 Members of the public wishing to speak during item three public comment or during any of the scheduled items will be able to do so by utilizing the raise hand feature or it by calling in by pressing star nine on their phone. They will then be given the ability to address the committee. Thank you. I believe our first step is present items and I'm not going. It's great that I don't have experience and I'm also going by memory. Thank you Mary Rogers for for the amount of times that you show me how to go about even getting the, the main which I do appreciate. I do not have the gender on my screen quite yet. Rafa, would you like to take off? Yes. Absolutely and good morning everyone and welcome to our downtown subcommittee so welcome everybody to the month of March, we're already into March so Next item is actually to which is public comments. Perfect. We have no race at this time. Do you have any emails or anything of that type. We don't. There are no emails or voicemails for this meeting. Perfect with that. Let's go ahead and close public comment. Bring it back. Rafa, we have to take it away. So we got under new business item three. We have 3.1. We have our chief financial officer providing a parking program update so Alan Alton, take it away. Welcome good to see you. Thank you. Thank you, chair members of the subcommittee. The very short report today, there's not a lot to report out on. I will update the committee that that we are in the process of building the, the signs for the EV chargers this was an issue that has been brought before the committee before. At the last meeting we received direction to on the color and the wording that would be on that I forwarded that to the committee members and and got the okay to move forward. So we are in the process of having those, those signs developed should be installed. I don't actually don't have a tight estimate on when we'll install them, but hopefully this month, if not then be early April. Other than that, we still are looking to hire a full time parking manager. So it has been helping us as a retired and new unit. We are, I do have second interviews today. So hopefully we will be able to fill the position very shortly. With that, I'm available for any questions. Thank you. Chair Sawyer or members right you'd say we have any questions this morning. No, thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Appreciate it. Absolutely. And Mayor Rogers, it's good to have you here this morning. You have any questions for us this morning. I don't thank you. Absolutely. Yes, Chair, if I may, we do miss Kim, though quite a bit and we're glad to hear that she's assisting the city in finding a good candidate for some big shoes to fill their at the department so we'll go ahead and do that part of it. Let's go ahead and go to public comment and see if anybody has anything to add to our conversation this morning. We have no raise hands at this time nor are there any voicemails or emails for this comment for this item rather. I appreciate that much. With that being said, let's go to close public comment and I do have a quick question. Thank you. Just came to mind. With the, I'm not sure what the status is of the lack or the, the parking garages being reduced in cost or free at certain times what was the current status of the, the garages as far as paying. You know, Alan. Yeah, that's something that I don't have to talk to my hand but what we'll do. We'll plan on giving a more detailed revenue report at the next meeting. Okay, and the only reason I bring it up is because if we were to start to be have more installations. We could have the electric charging stations, potentially in our garages. Could the fact that we depending on where we are with our given offering free parking in the garages after X number of time and the hour free. I'm not sure what the current status is, but could those reductions in revenue. How negatively impact our ability to install charging stations in our garages. I think that's just a general question because I can't be cheap and so that's why I'm not sure what the current status is, but I think we need to consider some immediate needs for income or revenue being generated from the garages. It looks like Chris may have a comment about that. Yeah, we extended all of the reductions for the garage I think it was back in December. We extended it I think through the rest of the fiscal year. And so I believe that was to end of June. Right. Yeah, so one of the, one of the things that I'm interested in to is both your question, John, which is a good one, and then also pointing out again that the charging stations that are on the square, actually don't ban people from parking in them if they're not charging their vehicle. And so I've heard that as a barrier for folks who do want charging stations but also want to make sure that the charging stations are used appropriately, so there will be a balance. Those nice red signs hopefully will will not be missed by the for those parking in those spaces that that they are not supposed to be parking in. They will be welcome. The new signs should address specifically what you're bringing up so hopefully that will work out. It does. You know, quarter square is a is a is a desirable parking location so there will be that balance but at least we'll address the charging situation. I'll come back in April with with more of I see my phone blowing up so guys, the guys are trying to pass me a long information but what we'll do is is is give you a more focused presentation in in April that deals with with where we currently are on revenue that will be at the end of of a quarter so we'll we'll give you an update on revenue, and we'll go into what it would involve cost and loss of space scenario for charging additional charging stations in the garage and we'll update you on where we currently have charging stations in the garage. Okay, thanks Alan. Alan, I do have a question regards. I'm afraid I can't blow up the documents that were sent to us prior, but there was a graph that was shown in one of the documents where it showed the pre coven as was the 2021 park usage. And I'm seeing the correlation between between the both in the sense that there's still use in the in the in the city, but we're also seeing that there isn't much use in the parking garage. Regardless of whether you were given the free parking or not with the with the with the. It's on. Excuse me, I don't know the word that we're using the parklets, the parklets we're seeing that the park parking garage are not being used regardless of what we're doing with the parklets. It was my perception correct on on that and I'm sorry I don't have the graph in front of you. And I, I unfortunately don't either so I'm going to go from memory but the majority of our parking, if I recall is on on street parking and meter parking and not. And then there's a group that's in the garages and then elsewhere, and I know that we're not quite at our pre coded areas so, you know, to without having that sorry, kind of cotton cold on that a little bit. Without having that right in front of me. I don't, I don't want to speculate on whether people are going to one part of parking or in the garages or where they're going as a result of the parking program. I mean I think what we can say is that there are less spaces on the street and so they're going somewhere else apart in order to come down, down town but there's a minimal difference I believe it was 15% 16% on on the usage of of of the street I believe and it was a little bit higher for the parking garage but nonetheless it wasn't much of a difference. And I found it to be interesting how whether it was COVID era or pre COVID, the tendencies were the same, regardless of the traffic that we're seeing in downtown, the downtown corridor. No, at least that's the perception I got from the graph. And if I had in front of me I probably be more exact more detailed in my statement right. I do appreciate it sir. Do we have any further questions. Yes. Chair if I may, apparently there's a public comment. Absolutely. And with that being said, it's going to open it up for public comments. So we'll go ahead and share the public comment screen and see a little bow. Have the ability to talk if you would confirm your ability to see the timer and we'll go right ahead. Yes, Steve Bertel by with the transportation and use coalition. I just wanted to make a remark about the long term prospect for parking and automobile usage. As we look at the, the need to reduce driving in order to get to visit to our zero emissions. It's going to affect the, the issues with our, with our garages and the cost of those garages. So I think at some point, we need to start thinking about what happens to our garage situation. We cut driving in half and then in half again. Over the next eight years. The county wants to be carbon zero by 2030. That's a very aggressive approach. But whether we make it or not, I think we need to realize that driving is going to be curtailed steadily over the next decade or so. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have any additional comments. We do not. There are no additional raised hands. Thank you. Perfect. With that being said, we'll go and close the time for public comments. I know that we're definitely investing into more electrification of our, of our public vehicles, whether it's the law enforcement vehicles or public transit. And I know along with, with that, the way that we're, we're seeing the development for our homes is also with the reduced parking with the emphasis on public transit. So we're hoping that that's the direction that we're moving as a city of Santa Rosa. And if there's any additional comments. I would love to hear. Chair over is just to follow up on your earlier question. So, yes. Right now we are our monthly parking transactions are at about 65% of where we were pre coded. And the breakdown of that is 63% of that is on street parking. 15% are in the lot and 22% is in are in the garage. And the garage transactions pre coded or in 2019 was at 20%. So if you want to look in and on street was at 64. So we want to look at it as being slightly left on street and slightly more garage as, you know, if you want to draw an imprint that that's because of the parklets. Right now, we have to look at that a little bit close. Very well. And I did see, I did see the direction that we were going, both pre COVID and and during COVID, where we started seeing the decline as well as the incline for the pre COVID as we're starting to see the opening of our businesses and the world pretty much right. Or this has perception that I got from the graph that she was mayor see your hand is raised. You have a question. Yeah. Yeah, my apologies. Alan, I want to make sure I heard that right. So pre COVID, it was 64% on street 20% garages. And then now where we sit right now is 63% on street 22% garages. And that's even taking into account the reductions and three times that we're doing for the garages. Right. So we were not doing pre COVID. Right. Okay, thank you. Do we have any additional comments this morning on item 3.1. We have no additional hands raised at this time. Very well thank you. With that being said, we'll move on to item 3.2. We'd like to take it away. Yes, we got 3.2. Rellow Square Association Community Benefit District report. Chris Wilson, executive director. Morning. Good morning, council members. Nice to see everyone. Good morning, Mayor Rogers. I'm going to be short this morning and we'll report that January and February seem to be slow for our merchants in railroad square. Hoping that's going to pick up now with the longer days. The restaurants have been busy, but the businesses themselves have been pretty slow. We have a graffiti program. We have a graffiti program. We have a graffiti program. We have a graffiti program. We have a graffiti program. We have a graffiti program. These remains an ongoing issue. We are, you know, we, we have a graffiti program. Helping merchants to eradicate some of it to offer paint and, and help with, with getting some of that out. And I just heard yesterday that there's been some sideshow activity on Davis and six street. We've been working with, with Josh like Ian in the police and trying to, trying to get that stopped before it gets worse. As far as projects, I've got a lot going on right now and it's exciting because we've got a lot of things kind of finally coming to fruition that we've been working on for a long time. And I really want to thank Gabe Osborne for his help with our process, getting through the way, finding pedestrian pedestrian signage program. We are getting really close to our next step of now selling signage marketing, the signage program to our merchants. And there's going to be nine signs placed throughout the district and each one of them will have 18. Strips for merchants to advertise their business and help direct traffic to their business and their, their subtle but they look, they look nice and so it's, it's something that's been a long, a long time working on project so that that should be, you'll be able to see those probably within the next couple of months. And met with James Castro think James for his time, looking at depot park that's really sadly looked abandoned for quite a long time we're looking at trying to get a doggy station in there. Because there's been a lot of problems in there with doggies thinking it's a dog park for them. And just cleaning it up, looking at that depot park sign and as we move into nicer weather and being able to be doing events and using depot park as a central area for railroad square so that I'm looking forward to, and working to, we're looking at bids to continue lighting more of the area in railroad square we've wrapped the trees that are along Wilson Street at depot park. Those bulbs are actually going to be replaced to match the bulbs that are on the trees downtown. But we're looking at bids to also put lighting maybe outline the buildings on 4th Street possible crisscross lighting just just really now trying to make it aesthetically look more welcoming feel safe. I spent a lot of time the last two years on things for security and street cleaning that aren't so visible to our property owners and now it's time to really do some things that look more visible so they can see a value for being part of our district. We have a few new businesses. I might have reported one of these last last month. We have a few new additional styling salons la coupe savage has moved into the Western hotel building, and then June J on, I moved into the old Louie spot in C205 and Princess Bride which is a formal where moved on to 4th Street. It's really attracting a lot of business down there so that's all very positive and it's now we're looking at putting on some events we're looking at a car display happening on May 1 will be on 4th Street. The Western hotel is going to do an open house with history tour and music on May 22. We're planning a music festival in June bringing back the music festival that used to happen every year down there and then because of COVID hasn't happened so they're coming back in June, and we'll be bringing back the summer music strolls, and now looking at some sort of a signature event that we're partnering with Sixth Street Playhouse and the other nonprofits to see what we can do to support each other that the community is very art filled and we want to promote that and and make it make it more more attractive and more obvious for people to come down. We're really ramping up our marketing and our social media. So, it's, it's a busy time that it's also feels positive that we're getting some things done and again I want to thank Rafael for all of your help in helping to move things along in the support that I'm getting from from you in the city. It's much appreciated. So that's it. Thank you Chris and I'm happy to see that the rules finally starting to open up, especially in downtown centers and the railroad square side of town. I can't wait to see the parties happening again. I know that that's definitely a high point of the community, especially there in the corridor. Do we have any questions or comments this morning for Chris. No questions just thanks. Absolutely. Yeah, I just wanted to thank Chris for all the work as well. It's my pleasure. Thank you. Perfect. With that being said, let's go ahead and open up public comment on item 3.2. We have no raised hands at this time or do we have any emails or voicemails for this item. Perfect. Let's go ahead and close. We have no comment on item 3.2 and bring it back to the members. Any additional comments. Are we good to go. Now, I was made aware of the social incidents and I'm sorry that that did happen in the railroad square. A lot of our visitors in the hotels were recording the event and it hurts me that such a bad luck for railroad square being hit with this type of activity. I'll definitely be reaching out to the chief and we have the mayor here so he's aware of the situation. Again, in regards to the future of railroad party time until we're told different and Chris thank you very much for your support this morning. And without being said, let's go ahead and move on to item 3.3 downtown action organization, and this will be an update. If you'd like to take this one away. I appreciate it. Thank you. So 3.3 downtown action organization report and we have cave in single Allison, the executive director of the center is a downtown district. Welcome cadence. Good morning Rafael morning prayer alvarez and council member Sawyer. Welcome Mayor Rogers happy to have you on board this committee. We're on our downtown businesses, a little bit of an echo from what Chris said, but unfortunately the health order had a pretty negative impact on a lot of our businesses downtown. The nice weather did bring a bit of a shift. So hopefully we're on an upturn now but the continuing unpredictability has been a real challenge and frustration for our downtown business owners. We're still some concern. I think maybe we're reaching a place of some, some cautious optimism but I think we've all also been in that place before so it's kind of couched with some, some concern that we might be heading, heading back into a negative period at any point. We're still running into concerns with issues with TIs and permitting for things like signs, but that is something we're eager to work with with staff on crime remains an ongoing issue. One of our businesses is now installing a pull down gate in front of their business which has long been something that businesses and council has not wanted to see downtown but they've had their windows smashed so many times they now. They're actually being required to do that by their, by their insurance company. So it's pretty unfortunate but that's, that's the way it's going. We've had a lot of conversations on this committee about CCTV cameras but we've never revisited it we've never really heard a report on whether or not it is feasible I know. The SSRPD was, was supportive of it but I'm not sure where that landed and it would be great to get an update to see whether that is, is something the city is considering if that's something we can, we can support the city to move forward with because anything we can do to help reduce the crime or create a presence that would inhibit people from doing crime downtown would be very helpful. We are continuing to work with Catholic Charities on a person by a person basis with our homeless population downtown. It has been helpful and we have been able to get people housed but it is slow, especially because recently we've been seeing new people every week. Our street plus team is very much on the ground very much connecting with people. They're able to pass names on to Catholic Charities to help get people into services make introductions, help find solutions for individuals but every week they're seeing new people downtown. So it's, it's not really helping to reduce the population at all. It's just helping to move some folks along. So that really remains an issue and even though we're, we are supporting individuals we're not really addressing the underlying problem of the homeless population downtown of the, the perception that it creates for our community which as, as we've all heard is one of it is not being safe and it not being clean. We are really working on on both of those things in a number of ways, but the, the perception is a very hard thing to overcome. One of the ways that we, we can address that is by continuing to activate the area so activating the spaces downtown. The courthouse square is definitely gearing up for a busy year, because everyone here knows the Chamber is has a blanket permit for events that are happening in the square so we're helping to manage and support events that are happening between the two side streets and courthouse square. I think we have nearly 20 already scheduled and I probably get at least one or two out reaches a week, people asking for new events on the square to host events on the square. So definitely that's going to be a busy season. We're working to get more events support on site so that we can really make sure those event organizers have a good experience and the event attendees really appreciate what they're seeing downtown. That also comes with making sure we have our street plus team out in force to address any issues we did have quite a few problems last year when we had events with homeless members of the population, interrupting, trying to take stuff from stalls, a variety of different issues, but having our team on site will be really helpful. We have been working on some kind of minor marketing things making sure our website is updated we updated the posters and the kiosks, which will be changed seasonally or more monthly more likely. We also are working on our egg hunt everyone probably remembers from last year that was just a really, really big event downtown last for about three weeks and it's basically just a passport that brings members of the community to downtown businesses. So we have about 30 businesses signed up we were, we did put the limit at 25 but we had a lot of interest from our businesses downtown so we have a I think 29 or 30. We have some really great prizes this year, including a trip to Disneyland so it's hopefully going to draw a lot of people downtown. And we don't expect all these people to shock when they're downtown but if we have five or 600 families coming through and stopping into our businesses and seeing what they have to offer. Those are all potential future customers. So this type of programming that really drives people into businesses much like our fall fun fest or Halloween trick or treating. It's really, really, really worthwhile for our businesses and they really appreciate it. We are also working on our summer programming, which will include music on the square we'll be doing that one day a week, we'll be doing a month long movie series. We're going to be partnering with Pride on one of those nights and looking for some other partners to just kind of make them really fun and festive. And then, of course, we're also already talking about winter lights for 2022 and what that's going to look like. So we've had a few meetings with participants with people who are really invested in seeing what they, what we can do downtown and are hoping to move forward with plans for next year taking into account we have, of course, two installations going in hopefully this year which will kind of change the face of the square a little bit. But looking forward to moving that forward. In follow up to the earlier conversation on on the parking garages. We are really eager to work with the city to finalize some type of permanent incentive in the garages. Excited to hear that there is a potential replacement for Kim I will, I will echo Raphael's comments that it's big choose to fill and we greatly miss her so glad to hear that she might have someone stepping into that position soon. I will say as far as the garage parking. There has not been we have not done the downtown action organization, and I don't believe the city either of us have really done a lot of promotion around the fact that the garages are free when they're free. I still run into people today. Embarrassingly people I know who don't know that the garages are free on the weekends in the evenings and for the first hour. Our businesses I think do a pretty good job of letting their customers know they're pretty used to that they're pretty used to promoting and telling people where the best places to park are. But still a lot of our community doesn't understand that if you come down on a weekend the garage is free if you come down after five the garage is free. So while I totally understand the numbers as they're presented. I think I'm not sure we can get a really clear picture, knowing that so many people don't even know that these incentives are are available right right now when you pull into a garage all it says is first hour free, but you have to already be pulling you have to already be pulling into that garage to see the little sign that says first hour free right we don't have any signage we don't have any done any marketing or advertising to let people know about that so I think that's just something we need to take into consideration like we are not expecting all of these incentives to continue we do understand the parking district. The solvency of the parking district is of incredible importance but I want to make sure that it is understood that our business owners and the community members who take advantage of it really do appreciate having reliable regular free parking downtown. We know it can't stay forever we know everything can't be free even though we, we all constantly hear cries for free parking downtown. And I think one of that is, is not a reality so looking forward to furthering that conversation. I also wanted to say how much I appreciated the work that Gabe and rice are doing on the on the permanent park lip policy. That's been a very, very long ongoing project for that team and I'm grateful that they've been taking into consideration feedback from our downtown businesses. I've done outreach to nearly all of the businesses that have Parklets downtown and share the proposed policy which is, I believe going to Council today. With the fee structure that is in place. Only one of the businesses that I spoke to and I think it was a total of seven or eight who I was able to directly connect with only one of them would be able to move forward with keeping a Parklet outside. They are all citing, reasonably citing rising cost of staff and staffing challenges, rising cost of goods one of them told me the price of his meat has increased by 300% over the past couple months, and all of those adding up and the continued kind of unpredictability of consumer response to the pandemic and what's going on. Has just made it impossible for any of them to consider having a Parklet if they have to pay the 50% parking fee which is proposed now. So obviously, you know, having outdoor dining, I think it goes without saying just really really adds to the atmosphere of the downtown area, same with real world square I know that there are businesses there that are eager to do the same thing. But given the state of where we are now it's just going to remain a pretty big challenge and I'd hate to see that many businesses have to give up their outdoor dining. It's been it's been really great to have it and we'd love to see it continue. And so again, we'll be talking about that at Council today but just know that our downtown businesses would love to see a further fee reduction there. On the landscape and beautification side. We have the district has just entered into a contract with bright new landscaping. So they're going to be focusing on some tree pruning, some sidewalk maintenance issues, and some of our planter, keeping our flower planters more up to date as well. We had Street Plus working on that but I think with, with how much they've been pulled into the having to manage the homeless population downtown, the landscaping piece was, they couldn't manage it both right and and often the impact on to issues with the homeless population is, is pretty urgent. So, those reactive responses were always take more precedence than kind of the proactive maintenance of the area. So, we're, we're hoping to address that by having a landscaping crew and totally taking that off of Street Plus this plate so that they can continue to focus on the homeless population and just general sanitation and safety. We've been doing deep root watering on the, the new trees we planted downtown to make sure we're taking good care of those. We put some signs up to hopefully kind of keep have people give them some space seem to be working a little bit. And some of the signs have gotten torn down, of course, but we'll be putting those back up again. And we have a few other projects that we'll be doing this year. So I'll look forward to sharing more details as our board makes their decisions around those. And our new board is in place I mentioned that at our last meeting or new executive committee is in place. And we've put together a 2022 work plan with the focuses of the year. And I'll continue to update this committee as we prioritize organize the services and the programs we're working on, because it all really goes hand in hand with all of you, as well as city staff so greatly appreciative of the, the work that the city staff have been doing. Again, especially Tara right he said and gave and their team for everything with the parklets and the events downtown and to the parks crew as well I know James is going to update. But we're really grateful to see some some progress there too. So I think that's it for my report today if anyone has any questions happy to answer. Thank you cadence. Do we have any questions or comments for kids this morning. Not a question for cadence and I appreciate the thorough report cadence and all the work you guys are doing. You did have a question about the CCTV cameras, and I'm not up to speed on that one. I'm just wondering if there is an update on if that's a possibility what that looks like if anybody's working on it. This is directed Raphael. Yeah, we did. We had Eric McHenry join us before he retired. Last year, where there was some discussion about a, not a formal policy but apparently there was something put together at some point, many years ago he brought some background information. There seems to be some support but I think definitely we need to do further homework and I'm not sure what what staff member would be assigned to such a project. I mean I could possibly take the lead, but I think it's, we have to be work very, very closely with it, and those other departments that are interested in the installation of cameras and put together a surveillance policy and, and something along those lines. I can respond a bit to the, at least a bit of history with it at the time that it was first suggested the main conversation was around privacy and concerns about the ACLU. And this was long before I mean I was, my business was still open downtown when this conversation was taking place. And so that's been at least 12 years. And the, the, but this was long before the, the kind of activity that the downtown merchants are currently facing around security and the breaking of glass and etc. You know that it was, it was happening back then that it was more definitely not the problem that it is today, and not with the frequency that we have today. So I think that perhaps the tide may have turned where the, the, our residents and our merchants are have focused more on the security breaches that are happening now as opposed to concerns around privacy and being somehow having these images used in an inappropriate way I think that the time that I think that those conversations have now changed and I'm not sure of the current condition of that conversation but I know that the staff is was looking at it. Fairly recently, but I don't know the result and it probably has, it has probably slipped through the cracks at this point so I think we need to revisit that and get it back into a conversation around the cost, the placement, etc. And that of course would, would have to do with it and our police department, and our legal department as well so it's, it has, the ball has been dropped and I think that it's time that we pick that up again, and look at our options. Thanks, John. Thanks John. And with that we said definitely involves sewage the conversation, but, and also taking into account the new technology to exist. We see all these new devices that are currently available to homeowners. And I'm imagining that they're also available to merchants, without one having to get a server along with all your cameras which are, which I know to be very expensive cadence will also made a comment in regards to the parklets and how effective they've been for our downtown merchants. Since COVID I've noticed that they have become the new identity of downtown, and our merchants have to use them very effectively. And I hope to see that continue forward on our personal. Let's go ahead and go to it. Do we have any additional questions or comments for cadence. Now let's go ahead and open up public comment for item 3.3. If you have no raise hands at this time know were there any voicemails or emails for this item. Thank you very much. With that we'll go ahead and close item 3.3 and if we have no additional comments or questions cadence I do appreciate now to follow up to follow up I will be contacting super direction as well as members of the conversation offline in regards to the history of the CCTVs and what is the best way to go ahead and get that ball rolling again and carry that ball forward so to speak. See if there's anything else. In regards to the homeless issues that we're seeing downtown or downtown corridor. I just want to make the comment that our city manager has been very focused on the homeless issues that we're seeing about the city of San Rosa. I understand that part of that will be the displacement of some folks as we, as we try to figure out the situation but now that we're exiting coven. I know that the shelters are able to accept new new intakes, and hopefully start seeing a decrease in that, as well as our, our safe parking program that that hopefully will start showing some type of fruits of all the labor of all our staff and community members. Do you have a question sir. Yes chair, if I may. What I can do is reach out to Brian tickner who's the replacement for Eric McKenry, our director of it, who recently retired, and kind of brief him on some of the conversations that were held several months ago regarding surveillance and their surveillance policy and such. There is some background on it. Some work was done back in 2010 1112 2013 and such. So there is some data that we can definitely bring about, and then I don't know figure out a plan for, we want to proceed. We have to get a Santa Rosa PD involved and such, and then also like it was said that john mentioned our city attorney's office. Perfect and you just mentioned creating a bigger party. And with that being said I just sit with Johnny Mesmer, who helps with the was like market and we spoke about increased activity in downtown San Rosa. And that definitely goes in alignment with what can stand, stand about increasing activity throughout the city of San Rosa. And I'm sorry and really the downtown corridor to create activity to create life to hopefully what's been my experiences when you have a lot of people that have the culmination of homeless activity. It seems one features the other. And we also see Sergeant Luke here so definitely is another member of our party that we're trying to organize. So, hopefully we'll be reaching out to all of us in the near future to have a conversation about CCTVs, which I think is a very important one to help deter crime in the city of San Rosa, as a whole. Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to on 3.4 Sergeant good to have you here this morning. Rafa would you like to introduce. Yeah, we have item 3.4 public safety report, Sergeant lucky from San Rosa Police Department. Welcome. Hey good morning. Thanks for having me. Before you begin to get the correct pronunciation for your last name sir and I'm sorry if I destroyed it. Okay, it's like he looked gets fine too. So I took over supervision of the downtown enforcement team about a month ago. Since then I've had the opportunity to meet and engage with a lot of our downtown partners and other city representatives so I'm getting a handle on some of the issues that we're having downtown and I'm looking forward to meeting more of you so in the last month also something that I've focused on is increasing more in person foot patrols downtown patrols the last couple weeks. Some of our officers have been going business to business to make sure we update our no trespassing letters, and some other documents and also just meet and engage with some of our some of our folks. Also, one of the things that has come up was the increased feeling of safety and dealing with some safety concerns, not like downtown but in our transit mall area and addressing some crime issues in our parking garages so we've been working hard to be more high visibility in that area and make sure that we're contacting our partners downtown to address those issues. For the most part, we've been pretty successful in keeping encampments clear of the downtown area. We've been focused a lot on our parks. Some of our parks cancer survivor park. Fremont Park area underpasses have been relatively clear to attribute that to some increased patrols and and engagement with a lot of our community members down there. To note, it was mentioned earlier in the meeting, there will potentially be some large scale cleanups in other parts of the city in the future. Most of them on private property. And so, additionally, the reason that we're going to be increasing patrols and downtown presence is to make sure that's that some of our service resistant folks that exit those areas don't publish camps and things in there in our downtown area so we recognize that that's been a problem in the past, and we're going to continue to focus on that. That was the, the main report, I had heard some some issues of side shows that that we talked about that happened over the weekend. Things and strategies that we're discussing and addressing. Side shows have been a problem for the last several years, however, we've had seen some increased activity lately. The side show downtown this weekend was a bit unique from some of our other side shows as it was a group from out of the area from the East Bay Bay area that traveled up here large apart and took over our streets for for a period of time. The uniqueness of that side show compared to some of our local side shows are that oftentimes the out of town side shows congregate around the one on one corridor, and the off streets just right off one on one, which was consistent with our fifth and Davis side show that lasted a significant amount of time by the AC hotel like, like they mentioned so we are working with not only our local and regional law enforcement community but also community members and other city departments like traffic and engineering to come up with a comprehensive strategy to deal with some of those issues so I appreciate the ongoing conversation about that and that's something that we're going to continue to look into and work towards. Thank you, sir. I do have any questions or comments for for our sergeant to small. Just a quick one and I thank you sergeant for your work. I did join the point in time homeless count on Friday, and we took the downtown beat. So it was myself, a council member sweat helm Logan Pitt and Captain Kreegan. And we had between college Avenue and Sonoma Avenue and the one on one in Brookwood. And I will say, we all were sort of remarking that it was much clearer than we had anticipated. And so I do appreciate the, the constant attention that it's receiving. So I just wanted to say, thank you for that. And thank you for being more accessible and more present for folks walking around downtown I do hear from folks that that makes a big difference. Thank you. And if I could echo those seven as well. It definitely includes safe feeling the safety in our downtown area that any state of the correct sergeant with with the removal of counties throughout the city of Santa Rosa. I personally expect to see more traffic in our downtown area and I'm happy that that our centers police department has been proactive in that sense so I thank you sir. If there are no additional questions or comments let's go ahead and open up item 3.4 for public comment. I guess at this time nor do we have any voicemail or email for this item. Thank you very much. Let's go ahead and bring it back if do have any additional comments, closing item 3.4. Well, Sergeant, thank you for stopping by, and we'll be speaking soon. Great, thank you for having me. Absolutely sir. Let's go ahead and open up. I'm 3.5 maintenance of courthouse square. You know what to do. Yeah, so we have James Castro our parks superintendent providing a report on what's going on with courthouse square as well as the as well as railroad square. Good morning. Good morning chair Alvarez council member Sawyer and Mayor Rogers nice to see you guys. My name is James Castro I'm the superintendent for parks not a whole lot to update as far as maintenance is concerned. We've got the first three benches going actually they're on order to replace in courthouse square there's a total of 40 benches. And the design the new designs a little bit different it's going to be a little more match the rounds that the that cadence cadence and her team have put in there. Hopefully it'll deter people from sleeping on them and skateboarders as well. So that that's on its way. You know they say six to eight weeks turnaround time but in the world of purchasing that's more like 16 to 18 weeks. So, as soon as they're in will install them. So keep an eye out for those. A little bit of direction from the chair about some potential skate deterrents going in courthouse square. Yeah just looking looking for some direction hoping hoping for a green light but I'll wait your direction. I did meet with Chris Wilson over in the downtown, excuse me the railroad district square with Rafael to take a look closer look at depot park. And so we're going to focus a little bit more attention on the parks around the city depot park needs a little bit more attention. And so we're going to focus some of our resources on depot park to bring it back to life it definitely has been neglected, like, a lot of our parks, but we're very excited the volunteer park a month program is taken off and, and we have found ways of restructuring the way that our everyday maintenance, excuse me, in parks. So, yeah I'm very optimistic about where our parks are going. So, that's all I have for my for my report, hoping to install those. Well, with that being said, Councilman Sawyer. We did go ahead and approach our, our colleagues on on the dais and in regards to the direction that they wished we would take in regards to the deterrence they gave us to go ahead and to go ahead and decide amongst ourselves. The deterrence for something that we want to move ahead with. And with that being said, I want to pose a question sir, if how you're feeling about the beautiful oak leaves, let's be placed on the furniture in our downtown square. I have to say that of all the deterrence that I've seen in any city I think this is one of the more attractive ones. It's unfortunate that we have to expend resources in this way but but we're used to it now and I think they're the DAO weighed in on their opinion of the of the oak leaf. Yes they have and I don't I don't want to speak for for them but I believe we have the green light from them as well. Yeah, it's it looks good to me and I think that they, you know, in some ways might actually enhance certain areas so like I said it's probably one of the more attractive of the skateboard stops that I that I have seen as opposed just to the to the metal brackets that are generally used so I'm I'm all in favor of those. I just, it's nice this is something that actually has a quality of enhancement as opposed to just being a what functional so I good job. I want to give credit to Tim Finnegan he's one of our supervisors and parks and he went and restore he went outsourced he so he gets to credit for the way they look. Very, very, very, very correct for the ambience that we're trying to create it in the courthouse well you definitely have my approval and it looks like a police have funds on those things but I definitely want to get Mayor Rogers take on on the on the he's had a chance to to check them out. Yeah, no I was not part of the conversation when you had it last month, but did have a chance to check in with the chair on it. I'm, I understand the justification for it I understand the need and so if everybody's good to move forward. I'm good with that. There you go, James. Have fun. And if you need help and need help in installing the window. I know a couple folks on City Council that love to go into the community and putting good work so let us know. Thank you very much. Let's go ahead and open up public comment on item 3.5. We have no raise hands at this time or do we have any voicemails or emails for this item. Thank you very much. I need additional comments or questions for our parks superintendent. Just thanks. There you go. Thank you James. I appreciate you starting by this morning. Let's go ahead and go to our last item of the day, 3.6 permitted events and public art. Rafa, if you'd like to introduce us. We'd like to welcome Tara Thompson or Arts and Culture Manager Hello Tara welcome. Good morning everyone. I'm here today to just give you a very brief update about permitted events in downtown as well as our public art program updates so for the special event permits, I've attached the most current list of pending permit applications to the agenda, and highlighted the event applications that came in since our last meeting at the end of, or I should say at the beginning of February. So you'll note that literally the day after the meeting, the last meeting, the application for the St. Patrick's Day 5 K came in that event has already been approved and will be issuing that permit soon. That takes place on looks like some of the columns got screwed up on this form so I apologize for that but that event takes place on the 13th of March. And then the next new permit we received was for the Wednesday Night Market they'll be returning this year, starting in May, going through August. And then the Sonoma County Pride Parade and Festival will be returning this year. So those are the new additions since last time. Happy to answer any questions on that before I do a brief update on arts, or I can just continue. Is there any objection? No, Jackson, please go ahead. Great, thank you. For the public art program. The only update I wanted to provide today was to let you know that the unum sculpture discussion that has been going on with the art and public places committee came to some final resolution on February 22 at a special meeting that was held to reconsider the recommendation of words and languages for the sculpture itself. And so the original list of 15 most commonly spoken languages in San Rosa was expanded to the top 30 most commonly spoken languages in San Rosa based on US Census Bureau data. We unanimously approved the new recommendation. And so we will be moving forward with that expanded list which allows for increased inclusivity, while still respecting the original process that was recommended by our engagement advisory group. So, and the approval included the original selection of the 18 words that were previously identified through our outreach. We will be moving forward with that with the artist and we expect that piece to be installed this summer. Happy to answer any questions. We have any questions for Terry this one. Yeah, I just want to say great work. I know it was a long journey but I'm happy we're, we're that much closer to us on the art in in downtown I'm sure the public will definitely appreciate not only the beauty of it but the significance of it. So let's go ahead and open up our public comments on 3.6 and see if we have anybody present. We have no raise hands at this time or do we have any voice mails or emails for this item. I appreciate that very much. Any additional comments or questions for Terry this one. I did have one in regards to the process of an individual want to to hold an event in downtown San Rosa. What is the process that he or she should expect. I'm happy to answer any questions so people can just contact me directly that's, that's fine I'm happy to go through our process with with anyone. Essentially, there's kind of two pathways. When it boils down to that either the event if the event is contained within courthouse square. And either using those two side streets where the parking is or not. Most of those events will be handled through the blanket permit that we've issued to the Chamber of Commerce. And so they'll be coordinating mainly with cadence but I'm happy to stay involved as needed. In some cases those events need a separate permit anyway. And so we would we would then be working with them with with myself and my, my team. If the event also is using downtown streets like quarter, like 4th Street 3rd Street the creek trail, anything outside of just courthouse square then they would be working with myself and my office on a special permit application, which you can apply for online. The direct way to get there is srcity.org slash SP event permit, kind of a mouthful but it kind of makes sense. So, but again you can please you can give me a call you can email me and happy to walk through that process. I'll have everybody know I've been, I've been busy working on my low rider trying to bring you back from from the dust age I haven't actually opened the door to that car and over 12 years. But it's definitely time for it to come back and seeing the Merleau vehicle making its debut. I definitely need to hurry up and and try to get mine ready as well as definitely the motivation to to dust it to dust it off and and and I can't wait for the Peggy Sue event and a big shout out to Farron who's the organizer for that event. Do we have any additional statements on or comments for for meeting of this morning. We're good to go with that being said it is now 939. Let's go ahead and adjourn the meeting and I can't wait to see you guys in just a couple hours and in in our other job. Absolutely.