 I just want to make sure we get this right. Because of the change under what I received via email was the welcome and call to order and that's all nothing is highlighted in that under that section. Oh, I apologize. Let me. So, or you could just tell me the first three were so you'll see. I'm sorry, clock is going off. There's, there are basically four paragraphs in that section. Do you do which one is which one do you take members of the public wishing to speak during. Okay, good. Excellent. Got it. We're good to go. Perfect. Thank you. Sure. Good morning. Good morning. Let me know when we're ready to proceed. We are ready to proceed. Excellent. Well, I'll bring the, the meeting to order on this. November 9 2021, the economic development subcommittee. The economic development subcommittee will be conducted conducting today's meeting in a virtual setting using zoom webinar committee members and staff are participating from remote remote locations and or participating in the practicing appropriate social distancing members of public may view and listen to the meeting as noted on the city's website and as noted on the agenda. Members of the public wishing to speak during item three public comment or during public comment hearing items will be able to do so by utilizing the raise can feature. Or by pressing star nine on their phone, they will then be given the ability to address the community or committee. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. And could I please have the roll call. Yes. Sure. Here. Member Fleming. Here. Member Alvarez. Is that the record reflect that all committee members are subcommittee members are present. Okay. Next, I will ask the whether there are public comments on top. It's not listed on our agenda today. We have anyone. We have no raise hands at this time. Okay. Thank you very much. So then we will move on with our agenda. And as per usual, I am, it's not pulling up for me. I've been having issues with the internet. All morning long. Right. The first item is going to be the economic development draft strategy review. And is that right? Is that your item? They're all my items. I was going to say, is there anything that isn't your item this morning? Yeah, there. Well, I hit, we happily have a lot of help today in guiding us through the discussion. So Eileen, do you want to pull up the, thank you. Okay. So this first one, I just wanted to give you an overview on the strategic planning process. We've been going through and I know that I gave you a sort of written briefing on this, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to go over, you know, personally, the, the process that we've been going through for this, for this program. So next slide please. Okay, so first off, there are a number of reasons why we needed to embark on the process. So despite the fact that it's been years overdue, the timing ended up being actually pretty good for us to start this. And while we've gone through a series of reorganizations over the years, and especially since the last time we did a comprehensive plan, I think what affected and sort of continues to affect us more are some of the changes, the organizational changes that have happened. And, you know, we had a good start on implementing some changes in the reorganization, but some of the elements of it sort of, you know, didn't, didn't end up really being completed. Or, you know, we sort of had some, some changes and movement that and distractions I have to say, you know, through the emergencies of the years, as a result of some of the personal changes and such what that that we've been going through. And also I have to say it's on the emergency front, it's just no small matter that we are actually making our way through the fourth year of emergency response. And recovery efforts, and are on the precipice of getting a new city manager so again for this and many other reasons, it was a good time to really work to sharpen the edges of the economic development program. And so to do that, we started with the questions that you see on the slide, which are, you know, what does the community want to need. Are there good models we can learn from what's the current state of the division and how can we leverage integration and partnership knowing that so many of the economic development tools and resources lie in other departments and actually within the community itself. So, next slide. So the other piece of good timing is that we ended up using a totally different consultant than I think we would have had we started this back in 2017. So I feel fortunate that we were able to contract with the social impact strategy from third plateau. We had a Sacramento, but have done a lot of work within the county. And they led us through a very community oriented equity centered process that is broken down in the phases that you see here and where we are now is we just finished with the idea, ideation phase and we're heading into the iterative design phase now kind of walk through what that means for you now. Next slide. So, the first phase was the learning phase focused on research interviews focus groups and survey, as well as a SWAT analysis. And I have to say, the last time we did a comprehensive strategic plan is when I started. It updates to the plan but I started here about 15 years ago. And that was the last time we really dug deep into comprehensive plan. And I have to say that it was oriented in a more monocultural way, and was very focused on traditional businesses without as much consideration of sort of the workforce considerations that we brought into the fold this time. So for this one of our objectives was to be at least a little bit more balanced, but obviously being economic development focused on on business. And to this end, we were very intentional and being as diverse and inclusive as we could in playing for and also inviting involvement on our interview panels and our focus group as well as the steering committee that that we ended up with. I have to say we did pretty good on the survey response rate, especially from our small business sector, and we sent out the link to as many of those we could on our business tax certificate list that provided emails for us. Next slide. So between the survey interviews, the focus groups and the research outline on this slide, which just is really it outlines our case studies and best practice approach. We were able to, to lay out a decent foundation and process heading into what third blood toe calls the ideation phase. Next slide. So, this phase is really it's the steering committee, and it was an intensive three week process of three, three hour meetings. Plus, with our consultant team. So we had about. I was wondering if that was my, my team thing. We had originally invited 12 people to participate, but we had some last minute cancellations or one person just didn't show up. But it was a long and a lot of intense conversation to get to the next slide, which is the, the draft elements of the plan. Next slide. So our draft vision is a healthy and thriving center as a community, fueled by the exchange of diverse ideas, innovative practices and collective responsibility. And our draft mission on that that came out of the retreats was is we drive increased access and systemic transformation in service of prosperity and opportunity for all community members. And, you know, I want to note here that strategic plans are generally best and really good for about three to five years span. And we decided early that that this strategy would be a three and a half year plan, which we anticipate kicking off in 2022. We've been intentional in connecting our consultants with C collaborative and making sure we're lining with the work that they're doing. And then we also are working with the advanced planning team to ensure and maintain a connection with the general plan update. And Amy and Amy and Beatrice in particular have been incredibly helpful already as we embark on the iterative design phase to flesh out the four strategic focus areas here. And the other thing is I just want to emphasize the word draft in this, because there, we've already started to make some changes in wording. And that it'll be reflective of the input that we're getting as we as we roll out the the fleshed out plan. So the three and a half years strategic focus is to establish the economic development division as a champion of innovation and a key player as a partner and driver of transformation for the center as a community. And this we're sort of thinking about things that we did, you know, in particularly like through the, the economic recovery task force that we had some of those kinds of programs and being a receptor and being able to bring forward some of the policies and programs that Council actually John and Victoria you guys came up with, for example, in the last year and a half. And the second thing is design and implement data driven policies and programs to elevate support BIPOC LGBTQ and women owned businesses and social entrepreneurs giving back to the community. And so we really did double down on the business sectors that have not been that have been most affected to this last year in particular in which have had a harder time receiving funding and support. And the third thing is empower young people with the knowledge skills resources and opportunities needed to positively contribute to the center as a community and economy. We're really focused on our future workforce retaining our, our youth here and having them helping them we invest in the place they call home. And the last is to drive policies and support inclusive mixed use multifamily housing and high resource areas and opportunity in high resource areas and opportunity areas which we actually change this to simply say in priority development areas. So that is our draft outline. And I just want to open up now for discussion if you have any questions or any thoughts or comments. I was going to throw out a comment. I mean, there are a few things more difficult and dealing with a strategic plan and coming up with a vision and a mission and then a strategic focus, which is even more than I expected. I mean, it's either they are one sentence in the vision and the mission and those single sentences can take hours and days to develop. And so kudos in coming up with a clear and concise mission and vision. It's no easy task so thank you for that effort. Victorian any any questions or comments at this point. Well done. And, you know, it's really exciting to see this and I do have a couple of questions about just the process in terms of, you know, I would have loved to been a fly on the wall. I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about how it went about what some of like the conversation pieces were, you know, let us in a little bit to have some of the sausage was made. Well, I have to say like when we were doing the interview process. Firstly, I was not none of the economic development staff was participated in the, the one on one conversations and the focus groups, because the consultant team really wanted a very honest feedback that would not be censored if we were in the room. And so it was interesting to see the SWAT analysis that came out of it. You know, there was no surprise to us and honestly I expected, I mean it wasn't exactly always easy to read, but but there were no surprises and I expected more surprising because there were there. At the same time, there is a little bit of confusion. The economic development board was going is going through a strategic planning process as well. So there was some level of confusion that we had to address in differentiating ourselves from the county program, which is very typical if I say I work in economic development for the city of Santa Rosa they used to say oh you work with Ben Stone. So, so there's still some confusion on that but And then the other thing that was interesting is, especially during the steering committee and the retreats that we had there was, we spent some time in differentiating the desire of the community or I don't know how to put this but there was like there were there was conversation around economic and economic development strategy that is should be more integrated into a city wide strategy and differentiating what's possible through the economic development division in coordination and again with the support of and the initiative of all the departments in it. So how to set a focus and a vision that is ours, but there was a lot of like questioning why isn't this a city wide thing and I'm like well a number one the city isn't going through this process you know development division is and I'm not to say that it is inconsistent with Council goals and the city mission broadly. So I think those are two of the things that I would highlight and actually Sakura really quickly Sakura was in the steering committee with us. Is there anything that you would add to that. Good morning, I would, I would just reiterate it is interesting kind of department strategic plans with the attention of the city, the city wide kind of vision and priorities, but I think that kind of the clarity that equity and and what the Council has said our priorities will guide the economic development plan were clear and and I think that will make for an easy layering with the city's ongoing efforts. Thank you. Um, so then. Wow this is really, it's really great I'm really glad we're doing this. And that you're doing that you put in all this effort to do this it's fantastic what I'm wondering is, if it's a draft. Are you interested in any kind of additions or feedbacks or is it a draft in terms of what are the next steps. Well, so we have the answer is yes well we always wanted I mean it doesn't even mean that it's not going to change once we, you know, sort of finalize. Air quote finalize that the report itself. And so, any feedback is is always helpful and can help inform the plan moving forward in this phase in particular. And again this is just the outline, and we have socialized the outline with the steering committee members. And through this process or making it a little bit more public, and would absolutely welcome any feedback questions or comments as we roll towards the full report. Okay. And then I have one more question for I give you just a couple of thoughts. It's not three and a half years it's a very specific amount of time. Well, well we wanted to start in January and we wanted to align it with with the fiscal years that eventually it is a very specific amount of time but you know with all of the changes that we're seeing. We want to get a little bit more doable and we want to be able to come back in three years honestly and start the process again. We're particularly interested in the general plan update. They've got I think another two years I think Amy and Beatrice are on thinking correct me but I'm just the planning for the general plan update is another two years and it would be opportunistic for us to add that plan rules out to be able to reassess and realign, given where we are then, and I had to say, you know the economy is up and down. It's just a really difficult time period to say oh yeah in five years we're going to be where we are now then. It is a really unusual time and yet I think that what you put into it. I mean famous last words is kind of timeless because I can't imagine us not wanting to have an inclusive Santa Rosa where everybody can participate to the best of their ability and you know it includes everybody. There were a few. And you know that I think that this is something that the entire city ought to look through this lens of equity environment, and I'm losing my last E here but you guys know what I'm talking about. So, but there's a few words that were not on there that I was looking for. One is. Well I wasn't looking for but it kind of struck me when we were talking about most impacted businesses. And I was thinking you know is not just like women owned and BIPOC businesses but specifically immigrant businesses. I'd love to have a word in there, or something in there that that calls out that we value and want to promote our immigrant businesses in the city. They're one of our strongest drivers of small businesses and one of the things that makes Santa Rosa a really interesting and wonderful place. And I know that they've had a real rough go of it. I'd like to see the environment of the climate mentioned in there. If I missed it. I apologize. And I'd love to see something because there's a big piece about housing I'd like to see housing mentioned in relationship to high quality transit as part of our climate goals. I'd like to see something about promoting and developing our, our labor force and supporting them. But I think that those are all very much in line with what I saw they're just particular things that I thought are values of ours that that we might want want to consider calling out. I think this is fantastic. And I think, you know, some of those because the immigrant population did come up a lot in our, well I don't want to say a lot but it did come up in our conversations and retreat. And some of those might be more specifically called out in the tactics that would be set to accomplish the goals. But I definitely hear you on those I don't think we talked as much about environment and climate. But I think in the next presentation you'll see that we're considering that in data and in our equity lens that that had that that overlay specific to environment and environmental impacts on community. I think we'll work on that that's super helpful because I think there are some others that we could, we could. I think this is an anecdote maybe it'll make you chuckle which is last night at work at the county. I have a very conservative co worker who is watching Fox News on her earbuds and I walked behind her and it, and the headline on Fox News was majority of young people have climate anxiety and I was like whoa. Fox News has picked this. Anyway, thank you so much you guys. Thanks Victoria. I'm not the climate anxiety. Yeah, what a terminology right to echo my colleagues I mean just great job. And for my colleagues as well we have been here for for much longer than I have and the input that they've been able to give. I guess only question left is what were the lessons learned will be revisiting this in three and a half years. What would we apply that that you felt you could have applied this time. And kind of kind of put that into the book so when that time comes, we can be looking for those things and possibly remind her when you said this as a friendly reminder, and for us to really just play with it in our mind and see how we can, we can assist you in doing so. You know, it was disappointingly difficult to get. But I had to do a lot of convincing to get our BIPOC community to participate. And I would hope that in three and a half years I would hope that in six months or one year. We have a different relationship with that community. I think, you know, some of it was technical some of it was trust some of it was time and timing. But that is something that I'm really grateful that we spent the time and really encouraging people and really looking on beyond those, we typically ask. I was particularly interested, for example, and I did just did some Googling was like, let's get the president of the SRJC student union. She is a woman of color she's young she I mean, you know how how to engage these folks I think I learned how difficult that is. I learned that there are some changes that we can make to make those that kind of participation, especially also monolingual participation easier. So I think those that I would highlight that and also personally the time it takes to email thousands of businesses who have emails with. I'd like to do that better and earlier. Yeah. Did you have to go ahead any. Oh, you're on mute. It's the john and I could swear hit that button john I know I know I have a better understanding of what you go through. Thank you. Thank you. But nonetheless the hopefully hopefully as I learned the position that I'm in, I can hopefully contribute to those efforts. I'm happy to say that I do see a, and I've said it plenty of times, I see different eyes in the community. Hopefully you're starting to see the same. We're starting to see more organization more individual stepping forward, and hopefully it gives fruit that we're all looking for. And maybe now we see collaborative. We can we can incorporate it and really for myself speaking for myself, learn from their efforts of how they've conducted themselves move forward and what what has worked what hasn't worked for them, as as I'm definitely learning from their efforts. So hopefully I can be a contributor to those efforts and, and together we can, we can clear that hurdle. Yeah, absolutely. And I just want to call out Rafael in particular on our team, because, you know, when we're out in the community I say I work with Rafael he knows people he speaks with people he is out there on the streets, today in so many different ways and, you know, he is our, I think our trust vault in the community. And I don't think I would have had as much access, as we did as much participation as we did especially again with monolinguals in that next population, were he not involved, just a phenomenal phenomenal partner. And that's a great point before being elected before even deciding to run for a city council. Rafa is the person that I could always count on seeing running up and down the possible road, and always carrying something, whether it was banner whether it was a notepad whether it was a book or or a flyer. You're absolutely correct the same son and definitely, definitely a hero for the community. Absolutely. No, I'm going to jump in again I, I remember in days gone by the in relatively speaking, the narrow scope of economic development, and it had more to do with bringing in a national chain, or helping our current, or at the time, the current businesses which were struggling mainly in downtown which is continuing theme, but never were the words diversity, equity and inclusion added to any kind of conversation around economic development. And I guess the evolution of ED has is really quite substantial and, and, and, and very beneficial to our community. And I just, it is, we've, we've that department, due to the activities and the, the leadership of your team, you and your team race. And, and so crow and I mean there are so many people to thank to acknowledge the evolution of economic development Santa Rosa, I mean it is, it is, it has almost flipped from where it was before very much status quo and now it is not, and it is, it's, it's a breath of fresh air to see it opens up doors that were not open before and acknowledging individuals that are that are looking for economic development and economic success that were not at the table before. And so I really kudos to everyone involved in changing the dynamic and the paradigm of economic development and Santa Rosa. So I just I'm so pleased. And I just touched on that for one moment. And that is, you know, we are still going to continue on the business attraction retention expansion component of it. We're doing it a little bit differently. But, you know, we have myself and Rafael, who are economic development program focused myself and Tara, who are arts events and that other component and we've been able to merge sort of the, the, we have limited we've been able to merge the arts program and the tourism programs to be economic development driven. But Tara really doesn't focus on the day to day ED kind of stuff and then we have Eileen, our fabulous host here today who deals with the daily calls with the coordination of these groups. And so it's a small team. And because it's small, because resources are limited. We're super reliant on the chamber of chambers of commerce. So, we do have good relationships with the center as a metro chamber and the Hispanic chamber. In the data and action organization, the railroad square association, and those groups, as well as some of our other ones like los and other business oriented groups. If we did not partner with them, we would not be able to do as much of the attraction retention as we that we have. We have to look at our team more broadly than the four of us who are employed by the city. And so I just want to super confirmed that we're continuing and some of the other more traditional things in particularly with partnerships, we do have to double down on on the under invested areas that we had had not done previously. And I appreciate that because in my comments, I didn't mention the more traditional approaches and they are clearly being embraced, because we need them as well. We need, we need everything we all tools, and I very pleased that that your department is exercising those. So, thank you very much. Well, if there are no other questions or comments from council. I'd like to open it up to the community. I lean, could you let the community know how they can participate. And you already did actually so. Do you see any hands raised at this point to Mr Farron. I'm going to go ahead and give you permission to speak. And if you would hold just one moment while I share the timer. Is there a time that you're able to see that. Yes, I can. Wonderful. I won't take the full three minutes but I also want to thank staff for what they've done. This is brilliant and bold and I think it's very consistent and this is the point I want to make. I'm on the Arpus County committee and we're going to be providing millions of dollars into the same effort that you're trying to do. We're going to be gathering lots of data, lots of tools, we're going to be hiring dozens of referrals and we're going to try and figure out ways of really helping the community you want to serve in this, including the traditional businesses to recover and to be able to address the impacts of the coronavirus in ways that are based on equity based on giving support to folks who haven't been in the system. So I just want to, you know, remind you that there is this, you know, I've been involved with Santa Rosa more than the county but believe me now I've got the county, at least listening, and the 14 member committee that I serve on is not going away and is going to be able to try to direct in as much as they can, the $76 million that we've got to spend on ways that do exactly what you're talking about. So we're with you, I'm with you, and thank you very much. Thank you, Gary. Thank you. Any other hands raised Eileen. We do not have any additional hands raised at this time. Any other comments that were that were given to us in any other form. We have not received any email or voicemail comments for this meeting. Okay, thank you very much and thank you staff for a great presentation it's really a tribute to your dedication to this cause and and the broad the broad scope which is really important so thank you for that very much. So let's move to 3.2 race. So this one I have help, and good. And so, so for this item our goal is to lay out an equity lens framework for you to consider. So it stems from, you know, really from you guys from the full council, because you've taught for quite a while now about equity principles, which you really doubled down on, and we were able to flesh out specifically for the art of funding discussions. So for this I have Beatrice and Sakura here with me today to introduce the why and what in terms of what might be helpful moving forward. It's of interest to counsel. Basically, it's an outline of considerations that that might be helpful. As we contemplate like we I mean actually the city but really city council contemplates opportunities to reinvest in communities. As we just talked about that historically been under invested in. And so we'll go to the next slide and I'm just going to hand it right over to Beatrice to start us out. And thank you for the invitation. I am very happy to be here just wanted to say that we're going to present this to state council next week but you will have a preview and I would love to have your feedback on on this opportunity that we have to present equity priority communities. So basically, in the conversation that we have been having with the economic development team, as well as the equity officer has been, how do we create data sets for providing equity, including equity in the conversation. So for the planning department specifically for the outreach group, we have been working on identifying what it means areas of vulnerable underrepresented and historically marginalized populations. And the way that we identified this was following the Metropolitan Transportation Commission methodology. And they call it equity priority communities. This is a way to shift the conversation from just vulnerable communities or communities of color or underrepresented communities. We want to say, how are we going to change what happened in the past, acknowledge that we have had policies that were discriminative or that created disadvantages in the communities. And how are we shifting that to prioritize certain areas of the city. And specifically for this one, you can see the city limits are on the orange area and the orange line, those are the city, the city limits. And then we have on the blue area, it's, we created the data sets to identify in this in the county of Sonoma specifically, which are the top 25% census groups, which is a very small area where we can track where people of color leave the highest percentage of people of color, and those are the blue areas. And for the yellow areas, we have the top 25% census group where lowest income or people living in poverty need. So we did an intersection of these two different data sets, and we created the green areas where we define the green areas which are our equity priority areas, which means areas with a significant concentration of low income households, as well as high percentage of people of color. Why are we doing this, just tracking on all the research that has been done in the United States, not specifically for Santa Rosa but for the whole country on how to identify the areas that have been under invested, not only in terms of economic development, but also infrastructure planning and other policies that have created segregation in the cities. So that's basically the explanation of this equity priority communities. And I don't know if we can go to the next slide, just to show you what else we have in the tools, we created a data set where anyone in the city, not only the teams, but people coming from, from any place in any resident and people even from outside of Santa Rosa can access information related, for example, to health insurance, how are these areas that we tracked, similar to the equity priority areas and you can see on the first, on the first map that we have, we're talking about the percentage of people without health insurance and you can see that the pattern is very similar to what we saw on the equity priority areas. Then on the right we have below poverty, which is the map that I showed before, but with all the intersections. And down on the left we have people of color population, this by the way is information from the 2020 census. So this is the most updated data that we have for the city of Santa Rosa. And then on the right, lower, lower right side, you can see percentage of people without high school diploma. So we can see definitely a path, a pattern that can tells us that can tell us that a lot of the variables that we analyze are this is not only people of color and poverty, but we're also seeing a lot of paths where we need people to, to provide to be provided with support for education, for health, for other different services and policies that we can change in the city and some others that need to be changed by state or federal level but we would start in the local level and I think that was right to bring this to the conversation and I know this is not the time to talk about this specific data set so I will leave Socorro and Brayn said to come into the conversation this was just the methodology that we follow and the tools that we have and then we'll be available for the rest of the teams in the city to use. And, but I do want to reiterate that these are just samples of the data set that Beatrice has been working on so some of the environmental elements of it. She's been pulling data to track that and it's of interest because this data is core to the processing program for the economic development strategy. And this is where we're beginning to see alignment in our efforts through the data and through the general plan update. So, we know the next slide, and I'm going to hand it over to Socorro but I just want to say, as I mentioned, originally, when we started this, that ARPA is the first time we really define an equity overlay consideration, by which to sort of rank funding is a little specific to sustainability economy and equity. And I have to say to City Manager Colin's credit, he was really receptive to the idea to adding these elements, which really helped us look deeper and gave us permission to sort of dig deeper in the social and community impacts of the proposed expenditures related to ARPA. And so I want to hand it over to Socorro to lead us through, if you have anything else to mention on this slide as well as the next one. Well, I just want to ground us so that ARPA is an accelerant, right, it definitely is a federal requirement, it's embodied in the ARPA legislation that we acknowledge the disparate impact that COVID had that the economic kind of crisis that followed COVID had, and that it is built into how we think about this next level of investment. And so what we're proposing, and so in ARPA, for example, it identifies the qualified census tracts. And they have their way of identifying through poverty, the areas that require deepened investment. So the language for the qualified census tract and this ARPA equity overlay will stand true throughout our discussions about what ARPA is what we want to do, though, is seed with you and get feedback on what might be our next step one of the powerful people you mentioned kind of being in a learning stage and I think it's important for us as an organization to always be in a learning stage and always making improvements and always moving forward and always learning and growing across the organization. So this is always presenting the strongest most current efforts, language innovations to be serving our community so this should be feeling a little more comfortable since the ARPA first discussion will have a next our next one at the end of the month, but for throughout the life of the ARPA discussion, these will hold true and consistent. Next slide. This though might be clarity on once we are able to so that was a federal mandate federal dollars. And then we'll also have to raise this point the economic development strategic plan. We'll start having local more contextualized to be at three says work and the maps that aren't just qualified census track but add more local context into areas that we're saying have priority and should should be equity drivers. So when we think about now how we're going to define equity. The Council's been pretty clear in the three pillars of climate justice, economic justice and social justice we haven't used those words per se yet. So so this again is perhaps an evolution or or a first round at what might be an evolution and how we think about this. Council person, Fleming you mentioned adding in language about the climate action plan and so we might even refine this language to mention that in, as we consider environmental equity and climate justice and the burdens that some of parts of our society face right so there's that pillar then there's the economic justice which we've been talking about this morning and the evolution of that from being, of course we want all businesses to succeed. And then we're recognizing like ARPA did that not all businesses respond to crises in the same way some, and again, Council person Fleming you called this out specifically. The immigrant status affects what access you have to federal relief and so I mean that alone as a layer changes how our businesses got have access to supports and those types of things so there's the economic justice and being very specific in that. And then the last is in terms of community facing equity is social justice whose voices are included who's at the table, who is helping define what success is what the problem is the types of solutions that need to be in the table and how implementation is going because we know, even with great plans. Sometimes the way things are implemented there's a distance between what we thought would happen and what actually happens. And the last one and this goes to another count, Council person mentioned kind of learning. Are we learning, first of all, is their access. Does everyone have access to the way in which cities make the city makes decisions, and the city making structure for these decisions, and then the last, the other part of that though is are we always learning. So if one part. So, I think again for an example using economic development economic development learned a lot, even if there wasn't as much community participation. There were certainly elements that in this round of interaction and relationship building with the community that economic development learned how do we share that across the organization how do we kind of break some of these silos to make sure that we're pro actively learning everything we can about the community. So as we all go to serve all these different members and parts and pieces of our community we have this growing and strengthening knowledge about the needs of who our community is and how they're benefiting or not from decisions we're making and how to make that clear. And then, finally, in terms of place based strategies again, recognizing that ARPA had us really focusing on the qualified census tracks which is a great kind of way to think about place based investments understanding that we can dive deeper as be a three demonstrated kind of with the layers of more specific information that we have our in our community, and really locate areas that are qualified census in fact but also a little bit more in terms of areas that need specific investment have been historically under invested in and may at this time require a greater percentage of effort to kind of reach the expectation we hold for all of the ways that we support, whether place based businesses communities, community based groups, all of those things in our community so again, this is just kind of, perhaps a next step at thinking about how are we going to internally and to our community, define when we say equity what are we looking at how does that mean we're thinking about these things, how, what is grounding our decision making, as we move forward, but certainly a place for feedback, things you would to use that example things words you might be looking for or think are important kind of trigger words for how we're talking about this, or, or other comments and feedback. Thank you for your presentations and presentation thanks to coral. Council questions, or comments. Yeah. This is really, really exciting stuff to see. I feel like, you know, some of the reasons why I wanted to be on the Council and the first place are sort of beginning to come to fruition and I think that that it's being put in words and in more plans and goals is really exciting. I did want to on the early slide there was something about the three pillars and one of them was sustainability. I just wanted to note that I think it's really important that we have environmental mental sustainability. Because I think that the word sustainability is means so many things and I just want to make sure that when staff is looking at the stuff that we know we're talking about our environment or our climate. And then the environmental justice piece I think is lovely. And I want to make sure that we also just expand it to climate, our climate concerns more broadly. I think we have to be especially attentive to the ways that this impacts our communities of color and our lower income communities, but we need to make sure that we don't do really anything at this point that harms the environment, regardless of what where it is or with whom it is so those are just a couple of my pieces of feedback. I'm a little jealous that I don't get to work on this, you know with you guys so I look forward to hearing more. Eddie. You think you thank you for myself, and often with sustainability. It's, it's what can we do to fund these programs so that they're not unsustainable. I see that that there's certain departments within the city San Rosa, who do have a budgeted future that they can count on and that's this allows them to be proactive to to assure that they will be around tomorrow. And, and it's more of a confident question of us showing that we are serious about the different justice, the different programs and that we do want the citizens to know that that we're serious about this. And, and, and when you ask me how, how can we make that happen, I believe it comes down to funding these programs to assuring that that they have a vibrant future. And I guess that really depends on on us as a city council to assure you know it's again it's more of a comment than a question. I appreciate the report, and really the focus that that we are implemented implementing into the system. And you have to excuse my dogs in the back they apparently don't like to read. Thanks, Eddie, and we'll all have an opportunity to go down the fiscal road next year when we're deciding on our budgets and where we put our priorities so and the and the difficult challenges there in so we'll, we'll be we will be addressing that next year. Do we have any members of the public Eileen that would like to address this issue. So raise hands at this time. Oh, I pardon me we do. Mr Farron. Just one moment while I pull up screen. And Mr Farron if you would confirm that you're able to see the timer. Yes, I can. I just have one request. I just looked through the legislative listing on the city website as to whether or not these meetings have ever been posted as videos, and only found one back in August, I'd like to request, because I want everybody in the city to see this meeting and I want everybody on my 14 member board to see this meeting that you make a regular habit from now on, of making sure that the, that the meetings you have are posted the videos are live, whether you put it on YouTube or you put it on, you know, your own system but let's put it as easy as possible for people to be in sync with what you're trying to do, and how they can participate. It's partly why I've been fat, you know, dogged and trying to make sure that, you know, channel, I mean Comcast publishes your meetings that we have an easy way for the public to learn about what it is you're doing, and how they can fit in. Thank you. I just because it is important, and we had some technical technical difficulties in and understand now how we have to make that happen. So we're trying to go back and do that. And I know I mean is going to put this one up probably today. Now that we understand how to do it and we'll try to go back and do that with our previous ones eventually as well. Great. Thanks. And thank you, everybody. Thank you for your your part of this. I know it was it's most none of these are any small endeavors and I really appreciate the hard work that's going into this in in changing the paradigm of how we operate as a city. It is, these are no small tasks, and the successes will be well worth the effort so thank you all very, very much. Grace 3.3. Okay, so this is the last thing. And remind myself what we're talking about the the one time funding. I just wanted to give you guys an opportunity to provide any additional input. specific to the items from economic development that we're putting forward, and to let you know in preparation for the next study session. Firstly, it's been an incredible team effort, and we're all trying to roll in the same direction and sort of elevate programs, but the items that we're moving forward with adding additional investments into our the childcare support program. And what's interesting about this and I wanted to sort of call it out and I have support here still because we've decided to sort of take and expand our original childcare pilot program. And we still have $1.4 million left in that fund that's going to go into facility fund that we want to perpetuate so we're looking at that being a no interest revolving loan program. But the additional funds, as I think we've I hope we've made clear of the last study sessions for the ARFA money will be grant specific child portion of the childcare facility fund. And what we're seeing is that we've got new new developments that are incorporating childcare within it so they're getting a shell. And we need to have more money than we anticipated to make the childcare affordable by assisting them to a greater degree on the build out of the shells. So it's tenant improvements that include the inside and outside, as well as equipment to create a high quality childcare center. These are going to be done in the quality of the QCTs, qualified census tract areas. So consistent with the ARFA directive. And where we're actually seeing more than the brand new development. The other portion of it though, is that we're also seeing an emergency funds need for grants so for example we have one from a couple of years ago in the last rainy event and one this time where we're seeing catastrophic failures of the facilities themselves so it's a rehabilitation of facilities. And there's two portions one could be rehabbing, you know, not in an emergency event where they're looking to upgrade and address issues with the sites that currently exist because we need to retain as many as we can. But the other is an emergency response grant. Again, like the one that just shut down that it's infant toddler, which is one of our highest needs. And they are no longer able to operate and we're scrambling to find them a new facility. And they're just temporary and get their old weapon running, and they're just that there are no funds to be had for this. So we're adding that element into it. The other thing is there was an interest in like the baby bond concept. And so we, we thought, you know, all of this dealing with childcare. Let's sweep it into that program and so we're looking at instead of sort of baby bonds, we're working again with first five on college savings account. And then the third piece of it that we're adding into this that we're seeking funding for through our is the family childcare shared services alliance. So this idea that we don't know we have, we have affordability and access. We have facilities, but we also have wages and resources so we really need to, to establish the three legged stool for this industry to sit upon. And so we're thinking that these things are again, are adding to that. Anything you want to talk about Sakura on the childcare support program the children and childcare support program that we're doing. I just encourage us also to think about it as a micro entrepreneurial start. So what it would do it was it would help support in our QCT specifically in Roseland of course starting it would help lift new small businesses that are focusing, focusing on infant and toddler childcare and investing and assisting in helping them stand up as a business, helping them have financial coaching, coaching on kind of creating the quality situation so it is two fold in that it serves the need we have in the community for infant and child infant and toddler childcare which as Raisa was saying is one of the hardest to do. It is almost best, it is almost always best received in home childcare centers because of just many parents and families don't want to be putting their little one in a huge kind of center based facility and so the trust factor in smaller home based centers is much higher particularly culturally. So it would both serve that need and and it would lift bilingual by cultural women as business owners starting in this vein and coach and facilitate them through growing that business out so it would be, you know, it's a win win win it's just a beautiful win win and working with someone like first five who brings in both the business aspect and the quality childcare aspect is really a strong partnership. Outstanding, I love the expansion of the horizon and identifying what's really important and how to get and raising that comfort level, being aware of that and responding to that as quickly as possible because it's, we certainly need the services. I'm curious one thing. We'll go ahead, Raisa. Well I was going to say there's two other things that we're bringing forward but I think you know about them again, UBI we're trying to reconnect with university basic income sorry we're trying to, you know, continue the conversations with the county and with Oscar Chavez and the work that they're doing so we're fleshing that out a little bit more and calling out, you know, where we might see some flexibility in our program to better align with theirs. The timing is right but they had sort of where we came up with our funding proposal was, you know, honestly through the mayor's Facebook page and understanding what you know how we want to invest in it. But I think any funding that we put towards a program that is coordinated and that aligns and overlays with the other social services networks is good so we're moving forward with that. Really, we heard what you said about, we took the feedback and we're trying to interpret the feedback from the last study session, and we're looking at additional investments and programs in our most needy areas such as Roseland, and we're putting together some bold proposals and some backup plans for that specifically so that ends what I wanted to say. Thank you. I do have one clarifying question about the baby bombs which I think is this classic upstream investment that is really exciting but I had mentioned before about the investments and how to parlay the the the seed monies and then how to determine the best place to put that money because it's going to sit for a long time and it's a million dollars and if we were to, assuming that we went forward with that which I expect we would, how to best invest that million dollars so that when they're going when they finally end up going to this into a college program that that money has been has been growing steadily and carefully during the years. Have you tackled the investment concept yet or is that still kind of pending. Well there it's works with the state and federal 529 college savings plan so it's really kind of has a richer, I'm sorry a research base of how it works and how those monies are invested because you're right it does. It's a whole goal right that it's compounding over time and so initial investments early are growing over time. And so we can have the investment mechanism behind that I think I do believe first five has identified a banking partner. The other is that for the college savings program, we would be matching first five investments so there's an initial investment and then they're kind of like bonus investments for the more interaction that the family is having with the program so whether it's financial literacy coaching or post secondary education, which is college and all other forms of post secondary education right so it does lend itself to strong trades. Further education in the trades industry and construction and all of those things kind of so that students have broad opportunities for financial security after high school so we can make sure at the council meeting there's a little bit more information on the investment strategy behind the 529 investments, but we would be working with certified banks and the certified program so that the money would be handed out actually within the three years to the families and would be sitting carefully monitored and invested for the families through financial institutions. Outstanding I love the idea that there's we don't have to reinvent the wheel. That's certainly not something we want to have to do if we don't have to so thanks for that clarification I know that the council will be pleased to hear more detail in that program because it is exciting and just a real boom to education I love that I love the diversity of educational concepts from the trades, you know that just as opposed to a traditional you're going to college or not. Well, there's a lot of people, myself included that did not go to a university and I'm just I'm so pleased to hear that of the variety of opportunities that we're giving our youth because not everyone's know not everyone wants to stay in school and there are all sorts of other educational opportunities so thank you for that I appreciate it. One of the key points John is that we're trying not to reinvent anything because we have a finite period of time in which to expend this these funds. And so we're being at least the ones that we're proposing here are being really specific about aligning with existing programs or leveraging existing programs so that we can get the funding out as quickly as possible. But, and something that's really super important to speaking for myself is, it's, how do we see something that will allow the perpetuation of a program. So, the programs are not okay we're out now we're done sorry but really intended to sort of introduce something that potentially has the ability to live on its own with that push that the city is giving it. Yeah, that's vital. I appreciate that. Thanks. Any questions or comments. I do have one actually, and it's perfect timing. Sometimes you can't align the stars any better this morning I had to switch out and asking about starting the daycare. So if I could, and definitely taking notes on this, what is the current process to start a daycare from someone's home. And what are the proposed changes that that would apply to facilitating the process for a person to begin a daycare. Well, so one of the things that we did with the first round of funding is we supported four C's in expanding their, their sort of training program and they have a program specifically for C's that helps people get license and set themselves up in business. And I have to say that is where I recommend anyone start, and I will say to that family childcare home based childcare is the bulk of our system. And so, this is why we're, we're not being discriminatory on how we spend the funds, but that we are ensuring that again through micro entrepreneurs and sort of business model that they're supported as well. The recommendation is that they start with four C's, four C's and first five are active partners in us in advancing this. And I, and I will say to just kudos to the planning department, because we actively work to streamline the childcare permitting process. So even if there is a cost to a permit. Once you open, it is reimbursed to you so that there is no cost, you just need to prove that you've opened your doors, and that we've made it so that childcare can is allowable in almost any zoning land view with that in any land use type, except for like a heavy industrial or something where you wouldn't want it anyway. But so the process for the city is actually quite streamlined and four C's understand that process and can help with that as well. And then other than that, most of the regulations are state level. And through the lobbying and concerted efforts of organizations like four seasons and first five statewide, the, we're looking to align more and make it easier at a state level as well. And then I say you just state that after completion of, of, I'm sorry, once you open your doors, the cost is reimbursed. That's correct. So we, we reimbursed the cost of the, I think it's not all most of the permit fees that that our city specific. And then, should we get funded to the ARPA dollars he'll have access to, to grants through the ARPA and eventually also because it's a two part program to no interest revolving loan funds as well. And you just brought up another question when it comes to ARPA. How, how, how's that looking for for the community. And you know it's one thing that I've brought up a couple times of, of Rosen being able to, I feel qualified for many of the services or funding I'm sorry that's being provided through ARPA. I imagine we're still looking at the different possibilities of finding sources through ARPA. And we are and what's interesting and I don't, I don't want to be. I don't want to jump the gun on something but with the economic development strategy and some of the funds that you that we understood as a group. Council wanted to sort of realign perhaps to better be more available to the community directly. We're actually the staff working group is looking at proposals to bring to council at the next study session where you might see sort of a change in what some of those funds are. And, you know, we, we're just going to be discussing with staff what that looks like, and what the possibility is of having a site and community center and a presence, a different presence in Roseland in particular. And short of having a community center for example, what are the other secondary programs that we might be able to fund so we're just laying those out to be able to bring to you realignment of those funds on the 30th. Perfect. Thank you very much for the update on that. Victoria. Yes. All good stuff here. I'm curious to know about you brought up some changes to the $1.4 million. Is that money still all staying in the childcare childcare business realm, and then the UBI and the baby bonds is separate funding. Yeah. So, so if we get funded through the ARPA, do you like how excited I am I'm like, let me tell you about this. Yes. So the 1.4 is still there and we're just so close to laying out the revolving loan fund program at no interest. And we wanted to do that for those funds because they didn't have that are the timeline right. So ARPA is saying you can't have loans must be grants are saying you have to obligated by this date and expended by this date. So, in order to perpetuate the program we wanted to reserve the 1.4 and revolving loan program moving forward, and that is still going to be for facility funds and potentially have that element for the well it should have the element for the emergency response piece of it right. And, and we want to leverage it because that 1.4 if we can get additional like we did with the 600,000 that we said we did for the first phase of it which was the trainings and the grants. We were able to make that 600,000 through the support first five into almost 1.1 million. We're looking to do that with the 1.4 so we're going to continue to add to that, so that we have a bigger program moving forward. And that is that exists and that is not going to change. It is the ARPA funds that we're looking to modify. And so going from the children, the childcare support program to the children and childcare support program. It is only with the ARPA funding that we are adding in these additional elements, including that business support, and including still grants for facilities that will kickstart the revolving loan thing but we can do that within these two years at no cost within the QCTs. So hopefully that kind of clarifies. It does, it does clarify I mean I would be lying if I said I had a complete if I could explain it to somebody else exactly, but I think I think I get it and I just think about what, while it's a really challenging time to be in government it's couldn't be a more exciting time to be able to make some of the things that we wanted to see go for a long time and get them into action. And I love the energy I'm pretty happy about it. It's exciting to see you guys excited about it as well. I didn't want to pick up on one piece here around the permit refund. It's, it's lovely that the permits are going to be the fees are going to be refunded but then going around with the water department on the water demand offset fees and just how much a fee on the front end of something or even the impending fee can dissuade a potential business owner and I'm wondering how much these fees are and if there isn't a way for us to, you're saying the county is their county fees. It's the. So I'm not including water fees water is a totally separate piece and I would not be able to speak about them but I am saying the, the fees that you have to pay when you're going through the permitting process through planning for like entitlements and such and I can send out additional information on this if you'd like it is those fees that are reimbursed. So I don't know how much those fees are but I'm guessing that if they're, you know, anywhere over $100 that's going to be a significant disincentive to I mean if you're the kind of person that we're targeting to help with this kind of business it may be something that you just don't have to wait to get their refund and if there's I don't know if there's a way for us to use some of our funds to just pay for those fees because it's this is something that we want, you know we we want the business more than we want the fee. Yeah, we can actually. I'm just pulling up to see if I can see quickly. Okay, so like the fee so child for childcare, child daycare large family daycare home which is seven to 14 children. It is by right and the fee went from nearly $4,000 to zero. So, at the get go, there is no fee for that. It is the childcare daycare center 15 and more clients so those are more the center non home based. They do need a minor use permit, which is a change it's a lower permit I believe, and the fee was reduced from almost 14,000 down to 3800. But that's where the fees are reimbursed once they open. Okay. And we're not, we're not, we're not attaching a fee to these in home uses. That's correct. Okay, that's my main zero. And then the third change that we made was new facilities of 10,000 square feet. We have to have design review for childcare facilities that only goes to the zoning administrator so we streamline the process, but the bulk of what we see as in home childcare is by right and is has no fee attached to it. Beautiful. That's just great to hear. And then the other thing kind of on a different topic but related to your presentation was the UBI. I just wanted to share that I was reading the other day about crime trends in the United States. And a bunch of they did a massive, you know, meta study of all these criminologists and they were talking about the different types of things that really interrupt crime. One of the top scoring things was it was a UBI and baby bonds and those types of things. So, I just think it's great that we're talking about it and, you know, we're going to, I think if, if we're able to make this go and I wouldn't put much past you that we're going to be looking at a very different landscape in our community in 10 and 20 years so I'm really excited to see that roll out as well. I mean, I have to say I was doing investment makes a massive difference and you have to have faith in 10 years from now and that's what economic development does it's like we're always looking at not now necessarily but 10 years from now or 20 years from now. I mean if you change the trajectory of infant toddler getting into high school you change the trajectory of incarceration you change the trajectory of family incomes you change the trajectory of homelessness. This is probably one of the best investments that you can make in order to have a better more solid more resilient economy in a location if you invest in these ways. Thank you. Gives me chills to think of Santa Rosa as leading the way in this endeavor. I think I think for at least for our region. I think we're up there, if not, on top of leading the way so congratulations. Yeah I got a note from somebody in Oakland was like, you know they're like oh yeah we're noting and I'm like, okay, okay then we have to do it. Oakland's watching. Well listen, let's go to the community Eileen do we have any hands raised. We have no raised hands at this time. Okay. Well this brings us to the end of our meeting this morning any any any final comments from the panel. Well thank you all very very much this is all great news it's a good way to start our day with the council meeting coming up and in a couple hours or my goodness. Yeah, so it's gonna be a busy day and thank you very much for your participation and your attendance today. Thank you all. Thank you.