City Council
Mayor Neysa Hinton
Vice Mayor Diana Rich
Sandra Maurer
Jill McLewis
Stephen Zollman
City Manager
Larry McLaughlin
[email protected]
Assistant City Manager/City Clerk, MMC
Mary Gourley
[email protected]
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
MINUTES FOR Special Meeting/Closed Session Meeting of March 6, 2023 As Approved by the City Council at their regular meeting of March 21, 2023 The City Council Regular meeting was held in Person and by Remote/Virtual Teleconferencing Pursuant to Current Brown Act Rules and Regulations.
Please note that minutes are not meant to be verbatim minutes and are meant to be the City’s record of Actions Taken (Approved Motion of Agenda Item(s)).
Call to Order: Mayor Hinton called the Special meeting to order at 10:01 am.
Roll Call:
Present: Mayor Neysa Hinton
Vice Mayor Diana Gardner Rich
Councilmember Sandra Maurer
Councilmember Jill McLewis
Councilmember Stephen Zollman
Absent: None
Staff: City Manager/City Attorney Larry McLaughlin
Assistant City Manager/City Clerk Mary Gourley
PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA (FIRST COMMENT PERIOD): Up to Twenty (20) Minute Time Limit (Two Minutes for up to ten speakers). Additional public comment will be held at the end of the discussion and action items for up to an additional twenty (20) minutes. Mayor has discretion to allow for additional time beyond the 20 minutes allocated for public comment dependent upon the subject matter or number of speakers.
There was no public comment for Items Not on the Agenda.
PUBLIC COMMENT FOR CLOSED SESSION ITEM(S):
(Prior to adjournment into Closed Session, the public may speak up to 3 minutes on items to be addressed in Closed Session).
Oliver commented as follows:
• City’s stated prime commercially sustaining objective is from being a tourist destination.
We are very heavily reliant on visitor sales tax income, whether from our 40,000 person surrounding county area sphere of influence or further afield.
• We have a stark choice of building our tax base back up in order to adequately fund our city, or continuing along a path of unfunded altruism for disadvantaged transients, which alienates tourists and visitors and makes the heart of our downtown, which should be a magnet for visitors, very unattractive.
• Direct paths to this goal are clearing up and illuminating the heart of our city and making it attractive to local businesses and their visitors again, revitalizing the arts center as a destination and encouraging a downtown hotel to be built, which will result in sales tax revenues, local jobs and hotel ecosystem small businesses.
• The city is already outperforming everywhere else in the county for homeless services. If we build up our tax base we will then be able to afford even more philanthropic help for substance abuse recovery and shelter for local dispossessed people who are in economic difficulties., resulting in a win win for everyone.
• Currently we are rapidly heading towards financial and moral bankruptcy in the service of our tax paying city citizens and this needs to be turned around fast, otherwise tourists will increasingly just drive through shabby Sebastopol on the way to somewhere else.
• If our disorganized and incompetent county bureaucrats and their outsourced non-profit services are forced to take over our city we will be in a very serious predicament.
ADJOURN INTO CLOSED SESSION: Mayor Hinton adjourned the open session of the meeting to the closed session at 10:05 am.
CLOSED SESSION:
1. Conference with Legal Counsel: Existing Litigation
(Government Code Section 54956.9)
DAVID ALLEN YESUE, MICHAEL W. DEEGAN, PAIGE ELIGHTZA CORLEY, JESSICA MARIE WETCH, and SONOMA COUNTY ACTS OF KINDNESS Versus City of Sebastopol (One Case)
2. Conference with Legal Counsel: Anticipated Litigation Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to § 54956.9(b): (One Case) ADJOURNMENT OF CLOSED SESSION: Mayor Hinton adjourned the closed session at 12:15 pm.
RECONVENE SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING (OPEN SESSION): Mayor Hinton reconvened the open session at 12:16 pm.
REPORT OUT OF CLOSED SESSION: There was no report out of the closed session.
PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA (SECOND COMMENT PERIOD): Three minutes per speaker for up to twenty (20) minutes total for public comments but can be reduced at Mayor’s discretion depending upon the number of speakers or Mayor has discretion to allow for additional time beyond the 20 minutes allocated for public comment dependent upon the subject matter or number of speakers.
There was no public comment for Items Not on the Agenda.
ADJOURNMENT OF CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING
March 6, City Council Special Meeting Closed Session will be adjourned to the Regular City Council Meeting of March 7, 2023 at 6:00 pm (In Person and Remote/Zoom Virtual Meeting Format) Mayor Hinton adjourned the March 6, 2023 City Council Special Meeting/Closed Session at 12:16 p.m. to the Next Regular Scheduled City Council Meeting of March 7, 2023 In person and zoom virtual meeting format to be held at 6:00 p.m. In person meeting to be held at the Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris Street, Sebastopol, Ca.
Respectfully Submitted,
Mary Gourley
Assistant City Manager/Attorney/City Clerk