 Well, actually, first time I do this and I was trying to do a combination of both phone and see here, I take your time. I appreciate that much. I'm looking for our there they are. Actually, I do see the scripts that you said this morning and I'm having a little bit of issues opening them up. Excuse me. Oh, here we are. We're going to call the meeting to order. I believe the time is 8.32 a.m. I will appreciate everybody for being here this morning. Do you want to do it? Actually, here's and I believe I read the government code before we called the orders that or the call is that correct? Perfect. So I'll read a little legal disclaimer here. Pursuant to government code section 54953E and the recommendation of the health officer of the County of Sonoma Economic Development so committee will be participating in this meeting via Zoom webinar. Members of the public may view and listen to the meeting as noted on the city's website and as noted on the agenda. You see and and recording secretary how will how can the public comment on on on the items and as well as the process. Thank you. 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 raised hand feature or if calling in by pressing star nine on their phone. They will then be given the ability to address the committee. Thank you. Thank you. Now we'll go on to the second part of the meeting roll call please. Vice Mayor Alvarez. President. Member Sawyer. Thank you. But the record reflect both members are present. Thank you. You see now we're going to go and open public comment with via Zoom. Please select and raise that. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom please select the raise button. If you are down in via telephone please dial. Sorry. Actually this is the part that you read. I'm sorry. It's worth repeating that if any members of the public would like to participate. We do have a hand raise. Let me just go ahead and get that that screen up for them. Public comment. And Mr. Highfoot you should be able to speak and if you could just confirm your ability to see the timer on the screen. Yes I see it. Wonderful. We'll go ahead and get you started. I'm just happy to be at the downtown subcommittee meeting and can see Eddie Alvarez's screen so I would like to see that. Turn it on. Thank you. Let me fix that. Absolutely sir. That's it. That's my comment. And actually my screen should be on. I'm seeing that I do have it on. You're there now. Okay. Okay. So it was on. That sir was beyond my technical abilities but I do appreciate the heads up. I'll let me know that my screen was down. Actually you know what it is. It's actually me switching from the agenda back to the Zoom meeting on my iPad device so you have to excuse me on that. I'll actually go ahead and turn on my agenda on my and I believe I might have gone off on the screen again if that was correct. That is correct. Okay so it's me switching back from my agenda to my screen so I'll go ahead and put the agenda on my phone so I can actually be on video and I do appreciate the heads up on that. 3.1 parking and I'll just write this real quickly here. Now let me see here and I should be back on it right. You are. Hopefully you guys are listening while I was gone. Well the first item of business is 3.1 parking. Parking line we have Alan Almond. Now I believe actually it's unlike city council meetings where we have a public comment prior to the item. I believe first we present and then afterwards we go to questions as well as public comments is that correct? That is correct. Perfect. Advice Mayor these are comments from the public on items not on the agenda. Oh very well and do we have any other comments other than the first one that we received? We have no additional raised hands nor were there any email comments? emails perfect we'll go ahead and close the public comment for items not on the agenda and we'll proceed to item 3.1 presented by Mr. Almond. And Chair if I may real fast. Alan our deputy director of finance that will be providing an update related to parking or the parking program. He was scheduled to give this presentation back in December. The presentation has been revised and because we skipped a couple of meetings unfortunately I'm very delighted to yes have Mr. Alton here on the call so welcome Alan. Thank you and Chair Alvarez and Member Sawyer. This is a a rather brief update on parking. This is a little bit of what we were going to present back in December and and we'll touch on one item that that was brought up by the committee in prior meetings so with that we will move on to the next slide please. So our parking transactions by month for the 2021 year compared to pre-covid 2019 is while trending up we're still below where we were in the pre-covid days. We're at about 64% of where we were back then and we can move on to the next slide. So even though we we are a little bit less than where we were with pre-covid people are parking in the same manner that they did before with the majority of transactions being on street parking then followed by garages and then lots. Next slide please. So one of the things that we were going to discuss in December and that we also discussed at the council is the extension of our fee waivers. So we did extend our fee waivers through the end of this fiscal year so June 30th of 2022 to date. The fee reductions have resulted in a loss of revenue of about $842,000 and we're estimating an additional $370,000 fee reductions revenue to the parking enterprise through this next six months as a result of the reductions. Next slide please. So one of the things that we did want to talk about at the last of the items that they come up is parking around courthouse square especially as it relates to electric vehicle parking. So there are four general spaces which also in the courthouse square area which also serve as EV charging. However right now they they are not EV only so an internal combustion engine vehicle can park in those spots. So the request that we understood was to make those spaces EV only to allow for charging at times by the EV vehicles. I have walked this area and you do often see folks with non EV vehicles in those spots so this will free up those spaces for electric vehicles and to allow the charging. We are prepared to have this conversion completed in March of this year. So next month it will I will I should add that the parking spaces around courthouse square that is a there's a lot of demand for those parking. This will take spaces for non EV vehicles, non electric vehicles out of rotation for that parking. However it will provide the spaces for people to charge. And with that that is all I had in terms of an update. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you sir. Member Swain do you have any questions for Mr. Alton? I do thank you Mr. Chair. I'm I am curious about the signage Alan could you go back to that slide that has the sign that revering to the metered parking. And I'm wondering if those signs have been created yet or are they is it is a change in the language possible? We are I'm not sure the I know we've developed the stencil for them. We haven't installed them but right now that's the stencil metering that we have. What what was the change? Well I'm thinking the most important part when we refer to metered parking and then pay meter the most important part of this sign to me to my mind should be that it's reserved for EV charging only. I would wonder if two things I would put on the top in very bold print like you have metered parking reserved for RV charging only. Make that very very clear at the top of the sign in that same bold if possible if it'll fit. The fact that it's metered is is important but what I'm trying to avoid is would be a person getting a ticket because they were they'll say I didn't see the sign or it wasn't clear to me and I would I would just reverse and put that it is reserved that that should get their attention reserved for EV charging only three hour time limit. I guess under that could be metered parking. Hopefully they wouldn't think they could park there for free while they're charging and the other the other issue so it's it's a detail but I what what I'm trying to avoid is is a misunderstanding of so that we don't have complaints from people that didn't get it. We always get complaints about parking so that and then what what would be the possibility of making that sign red as opposed to white with with black print just as a because it is new and it's a it's a it's a new concept and I don't know what the what the fee is going to be if someone is parking there inappropriately but if it's if it's sizable especially I would we need to we need to highlight it we need to make it clear in no uncertain terms the the conditions under which the person can park there I know it sounds elementary but in my years I have discovered that you can never be too clear on restricted on restricted parking. That would be my my my comments the color of the sign and then reversing the the the language to emphasize that it is for charging only. Sure so a couple of points that I want to make out that I I didn't before so I apologize for that not only is the signage but it's also ground stencil so we're we're going to paint on the ground in those spots which should make them even more visible that this is for EV only but your point of you know reserve for EV versus the meter parking up front is a point well taken and and I'll talk with our folks about that relative to the color I don't know that we have any limitations there I will check with our sign shop and and see I do know that in some cases where we have a change in a change in signage or a change in in whatever whether it's a conditions yeah we will throw flags on it and then that alerts the people that there's a change in the signage I've seen that with with speed limit signs and and stop signs as well they'll they change conditions they have they're pretty clear about it right so you know so those are a couple of things that I can look look back and and we can report out I can send an email to the committee on those to follow up on them but I think that that one the ground stencil is going to help a lot to make sure that people are aware that these are EV only that said we can I'll check into rearranging the length the language on on the sign and on the the ground stenciling and then what what color options that we have to make sure that it's that it's uh it stands out very visually to anybody going that would be great have we determined the fee structure yet for people that are not using it per our requirements so in it um the the the cost of the ticket that they would get I I think what we would be doing is is the same thing that we've done with with most of our stuff and that we would we we would issue a warning first and then I'll get back to you on what the actual cost of the ticket is okay he gets a 35 or 40 dollar ticket but I need to double check the exact in the ordinance exactly what that what that amount is so right around that 35 to 40 dollar is if I'm not mistaken isn't that the fee for a for parking over the meter amount above for an expired meter uh yeah it sounds probably uh I would imagine that it would be around the same I think it really jumps up when you're looking at um handicap handicap spot yeah okay I'm done I'm comfortable I mean I like the idea of the warning I think that's that'll take care of a a lot of angst and it's always nice to be able to be to be user friendly whenever we can when it comes to parking because we certainly hear our share of complaints about that regardless of the reality and we try as hard as we can to make it really clear but we have had a number of changes to our parking program and meters over the last number of years so I'm just trying to avoid confusion and making it really clear so that people coming downtown are really understand what they what they're what their means what their responsibilities are understood yeah thank you thank you thank you both uh all mr on in regards to the revenue that's been or actually lack of revenue that's been produced through our parking system is is there a correlation that you've seen with the revenue of downtown as well is there any point that's come out that we can compare both numbers to see how much detriment has been had to our downtown corridor yeah so uh I would I would say that that what I showed you there was just the revenue that was lost specifically related to the fee reduction that we can that we can track that said the enterprise as a whole due to COVID has also lost revenue even more than that right so it is the way I would put it is that says as the downtown area has been affected by by COVID the enterprise which is also a business in the downtown has also suffered that those same revenue losses I've asked our sales tax consultant to start doing geocoding and isolating the downtown area so that's going to tell me sales tax amounts there so we hope to to get those um uh numbers hopefully by our next uh quarterly update with them so it's just another data point that goes into trying to track what where we what we've lost economically due to the pandemic very well thank you and I do appreciate that uh do we have any more questions for mr on you know before we move on um vice mayor I do could could you go back to that to the slide alan that shows the um I was confused I thought we were talking about usage not dollars there were no dollar signs next to that I thought it was the number of vehicles that had parked on the spaces not the amount so that's so what what so those are dollar amounts no those are those are transactions individual transactions then yeah the dollar amounts were on slide uh oh there they are okay yeah sorry I disregard I apologize very well uh secretary clearly uh let's go ahead and open up uh the comment for public or the section for public comment and if you would like to repeat the the instructions on how uh person can absolutely um and we do have um someone who is calling in um for members of the public wishing to speak um you may utilize the raise hand feature or if you're calling in by pressing star nine um the first caller that we have I will just go ahead and share our screen here is um caller 0897 um you now have the permission to speak if you would introduce yourself and uh just confirm when you're ready that would be great hi this is bernie schwarz from california luggage can you hear me yes we can thank you thank you so my question is could we possibly get an update on the permanent park let policy that the city has been working on for some months as we all know there are parklets that are out parklets that have been removed and parklets that are in some disrepair I think the policy was going to address the aesthetics as well as the finances of um of the parklets which are especially now with indoor eating being allowed and being wintertime not the existential concept that they were two years ago so is there an update on that thank you bernie although we're not allowed to go back and forth I would definitely ask the question at the end of the public comment section sir appreciate the call thank you thank you uh secretary clear do we have any other college today we do um mr bridal bow um please confirm that your ability to see the screen and um if you'd like to introduce yourself yes stay burdle by with the transportation and land use coalition uh do we have statistics on whether we're able to maintain the 15 percent uh spaces empty for people through the pandemic period thank you sir any any additional comment thank you that is the last public comment that we have um thank you uh are there any emails or voice messages we have no voicemails or emails for this meeting I appreciate that much let's go ahead and close the public comment on item 3.1 and uh go ahead and bring it back now I did hear the question of an update on permanent parklets is there anything available for the public on on the item I believe there was a sunrise uh with the with the permits on the parklets if not mistaken so um see there is an item coming up for council um in March regarding that topic um let me see if I can okay that is correct if I may add and uh we're just working through the uh the the city codes and such uh but there'll be an item presented in in March so we can address it okay very well I appreciate that much yeah right I don't I think she's on the call I don't see her yeah sorry about that it took me a second to um take it on um you're correct Raphael we're scheduled to go in March um we had some uh a lot of issues with state code to work through but we're anticipating to bring it in March very well thank you guys and good morning to you uh in regards to the ability to sustain ourselves with 50 percent uh vacancy is being reported I believe that's a very tough question in regards to to the ability of the city I mean I I believe we're in dire straits with the with the ability and what we're seeing economically in downtown San Rosa right now and throughout the city of San Rosa really um is there any comment that you could provide to our caller in regards to the second question okay I I believe we can get that data um but I don't have it with me right now so I'll need to go back to staff and follow up and provide it at our next at our next meeting I do appreciate that sir uh with with that being said our member Sawyer any any closing comments on item 3.1 no thank you mr vice mayor absolutely sir thank you uh with that being said let's go ahead and move on to item 3.2 it'll be an update uh from our historic road road square association and the presenter will be chris wilson chris are you available sir yes I am thank you thank you ma'am I'm sorry I'm sorry well I've been making I've been making errors all morning so expect plenty more but I promise I'll I'll iron them out by the next one that's quite fine we we like to we're very happy you're on board thank you it's the first day of the month we're not we're not ready I appreciate you giving many excuses thank you yes thank you chair alvarez and good morning everyone feels like forever since we've gathered together um there's a lot going on in reverend square um you know last year most of our focus was on security and street cleaning and things that needed to be done um and we continue to do that but this year a lot of our focus is going to be trying is on many projects going on that'll be more visual uh which is real important for our our business owners and our property owners to to to see things going on that's more visual improvements to the to the area um graffiti continues to be an issue down there um we you know the the warehouse on third and wilson seems to get every time it gets painted over it becomes a new canvas and gets graffiti again so it's it's a real issue down there and looking at depot park is still it's an issue trying to figure out what what we can do to work more with the city to to make it look more attractive down there for our visitors and our people getting off the train so um as far as some old business seems like a while ago now the holiday carriage rides that we were so excited to bring back this year last year were really successful and we had many people down there on the weekends that ran from the weekend after Thanksgiving all the way to Christmas eve and there were probably an average of 130 carriage rides per day in each ride had you know two to four people in in the carriage so and a lot of people just down there we had music on most of the weekends in the north bay bubbles down there for the kids and families were just so excited to have this back it's over a 30 year tradition and to have it back and that it was their annual event to bring the kids down something free very family friendly so um we're already looking at things that we can do to even ramp it up more for this year um but as we move forward um one thing's great to report is we only have there's only one vacancy retail space vacancy right now in railroad square we have two new businesses one is the princess bride that's opened on fourth straight it's where three monkeys thrift store was it's a really large building um she's really excited to be down there it's bridal wear informal wear and she's got all kinds of enthusiasm and ideas to host some events and things down there so that's exciting and then across the street from that where jack and tony's was that has been leased a new restaurant will be coming in there it's going to be a little while because the there's a lot of refurbing to do in there um so we're just just leaves us with one vacancy right now which is pretty exciting and in these times um I move on here our annual report was submitted um we're looking at working on the website uh updating our website it really needs a refresh so some focus will be there and marketing events um looking at a music festival bringing back a music festival in june and then also a possible car show that would be on fourth street um possibly the first of may they're still trying to pull it together but looking at what you know some fun events to get started back down there and we're increasing our marketing efforts and our social media really looking for the visitor center to be open soon um hopefully it's really important as people are getting off the train and down there and they're wandering around looking for places to go and direction um it works anything that that can be done from the cities in we really like to see that get open again um as I mentioned graffiti has been an issue our nighttime security continues and it's been really successful as far as keeping transience and um some of the encampments out of the area we've but the with the graffiti we've started a pilot camera program we're installing four rings camera rings for security um as a pilot program and those will link directly to our security office officer so they'll get on time reports if anything um is going on um so that's in process now and I really want to to um as we move into then the next way finding signage which is moving forward thanks to Gabe Osborne and his team working on getting the way finding done right now we're getting the placement map and the artwork with the sign design that's being submitted to this city and um move that together so that maybe it's even it will be a pilot program that the city may want to tag on to what we're doing but be watching for that um the trees we are we've signed a contractor the contractor to go ahead and move forward with the remaining tree trimming throughout the district a lot of them really in repair disrepair have been neglected for a long time so getting those trimmed um eventually we'll be replacing those but for right now the the board decided we would just trim everything throughout the district so we'll look more uniform the sidewalk um the sidewalks down there continue to be an issue that we're looking at we've created a little ad hoc committee to to really look at those and look at maps and Raphael's helping us with that um let's see lighting we were able to get the trees wrapped in in Depot Park um we're we're maybe adjusting those bulbs that are down there if anyone's gone down there they're didn't quite turn out the way we liked but it still was wonderful to have the ambiance and lighting down there and we really want to continue that lighting in the rest of the district so that we have that warm welcoming sign and also for safety and let's see I think that is about all we have our 2022 slate of officers which is uh Mike Monague as president Hugh Futral as vice president Mary Ann Neufeld as treasurer and D. Richard Richardson as secretary and Dana Irving from Arama has joined our board so I with that I unless anyone's got any questions I think that's it thank thank you very much for the update uh members so you do have any questions for for Chris this morning no no no thank you very much mr vice mayor and thanks chris for the report absolutely and for myself uh congratulations on the amount of of activities that we have planned for the summer hopefully things uh improve within the community so we can actually have a lot of fun in downtown uh Santa Rosa especially I heard a car show hopefully coming in May I believe Peggy Sue is slated for more events here in the city of Santa Rosa so I definitely look forward to to other events and the possibility even the possibility that we have in 2022 to have events so I'm definitely optimistic uh moving forward uh with that being said secretary clearly I like to open up our section for public comment and again if I could ask you to uh repeat the instructions for those calls you wish to chime in and secretary are you available I apologize I was on mute um the not a problem let me say that one more time um we'll be able to do so by utilizing the raised hand feature or if calling in by pressing star nine um we do not have any raised hands at this time nor do we have any email or voicemail comments for this item I appreciate that very much and with that we will close item uh 3.2 for public comment and Rafa I have a question for you sir uh do you usually present the items I do see that sometimes you you uh reference the the next presentation am I mistaken about that sir I definitely want to include you as much as possible yes every every now and then I uh do an introduction it's a formality and I may have um something brief uh something that I may cover very briefly and then I make the introduction to the uh to the speaker presenter perfect with that being said would you have a like to present item 3.3 for us this morning oh yes and we have the downtown action organization we have I'd love the pleasure to present cadence Hinkle Allison our executive director from the Santa Rosa downtown with her report thank you Raphael good morning chair Alvarez council member so nice to see you both happy to be uh back with the downtown subcommittee it's definitely been a while um first I want to just start with a huge thanks to all the city staff who helped with skating on the square um Tara I mean Raisa Raphael parking department public works park um everyone was just a huge help um it was a really you know obviously a first-time effort a lot of learning a lot of changes and the flexibility and helpfulness of city staff when needs arose on our end was huge so I really appreciate that feels like a long time ago now but uh really really wasn't quick updates for our downtown businesses and then I'll talk a little bit about um our landscape and beautification plans uh events and some changes to our our board we didn't have any uh new businesses open over the holidays I think we did have one boutique open since we met last if I think our last meeting was maybe October um but we did finally see that Lavera pizza has been leased um it's been almost three years since that space became available and actually I think the the part of the challenge with leasing that I'm hearing from our our landlords downtown is that um TI's and and the permits and actually getting them done are just so the process is so lengthy um that it's deterring people from um moving in downtown unless the space is totally turnkey and I think we all know that very few spaces downtown are totally turnkey um so it's it's been a challenge and definitely something we want to work with the city on to see what we can do to kind of make sure TI's remain a priority and that we can um get them permitted as fast as as fast as possible um on issues of crime and graffiti there is um we're experiencing the same things as a railroad square it's been it's been ongoing I think we've talked about this a number of times and I'm happy to hear that railroad square is has kind of doing their own CCTV system um we're definitely hoping to continue that conversation with the city that I think came up probably in April and May of last year um I'm not sure we ever closed the loop on that so we'd love to get an update on whether or not it is possible to implement further CCTV beyond what we have in courthouse square throughout all of our business districts um we also are having a lot of smaller petty crimes that our business owners often don't report because there isn't really a a mechanism for that um but uh not not huge issues just things like you know they put a dog a dog bull out with water and the dog will get stolen and it's it's been I think just a lot of small things building up that are becoming quite frustrating um the the homeless population downtown has definitely been increasing we've been seeing those numbers rise as far as our street plus interactions with the homeless population which is something that we track um it's been a pretty big challenge I think we have a lot of folks downtown who who desperately need some more help than we can provide so we're excited to be working more with with the city and and all the new programs to hopefully address some of that our street plus team I think we we are fully staffed technically at the moment um they did a fantastic job of supporting the rink this holiday season amid everything else going on downtown our business owners all their needs dealing with graffiti cleaning landscape work all of that so um we're grateful to have them continuing to work hard uh in what was definitely a very challenging year on the the landscaping beautification side I know we're getting an update from parks um but uh definitely wanted to say a big thanks to James for for working to get some of our longer standing courthouse court challenges addressed so looking forward to getting the um uh skateboard inhibiting bumps installed along the edge of the planters um and some of the more problematic benches replaced as well I think we all know those benches are um looking bad and and also kind of dangerous at the same time so really happy to see those new benches going in uh sometime in the next in the next six months or so um also big thanks to Jason and Mark for getting rid of the remaining lights out of the trees on 4th street those went in so many years ago nobody even remembers who installed them um but we were able to get them removed which means we were able to finally replace the disease and dead trees on 4th street so it took out I think about 31 32 trees replaced them with a combination of crepe myrtles and ginkgos um they've been triple-staked and they're being um regularly maintained and we're hoping that they'll do well through the um they'll they'll do well through next year so we're they're small we're looking forward to seeing them grow we put some signs around them to hopefully deter people from from messing with them and uh have our fingers crossed that that the deep root watering and other maintenance will will keep them alive not fingers crossed we feel confident about that we did some other small beautification projects over the holidays hung up over a thousand snowflakes on trees throughout downtown those are going to come down in about a week and a half two weeks we'll also put our banners back up again um and we added some lighting which is um that project is not quite done we do have more lighting going in we're just waiting on the delivery of those additional spheres so um we got a lot of really positive comments on those and we're just um dealing with a supply chain all the other issues everyone's dealing with to get those products here uh we're working on um as the DAO is kind of addressing our street level services this year and and hoping to add in some dedicated landscape services that will pay more attention to um the sidewalks our planters um and then regular uh tree pruning as well so we're working through that process now and and I would I guess that there's a decision made in the next um month or two about what that will look like for the downtown district but we're excited to be able to um offer that benefit to all of the businesses downtown um I think I'll do a really quick wrap up of the end of the year as far as events go um in November we had a Diwali celebration which was a really fantastic first time event we partnered with NBIAA to bring that in and we're hoping that they'll they'll do um more events with us this year we also coordinated with the patchwork show that used to be at the fairgrounds but they are really excited about being in downtown Santa Rosa now they have their courthouse they had their event in courthouse square in November and then we hosted the uh tree lighting event as well we probably had about 3,500 people come out for that it was really fantastic um Raphael did a great job of uh of playing bouncer to Santa and um it was really nice to see people coming together outside just really really good family activity uh in December we had uh another artist makers market called Pop the Trunk that's been what was with us all summer long they wanted to do a holiday market and then the Allianz Frontier had a holiday market as well so um the square's been really active and it's been um it's been great to bring some new groups in I think all the groups I just mentioned have never had an event in courthouse square before so it's it's really nice to see that there is interest in coming back downtown especially from people who have not been there um and then of course we put the synthetic ice rink in so that was um it was a lot of a lot of learning a lot of work we raised over a hundred thousand dollars from the local business community to to rent that and to run that it was operated by obviously by the chamber but also by a number of nonprofit organizations who um handled the rink the skate rentals and the rink management so it was great to be able to support the community in that way as well um and they received a portion of the proceeds for giving some of their time to do that um it was it was a really good learning opportunity I think to have something that long-standing um that type of activation that just brought constant um constant activity and uh visibility to the square and we've gotten really good feedback from our business owners um from the public they like seeing the activity a lot of them would prefer to have a real skating rink but as we know logistically just not possible but um we're starting to talk again about what we might want to do next year if it is a rink or if it is something different but we definitely see that level of activity having a huge benefit on downtown and interestingly um just as we were here in the parking update we we did survey our participants to see where they parked and it was in line with um what the the parking district shared we had I think over over 30 use the garages and I think 40 to 50 use the streets and then a smaller percentage in the locks and and didn't drive so um that's interesting to see especially as we have uh a lot of our skating time actually came outside of um paid hours but it was definitely good to be least driving people to the garages um we are as as we're thinking about this year we've had a lot of interest from groups um that were with us last year that want to host events again uh looks like SoCo market's going to be coming back um pop the trunk is coming back we've got another makers market um local roots that's just getting started they'll have their first event in March uh patchwork show is coming back Allianz-François is coming back with a Bastille celebration so we just we have a lot of interest in um in utilizing courthouse score this year so we're we're um excited to be partnering with with Tara and the city to really be activating that space and helping to manage it um in ways that support our community and our downtown businesses um we are also working on some some signage and marketing for we've got some dated posters up what we're trying to be able to have posters that will reflect to the upcoming events so make that a little bit easier for for us to manage so that people can when they see the posters they'll know what's coming up downtown or where to find information about what's coming up um and then we also have some um some other signage just uh to replace some some of the dated things that are out there I think Tara will probably touch base on a couple of the other events that are on the way um but it's definitely shaping up to be a very busy um very busy spring and summer downtown we're starting to talk about our um our summer series with movies and music uh and it's just going to be active and very exciting uh our board did just elect two new board members so Chris Denny and Don Tomasi have joined the board um our executive committee will be voted in uh this one's meeting and then the board will also decide on uh annual priorities and focuses and a work plan which I'll look forward to sharing with you at our March meeting I think that is the end of my report thank you very much and it was very good to hear from you uh it's been a while since and hopefully we now that that have been appointed to this position we can uh sit down for a distant cup of coffee or tea uh so I'm definitely looking forward to something of that nature and being able to catch up and and I do want to thank you for the ice rink amongst many other efforts in downtown Santa Rosa I know that I had the opportunity to enjoy the little ones my niece and nephew uh roaming around and and and doing what they do on ice so it's definitely something that was uh out of out of the norm but I believe that's the beauty of it especially seeing uh ice rink or mini ice rink in downtown Santa Rosa so so definitely congratulate uh the the folks of Santa Rosa for thinking outside the rink uh in this sense uh member Sawyer do we have any questions this morning you're mute you read his answer my uh space bar didn't work um no just thank you uh Caden's you know there's there were always challenges um but this report had a lot of good news and the activation of courthouse square is always exciting um just thank you for the report and it sounds like you know it's it was more good news than challenge so um you know just thank you very much for your leadership and the leadership of the dao and with that I would like to open up public comment and the most important part of that is room star nine and secretary clearly uh clear do we have any public comment uh this morning on item 3.4 we have no raised hands at this time nor do we have oh I apologize we we do have an individual that just raised their hands and you have excuse me I must say this 3.3 not 3.4 oh yes absolutely um I'm going to go ahead and share the screen for comment and Mr. Hito if you would go ahead and introduce yourself you have the ability to speak and just confirm your ability to see the timer that would be wonderful yes I see the timer wonderful okay just a quick question the property uh that's just south of the empire building that was going to be a five story hotel but ended up getting completely removed is there any plans for something to be built there because all we have is a big empty lot right on courthouse square I'm just wondering when that's going to get developed thank you do we have any additional calls we have no additional raised hands at this time emails or recorded messages we have neither I appreciate that with that we'll close public comment for item 3.3 and we'll be bringing it back uh it and I have noticed the the the open spot near wills fargo bank near uh west third and or on west third are there any current plans of the developer or or timeline on that project that we know of I don't have any updates to share on on that project right now I appreciate that and if I find any new information I'll go ahead and report back uh during next month meeting I would appreciate that greatly any additional questions or comments uh member swear no thank you sir absolutely with that we'll close item 3.3 we'll go ahead and move on to item 3.4 which is the maintenance of courthouse square and this will be presented an update presented by Tim Finnegan yeah actually sorry uh chair oh yes we have a a change of guard we actually have James Castro presenting for Tim and James is the street maintenance supervisor he'll go ahead and provide that update welcome James James good morning good morning good morning thank you my name is James Castro I'm the park superintendent and I've got just a quick updates on the maintenance for courthouse square we've been doing some internal restructuring of park maintenance and what that includes for courthouse square is so we have a new senior down there it's going to be overseeing the maintenance we will be um our our restructure our we're we're more fit to realign with council districts we now have a new senior position in all council districts so that the maintenance or across the parks will be equal um as cadence mentioned uh I was asked to bring to this uh committee we're trying to put skate stoppers I know these are hard to see but these are skateboard deterrents that we would like to install uh downtown we have them in hand but there was a question that maybe there it needed to be approved by this committee before installing them so I wanted to check in with you folks to see if that was a I think if not we're we're ready to install them so maybe at the end you guys can let me know um also we are replacing the benches in courthouse square we've got three on the way there's about 12 to 14 week turnaround time and so as those come it'll be probably three at a time and we're going to get them all replaced it's a similar design uh to the the benches that cadence and her team put in they will it's a it's a slightly different design of the flat benches that are there they will have arm rests on them and uh the metal material will run in a different direction it'll be more um horizontal versus vertical to deter the skateboards from actually using them addition to that we are working very hard to convert our power tools over to electric uh courthouse square is kind of our our guinea pig on that so we've got electric blowers and hedgers and whatnot to reduce our carbon footprint and that is my quick report if anybody has any questions I'm happy to take them I appreciate that much the councilman Sawyer would you have any questions for for questions perhaps a comment on the skateboard protectors it's nice to see something that's that's less utilitarian it still gets the job done but it has an aesthetic that is pleasing the leaf the leaf pattern is the first time I've seen that I've seen other ones in larger cities but they I think the leaf is is a is a nice change it's it's unfortunate that we have to go through that that we have to spend the money but that's our that's the reality so sometimes that's just don't have any choice but I I think that that that is a a nice substitute to the more um um what the basic deterrence that are that have been used in the past so thank you that's I'm just just one person's opinion thank you uh for myself uh I would ask you who the new senior administrator is for for the department so he's our senior maintenance worker his name is Brandon Keck and he's he's going to be the basically like our foreman that oversees the maintenance that goes on down at the square still overseeing still overseeing by Tim Finnegan the parks crew supervisor but uh Brandon Keck has more of the boots on the ground very well and in regards to the to the stoppers the skateboard stoppers I I believe they would be and please correct me a member Sawyer I believe it would be correct for us as a subcommittee to present the the change to our colleagues as well as our council opposed to us making that decision here today would that be a correct assumption member Sawyer I think it's always it's always best when possible to keep the council fully informed in changes such as that and and has the dao um have they signed off on this particular design as far as we know James nobody officially has signed off like cadence has blessed them but um nobody officially has given me the green light which is why I'm still holding them on my desk okay well I think you're right um Mr. Vice Mayor it would be a good idea to to inform assuming that there is a that we both agree they can make that make a recommendation to the council would probably be a prudent way of moving forward very well and we'll go ahead and and if we have no further questions I'd like to open up item 3.4 for public discussion or public comment and then once we bring it back hearing from the public if there are any comments we should definitely uh vote or or bring our minds together on the item of of the beautiful design I must tell you as a jeweler I I can only imagine the casting process for for the leaf and being that we are in Sonoma County having the oak leaf with the what the coin is very fitting very fitting with that being said I'd like to open up comment for item 3.4 the secretary are there any comments for us this morning there are no hands raised at this time nor do we have any voicemails or emails for this item perfect thank you very much with that being said I'd like to close public member swear unless we have any say that again please secretary did I cut you off on on your last comment there uh no I was just uh you cut out for just a second and I wanted to let you know oh perfect thank you very much uh we apparently both cut out on that one if you have excuse me for that hopefully you can hear me we just go ahead and close the item 3.4 went ahead and brought it back and I was asking a member Sawyer if there was any additional questions on or comments on 3.4 nothing additional thank you with that being said member Sawyer how do you feel about the design as well as moving this item to our colleagues on Tuesday which I would be informing yeah I would very much like to move it or move our um uh what agreement uh to recommend to the council the design that was offered by Mr Castro this morning very well and I do agree with that so on Tuesday I will be presenting this actually I should say on our next council meeting as apparently we have a couple changes uh in our current one today so that'll be on the 15 that thank you for that that would be on February 15th where I will present this to our colleagues and hopefully get their blessing to move forward with the beautiful design that's been presented to us this morning uh with that being said uh I believe we can now move on to item 3.5 and let me go ahead and open up my phone luckily I don't have to go off screen anymore and and James do want to appreciate you are presenting that today so thank you very much sir uh 3.5 3.5 public safety update and uh Rafael do we have Tim Barrett uh on Sergeant Sergeant Tim Barrett from the Santa Rosa Police Department this morning oh yeah uh Chair if I may we do have a slight change we actually have Sergeant Lucky presenting on behalf of Sergeant Barrett and he will be providing our update on activities around the downtown uh as they pretend to Santa Rosa Police welcome Sergeant hi thanks Rafael my name is Josh Todd Kim Sergeant Senator the Police Department obviously I'm taking the place of Tim Barrett as of yesterday I will be now supervising our downtown enforcement team uh just really quickly I have had the opportunity to work with some of you I've been with center live for about 25 years I'm currently also supervising our traffic division our accident investigators I also supervise our incident management team for special events and traffic enforcement so uh yesterday was my first day in Tim's position so I'm looking forward to getting up to speed with the rest of the downtown enforcement team and working with some of you as far as updates yesterday I attended our Pat meeting and some of the things that I can report are that uh we've had some challenges with bedspace at Sam Jones to do COVID exposures um COVID positive cases uh as of yesterday I can be happy to report that there was no new positive cases and so we're hoping that we're nearing the crest of those cases and be able to start accepting more folks into Sam Jones um additionally I've been getting up speed with our safe parking project which I hope to alleviate some of the the RV uh and vehicle parking throughout the city so that's the quick update for you. Do you guys have any other questions for me? I appreciate that sir and happy to have you on board uh members for you do you have any questions for officer Luke this morning? No thank you vice mayor and welcome on board Josh. Thank you sir I had a quick question in regards to to the issues that we've heard today in regards to downtown public safety uh I know that we've heard that that in railroad square we've been able to use ring devices uh to deter crime are you seeing are you seeing any any deterrence that have been effective in your user service in regards to commerce or or our financial district that that the listeners today could actually implement into their their their safety protocols and practices? Yeah thank you for the question uh education enforcement um and engagement are are the pillars of uh some of those concepts and so I can tell you that from my experience recently in our traffic division and dealing with issues such as sideshow activity um some of the some of the um response that we've had were educating the public creating a space for uh communication for complaints and then working with our other stakeholders such as our traffic engineering for the installation of bot dots um combination enforcement and technology um using technology to help combat the crime and issues that we have I like the idea of the camera systems that were that are being talked about I'm interested in learning more uh about camera systems being installed um in the downtown area especially courthouse square uh we've implemented camera systems ourselves to help combat and identify crime trends and enforcement for um for those for those types of activities and and I'd like to to see that expanded. I appreciate that sir uh member swerve if we don't have any additional questions I would like to open up this uh the section for public comment on item 3.5 public safety. No additional questions thank you. Thank you sir. Secretary Cleary if we can open up that comment and again the the important parts of star nine for those participants who wish to join us absolutely um we do not have any raised hands nor do we have any voicemails or emails for this item I appreciate that much we'll go ahead and close public comment on item 3.5 and go ahead and bring it back if we uh do we have any additional questions or comments on this item member swerve. No thank you sir. So Lily it's a it's no joke we operate such as a business here at the downtown subcommittee we're moving right along are we the day's long and many things to do with that being said let's open up our final comment or final item I'm sorry 3.6 permanent events and public art and this is an update presented by Tara Thompson from the arts and cultural from our arts and cultural manager. Good morning Tara how are you this morning? Good morning Chair Alvarez and member Sawyer. Good morning everyone I'm here to present just brief updates on our special event permits a list of current applications was included with the agenda today you can see there's not too many yet in the system I think people are still getting comfortable with the idea of holding the larger events again as we're coming through this latest COVID variant and surge but these are the current applications that are in our permit system you can see that top line is the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber's annual permit as you heard cadence give an update on all of the activities planned this is a new a new kind of agreement that the city has with the Chamber of Commerce which essentially issues a blanket permit to the Chamber of Commerce for activities in Courthouse Square which are managed under under them so it it helps the city by having cadence and her team be the point people the four events in Courthouse Square and so all the events that will be happening in the square that don't also include various other road closures will fall under this blanket permit the city is still involved with the amenities and support for those events but but it will be handled under this blanket permit the rest of the items you can see on this list are all the other various events we have permits for in the system currently in the downtown area and I'll just point out new to downtown in 2022 will be the human race previously the event had been held over out of Slater middle school and used Howard Park Spring Lake area for their roots and so we'll be welcoming them down to Courthouse Square and using the same 5k route that the St. Patrick's Day race has used or that the turkey trucks use this year which goes down the creek trail and then back to the square I'm sure this list will be expanded and so by the next month right next month when we do another update there'll probably be more applications on the list but I wanted to answer any questions about this first if there are any and then I would be happy to go on to the arts update member story do we have any questions for Tara up to this point no questions at this point I'm just congratulations on coming up with a blanket permit I think anytime we can make it to simplify our permit process and but it also sounds like it we're not compromising anything by doing this it just makes it it's a prudent way of dealing with a group that has numerous needs for permits throughout the year so a good job on on coming and putting putting your heads together with those with the chamber and coming up with a good solution thank you absolutely to echo your statement I'm working with cadence on on the metro and really putting everything under one umbrella definitely creates efficiency and as well as putting the efforts together so absolutely uh Tara with that being said if you'd like to continue great thank you so for the public art program I wanted to provide updates on the two main projects that we're working on in courthouse square one is for the unum sculpture that was approved by artist bluffing handcock that this will be placed at the north end along fourth street of courthouse square as you may have heard and received emails and seen in the newspaper the art public places committee had a special meeting on january 10th to take action on the recommended words and languages for the sculpture which will include words all over the stainless steel surface that you'll be able to see during the day and at night it will be lit from the inside and during that meeting the committee took action to approve the recommendation however in response to inquiries regarding the process to review or appeal decisions made by a public board it was actually discovered that the original motion to approve failed because there was only three affirmative votes four affirmative votes would have been needed because the majority of a full seven member committee is four so the actual committee has six members currently with one vacancy and at that meeting only four were present so given this new information the item will be again placed on an upcoming agenda for consideration details about the upcoming meeting will be posted online as soon as we have a date set as the original motion failed for this item there's also an opportunity to provide a slightly modified staff recommendation now so after careful consideration of the process through which the original languages were identified um it is now recommended that the original 15 languages spoken in Santa Rosa be expanded to the top 30 languages spoken in Santa Rosa still using the same US Census Bureau data that was originally used this allows for more inclusivity while respecting the original process and the original data that our advisory group recommended um so again this item will be on an upcoming agenda with the date to be set uh very soon probably for but before before the beginning of next month the other update I have to share is on the ASAWA art panels a site visit to the foundry with the project conservator as well as with the ASAWA family took place in December and at that time it was decided to use a 3D scanning mold making process this allows for corrections and minor repairs during the mold process and does not require additional the original panels to undergo additional wear and tear from the traditional mold making process the foundry is also working on the final engineering for the bronze panels and a timeline is not yet set for this for the installation but we are working on it so those are the two updates that I have today I'm happy to share or answer any other question thank you very much for the updates member story do we have any additional questions with the new information um no not really just congratulations on on two pieces of good news thank you very much Tara and again all I go the same I'm seeing that that we're able to use the new technology on producing such a beautiful piece that that that really does show not only the direction of art and modern art but what technology can help us with right so so definitely kudos on on that with that being said let's go ahead and open up public comment for item 3.6 secretary do we have any comments on 3.6 this morning we do not have any raised hands at this time nor do we have any voicemails or emails for this item thank you very much with that being said we will close public comment for item 3.6 and go ahead and bring it back to our subcommittee uh are there any additional questions or comments on any of the of the presentations on item 3.6 uh chair if I may I'd like to thank you of course for being on the on this call and joining the downtown subcommittee it's a very fun committee to work with and uh councilmember Sawyer it's great to see you again and I would also like to thank all the participants this morning as well and including Sergeant Lucky and congratulations for joining the downtown enforcement team as well as James Castro for appearing on behalf of Tim and looking forward to seeing him more often here on these calls and then I will have some updates to get related to the parklets inquiry by Bernie as well as the parking occupancy and the vacant lot next month's meeting so again thank you all for participating this morning and thank you for the support brother I mean just uh taking down the questions from our college of concerned citizens who have the questions and the follow-up so we can have that ready information ready uh by our for our next meeting uh does mean a lot so I do appreciate you taking that that extra effort upon yourself to to present the information on my side of the coin I will definitely be presenting the the the molds for the the skateboards or or to deter skateboard riding on our on our public furniture for lack of better words so I'll definitely be presenting that to our colleagues and uh council members Sawyer I appreciate the the the support sir and really just helping me guide I know it's a rough start but I wouldn't have it any other way actually you know what no it wasn't rough at all congratulations and and welcome aboard as as chair you're going to do a great job Mr. Vice Mayor thank you very much for running a good meeting I appreciate that greatly with that being said it is 944 and we'll go ahead and adjourn this meeting everyone have a great day and let's be productive