CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
MINUTES FOR REGULAR MEETING OF MARCH 18, 2025
As Approved by the City Council at their regular meeting of April 1, 2025 Please note that minutes of meetings are not meant to be verbatim minutes and are meant to be the City’s record of a summary of actions that took place at the meeting. The vote/action is the required information of the meeting actions that took place. Approved minutes are available on the City Council Meetings page.
Meeting held in Person and Virtual /Remote Participation In Person: 425 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Zollman called the meeting to order at 6:01 pm ROLL CALL:
Present: Mayor Stephen Zollman
Councilmember Phill Carter
Councilmember Neysa Hinton
Councilmember Sandra Maurer
Absent: Vice Mayor Jill McLewis
Staff: Assistant City Manager/City Clerk Mary Gourley
City Attorney Alex Mog
Administrative Services Director Kwong
City Engineer/Public Works Director Mark Rincon Ibarra
Community Development Director Emi Theriault
Police Chief Sean McDonagh
SALUTE TO THE FLAG : Mayor Zollman led the salute to the flag.
Mayor Zollman called for a moment of silence in recognition of the passing of former City Councilmember and Planning Commissioner Linda Kelley.
REMOTE PARTICIPATION UNDER AB 2449 (IF NEEDED): To consider and take action on any request from a Council Member to participate in a meeting remotely due to Just Cause or Emergency Circumstances pursuant to AB 2449 (Government Code Section 549539(f)). Assembly Bill 2302 (2024) (“AB 2302”) revises rules for when members of local legislative bodies may participate in meetings remotely. Specifically, it amends the number of meetings that may be attended remotely for just cause and under emergency circumstances and clarifies the definition of the term “meeting,” for purposes of remote attendance. AB 2302 caps the number of remote meetings a member can attend each year based on the frequency of a legislative body’s meetings: Five meetings per year for those meeting twice a month.
No remote participation requested.
PROCLAMATIONS/PRESENTATIONS/INTRODUCTIONS: NONE
STATEMENTS OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: Conflicts of interest may arise in situations where a public official deliberating towards
a decision, has an actual or potential financial interest in the matter before the Council. In accordance with state law, an actual conflict of interest is one that would be to the private financial benefit of a public official, a relative or a business with which the Councilmember is associated. A potential conflict of interest is one that could be to the private financial benefit of a Councilmember, a relative or a business with which the Councilmember is associated. A Councilmember must publicly announce potential and actual conflicts of interest, and, in the case of actual conflict of interest, must refrain from participating in debate on the issue or from voting on the issue and must remove themselves from the dais.
There were no stated conflicts of interest.
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.
Process for calling on Speakers: Mayor or designee shall ask for public comment as follows: Speakers to be called on in an alternate manner (One speaker in person to be called on first; then one speaker remote to be called on second with additional speakers to be called on in the same manner) based upon the time limit.
The following member(s) of the public spoke during public comment.
Craig
Kate
Thomas
Kyle
CONSENT CALENDAR: The consent agenda consists of items that are routine in nature and do not require additional discussion by the City Council or have been reviewed by the City Council previously. These items may be approved by one motion without discussion unless a member of the City Council requests that the item be taken off the consent calendar.
The Mayor will read aloud the title of each consent item (either full agenda title or a simplified version of the agenda title), and ask if a Councilmember wishes to remove one or more items from the consent calendar; and then open public comment to the members of the public in attendance. At this time, a member of the public may speak for up to two (2) minutes on the entire consent calendar and request at that time that an item or items removed for discussion.
If an item or items are removed from the consent calendar, the item shall be placed at the end of the regular agenda items unless otherwise determined by the Mayor. Council Members may comment on Consent Calendar items or ask for minor clarifications without the need for pulling the item for separate consideration. Items requiring deliberation should be pulled for separate consideration and shall be placed at the end of the regular agenda items unless otherwise determined by the Mayor.
Mayor Zollman asked if any Councilmember wanted to remove a consent calendar item.
Councilmember Hinton asked for clarification of the Fireworks item.
Mayor Zollman opened for Public Comment(s). The following member(s) of the public spoke during public comment:
Kate
Patrick
Mayor Zollman called for a motion.
MOTION:
Councilmember Hinton moved and Councilmember Maurer seconded the motion to approve consent calendar items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 with correction to the Kiwanis Fire Works report regarding grant.
Mayor Zollman called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.
VOTE:
Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Maurer, and Mayor Zollman Noes: None
Absent: Vice Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
1. Approval of City Council Meeting Minutes of March 4, 2025 (Responsible Department: Assistant City Manager/City Clerk)
City Council Action: Approved City Council Meeting Minutes of March 4, 2025 Minute Order Number: 2025-088
2. Approval of City Council Special Meeting – Closed Session – Minutes of March 10, 2025 (Responsible Department: Assistant City Manager/City Clerk)
City Council Action: Approved City Council Special Meeting – Closed Session – Minutes of March 10, 2025 Minute Order Number: 2025-089
3. Receipt and Approval of 2025 Fireworks Show. Approval request from the Sebastopol Kiwanis Club to conduct their Annual Fireworks Show on July 3, 2025 located on private property of the West Sonoma County Union High School District, Analy High School
There is no fiscal impact to the City’s budget with approval of this item. (Responsible Department: Fire)
City Council Action: Approved Receipt and Approval of 2025 Fireworks Show. Approval request from the Sebastopol Kiwanis Club to conduct their Annual Fireworks Show on July 3, 2025 located on private property of the West Sonoma County Union High School District, Analy High School Minute Order Number: 2025-090
4. Receipt of General Plan Annual Progress Report for housing unit projects within the City of Sebastopol. Per Government Code Section 65400(a)(2) requires that public agencies prepare a General Plan Annual Progress Report, and submit it to HCD by April 1.
There is no fiscal impact to the City’s budget with approval of this item. (Responsible Department: Community Development Director) City Council Action: Approved Receipt of General Plan Annual Progress Report for housing unit projects within the City of Sebastopol. Per Government Code Section 65400(a)(2) requires that public agencies prepare a General Plan Annual Progress Report, and submit it to HCD by April 1.
Minute Order Number: 2025-091
5. Approval of Amendments to Protocols – City Council Policy Number 3 – Role of Mayor and Vice Mayor – As Directed by the City Council at their meeting of March 4, 2025; Removal of following language:
It is the Mayor’s duty to serve as the City’s primary media spokesperson in coordination with City staff; and Appropriate City staff should always be alerted to media contact.
There is no fiscal impact to the City’s budget with approval of this item (Responsible Department: Assistant City Manager/City Clerk) City Council Action: Approved Amendments to Protocols – City Council Policy Number 3 – Role of Mayor and Vice Mayor – As Directed by the City Council at their meeting of March 4, 2025; Removal of following language:
It is the Mayor’s duty to serve as the City’s primary media spokesperson in coordination with City staff; and Appropriate City staff should always be alerted to media contact Minute Order Number: 2025-092
6. Appoint Retired Annuitant as Interim Police Captain and Certify Critical Need Prior to 180-Days From Date of Retirement. This item is to approve a resolution of the City Council of the City of Sebastopol appointing Ron Nelson, a retired annuitant, as interim Police Captain and certify the appointment is necessary to fill a critically needed position prior to 180 days from Ron Nelson’s retirement date, to
prevent slowdown or stoppage of work. The Fiscal Impact of appointing Ron Nelson, a Retired Annuitant, as Interim Police Captain will be a not to exceed a monthly amount of $12,899.
There is no fiscal impact associated with approval of this item. This is included in the approved fiscal year 24/25 budget and does not exceed the salary budgeted for the Police Captain position. Staff is not asking for any additional appropriations to cover the cost of the interim position. (Responsible Department: Human Resources/City Manager)
City Council Action: Approved Appointment Retired Annuitant as Interim Police Captain and Certify Critical Need Prior to 180-Days From Date of Retirement. This item is to approve a resolution of the City Council of the City of Sebastopol appointing Ron Nelson, a retired annuitant, as interim Police Captain and certify the appointment is necessary to fill a critically needed position prior to 180 days from Ron Nelson’s retirement date, to prevent slowdown or stoppage of work. The Fiscal Impact of appointing Ron Nelson, a Retired Annuitant, as Interim Police Captain will be a not to exceed a monthly amount of $12,899.
Minute Order Number: 2025-093
Resolution Number: 6655-2025
7. Approval of Ordinance Generally Amending the Sebastopol Municipal Code Referencing Public Works Superintendent to the Public Works Director
There is no fiscal impact associated with approval of this item. (Responsible Department: Public Works/Engineering)
City Council Action: Approved Ordinance Generally Amending the Sebastopol Municipal Code Referencing Public Works Superintendent to the Public Works Director
Minute Order Number: 2025-094
Ordinance Number: 1153
INFORMATIONAL ITEMS/PRESENTATIONS: Informational Items or Presentations are items that are informational only and do not require action by the City Council. Presentations shall be scheduled as necessary for the promotion of an event or service or general information items to the Council and should be limited to ten (10) minutes total in length of item (total length includes questions of Council to presenter and public comment).
NONE
PUBLIC HEARING(s):
8. Introduction and First Reading of Ordinance Amending Section 13.08.110, Basis of Sewer Service Charges, of the Sebastopol Municipal Code and Proposed Changes to City Policy 94 There is no fiscal impact with approval of this item to the City’s budget (Responsible Department: Public Works/Engineering)
Director Kwong presented the agenda item recommending the City Council introduce for first reading Ordinance Amending Section 13.08.110, Basis of Sewer Service Charges, of the Sebastopol Municipal Code and Proposed Changes to City Policy 94.
Mayor Zollman asked for questions of staff. There were none.
Mayor Zollman opened the public hearing. The following member(s) of the public spoke:
Kyle
Hearing no further comments, Mayor Zollman closed the public hearing.
Staff responded to public comments.
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Direction to Staff:
The Council discussed the process and rate study and Prop 218.
MOTION:
Councilmember Hinton moved and Mayor Zollman seconded the motion to approve introduction of first reading Ordinance Amending Section 13.08.110, Basis of Sewer Service Charges, of the Sebastopol Municipal Code and Proposed Changes to City Policy 94.
Mayor Zollman called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.
VOTE:
Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Maurer, and Mayor Zollman Noes: None
Absent: Vice Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved introduction of first reading Ordinance Amending Section 13.08.110, Basis of Sewer Service Charges, of the Sebastopol Municipal Code and Proposed Changes to City Policy 94.
Minute Order Number: 2025-095
Ordinance Number: 1154
REGULAR CALENDAR AGENDA ITEMS (DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION):
9. Consideration of Council approval to authorize use of City Council budget for Mayor Zollman and Vice Mayor McLewis to attend the Legislative Committee Meetings as both the Mayor and Vice Mayor are on the following League of CA Cities Committees:
a. Community Services
b. Governance, Transparency, and Labor Relations
c. Attendance at League of CA Cities City Summit
There is no fiscal impact to the City’s budget with approval of this item as funding is allocated in the FY 24 25 Budget.
(Responsible Department: Mayor/Vice Mayor)
Mayor Zollman introduced the item recommending the Council receive and approve the request to use available funds for the trainings as noted in the report.
Mayor Zollman asked for questions of staff. The Council asked questions of staff and the Mayor.
Mayor Zollman opened for public comment. The following member(s) of the public spoke:
Kyle
Mary
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Direction to Staff:
The Council discussed the funding.
MOTION:
Councilmember Hinton moved and Councilmember Carter seconded the motion to approve and authorize use of City Council budget for Mayor Zollman and Vice Mayor McLewis to attend the Legislative Committee Meetings as both the Mayor and Vice Mayor are on the following League of CA Cities Committees:
a. Community Services
b. Governance, Transparency, and Labor Relations
c. Attendance at League of CA Cities City Summit
and that written reports will be required
Mayor Zollman called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.
VOTE:
Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Maurer, and Mayor Zollman Noes: None
Absent: Vice Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved and authorize use of City Council budget for Mayor Zollman and Vice Mayor McLewis to attend the Legislative Committee Meetings as both the Mayor and Vice Mayor are on the following League of CA Cities Committees:
a. Community Services
b. Governance, Transparency, and Labor Relations
c. Attendance at League of CA Cities City Summit
and that written reports will be required
Minute Order Number: 2025-096
10. Consideration of Approval Electronics Policy Reconsideration and Incorporate the Policy into the City Council Policies and Procedures Handbook
There is no fiscal impact with approval of this item to the City’s budget (Responsible Department: City Clerk)
Assistant City Manager /City Clerk Gourley introduced the item recommending the Council Approve the Electronics Policy Reconsideration and Incorporate the Policy into the City Council Policies and Procedures Handbook.
Mayor Zollman asked for questions of staff. The council asked questions of staff.
Mayor Zollman opened for public comment. The following member(s) of the public spoke:
Kyle
Oliver
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Direction to Staff:
There was no further discussion.
MOTION:
Councilmember Carter moved and Mayor Zollman seconded the motion to Approve the Electronics Policy Reconsideration and Incorporate the Policy into the City Council Policies and Procedures Handbook.
Mayor Zollman called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.
VOTE:
Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Maurer, and Mayor Zollman Noes: None
Absent: Vice Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved the Electronics Policy Reconsideration and Incorporate the Policy into the City Council Policies and Procedures Handbook.
Minute Order Number: 2025-097
11. Consideration for Approval of Reconfiguration of the Climate Action Committee Composition and Duties and Meeting Frequency. Item would be to approve the reconfiguration of the composition of the Climate Action Committee; direct staff to set up interviews at the next available City Council meeting, and approve every other month (odd months) meeting frequency. (Responsible Department: Community Development)
Community Development Director Emi Theriault introduced the item recommending the Council Approve Reconfiguration of the Climate Action Committee Composition and Duties and Meeting Frequency. Item would be to approve the reconfiguration of the composition of the Climate Action Committee; direct staff to set up interviews at the next available City Council meeting, and approve every other month (odd months) meeting frequency.
Mayor Zollman asked for questions of staff. The Council asked questions of staff.
Mayor Zollman opened for public comment. The following member(s) of the public spoke:
Kyle
Kate
Kenna
Oliver
Robert
Mary
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Direction to Staff:
The Council discussed regular meetings.
MOTION:
Councilmember Maurer moved and Councilmember Carter seconded the motion to Approve Reconfiguration of the Climate Action Committee Composition and Duties and Meeting Frequency. Item would be to approve the reconfiguration of the composition of the Climate Action Committee; direct staff to set up interviews at the next available City Council meeting and an annual allocation of 120 hours One City Councilmember
Six members with one or more of the following experience/characteristics:
a. Youth representative (ages 17-23)
b. Climate Change
c. Sebastopol Business Owner
d. Local Climate Action Group
e. Environmental Justice and Equity
f. Rights of Nature
g. Energy
h. Transportation
i. Zero Waste
Notes on additional CAC-suggested composition requirements:
• All members must reside within the 95472 zip code, and • the majority 7 members must have a climate background.
Mayor Zollman called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.
VOTE:
Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Maurer, and Mayor Zollman Noes: None
Absent: Vice Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved Approve Reconfiguration of the Climate Action Committee Composition and Duties and Meeting Frequency. Item would be to approve the reconfiguration of the composition of the Climate Action Committee; direct staff to set up interviews at the next available City Council meeting, and an Annual allocation of 120 hours
One City Councilmember
Six members with one or more of the following experience/characteristics:
a. Youth representative (ages 17-23)
b. Climate Change
c. Sebastopol Business Owner
d. Local Climate Action Group
e. Environmental Justice and Equity
f. Rights of Nature
g. Energy
h. Transportation
i. Zero Waste
Notes on additional CAC-suggested composition requirements:
• All members must reside within the 95472 zip code, and • the majority 7 members must have a climate background.
Minute Order Number: 2025-098
12. Consideration of Approval of City Council Goals Setting Session Agenda There is no fiscal impact to the City’s budget with approval of this item. (Responsible Department: City Manager)
City Manager Schwartz introduced the item recommending the Council Approve City Council Goals Setting Session Agenda and introduced goals consultant Steve Mermell.
Steve Mermell, consultant, provided information on the agenda for the goals workshop.
Mayor Zollman asked for questions of staff. The Council asked questions of staff and the consultant.
Mayor Zollman opened for public comment. The following member(s) of the public spoke:
Oliver
Kyle
Robert
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Direction to Staff:
The council discussed the agenda.
MOTION:
Councilmember Maurer moved and Mayor Zollman seconded the motion to Approve City Council Goals Setting Session Agenda as amended:
• Limit information/presentation to total of one hour more or less/Setting stage; no longer than one hour • See in advance Council Goals and Priorities as discussed with the Facilitator • Accomplishments and Issues
• Public comment 20 minutes in beginning
• Add second public comment period in between goals and priority setting • Include 2019 Goals
• Include September 2024 Goals
• 5 Normal Buckets/Overview of Common Goals
• Informational relevant to better understanding of city government/Roles of Council and CM/Governance Mayor Zollman called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.
VOTE:
Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Maurer, and Mayor Zollman Noes: None
Absent: Vice Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved City Council Goals Setting Session Agenda as amended:
• Limit information/presentation to total of one hour more or less/Setting stage; no longer than one hour • See in advance Council Goals and Priorities as discussed with the Facilitator • Accomplishments and Issues
• Public comment 20 minutes in beginning
• Add second public comment period in between goals and priority setting • Include 2019 Goals
• Include September 2024 Goals
• 5 Normal Buckets/Overview of Common Goals
• Informational relevant to better understanding of city government/Roles of Council and CM/Governance Minute Order Number: 2025-099
13. Consideration of Request for Quarterly Joint City Council/Sebastopol School District Meetings There is no fiscal impact with consideration of the request (Responsible Department: Mayor Zollman)
Mayor Zollman introduced the item recommending the Council consider the request and approve Quarterly Joint City Council/Sebastopol School District Meetings.
Mayor Zollman asked for questions. The council asked questions of the Mayor.
Mayor Zollman opened for public comment. The following member(s) of the public spoke:
Kyle
Robert
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Direction to Staff:
The Council discussed the request.
The council was in consensus to discuss this at the goals session on April 1st.
City Council Action: The council was in consensus to discuss this at the goals session on April 1st.
Minute Order Number: 2025-100
ADDITIONAL PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA: Two 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.
None.
COUNCILMEMBER(S) REQUESTS FOR FUTURE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEMS:
The following Councilmembers requested the following agenda items:
Councilmember Maurer
Requested the agenda item of the merger of the DRB and PC be an informational only opportunity first to get information without pressure of a vote. Councilmember Hinton supported the ask.
Item will go to the agenda review committee as a high priority.
Minute Order Number: 2025-101
Councilmember Hinton
Requested an agenda item to appoint a member of the CAC to the SCTCA informal coordination meeting.
Councilmember Carter supported the ask
Minute Order Number: 2025-102
CITY COUNCIL/CITY STAFF REPORTS/COMMUNICATIONS/ANNOUNCEMENTS/FUTURE MEETINGS:
14. City Manager and/or City Clerk Reports: (This will be either verbal reports at the meeting, or written reports provided at or prior to the meeting) a. Departmental Reports
b. Updated Budget Calendar as directed at the Feb 18th Council Meeting c. Updated Classification and Compensation Study Per Council Direction Reference Order Number: 2025-103
15. City Council Reports/Committee/Sub-Committee Meeting Reports: (Reports by Mayor/City Councilmembers Regarding Various Agency Meetings/Committee
Meetings/Sub-Committee Meeting /Conferences Attended and Possible Direction to its Representatives (If Needed) on Pending issues before such Boards. ((This will be either verbal reports at the meeting, or written reports provided at or prior to the meeting)
16. Council Communications Received (Information/Meetings/Correspondence Received from the General Public to Councilmembers)
CLOSED SESSION: NONE
ADJOURNMENT OF CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Mayor Zollman adjourned the March 18, 2025, City Council Regular Meeting at 9:35 pm to the City Council Workshop Goals Setting of Tuesday April 1, 2025 at 1:00 pm at the Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA.
April 1, 2025 Goals Setting Workshop will be adjourned to the next Regular City Council Meeting of Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 6:00 pm, Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary C. Gourley
Assistant City Manager/City Clerk
City Council Meeting - March 18, 2025
TESTING. TESTING. TESTING.
PLEASE STAND BY FOR REALTIME CAPTIONS.
VICE MAYOR McLEWIS IS ABSENT TONIGHT.
THANK YOU.
AND I WILL GO AHEAD AND DO THERE ARE NO PROCLAMATIONS OR
PRESENTATIONS, SO WE WILL GO RIGHT INTO STATEMENTS OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST TO MY COLLEAGUES, SEEING NONE TO MY RIGHT OR THE LEFT.
GREAT. THEN WE WILL VIEW MOVE INTO PUBLIC COMMENT. THIS IS
OPPORTUNITY FOR MEMBERS TO THE PUBLIC TO SPEAK ON MATTERS WITHIN
THE JURISDICTION OTHERWISE NOT ON THE AGENDA TO THE LENGTH OF
RECENT CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS IT IS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED COMMENTS
BE CEMENTED TO CITY COUNCIL BY SENDING THEM BY MAIL EMAIL [email protected] WITH PUBLIC COMMENT WRITTEN IN THE SUBJECT LINE. AND, MARY, COULD YOU DO PUBLIC COMMENT? AS HE GESTATED THIS IS PUBLIC COMMENT. IT IS 20 MINUTES, PUBLIC COMMENTS IS TWO MINUTES PER PERSON. WE GO TO IN THE ROOM FIRST.
HI MY NAME IS CRAIG I AM A CITIZEN HERE IN THE COMMUNITY IN TOWN. I AM HERE WITH MY TWO HATS, BECAUSE ON APRIL 13th FROM NOON UNTIL 4:00 WE ARE HOSTING A GARDEN BOX BUILD EQUINOX GARDEN BOX. AND IT'S PRETTY EXCITING. WE ARE BUILDING FREE GARDEN BOXES FOR FOLKS
WHO HAVE ANY SORT OF NEED OUT THERE IN THE COMMUNITY OR
ESPECIALLY LOOKING FOR PEOPLE, WHO ARE NEW TO GARDENING, KIND OF
EXCITED ABOUT IT, THEY WANT TO GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY, PLANT SOME THINGS LIKE FOR THE DECLINING BEE POPULATION, THE BUTTERFLIES. WE
ARE LOOKING FOR FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO GROW THEIR OWN FOOD, SAVING MONEY. WE WILL BE PUTTING YOUNG AND OLD TO PUT THIS
TOGETHER, AND IT IS A BIG DONATED EFFORT, SO THAT'S HAPPENING ON APRIL 13th FROM 12:00-4:00 AT THE SEBASTOPOL GRANGE. WE HOPE YOU CAN ATTEND.
THANK YOU, CRAIG. NEXT I WILL GO OUT TO ZOOM IF THERE IS ANYONE ON
ZOOM THAT WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A PUBLIC COMMENT FOR AN ITEM NOT ON TONIGHT'S AGENDA. I WILL COME RIGHT BACK TO YOU. CATHERINE? Can you see the timer?
I can.
Go ahead with your public comment.
Thank you. I encourage this city and the Council to tell Sebastopol's story and not to rely on other sources to tell constituents what is urgent. In recent months we have seen communications failure. First there was the new garbage contract. The city failed to explain why, what, when, and how, and many important business owners got pissed off, because-- Communication into their hands. There was protest because Sebastopol times got their subscribers frothy at the mouth. Many of these people don't live in Sebastopol like Dale and Laura don't live in Sebastopol, and they left after their got their dopamine hit of comment.
When Sonny Galbreath asked what is going on in Sebastopol, and when Jim Weeden didn't know all the problems with the water and sewer enterprise fund. What is going on in Sebastopol is that Sevastopol 's in a fiscal crisis and measure you is going to solve it. That needs to be said over and over again, so people know the city is still in a financial crisis, and
sales tax is down. Each meeting should start with an acknowledgment the city is in a financial crisis that has over $20 million of infrastructure need, if you include roads, parks, and city facilities are at each meeting should start with an open map of tiny Sebastopol that shows what areas are actually generating the revenue that supports every single aspect of this town.
Each meeting people need to be reminded of what is going on in Sebastopol , since council decisions are granted by the city's urgent financial situation. Thank you.
Thank you, Kate, for your public comment. Next, Kyle, I do have someone before you.
Thank you. Sir?
[ Inaudible ]
One more second. One more second.
It's definitely not you.
There you go.
Hello, my name is Thomas, hello city Council, good evening. I have come to address the declining pollinator population. The Western Monarch butterfly is, numbers now near its record low. This record low population um-- and the bee population is swiftly declining as well. I urge city Council and the people of Sebastopol to do their part um-- it looks like we need some sort of moratorium on spraying herbicides and as many pesticides as we can. I myself, myself, excuse me, and others, have observed the spraying of herbicides around businesses here in town, and we need to stop there's no need for spraying of any kind anymore anywhere that we've learned, the tragic truth of what these chemicals do um-- I, a moratorium that would ban on the use in people's gardens and palms. I am not sure what we can do about the local farms um-- that might take a little while, but um-- if we can set an example for other cities to follow it would be amazing. And we could also Ulster Sebastopol's wonderful reputation .
You have about 25 seconds.
I absolutely urge you all to do that ASAP, and thank you.
Thank you for your public comment. I will go out to zoom. If there's anyone on zoom that would make a public comment for an item not on today's agenda-- Seeing them. I will go back into the chambers.
Hi. So, I don't want to get involved in cross chatter, but I definitely don't want to be in the business of trying to, like, somehow criticize folks for coming to public comment regardless of what their pet project is and piggyback on the last speaker. Like, I think year after year there has been conversations about weed abatement. And weed abatement kind of getting promoted way earlier than it needs to um-- that we need to recognize that the actual groundcover that we have in our city is habitat for pollinators. And so, even having signs up on the fire station encouraging people to get started on weed abatement this early in the season is actually detrimental to our pollinator, like our pollinator colonies. Which, I've spoken to in the past. But, it's definitely a concern with me especially as we steamroll past this idea of consolidation that we don't necessarily have the best interest of the city is with this fire district that's probably going to be pushing for weed abatement happening at whatever schedule they have. So, it's just something we need to consider for the rent main reason I want to talk to might we have interesting apartment head reports. It's important council will be taking the time and dedication to those head reports especially considering how even at the last meeting we were getting inconsistent messaging from our department heads inaccurate in the way they work reporting out on particular agenda items. So, I think it is important we are critical of those department head reports, and that we are encouraging them to be more detail oriented and transparent in the amount of communication they are making, and that we are staying on those department reports to make sure the information in there is factual, and if it's relative to the public that we are posting those things rather than
just receiving those reports are not actually addressing some serious concerns that are in them. Thank you.
Thank you, Kyle. Next, I'll go back out to zoom. If there is anyone on zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand virtually. CNN. I will come back into chambers, if there is anyone in chambers would like to make a public comment for an item not on tonight's agenda. Seeing none.
Can I respond? Yes, a couple weeks ago I saw one of the city workers spraying on the street over on and on Covert. I asked why they are spraying. They don't use pesticides. He said vinegar and soap and one other thing that he had a mixture of. And, um-- so I just wanted the public to know that the city does not use pesticides as far as I know. Um-- and also, there is a thing called "No Mo May." it is basically self-explanatory, should leave the weeds and don't mow in May. Thank you for your comments.
Moving on to the consent calendar. Number one is approval of the city Council meeting minutes of March 4th, 2025. Number two is approval of the city Council special meeting closed session meetings of March 10th, 2025. Number three, received approval of 2025 fireworks show. Approval request from Sevastopol-- Sebastopol KIWANIS CLUB TO conduct their fireworks show. Number four received general plan annual progress report for housing projects within the city of Sebastopol. There is a code section that requires public agencies to prepare annual progress report and submitted to HCD by April 1st. Number five approval of the amendments to protocols. City Council protocol number three role of mayor and vice mayor as directed by city Council at their meeting of March 4th, 2025. There is no fiscal impact to the city's budget with approval of this item. Number 6,.required annuitant as interim police captain and certified critical need prior to 180 days from the date of retirement.
Also to note there is no fiscal impact associated with approval of this item this is included in the approved fiscal year 2425 budget and does not exceed the salary budget for the police captain position. Staff is not asking for any additional operations to cover the cost of the interim position. A number 7, approval of ordinance generally amending Sebastopol UNESCO code referencing public works superintendent to the public works director. Again, there is no fiscal impact associated with approval of this item. Turning to my colleagues to see if there is request to pull any item. Councilmember Hinton? I noticed on the kiwanis agenda there's probably a correction that needs to be made. I would ask during public comment if one of them could come up and address the sections that says direct benefits include but not limited to $3000 donations to project graduation on all campuses as noted we don't have three campuses any longer. I would just like them to make a little correction to that, thanks.
Thank you. Any other Council members would like to pull anything? Seeing none. Mary? Public comment?
Thank you, Mayor. This is for public comment on items 1-7. If you would like to make public comment I will go to in chambers first. Seeing none. I will got to zoom if you would like to make a public comment on the consent calendar items please raise her hand virtually.
Kate, can you unmute yourself please?
Yes.
Can you still see the timer?
I can. My only public comment, and I am not sure if this is the appropriate place for this particular public comment is that last year there was like a huge, a huge and potentially dangerous traffic jam after the fireworks where the traffic was severely impacted. It was hard to on Morris Street, and around Laguna Parkway, that no vehicles can move. And I was highly doubtful that even an emergency vehicle could have gotten through there. So I would just ask that there was some sort of traffic, perhaps people just moving cars out of the city
when the fireworks are over, or just so it's on the Public Safety radar, so that there is not a huge traffic jam just to make sure emergency vehicles can get through after the fireworks show was over. And that's my only comment, thank you.
Thank you, Kate. Next I will come back into chambers if there is anyone in chambers would like to make a public comment, please--
My name is Patrick Cannon from the Sebastopol kiwanis, and the information about the schools is only one school for the project graduation, and that is a $500 stipend that would be awarded.
I will make sure the fire chief knows I came from that department. Thank you.
Next I will go out to zoom if there is anyone on zoom would like to make a public comment on the consent items, please raise her hand virtually. CNN did I will come back into chambers one last time, if there is anyone who would like to make a public comment. Seeing them. Public comment is closed.
To address the question from the public eye too did have some concerns about exiting of the cars. General manager with proposed closure of Morris Street or do I directed to our new police chief? Or Mary.
Unless you want to go ahead.
We have been meeting with Kiwanis. They will have a temporary use permit to show streets are going to be closed for safety. It will be a little different this year to the parking will be more along Morris Street and using the community parking lot, so we can avoid traffic jams.
Police and fire are working with them, as you will see that coming back at a future Council meeting. But, yes, we will have them bring that back.
Thank you. Hopefully that's good for member of the public. Any other comments back up at the dais, or a motion?
I am happy to make a motion to approve the consent calendar with those minor adjustments, items 1-7.
Second.
Mary, rollcall?
Thank you, Mayor. So moved by councilmember Hinton and seconded by councilmember Maurer , with correction to the Kiwanis regarding the donation . Councilmember Carter? Councilmember Hinton? Councilmember Maurer? Maylor Zollman? Motion passes with Carter, Hinton, Maurer, with Vice Mayor McLewis absent.
We will move on to public hearing , and we have one agenda item number 8, and this is the introduction and first reading of ordinance amending section 30 teen 08 110 basis of sewer service charges of the Sebastopol municipal code and proposed changes to city policy number 4. Again to note there is no fiscal impact with approval of this item to the city's budget responsible department public works and engineering.
I understand that in a straight of services--
Thank you, director. Expect thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members, so the item before the Council involved introducing and conducting a public hearing on the ordinance amending section 13.08.110 basis of sewer service charges in the Sebastopol municipal code, the code established the regulation regarding basis for sewer services charges um-- the proposed ordinance to amend that section to remove Pacific-- Pacific regulation and instead reference the city utility billing collection policy number 94 that the Council adopted a resolution for that in 2022 um-- the action will facilitate the inclusion of more details procedures of the collection of the water and sewer fees. If the Council approves the first reading and the second reading of the adoption will be scheduled for the next regular Council meeting. Um-- the approval of the updated policy will also be scheduled for the next meeting as well simultaneously to amend the ordinance and the policy changes. So with some
minor wording changes um-- because we have monthly available now. And also clarification on nonresidential and industrial customer and some outdated terms that the ordinance has, and then some admin cleanup and policy number 94. So, with that, staff is recommending the Council dais the first reading of 13.08.110.
Thank you. Is there supplemental information to be provided? I do not believe so.
Okay. No, all right. But I heard someone else was coming up. Okay, so are the questions from my colleagues in reference to agenda item number 8? Turning to my right, my left-- No- - To public comment.
Thank you, Mayor. This is public comment on the public hearing amending the ordinance I will go to chambers first. Kyle?
Um-- so I would like to address some concerns regarding the proposal code 13.08.110 which removes sewer charges and moves them to policy number 94. I understand the goal of streamlining billing procedures, this trance. Concerns code relations require public hearings and formal ordinances for modification. Moving these to a separate document allows future changes to happen with far less public scrutiny. What mechanisms will be ensure in place to ensure future changes occur bimonthly to monthly calculations could confuse customers and potentially lead to unexpected cost increases. Has there been outreach to ensure ratepayers understand these changes? And what process exists for who believes the charges are correct? Just education on how policy nighter for will be-- 94 will be enforced moving forward. What protections exist to prevent unfair adjustments without proper notice? I encourage council to delay adoption until a campaign is conducted to make sure residents understand how this change impacts their utility bills. Thank you.
Thank you, Kyle. Next I will go out to zoom if you would like to make a public comment on this public hearing please raise your hand virtually. See none, I will come back into chambers, if there is anyone in chambers would like to make a comment this public hearing.
Seeing them. The public hearing is closed.
Thank you. Yes, to address the member of the public um-- I guess we will go to our director for all of this. So, to answer, direct the questions to you, so how does this moving to policy 94 um-- how in doing that would we have oversight by the members of the public? If everything gets switched over to this policy?
To address the sewer section of it we already have in the rate study how we calculate sewer.
So, there is your oversight. And the sewer calculation that we are currently doing right now is just moving-- It is in the rate study basically. That is where it is. And, Tony, she is an engineering department. She is on zoom as well that she can go into further, as far as what staff is doing procedurally, how we calculate water hills and all that, we have been doing this for white sometime. We are just cleaning up the ordinance. And it shouldn't be, the procedure shouldn't be in the ordinance is what, Tony, is that my understanding? Tony, are you able to hear us? Thank you.
Hi, okay good evening.
Good evening.
Okay, I have access to audio, but not video, so you don't get to see my face, but you can hear my voice. In response to Toni with engineering public works department. In response to the question regarding not having the public weigh in on these things, I did want to mention that policy 94 is-- Is um-- can be amended by resolution. So, again, it will go to city Council at that time. And with respect to how the sewer fees are charged for the-- Those are identified in the water study. As you know any changes to that would need to also be included in any future water rate studies. That is how the public would get involved in that to the resolution itself are strictly procedures on how the bills are, or the fees are collected, and how they are established. There's actually not any establishment of any fees at all. Those are done by the
water rate study itself. So I hope that answers the question. I don't know if there's anything else um-- that council has questions on with respect to this.
Think make you for that. It all seems retroactive. So if somebody notices that their bill is not correct to their understanding, do they go to director Kwong? Is that the process now? There was pop to 18 that the city also conducted prior to any rate being adopted. As you saw the whole lengthy process, so there are oversight. And as far as customer that has issues with their water bill they are welcome to call City Hall in the finance department, admin sources department, and we will take care of any customer that has any issue with their water bill and go through it detail by detail with the customer as we have been doing.
Great, thank you. Any other questions from my colleagues? Councilmember Carter? I just want to verify for the public what first reading means, and if there will be additional comment on this campaign later?
So ordinance ordinances require two readings, first reading basically considered at two meetings. So if you introduce and hold the first reading today it will come back for a second um-- reading, the common practice is that for to be on consent. But, of course, like any other item, a member of the Council can pull it off consent if there is desire for more discussion.
Councilmember Maurer?
Yeah, I had asked this question when we get the agendas we often meet with the staff to ask questions. So sometimes the public does not get the benefit of that question/answer process.
So I wanted to let the public know one of my questions was, on this issue, was, was this going to change how often we are billed? Because, I know if you switch to monthly billing it gets more expensive for the city to do that. And this will not change. So, the bills will still be bimonthly, except for something we talked about the last meeting, which there will be one bill extra in September, and that will be a one-month bill. Is that correct? That will be in July? It's a fix?
It's like a realignment.
Okay, so I just wanted to let you know.
Thank you, Councilmember Maurer. So with this, there is no action to be taken? Yes you do need to make a motion and a second and approved the introduction of the ordinance.
Is there such a motion?
Sure, I will go ahead and make the motion that we accept this introduction of first reading of ordinance midsection 13.08.110 basis of sewer service charges of the Sebastopol municipal code and proposed changes to city policy number 94 with no fiscal impact to our budget.
Great, thank you. Second? And then roll call?
I am sorry, who seconded?
I did.
So moved by Councilmember Hinton, seconded by Maylor Zollman to approve the introduction of the first reading of amendments to 13.08.110. Councilmember Carter? Councilmember Hinton Q Mark Councilmember Maurer? Maylor Zollman? Motion passes with four councils members voting in favor, and Vice Mayor McLewis is absent.
Moving on to consideration of council provide to author's use of city Council budget for Maylor Zollman and Vice Mayor McLewis to attend to slate of committee meetings as both mayor and vice Mayor are on the filing California cities one of them is community services, the additional one is the government's transparency and labor relations, and also the attendance to the league of California cities Summit, and to note there is no physical impact to the city's budget. With approval funding is allocated in the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget.
And the responsible department is the mayor or vice Mayor.
I can add to that really quick too. There, it has not been allocated, but there is funding available as there was Council member too and the cost of that conference, those conferences,
were also less than anticipated for the one that counts members did go to. This is also the first year where we have had councilmembers on league committees, and it was requested that the councilmember who are on these league committees be able to attend these leagues trainings, so that is what the agenda item is about.
Thank you. And thank you for also attaching the policy of the league of California cities, which actually does go into detail about with respect to policy committees are. The community service one, and the conference transparency and labor relations one, as well as the information about the league of California's cities Summit taking place in April. So, with that I will turn to my colleagues for questions--
Yeah, I have some questions. Um-- so, it was just presented, Mary, that you sent these trainings, so my question is, is this a regular item that as long as councilmembers serve on these league committees that we will be paying for attendance at these committee meetings, which is what the agenda says? Or are these one-time trainings? My apologies committees are mini meetings, but I will defer to the mayor. I do not know how often these meetings are.
They are on a quarterly basis, and thank goodness. They rotate, and most of them are virtual.
And then they have in northern California and Southern California one.
Okay, so I have a few more westerns. Do we do any research about what is typical, what cities typically pay for these additional meetings for councilmembers, for example Melanie if her council paid for those meetings?
I was told based from information that the cities do pay for them.
And then lastly, there was a lot of debate on an agenda item, because it was recommended by the budget committee a few years ago I believe when Maylor Zollman and former Mayor Rich were on it that we not attend all the meetings, and then that was brought back when our mayor and vice Mayor wanted to attend multiple meetings to know that we all had enough budget to attend either all of us, order give preference, if you have been attending another meeting, that maybe you let somebody else attend a meeting. I am wondering what the budget committee has to say about budgeting for this year. For example if I would like to go out to Southern California, or Sacramento for a meeting, which I did not last year, I would like to make sure that I would have necessary funds to do that training this year when others have taken in previous years and are on other goodies. Does the budget committee have opinions on that to participate? Or what rotation would we do? I think that should go to our assistant city clerk, because I think she has got the budget in front of her. But, I think that you spend the money, you don't have the money. You don't save it, you don't have it for next year. The more you spend you just spent it. So that's my perspective from the budget committee perspective. I was going to save this for another agenda item, but since it came up I want to give you the very short version on the budget.
Right? And, the budget, there are variables in the budget coming up. And, we are in a budget crisis. And, we either cut costs, 5.6% across the board, or we get the hotel, which could take years to help our budget, or the have sent measure comes through, we are only getting a quarter sent right now. But that will really stabilize or-- Depending on how bad the recession is. So that's just a budget perspective. So, I can't say exactly if everybody wants to go to meetings, you know. It's just more being spent.
Councilmember Carter?
I will just chime in that there is room in the budget, because somebody didn't go to a conference, there is a little bit left for a person to take advantage of that, and we will try to keep the budget tight.
That brings me to that was in January. What are the dates on these meetings? These fall in this year's fiscal budget, not next year.
Okay. Thanks.
Are there other questions before we go to public comment? Looking to the left, the right, no.
Mary?
Thank you. I also wanted to throw one thing on there as well. Our had requested she attend one in Sacramento, so I wanted to put that one out there as well. This is public comment on the request for the mayor and vice Mayor to utilize the funds to attend league of city California meeting and city summit meeting. If you would like to make a public comment.
Kyle market
Just very briefly based on the last agenda item we just had Toni represent herself as a member of the engineering to permit with the city. It's my understanding that representative is a member of a private company that we have a contract with for engineering. I've made this statement previously with other, I will move on, that's great. So, because this agenda item specifically is looking at funding particularly for the mayor and vice Mayor I need to bring up the point our vice Mayor has now been absent for two city Council meetings in a row, which brings the basic vacancy to 30 days. I would like a review of what the policy of vacancy of city councilmembers are to regular Council meetings in which there is some sort of need for change in city Council members. This is the second time in the last two years in which this particular councilmember has been vacant for two meetings in a row, and I would just like some clarity on what that policy is, thanks.
Thank you, Kyle, for your public comment. I will go out to zoom if you would like to make a public comment on this item regarding funding for these committee meetings. Please raise your hand, virtually. Hold on for just a second. Mary, can you unmute yourself please? Yes, can you hear me?
Yes, can you see the timer?
Yes. I just want to ask a quick question-- Sorry um-- how much is, how much are we talking about?
Is that your only question, Mary?
Um-- I was going to say something after if you tell me how much it is.
We will respond to questions after public comment. Go ahead with your public comment.
Okay then, I'm done. Thank you.
Thank you for your public comment. Next I will come back into chambers if there is anyone in Chambers would like to make a public comment. Seeing hundred I will go back out to zoom if you would like to make a public comment. To attend $1300 total that includes hotel and airfare down there. So $650 apiece. Wind Sacramento is a little bit more expensive, that one is $1250.
Does that include, travel?
For the one in Sacramento?
Both of them.
Yes. The ones in Southern California are cheaper, because it's not like a league training where you had to pay a registration fee. The city summit one of Sacramento you do have to pay a registration fee, that includes travel, hotel, airfare-- Can you tell me how much, how much the mayor and vice Mayor have spent on committee meetings and travel etc. already in this fiscal year?
I would have to look it up
Because I think they both did a conference in the fall, I'm not sure. Maybe they did one in the winter as well.
So, they did do the mayors and council members meeting in January. And then the Council also approved them up to I believe it was $1200 or $1300 to attend the one in Southern California, and the other they paid for out of pocket.
One of the reasons I was considering this is the league of cities, is this a new one for us? And, is this a new position for Jill McLewis?
I served on a tax and revenue one last year. This is my second year going into mine, but it is actually the vice mayor's first time on hers, that respective policy committee.
Were there expenses when you did it last year you hooked up yourself? I don't recall the city picking it up.
I know the one in Southern California the amount Council approved I had more, but we just paid for it.
No, I mean the committee that you did with like the cities-- Did you have a committee meeting that you paid for yourself associate with that last year's appointment? I'm not talking about the conference in Southern California.
No, for the committee you don't have to pay for that individually to be on the policy committee, if that helps.
I believe those were virtual, correct?
Policy one are virtual except they have one in Northern California in person and one in southern California appeared
Did you attend that? I don't recall approving expense for that.
The city did not approve--
You did that on your own and didn't ask to be reimbursed, so this is a new thing for us. We have never done this before.
We have never done this before.
I guess generally speaking I think it's important for Sebastopol. Can I go ahead and-- To be advocated and participate um-- but we are in a fiscal crisis. And I think while we get a small stipend we are up here, we are running for office because we want to give back to our community. And so, I just feel like is just an example, you ran last year and never asked the city for travel money for the committee, now it's coming. So, I guess I just want to say for the future I think we need to have a sense of fairness about what we attend so that we are not just funding a couple people for everything while, and then we are out of money. I think Councilmember Maurer said it well. When the money is gone money's gone. I don't Inc. it should be a race to goes-- A race to go to a conference first. We should work as a team. I'm fine with it, but both councilmembers we are speaking about and I also attended both conferences, that one wasn't budgeted for last year, and we had to have a special agenda item to prove-- Approve more money. I shared my concerns, so this is not a new thing. And, I think it passed on a 3-2. It was not 100% the Council thought it was okay. Um-- so I just want to make those concerns again that when we are asking our community saying we are in a fiscal situation we should live by that, and also all kind of take turns. When you run for something and get selected, like, there was just a seat up at coastal commission. What if one of us would have been selected for that? Would we be asking to represent? You put your name in a letter to take a leadership role, now it is physically fiscally impacting our budget. I think something else comes off in the future, I am going to be asking for a step back so other council members can participate. I just, for a fairness issue. I just want to be really upfront about this. It's not about this, it's about fairness across the board.
I appreciate that, and I do note the fact you have concerns. And you are right. We all throw our hats in various rings for certain appointments. If the policy is you do that to hopefully obtain knowledge and share it and get the visibility of Sebastopol out there, then maybe we just shouldn't , and we'll see how that goes. So I am fine with just not approving this. So-- Councilmember Carter?
To--
I can just be Neysa. We used to go by our first names.
I was wondering if this was an opportunity to direct staff that we have a better form of bucket for this thing so we can provide equity to all our members, so we have triggers or some visibility on who might attend what and inside that budget when we are in the budget
committee we can see it more fairly. And try to distribute it equitably. And then, when new things come up maybe we can pad it just a touch.
Yeah, I am going to agree with Councilmember Hinton that there is an equity issue here.
What would happen if we were all volunteering to be on these committees and were all wanting to have our travel and fees paid? That starts to add up. And so, I think there is an equity issue especially because I do believe you and the vice mayor have gone to several of these this year already. And this is public money we are talking about. So it's not our money.
It is the public's money. And what is the right expense for the public to mark is the public getting benefit for this? I would like to support your desire to go to this, and your position on these committees. I also had to balance that with it is the public's money, and we have to go be responsible stewards for this money. And I also feel that there is a bit of an equity issue in terms of two councilmembers getting a larger share of this travel and committee time. So, I am not sure about this issue, you know.
Other comments or emotion?
I mean, again, I am going to go ahead and move to, since we have this in the budget since it is new, since you will be bringing reports back um-- but, with that said , I think I don't want to change our policy and make this an automatic situation. So, this is kind of new territory.
And I think as Councilmember Maurer pointed out I think written reports back for the public on these conferences is prudent, and that is what I would request with my motion from the attending members. And, um-- so that we can post it and show the benefit to the public. And then I would ask in the future just depending on what happens with our budget this year that we really continue to keep this equity amongst the five of us, forefront, because not all of us can attend all meetings depending on work responsibilities and family, whatever. Um-- and so, but I do think that we might not have the money to fund everybody that wants to go to all the committee meetings this year in southern California and Sacramento. I think if you do one thing then you should get to do the other. I will make a motion to approve this as a one-time with the request for, so I am making motion to approve and authorize council 's mayor and vice mayor are on the California league committees of community services governance to in transparency with the request for written follow-up reports that we can post for the public and receive as other council members. Is that okay?
I want to clarify you are including the city Summit for the one in-- Okay thank you.
So I have a question about the report. Were there reports submitted for the previous couple of meetings?
There was a written report, but they did give a report during Council reports.
Okay.
I just would mention that small direction, like what is the opportunity for that? Is, that can't be within--
Can I make a suggestion adjust the current motion? I was going to raise that before we moved on to the next item.
The motion, you can include the motion to have written reports come back if that's what you are asking. And that was within the motion.
That was within the motion. I asked for written reports to come back from these meetings to be posted to the public.
So I think we are just looking for a second?
Correct, we need a second.
I will second it.
Thank you. And I'm going to do the rollcall and motion and have the city attorney also addressed the public comment about meetings and councilmember being absent. Motion by Councilmember Hinton, seconded by Councilmember Carter committee meetings that they survive for the league of California cities relations into attend league of California city
Summit councilmember Carter? Councilmember Hinton? Councilmember Maurer? Maylor Zollman ? Motion passes with Vice Mayor McLewis absent.
The state law provides a councilmember if they are absent for more than 60 days between regular meetings that they vacate their office.
Thank you.
Councilmember Carter had a suggestion, I don't know if you wanted to include in the motion. If I understood it to create an allowance for these councilmembers travel each year.
There is no motion for it, we aren't planning to act on it unless there's a motion and the Council supports adjusting your budget structure along those lines. I just don't want to lose the idea without council making a conscious decision to support it or to let it go.
Okay. Is there--
Is that something we can talk about?
If the budget committee wants to provide direction, or if someone wants to do a future agenda item--
Can I ask the city clerk or somebody to remind me about that? We could certainly capture it as a future budget topic.
Okay great. Thank you. On to agenda item number 10, which is the consideration of approval of electronics policy consideration and incorporate the policy into the city Council policies and procedure handbook. To note there is no physical impact with approval of this item to the city's budget. Mayor and vice mayor and Mary, you have done a lot of work on this as well.
I will go ahead and take it. Thank you. This is the adoption of the amendment to the city electronics policy um-- as we noted the last meeting, that this was discussed during this fiscal year the city did set aside funding to purchase laptops for city councilmembers, and we did recommend removing the stipend. A lot of it has had to do with I.T. security and the risk associated, potential risk associated with personal computers. However, at that meeting in December, the Council did not authorize that and wanted to maintain the personal use of city computers if I wanted to as well as a stipend. So, the city did reach out to Sarah, which is our risk manager, stated there are risk management concerns with the use of personal computers, and basically security risks is what their comment is. And that they did recommend using city-issued devices. Again, council directed not to do that but to go ahead and do a bring your own basically bring your own device policy. I had reached out to several other cities that have done it, and I do provide a couple examples of that. So we revised the protocol for a bring your own device policy with some security measures with training in there as well. And so policy is before the Council time for adoption.
Thank you. Councilmember Maurer?
Thank you. I read the policy. It is quite long mother involved. I am just wondering if you would be willing to hit the high points. I have read it, maybe I missed something. I am just wondering if you could hit the high points of what we should really be aware of that we are agreeing to in this policy. For a personal-- Either whichever is key for us-- Back city issued device, you have to adhere to city protocols, but we do have I.T. that will be monitoring those devices, they can log on to them when they need to if you need help with an issue with the system or something like that, they are going to be the ones responsible. So that is for the city issued devices. They cannot do that for personal devices. So that's the key is that for personal devices they are not going to be able to log onto a personal device to do any type of security updates or so for personal devices you will have to be responsible for making sure your systems are up to date, your programs are up to date, things like that. So, to me those are the two highlights. In the policy is that as you are now you do trainings with them anyway, so we have solutions that you are doing trainings for I.T. and security risk management.
When you say they can log on so are they monitoring your use?
That's with your permission, so if I have an issue with my laptop I can contact them for a support ticket. They will contact me, they will ask if they can log on, I have to give them access to my laptop to have them come in and see what the issue is with my system.
Thank you. Back any other questions, turn in?
Yeah, it was recommended that you know, I think there is confusion about training. We have our I.T. provider in the city once a week. And when I am not understanding is why city councilmembers even with a personal device can't utilize some help for example, I believe there is a special drive that we should all be saving on. And, if I am looking at my-- I don't know. There is a certain drive we should be saving on etc. I just don't understand why our I.T. can't provide that, the training you are mentioning is cyber security, we watch a video, it's like we don't click on these things-- But, the training was thinking of is like more hands-on training, how to save on the one drive, for example, to keep things more secure. And so that's a question I have. I had a problem with my own training as Ana knows. I.T. logged in, I give them access, and now my training is fixed. So, not all of us are good at everything. And as we talked about last time with our cell phones we don't have a closed system unless the city is providing cell phones as well. So, that's question one. My second question is for the city attorney.
So, the training, having them walk you through one drive and all that we have no problems with that. I.T. can help you with that. They just can't download onto your computer and things like that. So the training with that, that's not a problem.
So can we get that as councilmembers? Because we have never had any hands-on training with I.T. in my years on the Council.
Yes.
And they are here every week.
They are here every Wednesday on site. If the councilmember would like to meet with them just let Ana know, and they can walk you through the system, yes, some training on how to do it--
Because they did that when I first got my laptop which was funded by the stipend. It was very helpful. That was seven years ago.
Yes, just contact us, and we will set up an appointment. We just need to set up an.with him, because he works with all the departments--
This is to cancel. So we talked about using our personal devices. And tonight we are voting on that. But, yet as part of, I guess, the options tonight, we are still talking about possibly using city devices, but we already voted on personal devices, and we are short a councilmember. So we are not voting on city devices again tonight, because that's, even though Sarah is saying that's the safest action, this item has been-- This is just the policy acknowledges both are being used.
All right. Since it came up again, I just wanted to make sure that what we were discussing-- Any of the questions before we go to public comment? No you Mark Mary? This is for public comment on the electronics device policy if you would like to make a public comment I will come to Chambers first. Kyle?
Um-- so just to answer one of the concerns about the idea of having I.T. work on your own personal device even if it's in the capacity of just with city official businesses, that your personal device does not have the security standards that are required by the city on the city issued devices. So, what happens when an I.T. professional is working on your personal device, forget about the issue of, like, contracted labor being used on a personal device for things that are maybe not even related to city business and really about issues with your personal device, that you are inadvertently putting that I.T. professional in the city's data at risk by your vulnerabilities that are inherent in the fact that you are actively choosing not to use a city issued device to that I.T. professional, and then back to city security. So, that's the
first thing. The second thing is that I think what I am really hoping is that there is some teeth in this tonight, is that there are very strict security protocols that need to be followed if you are going to choose to use a personal device. And I think that hearing that there is a lack of training of councilmembers it comes to I.T. security protocols, and a lack of regular engagement with I.T. within the city, which I am hoping that we will revisit, and we will revisit in a way that is meaningfully going to provide data security at a moderate level so we don't have a $1.5 million data breach as we have had in the past, that we get to a place where councilmembers up to speed when it comes to the use of personal devices, the requirements of having those security protocols in place on those personal devices, and really at the end of the day start transitioning away from personal devices into the use of city-issued devices. The argument I heard initially was the idea of having double devices. And I think that just needs to kind of not be a reasonable explanation as to why we wouldn't want to have city issued devices, thank you.
Thank you, Kyle. Next I will go to zoom. Oliver? Can you unmute yourself, please? Thank you can you see the timer? Go ahead please.
Yeah. This is a terrible meeting. I mean that previous niggling and diming, and now this? I am pretty concerned. I mean I feel very strongly that um-- in an ideal world counselors should actually demonstrate some sort of competency around computing. It's 2024. It's just concerning to me that you have this sort of long-winded public position of not understanding how any of this stuff works particularly Neysa. I'm not sure where to go with this except it is concerning three to echo what Kyle says this is high stakes. They need to be legally aware and so on. From an I.T. perspective this is equally important. All city staff to demonstrate competency around this and do a good job. So, I think this needs revisiting on April 1st when you do your goalsetting mission. Thank you.
Thank you, Oliver. Next it will come back into chambers if there's anyone in chambers who would like to make a public comment on this item. Seeing none. I will go back to zoom. If you would like to make a comment please raise your hand virtually. Seeing none. Public comment is closed on this item.
Thank you. Moving back to the dais for a motion, discussion. Any comments? Councilmember Carter?
We only have access to our emails and maybe some publicly emailed documents. I don't know that we have more access than that. Do we?
On your personal device? No you would need to make sure those are not co-mingled and also protected on your personal device as well.
But, even on a public device we are able to send them to our personal devices? So like that's a bit of a moot point. I will go ahead and say since we are mostly protected, and we should definitely have a lot of training, and people should definitely tell us all the things that are currently problem with this with this motion, I will move it.
I will go ahead and second it.
Thank you. So moved by Councilmember Carter and seconded by Maylor Zollman to approve the amended electronics policy device incorporated into city Council policies and procedures. Councilmember Carter? Councilmember Hinton? Councilmember Maurer? Maylor Zollman? Motion passes with four councilmembers voting, Vice Mayor McLewis is absent.
Moving on to the next agenda item to prove reconfiguration of the climate action committee composition of the climate action committee directs staff to set up interviews at the next available city Council meeting and approve every other month, odd months meeting frequency. The responsible department is community development.
I'm going to ask our community development director to take the lead on this. Heads up we are changing one of the staff recommendations regarding meeting frequency. I will let her take it from there.
Thank you, good evening, mayor, members of council. This item falls on review of several initiatives intended to ensure community ability to balance staffing demands to implement Council priorities, such as housing and economic development. In December of last year by way of reflection council interim director were called for review of the continued retention of the climate action committee that requires typically a greater level staff support. At the time Council approved retention of the body as an official committee caveat limited 10 hours per month. And directed staff to return with reconfigurations and other matters. As explained in the written staff report staff suggested the configuration be as suggested by climate action committee's consensus for the committee to be limited to one meeting every two months based on staff allocation limitation and to direct staff to arrange new member interviews at the next available Council meeting. The recommendation for limitation on meeting frequency was based on a determination that the ten-hour limitation that was mentioned in the original staff report prepared by term director Riley would support a monthly meeting but would not support any other things for just bringing items to the planning commission, bringing items to city Council etc. Since then we have reconsidered that recommendation I would like to suggest council simply consider the recommendation for the configuration of the committee as proposed in the staff report to direct staff to bring that item back as members interviews for those positions, but to not take action on implementation on meeting frequency. It is staff's opinion at this time that it would be best for staff just to work with the committee itself to determine use of those 10 hours per month. If there's a month where they want to bring something to the planning commission and city Council for example that's something we can decide that might be a month we don't hold the CAC meeting. And there would be a representative attending one of those meetings, and that could be allocated towards that effort. So at this time staff is recommending that council consider the written staff report take public testimony and take action on a decision to regarding the configuration reconfiguration of the committee, and then on directing staff to provide for interviews for interested parties in those positions, and this concludes staff's reporting unless you have follow-up questions.
Um-- so restated staff recommendation at the bottom of 346. So, what's different about that compared to what you just said? It states the city Council approved reconfiguring of the competition climate committee directs staff to set up interviews at the next available city Council meeting and approve every other month meeting frequency. Is that still with recommendation?
The recommendation is for the first two items and removal of the last item, which is to hold meetings every other month. And you could either have the first two items as a motion, or you could consider it as a motion, or you could possibly consider if you wanted to mention meeting frequency at all you could mention that meeting frequency based on staff allocation as determined with CAC.
Okay, I'm not clear-- Councilmember-- Back can I just-- So, there is 10 hours of staff time assigned, but basically what the staff is recommending now is the climate action committee can do whatever they want. They can hold more meetings, and staff doesn't always have to be there. That's what you are saying, right?
That's what staff is saying is rather than limit the amount of meetings to every month, that we would not have limitation on determining when those meetings are held. It would just be based on available hours, and if we have time for a meeting that coming month we will work with the CAC to have a meeting that month. If we don't have time or they want to reallocate
that time to be able to attend a planning commission meeting, or a saddle-- City Council meeting they would do that respect it will be up to staff for the committee? It will be staff working in conduction-- CAC where you determine agendas. This would be-- Back I'm going to be blunt. If they don't have time do they not get to have their meeting? The climate action committee is going to be aware at all times how much time staff is spending on committee items, and it will be providing a report at least every other month if not every month. So there will come a they will be aware if they have time.
The short answer is you are right, because staff need to be at the meetings. Staff operate does them, staff have to generate the agendas, suggested meeting takes roughly 10 hours of staff time to produce. If they want to use 10 hours a month to have a meeting that should be their prerogative on how to use 10 hours a month. We should not be dictating or limiting pricing you can meet every other month. I don't think that is appropriate for us to dictate.
I just don't want us to be saying no like we don't have time to read We are saying no to over 10 hours. But-- Not no to meetings.
Councilmember Carter?
Is one of the options just basically we can establish every other meeting and then reduce the number of people to seven and maybe make the zero waste person were open to other categories, because we don't have a direct zero waste link anymore? Well it was suggested I believe by the chair in a letter to council that the zero waste position might not be necessary. That is up to council . That was individual's comment not represented by the consensus of the committee. That's something you would want full consensus we would have to bring the item back to you but, given the time we have arty spent on CAC this month for council item if it is possible to make a decision tonight.
How much time did you spend on this?
17 hours.
On this can expect last month and this month yes.
What did you do for the 17 hours?
Staff report, public notice, climate action committee members themselves, working with interest members of the public, working on analysis of the hours, which we got into more depth. We didn't want to split hairs during the meeting and get too detailed-- I just want to say that's a load of hours for something that maybe some of us thought up and was kind of like already there. Seems like 17 hours for basically just something that we recently handed to you saying you want seven people, and just quickly come to the conclusion that we can get to 10 hours having every meeting which I feel like was there. I feel like you are putting a lot on the CAC that we didn't ask for, and that wasn't necessary.
And that does not feel great. We could use that 17 hours so much better. And it does not-- I don't love that, you know what I mean? That was your time, and you could have been doing for more things. And that's just unfortunate, because the climate action committee can be more useful.
Understood. Other comments before we go--
I have another question. So, I am a representative on a CTA or CPA, there was an email from James Cameron, because our CPA is doing an informal Directors coordination meeting.
They asked if since we are one of the leaders in cities in climate action, and we have one of our own committees if Sebastopol can participate in-- City manager said we are limited in resources. While we are thankful, we don't have time. Which, I understand, but my question is, can we appoint one of our climate action members to participate in this committee, which is informal, in lieu of a staff member, if one of them would like? It really is an important committee, and it affects the whole county.
I don't believe it would be appropriate for us to send somebody who is not a senior staff member what the request is for it's supposed to be decision-makers for cities to go to that
meeting. And I don't believe that it would be appropriate to send somebody who is not a city staff person in addition they have James has committed to making it work for the smaller cities. Based on invites for their first meeting it appeared the three largest cities were going to participate in the meeting just looking at was invited. You said you can make it work for the smaller cities. I'm taking him at his word. I suggested as an alternative invited to use the city manager's monthly meeting, if he really wants the decision-makers, that's what we are there for. We should welcome him to bring forward items on which are needed decisions. But, I don't think it is appropriate to send a non-staff person to that particular group.
I am going to weigh in on that later after public comment, because I have a different opinion.
And so I would like to discuss it in this role with our climate action agenda item. Thanks.
Any other bushes before we go to the public to mark
Just to be clear 10 hours a month?
I should correct that council in its action on December 17th, 2024, took action to say they were going to retain the committee but that would be subject to limitation of an allocation of 10 hours of staff time per month. Now that time can be rolled over as we did for this item particularly into the next month.
Okay, so since we are discussing it, couldn't we change that allocation? I mean for example we can say we will give you 120 hours in one year. And, we are going to communicate with you and let you know when you have hit that 10 hours? The thing I don't want to see happen is for staff to see-- Say you can't meet this month. That provides such inconsistency for the group. So, I want to figure out how can we not do that? How do we give them a sense of security and consistency within the constraints of the budget? And the budget being staff time?
Part of the reason we are suggesting there be no limit on the remakes-- Meetings is to give them flexibility to schedule meetings as they desire as opposed to putting a restriction on it has to be every other month to give them the discretion on how they want to use that time.
But what I heard but maybe I didn't hear this right, is if they are used up as 10 hours, then they won't get a meeting the next month. So, but if they had given all the hours upfront in January, these are all your hours. And stay in communication, so they are not surprised, because in February there like okay, you can't have a meeting in April, or you can't have a meeting in March. That does not provide a sense of consistency for the group. I feel like it undercuts the group. It undercuts the group's ability to plan and to have meetings. So, I don't want to do that to this group. We need to be honoring them for their work and treating them well. And that does not feel like they are being treated well. So, how can we do it differently? That's my question. In respect to what staff needs, too. I understand staff is busy. You've got a lot on your plate. But, this is a committee that has been with us for six years I think. And, I want to support them. So, I want to know what can we do differently here? I think we could consider the 10 hours a month as 120 hours year with the understanding that certainly going to 40 hours in a week or given month, but we can work that out with the committee and get them that flexibility um-- I think that is essentially the intent of allowing the rollover of unused hours so they can be used and are not forfeited, so we can think of it as 120 hours per year and work closely with the chair of the committee to make sure the committee is aware of the usage of hours available.
Councilmember Carter?
Because of the uncertainty of the hours, inability to count hours, and probably some negotiation on what the hours were used for, I feel like we should definitely have it scheduled every other month just to make sure for clarity and just regularity so we are able to show, and if that takes up the 10 hours that's fine.
This allows them to do that if that's what they want. This is not setting a ceiling or floor, it's giving them flexibility--
So there scheduled.
In my perspective that's up to them.
Like would it automatically be scheduled every other month? Is there an opportunity not for it to happen, because they're either aren't enough hours, or the place is booked? I mean the people that record are already here. It seems negligible to have that meeting anyway, you know scheduled every other month.
I think we have to work this out. We could probably hold the time and space for the meeting, but I would not want to be booking and paying for people who are not needed for that meeting. And, I wouldn't want to be staff, so we would have to work that out. But if the committee wants to save meet every month that's perfectly fine with us. That's the 10 hours a month. That's basically up to them.
Can I just ask for clarification? So is the 10 hours a month, that's what it fully takes to a meeting? And we are budgeting for them, we are giving them 10 hours every month even though meetings are only supposed to be every other month? So there's an extra 10 on the off meeting months-- Back or if they want fewer meetings they can have more hours-- We have set meetings almost every committee meeting I am on. It is like we have our committee meetings. I will say the fair board. Second and fourth Tuesdays. Council meetings, first and third Tuesdays. Like to have a schedule and to also get volunteers that can commit to a schedule, it is helpful in my experience to have ocular meetings on schedule. You have to cancel one then you do, but I want to share that.
Councilmember Maurer?
I want to clarify I was on the climate action committee for the past two years, and we voted to have monthly meetings. That was the ask. The committee asked for that. And also, the committee, also took January off. So could it be possible that the committee could just decide ahead of time? We will take a January and August off, because the Council is off in August.
So maybe with those two months being off, and then you schedule the rest of them, and then you have 12 hours a month to work with. And maybe that might be a compromise for-- I would like to ask the chair, who is here, at some point.
Can I respond to that? That's the idea. Reflects the intent of not to any council commitment a set number of meetings per year or frequency is let the committee figure that out, and we will honor what they figure out as long as it reflects what you provided about the 10 hours per month. I don't see the need to tie their hands with setting a limit on either or maximum number the ideas to get them the flexibility, the autonomy, to manage the committee as they see fit within the constraints and resources the city Council allocated.
Other other questions before public comment to Mark seeing none. Very, public comment? This is on public comment on configuration for the climate action committee.
So just a couple things. When the city employee was recounting the tasks that were involved in the 17 hours that were crude I heard a couple things that perked up my ears. To me I don't think doing any sort of allocation of those hours is appropriate for interested members of the public. We start really getting into the weeds when we start doing this. And I have seen this city many times start kind of using metrics of hours and meetings in ways that I understand they are advocating for a need of additional resources. They are advocating for prioritization.
But, to be when I leave it was the intent of this council when the allocated 10 hours per month was specifically for the support of the climate action committee and their meetings, and so then to start thinking about other types of communication are happening outside of the actual meetings themselves that are happening I start getting a little bit nervous about that.
Secondly, we had a councilmember make a really really wonderful suggestion of looking outside of paid staff and council members to be serving on boards and committees that would represent the city of Sebastopol . And if we have a city staff that is stretched thin I think that we really need to be looking at opportunities for members of the public that are engaged,
especially members of the public engaged on committees to represent the city in those capacities, to suggest these people are not decision-makers is also discrediting to that body itself. We have a planning commission. We have a review board. We have a climate action commission. These are decision-making bodies. These are people we are trusting to her appointment to be representing the city.
, That's two minutes. Thank you for your public comment. Next can you unmute yourself, please?
Hello. Yeah. As a resident and a taxpayer who lives in a city in a fiscal crisis Sebastopol does not need a brown active climate committee the seed text dollars for the their work. The RCPA base study in the public comments portion of today's meeting does not reflect community desires. There is a recent survey that showed most residents were against electrification until the power grid is more stable. Sebastopol does not need to conserve water, Sebastopol has plenty of water, we sit on an aquifer . We got 38 inches of rain. Water conservation is not necessary and in fact is harming our pollinators and negatively impacting our urban canopy, which supports carbon sequestration. Sebastopol is in a semi rural area.
Working families drive cars. People with jobs drive cars. Many people work in the trades and drive cars. Sebastopol is a tourist destination. People drive in to spend money.
Sebastopol has one of the busiest intersections in Sonoma County. We are car-centric. That has to be acknowledged as reality. At this point as a taxpayer I would like to see the climate action committee participate and contribute to Sebastopol in the following ways . Trash pickup and public spaces, trails, parks, and natural areas. Two. The greening and maintenance of public spaces, such as the library, City Hall, parking lots, and schools. Three, help residents build gardens instead of rock or chip yards. Four, plant trees. This would have visible and positive impacts on our community and the environment. Thank you.
Thank you, Kate. Next I will come back into chambers?
I like the note, mic is on. Thank you for hearing me. I am the current acting chair climate action committee, and I want to clarify we understand our position recommending body not a decision-making body for the city. Nevertheless we would be, I am sure, happy to serve as representatives of the city of Sebastopol to larger bodies that coordinate climate action and decision-making throughout the region. I would like to speak in favor of the current staff revised staff recommendation. I have full faith that we can work with city staff to establish the correct cadence for our membership. And achieve the goals that we want to achieve within the limited staff time available during the fiscal crisis with faith the climate crisis worsens and our fiscal crisis lessons and more staff hours will become available in the coming years. Um-- I do want to underline a previous public comment that allocating our given hours should come through the chair or some recognized representative of the climate action committee rather than public engagement with the city government being able to use up those hours, because there's no way our committee has any control over how many members of the public decide to weigh in outside of our own committee members, and that if other people are asking for those hours that they be redirected to the chair. I would also like to inform the public the climate action committee is open to greening areas volunteering or joining working groups that do not include appointment by city Council. Because there was so much confusion--
You have two seconds left.
Sorry okay.
Thank you for your public comment. Next I will go out to zoom. Oliver, can you unmute your self please ? Can you see the timer? Go ahead, please.
Talking about the meeting last year about the climate action committee, and I said then and I'm saying now it's a shame that this is a city of Sebastopol committee anybody using the ZIP Code can be on the committee and that's great, but I think it should be a counties thing. And
one of the big reasons which I said last year as well is because the amount of bureaucratic overhead for anything to do with the city committee is huge piece of the 10 hours a month it was whittled down to last year means really you are just doing bureaucracy at this point, city business just to keep the lights on as it were. So again, I just think it's a shame that this is a city thing. It would be far more useful to everybody I think if it was a County, West County organization that did not have to have all this beer accuracy. I mean it's a huge overhead on city staff that may not be particularly interested in this, because they have bigger fires to fight it so this is a problem. And I mean the conversation earlier this evening about niggling and diming about conferences speaks volumes to the fact the city is struggling to cover far too much ground in what they hope to achieve with very little money. And I think Kathryn or Kate said earlier it is very far reaching and ambitious. So just level setting what the committee is doing would be really helpful. It is a shame it is beer accuracy at this point.
Thank you for your public comment.
If there is anyone else would like to make public comment in chambers-- I will go back up to zoom. Can you see the timer? Robert, can you unmute yourself please? Robert? There you go.
Okay, sorry.
That's okay. Can you see the timer? Go ahead, please. Robert, can you hear us? Taxpayers are paying for the meetings it's diverting time from staff to be doing more what I would consider more important, community developing. It would be nice if someone would tell us exactly what the CAC meeting purpose is. What are they going to a compass? How many meetings does it take to accomplish that purpose? In the three years I have been watching this pretty closely I think I have heard they give away mulch. And, they did a survey about why tens of thousands to be wired so they can buy new electronic appliances.
Not sure those, I mean mulching is great, I imagine there survey was very enlightening. And I am not sure why it was done and how it got prioritized [ Inaudible ] council agrees to pay for to as to present with their goals are, the Council can then consider those goals in light of the other goals the city may have at your April 1st meeting you will be getting into that staff and meeting time to that specific goal or purpose that has been agreed to and prioritized in the citywide plan. So thank you.
Thank you for your public comment. Next I will come back into chambers. If you would like to make a public comment please come up to the podium. Seeing none. Mary, can you unmute yourself please? There you go. Can you hear us okay? Can you see the timer? Go ahead please.
I am just wondering why the city has to be in the middle of all of this. And I and people in the city who are senior citizens, who are having a hard time paying more for water and sewer, and pretty soon fire. And I think if they knew how much money the city was paying to have this committee they would be even more upset. And I just don't think-- I don't want the city to be using my tax money to pay for this. If they want to have their own committee that's great, but I don't think we should be paying for it. Thank you Thank you for your public comment. Next I will come back into chambers if you would like to make a public comment please step up to the podium. Seeing none should I will go back out to zoom if you would like to make a public comment please raise your hand virtually.
Seeing none. Public comment is closed.
Back to the dais for comments, discussion.
Yeah, I really want-- Separate agenda item, looks like I do. As one member brought up, I think Maylor Zollman on the library commission did before he became an elected official. I would call him a good decision-maker, and that probably led him to run for office. And I know Sunny has served on regional boards. I think that since I serve on the RCPA climate sub action committee as well as on the executive board and is a full board member um--
there is a decision-maker there, and I would feel highly confident that we could help use this committee in other ways, and this could be a perfect example. So, I do plan to bring that back as an agenda item to discuss. So otherwise I am full support of what the committee wants to use that designated hours that we supplied, and I personally do lean towards wanting to have a regular meeting suggested by another councilmember could maybe be canceled in slower months like January and August but to allow them to have as our city manager recommended, their whole allotment that would match our fiscal year budget allowance, and then they can work with our city staff to coordinate to use that. My last comment is I also think it's appropriate that when you have an allotment of time that we are working with them to notify them if we are giving, we are using staff time of 17 hours that is allocated to their committee, they should have a say in that. Not just "all of a sudden what, I do have to second training's concerns 17 hours-- Extreme to me. If I was sitting on the climate action committee I would have sticker shock." I have it, and I'm sitting appear. So I think if we are going to allocate these hours then we need to be respectful and be, I don't think anybody should be surprised, because 17 hours, if they have got 10 per month is almost two months worth, and we just took a meeting away. So that just doesn't feel, again, fair and equitable to the committee who is volunteering their time. So.
Thank you, Councilmember Hinton. Any other comments? To the left? Councilmember Maurer?
Yeah, so, when I heard the chair of the CAC committee say that you are okay with what staff is recommending, the whole picture, because in your email you made corrections to the committee make up. So, I'm not quite sure what to do with that. Because, the committee makeup, what was proposed was one city Council member. And what's been proposed in the staff report I think it is one city Council member and one representative. I think that can be one city Council member. So I guess I will go ahead and make a motion that, sorry, I don't have it in front of me-- I want to make a motion to to approve the staff recommended reconfiguration of the climate action committee with the change that the committee composition recommendation would be seven members from the following backgrounds.
One city councilmember, and then six members in the list you already presented. Does that make sense?
I think so. Mary--
You are not having a zero waste representative? Currently representative is another councilmember.
Correct. It would be seven members, one city councilmember, six members, and zero waste is one, is one in that list.
Okay, that seems to be the motion. Is there a second?
I will second that.
Further discussion?
Can I just say that in previous years, if I am, pretty sure I recall what happened, because I was a zero waste representative for quite a while back. We just took it your by your. Because depending on committees were able to serve. Not sure what you are recommending, but if two councilmembers representing waste, and another wanted to serve, if that was too much commitment, then they didn't. So I just wanted to give that feedback of how it's been done at least in the past.
I think we have a motion and a second.
Seconded. Mary?
We get clarity-- As to the motion, then we will need to add to the motion to direct staff to do the interviews. But, I would like direction on what is the frequency? Are the meetings going to be every other month? I am just not sure with that clarity was.
Whatever staff had changed it to. That's what the chair of CAC agreed to.
Would you like me to restate the revised recommendation? City Council to consider reconfiguring the climate action committee configuration types mentioned in the staff report, the revised with the motion being at that instead of a councilmember representing the zero waste position that that would be open to another applicant, that the Council then directs staff to return with interviews for those positions for council to consider, and that that would be the limit of staff's recommendation, not including a limitation on when the meetings are held, or how frequent the meetings are held. That said, the Council certainly has the authority, you could amend your motion as you see fit, if you would like me to include the information about there being allocation for 120 hours as opposed to 10 hours per month. You could choose to direct staff to hold or schedule monthly meetings, and then we can cancel them as needed, as per CAC requests. I don't know that last item is really necessary, but I don't know if there is an opinion on that. To clarify two items we are recommending council direct staff on the reconfiguration makeup and direct staff on coming back with interviews for those positions.
Are there okay then I think we are at rollcall. Councilmember Carter seconded.
Thank you. Yes. So moved by Councilmember Maurer, seconded by Councilmember Carter to approve the reconfiguration of the climate action committee item composition of one city councilmember with six members following experience under experience and characteristics to direct staff to sit interviews at the next available Council meeting. Councilmember Carter? Yes.
Councilmember Hinton? Councilmember Maurer? Maylor Zollman ? Motion passes with four voting aye, and Vice Mayor McLewis is absent.
We are taking a break. We will be at 10:00 before the hour. [ The event is on a recess. Captioner on stanby. ] Mary, are we okay? We are resuming and moving on to agenda item number 12, which is the consideration approval of city Council goals setting session agenda. Again, there is no fiscal impact to the city's budget with approval of this item, response apartment, city manager.
Thank you. I'm happy we will be having the session coming up very shortly. We hired direction approval Steve to facilitate. I know he has talked to each of you individually. And I have heard a little bit from some of you about the agenda. I want to assure you, and you can elaborate with this won't be a series of lectures about test practices in the sorts of things. You have the draft agenda before you. There is one glitch on the schedule. I will let Steve speak to it, and then invite you to engage in questions or comments.
Good evening, Mayor and Council, thanks for having me this evening. Glad to hear that the Council is considering doing a goalsetting meeting on April 1st. The city manager wanted to present you with the agenda. And as the city manager indicated there is a change to it. The overall time, there is an error that shows concluding at about 5:35 p.m. if all the steps that are outlined in the agenda are covered. That's, sorry. That is overstated by half-an-hour, because originally we had a lot more time to the financial outlook, and in consultations with the city manager and assistant city manager, that was reduced to approximately about 10-15 minute presentation. So what that means is the overall workshop would be expected to last about five hours. The primary goal of the workshop as the city manager indicates is to agree on goals to guide the city's work plan over the next two years, and then to identify strategies to further those goals. There are some elements in the agenda, which is really preliminary. It's discussion. I would not put too much stock in the amount of time that's associated-- Sorry sorry, please stop. Cody? Sure, absolutely.
Sorry, to those on Zoom, sorry, we are taking a pause, there seems to be audio problems. [ Silence ]
[ Captioner standing by ]
Mr. Mayor? If it's the will of the Council we are able to proceed. Our agenda does say if the live stream goes down we will move forward, and the video will be online as soon as it's available. So if that is the will of the Council we can proceed. Or we can wait for this to be settled.
I am pretty sure it would be okay to proceed. Councilmember Maurer? Are you saying the zoom is not available right now?
The zoom is available, the live stream, the other lifestream method, is not available, Vimeo is not available. It may not be available due to technical difficulties. If that's the case it will be uploaded as soon as possible, but zoom is still working. The public will be able to contribute?
They will be able to view the video after the fact or transition to zoom.
I think everyone is okay with proceeding. So yes, if the consultant could pick back up wherever he left off, that would be great.
Think like you, Mayor. I was just highlighting the draft agendas attached to your staff report.
It lays out in broad form what the workshop would cover. Of course the intent of the workshop as I mentioned at the outset is primarily to identify city Council goals for the next two years as addressed by city manager. It is estimated the workshop would take about four hours, but that will be a function archly of the level of engagement and participation by the councilmembers. I will stop there and would be happy to answer any questions you may have. That, I am very much looking forward to being there with you in person. A lot of cities are dealing with many challenges, and you have many limited resources. So you are commended to go through a process of establishing goals and allocating your scarce resources to meet the highest rarities of your community.
Thank you. Reviewing the proposed agenda, there is way too much stuff at the beginning that I don't think is going to be relevant at least from my perspective, and to the community's.
As you indicated before my sense of doing all of this is to come up with goals and to spend time discussing the strategies to implement that. So, my proposal is literally outside of the public comment to just strip it all down and strip it all the way to the icebreaker. And quite honestly, I am not certain of half-hour discussion of what makes effective governance is necessarily going to be fruitful. All of us are starting into our third year. And all of the policy committees and regional that we attend, I am not really seeing the value with that either. And the recent accomplishments and current challenges, as far as the current challenges I would blend that into the budget. From my perspective current challenges are with the budget. I would want to see the first hour and a half completely retooled and put the time into the discussion of the goals with our community since they are going to be invited, I am hoping to hear from the community, land on goals, and then get into the strategies. I will leave that up to my colleagues. Those are my thoughts.
May I-- May I respond to that?
No, I'm going to put forth mine, then I will hear from my colleagues.
So, normally we are doing questions. But, are we just giving all our feedback right now? I think that is we could stick with normal questions and go back to the public. I think Councilmember Maurer wanted to go first.
Sure.
So, I have a proposed alternate, and my comments are pretty much in line with Maylor Zollman's . Because, I have been waiting really a long time for this goals meeting to happen.
And, I want to have substantial time to discuss our goals, and our priorities. And I don't want so much of the preparatory. So what I want to know, is can we negotiate with you around like what is most important in your opinion, because you do this for cities, in terms of the timing? And I am not quite sure the best way to do it, but I have created kind of a redline version of your proposal. And, like, the call to order could also be the welcome by the mayor. He could
make a few statements rather than taking five minutes. The public comment really needs to be 20 minutes, not 15, because that is what Sebastopol does. And in the comments from the city manager, I was not sure why that needed to be there, but he said he could take two minutes instead of five. And it goes on like that. I think since we are already looking at the agenda we don't need to review it again. And so what I am asking you is, like, I am not sure about the best way to do this, but how important is the icebreaker? The discussion of what makes effective governance 30 minutes. I have concerns with that, because I am so eager to get to the discussion. I don't want to have a lecture about effective governance. I don't know if that's a question to answer, or if that's five minutes of long talking is a long time, so 30 minutes is really long. Anyway, those are, and the budget update-- I mean I could give you a financial update on the budget in 30 seconds, or maybe a minute. But, I am on the budget committee, so it's not really fair for me to say we shouldn't take 15 minutes, right? But, and, because the budget committee heard the long-term budget view. But, I don't want to get lost down the rabbit hole on the budget when we are there to talk about our goals. Um-- anyway, I am going to stop there. I have a proposal later.
Thank you. Skipped over questions. But--
I agree with what has been said. I just want to add the last time we tried to goal set I was mayor in 2019. We did a lot of work. We wasted a lot of time. And we walked away after half a day without any goals. Set. We hired a facilitator so that would not happen. So, I want to make sure we retool it. Sound like everyone has opinions on that. Fine. I want to make sure when we wrap this up at whatever time we end at that we are coming away with goals. I also think we should establish goals through our fiscal year, which is June 30th, 2026. The school session was rescheduled by the current mayor and vice Mayor's decision-making, because of needing budget information. So to set goals for two years when we don't have budget information for year two as Councilmember Maurer recent agenda item brought up all the issues with drawer-- Two years out is too long. And so I think they should be set personally through June 30th, 2026, which takes in next year's budget. And also, we all submitted in our own discussions our own council priorities. I would like to see in advance, and they don't have to have people's names on them, or they do, I don't care. Whatever the facilitator thinks is best. Just like we would get an agenda packet for the session we get to see for those advance. Ideas for the budget they have to the budget subcommittee, so that you know, you have a sense of what we will be talking about. I'd like to see the council priorities that were articulated in advance to meetings submitted, so that we are not walking into this thing cold.
Anything we can get an advance to prep for this so we can move through the agenda would be very helpful I think, to the process. That is my feedback.
Thank you. Councilmember Carter?
I am only additive, I agree with all of those-- There seems to just be a little bit over an hour and a half and five hours of freethinking. I definitely think that we can provide some ideas before the meeting, so we can be prepped on how to deal with the other councilmember's ideas. The city committee members should be speaking much longer and should be able to submit things in advance, so we don't walk in-- I do also feel a five your goal isn't a bad thing-- Five-year goal so we can have discussion more into the realm of what we can actually do this year. But if we keep doing things piecemeal by piecemeal you don't go any where.
Like what does it look like for the city? That doesn't take long, but it can help frames of the other things we do within the small budget. And I don't see any space for anything like that.
But I want to also corroborate the mayors and councilmember Maurer's opinions as well.
Going to add something. Last time we did try to establish goals we started with the previous goals, and they were very, very broad. I remember I worked with the assistant city manager to try and spreadsheet and bring them all. What we had in that instance it was these very broad goals with nothing that was, I feel like my going to get done. The broad vision, that's
what I experienced from the past, and then we never had action items, so a combination of the two. I agree with councilmember Carter.
Great. Are there other questions before we go to public comment to hear from our public? Looking to the left, looking to the right. I think it is public comment.
This is public comment on the goalsetting agenda. If you like to make a public comment I will go to the chambers, first. Zoom, Councilmember Maurer -- I mean Oliver? I would like to apologize to the consultant who managed to say a few words and got cut off.
Council has been rambling about things they would like to see. I agree with the mayor it should be truncated and started again. But, this is a guy who is going to going to help you April 1st, and it's kind of rude in my opinion to be talking about what you would like to see and not even let him get a word in edge wise. I will be there on April 1st. I don't have much hope if the meeting is like this one that he will be able to do much to help you. Because there is an awful lot of opinions here and nothing very organized. So I would agree with councilmember Carter that-- Let me put it another way. I think it would be much more cohesive agenda organized with the consultant well before April 1st. But again, I feel like I should apologize to the consultant that he's been shut out of this meeting so far thank you.
Thank you, Oliver. Next I will go to Kyle. Can you unmute yourself, please? Yes I can.
Can you reset the timer please? Zach, can you reset the timer? Kyle, can you see the timer? Yes I can.
Go ahead please.
And I will defer to Neysa to be the judgment call since the student have been since 2019. I followed since 2020. I recall a goalsetting meeting councilmembers spent hours doing a personality assessment, and that that somehow is leading to some sort of goalsetting which never happened. Maybe that meeting was so, so bad, that it's been put out of all our memories. What I'm concerned about when I see an agenda like this, and we are paying a consultant to do this kind of stuff I'm interested in hearing from the consultant and what kind of direction they received, and by who in the city, because what I believe to be the case is that there may be city staff, city leadership that has a particular direction and goals they would like to see discussed, and the council may have something radically different. When I look at this agenda it looks very much like it will be pretty minted in scope in terms of giving the openness and space councilmembers would need to really flesh out ideas and goals. I see something more structured I've seen from city management so far regarding its go ahead and kind of spell out how this will play out, which will actually stifle the ability to be creative, think outside the box, come up with goals, and direction for the city that is more in align with what both the public wants to see as well as the councilmembers that have been elected. It's my hope the consultant can comment on what direction they have received, and what they believe this agenda is currently stated is really open to the idea of generating goals as the council is hoping to do.
Thank you, Kyle, for your public comment. Robert, can you unmute yourself, please? Can you hear me?
I can hear you. Can you see the timer? Great. Go ahead.
Yeah, I am unfortunately not going to be there April 1st. I sent notes to council and city staff a couple different times in the last month on things that I think are important, and hopefully some of that will seep into the process someplace. I do want to make a comment on-- Setting goals is a process. I use to run this for the corporation all the time. So I speak with some knowledge on this matter. But, something the mayor said that the only issue is finances, and if you narrow the scope to just finances you won't get anywhere with this process. It does have to start with issues. Collectively you guys need to get into your mind and the top of your mind one of the challenges the city is facing? What are the issues? Then your goals are going
to start to address those challenges and issues and solve some of those problems. Finance is one of the challenges you have, but you also have water and sewer and infrastructure that is antiquated. They say it's antiquated, but you don't know what condition it's in. That is a priority to figure it out. That might be more than a one-year plan. Don't constrain yourself read some of these goals will take time to accomplish, but knowing that it's a goal in a priority you want to accomplish in three years means you will do something about it this year or next year. You have businesses downtown, you need to get that somehow worked into this process. You have a study that shows your streets and roads are terrible. It's ignored every year that I've followed you guys. It's never been discussed. It needs to be fixed. I have shared FBI data reported from our Police Department we have the highest crime rate violent and property crime rate of any city in the county read that probably needs to get into the mix here in terms of a discussion. You have the homeless taking over the city. Traffic is horrible. Fire season will start soon. I don't think we have done anything to come up with a plan to make evacuation of Sebastopol better over the past several years-- Traffic jams. Anyway, that's enough issues are important. Issues are an important process. Expect thank you for your public comment. If there is anyone in the chambers. Seeing none Street if you would like to make a comment-- Seeing none, public comment is closed.
Questions, discussions, Councilmember Maurer?
I'm wondering if we could go through this thumbs up thumbs down on each one. I have a proposed agenda. But, I would also like to hear from the facilitator to see his rationale for how much time he has allotted in terms of that voting, does that work for you? Councilmember Hinton, are you all right with that?
I think it's a good point that we did jump in there on our facilitator. I do apologize as well. I think we are just really excited about this goalsetting. And so I would like to hear from him and maybe hear in combination, so he can explain these out in more detail, because we just saw the basics. And something like the governance we have seen cities for example, should that be there? Is it your version of why you should be there? I would like to hear from the facilitator and Councilmember Maurer. Then maybe we can come to an agreement.
Would it be all right to just go each item. When we need his feedback when-- We can go there?
Sure. Councilmember Carter?
I am feeling like maybe we should let the speaker run for a little bit.
That's already with everyone? Yes. Back to you, consultant.
Please, call me Steve. Mayor and council, I want to apologize to you, to all of you because it's not often that the council has to make an assessment or judgment for the workshop in advance of the workshop. So, you don't have the full information in which to get the picture of what will go on. I agree if you look at the draft agenda it is heavily loaded with things that some people may say for lack of a better term appear to be fluff. A couple of points on that.
One, it will go quicker than what's listed here. Most don't talk for five minutes, it's two. The manager will keep his comments concise. It is a function of how many people attend. You have 20 minutes at the beginning, and it carries over to the end. It will go quick. I've done a number of these workshops. The nitty-gritty is the goalsetting I want to clarify goalsetting strategies, priorities. Most use those terms interchangeably. A goal is a big. Infrastructure, stability, those are big goals. I've interviewed each of you, but as a body you need to collectively decide what are your goals. That's part of it. Then once you determine what your goals are in working with the city manager and his staff you need to identify what are the strategies that further those goals? So there will be discussion and time allotted for that. And then the council needs to prioritize what strategies to pursue over the term you decide. It's been suggested two years. One year. That is totally up to the council. I assure you you will come out of the workshop with a set of goals, and a set of strategies, and a priority amongst
the strategies. That is why you are doing this. I would ask you not to spend the time redlining a draft agenda for a workshop that's yet to occur. I would ask you that you trust your professional staff and trust your consultant with 34 years of local government experience and has done a number of these for multiple cities up and down the state to trust the process and engage in the workshop. That's it for me.
Yes, can you please explain the allotment of 30 minutes for a discussion of what makes effective governance?
I am quite confident it would take less than 30 minutes, but there is a portion of the workshop that discusses governance and roles and what makes for effective council manager relations, and what makes for effective council meetings. I would really not like to preview the entire workshop in this meeting tonight because I am at a disadvantage doing so.
Yeah, I am going to jump in. A disadvantage may be from your point of view, but we are responsible, and we have publicized this to the public about a process that we feel like we can get to with corporate goals and strategies with their input within four or 4 1/2 hours.
Disadvantage on your part, I'm not entirely sure how that's relevant.
I think it doesn't do justice to the process, and I think it does the council a disservice, because we are not engaged in the workshop. We are talking about the workshop. And I think it's unfortunate, if councilmembers are not comfortable with just a simple draft agenda that sets forth some elements of the workshop that's going to get you what I believe your desires are.
That is a perspective, okay. Councilmember Maurer?
My belief if we have an accurate agenda or close to accurate agenda than our public is better informed, because maybe they can't come at a certain time, and they want to come when they think we are going to be discussing the goals and priorities rather than hearing a discussion on what makes effective governance. So, I think it's important to have an agenda that clearly reflects on the timing of that process more. And I hear you that you want to keep it as it is.
But, I would like to ask for us to come up with a more accurately timed process. I would feel more comfortable with having that. So--
And Councilmember Hinton next?
Yeah um-- I'm just going to be honest here . I am feeling a little bit uncomfortable at this point, because we have before us an agenda item to approve an agenda for our goalsetting workshop that you, Steve, are leading. And there's parts of that, when you work with a group of people usually you get to give feedback about how you would like to see things come off.
And so before us tonight is our ability and agenda item to give the feedback. And I feel like that's what we are doing. I agree with councilmember some of the discussion that we should try to articulate as best we can for the public how much we are going to spend on these. I think since we are the ones paying the bill for the facilitation if we don't want discussion on what makes effective governance to the tune of 30 minutes then we should be able to give that feedback and not be I mean we are sitting here looking that-- And that I will ask again that you have collected council priorities from everybody in advance. I would like to see that maybe with no names but put in front of us, so we can walk in like we are prepared. We are city councilmembers, we like to study on things. That might be a thought starter for us to help us think about our own priorities before we are up on the dais. And of course those things would be public documents. So, I do have to say that I think we are, I feel confident that we are in our lane here to give feedback and try to set on this agenda item an item we can publish and feel confident about walking in. Not to take anything away from you as our consultant, or you know, um-- micromanager project, but this is our agenda item. We are giving feedback.
We would like to see some things retooled. And we are the one doing the goalsetting. And we did authorize the contract. And we are giving feedback. I don't know. I think we are in the right here.
Thank you, Councilmember Hinton. Councilmember Carter [ Inaudible ] did you want to jump in at this point? Okay, Councilmember Maurer?
[ Inaudible ]
Councilmember Maurer, is your mic on?
I just have a couple changes, thank you, Mary. If I could just go over them and kind of get a feel of what you are thinking. The will come from the mayor does not need to be separate from the call to order. If that would save us five minutes, then you add that five minutes to public comment. It would go from 15 to 20. And then the next change would be what effective governance. I thought 20 minutes should be plenty. But, if any of you want to consider that 10 or 15 so we should come up with that number Councilmember Hinton, your thoughts?
I think 10 I think everyone has seen presentations on this topic over the years. I am just generally, it is two hours 10 minutes before we even get into the introduction for priority setting discussions at 3:25. So, we are spending half of our time on all this updates, and then only half of our time on the priority and goalsetting. And I just think that is fair when we have four and half hours to spend, I would rather spend just as a rule of thumb the first hour in setting the stage, let's call it. And then the other 3 1/2 hours in the goal stuff. And maybe we add income if we can, a second public comment section. I find once we get into the goal stuff than the public wants to talk again. To help us prioritize. So, somewhere I would like to see the public come back in on this second half. I think that is what we are doing this for, right? I don't know how we do that, maybe our attorney can advise us on that, but again it's just taking lumps. Our facilitator has split it up, but to think about setting the our and the bulk of the time so we don't run out of time, that is what I am concerned about. we agree 10 minutes for the discussion of governments? The next thing I had was to the next thing would be the priorities would go for one hour 30 minutes. And I have redlined all this and timed it all out so that can happen. So those are the only changes I made. [ Captioners transitioning ]
OTHERWISE I DIDN'T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE IN MY PROPOSAL BUT THAT LEAVES AN EXTRA 10 MINUTES THAT WAS NOT ACCOUNTED FOR IN MY REDLINE.OKAY, COUNCILMEMBER CARTER?YES , I WANT TO EXPRESS OUR
GUIDE AND MANAGER, A LOT OF DIFFERENT METRICS, WE DO GET SOME
ACHIEVABLE THINGS ON OUR TO DO LIST BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING
THAT I WANT TO GET OVER IS THE FACT THAT WE HAVE A BROWN NECK
WERE NONE OF THESE MEMBERS CAN TALK TO EACH OTHER ABOUT
ANYTHING, THE ACTIVE COLLABORATION IS A TREMENDOUS POWER AND IT
IS AN ASSET AND I WANT TO LISTEN TO MY OTHER FELLOW
COUNCILMEMBERS TO SPEAK AS MUCH AS THEY CAN SO WE CAN FEEL LIKE A TEAM AND GET SOMETHING DONE. MOST OF THE YEAR WE WILL BE
SITTING HERE IN A SILO, OCCASIONALLY WORKING WITH SOMEBODY ELSE
BUT THIS IS OUR MOMENT TO REALLY LEARN WHAT EACH OF THE OTHER
COUNCILMEMBERS WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN THE CITY AND WE ALL
REPRESENT DIFFERENT ANGLES, AND YOU KNOW, IF THERE IS A VENUE FOR
THAT IT IS THIS AND I HOPE THERE IS A SPACE FOR US TO EXPRESS THESE,
NOT JUST IN THE CONTEXT OF GOALS OR STRATEGIES OR OTHERWISE BUT
YOU KNOW, I AM SURE YOU WILL BRING THAT OUT TO THE BEST OF YOUR
ABILITY, I JUST WANT TO EXPRESS MY SENSE OF URGENCY THAT WE AS
INDIVIDUALS ARE ABLE TO COLLABORATE AND GET OUR HEADS TOGETHER, AND TALK FREELY.THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER CARTER , OTHER COMMENTS? OR SHOULD BE GO BACK TO COUNCILMEMBER MAURER SO SHE CAN LAYOUT THE PROPOSAL? I WOULD JUST ADD IN THAT I SECOND
COUNCILMEMBER HINTON IN THE FACT THAT I WOULD LIKE NO MORE THAN
AN HOUR OF SETTING THE STAGE BECAUSE IN MY MIND IT IS LIKE AN HOUR
FOR THAT, FOUR HOURS FOR THAT NITTY-GRITTY, WHICH IS FIGURING OUT
THE GOALS, AS COUNCILMEMBER CARTER SAID, HOPEFULLY IN
COLLABORATION AND THEN A HUGE CHUNK OF TIME DOING STRATEGIES AND THE IMPLEMENTATION PART. MY VOTE IS NO MORE THAN AN HOUR FOR
THE STAGE, A WHOLE BUNCH OF TIME FOR GOALS AND EVEN MORE TIME FOR STRATEGIES. BUT COUNCILMEMBER MAURER ? CAN YOU GO THROUGH - - I DON'T HAVE IT SET UP LIKE THAT BUT WE CAN LOOK AT CUTTING BACK THE BUDGET AND FINANCIAL UPDATES, LIKE, DO WE NEED 15 MINUTES? CAN WE GET THAT DONE IN FIVE MINUTES OR DO YOU NEED 15 MINUTES? I GOT A QUESTION ON THAT . THE REASON FOR DELAYING THE WORKSHOP IS
BECAUSE A COUPLE OF COUNCILMEMBERS WANTED TO BE WELL INFORMED
ON THE BUDGET BEFORE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION, WHICH TO ME HAS A LOT OF MERIT TO IT. WE DIDN'T HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE THAT HAPPEN TWO MEETINGS AGO. THE BUDGET COMMITTEE HAD A 45 MINUTES
TO ONE HOUR LONG PRESENTATION WITH BOB LEYLAND ON PART OF THE BUDGET PICTURE. PARTICULARLY THE LONG-TERM, BIG PICTURE AND WE
DID NOT GET INTO WHAT THE SHORT-TERM, SOME OF THE KEY ISSUES ARE FOR NEXT YEAR'S BUDGET. TO ME IF THERE IS AN COMMITMENT BY
COUNCILMEMBERS WHO ARE NOT ON THE BUDGET COMMITTEE TO REVIEW
THE PRESENTATION BY BOB LEYLAND THAT MEANS WE DON'T HAVE TO
COVER THAT OR WE CAN DO IT VERY, VERY BRIEFLY BUT IF THERE IS NOT A
COMMITMENT THEN I THINK IT IS WORTHWHILE TO SPEND MORE TIME ON
WHERE WE ARE BUDGET WISE BOTH IN THE LONG-TERM AND ALSO THE
SHORT-TERM ISSUES THAT WILL BE BEFORE YOU IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS OR SO WHEN WE GET TO BUDGET ADOPTION. IT KIND OF DEPENDS
ON HOW MUCH PREPARATION YOU CAN COMMIT TO DOING AHEAD OF TIME PARTICULARLY SEEING THAT PRESENTATION.
YES, THAT IS A GREAT IDEA, I WOULD LOVE TO DO AS MUCH HOMEWORK AS
I POSSIBLY CAN SO WE DO NOT HAVE TO WASTE IT IN OUR SHORT TIME WE CAN TALK TO EACH OTHER. I HAVE THE FORTUNE TO BE ON THE BUDGET
COMMITTEE BUT YOU GUYS HAVE GRACIOUSLY MADE YOURSELVES
AVAILABLE FOR ALMOST ALL OF MY WEIRD QUESTIONS AND HAVE GONE
OVER IN DETAIL ABOUT THINGS AND THANK YOU FOR THAT, HOPEFULLY MY
OTHER COUNCILMEMBERS WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT, SO WHEN WE
GET INTO THE FUN PART OF FIGURING OUT THE GOALS AND VISIONS, SOME
OF WHICH CAN BE JOYFUL AND PRODUCTIVE AT THE SAME TIME, IF WE CAN
DO OUR HOMEWORK IN ADVANCE THEN WE DON'T HAVE TO HAVE THESE
STUMBLING BLOCKS OR BITS OF FRICTION OR THINGS THAT GET IN THE WAY OF FLUIDITY.
I WILL SAY THAT I AM COMMITTED TO GOING BACK ON WATCHING THE
TAPE, I HONESTLY WILL SAY I HAVE NOT BUT I DON'T KNOW IF ANYONE ELSE WANTS TO PLUNGE.
I MEAN IT MAKES ME CHUCKLE A LITTLE THAT BUDGET IS WHY WE POSTPONE THIS, I THINK 10 TO 15 MINUTES IS FINE BUT IT IS IRONIC THAT WE ARE GIVING EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE 30 MINUTES, WHICH I DON'T THINK IS
NECESSARY AT ALL AND WE ARE TALKING ABOUT SHORTCHANGING THE BUDGET DISCUSSION. I THINK 10 TO 15 MINUTES IS REASONABLE. WE NEED TO CUT BACK THESE OTHER THINGS. YOU KNOW, SO, SURE WE CAN SHORTEN
BUDGET A LITTLE BUT I MEAN THERE ARE OTHER THINGS HERE THAT I CALL
FLUFF THAT, YOU KNOW, I WOULD NOT MIND HEARING IN THIS, ESPECIALLY
FOR THE PUBLIC THAT IS PARTICIPATING IN BUDGET DISCUSSIONS, IT IS NOT
JUST ABOUT US BUT ALL OF THIS IS FOR THE PUBLIC AND THEY NEED TO
KNOW ABOUT WHAT OUR BUDGET IS LOOKING LIKE AS THERE
RECOMMENDING PRIORITIES AS WELL. SO, THAT IS NOT SOMETHING I WOULD
CHERRY PICK ON VERSUS SOME OF THESE OTHER THINGS THAT CAN BE CUT, I FEEL. OR SHORTENED, EXTREMELY.
THERE IS ONE OTHER PLACE, THE INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT FOR
PRIORITY DISCUSSIONS, PRIORITY SETTING DISCUSSIONS, THAT ONE HAS ME CONCERNED. THAT SOUNDS LIKE, THAT MEANS 10 MINUTES OF BEING TOLD
OF SETTING CONTEXT, I'M NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THAT BECAUSE I KINDA
SOUNDS LIKE IF YOU WANT TO DO THIS THEN YOU CANNOT DO THAT, SORRY, I JUST HEARD THAT BEFORE BUT SO, I MIGHT CHANGE THAT TO FIVE.
AND IT COMES RIGHT AFTER STAFF CAPACITY. I ASSUME THEY ARE RELATED, SO, YEAH. MAYBE THEY SHOULD BE COMBINED BECAUSE WE
KNOW IF WE ARE OBVIOUSLY SHORT ON STAFF AND WE CANNOT, YOU KNOW, THAT GOES TO ALSO? I GUESS THE NEXT TOPIC.
I AM WONDERING IF RATHER THAN GET, JUST GIVE THE GENERAL DIRECTION TO HURRY UP THE STUFF.
THE FIRST PART, KEEP IT WITHIN AN HOUR SO WE CAN MOVE EVERYTHING ELSE TO SPEND MORE TIME ON IT. I WOULD LIKE TO FOLLOW UP WITH ALEX ABOUT A SECOND TIME FOR THE PUBLIC. EVEN IF THEY SPEAK AT THE
BEGINNING, THEY CAN COME BACK IF THEY ARE PARTICIPATING IN THE MEETING AND SPEAK AGAIN.
IF THAT IS THE WILL OF THE COUNCIL, WE CAN FIGURE OUT HOW TO PUT THAT IN THE AGENDA. THE DOCUMENT, SO THAT COUNCIL KNOWS SOME OF
THE DOCUMENT THAT YOU SEE NOW, IT IS CALLED AGENDA BUT IT WILL BE THE OUTLINE, THE PUBLIC'S AGENDA WILL NOT BE AS DETAILED. BUT WE
WILL FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE SURE HOW TO STRUCTURE THE FORMAL AGENDA.
BECAUSE THIS IS A DIFFERENT KIND OF A MEETING THAN A REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING AND WE CAN DO THAT.
CORRECT. BUT UNDER THE BROWN NECK THE PUBLIC HAS THE RIGHT TO
SPEAK ON EVERY LISTED AGENDA ITEM AND WE WANT TO BE CLEAR THAT
ALTHOUGH THE OUTLINE IS SHOWING DIFFERENT STEPS, THERE IS NO RIGHT
FOR THE PUBLIC TO SPEAK ON EACH STEP BECAUSE REALLY THEY ARE SPEAKING ON THE GOALS SET THEN.
I SEE, ALL RIGHT .
IS THEIR AGREEMENT , SHOULD WE HAVE ALEX WEIGH IN FOR THE LAST 20 MINUTES OF PUBLIC COMMENT?
TO ADD A PUBLIC COMMENT?
YES, THE VERY END FOR 20 MINUTES?
I WOULD SUPPORT ADDING IT BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO TAKE SOMETHING AWAY.
I FEEL LIKE THE FACILITATOR CAN WORK WITH SPECIFICS, I DON'T FEEL THE NEED TO GIVE HIM A 10 MINUTE DIRECTION, I WOULD JUST LIKE TO KEEP THE
BEGINNING OF THE MEETING, SETTING THE STAGE WE WILL CALL IT, TO HAVE CLOSE TO ONE HOUR AS POSSIBLE, LIKE TO ADD BACK A SECOND 20
MINUTES FOR THE PUBLIC TO SPEAK TOWARDS THE END, AFTER THEY HEAR
WHAT WE ARE PRIORITIZING, THEY MAY HAVE FEEDBACK AND WE CAN MAYBE CHANGE THINGS AFTER HEARING THAT. AND THEN EVERYTHING ELSE CAN FIT IN.
SO, SO, LOOKING AT THE AGENDA THAT IS SET UP, IN FACT AS I HAVE EDITED IT IT, YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO CUT OUT ANOTHER 50 MINUTES IF
YOU GET THE WHOLE FIRST PART TO ONE HOUR, SO THAT ALSO INCLUDES PROPOSED 10 MINUTE BIO BREAK, RATHER THAN A 15 MINUTE BREAK. I
DON'T KNOW IF OUR FACILITATOR CAN CUT OUT ALL OF THAT
PREPARATORY STUFF AND CARTED BACK TO ONE HOUR BUT IT IS TAKING A LOT MORE OUT.
WELL MAYBE WE CAN ASK HIM. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT WHAT WE ARE, STEVE, CAN WE SET THE STAGE STUFF IN AN HOUR? OR WILL IT TAKE ONE HOUR AND 20 MINUTES? IN YOUR OPINION. BECAUSE WE WANT TO ADD
THE PUBLIC COMMENT SECTION AT THE END AND WE ALSO WANT TO MAKE
SURE WE HAVE MORE TIME, AS COUNCILMEMBER CARTER SAID, MORE CREATIVE TIME, MORE TIME TO TALK AND STRATEGIZE .
SURE, I HAVE HEARD THE COUNCIL COMMENTS AND IT IS CLEAR ON YOUR DIRECTION. YOU WANT TO GET TO THE IMPORTANT WORK OF ESTABLISHING GOALS AND DETERMINING THE STRATEGIES AND PRIORITIZING THOSE. I CAN
COMMIT TO YOU THAT WE CAN MOVE THROUGH THE FIRST PART OF THE AGENDA QUICKLY, WHETHER THAT IS AN HOUR, 55 MINUTES, ONE HOUR AND
FIVE MINUTES, I AM NOT SURE AS I SIT HERE BUT I HEAR WHAT YOU ARE SAYING AND WE CAN DO THAT PROMPTLY. WHAT I WOULD SUGGEST TO THE
COUNCIL IS , AGAIN, WE WILL TAKE THIS IN A COUPLE OF STEPS, WE WILL
TRY TO GET COUNCIL CONSENSUS ON SOME GOAL AREAS AND THEN TALK ABOUT STRATEGIES TO FURTHER THOSE GOALS. WHAT I WOULD
RECOMMEND DOING IS INSERTING ADDITIONAL PUBLIC COMMENT SECTION,
EITHER AFTER THE COUNCIL DETERMINES WHAT ITS PRIMARY GOALS ARE
OR WAIT UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE DONE THAT AND IDENTIFY STRATEGIES
AND TO GET COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON JUST THE GOALS OR THE
GOALS AND THE STRATEGIES, ULTIMATELY THE COUNCIL WOULD HAVE TO
COME BACK TO REAFFIRM WHERE YOU LAND, PRESUMABLY ONCE YOU TAKE PUBLIC COMMENT, DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?
THAT IS A GOOD IDEA.
AND THEN MY QUESTION ABOUT GETTING AN ADVANCED LIST OF COUNCIL PRIORITIES YOU HAVE ALREADY HEARD, SO WE HAVE IDEA STARTERS. I
WOULD LIKE TO GET FROM OUR CITY MANAGEMENT, ASSISTANT MANAGER,
THE LAST TIME WE DID THE GOALS, I KNOW A DOCUMENT EXISTS, SO WE
CAN, IT HELPS ME AS IDEA STARTERS BECAUSE I CANNOT THINK OF
EVERYTHING THAT I CAN POSSIBLY MAYBE WANT TO ADD AND I WOULD LIKE TO GET THOSE TWO ITEMS AS BACKUP IN ADVANCE.
MARY?
THAT IS FINE AND WE HAVE THE GOALS FROM THE SEPTEMBER MEETING AS WELL TO ADD TO THAT.
I THINK WE FORGOT THINGS.
I WANT TO ASK ONE THING, TYPICALLY WE WORKSHOP AND YOU DON'T
HAVE IT IN HYBRID FORMAT, TYPICALLY IT IS ONLY IN PERSON, DOES THE
COUNCIL WANT, TYPICALLY PUT STUFF ON THE WALL AND YOU VOTE, YOU
KNOW ON PRIORITIES, DO WE WANT TO KEEP IT THE SAME AS WE ARE NOW TO HAVING THE HYBRID ZOOM MEETING?
THAT IS MY PREFERENCE, I HAVE A STRONG PREFERENCE FOR HYBRID
BECAUSE IN MY MIND WE DO THIS FOR ALL LEVELS OF ACCESSIBILITY, YOU
KNOW SINGLE PARENTS TAKING CARE OF BABIES, DO YOU EXPECT THEM TO SIT IN A ROOM FOR THEIR MOMENT IN THE SUN?
YES, JUST FOR CLARITY.
THAT IS JUST MINE BUT I DON'T WANT TO IGNORE .
I AM IN FAVOR OF HYBRID AS WELL BECAUSE PEOPLE MAY WANT TO WATCH FROM WORK IF THEY ARE ON BREAK, OR THEY CAN. HE
TO MY LEFT?
I AM FINE WITH HIGH BRIDGE TOO BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT MEANS. JUST ASSUME? WHAT ABOUT PASSING THE PAPER AROUND?
YOU CANNOT DO THAT, THAT IS THE THING. WE CAN DO PUBLIC COMMENT
AND THINGS LIKE THAT BUT IF WE PUT THE EASEL BOARDS UP WITH PRIORITIES OR STRATEGIES OR WHATEVER, THEY CANNOT SEE THOSE.
AND THE TEAM WILL BE HERE ANYWAY TO RECORDED ?
YES, PCA WILL BE HERE TO DO THAT.
OKAY, SOUNDS LIKE HYBRID IT IS. DONE.
I AM PREPARING FOR YOU WITH THE HELP OF THE LEADERSHIP TEAM A
DOCUMENT, I'M NOT QUITE SURE HOW BEST TO ORGANIZE IT BECAUSE WE
DON'T HAVE FIRMLY ESTABLISHED GOALS, THAT WILL INCLUDE, IT WILL
LOOK A LOT LIKE WHAT YOU SAW IN SEPTEMBER THAT MARY REFERRED TO,
EXISTING, THINGS WE ARE ALREADY WORKING ON, CURRENT PRIORITIES, -- HOTEL FOR EXAMPLE. AND THEN THINGS THAT ARE PLANNED TO BE
WORKING ON, THE SEWER MASTER PLAN FOR EXAMPLE, WE ARE NOT WORKING ON THAT NOW. WE ARE WORKING ON THE WATER MASTER PLAN.
YOU WILL HAVE AN EXTENSIVE LIST PRIOR TO THE MEETING OF THOSE, THE
WAY I HAVE IT RIGHT NOW AS IT IS STRUCTURED BY DEPARTMENT, IDEALLY
IT WOULD BE STRUCTURED BY GOAL BUT SINCE WE DON'T HAVE OFFICIAL
GOALS I HAVE NOT QUITE FIGURED OUT HOW TO WRAP THAT UP BUT
NONETHELESS IT WILL BE PROBABLY FOUR AGES WORTH OF MATERIAL
ABOUT STUFF THAT IS IN PROGRESS, PLAN TO BE IN PROGRESS OR
PREVIOUSLY SUBMITTED IDEAS WE HAVE CAPTURED AND WE WILL BRING THOSE FORWARD. WE CAN ALSO ADD OR SUPPLEMENT THAT WITH
WHATEVER YOU MIGHT HAVE SUBMITTED AS A PART OF THIS PROCESS. I
DON'T WANT TO FILL YOUR BUCKET UP BUT YOU WILL HAVE THE
OPPORTUNITY TO FILL IT IF YOU WOULD LIKE WITH MATERIALS THAT YOU WILL SEE HAVE SEEN AND TALKED ABOUT BEFORE.
OKAY, COUNCILMEMBER CARTER?
IF YOU CAN GREEN DOTTED , YELLOW DOTTED BECAUSE SOMETHINGS HAVE
MULTIPLE HITS TOWARDS GOAL AND YOU COULD SAY THIS HEADS TOWARDS THE SAFETY AND THIS.
YOU DON'T HAVE A FORMAL GOALS YET SO THAT IS THE RELUCTANT , THE
RELUCTANCE, IS TO MAKE A COMMITMENT YOU HAVE NOT MADE BUT WE WILL FIGURE OUT SOMETHING REASONABLE FOR YOU.
OKAY.
I WANT TO CHIME IN, I LIKE THE IDEA OF HAVING A SEPTEMBER GOALS AND
THEN GETTING TO COUNCILMEMBER CARTER'S POINT WHICH IS THAT IF
YOU CAN TAKE THOSE AND PUT IT IN THE CATEGORIES THAT OUR
FACILITATOR HAS DISCUSSED AND PROVIDED FOR US WHEN WE CHOSE HIM,
WHICH IS THE FIVE NORMAL BUCKETS THROUGHOUT ALL OF THE CITIES IN A
LOT OF DIFFERENT PARTS OF CALIFORNIA AND MAKE AN ATTEMPT TO
CATEGORIZE THOSE IN REFERENCE TO THE POTENTIAL BUDGET BUCKETS SO
WE HAVE SOME SORT OF OVERVIEW OF WHAT THE DEPARTMENT HEAD IS DOING IN REFERENCE TO PUBLIC SAFETY. FOR EXAMPLE, I DO NOT WANT TO
LOSE COUNCILMEMBER HINTON'S THOUGHT, WE ALSO WHAT WE WANTED TO SAY DURING OUR INTERVIEW. I WOULD LIKE THAT PRINTED OUT AND
DISSEMINATED BECAUSE IF WE DO NOT SEE EACH OTHER'S THOUGHTS THEM IT IS JUST MORE TIME TAKEN WHEN WE ARE IN THE ROOM ON APRIL 1st, THOSE ARE MY THOUGHTS. SORRY, COUNCILMEMBER MAURER, I JUMPED IN.
SORRY.
IT IS OKAY. YEAH, COME BACK TO ME I GUESS.
OKAY, SORRY.
I SUPPORT THE IDEA OF INCLUDING WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT. SO, OUR
GOALS, WHAT WE SEE AS ACCOMPLISHMENTS, WHAT WE SEE HAS
CHALLENGES AND ALSO IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT YOU WANT US TO
READ ON WHAT IS EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE I WOULD LIKE YOU TO INCLUDE THAT. IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING IN WRITING ON THE ROLES OF
COUNCILMEMBERS AND THE CITY MANAGER I WOULD LIKE YOU TO INCLUDE THAT. ANYTHING THAT YOU CAN INCLUDE, SO, WE CAN BE BEST PREPARED
FOR THAT MEETING SO THAT WE ARE SAVING TIME TO HAVE MORE TIME FOR DISCUSSION.
MAYOR IF I CAN ADD TO THAT , I'M ALSO WORKING WITH THE TEAM ON
SOME OTHER DOCUMENTS BASED ON THINGS YOU BELIEVE WILL BE OF INTEREST TO YOU OR THAT YOU HAVE NOT HAD ENOUGH EXPLANATION ON.
ONE WILL BE A SUMMARY OF THE DATE ON WHERE WE ARE WITH REVENUE OPTIONS. I UNDERSTAND THAT IS A COMMON TOPIC OF CONCERN. ANOTHER
IS AN UPDATE ON PROJECTS WE HAVE TALKED ABOUT BUT HAVE NOT GONE
INTO DETAIL LATELY IN THE PRIORITY DEVELOPMENT AREA AND A SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION AND GRANT. YOU GOT A DOWN PAYMENT
ON THIS YESTERDAY WITH THE MEMO FROM ANNA KLING ON OPEN
GOVERNMENT TO PROMOTE TRANSPARENCY ON A BUDGET AND FISCAL MANAGER AND I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO LOOK AT THAT. WE WILL BE
DOING A WRITE UP ON THE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE POSSIBILITY,
SOMETHING YOU ASKED ABOUT AT THE LAST COUNCIL MEETING, I WILL HAVE SOME KIND OF A PAPER RIGHT UP ON THAT FOR YOU AS WELL. I WAS
HOPING TO DO THINGS ON HOMELESSNESS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
BEFORE THE MEETING BUT I CANNOT PROMISE THAT WILL HAPPEN BUT YOU
SHOULD HAVE ALL OF THE REST, AT LEAST SOMETHING TO HELP YOU THINK THROUGH THESE THINGS.
CAN YOU CLARIFY WHY WOULD YOU WOULD BRING THOSE FORWARD TO COUNCIL IF THEY HAVE NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED AS COUNCIL GOALS? THE
ONE THE TOPICS --
THE MATERIALS I AM ANTICIPATING TO PROVIDE AHEAD OF TIME ARE AN UPDATED VERSION OF A PRIORITIES TABLE THAT YOU SAW IN SEPTEMBER.
I GOT THAT.
A DOCUMENT UPDATING, AGAIN THE SEPTEMBER REPORT ON REVENUE
OPTIONS FOR THE GENERAL FUND, I WILL BE GIVING YOU ESSENTIALLY A CONCISE, UPDATED VERSION OF THAT.
A CURRENT PICTURE OF OUR BUDGET?
THAT IS DIFFERENT, THIS IS MORE OUR REVENUE OPTIONS IN PARTICULAR.
I AM NOT SURE HOW THAT RELATES TO A GOALSETTING SESSION. CAN YOU HELP ME UNDERSTAND THAT?
MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY IS AN ISSUE OF
HIGH-END COMMON INTEREST ACROSS THE COUNCIL AND WHEN YOU TALK
ABOUT FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY THERE ARE TWO PARTS OF THE EQUATION
THE REVENUE AND EXPENSE SIDE, THIS WILL BE A CHANCE TO UPDATE YOU
ON WHERE WE ARE ON THINKING ABOUT REVENUE OPTIONS ON THE GENERAL FUND SIDE.
OKAY, CANNOT BE A WRITTEN REPORT RATHER THAN VERBAL?
YES, ALL OF THIS WILL BE WRITTEN FOR YOU. THAT WILL BE ABOUT ONE PAGE. ALSO ONE PAGE OR LESS EACH LOOKING FOR AN UPDATE ON A
COUPLE OF PROJECTS THAT HAVE BEEN ON THE BACK BURNER TO SOME
EXTENT, THE PRIORITY DEVELOPMENT GRANT PROJECT AND THE
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION GRANT PROJECT, VERY BRIEF SUMMARIES
OF WHERE WE ARE ON THOSE THAT BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT SEEN OR
TALKED ABOUT THEM AND THEY COULD BE SIGNIFICANT DRAWS ON RESOURCES I WANTED TO GIVE YOU IN WRITING A CLEAR UPDATE ON THAT.
THE MEMO YOU RECEIVED YESTERDAY ON OPEN GOVERNMENT, BUDGET
TRANSPORTATION -- TRANSPARENCY IS A BIG ISSUE, THAT IS RELATED AS WELL AS SUFFICIENCY.
THAT IS NOT A COUNCIL GOAL YET, RIGHT? ARE YOU PROPOSING THAT? NO, THESE ARE BACKGROUND MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION.
I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THAT PARTICULAR ISSUE, OPEN
GOVERNMENT THING IS RELATED TO THE GOALSETTING, IT SEEMS LIKE IT IS UNRELATED, IT IS A FISCAL ISSUE BUT IT IS NOT RELATED TO GOALSETTING.
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE WAS SOMETHING YOU ASKED US TO PUT
MATERIALS TOGETHER BEFORE GOALSETTING AND THE PRIMARY REASON FOR AN OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE IS FOR TRANSPARENCY ON THE BUDGET. ME
OPEN GOVERNMENT AS PART OF THE ANSWER TO BUDGET TRANSPARENCY, YOU MADE THE LINK TO THE GOALSETTING SESSION.
THAT MAKES SENSE, THANK YOU.
GOOD. THE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE WILL HAVE THOUGHTS ON THAT , THOSE ARE THE PIECES THAT I AM 90% OR BETTER SURE THAT WE CAN GET
TO YOU AND I CAN SEND THEM TO YOU AS THEY ARE INDIVIDUALLY
AVAILABLE, LIKE THE MEMO WE RECEIVED YESTERDAY ON OPEN
GOVERNMENT, OR WAIT UNTIL THE WHOLE PACKAGE IS AVAILABLE WITH
THE REST OF THE AGENDA, THAT MAY TAKE LONGER TO DOT OUR I'S AND CROSS TEES ON EVERY PIECE BUT THEY ARE ALL IN PROGRESS.
OKAY.
ARE THERE OTHER DISCUSSIONS OR INPUTS THAT WE WANT TO PROVIDE TO DON, MARY, OR OUR CONSULTANT? LOOKING TO MY LEFT? ANY OTHER COMMENTS?
SHALL I MAKE A MOTION? OKAY. I AM GOING TO ATTEMPT TO MAKE A MOTION.
OKAY.
IS THAT THE CITY COUNCIL DIRECTS THE STAFF TO AMEND THE AGENDA FOR THE APRIL 1st, 2025 CITY GOALSETTING WORKSHOP, TO LIMIT THE
PREPARATORY STAGE OF INFORMATION AND PRESENTATIONS TO A TOTAL OF ONE HOUR, MORE OR LESS. AND TO INCLUDE IN THE AGENDA PACKET ALL
OF THE GOALS THAT EACH COUNCIL MEMBER HAS BROUGHT UP, NOT
NECESSARILY NAME, THEY CAN BE ANONYMOUS, A LISTING OF ALL THE
GOALS AND THE PRIORITIES THAT WERE DISCUSSED, AS WELL AS A LISTING
OF ALL OF THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND CHALLENGES OR ISSUES THAT COUNCILMEMBERS HAVE DISCUSSED. AND AFTER THAT ONE HOUR IT
WOULD BE RESERVED FOR DISCUSSION OF GOALS, OH, PUBLIC COMMENTS IS 20 MINUTES AT THE BEGINNING BUT THE LAST PART OF THE MEETING AFTER
THE INITIAL ONE HOUR WILL BE FOR THE GOALS, A PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD IN BETWEEN THE GOALS AND THE PRIORITY SETTING OF 20 MINUTES, AND THEN FINISHING UP WITH THE PRIORITIES AND WRAPPING UP. DID I GET THAT?
CAN I ADD TWO THINGS? AND THAT IN ADVANCE TO GET THE LAST GOALS THAT WERE ESTABLISHED FOR THE CITY .
AND WHAT THE CITY MANAGER MENTIONED WITH GETTING THE LIST OF GOALS WE WOULD ALREADY BE WORKING ON FROM SEPTEMBER. AND ANY
INFORMATION RELEVANT TO OUR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF CITY
GOVERNANCE, OR THE BUDGET, THAT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR US IN DETERMINING THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION FOR OUR GOALSETTING.
OKAY. I WILL GO AHEAD AND SECOND THAT. MARY IS GOOD WITH TAKING
NOTES, HOPELESS YOU CAN REITERATE THAT BEFORE WE ACTUALLY VOTE
ON IT BUT I SECONDED, WHENEVER SHE HAS THE CHANCE TO READ IT BACK AND THAT WOULD BE GREAT.
LET ME SEE IF I HAVE CAPTURED THIS. SO MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER
MAURER AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER ZOLLMAN TO APPROVE THE
AGENDA AS AMENDED, LIMITING THE INFORMATION OF PRESENTATION
ITEMS IN THE BEGINNING FOR PREPARING FOR THE GOALS AND SETTINGS
SESSION AT THE END OF THE MEETING TO NO MORE THAN ONE HOUR, SETTING THE STAGE FOR LESS THAN ONE HOUR. SEEING IN ADVANCE THE
COUNCIL GOALS AND PRIORITIES OF THE COUNCIL DISCUSSED
INDIVIDUALLY WITH THE FACILITATOR , SEEING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
AND ISSUES AS DISCUSSED BY THE CITY MANAGER, MAKING THE PUBLIC COMMON IN THE BEGINNING 20 MINUTES, ADDING A SECOND PUBLIC
COMMENT PERIOD IN BETWEEN GOALS AND PRIORITY SETTING FOR AN ADDITIONAL 20 MINUTES, GETTING A COPY OF THE 2019 GOALS, GETTING AN UP DATE OF THE SEPTEMBER 2024 GOALS, SEEING THE OVERVIEW OF THE
GOALS THAT ARE SIMILAR TO OTHER CITIES, LIKE THE NORMAL BUCKETS,
AND THEN RECEIVING ANY INFORMATION THAT IS RELEVANT TO A BETTER
UNDERSTANDING OF CITY GOVERNMENT, RULES OF CITY COUNCIL AND CITY GOVERNANCE.
I WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU USE THE WORD SCENE, THAT WE WOULD SEE THINGS, THAT WAS IN THE AGENDA PACKET OR IN THE STAFF REPORT? SO, WITH THAT.
ALL OF THE ATTACHMENTS THAT I JUST WENT OVER?
YES.
YES, THOSE WILL BE PUBLIC DOCUMENTS AS WELL.
OKAY, THANK YOU.
GREAT. OH, QUESTION?
I DON'T THINK I HEARD THE SECOND WAIVER FOR THE PUBLIC TO GET INPUT.
IN BETWEEN GOALS AND PRIORITIES.
OKAY, THANK YOU.
OKAY.
COUNCILMEMBER CARTER?
YES POINT
COUNCILMEMBER HINTON.
AYE.
MAYOR ZOLLMAN.
AYE.
MOTION PASSES WITH -- ABSENT. IS BILL MOVING ON TO OUR LAST ITEM AS FAR AS ACTION ITEMS ANYWAY IS AGENDA. OH, THANK YOU. LAST ACTION AGENDA ITEM IS NUMBER 13, CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FOR QUARTERLY
JOINT CITY COUNCIL/SEBASTOPOL SCHOOL DISTRICT MEETINGS , THERE IS
NO FISCAL IMPACT, CONSIDERATION OF THIS REQUEST AND THE REQUESTER WAS MYSELF. SO, YES, MY REQUEST WAS SENT OUT AS FAR AS PART OF THE
STAFF REPORT AND WE JUST GOT A RESPONSE BACK FROM OUR
SUPERINTENDENT AT THE SEBASTOPOL UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT ALONG
WITH THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES FROM SEBASTOPOL UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT . IN THE LETTER IT REFERENCES THAT THEY
WOULD BE AMENABLE TO HAVING A STATE OF THE CITY, STATE OF THE HIGH
SCHOOL, AND SEBASTOPOL UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT , TO POSSIBLY CLARIFY AREAS OF JOINT INTEREST. SO, I AM APPRECIATIVE THAT THEY READ IT AND
TOOK THE TIME TO RESPOND, SO, THAT BOILS DOWN TO WHAT I AM
REQUESTING, TO HAVE STAFF LOOK INTO, AS FAR AS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE
TO HAVE THE STATE OF THE CITY, STATE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL,
SEBASTOPOL UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT , AND HOW OFTEN THEY WOULD RECOMMEND DOING THAT. I HEARD FROM THE VICE MAYOR OF WINDSOR ,
WHO IS HOW I GOT THIS IDEA, I AM NOT SMART ENOUGH TO COME UP WITH IT ON MY OWN. BUT THEY WERE DOING IT ON A QUARTERLY BASIS, IT SEEMS LIKE MAYBE I DID NOT UNDERSTAND THAT. I AM DEFINITELY NOT LOCKED INTO A QUARTERLY THING AT ALL. TO JUST HAVE US LOOK INTO THIS. THAT IS A PART OF MY REQUEST. COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? COUNCILMEMBER MAURER?
I WOULD LIKE TO ASK STAFF, HOW MANY HOURS DO YOU THINK IT WOULD
TAKE TO NOT ONLY LOOK INTO THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING A JOINT STATE
OF THE CITY, STATE OF THE HIGH SCHOOL MEETING BUT WHAT WOULD BE YOUR BEST GUESS AT HOW MANY HOURS IT WOULD TAKE TO LOOK INTO IT? HOW MANY HOURS IT WOULD TAKE TO HOSTED? OR GO TO IT? OR HOW MUCH STAFF TIME IS INVOLVED WITH THAT PROJECT?
SO, I'M ASSUMING, SORRY, GO AHEAD.
GO AHEAD.
NO, NO.
A ONE-TIME EVENT DOES NOT TAKE A HUGE AMOUNT OF TIME , DEPENDING
ON WHAT YOU WANT TO COVER, OF COURSE PREPARING FOR THE
GOALSETTING SESSION HAS TAKEN A LOT OF TIME. OVER THE COURSE OF SEVERAL MONTHS. IT DEPENDS A LOT ON THE SCOPE AND WHAT YOU WANT
TO TRY TO ACCOMPLISH, I WOULD ENCOURAGE THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT OUT OF THIS. WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THIS? AND I DON'T MEAN
TO SAY THERE IS NOT VALUE TO IT BUT GIVING US A TARGET TO HIT IS
ALWAYS HELPFUL, SO WE DON'T HAVE TO GUESS ABOUT THE FUNDAMENTAL
COUNCIL QUESTIONS OF WHAT YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH AND WHY YOU WANT TO DO THAT . SO, I DON'T KNOW THAT IS EIGHT OR 10 HOURS OR
SOMETHING TO PUT TOGETHER A MEETING OF MATERIALS, SOMETHING LIKE THAT, AGAIN DEPENDS ON THE SCOPE. I THINK ONE OF THE POINTS IN THAT
LETTER IS THAT THERE IS NOT MUCH OVERLAP BETWEEN WHAT THE SCHOOL DISTRICT DOES AND WHAT WE DO. AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE AGENDA
REPORT DOES NOT MENTION, IT MENTIONS A LOT OF THINGS WE DON'T HAVE
ANYTHING TO DO WITH AND IT DOES NOT MENTION A FEW THINGS WE DO OVERLAP WITH THE SCHOOL DISTRICT ON, LIKE FACILITIES. BUT WE REALLY
DON'T HAVE A ROLE IN THESE FEDERAL ISSUES HERE AND OUR ROLE IN
MENTAL HEALTH IS REALLY MINIMAL, THEY HAVE THEIR OWN RESOURCES IN MENTAL HEALTH. SO, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THIS? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO GET OUT OF IT? WHAT WILL DRIVE IT? TO SOME EXTENT I
WOULD SAY THIS IS A PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO ASK THIS QUESTION
BECAUSE IT IS BETTER TO ASK BEFORE GOALSETTING AND AFTER, IF YOU
WANT, IT IS SOMETHING YOU WANT TO BE SPENDING TIME ON THAT IS GOOD
TO KNOW AND HOW IT COMPARES WITH THE MANY OTHER THINGS WE COULD BE SPENDING TIME ON. THE FIRST QUESTION I WOULD ASK IS WHAT
YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH AND FROM THERE WE CAN GIVE YOU BETTER ANSWERS TO WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO ACCOMPLISH IT.
OTHER QUESTIONS , COUNCILMEMBER --?
YES, HAVING ON THE LETTER FROM THE SCHOOL, THIS IS A SUPER WELLINTENTIONED BUT I TEND TO AGREE WITH THE LETTER WRITER, MAYBE AT
MOST AN AD HOC COMMITTEE, KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH OUR KIDS AND WITH
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN OUR SCHOOLS IS A PART OF THE CITY BUT I DON'T
KNOW IT IS A COUNCIL JURISDICTION VENUE, I DON'T KNOW THE RIGHT WORD BUT.
OKAY. OTHER QUESTIONS BEFORE WE GO TO THE PUBLIC?
NO QUESTIONS.
OKAY, PUBLIC COMMENT?
THANK YOU, MAYOR, THIS IS FOR PUBLIC COMMENT ON THE REQUEST TO
HOLD A JOINT CITY COUNCIL IN SEBASTOPOL SCHOOL DISTRICT MEETING, IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A PUBLIC COMMENT, I WILL GO TO CHAMBER. SEEING
NONE, KYLE, YOU CAN UNMUTE YOURSELF GREAT THANK YOU, CAN YOU SEE THE TIMER?
YES,
GO AHEAD.
I HAVE MADE THE SUGGESTION PREVIOUSLY AND WAS SHUT DOWN BY A
PREVIOUS MAYOR WITH THE IDEA THAT DIFFERENT JURISDICTIONS, EVEN
THOUGH WE SHARE TERRITORY, WE SHARE BOUNDARIES, WE EVEN MAKE
DECISIONS ABOUT REPRESENTATION BASED ON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
DISTRICTS, THE IDEA THAT WE ARE SOMEHOW, SOME OF, SOMEHOW DISTINCT BODY FROM HER SCHOOL DISTRICTS IS A REALLY, REALLY CRAZY.
ALSO THINKING THAT WE HAVE PROPERTY TAXES THAT ARE BEING
ALLOCATED TO THESE DIFFERENT ENTITIES AND THAT THERE IS LIKELY THE
NEED FOR COORDINATION AMONG LIKE WHEN WE GO OUT FOR PROPERTY
TAX MEASURES AND HOW EACH OF US GOING OUT FOR THOSE THINGS HAS EFFECTS ON EACH OTHER. REALLY THE ISSUE IS THAT IF YOU HAVE BEEN
FOLLOWING ALONG WITH EDUCATION, WHICH I DON'T KNOW THAT
ANYBODY DOES NECESSARILY, CONSIDERING HOW FUNDING IS JUST SLIPPING FROM EDUCATION ACROSS THE STATE. WE HAVE CONSOLIDATED
HIGH SCHOOLS WHERE WE ARE DISCUSSING CONSOLIDATING ELEMENTARY
AND HIGH SCHOOLS ALL ACROSS THE COUNTY, WHY MIGHT THAT BE? MAYBE IT IS BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE STUDENTS. WHY DON'T WE HAVE STUDENTS? FAMILIES CANNOT AFFORD TO LIVE HERE. WHY CAN'T FAMILIES AFFORD TO LIVE HERE? BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE GOOD HOUSING DEVELOPMENT POLICIES IN OUR CITY. THERE IS YOUR CONNECTION. THAT
WE NEED TO HAVE SERIOUS CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE WAY OUR CITY
AND THE DIRECTION OUR CITY GOES TO PROMOTE THE ABILITY FOR
FAMILIES TO LIVE IN OUR COMMUNITY THAT THEN POPULATE OUR SCHOOLS,
THAT THAT ARE ABLE TO GENERATE ADDITIONAL REVENUE FOR OUR COMMUNITY. I AM NOT SURPRISED THAT SALES TAX DROPPED, I'M NOT
SURPRISED THAT FAMILIES ARE LEAVING BUT I BELIEVE THERE IS
ABSOLUTELY AN OVERLAP IN JURISDICTION AND WE HAVE SHARED INTERESTS, WE NEED TO WORK ON THEM TOGETHER.
THANK YOU, KYLE FOR YOUR PUBLIC COMMENT. NEXT I WILL COME TO CHAMBERS. SEEING NONE. BACK TO ZOOM. ROBERT, CAN YOU MEET YOURSELF? PLEASE.
CAN YOU HEAR ME?
I CAN HEAR YOU, CAN YOU SEE THE TIMER?
I CAN.
GO AHEAD.
MY FIRST REACTION WAS A SIMILAR TO THE CITY MANAGER IN THAT A LOT
OF THESE ISSUES, THE CITY IS NOT EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH THE MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES THAT ARE HAPPENING AT THE HIGH SCHOOL. AND ET
CETERA, ET CETERA, I WILL NOT REPEAT ALL OF THAT BUT THERE ARE
ISSUES AND IF YOU GO BACK AND LOOK AT THE PUBLIC COMMENT I MADE A
FEW MEETINGS AGO ABOUT THE VIOLENT CRIME IN THE CITY AND PROPERTY
CRIME IN THE CITY, AS I RECALL, I COULD NOT FIND IT HERE BUT AS I
RECALL MORE THAN HALF OF THE VIOLENT CRIME AND PROPERTY CRIME,
AND/OR PROPERTY CRIME WAS COMMITTED BY PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF
19. A LITTLE LESS THAN HALF WAS COMMITTED ON PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF 19, ONE MIGHT SEE SOME OF THAT AS TEENS FROM HIGH SCHOOL HAVING
A FIGHT AND OUR POLICE BEING INVOLVED IN THAT, I DON'T KNOW THAT IS
THE CASE OR NOT, MORE WORK PROBABLY SHOULD BE DONE TO
UNDERSTAND WHY SO MANY TEENS IN OUR CITY ARE INVOLVED WITH OUR POLICE FORCE. KNOWING THE SWARM THAT TAKES PLACE AT SAFEWAY
EVERY AFTERNOON AND THE ISSUES THAT CREATES, PEOPLE I KNOW DO NOT
GO THERE DURING THAT PERIOD OF TIME TO SHOP, I AM SURE THAT IF
THINGS ARE BEING STOLEN IT IS NOT CONTRIBUTING TO OUR SALES TAX REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES. THERE ARE ISSUES THE HIGH SCHOOL CREATES
FOR THE CITY THAT NEED DISCUSSION AND UNDERSTANDING AND INSIGHT,
YOU GUYS HAVE TO WORK TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THOSE ARE AND THEN TAKE IT FORWARD. IT MAY NOT BE A BIG MEETING WITH SCHOOL BOARDS IS THE WAY TO DO THAT, AT LEAST INITIALLY. THOSE ARE MY THOUGHTS, THANKS.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PUBLIC COMMENT, NEXTEL COME TO CHAMBERS. IS SEEING AND I GO BACK TO ZOOM. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A PUBLIC COMMENT PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND VIRTUALLY. SEEING NONE, PUBLIC COMMENT IS CLOSED ON THIS ITEM.
THANK YOU, MARY. BRINGING IT BACK UP TO THE DISCUSSION AMONGST MY COLLEAGUES. COMMENTS?
THE PEOPLE CALLING IN DEFINITELY DID KIND OF AFFECT MY THOUGHTS
AND YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT THAT OUR YOUNG PEOPLE INTERACT
WITH OUR CITY AND ARE A PART OF OUR CITY AND IN THAT WAY WE NEED
TO CONSIDER THEM, AND CONSIDER HOW WE VIEW OUR CITY IN TERMS OF GOALS AND THINGS LIKE THAT. I AM STILL NOT ENTIRELY SURE WE NEED TO
MEET A LOT WITH THE BOARD, MAYBE THAT IS THE PROBLEM, MAYBE
THERE IS SOME CONGRUITY THERE WHERE IF WE MEET LIKE ONCE A YEAR
WE CAN FIND SYNERGIES AND ACTUALLY IMPROVE THE SITUATION FOR OUR
YOUNG PEOPLE, OR AT LEAST BE ABLE TO CARE FOR THEM IN ANOTHER WAY, JUST THROWING THAT OUT THERE AS A SECONDARY THOUGHT.
THANK YOU. COUNCILMEMBER HINTON ?
HAVING RAISED TWO KIDS THROUGH THE SCHOOL SYSTEMS, ALSO WITH
CONSIDERATION THAT THEY HAVE THEIR OWN ELECTED BOARD AND BODY
THAT OVERSEES SCHOOL ITEMS, WE OVERSEE CITY ITEMS, THAT IS OUR ROLE. I AM NOT IN FAVOR OF HIS AGENDA ITEM TONIGHT. IT HAS BEEN
DISCUSSED BEFORE BY THIS COUNCIL , PREVIOUS MEMBERS, I WAS A PART
OF THAT DISCUSSION AND FOR ME, WE HAVE SUCH A STRUGGLE WITH OUR CURRENT STAFF. WE JUST CUT BACK OUR CLIMATE ACTION COMMITTEE, IF
WE WANT TO ADD THIS INTO OUR PRIORITIES FOR OUR GOALSETTING
SESSION, BUT I DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE MOVING FORWARD WITH THIS
TONIGHT WHEN IT WOULD SEND STAFF IN A DIRECTION THAT I AM NOT SURE I FEEL WE SHOULD GO INTO. LIKE I SAID, THEY HAVE THEIR OWN ELECTED BOARDS AND WE ARE ELECTED TO DO CITY BUSINESS. I AM NOT GOING TO
SUPPORT THIS TONIGHT AND IF COUNCILMEMBER ZOLLMAN WANTS TO
BRING IT BACK AS A PRIORITY WHEN WE CAN LOOK AT ALL OF OUR
PRIORITIES AND THEN RANK THEM, MAYBE THIS WILL RISE HIGHER UP BUT RIGHT NOW I CANNOT SUPPORT THIS. THANKS.
OTHER COMMENTS? COUNCILMEMBER MAURER?
MY COMMENTS ARE SIMILAR TO COUNCILMEMBER HINTON, IN THAT, THIS IS A GOAL, RIGHT? THIS IS AN IDEA THAT THE MAYOR HAS FORWARD AND
WITHOUT SEEING THE FULL LIST OF COUNCIL GOALS AND PRIORITIES IT IS
HARD TO SAY LET'S DO THIS ONE, I WANT TO SEE THE FULL LIST AND THEN MAKE THAT DECISION. ESPECIALLY IN LIGHT OF THE FACT THAT WE HAVE CUT OUR PUBLIC ARTS COMMITTEE. WE ARE CUTTING OUR CLIMATE ACTION COMMITTEE, AND STAFF HAS LIMITED TIME. WE ARTY HAVE A BIG LIST OF
PRIORITIES WE ARE WORKING ON AND I THINK THIS WOULD TAKE MORE THAN 8 TO 10 HOURS OF STAFF TIME AND IT SOUNDS LIKE IT HAS ALREADY
TAKEN STAFF TIME BASED ON THE LETTER I READ FROM THE PRINCIPAL AT -- . SO, I AM OKAY IF YOU WANT TO BRING IT BACK TO THE GOALSETTING
SESSION AND WE CAN HAVE FURTHER DISCUSSION BUT I NEED TO SEE THAT WITHIN THE LIST OF EVERYTHING ELSE WE HAVE TO DO. I THINK IF YOU MADE IT INTO AN AD HOC YOU WILL STILL BE USING A LOT OF STAFF TIME.
AD HOC'S TAKE A LOT OF STAFF TIME, MY CONCERN IS ONE MEETING, WHAT WILL THAT ACCOMPLISH IN ONE MEETING? I DON'T SEE ONE MEETING ACCOMPLISHING VERY MUCH. I WOULD LOVE IT IF WE CAN GET REPORTS
BACK AND I KNOW THAT OUR LOVELY REPORTER SITTING HERE, SHE
REPORTS OUT ON SOME OF THESE MEETINGS AND, THANK YOU FOR THOSE,
BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE TO BE INFORMED BUT I ALSO DO NOT WANT TO ADD
MORE RESPONSIBILITY IN TERMS OF WHAT I AM ALREADY DOING FOR THE
CITY, IN TERMS OF MY ROLE AS A COUNCILMEMBER, I DON'T WANT TO ADD ANOTHER MEETING TO THAT RULE. THOSE ARE MY COMMENTS.
OKAY. COUNCILMEMBER CARTER?
I'M WONDERING IF THIS CAN BE A LIAISON, AS MENTIONED.
COUNCILMEMBER HINTON?
WELL COUNCILMEMBER MAURER FORGOT TO MENTION ALSO, I THINK, --
CAME BACK COMBINING PLANNING WITH THE ASSIGNED REVIEW AND WE
HAVE NOT MADE ANY KIND OF DECISIONS BUT, SO, WE ARE CUTTING,
CUTTING, AND AGAIN EVEN A LIAISON, SO, WE'VE ALL BEEN INVITED TO PARTICIPATE AT THE SCHOOLS AS ELECTED OFFICIALS. MANY OF US HAVE
BEEN INVITED TO SPEAK AT GOVERNMENT CLASSES, WE HAVE BEEN INVITED
TO THEIR ELECTION NIGHT BUT IT WAS A CONFLICT BECAUSE WE WERE UP ON COUNCIL AND COULD NOT ATTEND . IT IS NOT THAT AS INDIVIDUAL
COUNCILMEMBERS THAT WE NECESSARILY HAVE NO CONTACT WITH
MEMBERS OF THE SCHOOL, I CERTAINLY HAVE BUT I WOULD NOT BE IN FAVOR OF FORMALIZING A LIAISON POSITION EITHER. I FEEL THE SCHOOLS
HAVE THEIR ELECTED PEOPLE AND THEY ARE MAKING THE DECISIONS AND
WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO ATTEND THOSE MEETINGS AS MEMBERS OF THE
PUBLIC AND LEARN MORE AND INVITE THEM AND I JUST THINK THIS IS NOT
COMFORTABLE WITH THIS PART, I JUST DON'T FEEL IT IS IN OUR JURISDICTION TO BE THERE. AGAIN, WILLING TO HEAR IT AS A PRIORITY, IF IT
IS A PRIORITY, LIKE ANY BRAINSTORMING IDEA AT OUR GOAL SESSION, AND
THEN WE HAVE TO MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT WHERE OUR PRIORITIES LIE AS A
FULL FIVE MEMBER COUNCIL, WHEN WE SEE AS COUNCILMEMBER MAURER POINTED OUT, ALL OF THE THINGS. THAT'S WHERE I WANT TO KICK THAT BACK TO.
OKAY, HAS EVERYONE BEEN MARKED FOR COMMENT?
I CONNECTED WITH SARAH GRAHAM SEVERAL TIMES, SHE WILL BE IF SHE
HAS NOT ALREADY MET WITH THE NEW POLICE CHIEF, SCHOOLS WERE
INVOLVED IN THIS ELECTION PROCESS AND WE HAVE EXISTING
RELATIONSHIPS THE STAFF ABOUT WHAT IS ON OUR PLATE, AND FOR ISSUES IN PARTICULAR THAT OVERLAP. USE OF RECREATION FACILITIES, POLICE
PRESENCE ON CAMPUS AND HOW THEY CAN DO COMMUNITY POLICING THE
RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE STUDENTS, THOSE SORTS OF THINGS FOR EXAMPLE. WE ARE NOT FOREIGN COUNTRIES, WE ARE IN THE SAME TOWN
AND WE DO TALK TO EACH OTHER ON PARTICULAR ISSUES WHEN THERE IS THE GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO.
OKAY, THANK YOU AND THANK YOU FOR THE DISCUSSION, AS ALWAYS,
BASED UPON WHAT HAS BEEN SAID, I WILL WITHDRAW IT AND BRING IT UP IN GOALSETTING. WE CAN MOVE ALONG THEN TWO ADDITIONAL PUBLIC COMMENT, MARY?
THANK YOU, MAYOR. THIS IS THE SECOND PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD . IF
YOU HAVE NOT SPOKEN DURING THE FIRST PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA, PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND VIRTUALLY. SEEING NONE.
I WILL COME TO CHAMBERS. SEEING NONE. THERE IS NO PUBLIC COMMENT.
THANK YOU. WE ARE MOVING ONTO REPORTS. THE CITY MANAGER?
MAYOR, THERE IS THE NEW SECTION ON OUR AGENDA NOW WHERE WE HAVE ADDED THE --.
RIGHT, SORRY. LOTS ON THAT. COUNCILMEMBER MAURER?
DRIVE AN AGENDA REQUEST , I AM VERY PLEASED, THIS IS ON OUR AGENDA.
I HAVE AN AGENDA REQUEST. SO, MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT IT HAS GOT TO BE SHORT, RIGHT? I CANNOT TALK FOR FIVE MINUTES, WE HAVE NOT DONE THIS, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO IT.
A BRIEF , ONE OR TWO SENTENCES, THIS IS THE AGENDA.
OKAY. WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A GENDERIZED IS THE MERGER OF THE
DESIGN REVIEW BOARD AND THE PLANNING COMMISSION AS AN
INFORMATIONAL ONLY OPPORTUNITY TO GET UP -- INFORMATION TO HAVE
DISCUSSION AND INQUIRY TO UNDERSTAND THAT WITHOUT THE PRESSURE OF HAVING A VOTE. I AM ASKING FOR THAT TO BE JUST AN INFORMATIONAL ONLY AND IT WOULD COME BACK AT A LATER DATE FOR A VOTE.
I WILL SECOND THAT.
JUST SO COUNCILMEMBERS KNOW, THE POLICY YOU AGREE ON IS THAT
TWO MEMBERS AGREE THEY WILL THEN GO TO THAT AGENDA SETTING COMMITTEE AS A HIGH PRIORITY ITEM. SO, THERE IS NO NEED FOR ANY OTHER DISCUSSION OR VOTE BECAUSE WE HAVE GOT THE SECOND HERE.
GREAT, THANK YOU.
THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER MAURER. COUNCILMEMBER HINTON?
I WANT TO INVOKE, IF THAT IS THE RIGHT WAY TO SAY IT, I WOULD LIKE TO
AGENDIZE WHEN I BROUGHT UP EARLIER, THE NEW TITLE IS SCT CA, TO
APPOINT SOMEONE TO BE PART OF AN INFORMAL CLIMATE DIRECTORS
COORDINATION MEETING AND I WOULD LIKE TO AGENDIZE AN ITEM TO
CONSIDER, SINCE OUR STAFF IS SO BUSY, TO APPOINT SOMEBODY FROM OUR
NEW CONFIGURATION OF THE CLIMATE ACTION, BECAUSE THEY ALL HAVE
CLIMATE BACKGROUNDS, AND TO EMPOWER, TO DISCUSS EMPOWERING THEM TO REPRESENT CITIES OF SEBASTOPOL IN THIS WAY.
WE LIKE THIS.
THANK YOU. ARE THERE OTHER REQUESTS?
I WILL NOT ADD ANY MORE .
[ LAUGHTER ]
A MOMENT OF LEVITY, THANK YOU. YES. ALL RIGHT, THANK YOU, MOVING FORWARD. THEY CAN EAT LIKE SPELL THAT OUT MORE FOR THE WHOLE AGENDA REQUEST PART OF IT. ANYWAY. SORRY ABOUT THAT. BEEN TO AGENDA ITEM 14, WHICH IS REPORT OUTS OF THE CITY MANAGER.
YOU HAVE THE WRITTEN REPORTS , I THINK THEY LARGELY SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. AS YOU KNOW, I MISSED A LOT OF TIME THE LAST COUPLE OF
WEEKS AND I'M NOT UP TO SPEED ON EVERYTHING AND I THINK MARY FOR COVERING THINGS. I KNOW THAT THE RIVER RUNS MORE FULL IN TIMES LIKE
THIS AND WE ARE FULL THROTTLE INTO BUDGET OPERATION AND THAT
WILL CONTINUE TO BE OUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL
WEEKS, PROBABLY A COUPLE OF MONTHS UNTIL WE GET THE BUDGET HEARINGS IN JUNE. THANK YOU.
MARY?
SORRY. -- [ INAUDIBLE ]
EXACTLY AND A LOT OF PUBLIC KEEP MENTIONING TO EVERYONE. APRIL 10th. YOU NEVER KNOW. SO, THAT TAKES US TO COUNCIL REPORT OUTS.
COUNCILMEMBER MAURER?
THANK YOU. WE HAVE HAD TWO BUDGET MEETINGS SINCE THE LAST
COUNCIL MEETING AND WE HAVE APPROVED A BUDGET COMMITTEE POLICY AND WE HAVE REVIEWED MANY DEPARTMENT BUDGETS. INCLUDING
COUNCIL , THE ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER CITY CLERK, THE ATTORNEY, THE ADMIN SERVICES, THE CITY MANAGER, THE POLICE, AND BUILDING. WE
HAVE REVIEWED THEM ALL AT SOME POINT ONLY FINISH IT UP WE WILL
BRING THEM ALL BACK TO SEE THE TOTAL, GET AN OVERVIEW BUT AT THIS POINT WE HAVE LOOKED AT THEM ALL INDIVIDUALLY. I MET WITH R 3 ON
THE NEW GARBAGE SERVICE CONTRACT AND I MET WITH THEM BECAUSE I
WANTED TO GET CLARITY ON THESE THINGS AND MAKE SURE I HAVE THE FACTS. SO, I WANT TO JUST TELL YOU MY BEST UNDERSTANDING, ACCORDING TO THEM, THEY ARE EXPERTS IN THIS FIELD, HE SAID. SO, IF WE
HAD GONE WITH -- PAPA'S INITIAL PROPOSALS SEBASTOPOL WOULD'VE HAD
THE HIGHEST RATES FOR BOTH RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES OF ALL
INCORPORATED CITIES IN SONOMA COUNTY AND THE CITY WAS JUSTIFIED FOR GOING OUT FOR THE RFP. SONOMA COUNTY HAS HIGH DISPOSAL RATES FOR GARBAGE, COMPOST, AND RECYCLING, AND ACCORDING TO R 3, THE COST TO DISPOSE ALL OF THESE ARE PRETTY MUCH THE SAME. UNDER THE --
SERVICE MODEL THE BUSINESSES WHO GENERATE LAST WASTE WERE
SUBSIDIZING THE BUSINESSES WHO GENERATED LARGER AMOUNTS OF WASTE. AND RECOLOGY MODEL OF SERVICE, WHICH IS MORE COMPOST AND RECYCLING IS A MEASURE OF ACHIEVEMENT, IS OUTDATED. THE NEW STATE
OF CALIFORNIA, THEIR ACTION PLAN IS ENGAGING IN A ZERO WASTE PLAN WHICH SAYS, CIRCULARITY IS THE MEASURE OF ACHIEVEMENT. AND
CIRCULARITY MEANS A CIRCULAR ECONOMY, THE GOAL IS WASTE
PREVENTION, THE GOAL IS TO CREATE A LOT LESS OF IT ALL, CREATE LESS
COMPOST, LESS RECYCLING, LESS GARBAGE, AND WORKING LOCALLY ON SOLUTIONS. FOR EXAMPLE, IF A VENDOR BRINGS YOU SOMETHING WITH A
LOT OF CARDBOARD OR YOU ARE STORE AND YOU HAVE A LOT OF CARDBOARD, THEY TAKE IT BACK. IT IS MORE ABOUT PRODUCER
RESPONSIBILITIES, THEY WILL TAKE BACK AT THAT COMPOST, GARBAGE, I MEAN -- [ LAUGHTER ] -- PACKAGING, CARDBOARD, OKAY. I ALSO MET WITH
THE CALIFORNIA URBAN STREAM PARTNERSHIP, THEY HAVE A COUPLE OF GRANTS THEY WANT TO APPLY FOR. THIS WAS A DESIGN FOR IVES PARK ON
THE NATURALIZATION OF CALDER CREEK THAT RUNS THROUGH THE PARK THAT WAS APPROVED BY COUNCIL IN 2022. RIGHT NOW PROP FOR HAS
PASSED AND THERE IS A LOT OF MONEY AVAILABLE IN THE STATE FOR GRANTS FOR THE NATURALIZATION OF STREAMS. THEY ARE HOPING FOR A RESOLUTION FROM THE COUNCIL TO SUPPORT THEIR GRANT APPLICATION.
AND SO, THIS WOULD BE, FOR THE FIRST HALF OF THE PARK, STARTING ON
HIGH STREET, ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE PARK FROM HIGH STREET TO ABOUT
THE MIDDLE, THAT WOULD BE WHAT THEY WOULD LOOK TO BE
NATURALIZING, THAT AREA. I'VE ALSO REACHED OUT TO ROTARY AND TWO
MEMBERS OF THE FRIENDS OF IVES PARK BECAUSE I KNOW THERE HAS BEEN
CONFLICT BETWEEN SHORT-TERM GOALS AND LONG-TERM GOALS OF OUR IVES PARK AND WE ALL LOVE IVES PARK. HOPING TO FIND SOME COMMON GROUND. THAT IS ALL, THANK YOU.
ANYONE ELSE? COUNCILMEMBER HINTON?
I GUESS IT IS TOO LATE TO ASK FOR THAT TO BE AGENDIZED, THE CREEKS THING , JUST SAYING, WE NEED TO ADD THAT. COUNCILMEMBER MAURER, THAT IS GREAT TO HEAR. OKAY. I REPRESENTED CITY OF SEBASTOPOL IN
OUR -- MEETING WHEN WE SUBMITTED OUR APPLICATION , ALL THE WAY BACK AT 2:00 IN THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS CHAMBERS ON MARCH 5th, WE
DID HAVE RECOMMENDATION FROM -- FOR OUR PROPOSAL AND I STOOD UP
AND SPOKE, AS DID CHIEF SHEPLEY AND THERE WAS A SMALL QUOTE IN THE
PAPER, AMY WINDSOR TO THE STORY ON IT AFTERWARDS AND I THINK WHEN I GOT MY MAIL TODAY I SAW THEMALE IN MY MAILBOX. WE
RETAINED A COMMUNICATION COMPANY TO MAKE SURE ALL TAXPAYERS THAT WOULD BE IMPACTED OR MADE AWARE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING. SO, DID THAT. THEN ON MONDAY THE 10th, AND I HAVE NOT PREPARED A
WRITTEN REPORT THIS MONTH BUT I ATTENDED BOTH THE EXECUTIVE
BOARD, WHICH I'M ON FOR AS A CTA ARE CPA, WEIGHT, ANYWAY, YES, YES
THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR NAME BUT THEY ALSO HAVE KEPT THEIR NAME, IT IS VERY CONFUSING. THE NEW NAME IS SC TC CA AND THEY ARE LAUNCHING A NEW LOGO, ANYWAY. I WILL SAY THERE WAS A BIG PRESENTATION ON THE STATE ROUTES 12 AND FULTON ROAD FEASIBILITY STUDY. I WILL SAY SOME OF US COMMENTED THAT IT WAS PRETTY MUCH A
BIG PIE IN THE SKY BECAUSE THEY TALKED ABOUT A STREET THAT WOULD
GO OVER, EVEN AROUND ABOUT THERE, IT WAS KIND OF CRAZY AND IT
DOESN'T SEEM LIKE, WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE COUNTY PRIORITIES THAT THAT IS REALLY A TOP PRIORITY. WHICH WAS A LOT OF BOTH MY
COMMENTS AND SOME OTHER COMMENTS, INCLUDING FROM SUPERVISOR HOPKINS AT THAT MEETING. SO, YEAH. ANYWAY JUST TO LET YOU KNOW,
THEY GOT FUNDING TO DO THE FUNDING AND NOW THAT IS PUT UP ON THE
SHELF AND PROBABLY THEY WILL NOT GET FUNDING TO MAYBE DO SOME STRIPING OR TURN LANES. ALSO THE SECTION OF OUR CPA, MANY OF YOU
MAY KNOW OR NOT KNOW THAT SEBASTOPOL WAS THE FIRST CITY TO START ITS SAVING WATER PROGRAM. -- COULD BE IN TROUBLE FOR THE BAY
AREA AND IT IS KIND OF LIKE A CHICKEN OR EGG THING BECAUSE THEY
DON'T GET A MAJOR PERSON FROM THE BAY AREA, A VENDOR ON BOARD,
THEY MAY NOT GET THE NEEDED FUNDING THEY NEED AND THEY REALLY
ALSO NEED MORE PARTICIPANTS IN SONOMA COUNTY, IT IS ONLY
OURSELVES IN CLOVERDALE THAT PARTICIPATE BUT WHY THIS IS A HUGE
CONCERN FOR RCPA AND OTHER CLIMATE ISSUE IS THAT I THINK ALMOST
TWO FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES ARE FUNDED BY THAT PROGRAM, THE GRANTS
THEY RECEIVE, SO IF THEY GO AWAY WITHIN THE NEXT FEW YEARS THEN
TWO DESIGNATED, LIKE THE CITY THERE IS A CERTAIN TIME THEY SPEND ON CLIMATE AND A CERTAIN TIME THEY SPEND ON OTHER THINGS TWO FULLTIME POSITIONS MAY BE LOST. THAT IS JUST FOR CLIMATE CONCERNS, THAT
WOULD BE AN ISSUE I AM MONITORING AND KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON FOR THAT ORGANIZATION. LASTLY I ATTENDED THE SANTA ROSA PLAINS GSA MEETING. WE HAD SUPER MAJORITY VOTES BECAUSE WE APPROVED THE BUDGET FOR THEIR NEXT YEAR. WE DO NOT SET ASIDE A LARGE AMOUNT OF THE APPROPRIATIONS FOR CONTINGENCIES. THEY NEED TO STAND BUDGET,
IF ANYTHING MAJOR HAPPENS WE ARE TRYING TO STAY WITHIN THIS
REALLY TIGHT BUDGET, SO THE CITIES ARE NOT CHARGED TO BE PARTICIPANTS. WE HAD TO PAY TO JOIN BUT GRANTS HAVE COVERED OUR MEMBERSHIP. I AM HAPPY TO TALK TO ANYBODY OFF-LINE ABOUT THIS IN
MORE DETAIL BECAUSE SEBASTOPOL IS ONE OF THE SMALLEST
JURISDICTIONS, IT IS A MEMBER AND YOU HAVE AN EQUAL VOTE AND AN INVOICE, WE HAD TO JOIN AT AN EQUAL AMOUNT. SO, WE DID GET A BREAK
BACK THEN, THAT UNIT GLASS AND MYSELF ASKED, BECAUSE WE JOINED LATE. WILSON DROVE GOT DRAWN INTO THE PLANE AND WE GOT IT
DISCOUNT IN OUR ORIGINAL MEMBERS BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT A
MEMBER FROM THE BEGINNING AND LUCKILY WE HAVE NOT HAD TO PAY A
SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT TO PARTICIPATE BUT DEPENDING ON STATE FUNDING THAT COULD CHANGE DOWN THE ROAD, HEADS UP ON THAT. I HAVE THE WATER PACKET AND THEY ARE STILL DOING FLOWMETER --.
THAT'S IT.
THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER CARTER.
SUPER THANKS FOR THE UPDATE ABOUT RCPA, I AM SUPER INTERESTED
AND BAYRIN, WHO HAS BEEN BIG IN HELPING SEBASTOPOL HIT ABOVE ITS WEIGHT FOR THE CLIMATE. BUT SPEAKING OF, WE HAVE OUR FIRST COMPOSTING EVENT ON MARCH 29th AND THE SECOND ONE WILL BE ON APRIL 19th AND THESE ARE COMPOSTING EVENTS THAT MAY ONLY BE
NECESSARY FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS BECAUSE THAT IS A PART OF ZERO WASTE SONOMA. WE ARE GOING TO BUILD A COMPOSTING FACILITY UP TOWARDS WINDSOR. MORE PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO GET FREE COMPOST ALL OF THE TIME. AND WE APPROVED THAT BUDGET AND HOW TO VOTE AND THE DIRECTOR IS DOING A BANG UP, AWESOME JOB. I HAVE BEEN DOING A
LOT OF LIAISON WITH THREE OR FOUR DIFFERENT GROUPS, WITH IVES AS WELL. THAT IS SOMETHING THAT WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT IN OUR GOALSETTING. I HAVE BEEN PRETTY BUSY MAKING SURE THAT DOWNTOWN WAS TAKEN CARE OF AND FELT LIKE THE COUNCIL HAD AN EAR.
THANK YOU. IN ADDITION TO THE REGULAR MEETINGS I THOROUGHLY
ENJOYED THE MAYOR MEETING , IT WAS UP IN CLOVERDALE LAST THURSDAY. NOTHING IS MORE EVENTFUL THAN TALKING AMONGST NINE
DIFFERENT MIRRORS, MOST OF WHICH ARE EQUALLY IN AS MUCH ECONOMIC
CHALLENGES AS US, WITH ONE OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND HE
CAME TO GIVE AN OVERVIEW AND AS A RESULT WHEN I TOOK AWAY IS WE NEED TO BE MORE PROACTIVE. THERE HAS A LOT OF DISCUSSIONS ABOUT
THE FACT THAT IF THE COUNTY WORKED WITH THE INDIVIDUAL CITIES
MORE AND PICKED MAYBE THREE GOALS, THAT WOULD RESULT IN A LOT
MORE THAN HAVING ALL OF THESE JOINT POWER AGREEMENTS FOR EITHER
SONOMA CLEAN POWER OR EVEN THE LIBRARY, ALL OF THESE JPA'S BUT IF
YOU GOT NARROWED DOWN TO THREE, ONE WAS ABOUT THE COALITION ON
HOUSING AND WE HAD A THOROUGH DISCUSSION ON THE FACT THAT SOME
CITIES FEEL LIKE, ALONG THE LINES OF RETURN TO SOURCE, LIKE THEY
DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THE COUNTY IS FOCUSING ON ONE THING, LIKE
THE COALITION OF CARE AND HOUSING, WHEN IF THAT IS THE MAJOR ISSUE FOR A YEAR, THEN LET'S WORK ON THAT. OR IT'S WORK ON AN EI FD, WHICH
WE HAVE BEEN COMPLEMENTING, LET'S WORK ON ONE OR TWO OR THREE
THINGS OVER THE COURSE OF A YEAR TO BENEFIT THE COUNTY, BENEFIT
CITIES AND BE MORE PROACTIVE THAN WHAT WAS DISCUSSED AS BEING REACTIVE ON MOST ISSUES. IT SEEMS THAT NOTHING WAS SHARED, THAT
THIS HAS BEEN APPROACHED BY ANOTHER BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND IT
SEEMS WITHIN THE BROWN ACT THEY ARE HAVING DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THIS. I WALKED AWAY LIKE, WOW, A LOT OF GOOD THINGS HAPPEN AT THESE. ANOTHER THING IS, PLEASE MARK APRIL 10th. THAT IS OUR NIGHT TO SHINE. WE ARE HOSTING THE MAYORS AND COUNCILMEMBERS FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTY. MARY DID IMMENSE AMOUNTS OF LABORS TO PULL
TOGETHER THE MEALS AND THE LOCATION, AND WE ARE FOCUSING IN ON
EDUCATION, WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT BE THE REASON THAT I BROUGHT THE
AGENDA ITEM TONIGHT, OR PUSHED FOR, BECAUSE WE LOVE A
COORDINATOR, DR. AMY CARTER IS GOING TO BE PRESENTING HER OWN
STATE OF THE SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY, ALONG WITH JOANNA
POND TO TALK ABOUT OUR ON HOUSTON FOSTER CARE YOUTH WHICH YOU HAVE HEARD ME TALK ABOUT BEFORE. I AM REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT PRESENTATION AND HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE ASKING QUESTIONS. THE
LAST THING IS SONOMA CLEAN POWER, WITH A CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP
THERE IS A MOVEMENT TOWARDS MAKING WHAT THEY'RE OFFERING RELEVANT TO THE TIMES WE ARE IN WITH FAMILIES WHO ARE STRUGGLING.
THEY ARE LOOKING AT BUYING CERTAIN PROPERTY IN ORDER TO INVEST IN
HOUSING, THEY ARE LOOKING AT DOING A COMMUNITY HUB, WHICH
STARTED NOT JUST FOR THE LATINX COMMUNITY BUT FOR ALL
MARGINALIZED PEOPLE. IT SEEMS LIKE THEY ARE WANTING TO PROVIDE
MORE IN A BIGGER CAPACITY, THOSE ARE EXCITING THINGS I HAVE LEARNED. THANK YOU. ANY OTHER UPDATES?
[ INAUDIBLE ] SEE WHEN I HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SONOMA CLEAN POWER.
SURE.
WHY WOULD THEY NOT JUST OVERALL REDUCED RATES FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS INSTEAD OF BUILDING HOUSING?
IT IS AN AD HOC THAT WAS PRESENTED AT OUR LAST MEETING. IT WAS IN AN STAFF REPORT AND I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO LOOK INTO IT. IT IS A NEW AREA THEY ARE EXPLORING. I SENSED IN THE MEETING THAT IT IS
ABOUT TRYING TO MAKE IT RELEVANT BECAUSE FOR SO MANY PEOPLE
THEY GET THEIR BILLS AND THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY IT GOES UP OR
DOWN AND THEY DON'T KNOW WHY ONE LINE ITEM IS FOR THIS BUT
ANOTHER LINE ITEM IS FOR THIS, THEY ARE TRYING TO MAKE IT MORE
ENGAGING ABOUT WHY YOU WOULD WANT TO INVEST EARLY IN KNOWING
THE TECHNOLOGY THAT SONOMA CLEAN POWER OFFERS, ALONG WITH
WORKFORCE AND USE AND UNDERSTANDING WHY ALL OF THIS IS
IMPORTANT TO INVESTING. THAT IS JUST MY TAKE AWAY. COUNCILMEMBER --?
I JUST WANTED TO SAY THEY WERE ALSO OFFERED TO COME TO OUR CITY
TO BOTH EXPLAIN PEOPLE'S BILLS IN AN OPEN HOUSE THING, WHICH IS
USEFUL FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEIR BILL MEANS BECAUSE IT IS KIND OF CRAZY.
YES, AND IN AN CONFIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT, ANYTHING ELSE? SORRY, THAT WAS LONG-WINDED. MARY, ANYTHING ELSE BEFORE WE ADJOURN? ALL RIGHT, WE ARE ADJOURNED, THANK YOU, ALL. VERY MUCH.
RECORDINGS STOPPED.
[Event Concluded]