Sebastopol City Council
July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1

CITY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA
Regular Meeting of Tuesday, July 7, 2026
6:00 pm Start Time
As Approved by the City Council at their regular meeting of July 21, 2026.

CALL TO ORDER: Vice Mayor Maurer called the meeting to order 5:30 p.m.

ROLL CALL:

Present: Vice Mayor Sandra Maurer
Councilmember Phill Carter
Councilmember Stephen Zollman
Councilmember Neysa Hinton Remotely

Absent: Mayor McLewis
Staff: Mary Gourley, City Manager
Alex Mog, City Attorney, Redwood Public Law
Administrative Services Director Kwong
Interim Planning Director, 4Leaf
Police Chief McDonagh
Public Works Director Hart
REMOTE PARTICIPATION; Just Cause Participation -Councilmember Hinton “I am participating remotely using both audio and visual. I am attending remotely due to illness. There is no one under 18 present with me. I can fully see, hear, and participate in the meeting.” MOTION:

Vice Mayor Maurer moved and Councilmember Zollman seconded the motion to approve remote participation for Councilmember Hinton.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.

VOTE:

Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Zollman and Vice Mayor Maurer Noes: None

Absent: Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved remote participation for Councilmember Hinton.

Minute Order Number: 2026-183

SALUTE TO THE FLAG
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: The City of Sebastopol acknowledges that we live and work within the unceded ancestral homelands of the Southern Pomo and the Coast Miwok people. We pay our respect to the past, present, and future generations of these peoples, including the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

REMEMBERING THE HISTORY OF SEBASTOPOL: None
PROCLAMATIONS/PRESENTATIONS/INTRODUCTIONS:

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City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

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• Proclamation- Parks Make Life Better Month
Minute Order Number: 2026-184
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 reported Statements of 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 for items not on the agenda:

1. A member of the public - Support public libraries

2. Kate – Gand Jury/Water Rates

3. Jeff – Pleasant Hill – Speeding

4. Kyle – Enterprise Funds/Grand Jury Report

5. Nan - library – computers/printers

6. Dena – library

7. Isacc- PGE – OBF Funding – Public Purpose Funding

8. Roberta – Number 29 bus

9. Kolia

10. Oliver
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.

Vice Mayor Maurer read the consent calendar.

Vice Mayor Maurer asked if any Councilmember wanted to remove a consent calendar item. There were no requests.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened for public comment. The following member(s) of the public spoke during public comment:

Katie – Requested Item Number 6 to be removed.

Kyle – Item 5 – Tort Reform; public review of recent claims Vice Mayor Maurer called for a motion.

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City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

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MOTION:

Councilmember Zollman moved and Councilmember Carter seconded the motion to approve consent calendar items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.

VOTE:

Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Zollman and Vice Mayor Maurer Noes: None

Absent: Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None

1. Approval of City Council Meeting Minutes for Regular Meeting of June 16, 2026 Responsible Department: City Manager
Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the minutes is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: None
City Council Action: Approved City Council Meeting Minutes for Regular Meeting of June 16, 2026.

Minute Order Number: 2026-185

2. Approval of City Council Meeting Minutes for Special City Council Meeting – Closed Session - Meeting of June 29, 2026
Responsible Department: City Manager
Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the minutes is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: None
City Council Action: Approved City Council Meeting Minutes for Closed Session Meeting of June 29, 2026.

Minute Order Number: 2026-186

3. Approve Task Order (TO) Number 6 with Moe Engineering to Provide Engineering Services for the FY26-27 Fiscal Year.

Responsible Department: Public Works
Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the agenda item is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: There is no additional fiscal impact with this item as it is approved in FY27 budget as a not to exceed contract in the amount of $50,000.

City Council Action: Approved Task Order (TO) Number 6 with Moe Engineering to Provide Engineering Services for the FY26-27 Fiscal Year.

Minute Order Number: 2026-187
Resolution Number: 6782-2026

4. Approval of Job Description(s): City Clerk
Responsible Department: Human Resources Consultant Deborah Muchmore/Administrative Services Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the agenda item is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: There is no additional fiscal impact with this item as salary is currently budgeted within the City budget.

City Council Action: Approved City Clerk job description.

Minute Order Number: 2026-188
Resolution Number: 6783-2026

5. Approval Authorizing Mayor to Sign Letter of Support and Use of City Logo. California Intergovernmental Risk Authority (CIRA) of which Sebastopol is an agency member, has joined California Association of Joint Powers Authorities (CAJPA) in supporting a statewide coalition advocating for meaningful tort reform and addressing the growing cost of public entity liability claims.

Responsible Department: City Representative to CIRA (Councilmember Zollman)/City Manager Gourley Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the agenda item is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: There is no additional fiscal impact with approval of this item.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Action: Approved Authorizing Mayor to Sign Letter of Support and Use of City Logo. California Intergovernmental Risk Authority (CIRA) of which Sebastopol is an agency member, has joined California Association of Joint Powers Authorities (CAJPA) in supporting a statewide coalition advocating for meaningful tort reform and addressing the growing costs of public entity liability claims.

Minute Order Number: 2026-189

6. Approval of Consultant Services with 4Leaf for Planning Services for Specific Scope of Work. This item would be to continue coverage of Planning Services until such time that the Request for Proposals Process has been completed. Estimated length of contract: Six months or until completion of RFP Process.

Responsible Department: City Manager/Human Resources/Personnel Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the agenda report is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: None; Contract funding would be covered by salary savings of vacant position(s) and the monthly not to exceed is the same as the current contract ($18,964). There has been no increase for extension of the current contract. Any planning consultant work done for Deposit Account Applications are separate from this contract and reimbursed from Deposit Accounts and not from the general fund.

7. City Council Action: Approved Consultant Services with 4Leaf for Planning Services for Specific Scope of Work.

This item would be to continue coverage of Planning Services until such time that the Request for Proposals Process has been completed. Estimated length of contract: Six months or until completion of RFP Process.

Minute Order Number: 2026-190
Resolution Number: 6784-2026
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).

8. Third Quarterly update from Building the Commons Committee Requestor: Building the Commons Committee
Responsible Department: Public Works
Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the agenda item is covered within existing budgeted salaries Additional Fiscal Impact: There is no additional fiscal impact with receipt of this item.

Public Works Director Hart presented the agenda item.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened for questions of staff. The Council asked various questions of City staff.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened the public comment period. The following member(s) of the public spoke during the public comment period:

Arlene
Oliver
Mary
Linda
Erika
Lee
Paul
Kate
Kent
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Comments:

Council continued discussion of the item.

No action required. Informational item only.

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City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Action: No action required. Informational item only.

Minute Order Number: 2026-191
PUBLIC HEARING(s):

9. Public Hearing- Capital Improvement Budget: This item was continued from the June 16, 2026 City Council Meeting for remainder of CIP Discussion.

Responsible Department: Public Works/Administrative Services Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the agenda item is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: The proposed expenditures for the FY 2026-27 Capital Improvement Projects totals $10,116,087. $3,860,457 of that total is unfunded/unsecured grant. The balance of $6,255.630 is funded with grant or local funds. The proposed CIP includes a combination of secured funding sources and future grantdependent projects identified as “Unsecured Grant” funding. Major funding sources include Sewer Capital Funds, Water Capital Funds, Measure M funds, SB1 Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation funds, Go Sonoma grant funds, Development Impact Fees, Gas Tax funds, Flood Mitigation Fund, Building/Facility Infrastructure Reserve funds, and Measure U. The Measure U funding includes $510,000 allocated toward road repair in the FY 2025–26 budget, as well as $612,800, or 40% of the FY 2026–27 Measure U revenue, which will also be allocated toward road repair. These funds will advance the FY26 Citywide Pavement Improvement Project (0521-25.05) and the FY27 Citywide Pavement Improvement Project (0522-26.01).

Public Works Director Hart presented the agenda item.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened for questions of staff. The Council asked various questions of City staff.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened the public comment period for the public hearing. The following member(s) of the public spoke during the public comment period for the public hearing:

Kate
Lee
Doug
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Comments:

Council continued discussion of the item.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a motion.

MOTION:

Councilmember Zollman moved and Councilmember Carter seconded the motion to approve That the City Council adopt a Resolution approving the Fiscal Year 2026-27 Capital Improvement Plan.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.

VOTE:

Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Zollman and Vice Mayor Maurer Noes: None

Absent: Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved to adopt a resolution approving the Fiscal Year 2026-27 Capital Improvement Plan.

Minute Order Number: 2026-192
Resolution Number: 6785-2026

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

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REGULAR CALENDAR AGENDA ITEMS (DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION):

10. Discussion and Consideration of Approval of Waiving of First Reading and Introduction of Ordinance- City Council Compensation
Responsible Department: City Attorney/City Manager
Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the agenda item is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: The increase would raise annual compensation costs from approximately $18,000.00 to $57,000.00 (+$39,000.00 per year). The new rate will not take effect until January 2027. $18,000 has been allocated in the FY 26 27 budget (January – June 2027).

City Attorney Mog presented the agenda item recommending the City Council Waiving of First Reading and Introduction of Ordinance- City Council Compensation.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened for questions of staff. The Council asked various questions of City staff.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened the public comment period. The following member(s) of the public spoke during the public comment period:

Kristin Lange – support
Kate
Lee
Mary
Kent
Janelle
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Comments:

Council continued discussion of the item.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a motion.

MOTION:

Councilmember Zollman moved and Councilmember Carter seconded the motion to approve Waiving of First Reading and Introduction of Ordinance- City Council Compensation. ($950) Vice Mayor Maurer called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.

VOTE:

Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Zollman and Vice Mayor Maurer Noes: Councilmember Hinton

Absent: Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved waiving of First Reading and Introduction of Ordinance City Council Compensation $950.

Minute Order Number: 2026-193
Ordinance Number: 1166

11. Discussion of Consideration of Suspension of Tiered Water Rates and FY26/27 Water Rate Increase Effective July 1, 2026 until such time that a new Water Rate Study can be completed.

Responsible Department: Administrative Services Department/City Attorney Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the agenda report is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: Suspending the July 1, 2026 rate increase will cause a projected revenue loss to the Water Enterprise Fund of $95,800 for this Fiscal Year. Assuming FY25/26 rates, suspending tied water rates effective July 1, 2026 will cause a projected revenue loss to the Water Enterprise Fund of $445,000 for this Fiscal

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Year. The actual amount of lost revenue may be significantly less if a new rate study is adopted before the end of the fiscal year. The loss of revenue will be built into the FY 26 27 Budget if approved tonight.

City Attorney Mog presented the agenda item.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened for questions of staff. The Council asked various questions of City staff.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened the public comment period. The following member(s) of the public spoke during the public comment period:

Kate
Lee
Mary
Kyle
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Comments:

Council continued discussion of the item.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a motion.

MOTION:

Councilmember Zollman moved and Councilmember Carter seconded the motion to approve Resolution to Suspended Tiered Water Rates and FY26/27 Water Rate Increase Effective July 1, 2026 until such time that a new Water Rate Study can be completed; and request verification by September 1, 2026 following the first billing cycle under the new rate structure, that all water accounts have been reviewed and updated to remove tiered rates and that all customers are billed using the same uniform volumetric rate, in addition to the applicable fixed monthly service charge.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.

VOTE:

Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Zollman and Vice Mayor Maurer Noes: None

Absent: Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved Resolution to Suspended Tiered Water Rates and FY26/27 Water Rate Increase Effective July 1, 2026 until such time that a new Water Rate Study can be completed; and request verification by September 1, 2026 following the first billing cycle under the new rate structure, that all water accounts have been reviewed and updated to remove tiered rates and that all customers are billed using the same uniform volumetric rate, in addition to the applicable fixed monthly service charge.

Minute Order Number: 2026-194
Resolution Number: 6786-2026

12. Consideration of Request for Direction to Staff to Prepare Zoning Code/Map Amendments and/or Return with Options to Allow Commercial Outdoor Barbecue (BBQ) Operations with Permits in Certain Zoning Districts or on Specific Parcels. City Council is asked to provide direction to staff to return to a future City Council meeting with proposed Zoning Code/Map amendments and/or an item evaluating potential Zoning Code/Map amendments (and other options as appropriate) that would allow commercial outdoor barbecue (BBQ) uses within specified zoning districts, subject to approval of a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) or similar discretionary entitlements.

Requestors: Councilmember Hinton and Councilmember Carter

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Responsible Department: Planning/City Attorney
Fiscal Impact: Staff time required to prepare the agenda report is covered within existing budgeted salaries.

Additional Fiscal Impact: Implementation of Council direction is estimated to require approximately 25 to 30 hours of staff time, including approximately 22 hours of Community Development staff time and 3 to 4 hours of City Attorney time. The actual time required will depend on the type of application directed by the City Council and the level of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review required. Following Council direction and further project definition, additional environmental review under CEQA may be necessary. If consultant services are required to prepare the environmental analysis, those costs would be incurred in addition to staff time. This estimate does not include direct project expenses, such as public noticing, mailing costs, newspaper publication fees, or other application-related costs.

Councilmember Hinton Presented the agenda item recommending the City Council Direction to Staff to Prepare Zoning Code/Map Amendments and/or Return with Options to Allow Commercial Outdoor Barbecue (BBQ) Operations with Permits in Certain Zoning Districts or on Specific Parcels. City Council is asked to provide direction to staff to return to a future City Council meeting with proposed Zoning Code/Map amendments and/or an item evaluating potential Zoning Code/Map amendments (and other options as appropriate) that would allow commercial outdoor barbecue (BBQ) uses within specified zoning districts, subject to approval of a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) or similar discretionary entitlements.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened for questions of staff. The Council asked various questions of City staff.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened the public comment period. The following member(s) of the public spoke during the public comment period:

Kirstin
Oliver
Doug
Finn
Linda
Kate
Kim
Kyle
Janelle
Laura
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Comments:

Council continued discussion of the item.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a motion.

MOTION:

Councilmember Zollman moved and Councilmember Carter seconded the motion to approve direction to staff as follows: Return to a future City Council meeting with proposed Zoning Code/or Zoning Map amendments (and other options as appropriate) that would allow commercial outdoor barbecue (BBQ) uses within specified zoning districts, subject to approval of a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) or similar discretionary entitlements.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.

VOTE:

Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Zollman and Vice Mayor Maurer Noes: None

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Absent: Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved direction to staff as follows: Return to a future City Council meeting with proposed Zoning Code/or Zoning Map amendments (and other options as appropriate) that would allow commercial outdoor barbecue (BBQ) uses within specified zoning districts, subject to approval of a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) or similar discretionary entitlements.

Minute Order Number: 2026-195

13. Discussion of approval of Budget Amendment for Initial Invoices for Testing/Mold Removal/etc and Discussion of Proposed Costs/Timeline for Library Remediation Responsible Department: Public Works
Fiscal Impact: Phase I emergency response costs totaled $47,687.55, with Sonoma County Library reimbursing 50% of those costs.

Additional Fiscal Impact: Approval of this item authorizes up to $175,000 for Phase II-A remediation and investigative demolition. City staff will return to a future Council meeting with a full agenda item detailing the costs for complete remediation, reconstruction, and repair once the investigative phase is complete and more accurate estimates are available. Approval will keep the remediation moving while deferring the bigger reconstruction/repair decisions until there's better information.

Public Works Director Hart presented the agenda item.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened for questions of staff. The Council asked various questions of City staff.

Vice Mayor Maurer opened the public hearing period. The following member(s) of the public spoke during the public comment period:

Erika
Lee
Linda
Kyle
City Council Discussion/Deliberations/Comments:

Council continued discussion of the item.

Vice Mayor Maurer called for a motion.

MOTION:

Councilmember Carter moved and Vice Mayor Maurer seconded the motion to approve Budget Amendment for Initial Invoices for Testing/Mold Removal/etc. and Discussion of Proposed Costs/Timeline for Library Remediation
Vice Mayor Maurer called for a roll call vote. City staff conducted a roll call vote.

VOTE:

Ayes: Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Zollman and Vice Mayor Maurer Noes: None

Absent: Mayor McLewis
Abstain: None
City Council Action: Approved Budget Amendment for Initial Invoices for Testing/Mold Removal/etc. and Discussion of Proposed Costs/Timeline for Library Remediation Minute Order Number: 2026-196

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City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Resolution Number: 6787-2026
REGULAR CALENDAR AGENDA ITEMS (DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION) CONTINUED: NO FURTHER ITEMS 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 None
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)
• Hired an associate planner – in background
• Nomination Period for Council Candidates – July 13 – Aug 7th Unless one or more candidates do not run again • In process of hiring a former clerk to conduct nominations but still working on requirements for contract • Received three RFPs for Planning services; 2 will be interviewed

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
July 7, 2026 City Council Regular Meeting was adjourned by Mayor McLewis at 9:46 pm the next Regular City Council Meeting of Tuesday, July 21, 2026 at 6:00 pm, Sebastopol Youth Annex, 425 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA.

Respectfully submitted:

Mary C. Gourley
Interim City Manager
Attachment 1: ZOOM Raw Minutes
Attachment 2: VITAC Real Time Transcription Minutes

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City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

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WEBVTT
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Can you let me know when we're ready to start. 2 00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:50.810
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Steven, are you ready? 3 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:53.430
City Council: We're ready.
4 00:00:53.990 --> 00:00:55.840
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: You can go ahead and start the meeting, Vice 5 00:00:56.470 --> 00:01:02.880
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I am calling this meeting to order of July 7th at 6 o'clock.
6 00:01:03.760 --> 00:01:05.549
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, so I will take roll call.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Carter. 8 00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:13.629
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Here. Councilmember Zollman? Present.

Councilmember Hinton is attending remotely.
9 00:01:14.370 --> 00:01:14.750
Neysa Hinton: Present.
10 00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:26.010
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Vice Mayor Maurer? Here. And we do have a remote participation by Councilmember Hinton, who will be making a statement, and then the Council will need to vote for the remote participation. 11 00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:31.799
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Hinton, do you want to. 12 00:01:36.750 --> 00:01:44.569
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Neysa Hinton: Sorry, I'm having a few technical glitches here. Hold on a minute. Yes, I'm looking for my statement.
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Neysa Hinton: I am… So sorry I am.
14 00:01:57.440 --> 00:01:58.639
Neysa Hinton: I don't…
15 00:02:01.410 --> 00:02:04.000
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Would you like me to make a statement for you? 16 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:14.370
Neysa Hinton: Yeah, I'm, Iknow thatIhad ithereand I'm, I'mlookingand Ican't, Ican'tfind it in the lineup. So yeah, Mary, would you mind reading it? 17 00:02:14.370 --> 00:02:24.820
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Sure, so because this is a just cause, Councilmember Hintonislogging inremotelyduetoanillness,soitisjustifiedunder AB 2449.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: She is doing it remotely, and correct me if I'm wrong, she has no one that is under the age of 18, and she can hear us by audio and visual, and we can see her by audio and visual as well.
19 00:02:35.880 --> 00:02:41.989
Neysa Hinton: That is correct. No one under the age of 18 and audio and visual. 20 00:02:41.990 --> 00:02:49.250
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So, the Council will need to make a motion to do remote participation, a second, and vote. So moved. Seconded. 21 00:02:51.010 --> 00:03:01.930
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. So so moved by Vice Mayor Maurer, seconded by Councilmember Zolman to approve their just cause revamp participation.

Councilmember Carter. Councilmember Hinton.
22 00:03:02.430 --> 00:03:02.980
Neysa Hinton: Hi.
23 00:03:02.980 --> 00:03:10.970
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Zollman? Yes. Vice Mayor Maurer? Motion passes with four in support and Mayor McLewis is absent tonight.

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SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:Okay,so please joinme inasalute to the flag. 25 00:03:40.660 --> 00:03:58.670
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The city of Sevastopol acknowledges that we live and work within the unceded ancestral homelands of the Southern Pomo and the Coast Miwok people. We pay our respect to the past, present, and future generations of these peoples, including the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria. 26 00:04:00.690 --> 00:04:03.539
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And now we have a proclamation. 27 00:04:04.970 --> 00:04:07.340
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: That will be read by Councilmember Carter. 28 00:04:15.710 --> 00:04:16.519
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Sit there.
29 00:04:20.050 --> 00:04:30.869
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: all right. July 2026. As parks make a life better month. This resolution recognizes the importance of equitable access to local parks, recreational trails.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: open space and facilities for the positive development of all Californians and their communities. We therefore declare the month of July 2026, Parks Make Life Better Month.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Whereas parks and recreation promotes physical, emotional, mental health and wellness through organized and self-directed fitness, play, and activity.
32 00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:59.039
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And whereas… I was gonna ad-lib something, but I don't think I should do that.
33 00:04:59.100 --> 00:05:18.650
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Whereas parks and recreation fosters social cohesiveness in communities by celebrating diversity, providing spaces to come together peacefully, modeling compassion, promoting social equity, connecting social networks, and ensuringallpeoplehaveaccess toits benefits. Now, therefore, beitfurtherresolved. Agenda Item Number 1
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: that the Mayor Jill Lewis and I here do proclaim July 2026 as Park Make Life Better Month.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And if we have any representative of parks. 36 00:05:32.210 --> 00:05:35.989
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Is there anyone here that can receive this? Very good, thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Here, this way? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Please talk.

Double sit, yeah, quick.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Good evening. Thanks so much, David Robinson.

I'm the deputy director for Sonoma County Regional Parks. Ple 39 00:05:50.530 --> 00:06:10.140
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Mayor and Council members, for recognizing July as Park Makes Life Better Month, and for this resolution or proclamation.

Earlier today, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors also adopted a gold resolution Agenda Item Number 1
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recognizing Parks Make Life Better Month, and it's wonderful to see our local governments united in celebrating the values Park brings to our communities. 40 00:06:10.200 --> 00:06:14.280
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This recognition is especially meaningful to me because I grew up here in Sebastopol.
41 00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:18.979
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Some of my best childhood memories were made in our parks, swimming at Ives Pool.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: some playing baseball at Clayhan behind us, and spending countless hours at Regal Ranch Field with friends and family. 43 00:06:26.390 --> 00:06:40.469
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Those experiences shaped who I am, and ultimately led me to a career in parks. And that's what this resolution really celebrates.

Parks creates healthy communities, brings people together, connects us with nature, and provides the places where lifelong memories are made.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: In many ways, that's what today has been all about. Earlier today, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved the ordinance to place the successor to Measure M before voters this fall, continuing the partnership between the county and our cities to invest in the parks, trails, and open spaces that enrich our communities.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and create opportunities for future generations.

So, on behalf of Summit County Regional Parks, thank you for your partnership. 46 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:05.870
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and your continued support of parks. We truly appreciate it.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: You can just come on up and shake our hands.

And thank you for hosting soccer.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: You got it.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Mmhm.

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SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:So are there any conflictsofinterestfromcouncil members?
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, seeing none, we'll go out to public comment.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Vice Mayor. So this is for public comment for items that are not on tonight's agenda. It is a 20-minute time limit. It is 2 minutes perspeaker. Wedochambers first, and then goouttoZoom. Soif there's anyone in the public that would like to make an item, or, I'm sorry, public comment for an item not on the agenda.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Come up to thepodium first, st and then go out to zoom.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Thank you, Mary. Is this okay? Is this on? I just want to make a comment in general in support of public libraries, just as public parks.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: are incredibly important to every community. So are public libraries, and that's all I want to say. I was fortunate enough to be the manager at Sebastopol Library for 3 years.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I'm a retired librarian now and still very interested in public libraries. I've worked in them for over 50 years before I retired. 57 00:08:35.510 --> 00:08:39.960
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Actually, I just want to make a statement which is from a book.
58 00:08:40.659 --> 00:08:44.560
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Called palaces for the people. 59 00:08:44.870 --> 00:08:51.749
SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: How socialinfrastructurecan help fight inequality, polarization, and the decline of civic life.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: It's by, Eric Kleinenberg. 61 00:08:56.450 --> 00:09:07.109
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Libraries serve as bedrocks of civil society. It's important that institutions like libraries get the recognition they deserve. They are the kinds of palaces where the
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: kinds of places where the public, private, and philanthropic sectors can work together to reach for something higher than the bottom line.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Public libraries are commonly referred to as a third place, neither home nor workspace. These places are the informal spaces that are often mainstays in a neighborhood, places where both random and intentional in-person relationships are made, and public libraries are free and open to all. 64 00:09:35.800 --> 00:09:55.470
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I don't want to. I know I'm not preaching to the choir. I don't want to be, but I wanted to just go on record as saying, I'm a supporter, and I know we have many supporters of public libraries in this room right now. Thank you very much. Thank you for your public comment. I will go out to zoom, Kate. Can you unmute yourself, please?
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kate: Yes, I am. Thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Can you see the timer? 67 00:09:58.380 --> 00:09:59.470
kate: I can, thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: All right, go ahead, please. 69 00:10:00.790 --> 00:10:11.039
kate: The Grand Jury and the Enterprise Oversight Committee are important watchdog groups. They provide oversight to make sure that government agencies 70 00:10:11.070 --> 00:10:28.419
kate: are within the law. They are important checks on our civic institutions. They are critical remedies to keep our democracy in balance. Citizen oversight helps civic institution remain within the law and correct course when they veer into illegal ill function.

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kate: The grand jury found that the city was in violation of Prop 218. The grand jury found that the enterprise funds were entitled to 5.5 million dollars in restitution for misallocation of ratepayer money. The Enterprise Oversight Committee also found that the city was 72 00:10:46.570 --> 00:10:50.129
kate: is in violation of prop 2, 18.
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kate: The city has not taken steps to correct its prop. 2, 18 violation in its current budgets, nor has it taken any steps to restore the $350, $354 for excessive and illegal attorneys. Fees for 2024,2025,asidentified
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kate:identifiedby the EFOC.
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kate: Alex is present at every council meeting. We know he bills in 6-minute increments. If council truly believes these expenses are legitimate, council members should request invoices that justify these expenses.

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kate: Council is running a utility district. Do they pay huge bills without seeing the invoices? Water and sewer ratepayers are paying for 52% of this meeting for council time. Ratepayers are paying 63% for city manager. Let's watch and see if the council spends 52% of their time tonight on water and sewer.
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kate: Let's see if the city manager spends 63% of her time on water and sewer. If not, then we are witnessing prop 218 violations for charges that are not justified and not secured by data. We are witnessing the exact.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: That's 2 min. Unfortunately. 79 00:12:05.150 --> 00:12:05.930
kate: Thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will come back into chambers if you would like to make a public comment. 81 00:12:12.420 --> 00:12:13.860
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: My name is Jeff Ellsworth. I live over on Pleasant Hill Avenue North with my partner, Ann Wheaton, and we're here with a group of neighbors to talk about the speeding problem on Pleasant H
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Pleasant Hill North. First, I want to thank the council and the city manager and the staff forthe work you do. I was mayor overin St. Helena for a number of years, and my partner worked with me. 84 00:12:37.170 --> 00:12:43.020
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So we know the work you do, the things that you're balancing, so we appreciate it, and we love living here, it's a wonderful town 85 00:12:43.060 --> 00:12:45.120
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The commitment to housing and the. 86 00:12:45.120 --> 00:13:03.459
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Community spirit and community feeling is wonderful here, so we appreciate it, we really do, but we do have a speeding problem over on Pleasant Hill North. What happens is that people turn on and they accelerate, and we're having a problem getting out of our driveways because human nature, they don't want to slow down.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Once they pick up speed. And so we're asking… we have about… we have a petition with about 30 names, and we're asking for this matter to be agendized, to be looked at.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And consider things like speed tables, speed humps, rumble strips,
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: traffic calmingmeasures on that street to help slow down traffic.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: it's a it's a place where there's a school on one side and then and then a park. There's also a senior living facility. People walk their dogs. So it's quite busy and active, and and folks use it as a cut through from the markets. 91 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:43.550
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And then coming off of Bodega Avenue,they'll cut through
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the larger trucks, the commercial trucks. So we'd like to make sure that it's enforced, that the commercial traffic doesn't come down there. So we're just here to ask that this be considered, to be put on an agenda, because we do feel like it's a safety matter.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We've got the kids on the bicycles as well, in that area, and so,
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We thank you for your time, and hopefully you'll be able to look at that. A question is, should I submit this, petition here, or should we mail it in, or bring it in? You can go ahead and give it to myself. Great, thank you. Thank you for your public comment. Next, I will go out to Zoom.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Kyle, can you unmute yourself, please? 96 00:14:28.380 --> 00:14:29.370
Kyle Falbo: Yes, I can.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Can you see the timer. 98 00:14:31.040 --> 00:14:31.869
Kyle Falbo: I can.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Go ahead with your public comment, please. 100
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Kyle Falbo: So, yeah.
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Kyle Falbo: One would think that the establishment of a citizen oversight committee. 102
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Kyle Falbo: For wastewater and water.
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Kyle Falbo: As a response to identifying through a rate study that $750,000 in a single year was misallocated to the general fund from the enterprise funds. 104
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Kyle Falbo: Followed by… Months of investigative work by that committee to produce recommendations to this body.
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Kyle Falbo: Along with a grand jury report that validates the work that was done by that body.
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Kyle Falbo: That there would be action.
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Kyle Falbo: But, instead, we have consistent and repeated non-action by this council, and by this city. They continue to lean into some form of an argument that 108
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Kyle Falbo: The allocations that have happened in prior years were, quote, reasonable, right? This reasonable man theory.

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Kyle Falbo: Unfortunately, it's quite clear that the allocations in prior years was not reasonable.
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Kyle Falbo: And anybody looking at the well-documented charts that indicate the sheer volume of percentages to the general fund that are going from enterprise are not reasonable.
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Kyle Falbo: So my only expectation at this point, because you failed to agendize this item tonight, you have a grand jury response, you've indicated to the press that your grand jury response is not in any way going to meet the recommendations of that grand jury. 112
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Kyle Falbo: that I think the strategy is you're looking for a class action lawsuit. And the reason why you want that is because you can use your insurance company to pay off the balance
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Kyle Falbo:To the ratepayers,andthenyougetoffscot-free.

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Kyle Falbo: Right? And the only thing that we'll see is increased insurance costs in future years. Is that the strategy?
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Kyle Falbo: Just come on, just go and tell me, is that the strategy? 116
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Kyle, for your public comment. Next, I will come into chambers, please.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm Nan Waters, and I live south of town on Highway 116. I've lived in Sebastopol for 52 years.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And during the 52 years that I've lived in Sebastopol, the library has been one of the centers of community to me and to most of the people that I know.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And one of the things that I've noticed that isn't on the agenda is the need that the library fills for inequities in the community in terms of providing computers and printers.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: for people who don't have this kind of infrastructure at their homes or available to them in other ways. 121
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: As well as other library programs that are available.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I also know that people will say, well, it's easy to get to other branches of the library using public transportation. 123
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But I've commuted by public transportation for 17 years, and it's not easy to get anywhere by public transportation from Sebastopol. 124
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The only libraries that would be accessible to us would be Central.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Forestville or Guerneville, and that involves almost a half an hour or a half mile walk in Central, in the case of Central and Forestville.

So I encourage
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the City Council to identify places where we can have the infrastructure that we're used to to address the inequities. 127
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: that people are now facing in their inability to access computers and printers and programs from the library. 128
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will go out to… Can I ask a point of clarification? Because we do have two agenda items tonight dealing with the building, the comments, which includes the library. We also have the mold remediation item, so I just…
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I want to make sure that these are for… supposed to be for public comments on items not on the agenda, and these items are on the agenda, so I just…
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm want clarification from our city manager. So 131
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm sorry. Can we address? We'll go ahead and address it. Thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So, I'll chime in, I'll let Alec. So, the relocation itself of the library is not on the item tonight, agendized. What is agendized is a discussion of an info item of building the commons.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But, and then also the contract award for the mold contract that wedid, and then also the remediation. So the specific 134
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: discussion of the library relocation needs and things like that is not on the agenda, so we could go ahead and allow the I would go ahead and allow the public comment right now to go ahead and continue with that, and then they can also speak during those 2 other agenda items as well. Thank you so much.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So I will go out. Dina, can you unmute yourself, please?
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Dena Bliss: Yes, I can.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Can you see the timer? 138
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Dena Bliss: If I scroll over, I can probably see the timer. Yes, I can see the timer. 139
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, go ahead with your public comment, please.
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Dena Bliss: Okay, I want to come in behind Nan Waters, who pretty much spoke to the very issue that I want to speak to. This… our library is one of the most frequented libraries of any in the system.

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Dena Bliss: And what I want to talk about are the need for the access to computers, not in a generalized amusement way, but computers are used by people these days exclusively to look for jobs and to look for housing. And so to have that inaccessible to people is an enormous deprivation. That, in addition to the fact that the library is an enormously 142
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Dena Bliss: important community hub for all of us who live here, but I really am concerned, as Nan is, for people who are
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Dena Bliss: unequally represented in the meeting tonight, and so I am, I want to urge you to pleasefind a waytocreatea temporarylibraryin ourtown whilethemold situation is being remediated.
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Dena Bliss: Thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Dina, for your public comment. Next, I will come back into ch
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Hello, I'm Isaac with EcoGreen. We are trade professionals with PG&E, and what we do is we help public agencies take advantage of OBF funding. You guys already pay into the program every month under the Public Purpose Program portion of your utility bill.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This can target LED lighting, HVAC, and other efficiency projects. I'm not looking for a commitment today, but I wanted to start the conversation.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: introduce ourselves so that we can figure out who to direct this information to, as it's a funding portal that can essentially help you guys tackle deferred maintenance without utilizing any
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: funding that you have for other measures. So I just wanted to leave some business cards and get our name out there. That's it. 150
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. You can go ahead and just leave them at the end of the table right here, and we'll make sure they get it.

Next, I'll go out to Zoom. Roberta, can you unmute
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Can you see the timer? 152
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Roberta: Yes, I can. Thank you. Go ahead.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, please.
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Roberta: Yeah, I'd like to comment first on thenumber 29bus that I advocated for. 155
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Roberta: emailed, for back and forth with Sandra Mayor. 156
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Roberta: for a couple few months, and that's not going to be part of the budget, I understand from her. Thank her for… I do thank her for considering it. It's still a very important bus line that goes from
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Roberta: Santa Rosa through Sebastopol and the Burbank senior community out to the coast, to Bodega, to important recreational possibilities for seniors in particular, but everybody.
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Roberta: Who does not have a vehicle.
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Roberta: I'm a huge supporter of
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Roberta: as I said, public transportation, and we're very limited, as another speaker noted, and I believe her name was for use in this town and in Sonoma County, but particularly Sebastopol. 29 bus used to run on the weekends.
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Roberta: through this summer, Long time before it was removed during COVID. 162
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Roberta: And I have written to the Transportation Authority several times.

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Roberta: I actually have gotten very limited response.
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Roberta: I'm very frustrated with this. I think that there's a number of people who are very disappointed that we have no way to get to the coast. Rides are very difficult to get from other seniors. Many people are not driving at this time. 165
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Roberta: I'm just hopeful that sometime this can really be viewed as a very essential possibility.
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Roberta: And I also want to support the speakers who spoke about the library. It is my most important place in Sebastopol that I go to outside of summer. 167
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Roberta, that's.
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Roberta: Oh, thank you very much.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. And I just want to say I have two speakers left to meet the 20 minute time limit. So we will come into chambers and then
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Oliver will be the next one, and that'll in public comment.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you so much, Council. My name is Kalia Mussiter, and I've had family in Sebastopol since 1961. I've been going to the Sebastopol Library for 50 years, since I was a little girl.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I just want to affirm what others have said. This is an absolutely crucial cultural and education and community hub in Sebastopol in our small town, and it also gives equal access across
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: layers and layers of profound vulnerability.

Community members who don't have access to all these resources in any other way, and many of us use it for work and service and grad school. And my specific comment for this council
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: is that I'm very concerned that there has been no public facing information about what's happening with our library for over a month. 175
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And when I went into the city council office, I spoke with your wonderful, administrative assistant. She was very kind, but she had no information for me. And so I got the information from the building guy, who I remember his name is Steve, and…
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And he called me and left me quite a defensive message, right? Like, that is not helpful to the project of what we are doing together as a community. And I had a great conversation with one of the members of this chamber before
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: we began. And what I wanted to say is that the community. There are thousands of patrons that are missing this library, and Agenda Item Number 1
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SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:We are notlookingfordefinitive information.We know you're in a really complex process, and you're juggling elephants. What we want is information about the process you're in, and to be assured that you care, and that you understand that this library is essential for this small town. 179
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and public transit. I work in mental health and homeless services. I have for morethan 20years. Publictransitis profoundlydifficultin this county, and especially for the most vulnerable among us. So to have access to a library within our small town is crucial.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So please start giving the public information about what you're doing.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and If there had been more information. Leah, that's 2 minutes.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: There would be a hundred of us talking about the library in this room if we had known. Thanks. Thank you for your public comment, and I will go out to Zoom for Oliver. I do, Vice Mayor, if you wouldn't mind, after public comment, if we Agenda Item Number 1
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can give an update quickly on the status of some effortsmade by the library. Oliver, can you unmute yourself, please?
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Oliver: Unmuted, yeah.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Can you see the… 185
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Oliver: I can see the timer, and I'.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Go ahead.
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Oliver: Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to say for anybody who's interested in the Enterprise Fund Oversight Committee, the next meeting, as in my calendar at least, is Monday, July the 20th at 10.30.
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Oliver: 2 people, including me, have said yes, they're attending, and 8 people apparently haven't answered yet. But that will be an important meeting. I'm on the Enterprise Fund Oversight Committee, and until now I've been primarily focused on infrastructure rather than thefinancialsideof it.
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Oliver: But I think this meeting will be addressing some of the, concerns and possibly some of thewildertheories thathavebeen floatingaround this evening. Sothat's mycomment.

Thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Oliver, for your public comment. And that will conclude the public comment period for items not on the agenda. 191
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So we'll move on to the consent calendar. 192
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm sorry. Could I just do a really quick recap on the the library items themselves. So
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: as you'll see later on tonight on the agenda, we do have a discussion about the contract for the mold removal that we've done already. We have a contract coming forward for a not-to-exceed amount for the remediation process.

That is not reconstruction, that is remediation. City staff and I have been working around the clock trying to find locations.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We have worked with our council member liaison and the alternate to also try to findother locations. We'reworking with the community center right now to see if we couldn't have
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The holds pick up here. We have the Bibilo bus that will be coming here two days a week. And Erica, if there is anything I'm saying wrong, please correct me. We have that scheduled. Once we can get that done, and once we have confirmation from the community center, if the room works, that's great. If not, I will also be reaching out to,
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: local businesses, I will be reaching out to churches, I will be reaching out to other vacant buildings, our realties, to see if there's locations in town that we can use. So, that's just a quick recap, but I just want to let you know we are out there trying to find locations, and working with the library to do that. 197
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you so much.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So we'll move on to the consent calendar, and we have approval of 6 different things. So the 1st one is council minutesfor the regular meeting of June 16th Council minutes for the special City Council meeting 199
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: June 29.th the task order number 6 with Mo.

Engineeringtoprovideengineeringservicesfor the2627fiscalyear. 200
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The approval of the job description for city clerk. 201
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and to authorize the mayor to sign a letter of support and use of the city logo regarding the CIRA or California Intergovernmental Risk Authority.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and approval of consultant services with 4 leaf planningservices fora specificscopeof work.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Does anyone want to remove any of these items? 205
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, so then we'll go out to public comment.

Okay, so this is public comment for the consent calendar items only that were just read. If you would like to make a public comment, again, it's a 2-minute time limit. I will come to chambers first and then go out.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Please. Hi! A quick question. 207
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So I'm requesting that item 6 be removed from the consent calendars.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So will I have time to speak then? If I will, I don't need to speak now. Okay, thank you. No, no, no, no. That's assuming it would get pulled. If you could give us your public comment right now, we've received the request that a Agenda Item Number 1
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member of the public has asked to remove that item. It will be up to the City Council to determine that. So please go ahead with your public comment. 209
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And, Steven, can we put public comment back to two minutes? There we go. Thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Council members for this time. My name is Katie Aho, and I'm a Sebastopol resident.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and I've submitted a letter for the record. So I'm not going to repeat all of that tonight.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I understand the need for interim planning services while the city conducts the Rfp. Process. My concern is ensuring that consultant planners remain connected tothecommunityand responsivetoresidents mostaffected by development proposals.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Recent discussions include the former LDS property highlighted.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And the importance of local knowledge, neighborhood compatibility, traffic, and pedestrian safety, includingemergencyevacuation concerns, environmental impacts, water and sewer infrastructure, capacity, and meaningful community engagement.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I would ask that the city relies on consulting planning services. I understand that, and I hope the community input will remain a central part of the planning process.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I would appreciate understanding on how will consultant partners remain responsive to neighborhood concerns and local conditions. 218
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: on how residents will be informed of and involved in the selection of long-term planning services and providers. and what measures will be taken to preserve local knowledge and community trust during this transition.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your time. 220
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will go out to Zoom for the consent calendar. Kyle, can you unmute yourself, please. 221
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Kyle Falbo: Yes, I can.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Can you still see the timer? 223
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Kyle Falbo: Yes, I can.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Great. Go ahead, please.

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Kyle Falbo: Just to address the council in response to the prior speaker, the answer is none.

There won't be any accountability. There won't be any commitment to engagement with the public. We have had so many failed RFPs in this city over the last couple of years, so many failed hires over the last couple of years. And the idea that when we go out to hire consultants, that they are going to do anything beyond what they are being asked to do as part of the consultancy.
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Kyle Falbo: consulting contract. It's… it's,
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Kyle Falbo: It's not something that you should expect to happen. So I'm sorry for that. What I'm actually commenting on is item five. I understand the concern about rising liability costs, but Sebastopol should be careful about endorsing tort reform without also looking inward.
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Kyle Falbo: In recent years, the city has faced litigation or formal legal challenges involving vehicle dweller parking ordinance, the Callahan diabetic emergency taser incident, a Brown Act cure and correct issue. These examples raise a local risk management question.

Are we trying to reduce liability?
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Kyle Falbo:By limitingclaims or by preventing harm inthe first place. 230
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Kyle Falbo: Before authorizing city logo for lobbying and for this coalition, I really just want to ask council to require a public review of recent claims. Again, let me repeat that. A public review of recent claims, settlements, insurance impacts, policy changes, and training reform.
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Kyle Falbo: If you think that your track record is good in comparison to the rest of the members of your insurance group.
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Kyle Falbo: then go ahead, do the public, do a public transparent look at it, because I suspect that based on the insurance claims, we're talking about 233
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KyleFalbo: a fishingschemethatended up losingovera million dollars in propertytax.

Well, who paid it? Our insurance company paid it.
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Kyle Falbo: A number of these things have happened over the years. Let's lay out the dirty laundry and see how well we actually are doing before we start trying to.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Kyle, that's 2 minutes. 236
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. Next, I will come back into chambers. If there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public comment on the consent calendar, please raise your or please come up to the podium. 237
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I will go back out to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to make a public comment on the consent calendar items, please raise your hand virtually.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, public comment is closed on consent calendar items
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, bringing it back to the dais. Does anyone want to make a change or have a comment or make a motion. I'll make a motion to move the consent. Calendar items.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Well, second.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. So moved by Councilmember Zollman and seconded by Councilmember Carter to approve consent calendar items 1 through 6.

Councilmember Carter? Yes. Councilmember Hinton?
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Neysa Hinton: Aye.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Zollman? Yes. Vice Mayor Maurer? Yes. Mayor McLewis is absent, so the motion passes 4 to 1 with Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Zollman, and Vice Mayor Maure
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I would just like to make the brief comment that our planning consultant is actually local and was a former planning director. 245
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, and I'll add to that. They've been working with us for
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: actually much for the past year, but they were actually consultant, not consultant, but actually hires here for a long time. 247
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I will also add to that that we have just received the RFPs for the consultant services. Those just came in yesterday. We received three. One of them did not qualify, so we will be reviewing the two. We will be interviewing them and then bringing those back to the City Council here for discussion and consideration.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So we have the 1st item is the informational presentation on the 3rd quarterly update from building the Commons Committee. 250
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'll take that. Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Tonight's item is the 3rd quarterly update for the Building the Commons Committee. The committee continues to evaluate the feasibility of creating a shared community facility that could serve as a variety of civic, educational, and community needs throughout Sebastopol and West County.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The Community Needs Assessment Subcommittee has spent the last several months conducting stakeholder interviews with localnonprofits, communityorganizations, serviceproviders, and civicorganizations. 252
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SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:Organizationsrepeatedly have identifiedaneed for additional meeting and classroom space, storage, performance space, community kitchens, and accessibility improvements, and opportunities to share resources. 253
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The interviews also revealed strong interest in a common concept that would allow organizations to collaborate, share cost, increase visibility ofprovidedservices,andbe more efficient. 254
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The subcommittee's focus will now shift from stakeholder interviews to the broader community outreach and public engagement as the project moves forward.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Additionally, the Funding Assessment Subcommittee has focused on evaluating potential locations, facility needs and long-term financialconsiderations.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: After reviewing multiple alternatives, the committeehas narrowed its evaluations to two primary concepts. The first isthe O'Reilly property on Gravenstein Highway North, and the second is the redevelopment of cityowned properties within the Civic Center. 257
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This subcommittee has begun developing a highlevelfinancialframeworkfortheproject. This is thefocus, which is both on construction costs and analysis of long-term cost constraints associated with maintaining and upgrading existing and potential facilities.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: At this stage, detailed cost estimates have not been developed. However, thecommitteeis refiningassumptions and lookingforpotential funding sources.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: At this time the committee is seeking council feedback on the 2 primary location concepts currently under evaluation and the next steps for community outreach.
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SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: This concludes mybrief report, and staffis available for questions, and I'll turn it over to the 2 council members that serve on the committee to share additional thoughts.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Oriana. Yes, I just want to first say thank you very much to all of the committee members that have dedicated a lot of their time and effort to be on this Building the Commons Committee. A lot of effort has been put forth, and
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: kind of mimicking my perspective, of where we are, and it has been reflected in the public comments that were received for both of these agenda items. We have long-standing… have had a long-standing space issue for a lot of our vital services here in the city.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The senior center, we have heard they don't have space, and theyaredesperatelyneedingit. Thecommunitycenteris in a flood zone. Agenda Item Number 1
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Our health action is without a building. I think that the mold crisis, as again, has been stated in the public comments, has now put an extra urgent light on what are we doing?
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: What are we doing as a community to try to answer all of these?
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: needs for spaces, and I think that wisely the members of the Building the Commons Committee has put forth 2 alternatives, and I'm really hoping that my fellow colleagues will weigh in and grant the request for there to be onward movement towards continuing to explore those options. 267
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We have heard long and we have received public comment, around the fact that people would like to keep the building here where it currently is. The truth of the matter is, it's like we don't know. 268
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And what the item on the agenda is later, there's gonna be a request for almost a quarter million dollars to fix a building that even the library has identified thefactis notbigenough.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So why? Why do that? Quite honestly, I have concerns about our city hall.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Our city hall was built with the same architecture. 271
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So if the library is going to be a teardown or could be a teardown and City Hall is going to be a teardown, what is going to be our answer? So that's the reason why I think that the O'Reilly has been brought up, and I'm just asking the community to listen to the comments from my fellow colleagues and to continue to share your thoughts on this as we move forward. The next meeting is, a week from this Monday, wherewe'reactuallygoingtobehearingfromthefinance. 272
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: subcommittee, the council member Carter. 273
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: doesn't chair, but he sits on. So I'm going to stop talking there and turn it over to Councilmember Carr.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Alright, I just wanna, restate the obvious that, 275
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: When I first started, they havebeen thinking about this for a long time, but when I came onto it, it was with the idea that we would be proactive in looking for a space and thinking about it in a systems way and in a way that would 276
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SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: bethemostfinanciallyprudentand actionable.

This recent act, you know, mold
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: instance kind of highlights the urgency to go forward with some of this planning. So it's becoming a little less proactive and a little bit more reactive.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: However, we've done so much work that I, I think that we're in a good place. Additionally, I just want to tell everybody that we've we've knocked out quite a few places that we get emails about. We've looked at.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: because the Rite Aid is in the situation it is, you know, legally bound, and, you know, it's not ours, and, you know, it could be, you know, it's not viable for the city to look at.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The same is true with the old, CVS place, because it's investor-owned andtheyareseekingthings thataren'tfinancially, 281
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: reasonable for the city to pursue. We've kind of knocked that out.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But, in the SWOT analysis or in the early days, you can see the other properties that we went through and we analyzed for, you know, operational efficiency and like what we can do. And the next two things that we'll see, it's actually three. It's do nothing.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Band-Aid, what we have. Bless you. And, 284
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SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: Continuetopay, which has asignificantcost. The community center will have a cost.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Repairing the library itself will have tremendous cost, much more cost than we actually anticipate now. The City Hall has costs, and the Senior Center is actively looking for a new place.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: They're all looking for rental facilities outside of their own, because they're growing.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the library is, I would say, the current building is at 98% utilization capacity, so it could definitelygrow. And we're not even accommodating some of the people in our outer areas, like Occidental and, you know, towards Jenner, that we do service.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And so, those are considerations in some of our analysis, which, you know, I think will come forward a little bit later, but I do want everybody to know that we are
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Looking at this in such in a, in a very realistic, pragmatic and, functional way so that, you know, these are real solutions and not just kind of we hope that this can happen. These are definitely things that we can, you know, just we just have to put the pieces together and we can make happen. 290
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Are there any comments? 291
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I mean, questions? 292
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Hinton, do you have a 293
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: No, okay. Oh, I have a question. 294
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: My question is regarding the fact that the Sonoma County Library receives a tax for the libraries.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and we were told that they you know they have funding.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So I'm wondering, how do we move forward with getting a bigger, better facility?
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I mean, they've been asked, and they're not offering myunderstanding. So thecity has a structural deficit moving forward. 298
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We have serious infrastructure needs like building, repair roads, water, and sewer. So
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: How do we move? How do we justify moving forward with multi-million dollar building?
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: when we have all these other needs here, especially considering that the county receives a tax. So can you please help me understand this? Because
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I… I just… to just have… talk about the buildings without talking about the financing doesn't work for me. I'm… that… it's just too, you know… 302
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: 2 separate. So well, thank you for that. And that is part of it, too. There's been a lot of discussions within the committee to set aside or to ask counsel for Alex's time to evaluate. What are our options? What are our options with library administration, which it is correct they do, and we all have paid in taxes, and they do have my perception. They do have a healthy reserve.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So what can Alex do? What was raised by our library commissioner about measure the old measure Y slash new measure W. What can be done with that? So
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I don't know the answers. Also, there was questions during the committee about a public-private partnership, and there was a request to not have, Alex start looking into that until after next Monday's, Agenda Item Number 1
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm building the Commons meeting, but those are the questions that I'm hoping that the Council will approve 306
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the exploration of the 2 options that we put forth, which would include having Alex look into this because you're right. I mean, as I said before, publicly, we have been subsidizing West Sonoma County for years now. 307
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: 100% we have been, with our pool, with our library, with our roads. It's like somebody else needs to start stepping up, because we as a city of a limited amount of population and a limited amount of revenue can't fixall this.

There are pools of money, so that would be what I would hope 308
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Council will affirm having Alex 309
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: work with us to continue to explore these 2 options, and to your point, Vice Mayor, the funding behind the 2 options. So that's my perspective.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And so sitting on the on the finance side of it, I mean, this is what we've been doing for like three, three or four months. And we have models built and we have sources, you know, I think accumulating into a stack of financing that will be very, low impact on our, general fund.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And it's possible. 312
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So, I was going to ask for some grace until we get this through for the full committee, for the full sub, committee, the creating the comments is going to look at the models that we've built, but we have to get them through them first through that committee before we can take that public.
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SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:ButIhave ahighdegree ofconfidence thatwe're going to be able to figure this out, especially if.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, doing, doing nothing is going to cost money.

It's going to cost a lot of money.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Doing something might cost less money and it's just going to take, you know, like a month or so before I can show it with the numbers. 316
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Have you considered the Cvs building? 317
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yeah, as I said, they're, they're not okay. 318
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We can't go through it. Okay, have you considered 319
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: this building here, raising it up. 320
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: remodeling the community center building, because then you have all the outdoor space still.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Besides the fact that it'sin a flood zoneand impossible to raise, yeah, it'll cost… Well, you'd have 322
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SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: Which is significantly…that's soexpensive, I couldn't even imagine doing that.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Well, it seems like if you're going to tear down buildings downtown, it couldn't be any more or less expensive than tearing this building down and raising it up. This building is basically in the same location, it's just a little higher, so it doesn't flood. So if that building or that location was raised up. 324
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I just don't. So why aren't you looking into that? We have. And again, I feel like, you know, when when I did like a rough analysis, you know. 325
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: digging into that, tearing it down, and removing that as a facility for the community is less valuable than, you know, we kind of narrowed it down to redoing the library area. But you're right, we… that was one of the areas that we did lookatand knockoutbecauseit's financially, youknow, infeasible. Agenda Item Number 1
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Senator Follett playing CEQA, I think it would be, like, 15 years before we could ever even do
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Are there any other questions? 328
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We can go out to public comment, please. 329
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm sorry. Yes, Councilmember Hint
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: No, just, just one second. We're, we're, yeah. 331
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Neysa Hinton: I mean, my question or feedback, I guess, for the committee is when you look into how Roseland got their new library, it obviously was a variety of grants. I think it'd have been Great Rancheria.

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Neysa Hinton: Give them some money. Are we looking at a multi… when you look at the finance, is the committee looking at a multi,
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Neysa Hinton: group of funding sources. I know we have our, one new 100 that gives some money to nonprofits and maybe would consider the Library Foundation. I'm just… I'm just curious about that, because when you look at the Roseland Library and how they got their money.
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Neysa Hinton: it was a multi-pronged approach, I guess, I would say. 335
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So we are absolutely doing that. And, and, and, you know, and three levels deep on that, you know, so we are we're exploring all the differentgrants, allthedifferentfinancingstyles. And we'recreatinga stackthatin, in, in, in plotting it out over time.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: so that it fits what we're capable of doing. And I can say that. Thank you, Councilmember Hinton, for the question. That was actually one of thefirstthings thatwestarted todivein, which was, how was Roseland successful? And Agenda Item Number 1
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Ray Holley, the library administration's former PR person, actually gave a whole presentation on all of that. So thank you. Weare definitely been trying to steal and copy. 337
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: that model, because it obviously worked. We also have Naomi Hubert on the Building the Commons, and she sits on the Library Foundation Board, so we made strategic choices about
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: with limited about a staff and time andenergy and everything else to make sure that we put as many of the useful people, most useful people on the Commons. So thanks.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, we can go out for public comment. 340
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Vice Mayor. So this is public comment for the informational item on building the commons. It is a 2-minute public time limit.

Again, we do chamber first, and then go out to Zoom, so if there's anyone in thechambers… 341
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I just want to make another public comment. My name.
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Linda Robinett: Can't hear.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Can you push the button? 345
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Oh, is it on? Oh, I'm sorry I just wanted to say That, the first
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: building the Sebastopol Public Library was a Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie said to libraries around the country, I will give you a grant if you come up with matching funds.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And so in 1916, a local banker was able to… said, yes, let's do that, and did get local funds, and so the building was built with Carnegie Grant and local funds.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: That was the building that served this community up until 1975, when money was tapped from the Federal Library Services and Construction Act.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: to build the current building in Sebastopol. So that was federally funded. But our joint powers agreement that the city that the Library Commission basically runs our library system and has a joint powers agreement with all the cities within the county and the cities
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Are the entities that provide the buildings. 351
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The Library Commission, the Library Department, provides theservices, thebooks, thestaff, theentirething. 352
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So Measure Y, subsequent Measure W, are providing funds to the library. It would be great, and I'm glad that you're exploring all these possibilities, but I just think that we all need to know, historically. 353
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The library has been funded by the city somehow. 354
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm appreciating that you're going through all this for not just the library, but the Senior Center and the New City Hall. 355
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the health services. Thank you. Thank you, Elaine, for your public comment. Next, I'll go out to Zoom and then come back into chambers.

Oliver, can you unmute yourself.
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Oliver: Unmuted, yeah, and I can see the timer.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Go ahead, please.

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Oliver: I just wanted to thank, Councilmember Zollman, because he said the really important thing here, which is that, we don't… well, number one, obviously, we don't have the money to be running the camp… the,
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Oliver: library, and we are providing all of these services for West County. We're a tiny little city with a very shrinking revenue, as everybody knows. Something's got to give here, and we're talking
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Oliver: About the Sonoma County Library, which we…
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Oliver: I believe we leased the building to them for $1 a year, and now we're talking about very, very expensive repairs for that building, or somehow managing to magically buy expensivecommercialbuildings fora new library. Noneof this is goingtofly.I mean, there's no way in a million years, and the county needs to step up. I've said this multiple times in past
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Oliver: Council meetings, I don't have anything against the library, I think it's great, I like the, the Commons idea, but the city just cannot carry this kind of grandiose project, with the revenue that we have coming in, it's just not possible.

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Oliver: So, something has to give here, and
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Oliver: I'm not quite sure where we're going to go here, but I'm not very confident in the explorations of trying to find funds. I think thecounty needs to be pressured substantially here to step up and sort this situation out for what is basically their library. Thank you. 365
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Oliver, for your public comment. Next, I will come back
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Good evening. Whoops. Good evening, council members. My name is Mary Lou Schmidt. I'm a member of Gravenstein Health Action Coalition, which is a smallvolunteernonprofit.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: which supports various programs in Sebastopol in the West County.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and is based on the structure of self-healing community. And what that means is, the community uses local leaders to help solve its problems locally.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: in that. In that realm I am a member of the Community Commons committees.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I'm working on that because I can see that the Commons itself could be an absolute
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: benefit to this community. We have failing buildings, and it really is upsetting to think that we have to put a whole bunch of money into a building that, one, hasn't been big enough for 3 years. I've been working on this project for 3 years with various council members.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And so the library itself is not big enough for the work that these peopledo. The staff are cramped.
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SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: the, youknow, thesebuildings arein a flood zone.

This… we know that the senior center is just
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: at at just at its limit. So with all of this happening, and with the live and with the city being responsible for all this. 375
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: all this property. There's got to be a different way. I think the Commons isa different way. I think there are buildings that we can look at, and the possibility of getting money for that. We have a great that thank you. 376
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Carter. 377
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: for leading that committee, which is looking into as much money as we can get, and Councilmember Zolman for leading those of us who are trying to get community input. I will tell you the community input to me is 378
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: People would not mind going to the O'reilly Center as long as there was some kind of transportation available and there was parking. 379
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And that is something that comes up all the time.

Mary, that's a good minute. Okay. Thank you for your public comment. Next I'll go out to Zoom. Linda, can you unmute yourself please?
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Linda Robinett: Yeah, I think I'm kind of going into horror right now. 381
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Linda Robinett: First, the library was really not… the library people running it were not transparent about what was going on with the building being closed. 382
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Linda Robinett: And…
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Linda Robinett: I thought, what kind of disaster happened? There are… there are people who sit in that library all day long. I remember registering voters there once and observing who used the library. There's children, some as young as babies, because I've gone in the library and seen people with babies and the,
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Linda Robinett: librarians telling them stories. So there's infants 385
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Linda Robinett: clear to elderly people, and there are people who stay in there all day long using the computers and other facilities. So if this, whatever… and then they finally told us it was black mold.
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Linda Robinett: I felt that the lack of transparency was not good. Also, the library is down, and what I'm hearing is, it's extremely expensive to fix the building. 387
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Linda Robinett: Hopefully, they'll have a, like someone mentioned, a bookmobile over at the community center so that we can at least return and receive books. 388
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Linda Robinett: But how much longer will this city, which is one of the our area, West County area, one of the heaviest users of the library I've heard be without a library.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. Next I will come into chambers.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Good evening, Erica DeBow, Library Director, Sonoma County Library, and I'm here just to urge you to hire a consultant or allow us to hire an architect
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: To evaluate the O'reilly space before deciding to move forward with any purchase. I have been to the building. The first floor is 15,000 square feet. Which is about 5,000 square feet short of what we would want for a space in Sebastopol.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I would also discourage a 2 story library building.

It creates a lot of security issues, and it's difficult tomonitor. Sowe would have to, you know. I really urge you to look at hiring somebody to evaluate the space and give you a rough order of magnitude of what the cost would be to to renovate it. 393
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. I yield my time.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Erica, for your public comment. Next, I'll go out to Zoom. Lee, can you.
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Lee: Hear me?
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Can you see the timer? 397
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Lee: Yes.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Great, go ahead with your public comment please.
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Lee: Yeah, I'm amazed at the quality of the team that Steven assembled to work on this.

Every time I read the reports, I am impressed.

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Lee: I wish we had people…
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Lee: of that caliber with this muchmotivation,working on things likethe structural deficit for the city.
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Lee: Because it wouldfix a lot more problemsthan fixing this building is going tofix. Unfortunately, it was stated several times in the opening comments about this that our non-profit partners need more space, West County interests want more space. 403
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Lee: As the Vice Mayor said, and I think Steven acknowledged, the city doesn't have the moneytosupportanyof thesenonprofits. Itdoesn'thaveenough moneytopaythebills and fix the streets. It doesn't have the money even to support the ongoing maintenance of a big new building like this if it were built.
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Lee: Right now, the Senior Center has better income and expense statement than the city. 405
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Lee: Someof these organizations kind of haveto figure out how they can exist without depending on city budget budgets for their existence. The city can't answer most of these questions.
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Lee: Having said that, the agenda item was to discuss 2 locations, O'reilly and the Plaza. 407
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Lee: But no one's presented any information on what are you doing at O'reilly? What is it? What's the facility like?How would it fit? Howwould it be used? 408
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Lee: Likewise the plaza. Nobody has discussed. What plaza are we going to put a library on the plaza?
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Lee: Don't you have to present those things so that they can be discussed and debated, and the City Council can provide you with, and the public can provide you with comments. 410
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Lee: I also don't know who's talking to the owner of the Cvs facility right now, but my understanding is that the the old Cvs site was acquired by the current owner as a requirement he wanted, or he or she. They wanted a different building. Agenda Item Number 1
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Lee: And we're forced to take this one as a package. So I'm not sure that they want to get rid of it. Again, I don't know if it meets any of the requirements, but… 412
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Lee: You'd probably have to get somebody serious about contacting these people and negotiating. Thank you.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Lee, for your public comment. Next, I'll come back
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Good evening. My name is Paul Fritz. First, st I'd like to express my support for the Commons idea. I think it's a great concept. I also like to advocate for an in town
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: location. I have concerns about kind of putting all these civic functions at the perimeter of our community.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Just going to read a brief thing I found on the Project for Public Spaces website.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Public buildings are at their best when they not only function as active community places in their own right, but also when they form part of a larger civic district.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: When the managers of these institutions partner with nearby buildings to establish themselves as a civic district, they can co-sponsor events, program each other's facilities, and otherwise share, trade, or combine the use of their public spaces and resources. A library and a city hall do not create a civic center on their own.
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But add an outdoor reading room to the library, start hosting public events at City Hall, set up food vendors on the sidewalk or a farmer's market in the parking lot, and suddenly you begin to generate much greater levels of activity than before.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Likewise the role of a civic institution to extend beyond the building itself. Part of the problem is that institutions tend to function as silos.

Rarelyaretheirmissions expressed orreflected in thesurroundingpublicspaces. When a civic institution stretches the boundaries of its own mission to engage its public space. 422
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Excuse me, public space, whether it be a street, a plaza, or a square, and reaches out to other institutions in the neighborhood that marks the rebirth of a c
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: In many redeveloping downtowns, the trend is to leave civic institutions behind. A civic center should function as one of the great places in the city, yet rarely do civic institutions benefit or contribute to downtownrevitalization. This may occur because the institutions have been relocated to the outskirts of town, or because
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The institutions have turned their backs on a city that for many years was unsafe at night, or dominated by traffic, orlacking in activity. But for cities that are serious about sustaining vitality in the long run, tying facilities with civic purpose back to a burgeoning central districts is essential. I'll just say, like, with the approval
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Recently of the Caltrans grant. You know, our downtown is on the cusp of a real kind of transformation, and I hope that these civic 426
01:04:40.110 --> 01:04:42.430
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: institutions can be part of that. 427
01:04:42.560 --> 01:04:52.199
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Thank you, Paul, for your public comment. Next, I'll go back out to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to make a public comment on this informational item, please raise your hand. Kate, can you unm. 428
01:04:52.760 --> 01:04:54.200
kate: Yes, thank you.
429
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kate: I in listening to all these public comments, I just had one idea the… the… 430
01:05:02.630 --> 01:05:26.929
kate: Piazza Hotel lot isstill vacant, and I'm not sure where the soccer field idea has landed, but perhaps you could ask the hotel to fence in the lot so it could be gated off at night, and there could be a bookmobile and picnic tables and some plantings in that area, so people could have like a de facto open air library.

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431
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kate: and perhaps the hotel would be willing to fund some 432
01:05:32.130 --> 01:05:57.050
kate: types of, you know, plantings and a nicer looking fence and a gate that could be closed at night just to create a more lively space there. So that's 1 idea. And then I also agree with the other commenters that we need the county to pitch in more. We Sebastopol has the highest per capita of subsidized and low income housing. 433
01:05:57.050 --> 01:06:02.890
kate: western Sonoma County, which reduces our property tax revenue. 434
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kate: So I would keep urging the city to explore a higher percentage of the property tax that is paid by people that living in Sebastopol only about 20%, 20 cents on every dollar that a person pays in property tax here goes back to the city. 435
01:06:22.060 --> 01:06:46.940
kate: And if that could be up to 25 cents on the dollar, that would bring in a lot more money and help offset some of these costs. As other commenters have said, Sebastopol is kind of like the lively hub for West Sonoma County. We have the pool, we have the library, our roads are used a lot. So I think looking more strategically with the county or creating a special art
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436
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kate: and social district also is another way to carve out additional pieces of tax revenue.

Thank you.
437
01:06:54.950 --> 01:07:00.610
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. Next, I'll come back into chambers if there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public comment
438
01:07:01.490 --> 01:07:04.810
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I'll go back onto Zoom. Can you unmute yourself.
439
01:07:10.960 --> 01:07:12.259
kentjenkins: There, am I unmuted?
440
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: You are muted. Can you see the timer? 441
01:07:14.960 --> 01:07:16.140
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kentjenkins: Yes, I can.
442
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Great, go ahead, please. 443
01:07:17.280 --> 01:07:23.540
kentjenkins: So my name is Kent Jenkins. I am the Senior Centers Representative on the Commons Committee.
444
01:07:23.720 --> 01:07:43.710
kentjenkins: And I'm appreciating all of these,a lot of them are first impressions of the work we've been doing. And I invite anyone who's interested, and I appreciate the interest, to take a look at our very public record. A number of these issues we have explored, we have published papers in our investigatory work.
445
01:07:43.710 --> 01:07:49.010
kentjenkins: And I think that would provide a great deal of comfort to the people who are worried about this or that.
446
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kentjenkins: The other thing I invite the community to look at is where, in our current times, the actual
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447
01:07:57.990 --> 01:08:06.500
kentjenkins: A center of where people are, where they live, where do kids actually live, where do seniors actually live, combined with where.
448
01:08:06.760 --> 01:08:21.870
kentjenkins: How do people get to various locations? And in both cases, most people drive.

So while there might be some people who would lose the convenience of a downtown location, something like O'Reilly, there are a whole host of new people. 449
01:08:21.870 --> 01:08:28.189
kentjenkins: who would gain that convenience. So it's a tough trade-off, and myheartgoes out to people who may…
450
01:08:28.189 --> 01:08:42.909
kentjenkins: May miss something that was in their local neighborhood, but I'm also pleased to expand that opportunity to other people in our city who have been on the neglected peripheries of our town. So that's my comment. Thank you very much. 451
01:08:43.560 --> 01:08:50.129
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Kent, for your public comment. Next, I will come back into chambers if there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public comment.

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452
01:08:50.590 --> 01:08:56.389
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I will go back out to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to make a public comment, to please raise your hand 453
01:08:57.040 --> 01:08:59.450
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, public comment is closed on this item.
454
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, we're back at the dais. Any further comments.
455
01:09:05.010 --> 01:09:06.300
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: or a motion.
456
01:09:07.500 --> 01:09:15.559
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The oh, I'm sorry. This is informational item.

Exactly. This is justinformational. And as thestaffreportnotes. 457
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the committee will be coming back in September to make a formal recommendation that the council can debate and act on that at that point. Even for informational items, we can still provide direction, correct? So I'm hoping that my colleagues will, direct,
458
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the committee to continue to explore those 2 options alongwith Staff's useof timeduringthosemeetings. 459
01:09:42.279 --> 01:09:47.640
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'd like you to expand a little bit to possibly include the Cbs building.
460
01:09:48.060 --> 01:09:52.339
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And not limit it. And I also would like you to think about
461
01:09:52.750 --> 01:09:56.959
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: what is best for the city, not just what's available right now.
462
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So those are my thoughts that I'm giving to you right now.
463
01:10:02.330 --> 01:10:09.519
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I just want to speak to that for a second, and not to be defensive, but to clue you in on all the months of work that we've put in. 464
01:10:09.760 --> 01:10:22.239
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The CVS, the owners, we've reached out to them, and we've entertained the idea of actually being there. We've looked at the money of what it would cost to replace, and what it would look like to be in it. 465
01:10:22.480 --> 01:10:40.519
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And then also, we've looked at complete fresh new builds on all the land that the city owns. Like, all of it. We… I went through a very long process of identifying every single available piece of land, what we could swap over, and what was the most efficient use of anything.
466
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And then, you know, not only that, you know, so in the process prior is where we show some of the SWOT analysis on some of the other opportunities that were out there.
467
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The CVS building and the Rite Aid building did not make it in because of the investor-owned buildings, you know, just for… 468
01:11:01.350 --> 01:11:04.329
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: $45,000 a month, or something that we couldn't… 469
01:11:04.610 --> 01:11:08.669
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We couldn't handle when everything else is basically rent-free, so we need to buy.
470
01:11:09.170 --> 01:11:11.780
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And then, you know, what we'll do. 471
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: On July 14th in our meeting is actually discuss real numbers and and and come back with those.
472
01:11:19.050 --> 01:11:36.160
SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: And yeah, and we'redefinitelythinkingaboutthe whole city and how we can support all of the things, which is the commons itself. So we're thinkingaboutthecommunitycenter, we'rethinkingaboutallof ournonprofits, we're thinking about all of that and how we can take care of all of them for the most.

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473
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Bank for our buck, the best value, and the most realistic opportunity that we have.
474
01:11:41.460 --> 01:11:42.650
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, thank you.
475
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, so we will receive that. And thank you for all your work.
476
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So we will be moving on to the public hearing for the capital improvement budget.
477
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: All right. This item is the annual capital improvement program or cip, which serves as the city's 5 year planning document for major infrastructure investments and public facilities. The 1st year of the document, the fiscal year 2026, 27 plan is the capital improvement plan before council tonight for consideration and adoption.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The remaining 4 years are a planning projection intended to assist with long-term project development and grants. 479
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So tonight, I'm going to walk through each one of the projects in the 2627 capital improvement plan.
480
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I'll pause after each one for questions and discussion. After all the projects have been moved through and reviewed, we'll return to the funding summary, open the public hearing, and request that Council consider a resolution adopting the FY26-27 Capital Improvement Plan.
481
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Give me one sec to share my screen. I'm just going to run through all of them.
482
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So the 1st group of projects is for pedestrian safety. If you have your capital improvement book, I put the the number on the top of the pages and the the agenda number. So if you have your budget book.

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This is… Tab J. Page 7, and it's page 20 in the agenda.
484
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So the first, pedestrian improvement project is for the Bodega Avenue guardrails, right at the city limits, going across the Tascadero Creek, the small section that's owned by the city and in our limits. 485
01:13:47.240 --> 01:14:03.940
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We have highway safety improvement funds for this. It's a grant project. The design is complete, and we found at the end of the design that there was a conflict with the gas line from PG&E, so we're working with them to move that, and then we'll be moving this into construction this year. 486
01:14:04.530 --> 01:14:06.220
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Pause there. Questions. 487
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Do you think we could hold questions? Well, my problem is, I cannot see Councilmember Hinton.
488
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So I don't know if we could split the screen so I can see her.
489
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: or maybe if she has a question she could speak up.
490
01:14:26.200 --> 01:14:26.970
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yah.
491
01:14:32.810 --> 01:14:34.519
Neysa Hinton: I'm happy to do that.
492
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, thank you. That would be perfect. 493
01:14:36.540 --> 01:14:38.679
Neysa Hinton: Of course, I'll just kind of, yeah, no.
494
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: All right. The second of our pedestrian improvement projects is for the crossings on Highway 116 going through town. There are 4 of these. We're upgrading the crossings
495
01:14:59.030 --> 01:15:00.480
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: that,
496
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Hutchins and Walker, and then we're installing new crossings with Rfb. Flashers at Burnett and a Keating, and this is also a highway safety grant project.
497
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This project. Well, we finished the design and the plans and specifications in May.
498
01:15:20.300 --> 01:15:34.769
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I'm just looking at it, thoughtfully in light of, the Caltrans grant that we received in the plan that was passed by this council to see if there's any of the traffic calmingmeasures we can incorporate into the Burnett crossing before we put it out for bid.
499
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Neysa Hinton: And I.
500
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Neysa Hinton: Insert. We had a member of the public last meeting that asked to make it clear where each of the funds are coming from. I know that they're on the screen, but I thought you might want to mention them.
501
01:15:54.040 --> 01:16:07.220
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yeah, so this one is an HSIP project, so Highway Safety Improvement Funds, and there's a portion of match funding from our traffic impact fees and from SB1, which is a state fund that we receive street funding for. 502
01:16:10.550 --> 01:16:12.070
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Any other questions on that. 503
01:16:13.910 --> 01:16:31.100
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: All right. The next one is for a crossing at Covert and Zimpher Lane. There's also a sewer project that you'll see later in the same section, so we're going to try to do the sewer project before this one, and we're really just improving this pedestrian crossing to be a little safer.
504
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And this is also an HSIP project with some match funding from ourtraffic impact fees.
505
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And the final, I think there's one more, actually. This one is a crossing at Sunset and Johnson. This project's designed, this one's 100% funded by our traffic impact fees, but it is, right by the high school, and thatkind of blind cornergoingaround Johnson, soadefinitepedestrian safetyissue. 506
01:17:00.770 --> 01:17:17.309
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And then the last pedestrian safety one, this is the signal at Regal Road and Bodega Avenue. This is a grant that we submitted to SCTCA. We have not heard back from this grant, but if we were to be successful, we would move into a design for a signal light there.
507
01:17:22.490 --> 01:17:38.769
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, next, we have our parks projects. So the 1st one of the parks projects. This is the Calder Creek naturalization phase one. This is the project that the cusp group is looking for some grant funding for us to advance for the 1st phase up to the weir.
508
01:17:43.100 --> 01:17:55.989
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And the second park project that we have this year is for the Ives Park pathway. This is the ADA walk from the first phase that ended at the bathroom to the parking lot where we have our ADA parking stall.

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509
01:17:56.620 --> 01:18:01.590
SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: and this oneis justfinishingdesign. We'rehoping to get it completed or constructed over the winter.
510
01:18:03.660 --> 01:18:05.839
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And this one is all funded by Measure M. 511
01:18:10.450 --> 01:18:32.429
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Ok. The next bunch of projects we have are for the paving improvement projects. The first one is the continuation of the dig outs and repairs. Council awarded this contract at our June 16th meeting. We've been in contact with the contractor. We're doing a pre construction meeting next week and we should be into construction by the end of July for this dig out and repair piece. 512
01:18:33.470 --> 01:18:34.929
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And this is funded. 513
01:18:35.110 --> 01:18:37.030
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I think, I've lost my th 514
01:18:44.540 --> 01:18:51.190
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I may have lost you on my screen question. Will the street repairs be coming back to council?
515
01:18:51.400 --> 01:19:11.120
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yes, so that's the dig out and repair that's been approved through council. So the next one is the the city improvements for Fy 26, that these are the funds that are going to Strout Street that were approved. So this is in design forconstruction overthewinter, and then thefinalone 516
01:19:11.120 --> 01:19:34.510
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This is the big paving project that'll look at the next bunch of streets. So we are trying to look at kind of a multi-year paving plan, taking into consideration not only PCI, but where we are in schools, what other planned streets are on.

We're looking at water and sewer projects that might also overlap and trying to kind of do an analysis of what would be the best streets to spend our rehab money on. 517
01:19:34.510 --> 01:19:49.090
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: There's also the streets that are recommended through our pavement management plan for, like, a slurry overlay. So we want to do kind of a grouping of both. We need to do some of that preventative maintenance overlay projects just to maintain streets, but we also want to get some of our bad streets 518
01:19:49.090 --> 01:20:05.659
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But just let people in the community know how we're ranking their streets and when we'll get to them. So I'm hoping to bring that back in Agenda Item Number 1
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September, for design, and we want to bid it in December-ish. It seems to be the most competitive time to bid paving projects and build it in the spring. 519
01:20:05.660 --> 01:20:06.410
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you.
520
01:20:09.190 --> 01:20:18.409
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And these are our sewer projects for the year. So, the first one is, Zimpher Creek, Part 1. So we have,
521
01:20:18.710 --> 01:20:36.259
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: a large load on one of our lines that goes along Zimpher Creek, and this project isto divert a section of the flows in Covert Lane away from the failing part that's in Zimpher Creek to kind of lighten the load there thatwehavetoflush regularly to keepitfromoverflowing.
522
01:20:37.260 --> 01:20:40.489
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And this has been designed. So we're gonna 523
01:20:40.550 --> 01:20:59.709
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: put this out as soon as we can. The holdup is getting a Caltrans permit for the traffic controlalong Healdsburg Avenue. So once we get Agenda Item Number 1
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that, we'll construct this. And then, as I mentioned, there's also a pedestrian crossing on covert. So we're going to try to do the sewer line before we do the crossing, so that we don't 524
01:20:59.710 --> 01:21:00.800
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Cut up our paving. 525
01:21:03.720 --> 01:21:06.850
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, thank you so much. Were there any other questions?
526
01:21:07.210 --> 01:21:08.850
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: from council.
527
01:21:09.340 --> 01:21:27.390
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: No, we can go out to public comment, please. Oh, I have more. Oh, you have more. Oh, sorry. No, we've got more. Sorry. This is Zipper Part 2.

So this is the actual creek section that is failing. So it's been partially designed. So we want to get this to 100% designed so that we can build it the next year. 528
01:21:27.880 --> 01:21:39.109
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And this is our sewer master plan. We've started this work. They're doing the modeling at the moment. So we'll be updating the FOC on that in the fall and bring it back to Council in the winter.

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529
01:21:39.380 --> 01:21:43.429
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: with the recommendations for a master plan cip list.
530
01:21:44.470 --> 01:21:57.570
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And this is kind of a bucket project for wastewater system replacement projects, and our vision here is more doing those paving projects when we find failing sewers that we're also able to replace those kind of in thisCIP bucket. 531
01:22:01.450 --> 01:22:21.960
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This is Moore Street. We approved this at the June 16th council meeting, but I left it in here because we did get some bids come in since then, and they're higher than what we had budgeted in the engineer's estimate. So we have a budget committee meeting to talk about that, and we'll be bringing back an amendment to theCIPwith ourfinalnumbers here.
532
01:22:22.090 --> 01:22:23.029
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Next meeting.
533
01:22:26.030 --> 01:22:45.579
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:So nowwe're into ourfloodresiliency master planningefforts. This plan is wellunderway. They'vedoneallthehydraulicmodeling, and we're meeting with Sonoma Water Agency tomorrow to see how our models and their Agenda Item Number 1
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models can support each other to look at where we can start building out some CIP projects in drainage and stormwater.
534
01:22:47.830 --> 01:22:51.289
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The community centers, the… 535
01:22:51.400 --> 01:23:03.259
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Council approved the list of repairs, and we have some preliminary costs on what those will be, so we'll be working through repairing those, flood damage projectsat the community center this year. 536
01:23:04.840 --> 01:23:11.120
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Culver Creek we talked about and approved at the previous Council meeting. This is well 4. So this is our 537
01:23:11.120 --> 01:23:26.480
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Really big water project for the year. We just passed our water master plan. And the main thing that we need to do is replace well 4.

We've just received the permitting to do the monitoring well that'll support the design of the new well, which will be well 9.
538
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The other portion of this project is to look for some financing to fund this project. We're going to need to work with the consultant. If Council chooses to pause our rates, we may not be able to get that funding, so this may push out another year.
539
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: until we can have kind of a stable rate structure thatwould supportfinancing.
540
01:23:52.080 --> 01:24:04.149
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And then this one is to do tank assessments. So there's 2 wanted to do a structural assessment, and one is to do a seismic assessment of the 1st Street and Pleasant Hill tanks.
541
01:24:06.500 --> 01:24:16.310
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And this last water CIP is for a water meter at our yard where we have a water tower just to better automate the use of that water. 542
01:24:17.140 --> 01:24:23.130
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So this is, this is globally our CIP for water, and I just wanted to stop here and say that,
543
01:24:23.300 --> 01:24:44.460
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: if we pause our rate structure and our tiered rates, we will probably need to bring some of this back so that we're not deficit spending too far into our reserves. So some of these may push out. The real priority for us is to complete the design, at least on Well 4, so we can kind of position ourselves for funding when the city, you know, has a rate structure that'll support that.
544
01:24:48.460 --> 01:24:54.649
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And then my last one is the police station generator, which we're in design on, and we'll do construction as soon as they complete that.
545
01:24:56.110 --> 01:24:59.659
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And here's my global summary, and I'll take any other questions.
546
01:25:05.080 --> 01:25:07.900
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing no questions, we'll go out to public comment.
547
01:25:09.520 --> 01:25:18.029
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Vice Mayor. So this is for public comment on the public hearing for the CIP projects. If you would like to make a public comment, I will come into chambers first.
Agenda Item Number 1
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548
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01:25:18.490 --> 01:25:21.859
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I will go out to Zoom. Kate, can you unmute.
549
01:25:22.530 --> 01:25:23.420
kate: Yes, thank you.
550
01:25:23.420 --> 01:25:28.730
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm sorry, just for a second. Steven, can you unshare the screen, please, so we could see the timer?
551
01:25:30.890 --> 01:25:33.269
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Great. Thank you. Go ahead with your public comment.
552
01:25:33.500 --> 01:25:49.690
kate: Yes, I just remember that the Rotary had a plan for upgrades to Ives Park that was fully funded, and I don't remember that coming back around, so I just had a… I was just curious about that, because that seemed like that would have been… 553
01:25:49.690 --> 01:26:06.589
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kate: really a wonderful project. And then I was also wondering. The fence replacement was extremely successful, and I think everyone's enjoying that. And I was wondering if there will be more fence replacement taking place. Those are my 2 questions. Thank you. 554
01:26:07.060 --> 01:26:10.710
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. Next I will come into chambers.
555
01:26:11.120 --> 01:26:14.470
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I'll go back out to Zoom. Lee, can you un.
556
01:26:14.740 --> 01:26:16.060
Lee: Yes, can you hear me?
557
01:26:16.060 --> 01:26:18.580
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: You can see, I can, can you see the timer? 558
01:26:18.580 --> 01:26:19.230
Lee: Yep.

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559
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01:26:19.230 --> 01:26:20.340
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Great, go ahead, please. 560
01:26:20.630 --> 01:26:22.090
Lee: Yeah, so.
561
01:26:22.660 --> 01:26:25.380
Lee: I think this is a 10 million dollar plan.
562
01:26:25.800 --> 01:26:41.610
Lee: Last year's plan was a 10 million dollar plan. I expressed some concern last year that you don't have the staff to do a 10 million dollar plan. You actually did4.2, I guess, based upon the summary sheet here, and 2 and a half of that was one project on Bodega. 563
01:26:42.020 --> 01:26:48.680
Lee: And as I go back through years, I find that repeatedly that there's a big plan and not much gets done.
564
01:26:48.790 --> 01:26:53.859
Lee: It seems likethe stuff that gets done is primarily stuff that has a grant. Agenda Item Number 1
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565

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01:26:54.090 --> 01:26:56.520
Lee: and that seems to drive what we fix.
566
01:26:56.980 --> 01:27:03.480
Lee: and it's not a very strategic way to do things. And the library building, I think, is a great example of that.
567
01:27:03.750 --> 01:27:12.700
Lee: Just recently the city replaced the roof and replaced the solar panels, but apparently there wasn't any consideration for the actual structure itself. 568
01:27:13.070 --> 01:27:21.299
Lee: Most likely because there was money to replace… free money to replace the roof and the solar panels, but there's no free money to go into the walls and fix stuff. 569
01:27:21.340 --> 01:27:33.590
Lee: And somehow we have to… to balance… there's some money available with… there are priorities that absolutely must be fixed. Streets, someof our public buildingsare examples of that, and…
570
01:27:33.750 --> 01:27:53.260
Lee: The last part of this would be just transparency. It's almost impossible to figure out in any given year what was done, what was planned, what was planned is always there. What Agenda Item Number 1
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was actually done is almost never there, unless you really go searching, and you're never sure, because the numbers don't match up. So it'd be nice to have a better way of reconciling this, and it would be better for city council to see 571
01:27:53.260 --> 01:27:58.800
Lee: the things that aren't being done. Maybe then they could say, wait a minute, we better prioritizefiguring thatoneout.
572
01:27:58.870 --> 01:27:59.670
Lee: Thank you.
573
01:28:00.690 --> 01:28:10.699
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. Next, I will come back into chamber. Seeing none, I will go back out to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to make a public comment on this public hearing… Oh, please go ahead.
574
01:28:16.530 --> 01:28:34.179
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yeah, my name is Doug Yule. I live on Petaluma Avenue. I'm just wondering how you prioritize the crossings. The one at Burnett and South Main seems to me to be very important. I know people step out, and there's parking right up to the crosswalk.
575
01:28:34.490 --> 01:28:38.850
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I was just talking with a guy today who said he was almost hit there.
576
01:28:39.080 --> 01:28:39.920
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you.
577
01:28:40.900 --> 01:28:49.860
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. Next, I will go back out to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to make a public comment on the public hearing for the CIP to please raise your hand virtually. 578
01:28:50.550 --> 01:28:52.739
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I'll come back into chambers 579
01:28:52.950 --> 01:28:55.089
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, public hearing is closed. 580
01:28:56.960 --> 01:29:03.560
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So I would like to know if someone could answer the question about how those are prioritized crossings.

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581

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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: was my time, but in past experience they're they do. Caltrans will do safety studies, and our traffic engineer will look at them, and they're usually part of the Sctca planning work. So Burnett is on that list. It is identifiedasone of the crossings that needs help.
582
01:29:24.230 --> 01:29:30.269
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, thank you. So back to the dais for any comments or emotion.
583
01:29:34.780 --> 01:29:40.420
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: No, I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve Staff's recommendation.
584
01:29:41.380 --> 01:29:42.310
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Second.
585
01:29:43.980 --> 01:29:54.620
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. So moved by Councilmember Zolman, and secondedby CouncilmemberCarterto approve the resolutionapprovingthe fiscal year 2627 Capital Improvement Plan Councilmember Carter. 586
01:29:54.850 --> 01:29:56.670
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yes. Councilmember Hinton? 587
01:29:56.670 --> 01:29:57.570
Neysa Hinton: Bye.
588
01:29:57.570 --> 01:30:07.869
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Zolman? Yes. Vice Mayor Maurer? Yes. Mayor McLeod is absent. The motion passes 4 to 1, with Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Zolman, and Vice Mayor M
589
01:30:08.480 --> 01:30:12.879
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So I'd like to take a short break 5 min, and we'll be right back at it.
590
01:30:21.960 --> 01:30:24.079
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Cody, are we ready? 591
01:30:24.840 --> 01:30:27.900
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yeah, I got it. I see a thumbs up. So yeah. 592
01:30:31.200 --> 01:30:33.950
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Steven, can you change the view to gallery as well, please?
593
01:30:48.550 --> 01:30:50.999
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Are we? Are we ready to go? Please. 594
01:30:52.300 --> 01:31:07.880
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yes, we're ready to resume. Okay, so we're moving on to regular calendar. Item number 9, discussion and consideration of approval of waiving the 1st reading and introduction of the ordinance regarding city council compensation. 595
01:31:08.730 --> 01:31:26.919
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Good evening, excuse me, good evening, vice mayor, council members. This is following up on previous direction from the council.

Before you tonight is a draft ordinance to amend chapter 2.44 of the municipal code to adjust council compensation.
596
01:31:26.920 --> 01:31:38.829
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Currently, the council's compensation is $300 per month, and it has been that way for many, many, many years. 597
01:31:39.000 --> 01:31:53.940
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: you know. Previously the city was authorized to increase that amount by 5% per year. But the Council, the city never did recently. State law readjusted what the maximum salary could be for
598
01:31:54.070 --> 01:32:11.689
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: all different cities and and based on the size of the city, and for a city of our size. The maximum compensation is $950 per month. subject to potential future increases that would need to be approved by the Council in in the future. 599
01:32:11.930 --> 01:32:19.630
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So the, proposed ordinance would increase council compensation to $950 per month.
600
01:32:19.810 --> 01:32:29.400
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Under state law,that cannot take effect until there is a start ofa new council memberterm, so that means it wouldn't take effect 601
01:32:29.400 --> 01:32:40.650
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: until January of 2027. It would apply to all council members, even those who are continuing to serve out existing terms. 602
01:32:41.830 --> 01:32:55.459
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SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: The, fiscalimpactforthis, becauseit's onlyhalf of the year this year, the fiscal impact would be, about $37,000, 603
01:32:55.840 --> 01:33:03.580
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: excuse me that the cost would increase from 18,000 to37,500 for for thisfiscalyear.
604
01:33:03.860 --> 01:33:12.169
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: in the future, when there are full full years at the higher compensation amount, that would be $57,000 total. 605
01:33:12.810 --> 01:33:29.279
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:Obviously,youknowthe thestaffreportgoesinto how much time and what a commitment is to be a council member in, you know, the year 2,026, and how much more is involved in it than when
606
01:33:29.490 --> 01:33:39.849
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the city set that rate back in, you know, decades ago, frankly, the 300. So with that I'll I'll pause and see if there's any questions from the Council.
607
01:33:41.160 --> 01:33:42.840
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Are there any questions? Agenda Item Number 1
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608
01:33:46.030 --> 01:33:59.440
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I see no questions, so we will go out to public comment, please. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So this is public comment for the introduction of the ordinance on city council compensation. If you'd like to make a public comment, I'll come to chambers first and then go out to Zoom.
609
01:33:59.820 --> 01:34:15.950
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Please. Good evening, Kirsten Lange, President of the Santa Rosa Sonoma County Branch of the NAACP. I hope you appreciate this increase, because this is a policy that the statewide California-Hawaii NAACP has advocated for to increase your supportive
610
01:34:15.950 --> 01:34:34.329
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: fiscal support inyour roles.So just know that this is not something that is arbitrarily being brought forward by your jurisdiction of your city staff, but it is something that is a statewide endeavor supported by theNAACP across the state, brought forward by, at the time, State Senator Bill Dodd. 611
01:34:35.480 --> 01:34:39.740
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. Next I will go out to Zoom. Kate, can you unmute, please?
612
01:34:42.110 --> 01:34:44.480
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kate: Yes, I'm unmuted, I believe.
613
01:34:44.650 --> 01:34:46.219
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: You are. Can you see the timer still. 614
01:34:46.220 --> 01:34:47.220
kate: I can.
615
01:34:47.220 --> 01:34:48.189
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Go ahead, please. 616
01:34:48.190 --> 01:35:11.949
kate: I just as a citizen of Sebastopol, I 100% support council raises. I know how hard council members work, and I admire their diligence and the hundreds and hundreds of hours that they spend working on behalf of our community. It's very difficult job as a water and sewer rate payer.
617
01:35:11.950 --> 01:35:21.000
kate: I cannot support the raises unless the city council time is removed from the ratepayer. 618
01:35:21.000 --> 01:35:42.180
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kate: Expenses due to the fact that council actually spends very little time on water and sewer issues. So I just want to say 100% as a citizen support the council raises, but believe that council time should be removed from the ratepayer expense pool. Thank you. 619
01:35:42.860 --> 01:35:47.230
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. Next, I will come into chambers if there's anyone in chambers.
620
01:35:47.540 --> 01:35:50.959
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I'll go back out to Zoom. Lee, can you m.
621
01:35:52.680 --> 01:35:53.790
Lee: Can you hear me?
622
01:35:53.790 --> 01:35:55.860
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I can hear you. Can you see the timer still? 623
01:35:56.060 --> 01:35:56.680
Lee: Sure.

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624

Agenda Item Number 1
01:35:56.680 --> 01:35:57.779
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Great, go ahead, please. 625
01:35:59.580 --> 01:36:02.549
Lee: Yeah, this is allowed by law. It's not mandated.
626
01:36:03.030 --> 01:36:11.090
Lee: It seems a little bit tone deaf in the city of Sebastopol, given that you've repeatedly been told by Director Wong that there is a structural deficit. 627
01:36:11.600 --> 01:36:29.109
Lee: Thatmeans thatexpenses and salaries and benefits are60% of theexpenses in this city are growing faster than revenue. and over time the inevitable result will be a few people here getting paid, doing no work because there's no money to do work. 628
01:36:29.580 --> 01:36:30.450
Lee: Oh.
629
01:36:30.990 --> 01:36:36.689
Lee: If you're doing this job for $900 a month, you might want to reexamine your life goals.

Thanks.

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630
01:36:37.870 --> 01:36:43.979
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Lee, for your public comment. Next, I will come back into chambers, if there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public
631
01:36:44.550 --> 01:36:48.240
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I will go back out to Zoom. Mary, can you unmute yourself.
632
01:36:48.870 --> 01:36:49.850
mary cone: Yes.
633
01:36:50.340 --> 01:36:51.880
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Can you see the timer? 634
01:36:52.180 --> 01:36:53.099
mary cone: I can. Great.
635
01:36:53.100 --> 01:36:54.050
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Go ahead, please.

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636
01:36:54.340 --> 01:37:04.979
mary cone: I also support the raises, but except I am absolutely opposed to it if this is coming from water and sewer ratepayers.
637
01:37:05.480 --> 01:37:07.730
mary cone: Absolutely opposed to that.
638
01:37:08.210 --> 01:37:13.639
mary cone: Get it. Get it from the general fund. Of course you get that. 639
01:37:13.830 --> 01:37:15.670
mary cone: Okay, thank you. That's it.
640
01:37:16.180 --> 01:37:20.859
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. Next, I will come back into chambers.
641
01:37:21.420 --> 01:37:25.319
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I will go back out to Zoom. Kent, can you unmute yourself.

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642
01:37:27.790 --> 01:37:28.470
kentjenkins: Yes.
643
01:37:29.210 --> 01:37:30.460
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Can you see the timer? 644
01:37:30.460 --> 01:37:31.200
kentjenkins: Sure, yes.
645
01:37:31.200 --> 01:37:32.250
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Sorry, go ahead.
646
01:37:32.250 --> 01:37:50.829
kentjenkins: So, this is Kent Jenkins. Again, I am a member of the Building the Commons Committee, and one of the pleasures and privileges I've had is to watch two of our sitting council members and how they engage with the committee, the time they spend on it, and realize that this is only one of
647
01:37:50.990 --> 01:38:05.130
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kentjenkins: dozens of committees and meetings that they go to on a weekly basis, and I don't know how anybody without some outside support system could exist and do this kind of work on the amount of money that they get now.
648
01:38:05.440 --> 01:38:16.620
kentjenkins: So what that means, of course, is that anyone who's not in a privileged position to have their time subsidized is unable to serve, and we obviously could use some diversity in our
649
01:38:16.750 --> 01:38:36.440
kentjenkins: Board and in our people who serve the city. So I think the rate increase makes a minimal sense and certainly opens the pool to people who might actually make a few dollars per hour to actually serve our city and take the time to understand all the issues and research things the way they should. Thank you.
650
01:38:37.020 --> 01:38:42.769
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will come back into chambers if there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public comment.
651
01:38:42.910 --> 01:38:45.809
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: seeing it, I'll go back. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead 652
01:38:48.480 --> 01:39:01.640
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Hi, I hadn't planned on making a comment on this. My name is Janelle Robentini. My father spent 20 years on this council and served a few terms as mayor, and I've lived in this town a week shy of 59 years. 653
01:39:01.890 --> 01:39:02.790
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yeah.
654
01:39:03.100 --> 01:39:05.379
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I think $900 is a lot of money. 655
01:39:05.580 --> 01:39:10.220
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: As I remember serving on this council, and this is not to diminish what you do, because it's
656
01:39:10.620 --> 01:39:23.130
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: truly appreciate it. But, as I remember, serving on the Council is done because of how much we love our city and the passion that we have for our city. I know that's what my dad and fellow council people 657
01:39:23.380 --> 01:39:27.169
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: over those 20 years. That's that's just the way they worked. And
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658
01:39:27.320 --> 01:39:29.619
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And yeah, it's, it's not your full659 01:39:30.030 --> 01:39:32.959
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and it can't be your full-time job, and I just 660
01:39:33.670 --> 01:39:35.679
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Unfortunately, that's just the way it is. 661
01:39:35.890 --> 01:39:39.359
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So I just felt like I needed to say something about that.
662
01:39:39.470 --> 01:39:46.200
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: truly not to diminish. I know I'm repeating myself now what I've already said, because you are very valuable. 663
01:39:46.560 --> 01:39:47.230
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But.

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664

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01:39:48.030 --> 01:39:49.769
SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: with alltheotherfinancial. 665
01:39:50.290 --> 01:39:54.300
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: obstacles right now. I think that $900 is 666
01:39:54.510 --> 01:39:57.480
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: a lot more than most people in town think. 667
01:39:57.760 --> 01:39:58.799
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: It should be.
668
01:39:59.310 --> 01:40:00.000
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thanks.
669
01:40:00.690 --> 01:40:08.070
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Janelle, for your public comment.

Next, I will go back out to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to make a public comment, to please raise your hand virtually
670
01:40:08.860 --> 01:40:12.009
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I will come back into chambers, if there's anyone in
671
01:40:12.420 --> 01:40:14.729
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, public comment is closed on this item.
672
01:40:15.950 --> 01:40:24.460
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, bringing it back to council for further comments and or a motion. But before you make a motion, I'd like to make a comment. So 673
01:40:24.960 --> 01:40:26.660
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Anyone else have a comment. 674
01:40:27.470 --> 01:40:28.610
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So, I hope.
675
01:40:30.270 --> 01:40:41.509
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:WhatIhadsaidbefore,we definitely doneed diversity of perspective. We don't have anyone serving in any capacity that I know of that's lower than 50 years old.

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676
01:40:41.510 --> 01:40:58.099
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So if we really want to start bringing in diverse voices and we're talking about people who are literally, literally living on the margins, the Bipoc community, the queer, the trans, those with disabilities, we really, really need to start thinking about what it is that we're doing to allow them. 677
01:40:58.100 --> 01:41:17.319
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: to sit here or sit on the planning commission or sit on anythingquitehonestly. SoIknow we'rein a financialsetof circumstances. Well, tobe honest, it's going to take a lot of people with a lot of time to continue digging us out of the situation that we're in. So those are my comments, and I will be supporting this. Thank you.

Councilmember Hinton.
678
01:41:18.390 --> 01:41:35.640
Neysa Hinton: Yes, I didn't have the opportunity to participate, the last time this came up. I did askfortheagenda tobereshuffled, and Iwas denied, soI'mweighingin on this forthe first time, and I have to say, I'm not supportive of this. I, 679
01:41:35.760 --> 01:41:55.440
Neysa Hinton: I don't believe people run for city council for money. I don't think money is the motivation. And if I thought it was, I might feel differently. But having served onthe council for 10 years, I think that we serve because we're serving our community. 680
01:41:55.440 --> 01:41:56.880
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Neysa Hinton: I don't know that…
681
01:41:56.930 --> 01:42:15.750
Neysa Hinton: this kind of a raise, giving ourselves a three-time raise, 217% increase, at this time makes sense. I would be willing to support a lower amount, but to go to the maximum of $950, I just cannot support that with where the city is 682
01:42:15.750 --> 01:42:18.630
Neysa Hinton: with thefiscalcrisis, so.
683
01:42:19.040 --> 01:42:25.140
Neysa Hinton: I, Iwish Ihad been abletoweigh in when this was directed tostaffand 684
01:42:25.680 --> 01:42:31.609
Neysa Hinton: Leaves me a little in an uncomfortable spot tonight, but, I will not be supporting it.
685
01:42:34.840 --> 01:42:40.620
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Carter? Councilmember Carter yeah, I would have supported a more gradual increase.

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01:42:40.870 --> 01:42:45.129
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But it… kind of all or nothing, but we… we definitely need…
687
01:42:45.560 --> 01:42:50.099
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: quality people to come up and serve, and I don't think that
688
01:42:51.500 --> 01:43:00.370
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Monetary compensation is needed for the people that are maybe younger, that have a lot of other things going on to make it worth it, because…
689
01:43:00.540 --> 01:43:09.090
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I think I spent… 40 hours crammed into 2 days a week dealing with the city for for.
690
01:43:10.080 --> 01:43:17.439
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: For $300, and that is about love, but not everybody can love it that hard.
691
01:43:19.090 --> 01:43:26.769
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City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And, you know, I think, you know, if we're gonna attract, you know, some people with, like, full families and full lives. 692
01:43:26.910 --> 01:43:31.619
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: That little bit of compensation kind of, like, eases the pain.
693
01:43:31.690 --> 01:43:34.849
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: On, on, on that. And so that's why I'm supporting it.
694
01:43:34.890 --> 01:43:44.699
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So we we did have a pretty full discussion on this a month or more ago, and there were many reasons that we gave why we were in support of it, and
695
01:43:44.730 --> 01:43:59.309
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: One of the reasons is in 1984, when this rate was established, it was $300 in 1984. If you escalate that to 2026, the amount is actually 950.

So what $300 could have bought
696
01:43:59.310 --> 01:44:06.170
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: back in 1984, 950 could buy today. So to me, that's a respectful point of view.
697
01:44:06.410 --> 01:44:10.469
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and for all the other reasons that this law was established. So
698
01:44:10.660 --> 01:44:16.619
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I mean, for example, I think in 1984 you could rent a one bedroom studio for $300.
699
01:44:17.460 --> 01:44:30.900
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and I don't even think you can do that today. to me it's it's about equity, and it's about respect. So I will be supporting this. But so I would prefer to just support the full rate.
700
01:44:31.160 --> 01:44:41.790
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: rather than lower it at this time, and I'm wondering if we should wait, and for Mayor Mick Lewis to be joining us to make this decision. 701
01:44:43.920 --> 01:44:59.549
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: or yeah, what are you? I'm just asking what your thoughts are. We all have lives, and most of us do the best we can to make every meeting, Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
but it's almost impossible to do so. So I'm going to again state my support and state it for the full amount.
702
01:45:00.180 --> 01:45:01.570
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Is there a motion? 703
01:45:01.860 --> 01:45:04.849
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So moved. I'm moving Staff's recommendation. 704
01:45:05.090 --> 01:45:08.020
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and I'll second that. Can we take a roll call, please.
705
01:45:08.630 --> 01:45:20.000
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. So moved by Councilmember Zolman, and seconded by Vice Mayor Maurer to approve the waiving of the 1st reading introduction of ordinance for city council compensation in the amount as proposed as 950. 706
01:45:20.410 --> 01:45:24.050
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Carter? Yes. Councilmember Hinton?
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
707
01:45:24.050 --> 01:45:24.860
Neysa Hinton: No.
708
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Zollman? Yes. Vice Mayor Maurer? Yes. Mayor McLewis is absent. The motion passes 3-1-1 with Councilmembers Carter, Zollman, and Vice Mayor Maurer in support. Councilmember Hinton in opp 709
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, thank you.
710
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So our next item is the discussion and consideration of thesuspension ofthetiered waterrates and fiscalyear2627. Waterrate increases effective. July first, untilsuch a time that a newwater rate study can be completed.
711
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Good evening again. Vice Mayor Council members. So
712
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Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: As the Vice Mayor stated, this proposed resolution tonight would do 2 things. First, st it would suspend the the city's tiered water rates in the city's tiered water rates. City has 2.
713
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: charges a monthly rate that's divided into… there's a fixed cost that's based on the size of the meter, and then there is a charge that's based on the amount of water used. That rate differs depending onwhat type of customer you are, and what
714
01:46:39.090 --> 01:46:46.609
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: how much water you use. So suspending those rates would make everyone pay the same amount of
715
01:46:46.910 --> 01:46:57.110
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: same rate for water use. There would be no change to the fixed monthly cost that is based on the meter size. 716
01:46:57.320 --> 01:47:08.809
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: There's a chart at the bottom of the staff report that shows what that would be, what the current rates are, and what the proposed rates would be. The proposed
717
01:47:10.070 --> 01:47:21.389
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: rate for a thousand gallons of water would be $5 and 22 cents for all customers. The second part of this resolution would 718
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: suspend the anticipated, or rather scheduled, water rate increase that was to go into effect on July 1st, 2026. Basedon the 719
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SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:Schedule five-year schedule of rates that the council approved back in 2024, there was anticipated to be a 4% rate increase. 720
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: on July first.st If the Council adopts this resolution, that rate increase would be suspended. And so the 2, 2025 rates would continue to apply for the fixed monthly charge as well as the 721
01:48:01.280 --> 01:48:03.800
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: rate based on the amount of water used. 722
01:48:04.520 --> 01:48:06.720
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And the council,
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
723
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: met in closed session last week to discuss issues regarding water and sewer rates and under threats of litigation that the Council has received. And during that meeting the Council directed Staff to do 4 things. 1st was to create an issue, an Rfp. For a new water and sewer rate study. 724
01:48:26.960 --> 01:48:35.879
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Second was to create an interesting RFP for a new cost allocation plan for the water and sewer enterprise funds and what they, 725
01:48:36.680 --> 01:48:41.100
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: how they reimburse the general fund for services provided by the general fund.
726
01:48:41.350 --> 01:48:44.489
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And then to bring this item forward tonight. 727
01:48:44.590 --> 01:48:48.250
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: That's scheduled tonight, and then on July 21st, to bring forward,
728
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Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: agenda item to forgive the loan that the General Fund previously made to the Sewer Enterprise Fund.
729
01:48:56.320 --> 01:49:01.439
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So, tonight, the only action before the Council is the resolution.
730
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But Ido want to touch on briefly, as the Council is aware, and as Maryhasindicated previously, Citystaffhas taken, steps tobegin the process of implementingtimetracking. Staffhas evaluated a coupleof 731
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Options, and providers. They've met with Springbook, to see how this could be incorporated into the current payroll system.

Springbook ispreparingademo forstaffto look at.
732
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and part of why the Council has directed the freeze.
733
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Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And for the freeze to apply into the water rate study comes into, is updated is so that.
734
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Staff has time toimplement these changes that we can bring on a consultant who can let us know exactly how much, you know, what period of time of time tracking is necessary before that can be implemented into study is, you know, one month enough to should it go on for a longer period of time, those sorts of things.
735
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And then…
736
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: you know, the the new cost allocation plan and rate study potentially go hand in hand. The cost allocation plan might impact the rate study by, you know.
737
01:50:19.420 --> 01:50:25.520
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Depending on what it says, you know, lowering the rates that are necessary or increasing it.
738
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Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: you know, we'll have to wait to see what a rate study says. But that item before the Council tonight is a resolution to suspend the rate increase that would have gone into effect July 1.
739
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And to eliminate the tiered water rates. 740
01:50:45.040 --> 01:51:02.339
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And so with that, I will pause to see if there's any questions from the Council tonight. Just one thing I add, this will have a fiscal impact. The staff report details what that would be, as does the agenda. That physical impact is assuming a full…
741
01:51:02.560 --> 01:51:12.839
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: you know, remains in effect for the full year. But of course, if… if the studyis adopted sooner, it may, the impact may bedifferent. 742
01:51:14.180 --> 01:51:17.250
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So with that I'll pause for any questions the Council may have.
743
01:51:18.910 --> 01:51:21.480
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Is there any questions? Councilmember Carter.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
744
01:51:23.310 --> 01:51:24.060
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: No.
745
01:51:24.440 --> 01:51:25.160
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Oh.
746
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, Councilmember Hinton. 747
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Neysa Hinton: So, I'm looking at the agenda item, and it just says, to eliminate tiered, but 748
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Neysa Hinton: what? How does that impact our commercial haulers that buy water from city of Sebastopol? They're
749
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Neysa Hinton: tiered, as far as I know, as well. Does that mean that we're eliminating tiered for water haulers?
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
750
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yes, everyone would be paid this would, pay the same rate.
751
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Regardless of use class, or… 752
01:52:08.840 --> 01:52:14.550
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: how much water is used. They pay the same $5.22 per 1,000 gallons of water.
753
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Neysa Hinton: Okay. And then Alex, can you speak to when we voted in tiered rates, that was an option that other cities used and was given to us as. 754
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I had…
755
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Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Neysa Hinton: It felt like it was okay, authorized to me. I frankly voted for it. It made sense to me. You use more, you pay more. I remember the discussion at length. And now we've been advised that
756
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Neysa Hinton: tiered is not the best option. And so this is a recommendation from tonight to change that from our previous advice that we were given, correct? 757
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yeah, yeah, correct. And, but to add some nuance to it, so tiered rates are.
758
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: are legal and remain legal if the tiers are based on 759
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: different costs that apply to serving the different tiers of rates.
760
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Our rate study establishes tiers based on Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
761
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Peaking costs, which to oversimplify is essentially saying.
762
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: you know, system designed to serve, you know, the maximum demand. System has to be bigger, there are bigger costs, and you assign those costs, some of those costs to high…
763
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: high volume users, because if everyone used less, then you could have, you know, smaller pumps, smaller pipes, that sort of thing. So that's the design of what our study was designed on. Since the time our 764
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Study was adopted and those rates were adopted.

There's been three decisions issued at the court of opinion dealing with tiered water rates.

Two of them struck down the tiers as saying the agency involved hadn't met its burden to show.
765
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: that the tiers corresponded to increased costs.

Those two cases had to do with, with
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
766
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Agencies who base their fees on peaking costs just like we do.
767
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: A 3rd agency's rates were upheld by the Court of Appeal. Thatcasehas been, youknow, there's now a differenceof opinion amongcourts of appeal about what is required, what the standard of review is. And so that case has been 768
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, California Supreme Court, has taken up the case to answer that question, but a decision is not expected.
769
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: for, you know, 18 plus months on that, and so I think.
770
01:54:58.850 --> 01:55:03.390
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I wouldn't necessarily say our, our current rates are illegal. I would say that.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

771
Agenda Item Number 1
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the law is less clear than it was at the time, and the Council has decided, rather than wait that amount of time for the Supreme Court's decision to instead, you know, proactively address this issue, given the recent court cases. 772
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Neysa Hinton: Thank you for the detailed explanation.
773
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Other questions?
774
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, we can go out to public comment. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So this is public comment on the agenda item relating to the resolution, regarding the water rates effective July 1st, removal of the tiered rates.If you would like to make a public comment, I will come to in-chambers first. 775
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I will go out to Zoom. Kate, can you unmute yourself.
776
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: There you go. Can you see the timer? Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
777
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kate: Yes, I just want to say that.
778
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kate: I have submitted in public comment a comprehensive forecast of what will happen with just freezing rates and suspending the tiers. I hope everyone reads it. It is a data-driven document that shows how the city can restore the 5.5 million dollars identified 779
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kate: by the grand jury, continue with infrastructure upgrades, remove tiers, and keep water and sewer rates static for five years if necessary. The city attorney has identified tiered rates as legally vulnerable. The council, as advocates for the city, want to remove the tiers to protect the city from lawsuits. This is an example where there's a conflict of interest between the city's
780
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kate: duty to the city and the city's fiduciary duty to the rate payers. 781
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kate: This action of simply reducing revenue is not good for the Enterprise Fund or the ratepayers. It runs the risks of jeopardizing needed infrastructure repair, which was identifiedby DirectorHart.
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
782
01:57:00.260 --> 01:57:08.769
kate: The city is in a legal pickle with the grand jury and with its tiered rates because it never had a ratepayer advocate group like it does now.
783
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kate: The Efoc is an advocate group for ratepayers and for the enterprise funds. I'm an advocate for ratepayers, and I cannot support this proposal to simply reduce revenue. In addition, the
784
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kate: efoc never recommended a new rate study. We recommended reduction of expenses, the repayment of illegal fees which I mentioned earlier. Please have Alex show the invoices that he actually did that work.
785
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kate: And we recommended time tracking, which I'm very happy to hear the city starting to implement. Obviously, you would need to time track for at least 786
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kate: 6 months to get an accurate data on how much time is spent on water and sewer.

Thank you.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
787
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will come back into chambers if there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public comment. Seeing none, I'll go out to Zoom. Lee, can you unmute yourself. 788
01:58:04.820 --> 01:58:05.850
Lee: Yes.
789
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Can you still see the timer? 790
01:58:07.450 --> 01:58:08.180
Lee: Yes.
791
01:58:08.180 --> 01:58:09.109
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Go ahead, please. 792
01:58:10.490 --> 01:58:24.650
Lee: Yeah, I think just deciding unilaterally to freeze rates or eliminate tiers is wrong on several levels. As Kate said, the EFC didn't even imagine that as an option, it's so bad. They had a list of recommendations for different
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
793
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Lee: changes that would make us move more towards prop 2, 18 and prop 26 compliance, and at the same time balance off the need to remove tiers and freeze rates. 794
01:58:38.600 --> 01:58:58.449
Lee: about 6 years ago, I think, and I'm sure Councilmember Hinton was there. I don't know who else was there, but the Council at the time voted to reduce rates, I think, in that case, to give some relief to people coming out of Covid that rapidly depleted the reserves both for the water and the sewer. The sewer went a million dollars in debt. 795
01:58:58.450 --> 01:59:15.250
Lee: The water went almost bankrupt, almost to 0. And one of the reasons we have such high rates right now is because there was an urgent need to replenish those reserves to get us back in a situation where you can borrow money for well 4, for example. So there's a consequence to these kinds of decisions.
796
01:59:15.250 --> 01:59:18.650
Lee: This decision, you'll be back below.
797
01:59:18.650 --> 01:59:21.950
Lee: You'll deplete the reserves entirely within 3 years.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
798
01:59:22.030 --> 01:59:25.270
Lee: 3 years with this decision. So you got to think about that. 799
01:59:25.360 --> 01:59:28.970
Lee: but.
800
01:59:32.140 --> 01:59:34.810
Lee: I guess that's that's my basic comment. Thank you. 801
01:59:35.560 --> 01:59:43.850
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Lee, for your public comment. Next, I will come back into chambers if there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public comment. Seeing none, I'll go back out. M.
802
01:59:45.650 --> 01:59:48.479
Mary Meihaus: Yes. Hello, can you hear me?
803
01:59:48.480 --> 01:59:50.320
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I can hear you. Can you see the timer.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

804
Agenda Item Number 1
01:59:50.320 --> 01:59:51.300
Mary Meihaus: Yes, I can.
805
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Go ahead.
806
01:59:52.590 --> 02:00:12.479
Mary Meihaus: Thank you. I just wanted to say that this is such an important decision, and as the Enterprise Fund Oversight Committee member, I'm disappointed that a lot of actually most of our recommendations are not being followed through and are not 807
02:00:13.140 --> 02:00:19.420
Mary Meihaus: being discussed, and it's… he's… Other…
808
02:00:19.680 --> 02:00:38.290
Mary Meihaus: other avenues of resolution that are being focused on. So, it's great that we're talking about the water tiers and reducing them is really important, but we did not recommend a new case study until time tracking and sewer master plan and the grand jury restitution was implemented.
809
02:00:38.430 --> 02:00:49.900
Mary Meihaus: And… We… We wouldn't… sorry, I'm just… I need to look at my notes here, we…
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
810
02:00:51.540 --> 02:00:57.020
Mary Meihaus: We just don't. We want to see our recommendations to the Council. 811
02:00:57.540 --> 02:01:06.820
Mary Meihaus: be the forefront of these conversations, and, that's not what I'm hearing.

So… That's.
812
02:01:07.020 --> 02:01:12.609
Mary Meihaus: That's all I wanted to say. Actually, this was my comment. Thank you. Sorry, my notes aren't coming up as…
813
02:01:12.790 --> 02:01:14.999
Mary Meihaus: Well, as I hope so. Thank you so much.
814
02:01:15.330 --> 02:01:23.720
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will come back into chambers if there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public comment. Seeing none, I'll go out to Zoom. Kyle, can you. 815
02:01:24.510 --> 02:01:25.190
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Kyle Falbo: I can.
816
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Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Can you see the timer. 817
02:01:26.890 --> 02:01:27.500
Kyle Falbo: I can.
818
02:01:27.500 --> 02:01:28.630
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Great. Go ahead, please. 819
02:01:28.990 --> 02:01:33.330
Kyle Falbo: So we've been talking about this now pretty consistently for a couple of months. 820
02:01:34.250 --> 02:01:37.760
Kyle Falbo: The council questions that I continue to hear. 821
02:01:37.870 --> 02:01:51.580
Kyle Falbo: I'm really boggled by. What they suggest to me is a lack of understanding of the issue, and it suggests to me that the council hasn't done a deep enough dive into this issue Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
822
02:01:51.580 --> 02:01:59.599
Kyle Falbo: Because the questions that they're asking suggest that they haven't read the reports, that they haven't dug into this well enough to understand. 823
02:01:59.650 --> 02:02:15.879
Kyle Falbo: And I don't know if it's because you're trying to protect yourself from the fact that you failed your fiduciary duty to protect the enterprise fund overthe last 9 years, as the cost allocation has skyrocketed.
824
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Kyle Falbo: And to the point where you're watching hundreds of thousands of dollars bleed into the general fund to support things like the city council budget, and that you didn't see that, right? And that you weren't looking for that, and you weren't asking about that for the last 9 years.
825
02:02:31.740 --> 02:02:33.879
Kyle Falbo: To the point where we are at now.
826
02:02:34.140 --> 02:02:45.070
Kyle Falbo: $5.5 million of misallocated funds. So, the kind of little chisel away at solutions that you're continuing to do at this point.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
827
02:02:45.250 --> 02:02:50.959
Kyle Falbo: Without looking at what you've failed to do over the last 9 years. 828
02:02:51.070 --> 02:03:02.150
Kyle Falbo: That's the troubling part. And if playing naive and asking questions that seem like you're ignorant to the issue is a way to protect yourself, so be it. 829
02:03:02.420 --> 02:03:19.710
Kyle Falbo: But just know that you have $5.5 million of ratepayer monies that was misallocated to the general fund. So, the decision tonight, we need to consider the fact that if you don't misallocate money in the future, what does it actually cost? 830
02:03:19.790 --> 02:03:30.100
Kyle Falbo: to run the water district and the wastewater district. And I assure you, it costs far less when you stop misallocating funds to the general fund. 831
02:03:31.310 --> 02:03:43.869
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Kyle, for your public comment. Next, I will bring it back to the chambers, if there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public comment. Seeing none, I will go back out to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to make a public comment, to please raise your hand Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

832

Agenda Item Number 1
02:03:44.330 --> 02:03:49.679
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, public comment is closed on this item. Thank you so much. Councilmember comments?
833
02:03:50.130 --> 02:03:52.909
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Zolman. Yes, 834
02:03:53.470 --> 02:04:09.880
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Appreciate all the ongoing public comment here tonight, and all of it that we've received. I appreciate the Water and Sewer Oversight Committee's work. I do believe that Staff's recommendation, which, as Alex pointed out, this might be brief discussion now, has not been brief discussion. 835
02:04:10.100 --> 02:04:11.500
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Close session.
836
02:04:12.570 --> 02:04:23.830
SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: was verythorough, and IthinkthatStaff's recommendations will bring us closer to 218 compliance. And also I think it does make sense
837
02:04:23.830 --> 02:04:46.770
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: from a legal point of view, given the split in authority of these past court cases, that we do try to come correct and anticipate the worst possible thing that could happen if the Supreme Court rules like that. Everything is not great. At least we've made steps. We've made steps with the new cost allocation, and I understand that there were many comments out there. The fact that you can't do a 838
02:04:46.770 --> 02:04:48.880
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Do cost allocation without. 839
02:04:48.900 --> 02:05:08.709
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Tracking staff time. I get that we heard from Mary. They are going to try to do that. And the most important thing that I think is missing in this is the fact that, yes, Alexdid say part of what the staff's recommendation is, is to bring in a consultant to tell us how long should we be doing this time tracking with Springbok? 840
02:05:08.710 --> 02:05:22.649
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Should it be a month? Should it be six months? We're now going to be relying on a consultant through an RFP process to guide us into the direction where I'm hoping that we can be where everybody wants us to be. 841
02:05:22.910 --> 02:05:33.839
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: just by way of what's right, and then also by way of Prop 218. And yes, I do understand what Alex said, that doing a cost allocation repeat is Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

842

Agenda Item Number 1
02:05:33.840 --> 02:05:49.470
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: tied together with the rate study as well. Those two make sense, so I think Staff's recommendation is the best that we can get, the best that I can get, based upon the advice that's been provided, so I will be supporting this tonight.
843
02:05:53.580 --> 02:05:55.020
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Carter. 844
02:05:56.780 --> 02:06:03.789
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So I I if if I could slightly speak for the Efoc, I I think the the things that
845
02:06:04.710 --> 02:06:14.909
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Kate and Mary are trying to bring up is if we're taking money away from the, the, income source, which is what freezing rates does. 846
02:06:15.150 --> 02:06:17.400
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We're not feeding back into it. 847
02:06:17.540 --> 02:06:25.529
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So we're only reducing the revenue. We're not adding to the revenue. So we need to make sure that we're thinking about both sides of it.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
848
02:06:25.910 --> 02:06:29.180
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Their, their hope is. 849
02:06:29.590 --> 02:06:37.340
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The the committee's hope is that we attribute some money back into the enterprise funds in some fashion. 850
02:06:38.140 --> 02:06:46.070
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I do support cutting the tiered race, because I'm not 100%, you know, I don't think those are right. And then, the… 851
02:06:46.300 --> 02:06:59.460
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Freezing of the rates. I would like to freeze those until we are absolutely clear of what things cost. So I do support those. But then there also has to be some way to make sure that the enterprise fund is whole. 852
02:06:59.790 --> 02:07:15.020
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And, like, one of our commenters said over… if we do that for very long, like, if we go for 3 or 4 months without making sure the enterprise fund is funded, like, if we're not getting money back into it in some ways.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

853
Agenda Item Number 1
02:07:15.130 --> 02:07:26.469
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: we do jeopardize, like, how we're gonna, you know, do our 10-year plan for all of the projects that we have left to do, which we do have nicely scheduled out, and I appreciate it very much, Public Works. 854
02:07:28.050 --> 02:07:36.300
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So we're, we're doing a great job of getting on top of what we need to do. We know what we need to do as far as infrastructure. I think that that's super positive.
855
02:07:37.140 --> 02:07:44.410
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And when this takes something away, I don't want to not do this tonight, because I feel like we can't add to the… 856
02:07:44.710 --> 02:07:59.519
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: enterprise fund in later days, so this won't be just a one… one-time thing. This is first steps, so we're making a lot of… to one of our other, commenters, we're doing a lot of first steps. A, we have the EFC, that started. 857
02:07:59.760 --> 02:08:13.980
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We're a new council. We weren't here 9 years ago, you know, even if even if one member was, that's still, we still can't really do anything but go forward. So all we can do is try to get a new cap study, which we're going to get.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

858

Agenda Item Number 1
02:08:14.360 --> 02:08:20.210
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And we're gonna, you know, we've already taken, the liar down to, direct timing.
859
02:08:20.280 --> 02:08:33.010
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We're trying to figure out how to direct time some other things in this fiscal year. We just haven't sorted it yet as per staff. So we're gettingto all of the things that we are hoping to get towards.
860
02:08:33.010 --> 02:08:41.260
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: going forward. But it's just going to take a moment, you know, to get there. And I applaud staff for dealing with 861
02:08:41.320 --> 02:08:55.199
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: quite a big hit to its pocket, you know, suddenly.

And it's theright thing to do, and coming rightis genuinely, you know, difficult. And the smoother we can do it, the better, in my book.
862
02:08:55.700 --> 02:09:04.799
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But I do hope that we do address some of the other issues quite soon, because this is just one angle of it. 863
02:09:06.960 --> 02:09:07.920
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you.
864
02:09:08.330 --> 02:09:09.620
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Hinton. 865
02:09:10.970 --> 02:09:14.389
Neysa Hinton: Yeah, I wanted to weigh in.
866
02:09:14.400 --> 02:09:32.319
Neysa Hinton: It's a bit frustrating because, as one council member already said, and the public's aware, we've had a closed session on this, and… and it's not that we're not hearing all the recommendations. We certainly do our homework, have read the grand jury report. 867
02:09:32.490 --> 02:09:37.359
Neysa Hinton: read all the letters that we've gotten by email, but I think 868
02:09:37.520 --> 02:09:50.300
Neysa Hinton: at least speaking for myself, that we're trying to take a step-by-step approach, just because we have all this feedback, we can't implement everything at once. 869
02:09:50.300 --> 02:10:04.380
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Neysa Hinton: And, with the move tonight, we're trying to hold things so that we can take a step-by-step approach. And I know that we've talked about for a year, but once we get to our next step, we might
870
02:10:04.760 --> 02:10:08.839
Neysa Hinton: you know, what would you say? Course correct. 871
02:10:08.840 --> 02:10:33.020
Neysa Hinton: And maybe it isn't for a year. Maybe we're not holding water rates. But I think from my perspective, we're taking a pause. That's appropriate thing to do. We're making some moves based on recommendations like the tiered water rates. Again, I've said even though I voted for it, I had no idea it was flawed. And so as we learn information, we course correct. And that's what we do over time.
872
02:10:33.110 --> 02:10:38.360
Neysa Hinton: And so, I'm going to be supporting this tonight, and I just want to… 873
02:10:38.360 --> 02:10:53.980
Neysa Hinton: Give feedback that I know that we have recommendations now coming from a lot of different areas and we're listening to those but recommendations still we need to makethefinaldecision and that's whatwe'llbevotingon tonight. 874
02:10:56.420 --> 02:11:08.030
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. I have concerns about the loss of potential projects coming up. But I'm also going to support Staff's recommendation, and I'm looking for a motion.
875
02:11:10.110 --> 02:11:12.370
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'll go ahead andmove Staff's recommendation. 876
02:11:13.000 --> 02:11:14.010
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: a second.
877
02:11:15.240 --> 02:11:20.429
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So, moved by Councilmember Zolman, and I'm… and second… I'm sorry.
878
02:11:20.990 --> 02:11:22.920
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Carter. Yeah. 879
02:11:23.060 --> 02:11:27.819
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So so moved by council member. I just want to make sure I have the I
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

880

Agenda Item Number 1
02:11:28.030 --> 02:11:32.650
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Zolman, and then did you? You seconded. Okay, sorry.
881
02:11:32.920 --> 02:11:55.869
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Board & so moved by Councilmember Zolman, and seconded by Councilmember Carter, to approve the resolution to suspend the tiered water ratesand Fy. 2627. Water rate increaseeffective. July first, st until such time that a new water rate study can be completed and request verification by September 1, 2026, following the 1st billing cycle under the new rate study structure. Sorry new rate structure that all water accounts have been reviewed and updated to remove tiered rates. 882
02:11:55.870 --> 02:11:59.850
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And that all customers are billed using the same uniform volumetric rate.
883
02:11:59.850 --> 02:12:04.070
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:Inadditionto the applicable fixedmonthly service charge. Councilmember Carter?
884
02:12:04.940 --> 02:12:06.609
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Yes. Councilmember Hinton.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

885

Agenda Item Number 1
02:12:06.610 --> 02:12:07.540
Neysa Hinton: Aye.
886
02:12:07.540 --> 02:12:17.370
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Zolman? Yes. Vice Mayor Maurer? Yes. Motion passes 3 to… or, sorry, 4 to 1, with Councilmembers Carter, Hinton, Zolman, and Vice Mayor Ma
887
02:12:24.440 --> 02:12:28.870
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, thank you. So moving on. Does anybody need a break before we move on?
888
02:12:30.410 --> 02:12:34.900
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: No, okay. So the next item, not item number 889
02:12:35.120 --> 02:12:52.679
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:11.Considerationofrequestsfordirectionto staff to prepare zoning code map amendments and or return with options to allow commercial outdoor barbecue operations with permits in certain zoning districts or on specialspecific parcels.
890
02:12:54.170 --> 02:13:13.700
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Good evening again. I'll I'llkick this off, and then Jane is available for answering questions as well. So, as the Council is aware, the city previously commenced enforcement action against A and M. Barbecue, because the their current use is not
891
02:13:13.730 --> 02:13:18.059
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: allowed by our current zoning code. 892
02:13:18.300 --> 02:13:37.899
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: city staff subsequently, you know, met with the business owner, and, as happens, you know, somewhat frequently in cities, you know, agreed to suspend enforcement while progress was being made in good faith to, you know, resolving the issue on both sides.
893
02:13:37.970 --> 02:13:39.410
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The…
894
02:13:39.950 --> 02:13:47.930
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Hinton and Councilmember Carter requested this future, this agenda item for the Council to consider whether or not 895
02:13:47.940 --> 02:14:00.980
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:to directstafftoprepare anordinance to change our zoning code so that this business would become either an allowed use or a conditionally allowed use.
896
02:14:01.220 --> 02:14:10.069
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: by way of background. All you know this type of outdoor barbecue use is a conditionally allowed use, and and all of the cities 897
02:14:10.140 --> 02:14:25.839
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: commercial districts, except this particular commercial district. So at a high level, there are 2 ways the city could address this one.

They could allow this type of use as a conditionally allowed use, and 898
02:14:25.930 --> 02:14:26.770
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm
899
02:14:27.660 --> 02:14:39.659
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: of this district as a whole. Alternatively, this particular property could be rezoned in some way to allow this use on only this particular property.
900
02:14:40.390 --> 02:14:55.299
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: either as a permitted use, which would be very unique for the city, or, more commonly, as a conditionally permitted use, in which case, you know, the process to amend the code and for the business to apply for a CUP could happen simultaneously.
901
02:14:55.490 --> 02:14:58.249
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and, you know, condition them. 902
02:14:58.550 --> 02:15:04.300
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: use permit, if approved by the city, could include conditions of approval.
903
02:15:04.690 --> 02:15:14.499
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So this item is before the Council tonight to either givespecificdirection tostaffon preparingan ordinancenow, ortogivedirection, 904
02:15:14.730 --> 02:15:26.480
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: to staff to comeback with a fuller analysis of the 2 options, you know, based on past feedback from Council.You know, Staff did not do that here prior to getting full
905
02:15:26.820 --> 02:15:29.970
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Authority from the council to spend, you know, time.
906
02:15:30.250 --> 02:15:34.310
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: digging into those 2 options and what they what might mean.
907
02:15:34.450 --> 02:15:39.929
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: at a high level. You expect, you know, the environmental review to be more. If you're doing
908
02:15:40.110 --> 02:15:43.199
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: You know, a city-wide, or a zone-wide, rather. 909
02:15:43.460 --> 02:15:50.190
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: amendment rather than a parcel specific amendment. Other impacts might be bigger if you're doing a parcel wide. 910
02:15:50.460 --> 02:16:05.720
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: on the other hand, you know, as a general planning matter, we don't like to rezone one parcel at a time, that may have been designated fora veryspecificreason. Sowith that, I'll pause. I know Jane is here as well to answer any questions that the Council may have.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
911
02:16:06.680 --> 02:16:08.070
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Zelman. 912
02:16:10.310 --> 02:16:29.620
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for the report and trying to do homeworkahead of time. I read the staff report, and then I sent questions to Mary. So I want to know both of the options, I think, are great, because my primary concern is about public health, and I said to evaluate both of the options that are in the staff report. 913
02:16:29.950 --> 02:16:47.530
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: what would be the attorney amount of time? And she said it would be 3 hours. Is that right? That's correct. So my role would just be helping to, you know, review what environmental review would be necessary, and reviewing draft ordinances.
914
02:16:47.530 --> 02:16:59.540
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the planning department would be doing most of the work and analysis. Okay. Then I wanted to know the pros and cons of both the options that are set forth in thestaff report, and it sounded like from Mary. 915
02:17:00.469 --> 02:17:15.609
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: she couldn't pontificate on that until you do the analysis, if we give you the 3 hours, is that right? Well, and I think it's more of if you give… Mira, I don't know if you put inthere the staff time for planning, more if you give 916
02:17:16.299 --> 02:17:41.220
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: authorize the planning department to spend the time to do it. They'll be doing more of that analysis of the pros and cons of both options.

Okay. And then my last one, either if we go with both of them, then whatever option you bringbackwillbeabletospecificallyaddress thepublichealth issue. Becauseforme, again, that's my primary concern. Is that a yes? Yes. So yes. And just to clarify, both options 917
02:17:41.219 --> 02:17:48.470
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: There would have to be some sort of environmental review that would depend on what option was and also a CUP. 918
02:17:48.469 --> 02:17:57.479
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: comes, you know, through the Planning Commission, or potentially the Council, for individual review and individual conditions of approval. Okay, thanks.
919
02:17:59.139 --> 02:18:01.250
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Are we having technical problems? 920
02:18:01.450 --> 02:18:02.340
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Cody.
921
02:18:05.540 --> 02:18:12.459
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay? Because every once in a while the screen turns blue and Okay.
922
02:18:14.430 --> 02:18:16.250
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Other questions.
923
02:18:19.080 --> 02:18:22.210
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I would like to know an estimate of the planning. 924
02:18:22.540 --> 02:18:31.810
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: a department hourly. How many hours they think this would take for them to bring something back to the Council with options. 925
02:18:40.820 --> 02:18:47.999
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thanks for the question. We estimate whenever we have to bring an item that includes
926
02:18:48.000 --> 02:19:04.659
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:research,andpreparationofstaffreportfor PlanningCommission and fortheCityCouncil, it's goingtobeabout20hours of stafftime, so it kind of depends on how you structure this. If you want us to just bring back options to 927
02:19:04.870 --> 02:19:18.930
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: the City Council, it would be less expensive if you wanted us to go ahead and prepare something and take it to the Planning Commission for recommendation before coming back, it would be the full 20 hours. Well, what would be your estimate for just bringing back options?
928
02:19:21.420 --> 02:19:24.240
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Probably 12 to 16. 929
02:19:28.450 --> 02:19:29.420
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you.
930
02:19:30.290 --> 02:19:31.779
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Carter. 931
02:19:32.160 --> 02:19:35.399
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So just just remind me about the Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
932
02:19:36.129 --> 02:19:43.740
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The process here for a temporary reprieve, or is this permitting, like, Permanent.
933
02:19:46.340 --> 02:19:51.659
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So the options before you would be permanent changes to the
934
02:19:51.770 --> 02:19:59.300
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: zoning code. And you know, if a use permit is issued, that's a permanent right to continue that that use. 935
02:20:01.080 --> 02:20:01.850
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay.
936
02:20:05.790 --> 02:20:08.599
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So Council Member Hinton. 937
02:20:11.720 --> 02:20:27.509
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Neysa Hinton: Yeah, so since I'm not there tonight, I wonder if the city has any updates on this, because there are a lot of rumors out there all over social media, related to the business, and I'm not sure the business is represented tonight, so… 938
02:20:27.510 --> 02:20:32.679
Neysa Hinton: I'm just curious. I, I don't want to authorize, 939
02:20:32.680 --> 02:20:46.989
Neysa Hinton: large number of staff hours totry to come up with solutions and mitigation for the business that was before us weeks ago with a room full of people saying how they love Sebastopol and they wanted to stay there.
940
02:20:47.240 --> 02:20:58.070
Neysa Hinton: and I don't wanna, you know, sometimes I feel like we… we… government moves slower, soherewearenow,bringingbacka staffitem, and Idon'twanna… 941
02:20:58.370 --> 02:21:11.649
Neysa Hinton: do it in a silo, and then all of a sudden we approve this tonight, and all of a sudden, you know, something comes out in two days that show that we were just clueless.

So,
942
02:21:11.650 --> 02:21:23.809
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Neysa Hinton: anyway, as Councilmember Carter and I brought back, maybe we can hear from Mary an update about what we know about what's happening today with this business. Are they
943
02:21:24.050 --> 02:21:34.410
Neysa Hinton: wanting to stay in Sebastopol? Are they wanting us to look at zoning options for this property? Where are we at with things? Because I want to make sure that 944
02:21:34.900 --> 02:21:37.200
Neysa Hinton: We're doing things appropriately.
945
02:21:37.620 --> 02:21:52.049
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: My understanding is that they have been looking at locations. They've been out searching at certain locations. They have not found a suitable location, is my understanding. I have not gone any further than that. We do have a representative.
946
02:21:52.050 --> 02:22:03.360
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I don't know, Kristen, if you have any additional information, but maybe during public comment, but my understanding is that they have been trying to find additional location that works for them, but I do not know anything beyond that.
947
02:22:08.050 --> 02:22:11.439
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, so we can go out to public comment, please.
948
02:22:13.410 --> 02:22:15.780
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So this is public comment. 949
02:22:16.040 --> 02:22:21.149
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: for the, A&M discussion of the direction for A&M property location.
950
02:22:21.580 --> 02:22:27.360
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We will do chambers first, and then go out to Zoom, and there's a 2-minute time limit. So, Kristen, if 951
02:22:27.360 --> 02:22:44.350
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Kirsten Lange, President of the Santa Rosa Sonoma County Branch of the NAACP, here before you, not explicitly speaking on behalf of the business, as they have representatives in Zoom who will be joining in and speaking more explicitly. But I will say, you all have dragged the cart. 952
02:22:44.740 --> 02:23:07.569
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: andas a city staff tryingto allocate time and designating the business as such is going to hinder their ability to get the support that they Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
actually need to function. They're looking for a conditional use permit in order to operate their business, to save the capital that they need to move outside of your city. Your decisions and your actions have made it untenable for them to stay in this location. 953
02:23:07.570 --> 02:23:30.549
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And if the staff time is an issue, then perhaps you need to reallocate your priorities and really think clearly on how you're operating as a city and being more effective with the time use. Because if council members have time and if your building department director has time to drop in and tell them that they're not gonna approve the permits, then I think you need to really rethink how people are using their work time and workplace opportunities.
954
02:23:30.770 --> 02:23:55.220
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: this business has brought in a ton of tourism to this area as a representative, as a 5th district appointee to the Sonoma County Tourism Board have let alone seen the increase that this business has brought in to Sebastopol. I can say that you all are dragging heels on being supportive of a business in your area, and it's unfortunate that they have to look outside of your community because you've allowed 955
02:23:55.220 --> 02:23:59.260
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:foroutside influencesfromfolkswho previously sat on your dais.
956
02:23:59.260 --> 02:24:23.380
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: to conditionally change your opinion on how you look at you support your small businesses and I think that above all else is really where Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
you've misstepped and where you have an opportunity to course correct is approving a conditional permit for them to operate their business at the highest potential to maximize their capital because they are going to leave your city there's no opportunity for them to stay here if they're going to continue to receive
957
02:24:23.420 --> 02:24:27.800
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Critical criticism and be a topic of discussion at your meetings.
958
02:24:29.220 --> 02:24:33.470
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I'll go out to Zoom. Oliver, can you unmute yourself.
959
02:24:33.780 --> 02:24:35.239
Oliver: Yep, I'm unmuted.
960
02:24:35.240 --> 02:24:36.580
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Can you see the timer? 961
02:24:36.580 --> 02:24:37.440
Oliver: I can now, yeah.

Agenda Item Number 1
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Agenda Item Number 1
962
02:24:37.440 --> 02:24:38.620
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Right, go ahead, please. 963
02:24:38.620 --> 02:24:48.150
Oliver: So my understanding is this business started completely illegally, without any permits or anything, in an area which they're not authorized to 964
02:24:48.200 --> 02:25:00.339
Oliver: do what they're doing. So, given the city has to spend all this time and money, maybe they should split the costs with the business, so they can actually come together responsiblyand figureouta solution tothis.
965
02:25:00.520 --> 02:25:17.069
Oliver: Because it seems to me that the barbecue business has done incredibly well publicising themselves on local TV channels and so on as victims, left, right and centre, but I'm not quite sure they've been actually playing the game very well in terms of working closely with the city.
966
02:25:17.070 --> 02:25:29.750
Oliver: So, all this idea that the city is dragging its feet and so on, I mean, it's a reactive… it seems to me it's a reaction to a business that should never have been operating at the level it does in the location it's in currently.

Agenda Item Number 1
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Agenda Item Number 1
967
02:25:29.760 --> 02:25:34.460
Oliver: And then, of course, there's a huge issue with the local neighbours who 968
02:25:34.580 --> 02:25:39.089
Oliver: You know, don't want to have smoke pouring through their windows every morning. 969
02:25:39.220 --> 02:25:49.280
Oliver: So this is a mess. I'm not quite sure where to go with this, but my recommendation is the business in good faith should be contributing a substantial amount of money to resolve this issue. Thank you.
970
02:25:55.880 --> 02:25:56.909
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Are we good, Cody 971
02:26:01.860 --> 02:26:02.940
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Oh!
972
02:26:13.820 --> 02:26:15.880
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilman Benton, can you hear us okay Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

973
Agenda Item Number 1
02:26:17.190 --> 02:26:26.970
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, we're having a little technical issues here inside, so for those members on Zoom that can hear, we will… we're trying to get the Zoom back up on our screen in here.
974
02:26:29.260 --> 02:26:30.280
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you.
975
02:26:31.880 --> 02:26:33.770
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So, I will come back into chambers. 976
02:26:35.570 --> 02:26:38.770
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Hi, I'm Doug Yule. I live on Petalum Aven 977
02:26:39.250 --> 02:26:42.659
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: In this case, rezoning proposal is a red herring. 978
02:26:43.390 --> 02:26:46.350
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The current zoning is not the problem. 979
02:26:47.120 --> 02:26:50.940
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Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: A&M barbecue restaurant is not, per se, the problem.
980
02:26:51.120 --> 02:26:54.510
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The problem is the impact of the smoke. 981
02:26:54.650 --> 02:26:59.730
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: from the bar, from the restaurant smokers on the surrounding community community.
982
02:27:01.910 --> 02:27:06.800
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: No matter the zoning, until the smoke is effectively mitigated.
983
02:27:07.030 --> 02:27:09.090
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This issue will not be resolved. 984
02:27:09.850 --> 02:27:10.650
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you.
985
02:27:11.960 --> 02:27:16.900
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will go out to Zoom. Finn, can you unmute yourself, please?
986
02:27:18.420 --> 02:27:19.640
Finn Liss: Yep, can you hear me.
987
02:27:19.640 --> 02:27:21.430
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I can. Can you see the timer? 988
02:27:21.630 --> 02:27:22.220
Finn Liss: Yes.
989
02:27:22.220 --> 02:27:23.440
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Great. Go ahead, please. 990
02:27:23.740 --> 02:27:29.520
Finn Liss: Hi, how's it going everybody? My name's Stan. I'm one of the owners of A&M 991
02:27:29.680 --> 02:27:34.260
Finn Liss: I just wanted to kind of fill you guys in on what we have been doing so far, so… Agenda Item Number 1
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Agenda Item Number 1
992
02:27:35.490 --> 02:27:41.439
Finn Liss: First, to backtrack a little bit, all these things take time, and, you know, this is all obviously a big mess, but…
993
02:27:42.370 --> 02:27:56.840
Finn Liss: There were public comments made about us. We weren't aware of these comments. We weren't aware of the concerns. We had known about these concerns at the time these comments were starting to happen, which sounds like it was almost a year ago.

We could have used all this time to really finda solution. 994
02:27:56.940 --> 02:28:10.930
Finn Liss: So what we've asked for for the city is to give ussome time to figure things out. We're currently speaking to some engineers to look into what different kind of filtration systems are, whether it's a water scrubber, whether it's a VAP system. 995
02:28:11.050 --> 02:28:19.750
Finn Liss: You know, so we're looking at different options. Some of these things cost as much as $100,000, which, you know, we don't have that kind of money. 996
02:28:20.110 --> 02:28:29.120
Finn Liss: All these things take time. We're getting a lot of support, we're getting a lot of help, peoplewantingtohelp. We'reprettyconfidentthat we can do something about the smoke relatively soon.

Agenda Item Number 1
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Agenda Item Number 1
997
02:28:29.380 --> 02:28:47.449
Finn Liss: As faras properties, yeah, therealityis it's hard tofind somethingin Sebastopol that makes sense. That doesn't mean we're giving up on Sebastopol, but given the time that we have, we have to explore all of Sonoma County. But as of right now, we're looking at about 10 properties and seeing what's feasible for us.
998
02:28:47.830 --> 02:29:00.490
Finn Liss: As far as, with city staff members, you know, I've emailed Building Department Director Steven Brown 3 or 4 times in the last 2 months, and he does not respond. When I call, he does not call back.
999
02:29:00.690 --> 02:29:04.860
Finn Liss: So, we are trying to work with the city, but we get no response. 1000
02:29:05.030 --> 02:29:22.160
Finn Liss: In fact, the only person we've actually had great communication with is Councilmember Phil Carter, who we're grateful for, for actually communicating with us and keeping us updated, and we're keeping him updated. So that's what's going on behind the scenes. I don't want people to think that we're not trying 1001
02:29:22.350 --> 02:29:25.519
Finn Liss: Keep in mind, we're also trying to run a business at the same time.

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Agenda Item Number 1
1002
02:29:25.630 --> 02:29:33.600
Finn Liss: We have family at home. All these things take time, and yeah, just want to be crystal clear. We're not sitting around waiting.
1003
02:29:33.600 --> 02:29:35.430
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: 2 min for your public comment. 1004
02:29:35.430 --> 02:29:36.239
Finn Liss: Thank you.
1005
02:29:36.240 --> 02:29:39.209
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will come back into chambers.
1006
02:29:39.360 --> 02:29:40.100
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Please.
1007
02:29:43.860 --> 02:29:55.049
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Hello! I'm Linda Civitello, and some of you know me as the former Senior Center director. But before that I was the director of the American Lung Association.
1008
02:29:55.340 --> 02:30:00.440
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And in the 90s, we got started preventing 1009
02:30:00.630 --> 02:30:11.419
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: smoking in the workplace, and it moved on, and I've seen… you've all seen a whole norm change, that smoking is no longer allowed. 1010
02:30:12.100 --> 02:30:13.170
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And…
1011
02:30:13.400 --> 02:30:23.729
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Why did we do that? We did that because of particulate matter. No matter what you do about zoning, or it's it's 1012
02:30:23.950 --> 02:30:27.409
SebastopolCommunityCulturalCenter: disappointingthatthis is affectinga business. 1013
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
02:30:27.490 --> 02:30:46.090
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But the real issue here is particulate matter. It causes health problems, it causes public health problems, and it's not just something like you can say, well, we'll give them a temporary pass, because every day that the people, the neighbors of that
1014
02:30:46.200 --> 02:30:53.099
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: A and M barbecue are getting smoke in their lungs, it will last for a lifetime.
1015
02:30:53.210 --> 02:31:02.630
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I've seen as a director of the Lung Association, many people come to me and say, I never smoked, how come I'm dying with lung cancer?
1016
02:31:02.750 --> 02:31:05.610
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: It's because of particulate matter. 1017
02:31:05.740 --> 02:31:18.130
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So, whatever you're thinking about, oh, let's do a temporary zoning or whatever, it doesn't matter. What really matters is you're killing people with secondhand smoke.
1018
Agenda Item Number 1
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Agenda Item Number 1
02:31:19.020 --> 02:31:20.009
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you.
1019
02:31:20.900 --> 02:31:25.400
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will go out to Zoom. Kate, can you unmute yourself, please?
1020
02:31:27.550 --> 02:31:28.850
kate: Yes, thank you.
1021
02:31:29.450 --> 02:31:30.639
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Go ahead, please. 1022
02:31:31.020 --> 02:31:50.660
kate: It sounds from the Finlis's comments that they are working, and it seems like they're working on moving the business out of its current location. It seems unclear to me once again in concert with Councilmember Hinton.
1023
02:31:50.660 --> 02:31:59.250
kate: whether or not the business is actually going to stay in Sebastopol. So, as the city has very limited resources.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1024
02:31:59.330 --> 02:32:17.809
kate: it might be a good idea just to put a slight pause on things before expending the city's limited resources on a rezoning measure that also could result in some sort of lawsuit, because, as your previous speaker just said.
1025
02:32:17.980 --> 02:32:26.649
kate: particulate matter is linked to lung cancer. So it seems like you're once again in kind of a bit of a legal pickle.
1026
02:32:26.650 --> 02:32:41.629
kate: And if thebusinesses moves becausetheyfind us, youknow, a placethat's actually zoned for smokers. Then we will. The city will have spent money on something that is not of use anymore. Thank you.
1027
02:32:42.400 --> 02:32:45.110
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will come back into chambers.
1028
02:32:54.500 --> 02:33:10.160
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm Kim Keller. I live on Eleanor Avenue, which is close to the property under question. I wanted to thank Councilmen Zolman and Carter for meeting with folks from our neighborhood to hear our concerns about this issue.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1029
02:33:10.160 --> 02:33:14.839
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And as the City Council knows, recently we… 1030
02:33:14.840 --> 02:33:24.999
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: delivered a letter to you all expressing our concerns about the wood fire smoke that we're smelling in our neighborhood that was signed by 40.
1031
02:33:25.000 --> 02:33:43.409
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: individuals, Sebastopol individuals, most of who live very near the neighborhood. I know that 'cause I knock personally on many of their doors to have a conversation with them. So this isn't about the business. We fully support AM and BBQ, we really do. We like it, you know.
1032
02:33:43.410 --> 02:33:54.359
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But something has to be done with the smoke. We can't, you know, we can enjoy the restaurant, but the smoke is a real issue for us. 1033
02:33:54.360 --> 02:34:05.949
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I think somewhere in this whole conversation, our health left the table of the discussion. You know, there was a fire department, a fire chief report.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1034
02:34:05.950 --> 02:34:11.669
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: that used data of air quality data that was on the other side of town.
1035
02:34:11.670 --> 02:34:31.350
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: right near the Barlow. Our data from, you know, we have a monitor very, very close to the vicinity where we live, very, very close to the vicinity where we live. And you can see this is one week, or this is actually 3 days, and you can see how high it goes. It gets into the red level.
1036
02:34:31.440 --> 02:34:38.439
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This is this is this, this. 1037
02:34:38.730 --> 02:34:41.960
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Could I stop my time? Because this is taking my time.
1038
02:34:42.390 --> 02:34:44.629
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'd like my time stopped cause I 1039
02:34:44.810 --> 02:34:49.249
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Please let let everybody have their say.

Everybody's entitled to have a say.
1040
02:34:50.440 --> 02:34:51.590
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:to the realflat. 1041
02:34:52.340 --> 02:34:57.289
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Can we? Can we? Can can you please respect that? Everybody can speak.
1042
02:34:57.940 --> 02:35:02.949
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So could we give her a minute to finish whatever it was.
1043
02:35:03.350 --> 02:35:11.469
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So you know, when it's in operation, it does really impact us. We're very concerned about the health risks and 1044
02:35:11.540 --> 02:35:30.889
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: and the tall lines are the close by monitor, and the green line is the monitor that was used by the fire department for the data. So you know, this takinghealth offthetablewas justbased on reallyinaccuratedata. So if you're going to use air quality data, use it
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1045
02:35:30.890 --> 02:35:33.270
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: in the vicinity where the thing's operating. 1046
02:35:33.270 --> 02:35:38.189
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Okay, so that- Kim, that's your two, that's two minutes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
1047
02:35:38.850 --> 02:35:42.400
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you for your public comment. I will go out to Zoom.
1048
02:35:42.750 --> 02:35:44.979
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Kyle, can you unmute yourself, please? 1049
02:35:44.980 --> 02:35:45.759
Kyle Falbo: I can.
1050
02:35:45.940 --> 02:35:47.619
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Can you see the timer? Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1051
02:35:48.330 --> 02:35:49.410
Kyle Falbo: Yeah, I can.
1052
02:35:49.410 --> 02:35:50.540
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Great, go ahead, please. 1053
02:35:51.070 --> 02:35:52.129
Kyle Falbo: So I'm…
1054
02:35:52.220 --> 02:36:03.180
Kyle Falbo: Part of me is really pleased that our insurance company has an agenda item that was on consent tonight, because that's where I'm going back to, right? 1055
02:36:03.180 --> 02:36:20.229
Kyle Falbo: That's my question, right? Like, if we're going to go ahead and allow our city police officers to tase members of the publicand then allow litigation against our city and where our actual cost in the city is only $10,000.
1056
02:36:20.230 --> 02:36:32.260
Kyle Falbo: but multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars go out as a result of that litigation that our insurance covers. So, great, we don't really actually have much Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1057
02:36:32.300 --> 02:36:49.349
KyleFalbo: financialinterestin actuallyhavinganyoversightof ourpolice. Dowehaveany actual oversight here? Do we care what ends up happening? Do we care if a group of citizens ends up suing us? Because, well, our insurance will cover it, and we'll pay a $10,000 deductible.
1058
02:36:49.630 --> 02:36:54.270
Kyle Falbo: Or, are we gonna get, as a society, to a place where… 1059
02:36:54.510 --> 02:37:07.590
Kyle Falbo: The person who's actually liable is the person that did the harm. Are we actually going to get a place to a place where the police officer that committedthe assault. 1060
02:37:07.710 --> 02:37:17.210
KyleFalbo: Is liablefinanciallytoa business thatis producingparticulatematteris responsible for the liability.
1061
02:37:17.330 --> 02:37:33.989
Kyle Falbo: I don't know the answer to that question, but it sure seems like the opinion of the city is just to allow our insurance provider to cover the costs. And as long as we can afford the $10,000 deductible, no harm, no foul. Am I right? Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1062
02:37:35.130 --> 02:37:47.710
Kyle Falbo: I don't know, because we don't talk about litigation in this city. We don't talk about the sheer financial cost that it comes at the expense of abuse that happens to our citizens.
1063
02:37:48.740 --> 02:37:50.000
Kyle Falbo: And that's a shame.
1064
02:37:51.430 --> 02:37:55.060
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Kyle, for your public comment. Next, I will come back into chamber. S
1065
02:37:55.790 --> 02:38:05.510
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Janelle Roventini, I live on Fannin Avenue, which connects to Eleanor Avenue and Petaluma Avenue. My niece lives on the other side of the fence of A&M.
1066
02:38:06.110 --> 02:38:14.640
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I honestly, when I heard about what was going on, I could not believe the abundance of smoke that people are talking about. I have not experienced this.
1067
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
02:38:15.100 --> 02:38:25.960
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: at all. I mean, I've talked to neighbors on both sides, talked to neighbors on the other side. I would love to have spoken to you all, but nobody knocked on my door, except for
1068
02:38:26.370 --> 02:38:28.080
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: my other neighbors. 1069
02:38:28.770 --> 02:38:32.689
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: From what I understand, the particulate matter has…
1070
02:38:33.230 --> 02:38:43.180
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: The higher levels have been going on for 10 years, not just since A&M has moved there. Do I smell some smoke? I do smell some smoke, but it smells damn good.
1071
02:38:43.330 --> 02:38:51.799
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I've never had to close my windows. I've never had breathing problems. My children have never had breathing problems. My neighbors haven't had breathing problems, nor have their children.
1072
02:38:51.930 --> 02:39:00.679
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I think it's a damn shame. My family's business was successful there my entire childhood, and
1073
02:39:01.120 --> 02:39:08.130
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: This is the 1st business since then that has been successful, and it's really sad that our city
1074
02:39:09.160 --> 02:39:21.139
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: can't… couldn't have done something sooner to help keep this business in town. It's gonna go, we're gonna lose it, and that's just… that's the… it's sad. I mean, I can walk there, and I do walk there a lot, but 1075
02:39:21.230 --> 02:39:30.379
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Anyway, I… my notes are all over the place, I'm not even gonna go there, but I just think that you're not hearing about a group, big group of people from this exact neighborhood.
1076
02:39:30.480 --> 02:39:35.519
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: that are not experiencing what these other 40 signatures are.
1077
02:39:35.890 --> 02:39:39.639
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: because we do exist, and we would love to have a conversation with you.
1078
02:39:39.790 --> 02:39:41.070
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Anyway, that's all I 1079
02:39:41.880 --> 02:39:47.949
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Janelle, for your public comment.

Next, I'll go out to Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to make a public 1080
02:39:48.900 --> 02:39:54.149
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I will come back. Anisa, I do see your hand up, though, so we'll come back. Laura
1081
02:39:55.540 --> 02:40:08.589
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Hi, Laura Hager-Rush from the Sebastopol Times.

So it was my understanding that the testing actually came from the Bay Area Quality Management District, and that they decided that it was
1082
02:40:08.840 --> 02:40:13.850
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Not dangerous, because of the amount of time involved.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1083
02:40:14.090 --> 02:40:14.950
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: It…
1084
02:40:15.120 --> 02:40:22.060
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I I'm I'm just. It's a curious. It's a question. Sort of whatis? Whataretheneighbors? Responsetothatfinding? 1085
02:40:22.180 --> 02:40:23.650
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I should also say. 1086
02:40:23.990 --> 02:40:30.090
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I live across the… I mean, I work across the street.

I'm often there in the extreme early morning hours.
1087
02:40:31.860 --> 02:40:36.070
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I don't notice it, but maybe it's because I'm not in the right one direction.
1088
02:40:36.530 --> 02:40:37.250
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Here.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1089
02:40:42.630 --> 02:40:44.360
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: You asked for 30 days ago. 1090
02:40:44.570 --> 02:40:46.589
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you, Laura, for your public comment. 1091
02:40:46.790 --> 02:40:52.550
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I will go back out to zoom. If there's anyone in zoom that would like to make a public comment to please raise your hand virtually. 1092
02:40:53.040 --> 02:40:59.469
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, I'll come back into chambers. If there's anyone in chambers that would like to make a public comment, please raise… come up to the
1093
02:41:00.000 --> 02:41:05.579
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Seeing none, public comment is closed, and Councilmember Hinton has her hand up. Yes, Councilmember Hinton. 1094
02:41:08.020 --> 02:41:11.280
Neysa Hinton: Thanks. I just didn't want to get missed on, Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1095
02:41:11.700 --> 02:41:29.180
Neysa Hinton: when we got back to questions. I brought this forward with Councilmember Carter, becausewewanted tofind a path thatsupports a localbusiness, and this hadn't been agendized yet. We've been hearing from the neighbors and A&M, 1096
02:41:29.740 --> 02:41:37.469
Neysa Hinton: Like I said, I, I, I am not comfortable investing a ton of hours and. 1097
02:41:37.570 --> 02:41:54.629
Neysa Hinton: to one of the public speakers, we have done something. They're still operating.We're still in… they're still in business. We haven't fined them, as far as I know, so I don't think Sebastopol has done nothing, so I really have to say that out loud. And Finn's on Zoom.
1098
02:41:54.650 --> 02:42:14.360
Neysa Hinton: What I want to know is what Finn's done because they want us to work with them and I'm willing to work with them. We've been working with them. I think we got a letter from the public that said some sort of filter could be purchased for $5,000. I understand a lot of members of the public have said they'd offer to pay for a GoFundMe. 1099
02:42:14.410 --> 02:42:30.710
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Neysa Hinton: speaking from my perspective, I love barbecue, I eat there, people I know eat there, we'd love them to stay in Sebastopol. So, it's kind of like, you know, we heard from another member of the public tonight, they're gone! So it's a really frustrating 1100
02:42:31.360 --> 02:42:35.480
Neysa Hinton: place to be, I think, as a council member, because 1101
02:42:35.930 --> 02:42:44.319
Neysa Hinton: The way we're set up is we can't speak to an issue from just a standard public comment until it's agendized.
1102
02:42:44.320 --> 02:42:59.379
Neysa Hinton: And this is the first time it's been agendized. And I feel like the city has done a lot. So, I'd like A&M to succeed. I love how much they give to schools, and they're from Sebastopol. I want to support the local business.
1103
02:42:59.420 --> 02:43:15.890
Neysa Hinton: I just feel like the next steps are for us to pick from our agenda item tonight and invest some additional time without going crazy, and then hear back from VIN and A&M about what they're doing, and what they're going to do to help mitigate 1104
02:43:15.890 --> 02:43:20.820
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Neysa Hinton: what some of the neighbors are saying is bothering them. And I've walked by the smokers in the morning.
1105
02:43:20.820 --> 02:43:36.770
Neysa Hinton: that are smoking all night, and if I lived right next door, I might be not super happyeither. Imean, a filter, somethingneedstohappen. So, that's whyweagendized it tonight. We are listening, we are responding. I just want to make that really clear. 1106
02:43:39.600 --> 02:43:41.120
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Zolman. 1107
02:43:42.040 --> 02:43:52.029
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Thank you. Yeah, and I agree, and I want to thank the two council members who beat me to the punch in getting this agendized. Thanks for doing that, and yes, I do
1108
02:43:52.040 --> 02:44:10.070
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: with public health in mind, Ido want to also find a waytohelp this business succeed, and Ithinkwhatstaffhas laid out, and now I'mmore clear about the hours that it'll take for Alex to evaluate both the options that are in the staff report, as well as public,
1109
02:44:10.070 --> 02:44:17.399
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: work's time, I am comfortable with the amount of hours that they put forward, so I will be supporting staff'srecommendation. 1110
02:44:20.190 --> 02:44:21.570
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Carter. 1111
02:44:22.400 --> 02:44:29.859
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:Igenuinely look atproblemsso differently thana lot of people. I'm starting to realize this.
1112
02:44:30.200 --> 02:44:48.900
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But I want a win-win situation. I really feel like Sebastopol can rally around the business and protect our residents that, need, don't need a lot of smoke in their backyard. And it's dangerous to you guys, I recognize that, I hear that, and I don't know that we need a,
1113
02:44:48.990 --> 02:45:00.699
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: a zoning change to solve that. But I do think we need as a communitytohelp this business that's youngand tryingtofigurethings outhow to get
1114
02:45:00.940 --> 02:45:12.859
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: a no filtration system, and that's something that I'm all in on. I love the company, but they also have this other issue that I think several things arebeingconflated.
1115
02:45:13.030 --> 02:45:22.320
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: They have the issue where they're just madly successful, and they're growing, and they've outgrown that exact spot, and so they do need a differentspotanyway.
1116
02:45:23.150 --> 02:45:37.479
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And I think, you know, my conversations with Finn and the owners, you know, another space would benefit them, andI support them in whateverbenefits them.
1117
02:45:37.690 --> 02:45:45.760
SebastopolCommunity CulturalCenter:One ofthese waysisjustimmediately tryingto fix the amount of smoke that are coming out, because
1118
02:45:45.940 --> 02:45:54.259
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: then they can focus on being a business, and, you know, Sebastopol, like, you know, like a GoFundMe type of situation, can rally and get a… 1119
02:45:55.120 --> 02:45:59.309
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: get the smoke situation figured out, then I think we're okay for a bit.
1120
02:46:06.640 --> 02:46:11.629
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: It's okay with me. If that's all right with the Council again.
1121
02:46:12.520 --> 02:46:18.960
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: is people have to make their own public comments. Okay? Well, I'm I'm quite confused about
1122
02:46:19.060 --> 02:46:28.119
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: What A. And M. Is wanting to do, because it seems likewe'd be making an effort totry and support 1123
02:46:28.310 --> 02:46:33.609
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: keeping them, but it sounds like they've outgrown the space, and they're planning to leave anyway.
1124
02:46:34.260 --> 02:46:42.019
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So So please let me speak. Please let me speak.

You've had your turn, and please don't
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1125
02:46:42.240 --> 02:47:00.180
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm speaking, so I support A&M Barbecue. I want to see them succeed. I also want the neighbors to not be smoked out. And so how, you know, how we're going to do that, I'm not sure yet. So I would, excuse me. 1126
02:47:01.260 --> 02:47:06.539
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: We we it's conditional use parade isn't what you understand. So
1127
02:47:07.040 --> 02:47:21.179
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm I'm willing to do. Maybe I just feel like we need more information, especially from the business and what he plans to do, because it doesn't make sense to me to go forward with approving
1128
02:47:21.180 --> 02:47:36.560
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: starting a rezone without really knowing if it's even needed, because it's… it's put… it's where the city's putting an effort towards one business, rezoning for one business. If he's not going to be there, then that doesn't make sense to me, so…
1129
02:47:37.850 --> 02:47:54.859
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So, do you have more? Councilmember Carter? Yeah, I just want to kind of add that, yeah, the business needs time to operate and to figure Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
outa place. They'renotgoingtobeabletofind a placeovernight, and wheretheyareis okay, but, like, rezoning may take six
1130
02:47:54.860 --> 02:47:58.340
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Months anyway, or, like, at least 3 months of work, and…
1131
02:47:58.360 --> 02:48:02.660
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: another long process, and then that's permanent. 1132
02:48:02.930 --> 02:48:08.540
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: rezoning is now permanent, and it changes that building for for perpetuity.
1133
02:48:08.570 --> 02:48:25.330
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: when that business may not even stay there, and we can help them get into a different place. But I think the the immediate real concern is just as a community to, you know, help the business out and just solve the smoking problem first.
1134
02:48:25.700 --> 02:48:29.729
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Because that's an investment they can take with them wherever they go.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1135
02:48:31.340 --> 02:48:33.549
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So what are you recommending? 1136
02:48:33.660 --> 02:48:40.750
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I… Oddly enough, I am not supporting a zoning change.
1137
02:48:40.860 --> 02:48:48.769
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: But I want to support the business in, you know, stayingthereand fixingthesmokingissue, which
1138
02:48:49.140 --> 02:48:51.279
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: is not on the agenda tonight. 1139
02:48:51.450 --> 02:49:01.469
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: So my understanding is that that area is not zoned for a barbecue, and that is that so if you do nothing.
1140
02:49:01.570 --> 02:49:03.529
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: they cannot be there.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1141
02:49:04.560 --> 02:49:13.650
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: They can't be there, but I think it's because a conditional permit is not a thing. Is that correct?
1142
02:49:16.380 --> 02:49:26.130
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: A temporary use permit can only be issued for a use that is conditionally allowed. So a contemporary use permit is something you get 1143
02:49:26.560 --> 02:49:41.739
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: in lieu of getting a conditional use permit.

Conditional use permit requires going to a planning commission for that. A temporary use permit is the same thing as a conditional use permit, except it isissued by staff in this for a short period of time.
1144
02:49:41.880 --> 02:49:46.560
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: It could only be issued if the use is conditionally allowed.
1145
02:49:46.670 --> 02:49:55.849
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: under the code. This particular use is not conditionally allowed under the code at this location, so a temporary use permit cannot be issued.

Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
1146
02:49:58.980 --> 02:50:09.269
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Please, please, it's it's you've had your turn to speak. You're disrupting. You're disrupting the meeting, and I don't appreciate it, and I would like you to please stop.
1147
02:50:10.360 --> 02:50:15.909
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Can we just… We'll just take a 5 min break, please.
1148
02:50:24.020 --> 02:50:25.330
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: You can't have a goal. 1149
02:50:27.190 --> 02:50:36.940
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: And so we'll bring So we'll continue this discussion on agenda. Item number 11.
1150
02:50:40.480 --> 02:50:42.180
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: Councilmember Hinton. 1151
02:50:43.120 --> 02:50:44.249
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: has her hand up.
1152
02:50:44.250 --> 02:51:08.769
Neysa Hinton: Thank you. And there was some talk online about Brown Act. I do not believe I heard any Brown Act violations, although I did hear members of the public speaking, slightly from my Zoom position and maybe they can address, you guys can address that in the room. My comment before the break was that, well, first of all, the owner of the business who I think is best.
1153
02:51:09.050 --> 02:51:28.500
Neysa Hinton: poised to speak for himself. Finn has his name, his hand up, and I, for one, would be willing to, ask him to return, to make comments about the future in Sebastopol and maybe what he's willing to do. But I, I really believe that, 1154
02:51:28.500 --> 02:51:35.869
Neysa Hinton: you know, I'm willing to invest some time, because possibly, as another member of the public
1155
02:51:35.870 --> 02:51:41.620
Neysa Hinton: pointed out, I also grew up with that being a very successful corner and delicate contestant.
1156
02:51:41.620 --> 02:52:06.600
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026

Agenda Item Number 1
Neysa Hinton: And that's what this business opened as a deli. And even if it moves somewhere else, maybe the zoning does need to be changed, to allow conditional use permits. I, I did hear from our attorney, I think at the very beginning that this was the only zone in Sebastopol that didn't have that allowance. I'm a little unclear about what he said, but, I'm willing to vet this out and
1157
02:52:06.600 --> 02:52:13.489
Neysa Hinton: invest a little bit of money, not even if this business does outgrow that location and move.
1158
02:52:13.490 --> 02:52:28.830
Neysa Hinton: For the overall, so that we can have another business that would be successful in the business, in location, and possibly A&M might continue to operate a deli there, and they're expanding so fast that they could do. 1159
02:52:28.830 --> 02:52:38.900
Neysa Hinton: dual businesses, which we see frequently in Sonoma County. So, but I'd be asking if maybe we could rehear from VIN to answer some of the questions. 1160
02:52:41.080 --> 02:52:45.979
Sebastopol Community Cultural Center: I'm I think Finn was able to speak earlier. So 1161
02:52:46.640 --> 02:52:52.309
Agenda Item Number 1
City Council Meeting Packet for July 21, 2026