Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: REGULAR AGENDA (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: POTENTIAL 2025 DISCUSSION TOPICS FOR THE SONOMA
COUNTY MAYORS AND COUNCILMEMBERS
Date: April 22, 2025
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a motion providing the Mayor with the City’s top three priorities for regional consideration at the upcoming Sonoma County Mayors and Councilmembers Board of Directors meeting.
Background
The City of Cotati is a member of the Sonoma County Mayors and Councilmembers Association (SCMCA), which provides a space for education, collaboration and advocacy on issues of common interest among cities in Sonoma County. The Board of Directors of SCMCA has requested that each city provide a list of priorities that would be good topics for regional collaboration.
The following is the request from the SCMCA Clerk, “We [Board of Directors] kindly ask each City/Town Council to identify and prioritize three key issues within their jurisdiction that require attention or action. These priorities will be discussed collectively at an upcoming special MCA Board of Directors meeting to find shared solutions and foster collaboration. The goal is to present these consolidated priorities to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to ensure alignment and effective resource allocation. Your input is invaluable in shaping strategies that benefit the region as a whole.”
The tentative date for the special Board of Directors meeting is May 22, 2025.
Analysis/Discussion
As stated in the Background, the goal of this item is to identify and prioritize three key issues in our community. At the upcoming Board of Directors meeting, each city will provide their own list, look for commonalities and ultimately agree on a set of priorities that the SCMCA can agree on to foster shared solutions and collaboration.
The Mayor and Vice-Mayor, with the City Manager, conducted an initial disucssion on some potential topics for the City Council to consider. However, these are just an initial list and subject to City Council discussion, additions, deletions and ultimately consensus. In no priority, the items for potential inclusion are:
1. Education in Sonoma County. Declining enrollment is beginning to impact our public school system and beginning conversations about ”right sizing” our school system.
There are many different organizations working to improve education, including various volunteer groups (PTAs, boosters) including business/corporate volunteers, new early child care funding (Measure I) coming in to supplement traditional State and Federal sources, and other funding sources that are not coordinated. For example, the City of Cotati provides after school and other enrichment programs at the Veronda Falletti Ranch. Additionally, there are 40 school districts in Sonoma County. Studies commissioned by the Sonoma County Office of Education recommend some consolidations to improve funding efficiencies.
2. Homeless Services in Sonoma County. The official mechanism for countywide collaboration is the Sonoma County Homeless Coalition Board, which is administered by County staff. The cities of Cotati and Rohnert Park have a joint representative, which is currently Rohnert Park Councilmember Elward. Cotati City Councilmember Sparks is the alternate. The cities of Santa Rosa and Petaluma are considered ”entitlement” cities, which means that they are direct recipients of all funding for homelessness and a variety of social services. The City of Cotati and the other incorporated cities in Sonoma County pool our populations together and pool it with the County so they can add it to the unincorporated area and pull in our collective local, State and Federal funding for homelessness and social services, among other funding sources. This is called the ”Urban County” and is why the City does not provide and is not funded for homelessness or social services directly - the County does this on our behalf. With uncertainty around Federal funding and continued efforts to improve the coordination and efficiency of the homeless system of care, there are renewed conversations around better coordination, reporting, accountability and ultimately funding. In particular, data collection and reporting needs further improvement to build confidence that the existing funds are being used most efficiently. This in turn will allow for prioritization of the most impactful programs and determination of funding gaps, if any.
3. Housing Supply. It is critical to the State, region and County to produce housing supply that people can afford. Without it, businesses are unable to recruit employees, and the local and state economy will suffer. The State Legislature has been focused on the cities and counties, primarily passing a torrent of legislation to limit local control, remove zoning limits and parking standards and allow for building ”by right”. As they reach the end of what is possible in these arenas, it is expected that they will begin focusing on impact fees. These impact fees are critical to improve local infrastructure to meet the demands of new development; curtailing impact fees would continue the State shift of the burden to the cities. While the City has entitled numerous developments, many have not moved forward.
Invariably, the issue is that they can’t find financing for the project, the market changes, and ultimately the entitled project does not move forward. Historically, there have been financing structures set up to pay impact fees or build public infrastructure through collective bonding or the State Infrastructure Bank. To staff’s knowledge, the inability to finance projects in a sustainable way has not been the subject of any recent legislation or serious legislative discussions. The only similar initiative in recent years was through the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA), which was planning to seek voter approval for a large ($20 billion) housing bond, including some funds reserved for a revolving loan fund. However, due to organized opposition and close polling, the plan was shelved. Additionally, currently there is a measure in the State Legislature for a $10 billion statewide housing bond. As currently drafted, this would only be half of what was planned for BAHFA in the Bay Area only and would only be a one-time injection of funds into housing. For a sustainable source of funding, the State or the region could establish a revolving fund and play a role as a low or no interest bank, or potentially as a guarantor of commercial loans, to reduce the cost of borrowing money through traditional banks or private equity. This, in turn, could significantly lower the financial barrier to development and get more affordable housing projects going.
Financial Considerations
There are no direct financial impacts with providing a list of priorities to the SCMCA Board of Directors.
Environmental Issues
Where it can be determined with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA review.
This general rule can be applied to activities which could be subject to the CEQA process, but which logic dictates should not be subject to CEQA review. Therefore, based on the information provided above, the proposed resolution is exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 14.03.021 of the CEQA Guidelines in that there is no possibility that the activity may have a significant impact on the environment.