 Good afternoon. I'd like to ask the interpreter currently on the Spanish channel to commence translation of the meeting for those Just joining the meeting live translation in Spanish is available and members of the public or staff wishing to listen in Spanish Can join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar. It looks like a globe Once you join the Spanish channel, we recommend you shut off the main audio so you only hear the Spanish translation Interpreter, will you please restate this in Spanish? Hello welcome everyone to our February 13th 2024 city council meeting it is now 2 p.m. And we will be starting our meeting sing a corn madam city clerk may please call the roll Thank You mayor Councilmember Rogers Councilmember O'Crepkey here councilmember McDonald here councilmember Fleming Councilmember Alvarez Present vice mayor step here mayor Rogers present let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember Fleming Thank you, we will now proceed to item 3.1 and 3.2 3.1 is conference with legal counsel about existing Litigation and conference on 3.2 is conference with labor negotiators Madam city clerk may you please? Facilitate public comment Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item Three closed session items if you are in the chamber, I would like to comment but have not provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium. You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period If you provided a written public comment By five the 5 p.m. Deadline as noted on the agenda Your public comment was uploaded to the agenda packet circulated to council and made available to the public this morning The live public comment is not a secondary opportunity to provide public comment on the same agenda or non-agenda matter The first public comment will be from Steve followed by dwayne then james Please go ahead dwayne With the transportation and land use coalition Um, I want to commend your staff jason nut for moving this far with the Jennings crossing effort Uh, I can remember In 2015 sitting in this room when that when that started Uh, and it's unfortunate that's taken this long to get it going Uh, but I Hope we've reached an agreement with the city and smart For a reasonable construction cost Smart has a hundred crossings So, uh, you can take their budget for that hundred and divide it by a hundred And uh, you'll have what the city ought to contribute in order to have that crossing going so Glad to see this moving forward. Thank you Thank you. The next public comment will be from dwayne followed by james and thomas Hello, are we ready? Yes, we are. Hello. My name is dwayne de wid. I'm from roseland But I frequently spend time over in the Jennings avenue neighborhoods I'm very supportive of you folks pushing forward to get the Jennings rail Pedestrian crossing at grade level. This is most important for many years now folks in that neighborhood have been cut off from Their access over to cutting town easily and this is something that you folks can Get a positive outcome by just continuing to apply pressure upon the Sonoma ren area rail transit folks This is the type of thing that helps the community And the community has definitely been burdened by smarts Um delay in all of this. Thank you for your time Thank you. The next comment will be from james followed by thomas I have lived a short walk from the Jennings crossing since 1978 I have been a party in support of the cpuc application for the crossing since it was first filed The city has had to file for an extension of time to build the approved crossing Although there is no opposition The cpuc's judge has ruled that the city Must file a status report on march 1st on any agreement with smart to construct the crossing If no agreement is reached a hearing will be set for the city to justify the extension Otherwise the approval will expire and it could be a very long time if ever before it is approved again The crossing is important by itself But it is also a key component of the Jennings bicycle boulevard Which will eventually connect to the planned pedestrian and bicycle over crossing of 101 The impending development of the very large property at lance drive in gernville road Will with up to 800 new units Will create additional considerable traffic The Jennings crossing and bicycle boulevard and the 101 over crossing will provide an active transportation Alternative which will help alleviate traffic congestion and greenhouse gases The city council has always acted in the public interest to keep the crossing opened If smart had honored its commitment to build the crossing it would have been Opened years ago, but smart did not This city council is urged to honor the actions of earlier city councils As well as the public interest by directing staff to take all necessary steps to obtain the extension And reopen the Jennings crossing. Thank you so much Thank you. The next comment will be from thomas and then we will move to The zoom public comments. Please go ahead thomas Thank you very much, uh, uh, jim. Thank you. That was well spoken The transportation and land use coalition has been at the forefront of each of the two Items that we're talking about that are bicycle pedestrian Crossings today. I believe you have elliott and edwards Over crossing of the 101 also on your agenda and we have This crossing at Jennings those are vitally important They're both integral to pulling traffic Away from pedestrian traffic in particular and bicycle traffic off of gernville road or or college avenue And the reason is that that those things actually interfere with Right-turn movements and other movements that you have In those intersections at at cleveland and so on so pulling them off Of those main arteries allows for them greater safety. It also allows for freer movement on the roads They're both together. It's a cross Community artery and I talk about the cross community arteries like her and avenue There are very very very few of them in the south This is one in the northern part of the city that absolutely needs to be done And it goes right to the junior college. It's a really great Graphic that shows where that's going to go and how there's a maintenance agreement I think you're going in agreeing with the college and so on and caltrans The point is is these are together They're both vital if you if you make overhead crossing what happens is You have to go 400 feet in one direction and 400 feet in the other direction The whole I mean it's it's like going You have to go up and then you have to go back to where you were going to cross And and the point is you could almost be at gernville at that point and everyone's going to be at gernville So it's important that you approve it. Thank you and and right Thank you mayor Ahead of taking public comments from zoom I'd like to ask councilmember fleming to make her announcement about her remote participation Thank you councilmember fleming Thank you mayor I'll be attending this meeting remotely under ab 222449 applying the just class provision of ab 2449 due to contagious illness and I will participate both audio And video turned on throughout the meeting in this room. I am not accompanied by anybody Thank you councilmember fleming Mayor I'm seeing no one via zoom raised their hands for public comment Thank you. We will now recess into closed session I want to thank everyone for their patience Sorry, it took us a little longer than we expected in closed session But we now have a quorum madam city clerk. May you please call the roll? Thank you mayor Councilmember rogers here councilmember okrepke here councilmember mcdonald here councilmember fleming Councilmember alvarez Vice mayor step here mayor rogers present let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmember fleming Thank you. We will now go to item four, which is our study session for Today and I will pass it over to assistant city manager Thank you madam mayor item 4.1 is uh your one update on our homelessness solutions strategic plan And kelly keikendall our housing community services manager will be giving the presentation Good afternoon. Thank you Mayor rogers vice mayor staff and Vice mayor staff and members of the council kelly keikendall with housing community services and I have Director megan bassinger with me as well And I will be covering the first year of our five-year homelessness solutions strategic plan Next slide, please This slide provides an overview of the presentation. I'll provide some background on the strategic plan The year one implementation plan for 2023 including a report out I'll provide the preliminary results of a community survey and then our year two implementation plan for the current year Next slide, please As you're aware council approved the strategic plan in november of 2022 for the five-year period 2023 to 2027 The strategic plan includes three key areas and action items and i'll be touching on those in more detail in the next couple slides The purpose of the strategic plan is to improve the city's response to homelessness and alignment with our regional system of care That's the sinema county homeless coalition, which is our local continuum of care And the goal of the strategic plan is to achieve functional zero homelessness by 2027 When I say functional zero, I mean that a person's experience with homelessness is rare brief and non-recurring Next slide, please The focus of the year one implementation plan was to operationalize the key strategies and actions outlined in the strategic plan The plan the implementation plan was broken out into three different areas. There are tier one and tier two priorities The implementation plan also identified regional initiatives Tier two priorities were intended to Focus on the key strategies and actions outlined in the strategic plan Tier two priorities were intended to bolster or complement supplement tier one priorities The implementation plan was updated on a monthly basis throughout 2023 and made available on the city's website Next slide, please Moving on to the strategies strategy one The focus of this one is to improve improve the city's response to homelessness in the context of a regional system of care 2023 key accomplishments include awarding 2.3 million dollars in home american rescue plan act Funds to two agencies those agencies are catholic charities and committee on the shelter list This is a lift not just by the homeless services division, but our department as a whole so housing and community services And the funds will allow for supportive services with a focus on homelessness prevention The city was awarded 232,000 dollars in continuum of care funding for sam jones hall improvements That's specifically for the annex facility to provide Interior walls to improve client privacy when within the annex facility We also provided a year one report out to city council on safe parking or safe parking program That was in june And we're involved in a number of regional initiatives Including developing a homelessness prevention pilot with the county of sonoma and the city of pata luma And a bay area agency called all home Which has helped a number of communities throughout the bay area to develop similar homelessness prevention pilots Staff have been appointed to the continuum of care to coordinated entry committee And that ties into the next bullet point where we have established and are coordinating a Santa rosa binames list specific for our sub region The purpose of the binames list is to prioritize the mo those most vulnerable For permanent supportive housing and we do that In coordination with our coordinated entry system Next slide please Strategy two this strategy focuses on improving our the city's response to unsheltered homelessness One of the things we've done over the past year and each of the council members should have this flyer We've created a resource flyer This is available to our city encampment team and to any City staff that are working in the field. We've also made this available throughout the organization at our front counters It's a resource flyer for anybody experiencing homelessness Other key accomplishments outlined in the slide the city received A grant from the state of california encampment resolution fund for enhanced encampment response In southeast and southwest areas of the city This is a three-year grant and provides funding for safe parking and expanded outreach and case management services and rapid rehousing We established a proactive city encampment team The intent or the goal of this team is to engage Individuals living in encampments early and often to prevent or mitigate the health and safety impacts associated with encampments And as you're aware, we adopted a new camping ordinance in august that went into effect in september Next slide, please strategy three this strategy focuses on collaborating with regional partners our regional partners 2023 key accomplishments include completing the year one implementation plan for 2023, which i'm covering with you this afternoon increasing awareness and promoting access to essential health behavior health and substance use services for santa rosa residents We've initiated a partnership with the county department of health services in 2023 and we'll be continuing that During this this current year 2024 improving client engagement Engagement and feedback processes. We've included a provision in our scope of services Where our contractors are required to report out on how they're seeking client engagement And incorporating the feedback received from clients in their programs and improving their processes Providing a report on investments in homeless services affordable and supportive housing i'll be covering that in the next couple slides and then Based on data from our most recent homeless count. That would be 2023 We know that our bi-pop community members are overrepresented in our homeless population compared to the generate The general population And so we have participated in continuum of kind workshops focused on addressing racial and ethnic disparities And we'll continue to take advantage of those training opportunities in the upcoming year Next slide, please So in the next couple slides i will touch on the progress that has been made addressing homelessness in santa in santa rosa and also throughout the county Uh the strategic investments that have been made by santa rosa and our county partners and increased coordination collaboration really across the region has contributed to the decrease in homelessness And also want to highlight the significant effort made on behalf of our homeless service providers To serve our homeless community members So this slide covers homeless services Between our 2022 homeless count and 2023 homeless count santa rosa had a 30 decrease in homelessness So on any given night in santa rosa there are approximately 1160 individuals experiencing homelessness 465 or 40 percent are Living in unsheltered locations 695 or approximately 60 percent are living in our shelters The city invests approximately five million dollars annually in homeless services plus one-time funds In a range of services including street outreach emergency shelter safe parking Housing assistance homelessness prevention and supportive services and not in the slide But another service that the city supports is daytime services Next slide, please This slide covers Strategic investments made in housing by santa rosa I want to note that again. This is not just the homeless services division. This is our housing community services department Working very closely with the santa rosa housing authority In the last two years the city has invested 25.5 million dollars in a variety of funding sources To complete construction of 336 units of affordable housing Of those units 138 are permanent supportive housing or homeless dedicated We currently have 500 units under construction With more than 35 million dollars in funds from a variety of sources. Excuse me Then also through our housing authority. We have 131 emergency housing vouchers 111 of those have been leased up. So that's 85 percent Nine are pending lease up and we have 11 Individuals who have received vouchers that are currently looking for housing Next slide, please moving on to Strategic investments made at a regional or county level So countywide between 2022 and 2023 homeless counts. There was a 22 percent decrease in homelessness That's the biggest decrease since 2015 On any given night in sonoma county, 2,226 individuals are experiencing homelessness 1291 or 57 percent are living in unsheltered locations 975 or 43 percent are in our shelters So the decrease that we're seeing countywide I touched on this on the previous slide is due in large part to increase the coordination Across the county through our continuum of care and our cities Also the addition of approximately 400 new beds in our system of care. So countywide This is due in large part to the state Home key program and an infusion of resources into our county And this includes all bed types. So interim housing emergency shelter rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing For santa rosa this for the state home key program. This included 24.6 million dollars in funding for two projects Uh caritas village 40 units of interim housing at the family shelter And st. Vincent de paul commons, which is 51 units of permanent supportive housing that is currently leasing up Next slide, please Moving on to the year two implementation plan for 2024 We will provide be providing monthly updates and making these available on the city's website Our key focus areas for this year include implementing the encampment resolution fund and the home art funds that I mentioned A couple slides back and those are one time funds that the city's received Developing a stakeholder engagement plan with our communications and intergovernmental relations office zero Our department has worked closely with zero To provide regular updates via the city connections letter on all the efforts that our department is carrying out related to homelessness and housing and we'll be Using feedback received from a recent community survey, which i'll touch on in the next slide to develop this plan Implementing a regional homelessness prevention pilot, which I covered earlier in the presentation and continuing our proactive city encampment team Next slide, please Community survey. This was released last month. Um housing and homelessness survey and this was done as part of our consolidated plan Um for funding from the u.s. Department of Housing and Urban Development and to inform a stakeholder engagement plan as part of our homelessness strategic Solution strategic plan Want to note for the second bullet point for the consolidated plan that staff will be bringing that plan back to council in april This community survey was open from january fourth uh to february 16th. And so the results are still coming in And i'll be covering those preliminary results in the next slide, please So 90 of survey respondents shared that Homelessness is a community priority. So 90 extremely or very important 49 reported an increase in homelessness near their home or place of work 35 reported no change in the level of homelessness and 16 reported a decrease 74 percent of survey response respondents expressed an interest in learning more about what the city is doing to address homelessness So we'll be working with zero On next steps to implement the feedback that was received to be in the community survey Next slide, please With that it is recommended by the housing community services department that council receive a year one report 2023 On the implementation of the homelessness solutions strategic plan 2023 through 20 27 This concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you So thank you for the presentation, but also thank you for all the hard work that you do within our community We see a decrease because you're doing a lot of the hard work. So you and your team Sorry, so thank you very much for that And looking to council to see if there are any questions councilmember mcdonnell Thank you, mayor. I just want to say thank you so much and and echo it mayor Has said about the work that you do for our unsheltered community I have a question in the strategic plan and and maybe I just didn't hear you talk about it But what are we doing to target our youth that are experiencing homelessness right now? I know there's a couple different facilities around the city of santa santa rosa But do we have any plans for supporting those efforts or do we have some place that we are able to house them? Good afternoon. I'm megan bassinger director of housing and community services In regards to recent communications regarding sa y's future We have been in communication with sa y and we're monitoring the situation There's also been coordination with the county and the county's housing authority has a direct allocation Of a specific housing choice vouchers for foster youth So they are making sure that those resources are directed to that population And then additionally the housing authority does have Loans that are recorded against a couple of sa y's properties. So we are monitoring it closely Thank you All right, it's seeing no additional questions from council We will now hand it over to madam city clerk to facilitate public comment Thank you, mayor. We are now taking public comments on item 4.1 If you're in the chamber, I would like to comment but have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Again, this is for item 4.1 The first public comment will be from dwayne followed by michael then can any Okay coming right up Go ahead. Hello. My name is dwayne. Do you with i'm from roseland? This is a copy of a newspaper from six years ago after the fire The junior college was pointing out the vacancy rate in santa rosa at that time Was 1.5 Making it very difficult for people to get places to live Below this is a article from the san francisco Chronicle a little bit later a few months later pointing out that the people who had been affected by the tubs fire Were joining the homeless ranks and we were having Such a problem at that time So i want to thank the staff and thank the council for the efforts they're making trying to Deal with this intractable problem that's been around for many decades and actually Probably will last even longer What i'd like to ask you today is to specifically help us over in roseland where our neighborhoods are significantly impacted by The fact that people are having to try and camp somewhere Especially at the oakland wood at the oak woodland that we have which we know is the roseland neighborhood Campers have been moving in there. They've been cutting the trees down and they've been starting fires With the fences that were once there they rip them apart and build fires back in there So the city works with the federal government on something called hud vash vouchers That's the veterans administration supportive housing for homeless veterans And i was told there are 40 vouchers not in use Because the difficulty between the city And the county and the federal government on coming to terms on how to get those vouchers To those veterans some of those people who may be camping out in the neighborhood might be veterans I sure hope that you'll make an effort to utilize every one of those hud vash vouchers So no veteran is homeless. Thank you. Thank you. The next public comment will be from Pardon me Michael followed by kennany My name is michael. Last name is hilber I'd like to start off by saying i'd like to see you Look into getting a new police chief someone who Will show an interest in getting a handle on the drug problem that's going on around here Because if we can uh, you know look to the drug issue That will significantly impact the the homeless issue This happens to be a book written by one of your homeless citizens named edward campagnolo. He says in this book Uh That he's been living on san rose avenue and using methamphetamine On a regular basis and this been going on for years and years and you know, why why do we just ignore this? He even tells you who he buys it from It says in the book that he came out from uh, new jersey And uh, he got hooked up with some guy who's selling methamphetamine and you know, that's essentially the main reason He decided to stay You know, it's not right. You know if you if you go to the safeway, you know on four street, you might see a young man Wrapped in a bedspread with the jitters, you know, that's because he's got drugs in his system And they're they're uh, you know along the creek there by farmer's lane You know, there was quite a few of them there last time I went to that safeway store Uh, you you even had a methamphetamine user found running around with a human skull dangling from a cord, you know That's embarrassing and the police, you know, they They want credit because they figured out where the the skull came from, you know It was an abandoned house with methamphetamine users hanging out And they essentially ignored it for a long time And until it came to light, you know via the skull on the cord Thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be canini This year's war budget is over 800 billion dollars A big big chunk of that will go to israel to further its aggression against the people of the middle east North africa south asia And continuing their atrocities against the united states. So you know that israel bombed the united states Maybe we shouldn't fund their bombing of the united states. Can we keep your comment on the topic? Which is homeless? Yes, you're looking for money Look to washington Look to the defense budget Look to the billions we send to israel to attack babies in palestine general of the army five stars president united states Eisenhower said we can either have butter or bullets You can't have both Well, i'll bring it up today if i may We can either bomb homes or build homes Madam mayor i can't do both. Madam mayor if i may Excuse me, uh, you you need to keep your comments confined to this particular agenda item There is another agenda item later this evening where you can discuss Any item within the subject manager restriction of the council? This is not that item I'm addressing i'm addressing funding for homeless funding for homeless. I'd like my time return, please Funding you're looking for funding You're looking here nickle and dine when there's billions being spent on unnecessary wars The iraq war is going to cost one trillion dollars one trillion california is it Thank you. We're going to move on to public comments via zoom on item 4.1 If you wish to make a public comment via zoom on 4.1 Please raise your hand Okay, one moment Okay, I see no hands being raised via zoom We do have one more member of the public in the room who would like to make public comment. Please go ahead thomas Thank you. Yes. My name is thomas and uh um Something i noticed in the Uh plan it does not refer to the 2015 uh homelessness act That requires through hud The prioritization of long-term homeless So I didn't see that prioritization from the 2015 act Thank you Thank you See no one else approaching the podium on item 4.1 mayor and no hands being raised via zoom i'll turn it back to you Thank you bringing it back to council to see if there are any additional comments Seeing none, I will turn it back. Thank you very much for the presentation and I'll turn it back over to the assistant city manager Thank you. Madam mayor item 4.2 options for increasing future council compensation And I will turn it over to our city attorney for this item Madam city attorney Thank you, madam mayor council members. Teresa stricker city attorney um This study session is a discussion of the options the current options For um increasing council compensation And again, this is a study session so there will be no action taken but um direction may be given to staff So next slide please currently council members receive a salary of $1,480 per month which is the equivalent of $17,760 per year And the mayor receives $2,220 per month or $26,640 per year The last increase in council compensation occurred in december of 2022 Council members are also entitled to health vision dental life insurance long-term disability Retirement and certain other benefits that employees receive These benefits have a current value of approximately $19,700 to $37,700 Depending on the options that a council member were to choose Next slide So the current process for increasing council member salaries is as follows The city charter currently ties the amount of council member compensation to state law But does require that the mayor receive One and a half times the salary of council members State law permits city councils to increase their salaries by ordinance up to certain amounts based on city population With limited adjustments for inflation Next slide So i'm going to provide a little bit of background Here in 2022 The charter review committee made a number of recommendations to the council one of those recommendations Was that a valid measure be submitted to the voters in november of 2022 To amend the charters council compensation provisions Based on a number of factors The committee felt that the workload of the city council Was substantial The their council members had difficulties balancing private employment child care family responsibilities and responsibilities on council And the committee looked at compensation in other northern california cities Next slide, please Based on those concerns the charter review committee concluded that increased compensation Of council at that time Would do a number of things for the city first it would enable a greater diversity Of council membership Including individuals in a variety of socioeconomic Classifications and would include potentially younger council members who are not retired and those with families It would also ensure continued strong commitment and professionalism Of the council and it would reflect fairness and respect for the extensive and important work that the council performs Next slide so the valid measure that the committee recommended to council was that The charter be changed to tie the mayor's salary to the county area median income For a household a three-person household, which at that time was 101,500 dollars annually Currently that the county area Area median income would be one thousand one hundred and fifteen thousand three hundred dollars annually The recommended measure would also set council member salary at two-thirds of the mayor's salary Which would maintain that same proportion? That the current council the current charter provision provides That amount would be sixty seven thousand six hundred and sixty seven dollars annually Currently That would amount to seventy six thousand eight hundred and sixty seven dollars annually And then finally the committee recommended that the council consider reducing Salary for unexcused absences If there was a situation where there was a citywide salary reduction or in other circumstances that council may determine would be appropriate Next slide please So following receipt of that recommendation there was a lot of robust conversation at the council over multiple meetings And in august of 2022 council determined that it would consider A ballot measure the ballot measure that was recommended by the committee But for the november 2024 ballot rather than the november 2022 ballot And then in december of 2022 council instead adopted an ordinance under State law increasing council salaries to their current levels There had been prior to that there had been no crease In council salaries for 17 years so back to 2005 Next slide So there's been a change in state law since 2022. So since that time SB 329 increased the state law limits on city council member salaries And that bill took effect in january of this year Based on the new law and the city's current population SB 329 allows the council to increase by ordinance under your current charter provisions council member salary up to $2,550 per month which would be a salary of $30,600 per year And then under your current charter requirement the mayor's compensation would be one and a half times the council member salary Which would mean up to $3,825 per month Or an annual salary of $45,900 per year Next slide The value of the non-salary benefits that are available to council members is not included in the limit set by sp 329 nor was it included in the state law provision prior to The bill amending the state law And then under the new bill future salary increases beyond the limits that were set by population and initially It may be increased at a future time Up to the greater of one of two different formulas. The first is a flat five percent per year rate From the last salary adjustment Or the increase in inflation since january 2024 capped at 10 Percent per year Next slide So should council decide to Uh proceed with looking at a salary increase There are two options. So truly you have three options here today by virtue of providing some direction to staff So the first option would to be to consider moving forward with a valid measure Um, it could be put on the ballot for november 2024 Um, one option would be the charter review committee recommendation that was made in 2022 And just a reminder that would be the mayor would receive 100 of the county am i for a household of three and that would amount to Approximately nine thousand six hundred and eight dollars per month or One hundred and fifteen thousand three hundred dollars per year Council members would receive two-thirds of that amount Which would equate to six thousand four hundred and six dollars per month or seventy six thousand eight hundred and sixty seven dollars per year Next slide, please Another option under a valid measure Option would be to think about other options And some of the other options and formulas that the charter review committee considered but ultimately rejected were setting council member salary at a certain percentage of the Board of Supervisors salaries here in sonoma county Considering a different percentage of the county am i rather than the 100 for the mayor and then two-thirds of that for council members The ballard the ballard review committee also looked at Either an option for setting council member salaries at either the average or the lowest city employees salary And then the the review the review committee also looked at Perhaps an average among comparable cities In the bay in the northern california and in the bay area Next slide So your second option would be to adopt an ordinance under the new bill sb 329 to increase council compensation Under that bill you could by ordinance increase compensation for council members again up to two thousand five hundred and fifty dollars per month With the annualized salary at Thirty thousand six hundred dollars The mayor could be then increased it would be one the mayor's salary would be one and a half times council members So up to three thousand eight hundred twenty five dollars per month Or forty five thousand nine hundred per year Under state law the timing Is is limited You can adopt an ordinance at any time, but this salary increase would only take effect When a new council member begins a term so What that would likely be if you adopted an ordinance In this calendar year You would be looking at a salary increase that could take effect no earlier than At your council changeover, which is usually in december Sometimes in january depending on how quickly we get The election results from the registrar or voters If you don't do it this year You wouldn't be able to do it again until Two years from then so you would be looking at the end of 2024 or potentially the end of 2026 as the next two opportunities and again The timing you have a lot of flexibility with that ordinance if you decided to bring it forward The spring The ordinance would take effect if you passed it through two readings But the salary increase doesn't take effect until the new council is sworn Next slide, please And then of course there is a third option the third option is to take no action regarding salaries at this time And so with that I I'm happy to answer any questions you might have Thank you for that presentation madam city attorney looking to council members to see if there are any questions All right and seeing none we'll go ahead and ask our madam city clerk to please facilitate public comment Thank you mayor. We are now taking public comments on item 4.2 If you are in the chamber, I would like to comment but have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium Again, you will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period The first public comment will be from dwayne followed by michael Indy witt i'm from roseland Please take no action This is the wrong time to be asking for raises Recently it was admitted that we'll be having a structural deficit for many years And that we've got problems financially You may have forgotten but in the past We had a citizens television station That was given up because it would cost $300,000 to keep it We also had a senior center on petaluma hill road in the old south park school And that was given up because it would take $300,000 to take care of it Now it's been demolished That part of our history is gone One of the dilemmas that we face is a lot of people in santa rosa don't want a permanent professional political class We actually like the idea of having citizen representatives that are Citizens like us once you become professional politicians That's a different game for a lot of people especially here in santa rosa Where many people aren't making even $40,000 a year So there's a lot of discussion that needs to be had about this You voted yourself in a raise last time without any Action by the public So you've got that going I think because of the state laws that was mentioned by the staff member You'll be getting some increases in wages over time as it is So please advocate that You at least have some forums with the public where we're allowed to talk with you at length Not just these short two minute snippets in which we don't have a dialogue We need to have some discussions with the taxpayers about what they're willing to finance And what we're hoping our government will do for us with the money that we put into the system So thank you for your time as limited as it may be No action, please Thank you. The next public comment will be from michael And if you would like to make a public comment via zoom now is the time for you to raise your hand on item 4.2 Please go ahead michael. Thank you Thank you michael huber We're being um We're going to be hit with another half percent the sales tax increase for Supposed to fire service. So we're paying through the nose My preferred option would be option three take no action When you're in public office, you need to be eyes open you need to uh You know demonstrating awareness of the issues what's going on around you I'm not seeing that here as if for instance, you know, if I driving around I see the The pen handling at the freeway exits the guys who set The bucket upside down in the middle of The street, you know collecting cash when the people in the Left turn lane and quite often, you know, they're under the influence And you can see it in their mannerisms that they have a drug problem And you know, there should be an ordinance banning that type of panhandling, you know and panhandlers have been Seen recently just you know sitting in front of the target store on Santa Rosa avenue near the doorway And they're always out there at the exit of the parking lot, you know, there you should be thinking about, you know, is this a type of city That you want to be representing or you know, you should some way to address that with ordinance banning that sort of panhandling and You know get serious about the drug problem in this city and county Thank you. The next public comment. I see no additional cards Submitted and we have someone on the west lectern. I will go ahead and enable your mic. Please go ahead Yes, my name is Susan Lamont. I live in Santa Rosa. This may seem like a very picky point But at the beginning you talked about the median income Of residents of Santa Rosa This is a deceptive measure It should always be average If we use median Many many more people could be falling into poverty within our city And it would never be reflected In the numbers given It's actually a way to hide the conditions that are happening So if our top income earners Keep in they keep getting more and more money, which is what is happening And everybody else is stagnating the median income will go up It'll make it look like everybody is just doing hunky dory When in fact they aren't So it's a simple request eliminate median income A median much of everything else housing prices all that eliminate it And switch to average. Thank you Thank you. Thomas, please go ahead Yes, uh, do forgive me. Um I said I gave you a piece of paper. This is An amplification if you will of my comments The uh previous meeting And what I point out here is a paradigm shift Engineering creates a paradigm shift Um creativity creates a paradigm shift And I think that's what we need and and so I Would support I'm just one person, but I mean I would support a change in salaries If you commit to a paradigm shift, I think that's really what people are talking about Is it if you commit to a paradigm shift? It's a change of your own behavior a change of influence the last line that I have on here is Then that should represent what you do for herna avenue And all your strategies by the general I hope a vision Of an enhanced world using a paradigm shift at herna avenue I hope to see that vision and vision The greek word. Anyway, the question was is Is your vision of a diminishing world or of an enhanced world? And if you commit to the paradigm shift of an enhanced world It may not be the way everyone sees it But enhancing the world is enhancing how we live the napal has um a gross national happiness index A gross national happiness index and they run their whole country on the basis of a gross national happiness And not on a gross national product And thank you Thank you See no one else approaching the podium for item 4.2 and no hands being raised via zoom mayor. I'll turn it back to you All right. Thank you. Bringing it back to council to see if there is any discussion And we'll start with councilman bro krapke Thank you. Meta mayor. Um, just for context there was a concern about public input and I know this wouldn't apply to the sp329 portion of it but Since I know you weren't here, uh, madame city attorney, but to your best of your ability Can you discuss the chart review committee their process and how their recommendation came to be just so the public's aware that That it wasn't just a two-minute snippet in this meeting Yes, I can I will tell you what I know and then I will invite the city manager to maybe Fill in any any gaps any significant gaps that I missed As you know, I joined you in november of 2023 and so As I understand it the charter review committee did its work in 2022 There were multiple meetings That the charter review committee held those were public meetings brown act meetings There were I believe at least three. I may have the number wrong. There could have been more than that And there were a number of items that were discussed at the charter review committee. This was one of the items it was discussed over Again at least three meetings and the question at that point was should there be a Change in your charter you as a charter city have the ability to Decide how the the council members The formula under which council members would be paid and the charter is a it's sort of the constitution of the city It goes to the voters. It has to be approved by the voters. So Any recommended change that is made Should the council decide to put something on the ballot? It would have to be approved by the voters So this was really the review committee doing a deep dive as it does every 10 years To really look at what are some recommended changes to the charter that then come to a council for discussion So on this item there were again at least three It then came to the council. There was a study session that occurred With a lengthy and robust conversation With the public and with council It then came back again at Two maybe three meetings And that that history is actually in the staff report. So i'm going to go take a look to make sure that I'm counting correctly May 24th 2022 was the study session June 21st 2022 It was the item was considered by the council. It came back on july 12th 2022 In front of council came back again on july 26 2022 And then came back again on august 9th 2022 Then in December on december 6th and then again on december 13th there was a discussion Of adopting an ordinance not the valid measure at that point under your current charter provisions Which ties the ability? For salaries to be increased to state law and under that the state law at that time the council Decided to go ahead and adopt an ordinance to give An increase that was a five percent per year. There had not been an increase in 17 years at that point And so your current salaries are the result of that process But there was robust public participation and discussion about The valid measure What we have here and the discussion here was was really just bringing back to all of you The question of a valid measure as recommended by the charter review committee And through the city attorney and the mayor the city charter review committee met 13 times Between uh, november of 2021 through may of 2022. Thank you Thank you for that significant correction my apologies Madam city manager, would you like to add anything? Thank you, madam mayor. I believe city attorney stickers covered everything. Thank you Thank you, and now we'll go to vice mayor step Thank you, madam mayor and thank and thanks to our city attorney for a very very clear presentation. That was helpful Um, I just wanted to weigh in actually and second some of the public comment that was made Thank you to those who who took your time at the podium Um as the as the folks who made comment indicated and as we discussed at length that city goals setting last week The city has a number of other priorities right now including keeping ourselves on firm financial footing And also investing in other city priorities including taking care of our of our employees And other city infrastructure projects So with respect to this item, it's also it's also my preference that we take no no motion at this time um Seeing no one else that would like to provide comment I would say it's my preference also that we take no action at this time and that we do not move forward with the ballot measure I see nodding heads, but I don't see anyone that would like to uh speak So with that madam city attorney, do you feel like you have received? Yes, thank you very much All right, we will now go to item six, which is our report from I believe the assistant city manager will be giving the report and madam city attorney Thank you, madam mayor. Uh, I don't have any items to report out at this time I don't know madam city manager If she wanted to chime in I do I have a couple of reports. Thank you assistant city manager gunsome um So i'm pleased to share with each of you that the league of american bicyclists Has certified the city of santa rosa with the silver level bicycle friendly community award This particular award Recognizes santa rosa for the commitment to creating transportation and recreational resources That benefit that benefits residents of all ages and abilities While encouraging healthier and more sustainable transportation sources um Another item I have is to recognize city bus operator chris putchison Um chris assisted a passenger during a medical emergency during chris's shift He noticed that a passenger was having a little bit of trouble Upon exiting the bus chris noticed that the passenger had collapsed um chris being a paramedic in his former career um rest to the the passenger and stabilize the passenger's breathing and was able to Call the paramedic and call 911 to get this individual assistance So just on behalf of the city of santa rosa I think we would like to express our gratitude to city bus operator chris putchison You know, it's these types of attentive quick actions that um matter You know for our bus operators, you know, it just shows that they're into the community there and tune to their their riders And you know, we don't know what would have happened had chris not really been Engaged in and paying paying attention to his Rider, so we just want to give a special recognition to chris today. So thank you for that And those are the end of my comments. Thank you All right We are gonna go ahead and it looks like we started on item nine So we'll continue on item nine and then i'll go back up to item six. So madam city attorney Hey, thank you madam mayor Okay, um this item is uh report out of settlements and active litigation. This is an item that appears on Uh the calendar once a month We have historically tried to put this on at the first meeting of the month And it that's where it is um This particular month The look back of this report is supposed to be uh snapshot in time at the end of the prior month. So that would be The end of january 2024 There are months where Getting this item pushed out in the packet leaves us very little time in our office to get things Updated in the way that we would like to so moving forward We are going to move this item so that it will appear on your calendar at the second meeting of the month so that My office has the ability to get this updated And out to you. So you will have the Have this report in the future at the second meeting of the month. So that will be starting next month So please look for this at your second meeting. So the report Attached to the to the staff report has the report. Um, I am happy to report that we do have a settlement to report settlement over $50,000 one was finalized in january. That is the backster versus city of santa rosa matter This was a lawsuit. Um, in which plaintiff alleged Injuries resulting from tripping and falling Allegedly due to an uneven sidewalk. Um, there was a Global settlement With a total of 175 thousand dollars being contributed by um, uh, both of the defendants in the case And that Resulted at mediation that occurred in the middle of january The city of santa rosa share is half of that amount or 87 500 dollars For a full release of all claims. So that case dismissals are pending The document has been signed and the settlement is now finalized Beyond that We continue to have Approximately the same number of pending matters in our case in our office, which is sort of in the 28 to 30 range Many of those cases have trial dates and we continue to make efforts to resolve cases for little As little cost to the city That we can and so that is the end of my report this month And I will see you back at the end of next month For the next report Thank you. Madam city clerk. May we please have public comment on that item? Thank you, mayor. We are now taking public comment on item 9.1 If you're in the chamber, we'd like to provide public comment But have not provided a speaker card or your name. Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period You can also raise your hand via zoom for item 9.1 Mayor, I'm seeing no hands being raised and No one approaching the podium. Thank you. We will now go back up to item 6 Sorry for the confusion And madam city attorney. Did you want to report out on closed session? Yes, so I will first report out on closed session You had two closed session items item 3.1 and 3.2. There is no reportable action From either closed session Additionally, um, you just finished holding a study session on two items 4.1 homelessness solutions strategic plan For 2023 to 20 27 year one report 2023 And options for increasing future council compensation And that is the end of my report. Thank you very much. Madam city clerk May you please facilitate public comment on that item? Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 6 If you are in chamber and would like to comment but have not yet provided a speaker card on this item Please make your way to the podium. You can also raise your hand via zoom You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period I am seeing no one approaching the podiums on item 6 and no hands via zoom Thank you. We will now continue with item 7 7.1, which is our proclamation for national black history month And I have the honor of reading that proclamation Whereas beginning in 1976 every president has declared the month of february as black history month The theme for 2024 is african americans and the arts African-american art is infused with the global african diaspora Lived experiences in the fields of visual and performing arts literature fashion folklore language film music architecture Culinary and other forms of cultural expression The african-american influence has been paramount enriching america and indeed the lives of every American And whereas blues musicians such as riley bb king created and nurtured a style of music That became the bedrock of gospel soul And other still popular and evolving forms of music Black contributions to literature Includes works by authors such as octavia butler and tony morrison And whereas in 1973 hip-hop was started by black musicians in the broncs And continues to be a pivotal force in political social and cultural spaces and continues to be used as mediums for Issues such as racial violence sexism economic Disinvestment and other issues at the forefront And whereas black artists have used art to preserve history and community memory as well as empowerment Local artists such as victor temple from new world ballet santa rosa and tina rogers from ketchabee Continue to ensure the history and tradition of black art Live on in our community Now therefore it be it resolved that i natalie rogers of the city mayor of the city of santa rosa On behalf of the entire city council do hereby recognize february 2024 as national black history month african americans in the art I would like to invite uh both tina and victor to the podiums to say Something if you wish to do that in tina while you go up there. I would like you to tell us about the posters that are displayed Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hello everyone. My name is tina rogers I'm very very grateful for madam mayor and the city council Of santa rosa to acknowledge and honor black history month A national black history month. It is very very important That we celebrate all of us and then the foundation of america As you see these posters that are hanging this is the second year That our children From kindergarten tk all the way up through high school. These here are From kindergarten to about i think seventh grade or eighth grade These posters are done for our celebration the sonoma county marluther king jr. Birthday celebration This year was the 44th year that we've been doing it here in sonoma county. It's also the oldest that's west of the mississippi these students have been working of The sonoma library system has been partnering the last two years providing workshops that are library and have led teachers Of different community members have encouraged their students to participate These are just the winners The event was held at magumri high school this year on sunday january 14th to provide healing for students And staff and faculty and community at magumri These seven posters that you see here will be in the council chambers Throughout black history month and the greatest part about this year it's leap year So we have an actual day so it'll be here at least to the 29th And if there's some females there we might want to keep them throughout women's history month as well That's you know, but no i'm just kidding. I think the kids are going to want those back Um, I myself um am a product of the sonoma county and native Um, I am one of the hip-hop kids the break dancers the rappers that we all grew up here I had the opportunity to go to uc davis and what I found out is that I was missing Missing my passion for the arts here in america all of the music have been has been created by black people We're talking about gospel blues jazz rock and roll country hip-hop House music techno high energy rap disco everything ashay So, you know There there are so many ways that we can explore but it's very very important that we have Arts and ethnic studies throughout our schools to help teach how we all can get along as human beings Everyone that has these science here. Thank you For Palestine, we must say free the Congo We must say free sudan We must say free everybody that is being harmed around the world and not only that but right here in Sonoma county We give a shout out and recognize the Sonoma county black union students at all the schools in our campuses from ranch of a toddy Montgomery maria carillo sanderos the middle school winsor Middle calm stock, you know, we are trying to do the best that we can for all of our students Not just certain populations But we're trying to help all of our students and we're using the arts and we're in this schools And victor temple as you please come over here Victor can tell you about his work that he is doing This is our calling. This is our passion Most of the time we try to do this for funding But if we have to do it for free by dog on it, that's what we're going to do to save our children. Thank you My name is Tina rogers Thank you very much. Thank you very much. My name is My name is Victor temple. I'm the artistic director of new world ballet I've been the artistic director for about 18 years. The company started in 1994 up in Humboldt county Uh, at the time I had just returned from china and started dancing with the Cirque du Soleil and Oakland ballet Um, I was asked to take over the company up in Humboldt county I did that for eight and a half years and someone here in the city of santa rosa Saw my work and invited my organization to relocate In the time that I've been artistic director your kids I've been teaching Um I've taken a lot of kids off the streets Taking for example one child that was uh an f student And turned them around he became a national honor society student now. He's and he Put it put it paid his way or through a scholarship made it. Um, you know danced for scholarship at um Butler university a very prestigious dance school in america um So I can boast a 100 percent placement rating for all of my students In the time that I've been artistic director, I've done that I've changed a lot of lives I I thank you very much for this recognition I would like to take it a step further and ask you for support for the arts Especially for this organization We're doing so much for your community and we would love to have a building some kind of home instead of You know dancing wherever we can We can do much better here For instance the city, um The dance theater of harlem would like to do um a collaboration with my company and have a dance theater of harlem west here in santa rosa Or we will provide dance, uh, education high level dance education for this Children here in santa rosa along with the dance theater of harlem that alvin ailey company has also agreed to do that with us So the only thing that i'm asking for Is a space to do it Please help us Again, my name is victor temple. I'm from the new world ballet. Thank you very much for your time 30 seconds is going one thing um, I have uh, you can have uh any of your students or your children. I have a catch a beat program I'm finishing my um all these seventh one in the sonoma libraries at the rosa library at 10 a.m This thursday and then sonoma valley is my last one for this month I believe on the 18th and then also you can catch me and also my catch a beat performance program at the poly class theater This thursday at 5 30 and at 6 30 So look out we have a lot of stuff going on and uh power to the people and power to city of santa rosa sonoma county. Thank you madam Madam city clerk are we able to take public comment on this item and following Public comment. We would like to invite both tina and victor down to take a picture With the council. Thank you. Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 7.1 If you're in the chamber, I would like to make a comment but have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to a podium You'll have two minutes in a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period If you'd like to make a comment via zoom now is the time to raise your hand for item 7.1 The first public comment will be from dwayne Dwayne DeWitt i'm from roseland and thank you miss rogers and mr. Temple for coming here Thank you for the city for honoring black history month It's uh really good to hear that we were the first west of the mississippi to do it here in sonoma county I encourage all of you To join the national association for the advancement of colored people the n double acp chapter here in sonoma county The unit's been in existence since 1958 when platt williams was one of the founders We had segregation in santa rosa It was founded because they wanted to overcome that segregation So I hope all of you will take the chance To educate yourself about santa rosa in sonoma county And join the local n double acp chapter. It's called the unit. Thank you again Oh, and you know what? You folks could go to santa rosa high school where they have our old television studio where they had dance programs there It's called art start go on over there and get started nothing but a good time Thank you mayor. I see no one else approaching the podiums in council chamber I do have one hand being raised via zoom So i'll turn it over to our deputy city clerk to facilitate public comment via zoom Thank you. First up will be alan Alan i'm asking you to unmute. Please go ahead when you're ready Hi, yes. Thank you. My name is alan wolves. I just wanted to um thank the speaker for calling for freedom for everyone in palestine and every other Country in the world where there are prep people. I think it's our duty as santa rosa to do so. Thank you Thank you. We have no other speakers on zoom All right, mayor. We will go to the final speaker in the room. Please go ahead Hello, everyone. Uh, my name is Miss brumfield I work very closely with tina rogers And i'm an educator in the crp usd district Um, this is our second year having a black student union on campus Um, I am from santa rosa attended santa rosa middle santa rosa high school ssu And I must say that it is very nice to see other People of color in the room in this type of setting as a young person Um, mayor rogers. Thank you so much for Acknowledging the work that is happening here in the city and We know that there is a lot more work to do not only across the country and across the world but here in our Backyards in our homes And This is my first time at a city hall meeting and there is a lot happening within our schools in the classrooms specifically Racial slurs that is affecting our students their academics as well as their self-confidence And I would really like A greater conversation to happen within our educational system not only in the month of february, but um In legislation and whatever we can get So that our students feel empowered and safe on campuses as we see Many things happening not only in santa rosa, but especially in oakland. I'm just now hearing of the walkouts Um, and this is our generation. This is our next generation of leaders and city council members So if we could continue that conversation and partner, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much Thank you Mayor i'm seeing no one else approach the podium for public comment on this item I would like to advise members of the community as they are participating in today's meeting to please keep the doorways clear so we have Clear ingress and egress from the meeting room. Thank you All right Mr. Rogers and mr. Temple if you would like to come down and whoever came with you so we can take a picture All right moving on to item eight, which are our staff briefings For this evening and we have 8.1 community empowerment plan update Thank you, madam mayor Item 8.1 is a community empowerment plan update, which will be presented by lawn peterson who is our Chief of communications and intergovernmental relations indeed Thank you, and a good evening mayor vice mayor city council as mentioned lawn peterson directed communications intergovern relations I will be providing the community empowerment plan update First up the santa rosa police department They're developing a strategic plan and they're seeking community input on that as well as guidance on march 6 6 p.m They will be at 35 stony point road in santa rosa The chief will be hosting a community meeting to get input on public safety priorities Um, additionally the chief will attend the community advisory board meeting on february 28 to solicit additional Feedback and then also engage them for participation at the march 6 meeting For more info visit santa rosa pd dot org to get involved Next up the violence prevention partnership continues to focus on community education um, january 31st They uh, they hosted a successful gang education and wellness fair at santa rosa high school uh, mayor giroggers councilmember alvarez city manager smith as well as the chief attended that session um, there's two additional gang education presentation scheduled for uh, february 21st 6 p.m Amarosa academy which will include an overview of vpp programming and information on gang activity in the morland area Next is march 28th at rosalind rosalind university prep This presentation will be specifically in spanish with a translation for english available if needed And there will also be a resource fair conducted in spanish and english and uh The spring summer block blast guide which comes out Um, uh, just came out. It's being delivered to households today and tomorrow to approximately 11 000 residents within the city's priority neighborhoods This uh, this is put out by the city's neighborhood services program With the recreation department and they provide after school sports recreation programs for underserved Youth and families and you can find this guide at srcd.org Slash neighborhood services and that concludes my report this evening Thank you very much for that report and looking to council to see if there are any questions Regarding the report to seeing none. Madam city clerk. May you please facilitate public comment? Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 8.1 If you are in the chamber, I would like to provide a comment But have not provided a speaker card or your name. Please make your way to the podium now If you're participating via zoom, please raise your hand You'll have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period The first public comment will be from kenny. Please go ahead First I want to apologize for my earlier comments. I got my agendas confused that happens sometimes Empowering the community sounds like a great idea What about allowing community members to put items on the agenda? You know as though this were a democracy we could pretend this is a democracy You may want to set some limit on that like maybe you need 50 signatures to put an item on the agenda for the city council Not all of us have direct access to you leaders of the city Second and last item is to facilitate community involvement, particularly here tonight It'd be nice if public comments were moved back to the beginning of the agenda years ago public comments was on the agenda We were first kind of made us feel welcome and important Now we're pushed down on the agenda and who knows when the heck there will be a public comment You have the authority to move your agenda around. Well, you just did it. You just did it moving nine forward How about opening public comment now? Right here right now After this item 8.1. Would you please open public comment now? Thank you for your consideration Thank you. The next public comment will be from dwayne Hello, my name is dwayne de wid. I'm from roseland Those were very pertinent comments that were just made about public empowerment Most folks here don't know that these meetings used to start with public comments at four o'clock And there was three minutes given even earlier than that. It was five minutes But you've been cutting it down Right here right now. This place is full of people who want to have empowerment I don't know most of them, but I got to tell you they probably came down here because they want their voice To count and what goes on in our city So for whatever issues they're here for Empowerment would be to let them Talk with you and find a way to get their issue onto the agenda in the future as was just mentioned by mr. Kenealy I've come here many years now trying to get more public involvement Because we feel that the council is detached from The areas that they represent Even though we now have district elections The people that are on the community advisory board, they never come out to my neighborhood and talk to anybody that we know All of this stuff that's going on basically happens at what you call a publicly noticed meeting But most folks don't get the chance to be here to come to these meetings when you have them So start to empower the community by what mr. Peterson said Having these evening meetings like will happen at roseland university prep later in the month of march Those are good things to do And I hope that all these people who've come here today will continue to try to participate in our participatory Democracy because if you just turn your back on it It won't get answered But if you keep pushing for whatever your issue is It may get answered in your lifetime at least so keep trying never say die Thank you Mayor i'm seeing no one approach the podium for public comment on 8.1 and i'm seeing no additional hands raised via zoom Thank you. We'll now move on to item 10, which is statements of abstention by council members council member okrepke Thank you madam mayor. I will be uh abstaining from a portion of 15.2 the state legislative platform that has to do with fire recovery tax measures as well as the Portion that it has to do with interaction with the insurance commissioner Is that as the regulatory body of my profession as an insurance agent? Thank you Any other abstentions from council members? All right seeing none Hold that thought All right, so um, thank you very much for that pause We are going to Accept council member okrepke's abstention for item 10 and then we will go down to Item 14 which is public comment on non agenda matters And i'll hand it over to madam city clerk Thank you, mayor. We are now taking public comments on item 14 non agenda matters So this is a time when any person on the agenda um I Fire marshal lowenthal we have a child on the other side of the gate up here in the council chamber Would you be able to um give an assist? Mayor would you like to take a brief recess until we Got the runner under control I'm sorry Very cute. Um, so Uh We got them Thank you. Okay back to it. We are now taking public comments on item 14 non agenda matters This is a time when any person may address the council on matters not listed on the agenda but Which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council If you are in the council chamber and would like to make a comment but have not provided a speaker card or your name Please provide your name now to the administrator at the top of the well You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period We will take 12 speakers under item 14 If we have more than 12 public comments on item 14 The remaining speakers will be afforded the opportunity to speak on item 18 non agenda matters As you approach the podium, please state your name for public record if you choose to do so Additionally, if you provided written public comment by the 5 p.m. Deadline as noted on today's agenda Your public comment was uploaded to the agenda packet Circulated to city council and made available to the public this morning Live public comment is not a second opportunity to provide public comment on the same agenda if you previously provided a written public comment As names are called Please line up at the opposite podium as a speaker called ahead of you in order to maintain space and an orderly meeting And I would like to remind everyone that we are unable to get in back and forth with you, but we do hear you Thank you. The first speaker will be dwayne followed by thomas From rosalind yesterday was the anniversary of abraham lincoln's birthday. What a great day. What a great man He gave a speech called the getty's burger dress You know, you couldn't give that speech in our time limits here now You used to be able to do it You used to have school kids come down here and give the getty's burger dress to us So we'd all remember what the country is about government for the people by the people So you've cut the limits down You're making it so that there's less time for the people to be able to participate And yet you want to get raises and you want to say oh, we're doing more work It really feels like you're actually excluding more and you're making it so that the people can't participate As well as they'd like to you have all these people here tonight And you could perhaps tell them to go to the community advisory board And at the community advisory board they could Get their issues out and each district member here in the council Could bring stuff forward so that these people get a chance to feel like They are a part of our governmental system right now And i'm sure this is on the minds of many people here Why can't their issue come forward and be considered by you on the agenda in the future Mr. Keneally pointed out that there should be an opportunity For the community to ask to have items on the agenda I'd like to ask that we return to three minutes for public appearances On any of the items and to have public comment at the beginning of the meeting So that these people don't have to wait hours and hours to finally get there Only two minutes of time Thank you kindly Thank you. The next public comment will be from thomas followed by jason Please go ahead. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is thomas I provided some comments Today that you have Which I sent as an email They are merely The amplification of my comment from last Meeting um So this is not The written comment For this meeting But you have it for this meeting You just wanted to make sure that the email was forwarded to you. They had a chance to read it So my comments are in the context of of gaza and the people here Recognizing that there are these two worlds that we're living in we we have this um An entitled world Israel seems to be entitled to go into gaza and go anywhere they want to do and kill anybody they want to kill And we have an unentitled world gaza's we have the same thing here in rose land They're not entitled. They're not even entitled to cross the freeway So limited is their access. We talked about making new access there Continuing the access from jennings and over to elliott and edwards and to go over that That's in the north and we need to continue the improvements in the in the south and There are periods you have the finance I'll say finance minister You had the finance minister here the other day And and he was talking about your your budget and your expenditures and so on But he really left out a lot of information about where capital improvements come from they come from the developers and builders You encourage to develop the builders and developers to come here But they have to add stuff. They have to add parks and streets and things and your maintenance budget that comes from your taxes And the thing that's not happening is that they're not deducting depreciation. So you don't really see the losses That's a lot. Thank you the next public comment will be from excuse me Uh jason followed by n huy and then daniel Jason go ahead. Hi. Thank you. My name is jason sweeney. I am a resident of santa rosa in the fifth district I'm here to make public comment on the need for a ceasefire resolution in the city of santa rosa Asking the federal government to heed the national call for an end to the current round of violence in gaza and the west bank I want to commend you on the artwork and the beautiful honoring of black history month and and now we need you to take action to back it up It's our choices and our actions that define us I actually had an mlk quote So i'm going to read it our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. That's martin luther king jr This city unfortunately is already divided if we cannot agree on the principle that innocent civilians and babies Should not be targeted in armed conflicts That is the divide should innocent babies deserve a chance at life or are they condemned to death because of fear and lies Stacked on top of lies and what is the other side of that coin israel is not stopping netanyahu's words total victory That equals genocide complete The resolution is a bridge over that divide read it and bring a dictionary if necessary We are asking for the intelligent the reasonable and the principled people to step forward and unite And speak the simple truth if it's peace and safety that you want stop doing harm Zionism is rooted in racism. How do we end and how do we combat and end racism? Individuals need to change their own hearts. So we have to talk about these things as a community We need to make racism unacceptable. That is the that is at the core of what we are asking Friends don't let friends support genocide There is no such thing as the chosen people in the multicultural public sphere I wanted to quickly you you have some equity measures already resolutions already passed by the city that that are Completely applied to this Thank you. The next public comment will be from in hui The next public comment will be from in hui followed by danielle then simcha Please go ahead. She is a fire in 1920. She's a fire now. She's a fire forever for palestine Greetings. My name is in here Lee. I'm a grandmother of two and i'm pretty length writer My council member is mr Chris rogers Also, I'm a first generation immigrant from south korea where my people still suffer Because of occupation by sepan and the korean war My country is divided and then there's no peace talk because of 30,000 us military present in south korea occupation is inherently genocide and apathy And 36 years was bad enough for koreans. I do not know how palestine people endure over a hundred years of occupation and I I'm here to ask The council put ceasefire now resolution on the azenda from what I gather Some members of council In fear of dividing our community, but there is only one line dividing community That is people those who who feel suffering over palestine and who don't And I heard that I learned the qualification of a political leadership is cultivating empathy Compassion and if you can't appear suffering over palestine, how can we trust you with the local people suffering? And some members say not informed enough Well Information is everywhere and that it's a past so please take action now Or lose my boat cease fire in 1920 now Thank you Thank you the next The next public comment will be from danielle followed by simcha vendino Oh, my name is danielle and i'm a resident of district five I am tired of the rhetoric and false narrative around adopting a ceasefire resolution We are told that such a resolution result in an increase in anti-semitism and cause division within our community We are told that the systematic slaughter of tens of thousands of palestinian civilians is necessary to ensure the safety of israel and free the hostages To date the brutal attacks on schools hospitals homes aid trucks Houses of worship and refugee camps has only resulted in the freeing of two hostages Meanwhile israeli forces have killed dozens of hostages through bombings and have even gunned down two jewish hostages That had escaped captivity The largest number of hostages 80 Were released during a temporary ceasefire in november so a ceasefire can be can produce desired results The genocide of the palestinian people may make it less safe for jewish people The world is watching as israel defies the ruling of the international court of justice and continues the ethnic cleansing of gaza Through no fault of their own jewish people may be targeted because of israel's military aggression in their name Just as palestinian americans are being targeted because of israel's and the u.s. Propaganda machines To date six to date a six-year-old boy was stabbed to death three friends were shot for wearing kafias and speaking arabic columbia university students were victims of a chemical attack while attending a protest And last week a young father was stabbed following a pro palestine rally In addition to in addition to hate crimes across our nation people in our own community have been victims Knowing that my government is complicit in this genocide and that my tax dollars are funding. It is unacceptable ceasefire now Thank you. The next public comment will be from simcha The next public comment will be from simcha followed by dino then gary Watch something there we are Madam mayor city council members and everyone in this chamber My name is simcha schwarz I come from linage where my grandfather survived the ukrainian throne rooms in which 90 of my family perished I have a two and a half year old son sonoma county resident. His name is imed zion truth of zion Zionism is a self-determination for the jewish people in their homeland israel A land in which the jewish culture and religion is informed by The jews are indigenous to that land of israel and when attacked Fight back We seek no harm from others. We are actually peacemakers Peacemakers with egypt jordan bahrain ua e sudan moraco Unlike 22 arab and ethnosates israel has jews muslims christians living with equal rights People are taking zionism a land-backed movement in this war to dehumanize israel and the jewish people If you are critical of the israeli government then say so Do not abuse our sacred land right land-backed movement known as zionism a reminder There are 20 million jewish people on this planet and by far 10 times more who harbor rough anti- jewish abuse Hamas infiltrated the country and one of our holiest days burned alive raped and massacred 1200 people and stole 230 innocent civilians 100 still remaining that was an act of war and just yesterday 100 more died gossums Many of which were militants because two hostages were rescued If you are so determined to pass a ceasefire resolution, which doesn't seem to be santa rosa city council's responsibility For the sake of gaza the palestinians israeli jews christians and arabes Then asked for hamas to ceasefire by returning the hostages and surrendering. This will save lives lastly and most importantly Protect this local community by not doing so and Thank you. The next public comment will be from dino followed by gary then canini dino, please go ahead Well first i would like to say something to the last comment It is the responsibility of santa rosa city council to put on the agenda a ceasefire resolution For the next meeting and to pass said resolution on behalf of us the working people of santa rosa Because i believe local government representatives should uphold the political will and ethical convictions of their constituents Especially regarding matters of great moral significance that directly involve our government such as the ongoing massacre of 23 000 palestinians and gaza by the israeli government and the Authoritarian right-wing ned yahu regime a massacre funded by our tax dollars to stop the mass killings of palestinians and gaza We the people must appeal to our local governments Use them as a vehicle to shift public consciousness and apply pressure on the white house on joe biden and the federal government To push for a long-lasting ceasefire as 70 other cities in this great nation have To call for a ceasefire is to call for peace because calling for a ceasefire acknowledges At the only way to strive for peace in the region for israelis and for palestinians is for both sides the cease military action For israel to stop its mass killing to palestinian civilians and to come to the table for peace negotiations All of the world's major human rights groups have come to one unanimous conclusion A ceasefire is necessary because there is an undeniable evidence that israel has repeatedly violated international law By purposefully targeting and killing tens of thousands of palestinian civilians in civilian areas How many more families need to die before you take a stand for us? It is unacceptable that two million of our federal tax dollars and the people of santa rosa are going to this atrocity Make a stand against that use your power for good Bring faith back to politics Thank you. The next public comment will be from gary followed by canine and patrick Please as you do make your comments, please direct them to the city council and the mayor We are not allowed to have a back and forth between public commenters and in order to maintain an efficient and Orderly meeting if you can In Show of support rather than the cheers if you can please do your hands in support That helps keep the meeting moving forward and gives everybody the opportunity to Have their their time for public comment Thank you. Gary. Please go ahead Yes, i'm gary huntsman and I'm here to say that fear is the basis of most of our ills This war is fear-based the original Starting attack was fear-based and what's going on now is fear-based there's About a hundred years of abuse of the the palestinian people and uh as Our settlement of these lands led to genocide The fear of the indigenous people trying to take back their stolen land led to more genocide This war is based on fear as so many things are including violence war genocide greed The continuing of the war is a result of fear And fragile egos We need to have a ceasefire And in this war now This is nothing to do with sides. There are no sides to justice justice is a circle It has no sides Knock on your heart Answer the love that resides there and stop the killing Lack of action is an action by the way There's no snooze button on taking right action Any council member who does not Personally give support to stop the killing in palestine will not receive support from us Additionally have we forgot our heroes in their message for us mott magandhi Nelson Mandela Martin Luther king john lewis Their breath is the breath of the peep Thank you. The next public comment will be from canine followed by patrick then lina Please go ahead city council uh refuses to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire and Free freedom for palestine The reasons i think these are just excuses given are i can read my own notes council has No power No, i think within its power to affect this action this crime in uh, palestine Maybe you don't know that when resolutions are brought before congress the people bringing the resolutions report how many cities Have passed similar Resolutions this is part of your power You could join the other cities who are doing the right thing by passing such a resolution You do have a fact here It's not a social issue. It's not a santa rosa issue. It's not a local issue In front of this city hall there is a monument to people who have died in these wars of the us supporting israel There's at least 13 names of santa roses who have died in wars United states follows israel into these wars you want to tell their family and loved ones It's not a local issue I think it's a local issue United states is guilty of genocide so stated by a secretary of state of the united states Did you know that as well as know that israel bombed the united states? This is not the first genocide if you're interested in the history look up sabra and shitealia And the secretary of state judge p shows reported that we united states are partly responsible israel is responsible And when israel bombed the us navy ship uss liberty No action was taken against israel. There's something very sick Very sick and this relationship with the zionist of israel and make a mistake not all jews Thank you. The next public comment will be from patrick followed by lina then torrez Please go ahead. Yes. My name is patrick wiley I applaud the council's past decision not to issue any statement regarding the war in gaza Regardless of the issue i oppose local governments taking positions on political ideological Or social issues that do not pertain directly to local interest and influence To enter the melee of national politics would distract the city from the numerous pressing issues facing santa rosa Issues for which the council actually has responsible responsibility many of which we saw earlier today Since there are calls however Specifically about this issue of urging the council to support a ceasefire statement I will comment Hamas is a terrorist organization with a core mission of destroying israel and exterminating jews wherever they reside We all saw exactly what hamas wants on october 7th When it along with hundreds of non-hamas palestinians murdered portrait and raped residents And visitors in most savage manner manner possible and have Communicated that they will continue to do so There is no possibility for peace in israel palestine or the middle east while hamas remains in power Therefore advocating for a permanent ceasefire is not a viable option And the war needs to be executed as and to completion as quickly as possible I urge the council to resist any calls to support a ceasefire in gaza. Thank you Thank you. The next public comment will be from lina followed by terez. Hi. My name is lina rothman um jewish I want to ask the city council Don't you want to be shining examples of what humanity can be? Please help stop the killing the massacre the genocide our tax dollars by the bombs and weapons to annihilate a whole people To say nothing and not take a stand against this massacre makes you Culpable and complicit. I don't want that on my conscience Thank you for listening. I hope you hear it. I hope you feel us 12 000 children Have been killed murdered Israel attacks hospitals. They've killed hundreds of journalists They killed all the three to four hundred healthcare workers 10 to 15 000 bodies are decomposing in the streets of gaza Bacteria is mixing with the water. They have nothing to drink these children are going to poison themselves They're not poisoning themselves. We are poisoning them shame on us Be like the bus driver that you wanted earlier Give a damn Thank you Thank you. The next public comment is from teres Hi My name is teres maganum walrath and i'm a christian palestinian american Born in jerusalem palestine Months before the modern state of israel was created In 1948 my family fled the violence and the massacres near where we lived Committed by the underground israeli terrorist organizations Such as the irgun who killed palestinians forced them out of their homes or frightened them so they could leave My family fled to jordan and like over 750 000 others Who were displaced all were never allowed to return to their homes Over 500 villages were systematically destroyed by the new israeli government This is the root of the problem between israelis and palestinians Much like what happened to the indigenous native americans in this country The goal of settler colonialist powers is to remove and replace the indigenous With the new settlers no matter how long it takes I believe that the measure of our humanness Is our ability to feel the suffering of other people Also that we do something to end their suffering I am here to ask you to call for a ceasefire in gaza to end the killing of other humans Some of you must have children and grandchildren like i do Can you imagine them dead under the rubble or orphaned children walking around the rubble in a days Looking for water or something to eat Palestinians are humans made in god's image too Please use your power Thank you mayor Thank you mayor that is 12 public comments on item 14. Okay. Thank you Um, so I just want to give people a kind of a run of what we're going to do next We're going to go to item 16, which are our public hearings For this evening and then the council will be taking a break and we'll come back and continue with the rest of The agenda so with that we will go to item 16.1 Assistant city manager Thank you, madam mayor Item 16.1 is a public hearing Is the consideration of an ordinance and associated compliance program pertaining to the inspection maintenance and registration of real properties Which exists as unmaintained vacant lots or which contain vacant or abandoned buildings and the presentation will be given by Lou kirk assistant chief building official good evening mayor Good evening mayor rogers vice mayor's staff and members of the city council Staff is here tonight to present an ordinance and compliance program addressing the issue of vacant buildings and lots Before I launch into the body of this presentation I want to clarify That a minor formatting error was discovered in the ordinance late this afternoon This error which appears to have occurred late in the review process does not affect the language or intent of the ordinance overall This being said the area will require correction prior to second reading Should the ordinance be introduced this evening? And with that if I could have the next slide, please thank you staff's proposal involves repealing and replacing chapter 9 24 Removing outdated coven 19 regulations in the process and amending a section of chapter 18 20 Additionally, we propose amending the city classification and salary plan And to add necessary staff Lastly, we propose establishing an annual program registration fee This proposal aligns closely with city council goal and policy number four by promoting economic and community vibrancy And number five by focusing on building and maintaining sustainable infrastructure Next slide, please The origins of this proposal date to 2017 when the city attorney's office noted the prevalence Of neglected properties and the lack of adequate tools to address them Ordinance development however faced unforeseen delays due to the combined Impacts of the wildfires the pandemic and staffing shortages In late 2022 efforts to complete this essential ordinance were renewed with community outreach commenced in 2023 Staff presented the proposed ordinance to the downtown area association subcommittee on july 12th And on august 12th made a joint presentation before the dao the railroad square association and the board of realtors Staff also presented before the economic development subcommittee on july 31st Feedback gleaned from this outreach informed final development of tonight's proposal Next slide, please Data estimates suggest that 2,800 properties may initially be subject to this ordinance Each of these properties represents an opportunity to improve public health and safety as well as property values While reducing crime and its associated demands on resources As a preventative measure this ordinance is designed to halt and reverse the proliferation of blight Set clear maintenance expectations Safeguard safeguard health and safety and preserve aesthetics and foster community pride Next slide, please The ordinance is purpose built to address neglected properties encourage responsible ownership stimulate reinvestment and suppress neighborhood decline Building upon historic code requirements and employing rigorous education based standards It aims to incentivize proactive maintenance by providing an exemption path for responsible owners Next slide, please As an economic revitalization tool the ordinance will serve to improve property values promote occupancy and create opportunities for attractive and viable commercial areas This in turn is expected to strengthen residents engagement within their local Economic landscape resulting in increasingly vibrant and cohesive communities Next slide, please Once fully staffed the vbl program would be expected to fully commence later this year The first three months of the program would focus on education and outreach aimed at raising awareness And achieving voluntary compliance in order to reduce the number of properties ultimately subject to the ordinance Subsequently active engagement and enforcement would occur ideally aligning with the start of fiscal year 24 25 To simplify financial considerations During this time an increasing number of properties are projected to either achieve compliance or become registered Using known indicators regarding case tendencies and compliance rates The following chart forecasts the effectiveness of the program over the pilot term Next slide, please This chart forecasts the transition of the program over the pilot period From the education and outreach opening stage through active engagement and enforcement and into the maintenance stage I would like to take a moment here to revisit this phased approach summarized above Education and outreach will include the use of mailers web-based resources Collaboration with community partners direct communication and similar methods During this time staff will proactively inspect identify and prioritize properties and engage in targeted Interactions which highlight the benefit of responsible ownership and encourage property owners to voluntarily bring their vacant lots or buildings up to code Under active engagement and enforcement non-compliant property owners will be required to register their properties and follow the rules A provided application packet will contain an acknowledgement of the ordinance's requirements A contact information form Inspection authorizations and similar necessary documents the annual registration fee must accompany the completed application Registered and non-registered properties will be proactively inspected throughout the life of the program Owners will receive ongoing communication with corrections recommendations for compliance and registration or renewal notices The shift to active and active enforcement will include citations or other needed action for persistent violations In maintenance stage a majority of properties should be in lasting compliance allowing themselves Exempt out of the program and remaining open cases should reach a relatively stable base level of 500 to 600 properties Next slide please Staffing considerations are based upon the number of active properties Their likely compliance patterns and the average resource demand per property We propose a minimum of one fte limited term code enforcement officer And two fte limited term housing and community service technicians to ensure effective program implementation A proposed dynamic inspection system will offset resource demands by factoring in the time required over the course of the program This approach balances against the number of properties managed at each program stage Providing a reasonable estimate of resource needs and avoiding impacts to existing code enforcement operations to the maximum extent possible Next slide please In terms of fiscal impact the vbl program once fully established Is designed to convey a net zero budget neutral cost influence on the city's general fund The program envisions a registration fee of $1040 per calendar year representing a full cost recovery model The displayed chart defines staff's assumptions on the projected revenue schedule Revenue is projected to remain low during the startup education and outreach periods late in fiscal year 23 24 Commencing in fiscal year 24 25. However activity and revenues are projected to increase sharply and then gradually reach equilibrium as we approach the maintenance stage Next slide please These revenue projections are deliberately conservative in nature Excluding administrative citation finds altogether despite their significant expected contribution to program revenue Similarly non-commercial properties although subject to the ordinance were omitted as they are expected to be relatively few in number The maintenance stage will include property owners who are unable or unwilling to comply with the ordinance New non-compliant properties or previously compliant properties which return to a state of non-compliance Periodic staff assessments will be used to keep the city council appraised of program challenges and successes And inform recommendations to either increase or reduce staffing as needed Next slide please As previously mentioned the program envisions the addition of one code enforcement officer and two hcs technicians These limited term positions are considered minimum required staffing to meet the actual needs of the program Cost projections for these positions are shown in the table being displayed And include total salaries benefits services equipment supplies and required vehicles Next slide please As a budget neutral program once established expenditures or forecasts not to exceed projected program revenues The registration fee represents full cost recovery throughout the life of the program including its ongoing maintenance stage Prior to full program establishment initial funding is proposed to come from the general fund While potential additional funding for a portion of fiscal year 24 25 may be requested if determined necessary Revenue generation is expected to begin in earnest by late fiscal year 23 24 with self-sustainability anticipated by fiscal year 24 25 Upon becoming self-sustaining ped will recommend a longer term goal of directing program and administrative Revenues to the administrative hearing and administrative abatement funds further strengthening and supporting these essential programs Next slide please With city council approval staff will move forward with activating the program Hiring staff procuring needed equipment and supplies and commencing outreach and engagement As previously mentioned regular progress reporting will be provided Next slide please In summary staff recommends that the city council introduce the proposed ordinance and approve the attached resolution authorizing an initial general fund appropriation of $134,000 $134,148 for fiscal year 23 24 and setting an annual registration fee of $1040 to recover program staffing cost final slide please This concludes staff's presentation. I'd like to thank you for your attention and consideration And i'm happy to answer any questions you may have at this time Thank you for that presentation And looking to council members to see if there are any Questions and seeing none we will now open the public hearing Vice mayor Sorry, I was a bit slow Thank you very much for that presentation Could you just say a little bit more about the the efficiency of the enforcement process in terms of How owners it is for for lot owners to to Not applies not the right word but register And then in terms of the the the fee and the fine program how efficient that is for city staff, particularly the the one FTE who will be assigned to this With respect to the like the confidence in the city regain or Bringing back enough revenue to pay for this program Certainly in order The the way the program is set up. It's designed to be anything but onerous Again, we start with our education and outreach the idea there is to educate the property owners Make them understand their obligations, which they already have by the way We're not adding necessarily any new regulation. We're just organizing it into a program that allows us to Staff up the need to go out and make these changes and improvements in our community. So again Once the education is completed people will have that opportunity New properties that we become aware of that aren't being maintained will have a similar opportunity the ordinance guarantees them a minimum of 30 days After being notified to correct the property and never be subject to the registration registration requirement Furthermore once a property is registered and is part of this program and are successfully maintaining their properties They have an opportunity to exempt out of the program provided they continue to maintain those properties In a in a code compliant manner So again at every turn what we're trying to do is give people every opportunity to not have to be involved in this program at all That's helpful. I I guess in my mind. I have in mind the um the vacant lot owner who um Those lots might be vacant for a reason. It's potentially a person who's not not overly enthusiastic about entering into a partnership with the city So in no in those circumstances are we are we pretty comfortable that we're going to be able to um to to deal with that in an efficient way Well at the end of the day A violation of this ordinance was can result in code enforcement action And again the program provides the staffing for us to dedicate those resources to that program And again, we can issue administrative citations. We can take other civil action. We can even take criminal action if needed But the hope is that we resolve these issues at the lowest possible level of enforcement and ideally again during the education stage Helpful again. Thank you very much. Thank you Are there any additional questions from council? Seeing none we will now Open the public hearing Madam city clerk may you please facilitate Thank you. We are now taking public comments on item 16.1 If you are in the chamber, I would like to comment but have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium. You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period If you'd like to make a public comment via zoom on item 16.1 now's the time to raise your hand Mr. Dewitt, please go ahead My name is dwayne dewitt. I'm from rosen. Please support this item It's very important that we have a strong code enforcement team Over in rosen. We've been having problems with temporary conditional use permits That are then not really enforced Specifically, there's a site at the old Dutton radiator on sabastopol road across from goodman avenue Five years ago. They were given a conditional use permit They were Given this permit thinking that they would be helping the community putting housing in and instead it's becoming a blighted lot So this is very important that you get code enforcement working on neglected Properties Even if they might not seem vacant They can definitely put a blight upon an entire community such as happening in rosalind So please support this. Thank you Here i'm seeing no one else approach the podium for public comment on item 16.1 And I see no hands being raised via zoom Thank you. We will now close the public hearing Council, are there any Comments or questions? All right seeing none councilman bro crepe. Can you take it away? Yeah, just real quick two things. I really appreciate is one The code enforcement philosophy of compliance before punishment I you guys preach that over and over again and you've said it in this presentation a couple times Maybe not that concisely, but I appreciate that that's what you do is as as Code enforcement and second. I love the term. It's my second favorite term, which is budget neutral. So I really I'm really appreciative of that So we're going to take this one at a time On the advice of our attorney So first I moved to introduce an ordinance amending titles 9 and 18 of the santa rosa city code by repealing chapter 9 dash 24 pertaining to administrative enforcement of kovat 19 public health orders adding a new chapter 9 dash 24 Pertaining to the inspection maintenance and registration of real properties in amending section 18 dash 20 point 302 point 4 Second We have a motion made by councilmember ochrepke in second by vice mayor step Madam city clerk may you please call the vote Thank you councilmember rogers councilmember ochrepke I councilmember mcdonald I Councilmember fleming is absent councilmember alvarez Vice mayor step I Mayor rogers I let the record show this passes with five affirmative votes Thank you And I also moved to approve a resolution amending the city classification and salary plan to add one Full-time equivalent three-year limited term code enforcement officer and two full-time equivalent three-year limited term housing and community services services code enforcement technicians the To the code enforcement section and appropriate 134 148 dollars from the general fund reserves Second we have a motion made by councilmember ochrepke in a second from vice mayor step Madam city clerk may you please call the vote. Thank you councilmember rogers councilmember ochrepke I councilmember mcdonald I councilmember fleming councilmember alvarez I Vice mayor step I mayor rogers I let the record show this passes with five affirmative votes And finally I moved to set an annual registration fee to recover staffing costs associated with program implementation second We have a motion made by councilmember ochrepke in a second from vice mayor step. Madam city clerk councilmember rogers councilmember ochrepke I councilmember mcdonald I councilmember fleming councilmember alvarez I Vice mayor step I mayor rogers I let the record show this passes with five affirmative votes So again, thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation But also thank you for seeing a way that we can improve our services here at the city of saneroza and bringing it to council Thank you very much And now we will move to item 16 point two Assistant city manager Item 16.2 is a public hearing on a senior community care facility zoning code text amendment And we will be receiving our presentation by christine tummions Thank you. Mayor rogers and members of the City council. My name is christine tummions and the item before you this Evening is a senior community care facility zoning code text amendment Next slide, please so this is a request to amend city code section 20-42060 to exempt senior care facilities from the spacing And over concentration requirements for community care facilities And it's also a request to amend code section 20-70.020 to modify the definition of community care facility to allow palliative care and end-of-life medical treatments for senior care facilities Next slide, please So just to give you a little bit of a project history This was a requested text amendment from an applicant. It was submitted on august 3 of 2023 On january 11 2024 the planning commission approved a resolution recommending that the council adopt the zoning code text amendment In addition the applicant has requested A minor use permit for a senior memory care facility at six five seven five oakmont drive Which would benefit from this text amendment That item is scheduled for zoning administrator pending the outcome of this item tonight On thursday of february 15th Next slide, please And a city code section 20-42 requires that all community care facilities that serve seven or more clients be located No closer than 300 feet from another facility And the term over concentration arises when two or more community care facilities are proposed within a thousand feet from one another And may trigger additional conditions to mitigate any potential impacts The over concentration spacing requirement applies to all community care facilities including senior care Next slide, please The california health and safety code Aims to prevent over concentration of residential care facilities that quote impair the integrity of residential neighborhoods and also defines over concentration as Residential facilities that are 300 feet or less apart Based on any local needs and conditions The department of social services could approve A facility less than 300 feet With the approval of the city or county Next slide, please And it's important to note that the california health and safety code does Does state that it To foster family homes and residential facilities for the elderly shall not be considered in determining over concentration Of residential facilities and license applications for those facilities shall not be denied based upon Upon the basis of over concentration. So The california health and safety code does specifically call out senior care um as something that They don't apply the over concentration requirement to many city code section 20-42060 to exempt Senior care facilities in the city code Would be consistent with the california health and safety code Next slide, please City code section 20-70.020 defines community care facilities and limits them to provide only non medical care However, because senior care facilities often include palliative or end-of-life care The recommendation from staff and the planning commission is to include A request to modify the definition to include this type of care for senior care facilities only Next slide, please The slide this slide shows all the findings that would need to be made In order to approve a zoning code text amendment The analysis and justifications are in the staff report in the packet Next slide, please And the proposed zoning text amendment Has been reviewed in compliance with california environmental quality act sequa Because the proposed zoning code text amendment is consistent with general plan 2035 the project relies upon the general plan 2035 environmental impact report and is consistent with sequa section 15183 Next slide, please With that it is recommended by the planning commission and the planning and economic development department that the council by motion Introduce an ordinance amending the text of title 20 of the Santa Rosa city code section 20-42.060 community care and health care facilities to accept senior care facilities from community care over concentration limitation and space spacing requirement and section 20-70.020 definitions of specialized terms and phrases to modify The definition of community care facility to allow palliative and end-of-life medical treatments for senior care facilities Next slide, please And here's my contact information if anyone from the public would like to reach out to me in regards to this project Staff is available for any questions you may have. Thank you Thank you very much for the presentation and if I heard correctly. Thank you very much for hearing Something from one of our constituents residents or business owners and following through to make sure that we can Be the best that we can to make ourselves more friendly business friendly Are there any questions from council? Seeing none, we will now open the public hearing Madam city clerk Thank you. We are now taking public comments on item 16.2 if you are in the chamber and would like to comment but have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period If you're participating via zoom you can raise your hand now and we will call on you after the in-person public comments Mayor emcee no one approached the podiums on item 16.2 when no hands being raised via zoom Thank you. We will now close the public hearing Are there any comments from council members? Seeing none council member mcdonald May you please make a motion? Thank you I move the adoption of the ordinance of the council the city of santa rosa by adopting a zoning code text amendment to title 20 of the santa rosa city code section 20 Dash 42.0 6 0 community care and health care facilities to exempt senior care facilities from the community care facility over concentration limitation and spacing requirement and section 20 Dash 70 point 0 2 0 glossary to modify the definition of the community care facility To allow palliative care end of life medical treatments for senior care facilities dash file number prj 23 dash 016 and wave further reading of the text so I We have a motion made by council member mcdonald and a second from council member alvarez Madam city clerk may you please call the vote? Madam mayor if I may Yes, the motion that was made was to adopt an ordinance. This is actually an introduction of an ordinance We will if you introduce the ordinance this evening the adoption will come back to you at your next council meeting Should I can we change to use it? Can that be a friendly amendment? Yes, it can. Thank you. I'll accept the friendly amendment Council member my second still stands all right, so we have A motion made by council member mcdonald and a second from council member alvarez And madam city clerk may you please call the vote? Thank you mayor council member rogers Council member okraki. Hi council member mcdonald. Hi council member fleming Council member alvarez. Hi vice mayor step. Hi mayor rogers. Hi let the record show this is introduced with five affirmative votes And again, thank you for the presentation and thank you for pointing out that it was someone else that brought it to our attention So we're listening. Thank you And with that council will now be taking a break So we will be back at We'll try for 650 Thank you All right folks Thank you very much for your patience. We're going to call this meeting back to order Madam city clerk. Would you would you call the roll? Thank you vice mayor council member rogers Council member okraki Council member mcdonald here council member fleming Council member alvarez present vice mayor step present mayor rogers Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of council vice or excuse me mayor rogers council members fleming and Chris rogers Perfect. We're going to begin with item 15.1. Madam city clerk Or sorry Excuse me deputy city manager Thank you. Assistant city manager. Thank you. Mr. Vice mayor. I'm going to get to speed fast folks item 15.1 is a report item It's a request for summary vacation of four city rights of way on midway drive and homin drive Assessors parcel number 013-043-018 013-041-016 013-042-006 1 3-043-018 File number VAC 22-003 Montgomery village right-of-way summary vacation and the presentation will be given by our senior planner monay chicali Thank you. Daryl. I appreciate good evening members of the council. So can we go to the next slide? I will keep it short and easy Okay, the request today the report item is a summary vacation request for four city rights of way These areas have been continuously maintained and used by the by montgomery village For parking landscaping and pedestrian access. Next slide, please Can you click one more time? Great. Thank you. So the red lines here are showing the location of the proposed areas that are going to be vacated Along two streets. Can you go to next slide? And Here are the legal descriptions for these areas that are going to be vacated. They were also attached with your staff reports next slide, please And pursuant to the california streets and highway code The city may summarily vacate any excess right-of-way Not required for street or highway purposes and as I mentioned these areas were currently Being used for parking landscaping and pedestrian access and they are not being used for street or highway purposes next slide And with that the planning and economic development department recommends that the cancel by resolution Approved this approved the summary vacation of 18 400 and 12 square feet of public right-of-way Located on the north and south side of midway driveway and macgavin drive between farmers lean and hohman drive And staff are available to answer questions and the applicant team is also here Thank you very much. I'm looking to city council for questions or comments Not seeing any i'll just add my thanks to the montgomery village team for coming out tonight And for the for the nice work that they're doing in that with that facility And with that our madam city clerk public comment Thank you We are now taking public comment on item 15.1 If you're in the chamber would like to make comment But have not yet provided a speaker card or your name. Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Now is the time in zoom if you want to make a comment on item 15.1 to raise your hand I'm seeing no one approached the podiums for item 15.1. We do have a hand Oh the hand went down and no hands being raised via zoom for item 15.1 All right, looking again to council for any for any additional comment All right. Well, I think this motion is mine. Hang on one second Is it not mine? I'm turning to council member donnell for the motion Thank you vice mayor I moved the adoption and resolution of the council the city of santa rosa approving a summary vacation Of 18 412 square feet of the public right-of-way Located on midway drive and on mac mcgallon drive between farmers lane and hayman drive for the properties located at 2406 mcgallon drive assessors parcel number apn apn 013-043-018 2411 mcgummary drive apn 013-042-006 2416 mcgummary drive apn 013-041-015 And 424 farmers lane apn 013-14041 there's dyslexia for you One zero one six file number vac 22 Dash zero zero three and wave further weight reading of the text. I shouldn't let you do it. Bye sir All right, we have council member mcdonald with the motion and we have council member ocrepti with the second madam city clerk Would you please call the vote? Thank you council member rogers Council member ocrepti. Hi council member mcdonald. Hi council member fleming council member alvarez Vice mayor step. Hi mayor rogers. I let the record show this passes with five affirmative votes Thank you very much We will now move to item 15.2 assistant city manager Thank you madam mayor item 15.2 is a report item It's the 2024 state legislative platform and this item has been continued from the city council meeting of january 30 of 2024 And before I turn it over to lawn peterson for the presentation. I'm going to turn it over to our city attorney for a quick remark Madam city attorney. Thank you madam mayor council members We have one council member who has a Conflict with one of the many policies that are before you Council member ocrepti who just left the chambers I wanted to talk about briefly the process we are going to use to address That conflict You have undertaken this Process in the past as I understand it through your budgetary process where we are segmenting the item There will be one staff report Council members who are in the room will have the ability through the normal process to ask questions We will have public comment on the whole item Then bring it back to Have council discuss the item you will then make Vote one way or the other if you if you choose to have a motion on a resolution which will address The one item that council member ocrepti Is conflicted on You will make a decision one way or the other on that item Then council member ocrepti can come back As I am understanding it. He will be listening to the presentation from outside of chambers And I would recommend once he comes back he be given the opportunity to ask whatever questions He might have on the balance of the platform and then you will be given the opportunity then to Vote on the balance of the platform with Council member ocrepti here I'm happy to facilitate if this gets confusing along the way But you essentially have one item with two separate Resolutions and you will take the resolution first That addresses the the one item where we have a conflict It's already confusing. So maybe you'll have to walk us through We can proceed with the presentation Great. Good evening mayor vice mayor and city council lawn peterson director communications in a government relations Joined by scott alonzo our government relations officer and on zoom sharing this all this with rppg We'll be outlining the city's 2024 state legislative platform this evening Sharing the progress we made in 2023 next slide, please Um, the just wanted to highlight this the state platform this guides staff and our council with our legislative efforts to make sure that we advance And protect the city's interest. It also allows us to respond quickly with legislation when it comes up Based on city priorities And you know just wanted to highlight, you know with the state budget deficit likely Impacting the funding and policies. We will continually work closely with rppg and the council To monitor its effects with that. I'm going to turn it over to Sharon with rppg to Highlight some of our efforts as mentioned Next slide, please Sharon Hi, good evening. Sharon Gonzales director of government affairs with rppg madam mayor vice mayor members of the council. It's nice to be here with you Um, so just you know as a brief Recap as to who we are we've had an opportunity to work with all of you and meet with you to discuss Your priorities for the city we were brought on in 2021 to Um manage the states the city's state advocacy efforts in doing so we started working with um your city staff and council to Prepare the legislative platform Which we in turn review every year. We want to make sure that it highlights not only the top priorities for the city Um and as a reflection of your council Currently but also that we can as mr. Peterson mentioned quickly react to legislation And are prepared to act on things that maybe the state has um considered a priority so um Really our platform covers everything that falls within local government from housing to water to transportation If you could go to the next slide As for 2023 um the city formally positioned on 28 pieces of legislation That's only bills that you guys actually took the position on we were tracking over 1400 bills um for the city and What we are in the second year of a two-year session So we achieved um a desired outcome of 13 of those But that only means bills that were signed or vetoed last year that does not include ones that continue to move in 2024 and then um We also between state budget earmarks and our grants team were able to help the city secure 21 and a half million dollars in grant funding Next slide So i'm going to just briefly go over the legislative platform and maybe just head on a couple of areas within each policy area If you could go to the next slide So we'll start off with wildfire prevention and recovery You know, this has been actually a huge huge issue for the city at least since we started So want to make sure that the city is supporting policies and funding that helps you further this Your wildlife protection plan and your general plan and also looking to continue efforts on hazard mitigation plans as well as Really monitor what's happening with the insurance industry as it pertains to the cancellation of policies due to wildfire risk when they're tied to um These wildfire hazard mitigation maps We're seeing more and more of the state fall under that and the insurance market is really kind of in a place That's unsustainable right now and we want to make sure that we continue to follow that Next slide, please under governmental transparency and public access Looking to make sure that we continue to support efforts that enhance the public's access for public meetings as well as Enable the city's ability to really comply with With what the public the public records act requirements are and then something that we're starting to see more and more of is Hate speech during public meetings and really giving local jurisdictions the tools that they need in order to address those next slide under economic development Looking at really it comes a lot down to funding mechanisms that will continue to further the infrastructure needed to promote economic resiliency Also something that's been kind of an issue for a number of years that we want to keep an eye on is the disbursement of sales and use tax and how those impact local communities and looking to Continue to just promote policies that promote a favorable business climate Next slide under the environment climate change and sustainability The platform wants to support mitigation measures that limit the effects of climate change Including but definitely not limited to wildfire medication and water conservation and then continued funding for the Conversion to and purchase of clean fleet vehicles whether it's the vehicles or the infrastructure needed in order to maintain those and then also Continuing to look at this coordinated transportation, you know sustainable planning looking at transportation housing and economic development and how they all work together Next slide Under water quality and water supply Again, just increasing the availability and funding for multitude of water infrastructure improvements And making sure that the resources are there to further the city's groundwater sustainability plans Specifically and very local to Santa Rosa is to continue to look for funding and support for the Potter Valley project and working with Larger statewide coalitions such as aqua to continue to advocate For funding for those programs that are most important to the city under the department of water resources Next slide Under administration human resources and risk management. We have support We're seeing a lot of policies that want to further Workplace diversity equity and inclusion wanted to make sure that that's included in there and looking at a broad range of policies under that scope Pro continuing to promote fiscal solvencies, especially where unfunded pensions are concerned and then We put in the platform this year monitoring legislation pertaining to artificial intelligence technology We're going to see a lot on this and there's Areas where AI can be really beneficial and probably areas where it can also be detrimental So it's one of those brand new technologies emerging technologies where you don't know what you don't know So we want to make sure that we are monitoring all of those and evaluating what the effects to the city will be Next slide under housing and land use planning Wanting to continue to support measures that preserve affordable housing as well as looking at what those regional bond efforts are And continuing to look at some streamlined environmental reviews in order to get projects built Next slide under homelessness This the platform states that we want to continue to support funding and flexible policies to really address The homeless issues in santa rosa and sonoma county specifically by Supporting permanent supportive housing by promoting those resources that address mental health and substance abuse And making sure that those fundings are flexible to meet the needs of your community and how best to address those Next slide Under recreation and parks we want to advocate for non-competitive per capita funding That's in order to make sure that you can continue with the maintenance and operations of your existing parks That housing related parks program is also similar in that it ties park-related funding to The housing that is being built in the city and we want to continue to just You know Seek funding that will continue to promote open space and bike lanes after school facilities senior services And really strengthen safety and security around the community Next slide Under public safety One of our policies is to continue supporting community oriented policies looking at gun violence prevention Really, you know, we've talked like in so many of our meetings talking about The growing issues surrounding 3d printing and the selling of ghost guns and following those also want to Continue to seek funding and policies that help promote the city's in response program And support efforts that are going to continue to promote accountability and transparency within law enforcement agency Next slide Under fire and emergency services the platform wants to support policy and regulatory efforts that Really seek regional cooperations and coordination when there is a public safety shut off And want to advocate for local control of emergency medical and ambulance services, which is something that we see Just about every year Next slide So under transportation and public works, when we say we increase funding for local transportation projects It really includes everything Not just streets and roads, but we're looking at transit operators zero bus admissions The charging infrastructure as well as bike lanes. It's really kind of transportation as a whole wanting to advocate for the Improvement of such projects in the city's most disadvantaged communities And also looking to continue to support those efforts that will increase broadband particularly with the middle and last mile expenditures Next slide Under public health We brought into the The reference to coven 19 really talking about any public health emergency and needing to make sure that Supporting efforts for direct and flexible funding in order to be able to address anything during a pandemic whether it's vaccine distribution testing public transportation housing whatever it might be I'm going to go to the next slide And with that I will turn it over to mr. Peterson and I'm available for any questions. Should you have any? Thank you chair and appreciate that With that the communications and intergovernment relations office recommends the council by two resolutions adopt this 2024 state legislative platform With that, I think the first resolution would be adopting this specific policy proposal related to the wildfire insurance first So Sharon, thank you so much for being with us this evening and thank rppg for all their hard work on behalf of the city and vice council member Thank you, it's just a time that I could actually make a recommendation on A couple of items that I'd like to add to the platform Yes, thank you So on page nine, I think it would be under parks and recreations If you could add the language to increase emergency evacuation funding to make our parks Evacuation ready. I know it's something that I've talked about in the past But I understand that there's potential grant money out there that we could seek So in the event that there is um any type of evacuation our parks that are used as evacuations that sites are I'm prepared for that council member mcdonnell. I'm sorry Madam city attorney, is there any way that Council member mcdonnell can just have the questions that are pertaining to jeff having to Abstain from part of this item so that he can be here for the full conversation My apologies madam mayor. I was um engaged at conference conversation with a council member Um, I was asking is can we narrow it down for council member mcdonnell? So she's only asking or giving suggestions to the part that Council member o'crepke Had to abstain from so that he can be here for the rest of The conversation or no Yes, and so um, you can have um that fuller conversation later Or you can it's my understanding He is listening and so if you want to have that conversation back and forth I believe he will have that and mayor I would suggest we give him an opportunity to comment on Um, all of the items the ones in what staff brought forward and any that are proposed from the dais this evening Um to give him the ability to comment on that as well So that that may be a more streamlined approach to this is to go ahead and make those comments I do believe he is listening and and will Be able to comment on that as well Perfect. All right. I just wanted clarification to make sure that council member o'crepke was involved No, that's fine. So did you want me to finish with my comments now? Just so I'm hearing you correctly or would you can for me to wait you can finish with your comment? Thank you madam mayor So that was one point. I believe it would be on page nine under parks and recreation If that's okay with you and then if you go to page 12 Under public works. I'm not sure if this is wearable. It would be inserted But I understand that cell phone towers have not all been replaced Initially, I thought that this was under the federal legislative platform But I understand it's under california legislative platform that we advocate that any Cell phone tamer cell phone towers that were damaged during specifically during the fires be replaced And I think that's all I got otherwise I want to say thank you for the presentation and thanks to Sharon and the entire team for all that the work that they do On our grants and legislation, but those were my two additions. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you for that I'm just real quick if I may on the current platform under wildfire. There is An element that is to advocate for additional funding to be appropriated for emergency areas such as parks To have proper bathrooms and be properly equipped for emergency use So we added that last year. I think for our conversation. Did you Pardon me line. Is that a wildfire prevention and recovery? Is that what you have it under? It's under it's under that section Let me read through Yep Okay to advocate for the additional funding be appropriated for emergency areas as parks Okay, I'm not sure if it has to go under that bullet if there's still prevention and recovery Funding or if it should go under I'm fine with it as long as it's in the platform. I guess it doesn't matter where it's at Sure, we'll make sure you're pointing it out. I did miss it on my first round through. Thank you. Thank you Are there any additional questions from council members? I don't have very many so I don't have to look very far All right Vice mayor, I'm wondering how you're going to do that from over there because Okay, so we're going to hold for a moment Thank you for your patience madam mayor. Um, I think we need to amend the resolution that's written right now I was looking to our city attorney for some help with that um the um, I believe what the vice mayor has in mind is I'm making a Modification to the title of resolution one and this is the again the resolution that deals just with the wildfire insurance policy item My suggestion is just to make the title a little bit clearer and then you could if if that amendment is accepted You can introduce using that particular title. So what I would suggest is to say Um, uh, instead of the title that's there resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa um, adopting a wildfire insurance policy priority Within the 2024 state legislative platform. I will defer to staff to see if that Uh, it feels like an appropriate title Absolutely Thank you I think the clerk has that down And so I think you can just refer to what I just said as in in terms of your motion. I don't think you need to repeat it It's so moved enough All right, we have a motion made from vice mayor staff in a second from councilmember alvarez Madam city clerk May you please call the vote we need to take public comment on the island. Sorry public comment long night already Um, madam city clerk may you please? Facilitate public comment. Thank you. We are taking public comment on item 15.2 resolution one if you would like to make Comment, please make your way to the podium or provide your name to the administrator at the top of the well You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period If you are participating via zoom and would like to make a comment on item 15.1 Now is the time to raise your hand. We will go ahead and start with thomas Thank you. Yes, uh, thomas ells and um, a civil and environmental engineer And uh, do forgive me. So I think that something may have uh slipped If you will under the legislative calendar that they're talking about in the sense that the court in nevada just Made a determination That groundwater is A function of the surface water and and is also legally Uh bound to that So, uh, in other words that groundwater is in fact surface water In one form or another So it's a legal determination We as engineers We don't it's very very difficult to ascertain exactly where groundwater originates somewhere on a surface somewhere It's it's it's very complicated I don't want to get into the details, but the point is that from a legal standpoint now the surface water Is or the groundwater is derived from surface water one thing that it doesn't Allow for is is some people have a hypothesis that That Some kind of deep underground water Resurfaces and comes up and recharges groundwater or there's some kind of mysterious thing about there is definitely water in the mantle There's definitely water down there Uh, how it get it doesn't get up here They have and and so the court has determined that groundwater is in fact a function of the surface water and That has to do with that part about water And we can understand and we have these various groundwater basins now And I just wanted to point out that this is a very significant Determination that uh, they make thank you Thank you I see no one else approaching the podiums in council chamber and no hands being raised on the first resolution mayor Thank you and sorry about that So madam city clerk, we have a motion on the floor made by vice mayor step In a second from councilmember alvarez. May you please call the vote? Thank you mayor councilmember rogers councilmember okrepke councilmember mcdonald aye councilmember fleming councilmember alvarez Vice mayor step aye Mayor rogers aye Let the record show that resolution passes with four affirmative votes Madam city attorney may you uh do some clarification for us? Sure at this point. I think Councilmember okrepke is returning It is my understanding that councilmember okrepke Had a conflict only with respect to one policy item It was the one it was just discussed with respect to wildfire insurance issues I believe when he announced his recusal he also talked about tax measures and I just wanted to clarify That I believe your Your recusal was really only as to the wildfire insurance issue But I want to clarify that councilmember Yes, it was only in reference to the insurance commissioner aspects since he is the uh The elected official in charge of the governing body of my profession Okay With that my recommendation would be to allow councilmember okrepke to um make whatever Comments or ask whatever questions he might have with respect to the balance of the platform before you move on to Consider the resolution adopting that the balance of that platform Are there any additional Questions or comments from council members? All right seeing none Oh You well you can do it because you make the motion so you can say your comments or questions and then you can make your motion My comment was simply a compliment. Thank you Lawn Scott and Sharon I want to underline the 21.5 million dollar number that was in the proposal or in the in the presentation. What rather All of that all of those funds coming in to do good things for the city And and we're hopeful of more to thought more to come. Thank you very much for the good work Thank you. I really appreciate it. It's a team effort as you guys know, so thank you And with that I'll introduce a motion To approve this resolution of the council the city of santa rosa adopting the 2024 city of santa rosa state legislative platform second We have a motion made by vice mayor staff in a second from councilmember mcdonnell madam city clerk. May you please call the vote Do we need to take public comment on this second resolution? Nope. Okay the vote If I if I may clarify the reason we're not taking public comment is you already took public comment on the entire item So no need for duplicative Okay Thank you councilmember rogers Councilmember okrepke. Hi councilmember mcdonnell. Hi councilmember phleming Councilmember alvarez. Hi vice mayor step. Hi Mayor rogers. I let the record show this passes with five affirmative votes Thank you, and I would like to to thank Sharon and rppg again, but also our Team that we have here the communications and intergovernmental relations you guys rock And you definitely are helping us get to where we need to to go So thank not to mention all the support you give me, but thank you very much Very welcome. Thank you All right. I'm on the hot seat again. We're gonna we're gonna move over to item 11.1 And assistant city manager dunstan if you wouldn't mind Thank you. Mr. Vice mayor. Uh, can you repeat the item again, please? 11.1 Yeah, that's you sir Oh, excuse me item 11. Yes. Okay. Mayor and council members reports. Here we are. That's that's the theme of the night So i'm i'm i'm looking down the dais councilmember alvarez Thank you, vice mayor. Uh, first of all, I want to thank mark wash for having served on the board of public utilities The gentleman decided to move on to the salama county retirement fund where he was successful in his election And to replace him. I would like to appoint yvonne sierra To the board of public utilities and I don't see him here now But I wanted to appoint dwayne duit to our community advisory board The gentleman loves rosalind as much as I do and I know he will serve in the position With with great effectiveness. So dwayne wherever you're at I hope you accept my nomination to cab So please get all of me so we can make it official Uh, with that being said, uh, that's that's out of my report. Thank you Thank you councilmember alvarez. Mayor rogers Thank you I would like to appoint councilmember rogers to the open government task force And he will be replacing councilmember flinning Thank you All right councilmember donald Thank you. Just a couple of things to report out on. Um, we had another city school ad hoc committee The three of us attended about a week ago and will be meeting with santa rosa city schools again We had our annual goal setting that I was able to attend for the day along with all of my councilmembers I attend the the sonoma county mayor and councilmembers association dinner We had a report out on first five and all that they're doing in the communities And also want to do a quick shout out for the park a month event that was held in courthouse square That resulted in I think about 20 different volunteers and a couple different businesses, but Just a shout out to the entire parks team that come every month and do that rain or shine. Thanks Thank you. All right three quick items from me There were two large events focused on tourism and hospitality over the past couple of weeks Put up by sonoma county tourism and the sonoma county hospitality association A number of us on the day us attended as well as city staff The meetings were all focused on what is the level of tourism in the area? How do we do more to to make our region attractive to visitors to do more with our marketing? Some great some great ideas and discussion Um, our congratulations to the sonoma county farm farm bureau on the third They they held their annual crab feed event Which is one of the largest in the county, but it takes place in the city So we're going to claim it as our own They had more than 1700 people at the fairgrounds and raised several hundred thousand dollars for a youth education As well as agriculture advocacy in the county Um a wonderful event that again most of most of the council attended And then on the eighth, um the council member mcdonald and i attended the mayors and council member meeting in clover dale We got a report on the county's universal basic basic income program And then there are also discussions around the evolving partnership between sonoma county cities and the sonoma county library And that concludes our council member reports Move on to item 12 approval of minutes Were there any were there any changes or additions to the minutes? Okay, madame cindy clerk We read those in Would you like to take public comment on oh, yes, I would So we're going to circle back and take public comment on item 11 and Item 12 the approval of the minutes and the mayors and council members reports If you're in the chamber would like to provide comment But I have not yet provided a speaker card or your name. Please make your way to the podium You'll have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period If you're participating via zoom now is the time to raise your hand for item 11 or 11 or 12.1 Seeing no one approaching the podiums for public comment on these items and no hands being raised Vice mayor, we can approve those minutes as submitted Thank you move on to uh item 13 consent Madame city clerk Thank you vice mayor item 13.1 resolution maintenance agreement between The state of california and the city of santa rosa for highway 101 bicycle and pedestrian over crossing project Item 13.2 resolution fourth amendment to professional services agreement number f 002144 with place works ink general plan 2050 ghg reduction strategy and eir item 13.3 Resolution second amendment to professional services agreement number f 002672 with geary shea o'Donnell gratton and mitchell pc for continued legal representation item 13.4 ordinance introduction ordinance of the council of the city of santa rosa correcting a clerical error in ordinance o rd dash 2023 dash 016 By renumbering the hazardous vegetation and fuels management chapter within the city the santa rosa city code as chapter 9 dash 32 Thank you, madam city clerk. I'm looking to council Wonderful uh turning that into public comment Thank you. We are now taking public comment on the consent calendar Please make your way to the podium if you have provided a speaker card or and if you have not please make your way to the podium Uh, if you are participating via zoom, we would like to make public comment on the consent calendar Now's the time to raise your hand. You will have two minutes in a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period The first public comment will be from dwayne We will move on to thomas says I do not see dwayne in the room You forgive me seems like a comment on quite a few of these that I just want to represent for for the transportation line use coalition you heard from Some of the members earlier about jinnings and this is the other part of that which is moving forward. This is terrific There there are a couple of other things people want to make a It's it's the design is that it be a statement We were hoping that maybe there would be some other aspects to it which might Signify some of the other interest In santa rosa On the crossing it's it's going to look like a bridge over the Essentially, I think it's over the sacramento river up in in by shasta And and that's wonderful But there were some things that we could maybe do to add to that. We spoke to the the um the arts art in public places Things like that and there'd be some artwork on there that might reference something of of uh, santa rosa's Shoulds or something like that, you know with the snoopy things like that, but Irrespective of that, this is a really great move to move forward on this uh continuous Crossing that is separate from the roads the main roads that we have that will be jinnings and then Edwards and elliot that gets over to The jc and divert a lot of the traffic and so it's a really great Move that city's doing. Thank you Thank you seeing no one else in the room wishing to provide public comment and there are no hands being raised via zoom I'll turn it back to you vice mayor Thank you and i'll turn it over to councilman mcdonald for a motion. Thank you vice mayor. I move items 13.1 through 13.4 Second All right, we have a motion from councilman mcdonald and i'll give it to councilmember alvarez for the second Madam city clerk, you want to call the vote? Thank you councilmember rogers councilmember okrepke I councilmember mcdonald i councilmember flimming councilmember alvarez council or vice mayor step mayor rogers Let the record show this consent calendar passes with four affirmative votes Thank you All right, this has been an exciting tour through the agenda tonight. We are going to Jump down. I believe to item 17 written communications And i'm a 17.1 the notice of final map for the cortney estates Any public comment on that item? Then we'll move to our second public comment on non-agenda matters Madam city clerk Thank you. We are now taking public comments on item 18 the second period for non-agenda matters If you have not yet submitted a speaker card or your name, please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Again, if you provided written public comment by the 5 p.m. Deadline is noted on today's agenda Your public comment was uploaded to the agenda packet Circulated to city council and made available to the public this morning Live public comment is not a second opportunity to provide public comment on the same agenda Or non-agenda matter As names are called please line up at the opposite podium as a speaker Called ahead of you in order to maintain space and an orderly meeting The first speaker will be hanan followed by jen than jone Hanan, please go ahead Okay, we'll move on to Jen Hanan Nand who nady. I am asinoma county resident. I am palestinian and this is a local issue According to rosemary de carlo Secretary under a general for political and peacebuilding affairs Cease fires are not only about stopping the fighting between belligerents Effective ceasefire agreements protect civilians and enable humanitarian access to vulnerable populations From a political standpoint ceasefires are a major opportunity to set the foundation for inclusive and comprehensive peace talks We are asking our local city councils to adopt ceasefire resolutions because our federal representatives thompson and huffman are not representing the majority of their constituents in calling for An end to genocide return for all hostages and a demand for immediate humanitarian aid to all people in reza I want to ask everyone in this room. What world are we living in? When community members beg the representatives to call for a ceasefire the ending of a massacre and a bombardment The ending of the senseless killing starving and cutting off water the ending of bombing hospitals churches And targeting ambulances is met with counter. What margaret atwood world is this? What world are we living in that when the third oldest church on this planet is targeted and bombed with Christians inside that nobody blinks an eye that on christmas christian palestinians are bombarded in bethlehem And it doesn't make the front page news are we to believe that the third most powerful military in the world israel has This bad of an aim that at this point they have killed more than 12,000 children in the last four months on accident And what world is this that hate words are more heavily weighted than actual american citizens being stabbed and shot to death Nobody cares because they were palestinian. Is that the world we are living in? Yes We know we live in a racist world, but I have believed in this community to do better I have been wrong palestinians are not showing up here anymore because we are afraid for our lives Because we are actually being killed here in this country for being palestinian We are being targeted in this county Thank you. The next public comment will be from jen followed by jone, then julia Jen, thank you Please go ahead Hello, my name is jen. I am jewish. I'm a resident of santa rosa I'm here to speak in support of a ceasefire resolution I'm here as a call for unity for a ceasefire resolution like we saw in katati I have the honor tonight to read a letter From our rabbi urwin in support of this katati resolution I'm going to read his letter now My name is rabbi urwin keller I have and have been for the past 15 years the rabbi at congregation ner shalom I am here today speaking on my own behalf and not that of ner shalom itself In our congregation of 140 households there are a range of viewpoints. However The membership of ner shalom knows that I am here today to speak in support of the resolution for ceasefire I have received 30 emails From my congregants 29 of which express gratitude and relief for me taking this stance American jews are expected to defend israel There is a connection we have born of a shared history of suffering It makes it difficult to break ranks But it is our jewish obligation to speak out We know that a ceasefire resolution Is not peace But a ceasefire is not nothing It is the first step in any solution and any future prospect of peace Every additional day of this war makes the chances for peace slimmer Ceasefire cannot happen without world support particularly without push for from the u.s. government And so before one more palestinian child is killed Before one more israeli soldier is killed. Let us pass this resolution and ask our government to be peacemakers Let the hostages be returned. Let the bot hostages. Let the bombs be still. Thank you Thank you. The next public comment will be from jone followed by julia then jordan Joan Okay, we'll move on to julia then jordan then brie julia rapkin okay jackie Do we have brie coming up? Okay, thank you brie and then jackie will move to you next. Yes, great awesome Hi, my name is brie. I'm a sonoma county resident. I'm actually here I'm going to be reading a letter on behalf of an elder from our community. That's moved to santa rosa back in 1944 Her name is sallie latch She wrote the following Dear santa rosa city council members My name is sallie latch, and I am a longtime jewish resident of sonoma county. It isn't very important That it is understood that the jewish community is not a monolith For example, some jews don't want a ceasefire in gaza others like myself and millions more Desperately do want a ceasefire The catastrophic suffering in gaza has led to an increase in hatred towards jews and palestinians Killing does not make friends. Our security is increasingly threatened This truth makes it a local issue Thus as the city council is charged with responding to local community issues It is imperative that it stands up to the reality and supports a ceasefire now. Thank you very much Thank you. The next public comment is jones in the room julia jordan Jackie will go to you next. I apologize Hi, my name is jordan You all know me very well at this point I can't believe we're still here trying to urge you guys to say something But I want to read something And really quick. I just want to highlight the hypocrisy of a Proclamation for black history month when all of the great black history Leaders that we honor during black history month would be on our side here And if there's any people in opposition to this ceasefire resolution, I just want to let you know as a jew We want your family to come home safe We want justice. We want peace. We want everybody to live safe dignified lives And that's why we're here. We want the killing to end Nora ericat palestinian human rights attorney said On democracy now yesterday last night the images that came out of rafa are horrifying There was a young girl her legs cut off hanging off of a wire by her shirt This is disproportionate excessive force that is meant to terrorize a population That is telling them you have no life here. There is no future here. You must leave That is the message that is being sent and yet we're obscuring these atrocities We're obscuring these genocidal campaigns with words of distraction We're taking it and abstracting it to warfare and strategy Hostages and the negotiations when the humanitarian situation speaks for itself when tribunals have told us repeatedly This is a genocide. It must be ended unequivocally And that is a come incumbent upon us now before we see the last city in gaza The one that is normally home to 220 000 palestinians now housing one and a half million palestinians 80 of the population Intense and in dire humanitarian situations We should be rushing in to treat them with medicine with food with water with adequate care Rather than now preparing Thank you. The next public comment will be from jackie followed by andrew then karen Good evening. My name is jackie mermay. I am a resident of santa rosa once again My council member is not present for my public comment This is the third time i've been here and chris rogers has been absent eddie alvarez I'd like to say thank you for being the only council member who's making consistent eye contact with us this evening We noticed that you're looking away What you're doing is really indicative of what's been happening over the last four months You don't even have the decency to look us in the eye when we're speaking about something that is gravely serious Over 12 000 children are dead 17 000 are orphaned and we know that those numbers are truly much higher I'm here tonight as a mother I can't look my daughter in the eyes without thinking about all of the children that are wandering aimlessly in gaza Looking for their parents raising their own infant children And now we're hearing reports of young children Begging pleading to also die They're wondering why they've been spared and their parents were taken from them as we continue to fund the bombs with our tax dollars When we could be putting that money Here into our own community And helping our our our children here With education we've got unhoused children here in our city And I know that you all became public servants because you believe in doing the public good So i'm asking you to look inside your hearts remind yourselves why you chose to be a public servant Why did you choose this? Because this is a path you chose you wanted to represent us do the public good Hear us represent us Bring peace amplify our voices. It's your responsibility Thank you for having the decency to stay here I would urge you to speak to the council members that are not present tonight and question them why they are not here I'm also curious why mayor roger's left before she had the opportunity to hear us all speak Thank you for your time. I appreciate it ceasefire Thank you. The next public comment will be from andrew followed by karen than lev To the esteemed members of the santa rosa city council and the kind and concerned citizens gathered here today My name is andrew angall I have been a santa rosa resident since 2020 and presently a candidate for congress to serve the people of our city and the rest of california's fourth district in washington dc I stand before you now both in my capacity as an inspiring leader in our community And as a concerned american citizen to implore you to join us in the other california cities of katati davis richmond alameda kudahey oakland and san francisco in adopting a proclamation that affirms that our great city stands in support of an immediate israeli palestinian ceasefire and a permanent diplomatic solution to this conflict To be clear I and those that stand with me oppose all forms of anti-semitism islamophobia racism bigotry and genocide And I will always stand as an advocate for the dignity and safety of people of every community regardless of skin color ethnicity or creed I condemn that the actions of the hamas in the murder of 1200 innocent israeli civilians in the taking of some 253 other hostages on october 7th But so too do I condemn the over-the-top response of netanyahu's indiscriminate shelling of gaza that has claimed the lives of 28,000 palestinians and injured roughly 68,000 more many of which themselves have been innocent civilians and children Of the 2 million people of gaza roughly 40 percent of which are under the age of 14 Roughly 1.9 million civilians 85 of the population have been forcibly displaced according to the united nations Nearly half of the buildings in gaza have been raised to the ground and over half a million people are at risk of succumbing to famine and disease without immediate humanitarian aid It is my hope that cooler heads will prevail and that more voices will join us in the name of peace love unity and respect for the humanity of all To support resolution hr 786 and call upon congress to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire in this present conflict For the release of all hostages and the unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid and assistance in the restoration of food Water electricity and medical supplies to the people of gaza Now is the time to choose that which side of history we will fall upon And I hope that we will have the courage to choose a better path than the one we have set upon so that love and justice for desperate people in need of Aid and a brighter future will have the final Thank you. The next public comment will be karen followed by lev then johanna Karen followed by lev then johanna Lev Karen Lev Johanna Thank you. Please go ahead And then we'll go to ari James santa rosa resident 45 years now I'm here again to urge you our elected representatives to adopt a resolution on behalf of the people of santa rosa Calling for an immediate ceasefire in gaza and suspension of all aid to israel At least until some provisions for peaceful resolution are negotiated I'm sure you are already well aware of the ever worsening horror Of the situation in gaza and the worldwide calls for an end to the carnage occurring there I know there is some opposition to such a resolution and the belief that it is not within the proper scope Of our city council and that your actions should be strictly limited to matters directly affecting santa rosa I maintain however that our shared humanity and concern for the welfare of others does not stop Nor should it at the city limits Considering that this is black history month Reflect on how that history might be different if people in communities throughout the northern states Had taken the position that the abolition of slavery elsewhere was not an appropriate matter of local concern or action That as long as they weren't enslaving others in their community or state It was not their business and was beyond the scope of their control or even influence One might also argue that any such local resolution can't make any difference But we have a moral and ethical imperative to speak To oppose israel's actions and our us government's support of that To demand a ceasefire and to insist that this death and devastation is not in our name Silence is implied consent I urge you to join the growing number of communities large and small in california and others across the nation Thank you the next public comment will be from ari followed by julie Then virginia Can you please get closer to the microphone? Okay, thank you. Thank you I'm new to this community When I came here, this was the first thing that I looked for was for people who were focused On trying to bring peace in palestine It is so important that we adopt this ceasefire And it's necessary that it's right now The majority of americans and you can see in this room how strong the local support is if you look up Um We're calling to end genocide of the palestinian people The people of gaza are no different than any of us. They deserve to live and thrive in their home The damage done is profound This is a trauma that will be remembered and grieved throughout history What will santa rosa's legacy be? What can we all say for ourselves? Our government is funding this genocide without our consent This is a local issue in that over 2 million of santa rosa's tax dollars are going towards arming israel slaughter of palestinians We could use those tax dollars here to house our unhoused Defeat our hungry neighbors truly. I know you all can think of better things to do with that much money I would rather see my personal tax dollars sit on fire than sent to kill people Unless we speak up and act we are all complicit. Thank you Thank you. The next public comment will be from julie followed by virginia than mark I've been a resident of santa rosa for 30 years. I'm grateful for this opportunity to speak to my council members I am wondering if anybody has any idea how many children Were maimed orphaned or killed since the last time many of us convened here to ask for a resolution A ceasefire resolution to be put on the agenda. It's impossible to know many are buried under the rubble I also want to speak directly to some of you I believe that there are some of you here who are aware of the horrors that are taking place with our dime and I believe some of you would like To have us pass a ceasefire resolution, but maybe you're concerned about your career or dissent or you have anxiety around it And that's understandable. It's hard to be the first person to stand up But I I think that that some of you are capable of that And maybe you want to ask another council member that you think has similar ideas and together You can propose that we put this on the agenda um chris rogers i'm so glad you've come back because i've been um Invited to endorse you and vote for you for a state assembly and I really really want to But I need you to step up and need you to step up on this On soon like right now And I victoria phleming. I'm in your district. I voted for you twice. I have signs in my yard I know you care about people like you care about the unsheltered you care about immigrants and housing I need you to step up Show your leadership Allow us to put this on the agenda. Also, I am jewish and my rabbi rabbi erwin keller spoke In katalia. There's a few words that weren't said yet and he wrote the babelonian talmud instructs us that anyone who has He a capacity to protest injustice that is being done by members of their household and does not do so They're considered as if they too were committing that injustice. This holds true Thank you. The next public comment will be from virginia followed by mark then shana My name is virginia I've been a resident of united states of america for a lot of decades I have worked internationally and nationally in my calling which has been to be a personal and social responsibility For what happens and the choices that I make I'm here today because I'm coming here from a legacy Particularly from my father who I think I passed on to me that I need to be Personally and socially responsible for the choices I make and because I'm in the healthcare profession social services crisis intervention suicide prevention death and dying hospice hiv All the diseases which are lack of ease that have been a part of our human being Because I've chosen to be in that leadership row I come here today in coherence with everything that has been spoken today and I advocate for us to continue to make choices That are a part of the Hippocratic oath Which I think everyone is a physician and everyone is a patient Everyone's a student and everyone is a teacher And so the Hippocratic oath is physician thou shall do no harm if I stand with that knowledge that My money Is being spent on something that's in congruent with my belief Then I have done wrong Thank you Thank you. The next public comment will be from mark followed by shawna then michael I'm city council. Uh, my name is mark rudow. I've lived in santa rosa for 33 years If the council wants to delve into middle east politics I urge them to consider a resolution that calls for the immediate release of israeli hostages and The immediate surrender of hamas A ceasefire with hamas is worthless Remember there was a ceasefire on october 6th and on october 7th. There was a barbarous invasion of israel People were massacred people civilians were actually targeted. They were not collateral damage Hamas is a fundamentalist Antisemitic death cult that is not fighting for an end of occupation Their self-stated goal is the destruction of the state of israel It is no mistake that their charter article 7 features the following hadith The day of judgment will not come about until muslims fight the jews killing the jews When the jew will hide behind the stones and trees The stones and trees will say oh muslims. Oh, abdulla. There is a jew behind me come and kill him Since their inception their tactic has been to murder as many israeli civilians as possible They've done it with bombs with Shootings with car rammings with Unbelievable avidity have they pursued that And the only way to get rid of them you've seen how they've built incredible fortresses Under mosques under hospitals under schools under unra facilities A ceasefire will just delay the ultimate Thank you the next public comment will be from shawna followed by michael then reberda Hi, i'm shawna. I'm the director of a non-profit farm school called sun beam in pedaluma Some of our families are residents of san aroza We host a parent cooperative play a nature-based preschool and school age camps For school age kids. I'm a mother of two young girls and as a woman who has devoted my professional life in service of children and families I've been deeply grieving these past four months seeing the suffering and the loss in gaza and in the west bank I want to tell you about a local man named elias and his family the hustries For whom I feel immense gratitude because they least to me are beautiful two acre farm site Therefore they make my work possible Elias and his family moved to sonoma county from palestine in the early 1980s Elias's father survived the nakpa of 1948 and the many assaults That they experienced in his homeland between those two dates Two months ago when I reached out to elias to share how horrified and ashamed I am that my tax dollars are helping to Mass murder tens of thousands of innocent people in his homeland I was struck and saddened by how much appreciation he felt And expressed to me in response to me simply caring about him and his family council. It shouldn't be that way It should be a given that we acknowledge the humanity in our fellow citizens Our arab citizens here in sonoma county who are helping to build our communities Should know that they matter Council your leadership is needed in this moment by passing a ceasefire resolution You send a message to our community that palestinians are humans They matter they should be allowed to exist and it is the bare minimum that you owe us as citizens Thank you. The next comment will be from michael followed by reberda than stan My name is michael the tone. I'm a resident of santa rosa in district two. So, um Mark stat. I know you're having a side conversation, but i'm here and I hope you're listening so, um I support a resolution for ceasefire and that's what I want to tell you today I am someone who is involved in the community I do a lot of outreach work with unsheltered folks through sonoma county acts of kindness I'm part of the sonoma county tenants union I help tenants with a lot of their issues. So I really care about local issues And part of the reason I care about the local issues is because they're part of a bigger problem And what we're talking about right now is a very big problem It's not outside the scope of what santa rosa city council should be focused on It is something that we're very much a part of Our government our tax dollars Are funding genocide. This isn't the first time this has happened Our government supported south african apartheid something that We don't learn too much about in school and I want our kids to learn that this was What the u.s. Was doing at this time we were supporting a genocide in palestine But I want them to learn that there was resistance and that Even if it was a local level that people stood up and said something about it We've been to huffman. We've been to tomson. Uh, some of us Picketed outside huffman's office. Some of us showed up to the state capital and protested for palestine And they're not listening. So we need everyone here I need my council member mark staff I need the council members here to stand up and be very clear on where they stand right now Because this is unacceptable And it's something that all of us have to do something about otherwise It's just bound to continue It's bound to be a part of our legacy as people who did nothing And it's bound to be a part of where our tax dollars are going Thank you. The next speaker will be reberda followed by stan then jimmy Good evening council members My name is reberda and I've lived in santa rosa for 50 years I'm very impressed with the number of issues that you deal with here I would think that since I arrived in santa rosa. There's been a lot of there are a lot of problems We have homeless. We have hungry We have an education system that's not Conducive to many of the students We have people that are important in our community like teachers policemen firemen who can't afford to who live here There are so many things. There are even more things that you've talked about today I I disagree with the man that I followed I would like you to solve the problems that affect our community if you want to be Take action or something on political Situations and foreign affairs That's fine with me. Do it on your own time Please attend to the problems we have and make sanoma county and santa rosa a better place to live Thank you Thank you. The next public comment will be from stan than jimmy than aviva Hello, my name is stan rudman. I've been here for 15 years The first reason i'm against this resolution is that will embolden people Who support hamas to take violent actions against jewish institutions synagogues? And businesses as has happened in other places where such resolutions have been passed So we certainly don't want that kind of violence here. So I suggest we don't pass this Second people have blood on their hands here in this room But actually who has blood on their hands? Actually, it is hamas Hamas is the one that attacked israel killing people massacring people babies hamas is the one who Has in their charter has been just been mentioned Genocide in their charter hamas is the one that sent tens of thousands of rockets into israel Hamas is the one who has military equipment in house in house in schools mosques and unruly facilities a mosque hamas is the one that has Tunnels underneath all these places where they're not supposed to be How many civilians are in the tunnels none? What is the really purpose of hamas? What is their goal for this whole conflict the actual goal is to have their own people killed That is what their goal is and they have succeeded. They're the ones that are causing the problems Why don't they want to choose right now? They've had to choose in the last weeks and weeks Please please the reason that the Hold on folks Mr. Vice mayor, I'm going to recommend a brief recess Folks folks. We're going to take a we're going to take a brief recess right now 10 minutes We're going to clear that we're going to clear Officers, can you please clear the clear the chamber? Officers, can you please clear the chamber everyone? Please leave the chamber so we can settle the room And we will reconvene in 10 minutes as per vice mayor staff's recommendation. Thank you All right. Welcome back everyone It's our goal that everybody has a chance to speak tonight both the people in this room and online But in order to do that we're going to have to to revert to the the very polite behavior that we had at the start of the meeting One person speaks at a time No shouting no talking with everybody else And then we will then and then if that happens everyone will have the chance to speak If that doesn't happen, we will likely have to adjourn the meeting So everyone on their best behavior And with that we're going to we're going to continue with the public commenter who was speaking just before we Apologies, we have one more bit of housekeeping here. We're going to take roll madden city clerk Thank you. Councilmember rogers Councilmember okrepke here councilmember mcdonnell here councilmember fleming Councilmember alvarez president vice mayor step here Mayor rogers president let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember fleming All right in madden city clerk. Are we ready to resume public comment? We are all right We'll begin with the gentleman who was speaking just before we we took a break And he will have I believe 30 seconds to continue to finish his statement Let me just say that I am in favor of a ceasefire But the ceasefire has to be released to hostages and a mouse has to surrender they've lost the war The only reason they would continue the war is I said before is to have more people of their own killed Which is very sad and people have to acknowledge that sad fact And if they would surrender release the hostages peace can occur and maybe something good can come of at all. Thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be jimmy followed by aviva then a leg rep My name is dr. Wu and I've been a family physician serving the marginalized populations of santa rosa snoma county for the past 15 years As somebody who's dedicated my career to the pursuit of health equity Especially for those most oppressed it saddens me greatly to bear witness the undeniable atrocities being perpetrated against the palestinian people by israel It is with this emotion that I passionately urge the santa rosa city council to follow their katati counterparts and immediately considering and adapting a ceasefire resolution The tragic numbers are indisputable and we as a community as a country must stop averting our eyes from the realities and end our complicity in the senseless violence There have been 34 000 total killed including 13 000 children This is kind of the thousands who are still missing and likely under rubble In addition over 600 of my medical colleagues have been injured or killed To give you local perspective the total number to cease is double the current enrollment at the jc The number of dead children in gaza is approximately the same number of children who are enrolled in our very own santa rosa city school district Finally the number of healthcare heroes killed or injured in gaza is about equal to the total number of hospital beds Among santa rosa's three main hospitals Sit with those comparisons for a moment While those numbers should sufficiently horrify anybody we must not forget the deleterious Traumatizing effects of war and death on the health and wellness of the palestinian people Especially the youth who ultimately may survive this deadly conflict In my work i have borne witness to how a person's collective traumas throughout their lives contribute to their current health problems and suffering Now imagine the entire community an entire population having endured through this genocide of their people together And how this will negatively impact the health of current and future generations of palestinian people As a city council if you consider and pass the ceasefire resolution You would make an incredible difference in shifting the state and ultimately a national conversation on this issue Towards one of peace justice and human rights for all. Thank you Thank you. The next public comment will be from aviva followed by alagra than josh. My name is aviva lipkowitz My family also survived the pogroms in ukraine Well some of them did and some of them didn't And i can't imagine there's anything i'm going to be able to say to you after everyone has spoken so eloquently and with such heart and with such fact behind them to plead with you, but we Are watching A campaign of extermination Unfold on our phones and we are begging Our representatives to do something and the reason that our representatives can do something Is that our government is funding this war? There's no way that this war could continue without our funding And we've been calling our representatives. We've been protesting. We write them letters We hear you can fax them and then it turns out the faxes also just turn into emails that they also ignore So why is this here for you the city council? Because You are here to lift up our voices This is a local issue not just because there are palestinian constituents who are watching their families and their communities be decimated From here in santa rosa But because our money my money My meager money is going To those bombs and to those jets To that campaign of starvation Starvation people are already dying of starvation and cold and You can be our voices. That's what we are begging you to do is be our voices Thank you. The next public comment will be Allegra followed by josh than lee My name is Allegra. I am a santa rosa resident eddie is my representative. Hi eddie I'm here because I am a mom. I'm a mom of two They're six and 11 and every day when I look at my phone. I see dead six year olds and dead 11 year olds And I can't I can't describe to you how painful it is Um, those of you who are parents. I don't know how you're living with this We have to use our conscience. Um People who have gone to where they're told to go to have fled to where they are told they will be safe are not safe They are now being bombed as well. They are now being killed as well We are seeing people as others have said starving They are dying of thirst And at a certain point The excuses of this is not our business have to stop. This is all everybody's business Genocide is everybody's business Be brave stand up against genocide Stand for a ceasefire. Thank you Thank you. The next public comment will be from josh followed by lee than maribi Right. Um, so I want to talk about leadership just for a second now. This has been a big day And I would think twice before stepping into any of your seats up there in the city council The community is very Heated right now. You could see the assault on rafa is happening at this moment. It's in our faces We've seen so much suffering injustice cruelty and the violent Conflict in israel palestine and we can't excuse it and worst of all there seem to be no consequences It seems to barrel out of control And so this community came here. Maybe we traced the weapons money from federal tax monies followed it all the way down To this chamber Maybe we feel complicit because we are jewish and we have to speak up where we feel we have to maybe we've seen a history of injustice and cynical power grabs and we have Heard some folks were getting together and that this is the room where something could be done where some kind of Resolution could be made I understand that crafting a statement is daunting because i've never seen so many people operating with different truths different keywords Different slogans but that's where leadership comes in and where elected leaders come in The council has an opportunity to speak for the community in a way that works and Moves us forward in a way that brings our community together in a desire for justice There are disagreements in your constituency. I get that. I have a disagreements with myself But most people want to see the current devastation end and need to see some support towards that in their immediate community I don't think everyone's going to be happy, but i'm not here to be happy I'm here to see and to do what I can to end the destruction of a truly precious and irreplaceable part of the human family the palestinian people I think this goal is something that we can all support And I think that leadership can move us through hate and prejudice bad faith arguments And we need it. Thank you Thank you the next public comment will be Excuse me lee followed by maribi then tess Hi, i'm lee and i'm here in solidarity with my palestinian community members and my anti-zionist jewish community members in calling for you as the city council representing your constituents to to Put on the agenda a ceasefire and sign a ceasefire agreement I want to also make sure you're aware that this is not without precedence during the vietnam war It was local communities like ours that signed anti-war Statements so that they could be heard we could be heard There is an overwhelming majority of citizens in the united states in the united states who are calling for a ceasefire We are watching as white supremacist languaging is used to Somehow dehumanize palestinian lives. We are watching the exact same thing happen that happened during um apartheid south africa when the same exact language of white supremacy that is being used today to defend the israel government it was used to defend the white supremacist african government against Who were? Supporting of apar apartheid so here we are again Once again history is repeating ourselves once again. We are here as community members all over the entire country asking for our local community members to stand with us Call for a ceasefire call for an end of the occupation call for for ending of the killing and calling for Also, just let's also it stop defunding us stop defunding our schools our roads Everything good stop defunding everything good and ceasefire Thank you. The next public comment will be from maribi followed by teslin kelsey Hello, my name is maribi mendoza. Um, i'm a resident of san aroza. I've lived here my entire life Um, i'm here as everyone else mostly everyone else to call for a ceasefire resolution You are my representatives you represent You're supposed to represent what i believe in the policies my tax money most importantly You're supposed to represent where my taxes go and they're going to kill children Children who i've seen dead on my phone I would i would show you the pictures if you'd let me there's carnage on my phone a 12 year old girl Was bombed in rafa refugee center. It was the one place netanyahu said everyone would be safe Just go there. You'll be safe. Go south go south They bombed it super bowl sunday When all americans were busy watching the super bowl, they bombed rafa It has one 1.5 million people primarily children They're in intense Conditions where they're being starved humanitarian aid is not being let in All we're asking for is for you to uplift our voices and ask for a ceasefire. I think everyone in this room Is for a ceasefire even if we don't agree on everything Why why would we want the numbers to double 35,000 people have died in gaza? That's almost 12,500 children have died in gaza. I have their bodies on my phone. I can show you Um, so that's pretty much it. I wanted to say this is the 129th day of genocide A genocide is different from a war palestinian people. They don't have an army to represent them They have a resistant occupation group Okay, occupation with occupation comes resistance an action leads to a reaction That's all we can say about that. Of course any life being killed is a horror. No more lives should be taken. Please Please just call for a ceasefire join the many cities here in california and across the united states that are calling for an end to violence Please thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be test followed by kelsey than julia So my name is test caldwell. I was born in the city of santa rosa and I still live here today I have with me two letters from two children 10 year old lucas And 11 year old luna. I would like to read with to you some things that they shared with us They think that they would like you to know that palestine is a very special place And it is important to them because they do not deserve to be killed Young luna says that they would like you to know that palestine had a beautiful ocean and a beautiful land Palestine was filled with a lot of families their use of the past tense here is not lost on me and I hope it's not lost on you luna says that this is important to them because they want palestine to be free Because you are killing families and they should live This says you are killing families and this is why we have blood on our hands every 10 minutes We hold our hands up as a collective because every 10 minutes another child and gauze dies from israeli bombs That are made in the us Every 10 minutes another child dies these two letters are from an 11 year old and a 10 year old There are children younger than them who have been killed Young a young child young hind regi. She was six years old. She called her mom She was in a car Surrounded by her dead family members Her mother called the palestinian red crescent to send an ambulance the palestinian red crescent Received an affirmative okay From the state of israel to allow the safe passage of the ambulance to hin's Location she sat in the car with her dead family for hours If not days until over a week and a half later her body was found with the rubble of the car and the rest of the Remains of her family she had to sit with her dead family for hours And you know what she watched her 15 year old cousin die in front of her This is happening with our money. This is happening on our dime cast a ceasefire resolution now Thank you. The next speaker will be kelsey followed by julia than karen My name is kelsey vero and i've also lived in centers of my whole life I'm here to ask that the city council adopt a resolution for a ceasefire In gauze and it to put it on the agenda without delay and to recognize that it is important to your Constituents and your community members and therefore it is relevant to the city council's work Um, we recognize that some things are a moral imperative that some things are for history And that this is one of those things that has no middle ground and no compromise We must unite for a call For an end to this nightmare that has horrified us and stay in this horror to fuel our action To take a side on this and to increase the pressure on our federal government until it becomes impossible to continue With this genocide It seems impossible that we are here to have to say that there is no excuse And no legitimate reason To per to do a genocide that that is the ultimate statement that we are trying to make and that no other argument Can be made and we must Say that as loud and as often as we can until it is not happening anymore Um, there's no time for discussion in part because there will be no people left at the end I've heard lots of conversations about what the future might hold but if the people are being killed Like this if they're going to starve If they're going to die of disease if not from our own bombs, there is no future to discuss So ceasefire now Thank you. The next public comment will be from julia followed by caron than lev Hi, thank you. My name is julia rapkin. I work for the county of sonoma I'm a member and steward and sciu 10 to 1 and a delegate to the north bay labor council I wanted to let you know that unions across this country are standing up and speaking out for a ceasefire in gaza many national and local unions including the united auto workers postal workers national nurses united committee of interns and residents food and commercial workers teachers professors sciu Hotel and restaurant workers and even the afl cio has come out for ceasefire local unions and labor organizations such as my union sciu 10 to 1 unite here local 2 And the north bay labor council have now called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in gaza Why is ceasefire a union issue because unions fight for solidarity for working people for ordinary people The old slogan goes an injury to one is an injury to all As public sector workers are counterparts in gaza have virtually no more public services due to not only the constant israeli bombardment But the complete siege which prevents all food water medicine and fuel from entering gaza What possible justification can there be for bombing ambulances and rescue workers? We all know our public services here in the us are incredibly underfunded and people die in our streets here Because they don't have access to the services they need and yet the senate Yesterday last week voted for 95 billion dollars in more military spending. I mean Why aren't we putting that money into the services we need that's If if nothing else is a clear local issue, that's a clear local issue, right? And so hospital workers are getting active walking out of their workplaces attending rallies ceasefire is people are not Have to are declaring the majority not going to vote for demigods Thank you. The next speaker will be karen followed by lev then susan For seventh i haven't felt safe every sunday morning my family and i participate in a program called run for their lives Which involves a peaceful 20 minute walk in downtown santa rosa The reason we walk is to release the hostages held in gaza Unfortunately during these walks people often scream at us On one occasion i even recorded a video of this They're yelling makes me feel like i've done something wrong like i'm a criminal Thankfully many cars honk and support as we walk I don't understand the hate directed toward us They shout things like zinus and genocide supporter while showing their middle fingers As an 11 year old this is extremely frightening Even at my hebrew school we now have security guards and i must be escorted to class which was not the case a year ago I urge the city council to address this jewish hatred All i'm asking for is to be allowed to live without fear. Thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be lev followed by susan I want to thank the city council For their focus on our city needs and not trying to solve an international conflict That can only lead to feeding anger and bringing more divide within our community Why would a city council discuss a ceasefire with the terrorist organization that has broken every previous ceasefire agreement kill raped and mutilated innocent civilians The people advocating for ceasefire are not advocating for release of hostages And hamad surrender their slogan is from the river to the sea Their symbol is a watermelon in the shape of israel's map Their hamad sympathizers were just tools of iran and russia as nancy pilosi recently asked fbi to look into that connection This people are looking for a final solution a middle east without a democratic jewish state And to those who protest against israel in the chambers I asked Where were you when syrians yemenis darfurians were being killed? What does that motivate you to protest so furiously now? I think the answer can be found in the fact that Anti-semitic attacks have reached shocking levels in the u.s According to adl from october 7th until october 23rd Anti-semitic incidents rose by about 400 percent It is hatred to jews hatred of israel and support of hamas a group designated as a terrorist organization That motivates you it's time to acknowledge and speak the truth Inaccurate and one-sided resolution will not solve the conflict or bring us any closer to peace Our elected officials are involved in complex negotiations Our cia director is in kairu right now meeting with all the parties pushing for gaza truce and hostage release Let's thank you the next speaker will be susan Susan lamont as santa rosa district two More than 20 years ago People went to the city council and asked to have a discussion on the patriot act They wanted the city council to say it did not support the patriot act because it gutted the human and civil rights of americans They agreed to put it on the agenda And this place was packed. It was out the door And after everyone spoke The mayor actually said we've heard you And we know better than you And as a result Permanently as far as we know our rights have been gutted Now that was a shameful period for the city council, but they at least put it on the agenda You haven't done that Hamas exists for one reason And that is because of 75 years of killing Dispossession and oppression Wouldn't exist otherwise The question has been asked What would gaza look like without hamas? The answer is it would look like the west bank Where in the first nine months of 2023 Israel killed more than 200 people palestinians It took hamas sadly To make this a worldwide issue to make americans care about this The great philosopher cornell west said Human rights are what love looks like in public You have a chance to show your love for your Citizens your residents And for the whole world of oppressed people. Thank you Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chamber wishing to provide public comment on this item? Please line up in an orderly fashion at the podiums We'll start at the west lectern We'll start at the west lectern. Please go ahead. Um, I would like to offer you each flowers as a symbolism Of the children who have passed away in gaza Are you willing to accept that? Or is that something that we can do here? Unfortunately, we're not going to do we're not going to do back and forth or in public comment So just continue may I present may I present not at this time? Please continue your comment. Okay Well as um a child of this earth. I am here also to support a ceasefire and um Also to remind you that uh november is coming up very quickly Hopefully we have reached some sort of a resolution by then and we've all come to our senses But I do want to remind you that you Are up for reelection and the people are speaking and we are paying attention and we are rightfully upset And if you are not upset you have not been paying attention So if you would like to maintain your position of power um Remember that you get that from the people I wish you all loving your hearts and the resilience and the strength That the palestinian people bring us A quick follow-up if you'd like to leave the flowers at with at the desk in the corner that that is possible. Thank you very much Thank you. We'll move to the speaker on the east lectern char canana 20 year resident of san rosa district five uh I would just like to Well, there's so many things I want to say So I just have to pick something but Uh, I want to urge you to do your research on These claims that we've been hearing all day Do the research. I know it's hard It it breaks my heart. I wake up every morning and I'm forced I'm forced to open my computer and read the news and watch the terrible Uh videos And all that and yet we hear all these Lies that have been disproven many many times But as we know if we talk loud there It becomes the truth Uh another thing that the claim And and this is something personal the claim that Calling for a ceasefire calling for for life to continue Is something anti-semitic It's something hateful is not true. I'm a palestinian. I grew up in palestine I live there and I know it. I'm in constant contact Uh every day I see you see how many Jewish people came up here and spoke today I see that every palestinian sees that and they say Please keep doing what you're saying We know what you're saying And please keep on doing it Thank you. The next speaker can come to the podium for the item. All right We're going to move to the public comments on zoom if there are no additional public comments from Um The chamber Okay, we'll go over to the east or the west sector and please go ahead Are you ready? Because I think there are some more people in the room that would like to speak So yeah, my name is junber shares and I just want to remind you that the united nations has stated that more than 12 000 children have been killed And estimates 17 000 children Have been left unaccompanied orphan separated from their families and this is after october 7th That this has been happening and I wanted to quote Some excerpts from the speech that senator bernie sanders made today in the u.s senate He said right now today in gaza. We are witnessing one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern history It is unfolding before our very eyes and we must not run away from that reality 1.7 million people have been driven from their homes Nearly 80 of the population Pushed out of their homes hungry the devastation caused by Israeli bombardment is unprecedented in modern history Some 70 of the housing units have been damaged and destroyed He continues and saying if nothing changes We will soon have hundreds of thousands of children literally starving to death before our eyes And believe it or not the situation could become even worse What is happening in gaza now is funded by us taxpayer dollars These are our bombs and our military equipment that is being used. We are complicit And I'd say to you that you know, you may come to see this is the most significant Defining issue of our lifetime We don't want that But it is here. It is upon us And it's not just the silence that makes one complicit in the gaza genocide But also the lack of acting to assert what leverage we each have So I ask you to assert that leverage and pass a ceasefire resolution Thank you the next speaker in the room if you'd like to make a way to the podium I just want to say Please listen to palestinians Please listen To the arab and palestinians people palestinian people living in this community living in santa rosa Several of them have spoken tonight And I really hope that their words sink in for you People are hurting They're afraid for their lives And you all have a responsibility To listen to your constituents Thank you Thank you. Are there any other speakers in chamber who would like to provide public comment? Please line up at the podiums and you can stagger from podium the west to the east east west to the east. Thank you Please go ahead Hi, my name is roni man I have lived in sonoma county in my whole life and i'm a disappointed to be an american citizen The dehumanization of palestine of palestinians has been very prevalent in this chamber And it's one of 10 stages stages of genocide It's not even a question that a genocide is happening and our complicity and aid is appalling As a mexican-american i'm no stranger to see Uh a community of color stereotyped to the point of fear and as i mean the persecution Of this community. I can't believe that palestinians still have to prove their humanity This disgusting behavior and our complicities got us to this point I am so tired of the united states living in this protective bubble when we're the ones funding this genocide We've already presented a ceasefire resolution and we're ready to work together. So what's stopping us from moving forward What's stopping us from on the right from standing on the right side of history? I am also an active community member and I want to echo a fellow constituent Who shared that local issues extend to our relatives across the sea To stand by palestine is to stand by mother earth Do right by humanity speak up on behalf of your constituents and call for a ceasefire now Thank you next speaker, please Okay, thank you. We're going to move to our public commenters on zoom I'm going to turn it over to our zoom host deputy city clerk ronda Please take it away Thank you. We will start with hannah followed by diana and then alan Hannah, please go ahead when you're ready Hi there, um, I want to keep it really short because I know everybody has already said everything that I feel in my heart I just want to say genocide is a local issue if we cannot stand unified against genocide What can we stand unified on? This is a community and this is the city council for a community that is asking for you to adopt and adopt a ceasefire resolution No ceasefire no votes Consider that next time Thank you Diana will be followed by alan and then tabie diana go ahead when you're ready Good evening. My name is diana kingsbury and I'm a voter in santa rosa's fifth district represented by chris rogers I'm calling for the santa rosa city council to put a ceasefire resolution on the agenda and to pass it A majority of voters in the us already support a ceasefire We demand a ceasefire now for our santa rosa community members from palestine And to make it easier for more cities across the country to do the same so we can end this genocide from the grassroots up Thank you Thank you. Diana alan will be followed by tabie and then dax Alan, please go ahead when you're ready Hello, my name is alan wolves, and I'm a lifelong resident of santa rosa and an age scientist who whose family also fled here from the pogroms in ukraine You've already heard in prior meetings and will likely hear in future ones People from the jewish community relations council speaking out against the city council passing a ceasefire resolution This group has been going to meetings of every government body in the bay area that is possibly considering any ceasefire resolution One of their argument is that governments should only focus on local issues, which is quite ironic considering that this is not a local organization They're claiming to speak for jews who are concerned about a rise in anti-semitism if a resolution were to be passed This is nothing but manufactured fear mongering The rise in actual anti-semitism lately has been driven by white supremacists Who have nothing to do with ceasefire resolutions that anyone has put forward? What is being called anti-semitic is any criticism of the state of israel This argument itself is very anti-semitic as it insinuates that only zionists are real jews Which attempts to erase the judaism of roughly 1.5 million jews in america alone according to the pew research center Who do not believe in a direct tie between judaism and zionism? An argument i keep hearing put forward is that jews are afraid of what will happen if we pass the ceasefire resolution I do not believe that we should be dictating public policy based on the unfounded fears of groups with racism at their core White supremacists are afraid of any non-white people taking over but we don't give in to them and pass resolutions based upon that fear During the super bowl the state of israel started bombing rafa the last remaining refuge for millions of displaced palestinian refugees as an ongoing genocide Every week that goes by without a ceasefire resolution is another week in which we are complicit in genocide Our collective silence on the issue is telling please introduce and pass the ceasefire resolution without further delay No ceasefire no vote TV will be followed by dax and then margaret TV go ahead when you're ready Members uh, this is shon tv levin light shon tv tornado members of the santa rosa city council We find ourselves on a landmark by contradictions A nation with the curb appeal of a grand mansion yet a foundation echoing the neglect of slum lord We are surrounded by narratives carefully curated fed to us to maintain a system that keeps many oppressed as we stand here It's crucial to acknowledge the intricate history of this land where indigenous palmo to indigenous filipino Were sold to sonoma county's plantation complex I as first generation come voting have roots from a people who survived genocide witnessing the relentless cycle of abuse Across generations the violence persists and the question bags has the narrative truly changed Our struggles are intertwined transcending borders and cultures to truly break free We must recognize that liberation for one is in connect interconnected with the liberation of all today. I Speak before you not just as the first generation Cambodian who grew up in roseland, but as a voice urging solidarity demanding liberation for palestine and an immediate ceasefire For we are not truly free unless all of us are free It is time to dismantle the wall that divide and unite in a collective pursuit of justice Santa rosa as the largest city north of san francisco holds significantly in these matters Yet its complacency and the violence of palestinians speaks volumes It's time for our city to rise up to speak out and to demand that our government represents its residents and calling for a ceasefire an end to the bloodshed I urge you council members to heed this call for justice that stand on the right side of history And to use your platform to advocate for peace equality the dignity of all peoples actual dei work Next will be dax followed by margaret and then maria Dax please go ahead when you're ready Hi, I'd like to mostly address My fellow attendees in the crowd and so hopefully they can hear me um, and I would just Like to reiterate for folks who are hoping that san rosa city council will do the right thing and that they will listen to you that They will not they have no interest in doing so they had no interest in doing so in 2020 in 2021 any other time that we have come to them and asked them to do the right thing uh, san rosa city council has a Common theme of putting their heads down and looking at the table and not engaging with their constituents um, they have no interest in doing so and I doubt that they ever will um Tragic, but that's how it goes. It's a panel of spineless people So I would love for them to prove me wrong, but I very much doubt it instead. I would like to Suggest to you all in the audience that there are people who may be more receptive to your concerns and your complaints and your issues with Israel committing genocide in Palestine And it may also indicate to you why members of the san rosa city council would be hesitant to do so um, there is Free businesses in the county that contribute directly to the israeli genocidal effort um, one of them is sonoma photonics which supplies north of grumman with Essential materials that is located on one seven five zero north point parkway in santa rosa There's another company l3 to harris technology that provides f35 parts Uh, we've sold a bunch of f35s to israel. That is that four two eight aviation boulevard number 1069 in santa rosa And up in yieldsburg. We also have the general dynamics ordinance and tactical systems office at At rove street. These are all places that supply and fund the genocidal war effort um, israel killing thousands and thousands of palestinians, so maybe tell them what you think of uh, How they spend their time and what to do for Except for will be margaret followed by maria Margaret, please go ahead when you're ready Hi, can you hear me? Okay. Yes, we can Hi, um, my name is margaret. I'm a sonoma county resident A mother a wife a human And witnessing atrocities hourly has compelled me to stop being silent in this forum I'm glad that the impact of this has reached into the deepest places in my heart In my bones and my soul Because that is the way that we as humans should react when we witness this kind of suffering and obliteration I totally reject the idea that supporting the end of an apartheid An occupation of palestine I reject I reject that assertion That it's an anti-semitic position To believe that is to live in an upside down world Disconnected from our common humanity It is hard to watch and witness Alongside real suffering and a level of trauma that is unrelenting There is profound suffering every split second And I urge you to act before it is too late to get onto the right side of history. Thank you Except it's maria followed by hugo and then katrine maria, please go ahead when you're ready Hi, I'm speaking tonight as a resident of santa rosa council district one to urge you to adopt a ceasefire resolution In light of sunday's attack on rafa and left feeling distraught I'll be sworn in as an attorney in less than two weeks and Working in housing justice and civil rights here in sonoma county And I feel the fight for rights in our own neighborhood Is intrinsically linked to the fight for civil rights around the world I weep for hindra job and all the innocent lives lost since october 7th the escalating violence Will only lead to the loss of more innocent lives for palestinians and israelis and anyone else in the area Each day that passes without a ceasefire violently steals life from innocent people We in santa rosa must stand on the right side of history and act as an example for peace before it's too late I'm at a loss as to why you hesitate to speak on an issue that will cost you truly nothing to address If you think this is not a local matter you're mistaken anyone in santa rosa who's paying attention will not forget your silence I urge you to adopt the ceasefire resolution now Next up is hugo followed by katrine and then esther Hugo, please go ahead when you're ready Thank you Good evening. Thank you for giving everyone who can be there in person at the council a way to express ourselves We really appreciate it. I'm sure I'm a resident of santa rosa in the fifth district and I'm urging For a ceasefire resolution Not tomorrow not next week But now or chris rogers if you want my vote you really need to act on this And other than this I just would like to say to all of our jewish friends that if you Feel worried and scared You must know that if you ever were in a situation of oppression The way the palestinian people is right now we would fight for you with the same rage So this is not a religious issue. We support you and we love you as a community and yeah, I just That's what I want to say tonight. Thank you Thank you Next up is katrine followed by esther and then joshua Please go ahead when you're ready. Hi. Good evening to the council members and friends. This is katrine siapa I want to keep this very brief on the santa rosa resident And I want to echo All the colors and speakers before me who have called On the santa rosa city council to about the ceasefire resolution now Please This is the thing to do as human beings Witnessing the atrocities that have been happening In israel and palestine We need to put a stop to this now and the way to do this is to adopt a ceasefire resolution now I stand with our jewish and palestinian community members who are calling For our last thing just peace in the middle east And that is only going to happen if we call for a ceasefire now and we get everybody to the table and we Work together to find a peaceful solution Please adopt a ceasefire resolution now to save the lives of everybody In palestine israel in the future and to save the children. Please please Thank you Next is esther followed by joshua and then robin esther, please go ahead when you're ready My name is esther and i'm a jew and a junior at maria korea high school a local school in santa rosa Unfortunately, I don't have time to tell you about how i've been to the south of israel I've seen the bomb shelters in preschools I don't have time to tell you how I went to pull in this year and saw where millions of my people were murdered And how i'm terrified every day that it will happen again I don't have time to explain to you the intricacies of the israeli palestine conflict and the historical facts that date back 2000 years I don't even have time to explain how hamas has the opportunity to bring up permanencies fire tomorrow By releasing hundreds of hostages and giving up the rule over the people of gaza yet. They persist openly promising to repeat their atrocities of october 7th that haunt every jew in the world This war is affecting everyone Even in santa rosa antisemitism has been on the rise with kids in my own school doing hitler sleuths Drawing swastikas and even my own principal being afraid for the safety of students supporting the release of hostages But a ceasefire won't solve these problems As the washington post jennifer rubin wrote earlier this month Unless and until hamas is eliminated as a military force in gaza none of this is possible Hamas is the terrorist organization that does not have the palestine's interests in mind They will not be negotiated with don't forget. There was a ceasefire in effect on october 6 Please don't bring the ceasefire resolution to the agenda. Thank you Except it's joshua followed by robin and then edison joshua, please go ahead when you're ready hey there My name is josh. I was just like thinking about how I was thinking about like genocides in the past And you know, I want to think of myself as someone who would like Fight back in a situation like that maybe even like you know You know, I would I'd want to be fighting, you know, I want to say like hey There's an evil force there and I'd be the guy on the ground fighting because there's an evil force at play But I but like All people are asking you all to do is Do a resolution where you just like say hey, we are in favor Of one thing it can be a sentence long if you're having trouble writing that resolution it can really just be like whereas Santa Rosa city is not important supportive genocide therefore be it resolved That we are in favor of a ceasefire in the current Israeli Palestinian conflict. It's Kind of like really minimal, you know I would hate to like think of myself as like oh while genocide was happening I did literally nothing um And that is what you will be and that's how history will see you all as people who just did nothing I get I get that you're like a local government But like the problems global and it like we have to have people like you Do these resolutions to build support and power So, yeah, don't suck Uh currently you do but try not to suck as what I'm saying next up is robin followed by Edison Robin, please go ahead when you're ready Robin, okay, we'll go ahead to Edison You're being asked to unmute Hello, please go ahead Hello, I'm a Sonoma County dad Uh the past four months have live streamed the ugly and undeniable truth of American imperialism at work Israel a u.s. Funded colonial nation formed less than a hundred years ago Recreating the same atrocities that claims its statehood from We're all witness to the scores of Palestinian families torn apart for their color of their skin again Our tax dollars and the weapons the sole reason this apartheid and now full genocide are able to occur As Americans it is our responsibility to understand what part we play in the world And at bare minimum to oppose the atrocities we commit The families of Palestine don't deserve this And the families in America don't deserve to pay for it And Sonoma County deserves to hear its leaders say cease fire now We can't collectively oppose if we can't collectively oppose fascism murder colonialism ethnic cleansing starvation Land theft displacement and subjugation Then shame on us all If you ever wonder what you would have done in nazi germany You're doing it right now Thank you Robin you're up next You're being asked to unmute Please go ahead when you're ready Robin. I don't think we're Going to be hearing from robin I'm seeing no additional hands raised to provide public comment via zoom Thank you. All right, we're going to close public comment Thank you to everyone for coming out and taking the time and thank you for your patience There are no further items on the agenda, so we will adjourn