 All right, good afternoon everybody. Welcome to today's city council meeting. Madam city clerk. Can you please call the roll? Thank you mayor Councilmember Schwedhelm here councilmember Sawyer here councilmember Rogers Oh councilmember Rogers will be absent today Councilmember McDonald here councilmember Fleming here vice mayor Alvarez present mayor Rogers Here and then I will also do the roll call for the planning commissioners Commissioner Carter Commissioner Cisco here Commissioner Dugan Commissioner holds Holton Commissioner Okrepke Here vice chair Peterson and chair weeks Yeah Okay, let me just circle back really quick commissioner Carter. Have you joined us? Commissioner Holton. Have you joined us? Commissioner Dugan. Have you joined us? Okay, let the record show that all council members are present and All commissioners planning commissioners are present with the exception of commissioner Carter Commissioner Dugan and commissioner Holton. Great. Thank you so much Madam city manager if you want to take it away with Adam 3.1 Thank you mayor, so good afternoon mayor and mayor Rogers and members of council item 3.1 Santa Rosa forward land use and circuit circulation alternatives I would like to introduce Amy Lau our supervising planner who will lead the discussion Good afternoon Mayor Rogers chair weeks the council and commission We really appreciate being with you today And so we're going to be talking about our general plan update or Santa Rosa forward and So presenting with me today We also have Amy Nicholson who's a senior planner on our advanced planning team and then Beatrice gear Oh, no, who is our equity and public health planner and then also on the call are our consultant team So we have Andrea Howard and Charlie Knox from place works and then we also have no a Neola and Dan Amston from MIT so just wanted to note those few things So for today's presentation, we're going to try to move pretty quickly But we do want to first go over What the general plan update is and give a review for community members that are joining us for the first time today and then also give you an overview of our alternatives or land use and circulation alternatives for you to Consume those and be able to provide us some feedback on your thoughts and Then we are going to tell you what we've heard from the community We've been out for the last few months Speaking with the community at a variety of different forums So we want to make sure to report out to you all what we've heard and then we will close by Getting as much input as possible from you all and those community members that are on the call today So with that have you don't mind going to the next slide So to start to give you a little bit of a preview of what we're talking about today and the general plan update But is the basically we're creating a blueprint for the city We're updating our existing general plan in almost a wholesale way So this is an opportunity to revisit rethink how we've done things How has the development gone over the past few years? What has changed? It's obvious we've had a lot of significant things happen as far as the wildfires pandemic a Lot of changes in our our local landscape that need to be addressed next slide, please So the general plan really touches all aspects of our community a lot of people think of it as simply land use So really looking at our built environment But the general plan actually touches a lot of the intangibles and how we create community how we experience and How we connect with one another so it really does provide a regional or broad scale of different issues and topics next slide, please I'm just gonna go over a little bit of the schedule and where we've been. I think this is our Third or fourth joint item before you and we will have a few more But you may remember we kicked off our general plan update summer and fall of 2020 and started with creating that community involvement strategy and Creating our community advisory committee and that really just set the landscape for how we wanted to engage the community Of course, we fell into pandemic land and have not been able to do as much in person as we had hoped These last few months have really been incredible to be able to meet with people one-on-one and to go to where people were meeting already So then after that step, we really started working on the backbone of data That was going to be used for the whole remainder of the project So we are blessed to have great consultant team great sub consultants who really took a deep dive on data So all of these reports are available on our website and I'll I'll go through that a little bit later But we did have a full existing conditions analysis done So that was a major step in this process and Then we went and asked the community. What is the vision for santa rosa? What do people want to achieve? You're looking out to 2050 What is our vision for how the community operates? What does land use look like housing? transportation all of those things and so we arrived at a vision statement or a set of statements And that's really going to be our guiding principles as we move forward and start start actually drafting the policy work itself And then can you advance one more time dina? There should be a little pop-up here So now in this alternative space, we are looking at different land use and circulation alternatives So amy nickelson will walk through all of these With you, but we did produce an alternative to workbook And we did do a full set of events That betris is going to walk through with you as well And so today we want to be able to present all of that and to get your feedback We are not going to move forward to the preferred alternative and flesh that out until we hear from you Because you are a key part of how this gets drafted We are doing our best to be Community driven, but we want you all to have a front seat and be able to provide input At all of these different steps in the process I will also remind everyone that this update does include an update to our housing element That is on a faster track and the housing element will actually be released in draft form for the public Next week is our goal. So that adoption process will be a very fast pace Because we do have to submit that to the state for a review Before adopting So that will be coming back In at meetings with both the planning commission housing authority and your council in next month in june All right, let's move to the next slide please So as part of our general plan update One more slide. Sorry dina We do have a couple different teams that are working behind the scenes Not so much behind the scenes, but our technical advisory committee Are all basically all of those departments that we work with internally here at the city So they have been making sure that the data we're using is correct That our assumptions we're using is are correct and that their department is well represented as far as What's included in our analyses? and then Our next few phases we are going to be expanding this team to include more of our other jurisdictions resource agencies entities such as smart or Other other entities that really need to have a seat at the table to be able to inform our general plan update Next slide please And then as you're probably familiar, we do have a very robust community advisory committee This is a set of 25 individuals Some of which are appointed by the council And they are really acting as our liaisons to the greater community We of our hope is that these folks Will continue to stay involved and connect us with the community organizations that they're a part of And really allow us to get deeper into the community to give us more engagement feedback And it's been a really Wonderful process so far. And so we'll continue to work with this group and expand as necessary Next slide, please So as I noted, we do have a lot of reports on our website So if you wanted to take a deep dive, this is exactly where you should go It's srforward.com So we do have that existing conditions report We also have a briefing book, which is somewhat like an executive summary So it gives a high level overview of some of the major findings of that larger report And then on our website, you can also find our vision statements And then our alternatives workbook, which we will be presenting to you today Next slide, please So with that, I will pass it over to to Amy to walk you through the alternatives workbook And if I may make a quick announcement Today our host of the meeting is sandy bliss not dina manas. So if you could direct your Comments to advance your slides to sandy. I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks. Stephanie. Thanks sandy Thank you Good afternoon, mayor roger members of the council and chair weeks and members of the commission As amy mentioned the general plan update process has included a number of milestone reports And these help to serve as the foundation for the free land use and circulation alternatives or scenarios presented in the workbook As amy mentioned, we've Really been using our project website to push out information. So this workbook is available on that website It's also included as a link to the staff report And we have it available also in hard copy and used it during our community workshops and pop-up events Each of the each of the alternatives Covered in this workbook provide a different option for how the city can grow and change to address identified challenges and opportunities The purpose of these alternatives is to solicit community feedback on where future growth and change should occur And what circulation improvements are needed to support people's ability to easily and safely move around our city There are additional important issues including equity and adequate public services access to child care and housing availability and climate change Which will be addressed through policy and program development later in the process this year I'd like to quickly walk through some background on the alternatives before we dive into each of them And so each of these alternatives is responding to and building upon the concepts that were identified in the vision statement Which amy mentioned and that was created last summer Each of the alternatives also anticipates 36,000 new homes to be built by 2050 Each alternatives does differ each of the alternatives differs on where new housing and new non-residential growth would be focused And an economic analysis identified the future demands from those 36,000 homes So it assumes that 1 million square feet of retail space 2 million square feet of office space And 1.5 million square feet of industrial space would be needed to support the 36,000 new homes In addition each of these alternatives was analyzed through a traffic model To anticipate future travel patterns for residents and employees based on the various locations of growth throughout the city And each alternative was also assessed for how it addresses community safety And resilience from both natural and human made disasters and hazards Sandy if you could please move on to the next slide Okay, so this slide shows alternative one, which is our central corridors alternative This really focuses our future commercial and residential growth near the city's downtown And along central central thoroughfares that are connected to our transit facilities So this map here shows The transit mall and also various transit hubs and also the two smart stations And it shows the major corridors connecting these spaces into the downtown The yellow kind of shaded area shows where that Additional housing growth and non-residential growth would be concentrated And this alternative assumes about 55 of the 36,000 housing units would be located within the identified area on the map In this scenario or alternative most of the community needs Including access to jobs and retail could be met near or in the center of the city And this form of development is efficient and is consistent with the recently adopted downtown station area specific plan Transportation Improvements would help to connect people to the downtown in a hub and spoke pattern Improving access by transit and bike A next slide, please This slide here is alternative to also called neighborhood main streets And in this scenario, there's a concentration of housing jobs and community destinations along some key corridors and at community centers So this map shows both shopping centers, which are larger centers which are shown in the Kind of darker maroon color and then also neighborhood centers, which are shown in the red color and anticipates that housing growth would be concentrated around these new centers or existing centers And What allow for most people's daily needs to be met by way of walking or biking? So essentially it's neighborhoods located throughout the city In this alternative about 55 percent of the new housing would be Located within the yellow shaded area And then the the transportation improvement envisioned for this alternative include closing sidewalk gaps And expanding bikeways to connect residents to their nearest key corridor or neighborhood center Next slide, please This slide shows alternative three also called distributed housing And this is sort of the most like how santa rosa is currently developed. So in this alternative Much of the housing units would be comprised of less dense developments, including duplexes and triplexes and courtyard developments And they are spread really throughout the city. There isn't as much of a relationship with our our transit network Since housing would be more spread out people may need to rely more heavily on vehicles or bus trips to access daily goods and services And the circulation improvements anticipated under this alternative would be to significantly expand the bike network To make cross-town travel both safer and easier Next slide, please Okay, so this slide just shows the three alternatives we talked about and Can sort of be helpful to look at the various maps and see where the the housing and and non-residential growth Where those are concentrated and how those compare to one another There's also some graphics along the bottom which shows how really an alternative one Much of the intensity is located in the downtown and then directly abutting the downtown And as we move away from that area it becomes less dense In alternative two, um, we still see the focus in the downtown, but then there are larger Retail nodes which are surrounded by more high density development and then the third alternative where We we really see various densities of housing spread throughout With but not quite as as dense as alternative one or alternative two So with that I I'll pause and I think maybe we can Ask if there are any questions Jeremy do you want to start with the planning commission? Sure. Thank you mayor. Um commissioners, um any questions seeing Commissioner cisco You're muted patty um I hear that the uh the central corridors Would be consistent with our current downtown station area specific plan But will there will there be any kind of modifications or Or differences in that or we pretty much that would be what's in place That's a good question at at this time We're we're really asking the community Um for what changes may need to happen that plan is so recently adopted that we do feel it is still very current um, and we really have not implemented it yet to see its success and so With these alternatives It's most likely that we're going to create some kind of blend based on what we hear So there may be pieces of alternatives one and two and a little bit of three Um, so we're not married to the downtown plan itself But what we hear So far is pretty consistent with What we heard from the community two years ago when it was adopted So there will most likely be changes necessary in all of our specific plans We do plan to do an update toward To zoning once the general plan is complete So there will definitely be some Some room to make sure that be we have what the community wants Okay Great. Thank you. Um, I do have one question On the slides that we've seen so far and I know I have other questions that was we get to the end but um Did you talk a little bit about uh, the community advisory committee's role and what their role really has been in this process Sure, and actually betris I might ask you to talk about the cac Thank you. Amy and um, good afternoon, uh, chair weeks in relationship to our cac most of the Work that has been done with them and the role has been Having a connection with the communities We selected the cac the community advisory committee in a way to represent the whole community and to have connections with different Areas geographical areas of the city as well as different communities and different Races ethnicities and other characteristics of the community And so they have been our connection with different With different members of the community and till now most of the of the Work that we have been doing with them have has been engagement directly with their own groups their own The people that they have connections with and most of the of the engagement that has been done has been Connecting people to come to our workshops having specific meetings with staff as well as as organizations And attending all the events that they have connected us with directly as well as providing them with Materials so that they can also create their own workshops and spread the word about the general plan update create awareness in the community As well as explain what is going on right now specifically for these events that We provided them with online Toolkits as well as physical presentations and materials so that they could host their own workshops and This has been basically the the task for the whole process but specifically for this engagement events Thank you. Um, that's the the only question I have right now, but I know I'll have more And just checking back with my fellow commissioners any other questions before I turn it back to the mayor Okay, mr. Mayor All right. Thank you so much counsel. Do we have any questions? councilmember mcdonald Thank you, mayor. Um, one of my questions on The route number two alternatives two and three has to do with the time that might be needed during an emergency for exits and If those were the two alternative routes that were done specifically in district three where the fires have come the last two massive fires that have hit santa rosa Would are you timing how long it would take if we did build in those areas for us to be able to safely Get out of those Areas are are we doing alternative exit routes? It looks like highway 12 is not widened on those alternative plans so My curiosity has to do with um, if that's something that's being considered as we look at the different opportunities for us as we build more housing Yes, councilmember a great question. And so I can briefly answer that but I think also if we could promote Um our place works team so charlie knocks. I think would be the appropriate person who's on the zoom call Oh, andry is already here But I will say we've also had very uh distinct conversations with portions of our community related to that issue And that it will continue to be fleshed out based on the input that we get from this process, but we do have a sub consultant who is um Working specifically on emergency planning. So Andrea, do you want to respond to her questions specifically? Hi, Amy. Yes, I'd be happy to That's a great question. And it's one that many community members had or similar concerns, of course Fires and other hazards are front of mind for many community members So on the alternatives workbook, uh, we did do an analysis working with sub consultants with expertise in hazards and fire in particular to assess the the various hazards and which alternative Resulted in optimal outcomes for those and on the workbook you can see that there are differences between different hazards and For evacuation So it's actually the case that alternative to the neighborhood main streets resulted in The best outcome overall for all kinds of evacuations But keep in mind that these are considering The various hazards that Santa Rosa is vulnerable to And is not limited to just looking at wildfire risks So in the case of all of these This presents information on existing conditions. And if we were to develop in these patterns For the preferred scenario and in your updated general plan We would be taking all of the communities in your feedback into consideration to assemble the the preferred scenario for the development pattern and then working with various groups including city fire department and other To bring in their expertise and identify if there is a need to update the city's evacuation network So if there were a drastic change to The existing configuration then likely there would need to be some changes to the routes that are incorporated In addition, we might also explore the option to optimize existing routes or or make other kinds of changes So just as a clarification Do you approve the plan first and then come up with the exit routes? Or do we come up with exit route Planning and then approve housing plans? I just want to know which one comes first I don't want to see that we plan to build more housing in an area without having proper thought on emergency exit routes. I'm sorry if i'm not If i'm not catching on quick enough, I apologize I'll jump in there charlie noxman place works. No, you're correct. They have to go hand in hand And and really what it comes down to is How the how the roadways are treated? So there are competing objectives between things like placemaking and having a great place to hang out at sidewalk cafes or You know gather and whether that road can be used efficiently by fire and evacuation personal vehicles and so in some cases You may end up needing to make sure the road can be used both lanes or all three lanes or four lanes in the same direction Which means curbs might have to be different the geometry of the street might have to be different Bike lanes where we might have one of them, you know might not be as possible. So those kinds of policy constraints and physical constraints on the roadway are coming up now during the development of the preferred alternative So when we come back to you in a few months based on your guidance today In the community's input with here's what we think we heard and here's your draft look at a draft preferred alternative it will include Identification of the current and potential future additional Evacuation roads and then the things that are necessary from a physical project standpoint to make them work the best they can Which may which may in some cases mean It'd be nice to have only enters in a median But we're not going to be able to do that because we need to save that space for evacuation for example Thank you Any other questions from uncle Mayor your right mayor. Thank you, sir mixed use vertical height limits were any of those two issues discussed During the process in order to achieve our housing goals I would say broadly yes So we haven't gotten into the specifics of where or how tall certain places can build Right now. We're really looking at Kind of at 30,000 feet. Where would the concentrations of population be located and what services would align with those and so I will say that there's been a trend to move away from requiring mixed use And so you'll see that in the downtown plan where we've really offered extreme flexibility on what gets built as far as which uses So that will be something when we moved into policy About how do we actually create the land uses in the locations in the way that will meet the market demand In a way where things can actually be developed. So we'll be kind of expanding that same philosophy For the whole city But right right now it it's a it's a little bit larger picture that we're just kind of looking on a general basis on how we want to align new population coming in Thank you. And that's a great point that you're making in in regards to requiring opposed to More customizing the different areas and the reason they bring up the issues I know for district one with the amount of open space that we still have in our rural neighborhoods It's it's quite important for us to maintain that characteristic. And so that's why More than the mixed use I find important the height limitation or opportunity. Thank you And Amy, I think this is a question for you, but can you talk a little bit about how Uh, these plans interact with our historic district? Actually, Amy, would you want to answer that question? I do if I said to Amy, I would get it right one way or the other sure Let's see. So the general plan is It covers the entire city. So it it will include our eight historic districts The preferred alternative which has been mentioned a few times today Will actually be Parcel specific. So we'll be looking at the the land uses allowed On every parcel, which will include our historic districts Um And then that will determine, you know, what type of Development could be allowed and how dense that development can be what? Um, which will eventually dictate what type of development standards Um, would apply. So how tall a building might be able to be or what type of design standards might apply Um, and so I guess I'd also add that as a part of our general plan Update, we also will need to do Quite a few zoning code amendments to make sure that our general plan can be implemented. So if there were any sort of Changes that you know to the process of Approving development within our historic districts or around them that would also be memorialized within our zoning code So that as projects come in We ensure that they're they're consistent with with the vision and the policies of the general plan And i'm not sure if that answers your question No, it does. I appreciate it and I know a lot of these discussions happened when we did the downtown specific plan Uh, but I think three of the historic districts were were not part of that discussion at the time Um, and so I know that they'll still be interested to have that conversation Like councilmember Fleming Thank you, mayor My question is at what point or has it already happened that staff considers the the delta in cost for maintaining infrastructure between the different plans So that we can add that piece of the conversation to the public is specifically around roads And maintenance and bike infrastructure and the difference in these plans You mentioned that some will reduce greenhouse gas emissions But one thing that I think might use some highlighting is that with that reduces the cost on our infrastructure And so we can inform the public and then take that response from them into account as we make a decision moving forward Yeah, that's a great point and I will say between the three alternatives. There's a very, um broad brush review of the potential costs of infrastructure for all three And so that's provided In the workbook and we have a technical appendices as well But again, we really won't know that until we actually get to the preferred alternative So at this phase, we kind of rank it like high medium low um, and so it's it's Um, you can see kind of broadly the differences And then I I will also say that Within the general plan update. We may not get to a real actual cost of the infrastructure um, because this is more of an overarching plan that will include programs and will move forward consistency reviews for our um capital improvement programs ongoing bike and pedestrian improvements But there won't be that course number that you're probably used to seeing when we do a specific plan level document So there but we will have some estimates We do have sub consultants on the team who work on all aspects of our infrastructure to make sure that we have an assessment of Um, what the potential costs are as things incrementally develop over time Thank you. I think it'll be really helpful for us to understand What what kinds of layouts will yield us the best value for our residents both in quality of life But also in like pavement indices and bike bike paths Oh, and you also made it um a great connection to Climate action and greenhouse gas emissions So we are actually going to be coalescing our climate action plan into this document So we are doing a greenhouse gas emissions inventory Which is actually going to be done pretty quickly here And so all the policies related to climate action will be woven into the policy framework So we are looking at The balance of those things and how certain policies will impact our our climate action goals Wonderful. Thank you All right, seeing no other questions. Let's keep moving through the presentation All right, so we're gonna kick it over to Beatrice to talk about the outreach for this engagement set Thank you. Amy. Um, good afternoon major rogers Chair weeks in city council and commissioners We did a very broad community engagement events at number two for informing the community about alternatives and We were aware that in in in the past two stages of the general plan update We were not able to do in person Events So we were very mindful that there could have been community members who were not aware of The existence of the general plan and what was going on with it. So we were very mindful to start with Just reaching out to the community and and creating awareness. So some of the very first things that we did were pop-up events so we took all all our materials and Our tents and went into community events that were hosted either by city staff water department community engagement department We try to create a collaboration with other Departments in the city and as well as as community members who were hosting events and we attended nine community events I think up to the moment where we created this presentation But we actually attended more than more than 10 community events and major Gathering areas and we had the opportunity to bring to the community Awareness about the project as well as to present the alternatives that you were able to hear from Amy Nicholson and the whole The whole description of the process that Amy Lyle provided today And we also encourage people in these events to attend our workshops As well as to take the online survey that we created for people who could have or not seen the The workbook and we wanted to have this where people were already gathering. So this was one of our first Set of events if we can go to the next slide, please And then just after the the pop-ups And in between the the workshops Sorry, the the pop-ups we had the community workshops. So we have five in person community Spaces where we held workshops in March and at different locations of Santa Rosa and to be more specific I want to mention that we were following our community involvement strategy But we were also focusing on equity priority communities that we presented to you in our last In our last city council presentation where we Focused on on census tracts of the city that were low income and that had higher concentration of people of color The reason that we did this was to prioritize To to bring this information to communities who did not have access to either Internet or be aware of what is happening in in in the city. So We did this with four of the community workshops and helped another one in downtown We were very mindful of having a parking space for community members Where we're not part of the community and who were able to drive or arrive in a different way to the To the space but we wanted to be mindful of community members who were either low income or people of color and who might not have had access to Cars and who could walk or bike to the to the events and the works were were presented Both in English and Spanish we asked at the beginning of each workshop if people spoke English or Spanish or both and what we did was to have two teams or What to to to um available Staff members or consultative members who spoke Spanish. So we basically had materials in both languages and translated The presentation as well as the questions that the community had so this way Community members were able to hear even with the language barrier and understand what was going on with other community members who did not speak their language and As I mentioned four of these five workshops were hosted in equity priority areas of the city if we can go to the next slide, please During this This timeline we also had a youth voice contest One of the things that we discovered during the workshops and the community events was that our youth was not Getting involved into the into the conversation that we were having in into the general plan So the consultants and the the staff worked on on having specifically A space where where some of the youth could participate in a different way and so we had One one question that could be answered with any type of video recording picture, etc What makes an arosa the special place it is today just to hear from community members who were younger and Participants submitted photos and poems. That's what we received the most And this is one of the pictures that we actually received We thought it was a really nice one and we wanted to include it in the in the presentation If we can go to the next slide This would be one of the first steps that we have for for youth engagement But we actually are mindful that one of the Of the challenges that we have for informing the general plan is young people So we are working with Roseland Roseland school district and other districts of of of the city to Start working on on more targeted strategies for for young people and kids That's it. We also had as I mentioned before when chair weeks asked about our cac Role and we had meetings and presentations with different organizations that our cac members connected us to And we organized more than 15 meetings with organizations throughout the city We included some of the of the Logos of the organizations that actually collaborated with us to have presentations and connect us with different community members and As well as as they're attending their their meetings And these were opportunities that we had to present alternatives But also to encourage people to take our online survey and visit our virtual studio as well as to participate in our In our community workshops. So this was a very important space to connect with different Members of of the community also including equity priority communities and we considered this Space where we actually go to where people are already gathering and organizing So this was a really great part of our community outreach if we can go to the next slide, please and Just following up on equity priority communities and how we were targeting specific groups that we didn't That didn't feel represented and the rest of the community workshops and the online survey that we had going on We are being very intentional On focusing on san rosa's equity priority populations and the project team started to coordinate listening Or focus group sessions. We actually gave the opportunity to the communities to define how they wanted us to to approach them and we started Already with residents who have a disability and farm workers. These are the two Listening sessions that we actually had with with these two groups And this this exercise provides us a safer environment and more comfortable space for people Who actually are facing barriers to getting involved in planning exercises? And they also let us inform the project team and our update process in a more inclusive and equitable way and Just to remind you on the right side. We have san rosa equity priority populations And we are planning to continue with this with this list of equity priority populations Including them in the in the general plan update outreach and specifically targeting This community members to hear from them directly if we can go to the next slide, please And just because I mentioned it before but we want to Also let you know that we created a virtual open house We know even though the pandemic has been doing better till recent times We knew that there were some community members who did not want it to attend In-person events. So we created a virtual open house that is basically Replicating all the materials questions and presentations that we did in the in-person workshops and we recorded them and Our our consultant team and staff Created all the materials in a virtual space that actually has the courthouse square space and It lets us provide Thoughts and feedback about san rosa's future included all the drafts of the alternatives as well as policy choices. So every Square that you quick on in in the virtual open house lets you provide input and have this interaction with An online platform that also gave us input from the from the community if we can go to the next slide, please and just For for additional For having an additional space for those people who Who were not willing to watch all the videos where we're stealing We're still willing to to participate and provide their input We had an online survey that had the exact same questions from our virtual open house and our in-person workshops But in a simpler questionnaire format and this was in our Website during the whole period of time that we were doing the community engagement This online survey we had it basically Handed in in our workshops. So All the materials were the same. We just made sure that we have We we had different spaces where people could participate and use the format that they felt more comfortable with If we can go to the next slide, please And for for us that was the the whole process of community engagement for for this set of of Of of alternatives and we we're looking forward to continue with with the engagement process And you have in in the materials that were provided An annex that provides all the all the activities that we organized As well as all the feedback that we received through all the different surveys and Our virtual space and I just want to hand them this This this presentation to to Amy so that she can continue with with the Summary of our major major themes and feedback. Thank you Great, so we're just going to go travel between the three of us to go over The slides and because we really wanted you to see what did we hear from the community because there's so many cross sections of other parts of our our work That are valuable and although these most of these folks were obviously focused on our general plan effort so the One of the major themes and feedback loops that we heard were really about the economic resiliency and housing development We heard a lot about housing so we did hear that there was a A strong focus on orienting the growth to downtown or to those major neighborhood nodes of concentration and there was a general disagreement on focusing the The new housing and commercial areas Proportionally as where they exist today So we did have people in support But most people really did not want that kind of distributed growth that the third alternative really portrayed We did hear that our community are very concerned about locating new housing new density within the louis within those wildland urban interface areas And also a huge desire for walkability and transit. We heard a lot about bike and pedestrian connections Next slide, please And i'll take this slide as well But there again was that focus on downtown, but really also a mix of different affordability levels um, a lot of people have noted that the housing that seems to be Underway downtown have are more high end and they're looking for more um areas of affordability And that there is a strong desire for housing to be located um near shopping to be able to access by bike and pedestrian or other means And that there's a also a huge need to start looking at how our demographics are going to change and provide the ability for People to age in place and not have to relocate as they get older Next slide, please moving into efficient and sustainable development We heard Very strongly from the community that there is an interest in repurposing our major streets as multimodal corridors that would allow um more safe and convenient pedestrian and bicycle transportation We also heard a um strong desire to preserve our natural ecosystems and wildlife within the city limits More than 50 of those who responded also favored allocating more resources to our communities that are the most vulnerable to climate related hazards And finally, there were multiple people that indicated on their kind of Fill in the blank optional part of the survey That it was really important to consider New new growth with our our water supply Next slide, please I'm going to jump in into this Other part of this efficient and sustainable development and we heard a lot that people wanted to help Their to have their their uh households Insulated from the effects of climate change. We heard this much more of low-income households and um also maintenance related to to this same topic and In general, we we heard people Fave favored improving bus transit services. This was mentioned by Amy But also in relationship to this topic They wanted amenities to allow Convenient access to the neighborhoods including improving multimodal access to not only smart stations But also the network of bicycle facilities connecting neighborhoods to major destinations This was something that we heard not only in um high income, but also in low income neighborhoods I would say this was one of the most general Topics that we heard about and people generally disagree with building new streets Or adding lanes to existing streets to provide more vehicle capacity. This was something That that people were not excited about Though they had a really strong desire to ensure that neighborhoods had complete inaccessible sidewalks This is something that we also heard and on every neighborhood and access to bicycle facilities Specifically on the west and south uh area of the city If we can go to the next slide, please And then another core area that we heard a lot from our community about was the issue of safety and resiliency And this came out during our vision statement But really carried forward in a lot of the comments we heard on this alternatives process as well There is a great concern around the threat of wildfires earthquake drought Um and also the concern about evacuation plans and um how we move through another major disaster And I will also add that it's interesting. We didn't hear a lot about the risk of flooding Which is something we also will be looking at through our update And creating policies around but of course top of mind right now are earthquakes and wildfires So there was also a desire to address um the results of the pandemic that we're going through And how that might relate to policy and how can we bolster our our efforts to Move through any future pandemic that would occur And then there was also again a strong uh agreeance around limiting housing in the wildfire prone areas Next slide, please And then just continuing with what we heard related to resilience and safety Respondents were supportive of considering the city limiting the amount of housing in flood prone areas and also near earthquake faults There were multiple respondents that noted the need for the city to balance our housing needs with safety considerations from various hazards And also multiple respondents indicated the necessity to consider the needs of people with disabilities In the safety and evacuation approaches Next slide, please We also heard um a lot of comments in relationship to equity and um as probably you remember this was one of the um most uh mentioned uh words during our visioning process and most respondents in santa rosa felt that pollution exposure and Poor equality are issues that we have in the city, which is a really interesting uh thing since Uh pollution is very focused on on some areas of the city according to cal and virus screen However, people were very mindful that there is uh environmental uh justice issues and some areas of the city that actually require Our focus in in in pollution and exposure to poor equality Uh also many many respondents felt that um opportunities to be involved in community Decision making were really relevant as well as access to public facilities and services And access to public spaces that support physical activity One of the of the things that was also really mentioned during this uh equity conversation was access to health But healthy and affordable uh food Because as as probably a lot of you are aware we have uh some food deserts around the city and Also, the the additional topic that we heard about was access to to safe and sanitary housing Because uh this these topics are really relevant for the community specifically We heard this this last one uh in relationship to people who live in the south and uh west of the of the city If we can go to the next slide, please. Thank you And then just continuing what Beatrice was talking about We also heard a lot about how equity is weaved into the other decision making processes in the city Um, we had a lot of questions about improvements and how things were prioritized So there was a lot of feedback about developing a prioritized list for like a neighborhood scale and to really dive into environmental justice and look at our equity priority communities for other decision making And that um, we have an equitable access to parks open space community spaces And that we're prioritizing the needs of our vulnerable populations When looking at development And then also in general just really looking at how do we address those underlying socio and economic factors Of segregation that has occurred in our community and how there's a connection to the crime and violence in the city Next slide, please Okay, and our last slide on equity We did hear multiple respondents That suggested the city should streamline or continue to streamline review and approval processes for new projects, which would help to reduce cost and expedite good projects And then finally participants Felt that the largest sources of air quality issues for them and their families Came from either vehicle emissions or wildfire smoke Next slide, please And then I'll I'll take it over from here and close out our presentation through the next few slides Um, so we wanted to bring this back to the major themes around the alternatives that we heard And so as I noted what our preferred alternative will arrive at is a blend And so based on the community input that we've heard It looks to be As far as the blend that we're hearing so far Is between alternatives one and two alternative two being slightly more favored And so this is a slide that we can go back to as well as you're Looking at your feedback for us today as as well next slide please And so we will be refining these So these are the few takeaways that we have based on the community input that we've heard Is that people do want to see a focus of housing In our kind of our downtown core not necessarily in downtown but near major areas where there is transit And then reducing the amount of new growth within the wildfire prone areas So really looking at increasing that community safety and reducing our threat to wildfire hazards And then creating more mixed-use neighborhoods Along major corridors and within downtown. So hoping to get a mix meaning if we're putting the housing in these areas There needs to be a corresponding amount of commercial or retail or grocery stores as Beatrice had mentioned And then ensuring that any new growth will have access to multimodal transportation So looking at all of those options and the infrastructure required to really make sure that these areas of new growth are fully multimodal and have all those options available And then also just that range of housing types and affordability Throughout the city to really improve equity and not concentrate Components of affordability in one one area or another Next slide, please So all of the comments that we received are captured and documented And we want to just make sure you know that all the comments that we receive will be used throughout the general plan process We're still on a very high level stage of our update and the next few Moves that we make in this process will be a lot more specific We will be getting into looking at policy health and equity environmental justice safety and evacuations So all of the comments that we're hearing now will still be used later So we want to ensure that the community has the opportunity to provide input at any point Wherever they feel comfortable and that their comments will not get lost in the shuffle Next slide, please So our our next steps today Are really to hear from you all so we can take that back and really create a very refined Alternative and as we've noted this will be a very specific map that will show the land use and circulation patterns that We've arrived at based on all the input we've received And then we will be coming back out to the community and you all to say is this right? Is this of what we've heard? So that will come over the summer in the next few months Because we really want to make sure that the refined preferred alternative that we have is the right thing And we will continue to make changes to that And once we get it right then we start working on our environmental impact report and the actual policy document That will carry forward for the rest of the update process Next slide, please So with that today, we really hope to hear from you On your review of these alternatives and we really want to get your feedback And any other members of the community that are that are on the call today And we are available for any questions that you have. Thank you so much All right, thank you team I'll go ahead and start with council and see if there's any remaining questions or feedback Councilmember Fleming Thank you, mayor. I did have one question about the communications around the development of downtown housing Specifically in that it's my understanding that the housing that's Being developed or being slated to be developed is affordable by design or a split of Of market rate and Affordable by law housing So i'm just curious to know if you've got any information From participants about where they they were getting the impression that the majority of downtown housing is a luxury commodity It's a good question And I think this is an area that you know within the planning department We're really working on because there there are a lot of projects that are entitled that do you provide that mix? And it's hard to provide that awareness to the public on what's getting developed and how and when So we are working on a separate project to really create a more transparent dashboard that will show real time What's getting developed at what levels of affordability? Because as as I know you know the downtown plan really includes the opportunity for all levels of affordability and affordable by design But we did have a lot of questions about projects around the city and where the growth is being concentrated But I think there needs to be a greater knowledge base of what's in the pipeline. What's entitled and But that kind of bigger picture on housing and what's happening Thank you so much House members, but oh Thank you, mr. Mayor. I have a couple of questions on the slides slide 28 regarding equity in santa rosa There's a statement desired to streamline city review an approval process for new projects to reduce cost and expedite good projects My questions is about what defines a good Project in who is making that decision? I'm going to see if Beatrice has anything specific to say, but I I will say we are providing you the input we received We did end up doing a lot of We asked a lot of questions. We we tried to provide a lot of education. So um expedite good projects was probably just the way that this person described The the the type of housing or the type of project they would like to see But Beatrice, do you have anything to add? to that Yeah, I I heard some of the conversations in relationship to uh good projects And I think the description that uh people were were making was related to projects that are affordable housing The community as was mentioned before it feels that not the Not all the projects that we approve are actually built and the ones that are affordable housing take a long time to be developed And so I think this comment was related to that even though as Amy mentioned It was um, it was the phrasing that the the community members used So this comment is potentially just from one community member I'm just struggling with when we say good because there have been some projects that you just described Beatrice that have come before this council That have not been unanimously supported and it gets into the okay. Who's deciding what's a good project or not? Is it the majority of the council or is staff? That's where I'm struggling with this word in definition of it. This was a comment that was provided Uh, I think for uh two or a couple of times in our in in the questionnaire that we received So the the description of good is not coming from us. It's coming from from community members So, uh, if if you wish that uh, we get deeper into the question If there's that contact to to the community members who mentioned this we could Probably get more information about it. But up to this point It's just we're just getting you the the general comments that we received Yeah, so my feedback would be it's just a very subjective word when you say good So and then kind of tied into that with the um slide 31 How are community comments being used? How have you explained it when soliciting feedback from community members? Because we hear it frequently saying you didn't listen to us. Well, no, we listened to you We just chose another direction How have you been explaining that to community members? So if they understand they've provided feedback But it doesn't end up here. You know here we're talking about three alternatives So someone said hey, I'm a big fan alternative three We chose two. Oh, you didn't listen to me. How are you explaining that to the community? Yeah, that's a great question and I think that's something we're trying to do better Is if people give us input, we are reporting back what we heard So we are aggregating the comments. There there were people that really did want alternative three They really wanted to preserve the way of life that they have now And more of a distributed housing model and Most of the time we we end up talking for quite a while to individuals About why they have that viewpoint and if there's any other policy areas that touch on that To really give them more ability to comment as we go further down the line So we will be having those conversations when we do the preferred Alternative and I'm sure we will get people that will be unhappy that their their choice was not chosen And it is not a ranked rating type of system. It is very qualitative. So It'll be important for us to Again message back out what we heard from the community as a whole Trying to pull out those very specific statements as you've seen in this presentation But really working with those community members to decipher Is there something more specific that we can work with? As far as what ends up being in policy But it is it's definitely a balance when it comes to this larger project Yeah, thank you, and I really appreciate the challenge for this I would just really encourage us to continue to have that dialogue because as you said This is a long process and I would hate for someone to be frustrated because they said something early on They didn't we come back soliciting feedback and may have an opinion. What's the point? So every time we explain that and again, it's not just a challenge for this process as many city processes that we encounter this But thanks for all the effort And if I can piggyback off of councilmember spot on question a little bit There was also a comment that kind of graded at me a little bit earlier about How we only build luxury homes And high-end homes to what extent in this process? Are we also using it to educate folks on what actually is taking place? Because the perception of what's happening and what's actually happening in the in the chamber in particular Doesn't always jive Absolutely, that is a huge piece of this We although we're focused on our general plan update We're using this as an opportunity to educate and we're using it as an opportunity to gain trust So that people will continue to follow the project and all of our work And to make sure that they know someone in government that they can call And get the right information. So we absolutely educated every step we could and we'll continue to do that through the process All right councilmember Sawyer Thank you, mayor. I just want to confirm something and it's piggybacking on councilmember schwedhelm's concerns Can I assume that when we see these final documents come before us again? Or maybe a couple different iterations that words like themes will be removed Because he had a good point and not only will does the community have some When they have some great ideas on how the city center of rosa evolves over the next number of years But there will also be developers and those that will be building either retail brick-and-mortar businesses and housing that need to not have words like themes And words like good In in the documents. So I assume I'm assuming that this is this is the process And we're using words like this to help us get through the process to develop the recommendations coming from the community That is in the community is very comfortable with themes and and And some language that we can't use as a planning document. So I'm making that assumption. Is that is that accurate? Yes, I think that's that's great feedback and we will we'll certainly Work on that and make sure that the next generation is Either more specific as to what People said or that we are Encompassing in a way that is more holistic I appreciate that and I know that this is this is a living document and it's it is evolving itself. And so For now Words that that were used that that will probably not end up in the final document is fine I have no problem with that process I just want to make sure that when we finish the process and we finish the document that there is no ambiguity And that every everyone understands exactly what direction we're trying to move in both the community And those that will be responsible And being the one in in a sense the risk takers doing business in zenerosa as it evolves. Thank you Any other questions from council members Council member mcdonald And then i'll come to you mr. Vice mayor Thank you. Um, I just actually have some comments and a few questions if you'll bear with me, please So um as we look at the alternatives I noticed that you suggested that there's about 55 percent of the housing that would be Needed would be an alternative one and same with alternative two, but that doesn't get us to 100 So i'm going to suggest that we're going to need a combination of the three different kinds of housing As far as that goes I think some of it is a culture of what we've always thought we needed to have as far as a house You know when when I was buying a house and I had three little kids I certainly can't imagine living in infill housing where I didn't have a yard to go stick those boys While I was trying to cook dinner or do something else So i'm just curious as to part of this process Are we getting feedback from families so that they have an understanding that as we build more infills infill housing in the Downtown area that will have neighborhood parks and places for families to go and play And that parking is also part of the consideration as we move to more commercial buildings and retail that's needed in the downtown area As we're doing part of our general plan So I know that that's um some of the big concerns in our area had been around the building in the wui areas or the wild fire Let's see. What is it wild land urban interface areas? So i'm glad that that's part of the consideration and I still see that on alternative two there's some Suggested building in those exact areas. So I'm hopeful that that'll be addressed as you move forward in the planning process A couple of things on engagement. I know we still have Some opportunities for community engagement since some of this started during the pandemic Maybe some suggestions would be to go to the park a month because we do see that there's a lot of families and Community members that are out there and having our billboards perhaps at the park a month events Also on the list of a very diverse group I still didn't see schools or school personnel as part of The general plan and I mentioned this Sully because the prior community which I lived in insinoma county did not interface with the city When they did their general plan update and as they've developed more housing the schools have not had room in those communities So I'd really like us to have some outreach to our school districts in city of sienna rosen I'm really happy to hear that you already have reached out to roseland However, if we're building more houses in the downtown corridor or in the downtown area specific in those school districts to ensure that as we build housing low-income median family Housing that that is being addressed so that we are certain that there is a place for them to go To their neighborhood schools As far as the online survey goes I think that's great if there's a way we could get that out on social media So that people know that they don't have to maybe attend an event But that's something that we can share out as council members would be great And uh, I think that's pretty much all of my comments and questions and just really want to say thank you For the process and for making sure that we are doing our due diligence I still have concerns over current projects that are up for consideration without having those environmental impact reports That are based on a plan that we have not seen yet And I wondered if that's part of the consideration as we move forward in this and getting the general plan done before the city moves Forward on projects to make sure that we are really looking at our environmental impacts Great. Thank you so much council member I'm just going to respond to a couple of the questions that I heard and and be I'll let Beatrice respond to some of the engagement questions around Our work with parks and school districts Um, to first you are right that within the alternatives There's that 55 number associated with the the different alternatives And that's really representing that Not all housing will go into these areas We are working with an existing framework Of what we have now in the city and there are existing opportunities for housing Throughout so we will not be reducing those opportunities. We will be adding new opportunities So we are looking at where do we focus the new housing knowing that there will be other housing occurring Throughout the city So it's a very intricate piece to really Try to decipher how to we create land uses and zoning to Encourage the housing in a certain way knowing that it is still allowed in other areas as well And Let's see Beatrice. Do you want to talk about engagement and then also maybe about our use of social media too during this Sure, Amy and just following it up on the on the park Um Mention of of uh engagement during engagement there. We had actually i'm counting one two three three three pop-ups were hosted in in Park's events. We partner with um with our parks uh team of the ringcomb valley community park arbor Day tree planning as well as with the redwood empire footbank distribution at buyer farm and the um Footbank distribution at marking luther king juniors park and south park And we try to focus on the days where we knew there was going to be more More people Gathering there and that's why we used the the collaboration and the partnering with the footbank But we are aware of those events and we tried to we're keeping that agenda on collaborating with the with the park's team And in relationship to schools, we totally agree. Uh, we have mapped mapped the uh, 12 11 districts school districts that actually collaborate with the city and uh, we are in conversations with Santa Rosa's city schools District to so that we can start that conversation because the majority of students Are attending um that school district So we have that as well as uh roseland school district and we we're willing to continue with this with this strategy And thank you for bringing that up. We really think it is important not only because of the engagement with students staff and uh teachers, but also uh with the conversation that we have about, um housing and and and schools and in relationship to uh social media We actually used social media for the surveys and we worked with our communications teams in the city But not only with the city, we also partner with different organizations like latino service providers who helped us Uh spread the word and as well as other organizations like roseland cbi and some other um organizations that we're willing to to let us use their social media to replicate all the messages that the city was Was uh providing to the public. So that's uh what we have been doing. I hope uh next time we can also Share this this social media materials with you so that the city council and the planning commission can help us spread the word Thank you so much And then I also wanted to reply to your comment about the existing general plan and the existing environmental impact report A general plan update takes a long time. We are budgeting a three-year process for this. It is very Thorough. It is very iterative and it's a long process But our existing general plan is still valid And the environmental impact report is still valid. So general plans can live quite a long time Ideally state law recommends that you do an update every 10 years But most jurisdictions don't have that luxury So we are very lucky to have the funding to be able to do this update and we're doing it in the way that we Feel is the best Because we do have the resources. We have the grant from Kaiser Permanente That's also supporting Beatrice's position to get deeper into health and environmental justice But while we update all of this work our our general plan that's in place now lives on and is still valid And in full force. So I just wanted to reassure you on that point Mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor Echoing echoing the quality of life statement that council member Fleming stated Uh, is there a way to gauge the unintended consequences? Uh, such as I believe it was page 27 The uh underlying social economic factors and residential social segregation in the community that contribute to crime and violence in the city Aka large city problems. Uh, are we able to gauge those? With the difference between the the different alternative maps being presented Beatrice, do you want to answer that question? Yes, I mean, um Thank you. Vice uh, vice mayor, uh, yes the first so we we know how segregation currently looks like in the city We actually requested our consultants to um, help us figure out how each of the alternatives would be, uh, changing the city um, environment in in terms of segregation But it was not possible since we didn't have like specific data for for development yet But we actually can do that on the preferred alternative and that's something that um, I specifically, uh, I'm working with uh, and the consultant team to do and that will be um tailored till preferred alternative according to what we saw there were evaluations on on equity for each of the alternatives During this stage because there were general comments, uh Or general assessments in relationship to each of the alternatives and what we know is that in terms of Of how we approach equity on the three alternatives. We know that the second one would uh, probably Be the one that actually provides more more equity to the city in the sense that providing mixed use To to different neighborhoods can can actually increase the access to Healthy food as well as infrastructure for for community members But other than that we don't have additional data for this stage But um, I think that's a priority for us to have in the in the preferred alternative And if this is something that you're concerned about that and you're willing to work us, uh to work on We're really happy to keep doing it I appreciate that and then the suggestion would be to take a look at the largest cities and see how they've evolved Over the years and specifically i'll bring up san francisco the mission district I see a lot of comparables between the mission district and my district So it's involvement. It's it's it's identity and the quality of life that you could see there During the last 20 years compared to what you see now. Thank you Council member flooding Thank you, mayor one point of clarification from you. Are you looking for questions now or primarily feedback? We'll do questions We'll do public comment and then we'll do well and questions from the planning commission public comment and then comment Excellent. Thank you One question I have is is it possible or has it been considered? Uh to use this document in a way to discourage building in the wildland and urban interface and thus avoid Putting additional people in risk during firestorms Yes, so that is a concern. Um, and I wonder if someone from place works could help respond to this on best practices, but um There are existing property rights on those properties within those wildland urban interface areas. So There's a little bit of a balance because we can't remove those property rights But we can make a concerted decision as a community not to put more population into those areas But I'll I'll ask the place works team to respond on this as well This is charlie from place works. Yeah, I would echo that. I think We haven't gotten to the point yet in this discussion with the community where people have started talking about retreat or Trying to limit entitlements that exist already, but we've certainly heard from The community uniformly including from people who live in fountain grove and coffee park rink on valley bennett valley Saying, you know, we certainly don't want to add to or exacerbate the existing problem or the potential problem So to this point in general, I would say there's been good agreement And this is one of the reasons that I think The majority of people didn't didn't go for uh, the distributed housing alternative number three Um, there's been a lot of a lot of comment a lot of effort Around making sure that we employ best practices for the homes that are already there or could still be built that are already entitled So defensible space native landscaping You know building materials changes and and the city's been very um Future thinking future forward thinking about this already with updates to the building code and and grading and stormwater requirements and and all that so I think to this point people are pretty uniformly throughout the community saying We don't want to make it worse. Um, but we we haven't gotten to the point where people have started talking about what we could do with existing Entitled development that hasn't been built yet Thank you. And to that end, you know, could it be used to prevent future entitlements? so I don't I don't want to sound like I'm repeating myself, but Yes, yes, it can. You know that I think What what we've heard, you know, we're we're starting as soon as we hear your comments today We start working on the preferred alternative, but I think Um, in addition to anything we might hear from planning commission counsel and public commenters today From the community at large We have heard if there are vacant properties in the wildland urban interface that haven't been entitled yet We should think very seriously about how to Um, avoid adding new density new residential development new non-residential development In the wildland urban interface and as you know, there's a pretty big Gap in what's been mapped so far by cal fire and the city Kind of around monoceto village in that area Where there's a pretty big concentration of people already But some fairly large parcels that haven't been developed yet And there's a lot of thinking at the cal fire and I think city fire department level about whether That so-called donut in the in the woorie is actually going to continue to be unmapped Or will eventually be mapped as as wildland urban interface as well. So There's a lot of things in process. I do think including people that live in these areas There's a lot of agreement that we at least do not want to try to create new development rights where they don't exist already And make the problem worse Thank you very helpful and my last two questions are Echoing questions that have already been asked, but I think are Worth highlighting which is one is our consultation with the schools a council member mcdonald raised the point about Making sure that we have adequate schools for New development and then on the flip side, you know, my experience is that the school in my neighborhood is having to downsize And so there are there are shifting demographics across the city And so a careful analysis with our school district ought to yield us some understanding of where our infrastructure assets lie And where we could use more families and where we could use more schools and then Councilmember alvarez brought up Park space as did councilmember mcdonald and public safety and i'm just Curious to know how we're working with the schools to identify Which school districts within the city limits do allow for public uses during non-school hours and which ones do not thus contributing to More open space or less open space And finally a question around the nature of our consultation with snow mccounty transit authority and in particular safe routes to school To ensure fewer car trips and safer travel for children families to and from schools I don't know that each of those things needs a response, but I thought they were important Questions to move forward as you continue to engage with the community Thank you councilmember I will say that we have been working with the school districts and to this point It has really been to further our outreach and engagement And as we move into the next phase We will be expanding our technical advisory committee to include those district representatives to really get into very specific conversations around population and locations Around their school planning Because as you know, they are they are pretty much another whole set of government that doesn't necessarily need to Align with us, but we do want to make sure that we are In communication and that our planning efforts do do align to them to the best extent possible Again one last thing is lial to that point though In the city of santa rosa, there is the city of santa rosa school district But then more specifically i'm talking about the elementary school assets where there's many school districts within the city And they have different policies around their open space So i'm just hopeful that we continue to engage with them so that we can come up With something that's more uniform and more accessible for residents Yes, I agree and we have that noted and we can make sure also to report out on that As we get more into those policy discussions. Thank you and um then Let's see Beatrice was there another piece to that that i'm missing consultation with Another group and I completely lost which one that was I think scta I mentioned. Oh, yes. Um, so we are working with Our scta partners and our other cities as well Right now our major focus is housing element work because we are all updating our housing elements at the same time But I will say Beatrice and and Nancy Adams on our transportation public works team are both participating within the vision zero work, which will be coming to your council in july But we are also kept up to date on safe routes to school programs as well Thank you so much all right madame Planning commission chair feel free to take it away Thank you mayor. Um any questions? um Your staff at this time It doesn't look like it. I know we'll have some comments after we hear from the public. Oh patty uh miss your sister You're muted patty you're muted one of these days. I'm going to remember to do that, right? I was saying this it's a little bit of a combination Comment and question But when we when we start looking at alternative two and going into the corridors and it said they'd be looking at increasing density around existing and planned Centers and So i'm assuming we recently had we recently had a general plan amendment where we uh eliminated a community A shopping center in favor of density based on research about uh that it was not feasible So i'm assuming that as you proceed and and you're looking at increasing density around Potentially planned centers. You're going to be looking at it with that kind of a view Will it ultimately be feasible even with the amount of density put around it? So just That yes, that is a great question and great comment We are working with economic sub consultant to really look uh in a refined way at each of those nodal activities to make sure that they are actually feasible And um, you'll probably note on the map that we have a few that are New or not even in existence right now And I think the one you're noting was from previous general plan update and was a hope That that could occur in that area, but ended up not being feasible So that is something that will be kind of a fresh rethink on this update to make sure that what we're doing is economically feasible and based in Kind of truth on what these property owners would actually like to see Okay, thank you Yeah, um as we're talking about uh Development within the willy I was just curious that when we were doing the outreach And people noted they didn't want any New development within the wild land urban interface. Was that clearly defined? Either by definition or with a literal Defined line of what is and what isn't or is it more in theory of I just don't like From wildfire areas we built it You know, I I personally don't remember if there was a specific area of the city that felt like uh, resonated specific to like a rink and valley or coffee park Or fountain grove it and it was a sentiment that we heard from people who weren't even living within those wildland Urban interface areas So it was pretty much a global sentiment that we heard throughout But not focused on one specific community or one neighborhood within the city Just does that answer your question? No, actually the the term wild wildland urban interface or wild. Yeah wildland urban interface Was that clearly defined? So when people say I don't want building in the willy was that Clear to find as to what the willy is or where the willy is when that discussion was had or is it more of a sentiment? Actually, no, and we ended up adding that layer to some of our maps later in the process to kind of help that education process um, but I think most of our constituents here are becoming um aware of where those areas are And so there but we did provide those a little bit later in the process Okay, thank you Anything else from commissioners? Up they uh, back to you mayor rogers All right. Thank you, and I'm going to turn it over to sandy sandy if you can Facilitate public comments for us today for both folks in the chamber and on zoom Yes, thank you one moment, please I apologize. I'm having a click Okay, we have, um Susan lamont Are you able to unmute? Yeah, thank you I um want to address the special opportunity zones that I believe were created by trump that are financed with um taxpayer dollars And according to a newspaper Press never got article repeated from, you know, a national news source um being taken advantage of by primarily rich people And we have one of those right in downtown huge few trellis art house and The purpose of these opportunity zones is to improve an area and I would say to mr. Schwedhelm That improvement would certainly be a word which we might disagree on my definition of improvement might differ from his But now an area that had a 25 percent Population under the poverty rate Is blessed with a very high end building with an With an art gallery in it. I'm sure those poor people are absolutely thrilled um I don't know what The city can do about such things whether they can approve them or not uh or Not him not approve them But um, I think the unintended consequences that councilman Other has mentioned is that uh You you stick in the high end building and most likely rents around it will rise And that will certainly not help Um the residents who are under the poverty level So i'm wondering if there are ways to approach um What I see is a problem of exploitation of both of um taxpayer dollars And um the unintended consequence of uh raised rents. Thank you Um mayor, I don't see any more raised hands And we don't have any oh sorry a new another one Um j berger Uh, hello council. Uh, can you hear me? Yes, we can go for it. Oh excellent. Thank you. Uh, my name is uh, joel berger. I'm a very long time resident of uh, santa rosa Basically 35 years ever since I was two years old. So um seeing the general plan coming up again and kind of having uh a say in the matter at My now adult age. Um, it's definitely uh Sleezing to see some of the changes that you guys have already Um, yeah looked into and listened to regarding Um the option one and option two Um, I definitely wanted to make it well known That a lot of the people that I've talked to and i'm trying to kind of do my own outreach Myself, um, I also just submitted an application to join the cac if possible Um because uh, I'm very much interested in being a lot more active in my community And this general plan is definitely a important Part of that. Um, so I wanted to vocalize my support and my friend's support Um, hopefully they can join me in meetings later on That option one, um alternative one is is definitely more preferred. Um, I think we all agree That building Up not out is definitely more preferable Not only considering the emerging climate emergency We are actively currently in But as well it helps to centralize public, um, it allows for Better transit options available particularly since there's more need more requests for biking busing, uh, even the smart rail As much as contention as it has been There's definitely a lot of opportunity and people want to use all of these services And there's definitely a much more of a request to move away from being a very car-centric society And I think that that matches very very much with the identity of santa rosa As a whole we've treated this community very much like we want to be small And we've kept growing and I really appreciate that we're starting to see That Change that we understand we are a very growing and very diverse community But with that we need to understand that We cannot consider ourselves a small community But we can still Allow for the community locations and areas to feel more at home and more available for human beings rather than Cars and making things less hospitable so I definitely like what i'm seeing here and uh, I Hopefully will have a lot more to say In the uh in the coming weeks All right. Is there anybody else who'd like to provide public comment? There. I don't see any other hands Excellent. I'll bring it back and I'll turn it over to chair weeks for comments from the planning commission Thank you, mayor rogers. Um, go ahead and start with uh, commissioner sisco Do any comments? Um, just that, you know, I appreciate the direction that the city's taking uh based on the feedback given by the community and um and I think A marriage of alternatives one and two seems appropriate Um, I think it's also important to note for the public to be educated that um as far as alternative three there are Existing state mandates and new policies that are going to allow for you know growth in that area on those parcels and so it's I'm not sure how we could get 55 percent of our housing. He's met that way but Just so that the public does understand that uh, it is still possible to build there But I think that this is a good direction and I look forward to seeing the preferred alternative Thank you, uh, commissioner Yeah, um, first I just want to say thanks to staff and the tac and cac Place works in the community for all the work they've put in so far. Uh, it's really appreciated I agree with commissioner sisco marriage between one and two is probably the the best option for us Uh, I believe you know option one is is nice, but As I said in one of the reports that requires a robust public transportation system, which we just don't have and and to Actually get would be A huge undertaking In order to do that. So I think that uh somewhere between one and two is probably is what I would like to see and You know, uh I appreciate the education that staff is taking with you know only high-end stuff is getting built I I don't want to speak for the entirety of the planning commission. I always speak for myself But we see a lot of projects come through um, and it's not Generally the the market rate things that are built first Um for a variety of reasons. So I appreciate you guys taking on the education portion of that And then my last comment would be just regarding the question I asked about the wooly earlier You know have that map readily available for everybody that's participating including any boards commissions, uh, and Excuse me and counsel themselves Thank you, uh Thank you chair weeks, um I want to also extend my thanks to staff and and the public that's contributed to this You know seeing some of the feedback. It does seem like planning has uh tasked itself with solving every problem that santa rosa has so while i'm Optimistic that they can do that. I think for this particular issue You know the the narrower scope may win the day and in that sense You know, I I like alternative one obviously it's going to be you know a hybrid of of the The alternatives that have been presented, but um, I think You know For these as a general matter We want to be ambitious and big and we've seen that payoff with with santa rosa and other projects And in kind of goal setting whether it's cannabis or other Housing related things. I think the city And staff has been really at the forefront of of these kinds of things and and thinking big and I I just want to encourage Everyone to continue doing that. I think we're facing a lot of challenges um climate fire economic And it's only through sort of thinking big and thinking beyond sort of what seems feasible At this moment that we can kind of get there. So public transportation separate bike lanes, you know walkable neighborhoods all the stuff we always hear about You know, that'll come about where the uh, where we meet the road and the specifics Once we we get the preferred alternatives. So um, but that you know, thank you again, and um, I look forward to seeing the preferred alternative Thank you. Um I also wanted to Trust my gratitude to staff for all your hard work on this. Um, I participated in a couple of your pop-up meetings and your online survey And I really appreciate having that opportunity. Um I would like a combination of one and two. Um It with a with a um Stressing on various income levels of housing. So I think that's really important. Um, I think I can't remember what the term was uh Distributed housing, but I mean making sure that um, you know that you have various income levels in different neighborhoods I think that's really important. Um And I do want to thank the members of the public who have participated in Uh, the process so far, you know, only together can we build a better community. So thank you Um back to you may rogers Excellent, uh, I'll start with councilmember soler Thank you, mayor, and I will voice my appreciation for the the community's input It is not always easy to gain that and you have done a great job in Of outreach and that will continue. I'm sure as as the plans evolve and the cac Staff and our consultants just this is an Vital and major endeavor and I appreciate all the work that went into to the to the product so far I also appreciate The blending of one and two What I like about two it was articulated by chair weeks In that it uh scatters the the types of housing uh in different parts of our city And also creates the an opportunity for business and General business and retail to exist in those in those areas without people having to drive necessarily That's the but I also like the number one because it has this focus on downtown And I've always been an advocate of city-centered growth So i'm having a having the the the concept of concentrating um A certain amount of that growth to the downtown for a variety of reasons and then also the scattering of of the growth throughout the city and creating main streets and the The retail nodes and the business nodes and actually housing nodes So there there are a lot of reasons to like the blending of one and two And I'll I think I'll just leave it there. Thank you again for all the hard work councilmember spudhelm Thank you, mr. Mayor Echo many of the sentiments about what god is hearing. Amy. I really appreciate you reaffirming And there's a three-year process and so getting this amount of feedback in the different iterations So i'm a fan of alternative two. I'm not quite ready to marry it with alternative one But maybe a close friendship But I really like what councilmember Sawyer said about the city center growth But alternative two really resonated a little bit more with me But I recognize we do need to focus as we have in the past with Our downtown focus, which is spoken well in alternative one. Thanks Councilmember Fleming Starting out, I think many people have thanked the staff and I know you Know that you know that you have my hearty appreciation, but I also want to really emphasize that You know community members came out and gave us their input, which is fantastic on something like this Which is very difficult for even experienced folks To conceptualize how to do this so a hearty appreciation to everybody who participated Again, we're still at the beginning parts of this and I expect and hope for so much more Continuing the the friends or the romance version of this I I'm more on the the The the romance that here I I really like alternative one and I'll tell you why I think that it it leads to better outcomes in terms of The cost my guess is going to be it's going to reduce the cost to maintain the infrastructure across the city What I really like about alternative two is that it increases access to resources along neighborhoods and coming from A city that had both a strong downtown as well as strong neighborhoods and main streets I think both have an essential function in our city What I hope to be seeing more of is what I heard from the community Which is a strong desire for an improved quality of life People want to be able to get to where they're going Without having to get in their cars and if they do get in their cars They want to have a not too bumpy ride to get there and so I think that if we Maybe not marry but have a domestic partnership between alternatives one and two We can achieve an outcome that would be pleasing and equitable to as many residents as possible So I'll continue to look for Which aspects of these improved quality of life for folks across the city and reduce the burden to the taxpayers As well as our infrastructure and public works When it comes to roads and streets and upkeep and which things move us towards healthier alternatives like biking walking And reduce food deserts Thanks councilmember councilmember McDonald Thank you so much. I do want to thank the advisory committee as well as a planning commission And staff for all their hard work on this and their continued work and commitment to making sure that we're Doing our due diligence to listen to our community And I agree with the sentiments that have been said by fellow council members that the focus on the downtown area The reduction in our climate So that we can make sure that we're not driving into places I know even for me personally going to my local grocery store having the bank right down the road The convenience of that is is what we like People like to make sure that they're able to shop and do their business next to their homes. That's where they're comfortable It's where we gather. It's where we have our neighborhood You know barbecues and so making sure that that's that's all available I think the combination of one and two is is critical But I do think that we are going to need to look at housing In our outer areas for option three as well And I'm glad to hear that that's part of what the consideration is is looking at those areas That are not developed. Um, so that we can have sometimes bigger houses and Certainly not everybody comes with one or two children Some of us have more than that and and some of us have even multiples at a time like my kids because I'm a Mimi this week So, um, I just want to say thank you and agree that for the reasons that have been stated One and two make the most sense for santa rosa's growth And um, I just again appreciate all the work that's gone into this Mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor In southwest santa rosa, we have Or actually I should say we don't have an adult park or Taylor mountain But we do have Cogan creek and santa rosa creek And it's why I on behalf of future santa rosans. I appreciate the staff's work And I especially appreciate my fellow santa rosans for understanding the importance of of infill of maintaining open spaces As demonstrated by their preference of alternative one and two one for recognizing climate issues and two for Recognizing equitable assets. Thank you. Thank you so much, mr. Vice mayor I too want to thank staff for all of their work on this particularly the interest in digging deep into our community and talking to folks who are not normally Represented in the decisions that are being made One of the things that everybody has an opinion on is how they would like the city to feel And usually we talk about it on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis And that really does inform a lot of how we view the world that's around us I'm a big fan of alternatives one and two Pretty much for the same reason and that's the walkability and the multimodal potential that exists I'm a big fan of the 15 minute city concept that allows people to live and work and have A small sphere where they can have non car options to be able to get around And so I'm a big fan of those two and I want to see them continue to move forward A lot of the conversation is around infrastructure. It is around how do we expedite our bicycle lanes? How do we protect them and make them usable for people? How do we make it so that we have a walkable community? How do we make sure that some of the past planning mistakes of the city are rectified? Yes, that means the mall and yes, that means the access For folks to be able to navigate and to get around The the thing that I like the most about option one Is it does recognize the importance of keeping people out of the wooey? What I like about option two is it does recognize sort of where we currently sit in terms of where our population balance is and both of those are important for us to find a way to move forward and to Reconcile sort of where we sit with where we want to go So I'm anxious to see how staff does that I want to make sure that the bulk of the population is in both of these models is still put In the appropriate place downtown But I recognize that the spheres of influence and having some of our commercial zones Accessible by bike and by foot for folks who are a little bit further out that that makes sense too With that, I'll see if there's any final comments from the planning commission chair No, thank you mayor rogers and thank you for having us here today Thank you all for joining us. We'll go ahead say goodbye to our planning commission and adjourn our special joint item here item 3.1 Council we do have a busy day So we'll move right into item 3.2, which is our discussion about the charter review committee And then we'll take a short break after that and let people stretch their legs Item 3.2 charter review committee final report and recommendations City attorney sue gallagher will lead the discussion. Thank you Good afternoon, uh, mayor rogers and council members We do have a very full Study session calendar today a lot of very engaging issues and significant issues So we'll jump right into now Our the final report from the charter review committee I'll present the recommendations And I do acknowledge that the power point is fairly long I want to assure you that we'll try to move through it fairly quickly Given the hour We'll spend a little just to give you a roadmap of how we're going to do it We will spend a little more time on the first several items which are Um, a more complex and uh, we're Uh, subject to some substantial discussions at the charter review Uh, committee meetings For the items that are just simply updates For the charter some clarifications of some ambiguities in the charter We'll go through those toward the end and we'll go through them very quickly And I will note I am very happy to see our chair Patty Cisco is here and present and I do invite her to weigh in at any time So much appreciated Uh A wonderful chair throughout this process. So thank you Next slide So as background as you know last august The council directed the establishment of the charter review committee and the committee was charged with beginning The city's decennial review of the provisions of its charter The city has a history and a requirement in its charter that the provisions of the charter be reviewed every 10 years So this started it out for this for this this decade The committee was appointed by council each council member appointed three members and the committee Therefore consisted of 21 individuals and really remarkably diverse In age race gender Geography interests and background. It was really wonderful to work with this group. Um, I so appreciated Their collaborative approach. They were all very highly engaged Very thoughtful. We really had A great attendance throughout which is not easy. These these are all folks that have other things going on in their lives So very much appreciated Um, the committee worked over the past seven months Reviewing and making key recommendations on possible charter amendments. And that's what we will go through today. Next slide The committee did complete its final report and recommendations I'll walk through the recommendations as I said and at the end once you You know, I answer questions. We hear from the public You have your comments. I will ask for directions from the council as to next steps We'll be moving forward fairly quickly Um, we have our next meeting in june and then the final meeting in july At which point we will at by the end of the meeting on july 12th We are to have uh language prepared for the ballot So we're going to be moving quickly So as much direction as you can give me and give all of us today would be much appreciated I understand though that some of these issues are complex. You may want additional information You want may want me to explore different avenues. And of course very happy to do that. So next slide Just a broad overview. Um, we'll be looking at Council compensation directly elected mayor ranked choice voting voting rights for non-citizens district based election of council members and then a general charter update and modernization That last item includes about 10 or 11 items all of which we believe could be Included in a single ballot measure those items that are in the charter update and modernization are generally non-controversial So we're hopeful that those will be those will move forward Next slide Committee recommendations i'll identified to i'll note to as you i'm sure noted The list that the committee ended up focusing on Varied a little bit from the list that the council gave at the outset which included 12 specific items The committee focused its efforts first On those items and issues that would require a charter amendment that couldn't be done by ordinance resolution or initiative So they really focused recognizing they had limited time and resources The all the committee also Sought to focus on those issues that they felt would have the most impact on the community. So that's How these items came to to be Next slide The first thing that the Committee took on and I will say ended up with three Discussing this at three separate meetings Both at the beginning of the process and towards the end. This is council compensation Give it a little bit background to start with this was one of the items that the council asked the committee to look at And as I say it did did engender a lot of discussion So council members currently as you know Receive $800 a month salary and the mayor receives a 1200 per month That's by our charter 800 From for the council members and then the mayor gets 150 of that that reaches up to the 1200 There's been no increase in those salaries since 2005 So really a good time to start looking looking at that Looking at compensation The charter review committee heard of the workload of the mayor and council members did see some of the Calendars calendar of the mayor And and and just heard discussion and including Discussion from Committee members that are former council members. So The committee was unanimous in recognizing the difficulties of balancing private employment Childcare your family life With the responsibilities of council membership The committee also received information on compensation of other cities both in Sonoma county in our comparable cities And in generally in northern california next slide Committee unanimously agreed that council compensation should be increased and felt very strongly The committee felt that an increase in compensation Had very strong public policy reasons would enable a greater diversity and council membership Enabling those with young families those with lower paying jobs Those without independent resources to be able to join the council and work with the council Would ensure continued strong commitment and professionalism The committee was sensitive to recent resignations from various councils in Sonoma county. That was Noted and discussed and then simply to reflect the fairness and the respect for the extensive work that you all do Next slide The recommendation the the the committee Discussed a lot of different options ended up settling strongly on setting the mayor's salary Setting both council and mayor's salary tied to the area median income area median income is set by is determined By the u.s. Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD Um, and the recommendation was to set the mayor's salary understanding The mayor's workload at area median income for a three-person household Set the council member's salary at two-thirds of the area median income for a three-person household that matches the ratio currently used for council compensation And then recommended that it Council compensation be permanently tied to the AMI so that the council compensation both the mayor and the council members would be adjusted every year as The area median income is updated The council the committee also recommended that the council consider establishing a penalty or a reduction in salary for missed unexcused absences Or if we were in a situation where the city was cutting did it was doing a city-wide reduction in Employee salaries that would only be appropriate to Consider a reduction in council member salaries as well Or you know any other basis that the council found appropriate The committee did consider a number of alternatives next slide Um There was a strong minority that recommended a higher level of compensation still tied to the AMI But to be set at 140 percent of AMI for the mayor 100 percent of AMI for council members That motion did fail on a eight in favor 11 opposed and two absent At least two committee members recommended council utilize existing authority under the charter and state law to increase their Compensation and we'll talk about that and I'll kind of lay that out on the next slide and then discussed at least briefly some of the other options which were Tying council salaries to the salary of county supervisors a lot of discussion about Comparison of council member responsibilities and supervisor responsibilities Also looked at considering tying it to the average City employee salary or maybe the lowest paid city employee Also looked at there's a suggestion to look at The average of council compensation In santa rosa's comparable cities the comparable cities is a list of 11 cities That santa rosa currently uses for comparison When setting employee salaries so the thought was if we use that to set employee salaries Maybe we should be using that to Set council compensation as well Next slide I do want to take just a minute to walk through The council's existing authority. I think both for for the purpose of having the background of where you are now But also at least a couple of members were interested in in pursuing that So the existing authority is set fourth in Charter section four And it ties a council compensation to state law State law provides a schedule of compensation that's based on population For a city the size of santa rosa that is between 150,000 and 250,000 population Compensation again under state law is set at 800 a month Um and state law specifically states that the voters can approve higher rates If uh if they so desire State law also provides that $800 a month isn't fixed the council by ordinance Can increase that compensation by five percent a year not compounded And the increases may accumulate. So where are we now? We've had no change in the compensation since 2005. So we have a 17 year accumulation At five percent which would equal 40 dollars per month times 17 years Equals you could By ordinance provide for an increase in council compensation of 680 dollars Allowable increase and then of course a larger increase for the mayor Next slide In talking about compensation the committee really focused on what is the most appropriate Measurement of compensation How what's the formula that should be used? The count the committee really did not focus strongly on dollar amounts, but rather what is the appropriate measurement for compensation That being said, I also know that ultimately the council and the public will want to know what these various formulas mean in dollars and cents I won't go through the list, but I do have it there for you and I will note that the recommendation from the committee at 100 a.m. I For the mayor and two-thirds of that for the council member That falls right in the mid-range of this list Next slide So that was kind of the brief summary of three meetings of discussions on council compensation Um moving next to directly elected mayor. We had two separate meetings to discuss directly elected mayor It was also a topic of very lively discussion As you know section 15 of the charter provides for selection of the mayor and the vice mayor by the council itself The council this is another item that the council asked The committee to look at and the committee did find it an important proposal Asked the committee to consider whether to amend the charter to provide for a directly elected mayor That is a mayor that is elected by a citywide vote After presentations and a full discussion again at two separate meetings the committee voted to recommend against Placing a measure on the ballot for a transition to a directly elected mayor The vote was 10 Against placing the measure and four still urging That a measure be placed on the ballot and there were four members absent that that at that meeting Next slide So those committee members that were opposed to the proposal most voiced A number of different concerns equity concerns were really probably the most significant That's what came up most often. There were concerns that the high cost of citywide election would preclude those who are less Wealthy and would really work against the city's goals of diversity equity inclusion and belonging They expressed concern that the traditionally higher turnout in northeast santa rosa might refocus election efforts to What historically has been a powerful area? I will note then in the recent elections. We also had a good turnout in in the Western parts of town, so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out over time, but traditionally Northeast has been the strongest politically Um committee members also voiced that you know the city the district-based elections have brought positive change to the community have brought greater A diversity equity and inclusion and belonging both on the council and four members For residents in the various areas of our community The feeling of of those that were opposed to directly elected mayor Felt that moving to an at-large mayor would re would be a step backward from that process They also expressed that they felt that it was a solution in search of a problem that the mayors thus far We've only had a few years But the mayors thus far have been able to properly balance their role both as a district representative And as a mayor for the entire city so a number of people Recommended not putting a ballot measure on now, but left open the possibility that let's let's let this play out for a little bit And maybe reconsider it in a few years when we have a better sense of how this is all playing out And again related to that kind of problematic timing Both in terms of the district elections. We just got through in 2020 we started in 2018 with half of the council Finished up in 2020. Let's let it sit and mature for a bit and then re-examine There was also a concern in terms of timing that redistricting we've redistricted in 2018 Excuse me. We are redistricted now Although a number of different versions of having a directly elected mayor that do that would not necessarily require redistricting But the proposal that's most often put forward is to reduce Council down to six Council districts and an at-large mayor that would require us to do redistricting. So again just an issue of timing Next slide I do want to note though again that the vote was fairly close 10 10 against putting a ballot measure on and seven in support And four people absent So those who supported the proposal voiced advantages and I will also comment that the committee when hearing from Two at-large mayors one from Petaluma and one from san rafael Both of those at-large mayors really spoke very glowingly of the benefits of an at-large mayor So those who support the proposal You know noted that a directly elected mayor would be a powerful symbol and a and a focal point for the community That a directly elected mayor would speak for the entirety of the community without any sense of needing to also tie to their own district Suggestion that a directly elected mayor would encourage greater voter engagement Um And then there was a suggestion that Directly elected mayor would be better regarded by state and federal officials and at conferences of mayors That was questioned a little bit by the two Former mayors that were on the committee, but that was an issue that was raised And then Those that supported the proposal, you know also very strongly emphasized This would allow voters to vote for two representatives on the council you get to vote for your district Um council member and you would get to vote for the at-large mayor Next slide Um, many of those committee members who supported a directly elected mayor though Did voice concerns about the potential impacts on diversity equity inclusion and belonging And several urged that if if a ballot measure was Was to be pursued That it be linked with measures to mitigate the impacts on equity and a couple of the Possible mitigations that were discussed was imposing term limits on the mayor There was a suggestion that may maybe the mayor's term would be only two years But you'd have an election every other year that way it'd be a little bit of a challenge And the other mitigation that was suggested and we'll talk about this later Was to expand voting rights to non-citizens Next slide and that really wraps up our that that one wraps up our discussion on the directly elected mayor The committee next considered rank choice voting So in our current system as you know voters vote for a single candidate the candidate that gets the most votes wins In a ranked choice voting voters rank candidates in order of preference And cities do it different ways. You could say list your top three You could say list your top five. You could say list as many as you want There's flexibility there When the ballots are first counted only the first choice votes are counted If any candidate wins A majority 50 of the votes plus one They win the election If no one wins a majority the 50 point plus one Then the candidate with the fewest votes there That candidate is eliminated The registrar voters then goes back to the ballots for only that count that candidate that was eliminated Looks to who those voters placed as their second choice Takes those votes and adds it to the other candidates If at that point any of the candidates have won a majority The election ends at that point If you still don't have a majority at that point continues on until at some point Some around you have a majority I will note that the experience in some of the other cities is if you get far beyond You start having fewer votes overall. So As long as you have if you as long as you're kind of in those top three You're probably still Pretty close to the original number of votes that you're working with Next slide So the committee Did hear from the registrar of voters Diva Marie proto came and did a wonderful presentation explained how this all worked with charts and diagrams And if we if the if the council decides to move forward, we will bring Uh, if we don't bring her back, we will certainly bring back You know those that Explanation of the process The committee also heard from our office as to the results of the ranked choice voting system in four bay area cities Um, the four cities that currently use ranked choice voting are san francisco, oakland, berkeley, and san liandro Um Next slide The estimated costs, um, and again miss proto gave us this number Excuse me gave us these um these numbers There's a there would be a one-time investment in the software of approximately 350 thousand dollars And then there would be an annual processing cost of approximately 70 thousand dollars per year So as I said the four bay area cities currently use ranked choice voting We went through and looked at the results from 2018 and or 2020 in those four cities. We looked at 32 separate elections um and uh Out of those 32 elections that we examined ranked choice voting Changed the outcome in one election. That was a san francisco election. I believe for city council and that um That election was decided in the sixth round. So In many of the other elections it did go beyond the first round It wasn't it's not that everyone in all the other 31 elections that someone won first right out right out of the box But rather that whoever led in that first round They may not have had a majority But that they led throughout and ultimately Gained a majority of the votes Except for in that one election Next slide So due to the costs the complexity and the limited impact of ranked choice voting the committee voted 17 to 3 against Pursuing a ballot measure on the issue For those members that still favor drink choice voting Those members Really emphasize that it would ensure broadly accepted winning candidates That it would encourage voters to look closely at the full slate of candidates Not just their top candidate and that it could improve it could prove important in the future next slide So now we move on to voting rights for non-citizens Again those first three that we looked at were all Recommendations that came to the committee from the council They were all issues that needed would need a charter amendment to implement and all Had a significant possibility to be impactful voting rights for non-citizens came From a suggestion by several committee members And it was very broadly supported by the committee as a whole The strong feeling was that those that those who live work and pay taxes in santa rosa should have a voice in how the city is governed We researched the issue Nothing in federal or state law precludes a local jurisdiction From expanding the right to vote in their own elections applies only to city elections not to anything else It would require a charter amendment But it it is it is possible. I didn't have the numbers here, but I will mention in california San Francisco Gives voting rights to non-citizens For school board There are a couple of other jurisdictions that are considering Expanding voting rights to non-citizens including san jose currently considering it New york city recently adopted an ordinance that would allow voting rights for non-citizens and then there I think there are 11 cities in The two states that are allowing it are mariland and vermont one has 11 cities and one has two so it is happening And it was interesting to look at the history of voting rights for non-citizens But I won't go into that because it's a that would be a long discussion So next slide Those who support the proposal and again that was the the bulk of the committee I really emphasize that expansion of voting rights would strengthen the community would promote engagement investment and belonging They pointed out that absent voting rights These individuals are being taxed without representation There's a feeling that when a segment of the community is excluded from voting There's a heightened risk of discriminatory policies being adopted And then that given the high costs and long waiting periods for naturalization prohibiting non-citizen voting is unjust and unnecessary Really the feeling was it's just fair and right to expand voting rights to non-citizens Next slide But we then heard some of the logistical and cost considerations It would require an entirely separate city voter process voting process Including a separate database voter database separate ballot separate procedures So we would need to establish a separate voting registration system for non-citizens We would need to have a process for separate development Publication and distribution of the ballot containing only city elections We'd have to have separate voting procedures separate voting mechanics And very important to note. Um, this was um, this proto register our voters came again and very graciously spoke to us The county cannot assist us in that program For some legal and and practical reasons. They are not able to assist us So this would all be on the city And so the costs of setting up that system That independent city system are unknown at this time if the council is interested in pursuing this We'll dive we'll give a deeper dive into that next slide What were some of the Concerns, um, there is a concern of a risk of potential legal challenge Uh, new york city's ordinance is currently under legal challenge. I haven't checked what the status is Recently, but it it, uh, new york city was sued There are also possible immigration risks to individuals who participate Particularly for undocumented individuals Voter registration records are public records. They would be available And accessible by ice There's also a question even for documented immigrants For individuals who are legally here. There is some question As to whether As to how voting in local elections might impact your application for naturalization In the past and I don't know. I'm sorry if it's still in the naturalization application But there is a question of have you ever voted in a federal state or local election What I saw in some of the other jurisdictions was just a lot of warnings to people the sense of We're gonna let individuals decide whether they want to take that risk but a lot of A notification of be aware. These are some of the risks that you might be undertaking We also Looked at Numbers of participants just that was a very narrow focus The there were only a couple of members of the committee that were interested in that So we did look at a recent san francisco elections again san francisco allows Non-citizens who have children in san francisco city schools Can vote in school board elections. So it's a pretty limited scope In 2018, I think it was adopted in 2016. Maybe I'll have to I'll have to pull that out But in 2018 so still still fairly new there were 81 individuals who registered and only 30 who voted My recollection in looking and trying to track down some more recent numbers those numbers did increase So the sense is that if you when you first start the process People may be very hesitant to participate, but perhaps participation grows over time Next slide As I mentioned the committee There was a strong support throughout the committee for pursuing this Pursuing the option of expanding voting rights for non-citizens And the recommendation was to move forward with the consideration And really kind of handing it to council take the next step They recommended having a study session where you'd get down into some of the details Regarding what infrastructures needed what procedures what eligibility requirements And what are the real costs and logistics of setting up that system? Also very much encouraged the council to Engage in a really robust community outreach and engagement What is the interest? What is the diet desires of the community? And then I just note that half of those present at that meeting would have preferred To have set a deadline of 2026 To place something on the ballot So the only difference between the two groups was one about half of the committee not quite a majority But one half of those present Said let's let's give council a deadline of 2026 The other half said no We don't know how complicated this will be. We don't know whether 2026 is reasonable Let's leave that to council Next slide We then moved on to more More of kind of the cleanup items District-based elections. We do recommend We do recommend placing this on the ballot and we do recommend at this point at least of it being its own ballot measure Um, we of course have transitioned fully to district-based elections But our charter still mentions at large elections So this is just the background the slide california voting rights act prohibits at large election of council members if a city experiences racially polarized voting Racially polarized voting simply means not that's not animosity. It's simply that a Minority protected group Tends to vote differently Than the rest of the electorate But because the rest of the electorate is larger is able to over always outweigh the protected group And impair that that group's ability to elect candidates of their choice or to influence an election So in 2018 We did we were under threat of litigation as those of you who were here in 2018. We'll remember We were under threat of litigation. We engaged an independent Analyst to take a look at our prior city elections. They did find that there was racially polarized voting And therefore under threat of litigation the council adopted an ordinance to begin the transition to district-based elections As I say We've we've completed that transition. We're fully district-based elections at this point Next slide So the recommendation is to revise section four of the charter to provide four district-based election really to recognize and ratify The district-based election of council members To provide that the district boundaries will be set by ordinance That we will be required as required by state and federal law Have a decennial review of district boundaries Following the federal census And then we'll also provide in an additional review of district boundaries is allowable If the structure of council is revised And that provision is really in recognition of the idea That although the committee didn't support a direct elected mayor at this time Maybe in the future it would We would need a charter amendment at that time to allow a restructuring. So we might build it in this time around And so this revision Again will ratify what we did in 2018 and it will ensure compliance with the california voting rights act Next slide This is the general charter update and modernization. There's I think 10 or 11 items I'll talk a little bit more about the first two and then Go really quickly through the last few Next slide council vacancy, I know There have been some discussion that we need to Kind of clean up our appointment process And But in the in current our current Charter provision simply provides it in the in the event of a council vacancy Council gets to decide are you going to call a special election or are you going to appoint a replacement? And if appointed the appointee serves temporarily until the next election is held And again, that's a council's prerogative So the committee next slide the committee Considered that had a fair amount of discussion about the council vacancy procedures And determined to retain the current language gives the council the flexibility To address circumstances at the time of vacancy There's an understanding that this can often appointment can often be the quickest and least expensive Means of filling the vacancy. It's temporary. It ensures that the district has Representation while important decisions are being made and it minimizes the risks of deadlock in a six person council next slide The primary concerns were that the appointment an appointment can result In an appointment of a district representative by six individuals who don't live in that district That if the appointment is made it gives the appointee the advantage of running as an incumbent Um, and uh, it doesn't address the perceived difficulties in the appointment process But the committee also recognized at the end of the day that that process is set by council policy Not by the charter. So unless you want to eliminate entirely the possibility of Of proceeding by way of appointment You don't need to change the charter. You can change that policy however you want right now. It's uh, You know, it's a whole series of of election of votes Elimination votes which can get a little bit awkward And there may be just a simply a you know revise that policy to provide a different voting system Next slide frequency of charter amendments Currently it says it's going to be reviewed in 20 2002 and not less than every 10 years We wanted to kind of clean that up that's going to be reviewed in 2002 and every 10 years are after so it just really sets it as 10 years Um And then we would add a sentence It says nothing in this section precludes additional amendments That are be placed on the ballot by either voter initiative or by council ordinance, uh as deemed necessary I actually think that the charter provision currently Impleyedly allows that But because there's some questions we might as well clarify that and say yes We're going to do the comprehensive review every 10 years But in the interim, we're still free to move forward if there are charter provisions that are appropriate and this particularly came out for the committee in terms of You know in the future. Do we want to look at a directly elected mayor? Might we look at again at rank choice voting other elements? So Next slide Responsibility for emergency management Currently the charter gives the mayor a certain amount of authority during emergencies to take over And the sense really is that's not how we work We've been through some very significant emergencies in the last Five six years and so Currently the city code designates city manager as the director of emergency services So to avoid any confusion, we would clean that all up. We'll specifically call out in the Charter that the city manager and Has lead responsibility Um, and it'll we'll also clarify some language in the for the police chief and the fire chief Um and for the mayor Next slide So these I've grouped together the next two slides are grouping things together. I guess the next three slides These are all just elements that we're we're looking at for to give the city a little more flexibility in their operations The bpu to expand board of public utilities expand their Authority to include storm water and dry utilities including electricity broadband and others again Charter probably allows that already, but let's make it clear Clear that it does In the budget This was actually a recommendation from council to allow for a two-year budget So what we're proposing is a very simple change in that section That would allow the city manager to propose either a one-year budget or a multi-year budget Staying with all the current procedures. So no change to procedures It's just that the city manager can go to a multi-year budget If they so desire And then contract procurement Uh looking again at just changing some language to allow greater flexibility Next slide Clarification of three ambiguities. These are really simple City attorney just had to do with Whether the three years of california practice had to be Immediately proceeding appointment. This would give you flex the council flexibility If someone had three years of california practice, but last year they or last couple years They're working in another state. You could still appoint them if you so desired council member recall There was a separate provision in the chart currently in the charter for Filling a vacancy caused by a recall We couldn't figure out any reason to treat that differently than any other vacancies So we would change it. So it'll just be filled in accordance with section 31 And then the deputy officials, um, of course you appoint you the council appoint both the city manager and the city attorney The charter says that if we Decide to appoint a deputy it's subject to your confirmation Um, I don't think we've ever practiced that way. And so we would take out that provision next slide and then also very um important to the committee was to revise the Charter to ensure gender Unneutrality and also citizenship neutrality. So Will we revise the charter throughout to ensure gender neutral language? And we would also revise a charter to substitute resident for citizen throughout that citizen language generally came up in connection with With committees and commissions. So that's where that comes out Um, next slide and we're just about done just to mention some of the other issues that were considered um, I've mentioned before that the committee prioritized items that would require a charter amendment um, and Set aside those that could be accomplished by ordinance resolution or city initiative So that includes a number of the items of the 12 items that were referred over by council One of those you're going to hear next Which is the police oversight so But then due to constraints of time and resources the committee was not able to pursue discussion of the community advisory board There were some suggestions that maybe that community advisory board could be Revised to be a council of neighborhoods neighborhood council Talk about quorum. Maybe changing quorum issues for cab or also revising the districts Um district boundaries district boundaries can be done by council resolution But again the feeling on community advisory board was if we're going to dive into that We need to have a really robust engagement with the community. We need to engage the the community advisory board That was that was really beyond the time and resources of the committee Um, there was at least one individual from the public and a couple of members of the committee that suggested Maybe we should look at having a strong mayor system That did not gain traction with the committee so not pursued in that And then also a member of the public suggested a lower threshold for ballot initiatives And again that did not um, that would make it easier for citizens to put things on to the ballot And that also did not gain traction And next slide that's it All right. Thank you so much, Sue. I'm gonna turn it over to Hattie Cisco to see uh, first of all, madam chair Thank you so much for all of your time and your effort in trying to corral folks I have a hard enough time corraling six people So I can't even imagine a a group that large with that many ideas and such a fraud mandate Uh, did you have anything you wanted to add to the presentation? Um, not really anything to add to the presentation I'm here to support sue if you have any questions as to our process that I can answer I'm happy to do that. I also want to point out that vice chair oliveris is there In the chambers somewhere. So, um, he could also be called on if there's a question um, I do want to say, uh Well, basically just what you said, uh, mayor that, um First of all, it was an honor and a privilege for me to to, uh, chair this really, um, just Very engaged committee and, um, one of the best things about chairing this committee or any Board or commission is the opportunity to see up close firsthand the excellence of our staff and, uh, watching Sue Gallagher, Rob Jackson, Jeff Burke They had very, very short turnaround times to give us the information we were asking for to, uh, you know Set up guest speakers to give us information and they just they just did an amazing job We have an amazing staff and likewise Stephanie Williams, uh dina manis and sandy bliss just kept everything going and, uh City staff can't be appreciated enough as to just how amazing they are and how excellent They are, uh, we did hear from city staff members of Sakura Shields and Allen Alton to, uh, as guest educators and they were really great um, and and very appreciative of the fact that, uh, we had other guest speakers diva marie proto came twice Which is like really great. I'm she's a busy lady and, um, and hearing from, uh, our Directly elected mayors, Mayor Collin from san rafael and Teresa Barrett from pedaluma. So, um, It's just a wonderful opportunity staff has done an amazing job and, uh, the committee, uh Took up everything you asked us to take up in some form or another and, uh, prioritize what we could and, um Stayed in our lane, which was to look at everything you asked us to look at and we realize the committee realizes in handing it off to you your lane is a bit different that, um You have considerations as to how many ballot measures, uh to place on the ballot expenses voter sentiment voter fatigue. So, um We welcome hearing what you do next. So thank you All right. Thank you so much patty Questions from council who wants to start start with council member Sawyer? I think that was Sawyer. Was it not? Yes, it was Thank you, mayor. Um, just just first, um, i'm curious about in the, um, council remuneration whether or not the rather lucrative Benefits were discussed the medical Insurance what how much the discussion was there around that and secondly If we were to uh be able to identify the the full load on the as far as the remuneration as far as as far as the medical benefits I'm curious what kind of conversation was had if any about that reality Certainly and and very good question. Um, yes, we were we did discuss the benefits, um that council has provided Um, as you know, that includes health benefits dental vision um retirement Life insurance, um I have the list here, but quite a list of benefits Um, we did look at the value of those benefits the value the dollar value varies From council member to council member depending on the size of the family and so forth Um, the value ranged from about 17 000 to up to almost 33 000 In terms of the benefits. Um, so yes, we did Uh, let the committee know of that. There was discussion about that. There was a recognition that yes, that's on top of Any compensation that that might be decided That was my question. Thank you for now. Thanks I I remember what I'll go ahead Yeah, sorry. Um, I also realize I I hadn't noted that um, we did note it in the report But not in the presentation that the AMI that model Was adopted in berkeley Um, just a few years ago passed by the voters. Um, tied the council member salaries to AMI for Three-person household with the mayor at a hundred percent And for some reason the council members at 63 percent Actually, apparently that was the ratio that previously had existed. So it's a little bit of an odd number But they kept that so just so that you're aware that that model is not You know, it wasn't just taken from thin air. All right. Thank you council member sweater Thank you, mr. Mayor. Um, obviously I will have some comments once we hear from members of the public But the two questions I have Regarding council compensation. Was there any discussion about boards and commission compensations stipend or anything else like that? Or was it just focused on the seven members of the council? Just focused on the seven members of the council. There may have been And either chair cisco or vice chair oliveras who since he was behind me. I didn't realize he was here But thank you very much um You there may have been some some comments and mentions, but there was no No detailed discussion of compensation for boards and commissions He was not in his head with everything you were saying. So he's agreeing with you. So you couldn't see thank you Howdy, was that your recollection also? Yes, absolutely. Okay. Thank you. And then a question I have for the district-based election council members For our city attorneys since obviously the last charter review they went to the voters and voters said no What happens that we are now in district-based elections? What if the voters say Didn't you hear us last time? We don't think it should go in that direction Yes, and we did talk about that at the committee level as well We are of course hopeful that it will be ratified and we will move forward if not We will be likely going to court Seeking declaratory relief a court will then decide what a court would be looking at is The standards under the California voting rights act are pretty straightforward If you have racially polarized voting and at large you can't do that But the question is Is our evidence strong enough? You know, what what was the evidence and and did that meet the threshold for For um transitioning to to district-based elections. So that's what a court would be looking at Would be in a declaratory relief Procedure so In and if if a court, you know a court could go, you know, I mean I Would I believe that our evidence was strong that we really had very little choice If a court was to say no Then we would have to look at Re undoing what we've done and how we undo it That's a that that's a question Let's hope we don't go there. Thank you Councilmember Fleming Thank you. Wow. What a big scope of work Um much thanks to to you and your team sue as well as your team patty I'm constantly impressed by the service that people commit to our city the uncompensated service of the board and commission level And I think you really exemplify it Um, I have a question about If there was any discussion around what the role of the city council is and what we represent in terms of The public's voice how it was conceptualized amongst the committee members I'm not sure I understand the question in terms of your role I mean your role at this point is that you'll you'll take take this on you'll make the decisions as to what What you want us to pursue what you want us to draft up for a ballot measures Obviously, you won't be making any final decisions today. You'll be giving general direction. No no formal action taken today Um, and then how you want to engage the public We did You know notice all of our meetings our meetings were open to the public. They were in the evening We we did some community outreach But we did not do the kind of outreach engagement for example that you heard In connection with the general plan You'll have to decide to what extent do you want to Bolster what we had done at the committee committee level Thank you. Um, and uh, I do appreciate all that my question was a little different But I didn't do a very good job of explaining it What i'm trying to get at is in regards to council compensation responsibilities and roles Was it really talked about what the purpose of the city council is why we're here and what it is that we do And how we represent the public That's very interesting. Um, that's an interesting question and we really didn't we um, we talked about Kind of we talked in general terms But we did not delve into that. We kind of took that as a given And and that's a very interesting Question and maybe that would have been been helpful Okay Another question I have along those lines is was it discussed that different districts For uh command different levels of engagement from their representatives and that in some cases Some districts have much higher needs than per se Even the demands upon the mayor whereas other districts have Significantly lower demands for time and engagement And then the second part of that question is was it noted because a lot of folks some folks on the the Charter review committee were previous mayors and council members Was it noted that the city has grown and that with the advent of social media and email And council members carrying phones that there is a significant change in workload that is that has occurred over the past couple of decades Uh, yes, uh to both questions. Um Yes, there was certainly a recognition that the workload has increased over time In terms of and now I I understand a little bit more about the roles and responsibilities We talked a lot about everyone agreed excuse me everyone agreed Including the mayors uh that were former mayors that were on the committee that being mayors essentially A full-time job. It may not be an eight to five job, but it's certainly a 40 hour a week job. Um The sense uh with respect to Other council members um was a quote that was repeated a couple of times. I think a quote maybe from one of you that uh Or or maybe a former council member is that it depends on what kind of council member you want to be So that um, some council members will be very engaged Will be uh, you know attending Uh committee community events really reaching out being very responsive to their constituents others Might not be As engaged and that might have to do with also what their other responsibilities are what jobs they have What family obligations they have and so forth. So I'm not disparaging anyone But there's going to be a difference in how much people are able to or willing to put into into the job So there was a recognition that sitting aside the mayor council members, um I think the general estimate was probably 30 to 40 hours a week That the people spend but a recognition that that's going to vary and I think your point of that it may vary somewhat by district as well It's probably well well stated And I have so many questions, but I'll try to I'll limit myself to one more which is Did the committee at all consider an hourly compensation rate? So that perhaps the public could feel that they were getting the value Out of their individual council members that perhaps at the end of every two week period We we submit a time card or something of that nature Rather than just a blanket pay There there was not any discussion of that Other than to the very limited extent that one of the proposals was the To tie it to the lowest salary of a city employee And the lowest paid city employee is is paid hourly $15 and 85 cents an hour. So But there was no real discussion of of trying to set an hourly rate for council member or mayor Okay, thank you. I'll hold my questions council member mcdonald Thank you. I know I'm not sure how we're doing this if we're saving all our comments for later on And these are just um limited to questions because I have several pages and I know you're not surprised by that mayor Yeah, let's do questions now We'll let the public weigh in and then we'll do comment great. Thank you So one of the the bullets that I saw was around unexcused absences for council And I was wondering if that's delineated of what is considered an unexcused absence versus an absence If there's something or language around council being allowed to go on a vacation and if there's anything that needed to be in there around how We would do a reduction as far as council pay if there was a reduction by city staff such as You know, we needed to do something as far as budget cuts And then how we would reinstate that if we go through the similar process Or if there's an ordinance or something that we can add language So that if we do reduce we can go back without having to go back out with the charter So that's my first question. Then I'll flip through and see what else I've got for you. Okay. Thank you In terms of unexcused absences That would be To be determined by the council either Within the charter or I would recommend actually to have that be You know either by ordinance or by resolution In generally that in general, I think the sense was that that would mean you didn't just didn't show up to a meeting You didn't have a good reason You haven't been excused By the council as a whole But that could take any shape that the council desired In terms of reduction in council pay For to parallel a reduction in city In city pay Again the details would have to be worked out You'd have to the council would have to take some form of action I would recommend that it not be Embedded in the charter in order to give you flexibility And that that would be implemented by a council policy or by an ordinance as to how that would play out And then as far as the service of the mayor and Was there any consideration over the length of the term of the mayor that was selected by Council which I believe right now is a two-year term But was there any consideration around having a mayor that would be selected for perhaps a one-year term With the ability to increase that to maybe up to three years or any consideration around doing things a little bit differently if we were There was a concern after a year I'm just curious if that was ever brought up or if it was just to keep it as current status quo there wasn't um Well, I'll answer both ways. There wasn't a specific discussion of keeping the existing system and changing it In terms of how many years of service for what the term is for a mayor There was a suggestion that again didn't get traction of Eliminating the two that you can't serve exact consecutive terms Excuse me So that it would allow a mayor to to serve a second to your term When we talked about the directly elected mayor, there was discussion of having a two-year term for for a directly elected mayor Thank you, and then around voting rights for non citizens um Was there any discussion around Like our legal obligations to ensure the protection of non-city citizens if we were to move forward on voting I know that that was something that you suggested that We needed to do a study session or was there anything brought up that council should be aware of for us to move forward I know there was conversations with the registrar voters and how that would work with them But just ensuring to all of our residents that we would be able to protect them in some way or or that we were aware of Perhaps some unintended consequences around I think you said around naturalization And so I want to make sure that before we would move forward or for consideration of something like that that the council would be You know very aware of what we could be potentially doing to our residents and making sure that they feel protected and safe If we move forward on that Yes, and and the the we did talk about that in the committee um And again what I saw in other just jurisdictions was really about giving people notice A sense of we'll let you decide your own risk, but be aware that there are some risks Okay, and my last question is around Council member recall or removal of a council member if there's been Some type of egregious act or something that's been noted Is that something that was discussed during the charter review process that we would be able to remove somebody By vote of the council or does that need to go back out to voters? Um, it wasn't it was not discussed in any length it was on the list that came from the council And uh, it just didn't it didn't rise to the prior to a priority So the committee did not take it up, but it would actually require a charter amendment to uh to give council members The right to remove a fellow council member or mayor Right now you have the ability to remove someone from the mayorship or the vice mayorship But not to remove them from the council itself There are a lot of due process requirements that would have to go into removal from from the council itself So it's not an easy process and it would need to be embedded into the charter Any other questions? Mr. Vice mayor piggybacking on some of the questions that have been asked in regards to the uh The san francisco issue with with immigration has any of those concerns been Brought to fruition for any of the residents of san francisco that we know of not not that i'm aware of I did not do extensive research If we move forward and bring back a study session That is something that we would look at And not just in san francisco, but in some of the other communities as well that that they're Allowing that all right. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Vice mayor. Let's go ahead and go to public Council member plumbing one last quick question about non-citizen voting What was the nature of the legal challenges or a couple of the top legal challenges and other jurisdictions where they had Allowed for non-citizen voting I'm not familiar with the details There was an allegation of constitutional violation and giving non-citizens the right to vote but My own research indicated that there isn't anything in federal or state law That would preclude a local jurisdiction But i'm we will certainly be tracking That litigation and see where it goes. I'm not familiar with any other litigation that has happened, but We'll do a deeper dive into that as well. Thank you so much And and mr. Mayor before we go to public comment. May I Just expand on my response to councilmember schwett helms question about what happens if the voters turn down um District elections I think I left it out that the we would be transitioning back And I think probably what the most likely way that the court would tell us to do that would be as people's terms expired Their replacements would be at large so very similar to how we did the transition to districts. We would be transitioning Back as people's um terms expired Again, hopefully we don't get there, but that is a possibility No, I appreciate that and I think uh myself and anybody who'd been through those discussions in 2018 feel highly confident that we would Uh be told by judges uh that we had made the right move With that if there's any and I was just going to say it's going to say judges across the state have generally Um ruled that way so Yeah, I believe uh, I believe you're being generous. I think the track record of people fighting a cbra allegation is uh 100 percent Uh lost and zero percent one Correct. I believe All right, let's go to public comment and sandy if you wouldn't mind Uh facilitating Sure, thank you. Um, we're now taking public comments on item 3.2 If you wish to make a comment in person, please put your name in the administrator. Um At the top of the well or via zoom, please raise your hand if you're a dialing in via telephone Please down star 9 to raise your hand. You'll have three minutes for your comment and a countdown timer alert at the conclusion of that period um Our first speaker is um, eric frazier followed by alan worstall Thank you very much. Mr. Marin city council Boy, that was really I mean today's action packed with the stuff that you have to do And I can really respect that Uh, thank you council member soil for bringing up the council compensation to include health care And I have to say I'm a little bit offended that that was uh omitted from the presentation Because I think that is a pretty big chonko compensation and shows how friendly family friendly the current plan is It leads me to believe that actually there should be an amendment to the charter That requires information that's used in the process of making policy and offered up by staff or elected officials Needs to be factual and complete under penalty of perjury Information that is not verified as factual can be labeled as speculative opinion and so on Furthermore reports should be reviewable with updates counterpoints and revisions attached to the digital document Uh when stored on the city's Hard drives and the reason for this is that Really when we talk about things being done in the city, typically we're battling back against misinformation lack of information Even politically inspired propaganda and stuff. That's really ideological I think voters really insist that they're elected officials Traffic and facts whenever possible and have positions that are just defensible by facts This begins with the information being known and that leads me back to my efforts over The this presentation lacking some information Let me also say that some other issues here. We ask whether the city council should be a full-time profession Maybe they just need more staff support If comparable cities have uh, you know, sort of uh, average fee that's already equal to the city When given the adjustments that should have been sought over the years, I don't know why they weren't Why would we want to go to a higher level that just sort of encourages full-time employment? Uh furthermore, I'm there doesn't seem to be a lot of discussion about the influence of political money in elections So right now a lot of political money is used to elect people that I don't earn very much Would that political money be less or more if the person being elected was paid more? I'm all for a directly elected mayor For one reason it's because of recall. For instance with the ceremonial mayor That person can be recalled for less than $15,000 because they only need 20 of the vote in their district Whereas an at-large mayor would be subject to a That that campaign would be much more expensive And by the way, I think a recall effort Names the person to replace the recalled party So but I think a lot more work has done an outreach Thank you Allen worstall, please Hi, thank you. Uh, my name is allen. I'm calling from santa rosa and uh, I live in rosa And so I'm someone that has benefited from going to district elections because before that We never had anyone from our community or not even usually our side of highway 101 Represents everyone This was from benna valley or rinking valley or somewhere Way to the east and you know from way wealthier communities than us So i'm i'm really hoping that we uh, keep the district based elections And I mean, I just have to wonder with um, you know who's uh Scared about us having districts based elections someone must obviously be because the santa rosa police department has Uh harassed our representative from our district and now let's talk about Removing district elections entirely. So, uh, I guess whatever you're doing eddie keep it up because it's scaring people Thank you. I really appreciate my time Can I see uh logan pits? Thank you, uh Just want to thank the city council, uh and the mayor for Appointing a great charter review committee. I also want to thank our chair and vice chair And I think one of the things that was noted about the committee was how Uh diverse and representative it was of the city Um, I think that that showed all the different neighborhoods all the different demographics And it was it was a great thing to see in santa rosa city government. It's something that we don't always see Um, and we should strive towards and I think that when you look especially at the vote for increased council compensation You saw that diversity represented Some people thought it was too low. Some people thought it was too high But a majority thought it was the right amount And i'm hoping that's what we'll see if you do decide to take that to the voters in november Um, so again, just want to thank, uh, the mayor. Thank the council for embarking on this process It was a lot of fun and uh Good luck, uh with figuring out what's the place on the ballot All right. Thank you. Sandy. Oh, it looks like we've got one more hand Okay, um michael titan Hi there. Can you hear me? Yes, we can It's really brief. Um, i'm someone who was deeply in favor of district elections because it does allow parts of the community that generally don't get represented to have representation And We need to keep it that way I know that there's an effort to turn away from district elections and that is Taking us away from equity and it's taking us in a direction that concentrates power in the white and the wealthy uh citizens of santa rosa And we absolutely can't afford to do that anymore. So Please keep district elections. Please Uh, fairly compensate representatives so that we can get better members and members who are um You know who actually represent the community Um, and how don't you know aren't independently wealthy Um, we need their voices Because that's the kind of people that make up the city. Thank you Okay, and I see one more hand, uh, alexa Hi there. My name is alexa forrester and I just was calling in support of continuing district based elections and also Paying our city council a lot more. I think that you have really hard jobs And it's really trying times and I would like, um, you to be able to be fairly compensated for your work and I'd like, um, Whenever you all decide to move on I'd like to be able to attract top talent. Um, and not have It be restricted to people who have um, you know independent wealth or something like that. So, um, I just wanted to Support those two aspects of this. Thank you. Great. Thank you, sandy Sandy do we have any People looking to make comment in the chambers perhaps the vice chair He's he's rising and going to the podium Thank you, mr. Mayor just here to answer any questions that there were any but again I want to reiterate the comments made by our Chair about the wonderful process Uh, you know, I've been associated with the city since 1979 Uh, and I have seen a lot of changes in our community, but I tell you by far As far as a process and community engagement in something that is very important and critical to our community Uh, the work that you put together all of you in appointing this This body to read the charter was amazing. Uh, you know, sometimes we look at Recruiting people that have some overall knowledge I guess I would say people that are within the bubble of local government But what happened this time around is that there was such diversity Including the the strong voice of youth who came together And I think that allowed us to really look at new ideas And maybe even sometimes I think a risk of exploring something new And I think you saw that already with some of the recommendations that have come forward So I wish you well in the process. You have some very important decisions to make But it's not over. We'll have other opportunities as well And I think one critical piece of that was that clarification And not having to wait 10 years to do this again So hopefully that will be something that you will consider To leave the door open to be able to continue with this process and continue with the Engagement of our community. So thank you And mayor, I don't see anybody else rising in the chamber and we have no voicemail public comment Perfect. I'll bring it back then to the council Councilmember mcdonnell they'll start with actually before we go to comment Sue if it'd be helpful, can you please frame for us what type of feedback you are looking for? Sure What we are looking for is really some direction from the council As to which of the elements you would like us to move forward with We will then start putting together a package to bring to you in june. I apologize. I don't remember the exact date But we'll bring that package to you You'll then be able to evaluate and and make your you know make more decisions then and of course then it on July 12th We'll be your final decision as to what goes on the ballot But what i'm looking for now is of this Of this list What would you like us to move forward with? All right. Thank you so much. We'll start with councilmember mcdonnell Thank you, mayor so um council pay was one of the first items you asked for us to consider and Certainly, this is something that needs to be well thought out I do believe that it is an equity issue for us to address that's certainly if you are independently wealthy Or you have a means of a secondary income It certainly makes it much easier to serve in a role that takes 40 to 50 hours a week So I think that looking at salary needs to be part of our conversation I do want to ensure that when you talked about benefits when you looked at the medium Price of what our employees get i'm sorry. I'm not saying that well, but what their their median salary is Did you include benefits in that 95 000 with the lowest around 62 000? And no, we didn't include benefits in any of those numbers that were on that slide So your benefits are on top of that the median for a city employee is 92 000 plus health benefits Yes, thank you for that clarification So while my main concern is that if we move to that sort of pay We're doing such a massive jump for council that it could preclude us from being able to do some of the programs And while it's such a small percentage of the overall city budget I'm not sure if that's been included in next year's budget and that was a question I had sent forward and so my concern would be that we'd have to do a mid-year adjustment if that was actually voted on So I'd like to see us have a conversation around some different Prices of what it would be perhaps from the lowest paid employee in between the median price range I'm comfortable with us just doing what the charter says where it's 800 plus adding that 5 percent But but I do see this as a major equity issue It's a former single mom in this community as a former Person who was raising three small children There would be no way that I could have served in this role with the amount of hours it takes to do the job well and be able to be To afford to do it and we don't want to make a decision based upon my current situation or any of the council member's current situation We really want to think about this in terms of future and who we can attract for these roles So that that would be some of my feedback as far as the mayor's position I would like to look at the opportunity for council to have a term of one to three years for a mayor's position So currently I know the charters has a language that we have somebody that can be in there for two years But no more than two years at a time But I think that um from a council's perspective We should have the opportunity to Put in a mayor that could be there maybe perhaps another year if they so chose to serve in that role And in fact Not have them serve past a year if if perhaps It wasn't the right fit for them As far as the rank choice voting, um, that was a secondary item or a third item on my list Um with one change for rank choice voting My concern would be around the cost to taxpayers and implementing a system So I would not be in favor of rank choice voting at this time, but think that it's something we should keep an eye on Um, I am highly interested in ensuring that we hear the voices of voting from non-citizens Um specifically when it comes to school board elections or city council elections But I do want to make sure that our community members feel safe in doing so And so I think that your idea of having a study session and an in-depth look at Perhaps any legal repercussions That could be brought to us our residents would be very important to me I'm fine with a timeline of 2026 But that's only after seeking feedback from our current community members so that they do not feel disenfranchised From here until 2026 I want to ensure that they do feel that they have a voice and a sense of belonging in our community They are buying things their children go to our schools And so that's very important to me that they feel that they have a voice in our community So, um, but but that said I want to make sure that we do it with the protection of that I would like to also look at DACA and seeing if DACA Residents would be able to vote. I know currently they can go to school They can receive grants for that But is there any language around that if we have any DACA residents? So that they maybe perhaps could vote and even if we had to invest in that District-based elections a hundred percent in favor of that is the law. That's what we should be doing That's what we need to confirm in Our charter and that needs to be clarified to community members And I don't believe that any of the council has any Plans to repeal that of moving the work that we've done to move forward And so I really hope that our residents feel confident that we are Leading towards making sure that's just affirmed in the charter for the process that we're currently using For council vacancy What I'd like to just see is how the voting is done the process of filling vacancy when we're in chambers as being a Victim of that this last time. I would say that clarification Needs to be done of how the voting works It feels a little bit like ranked choice voting, but it's not clear for the person that's applied for the position And I don't know that it's as clear for the council So I think having that if it needs to not be in the charter, I'm fine with that But perhaps an ordinance or language that supports what's in the charter would be Important all the other cleanup language that you mentioned the bpu the budget the contract procurement Emergency management of our city manager I'm I think cleaning up the charter language This is a great opportunity and then to keep track of those things that we see is problematic And being able to bring that back to voters and not waiting the 10 years in between that would also be of interest I see our charter as a bylaws that govern the city and so limiting us to a 10-year process is not healthy I think for a city so being able to bring that back as needed would be of interest to me I do want to say thank you for making sure that the language is gender and Citizenship neutral throughout the entire document and making sure that that's done in fact in every ordinance that We bring forward from here out would be Important to me and important. I believe to the council as well And um with that I think that covered most of my notes I had some but I I got them all down But thank you so much a huge shout out to the charter review committee for their intense work And and really to you and your team sue for all of the staff that brought together all the attachments For those that are at home If you look at the attachments that the charter review committee looked at it was several pages of examples And so I just want to say thank you so much for such an in-depth process It was a great learning process for me and hopefully for our community members as well Thank you council member. Let's go to council member Fleming Thank you very much mayor so What I wish is that we could do a study session on each of these specific items because I think rolling them all into one conversation here is is a big lift for both staff and the council however with that and With a mind toward the fact that we have to get something done by july 12th. I will be Proceeding with my comments here I'll start with I'll go in order that I see them here for council compensation. I think we Certainly needed to look at this. It's pretty unanimous that That we do need to change something about this I think that we need to be Mindful in how we do it in that Without a directly elected mayor You know some council members may be spending as much time as the mayor Doing their jobs and so Not sure that we want to undervalue the work that council members do or create a two-tiered system Unless the mayor is direct elect and that we need to be mindful that the role of The city council is to express the public's voice here at the table And that if we decline to compensate the council At area median income We're really sending a message to the community that their voice is not Is valuable as say other city employees And furthermore at the end of the day it will be the community that makes this decision So I think that we ought to put out there something that's reasonable Without fear and then allow the the community to make a decision that reflects their desires As far as a directly elected mayor, I tend to lean toward a directly elected mayor And the reason why is that we're starting to see with the advent of fully districted A fully districted city that there are more increasing prevalence of Of provincial concerns, which is only normal and natural And as a city council member, I would love to be able to turn to a mayor and ask them To lead us in a direction that reflects the entire well-being of the city without concern for A specific subset of people and allowed the work of the protection of the specific subset of people to fall to their council member so To that end I would like to see a four-year term For perhaps with accompanying Term limits as we see in other cities across the bay area For for directly elected mayor For rank choice voting, I do see its limitations Um, I also I really like rank choice voting. I think it gives people more options I'm I'm on the fence about it just because of the examples given during the presentation today I could go either way. I do think that It would produce more equitable outcomes. And so if you know really pressed, I would say we should go with rank choice voting I'm completely in support of voting rights for non-citizens With the warnings and disclaimers Provided to potential voters And then with district based elections for council members, I think that there's really no question that we're already there And that if we were to return to how things were before we would end up In legal trouble. So The one thing actually that I think didn't get a lot of attention And that I'm really not ready to make a decision on now as a charter update and modernization There were quite a number of specific detail changes some of which on their face sound great like gender neutrality Of course, that's really important And and the potential to have more frequent revisions to the the charter But then there's other things that I found really concerning like the fact that the city council had the right to approved Deputies but we haven't been doing that practice. So I think we need to Review the delta between the operational realities of the city As set forth in the charter and the practice and and not just willy-nilly Just sweep up a whole bunch of things that need to be cleaned up today And that when we if we do have an opportunity to bring that back and look at it That we also do some of this stuff that didn't get addressed during the The charter review process that have to be done by charter review particularly quorums around boards and commissions that In my mind sometimes deprive Petitioners of their their rights to have say a change made in a historic property because of lack of quorums Or the community advisory board having a different requirement than say The cultural heritage board and so I think we ought to really take a strong look at how those function before just You know foregoing our our once in a 10-year opportunity To make those adjustments I have plenty more to say but I will not take up more of your time once again Thank you so much to the community to the staff and to the charter review committee Thank you councilmember go to councilmember slatham Thank you, mr. Mayor again. I want to echo the compliments of this process and I really do appreciate The thoroughness of your presentation and I've had several conversations during this process with not only my appointees But others on the committee and they're very complimentary of all the information that they're processing so Job well done So I also want to give my overall impression that And I said this from the get-go we establish this 21 person committee to Dive into this and if I were to ask you so you didn't give us an hours You know how many hours to do your staff and the committee member collectively Come used to come up with these recommendations So I'm supportive of all the recommendations as a councilmember because that's the process we set up I may have some differences of opinion what the council chooses To put on the ballot as a voter of santa rosa But from the process perspective on supportive of all the recommendations and I'll go through some of my pros and cons But with that overall category like I will be supportive of Moving forward as recommended by the committee regarding the council compensation the first item. There's two areas that Raise concern for me. One was transparency. The other one is equity transparency No one knows how much each of us put in Towards our duties as a council person, you know, some of us are on regional boards. Some of us aren't So I'd be a proponent. Let's change the system if we're gonna start compensating do time cards, right? So the voters can know if we're talking about transparency. Let's not make assumptions I've heard we've said several times during this meeting 30 to 40 hours. I've heard 40 or 50 hours One way to confirm that and again having been a manager within this organization That's why we have time cards and that is when someone signs that time card You're saying this is the amount of time and energy and hours I put towards The accomplishing the city's goals. So I would like if we do go in that direction I would like that, you know for future conversations And then with the equity it really strikes me as Being different. Why are we just applying this to the city council? We look at our planning commissioners and you know Former chair cisco and chair of this committee cisco How many hours does she put in either on planning commission charter review? And they're not even getting medical benefits and you look at you know, the bpu planning commission designer view culture heritage I just think that's not being very equitable if we say nope council We should be getting compensated for what we're doing for the city Well, what about the dozens of others on boards and commission to do it and again for me? That's not a recommendation for From this charter review committee, but for me, I'd really want to entertain. Let's do stipends I know the county has done that. I think they did that with their redistricting for every meeting You got a hundred bucks to help compensate for some of those other areas They made it challenging for some people to get to those meetings So I'd really be interested in entertaining that again from the equitable equity perspective Uh, then direct elective mayor. I agree with the sub or with the um, charter review committee's Suggesting that we don't need one. I think it's a having been in a variety of roles both as a council member and as a mayor I think the current process works and I really think it's most appropriate given a two-year term Because we get a new council every two years So each of the seven members of each council get to elect who they want to have as their mayor and vice mayor I I think it's a wonderful system that works and I think it served the city well, so I agree with the Committee suggestion same thing with rank choice voting. I don't think the city of santa rosa is ready for that Regarding voting rights for non citizens. Um, I would I like their recommendations. Let's explore more about this What are the practical implementations of it the one caveat? I would say I'm guessing this would probably fall within the 2023 List of priorities. I'm not sure how the city manager or who how much staff time would it take for a steady session on this topic Um, and I would just encourage the next council if that's going to be a council priority to schedule that Let's do that so we can balance it amongst the other priorities that we are tasking city staff with And then with some of the charter update and modernization I I agree with everything that the Subcommittee or charter review committee is putting forward regarding the general neutrality and I also add my voice if that could be on every Document that we have including presentations because I know later today. We'll have somewhere. We're not using the general Gender neutral language, so I would say if we're going to start with the charter Let's try to implement it so we're all talking the same sort of language. Once again, thank Thanks to the committee so to your staff. This is a great job. I'm looking forward to the next discussion We're deciding what actually if anything will go on the ballot Thank you council member to the council member Sawyer Thank you mayor, and I also want to thank Our city attorney and everyone who worked on the presentation very comprehensive It's a and the committee and it just it goes without saying this was a an enormous amount of work and something that Only happens right now every 10 years, but things come up. I think it's I think it's worthy of Considering that having the council consider Other issues that could come forward that shouldn't wait 10 years So I agree with virtually everything all of the recommendations that came out of the committee Um But I do have a process question about the council compensation and although I am in favor of increasing The council compensations. It's very clear that our current rate renumeration is Not Reflective of the amount of work that council members do especially the mayor Um, but I'm curious about how it would be I'm not in favor of a $92,000. I'm not in favor of a half a million dollars going to the council every year I'm just not I'm just I think that there's a A sweet spot in there that I would be in favor of but I would be uncomfortable With that half million dollars going to council Pay I don't think it should be an occupation We it's very easy to see in washington the results of Politicos or politicians having an occupation The I think it's it's not in the spirit of of what we do as a council But back to the renumeration If if it's on the ballot, is it going if you know, assuming that we Move forward with all of the recommendations for the for the council Whether that becomes the vote of the council Is this the the the taxpayers? Who are paying the bill? Would see or are they going to see? These numbers the $92,950 for the mayor and the $61,347 for the council members plus benefits How will it be? Articulated on the ballot or if and that may be a question for the future You may not know right now how that would happen, but not giving The taxpayer or the voters re taxpayers Options they may out of hand just say no And we would be right back where we started wondering why it is that the the community is so resistant To paying council members more money It is it is it has shown to be a difficult lift By that by the voters so do you have a sense of of Whether or not it could show options or is it just going to be a recommended? What just a single number for the mayor and a single number for the for the council members? How how would it go forward? Thank you council member It would go forward on the ballot By the the ballot measure itself would simply state kind of the formula. I've been saying so it would State if you went with the committee's recommendation It would be that the mayor will be paid 100 of am i for a three-person household and council members will be paid Two-thirds of am i for a three-person household and then whatever other provisions you want to include in there That would be what the ballot language would provide The actual language in the charter would be also part of the ballot measure In terms of the actual dollar amounts and the And the issue of the benefits That's going to be in the materials. I don't know sitting here today. I don't know How that gets incorporated into the ballot materials But even if the city didn't put it in that's all going to be made public Um, and I would recommend that we be up front. This is what this means. This is what the ballot measure means If it were passed In terms of giving options we're not able to give options on a ballot measure because the ballot measure is either Yay or nay it doesn't I figured there was probably no place for options Yeah, there is a there is a way, but I don't recommend it Which is that you have a couple of ballot measures on there and the voters can Can vote yes for the one they'd like Then you have to include in each ballot measure that whichever one gets the most votes is the one that prevails It can lead to voter confusion. Why are these different options on there? So I um, it's it's possible you could do that you could decide to do that, but It does raise some just practical problems Yeah, I think the the length of our ballots these days. Um, I the last thing I would want to do is create Ballot confusion or voter confusion Um, so I do have a difficult I have difficulty with this with this recommendation because of the amount um I just think it's it's a it's a it is a big reach And I I fear especially and I think it should be shown exactly how much that amount would be I think that if we don't I mean we show how much the city manager makes we show how much the city attorney makes I mean, it's all public knowledge Um, but on a but on a ballot, um, I think that that by not showing that amount. I think it is Um, not giving a complete and accurate and truthful Picture of exactly what we're talking about which is these numbers So, um, or whatever they might be when it hits the bat when it hits the ballot Or the you know, want to go before the voters? Sure And if I may um on any ballot measure the city attorney's office needs to prepare an impartial analysis Um, and that is one uh place where we could add in and I think we would add in what the dollar amounts are And what the other benefits are So it would not show on the the Well, actually the the space is limited for the it wouldn't really it's very limited. That's right It would just be yay or nay on going forward with the with the eye with the with the package, I guess Um, so that's the only place that I really have um anxiety about is the is the compensation Um, I wanted increased and I probably would go with the average of comparable cities Um, maybe a little more. Um, I know the work it takes to be mayor It is it is a full-time job Um But I again, I would be concerned with turning that position into an occupation Um, and I think that's what we would be ending up with if we went for the full vote And that's this doesn't even reflect the the Benefits so it's not just five. It's not just a half a million dollars. It's a half a million dollars plus benefits So I would I would be concerned what programs we might have to reduce or eliminate Even though it is only a small part of the of our all-we're-all budget It is not a small amount of money and um, it could indeed During budget times force, uh councils in the future, uh to make decisions in in Programs that they might not otherwise have to make had we not gone so had we not made it so lucrative So thank you. I'll stop there. Thanks All right, thank you council member. We'll go to the vice mayor Thank you, mayor I'll start with Ranked voting. Uh, I believe it's only changed one out of 32 elections. So I can't see myself justifying supporting uh in regards to The charter updated monitor modernization I agree with the suggestions. In fact, I think we did a great job On our last on our last call about it in regards to Uh, mayor at large I don't think we're ready for it I think people are barely learning what our district elections look like our district clients look like So I wouldn't I wouldn't like to confuse people even more and as council member swatham stated I think we've done a good job about electing our mayor I know we've done a great job On this round and hopefully you guys did a good mayor job with the vice mayor as well In regards to To equity We are the leaders of the north bay I'd like to see this issue studied further and in regards to to Our citizens having the right to vote In regards to district banks based elections, I'd like to say thank you. Hopefully I've done The people that voted for me and those that didn't vote for me, right Um, I assure you that Regardless of the negative experiences the great the good ones have been much greater and I would gladly do this job for free Having said that I know that there are plenty of people in my community who are better Equipped more capable than I to sit here in this chair that I take up currently Uh, but they might be restricted for financial reasons I don't know what that What that concepts con uh What's the word we've been using all day and I said Compensation how can I forget such an important word? Uh with that concept? And I just forgot the word again nonetheless though The the the compensation that people deserve for the for representing their community It has no bounce what it looks like if it's 1585 an hour and as as councilman showham stated We get a we get a clock That's great And it stippens for for the other council for other uh boards as he stated that would be great I mean at least for the gas as we know so expensive for people to make it from point a to point b I guess my only question with that one is is would there be a limitation of hours of operation? I'm known to to recite with my constituents out in public So hopefully it's not a nine to five job, right? Uh And I believe I've already mentioned the the the charter updated modernization lastly sue Stephanie former mayor olivares and patting hopefully my appointees weren't too much trouble Maybe just a little bit, but hopefully not too much with that. I say thank you All right. Thank you so much. Mr. Vice mayor again. I want to echo the thank yous to our team Everybody who participated Huge thank you to the city attorney's office for all of the work But also I want to make sure we give a round of applause for our city clerk team as well Who we know how understaffed they are and how big of an undertaking this is So thank you so much Stephanie and dina and sandy and everybody else who's who participated Thank you to our very good and very dedicated charter review committee It's not easy for folks who don't do government speak day in and day out to to grapple with a lot of these topics and Chair Cisco your team that that you had was was on it But I got a chance to watch most of the meetings that you were having It was a highly engaged group who was very intellectually curious about the topics that were at hand And I think did the the public justice and having the discussions and making recommendations That they sent towards us and one of my favorite things too was watching people disagree And in just acknowledging when they didn't actually know How they felt about an issue and there were some some difficult issues that you brought forward I'm going to start by actually calling out one of the the charter recommendations But I think is the low key most influential one that we have in here and that's going to be Clarifying that you can make charter amendments more frequently than every 10 years through the charter review process I think that that gives us some leeway to acknowledge that our city charter is evolving As we grow into a bigger city and as we decide how our governance needs the best meets the needs of the public that we serve I think that's a really critical one too. And so I want to thank you and your team I know you guys come through the charter and I know how much work it was working with our department head And with our leadership team to identify areas of need So I'll be very supportive of pretty much all of these that you put together though I'm waiting to see obviously some of the the discussion and some of the language and some of the conversation with the public about them Ranked choice voting on a huge fan of I was really excited to ask the charter review to review this one I did watch the the meeting and it became apparent very quickly that there's got to be a bigger educational campaign around it To make sure that folks understand the why as well as the how Before we would make that move so I get the recommendation from the the charter committee Not to move forward at this point with it that made sense to me particularly after watching the discussion Though I do love rank choice voting overall. I think it's a good system District elections. Nobody's coming for district elections from the day We all I think have moved into them seamlessly. We all appreciate the benefits that they have But I do support having the the cleanup language that's on there Just to continue to protect the city But I think that we have a good case to be able to sell to the public on the importance of district elections I am where I will disagree with the charter committee Some of the charter committee most of the charter committee is on the at-large mayor discussion I think that having an at-large mayor Would benefit the community in ways that In ways that weren't really discussed First and foremost, I think particularly if you have a two-year at-large Mayorship that you end up having You have a reason for people to show up and vote every single time I think when we did our district elections I think that you saw A huge disparity based on which election cycle people Were were asked to vote in fact We structured our districts in a sequencing of our districts specifically around maximizing participation In districts that were underrepresented or had folks that saw a significant drop out drop off from one ballot to another The drop off on people who return a ballot between a gubernatorial and a presidential election in the oakmott is about three percent It it goes from about a hundred percent to about 97 percent Almost everybody votes almost every election But if you look at the drop off in roseland between a gubernatorial election and a presidential election It is severe. I I don't have the number off the top of my head But I think it was almost 30 of the electorate By giving people a reason to be excited to show up and to not just vote for who's going to do The work in their neighborhood, but who is going to have the overall vision For the city I think is a really important thing in a city of santa rosa side Side it's part of how we can continue to have conversations About the need for developing additional housing while also still giving neighbors an opportunity to make housing projects better By talking about the impact that they'll have for them on the on the street To me, it's two sides of the same coin. So i'm very supportive of an out-large mayor program Particularly if it's two years directly elected Council pay this was the obvious one for all of us when charter review came up I joke with people all the time that it had become the half written portion of the goodbye speech from council members When they are leaving the dais for the last time talking about how important council pay would be in the future The future is now I think that the challenge that we run into is how do we make sure that we talk about the impact that The current compensation has on the ability of people to serve without clouding the discussion around The specific decisions that are currently being made from the dais and I think because What I'd like to do is continue to talk about how council pay benefits the community long term 10 20 years down the road And not tie it to individual council members I think that part of the discussion needs to be the sequencing of when council members get paid as well And I know that it creates equity issues and it creates a disparity among council members But I think that existing council members should not get the council pay Until they've had a chance to go back to the public and say this is the job that i've done for you This is what you are now going to be paying for which is different than what you originally elected me to do And let them make a decision about who their best representative is I think that if you had it so that council members immediately received the pay upon the the public being asked to do so I think that you create a I think that it is a insurmountable opposition from the public Who will conflate the individual work that council members are currently doing with what is in the best interest of the city long term I also hear concerns from for council member soire about not making this position a profession I hate term limits absolutely hate term limits I think that you have term limits that are called elections But I can see the benefit of having a discussion around term limits On these positions in exchange for telling the public That that you're going to pay council members more I'm struck by the fact that right now We're going to be asking people to basically pay more for a service that they've already been getting for free And so when we go to the the public and we tell them what they'll get in exchange for this The answer is going to be you will get uh high quality public service as you currently are And you'll get people who won't do this as a as a profession Long term so I would offer up that we should include in the council paid discussion A term limit for council members Perhaps setting it at three terms seems to be a fair amount gets people a chance to get in the city learn the ropes Advocate for their districts and get into a leadership position before they go fail or before they make it a profession so happy to Sue if some of the Some of this discussion can be brought back in our next discussion For council members to weigh in on Yes, we can we can bring we'll bring back a broad discussion great With that I'll see if there's any additional feedback from council members Or any additional questions from staff Seeing none We'll go ahead and end this item It is four o'clock. We've been going at it for four hours here And I appreciate the council for for sticking with it We'll take a 15 minute break and then we'll come back with our last study session item Madam clerk, let's go ahead recall the The role and re-establish our quorum. Yes. Thank you, mayor Councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember soyer here Councilmember rogers will be absent from the meeting today councilmember mcdonald here Councilmember fleming has left the meeting also Vice mayor alvarez president mayor rogers Here let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of council members fleming and rogers Uh, we Council will be holding item. Let me make sure I've got the number right. It's believe it's 15.2 from tonight's agenda Uh, yes 15.2 from tonight's agenda. We'll see that at a later date And with that let's move on to item 13.3 Item 3.3 police oversight Independent police auditor and civilian review models Would like to introduce interim chief cregan. Thank you Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor rogers and vice mayor alvarez and members of council We're going to go through a team effort today presenting a review of some of the Nacol best practices for civilian oversight the review of some different models that we've located across the state And then really diving deep into our current independent police auditor scope of work through our group So i'll start out today Going through the slide presentation and if we can go to our next slide, please I'll give you a brief overview. So we're going to dive deep into the for nacol as most people in our community know it But for the national association for civilian oversight of law enforcement And we're going to examine their effective practices for law enforcement oversight And we're going to hear from a true subject matter expert on this area Who's one of the past presidents of nacol and works as an equity consultant with oar group And we'll go into his resume in just a second We're also going to spend some time reviewing the current scope of work And there's 11 specific items currently in our scope of work with our contracted independent police auditor through mic ganako and oar group as the organization And then we're going to examine some of the civilian oversight models that are Examples that we can look at from across the state of california Next slide, please So, uh, we'll go into and we'll have our next presenter go a little bit more into this but for nacol most people understand is a local nonprofit that brings together individuals and uh organizations across the country to examine some of The best practices for civilian oversight and you can go to the website at nacol.org I spent some extensive time examining that website and looking at a breakdown of the different models There's a fascinating hour and a half youtube video They have there that really like breaks down from some of their subject matter experts But who I want to introduce is brian core and brian core has been served as the past president of nacol So he has tremendous Expertise into what the organization has done is being one of the leaders of that organization He currently serves as the executive director of police review and the advisory board for the city of cambridge, massachusetts And as over 30 years of experience with civilian oversight And he also is a consultant with oir our own independent police auditor So let me turn it over to brian core and then he will start presenting our next uh few slides Specifically on the different models of civilian oversight across the country Thank you chief. Good afternoon and thank you through you mr. Mayor to the council I'm very honored to be here with you tonight Working on civilian oversight is a labor of love and it's something i'm very passionate about so i really appreciate the opportunity To be part of this team and present to you as chief said i am a Long time person involved in nacol the national association for civilian oversight of law enforcement And i am here to talk about Sort of the overview of the work of oversight and also a bit about Why um, it's so important to look at the different models as you think about how you may want to continue to evolve The oversight work that you are doing here in san erosa. So if we could go to the next slide please Excuse me and and i will make it a blanket apology Like so many people fully vaccinated fully boosted the end of april i came down with covids I still have a little coughing now and again, but i'm feeling pretty fine But it affects my presentation. So i'm sorry for that But what i want to start with here is the 13 principles of effective oversight And you'll notice that we say effective oversight people often say what are best practices? What are the Communities that do the best work on civilian oversight doing and what we always say at nacol is you really have to look at What is effective? We have communities of all sizes from towns with 15 20 000 people to Los angeles in new york city that have civilian oversight there are Over 200 communities around the united states that have oversight now again That's looking at a nation where we have about 18 000 law enforcement policing agencies So it's not most communities, but most major communities do have it many many communities are looking at Creating it and so when we look at what makes civilian oversight effective We have to think about what are the principles because we are in many different ways and i'll talk about the different models in a bit Working to make policing better more effective and more responsive to community needs It can be addressing specific problems. It can be addressing broad patterns But whatever that is you have to look at these principles I will also say that they're not a checklist So i'm not going to run through and talk about why each one is so very important But what I do want to say is that successful civilian oversight really examines these principles in the local context And is working to identify how they can make Policing better and more effective and more responsive to the needs of your community One thing I want to point out is you'll see in these things that seem obvious things like independence Clearly defined and adequate jurisdictional authority adequate funding But they are not all absolutely evenly distributed in oversight agencies and they vary quite a bit But one thing in particular that santa rosa has done in its contract with oir group is granted unfettered access to records and facilities Now that is not something you find in most communities for all sorts of reasons And it's one of the things that really stands out to me and it's part of why I was excited to be part of this team and this project but These are very important things when I think about the work in santa rosa community outreach and community involvement Looking at how to make sure that the reporting that goes to the public is robust and transparent but also helps the community understand what's happening and To be able to look at the principles of what we call 21st century policing The president's task force on 21st century policing under president obama did an amazing report It really is a touchstone for Police departments and communities across the country that are working to improve policing Looking at how to be as progressive as possible how to meet the needs of all stakeholders in the community and procedural justice and legitimacy Is very important to that I would love to go into more detail because it's one of my passions But I will say that they center on how people are treated and ensuring that people believe That they're treated fairly that they have a voice That the police department is doing its work in the way it does because that's what the community wants and needs as opposed to That's what the law allows or what that's what someone in power determines So these are all interlocking principles and As previously mentioned, it's very important that a community looks at what is effective in your context So if we can go to the next slide, please So as you consider what our effective practice is and is the city council of santa rosa thinks about Making potential changes looking to the future. You know, I just listened to the charter Conversation and clearly people are thinking very deeply about both where you've come from but also where you're going as a community You have to do the same thing with civilian oversight You have to think about is a particular practice an appropriate fit for your local context Part of that is the history of your community the diversity the economic status of different communities The incidents that have happened before in santa rosa and insinoma county that people are aware of That have an impact on how people think but also state law local ordinances All of these things are part of what is going to help you determine what's an effective fit Thinking about how a particular practice will strengthen oversight in relation to those other principles Sometimes there are balances. Sometimes more transparency Can inhibit the ability to do certain things sometimes having an adequate budget may impact How people feel about is this are we getting our value for the money? And so you really need to examine those sorts of things and of course as it says on the slide What are the potential unintended consequences? One example I often give is a few years ago. I was testifying before the new york city charter review commission And there were there's a set of people who felt very strongly that a civilian oversight board should be elected Just like the council so it represents the people and one of the concerns that I brought up to people was You have to think about what happens when you turn that body into an elected body There are many advantages of elected bodies, but there are also challenges People are representing different interests and they are brought in in different ways So as you think about what you want to put in place, you have to think about what's the right balance? How does that fit into your particular community? And as you think about this the last thing I'll say before we go to the next slide is you really want to be thoughtful Again my experience with the city council is you are a very thoughtful group and you really work to engage the community So if you are thinking of making Serious changes in an oversight model or even just adopting civilian oversight in communities where they're new It's important to really reach out and listen to all stakeholders Community members in the way people often traditionally mean residents and activists, but also the law enforcement agency The elected officials the city administration all of the people who are stakeholders So if we can go to the next slide, please I'll keep going So I did want to say a bit more about best practices versus effective practices because that is the first thing People usually ask me. What's the best practice? How do we do that? And as I sort of said, but I just want to go into a little more detail You have to follow a framework in my opinion and in Naples opinion that really is based on What is effective and successful? It's easy to look at other communities and it's important to look at other communities and learn from them But you also need to make sure that you are doing something that will really Exist in the long term that will be sustainable and that will make a measurable possible impact So again thinking about what the form of oversight is in the context of what is happening what the history is And also what the current situation is how things are working With the police department how relationships are being built between and among different stakeholders in the community around policing and law enforcement and ultimately really around public safety And so the end of this is just to say again the best form of oversight Will depend on your local circumstances and it's something that has to be co-created by all of the stakeholders If we go to the next slide, please I will now move into common models of oversight Because this is something that comes up a lot and there will be more in this presentation As we go through to talk about the different models and how they have worked in different places, but just to kind of lay a common Framework out there for people the traditional models that people have talked about our review focus models investigation focus models and auditor monitor focus models These general terms don't necessarily fit with specific names of oversight agencies for various reasons Communities have given different names to different kinds of agencies that may fall into a different category So again, I try not to read slides out. Wow. And I know these are available to people. So what I want to say is that There is no one best model just like there are not best practices People will say what's the strongest form of oversight or the most effective or what's the the gold standard? It really depends on what you need the local situation and all the things I've said about three times So when you look at review focus models, those are kind of what people traditionally have thought about civilian review boards A group of community members who receive training Who understand that you have to check your biases at the door while also ensuring that you Work from your lived experience and you're reviewing completed investigations The people with that training are sitting down together Usually sometimes separately because it varies quite a bit going through the reports going through the investigation looking at video body worn camera footage things of that sort if it's available and then making some sort of Recommendation perhaps about what should happen Maybe not it really depends on the model sometimes. It's really feedback for the police department Other times it can be something that is really a recommendation to City management, whether that's a mayor or city manager or city council but The key point of this is you have people who are outside of the department who are Not part of the law enforcement agency who are looking at these investigations and making Recommendations making determinations Making you know giving advice Very important In some places that's exactly what you need in some places that is insufficient So the model that has been more typical For many years is the investigative model where you have people who may or may not have a background in law enforcement They will have some background in investigations or auditing Something that really gives them a grounding in how to do an effective investigation Human resources people often have that background and so these are people who have specialized training naco and many other places provide training in how to do investigations around the work of civilian oversight And they will then do those reports instead of internal affairs Or perhaps in parallel with internal affairs in a few communities, although that's challenging Generally, they are the ones who are reviewing the complaint doing the investigation and making findings and that often can improve Trust in community members and I will say that again in the model that you currently have in in santa rosa with the oir group There is that investigative Function the oir group can investigate specific complaints or patterns and that that is a Really strong piece of this model again part of why I was excited to be part of it The third model which you hear more and more about is an auditor or monitor or inspector general type of model This and again, you hear that word auditor. This is at its heart A model that's looking more broadly at patterns and practices looking at what sort of procedures exists What sort of training how those things are affecting the big picture things that may lead to misconduct misunderstandings or even just Not a good feeling between community members and law enforcement officers. And so that's The kind of model that you see in many places It's very important when there are broad systemic issues, but it's also a way that you can Do kind of high-level work So this is again increasingly common and you'll see cities that have been creating this Along with other models and that's when I get into the last column here hybrid models And these are increasingly common because different communities as I said, you look at your specific needs You look at the history and you figure out What are the pieces that we need in our community to achieve better outcomes or simply just to continue to improve What's going on? We also increasingly see communities creating civilian oversight that don't have a particular set of problems But understand the historic issues Understand that no community is perfect and every community can do things better And so I would say to all of you that what standard rosa currently has really is a hybrid model It's doing things including review. It's doing investigations. It has this auditor functionality and so it is really It's hard to say a classic hybrid because they are all different But from my point of view, it's really what I'm seeing Increasingly around the country people are really figuring out what works in your specific context If we could go to the next slide, please I want to just say quickly a couple things about some of the resources out there As you've heard on the past president of nake hole I served on the board for nine years elected as a board member in them elected three years as president And during five of those years we were working on this report We got funding from the federal government the department of justice through the cops office the community oriented policing services To look at the state of the field and effective practices One of the things that came out of the 21st century policing task force was to Really look at what is effective in the world of civilian oversight of law enforcement And so again without reading the slide This is available on both the nake hole website and the department of justice website But we did a report with nine case studies a range of communities from cambridge with about 120,000 people and under 300 police to Los angeles with uh, I think about I should know it's off top of my head. I think about 13,000 law enforcement officers and uh, four million people so and all different models as I just talked about So based on that we put together That report we have a decision-making guidebook on establishing and strengthening models of oversight, which I depend on in my work And there's also an interactive online toolkit so people can look at what's going on around the country with different models And if we go to the next slide, please I don't want to take up too much time part of that were Part of that work was to come up with these basic findings. I won't read them all I've referred to them But one thing I really wanted to point out is that Again access to department records and information varies greatly So one of the things again, that's a real highlight has been the unfettered access here in san aroza There's an increasing focus on front end accountability versus back end accountability And what I mean by that is that rather than just looking at a problem a complaint an incident and figuring out what went wrong It is that work to figure out how do we create the best types of policies and procedures? How do we use critical incidents to not just examine those but set out? Where does the community want to go so that it can create the types of systems training Etc that will result in the best possible outcomes for everyone and again As I said centering procedural justice and legitimacy with all stakeholders is essential for effective oversight I can't stress that enough So I believe with that I am done with my set of slides for the presentation and Look forward to watching the rest and participating in the rest of the discussion. Thank you Great. Thank you so much. Mr. Cora and if we can go to the next slide, please So I'm going to now go over just a review of our scope of work with oir group And I also have joining with me here today Teresa magulla who's on the staff of oir So we wanted to make sure that we had really a lot of depth with this presentation with mr Cora was his overwhelming expertise with civilian oversight across the nation And then for us to educate our council in our community on what we're doing with oir And I'll talk about the scope of work and then Teresa will be here if there's specific questions about oir And how they're implementing that scope of work So it's importantly the base foundation and that is some community members Still don't understand that we have an independent police auditor in contract in place And that's through brian and talked about extensively with oir group So in november 30th of last year in 2021 our council Heard a presentation Regarding the independent police auditor and we select it and put oir group into contract So it's a three-year contract with two one-year extensions in the contract of council and the city manager continue to be pleased With the work that oir is doing to our community So I think it's important for everyone to understand that we have an us civilian Independent police auditor in place and that we're locked into the three year up to a five-year contract So that gives us some of the stability that our city council our city manager in our community has certainly made a priority for our organization And then in that contract with oir We have seven specific scope of work items that really detail some of the mandates that they're to carry out at the ultimately at the responsibly our city manager to hold them accountable of Meeting those scope of works and that's who they report to so if we go to our next slide, please So the first one it will go one by one of these scope of works and just do a brief review of Each one of these so the first one that we have is oir participating and every single one of our internal Investigation so those are internal investigations that we launched our investigations that come in from community members about Misconduct of any of our staff members and this is something that really does set us apart because I looked at some of the different scope of Works from across the country and we're even going to talk about anaheim later and anaheim Has a contract with an independent police order But only has them do a certain select amount of the Complaints that come in and they do like random audits and they do a certain percentage for us It's important that oir and that independent lens looks at every investigation that comes in to the santa rosa police department To ensure that they're being done objectively fairly thoroughly and that they're complete investigations that meet the needs of our community So that's an important thing to understand another thing and Brian court mentioned on this, but it's the unfettered access and that unfettered access those are multiple layers And this is one of the really the important ones here is that oir has the ability To actually respond to the santa rosa police department and actually be a part of the interview with the officers So we have a professional Standard staff of a lieutenant and a sergeant and they complete the investigations of our staff members But oir can be present in the room and they have been present in the room where they've come down here They directly ask officers questions They participate in the interview and that's somewhere that doesn't exist here in sonoma county and is actually a rarity across the state So i'm not aware of any other agency in sonoma county that allows their independent Auditor or civilian to be able to step into that interview process and be able to Participate in it But that was important for us to be able to understand and that came from our community of our community being able to say that The independent police auditor gets to watch those interviews be a part of those interviews and ask any questions that they feel that our Professional standard staff is not asking Our next thing for the scope of work is the receipt of citizen complaints And that's where all citizen complaints go to oir for them to be analyzed and understand Our staff even meets with our professional standard staff meets with oir and the initial part when a complaint comes in We discuss what the allegations of the complaint are going to be which the officer or staff member Is served with and we come to an agreement on those before we even meet with the officer or staff member That's being accused of misconduct and they get to play a key role from moment one in that organization We meet with them whenever a complaint comes up or no matter what every two weeks that our professional standard staff So lieutenant brenda herrington runs that unit with sergeant matt north Working under her leadership. They meet with my kinako and steve connelly primarily from oir group go over complaints address issues And then oir group also brings up if they've received any complaints and then we're able to send those to our professional standard staff to Administer and do the investigations of and that's one of the updates We made we had made a presentation to our city council public safety subcommittee And that was some feedback about improving the the connection to the oir group So if we go to the santa rosa police department change for the better website It lists the full contact information for oir group it lists Our the my kinako's email address and phone numbers to you connelly's email address and phone number How to get a hold directly and citizens can confidentially Be able to reach out to oir group to express frustrations to lodge complaints And to make sure that the santa rosa police department is adhering to the standards of our city manager and our city council We also every single complaint that we receive here to the police department We want to have closure with the community member who brought that to us. So the chief of police creates a letter I individually send that letter to each one of those community members talking about what the final disposition of that complaint is whether it was Sustained against our community our officer whether it was exonerated unfounded whatever the finding may be But also we added an extensive paragraph that explains What oir is how you can contact an individual? So if a community member still feels like they need more closure, they need more follow-up They have more questions They can also now have another resource of directly reaching out to oir group through that every single complaint receives that Notification sit to the individual who brought that complaint to our attention Next slide, please So another us number three in our scope of work is that oir is to be notified on every incident where a community member is Injured certainly if we have an incustody death or any other critical incident So we've only had one this year that falls under senate bill 1421 Which was in someone has some type of a significant injury And oir was notified of that and then following the parameters of senate bill 1421 That report the body worn camera and everything was listed on our change for the better website And that's something that santa rosa police department again with our focus on transparency We don't wait for individual groups to do a public records request and then be able to send it just to that individual We post it on our change for the better website It's available to any community member you can go there today And we have year after all the ones that fit in that criteria You don't have to spend through the money or have the expertise to file a pra you go to our website It's available for all and you have access to the videos the reports and all of the legally mandated documents that are there on the website For number four in our scope of work is oir has Complete and unfettered access to our complaint database. This is again very unusual Many times you're seeing the civilian review models across the country where they send and say, hey, we'll send you this Oftentimes redacted reports and individuals that the oir has the same access to our complaint database that I do as the chief of police They can read any report that's in there in our complaint database They can do audits to make sure that our professional standard staff is giving them as notifying them Of any complaint that's coming in they have that access and I think that's really important for us for Building that true community trust that the independent police auditor Truly has the ability to audit all items that are coming in in areas that Allocations that are being made against the santa rosa police department And I think that's helped really even build trust with the oir group of them seeing that There's nothing that our professional standard staff or our administration is trying to hide We're very open with them and continue to give them access to this information Next slide, please So number five talks about the audit of not now going out of the area of complaints But really looking at how we can more broadly use some of the expertise from the oir group And this is where they're examining our policies our procedures and our training here in the organization So these are some of the reviews for the acronyms on here The rippa is for the racial identity profiling act That was a law passed by the beginning for the city of our size By this year by january of 2022 that our officers would begin contacting a Group of different aggregate data that they infirm it they received for any type of Stop they do of detaining someone proactively in our community whether it be a traffic stop a bicycle stop a Pedestrian stop and we're gathering that data chief navarro was very Focused on being able to gather this data and they report back to our community So we actually voluntarily started collecting that data six months early So we started actually in july of 2021 and we wanted to make sure that we were working through Any of the technical issues that needed to be worked out Was as we built that into our mobile data computers and our computer data dispatching system And that our officers and staff were trained how to use it So we started that six months early and are capturing that data And we voluntarily submitted that for six months of data to the department of justice We haven't received that full report out but that'll be coming out this year when we're looking at 2021 and then into 2022 but OIR group is going to be examining that data and looking if there's any anomalies or changes that need to be made in our Enforcement efforts They're going to be doing annual audits of our training of our use of force data Of our body worn camera utus system to make sure that our officers are properly Using their body worn cameras. We mandate my policy that officers are to turn on their body worn cameras anytime They're uh contacting community members out in the field and we're working toward this year of using some of our measure O dollars to also add camera system to our patrol vehicle So it's going to have three different cameras and the patrol vehicle because sometimes the body worn camera can be limiting with especially when in close contact with a community member and so the Vehicle camera system is going to give a broader view and certainly be helpful for pursuits Collisions and and other contexts that we may have out in the community Next slide please So number six is we're going to be taking some of those audit reviews They've done of our policies procedures and they're going to Ensure that they're meeting the best with our equitable policing environment And this is where they're going to be looking at these through the extra lens And we certainly our community is aware of that we've had the equitable policing task force through our seed collaborative effort We've spent many hours talking to our group about the efforts that we're making that But that's going to be important for oar to be one more lens to making sure that our policies our procedures Our interactions in the community are led by that. We're equitably treating all members of our community Next slide please The presentations to city council so oar will be doing a annual report that will be publicly presented to our city council So we'll get what we're estimating is going to take once the full final data comes in at the end of the year the end of 2022 So the in that first quarter of that year be gathering that data and be presenting to council no later than march of 2023 Getting the first annual report and being able to present to our city council and our community leaders Conducting independent investigations. This is another important one So our uh and mr. Court talked about the different models So we have our professional standard staff being the lead of conducting the investigations But partnering with oar group including with oar group being part of the investigation and coming down and completing the interviews But we also have an our scope of work if directed by the city as uh Manager that oar group has the ability to conduct our own independent investigations as directed by the city manager If there were to be some type of unique investigation where uh city manager smith felt that that was appropriate Uh next slide please So the community outreach that's going to be a big part of the presentation today is um What oar and we've already met with our equity consultant brian core from oar group and the wealth of experience that he brings to this arena But we're going to some of the community outreach that's been done is in april Mike anako and our oir group present it to the chief's community ambassador team We're also going to have oar group is going to be down here this summer and we're looking for at least Twice a year in the scope of work and this is to be facilitated ultimately by the mayor Our his or her designee that will be hosted in these community meetings So right now there's already some progress in this through our community engagement office and through our uh city communications team About selecting this date and working with what works with the city manager and the mayor's Schedule for this summer to be able to set that first meeting up And we're still looking at whether it's best to do it here in person Are we've seen that we're getting higher numbers that are doing it virtually through zoom So we're going to work to be able to see what best needs the needs of our community And is able to get the most people in our community are able to participate in those meetings so there's work being done on that and uh, we hope to have coming out through our uh, city's communication team in the coming weeks of date and then start facilitating of how our community can be able to participate in that Public outreach meeting next slide please So the reporting responsibility. So this is very uh, important for everyone to understand that oar group does not present Our fall under the police department And it's not under the management of the police department oar group reports directly to our city manager Is under the operating authority of city manager smith Mike canako has met with the city manager several times even in her time here since January and will continue to meet and can directly bring issues directly to our city manager of concerns with the police department administration police department investigations and I think that that access to the city manager is so important to be able to make sure that we're Clearly understanding any issues that may be popping up at the police department And um, and I think that's important for the community to understand because there are sometimes some questions about that of who does oar group report to Uh, another one or our last scope of work here is having a dedicated equity consultant And that came from feedback from our community about making sure that our oar group is able to do outreach in our community but really has that focus on the diversity equity inclusion and belonging and uh, that's where oar group was able to bring in Brian core with his extensive Level of expertise not only with civilian oversight, but with working With our community with that lens on the diversity equity inclusion and belonging So that's important and uh, mr. Core will continue to be a key part of our community presentations and outreach In the future next slide, please So I discuss this briefly, but we really want to use this opportunity to make sure that all everyone in counseling Or especially our community is aware of our dedicated professional standards team And this is something that came out of a recommendation In the past to make sure that in the past we had different supervisors who would do these But we really wanted to work on the consistency and the expertise and handling these delicate investigations So uh over five years ago We created a dedicated professional standards team that their full-time job was to do nothing But to make sure that we're following our policies and our procedures with every single one of the calls that we go out If we receive any complaint that comes into the police department That we have a dedicated team that has the expertise to be able to carry out these investigations And if we launch any internal investigation So the professional standards team can be reached directly at the 707 543 35 59 Are emailing at the srpd info at srcity.org Or you can anyone can easily come into the police department either hand fill out or ask to speak to a professional Staff our professional standards team member and we'll certainly make that contact And then we really want to focus on people having direct access Community members to oir group if they don't feel comfortable making a complaint with the police department Then we have right here and here's the contact information here for uh, Mike Inako and steve connelly and therisa Mugula of all their email addresses on the change for the batter webpage It has each one of their phone numbers and dedicated other outreach efforts that we can make directly to oir group If that's more comfortable for our community members next slide, please so Now we're going to finish that segment of it and that was the dedicated part of our scope of work And we wanted to do just a summary of some of these as uh different models that exist for civilian oversight models And these are more focused not on the independent police auditor model But actually of having like civilian review boards and we looked at several of costs and there there were There was no perfect city that we could find like hey This is the exact one the invulet here for our community So we pick several that we're able to find but we really want to use this as a starter for some of the conversation With our city council and our community members. So we'll start with uh, uh brief review We're going to go through anaheim nevato san liandro and then the iolaro model that we have here in sonoma county That's so many are very familiar with so next slide, please so anaheim has uh an independent police auditor, but also has a community advisory board And that uh in and this unique office right here the city manager's office oversees the community advisory board And then you also see across the state a wide array of how the community members are selected for this So what anaheim went with was a lottery system. So that way it's purely uh purely fair and impartial Uh of who's selecting uh the individuals and there's no bias in that selection So they have the lottery system there. They went uh anaheim is similar to us with different council districts So they had one person from each one of the council districts and then one at-large member from the city so a total of seven on their community review board They do uh background checks that are outside or conducted by through the city manager's office and hiring A background firm to be able to do that and have some standards about those with uh criminal histories and felony convictions of being on theirs And that's anaheim standard for that They receive some limited training on some legal standards with the police officer Miller writes and with some department policies and they also participated mandate that they're doing monthly ride-alongs and understanding The lens of an officer in that perspective. They're briefed on major incidents. So in custody deaths and other significant uses of force And complaints that are received by the anaheim police department next slide Continuing with anaheim. So in the long run with anaheim community group gets is actually just what's accessible to the public So they get what's allowed by senate bill 1421 and assembly bill 748 and those talk about Has four different problems for assembly bill 1421 and it's talking about if Any time an officer involved in a shooting it talks about incidents involving An officer you that results in death or great bodily injury incidents involving a sustained finding of sexual assault and Involves a sustained finding of dishonesty in the course of their work So those are four prongs by that and it says then the reports the body worn cameras and the written Documentations from the police department will be presented and that's what the anaheim Civilian review board gets as those documents they get them it sounds like from talking to the staff there in anaheim Slightly before so a week or so before they go out to the public and get kind of like early access to that information They review and provide input on policies and training. They don't make the decisions or determination They make general recommendations to the chief of police and city manager They do write an annual report the the civilian review board That discusses some of their findings and some of their recommendations And they can refer complaints to the city manager of the independent police auditor They have no investigative authority or ability. They just can receive complaints and basically be the conduit to send those to the independent police auditor In the city manager for them to be investigated ultimately by anaheim's Professional standards team next slide So another one to look at as we look across the cross cross section of the state is navado right here in marine county or joining county So navado has a process. They have a total of seven members on their team. They're selected by the city council They don't have an applicant per district there One thing anomaly there they have a reporting to the human resource director as opposed to the city manager there They receive some training some limited training really focused only on the brown act because it's considered a public meeting there in navado because they're selected by council and they do some general the city rules and sexual harassment that would go to any city board member or Employee they meet their quarterly and the city of navado as opposed to once a month at the city of anaheim Met for their team next slide please So Now we'll look at san liandro san liandro. Actually we've had some discussions with their chief They're in the process of just launching their community review board right now and actually I was looking just at their webpage this week and it closes on june 4th So they're actually in the process of recruiting for their first ever community advisory board So we're kind of looking at the structure they've built but we haven't actually seen them implement it yet there in san liandro yet So they have uh similar to the anaheim that each are to sorry navado Each one of the council member chooses one applicant uh from their district They have one thing that's kind of unique here is trying to introduce some of our younger Community members and they have two two student members on that panel between the ages of 16 So high school or college age students They have no background check their requirements with a criminal history They do a little bit more in-depth training that they're providing about total of 30 hours of training Again, how that requirement of going on ride longs They provide input so it's not decisions But they provide input on the budget process for the police department Even on the chief's hiring process policies procedures and training They also write an annual report as this anaheim does and they refer all complaints to the police order So they don't have the ability to do investigations themselves They can just be a conduit for receiving those complaints for the community and forwarding them on to the investigator Next slide, please So most everyone in our community is very aware of the sheriff's departments and the county of sonomas Iolaro was chance for the independent office of law enforcement review and outreach So this is presentations kind of broken into so Iolaro as a whole has is more serving as the independent police auditor So these are some of the things that the auditor function of that team has Be able to provide the objective and independent review of all complaints that are come in against sheriff's deputies They advise of investigations appear to be incomplete and can propose and make recommendations About further investigations. They again propose policy changes So they're not a decision maker but can certainly make recommendations and policies That they're able to recommend to the sheriffs and to the board of supervisors for review They focus on committing some community outreach We go to the next slide, please And this is still focused on the actual auditor function of that. They provide a public report Regarding which is usually quite lengthy. I've read several of their reports over the years And they do have the ability with an opinion of the Iolaro director that a sheriff Investigation is incomplete that they can utilize their their community advisory council So really what I want to focus here is the community advisory council because that's the equivalent of what we're looking at Which makes their kind of their civilian review so Iolaro doesn't make decisions can't changes the ultimate decisions on discipline or the outcome of investigations Doesn't decide policies certainly can't impose any discipline And isn't able to interfere with what the sheriff's ultimate decisions are and that's the Iolaro motto that it goes Our next slide, please talks about the community advisory council that they have Which is basically an element of Iolaro, which kind of meets where we're talking about today So for their selection the board of supervisors so each selects A member each so they're so it comes up with a total between the five County board of supervisors and then the Iolaro director selects one So a total of 11 members that are community advisory council no background check or any requirements there They do make a review of the policies and make the recommendations They're not directly reviewing the complaints No access the body worn camera our reports through their community advisory council And no formal training that we were able to see and their process that they have there specifically for their community advisory council next slide, please So I know we were going through that very quickly and it was intended this to be a Summary to kind of start some conversation of the different models But we wanted to kind of bring that all together in one chart here So you could Look at these and the community can evaluate some of the differences between these different models So you see right here in anaheim with they do have the independent police auditor in place the lottery system Yes on the background check make some recommendations about policy Complaint review. They're just getting what's available to the general public They're getting the redacted sp14 21 and ab 748 Documents and they do receive some training novato. They actually do not have an independent police auditor So their only review is a civilian review panel that they have they're chosen by the council with a minimal background check making some recommendations Regarding policies and review have no access to the body worn camera reports And do receive some minimal training more overall city policies not necessarily with the police department San Lando just launched their community advisory group and is in the process of also selecting an independent police auditor They're selected by council. No background checks do the policy review and get some redacted footage of body worn cameras and reports and do receive some training and then the iolaro's community advisory committee is Falls under the iolaro auditor and then they're selected by the board of supervisors. No background check or criminal history stipulations do make some recommendations and Don't get the community advisory council doesn't get access to the body worn camera and reports and no formal training for those community advisory council members Next slide, please So we went through a lot of information We wanted to summarize this again with the focus of oir and their scope of work of looking these and this is I'm not going to go through each one of these since I have But we wanted to make sure that our council had this all in one page to be able to see The highlight of the different scope of work that we have here It's really important for us for the community education On this piece and one of the goals for our city manager and our city leaders this year Is really focusing on some of the community outreach with oir group and making our community more understand What their work is what their scope of work that they're doing every day and how they can Community members can have direct access to the oir group staff so Next slide, please So we have for us. It's really important as Our chief of police and stepping in this role in the interim basis Is we work with our different labor groups and we understand how important of having an independent police auditor is But it's also important working with our labor groups and understanding the incredible work that the men and women of the San Rosa police department do it on a daily basis and going to Over 109,000 calls last year and we received 54 complaints Actually, there were 34 community complaints and 20 internally generated complaints that we received out of over 109,000 calls for service So overwhelming our staff is doing an incredible job But we do understand that mistakes are made and sometimes people need to be held accountable for those mistakes But we have a good working relationship with our police officer association And our police officer association president jeff woods is going to have to be a key part of some of these conversations As we work to build the trust of our own staff here In this process. I'll turn it over to our poa president jeff woods Thank you chief First of all, could everybody hear me? Okay? Yeah Yep All right. So I just want to introduce myself Like chief said I'm jeff woods. I'm our poa president. I'm also a detective. I've been with san rosa police department for Little over 17 years I'm a lifelong san rosa resident actually fifth generation of my family dates back to 1890s in san rosa More importantly, I'm a husband father A coach and a member of our community I'd like to start off and By saying as a law enforcement officer nothing brings more anger and disappointment than seeing an officer Violate the oath that we all took Officers need to be held accountable when they tarnish the badge and create distress in the community we serve I understand that oversight is necessary And to ensure the this accountability happens and this message is conveyed to our community Police oversight like mr. Kors stated comes in many forms Some models work better than others the success of oversight Model depends on many factors including the culture within our department the culture within our city leadership previous interactions with our community and law enforcement As well as national trends surrounding law enforcement and policing today At center as a pd. We have welcomed increased transparency and oversight over the recent years The poa has worked with and will continue to work with our city leaders Um, our police department management and our community to continue to evolve this independent oversight process The ori group as chief said was selected by city leadership late last year as the most recent current model of oversight Under this current plan the ori group has been given unprecedented access and insight into the police department the ori Or sorry the ori works with the city in our community ORI was brought on board to audit the police department in many facets that include reviewing and establishing Best and effective policies and procedures as well as investigating violations to those established policies and procedures The ori group brings insight and expertise into the profession unlike anyone else We need to work with oir as a resource to bring meaningful changes where necessary The poa will support working with oir to accomplish this goal over the past several months I had the experience to be able to participate in the equitable policing task force This task force was established by the city and department to bring members of the department and the community Together to work and discuss on policing in san aroza This was a remarkable mark Sorry a remarkable process That brought issues and concerns to light these issues and concerns were discussed with great candor One of my takeaways from this process was the lack of communication between the department the community and the city Many of the concerns revolved around the lack of everyone feeling like they had a voice to be heard We are implementing steps To have those voices heard So when I hear the desire to set up a civilian oversight committee I reminded of the takeaways from the equitable policing task force I hear I hear the community needs to have the access to be heard And what's happening and know what's happening within the department Our current oversight model is already set up to hear those concerns and be the lens into the department for our community Our current Sorry, we all the city council the city manager's office community Outreach in the department and the poa need to work together to ensure the community has the access And to provide a voice in that lens The ori group is that conduit. Let's work together and bring all this meaningful process forward Adding an additional layer of civilian oversight will only slow The implementation of meaningful change As we heard today, we have a robust robust Sorry, it's really hot in here air conditioning went out at the police department. I'm having a hard time in here But we have a robust system in place. Let's focus on how To get our community more involved in this process The ori group works with the city manager and community. Not the department works for as poa president A concern I hear on a regular basis is the feeling of lack of support from city leaders and our community Let's take this opportunity to build back the trust between the department of the city and our community We can build back the trust by fully utilizing the experience and expertise of the independent auditors If after time our community is not being heard by collaborating with oir That could be the time to have this discussion We should not We should at least wait until an annual report from ori before we can begin to assess its effectiveness Now is not the time to establish another layer of oversight that will undoubtedly continue feelings of mistrust for both sides of this discussion I know that members of the poa We all put on our uniforms each day wanting to serve our community and make it a safe place to live Let's work together to enhance our current model so we can all see it succeed Thank you for your time All right. Thank you, mr. Woods and thank you chief and mr. Core really appreciate the the conversation here today and the information I'm going to start by seeing if there are any questions from council members Once we answer questions will go to public comment and then council members will have a chance to weigh in And ask any additional questions that are spurred from the public So first we'll see if there are any questions from council members council member mcdonald Yes, thank you. I noticed that as part of the work is going out to hold meetings by The for the community members Can you tell me if that's going to be done by district or where those Meetings will be held out in the community And if they will be done in spanish and in english so that we're certain that there's interpretation at those meetings And then I just had a couple more questions for clarification Thank you for that question. Um, actually we're going to hold two meetings. We are still working on the process I have had a conversation with michael with oir and we're trying to determine the format Of course our meetings will always be in spanish. We will have an interpreter there But we are still finalizing those but because if brian and michael will need to travel here There will probably be two community meetings But we can talk if that's not to your satisfaction we can talk about holding more meetings Great, thank you. I just want to ensure that there's access to all of our community members to be able to go and You know voice their concerns around this and have an active role And really hear actually what we're already currently doing with our police auditor Because I thought this was really enlightening to know actually what our current auditor does and the access to the information that they currently have By our police department and the transparency that's given to them to ensure that there's a good process in place I was just wondering if you could tell me about how many complaints there have been to the independent auditor since we put this in place Um since november Time question Go ahead uh So I have since november they reviewed two significant incidents and one was an in custody death from last year That the reviewed in the one is the senate bill 1421 case I have I don't have the exact number that they've reviewed so far this year I can tell you that they've reviewed every single one that we've had uh so far this year I only have the full 2021 data of the number of complaints we received so so far this year just like Uh just on we've had roughly eight to ten or so complaints that have come in and they've reviewed every single one of those complaints I'm aware of one complaint that was directly brought to oir group And that's something that we wanted to make sure that the community is aware has the access And oir group was able to bring that complaint to us for us to complete an internal investigation And that's one of our goals is to get their information their contact information out there And so if there's any type of reservations or concern about coming in directly to the police department That our community understands that there's another way to access and that will still fully investigate each one of those complaints Any additional questions councilmember? All right councilmember sped up Thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you for the presentation Brian, I really appreciate you and not being a little bit under the weather But excellent presentation and I've got a great level of comfort with your experience and your perspective on what we're trying to accomplish here And I do appreciate you diming yourself off that you heard our previous Conversation about some of the charter reviews and even with that 21 member Committee it was hard to find agreement. So I heard in your presentation Specific on slide six that said the best form of oversight will depend on local circumstances of the jurisdiction You also made a comment about successful civilian oversight How do we know if we're there and again, I'm using it as a reference You just heard the diversity in this community and it's hard to get everyone to agree on one thing So are there some other parameters or suggestions you'd have For us to help evaluate whatever model we're ultimately going to choose or continue to use Yeah, well first. Thank you for that question. And I also I appreciate the kind words I think really the most important thing is to do listening and again I mean just not to you know go in circles But I think as this work happens as you go out to the community And talk to people as counselors as city staff as consultants and others as we all listen to people We have to be Very careful to make sure that we hear what we hope we hear that we hear people Understanding the role that we hear people saying Yes, I I feel like I can make a complaint if I have to or I just didn't offer feedback And as that happens, then you start to hear what are the needs? You know oversight is something that is always evolving. I mean again, not you know, sort of the parallel to a city charter It's not something that you want to just take and change dramatically every month But you have to always be looking at is it serving our purposes. So As those community outreach sessions are set up and happen as interactions with people happen every day It's really important to be asking questions about what their experience is and listening to hear Whether it's working for them. Now a lot of people in the community won't really give it much thought They either don't have interactions with the police or they think the police are doing great Or they may feel like I don't want to deal with the police But those are generally smaller segments of the population and they're very important voices But you also have to listen to people that sort of yeah, I don't know the police say I'm not really sure what they're doing. I haven't talked to anybody in a while because I think for law enforcement, but also for oversight to be effective You really have to make sure that that people are thinking about How is policing happening in our community? How am I being treated? How are communities that I see people who are part of the unhoused community people who are dealing with mental health issues people who are part of historically and currently Disadvantaged oppressed, however, you might want to think about it. I mean, they're all true aspects All of those communities are really important. And then also, you know, we heard from the president of your POA We we also need to listen to police officers And those are not the only voices and some people will say they have a big voice And why do we need to listen to them? But I say that you have to listen to everybody. So For me, it is really making sure that that listening active listening is happening and then that feedback Is part of what you look at when you're thinking six months out one year out two years out How is this going as we think about another contract with OIR or with anyone to do police auditing? How is that work? Best achieving the needs of the community. So it's something that it doesn't really ever stop I'm sorry. I hope that answers your question. Well, actually your last sentence it never stops It's not okay. We're there works done It's it's continuing evolution and I also really appreciated on slide for the 13 principles of effective civilian oversight And you said it's been your experience number three the unfettered access to records and facilities Can you share with us across your experience across the nation? How common is that uncommon? Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, well like everything else it varies quite a bit But it is something that most communities don't really have for a lot of different reasons. It may be because there are Laws that prohibited it could be a police officer bill of rights law enforcement officer bill of rights It could be public records laws. It depends also on the type of oversight Agency and structure you have There are states where members of oversight boards are not allowed to look at police records In new york state that that was a big issue and just recently changed they had a law called 50a And so you had members of civilian oversight boards Community review boards various types who were looking at complaints, but they couldn't know the names of the officers They couldn't know the names of the complainants. They might not even know the dates and times that events happen So it it can be embedded in state law. It could be embedded in local practice. There are communities where The initial ordinance or Charter provision and established oversight was not clear about access And it it generally then falls to the police department to decide How transparent to be and then that can vary with leadership that can vary with particular situations It can vary case by case and again nothing In this work is absolutely set in stone, but you want to ideally have something that gives people that access So, um, it's you know, it's hard for me to pull a number out because the it's such a big variety But I would say the large majority of oversight agencies have limitations on their access And so having unfettered access really is something that people aspire to all over the united states Great. Thank you for that. And then my last question. I'm not sure if it's for the city manager of the chief Part of the scope of work for the oir group number six. I thought it was interesting written recommendations for the To the chief of police for improvements or changes s for pd policy procedures and training A is that a public document and b how would council be aware of the content or do we have the Privilege of here uh be able to see that type of document and what's being suggested So actually this is a public document and this is something that I can pass along and A council fyi as I do some of the other information I'd strongly encourage that because as we see the progress, let's see what Our adjustments being made based on the feedback from the oir group. So thank you And I will say I'm just going to piggyback off Some of the things that brian said I think we all know we're in an age where oversight is important Right, so but I want to come in srpd the former City manager and the council for passing this current model because this is actually one of the more aggressive models Of transparency that I've seen From a department that is not forced into oversight, right? So not only does this model have an oversight arm, but I've met with the chief Former chief navarro. I've met with the interim chief I've met with members of srpd and I've met with the union and I believe everyone in that room understands my expectations Because I think everyone knows that you have a city manager that believes in accountability And you never know where I might show up at any time in any day Because I want this city to understand we want to be part of the solution And we want to get back to where people understand that we are a people's government So not only that the department understands My vision on being a relationship policing department And what do I mean by that so other than going out and really having safety first in your mind Our goal is to build relationships when we go out to a call You will often hear community policing, but we are a relationship police department We want long lasting relationships and we want authentic relationships. So the model that oi Oir like jeff oir offers its transparency. It uses data It ensures fair equitable and courteous treatment of all people It provides access to documents and increases accountability on the front end And that's important because a lot of times when we hear of a lot of the Civil unrest that happens when we hear a lot of the injustices It's because you have a pattern of chronic Issues with that particular individual and the more and more we communicate with the police department with our legal department And with poa We can root those bad apples out and jeff will you know jeff will tell you as poa president Those are not the individuals that he wants in his department and the chief will tell you those are not the individuals Who we want serving this city every day? So I just want to piggyback on some of the things that brian said, but I think we have a solid oversight model Of course, it's ongoing. We will have to transform it as we go But you know, I believe that we can serve as a model and this is a critical time for us to start Having not stop having the conversations either or but just turn in turning the model turn in this model so we can get it right Any other questions from council members? All right So by question chief and piggyback sort of along the same lines that council member splat helm had When recommendations come from oir group Uh, or when in when we start to gather data when we start to talk about the data There's a couple it sounds like a couple of avenues. We're exploring and we're trying to set up meeting score But for the general public, how would they give input on potential policies that are being proposed? How would they be able to bring those ideas for for actual discussion? Uh, not just shoot off an email How how do we create buy-in in our public on? Uh on some of our discussions around Accountability and transparency to make sure that people feel supported and feel Feel like there's an appropriate level of trust that's there Yeah, I think that's critical to us that with not only from the city manager's office, but the police department So there are a lot of avenues I mean one great one that we started last year that came out of some of the efforts for more transparency Is the city council public safety subcommittee? And so that's been an incredible one where we've looked at different our use of force policies We've looked at our lrad system and really the community feedback like helped us create those policies So I think that public safety subcommittee which meets every other month on uh, I believe it's the third wednesday of each month and that's a great one to do But also that we continue to look like through the community engagement events at oir Is going to be doing our community and then reaching out directly to the police department We have on the change for the better website at the police department We have every single one of our policies are listed there. You don't have to ask for it. It's there right now You can look at our pursuit policies our use of force policies our first amendment policies It's all there. Those are public documents And I really want that feedback because I want to hear from our community What changes can we make with our policies? How can we better serve our community? And we're only as strong as us all coming together on some of these issues So I think some of the biggest avenues that public safety subcommittee Reaching out to me in the police department every time and then we're really going to focus this year through the city manager's office about the community Outreach that oir is doing this summer and throughout the year and then evaluate Do we need to do even more of that of that? And I think that's an important and then also always directly contacting oir themselves with mike canaco and steve connelly Their email address is their phone number make that contact and make sure that you're providing Especially if you have a suggestion that you want oir to look at a specific policy Then reach out to mike canaco say this specific policy this area. I have a concern with he has literally decades of experience Working as a civil rights prosecutor working a civilian oversight And there's not a better individual to be able to kind of use his lens of expertise To dive into that and then that will be included in the annual report Which is going to review every single one of the complaints that they uh citizen complaints that they reviewed And give any policy recommendations that will be a public document That's on our website the city's website and present it to our city council I appreciate that chief One of the things that actually really interests me is is a hybrid I love the work that the oir group does. I think that that's going to be really critical for rebuilding that trust within our community But i'm i'm also interested in sort of how anaheim does it as well And i'm wondering chief if you can talk a little bit if you've had a chance to talk with the chief down there Or anybody about What have been the the the benefits and what have been the drawbacks of an approach of More inclusion of some folks from the public You mentioned in their critical incidents Briefings around critical incidents or the ability to talk about policies Have you had any feedback on that or or mr. Wood? I don't know if you've spoken with members of their poa down there as well I'm just wondering if the if we know What has the impact been and how long have they been doing it? I didn't speak with anyone with their poa or the officer level. We did speak to our professional standard teams Spoke with their city manager's office and one of the I believe was an assistant chief there in anaheim And it's been in practice for years of having the independent police officer auditor and then that civilian review The the basic feedback is That the auditor model really has to teeth to dive into and has the access to be able to get the full so that they were getting More like substance from the independent police auditor and what they were going to do But that it was a way to like educate the community on through the community advisory board And so that's something that I think that I've been looking at of like What are areas that we could use some of our existing things that we have here in the city? Whether it be the city's community advisory board that we have or whether it be the chief's community Ambassador team and look at some of those teams to be able to highlight some of the work that's doing And be a way for the community to reach out So those are some of the things that we're looking at Because I think that's the biggest area of growth that we can do with oir is some of the community outreach And that's what I'm excited to be able to see some of that launch this summer And so the community gets to more meet 101 with oir and provide them direct feedback All right. Thank you. Uh, mr. Woods. I don't know if he's If he's had a chance to talk with their poa No, mayor rogers. I have not had a chance to speak with their poa indirectly, but it's absolutely something I will do and Would like to find out more about that So I appreciate that and we'll we'll have another opportunity to talk about it as well It's so hopefully we can can check back in on it Um and chief I think I think you kind of went to one of the things that I suspect you'll hear in some of the public comments I think the chief's ambassador team was Well received by a lot of folks and then for others it felt like Who's the cool kid at the table getting invited by the chief without an opportunity for broader representation So I think that that's one of the things that I'm looking for too is how do we continue to broaden that representation so that Everyone feels included in the discussions or everybody feels like there's that avenue But we can talk more about that as well Let me see if there's any other questions from council members before I go to public comment Mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor. I have I do have a couple of other questions, but I'll ask these in the meantime I see that there's a lot of resistance in regards to the background check. What is the reason for that? I don't know that the police department has any resistance to that if it's directed to us Oh, no no sir in regards to other uh, I'm wondering if if if you have an idea of of why we're or why In other places there's resistance to the lived experience Yeah, I'm not sure. I guess sometimes there could be concerns coming from members of staff of someone who's had uh that uh That could come up of them having a bias toward law enforcement. So I think that's probably some of the areas I haven't directly spoken to those agencies about who does the background and why they did it But I could see that coming up as a concern But I but I believe you bring up a valid point was sometimes those with lived experience having a more diverse thought So I think that's something that like mr. Corr said like each community builds What's best for their unique community and that's what we look at is like what meets the needs here of The city of santa rosa, but I think it's as important to have that balanced approach that it protects the Staff members of our vibrant city here in santa rosa that they feel supported and having an unbiased review of them But at the same time that it's important that we have that uh equal representation out there in our community to provide the diverse thoughts And and this the question just stemmed from The report that was presented by both commission on human rights as well as the city of santa rosa in regards to the protests In 2018 where we received the report that did not include any interview with with anyone for the public or even Collaboration between both of the entities that I just mentioned the city of santa rosa as well as the the human right folks So that's why I see the resistance from from the opposing views And i'm hoping that that's not the practice that we we implemented city of santa rosa I guess my last question actually my last question is if If transparency nurtures trust What is a strategy to build relationships? And in the midst of so much secrecy Yeah, I think that's why santa rosa really stands apart from different independent police models across like we said nowhere in sonoma county and really very rarely in the state of california of increasing that transparency Having the auditor actually sitting in in the interview on interviews asking direct questions Having absolute access to the body worn camera system and our complaint database the same as I do is the interim chief of police So I think that's something that's really important to us and you're and you're seeing More watered down versions across the state and that's not something that our city leaders wanted And not something that the chief of police wanted and that's why it was important to us And we had broad support from our poa and from our community And I think that's where we really actually get to be a model to others in the bay area about what we're doing here And I think it honestly does put pressure on other agencies across the state to kind of follow what we're doing here in santa rosa So we're proud of that I appreciate that and in closing of my on my uh questions I must confess that that I have great confidence in our city manager moving forward And finding that person to to represent both law enforcement and the relationship with our community. That's entire need. Thank you Thank you, mr. Vice mayor. I'll get a councilmember soyer Thank you, mayor. One quick question for mr. Core Um regarding the 13 principles of effective civilian oversight um Whether it be the the model that we are embracing or or an or expanded Are there any of the 13 that we are not doing currently? um, you know, that's a great question and I mean from my perspective, I would say What I've seen is All of them are operational in santa rosa. Can they be enhanced to serve the gree? Certainly I think looking at sustained stakeholder Support is something that is part of the scope of work, right? It's part of the community engagement piece because it really isn't engaging those stakeholders connecting with them And promoting that sense of procedural justice and legitimacy My sense from looking at the work that santa rosa has done checking out the website talking to people And I certainly know people in sonoma county through my work in oversight Um, you know, it's something that I really think the city has done But I also think that communities today are demanding more people want to be more deeply engaged So I think that's an area that it's happening and it will continue to need to happen more I think that the public reporting and transparency again has been good And the addition of the oir group, you know building on the previous Work of the previous independent auditor of really making sure that the reporting coming out of what's happening With issues and concerns around potential misconduct real misconduct But also more generally how the department is working can help and as you heard the interim chief say The department is doing something that live departments don't do putting all of its policies online So people can read them and understand that so again, I don't want to say that it's not happening But I think that it can be enhanced and that's part of the work And then the last thing I would say is I think procedural justice and legitimacy Normally when I talk to people I go on for a long time about it because it's central to my vision of how we have Safe and just communities for everybody But I will say that that it's one of those things that that also was never done as we all know Any community is one critical incident away from a breach of trust and so you have to constantly be Investing in those relationships relation at relationship building is key And so as you work to build that procedural justice approach within the department and that sense of legitimacy It takes constant effort And also also just mentioned quickly that it's really important Inside the department for there to be procedural justice Where I've seen some communities go wrong and I think part of the work of oir With the police department is to keep this from happening But where some communities go wrong is that there's External oversight and there are other mechanisms and there's a concern about procedural justice Within the broader community, but the officers themselves don't have a sense that they're being treated in a procedurally just way So as you you do the work of oversight as you're looking at internal affairs professional standards training all of those things Um, it doesn't mean it's all equivalent But you have to absolutely ensure that there's internal procedural justice So that there's an internal sense of legitimacy because for leadership at the you know Leadership in the police department leadership in the administration and leadership at the effect of the official level to really be able To continue to make positive change You have to have those who are carrying out the work day to day Believe that those who are directing them are doing it in a way that's legitimate. So, um, I don't know That's I've probably gone on too long, but hopefully that's an answer to your question. It is. Thank you I really appreciate your candor You're welcome Any other questions from council members? All right, let's go to public comment on this Sammy if I could turn it over to you for public comment And if you are interested hit the raise hand feature on zoom or start to move towards the podium Okay, I don't see anybody moving towards the podium. So I'll do um The first person we have is zewe followed by susan l Hello, can you hear me? We can Hi, good afternoon. My name is zoe kesler and I am a long time sonoma county resident I feel very invested in the safety of this community and um, I volunteer for various organizations that support marginalized populations And as we all know Those populations are increasing by the day due to the most extreme inequity this county has ever faced I um Speaking on behalf of the inequity. Um, I'd like to bring up The personal experience that I've witnessed santa rosa police department acting with repugnant and abusive behavior towards our unsheltered community on uh, such occasions of Being there at encampment sweeps I witnessed, uh, santa rosa police department completely destroying the property Um of these human beings that they were clinked so You know tightly clinging onto for their means of survival Under harsh weather conditions at that as well um, I Need to stress the need the absolute need for a civilian oversight on santa rosa police department in this community um Not only that Um, you know, not only Speaking to their behaviors towards unsheltered populations. I'd also like to bring up Uh, their behavior during the santa rosa protests during the george floyd protests in the summer of 2020 and On the topic of that I will end my public comment With a quote from the sonoma county commission on human rights report, which Um is a nice refresher and reminder To you all that there are no such thing as bad apples in this police department. It should all be reviewed It should all be uh looked on with discernment and oversight from our community and not within its own agency During recent protests of police violence. There have been muted There have been multiple instances of attempted violent attacks and acts of intimidation against peaceful protesters These incidents have not been treated seriously by s rp d and have not been adequately investigated The lack of adequate investigation of such instances of such incidents Combined with the violent policing tactics used by s rp d against peaceful protesters has created an environment of extreme distressed Among community members who believe s rp d has displayed an institution institutional bias Against peaceful protest of of police violence And in favor of those who would harm protesters Some of those accused of such harm have been exhibited signs of white suprem white supremacist ideology Thank you, and susan l followed by michael tea Susan the mont um senator as a district too um Following zoe the reason that the last auditor lost his job was that the city council Including some members right now through an embarrassing hissy fit When the auditor dared to question the city's policies on homelessness and how those policies affected people citizenry and how they affected the morale of police officers Hopefully there will be never never be anything that disgusting again and OIR and mr. Corp particularly will not be subjected to anything like that um, I have very extensive experience in law enforcement oversight Since andy lopas was killed i've been at practically every public meeting that has been held and that Number is enormous um, and I have gone to um A naked presentations Uh for me the most important i'm really impressed with what has been done so far So I want to make sure you understand that and um, I am thrilled to see mr. Corp here Uh But I really want to see community involvement. It is phenomenally important We are at the receiving end of law enforcement and we should have some say in it and My experience is is through the county because that's the one that established the first one And I would like to point out that the county and its handling has been so phenomenally corrupt That it is mind-boggling um They tried to undermine the establishment of biolaire from the beginning And though community involvement was one of the primary Requests of the task force that recommended it Everything has been done particularly well, I would say since The last director was hired. She was hired to destroy public input And she did a really really good job of it And she announced from the very first day that she was Going to end as much of it as possible So what I want to point out is there will be groups trying to say don't do this POA is obviously one of them and Nothing is more important than the community being able to do it now the community is discouraged community thinks That public officials don't want to hear from them and they had totally drifted away in the county Because it was like beating your head against a wall. How many bruises can you have? so Building it will be hard, but you need to build it. Thank you And next we have michael followed by eric f Hi there. My name is michael to tone. I'm with the sonoma county tenants union and Just making a comment on behalf of my shelf today I want to echo what the last two speakers said What I want to say first is the most important thing I think is Not so much to build trust between the community and the police department But to make it so that the community doesn't have to trust the police department That's the point of oversight, right? It's it's not so that people will drift away and accept that the way things are done is probably justified It's that we have tools to know that they were justified. We're not justified And so I want to push for making police oversight in santa rosa as independent as possible I would much prefer having a civilian board um that has some real influence And has some actual Independence so not being in any way controlled by santa rosa police department And the investigation of the black lives matter protest that was done by oir group Um while it had some benefits the one of the big problems with it is that the scope of the investigation was determined by The santa rosa so It was not a full investigation And when we talk about having a civilian oversight board it needs to be independent so that We can conduct investigations and not necessarily limit ourselves to uh the The complaints that were filed with santa rosa police department But have the ability to go out and investigate complaints with the permission of the person who is reporting them from other sources I want to emphasize that the treatment of Unsheltered which we shouldn't really say unsheltered. There are people who live on the streets Um it has been really bad by the police department. It's been abusive and That's kind of stuff needs to be Investigated and in order to investigate it. It's going to take It's not going to be easy. There's going to be a lot of pushback. There's going to be a lot of groups that want to prevent any kind of In in terms of actually You know having someone be challenged Or having someone possibly lose their job or set a precedent that the police department has to change the way that it does things So we need to make sure that That we are fighting at every point I don't want there to be like a measure p where we have a really weak police oversight board Because it actually can be really dangerous. It can be More of like a pr tool if an investigation was done And they didn't find anything because they didn't have the power to see body worn camera footage Um, then it's it just makes the police department Look like they did nothing wrong when they may have actually done something wrong And I really like the idea of representation from each district in terms of public board So thank you I'm Erica followed by Barbara g Yes, thank you very much. My name is Eric Frazier and I'm a long time senator as a resident And I appreciate making some comments today Thank you very much the excellent presentation by brian john jeff and tressa So it's really quite informative and enlightening The previous public comments, uh, I have a lot of sympathy with I think they're very well thought out obviously there's people in our community that have been affected by Policing and have something to say about it. In fact, I would I would guess that the type of oversight that we have today is As a response to You know, several things that have happened in our community over the past few years that showed a dereliction of duty over protecting people's civil rights So it's sort of with mixed emotion. I bring forward this issue because as a long-time civil rights Advocate sometimes I have to get involved in issues that don't have the gravitas of You know people that are living on the street or Our young people that were innocent victims But just the same I wonder why this oversight doesn't also extend the code enforcement The reason I bring this up is being involved recently in short-term rental Regulations There's a meeting the report out on the status of that And I can tell that they're really ginning up the complaint process To make the negative impacts of that community look way out of proportion for what they are This present Eric. I need you to bring it back to the topic at hand please Yeah, thank you. So the violations here showed This purportedly a hundred complaints But when we dug deep into these hundred complaints, there is an access with Eric Eric, you got to keep your topics There's an access your Your topics on the conversation has to be related to our study session item If you'd like to talk about a separate item We do have public comment for non-agenda items later, but I think it's really Pardon me. We're talking about we're talking about community oversight for law enforcement We can talk about this other issue another time I would think it's very important, Mr. Mayor When police is and police are involved in code enforcement cases That the officers of code enforcement that are there Affecting ordinances and laws Have the same oversight. I think this is very important and I request that my time He returns the clock so I can finish my comments You can make your comments about code enforcement and the short-term vacation rental ordinance at the appropriate time Which is the non-agenda item. Thank you. This is a very appropriate time. Thank you Barber G followed by Andrew C My name is Barbara Grisegi and I've been a snowman county resident for 22 years And was part of the group that worked to pass measure p Which provided some additional teeth to the oversight of the snowman county sheriff, which is of course currently being uh appealed And it's going to be on on appeal after the deputy sheriff's association objected I'm calling because of how important I feel the civilian oversight of the police department is One of the comments that I heard from the poa was that civilian involvement is a Adding a low level of bureaucracy Which I find hard to understand These are the people that are being policed. They're the ones that need representation and often for them Like having a website with everything on it Or you know being able to lodge a complaint online There's no trust there. So the idea of you know community involvement in that is that each district would have a representation On this committee and that would be done by the council So each council member could provide their own person that that then is voted in to this committee And that person is a trusted member of that community So things that would never get elevated Problems that would never get resolved. There's a there's a conduit for it because there are trusted community members That are a part of that process And so I I don't I actually feel like it would reduce bureaucracy because that communication would be so much more open So that's why I'm calling. I just really feel like the only way to make sure that The community feels like they have a trusted voice is to have someone from that community involved in the process I will commend you on the the contract with the auditor is very robust and I'm thankful for that But these aren't people in the community And Hear their voices. I think we need much Okay, we have um andrew c followed by zoom user a is uh first off um First amendment violation by our very own mayor. That's great You know being the gatekeeper of what is appropriate for the community to talk to about related to the enforcement of our laws Anyway, I'm going to make their jobs a lot easier. I accept your thanks after my comment first off You need to defund the police every officer you lay off is Has perfect oversight perfect complete total oversight So you could use your emergency powers given that we have a state of emergency where people are being abused People are being stolen from people are being murdered You could use your emergency powers to lay off half the police force tomorrow. I can't wait to see it happen also You can do the opposite here you go here solution number two Give every man woman a non-binary person in the city Santa Rosa city limits a badge I will personally volunteer to sit at a booth on one of the entrances to our fair city And I will hand out a free badge And a gun a firearm and if you want to put a shooting range behind that That booth I will personally give firearms training to all those people coming into the city who have not received Now I am uh encouraged by the lack of literacy of the local spokesperson for the local police mafia The fact that they are not literate means they've got one less tool to use to abuse us Use to shut down our public speeches use to Silence us and murder us Thank you. I appreciate your time on this and I look forward to hearing your thanks for my making your job so much easier And zoey Hello I'm sorry go ahead Yes, this is victoria yanez from homeless action exclamation point I Am ill with co vid right now, so please excuse me if I'm not up to par but um I'm calling because For one thing i'm very concerned about the city's policy of giving misdemeanors to homeless Uh being swept off of private property and there's going to be a bunch of cases of those coming up soon We asked that you asked district attorney to exercise prosecutorial discretion and dismiss those cases the other thing is um We have a problem with police on the way they deal with individual tents on the street I'm getting a lot of complaints about police just harassing people That they could not move along now There's a particular officer man. I understand there are two officers man in the senator's police department But we have had particular complaints about him And we are working on as soon as I get well Getting those citizen complaints into their personnel files And I want to encourage everybody who has a complaint against the police To go through that process the police department now has them behind the reception window They should be out for people to just go up and grab um Also Um, we asked that the city have a place to put people Uh, um, given that we're at the dawn of a major sweep that's going to be happening soon. Thank you very much monitor the police and um I'll sena Go ahead, please Hello, my name is alchina horseman And I'd really like to commend you for this presentation. I'm I'm pretty impressed I've been doing law enforcement oversight for about five years and learning and going to make help make cold Um conferences and things like that So I think actually it looks like a lot's been done that wasn't required to be done And I'm really grateful about that and I also agree with what michael said, uh, you know about um, and and also susan and barbara That we do need people from the community very involved To be helping with this oversight. So I just want to put in a plug. We need civilian oversight We we need oir and we also need a community panel I really like the idea of appointing people from uh for each council member And I think that's all I have to say, but thank you so much. I know these meetings are brutal for all of us And I'm grateful to all of you I can see the rest of my time Um, may I don't see any more raise hands and um, nobody's in the chamber, but I do have voicemail public comment All right, let's go on to the voicemail, please Hi, my name is ken farino. I'm a santa rosa resident and a taxpayer I'm calling about agenda item 3.3 I believe that the senator was a police department does not need additional civilian oversight or community oversight So please vote no on this agenda item Thank you Hello, good morning. My name is Suzanne farino. I am calling regarding um tomorrow's City council meeting specifically agenda item number 3.3 We feel it's necessary to have the community oversight Panel as the oir already exist Maybe instead you could put more money towards the police department. Um Thank you. Bye Hi, my name is janet mcgoldrick and i'm calling about agenda number 3.3 And um, the police do not need public oversight and um Yeah, my name is craig gaylord and I am commenting on agenda 3.3 um, I just wanted to comment that Seems that our police department is really I've I've had number of interactions and then now later I've gotten to know some of the officers and I've been very impressed with just how um, I don't know Controlled and uh, and good. Our police are as much like I wish we had more of a police presence. It seems like we need more police And I don't think they're doing a bad job. So I don't see why we need to put in more Uh, bureaucracy and more oversight. They already have an independent uh, um Auditor and uh, I think they're doing a good job So I am against this and to me it just sounds like it's going to be something that's going to be limiting more enforcement and making it where people, you know, don't want to Um, we don't need more control. We need just you know, more police and more more of a police presence And I think they're doing a good job. So that's my opinion. Thank you very much Hello, my name is Samantha. Right. I'm calling about an agenda item for the may 24th meeting um agenda item number 3.3 about the law enforcement oversight Um, and I was just calling. I wanted to say that I do not think that it's necessary to have a community oversight channel As well as the oir group monitoring our police department Um, I think it's just going to be a waste of resources that we really don't need and and we already have professionals doing it. So, um You know, I just think that's excessive. Um, and it's more harmful to have an inexperienced people Um, impacting so, uh, thank you Hello, my name is Matt Mollash. I'm calling in regards to agenda item 3.3 Like to say that I've been a center as a resident for over 20 years And that I think the center is a police department is one of the most progressive professional Police agencies in the area if not the country I do not believe that a community oversight panel is necessary I think that the office of independent review does a fantastic job of investigating and holding accountable when necessary the agency and that A community oversight panel would be redundant and not effective not a good use of resources Uh limited resources that the city already has And that the office of independent review office of independent review Is accomplishing that task Mayor that concludes voicemail public comment on this item. Excellent. Thank you so much Madam city manager, if I'm going to bring it back now for council Can you please help frame for us what type of feedback would be helpful? Give me one second mayor So so what would be helpful is we currently have an oversight model And it sounds like you want to augment what we currently have So what is helpful for me is one do we want to currently? Do we want to keep what we currently have which is the oir oversight model? Or do you want to make a recommendation to maybe augment the report out? Um of the information or the um The investigations that come out of the oir review And maybe I think I heard you say Maybe use the chief ambassadors team or maybe appoint someone from a district So Preferably it's up to you. So we're going to currently keep the the current model But what I'm understanding from you is that you would like to augment The team with a reporting model whether that's choosing someone from each district Are choosing the chief's ambassador team? So what I need to understand from you is how you would like to to augment our current current oir model Thank you so much. That's helpful So I'll go ahead. I'll I'll jump in first and and I can pass it around to other council members I think that the chief did a really good job and so did Mr. Core and Mr. Woods and talking about the great things the panel that is is doing and it's In a lot of ways where we're way ahead of ahead of other communities Particularly the unfettered access. I think one of the things that I've heard The biggest concern from the folks who do the work The men and women who wear the uniform Is being judged on a really difficult job by people who don't have any understanding of What the job actually entails what the training is what the policies are I think that that's where oir helps to bridge that gap very effectively You've got folks who are experts in the field who are also independent from the individual incidents that happen or actions or policies But can both help to translate for the public as well as shed light on for the public How and why things end up happening? And so I love the oir The the approach that you guys bring and the access that you have I'm also still interested in having a panel of folks from a community that can ask oir Tough questions that they can look at it and they can say I understand How you came to to the conclusion you did but explain it to me Talked to me about this. Did you consider this to help build that trust with the public that you do have a robust oversight model Where their voices are heard and their concerns are heard And that they can bring to to the group and say we've heard that other communities are doing this policy How would that work in santa rosa? If I don't yet know sort of where I how I would like that constructed Madam city manager, I I lean towards One person from each district whether appointed by council member or lottery we saw in some communities I do think that the board needs a representative from the poa if they're willing As well as from the police management to be able to have a menu for those discussions about What is the independent work that's being done by the the auditor? How do we continue to supplement it? How do we answer questions and how do we then go back and talk to the community about the work that we're doing? Because I think it is a good model. So that's what I'm interested in But let me see start with council member soyer who's got his hand raised and I'll work my way back down the day Thank you, mayor. Well, I'm going to bounce around a little bit There are a number of ways to go about this I think first of all a lot of the complaints that we heard this evening have to do with the past And I'm sure that there are current issues as well with the police department Or at least being You know mentioned by by the by certain members of the community about the police department But like I said a lot of these were from the past It's important to note that OIR reports to the city manager not to the chief of police Now the chief of police man gives input I'm sure that city manager has every Opportunity to talk to the chief of police if she has questions about the About the reports or about about Any kind of communication between herself and OIR And there's absolute access To this very open process to to all segments of our community and their needs What I am looking for I'm not looking for change for the sake of change I think it's important to develop a problem statement if there are issues That OIR is not handling or not handling well Then they there is there are all sorts of of ways to access OIR They have an open door policy Even mr. Cora mentioned that he was very complimentary of our current model But we could always do better. We that is that is the case. We can always do better We can always be more transparent We can always increase access so It's not perfect. We are not perfect The OIR has been around has been with us for six months And what I would be looking for is a little more time To ascertain What it is that OIR is not doing or not doing well And ways to improve that and if if if it isn't Important to have Citizen oversight and I'm I do kind of wonder who they would report to I mean they we know who OIR reports to with with the citizen oversight report to the city manager And I'm just so so that that model. I'm not sure what that model looks like I'm sure there are models out there in in who they report to But my guess is that though some of those agencies that have a civilian oversight Do not have the comprehensive oversight that we already have 13 out of 13 pieces of this recommended Effective civilian oversight. We're handling with OIR At least to a very high degree So I would want the I would want to know what the problem statement is You don't operate on a patient until you know what what what you're going after So I would want a little some more time To identify the gaps in OIR if they if they exist Where they exist and and then how to address those before I would be willing to to formally establish A civilian oversight and I have you know, no problem with the mayor's recommendation. I just have a my question is Why today? And not give OIR a little more time than six months to be effective and And help us affect change in our police department that appears to be in my opinion very open to change Those that are not open to change Will not be part of our police department and I have the utmost respect for their for their job for a very difficult job And also respect for the community's input that we so desperately need To do a better job sometimes Um, if not all the time we depend on our on our community's input. So I'll leave it at that All right. Thank you councilmember councilmember Svettel Thank you, mr. Mayor. Um So first of all, thanks for the presentation. It's been a great discussion here. So Overall, there there's some things that I would like to see let's see a little bit More information about see how this works because if you look in councilmember. Sorry I mentioned this It was only november of 2021 where you had the new contract with oir Right, so I don't think there's enough data to say is this working. Is it not working? I've heard some very positive things. I'm very optimistic about this and very appreciative of the amount of information that has been shared with this Um oir group the 11 Points their scope of work. We didn't have that with our previous police auditor So I really appreciate that then the other reality is we have a new city manager that just started january of this year And now we're going to make some changes when we still haven't seen how how how this is going to play out And I really appreciate madam city manager your comments earlier about who you are and what you're All of those comments led to the reason why I was a hundred percent supportive of selecting you as their next city manager And I know you're going to walk the talk. So I'm anxious to see let's see what we do with some of this information You know, one of the other things that um It was kind of disappointing for the folks uh who are on the chief's community ambassador team Some folks that may not know them I know several of these people and to think that any of these are either yes men for the chief or police or it's just you know So they have a title These are people who care deeply about the community and it's a feedback mechanism that chief navarro established I'd encourage chief cregan to evaluate. Is this the community ambassador team that you want and are they going to serve That same need because again, I think that's a key component of this They are all civilians that have a voice a very strong voice in this community My only suggestions would be in future presentations from this I would appreciate this presentation coming from the city manager's office because I know the chief police reports to the city manager Many members of the community don't and so when we see the presentation from the chief police some might imply Okay, is it really being run by the city manager's office? I'd also like to see for not this year's budget because I know it's coming up But next year's all the funding coming out of the senior city manager's budget and not the police department budget because I just think there's a conflict So let's truly make it independent in the city manager's office. Yes. They'll be evaluating The police department, but it's I think that's in the right place because the city manager is the boss of the chief of police She gives that direction based on guidance from the council So I say let's keep this continued path that we're going on here. I'm really anxious to hear the information In the modifications if any that we have as we continue to get more feedback from the or OIR group in the city manager's office on this topic. Thank you Thank you council member. We'll go to council member mcdonald Thank you, mayor. Um, so just a few things one I love the idea of changing over the budget for the independent auditor into the city managers I think potentially there could be time for us to switch that on this budget if it's not too late Since it's still in draft form Just so that we're certain and we can show to the community that this is an independent auditor And I think that some of the communication that we're missing right now is who actually is Our OIR who makes up our independent auditor? And I think that's part of the distrust that we feel from our current citizens is there's not a clarity Perhaps on what this independent group does how they're hired and what their charge is to work with Our law enforcement officers. And so I think that's the piece that's missing and as you go out and do these Communications within our community. I think some of that perhaps stress and Mistrust can be alleviated so that we can continue to to be ambassadors of what we're currently doing because it is quite progressive And I think we should be commended for that Work that was being done in november Like council members soyer and shred helm. I agree that it's very early. It's only been six months that we've had this in place Clearly we have not done a good enough job getting information out to our community members that this is in place And so I'd like to give it time and in fact, I'd like to wait until that first report comes back to council in march I don't think that Having a citizen oversight group or somebody that we are doing listening sessions with Around the need for understanding in our community is a bad idea I just think it's early on in this current process So I'd like us to revisit that around the same time that we get the report perhaps in march So that we get a whole year for this process to be in place and then of course having Everyone at the table. So they talked a lot about having all the stakeholders Buy it and that includes our law enforcement that includes city councils and in course it includes Our community members and so that was a lot of what I heard was that there's still a Mistrust and I think that's why hybrid models tend to work so well because everybody Feels heard and so what I'd like us to be able to do is by listening As we go out and and talk about what we're doing now is to see how we we can Maybe meld those two things together and and I think the other thing is If council could know the response time when somebody does send in a concern a community concern That would be important for us to know as well If somebody is sending something in that was perhaps a complaint about an officer or A procedure not being followed properly If we're not responding back in a quick amount of time that also creates this distrust and so making sure that that's done And I understand that everyone Is very overworked and overwhelmed. So I really appreciate the The work that's going into racial identity profiling and using that app And and that we are ahead of that curve that we implemented that Six months ahead of time and I think that that data is critical for us to know as well And I really appreciate putting money into professional development And in any industry you're going to have those bad apples But it certainly is one that we can remove and so that it doesn't ruin the entire barrel And I want to make sure that our community knows that that won't be tolerated instead for not by our city manager Certainly not by our police officers. They hold each other You know responsible as well and certainly not by the city city council So, uh, I I just want to say thank you for the presentation. It was quite Informative and I appreciate the data that's also in the presentation on how citizens can get a hold of people If they do have a concern And that the forms are both in English and in Spanish Thanks. All right. Thank you councilmember said of mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor I do have a set of questions if I could before I make my comment The oir, what's the cost of the oir to the city of Santa Rosa? For the year of 2021 Or 2022 since we implemented so so late in the year I don't have the cost of the contract, but I can get back with that information Uh, what was the cost of litigation due to law enforcement lawsuits That'll be the second part of my question and I understand if you don't have the numbers handy my point is I'm pretty sure that the amount that we've paid in litigation far Exceeds the amount that oir is costing the city of Santa Rosa And I'm making the point to some of the callers that that that weighed in today um Now in regards to the To another question. Is it possible to file a complaint online anonymously? Teresa, would you like to handle that question and walk them through the process? Thank you very much for the opportunity. Uh, it's it's nice to have the opportunity to present to you all So if someone is wanting to contact our group You have the email addresses So that you can do so Using either the email directly or if you wish to contact us anonymously We do have a form available online And so if you go to our website, which is oirgroup.com You can file a complaint on behalf On behalf of yourself or of someone else and you can do so anonymously so that is submitted through our website And again that website is oirgroup.com You'll see the contact us there and you can submit directly to our group We will receive that complaint and that complaint then can be forwarded to the police department for their internal review And again as we've said several times here The oir group is doing the review of complaints in real time alongside the police department and so I would like to assure people from the community that we have hands on In that particular process And so that would be one method that you could submit a complaint anonymously online Thank you. And the reason I asked is because we did we did hear the comment of not being able to access The forms as they were behind the window So I just want to let the public know that there are alternative means to file a complaint should you have one Uh As council members, I believe we're on the front line when it comes to complaints from our constituents So when there is an issue in our community, I'm pretty sure I can speak for all of us that we get to here at first It's why I feel that it's important for community to be at the table Or as the saying says if you're not at the table, you're what's for dinner, right? Um And in following that model The model if you ask me what what would be the the model that I envision it would definitely be Oir reporting to our city manager and I'd love the idea of The cost coming out of the city manager opposed to the police department to show transparency and independence What I would like to see reporting to the oir is the poa Is the the community and it is the police department And I would see that happening through one appointee from each each individual each council member and as well as the poa and the pd I figure that that's the model that is all inclusive and if we are serious about being inclusive Uh and bringing the community to the table Um other than that I have nothing else to add. Thank you All right. Thank you so much mr. Vice mayor So madam city manager, I did not hear for council members interested in bringing this back at the time What I did here was an interest in as we get to our Um community meetings later in the year into the first full report out from oir That that might be a good opportunity for us to to continue to talk about where we're doing things Well and where we might need some additional supplementation down the road Uh, so with that I want to just thank everybody from the team for being here Chief mr. Corr mr. Wood I appreciate the whole team for being here and for the presentation it really was eye-opening for a lot of folks And I think with a good step With that council is going to take a dinner break We'll resume council at seven o'clock with our first public hearing item 15.1 as a reminder We pulled item 15.2 But we'll come back with 15.1 and then finish out our our items. Thank you everybody Madam clerk, let's call the roll and reestablish our quorum Thank you, ma'am Councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember soyer here Councilmember rogers is absent from the meeting today councilmember mcdonald here Councilmember fleming is absent from the meeting this afternoon vice mayor alvarez President mayor rogers Yep Let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmembers fleming and rogers So before we go to item 15.1. Let's go ahead and take care of our two resolutions We'll go ahead and start with Item 6.1. That's our proclamation for affordable housing month Mr. Vice mayor, I believe you are going to read the resolution. Yes, sir with your permission Yep, this is the city of san rosa proclamation For affordable housing Whereas affordable housing is good for business people and the quality of life in the city of san rosa and whereas Our community thrives when all families have a place to call home and whereas The city of san rosa and housing authority of the city of san rosa Have made affordable housing an important goal to be achieved by providing annual funding for the development of new units And our decreasing barriers to the construction and rehabilitation rehabilitation A process and whereas An adequate supply of housing types is necessary throughout the city In order to meet the needs of all economic segments of the city's population As well as all demographic segments of the residents in the city and whereas San rosa city council supports citywide efforts in developing and sustaining affordable housing for the residents of san rosa And is committed to safe stable and affordable housing for all its residents And whereas Affordable housing month is a time to recommit to our mission to promote awareness fairness inclusion and justice in housing and whereas Our thriving community is encouraged to build local support and recognize affordable housing month Which supports the sharing of best practices Opportunities and solutions to provide affordable housing that is the right of all individuals Now therefore be resolved that our mayor chris rogers On behalf of the entire city council do hereby proclaim proclaim may as affordable housing month I do see we have uh director basinger who had her hand up Good evening mayor rogers and members of council On behalf of the housing authority of the city of san rosa and the city's department of housing and community services I would just like to acknowledge all the efforts that the housing authority commissioners Our staff and the community have made um on a daily basis to advance affordable housing within the city of san rosa So thank you for taking the time to recognize may as affordable housing month And I can assure you that our staff will continue their efforts to provide affordable housing to the residents of san rosa Excellent. Thank you so much council member mcdonnell, do you want to read the second proclamation? Yes, thank you, mayor The city of san rosa has a proclamation for national wildfire awareness month Whereas since 2017 the city of san rosa was threatened and directly impacted by the tubs nuns Kincaid and glass fires and whereas the tubs fire was one of the most destructive wildfires in the state history And whereas according to the national Interagency fire center humans caused an average of 68 percent of fires per year in the united states and whereas in 2021 8,835 fires burned 2,568 984 acres across california And whereas prevention campaigns and public outreach through collaborative Efforts is fundamental in reducing the threat of wildfires And whereas wildfire preparedness is year-round and takes all of us to safeguard our lands our communities And our livelihoods by reducing hazardous fuels creating Defensible space home hardening and taking personal responsibility for our actions Now that now therefore be it resolved that chris rogers mayor of the city of san rosa on behalf of the entire city council Do hereby proclaim may as national wildfire awareness month the council member And I think do we still have paul here? Yes Paul's here Yes No go for it paul Uh, good evening mayor rogers vice mayor alvarez members of the council my name is paul lonthal Division c fire marshal with the fire department I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to bring wildfire awareness to our community through this proclamation Also, I'd like to take opportunity to thank our community departments agencies And other operating partners that came together Last weekend for the ready santa rosa event It was another successful opportunity for us to engage with our community To help prepare for what seems to be unfortunately the new normal around here as we head into another drought season With that wildfire season will be declared here locally On june 6 and we encourage our residents and community to use our resources at src.org forward slash wildfire ready and src.org forward slash ready sr to continue to be prepared And thank you very much Thank you paul Council members any comment on the proclamations before I go to public comment? All right, let's see if we have any public comment on these two items Oh, we have um, we have a member of the public mr. Harder No, okay, okay. No, um, there are no raised hands and nobody in the chamber. Thank you Okay, and no pre-recorded voicemail No pre-recorded voicemails Perfect. All right. Thank you. Everybody will move on to item 15.1. It's our public hearing And again for the for the public it's the only public hearing we'll be doing tonight Item 15.2 has been fold that will be heard at a later date Mayor Yes, sir. Is there someone here on behalf of the affordable housing community that is accepting the proclamation Vice mayor alvarez, there is not um, she had to leave the meeting so we can give it to megan to um For to pass on to the housing authority. Thank you. All right, madam city manager Item 15.1 is a resolution of necessity for the acquisition by eminent domain Of easement interest in portions of real property property Commonly known as 4 9 1 2 and 49 14 highway 12 apns 0 3 1 2 4 0 0 6 and 0 3 1 2 4 0 0 6 7 for the lost alamos trunk sewer replacement project A real property agent stephanie valkovic will Give the presentation And before we jump into the presentation, madam city clerk, I believe you have to ascertain Whether or not a record has been sent to the property owner Yes, um, this is to confirm that I did receive a record of the proof of mailing Of the notice of hearing that invited the owner to appear and be heard on the matters of this public Hearing the hearing was noticed The hearing notice was provided to the property owner by first class mail 15 calendar days before the hearing in accordance with the statute The property owner has responded and will be speaking at tonight's hearing All yours Thank you, mayor council members. I'm gel scott the real estate manager and this portion of the hearing I'm glad to introduce to you mark easter from best best and kreger law firm He's our outside council that is helping us with This resolution of necessity and mark is going to go through the purpose of the raw hearing Thank you stephanie so Members of the city council and mayor this is a hearing for the city of san aroza To consider adopting a resolution necessity To use its eminent domain power to acquire both Temporary and permanent easement interests for this lost alamos trunk sewer replacement project To adopt the resolution necessity the city council Has to buy two-thirds vote or tonight would be Two-thirds vote of all of its voting members, which tonight would be five oh Since there's two absent the following findings first that the public Interest in necessity requires the project Second that the project can plan in a manner that's most beneficial to the public But the least private injury and third that the property interests to be acquired Are necessary for the project and finally that the offer of just compensation That's required by the government code has been made The way the the hearing will proceed is Staff's going to make a presentation on these findings And then any introduced property owners will be given an opportunity to speak and they're not limited to Three minutes and then any members of the public who are interested in speaking We give an opportunity to speak And then after any questions the hearing is closed and put to a vote Oh, and I should mention a couple of things the issue of Value and appraised value is not really on the table tonight It's the findings that I mentioned The property owner will have an opportunity to make a claim for greater compensation and the proceedings If the council adopts a resolution and adopting the resolution Doesn't close off further negotiations with the property owner Thank you mark appreciated Next Stephanie Valcovic is an associate real property agent is going to give the presentation on the project necessity Good evening mayor council members to recap We are here this evening to discuss easements needed in connection with the Los Alamos trunk sewer replacement project And specifically those easements which affect a portion of miss Samantha Zappelli's property Located at 49 12 and 49 14 Sonoma highway Next slide please The project is designed to provide upgrades to the 60 year old existing Los Alamos trunk sewer Located in eastern santa rosa and was identified by the 2014 sanitary sewer system master plan update As the number one high priority project for maintaining desired service levels within the city's sewage collection system Next slide please Segment one of the project begins at streamside drive and runs easterly terminating at alline drive This alignment was selected in order to effectively collect all Flows currently flowing into the existing trunk sewer as well as it was Excuse me as well as it was designed in an effort to minimize the amount of bypass pumping operations That will be necessary during the construction period Minimize potential impact on future development of private properties impacted by the easements And minimize the impact on heritage trees next slide please Miss Zappelli's property the subject property is located south of highway 12 and west of a lane drive towards the end of segment one The existing trunk sewer crosses a portion of the property as noted in red on this exhibit And the proposed easements for the realigned trunk are identified in teal Next slide please The city and its right-of-way consultant have actively negotiated with miss Zappelli over the course of the past 16 months With dozens of phone calls Several site visits including a site visit where the easements were staked at the property owner's request And well over 75 emails exchanged over the course of those months In an effort to negotiate an agreement However, the parties have been unable at this time to reach a mutual agreement on fair market value of the easements Next slide please The city first extended a formal offer to miss Zappelli in january 2021 in the amount of the appraised value Provided by the city's appraiser Miss Zappelli then had the opportunity to hire an independent appraiser at city expense to value the easements Next slide please The independent appraisal came back significantly higher than the city's original appraised value However, in an effort to reach an agreement the city made a revised offer to miss Zappelli in september 2021 on the basis of that independent appraisal And in november 2021 the city made One last revised and final offer providing additional compensation above that already provided For the replacement of some fruit trees that will be impacted by the project In spite of these good faith efforts the parties have yet to reach an agreement on price and terms Next slide please Therefore it is recommended by the water and transportation and public works departments And real estate services that the council city council adopt or excuse me conduct a public hearing And adopt a resolution of necessity by a two-thirds vote declaring the necessity of acquisition by imminent domain of two permanent easement interests and two temporary construction easement interests In portions of certain real property more particularly described as sonoma county assessor parcel numbers zero three one two four zero zero zero six and zero three one two four zero zero six seven for the Los Alamos trunk sewer replacement project And that concludes this portion of the presentation and i'll turn it back over to the city's real estate manager jill spot Thank you stephanie council member council members and mayor Stephanie and ian mark are here throughout the public hearing to answer any additional questions that council may have Um, we also have um supporting staff the project team representatives from the water department And city consultants that have worked on this available if they're needed All right. Thank you so much jill and stepney really appreciate it council. Do we have any questions? All right, saying none i'll go ahead and open the public hearing Do we have miss zepelli or her representative here to speak? And my name is samia the zepelli And i'm not opposed to the project or fighting that issue of allowing the project to go through I've just had some questions and concerns because the addresses are wrong on The project like the one ap numbers for 49 16 Sonoma highway and i've asked them to Um split the project up per ap number Um, like we've been going back and forth with different things. That's why there's been so many emails and also with pricing and Appraisals that were added to I'm sorry the comps that were added to the appraisals are not correct and the square footage is different on many different things But my main concern is separating the two parcel numbers and how much square footage is on each one How they're going to Remove the old project because it's all zoned for apartments So it's going to limit us if we want to in the future Um build and expand apartments because there's four parcels that are grouped together So it kind of goes in the middle. It's not just like it's at the end of one parcel So those are my concerns and i've asked um because i'm not knowledgeable I've asked them to go over it with me and stephanie has said that you know They don't have a legal department to do that It's up to me to understand and do it But i want to know what i'm signing because i don't have the knowledge Um So yeah, I'm not that i'm fighting the project. I just want some things clarified and understand what I am signing so Great. Thank you for for being here. Do we have anyone else who'd like to speak on this item? Um, mayor, I don't see anybody going towards the podium and we don't have any Raised hands or voicemail public comment All right, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing then and I'll bring it back And jill could you Respond a little bit around the question about splitting the apm members and about potential discrepancies and and some of the members Sure, I would be happy to mayor um, so as we have tried to explain to mr. Halley on numerous occasions and several different staff members The apns are correct. Um, we've staked the easement area where the easement is going so She can see exactly where it is. Um, we've explained to her that the once the new one is built the old easement will be vacated And we have not found any discrepancies in Um in anything and either in the city's appraisal or the other appraisal Which we have had reviewed and gone through several times We've made staff has made numerous numerous attempts to Um try to explain this. Um at this point, we think it's probably best and we've Told mr. Pelle this that she retained her own counsel We did pay for her to get her own appraisal And her appraiser has also tried to explain The complicated appraisal to her Um, and she's still not feeling Comfortable with it. And so that's why we recommended that she retained her own counsel And even potentially find another appraisal appraiser to appraise the property for her We feel like we have as staff we've tried very hard to Um come to an agreement to explain the process. Um, I've tried myself stephanie's tried and also our consultant Um, and there just seems to be a communication gap. Um, so at this point, um, we are recommending moving forward with the hearing process Okay, thank you if I may mr. Mayor. I also want to um emphasize again as mr. Easter did Um that the scope of this hearing is very limited It's really about the necessity of the project the necessity of this project and not about the appraisals or the price Thanks Great, thank you. So bring it back any other questions from council members Mr. Vice mayor, do you have your hand up? Yes, I do mayor Go for it Well any changes with this easement impede any feature use of the property Such as a more denser Conditional use permit or anything of that nature Um, that's a difficult question to answer vice mayor, but I'll do my best. Um If she were to the new um the new easements are very are um, we're specifically designed to go to the very end of her property um on the other side of her business. So um She could potentially, you know Completely um redevelop the whole property getting rid of the Business and the house she has now and so if that were the case, yes, I guess it could um slightly But it is to the edge of the of the property as much as we could get it. Um where the alignment would work But where it is now, um You know any sort of um Damages, I guess you could use the word um Are awarded to her within? Um the appraisals does that answer your question? Any any damage caused by the city would be awarded to her? Is is contemplated within the appraisals and awarded to her? Within the appraisal the current appraisal Yes, correct. Well, thank you. I need to answer my question Okay, seeing no other questions. Councilmember Sawyer. Can you please put a motion on the table for discussion? Thank you, mayor I'll introduce a resolution of the council of the city center rosa Adopting a resolution of necessity for the acquisition by imminent imminent domain of easement interests in portions of certain real property commonly known as 4912 and 4914 highway 12 and more particularly Described as assessors parcel number zero three one two four zero zero zero six and zero three one two four zero zero six seven For the Los Alamos trunks sewer replacement project and wait for the reading of the text second We have a motion from councilmember Sawyer and a second from councilmember schvithel Is there any additional discussion from council? Okay, madam clerk, if you could please call the vote Thank you. Excuse me councilmember schvithel. Hi councilmember Sawyer. Hi Councilmember mcdonald No Council vice mayor alvarez Hi Mayor rogers No, okay that motion fails By a two-thirds vote All right, madam to the attorney. I would ask for reconsideration our next meeting That will be fine. We can bring it back for reconsideration at the next meeting Great. Thank you. All right council. I appreciate Appreciate your time. We're going to go ahead and move back to the beginning of our agenda To be done our study sessions. We've done our proclamation. Let's go to our staff briefings item number seven Item 7.1 is a covet 19 update Sonoma county public health reported last week that the bay area Now has california's highest coven infection rates due to the prevalence of the highly contagious omicron sub variants To prevent the spread bay area public health officials are urging individuals to mask up indoors Keep test handy Stay home if you are sick and get your booster shots when eligible Last week the white house announced that americans are now eligible for a third order of free at home covet test covet test can be ordered at covet test dot gov This week the fda authorized fizer covet booster for children ages five to eleven For more information about the status of covet in our community testing locations And vaccine information for all ages. Please go to socoemergency.org Council do we have any questions for the city manager on today's covet 19 response update? All right, let's see if there's any public comments on the item Um mayor, I don't see any raised hands and nobody is walking towards the podium and there are no public comment voicemail public comments All right, let's roll right into our city manager and city attorney updates then Madam city manager. Do you want to kick us off? Thank you. Mayor members of the council jason nut assistant city manager on behalf of the city manager And the planning and economic development part department. We want to congratulate jessica jones The city of santa rosa's newest deputy director of planning Jessica has almost 22 years of urban planning experience 14 of which were with the city of santa rosa And progressing from city planner to from city planner to senior planner to supervising planner and now as deputy director Jessica will oversee both Development review and advanced planning sections in the planning and economic development department and congratulations to jessica In addition, the city has just received the award of excellence for a comprehensive plan in a large jurisdiction category For the downtown station area specific plan This plan was provided by the northern california chapter of the apa Which is the american planning association and has also been submitted for consideration at the state level The downtown station area specific plan was a grant funded effort that was adopted in october 2020 The major move includes eliminating parking requirements for the entire plan area eliminating residential densities And moving to floor area ratio and expressing maximum flexibility on land use while establishing design guidelines It has catalyzed new development with over 750 housing units approved or in the pipeline in the last 18 months Or in the in the months since it was adopted So a great day and fantastic news for the planning economic development department and congratulations Thank you jason Madam city attorney, do you have a report? Nothing to report this evening. Thanks counsel, do we have any questions for assistant city manager jason net Let's go to public comment on the city manager and city attorney update Um mayor, I don't see any raised hands. There's no voicemail public comment and nobody is walking towards the podium All right, let's go on to statements of abstention from council members We have anybody who needs to abstain from any of the items on tonight's agenda Okay, saying none. Let's go into our mayor and council member report Who wants to start council member mcdonald? Thank you, mayor Um the climate action committee met um recently and we had a great presentation by the sinoma county Um climate action group and what they're doing and a couple things that stood out to me was their ability to telecommute through the county and how they have an app that shows a reduction in um carbon Carbon footprint and they can track that as Employees so I thought that was one of the great things that they're doing at the county level And their ability to partner with the city on some of the things that they're doing and the presentation that they did is actually All on that agenda. So I would just recommend that those interested in what the county is doing for Uh climate resiliency and making sure that we're doing our part for climate action to take a look at that um We also had a report at that same meeting on our bicycle and pedestrian master plan for 2018 and much of that plan Is really focused on what we're doing within the city to create more safe Bicycle and pedestrian pathways so that we can really commit to ensuring safety and Use of bicycles throughout the community I met with creative sinoma county And the social advocates for youth or social. Yes social advocates for youth. Sorry my dyslexia played a moment there on me um, and we did a I did a tour of their property and You know one of the really extremely concerning issues that they brought up specifically at this time Was around the increase in sex trafficking And that's due to the increase in our tourism in sinoma county And so I think it's something that we need to take a look at Not only a city council, but what we're doing in the county to combat this And so I just want to say thank you To s a y for the work that they do to protect children and youth and give them an opportunity for a safe space to be Um, locien held their awards summit Uh ceremony last week, and I was able to attend that and see some very well-deserved recipients Of rewards for doing great things um in our community specifically for our um, speaking population Tomorrow i'm scheduled to go to the firefighters 101 training. I it should be interesting. I have warned them Most of my strength is in my brain And so to go easy on me And i'm very excited to announce that I have somebody that i'll be appointing to the community advisory board Her name is iris harrell. She lives in the oakmont Neighborhood and she is a member of the oakmont village Association she's a general contractor and owns her own Builder and design company with 40 employees and has um Had a extensive career in contracting She's managed design permits and constructions projects through the oakmont community such as their pickleball court and um Renovations and so I believe she will be a fantastic Liaison for the community advisory Board and I look forward to seeing that appointment through at the end of this week to be official So I want to thank her for her willingness to serve her community In the current role that she has in oakmont, but then also to serve her greater community in zana rosa is one of my appointees Thank you Thank you council member. Let's go to council member schvino Thank you mr. Mayor report out on two things uh on the may 12th We had our most recent groundwater sustainability agency meeting which we discussed the rate and fee study Which will be before this council later on in this agenda Additionally, we appointed marcus trotta as a new plan manager The reason we got to appoint marcus is that jay jasper who has been our only plan manager since 2017 is retiring july 1st So i want to compliment jay for the excellent job He's done as the plan manager and really looking forward to marcus who has been Integral part of that groundwater sustainability plan We also approved the new administrative services team the west yost associates I participated in an interview of this team along with the chair of the petaluma basin Which was david rabbit supervisor rabbit Also the snoma valley basin Chairwoman susan gorn and we unanimously selected west yos, so they'll be the administrative in grant provider or grant Grant administrative services providers for all three gsa's And the second item was on may 15th. I attended the first virtual in-response team community meeting It was a great job by both our public safety chiefs as well as Buckaloo catholic charities everyone else who was involved there and was really encouraging all the positive comments But there were over a hundred virtual participants in that meeting So it's a great way to try to educate the community about what that team is doing and also affords the opportunity to provide some feedback Thanks. Hi. Thank you so much council members Uh, I've got a couple of quick updates For tonight first. I want to start with a big congratulations to deputy director nigali tayas who was chosen as life works champion for change this year I haven't had a chance to get recognized for that over the weekend So I want to just applaud her for that. We love the work that she's doing here at the city and it's a well-deserved recognition Wanted to say a big congratulations to our team who have been working hard for nearly 20 years on the lower colgan creek Project we did have an opportunity to do a ribbon cutting for this this last Thursday For phase two of the project. I want it completed. It'll be a 1.3 mile walkway From lt allen high school to victoria drive that should be well utilized by our youth And an opportunity for them to see some some good natural habitat natural plants As well as a very healthy creek and stream for us here uh, I'll also Just mentioned our team was very excited and I saw many folks out there with our Wednesday night market starting back up last week And our our crews were out there with some of the the big materials Some of the big equipment for folks to take a look at to hopefully spur some interest in in Children going into those fields as well. So well done to our team on that all around Last thing I want to remind council members and the public This Thursday is the first the first game For the Santa Rosa scuba divers at Doyle park So hope to see folks out there really excited and I know our park team is really excited to be out there as well With that we'll go ahead and see if there's any public comments for councilmember reports mayor there's no, um See no raised hands. There's no voicemail public comment and Nobody but staff in the chamber All right, we'll keep moving then Uh, mr. Mayor go on mr. Mayor if I may I'd like to loop back to the request for reconsideration Um, and it was pointed out and I realized I did Error I have an error there. Um, it needs to be someone from the majority vote Uh to request their reconsideration That can be done at the next council meeting. Um, I need to confirm that But that's uh, that's where we are at the risk of arguing at the risk of arguing with an attorney Madam city attorney, I believe it's actually from the side that prevails Not from the majority side. I think we've run into this a time or two before But it has to be somebody who who sided with the winning position Let me look at what the what the um manual says and then I will Step back in. Um, but you're right. I know we've had that issue where we've had a tie vote And what we've done is treated the Uh Treated the nose as the prevailing because the in a tie it doesn't pass So what you're arguing or what you're suggesting was is that the same rule would apply here Although it was a minority of the vote. So let me confirm in the in the section I have it up on my computer and just got to find that particular section We I appreciate that we also can ask, uh, one of the other council members who voted the opposite direction They would also be okay with reconsideration just to cover our basis While the public is watching and while we figure this out. Okay. It is in the short Let's go say it's um any member Who voted with the majority may move to reconsider or rescind any action at the time So the issue when we have a tie vote is that there is no majority So so if a member of the majority vote here Um wants to request reconsideration we can do that Or it can be done at the next available meeting Okay, I appreciate that and I see council member Sawyer's hand come up Thank you, mayor. Thank you madam city attorney. Um, I would request a reconsideration on the prior item Thank you Okay, I think our bases are covered right too Pardon I believe our bases are covered now bases are covered. That's the motion and do we have a second? I will second that very good. Seconder doesn't is not required to have voted with the majority And we will then list the item on the agenda for the next Uh council meeting Thank you. Madam city attorney, is it necessary to take a vote on the reconsideration? Um Let's go ahead and take a vote. Uh, it's unclear in the procedures You know, there's some of our procedures that just require when we're when we're scheduling something on the council agenda It's a little unclear in this particular instance, but Having a full vote would cover the basis. So thank you. Okay. Just one moment, please Madam city attorney, that's just to for clarification. That's just to reconsider the vote We're not voting on the item again. We're not we're not reporting on the item again We're voting to whether to reconsider The motion and whether to we'll schedule if the motion passes We'll schedule it for the next available council meeting. Thank you for the clarification And I see council member split helm with his hand raised as well Thank you, mr. Mayor. Uh, just so we don't have to do this again since we are no longer on that item Can we be even having a vote that's not on this agenda since that ied them closed Might we want to bring it up when it's actually on the agenda? So there's no members of the public here and it just seems like this is out of context We just can't put things not on the agenda to reconsider But i'm open to your thoughts for suggestions It actually says a member who voted with the majority may move to reconsider We send any action at the same or next following meeting providing no legal rights of intervening to create an estoppel If we want to wait until the next meeting, I don't think that we need to but if If that feels more transparent to the community, I would suggest that that motion then be made At the in the council reports We don't normally agendize the the request for recommended for reconsideration So that would be the other option I'm not sure it's a lot more transparent, but It would it would it's another option if you're more comfortable with that So if i'm hearing you say doing it this way you believe would be procedurally correct I do. Okay. That's all I just wanted to make sure. Thank you and the the the reconsideration itself will be agendized and The property owner will receive a new notice of that reconsideration And I should say notice of the reconsideration since it's not a re noticing of the reconsideration Okay, so what I heard too and uh for the public Is that we have a motion in the second for reconsideration that Will appear on the next agenda where the council will have to vote whether to reconsider the item And if the council chooses to reconsider the item, then we will actually re hear the item as well and vote on it I thought you were going to take a vote tonight to Reconsider if your preference is to wait and reconsider it this is this is different than the When you're moving to put something on the agenda you move in second and then have another meeting If if the council is more comfortable With waiting and having that vote next week we can or next at your next meeting we can do that Um, but from my perspective according to the policy Um, you can you can vote at this meeting if you so desire Now for the for the second transparency and with the confusion and the questions around it Uh, let's agendize it for the vote for reconsideration at the next meeting as well as Then to actually hear it let's both on the agenda so that people know that that's both are in offer our possibility So in that case, I would be withdrawing my motion Um to await if we're if we're going to agendize it in order for us to agendize it I think it would be helpful to have your motion in the second on the table We will then agendize it for a vote at your next meeting. I will draw my withdrawal And I will I will know it a little bit off off agenda, but um, perhaps this is a section of our procedure of On our manual on procedures and protocols this section might be due for a clarification I think the last time I was involved with the reconsideration was probably about 12 years ago if I'm not mistaken Can I ask a clarifying question mayor? Just a point point of clarification So right now we're going to be voting on the request for consideration And that's been moved and seconded and that motion's on the table And then would it be in order for procedure to then put a secondary motion on the table for a time certain on the public Comment on that specific item Uh, so what I would what I would say councilmember is what has been Tradition how we have done things to add things to the agenda is once you have a motion in a second debate stops Because we haven't agendized or given public notice of that vote that we are going to take Even if it's adding something to the agenda So we have the motion in the second we will put it on the next agenda Where next time we will vote on whether or not to formally reconsider the the item So the the individual will also Uh, receive notice of both of those so that they can weigh in on both the reconsideration if they want as well as If we do end up re hearing the item um So we'll go with that and public hearings technically are Uh, as close to time certain as we can get we try to start them around five o'clock We just happen to go exceptionally long today on our study sessions But it'll be agendized And I still can speak to this it'll be agendized with the same language Which is that we'll try to take it as close to five o'clock as possible Mayor if I could if I could ask a quick question Madam city attorney, is there a re noticing requirement for the wrong hearing and would that then dictate timelines? There will be a noticing requirement for the new ron hearing what will take place at the next Agenda the next council meeting will be the vote on the reconsideration The timing of the reconsideration vote. Yes, we'll have to allow enough time To notice the property owner In accordance with the statute And that noticing requirement as I recall is 15 calendar days before the ron hearing Yep So everybody clear We'll move on to item 11 then Are we taking a vote on this or no? No, we no, we are adding this to the agenda for a vote at our next meeting Thank you Okay So we'll go to item 11. We have 11.1 and 11.2 They're our regular minute meeting meeting minutes from march 15th of march 29th Does anybody have any questions or additions to those two steps of minutes? Councilmember Sawyer, I'm just putting your hand still up. There you go All right, let's go to public comment and see if anybody has any amendments That they'd like to offer to those two minutes Mayor there's no voicemail public comment. No hands raised and No members of the public in the chamber Okay, but if there's no objection from council members, we'll show those adopted as presented And I'm seeing no objection Madam city manager if you'd like to go to the consent calendar Item 12.1 is a resolution award five year extension to f 00 1438 General service agreement with ad mires ink for citywide janitorial services Item 12.2 is a resolution approval of a purchase order for two caterpillar diesel forklifts to halt of california sacramental To replace existing assets in santa rosa water department Item 12.3 is a resolution approval of additional funds to contingency for general services agreement f 00 201 h fact maintenance and repair services Item 12.4 is a resolution Professional service agreement approval for bigskardosa kardoza associates ink Associated with the 2021 bridge repair planning program Item 12.5 is a resolution extension of proclamation of existence of local emergency Related to the threat to community health posed by covet 19 Item 12.6 is a resolution extension of proclamation of local homeless emergency Item 12.7 is a resolution making required monthly findings and authorizing the continued use of teleconferencing For public meetings of the city council and all city boards commissions and committee and committees Pursuant to assembly bill 361 That's it. Thank you. All right. Council. Do you have any questions council member sweater? Thank you, mr. Mayor. I do have a question on uh item 12.4 mr Or the person who is answering is present Yes, the person who is answering i'll i'll ask lisa welch to be brought up She's associate civil engineer with the transportation of public works and this is her item Great. So my question on this regarding the bridges It stems from the report that this body received a couple months ago regarding bridges and ben valley golf course city property So I know this talks about the caltrans is for spans greater than 20 feet in vehicle bridges But then also other waterway crossings such as vehicle and pedestrian bridges and culverts Less than 20 feet are assessed by city personnel every four years. So my question is Because i'm guessing some of the bridges on ben valley golf course city property are longer Than 20 feet. So who would inspect them and is this part of that because I didn't notice any of the 46 bridges being any on ben valley property Thank you. Uh, I would I can answer that question. Um, the golf courses are pedestrian bridges. Um, They are not included in the anticipated list of this, uh, ps a But uh, there is a contingency in the contract. So and it allows for consideration of up to five additional bridges to be evaluated Um, the pedestrian bridges doesn't matter the length of them Um, if it's even exceeding 20 foot if it's a pedestrian bridge dot a vehicle bridge It's not evaluated by caltrans. It would be to the city staff So again, I guess I heard that could be My question to city staff. Are they going to be observing those after what we had the Consultants say that there are some were dangerous, which I asked a lot of questions about that I'm hoping some steps are being taken to evaluate the safety of all those bridges on that city property Is that going to be the case whether it's this item or somewhere else? Yes, that'll be within the city. It's it's within the city staff. Uh Current like evaluations for the annual evaluations. So it's not part of this It's city staff is going to be doing it. There hasn't been any found all the things within All of the bridges under this have been found to have some deficiency that needed to be looked at by A provisional bridge expert And and councilmember schwethelm if I could just add In regard to the benton valley golf course, we will be doing comprehensive evaluations of all of the facilities Including the pedestrian pathways the bridges and other structures It may not be as part of this PSA but but it will be coming forward and there'll be more discussion about that in the upcoming year Great. Thank you very much for that Any other questions from council Councilmember mcdonald It was on that same item and just so i'm clear under this particular item We're just approving that we have somebody that's going to go out and evaluate the 46 bridges that are listed on there Then at a later time those bridges will be brought back to council There's no budget for those bridges to be repaired right now But it would be part of a work plan that could be brought back later for consideration And then at that time we would know what would be done with those bridges Whether they'd be expanded moved into something else or what the recommendations are from an engineer. Is that correct? Yes, it would be building a list of of things that they could we could then bring to you in future projects Thank you so much And if I could just add councilmember mcdonald, this is uh, the this is not an expansion Evaluation this is purely Structural and stability for the bridges In in response to reports that we receive annually from caltrans So if there was a desire at that time we would bring that back if there was a consideration to then expand one of those Branches to be used for something else or wouldn't that be Expansion is not part of this is not a capacity issue. This is this is a maintenance issue and that's what Miss welsh is doing and hiring a consultant to come out that has expertise In dealing with the specific conditions That caltrans is identified in their preliminary evaluations. Great. Thank you so much for the clarification All right, let's go to public comment and see if anybody has remarks for the consent calendar today Mayor I see no raised hands. We have no voicemail public comment and no members of the public All right, mr. Vice mayor Thank you, mayor I'd like to move items 12.1 through 12.7 and way further reading of the text We have a motion from the vice mayor and a second from councilmember soyer. Let's go ahead call the vote Councilmember schwaitham. Hi councilmember soyer. Hi councilmember mcdonald. Hi Vice mayor alvarez. Hi mayor rogers I that motion passes with five eyes with council members Fleming and rogers absent All right, we've reached our public comment for non-agenda items portion of the agenda if you have a comment That is on something within the city's subject Area, but it's not on tonight's menu. Go ahead and hit the raised hand feature on your zoom Mayor I see no raised hands. We have no voicemail public comment and no members of the public present Okay, let's keep moving and go to item 14.1 Item 14.1 is a report Fourth amendment to the solid waste collection services agreement with recology sonoma marin Doing business as recology sanarosa and omnibus Omnibus amendment to waste delivery agreement with republic services of sonoma county And franchise holler agreement between republic services of sonoma county and recology sonoma marin I'd like to introduce zero waste coordinator joey hennis henowitz Good job. You got it very good job. Yeah, I thought you were gonna butcher there for a second. Good job city manager So my name is joey henowitz. I am the zero waste coordinator for for the city sanarosa And i'm here for you before you tonight For a fourth amendment to our solid waste collection services agreement as well as an omnibus amendment to our Waste delivery agreement and franchise holler agreement Just kind of catch up to date. This this is going to be one of our final administrative tasks To incorporate senate bill sp 1383 Which was organic waste reductions of the short lived climate pollutants so we can go ahead and move to the To the next slide, please So as we're all pretty familiar especially here in sanarosa and sonoma county california is experiencing the effects of the climate crisis Um We're extreme droughts which we're currently in we have devastating fire seasons hotter summers with record-breaking temperatures as evidence today And rising sea level that are eroding our coastlines So we do know that climate change is is here and we do need to take some action scientists do tell us that releasing greenhouse gases by human activities Like landfilling food and yard waste do cause climate change Uh organic waste and landfills amidst 20 percent of california's methane, which is a super pollutant 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide And really what the basis of sp 1383 is here to do is try to get folks To not only throw their their yard waste, which I think a lot of people are familiar with But throwing that that green waste your any organic matter your leftover food your leftover food scraps Paper cardboard, etc into that green bin Because currently that makes up nearly half of what californians dump in landfills Here in sanarosa where just about 40 percent of what goes to our our local landfill is considered organic or compostable material If we're able to divert that organic material from landfill, we're actually able to Reduce the methane emissions Because what happens is that material organic material is going to decompose at some point And it is going to emit some carbon dioxide But what happens when you put it in the landfill at each time at the landfill? They do a cover onto the landfill for various reasons and it basically traps in any air So it anaerobically digests and it emits that methane, which is really what sp 1383 is designed to try to prevent Next slide So a little bit of background information many of you are pretty familiar with this you've heard from me a few times So for some of the new council members in in 2016 governor brown Said methane's emissions targets through sd 1383 in an effort to reduce those short-lived climate pollutants I mentioned to you earlier specifically methane These statewide targets are enacted to to reduce organic waste disposal 75 percent by 2025 And rescue for people to eat at least 20 percent of currently disposed Surplus food by 2025. So these are some aggressive targets But we do know that we are in the middle of that climate crisis So we do need to act aggressively next slide So When did sp 1383 become effective it became effective at the beginning of this year january 1st 2022 Santa Rosa along with all other california jurisdictions is responsible for complying and implementing sp 1383 regulations Santa Rosa prefers to partner with ecology on certain implementation matters by am ending our solid waste collection services agreement um, we also are going to be partnering with our our local jpa zero waste Sonoma and We do need to have a fourth amendment to the solid waste collection services agreement with ecology To memorialize this partnership Next slide So what are we asking to adjust to or amend into the fourth amendment to the franchise agreement? So we are asking ecology to take on some of the responsibilities for the implementation of sp 1383 They do have the boots on the ground presence. They are They do have expertise in these matters And so we will be asking them to increase citywide collection routes to provide Mandatory organics collection service across all customer segments No longer are we asking you to you know, please have organic service It is a state law. It is it is contained within our our city code. We codified that late last year in the fall We are asking for ecology since they do have that boots on the ground presence and the expertise already in the field Is to perform route review inspections for prohibited container contaminants for each santa rosa hauler route annually So what this means is that we have I have asked ecology to dedicate one of their zero waste specialists to a full-time waste diversion auditor and His full-time job is to basically go and flip lids and to check what's going on in in those cans And so for businesses as well as single family homes You you will be having random inspections occurring to make sure that you are properly diverting the materials in each of the bins And that you are diverting those compostable materials into the green organic spin Additionally, they're going to continue to provide their education And specifically education pursuant to sb 1380 through departments and for any account that might have be found to have container contamination They will be providing additional follow-up to those specific accounts letting them know how to properly divert What they need to be doing and what kind of issues were found to be presented in that inspection next slide Additionally, brookology will be performing commercial and multifamily account compliance reviews on an annual basis to determine that they have adequate organic subscription levels To make sure that they are right sizing with those accounts that they have the proper can sizes to be able to accommodate for Each of the each of the three size bins, which is to garbage recycling in organics They are going to continue to provide that education and outreach as I mentioned before And they will be providing the city with required reporting figures that we do need to report to cow recycle on an annual basis And our first report is going to be due in on october 1st of this year next slide so Not a surprise, but what sb 1383 effectively is it's an unfunded mandate from the california state legislature And but within this unfunded mandate It does authorize local jurisdictions to be able to charge fees to fund implementation of sb 1383 Calry cycles direction has effectively been to jurisdictions. You guys are responsible for funding sb 1383 implementation needed to figure it out So whether it's through increasing Franchise fees, whether it's through increasing solid waste collection rates or some other form of fund mechanism that jurisdictions are responsible for this I will note that Calry cycle through the last budget cycle did appropriate 16 million Through a grant program for sb 1383 Implementation for local jurisdictions. We did just recently receive Notice from Calry cycle on our funding requests. So santa rosa will be receiving just under $200,000 as a one-time funding request for sb 1383 implementation Specific plans are yet to be developed on how those funds will be distributed but We will be focusing mostly exclusively on Outreach and education and some targeted technical outreach out in the community get out there and get some boots on the ground and some people talking face to face with Definitely our largest generators in santa rosa And i'll just mention real quick as well the california league of cities through some of the Solid waste roundtables that i've been a part of on some of the phone calls and virtual calls Is going is actually pushing the legislature this funding cycle this budget cycle to appropriate 180 million and recently i was able to get through our Through the mayor to sign a petition request for that. So the city of santa rosa is Supporting that fund request. We definitely could use the funds here We still do not have a local compost facility in sonoma county So those funds can definitely be used and they could be used very very fruitfully there Um So santa rosa will be funding sb 1383 through increases to our franchise holler race Which is going to be through the monthly bills the quarterly bills through ecology And as well as through the other partnership that we have a zero-way sonoma to to do some of their functions Which i'll talk about a little bit later on the presentation. They'll be Minimally increasing their agency surcharge, which is a surcharge which is charged at the tipping fee through each You know through each Every single pound of waste that goes through the sonoma county waste management system or ton. I should say not pound Next next slide, please So with this is going to obviously come with some price increases I did mention that uh, santa rosa. We have signed a Memorandum of understanding with zero-way sonoma Zero-way sonoma will be handling a significant amount of sb 1383 for not just santa rosa, but for all the sonoma county jurisdictions Um, just to give you an idea of what they will services that they will be providing They will be providing the overall education and outreach Uh, they will be doing the organic waste procurement, which at this point we're going to be doing a direct service provider provider model Uh, they will be doing the majority of the reporting and record keeping Uh, they will be providing the organic waste processing and diversion capacity planning Uh, they will be the initial follow-up on complaints and um potential violations They will be inspecting the commercial edible food recovery Uh components and the generators that are required within sb 1383 They also will be running the edible food recovery program And they will be providing the initial review of waiver applications. So Uh through the mou with initial price increases for zero-way sonoma do forecast Uh, about a two to three percent price increase to the santa rosa Solid waste rates for those services that they will be providing on behalf of the city of santa rosa next slide So what you see in front of you right now on this slide is the projected price increases from recology recology does Anticipate about a two percent price increase now. This is over and above any other adjustment applicable under the solid waste collection services agreement But this just kind of gives you an idea exactly what what recology has forecasted So they will need two new drivers for for the additional routes that santa rosa will have We have contamination mailers contamination tags the compost fees As well as the additional Capital resources that will be needed, which includes, you know, two-yard compost bins collection trucks Frontloader trucks side loader trucks So you do see there that you do have about a two percent increase Over and above just specifically for sb 1383 Coming from recology for for their Participation in partnership with the sb 1383 implementation for santa rosa next slide Okay, so now to get to the kind of second part of the presentation is this this omnibus amendment With the waste delivery agreement and franchise taller agreement to try to Simple it down these these agreements can get pretty confusing and there's a lot between them but The omnibus amendment is between the city of santa rosa republic services Who is the landfill operator the central landfill operator? And recology sonoma ran who obviously is our our solid waste hall The master operations agreement commonly referred to as the moa is what you would consider the kind of mother master agreement that is the master agreement that was signed between the jurisdictions of sonoma county and the county of sonoma for Republic services to operate the landfill and also for the jurisdictions to agree to send Our committed waste our franchise waste to the republic facilities for at least a term of 25 years The waste delivery agreement is essentially that is a subcontract of the master operations agreement Which basically says that we commit in santa rosa to send our waste To republic services facilities for the next 25 years republic services operates the landfill They take on the liability for the landfill operations and and for them to be able to Get a return on their investment. They need to at least have that waste sent to them for 25 years That's the moa and the waste delivery agreement The franchise hauler agreement is going to be between The city santa rosa republic services and recology and the franchise haul agreement essentially Designates that recology as our franchise caller will send the committed waste Which is the franchise waste that that santa rosa has here within our jurisdiction to republic services Next slide so currently Under the programs required by the master operations agreement and the franchise haul agreement They do not require recology to perform all the duties required by sp1383 Currently within the the wda and and franchise haul everything at the moa there There is a specific section that does designate republic services to provide for a commercial food waste program Within the urban areas typically right along the 101 corridor for specifically for businesses that have commercial food waste That's like going to be a clean waste. It's generally coming from restaurants food providers food food companies And that actually goes down to a facility down in richmond where it goes into an anaerobic digest What we are asking with this amendment Because sp1383 is it is essentially expanded the scope of of what was currently provided with under that agreement We're asking to retire that portion Within the wda and fha to retire that from the commercial food waste program Eliminate the for the four dollar and twenty two who sent a gate rate fee that used to fund that program And we're asking to use that transfer that over exclusively to each jurisdiction under their franchise agreement Santa Rosa would do this as well as all the other jurisdictions within sonoma county Next slide So i'll just go ahead and skip down to a second bullet point there. So with that transfer There's going to be no additional impact placed on solid waste rates. Essentially we're taking it from what used to be The wda waste delivery agreement And we're moving it over into now the solid waste collection services agreement, which is going to be exclusively managed by Santa Rosa So that does allow us to manage our sp1383 responsibilities directly with the haulers This solution was was brought to fruition through a combination of the county of sonoma republic services with apology and all the jurisdictions getting together and meeting together to figure out what would be the most Efficient way to manage this kind of sp1383 issue along with the commercial food waste program that we Previously had and this solution avoids working through a patchwork of those existing agreements That would need to be supplemented by yet created agreements and allows each jurisdiction to manage The recipe 1383 responsibilities Exclusively through their franchise agreement. So it's it's a lot easier to manage and a lot more effective to manage there next slide next slide please so Oh, I know what some of the questions are going to come is what's going to be the impact for for this Omnibus amendment. So ultimately Actually, I'm I apologize. Can we go back one slide? I think I skipped one so Lastly on the somnibus amendment. There are there are some additional amendments that are being proposed to the franchise hauler agreement This is to allow ecology to provide commingled food waste routing Now this was brought forth by ecology And where where this kind of boils down to is is there's there's two kind of trucks that ecology provides There's there's the side loader which loads from the side, which is typically going to Service your single family homes Which is going to be you know, anywhere from a 20 gallon container to a 96 gallon container that you see in the single family dwelling unit And then you have your front loader, which is going to typically service Anywhere from a two yard bin to a four yard bin and those are generally going to be commercial accounts There are a number of accounts, especially as we implement sb 1383 where they do have some organic service requirements But it's not up to the level of needing a front loader to front load it from the front So there are some commercial accounts that do have a 96 gallon or 64 gallon green compost bin And in order to service these accounts ecology is asking if we can amend the franchise hauler agreement to allow those trucks when they're in those Areas so if they're in a residential area, it's near it's nearby business To allow them to go ahead and pick up that that commercial food waste The reason why we do need to bring this forward is commercial food waste is a committed waste under the moa It is a committed waste that does need to go to a republic facility And so the agreement that we've come up with is that we will allow ecology to be allowed to collect up to 15% of the total tonnage countywide of commercial food waste In residential organic service routes. Now this is being done for efficiency This is being done for cost savings and i'll get into a little bit more of that in the next slide But ecology will be compensating republic services for the difference in tipping fees for the specific amount of Comingled organic waste generated on a on a quarterly basis next slide So as I mentioned, this is being done for efficiency purposes This is going to provide a bottom line cost savings Um, ultimately the the two options that we have is to allow ecology to collect these commercial food waste In their in their commingled accounts um, or we would have to basically have separate and uh separate and fully functional commercial food waste routes set up that are not currently that are not currently set up in the current system What we are anticipating at this point from from early From early figures is To do the commingled food waste routes. We're looking at probably under about 20 000 a year. That's going to be paying to republic If ecology was to operate at least one or probably two Dedicated food waste routes you're looking at probably upwards up to a hundred thousand dollars for at least one specific food waste route when you count in The staff time the the need to purchase a brand new truck And everything involved with that and so there is going to be significant cost savings to for this approach If and when the compensation that's payable to republic services Under this agreement were to exceed the cost of a dedicated commercial food waste route The city and ecology could opt out to create such routes So we do have flexibility to adjust there if we do realize that the cost savings aren't You know aren't benefiting the community aren't benefiting our rate payers Next slide So approval of this action does not have a fiscal impact on the general fund But I will just reiterate again that sp1383 is going to come with increased costs And we do anticipate sp1383 specific implementation costs between our two partners, which are republic and zero waste Sonoma to be approximately five percent I will say that through my discussions with California League of cities calls and listening to other jurisdictions is we're we're pretty far ahead of the game In in regards to you know, california as a whole And there are many other jurisdictions that have much higher Implementation costs upwards up to 15 20 25 percent I think that ecology has has done a good job of getting us to this point Especially when you consider jurisdictions that that some of them don't even have green waste cans right now They need to fully implement that and so when you consider this five percent increase I think it's at the lower end of the scale when you look at some of the other jurisdictions in california Next slide so with that It is recommended by the transportation public works department at the council by two resolutions one approved the fourth amendment to the solid waste collection services agreement between the city of Santa Rosa and recology snowman marine DDA recology Santa Rosa adding requirements are adding recology requirements assisting the city comply with sp1383 regulations And two approved the omnibus amendments of the waste delivery agreement with the public services of sonoma county And franchise holler game in between the public services of sonoma county and recology marine Sonoma marine transferring fees for the commercial food waste try mixed waste program to the solid waste collection services agreement in a revenue revenue neutral manner And I will open it up to you mayor for any questions from yourself or from that members of the city council Great, thank you so much joey And I want to emphasize what you said earlier When you talked about how many phone calls that you're on to the league of cities and We see that and we know that you are one of the experts and so I want to thank you for your time and attention on this issue Council do we have any questions for the team? Not seeing any questions. Let's go to public comment on the item mayor, I see no raised hands There's no voicemail public comment and no members of the public in the chamber Okay Councilmember Sawyer, would you like to put a motion on the table? I will thank you marine before I make the motion and just like to mention I don't know how the other cities in this county are dealing with 1383 those cities that do not have a joey henowitz His expertise is I think precedes him. I mean he There's no one that knows more about 1383 Then this gentleman and we are very lucky to have him sitting where he is sitting. This is a game changing Um legislation don't tell them john don't tell them that Yeah, we do lose people that way don't we? No, he's not going anywhere. Um, it's ever evolving and very complicated legislation that that Mr. Henowitz is very very familiar with and incredibly knowledgeable about so we're very lucky to have him And I will introduce a resolution to I have two resolutions actually A resolution of the council the city santa rosa approving the fourth amendment to the solid waste collection services agreement between the city santa rosa And recology sonoma marine dba recology santa rosa and way further reading I'll second not only in the motion, but the comments about joey Council members any discussion on the uh motion Madam city clerk if you could call the roll Thank you mayor councilmember schwedhelm. Hi councilmember soyer. Hi Councilmember mcdonald. Hi vice mayor alvarez. Hi Mayor rogers That motion passes with five eyes with council members Fleming and rogers absin Thank you and secondly I will introduce a resolution of the council the city santa rosa approving the omnibus amendment to waste delivery agreement with republic services of sonoma county And franchise taller agreement between recology sonoma marine and republic services of sonoma county and way further reading Second, let's call the vote Councilmember schwedhelm. Hi councilmember soyer. Hi Councilmember mcdonald. Hi Council vice mayor alvarez. Hi mayor rogers Hi, that motion passes with five eyes with council members Fleming and rogers absin All right. Thank you so much joey Thank you council members Move on to item 14.2 Item 14.2 is council direction to santa rosa What so let me start over item 14.2 is council direction to santa rosa playing groundwater sustainability Agency board member regarding adoption of groundwater sustainability user fees. I would like to introduce deputy director martin. Thank you Great. Good evening. Mayor rogers and members of the council Thank you for your opportunity to round out your agenda today With the time we update on groundwater sustainability agency fees Uh, if we can go to the next slide Just uh wanted to orient you on what I plan to present on today Uh, I will give a groundwater sustainability agency overview and talk a little bit about what the groundwater Standability agency is tasked with I'll give an update on the history of the groundwater sustainability fee in this basin Uh, I'll talk a little bit about the current rate and fee study that is being undertaken by the santa rosa playing groundwater sustainability agency Uh, I'll talk a little bit about the proposed revised fee that came out of that study And talk about the public input process and ultimately, uh, we'll be seeking a recommendation from the council today Next slide I just want to orient you Maybe a quick reorientation of what the gsa, uh, the standards of playing groundwater sustainability agency is being Asked to do as a result Of the sustainable groundwater management act also known as sigma Uh, sigma ultimately tasks local agencies and authorities with managing their groundwater Uh resources in a sustainable manner on a 20 to 50 year planning horizon Um, first it must be required that all These local agencies form what are called groundwater sustainability agencies In all high and medium priority designated groundwater basins throughout the state Back in 2017 Santa rosa water and other agencies in the region with jurisdictional boundaries and authorities formed a joint powers Authority to act as the groundwater sustainability agency For the santa rosa playing groundwater subbasin This is now known as the santa rosa playing groundwater sustainability agency Uh, the legislation also required what are called groundwater sustainability plans or gsp's Uh, and required that they be created in a transparent public process And also impose timelines on the adoption of these plans Uh basins that were critically overdrafted had a deadline of january 2020 And the remaining high and medium priority basins Were set to be uh, have plans in place by january of 2022 The santa rosa playing groundwater subbasin is a medium priority subbasin And then finally, I've underlined this particular point, but um, groundwater sustainability plans were not only required to be Generated and adopted, but they included Uh the requirement for measurable objectives and milestones and five-year implementation increments Uh for which, uh, the the basins must achieve what they term sustainability within 20 years of adopting a groundwater sustainability plan The reason why I've highlighted this here today is We'll be talking a little bit more about that implementation timeframe and the fees to support that Next slide And just a reminder, uh, as far as the makeup of the joint powers authority, it's comprised of representative cities and towns Within the basin, uh, the county and Sonoma Sonoma water Two resource conservation districts and a representative from several independently owned water systems that also utilize groundwater in the basin the Groundwater sustainability also has an advisory committee Uh, that's comprised of representatives from the same members of that joint powers authority board But it also additionally has community members with Diverse perspectives on beneficial groundwater use And that includes representatives from agriculture The environmental community the business community rural residential well users and public water districts Um, so the gsa itself also has several staff and technical consultants That administer various activities of the gsa Uh, including creating the groundwater sustainability agency plan itself over the last few years And carrying out the directives of the board and various public processes Your representatives for the city of santa rosa on the board of directors are councilmember tommy schwedhelm Who also happens to serve as the chair of board of directors and councilmember john soyer as the alternate Next slide The boundary of this groundwater basin is determined by the state of california department of water resources And is published in the document known as bullets in 118 You can see With that black line around that is the boundary of the santa rosa plain groundwater Subbasin Within this boundary. There are an estimated 7 000 wells And those include rural domestic mutual water companies agricultural and municipal wells As you can see from that pie chart in the bottom, uh, right Overall about 50 of demand by sector in this basin is attributed to rural domestic wells with the remainder being split amongst agricultural and municipal users Next slide so Just wanted to highlight The existing groundwater sustainability fee that was enacted in 2019 Over the past three years the gsa has been funded by an existing fee that was adopted by ordinance of the board of directors in 2019 That fee is at per acre foot assessment of water use Groundwater use on an annual basis That fee amount was consistent with funding what was necessary to complete the groundwater sustainability plan that was due in uh, july of every excuse me january of 2022 per the requirements of sigma The fee as structured is to be assessed on all groundwater users in the basin. This means all registered well owners um And that that fee has been 19 dollars and 90 cents per acre foot of groundwater pumped annually As you can imagine most wells in the county don't have metered use Therefore rural homeowners were assessed a flat fee of nine dollars and 95 cents per year equivalent to a half acre foot of water per year This was based on a fee study done a while ago Back a few years ago that determined average use of rural what rural domestic well owners It should be noted that ultimately the county of sonoma and sonoma water agreed to cover the costs for private wells From 2019 through the remainder of this fiscal year, uh, june 30th, 2022 Municipal well owners like city of santa rosa did pay the fee during this time frame Next slide I just want to take a moment to talk about the adoption of that plan The fees over the past few years did support the development of a groundwater sustainability plan Which took several years to complete If you recall the council was provided with staff presentation on that final plan and passed a motion Supporting the adoption of that plan at their November 30th meeting last year That final gsp was unanimously adopted by the santa rosa playing water directors at their december 9th meeting of last year You know after that the plan was submitted to the california department of water resources On january 26th of 2022 Now that agency is on the clock It has two years to review and assess that plan for compliance with the directives and the sustainable groundwater management act This is a significant milestone for the gsa. However There remains significant work to be done now to implement that plan By law the gsa must start implementing the plan immediately after adoption even before that final approval of the plan in two years Next slide So at the beginning of this year the three basins within sonoma county Saw professional services to complete a rate and fee study to determine what will be necessary to support That implementation of the plans of the next five years The consultant selected to complete the studies was sci Consulting group with larry walker and associates acting as a technical sub consultant I just want to clarify that You know while the santa rosa playing gsa did pass an ordinance in 2019 Establishing that 19 and 98 dollar cents per acre foot A water extracted that fee does remain in effect today unless the board does remove back to remove that fee Over the past few months the consultant has worked and developed a forecasted budget for five years In addition to that I've evaluated multiple fee options that could sustain that budget for the three basins within sonoma county next slide The fee and study and adoption schedule was laid out by the gsa board at the end of last year Recognizing of course that much there's a a lot of significant work would have to be done to complete this work In a very transparent manner while giving plenty of opportunity For public and stakeholder input Began this or this year several meetings have been held by the board of directors and the advisory committee to the to the board as well And they discussed and evaluated fee options with the consultant for a proposed adoption at a public hearing in june The goal was to have a fee study finalized and potentially revised fee for adoption before august that date is important Because it is a firm deadline for attaching fees for occlusion and annual tax assessments Next slide Talk a little bit about some of the potential funding sources that were evaluated by the consultant Um, there were a few funding sources that were evaluated Those being of course the member agencies of the gsa Outside grant funding to date this basin has obtained more than two million dollars in grant funding to support the development of the plan The groundwater users and beneficiaries of the basin There's private well owners public water systems of public well owners And other water users as well that are included in these groundwater users and beneficiaries Any combination of these potential funding sources was also evaluated as part of this that they weren't taken individually necessarily Next slide Through this effort a projected average annual budget of more than one million dollars was projected to meet the needs Of the groundwater sustainability agency over the next five years Uh, the budget includes considerations for meeting the administrative technical and legal and outreach needs for the gsa To ultimately implement the groundwater sustainability plan that was adopted last year The projects and technical needs of the gsa that were outlined in the adopted plan were contemplated when developing this budget, of course Next slide April was an interest an important milestone for the board of directors The board directors gave a very explicit direction to the rate and fee consultant to do the following They asked them to retain the existing rate structure That being a groundwater fee assessed per acre foot of groundwater used in the basin And then they also instructed them to revisit that fee amount and make sure it achieves The level necessary to support the work of the groundwater sustainability agency over the next phase of their work The board did not support the following fee options that being well head fees Assessed on each well head parcel taxes and benefit assessments Ultimately those did not went out for a variety of reasons for implementation Challenges and also timeliness of being able to get a fee structure in place Uh, and also some of these did not likely have a good chance of success including the appetite for parcel taxes at this point The board also instructed its consultant to assume a 25 percent of the five-year budget could be met with grants ultimately There is today a significant amount of funding that's available from proposition 68 for The explicit purpose of implementation of groundwater sustainability plans Those can be obtained through by way of grants from the state department of water resources The chance of obtaining funding is very good, but the board did conservatively estimate 25 of necessary revenues could be met with these potential grant opportunities They also constructed Instructed the consultant to complete their analysis in time for it to be implemented by june of 2022 So that it could be placed on next year's tax rolls next slide So the initial fee draft fee under consideration At this time is $38 and 28 cents per acre foot of groundwater pumped annually Um This fee is still very much an initial draft But I have been told very clearly it will not exceed 40 dollars per acre foot In your staff report tonight at the time all that was available Was a range of fees. This is obviously being winnowed down and is nearly final and complete based upon their final fee study That's expected to be delivered very soon This is equivalent to 19 dollars to 20 dollars a year for rural homeowners um, and the math is fairly simple it is taking out that 25 percent Estimate for grant funding from the total annual budget and dividing it by the amount of acre feet That will be extracted from the basin And that is how they ultimately came up with the 38 dollars and 20 cents per acre foot proposed fee It should be noted and in your staff report For the petaluma valley and snow valley gsa's the fees have been proposed to be Anywhere from 230 dollars to 400 dollars per acre foot And 95 dollars and 160 dollars range per acre foot in the snow valley basin The real reason is ultimately Due to the population and number of wells in the basin. So that denominator You know, it it it really makes a difference in terms of how this is divided up next slide and then You know in terms of the historical fee contributions over the past few years As I mentioned santa rosa water has paid those fees. They are equivalent to about 31 800 dollars per year Based upon the proposed draft fee being considered That would increase to 61 thousand dollars and 61 300 dollars per year This fee has been forecasted in the fiscal year upcoming fiscal year budget So it could be accounted for by santa rosa water In this upcoming fiscal year Next slide And uh, finally, I just wanted to round out with identifying The community outreach that has occurred over the past few months regarding this fee The santa rosa plain gsa board has hosted four community meetings They were publicly noticed and advertised to discuss the rate and fee study approach And the proposed revised fee Two of those meetings were held virtually by zoom in march And then two were in person In the town of wednesday and the city of santa rosa at the veteran's hall The four meetings did collectively log closed its rendered questions and comments from the public those are available on the santa rosa plain groundwater sub basin web page which is santa rosa plain groundwater dot org In addition, several public Board of directors and advisory committees meetings were also held Over the past few months by that schedule laid out in an earlier slide Where the development of the fee were discussed And then finally, uh, the city of santa rosa santa rosa's board of public utilities Did receive a report item at their meeting last week and passed a motion of support for the draft proposed fee Next slide so finally, um The recommendation we're asking for tonight is That it's recommended by the board of public utilities and santa rosa water That council by motion recommend that the city's santa rosa's Plains the groundwater sustainability board directors representative Councilmember tom schwedhelm support adoption of the revised groundwater sustainability user fee at the upcoming june 9th 2022 public hearing That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have Great. Thank you so much. Peter. Uh, I'll start with councilmember schwedhelm to see if he has anything to add And then I'll go to comments from council members Uh, thank you, mr. Mayor. I have nothing to add. Peter did a very thorough job recreating the history since 2017 of our gsa. Thank you All right. Well, thank you for your service on that board We really appreciate having such a strong voice in the room And I know it's been a challenge getting this up and running, but I think you see the light at the end of the panel Council members. Do we have any questions? councilmember mcdonald I just have one question for clarification. This is basically doubling the cost of what we've been charging For how long and then How long will this fee be put in place? Do you have that information? Yes, um, thank you councilmember mcdonald. Um to answer your question This proposal is for a five-year fee structure um over the past few years The work has been mainly focused on developing the groundwater sustainability plan, which was adopted last year That effort was heavily funded by, uh Two things user fees, um, and then also snowma county also paid for all the private users over that time frame as well and then uh quite a bit of money coming from grants so, um You know, it is it is proposing, uh, doubling and that that budget has been evaluated by this board To make sure that it was consistent with the level of activity necessary to implement what it's been called for in the plan over the next five years Um, and so yes, it does represent, uh A doubling of that fee, uh, but it also takes some conservative approaches to the potential for Additional grant funds coming in in the future The initial questions councilmember councilmember Sorry about that. So can you tell me the impact on ag? Properties versus the impact on residential properties when it comes to the assessments Yes, um, so for the residential properties, uh, based upon a groundwater model, uh, of extraction and a fee study that was done Previously, which was also revisited recently um a Amount of a half acre foot has been assessed on all rural residential well users Those are folks that have their own wells and rural properties For the others and agricultural users They use crop types and aerial photos to determine application rates And those will be assessed on individual users I should mention during this time. They did a substantial effort Using a GIS related tool to allow all registered well you honor users to provide more information regarding their use of water Including whether or not they have alternative supplies Or other things as well and that was done in the public process of the last few years. It's called the guide program Don't ask me to remember what that acronym means. Um, I've forgotten But it but it was a uh a program where there was a lot of noticing that went out to individual well Well owners To provide more information on their use as well. So that was how that was determined And so those folks will be charged a per acre foot charge based upon Those aerial assessments and crop types Thank you. I was just doing some quick calculations So I just wanted to see about how much we might be talking about for property owners to use their own water Thanks Yeah, and I guess I should mention the alternative For those that that haven't been familiar with this for several years is to have the state come in and intervene The idea of the standable groundwater management act and why it was so novel at the time was that it gave agencies local control over their water resources and management Those fees would be substantially higher if the state were to come in and intervene on behalf of all the groundwater users in the basin Uh, so this approach is much better. Um, and I should mention that if the state were to intervene Uh, they would not execute any projects. Uh, they would only Really work as a curtailment opportunity and they would start to monitor well water use and to see Uh, if there was progress or declines in the basin and then eventually Would start having groundwater users curtail if things were not progressing appropriately. So The opportunity here to have a local agency controlling our groundwater resources It is a great opportunity Thank you. That's very helpful All right, council. Let's go to public comment on this item if you're interested hit the raise hand feature on your zoom May I see no raised hands? We have no voicemail public comment and no members of the public present in the chamber All right, I'll bring it back to council members Uh, to save us the awkward moment of having councilmember schwethelm make a motion about how to direct councilmember schwethelm to both Uh, I will make a motion uh asking our designee to support the proposal when it comes before the gsa I will second that All right, so a motion from myself and a second from the vice mayor. Is there any additional discussion from council members? All right, please call the vote Councilmember schwethelm. Hi councilmember soyer. Hi Councilmember mcdonald. Hi vice mayor alvarez. Hi Mayor rogers Hi, that motion passes with five eyes with council members Fleming and rogers absent Thank you the staff. Thank you. Peter. We appreciate the presentation And councilmember schwethelm. I know that you will be updating us on how that vote turns out Keep moving through our agenda. We have item 16.1. It's a written communication Regarding ab 2247 in the support letter Let's go ahead and go to public comment and see if there's any public comment on that written communication Mayor, I see no raised hands. We have no voicemail public comment and no members of the public in the chamber All right We'll also then go to our public comment for non agenda items. It's our last comment period of the night You see if anybody is interested in providing public comment Mary see no raised hands. We have no voicemail public comment and no members of the public in the chamber Madam city manager anything additional or are we ready to adjourn? We're ready to go Excellent. Thank you everybody. Appreciate your time today and we will adjourn