Point Arena City Council
July 26, 2022

POINT ARENA CITY COUNCIL
Mayor Scott Ignacio
Vice Mayor Barbara Burkey
Councilmember Anna Dobbins
Councilmember Jim Koogle
Councilmember Richey Wasserman

MEETING MINUTES
JULY 26, 2022
6:00 PM

VIA TELECONFERENCE
https://zoom.us/s/84888251095
I. CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL
Scott Ignacio 00:12
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you to the regular Point Arena City Council monthly meeting of July 26 of 2022. We'll commence the meeting at 6:02pm. If I can get a roll call, please.

Paul Andersen 00:28
Councilmember Wasserman. Here. Councilmember Koogle. Here. Councilmember Dobbins. Here. Vice Mayor Burkey. Here. Mayor Ignacio. Here. Also present are city manager Paul Andersen, Deputy City Clerk Geana Gevas, City Attorney Giny Chandler.

II. READING
Scott Ignacio 00:49
Excellent. Thank you very much. My reading this month is going to be pretty short. I felt it was perfect for tonight's agenda. Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress and working together is success. Those words spoken by Henry Ford.

III. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Scott Ignacio 01:12
Folks, you've had an opportunity to take a look at the agenda this evening. And if there's questions or comments, I would like to entertain those after a motion to adopt the agenda as presented.

Barbara Burkey 01:27
I'll move to adopt the agenda.

Scott Ignacio 01:29
I have a motion from Vice Mayor Burkey and a second from Councilmember Wasserman. Are there any changes or amendments to the agenda by council? What about by staff? Okay, and if there's any questions from the public, like with all of our agenda items, please use the raise hand feature. Use star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute if on a phone. Not seeing any discussion on the agenda.

Can I get a roll call for approval?
Paul Andersen 02:05
Councilmember Wasserman? Yes. Councilmember Koogle? Yes. Councilmember Dobbins? Yes. Vice Mayor Burkey. Yes. Mayor Ignacio. Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

IV. MAYOR’S REPORTS
Scott Ignacio 02:18
Thank you. This evening, I'd like to introduce or invite Lieutenant JD Comer from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office to provide us with an update.

City of Point Arena
City Council Meeting Minutes – May 24, 2022

Lt. JD Comer 02:29
Good evening, I know the sheriff is in a poor cell area, and he's trying to tune in. But in the meantime, I'm actually currently overwhelmed. It's on another situation. So I don't have a full report for your month. But fortunately, I thought the meeting was last night. So I prepared for last night. So I got some stuff for memory or from memory. I know there was 27 calls for service over the last month.

Lt. JD Comer 02:57
And the biggest bunch of calls that are important to bring up is we had a uptick in burglaries as well as other theft related stuff. And that would include to vehicle thefts from the city of Point Arena. And so other calls for service outside of that we had a we had a domestic, we had suspicious circumstances. We also had call related to a welfare check. Everything else is pretty low key.

Lt. JD Comer 03:35
So I do know that we are doing some follow up on a daily basis down there on a couple of burglaries, one is outside the city of Point Arena. But the players involved I can tell you that we identified are from out of the area. So I'd remind everybody to stay cognitive of your surroundings. And then make sure you know that you lock your vehicle you lock your house up when you leave. And take those extra safety precautions because you just never know. If you do see anything that's out of the ordinary, you know, people that you don't recognize in the community that might not be in a location that you think is the location that they should be in please report that to us and let us know. So it might possibly have a relationship to what we're looking into currently.

Scott Ignacio 04:32
It's an excellent report. As always, I just want to remind the public that the sheriff's office continues to encourage you to contact them through the dispatch center 911 If it's an emergency or use the regular phone number if it's informational and there is no reason that they would ever turn a call away or be upset with you calling. Is that still the case?
Lt. JD Comer 04:56
That is correct. Yep, please, please be our eyes when we don't have eyes on that area you might be occupying. So and other than that, if I know the sheriff has was able to join. Does anybody have any questions for me before I get off here because I'm have to move on to something else. Go ahead.

Anna Dobbins 05:16
I'd like to ask that we announce and post what the alternative number is besides 911.

Lt. JD Comer 05:28
So the best non emergency number to call from the Point Arena area would be 707-961-2421. An alternate number would be 707-463-4086. And those respectively are Fort Bragg office and the Ukiah office. Yeah, those both of those numbers I gave you the first one because it's more local to the coast, even though it's a Fort Bragg prefix. Both numbers go directly to our dispatch center, which is 24/7.

Scott Ignacio 06:08
Any other questions for Lieutenant Comer?
Scott Ignacio 06:12
Thank you, JD for being here and have a safe night. Before we drop off this, I thought I saw Sheriff Kendall, Oh, there he is. Good evening, Matt.

Matt Kendall 06:27
How are you?
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City Council Meeting Minutes – May 24, 2022

Scott Ignacio 06:28
Doing good. Doing real good. How are you?
Matt Kendall 06:32
Well, little tired. I'm down ready to Sonoma County Line looking at this fire that kicked off on 101 hoping that it gets beaten down pretty quick. But they're hitting it pretty hard with a lot of aircraft. Right now I'm biting my nails off because if it hits the canopy, it just might be able to pick up legs and go for a run right now. Kind of in a brush pile. So I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that CalFire stays with it. And they're doing a good job so far.

Matt Kendall 06:59
So just a few high level things at the sheriff's office. And I'm sorry, I had so much trouble trying to find some cell service down here. We have some good things going on, especially in our jail. I don't know if everybody saw the the posts and whatnot that were going out from chicken coops and the work that we've been doing over there. But also we've got a full time gardener now. And so we're having, I mean I've got to tell you, the jail grounds are absolutely beautiful at this point. And the ladies and men who are working over there, you know, working in our garden crew and whatnot are really getting a deep education into this to this gardener that we've hired has an extensive background in, in soils, biology and things like that. It's mind boggling how much information these folks are taking in and doing a really good job.

Matt Kendall 07:58
We were able to hire a third person, behavioral health, for that program that we've been doing, where we're putting a first responder, you know, a deputy sheriff with behavioral health worker. And they're going with us out to a lot of these calls. And they're showing up with a big bag of tools that that Joe Average Deputy Sheriff doesn't have, they've got tools and education, they did some really quick calculations earlier in the month before a MAC meeting. And it looks like we have cut down the hours wise by about 60%. And I think that we're having better service to the community working with these folks, because they are not deteriorating into that crisis, where we're meeting them halfway and making sure they've got what they need. So those that ounce of prevention is really turning out to be worth a pound of cure. And I'm happy with it. I'm really super stoked about our work together with behavioral health on the build out of the jail, the new wing of the jail is going really well and I think that's going to provide greater services to those who are incarcerated especially those folks who have severe mental health and other issues. I think that we're going to get somewhere with that so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this economy does not you know dryout.

Matt Kendall 07:58
A couple of other things. We're beginning to mail theft again. I don't know if he brought it up before I got in. Look out for your neighbors. You know, in fact, I wanted to throw out there is you know, fire, fire, fire, it seems like we're getting fires every day. Everything that we do we need to think about, you know, how does this you know packed our homes, our neighbors, let's put some thought into it before we go around the lawn mower, the weed eater, things like that. So I'll be happy to answer any questions if anybody has anything. As always, you know, on the south coast, we have a lot of neighbors who are looking out for each other and being our eyes and ears on the street. And I really appreciate it. It's these good partnerships with our communities, they're going to serve us the best.

Scott Ignacio 10:24
Excellent. Appreciate that, Matt. Now, before I go to Jennifer, is there anyone from the council that has a question for sheriff Kendall? Okay, Barbara.

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Barbara Burkey 10:36
Yes. Sheriff Kendall, you mentioned a third behavioral specialist that has been hired by the county. And is that part of the Measure B proceeds that that is that paying for that position? Matt Kendall 10:51
Yes, that those three positions were funded by Measure B.

Barbara Burkey 10:54
Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Scott Ignacio 10:58
And I'm just going to add one little piece in about your gardening thing. I'm glad to hear about that. But I thought I saw something recently a few months back that they learned a little bit about beekeeping, too.

Is that right?
Matt Kendall 11:10
Oh, yeah. I teach a class over there once a week. And it deals with you know, I got him some books and some different literature. And so they do some book work when they're back over in their modules. And then we go over it and we do some, some reading and things like that. And then we do about three hours a week, hands on. And I gotta tell you, I don't know what we're going to wind up doing with all the honey.

So there's going to be a lot of it this year. We've got honey supers that I got a couple of really strong young men over there. And I let them lift them off the beehives because I'm not as young as what I once was.

Scott Ignacio 11:48
Well, that's great. Jennifer, do you want to unmute and say, good evening.

Jennifer Smallwood 11:52
Yeah, good evening. I just wanted to make sure that the sheriff or deputy or representative knew about Fire Safe meeting on Thursday. I don't know if Paul, if you get to come up and see if they could show up.

Maybe you could fill him in on that one.

Scott Ignacio 12:09
Okay, Sheriff, did you hear the comment? There's a fire safe meeting over here in Point Arena on Thursday. I think I can get Paul to send you the information if he hasn't already.

Matt Kendall 12:21
That would be great. I don't know if Garrett from the Office of Emergency Services has already got the information. But we will have some representative there.

Scott Ignacio 12:30
Thanks so much, Sheriff. Be safe out there and don't get burned.

Matt Kendall 12:37
Thank you so much. You guys. Have a wonderful evening.

Scott Ignacio 12:39
Thank you very much. All right. This point, we have any other council reports for city related meetings or committees or Commission reports. Vice Mayor Burkey.

V. COUNCIL REPORTS
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Barbara Burkey 12:55
As usual, I have been attending the EDFC meetings. And that's the Economic Development and Finance Corporation. We have been experiencing difficulty in achieving a quorum. So we've been trying to find ways to reengage our board and make our meetings more interesting and, you know, still accomplish business but have something extra for our members. And what we've done is reached out to our some of our nonprofit partners, and have them give a presentation at the beginning of our meeting. And that's been really, really interesting. And one of them was with the food hub. And one thing that I learned that was really kind of mind blowing, is that small family farms in Mendocino County, are usually less than one acre. And so you know, when you think about where you're spending your money, for vegetables, and groceries, really think about your small family farm, and supporting them and shop the farmer's markets, and shop, whoever has a foods stand, and really, you know, give something to our community through your grocery shopping. So that's that.

Barbara Burkey 14:22
Then I also wanted to comment on HarborFest, which is coming up on Sunday, September 4. And we've started our planning process, and I've everything kind of chugging along, but as usual, we're going to need volunteers. So I'll be on the telephone probably calling everybody on this meeting, to see if you can help with selling tickets or working in a food booth or maybe being a bartender or some other fun job that we can cook up for you. So if you want to be pre emptive call me first, it will saveme calling you. So anyway, that's on September 4, and it's our annual fundraiser for the Point Arena Pier.

Scott Ignacio 15:08
Thank you, Vice Mayor Burkey.

Barbara Burkey 15:10
Giny, did you have a question for me?
Scott Ignacio 15:12
How about I run the meeting? Giny, can you unmute for us, please? Giny Chandler 15:21
I just wanted to remind Council, Vice Mayor Burkey, that ABC has changed their rules. And if you're going to bartend now at a public event, you actually have to take their class. I learned the hard way, because I'm taking the class.

Scott Ignacio 15:38
I got my class notice here too. I know exactly what you're talking about. It just went into effect this month.

Giny Chandler 15:46
It's August 31, I believe is when you have to be certified.

Barbara Burkey 15:52
Thanks for the heads-up.

Scott Ignacio 15:54
And they're gonna start doing compliance checks. As soon as September 1, it says, so. Yeah, I got one of those notices from the ABC. Anyone else? We're gonna move on to Section VI, which is Privilege of the Floor. This is the time for members of the public who wish to be heard on matters that do not appear on tonight's agenda. The Council's policy is to limit each speaker to three minutes pursuant to the Brown Act. The City Council will not be taking action on items that do not appear on the agenda. Please note City of Point Arena
City Council Meeting Minutes – May 24, 2022

that you also have an opportunity to speak on items that are on the agenda subsequent to their presentation. With that, would anyone like to use the raise hand feature be recognized? I'll be asking your name for the audio record for privilege of the floor. We're gonna give it a few seconds privilege of the floor. I'm gonna recognize Jennifer Smallwood.

VI. PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR
Jennifer Smallwood 17:00
I didn't see it on the agenda. And you had asked last month for a report back about the Point Arena Fire Safe Council. And so the report is that Thursday this week, Paul and I put together a gathering of whoever shows up to inform the community about resources for emergencies. And it's not, it's just for fire. But it's for everything. And it is not really going to be directed at people that usually you hear the, you know, 100 foot defensible space. It's for people that live in town, businesses that are in town. It'll sort of be directed to the kind of needs that we have as a town, or the city more than people outside the city.

Of course, if people who live outside the city are absolutely welcome to come. And as you heard, we invited the sheriff spoken to people at the high school so they can give us an information about our Red Cross evacuation center that they are supposed to be keeping plot, Paul, or somebody from the city is going to talk about what resources the city has.

Scott Ignacio 18:30
Question Jennifer. You told me it's Thursday. Can you give the public a time and a place? Jennifer Smallwood 18:37
Yes, Thursday at five o'clock, at the Point Arena Fire Station on Lake Street right by CalFire.

Jennifer Smallwood 18:55
The idea is to have an outside, you know, on the tarmac on the tarmac on the apron. So it won't be you don't have to be inside a building or anything. But it is going to be in person, there's not going to be a Zoom or anything. We've done a lot of really positive feedback from businesses as I've gone around and ask people to put up posters and talk to them about their concerns. And then just people on the street seem really interested. So the idea is to have a general information session with the different agencies and we can, you know, contribute from the community, what we know about the resources that are available, and then make clear that people what we really need to do is make ourselves as individuals prepared for emergencies.

Jennifer Smallwood 19:42
And to that end, once a month, we will be able to use the library, has given us the community room for meeting. We'll have topic meetings. We don't have dates yet, but there'll be at the meeting and so we'll be able to tell people at the meeting and then we'll posted on public social media where when the meetings are, but we'll have the first one will be go bags. And you know how to put this together how we can help each other actually do go back. So I think that's, that's about it. Yeah. Oh Firesafe Mendocino will be there and they'll be talking about their resources. RCMS is going to send somebody.

Scott Ignacio 20:30
Thanks so much, Jennifer. I'm glad you're participating in that and getting that organized.

Anna Dobbins 20:36
Yeah, thank you, Jennifer.

Scott Ignacio 20:38
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I'm gonna try and make that. Alright, anyone else for privilege of the floor using the raised hand feature? Okay, not seeing any we're gonna move on.

VII. CONSENT CALENDAR
Scott Ignacio 20:49
We have the consent calendar as iItem VII. These are matters that are considered to be routine by the City and usually approved with one motion and second and a vote. If a member of the council wants to call one of these times, state stone and we can discuss it separately. But if there are none, I would entertain a motion to approve the Consent Calendar as presented. Vice Mayor Burkey moved and Councilmember Dobbins seconds. If there's no discussion or questions from the public, we will go to a vote now, please.

Paul Andersen 21:32
Councilmember Wasserman? Yes. Councilmember Koogle. Yes. Councilmember Dobbins? Yes. Vice Mayor Burkey. Yes, Mayor Ignacio. Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

VIII REPORTS/ACTION ITEMS
A. Arena Cove Recycling Center
Scott Ignacio 21:45
This takes us to Item VIII, reports and action items tonight. The main part of our meeting. VIII A will be the Arena Cove Recycling Center. I'd like to turn it over staff for an introduction and report.

Paul Andersen 21:58
Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So this regards the Arena Cove recycling center. We received word from Recology recently that they are considering closing the recycling facility due to ongoing issues with contamination, which renders much of the recycling collected unusable in the secondary market. Point Arena has provided a location for drop off recycling for many years, starting as a successful operation that accepted bottles, cans and cardboard. And over the years, the facility expanded especially after haulers decided to move towards single stream recycling, which was theoretically supposed to encourage recycling and make it easier.

Paul Andersen 22:36
When the city permitted Recology to take over the waste hauling contract from Pacific Coast Disposal in 2017 we were assured there would not be any changes in service. A year later, Recology came back and requested that Solid Waste of Willits be allowed to subcontract waste hauling, and again the city was told there would be no degradation of service. Since that time, however, the recycling facility at Sea Ranch closed which dramatically increased recycling drop off in Point Arena. The Arena Cove facility has been allowed to fall into disrepair with most of the dumpsters broken and or unsightly. Recently Recology requested the facility be closed altogether due to contamination and recycling. Closure of the facility would leave one regional recycling facility - the South Coast Transfer Station on Fish Rock Road, which itself has limited hours.

Paul Andersen 23:28
The contract that Recology and SWOW operate under requires pickup and processing of the recycling facility and Arena Cove. The original contract we had with Pacific Coast Disposal states that they will assume responsibility for the transportation and processing for the recycling center and will provide the bins and collection schedule to maintain the necessary level of service for the center. With the Recology City of Point Arena
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Sonoma transition plan for Point Arena in 2017, they stated Recology understands the Point Arena utilizes a recycle center public depot. Services will continue as previously provided and Recology will partner with the city staff to ensure education and outreach promotes recycling and minimizes illegal dumping at the site.

Paul Andersen 24:16
Your city manager does not recommend closing the recycling center. And I believe that there's a mutual agreement that can be reached between the city and the hauler. Both Recology and SWOW have presented two options for the recycling center which was included in the staff report. And I'm going to turn it over now, unless you have any questions for me, to Jerry Ward of Solid Waste of Willis and Fred Stemmler of Recology.

Scott Ignacio 24:44
If there's questions for Paul, use the raise hand feature now or console raise your hand if not. Jerry, you want to start us off.

Jerry Ward, SWOW 24:53
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, but I think Fred was going to take the lead on this but I will follow up Scott Ignacio 25:00
Okay, good evening, Fred. Good to see you again.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 25:02
A good evening. Is my audio coming through okay?
Scott Ignacio 25:05
You sound great, sir.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 25:06
Okay, thank you. So I appreciate the summary on the history here. The reality that we're facing right now is the Recycle Center is turned into an unpermitted illegal transfer station. So requirements state, then the recycling center have 10% or less than 10% contamination facility. This site has been and continues to be well over that threshold just due to illegal contamination that is really a problem. It's the product that is salvageable is essentially degraded to more or less waste, depending on what kind of contaminants are in there.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 25:51
And I understand the concern and understand the history. I think there are ways to mitigate the concerns about illegal dumping by essentially having a transition plan that protects the site from illegal dumpers, and holding them accountable when it takes place. I've done this in other communities where similar facilities have have closed, there's a transition period, it's usually short. And then people have the option to subscribe to service both in point arena as well as the surrounding area. That will be where things transition to. So we are recommending closure of this facility. But I'm definitely here to listen as well. And understand what the priorities and concerns are here from either the public, or anybody here with the city.

Scott Ignacio 26:49
How about a question from Vice Mayor Burkey?
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Barbara Burkey 26:56
So when you say transition plan? Do you mean that individuals who don't have trash and recycling service would get trash and recycling service? And you would service their homes? Fred Stemmler, Recology 27:09
Yeah, if they're, if they're within city limits, and they do currently don't subscribe to service, we absolutely start and stop service for anybody that needs to so yeah, absolutely. I mean, the reality is, anybody who doesn't have service currently and is using that center, they have to be...I guess there is a chance that they could be taking their recycling there and then driving their trash to the transfer station, but the reality is they're there. They're putting it all in the recycling center, which is why we have the contamination.

Barbara Burkey 27:44
So you mentioned or Paul mentioned that since the Sea Ranch lost their recycling center that that has increased the traffic in our center by by a lot. And so do you serve a Sonoma County as well? Do you service Sea Ranch?
Fred Stemmler, Recology 28:04
We do. And we worked with that community closed that center. I'm not aware of an uptick. I haven't done a volumetric study there. I'm not challenging the assumption, or the statement that that it's increased there, but I have not had issue at Sea Ranch. So all those homes have the option to subscribe to service and we've seen those kinds of adjustments take place.

Barbara Burkey 28:28
Do you have any figures on how many people do have service within the city limits of Point Arena? And within the city limits of Gualala and the Sea Ranch?
Fred Stemmler, Recology 28:37
I don't have Gualala. I do have Sea Ranch and Point Arena, but I don't have that with me.

Barbara Burkey 28:44
Okay, because that would be interesting to know, because I'm a big proponent of everybody having garbage service at their home. And I just like to know how many people actually do.

Scott Ignacio 28:57
Yeah. Barbara, if I can jump in. I just like to remind the public that Recology does not service the Gualala area.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 29:08
Yep. We don't service the county area around Point Arena either. So Point Arena is kind of an island for Recology. Jerry services around the surrounding area. So there is service options all around. I do know from my historical research here and I can get this current. At my last look, there were a couple of businesses in town that did not have service that I was told are utilizing the recycle center as an alternative. And there are some homes but at last check, I believe there was approximately 80 residents that were currently subscribed to service.

Barbara Burkey 29:50
So I would address my question about Gualala to, and we'll all listen to, Mr. Jerry Ward Jerry Ward, SWOW 30:00
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your welcome.

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Scott Ignacio 30:06
So Barbara, do you want Jerry to answer or can Richey ask Fred a question.

Barbara Burkey 30:09
Oh, we could wait until Jerry comes on and does his follow up.

Scott Ignacio 30:15
Okay, Councilmember Wasserman?
Richey Wasserman 30:22
Thank you. The three of us that live here on our property have been using the recylcing center from it's beginning. It worked at the Pier about 20 years ago. And at that time, we were doing our original recycling and, and so I've been familiar with the situation there. During the intervening years, 10% of non recyclable goods would consist of one complete full bin of those large bins out of 10. And in my experience, I have not seen an excess of that, although I won't, I don't mean to argue the assessment.

But that it doesn't appear to be that bad. I know, there has been an increase in garbage and non recyclables there over the past few years. And I regret that we all do that, I think an addition of signage, significant signage, not just one sign saying, you know, please recycle, but instructions on how to recycle what needs to be recycled, et cetera, which we once had down there a number of years ago, would help a lot. Also a closure at nighttime, I think, is probably a necessary move also, that I completely reject the necessity for eliminating our recycling there at the cove. Thank you, Scott Ignacio 32:13
Jerry, are waiting for that. Actually. Mr. Ward, hold on. Just one moment. Councilmember Dobbins, Anna Dobbins 32:19
I'm just wondering if it might be something that could help the situation because I have seen an up surge of not recyclable materials being put into the bins, I use the Recycle Center, and I have from like Richey so many, very many years. And I'm so grateful to have that service. And, but I wonder if if there's a way to perhaps put some presence at the Recycle Center, or maybe limit the hours of delivery or acceptance of materials, and have someone there so that we could stop the unwanted garbage being dropped into the recycle. I just thought of perhaps some presence of someone there.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 33:23
That is an alternative that we're willing to discuss it, I can tell you from firsthand experience, that it requires that vigilance and the restriction of that, you know, a couple of bad actors is all it takes to room the product that's otherwise recoverable. You know, people come in there. So what I've seen historically is people come in there with paint cans, for instance, have to use paint cans. And if the facility is closed and inaccessible, they can hook something like that over the fence and into the into the material. Once something product like that saturates fiber, it's all trash. It's one hypothetical example. There are ways to mitigate this. But to limit to limit access, essentially, you have to look at security concerns, you have to look at oversight. Signage is is a good thing. It's oftentimes ignored.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 34:24
There are historically a collection of bad actors that that will essentially offset all of the good efforts for a facility like this. And that's that's why they are becoming less and less prevalent in communities. It's just the the curbside collection is where things have evolved, where people would sign up for service. So anyways, I'm beating the same drum here, but I understand the the connection to this and the history. If it does remain in place I think it probably has to look like something more like it originated, where there are a limited amount of materials that are accepted. And there's oversight of that facility while those things are collected so that we don't find people clearing, clearing their waste with their recycling materials.

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Scott Ignacio 35:21
Thank you for it, it's pretty disturbing to look at the report that's in our packet. And, you know, and I hear what Richey and Barbara and Anna are saying. But like Fred illustrated, it's, pizza grease on a cardboard box is a contaminated item that cannot be recycled. And you see the examples that are in here, and I'm sure these are not, I mean, these these are less than a month ago. I think one of the things we should do is step up our security down there, I know we have the ability to do that. And maybe actually put in some equipment without too much expense that would pay off that will actually capture the license plates of these offenders that are identified and we call out and get this to stop.

Scott Ignacio 36:26
There's someone under the name of Jim A, that I'm going to next and he's going to state his full name for me. Is this on this topic?
James Ossian 36:35
Yeah, I'm James Ossian. I'm a new resident in Point Arena. And I'll be teaching at the high school this fall. I'm very concerned about any kind of recycling that will happen near a body of water, such as the Pacific Ocean. And I'm just a little alarmed that there's even anything down there. And certainly, you know, if Mr. Stemler could speak to what happens to, you know, any kind of contaminant? Does it leak through the concrete does it make its way into the water or the creek or, you know, how bad is the the environmental damage that we can't see, but historically is probably there.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 37:24
So the containers there, if we are going to continue using the facility down there, we have talked about container replacement, because the corrosion that containers are subjected to from sitting out there is extreme with salt water. Jerry has made a proposal to essentially replace them with plastic. Lids have to remain closed at all times so that water doesn't hit the material and then degrade the value of the material. If there's contaminants in there, which it currently is in excess of 10%. Any water that passes through the containers and hits the ground is technically considered leachate. If there's any hazardous materials that make its way through and hit the ground, you know, any, any flooding that takes place in the areas, you know, that does occur periodically, at least in the five years I've been here. It's come up a few times, you know, anything that hits the ground is subject to wash out any material that's, you know, hit by flooding courses going to be immediately you know, worthless as far as a recoverable commodity.

So, yeah, it is definitely a sub optimal location for the facility even if it's operating as intended.

Scott Ignacio 38:43
All right. Mr. Ward's been very patient. We're gonna get to Councilmember Dobbins and Jennifer in a minute.

Jerry Ward, SWOW 38:59
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Jerry Ward, Solid Waste of Willits. We've been hauling now about a year and a half through a subcontract with Recology and have noticed a big increase in the amount of recyclables coming in, maybe it's because of the Sea Ranch closure. I think people from outside the city are using it more. And Barbara I don't know the number of customers outside the city, as opposed to not having service but I'm sure there's quite a few. But I'd like to bring up a couple of points. Paul and my driver route driver Joey Smith had been looking at other locations for the implementation of moving the site to another location. We looked at a couple but because of the Coastal Zone and all it was very difficult. But one of the problems we've been having with the new paving and more boats at the Pier. Maneuvering the trucks to get in there to dump has been a little bit of a difficulty. And of course, as you know the dumpsters don't roll too well, so forklift have to bring them out. We hope that maybe the plastic dumpsters can rectify that a little better, because they roll much easier, they're lighter, and whatnot. So we certainly want to move in that direction.

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Jerry Ward, SWOW 40:15
But the other item is we operate nine drop off recycling centers in the county, and all of them are manned and all of them are closed during closed hours. So we don't get the contamination as much from from those sites, various sites in Boonville, Albion, Casper, Westport, Potter Valley. All of those locations are manned. So I think we need to consider that in the future. Because we are getting more and more materials. We're not seeing it in the dumpsters when we dump. But when the material comes over to Willits to get sorted, we're finding a lot of more contamination, because we have to sort all those recyclables by hand, we're finding needles, we're finding small pieces of metal, medication, that kind of stuff that is really a concern to my operators, so you may not see it when you go in there, because a dumpster may be half full or full. But it's a problem. So at our sites, we have somebody monitoring that material, before it gets into we collect, do we do we catch all of it? No. But we do minimize it by having somebody review what people dispose of, for recycling and or their garbage, we do load checking as well. So those are our concerns.

Jerry Ward, SWOW 41:34
So if we're looking at keeping it open, we certainly would like to have some closure on it after hours, we will provide better dumpsters, but it'd be nice to have somebody there monitoring material as well as passing out educational material to the public as to what hours they will be open and what materials we will collect. cs through through seven, there's no market for it anymore. It's all garbage. We're willing to, to take maybe the number of ones and number twos, but there just just as in anything for all the other plastics. So if we can minimize those kinds of things, that would be a big, big help. So when you look at contamination, you're not just looking at garbage, you're looking at materials that are not recyclable, or at least a market for them. So that to us is also contamination.

Jerry Ward, SWOW 42:25
Other than that, if we're going to move forward, then I would suggest that we meet with an Ad Hoc committee or city manager and come back with a proposal of what we'd like to see. I know we're not going to look at another location because it's difficult, but try to maintain something down there where a truck doesn't have to wait to move boats and things to get in there on Monday morning. So and again, I mean, is it the responsibility, the City of Point Arena to actually service all the county area to for a drop off, people can take the same material to the Fish Rock Road transfer station, which will operate and if they're bringing in appliances, or oil or electronics, they can dump that at there as well for free of charge.

So anyway, that was my concerns and issues. And thank you for letting me discuss it.

Scott Ignacio 43:18
Thank you, Mr. Ward. I'd like to go to Jennifer Smallwood, and then we'll go to Councilmember Dobbins.

Jennifer?
Jennifer Smallwood 43:33
If you're going to tell everybody in Point Arena that it's only for the city. So recycling, let's pretend. Well, the alternative is to pay for trash pickup. And then recycling isn't free, which does not seem like a fair trade to me. It's like now we have free recycling. And I have the option to gather all the trash that I need.

And I can take it up to the dump when I need to. I barely have a five gallon bucket of trash every month. I don't want to pay for trash pickup. We're not required to so I don't want to. I don't see how that that works, that our trash people are going to get rid of our free recycling, and then tell us Oh, you'll get free recycling at your house. But not really because you have to pay for trash to get free recycling at your house. So that doesn't seem like right. That doesn't seem fair to me for the people that don't have trash pickup or don't need it. And I would say anybody who lives by themselves, or even two people can't fill up a trash can if you're recycling properly, you know, anyway. And then, I feel like I'm pretty educated and I didn't know the thing about plastics one and two and seven and whatever numbers they are. I really think we got to go all to education.

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Jennifer Smallwood 44:59
We really need to educate everybody about what is acceptable. I mean, I didn't know if I put a plastic bag in that contaminates the recycling, I wouldn't do that, if, you know, it meant that we weren't going to get to have recycling at the Cove, or at our house, whatever. So I think we really, I agree with the people that said, on the city council that said, we need to have some, some real some really some education, which might even include actually sending fliers to everybody's house saying, Look, you know, whether they're a customer or not, it's like, here's a flyer, and you can stick it in your, in your kitchen on your recycle bucket, or whatever. And this is now at this time, this is what can be recycled. And like the gentleman said, they're not going to take the 678 whatever number plastics anymore because they don't work. Well, you can't just do that and then not tell anybody. I mean, how are people supposed to know that's a contamination? So I feel like we're a little bit jumping the gun? BI really, really, really feel strongly that if we're going to take away that recycling, because we're going to, you know, you want to be convinced that only people from Point Arena get to use that recycling. And then we get to have free recycling at our house. And we don't, we're not required to pick up trash. You're not, we're not required to have a trash pickup, to do recycling at our house. If you're going to take that away, there has to be a different way. We shouldn't have to drive all the way to Annapolis, Fish Rock, or whatever. If the city really wants to have recycling, because all the mattresses that you see on the side of the road. Oh, my goodness, when you close that recycling, it's not it's not going to be pretty.

Scott Ignacio 46:50
Mattresses are not recyclable. The only thing I'd like to comment at first, you have a great position when you say educating people. But, you know, this recycling center was set up for the citizens of Point Arena.

Our our ability to mail to those citizens information is - we could do that. But part of the problem is, and we're trying to identify is that we have actors from outside the area. I we've said it in previous meetings, the capacity of recyclables that are showing up are down there exceed what Point Arena citizens generate. We need to figure out how to get through to those people, either by enforcement and or education. But I think Jennifer is on the right spot about you know, I didn't know it until Mr. Ward said that ones and twos is all we're looking at now. You know, it's there are publications on those of us that have service, they have pictures on the CANS that say what numbers they do and don't take, and I and I'm on you're educated on what the difference between a six and a seven is. Those are the right numbers. But since Fred has his hand up, I'm gonna go to Fred now.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 48:16
I thank you very much. The comment is actually a wonderful example of what we as the collectors have to contend with. As far as assumptions that users make. And as far as you know, blanket mailers for education, we cannot be expected to mail to produce, distribute and educate people who aren't signed up for service. I mean, it costs money to do all of that. The trucks cost hundreds of thousands of dollars just to purchase, let alone to operate and come 52 weeks a year. So while recycling is included in the cost of service, as a component of it, it is a very costly service to provide. And then and then is to also take the burden on to educate everyone is to work through the assumptions. I see the same thing that Jerry does through the recycling where we we have people put in hypodermic needles, like diabetic diabetic medicine, assuming that, oh, it's a plastic syringe and a metal needle. Both of those must be recycling. We have firearms come through the facility. I'm just I'm baffled and horrified by what people assume is recyclable and aren't willing to take the time to educate themselves or go to any of the many countless websites that that educate us what is and is not allowed in regular streams. So it is it is a burden that we're happy to take on with our customers. But for those that aren't our customers, I don't even know where to start as far as educating people when the facility is open to all.

Scott Ignacio 49:58
Fred, do you have a service or a model that, like, Jennifer was saying there's a lot of single or single person households that elect to go to Fish Rock when they have enough of a load to justify going up there. Does Recology or SWOW have a program that there's like a neighborhood program or, you know, City of Point Arena
City Council Meeting Minutes – May 24, 2022

they can put all their trash in one area kind of sounds like our recycle center. But do you have any kind of programs for people on limited income?
Jerry Ward, SWOW 50:40
I like to I like to comment on that. Here in Mendocino County, in North County, as well as Anderson Valley where we collect. First of all, recycling isn't free. It's built into the garbage rate, because we didn't want to start charging people for recycling. And then I just said, Well, why am I giving you all this valuable material, and you're charging for it so it isn't free. But what we have here at our routes, and I'm not advocating this because I don't control the contract with Point Arena. But we do have a recycling only charge. I think our rate in the city of Willits is $8 a month and they we provide them a 95 gallon recycling cart, just picked up. Or we have a service where they can get a 35 gallon cart, or a 20 gallon insert on 35 gallon cart and have it picked up once a month, or every other week, or they get a cart and they call us when it's full when we they know the area that will be and so those people like Jennifer was talking about where they have a small bucket, they could just put it out there every other week, once a month. That's the service we provide in the county, and in some cases, even the city of Willits, but we do have recycling only services for those people that just maybe have a business and they take their garbage to their business dumpster, but they want to have recycling picked up with their home, we just charge a minimal fee for that service. So that's something that could be adopted by the city. But that has to be approved by Recology.I'm not in control of the contract.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 52:12
Recology does have some contracts there I guess from the Ratterree cycle only services, I can tell you they are when when we audit the service, either the driver will look at the lid there invariably is contaminants that are in there that that show their non compliant. Very, very rarely. I've seen one that can actually make that as a standalone service work without having something like Jerry said, where they have a business in which they can take their their waste actually someplace even even a single person living in a home generates trash, it is inevitable. Not everything is recyclable.

Scott Ignacio 52:53
Okay, I think we're in all of agreement. Before I go to Barbara, I just want to give Councilmember Dobbins an opportunity, she's waited patiently.

Anna Dobbins 53:02
Thank you, I just want to reiterate that I think that monitoring the facility would be a great help in facilitating the effectiveness of the recycling center. I mean, it may be sound simplistic, but if someone is there to monitor, then the bad actors who are contaminating will not show up. And I think that that's a relatively simple solution. I know it's a monetary thing that we'll have to our financial thing that we'll have to deal with. But I think that that's something that we need to address on top as well as a thank you, Jennifer, that reiteration and they're very, very, very important educating people. But I also think that having a monitor at the recycling center, unfortunately, I think is really necessary. My other question was that was already addressed was what is their alternative site if we don't have recycling that Point Arena, it down at the pier? And it was addressed though, so thank you very much for that.

Scott Ignacio 54:23
Thank you, Councilmember Dobbins Vice Mayor Burkey follow up.

Barbara Burkey 54:28
Yeah, I just wanted to address Jennifer's concerns about just having a small amount of garbage and some recycling that she does every few weeks. And you know, I am a single person and I don't generate very much garbage either. But I lend my can to my neighbors, and between me and two other neighbors, we fill the can every week, and they recycle in my recycling too. And that's a really nice way to kind of do your duty as ours recycling and garbage service and be able to allow your neighbors to do it as well, with City of Point Arena
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no cost to them. Or they can chip in a couple of bucks to me, I don't care, you know, but that's one thing that people could consider is kind of banding together and sharing you can. And then the other point that I wanted to do is a question and it's for Paul Andersen. Paul, in the past, we've talked about manning the facility on a restricted basis. And do we have any recycling grant money that could fund that position? Paul Andersen 55:39
Well, so we receive a $5,000 grant annually from CalRecycle. And in the past, we have used actually most, if not all of that money on personnel. And that is a function of keeping the containers from overflowing. And there was a lot of compaction that needed to be done, which presented other problems.

So there is some funding available for a position of someone that would just solely be doing that, but I don't know how far that would get you at $5,000. We do also receive a $6,000 franchise hauler tax fee a year from Recology, as well. So if you utilize that as well, you'd have $11,000 a year just solely for recycling. It's difficult, because there are I mean, frankly, there are people, probably most of the people, that recycle are from outside of the City of Point Arena. And that's a function on the fact that there aren't any recycling facilities on the south coast except for the South Coast Transfer Station. And so people come here, and there has been quite a bit of abuse of the facility in the last year for sure, of people there's using it as their garbage depository, whether they know it's recycling, they're not they're using it that way. And we have in the last two years, the Sheriff and the DA have prosecuted two bad actors who knowingly dumped a voluminous amount of waste in our recycling facility, and they were charged and fined. And actually one of them did community service for the city as kind of a penance, I guess. Anyway.

I think there's other alternatives. I'll stop now. But I do have some more comments I'd like to make about that. As far as personnel at the pier, I mean, we are open from seven to four every day at the pier. And so there is at least one person on staff present at that time. But there have obviously got other things to do than to just simply monitor the recycling facility, although when they see something they do something.

Scott Ignacio 58:02
A follow up question, Paul. Since this program was originated for the citizens of Point Arena, ah, I can't believe this part, but is there a way to go back to that and make sure that you have to show residency or be a taxpaying citizen? I mean, is there a way to? Or does this Council want to begin turning away those people that are not eligible to recycle here. I would like to see it recycle for everybody successfully. Let me put that out there. But until we get some more controls, like we're talking about, is there any other options you've given consideration to to ensure that the people that are using that facility are appropriate to use that facility?
Paul Andersen 58:59
Well, that would entail having an employee sit there and request identification from everybody that comes to the cove to recycle and would be probably turning away about 85% of the people because they're not residents. I understand you know that it was originally set up, I guess, I don't know the entire history of this. It goes back farther than I've been here for sure. But recycling, I'll just make this pitch recycling is a huge issue with the state of California. They have imposed a lot of restrictions on haulers regarding recycling, and it is a positive benefit for the community having a recycling center. And the question is, how's that being managed, and we have not managed it much at all in the last couple of years. It's kind of become a free for all there. And I think that is a big part of what's contributing to the problem that they're having. If we were able to tighten that up some, for example, restricted hours, maybe only only open during the hours that the pier is open.

Paul Andersen 1:00:11
Going back to the old way of doing it, getting rid of the single stream recycling, which is frankly, a disaster, and it just has always has been, there's just no way for to do you can count on people to know that they need to clean out their can before they throw it in the recycling. So if we went back to the old way of we only take bottles, cans, number one, plastics and cardboard, if you had dumpster separated City of Point Arena
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for each one of those, and a lot of signage and education about it, put a lot of signs like paper only cans only, that will prevent a lot of the misunderstanding that people have about what they can contribute to recycling. And it'll also make it easier to identify the bad actors who throw a trash bag full of stuff in there because there won't be any trash bags allowed because it's supposed to be bottles, cans, cardboard, and number one plastics only. So that would be my suggestion. I you know, as far as and see how that goes. Do it run a trial run, see how it, you know, works out if it does work out? Great. We'll keep doing it.

If it doesn't, then we'll be having this discussion again. As far as looking for other locations. We have looked. We actually identified one location, that would be perfect. Unfortunately, it's zoned in such a way that it does not allow this type of facility, it would have to be rezoned, which is a whole process with the Coastal Commission that would take some time to do. So we continue to look but there's not much available land in the city of Point Arena that would allow that type of facility. Thank you.

Anna Dobbins 1:01:48
Have we addressed that? Do we have a contract with Recology or any waste collection facility regarding recycling that needs to be addressed and reassessed. I kind of thought that we have that. And I think we've kind of skirted that issue. And I'm a little bit concerned about that. Maybe I'm just misinformed or whatever. But if not, if we don't have any kind of contract with any service, then perhaps it's time to readdress the the old way that we used to do that started the recycling center down at the pier, which is a volunteer organization or a volunteer group of people who did it and maybe we can reestablish some or reincorporate that with the service that we we have that exists nowadays? I don't know.

Scott Ignacio 1:03:00
Paul is was did you want a response from Paul or any of the presenters? Paul Andersen 1:03:04
I see Giny has her hand up. So I would let her go first. And I'll have something to say.

Giny Chandler 1:03:14
California recycling law, I believe it was AB 939, requires a certain percentage of waste that California has generated, to be recyclable. And so that's become a very lucrative industry to the the waste transfer people. I think Anna is correct, we probably have a contract with Recology, and also with the hauler, and their responsibility is to make sure that they meet the minimums that California requires, in order to satisfy this, this law. And they're concerned, I'm quite sure that we're not meeting it because there are bad actors out there that are dumping trash in with their recycling. But at the end of the day, unfortunately is a city the city is responsible for meeting its responsibilities to reduce its trash by a certain amount. So I think the city needs to be very concerned about where this is going.

Scott Ignacio 1:04:34
Thank you for that. Richey?
Richey Wasserman 1:04:38
Yes, to use an over used phrase, the elephant in the room here, I believe is the problem produced are as a result of other recycling centers and the south coast and Sea Ranch being closed down. It seems to me that the hauler and or Recology should open those up again to alleviate the pressure here in point arena
Anna Dobbins 1:05:09
Exactly.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 1:05:14
939 is the correct recycling mandate and compost is followed by 1826 and 1383 is the most recent iteration of those. These, these recycle centers predated curbside collection for the most part in the City of Point Arena
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communities that I've seen that the service has evolved so that those were created to allow an outlet for recyclable collection and processing. And, as was described, they were originally intended to select very few materials, and they've expanded as we move to a single stream collection. It's evolved. And so if there was no alternatives, I could absolutely get on board with what's being said. But both Solid Waste of Willits and Recology offer services that includes recycling. And there are, while it's Jerry seems to offer, recycle only service, b but there's also a very low volume, low cost service that's available that allows for waste and recycling collection throughout the community.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 1:06:25
And then again, what the real issue here and in which people seem to be universally admitting is the case is that this is not a recycling center anymore. It is a garbage dump. And that is illegal. And we agreed to collect this Recycling Center as part of the franchise agreement that is, you know, formalized and part of the franchise agreement. But this is no longer operating as a recycle center. It is a dump that people are utilizing it as an alternative to signing up for trash service and recycling service. If contamination was not an issue, this would not be on the agenda tonight. We would we would be collecting but but Jerry's team is collecting it and taking to the transfer station and the loads are no longer recyclable. They're trashed. And I think there's pictures in the packet that that substantiate that from recent loads.

Anna Dobbins 1:07:27
I have to go back to, we can we can probably easily solve that contamination if we have monitoring at the site. If people are coming in, not people come in knowingly and dump their garbage. I mean, people don't and not know that they're dumping their garbage. We've worked there for years without this kind of contamination. And now it's happening because people think they can do it. And if we have monitoring there, then that will alleviate that problem. I don't think there's a need to shut down the facility if we put in place some restrictive hours, or limited hours, and some monitoring there. And I think that will eliminate a lot of the abuse of the state of the situation.

Scott Ignacio 1:08:27
I agree with Councilmember Dobbins that we should at least try some of the ideas that Mr. Andersen has suggested. I also believe that Tom White made a comment in the chat supporting the separation of materials that something I think the city can work with the hauler. But I agree with Anna that we have to at least try rather than just see this service disappear. We need to give Recology an opportunity to disappoint. our haulers if we are not able to rectify this as a community and as a council. I'd like to go to William Aranda, please.

Billy Arana 1:09:10
Yeah, yes. So I just wanted to bring up to well, like monitoring might get kind of expensive for the city if they were paying someone and I would be kind of concerned that that would come out of like the pier budget because it's usually a Harbormaster, who would probably be there doing that monitoring. It might be more financially feasible to pay for the recycling service for low income individuals or families. It's like having a city to have a fund or something instead of hiring someone to monitor the facility or setting up a bunch of infrastructure that would do that. It might be worth just kind of running the numbers for people who would qualify in a low income basis for a city funded recycle can at their house. Just an idea of like something that maybe would offset the costs in a more beneficial way for the city.

Scott Ignacio 1:10:08
Really, I thank you for your input. But I don't think you're suggesting that the city taxes pay for the 85% of the contamination or the excess refuse that's coming in from out of the area. If you could follow up that just, that's not what you're suggesting.

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Billy Arana 1:10:34
I mean, I guess the concern was saying that there's a lot of individuals within the community in the recycle center's supposed to be for Point Arena and not for outside? I've heard that a lot from Recology.

Citizens of Point Arena, if they have an income situation where they can't afford a recycle can at their house for the pickup, the weekly pick up. It might be cheaper for the city to pay the $8 for those people, than to hire someone to monitor the site was what I was saying.

Scott Ignacio 1:11:09
Thank you. Appreciate you clarifying that for us. Giny Chandler.

Giny Chandler 1:11:23
If you're dumping trash, and you can find two envelopes in the trash that have an address on them, you can report them to local law enforcement, and local law enforcement can cite them for that, and it's a misdemeanor. So it might be an option for the city to consider having a camera that captures license plates. And if you look, you know, if somebody goes through the trash and they find two envelopes with an address on it, you report them to the cops and they get cited. It's not perfect, but it's it's a possibility.

Scott Ignacio 1:12:00
That's a very novel idea about a license plate camera. Yep. We have support from the chat also. Olivia is out there suggesting that the same thing backing up what Paul was saying that a restricted daytime business hours makes sense. And it's more public when people are dropping off. That's actually a very good point, Olivia, that we didn't clearly identify. She says those limited hours would expose those people to daylight hours of having to come out and do that unscrupulous activity, you know, within plain daylight, not just sneaking around at night, and doing it after hours. So that thank you for making that statement. Olivia. Councilmember Wasserman?
Richey Wasserman 1:13:10
Thanks. I do want to go back to the original suggestion, though, of forming an Ad Hoc committee or some kind of committee to discuss these various proposals and put some of them if not all of them into effect.

Scott Ignacio 1:13:23
Thank you. Okay. So noted.

Anna Dobbins 1:13:28
I agree with Richie wholeheartedly.

Jerry Ward, SWOW 1:13:33
Yeah, thank you. I just want to make a couple of comments regarding the envelopes in the dumpster. I've tried out for 50 years, and the cops tell me it has to be on the ground. And they can get them for littering.

But if it's a public container, they can't sign them. So unfortunately, that won't work.

Jerry Ward, SWOW 1:13:49
With regard to keeping the product separate, like Paul suggested, that's a good idea. I have the signage and everything is just going to be probably require more dumpsters. And I'm hoping that there's more room to allow that to be done standard. What the public needs understand, even though it's all separated, our trucks would come in here and commingling it again, because it has to be hauled over to Willits and then it will be sorted. I can't pick up a four yard dumpster and just keep it separate all the way to Willits. I don't want people to get discouraged from separating the material as they watch our trucks dump it all into one load. But I think it's a good idea in my mind to help educate the people as to what's what's allowed, and what's not allowed. So I think the Ad Hoc Committee thing is a good idea. And I think City of Point Arena
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both Fred and I would be willing to work with a couple council members as well as staff and maybe come back with a pretty good proposal for the for the council to consider.

Scott Ignacio 1:14:46
Thank you for that Mr. Ward. Yeah, I think when Paul was making the suggestion about the separated items, that was how it was originally set up and we're just trying to get back to a basis where something was working. And I think that all of these suggestions we've had here really good. Even right down to the city trying to come up with some kind of funding, be it grant funds, to assist to get services out in the community. That's always a good idea. So, Council, do you have more or the public? Do you have more views? Use the raise hand feature, I'll call on you.

Scott Ignacio 1:15:29
We're going to move forward on this Council. What do you think of the idea of having an Ad Hoc Committee assigned to this? And as I asked that, careful when you raise your hand, it's like an auction.

Who's going to be on that committee, please? I'm looking for volunteers. I have a volunteer from Councilmember Dobbins and Councilmember Wasserman. Is there any competition for those two seats? Not seeing any I'm appointing councilmember Dobbins and Councilmember Wasserman to an ad hoc committee on city public recycling. All you got that? Councilmembers, you understand the scope of what you're doing on this ad hoc committee? I'm clearly involved in participating in this meeting. And I look forward to getting together and hearing back after talking with Mr. Stemmler and Mr. Ward. And if anyone from the public would like to know, when these folks are meeting or participate, please contact City Hall and make arrangements with city staff there. They're happy to take your call 882-2122. Okay. Is there anything else we want to close on this? I'd like to hear from Councilmember Dobbins.

Anna Dobbins 1:16:51
I want to thank you, Scott for facilitating this meeting. It's a it's an issue that I I hold dear for our community. And I think it's very, very important for us to maintain the access and the ability to have this service. And I I'm looking forward to working with Richey, and I think we can work something out.

Scott Ignacio 1:17:18
I wish you all very well. And I also want to thank the public, not just the citizens of Point Arena, the public of our community, that are also showing concern, and willing to participate to make this back to a service that's beneficial for everyone. Mr. Ward, until next time, we see each other probably at a LAFCO meeting, thanks for being here.

Jerry Ward, SWOW 1:17:44
Thank you.

Fred Stemmler, Recology 1:17:46
I'd also like to just say thanks. We do want this to be a success. You know, recycling is a big part of our business. So we're willing to give this a try. So I'll stay optimistic on it. And I appreciate the subcommittee helping out and kind of partnering with us on this. So fingers crossed, it works and thanks for the time tonight.

Scott Ignacio 1:18:07
Gentlemen, don't give up on us. Let us work on this with you. Thank you.

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B. Local Coastal Program Update
Scott Ignacio 1:18:16
We're moving on to Item VIII B, the Local Coastal Program update. Introduction and staff report from city.

Paul Andersen 1:18:25
I want to graciously turn it over to Linda Ruffing for this report and discussion.

Scott Ignacio 1:18:33
Good evening, Linda.

Linda Ruffing 1:18:35
Thank you, Mayor Ignacio and members of the Council. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. I'm Linda Ruffing from North Coast Community Planning. I met some of the folks on this zoom at our community workshop on the Point Arena Housing Update project last month. We're going to try and keep our presentation short and to the point this evening. As we know the Council has other items on their agenda following ours. But that said we have a lot of ground that we want to cover. So Paul, can you pull up our PowerPoint presentation and I'm just going to lead you through our slide deck.

Linda Ruffing 1:19:15
I'm joined tonight by George Williamson of PlanWest Partners and Elias Henderson of Hummingbird Consulting. Our team has been hired by the City to prepare a Local Coastal Program amendment to encourage more housing in the City. A considerable amount of work was done when the City updated its General Plan Housing Element in 2019. The LCP amendement will address many of the actions identified in the Housing Element and it will also address other housing related items that are necessary to respond to state housing laws that have been enacted over the past few years. 1:21:26
So tonight's City Council study session includes three main components. First, we'll provide a summary of the community input that's been received to date. We'll move straight from that into our recommendations regarding refinement of the scope of the housing update, and George will lead you through that. Then we'll pause our presentation for council questions, public comments and council discussion. After that, Elias will provide an overview of the draft community and property owner surveys and then we'll pause again for questions, comments and discussion. And then we'll wrap it up hopefully in an hour or less.

Linda Ruffing 1:21:29
So in terms of community input, the concerns we've heard over and over again, are the need for more housing of all types. Affordability is a big concern, particularly in the rental market. There are concerns about displacement of tenants and compliance with state housing laws. We've heard concerns about difficult permit procedures, not so much as a critique of the city's procedures but more about conflicting information from county departments during the building permitting process and concerns about the Coastal Commission. We've heard about concerns about costs of development about poor housing conditions about the need for effective outreach to the Spanish speaking community as other themes.

Linda Ruffing 1:21:59
We've received a number of suggestions so far, including making it easier to convert single family residences to multifamily units. There's a desire to see more housing on infill lots and interest in seeing some of the vacant or partially vacant commercial buildings on the street to be used for housing. There's definitely widespread interest in accessory dwelling units or ADU's. There's an interest in cohousing, City of Point Arena
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which is individual housing units with shared common spaces. The two acre city owned property across from city hall has been identified as a real opportunity site for housing. There's an interest in allowing for tiny homes. There's also an interest in allowing for class K and natural built housing.

Linda Ruffing 1:22:54
The mapped buffer areas for the Point Arena Mountain Beaver are pretty extensive, and they've been identified by a number of parties as a constraint on new development. We've heard a range of opinions on short term rentals some folks are happy with the city's current regulatory framework. Others want to eliminate the short term rentals or only allow them when a property owner resides on a property. Some have suggested that the city provide financial incentives to the owners of long term rental housing. And last but not least, the SCORE group has suggested that a local rent control or rate rent stabilization measure might help address concerns about tenant displacement and escalating rents. So in summary, I want to remind you that there's a lot of community input that remains to be collected. And there will be lots of upcoming opportunities to chime in. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to George to talk about the scope of the housing update.

George Williamson, PlanWest 1:24:05
Thank you, Linda. Linda already touched on this but accessory dwelling units and that includes Junior accessory dwelling units and the distinction is that accessory dwelling units on a lot might be a unit, older garage, freestanding unit back or side yard, but junior at use are usually attract attached to the primary dwelling unit and typically a little smaller. So there are definitely some opportunities and options. And this is getting a lot of use throughout California and the order that jurisdictions can encourage from private property owners with you said doing that on their own. That is private supplied housing. So that good thing, but some guidelines and even some communities are putting up design and even building plans.

George Williamson, PlanWest 1:25:11
So that's something, we're going to take a look at -- transitional and supportive housing, that's really for getting people experiencing homelessness and with other disabilities back into housing. And the rules now say that that has to be listed as residential in the residential use conversion rate regulations, that is the old housing stock for a range of users and in multiple incomes and, and household types. And then the reasonable accommodation procedures. That's part of the Fair Employee Housing Act. We're going to be explaining that those accommodation procedures and applying them for Point Arena's purposes.

Inclusionary housing, those are requirements rather than incentives. A lot of communities want that. But there are so we're going to look first at incentive based housing, rather than putting a percentage or an inclusionary requirement on we think there's opportunity for success there.

George Williamson, PlanWest 1:26:32
And then again, just compliance with the Fair Employee Housing Act. That act establishes requirements, these responsibilities for both operators and the agency. So we're going to make sure that both operators in that area, and the agency itself understands what those responsibilities are. And then finally, on this slide, this low-barrier navigation, and there's some by-right supportive housing legislation for that. But essentially, it's a housing-first shelter-focus provision, moving people experiencing homelessness, helping them get reestablished in households. Not only the supply, but also keeping people in those, getting people in more permanent housing rather than transitional or even temporary.

George Williamson, PlanWest 1:27:42
And then for high priority and having had the opportunity to work for the City on the Housing Element, we feel we've already got a good head start on these priority items. The Housing Element did look at the zones, we understand the extent and then minimum density threshold, we're all used to maximum densities, but it's growing more and more important to have a minimum so that limited supply of multifamily residential isn't actually going to lower density uses. So minimums are really effective in that short term rental. I understand there's a need for clarity there and so that were at use might be coming City of Point Arena
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on, we want to make sure that that is first and foremost for winter residence. And as much as we all love vacationers, we have an obligation to our permanent population. First, I think, looking at that density bonuses, that's an incentive based program that can really help George Williamson, PlanWest 1:29:05
supply more housing that is private development. The city can put some bonus and then have the development community implement that. And then residential parking standards. We're seeing parking standards go down, and that's frees up land for other uses. And then the engagement process under this further Fair Housing Act requirement. There's a lot of opportunities to engage and from engagement comes understanding and from understanding comes the ability to act and those are all things that we as the consultant team will be working hard to help the City put into play. Linda, let me turn it back over to you.

Linda Ruffing 1:30:08
Okay, so the medium and low priority items are items that we recommend the city do to comply with state housing laws. But we don't think that they actually need to be included in this housing update. But if we have additional funds available, as we kind of close in on the end of this process, we can work with your staff to develop a methodology to estimate the affordability of unsubsidised housing units, which is something that's going to be required for the housing element annual progress reports in the future. And we can also help your staff develop training materials for staff and for city council on the no net loss laws which address your site inventory and the housing element and the requirement that there be no net loss and land available for affordable housing, and also address the Housing Accountability Act. But what I will say is there's pretty good online resources for both of those.

Linda Ruffing 1:31:40
We do have a couple of items that we think should be included in the scope based on your housing element programs. And one of those is exploring the implementation of Class K housing types. It's actually something that's more building code related than LCP amendment related, but we can point your staff in the right direction for that. An then zoning for tiny homes if the council wants us to pursue that.

That should definitely be included in the LCP amendment. You also have a housing element program to allow live workspaces in single room occupancy units and highway commercial and commercial zoning districts. And, you know, by virtue of the fact that that's in the housing element, we can do that really pretty simply with this LCP amendment.

Linda Ruffing 1:32:38
There's also a program in the housing element to allow multifamily housing in the Highway Commercial district without a use permit if 20% of the units are affordable and then another program to say consider expanding that to the Commercial zoning district. This is one that we will come back to the Council for more discussion of how to modify Highway Commercial zoning designations and to really think about if you're going to require a percentage of units to be affordable how to establish that at a level where it won't be a disincentive to the actual development of affordable housing. Similar to the last one, you have a program in your housing element that calls for potentially amending planned development regulations to require that 20% of the units be affordable, and then at least one unit per development be available to larger family households. And again, we're going to want to review those with the council and kind of think about the whole plan development framework and make sure that you're not establishing regulations that are going to disincentivize development.

Linda Ruffing 1:33:59
Allowing farm worker and employee caretaker housing in the Agricultural Exclusive and Harbor Commercial zones is another program that we can pretty readily implement in the LCP amendment.

Reducing residential parking to a minimum of one space per unit and all zones is in your housing element. It's also there's state housing laws addressing parking standards. So we're going to want to City of Point Arena
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review that with the council. And similarly, there is a program in your housing element and there are some report new requirements and state law about manufactured housing. And so we're going to want to look at allowing those in different zones.

Linda Ruffing 1:34:44
So I want to point out a few other items that we've identified as priorities that aren't really coming out of state housing law or your housing element programs, but that we want to address in the housing update.

First, we want to help the council coalesce on a vision for development of the city-owned property that's across from city hall adjacent to the Hillmer project. So once you have an idea of what you want, we can contact affordable housing developers who operate in Mendocino County, gauge their level of interest, understand more what their minimal thresholds for involvement would be. And then with the LCP update, we'll modify the zoning to make sure that that's not an impediment to future development of that property.

Linda Ruffing 1:35:33
So secondly, we want to look at some of the other key housing opportunity sites in the city, talk to the owners find out what their plans are, what kinds of obstacles they've encountered over the years. And just, you know, really hear them out and try to see if there's things we can do in this process to help encourage development of housing on these sites. And so what I've listed here are just some of the ones that have come to the forefront in our discussion so far. There's 140 acres east of town, that's the Hay Annexation area, that is all zoned for housing. The school district has a property back behind their fields that has public facilities zoning, I think that it's it's also has been discussed as a residential, a potential residential site at the community workshop, we got a lot of comments and interest in seeing more residential units developed in some of the vacant downtown commercial buildings or second stories. The Seashell property I've heard that the owner of that property has some interest in developing some workforce housing, in conjunction with reestablishment of the visitor serving uses on the property. And then I've also heard from Lena Bullamore and Jeff Gyving about their property and kind of their travails in trying to develop it. So if there are other properties you want us to add to this list, we'd be happy to reach out to the owners of those two.

Linda Ruffing 1:37:14
And then the last thing I wanted to mention is that the 26 unit Arena Village apartment complex is a super important component of Point Arena's housing stock. Every unit is rented as an affordable unit to an income qualified household. And I can't stress how important it is that that property be maintained.

Because apparently, there's some mold and other issues with the units and that the property be retained as affordable housing. So we will help to develop a roadmap for the rehabilitation of those apartments and actions that the city can take to ensure their continued long term affordability.

Linda Ruffing 1:38:02
At the Mayor's suggestion, because I talked to him this morning, I want to define the term affordable housing for you. It's actually a term that's defined by the federal government and in state law. Housing is considered affordable if it costs no more than 30% of the monthly household income. And that includes payments for rent or your mortgage and for utilities. And so then the state defines levels of affordability for housing. And we typically look at affordability for very low income, low income and moderate income households. And the income caps for these level or for each of those levels is based on the county wide median income level and housing household size. And so for example, in Mendocino County, in 2022, a family of four with a household income of $40,150, qualifies as very low income, a family of four with an income of $64,000 qualifies as low income. And a family of four with an income of $96,000 qualifies as moderate income. And those are all levels of subsidized housing. Next slide, please. So this is actually an opportunity to just stop and let the Mayor kind of take over and manage questions, public comments, council discussion on the previous slides, and if you need us to back up the slide presentation. For reference, we're happy to do that. So with that, I'm going to just pause our presentation City of Point Arena
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Linda Ruffing 1:38:11
Thank you very much, Linda. That was a great presentation by you guys. Council, you've heard the presentation, this is your opportunity to chime in or ask questions of the presenters. Are there any questions from the council at this time? Vice Mayor Burkey? Barbara Burkey 1:40:23
I have a question for Linda about tiny homes. Whenever I hear tiny homes, I kind of freak out. But I don't really know what the definition of a tiny home is, in regards to the discussion we're having tonight. Isn't just a house with a small footprint that has a foundation or is it something more temporary? 1:40:47
So that is such a good question, Councilmember Burkey. If the city decides to enact regulations around tiny homes, it will need to define what a tiny home is. And there is no one accepted definition. Some communities have tiny home regulations that pertain only to mobile units that are on wheels. Others allow both mobile and units on foundations, typically tiny homes are less than 400 square feet. Usually there's a minimum size of you know, maybe 100 or 150 square feet requirements as to what they include. I mean, obviously, they include sleeping areas, food preparation areas, sanitation facilities. But but there's, you know, if you want to allow for really small homes, or potentially really small, mobile mounted homes, that we'll have to discuss, like kind of options for how extensive view or how expansive you want your definition to be. Did that answer your question? Barbara Burkey 1:42:05
Yeah. So basically, it ended indeterminate right now, and it's something that we have to determine, as our discussions go on.

Linda Ruffing 1:42:13
Right. And we can bring you some examples from other communities, a lot of communities are actually doing ordinances to try and regulate and allow for tenant tiny homes. It's definitely a bigger discussion item to bring forward.

Scott Ignacio 1:42:32
Just follow up of the council worked really hard to get its ADU's. It took several years to get that straightened out. And then we thought we had it set up and we're ahead of the curve. And the state come in and said, No, you're going to do it our way. So hopefully, at some point along this process, we can get that question answered, because that comes up quite often in the community is what determines a tiny house versus an ADU and vice versa. Thank you for that Linda. Any other council members at this point?
Scott Ignacio 1:43:09
Before we go to the public, that's okay with you, Linda, I'm going to read from the chat. And from Olivia Ford, is there an opportunity to adjust the low income affordable housing brackets to reflect Point Arena's median HHI which is slightly less than $40,000 county median HHI household incomes? Is that something that the local government can be determined? Or is that something that's pretty much set by legislature?
Linda Ruffing 1:43:41
It's set by the State Department of Housing and Community Development and they establish it each year based on their county wide median income. So there's really not an opportunity to locally adjust your affordability categories. Well, you can certainly target I mean, with affordable housing projects, you can target what level you want to hit.

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Scott Ignacio 1:44:07
Well, she makes an excellent point. I mean, there's only four municipalities in the county and in this county, and I would strive to say that the household median in Point Arena may not necessarily match that of Ukiah. Do municipalities have any kind of understanding or do they just get blended in with the county? Like you were suggesting?
Linda Ruffing 1:44:36
They get blended in. It's county wide. It's the entire population.

Scott Ignacio 1:44:42
Thank you for that. I'm going to open it up to the public if anyone has any questions please use the raise hand feature, if you happen to be on the phone use the star nine feature to let us know that you'd like to speak on called upon. We'll be asking for your name, and we would appreciate having your resident address. For the audible record. Is there anyone that would like to ask questions or comments to this, and I would again, like to appreciate Olivia Ford for using the chat feature, so I can read that correctly.

Scott Ignacio 1:45:23
Okay, Linda, we're gonna turn it back over to you. I'm not getting anything right now, we may have something over on the second half of this presentation, would you like to continue? Linda Ruffing 1:45:32
That's excellent, we would be happy to continue. And so what we're going to take from that is that the council has pretty much as an agreement with what we've listed as our priority items that we'll be addressing, we're not taking any of this off of the table. e will come back to you in a couple of months for a much more extensive study session.

Linda Ruffing 1:46:08
Okay, Linda, just to make sure. This is just a an opportunity for any Councilmember to say I don't want to go forward with this. But I've been leading on with Linda that the council is in consensus to go forward.

So please, if you'd like to tell me I'm wrong Council this year opportunity using the raised hand feature.

Linda, I think this Council is in consensus.EThat's great. Thank you. And I'm going to turn it over to Elias Henderson, who is heading up the survey effort, and Eli can introduce himself and talk us through the slides.

Elias Henderson 1:47:06
All right. Hi, everyone. My name is Elias Henderson, I'm with Hummingbird Consulting and I'm working as a consultant with the City of Point Arena and North Coast Community Planning on several aspects of this project, including the community and property owner surveys. So I'm happy to be here. And let's jump in. I do want to flag that we'll have a question and comment period at the end. And, and we'll go we'll start with this overview.

Elias Henderson 1:47:32
So first, I want to mention that there will be two separate surveys, first a community survey and second to property owner survey. The reason we've divided it this way is that one of these surveys is going to be focused on housing needs and the other on development potential. So in economic speak, you can think about this as housing demand versus supply. And we'll talk a little bit more later about the the distinctions between the two surveys. So our intent in doing this process is really to understand the priorities and concerns of the community. And to ensure that voices are being heard from across the spectrum of the community, the survey instrument that we'll be using a Survey Monkey, this is an industry standard. But there are a couple of specific reasons why we're using it instead of one of its competitors. One, it's it has sort of unlimited options for designing different questions and designing our survey. It also has powerful tools for analyzing on the back end as we move from the survey, you know, from gathering responses to City of Point Arena
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reporting on those responses. And finally, it offers a powerful method of duplicate protection, the community survey will be anonymous. But we do want to ensure protection against survey vandalism, which we don't expect, but we want to be ready for and survey monkey has tools for that without getting too technical.

Elias Henderson 1:48:55
So let's talk briefly about the types of questions that will be included in this survey. Most of the questions fall into one of two big buckets. First demographic questions. Second housing questions. There will be a number of multiple choice questions. And then a decent portion of the survey will be what are called Likert scale questions. So those are generally five options. I'm sure you've all seen them before. Strongly agree, somewhat agree, neutral, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree. The reason we use questions like this is to allow respondents to indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with the given statement, or to express a neutral response. So as opposed to strict binary questions. This gives respondents the ability to express the strength of their preference or neutrality. There will also be a couple of open ended comment box questions just to elicit general commentary or concerns from the community. The goal of both surveys is to take no more than 10 minutes to complete, we want them to be accessible, straightforward, to the point and avoid overly technical language. So those are some of our design goals.

Elias Henderson 1:50:13
And then let's touch on the timeline here. So we'll be rolling out the surveys in around the middle of August. So that'll give us time after this meeting to incorporate any feedback that we get, or revisions.

And also for us to code this into Survey Monkey, into the survey platform itself. In terms of reporting, we're hoping to report our initial findings at the October housing community workshop, and then to have a final report prepared at the November City Council meeting. That said, I want to include the caveat that we may extend that timeline, if survey responses are particularly slow to trickle in. In working with some other partners in the community, we have received the feedback that it can be hard to get people to respond to surveys. So we're preparing for a full court press in terms of distribution.

Elias Henderson 1:51:08
So let's talk a little bit bit about distribution. In the comments, someone mentioning English and Spanish versions. And we do plan to have this professionally translated into Spanish, in addition to the English language version, that's important for a lot of reasons, accessibility at the forefront. In terms of getting the word out, like I said, we're full court press. I meant that we want to make sure that we're getting this in front of as many people as possible, including people who maybe aren't attending city council meetings, or community workshops or aren't on the city's email list. So of course, that does mean emailing, that means social media. That means physical mail, that means posting the survey in brick and mortar places. And that also means working with our community partners.

Elias Henderson 1:51:56
So right now, we've been working in talking with the Action Network and Mendonoma Health Alliance and SCORE. And these partners will help us reach out to community, within our community through their connection with schools, with tribes, with the Spanish language community. And as I said, other people who have this plugged in the city's normal communication networks. I do want to mention two things here. We are planning to host a in person listening session with, or in partnership with, Action Network as a means of connecting with some people who might not even have internet connections, and may require more of a personal touch. And we are hoping to have a translator available at that session.

Elias Henderson 1:52:43
I also want to flag that we will be accepting responses from people within the city and the surrounding area. Given the tools at our disposal, it's infeasible not to do this, anyone can log on online and fill out the survey. But we're asking a host or a smattering of demographic questions. And one of those is where are City of Point Arena
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you from? So that will help us differentiate between responses we're getting from people who live within Point Arena, people who are in the service area of Point Arena and further beyond. So the draft survey questions went out with the council packet. Hopefully you guys have had a chance to review those. And if you haven't, please review them. And we'll have a comment period where you can get to us after this meeting.

Elias Henderson 1:53:37
So I want to talk quickly about these three different buckets first demographic questions. So this will supply us with some standard information. And that becomes really useful when we get into the reporting stage of this because it allows us to slice up the data in interesting ways and helps us understand who demographically speaking wants what when it comes to housing policy, and development interest. So one example of a question we'll be able to answer because we're taking demographic data is something along the lines of what percentage of seniors feel like there's a lack of senior housing, what percentage of non seniors feel like there's a lack of senior housing. And so here we can start to get at some of the key cleavages in community interest. And we can understand some of those things as we move forward to crafting policy that works for everyone. The community survey questions or housing questions. These are directed towards helping us understand the needs and priorities of different segments of the community and taking the temperature of that community on a wide array of housing issues as well as potential solutions. The property owners survey is similar but it's oriented more towards potential interest in development. and existing and are perceived barriers to development. So hopefully that gives you an idea of the buckets of questions we'll be asking and helps differentiate a little bit between the purpose of the two surveys.

Elias Henderson 1:55:17
Again, as I said before, if you have questions after this meeting, feel free to email us. But please get those emails to us by August 5, and send those emails to [email protected], as in North Coast Community Planning, And I guess we can we can open this up to questions, comments and suggestions.

Scott Ignacio 1:55:47
Okay. Thank you for that presentation. We will go to Vice Mayor Burkey, please.

Barbara Burkey 1:55:55
Elias, thank you for that. I just wanted to point out that in the survey, in some of the questions like number 17, it refers to highway commercial parcels. And I don't think the normal Point Arena resident knows what that means. And it might be a good idea to put in a map that shows the different parcels in Point Arena with the different designations and kind of explains what that means. What is highway commercial, what is high density residential, you know, just kind of educate people a little bit about the questions that they need to answer. That's my only comment.

Scott Ignacio 1:56:46
That's an excellent comment. And I think Elias, doesn't SurveyMonkey have a map feature that you can put a pin on where you live in town.

Elias Henderson 1:56:59
Scott, that's something that we can definitely look into. To respond to the idea of including a map in the survey itself, I think it's a great idea. And it's something we'll consider. The basic tension in including educational elements along with the survey response gathering is adding time to to complete the survey.

And we do want to keep this thing to a tight 10 minutes. But Barbara, I think that's a great idea. I do want to flag one other important note about a survey like this, which is we want to limit the number of required response questions. So that if people feel uncomfortable answering a question, they can skip it and move on and submit the survey within the timeframe that they have.

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Scott Ignacio 1:57:39
You also want to give them the opportunity to answer it correctly. Like the vice mayor says, if a lot of people don't understand the difference, especially in the acronyms we use, we know what MR is, we know what HC is versus HWC. And not a lot of people get that. So you know, we want to make sure that your surveys as accurate as possible. So if we can include more information, that'd be helpful. There's one other thing that Elias I think you can answer. It's in the chat. I thought you might have covered but let's just make sure. Will surveys be provided in print and in the physical mail, is that available from you guys if people need mailings, they can get a physical copy of the survey to fill out and then turn back into City Hall or somewhere to your choosing?
1:58:35
Yeah, absolutely. So we'll have the version that exists online, which is accessible that way and then we'll have physical copies. Those will be available at City Hall, but we'll also be distributing them. So right now our plans we have a couple of different methods we're exploring as far as distributing physical copies themselves. And one thing that we're considering is stuffing mailboxes.

Scott Ignacio 1:58:57
Okay, excellent. Any other questions from the Council? Vice Mayor Burkey? Barbara Burkey 1:59:03
I think that many people may not be familiar with what an ADU is, an auxilary dwelling unit. It's kind of a code word, you know that we know what it means, but I don't think everybody else does. So we might want to include some kind of clarification or a glossary something like that.

Scott Ignacio 1:59:28
A glossary would be really good. That's a great suggestion. Any other comments? Councilmember Dobbins?
Anna Dobbins 1:59:36
I'd like to reiterate Barbara's comment is that acronyms are something that not everybody is familiar with.

And it's I think it's essential to have a glossary of acronyms because they're repeated, sometimes they're the same acronyms used in other agencies that don't relate to what we're talking about. So I think it's important to have that clarified in any anything that we're working with.

Scott Ignacio 2:00:15
Great. Thank you, Anna. And speaking of acronyms, Olivia, I know you're listening. Can you just put it in the chat for me and I'll read it out loud what SCORE stands for? You've told me before, I think it's South Coast something. I don't want to get it wrong. And while I go to someone else, is there anyone else from the public now, they would like to use the raise hand feature to talk to the presenters or to the Council on this? Okay, well, Linda, Elias, William. Oh, George. Thank you, George. Sorry.

Linda Ruffing 2:01:03
Scott, Mayor, Ignacio, we actually have just two more slides. So it's a little bit of a wrap up. But thank you so much for your feedback on the survey, and we will definitely incorporate it and address the comments that we got tonight. And again, if anyone you know, wants to spend a little more time with the survey and has any questions or comments, just send me an email, we're going to kind of close off the comment period a week from Friday, so we can wrap it up and get it out on the streets.

Scott Ignacio 2:01:37
So thank you, Linda. And just to follow up, Olivia did send to me it's SCORE stands for South Coast Organizing for Radical Equality. And there's more information about their organization on their Facebook page. Thank you. Linda?
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Linda Ruffing 2:02:06
So I just wanted to talk for just a minute about next steps. In the coming couple of months, we're not going to be coming back to the Council, we're going to be hard at work, we're going to be continuing our interviews with key stakeholders, initiating consultations with the tribes, with the Coastal Commission, with the other agencies kind of getting that kind of input into this project. And now that we received your input tonight, I think we can present to them kind of what the scope of our undertaking is, and so that we can get targeted feedback. We're also going to be administering the Community Survey and the property owner survey. And perhaps most importantly, we'll begin drafting the ordinance amendments for you.

Linda Ruffing 2:02:58
And so we'll be coming back to it with community workshop in October, probably the third Tuesday in October. And we'll provide the preliminary survey results at that time. And then we'll be you know, anything else that's kind of coming up in our work that seems interesting, and that we'd like some community input on will be on that agenda as well. And then in November, we want to have a study session with the council. And we might request that you have a special meeting rather than combining it with the regular meeting, because I think we'll have a lot of items that we're going to want direction from you on because by that point, we'll have started to really lay out the ordinance amendments, and there's lots of alternatives and options and stuff that we're going to need some input from you on. And we'll also have received feedback from some of the agencies that will influence kind of the direction that we go. So that's the path that lies ahead, you know, are we're still on track and aiming to submit a Local Coastal Program amendment to the Coastal Commission next spring, and their process takes a year. So we're looking at 2024 to actually wrap up this whole process. So thank you so much for your time this evening.

And we look forward to reporting back to you in coming months.

Scott Ignacio 2:04:37
Well, wonderful. Thank you for that. I know we have our calendar already pretty much preset for the year but I'm sure working with the city manager, you know, coordinating with city staff, we can look at the possibility of an additional meeting. And I see why, you know based on this presentation. That introduction, very informative. I want to applaud not only your team but the public and the Council for participating in this process. It's encouraging to see that we can work together not only as a city, but as a community to move this topic forward. Are there any parting words for the presenters from the council at this point, or from the public? Folks, I want to thank you very...Vice Mayor Berkey has a few things say, Barbara Burkey 2:05:31
I just wanted to point out that the presentation that Linda gave was really great. But if you read our agenda packet, there's a ton more information. And I wanted to just point out that in attachment B, page four, there are some links posted in the packet and one of them especially is really, really exciting and amazing. And it's an article about how Crested Butte, Colorado, approached their housing crisis. And it's an excerpt from Outside magazine. And if you have a chance to read it, everyone, council public, read it, because it's really amazing. And it'll give you hope. We all need that. Thank you.

Scott Ignacio 2:06:20
All right, again, thank you, Linda, to you and your team, and we look forward to seeing you in upcoming meetings.

Linda Ruffing 2:06:27
Thank you again.

City of Point Arena
City Council Meeting Minutes – May 24, 2022

C. Announcement of City Council Elections
Scott Ignacio 2:06:31
All right, moving on to item VIII C, announcement of city council elections. Introduction and report from city manager Paul Andersen.

Paul Andersen 2:06:44
Well, as you know, there will be an election this November. It's a nationwide election but the City Council of Point Arena will be on the ballot. The County of Mendocino will administer the election for us. There are three seats that will be voted on, currently the seats held by Vice Mayor Burkey and Councilmembers Dobbins and Wasserman. We have released the elections packet. So anyone interested in running for city council, you need to live in the city limits, be a registered voter in the city limits and be 18 years of age. The requirements are to collect no less than five signatures from registered voters within the city limits and file any financial reports with the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Paul Andersen 2:07:48
So I wanted to bring that to your attention as far as announcing it and and I also would like to point out a few things about being a council member and what that means, because everybody may not understand what the City Council does besides come to meetings. There's actually quite a bit more so I want to just go over a few of those things so that people have an understanding who may want to run for city council.

All cities in California are granted powers under the State Constitution. We're a general law city. And what that means is we basically abide by the laws that the state of California have created in the constitution for local jurisdictions, such as ours. We operate under a City Council-Manager form of government, which means that the city council is elected by the people. They are responsible for ordinances, appropriations, budgets, developing an overall vision of the city. Our Council is comprised of five members, they serve four year terms staggered, and the mayor of our city is selected by the members of the City Council. The Council then appoints the City Manager as administrator to oversee the daily operations of the government and implement their policies. The City Manager serves for the governing body and with an employment agreement or contract. Ideally, the manager is apolitical, they're only supposed to be looking at what happens in the city from the lens of what's best for the public, not what's the best for the political winds, I guess you would say.

Paul Andersen 2:09:33
As a note, for most of its existence, the city operated under a Commissioner form of government, which meant that each Council Member was a Commissioner and were assigned executive responsibilities for certain aspects of Municipal Affairs. There was a Public Works Commissioner, there was a Pier Commissioner, there was a Wastewater Commissioner. And they they handled implementing policies and coming up with policies for those departments and the administrator would implement those and handle the day to day affairs. So it was basically a situation where the city council sat as both the legislature and the executive. And that's happened to create problems in the past and most local forms of government have abandoned that because there are, you know, issues with favoritism, appearances of favoritism, for different members of the community based on personal preferences as opposed to what's good for the entire community. So the Commissioner form of government was abandoned in the early 2010s in point arena, and now have a Council-Manager form of government.

Paul Andersen 2:10:50
Some of the things the City Council do on a regular basis. They review and approve the annual budget of the city, establish long and short term objectives. They establish tax rates, enter into legal contracts, pass ordinances and resolutions, regulate the land use of the city through zoning laws, regulate business City of Point Arena
City Council Meeting Minutes – May 24, 2022

activity through licensing and regulations, communicate policies and programs to residents, and respond to constituent needs and complaints. They also represent our community and other other levels of government. In addition to the city council, many of the council members serve on various boards and commissions, including the Mendocino Council of Governments, which handles transportation funding, the Economic Development and Financing Corporation that Vice Mayor Berkey mentioned earlier, the Local Agency Formation Commission, the Mendocino Transportation Authority, the League of California Cities, and occasionally on Sonoma Clean Power. And then additionally, council members can also serve, as we saw earlier, on two person Ad Hoc Committees to research and address particular issues and report back to the full council. All meetings are open to the public and citizens are encouraged to attend. The meetings happen the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6pm. Generally at City Hall, currently online. There may be special meetings called such as we talked about a little earlier Paul Andersen 2:12:26
That's about all I wanted to point out, so people have a little more understanding about what the City Council does. And what I would do now is I would turn it over to the City Council members themselves, and maybe they have some pointers or things that they enjoy about the job, things they don't enjoy about the job, whatever you want to discuss. So thank you.

Scott Ignacio 2:12:48
Thank you, Paul. Vice Mayor Burkey.

Barbara Burkey 2:12:52
One of the questions that I get most frequently is how much time does it take to fill your role as a City Council member? And I've got to say it really varies. Some people spend very little time on Councilmember work, other people spend a lot. I tend to spend a lot because I sit on a lot of different boards and also committees. So I would say that I spend at least an hour a day maybe not on Sundays, doing council work, reading, researching, having meetings, things like that. And so, you know, it really is your comfort level, how involved you want to be, how much time do you have to devote to the position, but it can be as little as an hour a week or as much as five hours a week. I'm sure Mayor Ignacio has a different take on it. But that's my response to that question. You can be a very involved council member, or you can be a less involved council member, but you do have to do your homework and be ready for meetings. And I think that's the most important aspect of the of the position.

Scott Ignacio 2:14:10
I think Vice Mayor Burkey, she's being pretty modest about the amount of time she puts in I mean, she's been championing, she chose to, but she's excellent at helping getting special projects going like our Fourth of July event. And other Councilmembers participate too. But I mean she organized that, Barbara, I'd be amazed if you got that done at only five hours a month or five hours even a week. I myself, I sit on the LAFCO that Paul mentioned the Local Agency Formation Commission. And other council members have sat on similar boards in the past. I'm on the Council of Mayors which there's only four of us in the county and then we make decisions for other commissions within the county like air transportation railroad. There's a number of different projects that we have to decide on. Fortunately, that's only a couple of times a year. The Mendocino Council of Governments happens, a lot of these meetings will happen sequentially in the same day. So if you have time to put in a few hours a month working on this, it works out really well.

Scott Ignacio 2:15:23
I get the same question Barbara gets, and that was a pretty good round number of, say, five hours a week. And then there'll be some weeks you won't have a whole lot, then there's weeks when you know, we're coming up to a deadline for something and a little more may required of you. I spend at least my Sunday nights with the agenda, we get and go through that. And I get to work with the city manager and city staff to make sure everybody's gets their payroll checks signed. And a number of things are City of Point Arena
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discussed and clarified. It's very rewarding, knowing that you can be here and contribute to your community. And I choose to be very apolitical, as a mayor, because my belief is I don't just represent the registered voters of Point Arena, I represent the people that own property here, but don't live here. I represent business owners that maybe operate here, but don't live here. And I represent those people that come into my community, not only to work, but to spend time, down at the pier, you know, at the parks or whatnot. I try to be open to everybody. And I hope whoever would be interested in this position take a similar stance. So it's, it's rewarding. It can be trying at times, but it's, it's not a stopper. I'm glad to be here. Anyone else from Council? Councilmember Washington? Richey Wasserman 2:17:08
Yeah, you both of you put in a tremendous amount of time, as much or more than any council member I've ever been able to observe. I myself put in, I would say, much less time, on average, maybe I would call it one to four hours a week, sometimes no hours a week, although one has to include the time you spend on the street talking to citizens. observing what's going on in the town, one of the things that's so rewarding about being a council member, in point arena is that we're small enough to be able to really feel like we're touching on every part of the town or at least as much as possible. We can talk to people at the post office, we can answer questions, it would be disingenuous for me to say that I agree with everyone and listen to equally. I try to, but we're only human. I do my best at that kind of thing, though, and perhaps learn how to be more even handed as time goes on. So that's my take.

Scott Ignacio 2:18:35
Barbara. Thank you, Richie. That was great. There was a little technical glitch in the background, it appears that we may have lost Vice Mayor Berkey. So we'll give her an opportunity to reconnect. But is there any other council members would like to speak up about their experience? As a member? I would love to hear from Anna Dobbins when she unmuites and tells us what she has to say.

Anna Dobbins 2:19:09
I want to thank you for the opportunity. I want to thank the City of Point Arena for the opportunity to serve on the Council. It's a very rewarding experience because it's an opportunity to serve our our community and to serve our country for it. I mean, I don't think there's any place else other than a small community like we have where we can have so much effect on our local government. We have a voice and our voice is very loud in the City of Point Arena. Because there's only five of us on council and and when we we enact what we believe in and we listen to our our community and we're able to serve and actually make policy for what is happening in our community. And it's a privilege and it's a responsibility. And I think that anybody who would want to be on this should be so happy to be encouraged, I would happily encourage everybody and anybody to do it, because it's very rewarding, and sometimes very difficult. But it is rewarding in the sense that you, you get to be active in your government, and in your world. I just feel privileged to be here. Thank you. And I hope that anybody else would step up for that as well.

Scott Ignacio 2:20:44
So let's put Jim on the spot.

Jim Koogle 2:20:53
Thank you, Scott.

Scott Ignacio 2:20:53
Well, you brought me in here Jim.

Jim Koogle 2:20:57
Yes. What everyone is saying you can you can be as involved or minimally involved as that your life and lifestyle. I think it's, it's a brilliant thing for people to engage with the city as as much as they are City of Point Arena
City Council Meeting Minutes – May 24, 2022

comfortable. And it's certainly, certainly something that's needed. So I'd encourage anyone to make themselves available and do what you feel like doing to help the city out. That's, that's all.

Scott Ignacio 2:21:33
Thank you. Yes, for a group of five people that established early on, and when new members come on, we all respectfully agree to disagree with each other. So we can have a vote that doesn't meet up to everybody's yay or nay. But, I mean, I've been the one dissenting vote and lost and I respect that process, and I respect these folks that sit up here on this dais with me, so you know, come on out. And you know, find out more information, talk to the city manager, get up here and and be a part of this process that we're all a part of. We welcome you, and we encourage you to participate.

Scott Ignacio 2:22:20
Paul, is there anything else on this topic you'd like to cover? And he says no. So thank you. Oh, well, you know what? Let's see if the public has any questions. Do you have any questions or comments? Please use the raise hand feature. We'd love to hear from you. And I didn't read the chat. So I'm gonna read this off top my head.

Scott Ignacio 2:22:45
Olivia says I'd like to emphasize that being on the council is really lighter lift than it seems. And it is an opportunity to better understand just how you can support the community and direct in a direct and tangible way, and then take direct action on it. Olivia Ford was a great participant for the Council. She was here over the last term. And we we were sorry to go. But you can tell she's still stays active in community. And we appreciate your input. So thank you, Olivia. Any other comments from the public before we move on with the agenda? Well, thank you. And I look forward to seeing new names on the ballot as well as our existing names on the ballot.

IX. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS
Scott Ignacio 2:23:37
So Item IX. Informational Items. CalCities top bills and key budget negotiations for cities in to watch in August. That's a mouthful, Paul.

Paul Andersen 2:23:52
Yeah, that is just a summary of what the legislature is looking at doing that affects cities in the coming two months. And they you'll see in there, there are a number of housing related bills that actually limit what cities can do, and, and establish some requirements that may not be appropriate in the Coastal Zone or for our community. They tend to look at it as a one size fits all. And urban centers dominate. And so some of the legislation that comes out of the legislature is geared more toward urban areas, but it affects us too. So I wanted you to be aware. League of Cities will, as you know, send out action alerts to you all and if there are particular topics that you want to respond to you are free to do so.

Scott Ignacio 2:25:19
Well then that moves on to reports from you, sir. Or if the city attorney would like to go first tonight, we'd enjoy that.

Giny Chandler 2:25:30
I'm really quick. I have nothing major to report. I've been working really well with Paul and we're working on documents between the county and the city. And we hope to be moving those along.

Scott Ignacio 2:25:44
Excellent. Glad you're here tonight. Paul?
City of Point Arena
City Council Meeting Minutes – May 24, 2022

Paul Andersen 2:25:49
I don't have much to report. You know, we are doing Harborfest we'll be looking for help with that. We are hopefully, in the middle of August, installing the nine pilings and the steel guide piling at the Point Arena Pier. We've been working on that for quite some time, getting the contractor lined up to do that. So we will hopefully by you know, early fall, have that project completed. I toured the boathouse building, with Billy Arana. Jennifer Smallwood, and Lisa, I'm forgetting her last name from the state Coastal Conservancy. She was sent to look at the building and assess whether it's something that the Coastal Conservancy would be interested in participating with the appraisal like we talked about at the last meeting. And my impression from her was that she was very enthusiastic about the building and was going to report back to her superiors who sent her here to look at it, that she was a yes vote on moving forward with the appraisal and possible eventual purchase of the building. So that was very positive. And the final thing I'll say is that Giny, and I did meet with Sheriff Kendall and UnderSheriff Brewster about the Sheriff's contract, which expires this year, and we had a good discussion. We'll be bringing that to you at a future council meeting. And that's all I have to report.

XI. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
Scott Ignacio 2:27:24
Thank you so much for that item. Item XI. Future agenda items. ust like to report that our next scheduled council meeting is on August 23. It'll be at 6pm. Right here on this same bat channel. That over the next 45 days, we should be getting a veterans building study update. And downtown park improvement project coastal development permit will also be an item to cover.

XII. CLOSED SESSION
Scott Ignacio 2:28:45
At this point in the evening, we'll move on to item XII, which is a closed session. And we are going to be having a closed session a conference with real property negotiations. And when we come out of that closed session, the Council will come back in here and report out on those that closed session and then we'll move to adjourn. If anybody has questions for the council, now's your last chance to get them for the evening. Unless you want to stick around but we can't tell you a determined time that we'll be back from this closed session. With that I'd like to thank public as well as the council and staff excellent meeting. It is 8:30.

Scott Ignacio 2:43:00
The Council supported a Memorandum of Understanding for use of the Veteran’s Building between the City and the County
XIII. ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business, Mayor Ignacio adjourned the meeting at 8:44pm.

Minutes approved at the August 23, 2022 City Council Meeting _____________________________________ __________________________________ Paul Andersen, City Clerk Scott Ignacio, Mayor