 | Kevin McGowan | We had some other work that we wanted to address with the regulatory agencies at the county level. And I did bring this up. I did mention that we have this flooding issue in this area. I believe that BCDC may have some emergency Um, way to allow us to proceed, especially if we're only limited to within the channel itself, which is an engineering channel. It's not influencing the bay at all. So I will review that with them. I would prefer to keep our regulatory agencies apprised of what we're doing so that we don't get ourselves into trouble. But regardless, we are all trying to address what we're anticipating as a very heavy winter, and we want to make sure that we protect our residents in this area. you Thank you. |
| 02:06:17.16 | Steven Woodside | Thank you very much for those comments. My guess is that the direction that you've outlined in the, um, in the title for this item gives you room to move forward. I don't know if you need any more specific Mr. City Manager or Kevin. |
| 02:06:36.70 | Brandon Phipps | Mayor, I'm pleased with how we've generally worded the ask. We do have flexibility in the description, in my opinion. Okay? |
| 02:06:44.60 | Jill Hoffman | May I follow up on one thing? |
| 02:06:45.83 | Brandon Phipps | Sure. |
| 02:06:46.62 | Jill Hoffman | My... My question, my follow up is what are we doing to address our hillsides? So we've had a discussion about our most vulnerable lowest point in our waterfront, but our hillsides are where most of our residents live. And we do know that we have vulnerabilities on hillsides with regard to movement up there. And we have because of the task force we have identified. those most vulnerable sections. And that would come back to the city council and, and, with regard to a report on those issues. |
| 02:07:19.02 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. So we do have Miller Pacific Engineering Group who is developing a geologic hazard. It's not the study. It's something else. I'm sorry. I wasn't ready for the question. But we could ask them to come out and review this again and start to identify some of our |
| 02:07:31.14 | Jill Hoffman | We're not. I have an app. |
| 02:07:36.19 | Kevin McGowan | more susceptible areas specifically, so that if there are things we need to do before we get to the wintertime, we can either do them or keep them on our radar. Thank you so much. |
| 02:07:45.45 | Steven Woodside | And Noda Pacific is the... a geotech engineering firm that has studied the hillsides, is doing mapping, has already identified the most vulnerable areas. And my guess is that they might be able to answer the question, given what we predict may happen this winter, do they have any advice for us as to where we ought to really go? take a closer look and see if there's something that needs to be done other than the usual cleaning out. making sure the drains are functioning, et cetera. |
| 02:08:16.19 | Jill Hoffman | Exactly. And we know that there are certain areas that are more susceptible to flooding and sandbagging would be helpful. It's kind of the reverse for... flooding, um, coming up from the water, but also coming down from the hillside. So thank you for that, Kevin. |
| 02:08:31.23 | Steven Woodside | Okay, thank you. So I think our direction is as you outlined in the title to this and you said, Mr City Manager, you have the flexibility to move forward and working with property owners engineers and moving as quickly as possible. |
| 02:08:45.31 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I just add a couple of things to that direction, potentially? I would love to ask our city attorney to further explore what emergency measures allow for us in terms of fast tracking things where we may or may not require immediate regulatory authority. approval and to what extent we're allowed to take action. Because I think it's clear from the conversation that we'd all like to see some sort of path to moving ahead with the ideas that the property owners and Reason Bradley and others have suggested immediately. So if we could add that as part of the direction, just to determine what we can and can't immediately do. if that's amenable. |
| 02:09:22.23 | Steven Woodside | I don't think we're asking for an answer right now, |
| 02:09:25.21 | Melissa Blaustein | No, not an answer, just as part of the direction does staff to also pursue that so we have an understanding of what is available under emergency measures and also perhaps direct staff to continue conversations with the county to see if last year's emergency measures might allow us some sort of fast tracking of preparation for this year and whether or not. There are, um, Essentially, I would like us to do whatever we can to expeditiously move forward with the work of the property owners who are interested in collaborating with us. I don't want us to miss this window. |
| 02:09:56.36 | Sergio Rudin | I don't want to. and council member, Perfectly happy to do that. And I fully expect to work with Kevin and his department on some of the issues that he brought up, including streamline permitting from through BCDC for emergency work. And then with regards to the recommended motion, I did note that I believe the recommendation is for the council to approve an appropriation. So that does need to occur. |
| 02:10:22.82 | Melissa Blaustein | Okay. |
| 02:10:22.91 | Sergio Rudin | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:10:23.40 | Melissa Blaustein | And then I'm not sure that it's clear, sorry to continue, but I just want to make sure we're on the same page about this. I'm not sure that it's clear that our direction is to move ahead with the engineering work or whether it's to do the design. I'd like to figure out what the immediate next step is since we have a limited limited timeframe. I know Director McGowan said he would come back at the end of October with a path I'm just opening up for, I don't have the answer. I just want to see what the consensus is from the council about that. Can I suggest? |
| 02:10:53.98 | Joan Cox | as a result of the question and answer between me and Kevin that he proceed immediately as a priority with the mitigation measures, with undertaking the design and construction of those mitigation measures necessary to protect the property owners from the upcoming... King Tides and Super El Nino. And to the extent that time permits on a parallel path, proceed with the more extensive engineering, and procurement efforts of WSP described in the staff report. |
| 02:11:34.04 | Steven Woodside | Is that a motion? |
| 02:11:35.20 | Joan Cox | That's a motion. |
| 02:11:36.70 | Steven Woodside | And I would add one thing in that I think city attorneys advise us that we need to specifically authorize, um, reserve funding in the amount not to exceed $250,000. |
| 02:11:48.53 | Joan Cox | I accept that amendment. |
| 02:11:50.63 | Steven Woodside | So there's a motion. as amended, is there a second? |
| 02:11:54.52 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:11:54.56 | Melissa Blaustein | second. |
| 02:11:55.10 | Steven Woodside | Okay, all those in favor say aye. |
| 02:11:57.71 | Melissa Blaustein | Aye. |
| 02:11:58.20 | Steven Woodside | Bye. S is four, zero. Thank you. And thank you all for your participation. This is an important topic, as we all know, and moving quickly, but also moving responsibly is much appreciated. Simple item 5C, should we cancel the November 3rd election day city council meeting? |
| 02:12:25.54 | Melissa Blaustein | I would say yes, because some people are going to be busy. |
| 02:12:28.90 | Steven Woodside | Some people are gonna be busy. |
| 02:12:30.32 | Melissa Blaustein | I'm not going to say. |
| 02:12:30.79 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:12:31.40 | Steven Woodside | So is that a motion to cancel? |
| 02:12:34.20 | Joan Cox | May I just ask? Should we reschedule it to another based on the work effort and the approvals that city staff will require from the city council. Is that a meeting we should reschedule or should we simply cancel it? And I'm directing that question to the city manager. |
| 02:12:51.31 | Steven Woodside | Okay, before he answers, we are very mindful as the agenda review that we may need to schedule other meeting dates. Right. So I think we just want to make it clear to people now that we're not expecting to have a regular meeting on the 3rd of November. |
| 02:13:10.24 | Joan Cox | That's fine with me. I just want to make sure that we also are prepared to doodle and attend a special meeting if necessary to keep this business on track. Understood. |
| 02:13:19.40 | Steven Woodside | Understood. Thank you. |
| 02:13:22.76 | Jill Hoffman | Definitely. |
| 02:13:24.38 | Steven Woodside | Okay? |
| 02:13:25.63 | Melissa Blaustein | Do we have to take public comment? |
| 02:13:27.07 | Steven Woodside | Um, Thank you. It is a regular item. Is there any public comment about the possibility or rather the |
| 02:13:28.35 | Melissa Blaustein | Yeah. |
| 02:13:34.14 | Steven Woodside | The. Um, I shouldn't say probability, but the fact that we will not be, we do not intend to meet on November the 3rd. you |
| 02:13:41.83 | Brandon Phipps | And I'll just state, I'll be working with our city clerk, deputy city clerk, to iron out potential special meeting dates that could be scheduled in lieu of this November 3rd meeting if the work requires it. |
| 02:13:55.92 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. Any public comment? |
| 02:13:58.57 | Deirdre Coyne | Do you have Sandra Bushmaker? |
| 02:14:00.33 | Steven Woodside | Bushmaker. |
| 02:14:03.50 | Sandra Bushmaker | I'm sorry, I thought I had lowered my hand. Thank you, no problem. |
| 02:14:06.65 | Steven Woodside | Okay. All right. No comment. Okay, so... |
| 02:14:13.19 | Melissa Blaustein | I move that we cancel the November 3rd meeting. Second. |
| 02:14:17.86 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Motion second. All in favor. |
| 02:14:20.24 | Melissa Blaustein | Bye. |
| 02:14:20.97 | Steven Woodside | Okay, that's four zero. that pass is, |
| 02:14:23.99 | Melissa Blaustein | And please remember to vote. |
| 02:14:26.38 | Steven Woodside | Correct. Okay. Finally, we have the Turney Street Doc Condition Assessment and Report. Thank you for being so patient. Katie? Katie? |
| 02:14:41.18 | Katie Thao Garcia | Of course. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members, members of the public. My name is Katie Thao Garcia. I'm the city's resiliency and sustainability manager. And I'm going to give you a very brief background on this project before introducing the consultant. So in 2024, the city, following council interest and resident interest, the city applied for a grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for a holistic revisioning of the Tourney Street dock and bulkhead area. Later in 2024, we received that award from CDFW. And in 2025, we selected Anchor QEA following a formal RFP process. They came out as the frontrunner, who are leaders in design of boat ramps and boat launches throughout the Bay Area. So since then, we have been working concurrently with the Community Development Department to explore a public-private partnership for private use of Tourney Street or private development. However, following an RFIQ process, there was no progress efficiently made on that, and so Anchor QEA continued to review designs for the boat launch and the docks and then the bulkhead. So since then, we have made significant progress. And tonight we are asking council to review this progress and hopefully select a preferred alternative so we can continue moving forward with the grant progress and hopefully take us to 65% design. So with that, I will introduce Fred from Anchor QEA. And I'll be back at the end. |
| 02:16:41.47 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. If you can introduce yourself and give us a little word about your background. |
| 02:16:48.18 | Fred Musapke | I'm not. |
| 02:16:48.32 | Unknown | All right. |
| 02:16:48.54 | Fred Musapke | Thank you. |
| 02:16:48.57 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:16:48.79 | Fred Musapke | um thank you uh mayor vice mayor council members i am fred musapke i'm professional civil engineer with anchor qea I've been doing waterfront design for over 20 years now. Um, have designed. launch ramps as well as marinas, floating dock facilities, bulkheads throughout California and the United States. |
| 02:17:15.42 | Unknown | Uh, this, um, a slide too, please. |
| 02:17:21.26 | Fred Musapke | So with this presentation, I'll introduce or I'll review the existing conditions of the Turning Street launch ramp, as well as adjacent facilities that are a part of our scope. Uh, review the design process to date. the two concepts that are under evaluation. and then discuss options for the city decision to proceed with design and permitting Slide four, please. Thank you. |
| 02:17:50.49 | Skip Cleggar | Thank you. |
| 02:17:50.59 | Fred Musapke | Thank you. |
| 02:17:50.65 | Skip Cleggar | Thank you. |
| 02:17:52.17 | Fred Musapke | Next slide. So this shows the existing condition of the Turning Street launch ramp. It's basically, it's approximately 60 feet long from the top of that ramp down to where it terminates near the end of that gangway abutment slash storm drain outfall. Uh, the top portion is a six inch thick concrete slab. And the bottom portion is made up of concrete planks that are connected together with steel hook and eye connections. It's over 60 years old at this point. It's reached its end of design life. Uh, that picture is taken at approximately a zero tide. So you can see that it terminates A add or above that zero tide. So it doesn't provide in a sufficient length of ramp to get trailers and boats out during all tides. Also, there is substantial alligator cracking, which means the top portion of the ramps broken up. There's also a potential issues with the spinning tires because of the way the grooves on it that provide traction are laid out. It doesn't allow water to drain out. Uh, about 10 years ago, a, um, a project was done that, uh, uh, improved ADA access. Uh, down to the boarding float. And that's shown there in the bottom right photo where a, uh, topping, um, slab was put on the existing abutment. However, it didn't fix the, that, that abutment there's substantial cracking, large cracks that you can put your hand into, uh, uh, and essentially it's utilizing that four foot diameter storm drain to, to provide structural support to it. So, uh, the recommendation would be to replace that abutment, um, as part of this project. |
| 02:19:38.74 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:19:46.48 | Fred Musapke | Next slide, please. Going down to the boarding float, the boarding float appears to be 30 years old, based on the information that we're able to find, namely steel nameplates on those timber guide piles that indicated they were treated in 96. The dock looks to be in fair condition itself. Not sure when, if ever, the decking was replaced. That should typically be done every 20 years. So if it hasn't, it's beyond that time. Um, it's, uh, the, the pontoons are plastic pontoons and they look to be in, in fair condition too. But the, um, important factor is that there is an 80 foot long ADA compliant gangway that was installed 10 years ago. And that, that is an, um. Good condition. I mean, I would call it very good, but the terminology in our, um, um, engineering world is good, which means it's, it's got plenty of, of life left and we would look to reuse that. Next slide. uh, Part of the project of scope of work was to look at doing a zero entry launch beach for kayaks and standout paddle boards and other non-motorized human power craft. There is about a 12 inch drop between the, uh, um, the asphalt there and the existing beach that would, we would, uh, look at doing a, a mat, um, which I'll, uh, that's an option one that I'll explain later, but you can see that there is, um, some, some, uh, it's, it's not an ideal beach at this point. They would need to, um, some grading for it. |
| 02:21:24.97 | Unknown | Next slide. |
| 02:21:27.67 | Fred Musapke | another component of the scope was the humboldt street bulkhead that is a timber structure uh we don't know when it was we couldn't determine when it was um installed however it's it is in uh it has failed and there's been substantial loss of material behind it about five to eight feet of material has been lost and concrete k rails have been put around for public safety in that parking lot that that we would recommend is replaced Next slide. And these next two slides are of the existing floating docks. uh, that are in front of the joinery restaurant. Uh, those are also in disrepair. Uh, they haven't been used in about 15 years, uh, Some of them are breaking away. And there's no risk to taking them out now from a permitting standpoint, typically as long as it's documented that they're existing, they can, these can be restored later on, but they, they could be taken out there's exposed foam and such that can be seen in these photos as well. |
| 02:22:38.00 | Unknown | Next slide. Let's see, I'll probably skip ahead to see which slide at this point. Side 11, please. |
| 02:22:51.53 | Fred Musapke | So the design steps prior to tonight's meeting, we did an initial data review, survey, site investigation, met with, had a community meeting where we gathered information from the public, worked with city staff, including Katie on the design as well. And also I think Mayor Sobieski was, or not, sorry, Council Member Sobieski was a part of that. Those initial meetings as well. And we've developed three options coming out from all that from those meetings, discussions. One is a near and like kind. Option two is a. Similar to it, but with a public dock element and option three looked at doing a fishing pier. That was a blue sky idea that came out of the community meeting. But we're looking at, but the cost and permitting led us to options one and two. |
| 02:23:46.41 | Unknown | Next slide. |
| 02:23:48.30 | Fred Musapke | And that, yeah, reviewed the items there on the community meeting. |
| 02:23:52.03 | Unknown | aspect. |
| 02:23:52.07 | Fred Musapke | Thank you. and some other items were transient and public, boater access, potential future dredging, and looking at trailer parking in the area. Next slide. |
| 02:24:05.95 | Unknown | And... you |
| 02:24:07.59 | Fred Musapke | And next one, please. Yeah, there we go. So option one that replaces the existing But facility more or less in like kind with the launch ramp in the same place, but extended about twice its length down to get down to minus two contour from the existing plus one. I would like to go further, like to get deeper. However, that would make a substantially long ramp that would extend out pretty far. Rebuild that gangway abutment, reuse the existing 80-foot gangway. Other items, replace that boarding foot with expanded footprint for more dinghy birthing space. add an accessible kayak launch and construct a slope ramp down for the hand launch beach. And some of the other elements like replacing this humble street bulkhead with a sheet piles was conceptualized as well and we would, based on the prior items, we would design it for sea level rise and to allow backfill behind it if. if there is overtopping and subsidence and other issues behind. Next. |
| 02:25:22.55 | Unknown | Um, |
| 02:25:22.97 | Fred Musapke | Thank you. |
| 02:25:23.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:23.11 | Fred Musapke | And option two is very similar to option one, except the differences are we're moving the boarding float from its current location to the north of the ramp and making that existing boarding float into a low freeboard kayak dock and dinghy dock. And so there would not be a hand launch beach in that scenario. Next slide. So this shows that, um, the concept for option one. So very much what it is like today with some modifications to the, uh, uh, floating docks that dog leg on the boarding float, the longer boat ramp and the hand launch beach. And next slide, please. And this is option two, similar to it. However, the, uh, The one or the few differences again, that little freeboard doc, um, where where the existing boarding float is, A new boarding float there adjacent to the end of the, uh, end of the launch ramp and a new 80 foot long gangway to reach that. |
| 02:26:36.92 | Unknown | Next slide. |
| 02:26:40.04 | Fred Musapke | This goes into the advantages and disadvantages. I'm not going to go over them in detail. the Biggest comparison between the two we've gone over. The one disadvantage I would highlight here with option one is that there could be cross traffic between kayakers and people launching their boats trying to go from to cross over one another. Next slide. And that's what we try to resolve in option two, where we look to move, consolidate the uses on one side. So kayakers can get to shallow area to the south and the boaters, motorized boats are kept to the north. |
| 02:27:23.05 | Fred Musapke | Next slide. This presents our cost estimate summary. There's about a $300,000, a 10% difference between the two options. Although about a third of the overall cost of both options is attributed to the bulkhead replacement. |
| 02:27:43.15 | Unknown | And next slide. next thing. Thank you. |
| 02:27:47.86 | Fred Musapke | Some regulatory considerations, there's minimal Increase in net overwater coverage and minimal increase in net bottom fill. And although the numbers are over a thousand square feet, in reality, it's less than a 10th or less than actually more like less than a 30th of an acre. And it's those are quantities that can be mitigated relatively simply either with fees, removing existing structures elsewhere or removal of bottom debris. are We would need to perform an eelgrass survey as part of the permit application process that would go to Army Corps, the water board and BCDC. And then prior to that, there also maybe the city would make a CEQA determination and given these two options, we would assume that it'd be categorically exempt because they are replacement in near in like kind. |
| 02:28:53.25 | Fred Musapke | Uh, finally, uh, next slide. Some, uh, grants and funding considerations. Um, these are, uh, highlighted in, uh, one of the reports that's presented in the agenda. I will note that for the boat launching facilities grant from DBAW that would require trailer parking if it's looked at for for the motorized launch for non motorized craft. There are opportunities there, but right now I understand from DBAW that it's they're primarily targeting inland water bodies as opposed to marine ones. But there are other potential opportunities that we could pursue to help fund in addition to the current one that's from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Thank you. I think that concludes. I think the next slide is just questions. |
| 02:29:44.77 | Steven Woodside | Very good. I'm going to ask the vice mayor who I saw swimming in the bay this morning, since she might have a personal interest in some of this. |
| 02:29:55.28 | Melissa Blaustein | Do you have a personal interest in being able to swim up to the boat launch ramp? safely. uh, So I really appreciate the integration of the docs in front of the joinery and just have a big holistic look. And this might be more a question for. For Katie. It seems like our grant has been exceeded in terms of just for the design. So, and we are moving, we have, decided not to move forward with the respondees to our RFPs. So the onus is entirely on the city for the cost of these improvements, right? |
| 02:30:29.84 | Katie Thao Garcia | So we still have funds left for proceeding with the design. So as of right now, we have $170,000 from the Fish and Wildlife Um, CDFW, sorry. Um, and city is contributing roughly a hundred and four thousand dollars um in addition to that to proceed with these designs um however after designs and permitting sorry however after um that those funds are expended no we do not have um future funds for um 90 designs and then construction um however i think it as long as we perform relatively well for this grant, which we're on track to. I don't see why we couldn't go back to fish and wildlife and ask for 90% design and construction funding. Typically they like to follow projects through the design stage into construction. So I don't see why we couldn't do that. |
| 02:31:31.20 | Melissa Blaustein | And is any of the attorney doc work currently in our CIP? I believe yes. |
| 02:31:36.70 | Katie Thao Garcia | Yeah, the Humboldt Street, it was divided a little differently, but parts of it are included, yes. Is that a... |
| 02:31:42.96 | Melissa Blaustein | capital amount because so what I'm seeing here and I mean, ideally we would move ahead with at least the floating docs improvement, but in the best case scenario, I mean, In the best case scenario, we would be able to move ahead with the floating docs improvement. And it seems like the cost differential is about $300,000. So those are, we could figure that out, but. Is the, and I guess director McGowan is gone, but is, is the CIP funding only for design or is there some monies in the CIP already for construction as well? |
| 02:32:13.57 | Katie Thao Garcia | I don't believe there are fun. There is funding for construction in ICIP yet. Um, just because this is further down the line. Um, you know, we're, we're talking about. you know, finishing this project in at the, by the end of the year and then to take it further into design and permitting would probably push it into 2028. So we're really not looking at construction, you know, before then. |
| 02:32:39.48 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. Is there a path where we might reopen a public private RFP in partnership with this design being completed, where we could still find an operational partner and have some income from the, um, from the docs, for example. |
| 02:32:53.85 | Katie Thao Garcia | Yeah, I would say a great outcome tonight would be selecting a preferred alternative. And then if we wanted to move forward with an RFIP, IQ, using that preferred alternative, then that would be appropriate. |
| 02:33:09.63 | Melissa Blaustein | And from your perspective, is the best case scenario option too, because it improves the floating docks? |
| 02:33:14.92 | Katie Thao Garcia | Thank you. |
| 02:33:16.52 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you. |
| 02:33:16.55 | Katie Thao Garcia | Yeah, from my perspective, I mean, there's a few things to outweigh, but I generally agree with Anchor QEA's recommendation for preferred alternative number two. Okay, thank you very much. |
| 02:33:28.47 | Melissa Blaustein | Thank you, Anchor QEA. I appreciate it. |
| 02:33:30.32 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, we do appreciate it. Um, Other questions, Ms. Cox? |
| 02:33:34.81 | Joan Cox | Thank you. You saw Melissa swimming. You didn't see me docking my boat there a couple of weeks ago. |
| 02:33:40.31 | Steven Woodside | No, I didn't. I'm sorry. |
| 02:33:43.43 | Joan Cox | And so my questions emanate from that. First of all, you mentioned an 800, you mentioned a doc extension and, As it now stands, that doc is difficult to, it's already quite shallow. And so have you considered whether extending the um, length of the dock itself would Um, adversely impact deeper keeled boats seeking to use that as a ramp. |
| 02:34:22.04 | John DeRay | there, |
| 02:34:22.26 | Fred Musapke | Yeah, the entire area, the entire basin in front of the joinery is very shallow. That is one of the items I was brought up about dredging. And yes, we would concur that it would be difficult to use that area without dredging. Similarly, the boarding float right now that was looked at as the existing location of it as a boarding. mainly for shallow bottom people. skiffs and dinghies as well as kayaks. So I think that that location based on existing water depths, um, would be acceptable for that use. But yeah, for deeper keel boats, for sailboats, I would agree with that comment there. |
| 02:35:08.79 | Joan Cox | um, |
| 02:35:15.28 | Joan Cox | Oh, you said that no sequa because it's like kind, but actually if you have to dredge and if you're extending... then wouldn't that be something that would have to undertake some environmental review? |
| 02:35:27.67 | Fred Musapke | The dredging, I believe so, yes. That would trigger that. The extension, That's a determination I think for, for staff to, to, to make. |
| 02:35:38.27 | Joan Cox | The city attorney can assist with that. And my last question is, Um, I don't know if you noticed when you were there, but there are overhead power lines that run between the joinery and the building across the street. And I watched a boat that had its mast up. and counter those lines. fortunately, no one got electrocuted and the lines were not damaged. But it's my understanding that in California, when overhead power lines are located near a boat ramp, the city must host permanent conspicuous high voltage warning signs that meet state electrical safety rules and there is no such signage at this site so could you add to the design scope the identification and design and placement of the required warning signs. |
| 02:36:38.75 | Unknown | Yes, we can add those. Thanks. We'll add those. |
| 02:36:43.00 | Steven Woodside | Other questions? Ms. Hoffman? |
| 02:36:52.13 | Jill Hoffman | I think this is a timing issue in the follow-up on when this would go to the CIP or what year this would be in our construction. in our CIP list for funding for the construction. if we approve this tonight for plans to move forward, Um, it would actually be in our CIP list for next year. We would add this in once we got the final plans back for construction. Even then probably 26, 27 CIP list. |
| 02:37:19.85 | Katie Thao Garcia | Um, yes, even later you, yeah, probably most likely later, um, because we wouldn't have the formal designs. You could include it 26, 27 for the 90% designs and then 27, 28 for the construction. Okay. That probably would be my recommendation, but I would want to check with director McGowan. |
| 02:37:33.98 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 02:37:34.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:37:38.00 | Katie Thao Garcia | Thank you. |
| 02:37:38.01 | Steven Woodside | I think you mean 27, 28, because we're in 26, 27. |
| 02:37:38.22 | Katie Thao Garcia | I'm not sure. |
| 02:37:42.96 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 02:37:43.53 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry. And then we would apply for the state, for their state grants for the funding of the building. |
| 02:37:51.04 | Katie Thao Garcia | Yes, I think we could apply for grant funding whenever they become available because we are reaching the end of this current grant term. And if we wanted to continue with 90% designs, then we could apply for those. OK, thank you. |
| 02:38:10.57 | Steven Woodside | A quick question. When you had the workshops, was there a preference expressed there for options one versus two? |
| 02:38:26.12 | Andy Greer | guys. |
| 02:38:27.54 | Fred Musapke | I think at that time it was still high level in terms of we hadn't fully developed the concepts. So we were just, it was a listening session with the public at that point and getting, gathering information. I, it, There wasn't there didn't seem to be consensus on a hand launch a beach simply because apparently there may be other locations in the city for that. So that's what pushed us to look at that option of our developing option two further, where it was a low freeboard doc option. And it came out of that community meeting, the idea of a fixed peer that we looked at a fixed peer. And so that's where it came into option three, but I think the, the permitting and cost implications of that one are, |
| 02:39:19.94 | Steven Woodside | Very good. Thank you. Mr. City Manager. |
| 02:39:23.67 | Brandon Phipps | If I may, Mayor. Yeah, thank you. Generally, I'll just add that the ultimate funding for the construction of these potential improvements are a to-be-determined element. And one of the things that Katie brought up in her introduction is that we did abandon a particular RFP geared towards a private party investing some private equity into this area in exchange for their ability to access and to implement a business at that facility over a certain number of years. So just as a potential option, a private equity option that looks like that kind of RFP ask could be an additional path. And we've also identified a grant pathway. So interested in counsel's feedback on that. |
| 02:40:08.96 | Steven Woodside | And that could occur whether or not it's, whether it's option one or option |
| 02:40:14.97 | Brandon Phipps | into. |
| 02:40:15.29 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:40:16.00 | Brandon Phipps | Correct. And it could, in fact, occur in conjunction with grant financing if the grant and those monies are complementary of that kind of an approach. |
| 02:40:24.70 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Last question to whoever can answer it, and maybe one of my colleagues knows for sure, but is that bulkhead, Humboldt Street bulkhead, is that city property and is it clearly our responsibility? |
| 02:40:42.25 | Katie Thao Garcia | My understanding is yes. |
| 02:40:44.35 | Steven Woodside | Okay. I want to make sure of that because, um, It looks to me like it's very close to some private property as well, and we want to make sure we're doing it right. Thank you. |
| 02:40:58.00 | Katie Thao Garcia | We'll double check on that. |
| 02:40:58.03 | Steven Woodside | I would. Okay, thanks. Um, public comments. |
| 02:41:05.98 | Steven Woodside | Seeing none, there's a couple of smiles, like maybe we're gonna do something here that's gonna be really great. |
| 02:41:12.06 | Deirdre Coyne | Seeing none online. |
| 02:41:13.37 | Steven Woodside | And then online. And I'm a little surprised we haven't received any written comments. I haven't seen any suggesting, you know, we prefer option one or two or for whatever reason. I have my own views. I'm happy to share them right now. but I think option two is a great one. The community boating center has some terrific hand launching, has a nice circular drive where someone can bring their pull the kayak off their car, Put it down there. drive the car away, come back, launch easy to launch in a nice place. Um, That's only one. I'm sure kayakers, and I am a kayaker, would like more. But I think here it looks more like it's going to be a launch that would could appeal to fishermen, people with small, motorized, shallow drafted vessels get out there to fish. And then having the what is it, the floating dock that extends to the south that would be available for people to bring their kayaks or small craft down there. That seems like a good, a better solution from my point of view. |
| 02:42:23.27 | Melissa Blaustein | I am inclined to agree with that option. |
| 02:42:25.75 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Anyone else? Preference? |
| 02:42:28.99 | Alice Merrill | I'm not sure. |
| 02:42:29.46 | Jill Hoffman | I'm inclined to agree with, um, design option two as well. I think, um, Assuming that, um, the bulkhead, um, belongs to the city. I believe that it does. We absolutely have to fix that. I mean, we've been talking about that for 12 years, ever since I've been on the council. I remember talking about that with Jonathan, uh, Goldman. Um, And, uh, Yeah. Replacing this with the slips, you know, is imperative. I mean, I think we're going to have to do some dredging, which is going to be interesting with our regional partners. But since it's a replacement, I hope that it's not going to be insurmountable issues. So I look forward to moving forward on this. I think we've been working on this since 2024. So that's exciting. |
| 02:43:26.40 | Steven Woodside | Um, Ms. Merrill, you will, you may, since we heard from no one, we might as well hear from Alice. |
| 02:43:34.51 | Alice Merrill | . I think it's great, of course, me. I love, you know, the idea of people getting into the water and being able to be safe and getting their boats in, and it's something that this town should be doing. And I am absolutely thrilled that there's a possibility that we're actually... doing the the getting into the water for people. Thank you. |
| 02:43:57.36 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. So do we need a motion? |
| 02:44:03.17 | Joan Cox | The staff report just says receive and file and give direction. |
| 02:44:06.64 | Steven Woodside | So is it clear that you have four council members preferring option two? |
| 02:44:06.75 | Joan Cox | Thank you. his dick. |
| 02:44:13.33 | Steven Woodside | I'm certainly clear on that, Mayor. Okay. That's the action then. We'll now go on. Let's see. |
| 02:44:31.05 | Unknown | on some member committee. |
| 02:44:32.34 | Steven Woodside | Yeah, I think we are concluded with all of our business items. And we just have council member reports and other council business. So thank you, Katie, again. Committee reports. Any committee reports at this point? Seeing none, are... Future agenda items, I just want to note that posted already is a very preliminary October 6 agenda. Our hope is that at the conclusion of each one of our meetings, we can post what we think is likely to be on the next agenda, recognizing there will be additions. And we're going to try to stick to the idea that by at least a week earlier than normal, we'd have a pretty complete agenda with attachments. That's our goal. |
| 02:45:27.34 | Melissa Blaustein | Can I just a couple of announcements that I are THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:45:29.96 | Steven Woodside | Sure. |
| 02:45:30.29 | Melissa Blaustein | Just so folks don't. So if you've been following housing program eight and the future of the MLK housing site, as well as the corporation yard, I just want to make sure the community is aware of a few dates that were sent out in currents. There are going to be two community conversations, one with each developer who had responded to the RFP. The first is on September 22nd at the Sausalito Center for the Arts at 6 p.m. The second date, we may have to move. So that is TBD. But the RFP responses are now available online. And we'll also have a third meeting on Zoom where we'll provide a summary and collect further public comment before that comes back to the council. So I just wanted to make sure that everyone was in the know about that. And then just to say that there's only two jazzes left this year and the rest of the jazzes by the Bay are being organized by Felicia Gaston and rise Moran. So if you get an opportunity, That would be, it would be great to see all the community members there. And on that note, Felicia also let me know that there is a screening of Michael, the Michael Jackson story in partnership with Sausalito Marin City School District at the library on Thursday in Marin City. Yes. So- |
| 02:46:41.74 | Steven Woodside | In Marin City. Yeah. |
| 02:46:42.75 | Melissa Blaustein | Yes. So lots of opportunities to engage with our neighbors there. And I just wanted to share that out. And I know we're not meeting again before the boat show and the Sausalito, the city of Sausalito is a sponsor of the Sausalito boat show, which is going to be taking place the weekend of September 25th through the 27th. |
| 02:46:43.21 | Steven Woodside | Yeah. |
| 02:46:59.33 | Melissa Blaustein | That's it, sorry. |
| 02:47:00.56 | Steven Woodside | There's quite a bit. I think there's more actually. There's some SCA. Chili cook-off. There's chili cook-off. There's SCA. As I said earlier, there's so many, it's hard to keep track. |
| 02:47:04.03 | Melissa Blaustein | When you cook off? |
| 02:47:04.73 | Anas Pogny | Thank you. |
| 02:47:10.73 | Steven Woodside | Probably will be conflicts can attend them all. I'm attending. tomorrow in San Francisco a flag raising for the country of Chile, celebrating their Chilean day. And as many people know, on the first, Patricio, the council general from Chile, who resides in Sausalito, provided us with a flag, and we raised it in Vina del Mar Park, and it's going to fly all this month. So those are kind of fun events, but I think currents will probably be full of things |
| 02:47:51.07 | Melissa Blaustein | Dunphy Park ribbon cutting on Thursday at 10 a.m. in Dunphy Park because Sarah and our Department of Public Works and Park and Rec have done a lot of work there and saw Salado Beautiful. I'm sorry there's so many, but that feels really important. |
| 02:48:04.21 | Steven Woodside | John Fee Park 2, Ribbon Cunning, 10 a.m. |
| 02:48:08.34 | Melissa Blaustein | Thursday. |
| 02:48:09.14 | Steven Woodside | Thursday. Alice, are you sure you want to say something? Okay? |
| 02:48:18.84 | Alice Merrill | I think it's Monday. There's going to be the showing of the documentary that the Working Waterfront put out that's free to anybody in the Edgewater Room at 630. I believe it's this coming Monday. |
| 02:48:31.53 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:48:31.55 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 02:48:31.57 | Steven Woodside | Okay. |
| 02:48:32.22 | Alice Merrill | It's a good documentary. |
| 02:48:33.35 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. And, um, |
| 02:48:36.36 | Deirdre Coyne | We have other public comments online. |
| 02:48:38.25 | Steven Woodside | We do. |
| 02:48:42.30 | Deirdre Coyne | Kieran Culligan. |
| 02:48:46.48 | Unknown | Hi, good evening. Lots of exciting topics tonight. Thanks for letting us tune in. On future agenda, I'm interested to hear about progress on daylighting. I heard another public commenter, Ms. McDougall. Mentioned it earlier tonight, but we still don't comply with state law. in terms of new traffic safety laws, particularly on Caledonia Street. People have been hurt there. in the exact spots where we have delayed implementation. There was a motion several months ago to have red paint by, I believe it was August 1. We're well past that now, so I would love to hear an update of when we are going to see those safety improvements. Thank you. |
| 02:49:26.04 | Steven Woodside | Other public comments? |
| 02:49:27.20 | Deirdre Coyne | Next we have Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 02:49:30.83 | Sandra Bushmaker | I just wanted to confirm that Monday, the 21st at 630 at the Edgewater Room is the showing of the Working Waterfront Coalition's documentary on the Marin Sheriff. |
| 02:49:31.32 | Steven Woodside | Really? |
| 02:49:31.54 | Deirdre Coyne | you |
| 02:49:43.30 | Steven Woodside | Okay? All right. |
| 02:49:51.50 | Steven Woodside | Any other public comments on these items 6A through D? |
| 02:49:57.66 | Deirdre Coyne | Sing Nun online. |
| 02:49:58.61 | Steven Woodside | Okay, then we are adjourned. |
| 02:50:02.22 | Deirdre Coyne | Actually, man. |
| 02:50:02.96 | Steven Woodside | Oh, I'm sorry. We will be adjourning soon. But first, Ms. Hoffman. |
| 02:50:02.98 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 02:50:10.06 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the honor of, I'm, tonight I've been asked to adjourn the meeting in honor of Chris, Christine, Chris, Uh, Majora. She was a member of my community, and I've been asked by her family to close, depart a little bit from regular procedure where the mayor closes in honor of somebody. But she was a member of my neighborhood and the Majora family who's lived in my neighborhood for several generations. And Chris died unexpectedly on March 3rd of 2026. She was a longtime member of the Sausalio Police Department as a parking enforcement officer. She was the daughter of Dina and Elmo Majora, both of whose passed away and Chris was a beloved younger sister of Vince Majora, who many of us know. who's married to Leslie Majora. And John Majora. who's married to Melody Majora, all of whom live still in Spring Valley. She was the devoted partner for 35 years to Alan Eade and caring mom to Joe Frazier. |
| 02:51:20.60 | Jill Hoffman | and Jody Frazier. She's a loving Nona to Maddie, Lula, and Owen. and fund auntie to Kelsey. and mama to her level. Her lovely and loyal puppy, Gizmo. Chris was a proud, lifelong resident of Sausalito. Before retiring, she worked for the city of Sausalito, as I said, many years, she was an attendant at Lot 1. back when we used to have an attendant at lot one. |
| 02:51:46.25 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:51:47.25 | Jill Hoffman | later serving as a parking enforcement officer. She was a familiar, friendly face to countless locals and visitors. A true adventure at heart, Chris loved traveling across the country around the world, she was always planning her next journey, whether in her pickup truck, motorhome, houseboat, or on a cruise. Her sense of wonder never faded. She was captivated by big storms, the night sky, and the pursuit of the perfect sunset. We had a wonderful gathering. for her at her home. or at her family home in Spring Valley week ago on Saturday and it was a beautiful time with her family and her friends with music and laughter and fun. And I was so proud to be there with her family. as we celebrated her in the most special and spectacular way that we can only do here in Sausalito. She leaves behind a wide circle of family and friends, and community friend members. who will forever carry her spirit forward. deeply missed, and forever remembered. Thank you. |
| 02:52:57.99 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 02:53:03.29 | Deirdre Coyne | Thank you. |
| 02:53:07.76 | Steven Woodside | We stand adjourned at 7.55. |
| 02:53:13.88 | Deirdre Coyne | It's a wreck. |