 Good afternoon. I'd like to ask the interpreter currently on the Spanish channel to commence translation of the meeting For those just joining the meeting Live translation in Spanish is available and members of the public or staff wishing to listen in Spanish Can join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar It looks like a globe. Once you join the Spanish channel, we recommend you shut off the main audio So you only hear the Spanish translation Pablo. Will you please restate this in Spanish? for those who just joined the meeting live interpretation in Spanish is available and members of the public or staff can join the channel To join click on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar that now looks like a globe Terraqueo una vez una al canal de español se recomienda que apague el audio primario para que solo escucha la interpretación Hello and welcome to our April 9th 2024 San Rosa City Council meeting it is now 232 and we will be starting our meeting seeing a quorum madam city clerk. May you please call the roll Thank you mayor councilmember Rogers here councilmember o crepe key here councilmember mcdonald here councilmember Fleming here Councilmember alvarez vice mayor step here mayor rogers present let the record show that all council members are present Thank you. We will now proceed to item 3.1, which is our closed session for today it is 3.1 conference with legal council about existing Litigation madam city clerk. Can you please facilitate public comment on this item? Thank you We are now taking public comment on item 3.1 If you're in the chamber and would like to comment but have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period As you approach the podium, please state your name for public record if you choose to do so The first public comment will be from eras followed by James then Steve Hi, I'm eras weaver with the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition the last seven years We have circulated petitions made public comment written letters To you to the smart to the CPUC About this issue with Jennings, and I don't think there's a single fact or feeling that I could express that haven't already Been done a zillion times But never in those years have I doubted the commitment of the city of Santa Rosa To the Jennings crossing until I got the agenda for today's meeting and saw a kill the project option coming before you I Was flabbergasted Is also kind of confusing to me on the agenda because it's under the reports rather than the public hearings Section later today, which made me wonder is the real decision going to be happening in this closed session Or is it going to be happening at the later agenda item? So I busted my butt to write up here from Petaluma to get here in time to speak to you before it Option three is just not an option Whether you go for option one or option two at the next smart board meeting I will be there with my posse to suggest that Smart wants to Get our support for a future tax renewal measure it might be in their best interest to stop obstructing this Their objections are illogical their demands on the city are unreasonable We don't just care about them building the smart path We want to see an interconnected active transportation and public transit network which this Crossing is a big part of So again, I don't know what all happens in your closed session with the attorneys and whether the decisions happening there or happening later today, I'll be back for that, but Please option three is not an option Thank you. The next speaker will be James followed by Steve then Janet I am James Duncan Smart's real property license agreement Suggest that smart staff believes that they can determine the safety of the Jennings crossing and whether the city can Construct it or not My research indicates that it can't do either Article 12 section 8 of the California Constitution States that a public body like smart may not regulate matters over which the legislature Grants regulatory power to the public utilities Commission public utilities code sections 1201 1202 and 9915 to give this PUC exclusive Authority to approve the location the terms of installation operation maintenance use and protection that is in other words the safety of railroad crossings smarts real property license agreement would be Unenforceable by smart because it is contrary to those provisions The PUC previously directed smart to cooperate in good faith to reach a construction agreement for the Jennings crossing But smarts real property license agreement States it is not an agreement to construct the crossing The administrative law judge at the PUC has more recently specified that the agreement to be reached between the city and smart is a Construction agreement not a real property license agreement The third option suggested by city staff Constitutes abandonment of the Jennings crossing But the city would first have to fulfill all procedures and requirements Mandated by state law before abandoning the Jennings crossing which would involve notice and a public hearing and It would also have to Establish that the crossing was not in the public interest, which at this point would be near to impossible Thank you so much Thank you. The next comment will be from Steve followed by Janet Thank You Steve Bertelbaugh with the transportation in the Andrews coalition I think it's important for us to understand the reason why smart is dragging its feet about this crossing It's clear that the crossing is needed. It's clear that it is a very safe crossing pedestrian crossings are at the bottom of the list when the FRA issues its reports on Hazardous crossings Crossings that have thousands of motor of automobiles using them are much more prone to a problem than crossings that have two or three hundred people crossing them on foot or on bicycle and So their records predict that there's a very very small chance of any sort of an accident at this crossing So why is the public utilities Commission staff so concerned about this crossing? the reason is that Santa Rosa had an eight million dollar grant in order to build a grade separation and After examining all of the reasons for one or the other they decided that it was appropriate to have an at-grade crossing and The staff admitted that this was their reason for opposing you look at page 199 of the transcript and they say This is a bad precedent. We don't want it to happen Well, it's a good precedent It's something that needs to happen, but I think you should keep that that position of the CPUC staff In your mind as negotiating with smart because smart does need to build Crossings between here and and Windsor between here in Hillsborough So they're always going back to the staff And so they're inclined to want to back up the CPUC staff. They don't want to be a crossroads with them We need to get them past that we need to have them agree to a reasonable agreement and The option number two is the best start. Thank you Thank you. The next comment will be from Janet Mayor Rogers and city council members. My name is Janet Baracco. I'm a homeowner in Santa Rosa residents on Jennings Avenue for 24 years And for over eight years I have worked with my neighbors and others to support restoring this 120 year old crossing That provides bike and pedestrian access east-west in our community I wish to thank the city city council for the work You have already done with smart and I ask you to please continue to represent the interest of our community and To not give up on restoring this car free at-grade crossing at Jennings I urge you to continue to negotiate with smart for a fair and balanced agreement Abandoning Jennings crossing after so many years of hard work by our neighbors and citizen organizations is unacceptable Please don't give up on us and once again I extend an invitation to each of you to come view and walk the crossing site with me So that you can see how valuable it is to our community. Thank you Mayor emcee no one else approached the podium for public comment on item 3.1 Okay, and with that we will now recess into closed session. Thank you All right. Welcome back everyone. It is April 9th 2024 and we will be beginning our Santa Rosa City Council meeting. It is now 3 32 Madam city clerk may you please call the roll? Thank you mayor councilmember Rogers here councilmember O'Crepkey here councilmember McDonald here councilmember Fleming here Councilmember Alvarez as it vice mayor step here mayor Rogers president let the record show that all council members are present Thank you. We will now proceed to Item 4 which is our study session for the day Thank You madam mayor. Good afternoon mayor members of council so item 4.1 is the impact of development impact fee waivers So before staff gets started I want to offer a little bit of context on initially how we as city staff got to this point so Drafting the 2023 work plan one of the items that we discussed was what was the impact on Waving impact fees so we started that discussion in between that time There have been several proposals some internally and the most recent one that we received from JNH As to how there might be other options to waive impact fees So we as staff are prepared to offer a couple of solutions at the end of this Report and we're also ready to execute and move in the direction the policy the direction that this body Request us to move As we talk about Impact fees and where we are with our arena numbers Here's some context so for very low the city has completed 403 units of the 1,218 units that we are required to complete which is 33 percent and these numbers have not been officially certified by HCD which is why they're not in the presentation in the low category. We have completed 467 units of the 701 that is 67 percent in the moderate level. We've completed 75 of the 771 that's 10 percent Above moderate we've completed 2167 of the 1,995 which is a hundred nine percent So of the total 1,685 units we are required to complete we've completed 3,112 which is 66 percent So again staff initially Our charge from the work plan was to talk to talk to discuss the impacts of waiving impact fees So you'll see some of that discussion here But again, we're ready to move and execute the policy decision in the will of this body And we will offer some additional recommendations at the end of the presentation. Thank you So Mayor Rogers and members of the council I'm now an alternate chief financial officer with me is Gabe Osborne the director of planning and economic development That was a good lead-up and probably cut through some of my slides so we might be able to move quickly through this but I I would say that even though this was a Work plan item on my work plan. This was a Group effort as as we move through the analysis Gabe and and Megan Bassenger Were instrumental in in helping with this and we also have Directors from water TPW and Wreck and parks here to be able to provide Some subject matter expertise to questions that you may have so As mentioned we we we were looking at this as a An initial proposal of waiving development impact fees in order to spur Affordable housing And you know specifically what would the the impact be to city operations or city infrastructure Should they do that or should we do something along those lines? So what we what we have come up with and this is what you're going to see is a lot along those lines and But we can kind of pivot toward the end This just provides some some basics and and Gabe's going to take over in a In a second to go through some slides that goes into a little bit more detail into how we study These fees but you know basically Development impact fees are charged new developments afraid of cost of public facilities and improvements related to those developments It's set by by city code And the fees that that while they're a Few of them the ones that were really focused on are the capital facility fees and the park development impact fees But there are water and wastewater demand fees housing impact fees and commercial linkage fees so with that I'm going to let Gabe kind of walk you through some of the next slides that go into the Studies that we do for those fees Thank You Alan and good afternoon mayor vice mayor members of the council the next few slides will discuss The fees how they're studied and really how they're implemented through the development process For both CFF and parks those are based on a nexus fee study that was performed It started in 2015 and it was adopted by council on May 22nd of 2018 That study focused on a few different things the main piece of a nexus study is the nexus analysis And that's really the relationship between the fee and the projects So when growth occurs and new development comes in that new development does build Infrastructure abutting the project or within the project this really goes to bigger infrastructure Projects in the regional area that support the growth So they're often off-site and the fee study looks at the cost of those projects and develops a proportionate fair share payment For all the usage types and it could be multi-family single-family commercial it looks at all the development categories The fee study also creates a program guidance on the use of the CFF That's really any constraints on the use of the funds. It is typically focusing on a project list of defined projects and a nexus fee analysis One of the changes that we made in 2018 is oftentimes that project list is based on full build out of a city So it focuses on general plan goals. It focuses on master planning or specific plan goals What we shifted to is more of an immediate need project list that focused on a 20-year horizon and That was mostly what was Justifying the fee and the developments obviously play into that because that's the population that's increasing with those fees So it didn't really look beyond that that reduced the project cost reduced the fees down We also look at a feasibility analysis when implementing the fee So when you add the impact fees with service fees and you look at the total fee package for new development How does that really compete with other jurisdictions and what percentage of that or what percentage of that total dollar amount is Of the total construction cost so that feasibility analysis looks at that bar and determines where the fee needs to sit So for the CFF funds those go to capital projects only that's the restriction under the fee study These are specific infrastructure or facility types and the important pieces they go to upgrade or expansion only because they're focusing on growth It's typically not maintenance of existing facilities As we can see from the table to the right. There's a specific percentage breakdown for the allocation 62.8 percent goes to roadway and intersection improvements based on the study 10.7 percent to transit bicycle and pedestrian 12.8 to public safety 12.7 to storm drain and 1% to the administration of the fee program It's also important to note that there is a developer reimbursement component to most of these fees in the event that Developer goes above and beyond what their requirement is abutting the project and builds off-site improvements They are eligible for either a fee credit or a reimbursement out of the program and that's included in the code And then of course fee administration. It can be fee studies are managing that program. That's the 1% cost So the park fund is very similar I work goes to park and recreation facilities only once again its upgrade or expansion we can Implement a developer reimbursement component in that so for example for developer builds a public park within the boundaries that benefits the area They're eligible for reimbursement under the code Also fee administration the parks program is a little different. It's quadrant based so the fees differ based on the specific quadrant So over the past few months. There's been quite a bit of conversation about assembly bill 602 and how that impacts fee studies 602 went into effect really in January 1 of 2022 and it basically states that local agencies Conducting an impact fee study must follow the standards listed on the slide So the first is you must perform a fee study and that's the next study to create the relationship The study must identify and justify the level of service So the project list and ensure that the the growth that you're assuming with the new units that the projects are needed to support that growth It also states that studies adopted after July 1 of 2022 must calculate housing development fees proportionately to square footage It is a general requirement local jurisdictions can justify another methodology if that works What's happened with a lot of these impact fee programs is over the years Jurisdictions have gone with a unit based approach So a multi-family unit would pay the same as a single family and it really isn't a recognition that it's the people in the unit That justify the need for the projects so square footage attaching to bedrooms reducing with size Often shows that you can go from a studio with one individual to a four-bedroom home And then in theory based on that the four-bedroom home should pay more So this is really tackling that It also states that studies should be updated every eight years from the period beginning January 1 2022 so that would put us on the clock for 2030 based on that eight-year calculation But once we do that then fee studies are on an eight-year update cycle The time of payment is a critical piece to impact fees There's been a lot of discussion sort of regionally in the state of California about deferral of impact fees For the longest time jurisdictions would collect impact fees at the time of building permit issuance That's fairly early on in the development stage often times construction loans are still in the mix And there was a push to defer fees to final occupancy close of escrow and getting off of that construction loan in many situations Those were referred to as the fee furls We've addressed that in previous years through much of our economic development initiatives that we put in place due to the 0809 recession we actually collect most of our impact fees at final So we're not really deferring. We have just changed the time of payment So that holds true for CFF and parks fees for eligible projects We also have a further deferral program that allows an affordable housing builder to defer two years from the published Payment date so in this particular case it would be final. So it's two years beyond final So much of the the conversation today will circulate around affordable housing So just a reminder of how we handle that from a policy standpoint There's really two different types. There are there's affordable housing It's de-restricted which is really a guarantee that it's that it's rented as an affordable unit for a period of time And then there's a concept of affordable by design So inclusionary affordable housing those are units that are built into the development And they're typically de-restricted for a 55-year affordability with a 55-year affordability agreement at a certain income level And our inclusionary ordinance controls what that income level is and the percentage of inclusionary that needs to go into the certain project type Market rate developers can elect to either include Affordable units into the design of the project at those levels or they can pay the housing in lieu fee as another impact fee to offset that We often hear a hundred percent affordable projects and those have come around quite a bit over the last five years Generally how we interpret that is all of the units in the development are deed restricted It's not a project. That's market rate. That's meeting its 10% affordability requirement They're all de-restricted at some affordability level except the manager's units So they have on-site management with one or two units. Those are typically free and clear We tackle this with our recent adoption of our service fees that went to council a month or so ago And those adjusted the service fees and provided a reduction of those fees for a hundred percent affordable at a 60% or less Am I and that's really tackling our very low in our low categories We also have a concept that it has been around for a few years affordable by design So those are typically smaller units ADUs often fall under that category because they are smaller and due to the size the construction costs reduce associated with that They do not have an affordability agreement typically. So there's no restriction on the rent or the sale And oftentimes they reduce amenities or other features in the unit that reduce construction costs And at this point I will hand the presentation back to mr. Alton to discuss the process Thank you. So This slide basically It looks at our budget process relative to these fees And Where we come from is On a fee collected basis. So what we'll do is during a fiscal year We will collect impact fees as they come in we record those And then calculate what is available At our year-end close this ensures that that we have the actual revenue on hand that that there isn't a deferral that would Keep us from getting the cash in to be able to fund these projects it unfortunately does sometimes create a delay and The fees coming in to our ability to program them in the CIP budget But this is the the safest way to be able to ensure that we have those funds there The funds are made available to CIP program managers for programming Usually at the beginning of the calendar year as part of our budget Preparation and then we have the council will adopt the CIP budget During the June budget adoption So as we look at the type of projects that are That are funded through the CFF typically typically funds Roads in the intersection bikes pedestrian storm drain public safety and fire projects We've listed a few out here as examples of the projects that we've done and and what The amount of CFF that's been collected That goes into that so for example the The bike pad over crossing the estimated cost of that project is around 46 million dollars We've collected so far about sixteen point six million. However, we do Have grants that should be able to bring in a large amount of that gap coming in Soon we have collected two and a half million dollars of CFF over a three-year period and that's part of that sixteen million that has been programmed into the project We have the Sonoma Avenue rehabilitation about one point eight million dollars of CFF was collected and this was really the only Funding source that went into That project We have some fire related street recovery projects. We use funding about two point six million over a two-year basis to Fund the gap that came between our grant funding that we had For that and what the the actual cost of the programs were and then we had some fire station improvements Where we have collected Over a five-year period about three point nine million For park development fees again, these are are used to acquire park land and and develop that in generally in these cases the park development impact fees is the If not the only source, it's definitely a primary source of revenue that comes in That can't be used for maintenance and they are to be used within the quadrant where they've been collected So of the examples that I have here. We've got The lower Colgan Creek Project that's in the Southwest That's about three point nine million dollars Collected and we are supplementing funding with grant funding We anticipate three-year planning and construction process. So we're looking at between 2025 and 28 for construction and completion of that The finley-finley aquatic center, which is in the Northwest There were four million dollars collected in park development fees and then two million dollars came in for measure M To complete the funding on that That one I believe is in construction. We have Fremont Park in the Northeast three point eight million dollars from park development and that we're looking at between construction around 2025 And then Kwanzaa Springs Park in the Southeast There was about five million dollars in park development impact fees to support the housing that was built there back in 2004 to 2006 so it's taken a Considerable amount of time to build up the amount of funding Necessary and then even at that We needed some grant funding to close the close the gap there and then we also have a Separate park project. It's a community garden that that is going in there all of this we're targeting for 2026 construction So the reserves there's there's discussion about The increase in reserves and could this be used to pay for The at the time it was the waiver of impact fees So just a note on these reserves as opposed to your general fund reserves or enterprise fund reserves These are special revenue Funds so they really don't have the same Reserve structure as our other funds Basically, it's what we collect those toward a project and the and there to be spent on that project. So The way our accounting system works is that we will we will budget an amount So you'll see a budget in in an in an area But until those those dollars are actually spent and the dollars go out the door. You don't see the cost reflected So what you have are reserves that build up, right? So as as we go over time collecting more Fees that go to a specific project in our budgeted in that project they actually We could see the reserves going up even though the budget is going up Until we are able to start spending those dollars down and then you should see the reserves Go down later. There is no Reserve percentage need any of those things again its dollars in need to go out So The again, we're this is kind of outdated so But we will talk I'll go through it a little bit You know, we originally got the proposal was to look at Waving impact fees on on certain types of affordable housing projects for a three to five year period So that was really where our focus was couple of weeks ago we saw the the the proposal or the policy proposal for the right size impact fees and You know with our Timing on staff reports and stuff we We're not able to do that as a part of this presentation And I I do think we we still need a little bit of further time to to go through it and understand the nuances of What the policy proposal is and to look at what the impacts would be to the city's budget again? Well, we're looking at at least from my standpoint as as A finance person is what what can the city actually afford clearly? It's it's the council's decision to to enact policy to go in whatever Direction you'd like to go I'm here to provide the information on what we can actually afford to do So as we went through our staff analysis on this You know we that I guess there's one main takeaway is that when you're looking at a A revenue source that comes in and one-time revenues at that if you if you take That revenue from those projects from From where they're intended It it it cripples your ability to actually construct the project So there it does have a negative impact on our ability to Complete the infrastructure projects In other ways so what we would the the only way to get around that is to find a Way to backfill those dollars to come back into Into the fund to make those whole to allow the the infrastructure work to go forward So that was that was pretty much where we were coming from with with With the with the at least the initial proposal as part of when we looked at at At what Fees we had Recovered over or collected over period we looked at a at a ten-year base so going back to 2012 what this chart shows is the total fees collected over that period and So in the shaded column those are the total development impact fees or park and CFF fees over that period In the columns to the right of that we're showing what was actually collected for a funner of 100% affordable projects and gave to find that earlier It's just a level of Context to of those types of projects and what they are doing to Fund projects, especially You know a comparison to the total amounts received Over the last three years you can kind of see the ebb and flow of the projects, but over the last three years we saw that about 41% of the park development fees came from these types of portable housing projects and 35% of CFF came from the projects So another issue that was brought up was and what we wanted to look at was what the Project costs would be for the development and how much we're looking at in terms of the CFF and park fees from there. So what this shows is the last Affordable housing projects and these are the the 100% affordable housing projects within the last 24 months It shows what the Where we knew the cost what what the development cost was what the CFF Were paid and the park fees paid for those individual projects and what you have to the bottom is that You have about of those combined Represents about 2.9. So about 3% of the total development cost which breaks out to About 1.1 percent for CFF and 1.8 percent for the park development fees So with that I will turn it back over to Gabe and he will help us sum things up Thank you, Alan. So just in summary the few bullet points here on the slide and then I have four solutions here We potentially could discuss that I'll go over. So The goal of the council and the housing advocates obviously is to increase housing development. That's been a council goal for some time We do incentivize affordable housing production and housing development in the general downtown and actually in a lot of other ways That we do prioritize the review of affordable housing development. We too try to address protectability in time We have actually reduced service fees for affordable development We have actually reduced impact fees for Downtown development when they go up and we have reduced impact fees for ADU. So there's certain things here that have already been put in place Reducing or waiving a fee revenue can have a dramatic effect on the city's ability to build infrastructure Especially when the waiver isn't in a narrow band of projects So there is also no guarantee that the additional incentives would increase the amount of affordable housing production in the city Affordable housing is a complicated form of development. Every dollar does matter, but they rely on a variety different funding sources So usually what happens is one form funding source alone isn't necessarily the catalyst But as I mentioned all the dollars do matter So with that said we have a few different options here for moving forward So one option is that the city can conduct a new impact fee study consistent with a B602 That would re look at the analysis Various reductions could be put in place for various development types That would analyze the project list and that would better understand the impact of those reductions and how that program can sustain itself long term So that that is an option. It would also bring us in compliance with SB 602 Once that's done after 2022 we're on the eight-year cycle and then it would move forward based on that the other option is and this is similar to what other jurisdictions have done is You can basically produce a waiver on any fee type that's impact for any Affordability category so that's fairly open-ended obviously the more that's added to that the bigger the reduction is on that fee and Also determine a total dollar amount to backfill So for example if a specific dollar amount was dedicated to fee waivers We would accept applications up to that dollar amount for eligibility Once that runs its course it essentially acts as a pilot program We can come back to the council and talk about the effectiveness of that program The benefit to that is it holds the fee study whole because the projects are still funded through another stream The easiest way to look at it is essentially that money is granted to the developer to pay the fee So that is an option and the total dollar amount is the council's determination another option is to basically Wave the fee without backfilling and that presents a few different challenges Because the nexus fee study basically looks at build out projections. So it's looking at the unit counts It's developing a hard cost of project list Which doesn't really change with time and we have people paying into that program So when the fee is waived without putting that funding source back in the delivery of projects becomes Inconsistent and potentially there's the ability to remove a project off the list and that creates a challenge with the nexus fee study So there's certain smaller studies that we could do to analyze those impacts once we better understand to see what that would do to projects But our recommendation would be that if we're not backfilling or there isn't a clear backfilling to at least Analyze what that impact would be during the length of that waiver process The fourth option which I think this is a piece where we already have some things moving in that direction As our city manager mentioned our arena goals really that the challenging categories in the city have have been really very low and low But we've seen a lot of resources move that way to see those units move forward It's really moderate and moderate is workforce housing moderate is missing middle That's really as people evolve and increase the amount of money that they make how do they move up in housing In previous cycles we struggle with hitting fifty percent of that number and we usually don't see a hundred percent moderate Developments go moderate can be ad use moderate can be the inclusionary So what we can do is a very targeted approach that looks at our compliance with our arena numbers And we're going through our missing middle ordinance now that is actually running as a companion to our general plan So there's the ability through that process to look at fee waivers to look at service fee waivers to look at really aggressive Programs from a processing side that help us bolster up that moderate category and really anything that falls in that missing middle And what we'll see from the from the low piece is that it really is contingent on a lot of those funding sources come in and What you saw from the chart is there years when it doesn't happen and there's years when it happens in a big unit totals And that's usually based on how those funding sources are going into producing that So with that being the case, you know, the more Targeted focus would be a collaborative. We look at the overall program for really bolstering up our arena numbers and making sure we hit That moderate category and yes impact fee programs could be part of that But that would tag to our program of missing middle and we would just incorporate that into the review So those are really some of the four solutions that we've discussed At this point we can turn it back to the council I know those aren't in writing. So I would be happy to explain those further as the conversation goes But with that we're happy to answer any questions the council has Thank you for that presentation and yes Probably gonna need to explain that again So are there any questions from council members starting with Ocrackie? Thank you madam. Er So if we're to consider the 602 nexus study And I know you haven't had time to research some of the proposals that have come in so I'm kind of asking you to think in the abstract AB 602 nexus study versus a right sizing Ordinance or policy How do those align are the redundancies that are there or does it kind of overlap or they completely separate? That's an excellent question if you do a full-blown AB 602 study that can look at a variety of different things It can change the methodology associated with the fee calculation It can look on Increases of fees which I think that's an important point So and then it can also incorporate the review of other impact fee totals or other impact fee categories Excuse me, so that's really more or less the Cadillac program if you want to look at updating a fee And that's really what you have to do is refresh that nexus argument year to year If you look at a reduction of a fee, you're not really changing the methodology What you're looking at is how can the city deliver the projects that are embedded in the list? And what sort of other funding sources are available for that so in a right-sized fee structure the whole concept of? Single-family dwellings being charged out at the current rate which would have to happen We can't increase the fee above them what the study shows The rest of the unit types become a reduction and then it really is just analyzing the reduction So if there is a total dollar amount that can backfill the reduction behind that then you're still holding the nexus argument together So really the easiest way to describe it is that if you're changing the fee programming increasing fees changing methodology Reducing fees then 602 in that avenue is the best if you're looking to analyze the financial impacts of Reducing certain fees and not increasing then there's other models to do that where you're using the fee study as a base okay, and then AB 602 is somewhere in our work plan. I don't know exactly where and In terms of like of where it ranks on our work plan as well as the length of work It would take to undertake this the bandwidth it would take for staff as well as with the bandwidth for a right-size Proposal would be are those similar are those would we have to Would we would we have to shuffle things around would I'm trying to get I'm trying to find out if there's a redundancy in efforts if we take on both We do one or the other if we could kind of capture a middle ground Yes, absolutely. So just to give you an idea when we did our nexus fee study in 2018 Once again it attacked or it addressed Park's fees plus CFF that's typically a consultant driven exercise So there was a hard cost of around 350,000 just based on the consultant piece to that It started in 2015 there were starts and stops. It really pulls in a significant amount of staff across the city So one department may take lead on managing the consultant through that process But as you're determining project list and understanding nexus arguments and the feasibility of developing those projects It does bring in our transportation public works department our parks department and he but any division or department that benefits from the fee So it's usually a huge staffing lift and oftentimes those fees run over a two-year cycle because of that reason If we're going through a smaller analysis Typically what that would look like if the council determines the specific band of waivers that would be applied Then we would take average numbers of units that occur within those Look at the financial impacts of that to the program and then do our best internally with other departments to determine where that falls So really that's that's typically an exercise Sort of when prioritized that you're talking about six months instead of two years Okay, and then just two more quick questions If we did a right size or a waiver in backfill or waiver without backfill Would we still have to comply with AB 602 at some point? Yes, and then you said there's already moving pieces with a missing middle policy Is that an AB 602 are those mutually exclusive or can they be married and work together? It can work as a companion So really the missing middle is looking at how we can incentivize that certain band of housing So that's going to look at a variety different things But it can get into the fees and it can get into this analysis associated with that And that will be it is a process already moving forward That's the most effective way to look at it because of that because it looks at all of the potential pieces that we can address As part of that So I would say it could include this study as part of that We can look at what that would look like if that's the direction from the council Yeah, I'm wondering if some if you could one re read slowly the four options and also if someone could Simultaneously make a slide for those of us who are not Auditory learners. I need to see it in order to digest it. Can you read those for me? Absolutely, so the first is to do a full study consistent with a b602 That would be your nexus analysis and in the previous response That's really the two-year process that has the consultant driven exercise compliance with 602 the second option is to basically define a set of waivers for specific housing types under the affordability categories and Determine a total dollar amount for a backfill And then those waivers would be applied until that backfill amount is exhausted that still holds the project list intact does not affect the study Director Osborne hold on. Can I make certain somebody's making a note of that so we can get a slide up on on the screen And that's the pilot one you were mentioning Yes, that that would be run as a pilot program And then the third is to basically provide a waiver without backfilling and That would require an analysis to determine the impacts on the project list and then the impact fee Or excuse me the nexus study for the impact fee So really what that would look like is that if the council determined just to apply a waiver Without any cap or any pilot program nature to that We would have to look in really perpetuity for however long that waiver would last what the impact fee What the impacts are to the overall fee program? Can you say just a few more sentences about that? What what types of impacts you'd be looking for? Yeah, so the impacts would be and I think a very similar to what Sacramento did Sacramento whether behind the scenes there were different conversations, but they ran a pilot program for a period of time expended from 2018 to 2022 they developed all of the fee categories that they wanted to provide the waiver for which were most of the fees and Then they analyzed that over that year period and then determined what to do on the back end And in that situation it was looking at a backfill option But essentially it went into it without a defined cap on the dollar amount with the program. It was more of a time cap So that didn't provide a set dollar amount to backfill and the really the difference is is when the dollar amount is there You're allowing the waivers up to that cap We're on the other option You're really allowing those waivers up to a defined time period or not having a time period And then it's very difficult to judge the impact to the overall capital project programs associated with that because the revenue stream becomes Unpredictable and we would have to determine if projects need to be juggled or removed from the list And that creates some challenges with the next study. I see but the idea is that let's say you build XYZ development and then after the period of time you go back and look at what the Clear impacts were and try to assign a dollar number to those Impacts like let's say a sewer needed to be upgraded or something and then city pays for it What the cost of that was and so you sort of do the retrospective So really the the dollar amounts for both the fees and the projects are set with the next study So the reality is what when we get into impact fees the revenue is not predictable for a variety different reasons because we don't know When development's going to occur year to year and you see those gaps So based on how quickly development moves forward and if you created a five-year pilot You would be able to make estimates on what comes in and the estimates on the revenue But you really don't know at the end of that five-year period what the total amount is going to be So as you let that five-year period go the waivers occur for all those developers at a very set rate So at the end of the five years you determine the financial impact of those waivers at a set amount based on the nexus fee study And then the challenge becomes from a backfilling because it's unknown the revenue It could be two million to nine somewhere in that range and then you're trying to identify how to backfill that or not And if the backfill isn't there then how the projects get delivered and justifying how those projects get delivered becomes challenging because that revenue is lost What you said it requires an analysis what requires analysis the city state law council policy Where is the requirement coming from so the mitigation fee act controls a lot of the nexus studies that are performed And the reporting associated with that so state law Maybe we got through three of those. What's the fourth one and the fourth one is really the more targeted approach Where we can look specifically at where we're missing our rena numbers right now Or we think at the end of the cycle it might be a challenge So that's the missing middle concept and we can incorporate a targeted fee reduction as part of that study But as it focuses on rena it will focus on very low and moderate Which are those are typically the areas as our city manager mentioned where we're seeing the percentages on the lower side That was really helpful. Thank you very much Mayor roger or pardon me mayor rogers I Just received notice from the interpreters on the line if staff can slow down they are working very hard to keep up if speakers can slow down on some of these very complex comments and Concepts they would much appreciate it so they can make sure they're doing meaningful translation on the Spanish Channel. Thank you Thank you mayor, thank you for the presentation. I have some clarifying questions and just some information I'd like to have So on the CFF impact fees that we get are those designated by quadrants of where that money needs to be spent on projects They are not so there they are Allocated based on the percentages that are listed in the chart, but that can be allocated city-wide And the quadrants just so I'm clear on the park impact fees is that our Is that our rule or is that something in statute? So when I'm looking at all the projects that need to be done in all the parks in the city of Santa Rosa Do we have to do them by quadrant or can they be moved? Can the money be moved? It's defined in code and we have set those quadrants pardon me It's defined in our code and at the local level we have set those quadrants So we would bring back the policy to address that so so I'm just going to take for instance We have money in park fees Place to play potentially could end up having a sports complex area But I'm hearing there's no money for that, but we actually do have money so we could potentially take money That's in that park development fees and move it to that because it's our rule That's not allowing it right now just so I'm clear on how these impact fees work Yes, and I think there's a few few ways you can change that that's getting into the methodology in the nexus So when you study the impacts in the various areas from parks and where that fee should be generated in the various areas The local jurisdiction really controls those so we set policy around that So it could require an additional study to look at that and then also a code amendment to make that change Thank you, and then as far as the actual Upgrading or expansion of the current parks Because it says new development or acquisition of parks But if I'm reading the slide correctly it also said the upgrade or expansion, but not maintenance Is that our rule or is that in state statute? I think it's Columbia right Yeah, yeah, so that's state code. It's state code Yeah, I'd like to see the state codes specifically around these impact fees and the reason being is it says There's sometimes is language that allows us to do more work than Then we're doing I think so is it the state statute or our own codes that are preventing us from moving forward on projects But as far as expansion or upgrade if that's the state code or our code and Then also to know If it is an upgrade, I'll take for example the tennis courts Can we use park impact fees for the tennis courts at Howard Park? Or does that have to come out of a different budget and why maybe Maybe it's important for us to know what's in the reserves for each of these current budgets Could you could you give me that Alan? What's in the park impact fees reserves? And then what's in the other budget as well as CFF budget just so you have an idea of how much is in reserves okay, so I Don't have those specific reserve numbers for you right now what I would say and maybe Deputy director Santos can come and talk about the specific projects and how those things are funded, but I would again Say that that when you're looking at Funds that are in reserves for a particular part in in each Park development fee coordinate has its own fund they Those dollars are Encumbered if you will into certain projects, so they're not it's not a pool of dollars It's just they're just sort of collected there, but they are all directly tied to a specific project. That's being We set the quadrants ourselves It's not something in a state statue that says you have to do it by quadrant And it's not something that says we couldn't move money to finish one other project So if you have not enough money to finish projects, I'll use a herna avenue overpass We didn't have quite enough money to do that project so we move money from another project to that project So we can complete it. I'm just trying to understand better how these impact fees work And I I think We can probably get a more direct answer Thank you. Yeah Good afternoon mayor vice mayor Council members. I'm Jen Santos deputy director for parks and thank you for your question The the answer is looking at two state Laws for that is to see codes we use the quimby act and the mitigation fee act and so The quimby act Requires the city to put the money into wherever, you know, whatever zones we want to put it in However, we want to arrange it the mitigation fee act would allow us to move money for something that is city-wide Like a big project like a big sports complex tennis Complex something like that. And so we can make those decisions as a city body Okay, so the quimby act Asks that we do it a certain way But we actually could make the decision if it's a decision made by council that we want to do something in one specific area We could move money around to finish projects Yes, we certainly could we do try to keep them in the quadrants they're created to serve those residents in that quadrant But the city has in the past Move funds around to assist with projects that are underfunded And do you by chance have the amount of the reserves that are in just the park impact since that's your budget? The funds we have allocated going forward that we receive so far around 25 million Around 25 million We'll get you the exact number we'll follow up with the exact number, but it's approximately 25 million all of that is Allocated already to current projects Okay All right, I'm getting through my My notes here So I think the biggest thing is we don't know really what the long-term effects are to any of the budgets based on the conversation today if we were doing a any type of Right-size impact fee I would be interested in knowing what that's going to do to the long-term effects of the budget because I feel Like right now we're making decisions without all the data and information whether that's a new nexus study With the I I think it would be number four kind of a targeted approach Or something that's along the lines of a pilot We know that that we need more affordable housing. We know we are missing middle housing We know that we need to work on some of these things I would be interested in having staff work with our partners to see how we can get to almost a net Neutral on on the fees so that we aren't going in the hole that much but that we can still see Some support because truthfully local fees are the only thing we can control right now With the high interest rates and the cost of construction We know that that's the only thing we can actually look at to being able to incentivize and partner You know with developers and with with folks that are for housing as far as looking at The long that's why I'm concerned about the long-term impact though is we I feel like we don't have enough information to do that So that's why a pilot might be a smarter way for us to go When we're when we're looking at the out years and then I might have another question But I think that's most of mine, but thank you for the presentation. Thank you for councilmember Fleming going back over those four different bullets, I appreciate that and I think that's all my questions, Mary Thank you vice mayor step Thank You mayor All right. I want to try my hand at some back of the envelope math Which is always risky So thank you very much for the chart on the impact fees collected from affordable housing And so I was trying to just take a moment some rough estimates on the the Current level of impact fees that we're collecting both in the last three years and then over the 12 years that are listed And Gabe am I in the ballpark if I say that over the an average over the last 12 years for both the PDF and CFF fees is about 420,000 a year something like that I'm putting you on the spot here right now Can you repeat the question? I'm sorry, so I was I was trying to figure out Given that the fees you have the You have the total impact fees collected and then you've got the percentage that are coming from deed restricted housing projects And so I was trying to come up with an average over the 12 years that it were listed as well as what we've been taking in over the last three years which have seen a good amount of development and With the calculations I was doing it looks like an average over the last 12 years just to give us here on the day It's a rough estimate of the sums that we're talking about is that it was about it was about 420,000 a year with large variations given the the uncertain development Or uneven development and then over the last three years it looked like we were pulling in about 1.5 million of fees Yeah Okay, sure Again, I know I'm putting you on the spot But I it was helpful for me to have those numbers or it is helpful for me to have those numbers as councilmember Donald was indicating just to give a sense of what we would have to backfill even if we just eliminated the the impact fees for deed restricted housing for for very low and low-income housing But there is a there's a reasonable budget chunk that we'd have to figure out right, and I think that's part of Where this is kind of a starting off part right, I mean we There there's a proposal that's out there that warrants study and warrants Action one way or the other What what I would ask is that we take a look at it from a from a thorough thoughtful standpoint of what those budget impacts are it's I think it's The fees are are and how they're coming in is a little more nuanced than unfortunately you know Having a slide that just you know kind of shows what we collected There's there's a lot of things that go behind those those numbers that That we we need to Address in any policy going forward, but I I think we're ready to do that and and Gabe told you some options that we could do that kind of goes along that path, but There there's more study that's going to need to be involved there unfortunately, it's Probably not the best on the on the fly type of Deal, that's that's fair to say. No, thank you And then director Osborne. I I appreciated your your response to council member Acrepti's question regarding the difference between the two kinds of studies whether it's a full a full nexus review Versus a right-sized fee survey I'll I'll reiterate what my council council member my my colleagues have said and say that I'm certainly interested in seeing the results of one of those kinds of study It's I'm intrigued by the fact that the right-sizing study can be done a little bit more quickly That that sounds like a big advantage to taking to taking that avenue And then just as a final comment going back to the city manager's remarks at the beginning I think it's worth underlining again that our city's hit is is currently at 66 percent of Renewal obligations. That's a really we've actually done pretty well with our housing All of us want more and all of us want to use every tool at our disposal to build more But it's worth noting that Santa Rosa really is especially compared to other municipalities across the state doing doing pretty well So and that's in that's in large part due to the two what our what our planning department has done over the last several years to Incentivize further development in the community Thank you That's number Rogers Thanks, mayor. I want to reframe a little bit if I can First gave for some context for folks. We're talking about this proposal to start assessing fees per square foot as opposed to per unit If I was to build a mansion, and I don't need exact numbers if I was to build a mansion in Santa Rosa Relative to a unit of downtown affordable housing Apartment, what's the differential in the fees? So typically it depends a bit on the fee so when when you look at the impact associated with that scenario and The assumption is and it's it's just how engineering works with management of infrastructure based on the number of bedrooms There's an anticipated occupancy load in the buildings So your larger building that has four bedrooms in it would typically have an escalated fee over a smaller unit The total dollar amounts. I'm sorry. I don't have those today those exact numbers But generally if you think about the overall impact fees, we're talking about CFF and parks So those are individuals that are putting pressure on the infrastructure But when you get into the other fee types like sewer and water all of a sudden that larger lot has more of a demand from water for Irrigation, so you'll see certain fees will escalate differently based on the impact But truly what the nexus fee study should look at is when we're talking about Bike and pedestrian facilities or road widening is it should be looking at the number of people that are being generated in the increase in population based on that So we have changed some of our fees to better really align with that concept where smaller units are Charged less than larger units and that really is across the board with CFF and sewer and water So some strides have been made as we evolve the studies to recognize that fact But what this is a fix of is many agencies in the past would treat those two scenarios the same way And that's what I remember being the main part of the conversation in 2018 Especially as we started to bring equity into our decision making potential that there was an inequity that existed And though we fixed some of it 602 switching to per square foot as opposed to per unit is really trying to push Cities in a direction being more equitable in terms of what type of housing is incentivized through its fee structures, correct? That is correct and and just for the record I want to make sure that we are currently in compliance with 602 That it's just when we go through that study again That's really what it's looking at but 602 also has an option that if another methodology can be justified That I think goes along that same concept then you can use that in the next study as well Perfect, and then when we in remind me because I don't remember but in 2008 when we did the next study We also had a conversation about the recovery rate of many of these fees Because under 218 we can charge up to a certain amount But also had the opportunity to charge less than a certain amount. Did we do a hundred percent recovery rate? On we did we looked at the that's the feasibility analysis, which it looks at the reasonable approach of that We can look quickly. I know the various fees were set at different levels I don't have the final answer for that, but I can look at that right now actually okay If you could just even when we come back after a public comment and whatnot. I think it'd be helpful for us to see To what level are we? Incentivizing I suppose certain types of housing already throughout our community and you talked a little bit about that right now the biggest concern that I hear from many developers about projects is Yes fees, but also the interest rates and access to capital Can you give us sort of a snapshot on what that? Broadly speaking throughout Sonoma County or throughout the state what we're seeing in terms of interest rates or ability for construction loans With interest rates has it made it more difficult for folks to be able to build Yeah, I think what we've seen there's there's been a few factors and really some of this started in response to the tubs fire I think as we saw really construction start going as part of that That actually inflated construction costs labor materials went up We moved from tubs fire really into COVID which created the unpredictability of supply And a lot of the cost of construction is just much higher than it was 10 years ago So then really if you look at it it is simple math, especially in a resale market Obviously there's the cost of construction and there's the return on the back end And then there's carrying that project for the longevity of it until that return comes in So between interest rates coming up between some funding sources going and coming away It makes it much more unpredictable for Developments to occur and when we see this situation what we see oftentimes is really a sitting so projects go to entitlement Which we're still seeing that we have a lot of entitled projects But then the the time in which it goes from entitled to building permit which in a very aggressive Economic condition where they can build and they can make money goes quick But now there's there's more factors at play so when one thing doesn't work then all of a sudden There's for the further delay, so we have seen that and I think you know Obviously the development community is better suited to discuss all the fine points associated with that But what's been communicating to us between construction costs on the rise? between in some situations with the development type the Unpredictability of the rent on the back end the holding costs for that project the interest rates all that factors into it And then we're talking sort of abstractly about where these funds might come from if we were to move forward on a on a fee reduction But that only assumes that projects are actually built So if nothing gets built if interest rates are too high if people can't get their financial stack in order Nothing gets built. There's no additional impact. This is really hasn't lost out on anything in regards to fees That is a correct statement And I think that's just the unpredictable nature of especially analyzing the revenue stream because development as a whole is unpredictable I mean we've saw it in the chart. There are gaps in the production of affordable housing So if nothing goes then there's no impact to really analyze because you did not waive the fee So that would be a correct statement, right? And then if we look at as the council has multiple times talked about Look at housing development as economic development if nothing goes forward we didn't risk anything We didn't lose anything, but we also don't get the benefits from that economic development as well That's the way that I look at it at least so what would be helpful for me in public comment is to hear from folks Particularly folks who are in the industry If you're saying that this is potentially 1% or I think it was 1.1 or 1.8 percent depending on the the fee How close are we actually talking about to this type of a proposal making the difference between a project being able to move forward or not? Because I think that that's really the big question for many of us from the deus is Are we doing this because it sounds good and it continues to tell people that Santa Rosa is open to housing? And there's some merit to that or are we also talking about making up for an economic climate or at least making it easier in an Economic climate so that we get something when we otherwise might not get anything. I think that's what I'd be interested in hearing from folks I have a question piggybacking on what council member Rogers brought up Which isn't is really kind of a philosophical question about how we incentivize what we all are here for today I imagine which is to get housing built and I will be listening in public comment And if there are any Public commenters who have the knowledge to speak to this what I want to talk about is this other tool that the city has which is The renewal enterprise district where we we put in ten million dollars So if we're looking at a pilot where we put an X amount of dollars and we have all these units that have been built from this Partnership with the county this twenty million dollar partnership Is this is the impact fee removal piece? Going to be the piece that to council member Rogers point gets the shovels in the ground and gets the housing built Or would there are a better use of our dollars if we were to do a pilot be to Additionally capitalize this other vehicle that we already have up and running that is last dollars in money So it's and it is money that would gets pulled back if you don't go ahead and build the housing That you said that you're going to build so that might be another way to ease the pain and keep things moving as we go as We go along on this path I understand the renewal enterprise district does a certain kind of housing in a certain kind of location But I do want to understand if we are Putting our money to the best use and making sure that because what I don't want to get is a hundred percent Is zero as a real concern I have and so if people can speak to where the greatest pain point is is the greatest pain point These fees or is it the interest rates and and the last dollars in in your capital stacks councilmember Alvarez me Actually, I was gonna piggyback off of council and the Rogers But actually with with the mention of the red district it it furthers my my question And that is the metrics of this. I'm gonna with the easy metrics is More houses are being built But I'm wondering when we do take into account the red district the renewal How can we actually mitigate that the projects that we're looking at are being built in a timely fashion We're the consequences for the developers who are waiting for a moderate That suddenly becomes low or low becomes moderate and and and there's your way for us You put something in writing or in the in the in the project should we move forward of Having these incentives be removed if it's not complete in a timely fashion as we're Contemplating increase of costs well pretty much what metrics do you do you foresee being used? Yeah, and that's an excellent question I think with affordable housing in general just the challenge We really run into as affordable housing projects are presented through entitlement They're not really required to incorporate that affordable housing through the building permit stage Because they can pay the in lieu fee when it's market rate So some of the items that we've been discussing internally and we'll come back to the council with this is how can we ensure that number one The development achieves those benefits If there's a desire the council to see the development move forward in a timely fashion to achieve those built those benefits We really can build that in essentially the way it works with fee waivers is the fee waivers apply to the project up front But the fee is not collected on the back end and that's when the units actually finalized So is there a check at final occupancy to ensure the fees are paid? So that is something that could be incorporated in and discussion about a reasonable time frame to construct is really based on project complexity There's a lot that goes into it But I think council member Alvarez what what you're alluding to really is to avoid project sitting on the shelf for five years when We put all these incentives in place to move it forward and how do we protect against that that is correct And the additional questions that I have has are pertain to the parks We're wearing that we have twenty five million dollars in in in and projects that have yet to be completed and In summary page 18 it stated that there's no guarantee that additional incentives We increase the amount of affordable housing production in the city And I'm also wondering about these projects that we have on on ice when it comes to parks What additional sources we have to complete parks should we lose this Ability to to generate revenue there aren't a lot Grant funding would would probably be one there may be something that's Measure em or or some other funding source. They're available or But that that's about it the the city traditionally Does not put a lot of general fund into capital programs Most of our if not virtually all of our general fund dollars goes into operations So that's that's the challenge That we ran into doing this analysis is that there are there are just some projects where especially in parks where you're looking at that at the impact fees being the Primary source of revenue coming in to complete them You you eliminate that even for a short period Then the to be able to catch that back up you you really can't it can take Decades to be able to to get where you need to be And my final question have we seen anything similar a hybrid to this being Introduced in anywhere in the state of California But what I mean by this I mean the right the right size fee I Have seen a variety of different combinations of waivers and fee adjustments So, you know, I think Sacramento. I think more of our regional partners Petaluma did something similar Those are more waivers and I've seen that either in the pilot form or more of the long-term form where it's waving specific Fees for specific project types and that really differs through that and some situations people will go all the way up to Or jurisdictions go all the way up to 120 a.m. I try to capture that where some are a little more strategic so the combination of Things that I've seen to affect the fees our timing of payment And deferrals which pushes it a little further along in the process a combination of waivers or Reductions for certain incentives So a reduction would be as you increase the number of units or the density or fee lowers same as what we've done downtown But most things fall within that narrow band of options. It's just the combinations differ a bit from what I've seen And I just came up with one additional question Our city manager to introduce a quite a bit of numbers of where where I currently with our housing and our percentages And I'm wondering what what's in the pipeline? What what projects have been submitted but have not yet been have not yet? Broken ground that might actually increase the number of potential projects being completed before 2031 Yeah, it's an excellent question And we should be able during public comment to get more information on that Typically the Rena tracks the building permit issued so once the building permit is issued the number is populated on that chart So a lot of those numbers are still going through construction to be finalized So a lot of the active construction you're seeing will result in those numbers What we're really seeing as far as the development cycle goes it is typically a tenure cycle we see of peaks and valleys So right now we are seeing projects come through we still have projects that are pending Construction which basically means that they're in the building permit stage and waiting for that and I can easily produce those numbers But that really gives you an idea of what's ready to go The big jump for projects is going through entitlement to building permit That's when a significant investment in the construction takes place. So that's usually our indicator that they're moving forward Entitled projects may vary will not follow through and a lot of times do not based on the factors in the economy But more than happy during public comment to pull some stats Thank you Looking to make sure you didn't come up with any more questions So I think kind of going back to the basics for me What are Rena numbers for our our public like how are they made or design? I feel like we're saying that a lot and then what are they? Why are they important and what happens if? Jurisdiction does not meet their Rena numbers and has Santa Rosa ever been in that predicament That's a good question. So the Rena numbers are regional housing need assessment So HDD looks at what the needs are in a greater area from a housing standpoint There's quite the analysis that really goes into that And then a bag will take those numbers and form those into specific numbers for each Jurisdiction so they essentially divvy up the more regional numbers to more of a localized need And often the Rena numbers are very challenging to hit So in our last Rena cycle, we're in the sixth and that would be the fifth We ended up in some scenarios being fairly well, but then in our moderate We were roughly 50% of our allocated total And then in one of our low categories, we were slightly less So generally what happens in many jurisdictions fall into this bucket in the state of California has modified Processes to ensure that units get pushed in jurisdictions where the Rena numbers are less And SB 35 is really a prime example of that that allowed projects to go through under a ministerial state Depending on where you are with your Rena numbers SB 35 either comes in and requires certain affordability levels or it doesn't and it pushes So typically you'll get that on the back end But there I know that oftentimes the Rena numbers are seen as a bare minimum We're really trying to meet the housing requirements But some of those Rena categories are very challenging to meet and require different tactics to meet them Thank you. I think you left off one part of that question If cities don't meet the Rena cycle, I believe for this cycle They are not going to be able to qualify for certain types of funding Okay, so that's the consequence So let me see We did talk a little bit about Sacramento that was An area that you said actually had a pilot And if I recall correctly you said that ended in 2022 So did they implement a policy that was no longer a pilot or where are they Now well what they did is they ran it from 18 to 2022 and then they were revisited it in 2022 So some of the discussion points there that the total dollar amount They were roughly had about 3,000 units that went through the program There was a total dollar amount of all the impact fees of approximately 9 million They were they did that at a time and I think it speaks to other concerns that were raised They did that at a time where a lot of affordable housing was being built We had roughly 1,300 units that went through the city center was at the same time in a much smaller jurisdiction And it was the very difficult for them to make the finding that it was the one piece that was the catalyst to move that forward It was one piece of many, but they were unable to make that finding So what they revisited in in 2022 they went all the way up to 120 am I so that covered all the affordability categories There was a discussion about potentially reducing that and then there was a discussion about backfilling those dollars to be able to hold the capital projects hold But to the best of my knowledge they did not Malfable the program and it's still alive And you may or may not know the answer to this question, but with Sacramento already meeting its Rena numbers Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to that question. Okay I have more hold on all right, so the the current proposal That is before us as far as to increase affordable housing production in the city that went on 14 slide 14 120% a AMI and below. What does that really mean for a citizen? What is 120% AMI? Absolutely that focuses on area immediate income. So it's really looking at the income level So as you look at the different affordability categories moderate is 80 to 120 then it starts working its way down into the lower Categories, so when these units are deed restricted and they're allocated to affordable units They're affordable to a specific category and then the individuals occupying that unit have to qualify for that category So as a builder if this were the policy I can build something that is those all the way up to to moderate Yes, so the builder actually can elect to put whatever affordability level they want in a project Our inclusionary housing ordinance requires that they either incorporate a specific percentage That depending on the type of project it differs from rentals to for sale So if we look at moderate which is at the 120% it's really incorporating 10% into the project for that level But I think it's important to note that most market rate developers actually pay the in Luffy And then it goes into director passengers programs, and then it gets work through housing So it doesn't necessarily mean that that housing gets built There has to be an incentive on the back end really for the builder to do it the waivers can be that incentive But in some situations the return on the affordable unit in a market rate project is not as high obviously as other market rate Units, and it does an offset, and I think that's often why we see the housing impact fee paid instead of the inclusionary units So I'm just going to throw a few things out for me If if we waive anything I want to make sure that the housing actually Is being built, and I want to make sure that it is affordable To Rena numbers that we are not currently meeting It's very important that we have all housing for all and so Finding a way to get to that is very important I Did read Somewhere that the the residential single-family residential developments to make budget neutral I just took a snip it out on 14 I worked three jobs to buy my single-family home, and I had four children So just because someone has a single-family home does not mean they have a lot of money Because I worked very very hard to buy my home so my children can have generational wealth and that is a sacrifice of time and Kissing on them and putting them to bed and everything so that I can buy my home. So I Budget neutral I get it But not off the backs of people that work really really hard to get their housing and then Lastly We keep talking about a backfill. I keep hearing that word a backfill Alan this is on you a backfill Where is this money coming from for a backfill and I heard someone say well We can spend our money in other places, and I'm wondering what money are we talking about you would need to Have your most unrestricted funds to be able to go to backfill that and your most unrestricted funds is the general fund In short, so we have we have money in our general fund that is Not allocated or that we can spend somewhere else Well, you would have to take that out of there's there's two ways of looking at it either you go through a a project or program where we take a part of our general fund reserves and And use that as the backfill mechanism The other way to go about it would and I Believe where the the right-size impact proposal was going was to Take it out of your budget in general Really when you're looking at doing something like that the way I read it and and to be perfectly honest. I haven't spoken to the Gen H Representatives, I'd love to have a conversation But the way I look at that is you're you're taking out of operational budgets at that point and the the The the percentage that was used looks like it they're comparing it to our total City budget, which you wouldn't be able to do you would have to Focus probably on the general fund you wouldn't be able to go and to Use enterprise fund money to offset this that's you start running into prop 218 issues So you're you're looking for the areas where you have the the most discretion at At your disposal and that unfortunately always falls to the general fund Okay, and when we're looking at our budget for 24 25 Where are we at with that Currently we are showing a deficit in the general fund of about five point two million dollars And and how long do we have? money for our in response in safe parking The ARPA funding will run out in in response They could probably go through the end of the period of performance, which is December 2026. I believe safe parking will will go Yeah, 2025 yeah and Housing right around the same time so we would be looking at Definitely having those part of The 2526 Budget the housing in particular because that was a general fund piece before I believe we are going to have a discussion at the budget study session about in response and safe parking and essentially where Where we go from there so we can start planning What to do? With those programs All right, and I do not have any other questions But I want to look to my council members to see if anyone else has something to say and I'm gonna Do the chair I do have Sacramento's Rena numbers for the fifth cycle So they only met 20% of their very low Numbers 56% of low income 66.3% of above moderate and moderate income they did meet a hundred and eighty-two percent So they did not meet their Rena numbers Thank you They did not meet their Rena numbers and they still decided not to Do the waving of the impact piece There oh, so that was when they were waving the impact piece. Okay, perfect Council member McDonald Thank you, I've been hearing a lot about the long-term economic stimulus that happens when we do Housing and building and I'm not sure I'm not an economist so I can't give you that information But is there a way that you could get the information to counsel? So if we understand if we built a thousand more houses With with different like middle missing middle as well as low income What does that do to our local economy and what is that backfill in our coffers as far as? Property tax goes and some of those other ways that we make up for it when we create housing So a lot of the conversations is we don't have workforce housing. We don't have housing for people to come That's why businesses aren't coming to the downtown area So when I'm looking at housing right now and it kind of a bigger picture Could is there a way a way we can get that information as you bring this information back to council? I Believe we can we can we can absolutely do our best to do a deep dive in there. I can just give you at a very high level Absolutely the increase in housing is going to increase property tax You're going to have more people There that are that are buying goods it is generally a good thing for the economy and and And so that's that those are all positives When we get into the deed restricted and and that level of affordable housing There is no property tax on those so they're exempt from that so now we start losing a bit And the other thing that I think we need to keep in mind is that for all the benefits that come From the housing the revenue and all that that goes in there's also a service Delivery aspect that goes along with it. So the challenge is having and and that increase in revenue that comes in versus the the service delivery costs, so if you Increase your population by a certain amount and that requires you to Add a fire station or to do anything like that Then you're looking at those costs that go in on top of it And you need to balance the two to get the full picture of Where you're going economically and then I think in addition to that when we look at buildings specifically affordable houses How much could we reduce potentially the costs that we are putting out right now for the unhoused and so? homelessness issues that type of impact that we could potentially have on a budget as we Grow housing and have more affordable housing And then the last thing just as a follow-up because I want to make sure sometimes I'm delayed because I'm reading the actual text so I apologize to staff when I have to come back with questions With the 25 million dollars specifically that we allocated in park impact fees. How much is unallocated? So when I'm looking at reserves, I think it's important for council to know how much we're currently allocating in these specific Impact fees and then how much we're just not they're still just sitting in reserves Okay, so I think both of those would be best to come back with a kind of a thoughtful response and writing on that especially the the of course we would want to see Housing affect our homelessness and a our unhoused individuals in a positive way I think that's part of the the goal of that but we can come back with with an answer specifically there and and Let me Have the reserve numbers for you, but I think let me just because we're sending a lot of stuff to you and writing I think it would just be easier to give that to you there and to also combine that with the allocated funds For those are for the projects if if that's okay All right. She did a thank you Um Yeah councilmember Ocrackie just real quick Director Osborne, could you Address of what the pro housing designation is from the state how we received it and where we rank within the state because of receiving it Yes, so the pro housing designation is really a ranking based on all the initiatives that we put in place to support housing And a lot of jurisdictions in the state did not receive that So it is actually fairly difficult to get and you get it's based on a scoring system and through our last ranking We ranked seventh in the state of California. All right, so seeing no additional Questions from council members Madam city clerk may you please conduct a public comment? Thank you We are now taking public comment on item 4.1 if you are in the council chamber and would like to comment But have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium. You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period As you approach the podium, please state your name for the record if you choose to do so The first public comment will be from Michael followed by Peter then Adrian. I guess you meant me Michael Hilber First of all, I want to mention that with respect to the Roseland Village project That's been held up for you know over a decade due to litigation. So it's mainly attributable to county and competence they've been embroiled in litigation with Owner of the remaining portion of that parcel and all they had to do is really to buy the whole thing and they would have Avoided that whole mess. So that does added, you know, I think a decade plus on to that timeline now with respect to this You know what they're asking for is Fee waivers without backfill Up to a hundred percent of median income. So you're talking about waving fees even when people are making above the median income You know, that's on top of all the others like Affordable housing projects. Yes, they are typically exempt from property tax and that's huge. That's on top of the federal tax credits and Section 8 vouchers and the state subsidies So this is just you know, another freebie. They're looking for to be pile on top of all this And I'll tell you I think that you know, the impact fees they need to be uniform Anything else is, you know, just crooked like for example, we pay a Monthly sewer fee that's for maintenance and you know treatment of the wastewater But new development, you know means the plant may need to be Increased in the size its Capacity and that needs to be paid for by a uniform impact fee anything else is just not fair And the same goes for schools when you build the new housing and the schools have to expand they got to get impact fee to Cover that Thank you. The next speaker will be Excuse me Peter followed by Adrian then Lauren Peter Peter Rumble Okay, can you please state your name for the record? Sure. Hi and on to sweet I'm the vice president of public policy and workforce development for the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber of Commerce So good afternoon Mayor Rogers council members staff first Thank you so much for all the work and time that you put into this critical issue I'm here to urge you to make meaningful adjustments to impact fees to incentivize affordable and workforce housing Our housing crisis is the greatest threat to our long-term success as a community and beyond the moral imperatives to support access to safe shelter The economic impact of housing scarcity is profound and far-reaching Posing significant challenges to individuals our community and the economy alike It's because of this far-reaching economic impact that this isn't as simple as it may seem Not as simple as looking at a budget adjustment It's a choice that we're making to invest today or to pay more for that lack of investment down the road And we're talking about significant higher costs later both economically and socially Housing scarcity and unaffordability Exasperate a range of issues that impose heavy financial burdens on individuals communities and governments in the long run Without adequate investment in affordable housing households are at risk of substandard living conditions or homelessness Without adequate investment in affordable housing It is difficult for businesses to attract and retain talent across all skill levels Addressing the affordable housing crisis is essential for businesses to maintain a competitive edge and to ensure a robust workforce pipeline Alternatively making strategic investments now to prioritize housing in a meaningful way can yield substantial savings and benefits for Businesses and the city in the future from a direct city budget perspective access to affordable housing reduces reliance on costly emergency services Leads to increase property values and tax revenues over time as a vibrant and inclusive neighborhoods attract further investment By investing in affordable housing the city of Santa Rosa can achieve significant cost savings Foster economic resilience and create healthier more equitable communities for residents and businesses alike Ultimately incentivizing affordable and workforce housing not only addresses pressing social needs But also serves as a catalyst for sustainable economic development fostering resilient communities where individuals and businesses can thrive. Thank you Thank you I would like to remind members of the community Providing public comment this evening that we do have interpreters on the Spanish Channel So as you're making your public comments, please pace yourselves take a breath And be mindful that we are trying to have meaningful and interpretation on the Spanish channel for those participating via zoom in Spanish Thank you The next public comment will be from Adrienne followed by Lauren the Nick Good afternoon council members. My name is Adrienne covert local lead for Santa Rosa Yimbi and Westside resident As President Biden is fond of saying Don't tell me your values show me your budget and I'll tell you your values now This city Santa Rosa has repeatedly told its residents that it values housing at the very top of its priority Now this is a great opportunity to show That we value housing by reducing our development impact fees, so The Gen H proposal to right size development impact fees would reduce fees on multifamily housing and rationally scale that by affordability and square footage These are exactly the type of units that Santa Rosa needs to not only meet the minimum requirement for Arena and those Rena numbers are just minimum requirements, but this is an opportunity. This is essential for us to meet our to build a vibrant Affordable and low-carbon city for the future for ourselves and for our kids to stay in Santa Rosa If they wish to as they grow older now these costs There's going to be some costs to this and we've heard about some of that today But these costs must be weighed against the cost of inaction For example the cost of having one of the highest rates of homelessness on a per capita basis Than any other city in the United States the cost of our working class having to commute ever far their distances Study in Santa Clara County found that over half of their homelessness expenditures were just from dealing with the symptoms of Unsheltered homelessness because they didn't have the infrastructure, so you're either going to pay for the housing or you're going to pay to not Have the housing, so where is that in the nexus study? It's not so when you're taking this into consideration I please please take into consideration the cost of inaction and the opportunities to build housing adequate for the demand and for our future Thank you. The next speaker will be Lauren followed by Nick then Chris And my name is Lauren fury. I live here in Santa Rosa and I work for an affordable housing developer Mid-pen housing who has an office here in Santa Rosa and two projects currently under construction in Santa Rosa and several throughout Sonoma County I want to extend the invitation for any council members who are really interested in this Economic question of what the current environment light is like for construction and to dialogue on that more I have a lot of numbers and details that I can throw out you But to briefly summarize Rates have really increased and they're having a profound impact on the cost of construction So envision an imaginary community of 50 new homes Including studios ones twos and three bedrooms that would cost 40 million dollars to build Two years ago in that rate environment Construction interest rates were as low as 2% and they're now closer to 7% and then permanent debt is more like six or seven percent Compared to four percent a few years ago. So what does that mean in actual numbers? You're talking about an additional million dollars spent on construction loan interest for a two-year construction project And then you're reducing the amount of mortgage that that property can afford by another million dollars So that project now just based on interest rates cost two million dollars more to build So when your staff says every dollar counts, they are accurate They are completely accurate in that statement every single dollar counts Impact fees are something that developers are borrowing either via the construction loan or the permanent loan To payback and those impact fees can be between 300,000 and a million dollars on something like a 40 million dollar project so I really encourage the council to keep asking those questions and Again to echo Adrienne's comments to think about the costs that are much harder to quantify than these impact fees that Our community pays when we don't have affordable housing. Thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be Nick followed by Chris then Ben Thank You members. My name is Nicholas Pertzel speaking on behalf of Providence Representing our 44,000 caregivers over 17 ministries across the state of California Providence is committed to supporting the poor and especially vulnerable that includes affordable housing We contributed in 2022 over 700 million dollars to these programs Specifically for this area between 2020 and 2023 We contributed seven and a half million dollars to affordable and supportive housing projects that includes the caretists homes Project at 2.2 million the caretists center at 2 million and a ronert park affordable housing Development at 1.3 million specifically for that development. We've run into the same issues being mentioned At this meeting although not in the city of Santa Santa Rosa But we have run into cost issues that have made us doing that project alone unsustainable and are searching for a partner Being without a stable home is detrimental to your health We cannot treat individuals if they don't have somewhere safe and stable to go to they don't have access to meds And they can't come back for the regular care They need to sustain a healthy lifestyle according to the American Hospital Association housing instability increases health risk for children Specifically with asthma and long-term depression issues. I heard some questions about the cost of providing care Especially those are homeless want to put into perspective according to the American Hospital Association 33% of all emergency department visits are from unhoused individuals It's an incredible strain on our system, and we don't just simply release them into the wild We need to make sure and ensure they have a safe place to go Of those 33 80 percent of ed visits 80 percent of those visits are from preventable conditions So again an incredible strain on the cost and adding to that burden 51% of those individuals need to come back to the hospital for continuing treatment Additionally just to the health care costs it is incredibly difficult to recruit care providers even with their excellent benefits and pay in the area and As to the burden of trying to maintain access to care It's for these reasons that we see this proposal as an investment in the community and overall benefits the community and we appreciate your Thank you. The next public comment will be from Chris followed by Ben then Albert Thanks, I'm Chris Gunther. I'm a part of bikeable Santa Rosa and a resident of the Montgomery Village area I just want to take a very quick minute. We're sort of in allyship with Gen H UMB and a number of other groups in the room And so want to endorse the call for you know all measures to accelerate housing development in the city and in particular I want to emphasize the the value of taking a systemic perspective I really appreciate a lot of the questions from the council members that we're doing that And I think we should continue doing that and I would just add that you know from a transportation perspective that access between denser housing and You know impacts on infrastructure costs and transportation We can save money in the long run by getting this right and getting housing developed in the right places Which lowers that impact and makes this more affordable more beneficial over the long run. Thanks Thank you. The next speaker will be Ben followed by Albert then Mike Ben Wickham I believe he's left He was here earlier, but I believe he's left. Okay. Thank you. I'll circle back towards the end of public comment Albert Yes, good evening. Good afternoon. May Rogers Members of the council. My name is Al Irma. I work at the metote food park over in Roseland But I'm here today representing the Sonoma County Hospitality Association We represent lodging food and beverage retail wineries outdoor recreation destinations and a whole lot more Employee-wise we probably represent 30,000 plus employees in Sonoma County and As an economic development matter housing the availability and affordability of housing for our workforce for that sector is Number one job one we really we really need housing. We've been struggling particularly during the pandemic and so We are here to support either the emergency ordinance or a pilot project that would eliminate the impact fees For particularly for affordable housing From a public health standpoint, I think the pandemic revealed that there's huge disparities in housing here in Sonoma County if you look over in Roseland the COVID Incidents of COVID in Roseland were astronomical and in large part because the overcrowding of housing or lack of housing there in that community So if you go to any restaurant in Sonoma County and see who's working there It's largely Latinos if you go to the lodging establishments and see who's turning down the beds and cleaning the rooms Largely Latinos if you go to the wineries in Sonoma County Guess who's working there? And so it's really a disproportionate impact on that committee in particular, but it's impacting our entire workforce in Sonoma County So if you want to continue to support economic fatality and economic development in Sonoma County, we encourage you to act now and move to Suspend the impact fee waivers for the next several years to support the generation H housing proposal. Thank you Thank you The next speaker will be Mike followed by Deborah then Lauren and Deborah and Lauren if you can make your way to the opposite podium then as Mike It'll keep the flow of the meeting going Mike. Is that you? Oh All right, we'll move on Deborah. All right, Lauren. Thank you Brigham in President and owner of Phoenix Development Company. We built three major housing projects now in the city of Santa Rosa and I'm going to just speak off my experience We've typically seen 20 to 25,000 per unit in impact fees on each of these projects on top of that we've spent between 20 and 25,000 per unit in infrastructure repairs street repair curb replacement sidewalk replacement in some instances we had to replace the entire water main Up and down a block because you know which I get this is infrastructure repair, but on top of that we paid Impact fees we paid CFF When you take that 45 to $50,000 per unit and It comes out to about $300 per unit per month to offset that cost you're looking at About 25% of the average Affordable rent that we get off our affordable projects. So when you put that in perspective you can see where the problem is My second point is you know all our projects all our affordable projects and our market rate projects all have Green features all have park features all have play lots all have play structures Yet we have to pay for that and then we pay for a park for somebody else CFF again, we do the infrastructure repair, but on top of that we pay for infrastructure repair Somewhere else in the city in regard to Councilman Rogers request currently Midpen is borrowing better than I can but it's 450 to 550 bits over so far so rates are about 10 to 11 percent return on investment eight percent two three years ago now is about 18 to 22 percent required. Thank you for Thank you. The next speaker will be Deborah then Abby then Kathleen Deborah Okay, we'll move on Abby Thank You Abby Thank You I'm gonna put this down for a second So you can see me. Thanks. Hi. My name is Abby Arnold and I am a resident of the Montgomery Village area I'm here today to support the proposal to Right-size the impact fee. We need more affordable Multi-family housing that will add to the housing available for everyone We need housing at all income levels to allow the law of supply and demand to bring down or at least Stabilize the cost of housing in the family budget That means people who are working in our schools and in City Hall and in our parks They all have trouble finding a place to live that they can afford here and many of them are commuting from very long distances There are some things that you don't have control over like the the Interest rates for construction loans But there are some things that you can do something about that relate to the high cost of new housing And this proposal the right-size fee proposal is something that you can do We understand the cost of materials and of course We want the workers who are doing the construction to be paid fairly But fees are part of the problem along with the length of time that it takes to get local approval And those are things that you have control over Reform of the development fee can make a big difference in how long it takes to get housing built I encourage you to adopt the right-size impact fee proposed by gen H and help make Santa Rosa a city Where our workforce can find a place to live? Thank you Thank you the next next speaker will be Kathleen followed by Abby T and then Jenny Kay New mayor Rogers vice mayor staff Caffle council members and staff. My name is Kathleen a TV dot. I'm a program manager at first five Sonoma County I'm also a resident in Santa Rosa I'm here to voice support for affordable housing and emphasize the urgency of the housing crisis in the city Through our community partnership with generation housing We have been assessing the housing climate in the city and county and learning how children and families can be uplifted through the affordable housing policies Especially our families most impacted by structural and systemic racism as most of us know Accessibility to affordable and stable housing is a huge precursor to positive health and development for families with young children Research has repeatedly shown that disruptions in housing Frequent moves housing and security and being unhoused are profound barriers to optimal early brain development and school readiness and learning Not only do we have a housing crisis? But we continue to see in first five's annual assessment that nearly a quarter of our community's five-year-olds who Due to disruptions in development such as housing instability lack the necessary readiness to succeed when they start kid or kindergarten, which we know is a Huge impact on their future Now is the time to make policy changes to disrupt the harmful patterns that are affecting future generations in the city and To ensure success and achievement for our youngest citizens So I urge the council to support the adoption of generation housing's right-size impact fee policy By doing so we will be on a path to enhance health and education outcomes and strengthen family Families with access to affordable housing. Thank you so much for your time and consideration Thank you. The next speaker is Abby followed by Jenny then Josh and then Stephanie Council members and city manager Smith and staff Good afternoon mayor Rogers vice mayor staff council members city manager Smith and staff My name's Abby. I'm the operations manager at generation housing and an SSU graduate who wants to stay and work here in Sonoma County and one day be able to achieve the American dream of buying a home Last year generation housing released a report called making the rent and we asked families what they would do if they didn't pay so much for rent And here are a few of the many responses we received. I would be able to afford dental care I would be able to afford child care and healthy food. I Would be able to afford a Healthier diet open up a savings account and save for retirement I would be I would be able to invest in more health care I would be able to provide my kids with the things they need I wouldn't be so stressed out and I could financially have money to spend on bills and on my kids Mayor Rogers council members Counts city manager Smith and staff these are our neighbors our friends our family members our colleagues asking for the basic needs And you can make a difference Thank you for your time and your leadership Thank you. The next speaker is Jenny followed by Joshua then Stephanie and Sonia Good afternoon Madam mayor council members maddy city manager Jen close executive director of generation housing I graduated from Montgomery. I spent my allowance money at the last record store and I grew up thinking all ice rinks were Swiss chalets I am a Santa Rosa kid and this is my hometown, so I care a lot about it Four years ago I took this job because I knew that housing was the linchpin to our community's recovery resilience and a more equitable sustainable and prosperous future And this was a collective community opinion So I believed Everyone was ready and willing to put skin in the game to tackle this priority And I believed that the same bold leadership and can-do spirit we saw in our fire response and recovery existed Efforts still existed, but four years later. I will tell you that my belief is waning I see paralysis through analysis a whole lot more time spent explaining why we can't do then time spent Strategizing on how we can do less urgency around actually doing equity Instead of just talking about it Resistance to trying new things and less focus on investing in the future. So I ask you today Please make me a believer again Make me a believer again by walking your pro-housing talk through your budget walk by prioritizing the 92,000 Santa Rosans paying too much for rent The more than 5,000 Santa Rosans sitting at the more than 5,000 people sitting on affordable housing waiting lists Nearly three thousand living without shelter and one in four kids living in overcrowded homes Make me a believer again today by directing your capable staff to go back to the drawing board and draft up a few options on how to Dedicate 1.5% of the budget a year for the next eight years to catalyzing housing through impact fee reform By adopting our right-size program. I thank you in advance for your leadership Thank you. The next speaker will be Joshua followed by Stephanie Sonia and Omar Good afternoon. Mayor Rogers city manager Smith council and staff My name is Josh shipper. I'm the director of special initiatives at Generation housing The council has raised a lot of questions on especially on Sacramento. We can try to answer a few of those We've been working with Sacramento staff for about four months and just to just to clarify a few things They have built about 3,000 affordable units within the last four years after waving fees This was compared to just a few hundred in the past seven So we count that about a nine-fold annual increase And we'd be very excited to see what what Santa Rosa can do similarly The waiver worked out to about only three thousand dollars per unit Which is an extremely efficient investment in gap funding for housing units were evenly split between low income and very low income which is exactly what they were trying to do to meet the arena and Last but not least this surge happened when market rate units were holding pretty steady And they expressed to us that they attributed this to the fee program To questions of whether Santa Rosa can do this It has 60 million dollars in impact fee reserves. We can answer that including 25 million as you heard for parks parks and 15 in capital Petaluma and implemented a similar program to Sacramento in 2022 Covering infrastructure from other revenue the city of Sonoma has a square footage Program already in place accomplishing much of what AB 602 and our right-sized program does Our right-sized program accomplishes much much of what Sacramento is already doing and it's costing less and will apply to more than just De-restricted affordable units, but also de-restricted moderate a Significant portion of the current surplus if ease has been collected off of this recent burst of new housing that you've heard all About built during a time of one time rebuild funds, but these funds are are now spent So our question for you is what happens when that housing pipeline slows down We do not think this is a zero-sum choice between housing and infrastructure And we urge you to view this right-sized program as a renewed one-time injection of funding for housing to keep that by Plantful. Thank you very much Thank you. The next speaker is Stephanie followed by Sonya Omar and then Maz Good evening council members and staff. My name is Stephanie Picard bow and deputy director at Generation housing I was born and raised in Santa Rosa. I'm raising my family here And I hope to buy a home here in the next year. I don't know if that's gonna happen The regional housing needs allocation Rina is the absolute minimum that the state requires but it is nowhere near our actual need Given that building housing now is more expensive than ever. Thanks to the economic climate It's clear the city must take action if we want to avoid falling further into a housing deficit The good news is that you city council of Santa Rosa have tremendous power to enact local policy change to address this Our right-sized program is the first and most crucial step that Santa Rosa can take right now to actively fight against housing Unaffordability it reduces the cost to build housing in Santa Rosa by targeting fees It benefits the most deeply affordable units the most Targeting the residents and workers who need the most support The city of Santa Rosa additionally did pay for an in-depth Economic analysis on housing on the housing impact of the economy and it was completed in September And we are confused why it has not been presented to the full council yet Housing is at the top of Santa Rosa's priorities and has been for the past several years the top priority deserves a budget that prioritizes our top priority We stand at the ready to partner with you in addressing our community's housing needs and thank you in advance for your leadership on housing Thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be Sonya then Omar Maz and Jamie Staff my name is Sonya Big Barwick, and I'm a lifelong resident of Sonoma County co-owner of Paradise Ridge Winery and currently serving as a civic engagement manager at Generation Housing. I Join the team at Gen H because I see the fabric of our community unraveling due to the high cost of housing in Sonoma County. I Understand that adjusting impact fees has a cost, but there is a much higher cost to waiting. I Could talk to you about how as a mother I don't think my children are going to be able to live here I could also talk about my employees moving away But what I asked you guys to do is you receive 20 plus letters from high schoolers in Santa Rosa I asked that you read those letters and really hear what those voices are saying. Those are those children are our future It is important that we consider the cost to our community when there's no affordable housing available Our young families and our workforce will move away homelessness will continue to rise and Schools will continue to close Communing times will get longer and businesses may be forced to close due to the high cost of living Local companies like Manzana and Latratia factory being two recent examples It is critical that we invest in housing solutions across every level of affordability and offer options for families at all stages of their lives The rena goals include a requirement for production of a housing at all levels, but there are no subsidies for market rate options It is this type of housing that employers say is needed the most for recruitment and retention Including teachers nurses and government workers Yet amidst these challenges lies an opportunity for bold leadership I ask you to seize this moment to stand as champions and change and to advocate for the measures We need to bring affordable housing to stand to Rosa the time for action is now Please vote in favor of progress and in doing so you will lay the foundation for a more equitable and sustainable future for all residents in of Sonoma County Thank you, the next speaker will be Omar followed by Maz Jamie and then Ariel Good evening mayor Rogers vice mayor staff council members and staff my name is Omar I'm the program associate of generation housing, and I've been a resident of Santa Rosa for a decade specifically the Roseland area I'm here to address the severe impact of our housing crisis on children and young adults We know that housing and stability harms children's health development and school performance Infants and unstable housing are more prone to health issues like asthma Moreover unstable housing increases a child's a score affecting the neural development outcomes This instability disrupts children's security education and well-being Often forcing parents into multiple jobs reducing family times and contributing to overcrowded living situations specially evident during the COVID-19 lockdowns for young adults like myself the crisis bars access to Independence forcing many to delay or abandon higher education and career aspirations The challenge to secure affordable housing pushes our young adults out Severing community ties and undermining our local economy The struggle for stable affordable living space restricts our ability to contribute meaningfully to the economy and community Housing stands as the most pressing issue facing our families and youth today Many of you have talked at length about concerns for our youth and their future But if our housing policies continue to hurt and push them out we must question. What is our future? Today you receive 38 letters from students in Santa Rosa, which I greatly encourage everybody to read They are begging you to take actual action. How are you going to respond to them? We cannot afford to wait for change while thousands need affordable homes now Immediate action such as adopting generation housings rights ice-free program can significantly alleviate the pressures by incentivizing Affordable housing development. We thank you in advance for your leadership in creating a city where everyone can afford a safe stable home Thank you. The next speaker is maz followed by Jamie Ariel and then Cassidy Hello Good afternoon council members and staff. My name is Max Zhang I'm I am the research manager at Generation Housing over the past feels like two hours or so We spend a lot of time here wondering and speculating about things We don't know or things were unsure about and I would like to remind everyone here that as per the comments from my colleague My colleague Josh, there are actually things we we are quite sure about such as how much this policy will cost How effective this policy will be and while I as a researcher understand that we need good information Before we can make good decisions. I cannot help but wonder how much time we are giving up to think and wonder and Speculates and contemplates about what we don't know. I want the council to remember the things that we do know We know that housing here in Sonoma County is more unaffordable than ever before We know that starting in November billions of dollars of money for affordable housing will rush into the Bay Area and Sonoma County and Santa Rosa will have to compete with other Jurisdictions and that those home builders who can build those houses for us will only be focusing on the jurisdictions where it is cheapest and Easiest to build as they always have and we know that you the elected representatives of Santa Rosa and the staff that tirelessly support them You have the power to make this community an attractive place to build housing to build a housing that is affordable And that is necessary if Santa Rosa wants to spend time wondering about what it doesn't know I propose you wonder about this if we don't build housing how many more long times Sonoma County residents will leave how many downtown business Will businesses will close how many residents will become evicted or homeless how many schools will close How many families will be forced to double up in their homes? How many residents will skip meals and health care and time with their loved ones if you want to wonder about something We don't know let it be this how much can a community suffer when its residents can no longer afford to live there? I hope we never learn the answer. Thank you in advance for your leadership Thank you. The next speaker will be Jamie followed by Ariel Cassidy and Olivia's mom Good afternoon mayor Rogers vice mayor stop council members and staff. I'm Jamie a lifelong Santa Rosa resident I'm here to urge you to support the generation housing policy as things stand today I can't afford to own a home or even move out of my parents house I love this city. I'm proud to be from Santa Rosa, but if housing keeps being like this Being out of reach for young people like me. I just might have to leave We need housing policies that help us stay and build a life Let's make sure that Santa Rosa is a place that we where everyone can live. Thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be Ariel followed by Cassidy Olivia's mom and Keith Mayor vice mayor council members and city staff. My name is Ariel Bussey I am the new youth outreach advocate with generation housing and here to talk to you about why now is a time for affordable housing Housing is a basic human right and it's a basic human need yet So many people are living with unstable or no housing due to the rising costs as well as working with gen H I also work at the Santa Rosa junior college and the sheer number of students that I have had to help that do not have housing is Astronomical, I just spoke to a young woman today who can no longer go to school anymore because she does not have housing They are about to be Unhoused I spoke to another student as well who informed me that one parent is working two jobs seven days a week The other working five days a week their income is 84,000 a year the median cost of a house in Santa Rosa is almost 600,000. I know when my parents bought a house out here. It was a hundred ninety four thousand that house is almost $800,000 now, I cannot afford to move out of my parents house as much as I would love to have my own place We cannot afford to not support the efforts that generation H is aiming for If you look at the high cost of not providing affordable housing It will end up costing the town and community members more You will see businesses closing as it has been mentioned you will see residents leaving So I thank you for your time and once again, I really hope you all can join and support of this proposed policy from generation housing Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Cassidy followed by Olivia then Keith Madam city clerk part in the disruption Can we make sure that you are very close to the microphone so we can make sure to hear you down here? Hi, my name is Cassidy. I attend school here in Santa Rosa I'm someone that feels that renting and especially home ownership is out of reach 34,000 households or 18% of households in Sonoma County are paying more than 50% of their income on rent And I was told growing up that your housing expenses should never be more than a third of your income Living with a parent is currently my only option But I'm lucky to have a family that is both willing to sport me as an adult and is a healthy home to live in Which is not a reality for everyone the high cost of living makes moving out an impossible task and Definitely a financial decision most would advise against Petaluma found a way to support affordable housing by strategically reducing fees and serves as a successful model to consider in Conclusion I support generation housing's proposed policy to address housing affordability. Thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be Olivia followed by Keith then a Dina Olivia Keith Rogers council members My name is Keith Christopherson I've built many homes in Sonoma County Somewhere over 5,000 of them And I can't say much here that can right now that can offer Offer some relief here But I will tell you that back in about 2014 We had I think that the Chamber of Commerce was involved in putting this put this program together with with city staff the only person I see here right now who was involved in that is is is Gabe and We had we had meetings monthly with an agenda and we talked about housing issues and it was attended by everybody on the management side of the of the Planning staff the engineering Building and there were builders that were that were involved in in those discussion Most those builders are gone now But nonetheless we were on the threshold of really making some breakthroughs I mean important big-dollar breakthroughs when the fires hit in 2017 and when that happened all the of course those of you who were here The the attention shifted to shifted to the fires But even at that we had we had meetings monthly at the at the builders exchange with staff and We worked through issues to get these houses out of out of the city Get them started and get them built and we were the job was to knock down barriers and I Have so much to say But I don't have the time to do it today But I would like to ask that that you consider starting a group like we had back in Several several years ago. Thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be Olivia followed by a Dina then Anna and Susan Olivia Okay, Adina And the former executive assistant to the Santa Rosa City Schools Board and I was forced out for questioning Non-profits tied to the school board the board president at the time was miss Jenny close Executive director of generation housing. I've seen many conflicts of interest for example miss Ali Gaylord Serves on the board for generation housing and she was The in charge of housing for the entire North Bay for midpen Which is on the proposal to Remove the development fees. That's a conflict of interest Mr. Peter Peter Rumble who spoke on behalf of the Metro Chamber also a generation housing board member Mr. Michael Allen the chair to Sonoma County Conservation Action Mr. Chris Rogers our council member his nonprofit where he's executive director So there's a lot of middlemaning that goes on and it doesn't benefit the taxpayers whatsoever I asked why generation housing was approved as a project of the Tide Center being that miss Jenny close had $85,000 in outstanding tax liens at the time. I was actually threatened by the federal government for asking this I wanted to see those financials which should be public record the tide centers located in the Presidio Which is apparently federal land? So I was threatened by the National Parks Police under the department of the interior who ironically funds the Tide Center There's no record of where the funding for these projects are going you want to bring in low-income housing the press Democrat has me Labeled as the domestic terrorists of the county because I'm an activist who can read as a brown person So now you're gonna bring more people from Vallejo where I just came from you can't even deal with me So how are you going to deal with more people of color when racism was labeled as a public health crisis? And if you're not somebody who is a token willing to go along with the agendas of white liberals You will be exiled from this county like I was so equity is a word that you use to push your agendas by indoctrinating Communities of color. Thank you vote Michael Thank you the next speaker will be Anna followed by Susan. Hi, my name's Anna Diaz and I am from Roseland What proof is that this will work? I am a loan signing agent I am seeing a non-stop pattern of us housing people from the Bay area who are moving to Sonoma County at a market price Rather than helping locals who rent rooms garages and trailers our local residents are being forced out of the area due to be these Raised housing fees. It didn't work in Sacramento as stated today. So please help me understand how I'll work in Santa Rosa I have concerns about utility about Generation age to influence any decision making on behalf of the City of Santa Rosa residents Their advocacy typically appears to be benefiting their friends and family serving on Generation H board rather than the community for example Ali Gaylord serves on the Generation Board Casa de Tierra's Roseland was endorsed by Generation H Mid-Pen housing will be completing the development Miss Ali Gaylord Secretary to the Gen H board was the direct the director of the housing development North Bay at the time of this project was approved Mid-Pen was included as the developer within Gen H letter requesting to waive development fees business deals are being Worked through Generation H to financially benefit the developers and their inner circles, which is Negatively impacting the community at large. I am requesting for the city to decline Gen H Proposal to waive impact fees and that these new housing developments are negatively impacting the people of Roseland There needs to be more outreach and surveys provided to the community members So they are informed not just one-sided that will benefit today's vote. Thank you my I yield my time Thank you the next speaker will be Susan Hi Susan Lamont district 2 I Didn't come here to comment on this today, but there's a huge elephant in the room that no one mentioned the giant pillaging of every part of our Economy by the wealthy and The impoverishing of local governments There is no such thing as a law of supply and demand that is a fiction It is the law of greed When the cost of something doesn't come up for instance that house that was under two hundred thousand dollars. That's now eight hundred thousand dollars There's only only greed If you just say oh, well, I can take advantage of the fact that there's not enough of this. I'll just raise the price It's offensive So once upon a time there was almost no homelessness And why was that? Government-built housing and how did government pay for that? The rich were taxed at 90 percent and you know what they lived just fine But then they found out they could buy off public officials and Then their tax rate dropped and we're seeing the results of this the rich are never Asked to sacrifice We hear about oh, we can't defund police But defunding happens all the time everything else is allowed to be defunded So city councils I talked to this city council not you guys Years ago and said this is happening. This is going to happen. You can't change the tax rate But you can speak out about it. You can get your People to understand you can talk to residents and say this is the problem Do something about it? Thank you that concludes those who would Excuse me those who've registered for public comment or signed up to speak if there's anyone else wishing to provide public comment on item 4.1 that has not yet provided a comment, please make your way to the podium Mayor I'm seeing no one else make a move towards the podium. Thank you bringing it back to council I do have a question. Why is this happening now? What funding or stream of funding did we have before where this wasn't an issue for like the city council? To deal with this I'll let Alan chime in but when redevelopment dissolved A lot of cities were left with trying to figure out how funding was going to be You know how funding was going to be put together for affordable housing So once redevelopment went away you started to see city struggle with housing and redevelopment came from where city manager Redevelopment funds came from where? the state I Actually know where they came from but the point is is that? When governments higher than us decide to make changes And how they allocate funds then it's up to local governments to try to figure out how we have to piecemeal and patch it up And how we can do things that they have been doing and I think that it's really Sad to pin us against people that I know for sure a hundred percent every single one of my colleagues that believe in Affordable housing that have children that like have gone through the process of needing housing here in Sonoma County So yes, I listened to all of the public comment But I think it's really sad to pin us against each other when we all have the same goal And that is for us to have affordable housing for all here in Sonoma County how we get there It may be different, but we all have the same goal. Is there anyone else that has a comment? You look scared counseling real crafty. Good. Thank you Excuse me, so Question real quick there's been a lot of back-and-forth between us and and and the presenters and I appreciate all the time you've taken I'm trying to recall was there when you said looking at the the proposal I know we haven't had we as a city and staff hasn't had time to analyze it or consider it in full But did you say that there's a possibility that exists that in looking at that the methodology used could comply with AB 602 There is there is a possibility just looking at the breakpoints on the unit Calculations I would want to further and analyze before stating that those categories comply with 602 okay, so If you're looking for any more direction from us, I don't know if you've gotten all the direction you've wanted, but I Love the idea of AB 602 and doing that, but you said two years Correct to be able to fully take that on and get a result That's been the historic trend. Okay still want to pursue that we have to but I'd like to get your guys analysis from the proposal after you've had a chance to take a look at it from the for the right sizing and And see what we can do and also continue to Work on the missing middle work. You've already been doing and see what we can do to further that I know that is a huge point of interest and focus and focus for a lot of the people in this area So I would like that that would be my preference to see the staff do councilmember Fleming Thank you for bringing this item forward mayor and for agendizing it I know it took some bold leadership and thank you to city staff for both doing a Cautious analysis of our finances and providing us with options everybody Brought something forward to the table and now here. We are at this moment where capital is really expensive and The need for housing is not going away And it is incumbent upon us to put our Budget where our values are and so I'll speak for myself and say that here's what I'm in support of I'm in support of the right sizing And doing the AB 602 But not with the the nexus study right now because I don't want to delay it. I do want to see it happen I appreciate the generation housing adjusted their proposal to the tiers and I'm in support of doing Much of that. I'll tell you the pieces that I'm particularly in support of is Waving fees for multifamily housing and for missing middle housing I am not in support of waiving parks fees I am in support of our staff figuring out the creative the most creative solutions to get parks funding Deployed quickly and easily and in ways that that meet the law But also don't have a bunch of money in pots hanging around. I know that's not the direction that mr. Osborne needs today But at any rate I would propose a three-year Waiver Which will give us some time to get past the housing bond in November Hopefully allow for our for rates to stabilize and I would just say this, you know Many of us I have struggled with the cost of housing I know many of us have worked harder than we should have and missed out on more time with our families than we should have and It's my hope that collectively the seven of us can do something That eases that burden for folks going forward I know it's not always super palatable to do so because there are pieces of this that are No, we have to make difficult choices and there are pieces of this That may seem like giveaways to developers But here's the thing in the way I look at it is that and the way I look at the renewal enterprise district for that matter is that Government doesn't build housing developers build housing It may be greed as one commenter noted It may just be the way that the banking system is set up under our capitalist system to prioritize profits But it is what it is and until we can change that system, which is far beyond the scope of this council We have to look at what's before us and what is before us today is a dire need for housing And that is what I'm here to do I'm here to do the job in front of me if I'm ever in the federal government that we could talk about that or the state government and Mr. Rogers can talk about that next year right and Believe me he may block my number, but the point is today we have a job But we have some opportunities We have a chance to do something differently and this is what I hope we do so thank you to everybody and I appreciate any compromise we can find and it doesn't have to be forever it can Just be for three years and we can see how we do and listen if it doesn't work and we get no housing built We won't have lost any money councilmember mcdonnell Thank you mayor and thank you so much for the presentation and the back and forth and getting us some of that Information that we talked about as far as the data of how much money is still left in reserve I think that's helpful just for us to have the conversation I agree with everything that councilmember Fleming said other than I'd like to see of the three-year waiver as coming back Year-to-year So that we can have some information so while we want to commit in theory to a three-year study or three-year waiver program I want to make sure that we're coming back to see how many Shovels we really are getting into the ground and so that we can actually see that this program would be working And really incentivize the developers that are out there doing the work Locally to actually get started on some of these projects that we know we need desperately right now As far as the park impact fees goes I agree with you councilmember Fleming that we need to make sure that we're not cutting our nose off to spite our face when we are looking at infill housing or Specifically high-density housing My concern would be that we aren't creating open spaces for the families that we're actually trying to house right now So that's something I think we need to know first how much money's still left in reserves and how we can use that money And then second what the impact of that's going to be And then I still am interested in finding out the long-term Impact as far as how housing impacts our local economy as far as how many houses we built and I know That Alan said that he could probably give me some of that information, but thank you really I appreciate the conversation I appreciate all the advocacy today From everyone that's here giving us their opinion on this and I look forward to seeing it come back to us If you're talking about their reserves for like the parks I think one of the public commenters did say from their calculations It was 25 and 15, but that has not been vetted by my understanding was it was 25 million that's been allocated I'd like to know how much is an unallocated and I want the total amount of the budget in both CFF and in park Park impact fees and then I also I think I mentioned earlier the quadrants and how we can shift some of that money around So that we don't have a seven-year program. We actually get some things done right now councilmember Alvarez All right. Well, a lot of things have already been said for myself. I do believe that Coming from rosin. It's it's evident that we need housing. It's evident that we do have Multiple families living in one structure. It's evident that COVID did hit us hard. It's evident that we are we are subjected to To being at risk when it when there is a pandemic when there is a fire when there is any type of Disaster so to speak and yet we're still tasked with making sure that Sonoma County as a whole keeps moving forward But I do fear what it comes to quality of life what this means Sidewalks something so simple when when when rosin was still part of the county You know, the developers were not it was pop It was practice not policy where they were sub asked you to to implement sidewalks And that leaves a Santa Rosa with Herna Avenue when we look at Southwest Park We're children trying to make it to the park and risk their lives every day There are still no sidewalks when it when it comes to Burbank Avenue and Herna Avenue So I do agree that we do need a program and and the right size might be it But I would like to see it be focused on the very low to to to the moderate. I do not support anything that says for for for the market rate There's absolutely nothing that justifies that in my mind if you have enough money for that structure I mean leave it for those that still need it and I believe that that council member McDonald stated correctly where we can actually move the funds for the areas that that that are not up to par And that is part of my feeling of why the the market rate should not be subjected or included in this packet I believe that the program should be three years and I would appreciate updates and Council member Fleming made a great point about the park fees that they should not be sacrificed. I do Support that and and it would be interesting to know as Councilman McDonald stated what has been allocated and what has not in regards to the parking fees and I guess I would I will leave with a question If we as a city are Giving more incentives to developers is it now a practice or Policy when it comes to infrastructure such as sidewalks So I think the sidewalks are a bit of a challenging Animal the way it works with development is typically sidewalk connectivity is a requirement of the development So the construction of the sidewalk happens with the development What happens in some situations as development is inconsistent and happens area to area We run into connectivity issues and oftentimes that gap is either closed by the city If the funding is there or through other development projects So I think really as we move this forward what we'll do is an analysis on Looking at what seems to be the direction we're getting is the three-year program and really what does that mean from an infrastructure? Delivery standpoint during that time frame in the various CFF categories because I think we have bikes sidewalks roadways And we can analyze what that looks like with what the development requirement is and what CFF would cover is really the gap there I hope that we can actually Find a solution to that because a lot of the comments that I heard today was Improving the quality of life and making sure that that the residents Santa Rosa Are able to live where they work But let us not put the children in danger when they're simply could try to make it to the park So I'm hoping that the practice that was that was from the county doesn't become Anything less than policy of the city. Thank you Councilmember Rogers Thank You mayor So first I saw two colleagues asked how much Has is it unallocated? I'm not a lip reader But when I see the assistant city manager go like this, I think he meant 20 million just if I had to It sounds like everything's been allocated sign language. Yeah For me it goes back to that fundamental question of do we see housing as an investment in the community or not? Do we see it as economic development or not? Particularly when we're talking about our very low and our low income We know that it just does not pencil out for folks to be able to advance those projects Particularly in our community, especially with some of the other competing factors that we have with folks in the Bay Area We've talked for a decade Really focused on the time the certainty and the cost of these housing developments and what I hear over and over again from folks is well intention Policy is great But if it doesn't actually make the performer work out that the access to capital the willingness for banks to loan money It's just not there and even if you own the land you're still losing money as you wait for that to make sense So whether it's interest rates coming down whether it's some policy change from the council You need that nexus between how much the bank expects to get as a rate of return on its capital To meet up with what your logistics look like otherwise You're not going to get any housing and to the point that we talked about we're not losing any money by cutting fees If nothing gets built. I'm not really interested in doing a strict Waiver at the moment. I do think that we need to come back in our budget adoption and talk about how we're going to Actually pay for it, but I think that it is a priority for the city I think that we should have identified if so many projects that are in the pipeline come online are able to get their Their financing plan approved This is how much we expect it to cost and I think we need to find that money in the budget because it is a priority And it has been a priority for our community I also think that because Developers are trying to make their performers work that a waiver doesn't work like a reduction I think if we have the council policy as a reduction in those fees It makes it easier to go back and get that financing approved I also think that three years is probably too short for us to be able to make that case to the public And to the banks and and to the financial institutions Particularly given some of the broader economic forces where perhaps when we look a little bit out and interest rates come down That that's the time where the council can say great that created some room in that financial stack for us to go back and talk about Our parks to talk about our infrastructure to me, it's a balancing approach of how do we try to make these projects pencil and Three years probably given the economic outlook not enough time for us to actually see this policy realized What I heard was sort of conflicting on Sacramento What I heard was that they reduced it and they saw a nine percent or a nine times Increase on how much they were getting and that they perhaps would not have gotten that had they not had similar Policies, but I do think that it's everything. I think it's redevelopment going away and I was trying to figure out how to fix that I do think that it's us repurposing our city land and keeping that ethos of we're willing to work with folks to try to get what We want and what our community really needs and that's the low and the very low in the moderate housing Keep working on the missing middle keep working on advancing this project for me It's a no-brainer for us to do this per square foot as opposed to per unit work And incentivize apartments and not just more McMansions or single-family homes that tend to pencil out on their own anyway And let's bring back in the budget how we're going to pay for it But I do think that this can this council needs to continue to lead and this is an opportunity for us to Say to other communities in Sonoma County We're going to put our skin in the game because we know that it's going to better our community long term What are you doing as well to help? Vice mayor step. I just want to echo what my colleagues have Indicated I'm certainly in support of taking a closer look at our impact field structure With a particular focus on the right-size impact fee policy that's been presented Anything we need to incentivize Well all housing but particular very low income low income and missing middle but then as But what actually both mayor Rogers and council member Rogers underlined we've got real budget trade-offs We have to consider things are tight right now And we well we can't know with certainty what what any any future incentives or any future impact The adjustments might mean for the budget we can at least take a guess that it's going to be somewhere between 400,000 and 1.5 million a year And that's a that's a real hit to the budget and so to council member Rogers point I'd like at least a little bit of strategizing about what we're what we're giving up if we want to incentivize housing in this way Which again across the day as we do Thank you So I'll just wrap it up by saying I think my colleagues said it wonderfully I do want to look at the missing middle Low very low low In multifamily is great I'm not interested in waiving park fees I do want to know how we are going to supplement this with our current Deficit that we have and what are we going to have to not do? And I would like a I wouldn't call it a reeval, but I would like a report Annually Just so we can see even if it's saying we we don't have anyone that is taking advantage of Taking advantage of it right now Just so we can kind of keep an eye on it to know what's going on to see if there's something we can do to Improve it or why aren't people taking advantage of it or where we at? So I'm looking at the two of you to see if you have the direction that you need Yes, and just really quickly the outstanding questions that I didn't answer the two council members Just to make sure we're aware and the public has an answer to that the number of affordable units that are really pending ready to move to construction is 301 so it's a mr. Alvarez's question That's the number And then the maximum justified amount on the fee study that was set higher than the ultimate fee By actually quite a bit so cff for single family and multifamily single family was 25,000 multifamily was 18,000 and some change For parks for single family it was 16,000 and multifamily 13,000 And those fees were ultimately set by the council at almost half those numbers So thank you for the opportunity to answer those is as far as the feedback. Yes I think that helps us frame up a policy. We have time frame to it. We have affordability level to it I think we can work with that Understanding that there is more of a desire to look at park or less of a desire to look at parks and cff But we'll look at the impacts of both of those We will also follow through on the missing middle piece That's part of the the process in general and we'll be doing that anyway, so this will be a companion to that effort So I know on our end. There's there on my end. There's enough I really just do want to reiterate that the Rena numbers are a challenge to me and Santa Rosa has come out of the gate Very strong this year and the community should be proud of that. It's not just the council and the staff It's it's also the members here in the audience that have played a significant role in that So it's it's going to be fairly exciting to see where we end up this year Which I think is is going to be strong So we appreciate the support and the feedback and we have enough to move this forward on my end And I'll leave it to my colleague here to add anything on his side Yeah, I I think I know What to what to give appreciate the direction. Thank you very much. I will The reserve numbers just and then I'll follow up and still give them in writing I won't go too fast, but it's still good to see him. So For park development fees in the Northwest zone, it's about ten million dollars in reserves These are per our development impact fee reports as of June 30th of 2023 so ten million in the Northwest zone 6.5 million and Southwest 4.6 million in Northeast 8.4 million in Southeast and for CFF 17.7 million and to be perfectly clear Those are all allocated dollars. They're in reserve, but they're allocated. There are no unallocated reserve dollars Councilmember Fleming Yes, there's just one tiny thing I wanted to add which is councilmember Rogers brought up a concern about three-year period not being long enough I'm hopeful that when you bring it back You can give us a couple of different lengths of time to just to deliberate over as well as the corresponding costs Yeah, I would I would recommend looking at a three to five-year period We could look at both just down how development cycles work and three may be too short based on the need Excellent. Thank you. Yeah, I was also thinking about that and thinking maybe we can do three years with a deeper dive in eval at three years So it's three to five and we Unless we stop it three it continues To five so have a deeper dive Yeah, and we can base some of that information on whether or not Bafa the bond is gonna go on the ballot as well So we will incorporate that information as well Yeah, there there will probably be a lot of factors that are changing and that's why I want to continue to have us Look at what is it doing what we designed it to do? Yes? Yeah, and I think when we have that conversation I'd be interested in understanding we're having a public discussion of What the impact of a shorter timeline has on the certainty that Many folks who are trying to get their financing in place would face and whether or not five years makes more sense in terms of Providing the certainty that they need to be able to get the financing they need to break ground All right, and with that. Thank you all for sticking with us, but we are going to take a short dinner break So we will Thank you, we will be back 650 thank you Before I start beatboxing all right. All right. See you in a corner Madison madam city clerk. May you please take the roll? Thank you Councilmember Rogers Councilmember O'Crepkey here councilmember McDonald here councilmember Fleming councilmember Alvarez Vice mayor step here Mayor Rogers Present let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmember Alvarez and councilmember Fleming Thank you, so I apologize for anyone that likes to go in order But I'm going to do some sausage making of the agenda so we can get everything done As quickly as we can so we are going to start with item 14 and that is public comment on Non-agenda matters so with that madam city clerk may you please facilitate? Thank you. We are now taking public comments on item 14 non-agenda matters This is a time when any person may address the council on matters not listed on this agenda But which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council If you are in the council chamber and would like to comment but have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium. You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period We will take 12 public speakers on under item 14 if we have more than 12 public comments on item 14 non-agenda matters The remaining speakers will be afforded the opportunity to speak on item 18 non-agenda matters as you approach the podium Please state your name for the record if you choose to do so The first public comment will be ruby followed by Nui and then Susan Hi, go ahead Rubin and Curtis district 3 I'm here to urge you to consider calling for a ceasefire Presumably you have already individually considered this and have dismissed it as outside of your jurisdiction I'm not going to claim that the critical aspects of Santa Rosa city planning are not important or worthy of time and consideration The more city council meetings I attend the more I realize how vital they are however Santa Rosa does not exist in a vacuum we exist in a broad world and To sit here and go about our business as if we do not is to present a strange warped and fundamentally self-serving version of reality if We are a city adrift from the rest of the world Then we have no moral or legal imperative to attend to the atrocities that are committed outside of our line of sight We become Joyously uninvolved it is comfortable to be free of any moral obligation in this way However, you can look at anything that you have ever bought or any investments you've ever made and know that this is a world the that is This is a world that you have internally constructed not one that is reflective of material reality This fabricated world allows you to guiltlessly avert your eyes from all you do not want to see We are here to ask you to come back to an uncomfortable But grounded reality and consider this city for what it is a small part of a highly interconnected world What does this mean for us then as a city to be invested in weapons manufacturers? That our city can benefit from weapons that are being used to commit a genocide across the world To be invested in a company whose bulldozers are used to deconstruct the infant struck infrastructure of Palestinian society If you have any interest in these moral considerations, which Sonoma County did when it chose to divest from apartheid South Africa Then I would be more than willing to email you resources for how to approach divestment from the ongoing genocide Thank you for your time and hopefully your consideration Thank you the next speaker will be in we followed by Susan then tests money for housing and education not For bombs and occupation hands off rapper Greetings, my name is in here Lee are living in district 5. I'm grandmother over to Free Palestine and free Jesu Islands I'm here to tell city council meeting why passing ceasefire Resolution is keeping Santa Rosa's commitment the sister city Jesu in South Korea since 1996 Santa Rosa and the Jesu City in Jesu Islands are sister cities and there has been lots of cultural exchanges and For instance, there is a stone grandfather's on Sonoma Avenue and in 1948 while not bar in Palestine is carried out There is a catastrophe in Jesu Island Over 30,000 the residents are massacred by The weapons supplied by US military to a South Korean military police plus US military They massacred over 30,000 the people so This is another example of how the money Spent in militarism is also Hurtting our sister cities so please the city council to engage court to engage in international dialogue engage production of a knowledge promote the BNP no violence and the contribute and Contribute to a better world and thrive caught it's on City website about the city sister city in Jesu Island Free Palestine free Jesu Islands Thank you the next speaker will be Susan followed by Tess then Althea Susan Lamont district 2 in the late 1930s the vast majority of the world stood silent as Hitler began killing Jews LGBTQ people Roma people labor leaders and more most individuals Organizations and governmental bodies were silent. It was a shameful period in human history The world did not go to war to save the lives of these people They were irrelevant to the equation if Hitler hadn't invaded other countries the slaughter would have continued unremarked Now there's a slaughter going on in full view in Palestine that it is being perpetrated by descendants of Hitler's victims Makes it no less heinous and no one can claim ignorance more people are speaking up And yet the vast majority including yourselves remains silent Refusing to put a ceasefire resolution on your agenda and devote for it as Palestinians are killed Approximately a thousand since your last meeting is not acceptable Imagine if every city in the council in the country Supported a ceasefire or simply imagine that you could send your resolution to every city council in California and say join us Imagine if every governmental body that supported such a resolution could send it on to the state legislature To the governor to the Congress and to the president It's basically what I was talking about about tax increases. You can't increase tax. You can't increase taxes, but you have a voice So every week that you delay this unity is thwarted and people are killed all our cultural Heroes were brave be brave. Please do not recreate another shameful and silent era in history If humanity survives the twin threats of climate disaster nuclear war, don't be the ones people look back on and ask What on earth were they doing? Why didn't they say something? ceasefire now Thank you the next speaker will be tests followed by Althea City council, my name is test Caldwell. I was born in Santa Rosa. I still live in Santa Rosa I really love this city and I love the people that I've gotten to know here and over the past six months I've gotten to know some of my community members much more deeply I've gotten to know some community members who are losing family right now in Palestine I've gotten to know community members who can no longer talk to their friends and their family because of internet Connectivity issues because Israel has been cutting off the internet I've gotten to meet people who have history and generations before them who survived genocide Whether it's from the chimera genocide the Jewish pogroms and so many more that are beyond that and the single thread that holds all These people together is that they know that there is a as a pain that runs through us all and doesn't matter Who you are or what your experience was that made you face a prejudice the prejudice is still the same There are people with power who are oppressing others and right now in Palestine people are being oppressed They've been oppressed for over 75 years, and this isn't fair I've grown up through the public school system Watching school budget cuts because apparently it was more important to my federal government to bomb Iraq and Afghanistan Rather than to fund my own education as I listen to you all talk about the budget woes of this this upcoming budget cycle I fear that we may be entering into another cycle where the federal government would rather send our money that would do so much Good work here in our community across the seas to bomb people mercilessly We pay for the Israel Israeli missiles and bombs We pay for all of that over two million dollars of Santa Rosa taxpayer money is used to go towards bombs Missiles F-15s and other fighters while you're trying to put the lines together and not go into red and stay in the black They're sending millions and billions of dollars to Israel just to kill Palestinians This is a local issue because this the money that we send could be spent on our community here, and we deserve this Please pass the ceasefire Thank you. The next speaker will be Althea Good evening. My name is Althea. I'm a lifelong Sonoma County resident, and I currently reside in district two I'm here once again to advocate for a ceasefire resolution to be placed on the agenda We've been begging you To represent us in our call for a ceasefire for months the longer you go without doing so the more we lose faith in your integrity One of the values your council holds highest Many of us already have Your vision as a council is for Santa Rosa to lead the north the north bay Embrace this vision of leadership be that leader by listening to the plea of the people to take the step forward to add a ceasefire resolution to the agenda It only takes one of you to add an item to the agenda It only takes one of you to enact that bravery that integrity please we are begging you This is within your jurisdiction the same way Addressing climate change is another one of your core issues. It takes many to address a global crisis The Santa Rosa school board is also in favor of a ceasefire resolution Even an alumni of the SRJC. It is very clear that schools and education is a track for progress our Zero waste initiatives Influenced Santa Rosa as a city Santa Rosa as a city can influence California as a state California as a state Can influence the federal government? We're not Begging into empty air here. You are voices to our representatives to our state And at what point are you your inaction? Impeding us and impeding our voices from getting to our state representatives. We are only so loud with our single voice We need you to act as a group voice for us, please Please add a ceasefire resolution to the agenda Thank you speaker go ahead Jason Sweeney district 5 I was listening on zoom so I got over as quick as I could just wanted to again Up here before you and urge you to bring forward and pass a ceasefire resolution I wanted to take a minute to thank the Sonoma County Board of Sonoma County Education Board of Trustees for in one meeting bringing forward the resolution and passing it And the comments that they made that were so Critical and so brave and so important if you haven't heard them I'd urge you to go online and take a listen to what they had to say I'm here because the situation is dire and we as a community have not done the bare minimum Which is to speak up and call for help and we see something wrong. I'm here because I'm ashamed This is not the reality that I want for my daughter and I know that we're better than this The bottom line is that the city of Santa Rosa has gone on record as being unwilling to deal with this issue in the community division It has revealed It has revealed among many things a lack of principle The genocide being done right now in the name of the state of Israel and the so-called safety of some is grotesque and barbaric and could not have happened without the US the support of the US You on pop a is a renowned Israeli historian. He recently reminded us that Israel is behaving like a rogue state and Rogue states don't just change their behavior They must be pressured from the outside and that's why we keep coming to you week after week That's why we're meeting in the plaza. We're trying to get people to speak up for what is right And we're you know, we're asking you to join the course and call for an end to the violence That's all we're asking We're speaking on behalf of Palestinian people Oh, I was sorry. I lost my train of thought We're what we've witnessed recently the targeting not once not twice about three times of a food aid I mean we can see what's happening Thank you speaker, please go ahead Hello, can you hear me? Okay? My name is Brie. I'm an unincorporated Sonoma County member But I often come to Santa Rosa to receive medical care do grocery shopping a lot of my sales tax comes to your city So I believe I am one of your constituents in that regard I You know have heard many of our community members voice why this is a local issue to you all I would like to Reiterate that it is a local issue But I think more importantly it's important to hear voices from the Palestinian community Regarding their experiences because I feel like that has a huge impact So I have a poem poem here by Lena. She's a Palestinian refugee She wrote a poem that's Untitled but it says There is no recipe book that teaches how to make bread from animal feed Sand and sewage water what makes it prove and rise and what you dip it in The measurement of the ratio of despair to hunger There is no parental guidebook that teaches how to calm unsleeping famine children How to get them to sleep feeding on empty promises? How to soothe the growls of their tummies with feasts with angels they don't see or hear There is no scientific way to purify sewage water how to separate human excrement from human remains To fit for human consumption How to distill rain carrying death how to extract salt from tears? I think it goes without saying that this is a humanitarian crisis that we're experiencing right now as a community I don't think that it's solely a global issue I think it affects us directly and I think that we see that in the faces of our community members Everyone's showing up here weekly to beg you people to pass a resolution. Please Thank you Is there anyone else who would like to private public comment on item 14? Non-agenda matters May or see no one else approach the podium Thank you. And with that we will now Go to a sixteen point one madam city manager Item sixteen point one is a public hearing proposed recreation fee adjustments Good evening mayor Rogers vice mayor staff and members of the council Jeff tibbet's deputy director with recreation and Not a skill I'm very good at but seeing how early in the night we are well, I'll do my best to be brief So before today is a recommendation Public hearing on a proposed fee schedule amendment for the recreation and parks fees So just quick background Based off city code it is required that city council established park user fees by resolution And while that term sometimes misleading just to clarify that the park user fees include facility rentals and admission fees within recreation as well And you can see that there's been a number of times that we've brought different things forward to the council One of the key ones being in 1995 where resolution 22307 established that there are certain fees that the The authority to approve would be delegated down and that was written to the director of recreation and parks That was really critical. Otherwise, we'd be here pretty much every single meeting as we're negotiating contracts with contract instructors or Corn dog prices go up or those types of things So what that left with is the fee schedule that we propose that are the fees that are actually set by council for Different services and programs that we offer so looking through the what this just kind of overview of the presentation broke it down a few areas and Really that the fee changes are broken into three categories there. You can see is updates simplification of the process and then fee increases so I'll kind of generically talk about updates and the simplification if there's any questions on any of those I could address those later, but as we go through each slide I won't go into too much detail updates are simple things, right? We have buildings the Bennett Valley Senior Center that no longer exist rooms that we don't use the way that they were used previously The simplifying of the process is really a focus on customer service Upfront clarity with our customers Those types of things and then there's a few areas where we addressed fee increases And that is in relation to the fact that the historical list there last time we've brought any fee increases was 2017 So obviously that's a seven-year span a lot has changed in that time in our operations and the cost of staffing those types of inflation Those those types of items. So there's a few areas that we've identified Be very clear. This is not a comprehensive look at increasing fees With a new director coming on board. We have kind of had a conversation There's some things that we want to look into as a department Around business plan and evaluation of what that looks like what cost recovery looks like a plan that could be approved by Council that will better guide us as a department in the future to look at these types of fees and give you guys more detailed Proposals that are based off of a philosophy that we've all agreed on in a business plan So at this time it was really just identifying a few areas where we are aware that having not increased fees since at least 2017 in some areas even longer because not every fee got changed in 2017 that there's just a few areas for fiscal responsibility with our general fund assets to make sure that we Address those areas and again the program areas there the different areas that we will go through for each one So with our community centers again updates were really about removing things that Buildings or rooms and we no longer have Change in how we do some operations with services the person senior person auditorium stage If you rent the auditorium, we're not going to charge you separately for the stage If you rent the stage you're renting the output auditorium so things like that and then some services that just with our staffing levels are Old that we don't provide any more like coffee services or linen rentals or those types of things we're really a rental operation not a event planning operation As far as simplification I'll talk a little bit about the first bullet point there just because it's it's important to what could be construed as a fee increase And that is that we have had a custodial fee that gets added on for each room And it does a couple of things that that we're looking to remove that fee for simplification one it creates An element for staff when when some user groups maybe feel like they don't need to clean up One of the things they look at is I paid a custodial fee. Why am I also cleaning up after my party? And that's not really custodial fee is about the overall custodial of the facility It was never intended to be you know We don't have somebody using that money to have someone come in and clean up after their event And then it also kind of served as as a hidden fee in some ways You know you couldn't really look at what's my hourly rate and figure out how much my events gonna Because you have to tack this on and tack that on and those different things So we based the formula of that of a four-hour rental and that came down to a 15 That flat fee essentially worked out to across the board as a 15 percent of what the hourly rate was And so we built that in across the board while dropping off that fee So if you look at the facilities it looks like 15 percent across the board on the cost of rooms But again, that's based off that formula the removal of that fee We did some cleanup on our our nonprofit and commercial and resident rates We eliminated the difference between weekday and weekends again the things that make it much more complicated for staff and make it much more complicated for the public to Understand what it's going to cost to hold events We eliminated some fees for equipment like whiteboards and podiums again these things that could be construed as a little petty and Hidden fees and that type of stuff of hey you rent to the room and then you get there and you realize you want a Podium and we hand you a slip of paper that says it's okay. We're going to charge you an extra $15 for use the podium We really want to you rent to the room the hourly rate if we have it available for you We're going to provide it and we don't need to have those added extra tack on fees Same thing with our audio visual equipment right you paid for every microphone you used you paid for every piece of equipment It's just a flat fee for for those things now Cleaning up our storage and then also alcohol fee we had a fee for every single room as you see on the old one and that's really Makes more sense to have it based off of Attendance and size of the event and so just having those two small and large alcohol fee on rooms So again the fee increases already kind of talked about that one. It's it's not really a true fee increase It's the shifting of a fee from a flat fee into our hourly rates With aquatics again some updates We wanted to add it or we have added a membership for aquatics And that kind of took the place of our flexi pass and public swim passes. So Those passes were required the membership and so they've really just instead of separate fees Since they're tied to the membership. They're just part of the membership fee not a separate fee anymore So we're not removing those discounted rates. We're just operationally changing the way that they're offered and it's part of the membership not a separate fee Also, we had some outdated equipment that we removed from it and then very exciting While it's not there yet. We're we're planning ahead And so building in a fee to be able to accommodate the splash pad when that project is done at the finley aquatic center As we looked at private rentals of facilities For that facility and and the fact that the splash pad will be very attractive to parents of younger kids that maybe The pool scares them We realized that there's an opportunity for us to have A rental option there that would be just the splash pad and not include the pool And that drastically reduces the staffing that's required to supervise it Which allows us to provide an option that's a more affordable option for families to use just the splash pad if that's something that they're interested in On the simplification one of the things that the splash pad also does is it makes finley and ridgeway More parallel as far as a rental facility goes ridgeway had the awesome slide And finley did not so we were able to Make those fees more streamlined with both facilities being attractive to the public for different reasons and Again similar to the add-on fees of podiums or those types of things different equipment like dive rings Or that using the sound system or those types of things are just included in the rental So we removed a number of fees that were related to those items We also eliminated the ridgeway waterslide fee That is don't don't be scared. We will still have the ridgeway waterslide But again just a matter of operationally how we book it if you rent the pool We're assuming that you're renting the slide and we don't need to have separate fee structures for those And again, that's just with with public private rentals Or excuse not public that is just with private rentals not public So going a little more into that this is an area where we are proposing a fee increase And the reason for this fee increase is We're really at that tipping point now where Again, these are not a public function of the the public's using it But this is when someone wants a private rental of the facility This is never taking place during our public swim or lap swim or those hours These are when the pool would otherwise be closed and someone does a private rental to keep the pool open With the staffing levels and in the increased cost of staffing We're now reaching the point where we are barely cost recovery of Putting our temp staff out there for the party let alone the administrative costs that it takes to issue the permit and those things So we're really at a point where We don't feel that that private usage should be something that we're Covering with with general fund that it should be cost recovery So if you see currently 120 to 200 an hour proposing that up to 225 to 315 an hour Again the size of these parties you're talking, you know, 50 plus people at these parties When you compare it to other birthday party options, it's still a very affordable option Compared to other parties that are a couple hours and four or five hundred dollars for 10 to 15 kids Again another Another piece of that increase is building in all those things into one fee. So at ridgeway, you're not paying 120 dollars And then also paying 60 dollars for the slide So building those things in together As far as updates are concerned again Or i'm sorry moving on to the park permits updates in park permits I want to be clear with something as we start talking about park permits is The purpose of park permits is not to charge people just for normal general use of the parks Right some of these fees make it sound like oh someone wants to you know I want to go with my family that the park can have lunch There's a Picnic fee or the again these are for privatization of some areas right that we want to be able to reserve a picnic site or those types of things So it's really not a a matter of revenue It's a matter of service providing to the public to say hey you want to have your child's birthday party You want to make sure that there's a barbecue and picnic tables available for you You want to rent that and reserve it ahead of time that we can provide that service and and that those services are cost recovery as well So looking at you know some of the things that we've removed or again just really operationally Looking to add a lot of our park special use permits are for nonprofits that are doing You know running events or different fundraisers And we have not the original special use permit Does not include the option for any discounts where we have in other places for nonprofits So establishing a 10% nonprofit discount for the park permit side and then also the The fees are based off the size of events because obviously larger events have more impact on the park more impact on the neighborhood more impact on staffing And so we've really found now that we've been implementing these for several years Is that we need another level? There's another level of size of event We're creating it at 2001 plus people where it requires a lot more pre event meetings and Impact on the neighborhood and notices and garbage plans and all those different things that incorporate other departments sometimes fire department those types of things So adding another event there that Will adequately collect fees for for those larger events Simplification side of things right addressing some of our non-resident rates for consistency with that Um Our park special use permit and our picnic sites the numbers didn't that line up which so a small picnic sites was 50 people a small Special use permit was 25 people So we need some changes just again align that make it much easier for us to communicate and educate the public on On what we have we also looked at our court rental fees And kind of create a system that would put those in line with our field rentals and so that is having a Private normal private fee rental, but then having a discounted rate for league play and then having a higher rate for commercial And the difference there of private would be your family is having a family reunion You want to have a softball game that's just kind of a private one as opposed to you're putting on A a profitable softball tournament and you want to use the field that would be the difference of how you'd be charged those fees Uh, we had a duplicated picnic deposit fee small and large. They were the same fee So I don't know why we had two of them, but we don't need them and then also looking for Out on our tennis courts or our sports courts fees being set up seasonally again makes it very Complicated you have one permit that has different fees for courts because this is this date and that date And then also tennis was set up as match play instead of an hourly rate While I understand the sport of tennis is based off of a match and not a clock The reality is we have to reserve things by hours. So If you think your match might go over two hours book it for three hours But the the match play just really doesn't work for how We can reserve things So again in this area, there are some proposed fee increases Some of it's just from the cleanup of aligning our picnic reservations in our park permits So that gets to some of the picnic reservation fees there And again really the the big impact there is the park special use permit as you see the Top fee going up to three thousand one hundred and fifty dollars a day and again stress that that three thousand one hundred fifty dollars a day is for those two thousand and one plus Size people size events. So this is not your everyday people going out, you know for doing things with the family These these are very large events that have a major impact on Again, not just the community and neighborhood and the public use of the park but also the the staff time for Helping organize and make sure that that everything is ready for the event And then again with the athletic courts and fields Excuse me A couple things that we wanted to address there and aligning it. So making Varying increase for league and private rates and then a more significant increase for the commercial rental So again as we were Readjusting those fees. We realized that there was some league play out there that would be Impacted by that more than than really was our intention So creating that league fee would would make sure that we can continue to accommodate them And then also increasing the field lights Currently that's a 20 an hour Proposing that up to 30 an hour and really just comes to the cost of of maintaining that that equipment The light bulbs are very expensive the the process of getting the lift truck and all those things So it's expensive equipment to maintain Out at how earth park updates again or just kind of cleaning some things up Want to stress there as as life jacket is listed that is not removing having life jackets available that is removing The practice of charging for it. So in the past A life jacket it's always been free when somebody rents one of our boats But the reason that that fee was on there in the past was if someone came out with a private boat that They could rent a life jacket from us. We want everybody on the water wearing life jackets We're not going to charge fees And so removing that from there and then also with the pony rides Unfortunately that that service is not back out in the park yet. We hope to see that back in the future But even if it comes back the fee, it's really not appropriate for the fee to be on this approved fee schedule because anytime we do Pony rides that's going to be in a contract and that contract is going to come forward with what the fees are And approved by council in that manner And so what we've had in the past is we've had a contract come to you and get approved And that contract is updated to the current fee But the fee schedule didn't come to you So now we've got two different things approved by council that technically say different fees So to just clean that process up simplification this gets into just kind of to start the conversation around The fee increase that we're proposing for howard park is It really is critical for customer service and efficiency on the park that our k-land attractions the train the carousel And the animal barn are the same price what that allows us to do is sell the same ticket Something happens the train breaks down a kid is decides they're scared of the train They don't want to ride it you could take your kid on the carousel instead We start changing the prices and not have that consistent now We have different tickets for everything and it becomes a logistical nightmare with refunds and and those types of things in the park So with that said the fee increase that we are proposing for howard park Currently is two dollars a ticket for those k-land tickets again That's the train carousel and animal animal barn admission ticket We are proposing that to go up to three dollars Currently there is a discount ticket book of 25 tickets that is 40 dollars. We're proposing that with the three dollars For individual ticket to go up to 60 dollars for the discount ticket book And then we also have the paddle boats That are out and that we rent out at on the lake and that is currently at 12 an hour proposing that to be up to 15 dollars an hour the reason we identified howard park for potential fee increases It was not increased in 2017 I actually couldn't find exactly when it was but I know the most recent it could have been because I ran howard park from 2013 to 2018 Is july 1st of 2012 is the most recent we may have done fees In that time, we know staff costs have gone up quite a bit Over a hundred thousand dollars just on our temp staffing for the operations of howard park from 2012 to the budget that will be Coming forward to you next month for approval So that that's going to help kind of just address that gap that we know that has been created without addressing those fees in the past So impact again on the first one's just kind of cleaning things up the fee schedule more accurately Reflect what we're actually doing in practice Again efficiency for our staff Better customer service more clarity on What the fees are why they're being charged a better ability for customers to kind of Come in knowing what they're going to be charged by just looking at hourly rates and those types of things and being All figured out and getting ready to getting rid of the hidden fees and then on the economic impact Proposing the fee increases generate approximately a hundred thousand dollars in additional revenue most of that again being Related to the howard park operations and the increase of the fees there If you so choose i mentioned, you know a future business plan that we're looking at so this slide is just While we're here this evening if you have Give you a sense of some of the things that we're thinking about And if you have any feedback proactively to get that before One is as we look to create this business plan that may lead to future Present to your future proposals of fee increases Is looking at the non-resident fees so roughly we're around 75 80 percent of our Registrations and reservations are from residents 20 to 25 percent non-residents As we explore these things in the future and look at that business plan Right now our our difference in fees from residents or non-resident is pretty small In comparison to other cities So is that something that you would want us to explore to actually look in the future With fee things is to say hey, let's let's look at expanding that and putting A bigger discount on on resident fees than what we currently do Also looking at those things like the non-profit or the league discounts From just normal private rentals and then the the extra fees for those commercial type things Is that a model that you would want us to look at to to potentially Maintain discounts for non-profits leagues maybe increase those discounts Potentially increase those fees on commercial activities I also you know be very clear it's I didn't get into recreation so that I could brag about how much revenue that we generate so Any time I have to come up here and specifically talk about money I'm going to find some way to make sure that I'm also talking about you know Access to our programs equal opportunities for our youth and and our seniors and and everybody in our community That's obviously what's core to us. I'm really excited to say that we're exploring some really awesome opportunities with our scholarship program How to build that out how to develop it further than what it's been The reality is it's really lived off of the work of our amazing recreation and parks team Putting on events that end up being fundraiser for the scholarship program For us to really elevate and take it to a next level one of the ideas that we're exploring to possibly bring Forward to you in the future is a one dollar two dollar something like that addition to every registration that we do That that one to two dollars that's added on would go to the scholarship fund instead of going directly to the general fund It eventually is going to end up in the general fund because they're going to use that scholarship to sign up for our program But again, that gives us the capacity to build The the resources that we have available for the scholarship fund and make sure that as fees increase That we're continuing to do what we find is critical to to what we're doing and making it accessible to everybody So if there's any thoughts on that I'd be interested Roughly it's it's very hard. I mean we'll have to dig into those numbers a lot more There's roughly around 60 000 registrations per year through recreation and parks But that number would be dwindled down quite a bit as far as how many we would actually apply it to for example About 25 000 of those registrations are for our senior programs And that might be a every day three dollar drop-in to play billiards Wouldn't really be as equitable to apply a one dollar add-on fee To them coming every single day versus just one dollar added on to a week of camp or A six-week session of exercise classes So we would have to dig into that more and then the last piece there again Making sure that we are not just focused on revenue but focused on the services We provide to the community our parks our facilities are often used for critical social services We saw that Very much during the pandemic where we were replaced to get Testing and and those types of resources out to the community Food distributions all those types of things so We are very interested in potentially down the road bringing a Proposal to you for a delegation of authority that would allow It's it's very hard to bring Every single thing that comes to us as a contract to council to approve for for waiving of the approved fees So could there be a delegation if certain? Requests for use of a park for food distribution or those types of things Where to come through that delegation be delegated down to Department head or city managers level So again, none of those are part of the proposal just if i'm proposing. Hey, we got to raise fees I got to stay true to our roots and what we really care about in recreation and parks So if you have any thoughts on it, we're interested to hear it as we take that next step with the business plan So with that said the recommendation before tonight is Recommended by the recreation and parks department that the council by resolution approved the fees for previous For various facilities and services effective january 1st 2025 Which was attached to the presentation this evening And with that take any questions or comments all right Going to council for questions or comments, but i'm going to kick it off. So, um I think the one or two dollars would be great, but more like an elected Add-on fee or you know how macy's gets me every time and they say do you want to round up? Yeah, something like that And then the resident discount. I think that that would be great to give our residents a discount Non-profits yes, and then also League discounts. So when I look at league discounts, there are different types of leagues There are leagues where parents can pay like five hundred dollars for their Child to be in a league that they still need a field or a court to play in and then there are Leagues that children that don't have five hundred dollars to sign up for a league Participate in and it makes it even harder When the coaches have to either come out of their pocket to pay And they're already buying them cleats and balls and all this other stuff, but then they have to Then pay for the field I would like to find a way to help with that because I I think that This is why we're here right is to make you know our Make things available for people that can't just go out and pay the five hundred dollars or the six hundred dollars And then lastly I want to talk about neighborhood parks You can rent from neighborhood parks correct Yes, okay, so then my my question would be I live in a neighborhood park and I want to have a birthday party for my child But then someone comes and rents because this is what I can afford because this is where I live This is my neighborhood park and someone comes and rents the Something I don't know the field So then my child in having that birthday party can't play on the field correct so Neighborhoods as far as a neighborhood parks as a category right we have community parks and neighborhood parks neighborhood parks as that category requires It doesn't have like the picnic reservations. It requires a special event permit That is issued through us So our staff are looking at those things in most neighborhood parks We're not going to have multiple things going on at the same time And in most neighborhood parks as far as that category is concerned right now To the public that doesn't always mean something right if I live Right next to a community park in my eyes. That's the neighborhood park But community parks are going to have assets like sports fields and and bigger amenities that are issued In different ways or even you know gazebo reservations and those types of things So I know that's good. I made your question more confusing, but you know I'm asking though because the feedback that we receive that People cannot use their own and I want to say their neighborhood parks, but correct me if i'm wrong They can't use their own neighborhood parks because people are renting Those facilities so They can't use them Yes, so yeah more specifically to that. I mean that generally is around our sports courts and fields and Yes, so there have been some situations like around our sports courts Again since that goes through our permitting we do have the ability so there were basketball courts that we were renting out during covid Because for a while our focus was how do we support these businesses? The community quickly let us realize hey You forgot another element and now the kids who live in this community can't use these amenities so Fortunately we have the flexibility in there I mean that was a matter of a few weeks and and getting that permit squared away before we distributed that and But yeah when it comes to our sports courts and our sports fields the reality is we don't have enough And so they are impacted So whether you live next to a sports field or there's a sports field that you like to drive to They are pretty much if they're not closed due to all the rain that we've had lately They are they're pretty much booked by all the different activity that's taking place. Unfortunately Okay For my constituents, I hear your answer, but I don't like it But we'll move on with that. So anyone else have council member mcdonnell Thank you, mayor. So um a couple things I I read about the splash pad the splash pad and my concern is how many splash pads? That's hard for me to say how many splash pads do we have in the city? So we just have when this opens we'll have the second one One of the things that's happened with splash pads is law recently changed I don't remember exactly when they are considered aquatic facilities And so they have to recycle the water to all those types of things. They have to have showers available to the public so The model of moving like this one is to being Already a part of our aquatic facility where we've already made all those accommodations at the finley aquatic center I think makes a lot more sense now It's less desirable because it's not available to the public all the time And they have to go and pay admission to the finley community center But for example when the howarth part there used to be one at howarth park when that one needed to be renovated Was around the same time that those laws had got in place so the price tag to Obviously for for conserving water not having the water just go down the drain We would to build in the recycling to put in the showers in the middle of howarth park to do all those types of things Really made it something that that we couldn't accommodate at that point So you have this just this one So my concern is it's sort of like the pools where you're renting it after hours or is it Not just during the daytime because if there's only one in the city of santa rosa And we're renting it out during the daytime and other children can't come to play on it That wouldn't be concerning to me. No correct So when we looked at the the private facility rentals that only take place after public hours Um, we just wanted to add that if that yes, you could rent the pool and do a pool rental But if you have younger kids, you don't want to use the pool We're creating a fee where you can also rent the splash pad So it would be that the pool is only open for those 50 people who are coming for that birthday party And they're using the splash pad. They're not using the pool. It would never restrict during rec swim or any of those types of things from other kids you utilizing it Thank you And I don't mind adding a dollar or a two dollar fee to all the registrations of the current System that we have so we can create a more stable funding revenue for scholarship programs I think that is an opportunity for you to actually see what the budget would be based on You know, how many Registrations we have throughout the year if we're looking at that and really creating that opportunity for kids to be able to participate Um in our in our programs So I I am not opposed to that So I'm glad to hear that you're actually thinking about bringing that back to council to Say that that would be and then actually having it go back into that same program. I think would be Something I would be interested in seeing So other than that, I appreciate the um presentation Those were my two concerns was around the splash pad and and and for the additional fee. Thanks And I'll set in for a second other council members questions council member Alvarez Thank you. Vice mayor for myself just a recommendation or just something that kind of crosses my mind When it comes to neighborhood parks or community parks where we do have the issue where we have leaders within That said tight knit community Who are looking to help children from that tight knit community? If there's a way to offer them incentives, whether it's waiver of fees, whether it's it's um preference On how to offer them the parks where they live And I don't know if maybe where we're three quarters of the majority of the children that are being served By this group live in that exact community might be a way to Validate The the the waving of a fee and I don't know the legalities or how that can even be done But you know when I see people within the community The stepping forward to help our future leaders I think there should be some type of reward to their efforts and really pick up the pieces where others may not be able to And really being able to be those within said community that do have the trust of other neighbors And and it's really just a thought and maybe you could make it into reality Yeah, just say to that point. Um, you know, I mentioned Looking at a delegation of authority for some of the fees I think it would be something for us to look at, you know, what would that look like? Because the other avenue again would be every time that that pops up The staff time and everything to try to put together a very specific Contract for that then to bring forward because again without that delegation of authority as a department We cannot wave those fees or set new fees And with that being said, I definitely would support the delegation of authority And I would actually buy for that opposed to league discounts or even discounts for commercial fees Just because I see it's it's serving of those that that that really are sometimes Underrepresented and even more so underserved council member phlemi Great. Thank you for bringing this forward and for all that you do One of the things that always impresses me about your your presentations is that I feel like you like your job And uh That's really cool, you know to see somebody who's doing exactly what they're meant to meant to do And that really comes across in your attention to details Um, I wasn't under the impression that this was necessarily a study session that you were looking for a lot of feedback But everything you you propose sounds really good on the the fee structure I would recommend, you know figuring out a percentage of the fee so that everybody who uses our services can participate in your great scholarship fund To capitalize it to the point that you need it rather than you know having a blunt instrument of a dollar or two You know just a percentage that becomes essentially part of the fee that goes Towards our our future amazing scholarship program. I did have a question for you about splash pads I didn't know that they were considered aquatic facilities. Is that a regulation of the state or federal government? I'm going to go with this is state government. So it sounds like something california. My favorite home state would do um And it's very excessive in my mind is um, does that mean our prince memorial facility falls under that? Yes, and and we do have the restrooms with the showers there because of that reason Okay, so we have two in the city then That one the finley one will be the second one The finley one will be the second one and the howard one was shuttered due to this regulation or because it was just the So yeah, howard park was at the point. It was going to need to be replaced I see and then once we realized all the new regulations to replace it. Um It was cost prohibitive and just functionality prohibitive, right? Well, I'll just add this now so that I don't have to after we go through um Public comment and so forth But what I really like about this is that it sort of places the user at the center of the experience without Nickel diming them so that somebody can come and use our services our facilities And feel like they're getting good value for the price even if the price is a little more that they got everything That they needed out of it and the attention to detail is is noted and appreciated Um, I'm those are my comments. Thank you Vice mayor staff Thank you deputy director You didn't want to you didn't want to highlight the revenue generation, but I will thank you. Thank you very much for for sharpening your pencil We want to we want to make sure that these amenities are available as my colleagues have indicated For the same time We want to make sure that we're we're we're covering the cost of providing these services Especially given some of the other activities That were that we've discussed even this evening in terms of other initiatives the city wants to support So thank you for for taking a look at the fee structure um with respect to to finding funds for scholarships, um, I'm certainly completely supportive as well um With the with the quiet conversations around resurrecting the the parks foundation That might be an interesting interesting avenue for the parks foundation as well I'm some some philanthropic work. I'm in addition any any fee increases with the city um I certainly support delegation of authority Uh anything that we can do to make your job easier and staff's job easier in terms of coming up with efficient ways to run these programs By all means bring those ideas forward And then lastly on a very selfish note, although selfish also for councilmember rogers as well So i've got my aquatics membership here I know and I noticed um, I'm certainly happy to participate in the five to ten thousand dollars of revenue generation for aquatics How's my membership going to work? The the the fee changes there are really around those private rentals Um, so membership is not involved with the private rentals piece, right? So the membership is essentially right that discounted rate that you get as a member every time you do lapsum Am I losing my dollar discount? No, um, so yeah, so that's what I was trying to explain, right? Yeah, you had we had flexi pass well flexi pass is only available to members So we don't really need an approved flexi pass fee. That's the membership fee that's now there when you pay membership You get the dollar discount So it was duplicated basically as far as the fee structure was considered understood. I'm supportive. Thank you Oh gosh, can't make this up. Can you? All right, so with that we will now open the public hearing and madame city clerk Thank you mayor. We are now taking public comment on item 16.1 the public hearing for proposed recreation and park fees If you'd like to provide a public comment and you're in the chamber and have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium. You will have two minutes An account downtime or we'll alert at the end of that period Mayors, you know and approach the podium for public. Oh, there we go. Hi Let's see here, please speaker on the east lecturing. Please go ahead Santa Rosa, um, I'm a mother and a grandmother. I'm just hoping that you take into consideration the low-income families Like with the increase and like all of the four and everything Especially for those families who are like on a ebt and medic howl Like the museum the children's museum over on west d'alene offers discounts to Low-income families. I'm hoping you guys could do the same. That's it. Thank you Next speaker on the west lecturing. Please go ahead Hi, my name is test. I was born in Santa Rosa. I still live here. I have Enjoyed how earth park and so many other places in Santa Rosa throughout my life I would like to echo the comments of the previous speaker There was a period of time where I was accepting ebt for about a year and a half and thanks to Programs at the children's museum. I got to enjoy multiple days there at a price That was affordable for me with my second youngest sibling In addition like museums in san francisco do it and I I got to take my six-year-old brother to The exploratorium which would have cost me like 45 bucks. I got to go to the academy of sciences I got to go to the d young with him. I got to experience all of these amazing things Because I didn't have to sacrifice Either saving for my rent or paying for my groceries I went with my nephew and our family to the rides at how earth park maybe about a year ago And because he was so young he didn't want to go on alone So instead of paying for a ride ticket for one two-year-old We paid for seven ride tickets for the entire family. So we ended up all riding the train together If I was a family with multiple children with a child like that I would then have to pay like $21 to do that activity Versus 14 before when frankly like $21 is a lot of money for a lot of people And there are so many people in our community who deserve access to these amazing amenities and Even though many of us may not budge or really notice three extra dollars one extra dollar There's so many people in our community who do notice that difference And we should think about them and implementing programs so that low-income people who accept food stamps people on HUD different programs Can access these things without having to sacrifice. Thank you Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chamber wishing to provide public comment on this item? Speaker, please go ahead at the east lectern You can raise the podium on the right hand side Uh and get the microphone up closer to your mouth so we can hear you down here Thank you My name is carolin spencer. I I just wanted to now. I can't see the person Uh, I just wanted to say have you thought about partnering with part partnering with the schools and offering some type of services To further enhance the education of the underserved Population that we have in Sonoma county. That would be kind of a cool Program for you guys to do Thank you Mayor I see no one else approaching the podiums for public comment on this item Thank you. We will now close the public hearing And bringing it back to council for final comments or questions Would you like a motion first? Oh, no, I wasn't I was going to just ask for if if there are any final questions or comments No Alvarez, I guess my question would be what are the obstacles with with partnering with our local schools or If we've had any conversation Yeah, uh, we do it quite a bit in recreation and parks You'll actually have a contract on consent uh next week For a very exciting new partnership with san rosa city schools and some summer programming It's going to solidify a recreation sensation program that we've run through neighborhood services for many years And it's also going to establish a new program for both the city and the school district To provide a a science camp in the morning instructed by the school district and then Neighborhood services recreation and park staff coming in to make that a full-day program perfect. And I guess my last comment is as a A frequent user of the railroad system at Howard's park when I was a little kid I have to thank you for all your efforts although right now I'll know how to go for the train if I hopped on but nonetheless though. I do appreciate it I've been telling people that'll be my last shift is I'm driving the train around and I'm getting off the train and going home So, uh, I'll make sure you know so that you could be on with me All right, it doesn't look like there are any more comments. I just want to say you guys are doing a great job I think there's always room for improvement and we see that with what you're bringing forth Um to us today Hope if I wasn't too hard It's just my job to let you know what we hear in the community is to pass that on to make sure That we can try to implement those changes that the community members would like to see And with that councilmember flimmy Thank you, mayor It gives me such joy to know that councilmember alvarez was a avid transit user from such a young age You know transit is really uh do near and dear to me and I can see him Making his transfer up there by the ponies. So With that Oh boy with Overing a resolution of the council of the city of santa rosa establishing new revised fees within the city's fee schedule for the recreation and parks department and In my great mercy, I will waive further reading of the second Okay We have a first by councilmember flimmy and a second by councilmember alvarez and with that madame city clerk may please call the vote Thank you councilmember rogers Councilmember ocrepe. Hi councilmember mcdonald. Hi councilmember flimmy. Hi councilmember alvarez Hi vice mayor step. Hi mayor rogers. Hi let the record show that passes the seven affirmative votes All right Thank you very much for your presentation and for sticking it out with us Moving on to item eight, which are our staff briefings For the night madame city manager All right tonight. We have two staff briefings the first one 8.1 Is the 2024 earth day event in courthouse square Okay Great. Thank you. Good evening. Mayor rogers and members of council. I'm here today My name is alisha kulichi and i'm the research and program coordinator for santa rosa waters energy and sustainability division And i am here to invite you all to our 15th annual earth day celebration And it's happening on saturday april 20th From noon to 4 p.m. At old court health square This is a free family friendly festival that brings our community together through fun activities performing arts great food and inspiring exhibits that That raise environmental awareness So for the live performances this year, we'll have the pomo dancers the taiko drummers erica ambran and king dream band There will be eco friendly activities for all including our um Kids activities that will be brought to you by recreation and parks They'll have some nature discovery tables seed planting relay races and a lot more There will also be free bike parking and that will be courtesy of sonoma county bike coalition We will also have the hydration station Which will provide ice cold tap water to The event goers and our stormwater and creeks team will be there to provide pollution prevention tips as well as our water use Efficiency team that'll hand out that'll be on hand with water smart tips rebates and programs We'll also have an irrigation controller workshop and that'll be from 1 p.m. To 3 p.m But registration is required for that and you can find more info and register on srcity.org slash earth day classroom safari classroom safari will return again this year to provide education about wild animals and conservation And there will also be free public transit on april 20th on san rosa city bus Sonoma county transit and petaluma transit This year we are going to implement sparkle reusable and this is a reusable foodware company And what they'll do is provide plates utensils and cups to the food trucks as well as the beer and wine tent This will eliminate the need for a single use plastics and it complies with the zero waste food wear ordinance How it works is when an event goer goes up to the food truck They'll order their plate of food and for each plate of food. They order. There'll be a two dollar refundable deposit They'll go to the tables eat their delicious food And then they'll return whatever food wear they're received from the food truck to the sparkle reusable tent And they'll that's where they'll get back their deposit And this will eliminate the need for any Any waste at all so we're going to try that out this year And we're still looking for our volunteers So pre-event, um, which is 8 a.m. To 12 p.m Volunteers as well as 4 to 6 p.m. If anyone wants to volunteer you can find more info and volunteer at sr city.org slash earth day And I hope you all can join us on april 20th from noon to 4 p.m. Thanks. I can take any questions Thank you. Are there any questions from council members? Seeing none, thank you very much and we'll Pull a comment Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 8.1 for the 2024 earth day event If you'd like to provide public comment, but have not provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium. You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Mayor i'm seeing no one approached the podiums for this item All right, again, thank you very much for that briefing Item 8.2 community empowerment plan update Good evening mayor vice mayor and city council I'm ana orta community engagement manager with the communications and intergovernmental relations office I will be providing you with the community empowerment plan update The violence prevention partnership will be participating in several community events over the next month On april 10, they will attend and bring the marioleau to the richway high school career day at richway high school From 10 i.m. To 12 30 p.m 3 2 5 richway avenue On april 19, they will attend the santa rosa community health health care for all forum from 10 i.m. To 1 p.m At 1,300 north doton On april 23, they will bring the marioleau to the dale multicultural day at roseland university prep from 9 to 11 i.m 193 1 By 1 a drive In addition Vpp will bring the marioleau to the roseland synco the majo event on sunday may 5th from 2 to 7 p.m The event will take place on sabastopol road between datum and west avenues Next the santa rosa fire department is hosting women in public safety day on saturday april 27 From 10 i.m. To 2 p.m. The event will take place at the santa rosa fire department training tower on 2 1 2 6 west college avenue This educational career expo will offer live demonstrations and networking opportunities to encourage more women and girls to enter the field of public safety For more information the community can call 7 0 7 5 4 3 3 5 0 0 or email fd outreach at s r cd.org Lastly the santa rosa police department is hosting the next group participating in the community police experience The experience will consist of a session at various locations around the city Plus there will be a graduation ceremony on thursday may 30th from 6 to 9 p.m At the city of santa rosa utility field operations building 35 stony point road You can learn more about this program at srcd.org Slash s cpa and that concludes the update. Thank you. And if you have any questions, let me know Thank you for the presentation looking to council to see if there are any questions Seeing none madame city clerk may please facilitate public comment Thank you mayor. We are now taking public comment on item 8.2 If you are in the chamber and would like to provide public comment but not have But have not yet provided a speaker card or your name. Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Mayor i'm seeing no one approach the podium for public comment on this item Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation All right, so just really quickly and we'll go by hand raising just so I can take a pulse really quick Who here from the public is here for item 15.1 50 Okay, 15.1 Is the approval of a five-year economic development strategic plan All right. Thank you anyone here for item 15.2 the south santa rosa specific plan community engagement All right anyone here for 15.3 And is anyone here for 15.4 which is the a budget amendment one time budget funding Okay, so let's go ahead and start with 15.3 Jason as you're getting ready. We're going to go ahead and do consent madam city clerk okay item 13.1 resolution approval of a grant Of easement to pgne over a portion of rink and ridge park Item 13.2 resolution approval of professional services agreement with applied survey research ink for choice grant program evaluation services item 13.3 resolution rescinding resolution number r e s dash 2 0 2 1 dash 1 9 9 and adopting a revised resolution authorizing the submittal of an application requesting an amount not to exceed 11.36 million to the state of california department of housing and community development Development's home key grant program and authorizing the mayor or designee to execute the application of the home key documents Item 13.4 Resolution approval and issuance of a purchase order for the purchase of one 2028 pierce enforcer 107 foot aerial fire truck utilizing the pricing from the houston galveston area Hgac interlocal cooperative agreement number 10 dash 2 4 2 8 pierce hgac contract number f s 1 2 dash 2 3 with golden state fire apparatus ink item 13.5 resolution approval of first amendment to professional services agreement with bkf for additional design services associated with the highway 101 bicycle and pedestrian over crossing project item 13.6 ordinance introduction ordinance entitled Pardon me ordinance of the council of the city of santa rosa amending ordinance 1544 to convert Riley street between fifth street and seventh street from a one-way street to a two-way street item 13.7 resolution transportation development act tda article 3 grant application for fiscal year 2024 through 2025 item 13.8 Ordinance adoption second reading Ordinance of the council of the city of santa rosa adopting zoning code text amendments to title 20 of the santa rosa city code section 20 dash 38 Signs to provide clear standards for both business identification Wayfinding and civic public amenity wayfinding in section 20 dash 70 dot zero two zero Glossary to add definitions related to wayfinding signs file number re z 23 dash 009 Item 13.9 Ordinance adoption second reading ordinance of the council of the city of santa rosa amending santa rosa city code title 9 health and safety code chapter 9 dash 22 Bicycles skateboards roller skates inline skates and similar devices to allow scooters to operate on public streets public alleys and public gutters The end All right. Thank you very much. Looking to council to see if there are any questions From the consent Item seeing none. Madam city clerk may please facilitate public comment We are now taking public comment on item 13 the consent calendar If you would like to provide public comment, but have not provided your name or your speaker card Please make your pay to the podium. You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Mayor i'm seeing no one approaching the podiums for consent Thank you with that. I'll pass it over to vice mayor Thank you. I'll make a motion that we approve items 13.1 through 13.9 and wait for the reading of the text second We have a motion made by vice mayor step and a second by councilmember rogers. Madam city clerk. May you please call the Thank you. Councilmember rogers. Hi councilmember okrepke. Hi councilmember mcdonald. Hi councilmember fleming Councilmember alvarez Vice mayor step. Hi mayor rogers. All right that passes with seven affirmative votes Thank you And with that our next item will be and thank you all the staff that uh stick around. Thank you very much Our next item will be 15.3 Madam city manager final 15.3 is a report item Jennings avenue ag grade bicycle and pedestrian railroad crossing Real property license agreement with the sonoma marin area trail rail transit district smart Good evening. Madam mayor members of the council. I'm jason nut. I'm assistant city manager I'm joined today by adam abel our assistant city attorney and we're going to walk you through the A presentation relating to negotiations that we've been having with smart over a real property license agreement That might allow us to proceed with an at grade crossing at jennings avenue Just to provide a fairly quick Background I know that it's late. So I won't belabor. We did start this back in 2008 with the passage of measure q It was ultimately identified that there would be a north station Located in santa rosa In 2012 council adopted the north station area plan Which proposed the jennings station to be located at gernville road rather than at jennings avenue And ultimately we moved to A request from council that city staff work with smart on the development of an of a crossing at jennings avenue So that we could fulfill the bike and ped master plan component of including a comprehensive east west facility that would ultimately connect The junior college district with the west side of town along jennings avenue In 2016 we were granted an approval by the california public utilities commission to Add a a an at grade crossing at this particular location Since that date we've been working with smart to try to accommodate a potential agreement That would allow us the the opportunity to build a crossing at that location But it has required two extensions of our approval by the california public utilities commission and in august of this last year We submitted a third request to move that Further along judge administrative law judge kelly at the california public utility commission did Hear our request and agreed to delay proceedings while the city and smart proceeded with a level of negotiation Hoping to come to resolution Just a quick little bit of background and I did notice as I looked through these slides earlier The red lines and the and the yellow dot actually got shifted as we were putting this on the slide This is an attempt to demonstrate and show the half a mile detour that resulted from Smart having closed the unofficial crossing at jennings avenue in advance of starting active rail service That was important from the perspective of public safety to ensure that we had a safe space where we weren't putting Individuals at at risk While we were starting that service It was intended between the agreement of the city and smart It would be temporary as a measure simply to provide for immediate public safety while a permanent crossing is approved And ultimately constructed Want to provide just a quick overview of the project that's been proposed This is the at-grade crossing in plan form It shows many of the features that are included to try to protect community members Who you who wish to utilize this particular crossing? It also provides you with a quick demonstration when we talk about or when you read in the proposed drafts the term license area We would anticipate that what you see on the screen within the unshaded areas would constitute more or less the license area That will ultimately show up as exhibit a in the proposed agreement From a photo simulation perspective, this would be jennings avenue looking east So the type of improvements that we're looking at from a bike and ped perspective Just so you have some care some idea of the improvements that are being proposed Now following the cpuc approval. We went through many different iterations of conversations with smart. How are we going to accomplish this? Could we accomplish it? ultimately we were informed by smart that they were no longer supportive of an at-grade crossing and we Spent many days hours and weeks trying to contemplate how we might find a common ground to keep this moving forward With the arrival of the new general manager We spent time Recognizing and talking with one another that this was likely the one issue In the relationship between smart and the city that was that was difficult And we both made a commitment that we would strive to to complete this particular project The way we were going to do that is we came to a common agreement and the common agreement said this is how we were going to embark on negotiating a path forward and with that we determined that We would all we would both mutually agree that an agreement can be reached that there was a place that both the city and Smart could arrive at that would allow this to move forward We also ended up agreeing that smart Doesn't particularly want this but they are but they are going to be willing to get to that place We also acknowledge that the city really wants it And we may have to accept a higher level of responsibility For the the occurrences at that that may happen at that particular crossing To embark on this we knew that we needed to do something we haven't done We hadn't done since 2016 which is to have a public meeting Actually giving us the opportunity to stand in front of the constituency in front of those individuals who have been proponents for this project for a long time And and provide them one an update on the program that the city has been working on And to give smart a public time to be able to describe why they've expressed opposition to the at-grade crossing And to be able to propose an alternative to that at-grade crossing Actually, I thought the meeting was well attended. I thought it went fairly well But I think but the feedback that we heard from the constituency that night was We told you we wanted that great crossing won't want to continue to have an at-grade crossing And that is the final stance moving forward As we started seeing that we needed to apply for a new extension coming up in 23 The general manager and I sat down and began to discuss how we might Create a license agreement that could get us closer to this The key for me was the easiest place for us to start was to was to ask smart to prepare their The first draft If they were going to be the Entity that doesn't want us there but committed to helping us find a place They should Prepare the language that we were going to start from And in january, I'm sorry in september They did provide us their first initial draft And since that time we've met with them almost monthly to talk about various iterations to talk about specific language To discuss why we have a specific position one way or another and ultimately We are looking at a final draft from smart dated january 26 2024 And that's where we're going to be starting the discussion tonight With that the key piece for us to remember as we move forward is the january 26 draft is At this point the one draft that has the highest potential of Achieving success at getting the board of directors to sign off on the city's proposal for an at-grade crossing And so we're going to walk through some of the areas of concern We're going to highlight some of the sections that our city attorney's office have provided to That that our city attorney's office has asked us to really identify and and highlight so that we know the level of concern that we know Some of the nuanced language that results in Um It challenges from a legal perspective and what it might mean for us moving forward In particular, we're going to start with uh section 14 section 14 deals with assumption of risk and liability What this particular section does in the draft they provide is it It assigns and assumes all risk and liability Based on the location placement design and establishment of the crossing Would be would be borne by the city and it further identifies a level of difficulty for smart In the fact that they use the term gross negligence for the first time and willful misconduct and Where that's significant and i'm going to hand it over to Assistant city attorney abel here shortly to discuss the why those those words are important But it does ultimately transfer risk to the city even Even where smarts sole ordinary negligence has occurred When we look at item uh at section 15 b, which is the indemnification provision relating to licensed property So again, we're talking about that license area It identifies that the city is responsible for all losses From claims suits actions arising from any cause whatsoever except to the extent that such claims shown by a non-appealable judgment Again, the non-appealable judgment is a term that adam will provide a little bit more detail about and explain the significance of Of how a non-appealable judgment impacts the city when it comes to the cost of providing legal services For smart in defense of their particular case Should they be Should they be identified as being uh negligent or grossly negligent or or with willful misconduct And with that i'm going to turn it over to adam to go through this next piece So just a little bit of additional information and good evening mayor rogers vice mayor and council members So i'm really going to be discussing smarts january 26th agreement and then pivot to A alternative agreement that jason and i put together and the reason why we created a secondary agreement So just to piggyback off of what jason said Under the agreement that smart has written We do essentially assume All risk and we have no control over Minimizing the city's risk Because of the very specific terminology that the smart lawyers have crafted into this agreement To be specific They have what's called but for location language in other words Their position is if any incident claim Fatality arises Because of the city's desire to put this crossing at jennings avenue The city Holds the bag in other words Even in A situation i'll give the most simplistic example A train operator falls asleep at the wheel And strikes a pedestrian crossing At jennings avenue Under the agreement as authored by smart staff We're on the hook for that and we can't control that because We don't Work for smart It's worse however because of the but for location So based upon the language that they have crafted Taking that same Simplistic example The train operator falls asleep at the wheel But strikes a pedestrian As an example a half mile on the tracks in either direction If that Pedestrian Who was killed Entered The smart tracks at jennings avenue the way the agreement is crafted We're on the hook for that fatality As jason indicated the only exceptions In the smart agreement where the city would not be Legally responsible to pay any judgment for any property damage claim Personal injury claim fatality Is if after a final non-appealable judgment which i will discuss in a minute If there is a not final non-appealable judgment by the requisite court That smart was grossly negligent or willful or their willful misconduct is responsible for that claim That is the only carve out where the city would not be responsible to pay any judgment That said the agreement is written in such a way that the city has an absolute duty to defend And what that means is under any claim The city has to defend and indemnify them we will be required To retain outside counsel because they won't let my office do it because they will claim a conflict of interest and Unless and until There is that final judgment We are on the hook and even when the court determines that Smart your reckless conduct or your willful misconduct is responsible for that claim We still are on the hook for all of their attorneys fees and litigation costs So we have no way to recoup our litigation costs even in The most egregious contact conduct on the part of smart The terminology as as jason mentioned gross negligence is something that we Debated with smart over the words the word gross negligence and the word soul negligence and The reason this slide is relevant under california law. There's two forms of negligence There's gross negligence Which is akin to reckless misconduct And then there is ordinary negligence is which is really a reasonable person standard The way the agreement has been drafted by smart Again the only carve out where the city would not be required to pay any adverse judgment Is if their conduct was gross negligence or recklessness So in other words taking my hypothetical simplistic example Where the train operator falls asleep at the wheel and kills somebody at jennings crossing or anyone who entered jennings crossing And got struck down the down the the tracks That would be considered ordinary negligence a train operator fell asleep That's not reckless conduct And so even in a situation like that where the city has no control Over a smart operator falling asleep at the wheel We're on the hook for that so essentially smart's position is We will accept we smart will accept responsibility Although you're going to give us free legal representation But we will pay the judgment so long as our conduct was reckless or willful But if we were simply negligent and we are solely responsible for any Property damage claim personal injury or fatality you sit here on the hook Not only for the attorney's fees and litigation costs, but payment of any judgment Turn this turn to the so What jason and i did was come up with an alternative License agreement the the goal being to try to present Something that we felt was more balanced We recognize That smart has indicated they don't want this crossing And the city has indicated that it does have interest in the crossing so we recognize that we weren't looking for A fair and balanced alternative, but certainly a balanced Alternative so that the city's exposure is limited In other words what we did with this alternative languages We took out the but for location language so that the city's exposure is limited to the four corners of the proposed crossing We're talking about a crossing at Jennings We don't own or control the tracks that go for miles in either direction And so we believe a balanced approach would be the city will assume Responsibility for anything that occurs within the four corners of that crossing We also Felt that it would be a more balanced and reasonable approach That if There is a determination that the whatever hypothetical claim we can imagine was caused by smarts soul negligence Smart should be responsible for that. We have no control over smart's negligence But in order to make sure that the alternative Agreement was balanced and still Uh in favor of smart from a liability perspective We crafted it in such a way that the city would agree to defend and indemnify smart Even for their concurrent ordinary negligence In other words so long as smart Contributed to any hypothetical claim through ordinary negligence the city would still Defend and indemnify them And we felt that was a much more balanced approach and Would allow the city to control its risk to the only thing we can control which is the the crossing itself Now I want to I want to Remind the council where we started which was an agreement with smart That we would come up with something that wasn't to know And The negotiations that we had with smart did start utilizing some of the language that's proposed in this revised agreement and We were unable to negotiate or unable to land on some of those points And the agreement that they presented to us in january was the best Terminology that we were able to negotiate over the course of the last six months As you've heard from the the assistant city attorney That agreement is certainly not what we would hope Would be the end product and what you what they've presented in the revised alternative Is much more in alignment with what we hope we would get But that's not exactly what's on the table from smart that would be a counter proposal from the city and the And we just need to take that into consideration as we deliberate this I do believe that the general manager did what he could to try to Come up with a reasonable Solution and when I say reasonable it's reasonable because it's not the know that we started with two years ago Um, there was an agreement that we would take on a higher level of responsibility and That's why they ended up with the language. They did I think the revised language that we've crafted for a second alternative is Something that's more in alignment with what makes sense on how we wish we would be proceeding And it's something that we would if council requested would be presenting to smart and the public utility commission With some potential to continue negotiations What that lands us with is a series of alternatives It allows us to Have council take the consideration of the draft that was presented to us by smart As I said that is that was presented by smart staff prepared by smart staff And has the easy the greatest potential to find success Even though it comes with the highest risk to the city The second alternative would be Would be utilizing the draft and revised language That adam Described for you which is based upon smart's template but takes specific sections and alters that language that we feel is more balanced Along the way I don't have confidence That smart is going to accept those terms But it does establish and set the stage for us to have potential additional dialogue As we get called back into a public hearing with the california public utilities commission And the third item here is More of a more of a position of Where we're at In for real And I know that it's unpopular But the bottom line is If we are unable to achieve a a mutually agreed upon License between smart and the city the judge will retract the crossing Application and we will be back at square one where we were in 2015 Um, and I don't feel that If we can't come to an agreement I don't feel like we wait for that we need to wait for the judge to take that action And so I've incorporated that here for your consideration Not because staff has determined it's the best course of action But it is a rational course of action given where we're at In this program and so that's why that has been included Some of the parting pieces I just want to throw out there before I let you all debate and ask questions One is there will come with this a construction agreement that we have yet to discuss with smart That construction agreement is going to be likely similar to the one we signed in 2017 That went unsigned and unexecuted by smart It will establish the terms and conditions by which the city pays for the construction of the facility smart will ultimately End up managing the contractor that will do that We anticipate that that's about a four and a half million dollar total construction project We and we have roughly about 1.1 million dollars available in the account Remaining from our earlier version of trying to get this in the ground Once constructed this license agreement also establishes that there'll be an ongoing maintenance Uh a component of our relationship With the city's Agreement of either of these two License proposals We would take on 100 of the operation and maintenance now smart's not going to have us hire contractors They're going to hire the contractors and we're going to pay them for the services that their contractors are providing at this particular location It means if something breaks we'll be paying the bill for whatever breaks And from a perspective that's that's only fair. It's it's our crossing. We asked for it We want to see that happen And therefore that's built into this as well is that the city will take on that level of responsibility Exhibit b which is not in here today Um But exhibit b will outline with detail the the areas that the city is responsible for and the areas that the at that smart will be responsible for Um, I've provided in the staff report an example of what could be included that are city and and uh and smart responsibilities But you need to know that comes with an annual cost uh to the city as well When we think about liability for any of these incidents The city has double checked. Uh, and this is covered under our insurance policy Through our joint powers authority. Uh, we do have uh, and adam may be able to describe it in more detail We do have a one million dollar deductible in essence And that will be helpful as we move forward That insurance premium Will adjust based on the number and severity of claims that occur over the course of time at that particular location So while we feel that we're in that we're adequately covered from an insurance perspective at this point Time will tell with this particular location as to whether or not there's adjustments that may have an increased or additional burden to the organization If we move forward with this and if we're successful One of the components we want to consider is requesting Not just the standard extension from the administrative law judge, which the puc typically issues a two year extension And that's what the last two extensions have been But recognizing we have a budgetary shortfall Also recognizing that should we be successful coming to mutual agreement This particular project would be very grant worthy But there's times any time we deal with competitive grants We we would likely need more time from the administrative law judge to complete this The way an extension is written all work has to be completed and the crossing has to be activated by the end of the extension in order to comply With the terms uh that they've laid out So I wanted just I just wanted to provide you that additional information So that I've been clear on Where the project currently sits and some of the additional components should we be successful moving forward And with that, uh, madam mayor, I'll hand it back to you and adam and I are here to answer any questions Thank you. So thank you for the presentation But also on top of that. Thank you for all the work and hours that You both have put into to bringing this to us today And I know that there's a lot of other staff that have also helped and been supportive of you too So I would like to thank them also Looking to council to see if there are any questions council member olcruppy Yes, thank you very much madam mayor. Um, so with that two-year extension and and what are the consequences? So let's say Two years ends and we're 85 percent complete on the job. What what's the consequence of that? Uh My belief is is if we're in that position, we're submitting a request for the administrative law judge to extend Showing progress. I don't see that they're going to deny us an extension of that If in two years we have not broken ground That's where my concern is is if we're continuing to negotiate in one form or another or if we're waiting on Fulfilling a funding That's where my area of concern is and I and I and I don't have a good feel from The work that I've had with the admin or the Experiences I've had with the administrative law judges as to whether or not they will continue to perpetuate additional extensions In just one additional comment I mean if if the two entities came to a meeting of the minds they are typically two-year extensions, but When we go in front of judge kelly and the not too distant future If it appears that we are closed or we have a meeting of the minds We will ask for an extension well beyond two years so we don't fall into that position okay, um in terms of the legal fees just, um Can you confirm for me that while we would be responsible for the legal fees? We have no control over the legal team That is absolutely true And as I indicated council member They control the litigation. That's how their agreement is written and there there is an inherent conflict of interest for my office My litigation team to defend smart. They would never allow it so They we will have to agree on who they appoint as their Litigators to defend any hypothetical claim, but they will control that litigation team And we will be paying the freight for it and as we discussed Absent any final determination of willful misconduct or reckless misconduct under their agreement as drafted We're going to pay any judgment as well and another concern that I have from a risk perspective is if Their lawyers who the city is paying for are controlling that piece of litigation And as a fellow litigator If I know that my client's smart if the handwriting is on the wall from from that requisite court That it appears that the conclusion is going to be that the claim was caused by smarts gross negligence or willful misconduct They'll settle the case before we get the willful misconduct or reckless And we can't control that in which case In almost every situation We would be paying not only attorneys fees and litigation costs, but any settlement or judgment Okay, and your experience as a litigator What restrictions do you put on yourself when you know that Further fighting for maybe a just settlement a settlement you think you might get is too expensive to pursue And by that I mean if that restriction doesn't exist for smart because they're not paying the bill Are they will in your experience as a litigator? Does that kind of Free In theory the litigator the litigators for smart up to go as far as they want even it's even it's for a dollar or more I mean frankly, I deal with indemnity clauses all the time because I'm a three-year plus litigator and You know, Jason and I are well aware although he's dealing with the general manager We know that the smart attorneys are crafting the agreement and I'm no dummy. I've been doing this for decades. And so I think it's crystal clear why they included the language that they did which is so extremely troublesome to me As a litigator and somebody who defends the interests of the city and whoever the city Pays to defend smart centers is going to take the same approach With regard to their client smart against the interests of the city Yeah, I guess the point I'm trying to get at is is is As you say if somebody else is paying the freight, which I appreciate the double entendre out there Or the the pun there with paying the freight But if someone else is paying it Then who cares if you take longer work more or whatever because your client's not paying somebody else is Right. Is that a rational assumption? That is a rational assumption and I would hope in my world that attorneys Spend the least amount to get the right result But I am I have some real concerns the way this agreement is drafted If an attorney is representing the interests of smart, they have to do what's in the best interest of smart Now they may also want to rack up attorneys fees as well And as jason indicated under our joint pool The good news is it will cover any and all claims related to this crossing But because of the fact we have a one million dollar self-insured retention But like for example when i'm litigating on behalf of the city I'm not Charging the city attorneys fees But when outside counsel does that eats away at the one million dollar s i r so for example in a hypothetical claim Where we have to hire outside counsel to defend smart and outside counsel Spends half a million dollars in attorneys fees. There's only half a million dollars left of the city's s i r The concern is that the pool as jason said Our pool like any joint powers pool they look at How many claims is an entity in their pool getting and what's the value of those claims so There's going to be more claims there's going to be High payouts because the attorneys fees is going to cut into a good chunk of the city's underlying one million And uh that could increase our rates With our pool so what you're describing is the loss ratio They're going to look at the loss ratio how much money we're getting versus how much we're paying out Which is a very common insurance carrier thing to do absolutely And I think our community is very well aware of how common that is for an insurance carrier to do that So you said I want to be clear you said our losses will be covered Will the legal fees be covered have you confirmed that because those are two different things legal fees are not losses Because of the fact that we have confirmed that our pool will cover any claims related to This crossing if it is built Yes, the attorneys fees are covered But it exposes the pool To higher payouts because of the fact that again, I won't be able to defend smart So our our million dollar s i r would only be for like expert costs But because of the fact that we will have to pay outside counsel That's going to take up much of what the city has to pay for the initial million more payout by the pool Higher rates that we're going to suffer As a consequence All right and seeing no additional questions from council members Madam city attorney, did you have something to say? I was just going to add To what assistant city attorney adam abel said about the rates We would have in that situation where we have retained outside counsel to represent smart We would not have control that we would normally have over outside counsel That the city hires from time to time where we can review the bells and really Make sure that The bill is being managed the services are being managed We would not have that ability our only recourse would really be a fee dispute Where we would have to prove to the court that The fees were not reasonable and so They would need to show that their fees are within the range of being reasonable Which is a looks a lot different than being able to go through and actually manage a bill. So It isn't without boundaries council member They can't just charge anything they want and hand us the bill. There would be some Reasonableness requirement on those bells, but again, it's a pretty difficult standard Because we wouldn't be in the position to be really able to review them or review the entries And in fact, we probably would also be in the litigation And so we they would be litigating probably against us. And so we would also have the resources of Defending the city which would either be internal with the team at the city attorney's office or Outside counsel as well. So we essentially would be footing a bill for For both defenses, right? I'm not saying they'd be unreasonable billings What I'm saying is in insurance claims you get to a scenario where it's we're not going to spend $20,000 to get $50,000 But if you're not footing the bill for that $20,000 Then you it's a free $50,000 Correct All right, no addition uh council member mcdonnell. Thank you, mayor. I just have a question around I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought it's getting too late It was around the attorney fees, but that's okay. I'm gonna have to skip it. I apologize We will come back for Comments and to wrap it up after public comment. So with that madam city clerk, may you please facilitate public comment? Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 15.3 If you are in the council chamber would like to make comment But have not yet provided your name or speaker card Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period First speaker will be victor followed by james than alexa Victor are you in the room? All right, james will move to you Please go ahead james Yes, thank you. I'm sorry. I thought someone else was before me I'm james duncan I've been a party On behalf of the city in the underlying cpuc proceeding since 2015 I have written almost 40 briefs to maintain the city's Standing to build the crossing Against the opposition of smart and the cpuc staff who Wanted a crossing in the west end of railroad square Area closed in exchange for Jennings. That was their only reason I urge you to have confidence in The cpuc's judge He's not only the current judge in the city's proceeding He's also the judge in a proceeding that I have against smart Which is outside of the scope of the discussion this evening So I wouldn't be hesitant to follow up with your proposed Proposition b send it to smart if smart doesn't like it You can explain to the cpuc's judge to his satisfaction What's going on here and he can implement action to correct the situation Also, you should be clear that the judge cannot act unit unilaterally The commission itself the five members appointed by the governor are the ones who make the final decision It's unlikely given the trend over time that they're going to Knuckle under to smart's demands It's very possible that in the short term it will work out better for the city at worse for smart And in the long term the voters of santa rosa may decide They don't need to fund smart anymore if that's the way smart's born and is going to treat citizens here. Thank you Thank you. The next speaker will be alexa followed by chris than eras Hi, i'm alexa. I need to use the document camera, which i've never done before okay Let me switch it over and then it should pop up here on the screen and you just need to focus it There's a little focus toggle Okay, sorry about the delay. I know we've all been here forever and you can flip on the light right at the top near the There you go That looks really uneligible How do I focus it trying to dial? So somebody know how to use it. Thank you so much. There's a focus button on their lawn. I don't know if it's on the Lens or on the the base of the unit that will bring it into focus. Oh that big button that says focus You got it that one Thanks, it was obviously you thank you Hi, i'm alexa forster with bikeable santa rosa. Good evening mayor vice mayor and council Um, I want to just share a couple maps that weren't in the presentation and also thank the staff for the incredible job That they've done advocating for the city at this. This is a stretch of the smart tracks Um, these are the two crossings that currently exist. This is where there is currently no crossing at Jennings Both of these are on our high injury network, which means that if we ask people to walk or ride their bikes there They're likely to get injured And so there's really not safe crossing even A mile out of the way I wanted to compare that to this same length of track just south of college down to third street There are four at grade crossings. It's really hard for us to accept Uh Arguments that this crossing would be unsafe when these four crossings are safe This is mobility injustice Manifest The this area of the city is free to move about their neighborhood This area of the city is not And if you doubt that people need to use this crossing, of course, there's cutting town on one side And there's tons of services restaurants target with household goods, but I just want to focus on one destination This is the safe routes to school creates these maps of uh where the students that attend various schools live This is um Helen Lehman elementary school This is over 50 elementary school children that live to the east of the tracks and currently have no safe way To walk or ride to school When we say we want this crossing it's like saying we want to eat Yeah, we want it. We also need it people need to be able to to move And smart has imposed a one mile long barrier on our community and they need to take responsibility for that But you as leaders cannot give up on this crossing. It is not a want. It's a need. Thank you I'm there Is this on Okay, there it is So I had a whole comment prepared about how important the crossing is You guys know that our whole campaign exists to create a viable network for alternative transportation in the city This is a really vital connection. I won't belabor that I'm not a lawyer, but i'm a person. I'm an adult This agreement is a giant middle finger from smart And I don't think that they have stuck to the spirit of the agreement between assistant city manager nut and general manager Cummins, so I think it's reasonable to continue to negotiate I know the council's in a really difficult position But I think it's really bad politics for the city and for smart to ignore what the community is asking for here It is not unreasonable. We've worked for it for 10 years. We need to keep working for it We certainly should not give up and allow them to bully us into submission So I don't know how we get there, but I think we have to keep fighting I also want to encourage the council. There's a lot of talk about safety with this I find a lot of the claims that smart makes about safety specious for the reasons alexa just highlighted People could enter the track at any of those other crossings and get killed two miles down the track So that's crazy but There's a lot of talk about the cost as well and when I made comments earlier on the impact fees I said we should think systemically. I think that is true in this case So yes, we can avoid the headache and the cost of this crossing But if we give up and we don't have this crossing, we're going to have Many many more headaches many many more costs In particular, this is not just about the people who will move across that track people all across town will benefit From this crossing because of the reduced traffic burden on our streets Which cost us millions and millions of dollars a year that we do not have So building this crossing creating a viable network is a way to make our city work better for all residents Not just people in that area. Thank you Thank you. The next speaker is eris Eris we've um as executive director of the snow county bicycle coalition. I get Concerns about liability. We were threatened with a lawsuit in the past year and it was uh, it was a pretty pretty distressing thing Um And I've been following this and being involved with this since 2017 I think you're entirely reasonable in submitting the revised agreement. Um, that's more favorable to the city. That's more fair and See what happens with it for the life of me. I still cannot understand why after all of the cpc Um decisions I sat in some of those hearings met with one of the previous administrative law judges I don't get how smart even is allowed to say no to this given some of those previous rulings Um, but I urge you to not stop Not go with option three to submit the revised version and I'll certainly be doing my part to influence Smart um to do the right thing here and stop obstructing this as has been previously mentioned This crossing is desperately needed. Their arguments are illogical. Their demands of view are unreasonable And please just don't let them get away with it Don't let them get away with this. Thanks Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chamber wishing to provide public comment on item 15.3? Please go ahead. Hi, my name is tess. I wasn't expecting to hear about this tonight and I wasn't anticipating to make a comment But during my senior year at sonoma state. I lived in the anadella apartments just off of range I lived there for 14 months with me my partner and my dog And this was coveted. We had a dog So we would take a minimum of one to two walks every single day And so we would head to the corner of our street go down gennings go up towards Uh Up towards college go down across the tracks and go up done Around college and we would talk about how funny the end of gennings was Especially when we got to the other side of the road the tracks and we realized that gennings just went all the way through And it was so It blocks off entire Communities from one another like there's a community health center There's restaurants the bank that I bank out was on the other side Meanwhile on my side of the tracks. There's like whole foods and target And you're completely separated by if you want to go around a whole extra mile by foot And I think that the community would really benefit from this hearing that this started in 2015 is wild because I would have benefited from this when I lived there and a part of me feels like smarts giving you the ring around and I wish that they would stop but at the same time the city has an obligation to its residents And like that's a very dense area where people deserve to be able to bike and walk and have access to the things they want And so I hope that the city council and the city as a whole can do what they can because I would have enjoyed this when I lived there and I know the people who still live there would Love it whenever it comes to pass Thank you, mayor. I see no one else approaching the podiums for public comment on this item All right. Thank you Bringing it back to council for Final comments and we'll start with vice mayor stop Oh, I just wanted to say thank you also for all the work that you've done. Um, what a what a long campaign You've laid out very clearly why the first option the original option Is a tough one for the city to swallow probably irresponsible But you've come up with a really good second option. Maybe not ideal. It's not our it's not our dream Language But it's at least viable language And it keeps it puts the ball back into smart's court and keeps the option for this project alive In addition, you've you've underlined there that should smart agree to this as we hope That there will be a need for this council for the city to find additional funding I believe the amount is somewhere in the range of 3.4 million Um, but again, given how important this project is in that neighborhood I'm certainly supportive of finding that funding if and when the happy day arrives that that smart says Yes, this this alternative language is viable. Thank you councilmember elvarez Thank you, madam mayor as as anyone from smart made an offer to come speak with With city council and maybe Here from our constituents Who who are very passionate about this crossing? So I did have a conversation with the general manager last week. We discussed whether or not Someone from smart would be in attendance today. Um, he did notify me that they would not be in attendance He did mention to me earlier this week that they've received many correspondence from community members over this specific issue And I anticipate with their upcoming board meeting that there will be Even if it's closed session that there'll be an opportunity for community members to express Their interests moving forward at some point The smart board of directors will likely have a public discussion But I don't know the specific date and timeline for that. Thank you councilmember mcdonald Thank you, mayor, and I did remember what I was going to talk about so I appreciate you coming back to me One of the things that you mentioned was around the gap in funding that we don't have to actually do the crossing so If the judge was to come back in our favor and allow us to start moving forward What are the chances of us being able to get Potential grant money to be able to do a project like this. So the concern is that Around the budget for how much it would cost to actually do this this plan So those of you who've worked with me long enough, you know that I'm I'm pretty optimistic when it comes to our chances at getting grants That doesn't mean I'm always successful. I actually think this is a very good Potential for this crossing. I think what you've heard from the speakers is true and real and I think the The granting agencies will see that as being a value and a benefit with that said We've had a number of projects. We've submitted for multiple times that have an equal value and benefit to our community And we've either been unsuccessful because of the level of competition Or it's taken two or three times for us to see success So while I believe this is a very good project We would be banking on a one and done that we'd be successful on our first go Um If we're looking at grant funds, I I do I do have fears and I understand what the assistant city attorney said that That if we have an agreement the likelihood that the judge is going to cut us off May be slim I do think that there is still going to be a timeline to that And it will likely come in the form of the city will need to look at other funding sources Other than waiting for some grant money to show up But I think out of the gate If the decision is to proceed and if we can get agreement with smart that should be our first initiative is to find a grant source that could that we could apply for to try to fill that gap before we look to Reprioritize our current capital improvement program or to Adjust or delay some projects that may be coming up in the queue councilmember flue me Thank you, mayor Thank you for all your years dedicated to this and to both of you for your attention to The city's liability in this situation You know one of the things that I think that the public Who is for far too long waited for this crossing? To be available does you know may not see is how much? smart is a benefit in terms of Bringing money into the city for housing projects We've gotten a number of housing projects Along the corridor financed and funded in particular affordable projects and other other grant monies because we have this asset And yet well it brings so much good for these transit development Projects it is the stranglehold On not just the northeast but connecting the northeast or the northwest but connecting the northwest to the north And when I look at this project, you know that we've all been working on the overcross for years I think well what good is this overcross if you can't get across the tracks and who does this overcross benefit if you can't get across the tracks And so while when I read the language in the proposal I'm not thrilled with it I'm not thrilled with the fact that the city has to come up with this funding When in the past we've had grant funding that more than doubles what we will need in this situation I think that the public has been really clear about what it is That our community wants And I think that we have a responsibility where we're here as representatives of the public to deliver In as responsible manner as we can and so you have my full support to go forward with this to negotiate to the best of your ability With smart and to bring us as reasonable a deal as we can that ends this this unnecessary divide In one of our most valuable communities in the city of santa rosa. So thank you and um, good work Oh crappy Thank you madam mayor ACm that you said something earlier that um, I wanted to follow up on that It just kind of sparked something that I may have heard a little while ago. You said that at some point smart Sealed up the makeshift crossing Can you what do you mean by a makeshift crossing? So there was a point in time and actually I could probably turn to mr. Duncan and he could give me the exact date There was a point in time when the county was looking to construct and expand gernville road At that point in time the county and the city jointly agreed to release The current and existing jennings avenue crossing of the tracks to gain the gernville road And at that point in time that actually from a legal perspective closed The jennings avenue crossing that's why we had to apply for permission from the public utility commission to Create a new crossing in the interim The roadway the crossing itself was gong. There were barricades or a guardrails at both ends of the road In approaching the tracks, but individuals on the order of about a hundred a day We're walking over we're carrying their bikes. We're carrying strollers So the term unofficial crossing is They used it they used the specific state that specific location But it had no standing when it came to the federal railroad administration or the california public utilities commission Until we received the approval recently And with the closure or the fencing that was placed there It prohibits those folks from using it as an unofficial crossing today Okay, so I guess my comments would be this That informs me a lot more than than legalese That this is a dire dire need for this community for this area in this neighborhood Um, because if they're willing to carry bikes across train tracks and you know, it Let's be honest unsafe conditions Then it's not because they're lazy. It's because it's needed, right? That's it's not because oh I just want to take a shortcut is because it makes sense it connects communities and they want something they want something they can use um so I know I harped on the the the liability and the legal fees and that's because uh, I agree with some of our our community members and some of my colleagues that number one is just not an option for me um And because of what you just said, I think number three is not an option for me um number two I know there's a lot of if-thens and I know that um, we have to ideally hope for um Grant funding and that if that doesn't come through we have to have some real honest discussions about where those uh, um Those uh, those funds come from um what projects Get prioritized or not. However, um because I've been called pessimistic and Persnickety by my colleagues in the past. I'll I'll err on the side of hopefulness for this Um that we can get that grant That we can get that grant Um Also hedging my bet that there we may have to have some hard discussions But for now, I that's the pathway that I feel most comfortable with We're all getting tired. Okay. So um, I in addition to thanking staff. I want to thank uh members of the public that have consistently came Uh to council member council meetings and told us What they need it why they needed it and why it was important It is very important for us to hear from you Um and your persistence is golden So thank you very much for continuing to to come and tell us what it is that you need and with that I will hand it over to council member rogers, but I do want to know how old he was when we started this Uh, well, I certainly had fewer gray hairs Uh, and jeff forgot to mention wet blanket, which is my favorite way to describe him Um, I'll be really brief. I think folks know Where I've been on this issue, uh, I too lived in the inadale apartments in 2018 and 2019 Worked for the state senate when we were first advocating for With smarts help for the crossing. Uh, and I have seen this all the way through and I just want to thank Folks who have stuck with us to continue to fight for it. Um, we are going to keep moving it forward Uh, jason was very diplomatic in how he approached Many of his descriptions of the discussions So i'll be less The cpuc has said this is a safe crossing the cpuc has told smart you have to build it They told them again, you have to build it. They told them a third time. We really mean it. You have to build it The public's interest has not Weaned uh from lack of action from smart and I Think that part of the problem has been A history up until this new general manager and i've got to give eddie a lot of credit He's been willing to have harder conversations with the board But previously this was classified as an operations issue Which meant that it was completely shielded from policy discussions shielded from board members Having to take a difficult vote And I think when you have been told for A decade at this point that the crossing is unsafe and that elected officials who vote for it are going to be in the paper if something happens to a kid crossing That's pretty powerful to get people to not do anything But the reality is you heard is that families have been impacted by not being able to have this crossing Uh folks are taking a riskier less safe path to be able to get around in our community And it's time for some courage the city is moving forward with an indemnity agreement that Makes our city attorney. I know a little uncomfortable And we're putting our skin in the game and smart needs to meet us Here not in the middle because in the middle would not be This it would be what we originally proposed But at least certainly recognizing that the city is taking on a lot of liability to try to deliver for our constituents What they have habitually been asking for and I know Eris and her marine counterparts are going to flood the next smart board meeting To tell folks, uh, what we think of this in sonoma county With that I will move to direct the city manager to one Negotiate and execute subject to approval as to form by the city attorney A real property license agreement in a form substantially the same as attachment to to the staff report for this item But also including complete versions of exhibit a and exhibit b that are substantively similar to the description Of those exhibits and the staff report and to Notify smart and the cpuc regarding this council action and waive further reading of the text and not in legalese that means option to The revised language being proposed by adam and by jason and thank you both so much for your work on this second We have a motion made by councilmember rogers and a second by councilmember alvarez And I would like a nod from this city attorney Before we proceed I have no changes, but thank you for asking. Thank you very much and with that madam Oh, gosh, it's so late. Um Madam city clerk may you please call the roll? Thank you councilmember rogers. Hi councilmember ocrepe Hi Councilmember mcdonald. Hi councilmember fleming. Hi councilmember alvarez Vice mayor step. Hi mayor rogers Hi, that's a record show that passes with seven affirmative votes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Uh public care for any more items? No, yes. No, okay Um, see we used to go a lot later and we got spoiled so now so I know they used to go a lot later. So, uh, we'll go up to item 15 Point one and we'll I'll hand it over to councilmember or vice mayor step Item 15 point one is report approval of a five-year 2024 to 2029 economic development strategic plan Good evening or rather. Good night madam mayor Mr. Vice mayor members of council I am not jill scott and if she's listening, uh We hope that, uh, she has a speedy recovery. My name is daryl dunston. I'm the assistant city manager Um, and my colleague here director osburn will be given a presentation, but before he opens I do just want to acknowledge that, um This strategic plan before you is a long time coming um We have deliberated on this at nazi um And we believe that this incorporates all of you all's feedback to date um as well as our partner agencies not only in the region but with the state and I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge The work of the incredible team Not only that is currently with us, but those who have gone on to other agencies I do want to call them out by name Raisa de la Rosa claire hartman Raphael Rivera who is still with us but also terra tobson And jessica rasmussen Without their contributions We would not be able to deliver this report to the extent that it is And we are so excited to finally be presenting this final strategic plan Because we're eager to hit the ground running and get to work. So without further ado I will pass it to my colleague director osburn Good evening madame or vice mayor members of the council I will be respectful of the lateness of the hour and move through the content as quickly as possible Um, this is actually a really exciting event for us So the the five-year strategic plan really is going to set our focus from an economic development strategy for the next five years And really it there was a lot of work put into this over the course of the last few As mr. Dunson mentioned Over the last year the economic development subcommittee has really helped form this There were four or five occasions where this was discussed in front of the economic development subcommittee What was also brought to the council as a study session in december of last year And really we're focusing on three main pillars that you'll see is the theme of this draft plan So since the study session really what we've been working on is really aligning with our regional partners Sonoma county economic development board We have sonoma county tourism sanarosa metro chamber and visit sanarosa have all informed this document And really what we're trying to do is align language understand regionally how we're moving things in tandem So we have a more holistic strategy for not only sanarosa, but the county as a whole And that was really an important part to this And of course when when we're dealing with really general information in basic buckets You know the important piece is the aesthetics of a document of this nature So um director peterson from our communications and intergovernmental team Really put a lot of work into the design of this document And as we move this forward that design will change we will fresh images will change colors Either I did notice there was one slight typo right after that We'll be fixing that as well after the uploading excuse me But I think the important point is the content the objectives and the strategies we want the council to inform moving forward So those will hold over the five-year plan Very important for us to really align with mission vision and values throughout the city So council goal statement economic and community Vibrancies sustain and develop a diverse and thriving economy that benefits sanarosa residents and businesses contributes to the community economic health While preserving historical and cultural integrity really try to align the objectives with this Are also general sanarosa mission statement provide high quality public service and cultivate a vibrant resilient livable city Very important to the document Also an interesting timing of events We're moving forward with our general plan adoption and as we align our themes in the general plan with our economic development Strap plan really what we see is live work and recreation becomes the the core functions of this document So as we went down this road we presented this to the Council during the study session We did surveys to understand what the community wanted to see in this plan We received over 600 respondents in that survey it was performed both in English and Spanish In the themes generally from business owners and residents really we're prioritizing housing and affordability And I don't think that's a surprise with what we've seen come up in other areas As the next priority business owners Selected business development Whereas non-business owners selected equity and inclusion is their secondary So one of the main pieces to this document is demographics. These are fluid and they do fluctuate We will be updating this with time So we have a total currently of Around 8,500 businesses that really falls into a few different major categories retail trade Is our biggest health care is our next to the tune of 15 16 to 15, excuse me public administration and accommodations and food Professional scientific and tech are the other factors What we see is an employment rate of 4 percent based on more recent information We assume that will be dropping here in the very near future We have a labor force participation rate of almost 66 And our labor force of those 65 and older is a little over 18 percent So also produce demographics based on the fabric of the community We have almost 36 percent of our residents are of Hispanic origin We have a median age of almost 39 Our per capita income is around 48,000 and we have a little over 23 percent of residents have a bachelor's degree And our median home price is hovering around 760,000 So with the document and we wanted to show some of the images We're really trying to make impactful statements with some of this make a very attractive document But this really focuses on our three main pillars and the first is business growth Economic vibrancy and resiliency is second and community investment is third Business growth and we'll talk about this in future slides really focuses on small small business and big business support retention and traction Economic vibrancy is really just the investments we're making in the community and the overall infrastructure And then community investment really is our upstream approaches a lot about child care and labor force and that will play out in that pillar So business attraction and retention really falls into two categories And we've separated it out recognizing that there are different tools in the toolbox that maybe have may have to be utilized for the different categories We're really trying to create a big business and middle business a retraction retention and expansion program And that is really coupled with small business support And being proactive at going after big businesses understanding big business needs Understanding how you would develop incentive programs around that is very different than small Supporting our small businesses and understanding that it may be sign ordinances that are maybe smaller things that they're dealing with to expand their business So this is all about separating our staff to be able to cover those two buckets And it really it creates fiscal stability for the businesses It supports the thriving workforce We support and grow our small businesses We also create opportunities for entrepreneurship We understand remove barriers for immigrant, bipoc and women-owned businesses And I think it's important to note this this will be a study that's going on in the merry near future to set our base for those individuals participating in those businesses So economic vibrancy and resiliency is the next pillar and this is really about creating a vibrant and livable city And it's about infrastructure and economic accelerators So a big component to this is bolstering our downtown and a lot of the initiatives that went into that will continue those moving forward It's increasing the revenue of existing business. It also gets into really an infrastructure piece of that How do we create walkable neighborhoods? How do we create those? Business centers that focus on multimodal And how we do we really promote and enhance climate action goals and sustainability principles And our final pillar is about community investment and this is really how we invest in the people and the upstream approaches So it focuses very heavily on some of the diverse needs of the community Childcare is a big component of that We've we've played that out already with some of the initiatives that we've done with our arpa programs and how we've Created service fee reductions for child care facilities. But that's a really critical piece to that Strengthening an early education and understanding how to build that workforce And providing the resources for individuals that need that child care to work within the city is incredibly important That gets us the two implementation Really what we're looking at is obviously the five the implementation will be over a five-year period Most of what we see today it develops goals and strategies and metrics We want implementation will be a staff-driven approach and we need to be very nimble So we'll be over the course of the next year aligning our staff to meet the goals of this This strategic plan But to be able to report out what we're looking at is developing tracking mechanisms reporting structures But then also having regular updates with the council on where we are in year one And just the envision with year one or the vision of year one It's obviously the organization is staffing a lot of focus on big business support and retention And I think that's really understanding the businesses that exist that aren't necessarily in Santa Rosa And how do you go after them and bring them in understanding those incentive programs and starting to shift our resources to that But then also being nimble to be able to still handle the small business support as well as well as the upstream approaches So we'll be laying out the staff There will be a five-year implementation plan and we'll be looking at ways to do dashboards and metrics But also reports out to the council So with that that brings me to the conclusion So our recommendation today is that the council adopt our five-year strategic plan and I would be happy to answer any questions the council may have Thank you both and I look to my colleagues for questions council member of donald More just a comment. I just wanted to say thank you so much for the strategic plan that um lists out the goals but then also lists out the action steps within the plan So I appreciated the time that it took to do that and then it really helps us understand what you're doing Actually achieve all the goals So I just want to compliment you more than anything. Thank you for the work on this and I'm excited to see it done too Any other questions Right madison clerk, let's go to public comment We are now taking public comment on item 15.1 If you're in the chamber and would like to provide public comment But have not provided your name or speaker card. Please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Vice mayor i'm seeing no one approach the podiums for public comment on this item All right back to council any comments Council member rogers Yeah, just a quick thank you to all the staff that have worked on this We've done a couple of study sessions. We also did I think five different meetings for the economic development Excuse me some committee meeting I don't think my colleagues who served on that as well and then I know that they're not in the room Many of the folks who partnered with us and spent a lot of time walking through How best to support economic development? And I also want to just really acknowledge that san eras is one of the few cities that when we talk about economic development Pull in things like childcare and pull in things like housing and other types of issues that cross Many different spectrums in our community And I appreciate the council's willingness to take a holistic approach to that and I'm really excited to see this across the finish line Thank you mayor rogers I just want to say great job for those of you that are still here Thank you for the presentation and for those of you that are not it is definitely A village effort. Thank you And I'll just add um as my final comments that this it's hard to think of a more important data for the city right now For all the discussion that we're having about about budget issues. This is the long-term fix. We've got to grow the pie Um, and so I'm very glad this is a focus and on the subject of metrics when we have those developed Uh, I I at least would be interested in more more frequent report outs to keep this You know top of mind for for the council in terms of what what strides we're making in the areas of economic development locally All right with that. Can I have a motion? Yeah, uh, just real quick, um To echo council, uh, councilman rogers, um thoughts, uh Thank you to everybody who participated in this. Um, acm dumps and thank you for mentioning my name I think that's very important. There's a lot of heavy lifting by a lot of people for a long time on this And while the three of us, uh on the economic development subcommittee even know this, um We'll call it intimately. Uh, thanks to the the numerous times you've seen it. Um I think this short presentation does a little bit of a disservice to how cool of a project this was to undertake Um, this is one of the first meetings I had as a council member and to be able to spitball about You know protecting cultural identity Um, uh child care sports tourism um, the idea of Things like attracting businesses and letting building their own housing for the on their own campus Like having those kinds of conversation is kind of like what local government really gets you motivated as someone in local government because that's like the cool stuff you really get to do and, uh, I really appreciate everybody, uh putting their I don't want to hope no blood, but I'm sure there was maybe some sweat and tears into this So I really do appreciate it. And with that, I'll move to adopt a by resolution of five year 2024 to 2029 economic development strategic plan And wait for the reading of the text All right, we've got we've got a motion by council member crepeki. Who wants credit for the second? I think rogers got it Which one? All right, we're gonna give the second to council member rogers Um, madame city clerk want to call the vote? Thank you council member rogers council member Pardon me. Um, thank you council member o'crepkey. Hi council member mcdonald. Hi council member fleming Council member alvarez. Hi vice mayor step. Hi mayor rogers. I let the record show this passes the six affirmative votes Thank you. Let's move on to item 15.2 Thank you team. Item 15.2 is a report south centeroza specific plan community engagement strategy And engagement advisory committee committee. Um, yeah, let me start over Report item south centeroza specific plan community engagement strategy and engagement advisory committee formation Thank you. And good evening. Mayor rogers members of the council I'm jessica jones deputy director of planning. Um, with me is connor mckay senior planner We also have here in the chambers. Um, jane riley with forleaf who is our consultant for this project Connor's going to give the presentation Good evening, uh, mayor rogers and members of the council So, yeah, the south centeroza specific plan community engagement strategy. We're going to do some background in the specific plan itself Um, so the south center is a specific plan Was uh, is funded by a grant from the metropolitan transportation commission association of bay area governments And we are preparing a specific plan and environmental impact report In south the south centeroza area Um, this document will address planning concepts such as land use and circulation And assess infrastructure needs such as roads water and sewer And also like I said prepare an associated environmental impact report pursuant to the california environmental quality act So throughout this process, um, we want to ensure the community's vision for the plan area is incorporated into the goals and actions and policies And the community engagement strategy is our roadmap to achieving that Here we have a graphic that shows the plan area for the south centeroza specific plan It encompasses approximately 1,900 acres 500 of which are in city limits and the remaining are unincorporated Um, as I mentioned the community engagement Strattot or the community engagement is a critical component of the success of this specific plan And the strategy itself itself, which is included as attachment three Identifies several examples of various approaches to community engagement And has been designed to solicit participation from a wide variety of folks in our community The overall goals of the community engagement strategy We're trying to emphasize that the city's approach to engagement reflects a partnership And a commitment to plan with the community and not for the community Our engagement aims to recognize and remove the barriers to participation in the planning process Specifically for people of color seniors the youth and people with limited English proficiency Another huge goal that will inform how we conduct this Engagement is that we're trying to meet people where they gather already and not invite people to come out and meet us Where we're at And you'll see that Exampled in some of the events that are included in the strategy itself Here are some of the methods that we are applying to conduct our community engagement I just want to highlight a few that are on this list and that are our kind of just referenced On ash wednesday, which was february 14th We conducted some outreach at the saint rose church for the ash wednesday service We engaged with over 200 attendees of the ash wednesday's Service and provided flyers and had some brief discussions as folks for entering and exiting the service about The kickoff of this specific plan process Um this saturday, I'm very excited to join the sinoma county regional parks and volunteers at The andi lopez unity park volunteer day Um, I plan to show up nice and early and greet Volunteers as they arrive and kind of introduce myself as a city staff member I'm not trying to hijack the point of the um Of the volunteer day, but just letting people know that the south center is a specific plan is um in the process And the park itself is in the plan area um So I will also Work my butt off alongside the volunteers and then offer To stay after to discuss the specific plan and any questions that they have about what's a specific plan? How would this affect me? What's the timeline? um And then finally as was mentioned earlier tonight, uh Earth day Planning will have a presence at earth day and we'll be showcasing the variety of planning efforts that are happening Throughout the city including the south center as a specific plan As part of the engagement for this process, we are going to form an engagement advisory committee This will be a community of interested parties that be residents renters people doing business in the south center as a plan area And this will ultimately represent their communities and hopefully bring others into the process that we wouldn't necessarily have direct access to Um We'd like to emphasize that Staff knows that the plan area is a mosaic of communities. It's not just one south santa rosa community and we're hoping to Take that knowledge and really conduct the recruitment plan that is included in the community engagement strategy To get some representative folks from those important communities in that area And then a bit of the technical kind of slide here So as part of the recruitment for the engagement advisory committee staff is Asking council to waive policy zero zero zero dash zero zero six So the couple requirements for the that are associated with this policy is that Committee members must be santa rosa residents and for this situation as I mentioned 1400 acres is not incorporated into the city So we need some folks that are not in current cities city of santa rosa residents to be part of this committee And then the formal application process is really kind of Potentially a necessary barrier when we know some community leaders in that area that we can just directly engage with to see if either they or Their designees would be interested in serving Oftentimes the formal application process could be just Another step that is not necessarily Important for this type of work And then also sometimes life happens and folks who are on the engagement advisory committee may not be able to fulfill their commitment to membership anymore and if We had these requirements that are outlined in this policy It would be a bit of a hassle to reappoint members and we're really trying to keep this project On the timeline and under budget With that we'll move on to timeframe and next steps. So right now we're in the Phase two the consultation phase. We've kicked off our engagement And that is discussed in the community engagement strategy that we're asking you to accept We will then move on to developing the alternatives that will be informed by community input that we've Gathered throughout this engagement process And ultimately the adoption of the south santa rosa specific plan would occur near the end of 2025 and early 2026 So with that that is it is recommended by the planning and economic development department that the council will by motion accept the community engagement strategy for the south santa rosa specific plan and with council policy 000 06 regulating appointments to boards commissions and committees to allow staff to appoint the members of the eac For the south santa rosa specific plan and with that We'll pass it back to the mayor Thank you both. All right bringing it back to council Questions all right councilmember o'crapkey Yeah, just one quick question From phase four to five on that last slide Can you explain why? There's so much time between those two from july about it's about 28 months from july 2025 to november of I'm assuming that's 2025 or is that 2026? So it is july 2025 and then with adoption expected in early 2026 And so a lot of that is It is collecting all the feedback that we've received that we have received on the draft specific plan Solidifying that draft specific plan and then developing the environmental impact report that has to go along with that So it all takes time and this timeline here of about two years is Generally speaking what it has traditionally taken us for these types of similar projects All right. Thank you. All right councilmember alvarez Thank you vice mayor. Uh, first I want to applaud you for your efforts on engagement the ash wednesday I mean that's exactly what it takes to reach a community who normally doesn't engage civically and in respects to The outreach or continued outreach. I know that we as policy makers have burdened staff With having to decide between policy and procedure when it comes to what method In rally what language we're approaching the community with and with that said i'm hoping that that the spanish language is Is one that we're engaging in those flyers are bilingual And and also i'd make myself available Should there be an ad hoc or liaison either for for this committee? I would like to volunteer should that be needed and just make that known Thank you councilmember any other questions Then we'll move to public comment madame city clerk Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 15.2 If you have not provided a speaker card or your name, please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and the countdown timer will alert at the end of that period I'm seeing no one approach the podiums for 15.2 All right back to council for any final comments Mayor rogers Again a job well done definitely great The community engagement seeing you guys in places that I wouldn't normally see you or like. Oh, why are they here? So it was really nice. So thank you very much for all the hard work you guys put into this Councilmember alvarez Question I know that we're giving the liberty to our staff to put together this team Is there a way to for us council to ratify the group once once has been formalized at least the last check-in If that is the wish of the council, we certainly can do that in the past The council has appointed members To these advisory committees Um, we've run into issues with quorum problems because we you know people drop off The committee for one reason or another it takes some time to get new members appointed Giving staff that ability to do that It creates a lot of flexibility and a way for us to move this more quickly through the process But certainly if council wants us to come back to solidify the group we can certainly do that I retract their request, but I do see a column by count by our legal counsel It's my understanding the intent of this is that this is a advisory. This is a Community advisory group and not a new brown act body And so if we want to keep it that way then it would not be something that you all created or then ratified We would then have a lot of legal requirements and staff implications For staffing this it would become a much more expensive proposition in terms of resources. So I just want to make sure that we don't inadvertently create something that is more than then we have the bandwidth to manage Excellent. All right council member alvarez. Do we have a motion? Glad nobody asked Yes, I'd like to put forward an action To approve a waiver of council policy 000-06 Regarding appointments to boards commissions and committees to allow staff to appoint county residents Within the specific plan area and to allow city staff to appoint members based on the eac composition included in the strategy and secondly move to accept the community Engagement strategy for the next south center rosa specific plan and way further reading of the text Second All right, we've got a motion from council member alvarez And a second from council member mcdonald Madam city clerk Thank you council member rogers Hi council member o'crapkey. Hi council member mcdonald. Hi council member fleming absent council member alvarez Vice mayor step. Hi mayor rogers. I let the record show this passes with six affirmative votes Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation and again. Thank you for just being in the community I think it is definitely great Uh 15.4. Madam city manager I know 15.4 budget amendment one time project funding Thank you mayor Members of the city council My name is allen alton and chief financial officer um i'm gonna Scoot through these things as quickly as I can I think you guys have probably Seen more of me than you care so As we move along As you know as we go through the budget process we There are some items that we cannot fit into our annual budget And we try to Come back at a later point using funds left over from the previous year Appropriate those out of the general fund reserves And uh and use those dollars to pay for One time needs Generally have a critical or at least important nature um So this is the what what this Item is about we have gone through that process used to be known as our our Mid-year budget adjustment. Uh, we're a little past mid-year. So We won't won't go through that. There is sufficient funding available in The reserves to pay for one time projects These we could not fit in when trying to keep our balance our budget balanced as we go go through the the normal process so We we went through a rather extensive process Um of the departments bringing projects together Over a period of time. They were vetted. There were additional questions asked Some fell off the list some kept going and what you I have before you is uh a proposed list of projects totaling $3,060,000 And With approval We would appropriate funding out of the general fund and assigned reserves To fund these projects For the most part and what you'll see as we go through here we have We wanted to make sure that we had project start dates and Targeted completion dates So you know that these were Shovel ready project ready, uh projects if you will. Um, and so you can see how we What these dates are so as I shoot through and find my notes So the first off is with the human resources department and it's neo gov assessment This project would utilize a consultant to per uh to Provide a review and assessment of all current neo gov models Excuse me to optimize the use in hr and provide much needed training This is important to ensure that the city Is using the system to its full capacity And get the most out of the considerable investment that we put into it. So this is an efficiency item It would be a hundred thousand dollars to do that. We expect to start that project Uh in july of 2024 and we're targeting Uh in october 25 completion date. Most of these are going to be in about the one year Little year year and a half Time frame Next one is an internal control audit update. We did our last internal control full Outside auditor come in and do specifically internal control policies back in 2016 They developed a management plan We at that point we actually Had in-house staff Internal auditor that allowed us to go through that plan Create policies Audit existing ones And and so the We've unfortunately have lost that position over over time but So this would be to come in and do a refresher of that that management plan See if there are other things that need to be tested But in full disclosure this will create the plan for us And we would need to find within our budget a way to Have an outside auditor come in and do the future work of auditing and testing Of those policies, but all of that starts with the plan And we need help to be able to do that and it has been a number of years since we've done it last In uh transportation and public works. We have uh two projects one our In-ground vehicle lifts. This is out at the fleet maintenance facility. Um So it will remove four in-ground lifts that uh and replace them with new lifts The original ones were installed in 1986 Their parts are obsolete They are provide a significant resource for us to be able to service 190 Medium heavy-duty vehicles including transit buses and fire apparatus So there is also the potential for soil contamination Should we leave the existing lifts in and they start to leak So We would take the funding that we are asking for here The 932 000 we would add it to existing funding that has been Um Put forward by santa rosa water and transit for a total of a two million dollar project and We would start that in july and it would take us about a year to complete the program We also have the fleet mass electrification master plan Santa Rosa water and transportation public works have jointly submitted an application In formula funding from the energy efficiency and conservation block grant program So we are going to receive that But we need 160 000 to Complete the the cost of of that master plan So the water part has theirs coming through on the grant The the general fund part would come through from reserves For information technology, we have three of them. One is video security in the downtown campus We would start in right away in april Targeted completion date is june 2025 This will provide funding for the equipment and labor to complete the installation We've already started it. This would complete the installation of the external video security cameras in downtown city hall the chamber building and Bank building areas and parking lots this is come forward as a employee safety issue And and again, we've been trying to address this over a number of years There is a mitel phone replacement Again ready to start right away on this targeted completion october 2025 167 000 for the the city's current phone system is being discontinued by the fender And will no longer be supportive for updates enhancements or security patches after december 2025 So it is in our best interest to replace that system And then $80,000 for The on-premises excella system. So Same with the phone system. Excella is Permitting an inspection system will no longer be supported by the vendor after december 2025 Um So we need to look to replace that the $80,000 is a one-time funding request to assist with the implementation and data migration And and interface costs there will be a larger full project cost, but that will be Directed through our it cost allocation plan to the departments that specifically use that Uh, planning economic development and fire And any other system that uses or department that uses the system, but it's mostly those two Police, uh, we have a radio upgrade project. This is $800,000. Um, this project will address ongoing cover jesh, uh issues Throughout the city in the hospitals Uh, Sonoma county jail and areas in oakmont Upgrading the radios to provide Connection to cell towers and wi-fi as well as the current radio network Should solve the coverage issues that we're having and provide Reliable coverage during mutual aid responses Uh, this upgrade will also provide gps tracking for a live monitoring of staff during critical incidents And uh, it should purchase or will purchase 170 portable radios In 63 in car radios and the required software subscription For two years Uh, we would start this In 2024 and my understanding is We are ready with a bid right away. So we should be able to have this In place Hopefully by the fire season this year. So we're targeting early or late summer early fall And a police server asc upgrade this solution will provide A more secure backup system for critical police data Including case data and video surveillance and provide capacity For incoming technology needs the current data storage Solution for the police department is outdated and has no space for growth and requires replacement And for wrecking parks, we have the Doyle park ball field upgrades I'll note that there's a Typo under the department total. It should be $500,000. That is the ask This project will fund upgrades to the Doyle Park ball field Really starting with new concessions and then a number of other water sewer electrical upgrades This this will be combining with other funding that they have In order to make this this project go forward This would we're targeting a July 2024 start with a completion in December of 2025 And finally we have a a future project to talk about Just briefly because I don't have a ton Of Information on this but it is exciting and we wanted to bring it to the council's attention We had intended we we've been talking about doing hvac Upgrades for A very very long time And we were actually prepared to make a $5 million investment into those Upgrades however We there is a program that would allow us to use those funds Or An amount of funds As to leverage federal as seed money basically to level leverage federal money to come in To do a more extensive energy efficiency upgrades So we would not only get our hvac system done but other Energy efficient upgrades throughout the city. We would be able to do would be phased in Over a number of years and we're still doing our due diligence with this So we're not prepared to come with the full Program now. We will come back in a later date and discuss Uh those opportunities So by way of fiscal impact. So these are uh one time, uh projects So there's on the surface there's no ongoing costs I I did note in some areas where we are dealing with with the initial impacts or There there may be some budgetary Or absorbing future costs and future budgets But for the impact of this this is These are all one time Important projects that are shovel ready to go Can be started Within either this month or the next couple of months And and be completed there are we would be pulling from the general fund unassigned reserves for this As of june 30 june 30th 2023 our reserves totaled about 60.8 million dollars or 31.7 of expenditures, which is well above our 17 percent policy requirement If we were able to do this action It would reduce our reserves Down to about 28 0.6 of Expenditures expenditures or about 22 million dollars Over the council policy So with that the finance department recommends the city council by resolution Amending the fiscal year 23 24 adopted budget by increasing appropriations in the amount Of 3 million 60 thousand dollars to fund One-time projects has set forth an exhibit a the resolution and i'm available and Those that are still awake are available to Um answer any questions You may have Thank you for the presentation and for those of you that are still awake. Thank you for still being here Look into council okrappke Yeah, just one quick question for those Doyle park upgrades to the concessions would those be consistent with what um Maybe councilmember rogers would be better educated on this. What a minor league team per se would be looking at for a concessions area So the school would school would average Any hypothetical minor league pro pro am league Yes, that's the goal. Yeah, I think it would definitely Put us down that path Look man, it took three months for me to get the hat. I just need to be able to wear it All right, any other question questions Councilmember mcdonald I have a question on every single slide I'm just kidding. I know I just have a couple little things One thank you for doing the audit control I appreciate that we're going back and getting some of those back in place for my long-term finance and just making sure that that's back Targeted completion on the radios for police. I didn't see a completion date I just want to make sure that we're moving forward to support that Yes, we are I apologize. That was a typo in the slide I'm glad I found it. Yes. Thank you for that and pointing it out. That was very Yes, I I went through that pretty quickly and I apologize for that and to the interpreter The the hope for that we we are ready to for the purchase Pretty much right away. In fact, I believe there will be an item on a future council Agenda that will deal with that and the idea would be to have these in place by Late summer early fall This year right away. So yeah, we want to get them in place by the fire season Okay, just two more things on the Doyle park. Is this not something we could use the park impact fees for? Yeah, yes, we could we could so my question is is there another way that we could spend $500,000 on other Capital improvements and be able to use some of those reserves from park impact fees Whole whole place Not all of them if I if I went back and added the math from what we were told earlier There was still a few million dollars, but Sorry I already struggled with my hearing so I apologize. That's okay so again, the the park implant or the park development fees that are They are all allocated. So there aren't If if we were to Switch this out and maybe I'm looking over here and I'm hitting I'm seeing nods and I don't know if we're If that's exactly what what we're going to do. So Maybe what I should do is Is Confirm with them really quick when you're asking your other question and I can get a more coherent answer From the fine gentlemen that are to my right Yes, I'm fine with approving it as it is But I think that if you have an opportunity to pull from another reserve And backfill this money to do something else. That's what I'd prefer specifically on this if there is Actual money. That's not allocated since we do have money in another account Yeah, so the park fees are actually allocated what you we can bring you an updated spreadsheet some of the Programs are fully funded. Some of them are not If you would like for us to go back and take a look at what's been funded and what's fully funded We can make adjustments if if you would like for us to do that I think if you can do both that would be great Um, and then the last thing is when you replace the hVAC equipment I'm not sure if we've taken into account the reduction and what we're going to be spending in pg Ne because that should also be considered For general fund that we'll be able to see some of those revenues increase and that's part of the study And it's part of the due diligence that we're doing right now, but obviously that is why it's an attractive program agree to use so I look forward to coming back to that at a later date. Thank you Goodbye, sir I like that we're doing a deep dive. I'm here for it Um, no in reality. I'm glad you underlined the fact that these projects were shovel ready And then we can we can make some good things happen right away And secondly, I just wanted you to check my math again So if we have about three million that we feel comfortable at allocating to one time projects Does this mean that we think that our our budgeting is going to come in Or that our actuals are going to come in around a percent and a half of the of the original budget Uh And if that's a hard question, you don't need to answer it I was thinking you could take a victory lap with um, no, I I wish I I I think we're Where we are at last Uh, we're Where we've last reported on it and There'll be spoiler alert a new Uh, third quarter budget performance at the end of this month with the finance subcommittee So we'll have an update of that but um, uh, we are still trending to Uh be very close to budget But again, remember we began the year With the deficit. So we're trending to match our deficit um We are looking very we check it monthly to see if turn back is Is is rising or or anything that is going to Uh help us cover that and so far we haven't seen it Uh That anything that's significantly changed From where we are from mid-year So what this is telling us is that we have sufficient reserves To do this now. We think these these projects are important to move forward now, but please keep your eye on You know in a couple months and then the next year in the next year You're you're going to start seeing the reserves probably get smaller I I I really do Uh, um, what we're seeing in terms of trends is that our um Our actuals are hitting online with budget And which is great except for we're coming to you with deficits. So that makes it bad So we're it's good and bad Understood. Thank you Any additional questions? Seeing none madam city clerk may you please facilitate public comment? Yes, we are now taking public comment on items 15.4 If you'd like to provide public comment, but have not provided your name Please make your way to the podium. You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Mayor i'm seeing no one approached the podiums for public comment All right. Are there any comments from councilmen comments? Nope. Nope. Nope I'll just say, um, I want to thank you Cfo for your hard work and for Just being patient with us Both you and the city manager are handling the budget in a way That I think a lot of us council members have not seen and those of us that have been here for a while So thank you for your patience And thank you for handling The city's funds appropriately in in a good manner. I am very appreciative So With that I will hand it over to Vice mayor Thank you, mayor. I move that we approve this resolution Amending the fiscal year 2023 2024 budget by increase increasing appropriations by $3,060,000 To fund one-time projects and wait for the reading of the text. Okay I have a motion made by vice mayor staff and a motion uh in a second from councilmember okrepke Madam city clerk. Can you please facilitate the vote? My fingers are moving slow now Let's see here councilmember rogers. Hi councilmember okrepke. Hi councilmember mcdonald. Hi councilmember flamin is absent councilmember alvarez Vice mayor staff. Hi mayor rogers. Hi let the record show this passes with six affirmative votes All right, and I tricked you guys. We're not done So we're going to head back up to item six And that is the report out on study and closed sessions. I'll hand it over to madam city attorney Thank you, madam mayor There was no reportable action taken in The closed session And as you may recall from a very long time ago earlier today, we did have a study session um That was a very robust conversation About um impact of development. I'm sorry the impact of development impact fee waivers And that is the end of my report Thank you. Any questions from council members seeing none madam city clerk Can you please facilitate public comment on this item? We are now taking public comment on item six if you'd like to make a comment, please make your way to the podiums Mayor emcee no one approached the podiums. Perfect. We already completed our staff briefings Madam city attorney and Madam city manager. Do you have any reports for us? I like those shaking heads. All right Um, we are going to continue to item 10 No, we really can't do that anymore because we've already done all the business. Sorry Okay, so we are going to uh go to our mayor and council members reports And i'm very sternly looking at all the council members and you guys joking Council member rogers Thank you so much mayor. I have three things for the council tonight So, uh, first of all beginning of the month. We have most of our regional bodies Just wanted to put on the council's radar that at the sinema county transportation authority meeting On Yesterday it's been a blur almost two days ago at this point We had our first look at the greenhouse gas emission update For all of the region in the staff report for yesterday's meeting There's a temporary link that goes to a dashboard that looks at how each jurisdiction is doing in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions The top level for santa rosa is that we've seen a 28 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between our peak And this was the 2020 inventory update the 2022 is underway right now So look forward to that wanted to make sure folks had that on Their radars because it is really interesting information So i'm a clean power We got an update on our geo zone initiative for those who don't remember We are investing in three different geothermal plant technologies to try to advance renewable energy projects in our region I will skip the in-depth explanation of how this is different But feel free to ask questions at another time And then finally the third item I would like to add to the council agenda a discussion about a senior overlay for our mobile home parks second second And we can bring that back at another council meeting All right, so bottom city clerk we have a request by motion by council member rogers second by mayor rogers And we'll come back with that one. So i'll make sure i get it added to the next available Agenda that is in accordance with our preliminary requirements. Perfect. Thank you so much And with that we'll go to council member alvarez Thank you Expecting the website. I have no idea what's going to be launched, but keep checking the internet I've seen a preview of it and you're going to like it With that being said, I would like to put on the future agenda An item to discuss The burden that we are placing on our staff in regards to language other than english when it comes to notices and and Hispanic committees And I would hope that we can have that discussion second We have a motion made by council member alvarez and a second made by council member mcdonald madam city clerk Hoping we can Get that one on too I would also like to put on future agenda items a little bit more work And this one is in regards to the buffer zones when it comes to cell phone towers Second we have a motion made by council member alvarez And a second by council member mcdonald Thank you again madams. Yes, ma'am. Can I just that through the mayor? I'd like clarity on the first Request for a future agenda item by council member alvarez just for clarity discussion A future discussion of the burden we are putting on staff Regarding noticing in other languages Correct because the reason being that I've seen the confusion that we've placed on those shoulders of staff when they're trying to decide Whether it's policy or practice And i'm hoping that we can create policy can can we change it around to maybe What is the policy and if we want to revisit the policy? Correct and to have it applied to where so have that discussion. Is that okay? That is correct You made a second. Is that okay? All right, so they are okay. Does that clarify your request? Thank you. Just as a summary a discussion of the development of translation Policy requirements. Yes Thank you. Thank you You good? All right. So now we're going down to okrepki Um, yeah lawns here. So if he wants to talk about when the website's going to launch he can So we saw that the government task force it's it's great So if anybody wants to ask one he could he could probably give you an idea of when that's going to get launched Other than that, um, i'll skip over the fun stuff that I did over the past week But uh, I would do want to say on April 23rd at 9 a.m Here we will have a public safety subcommittee meeting and we'll be discussing illicit massage businesses as well as the Publicly at its first look at the fire department strategic plan Thank you. Um, council member mcdonald Are you sure? You're gonna have to hold it for two weeks All right now you've Now i'm going to I just wanted to um quickly announce I was the speaker for the advocacy group for santa rosa metro chamber And I just wanted to thank them for the invitation to come and be their speaker at lunchtime As well as attending the service awards So i'm not skipping over the fun stuff because I really want to thank our employees for their dedication to the city For all their years of service and i'm happy that we're getting caught up on the Many people that have deserved so many awards and it's so great Those are like the sugar for me that when we get to go and see all of our great employees and Recognize them and all their dedication to the city So I just want to say thanks to staff for putting that on and for the opportunity to attend Were you there by yourself? It'll just help all of us if you just say who was there mayor was there vice mayor was there Oh krepke was there your council Because we just love saying your name who else was there. I can't remember Okay, the everyone who who was there was was there. Okay, perfect. All right, thank I know it is we're almost done Bear with me. All right, so um for mine Really quickly on uh march 27th the sonoma county homeless coalition formally co c Met the coalition approved recommendations for 7.9 million and funding to 14 Agencies under the fiscal year 24 25 local homelessness services notice of funding availability Also known as nofa The coalition received 40 applications totaling over 12 million the funding recommendations will go to the sonoma county board of supervisors in june Now I don't have to talk about the employee service awards. Thank you on four seven I was able to attend the operating engineer district 10 picnic And that was special because I was also able to meet with some of the santa rosa's own staff In their families. So that was really great To see them there and not at work April 8th the whack water advisory committee met sonoma water staff presented the final fiscal year 2024 25 budget And rates to the whack and the whack unanimously recommended approval the Rates result Is 9.88 percent increase for santa rosa sonoma water staff provided a Water supply update noting that lake sonoma and lake mendicino are at their maximum allowable storage For this time of year and sonoma water staff also provided an update on the ill russian river project authority And noted that the authority selected the pump back design as the option to move forward to allow for the continued diversion of the ill river Water to the russian river. There were four designs. No three designs that were put forth three or four I don't remember and they selected The pump back design and with that madame city clerk may you please facilitate public Comment. Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 11 If you're in chamber would like to provide a comment, please make your way to the podium You will have two minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of the period May I am seeing no one approached the podiums for public comment on item 11 So now we'll move on to item 11.2 matters from council regarding future agenda items and 11.2 Was matters from council regarding Nope, not that one 11.2.1 requests for agenda item regarding temporarily vacating portions of 4th street Which was brought by mayor rogers and a second from member or council member rogers council member rogers So now we take a vote Is there any discussion that needs to be had amongst the council? Yes Yes for a c.m. Dunstan How many full-time employees do we currently have an economic development? Permanent employees How many people are actually working full-time in economic development right now? So currently we only have a temporary Not a temporary a interim person Which would be jill who was actually Our real estate She's actually working in real estate. So she's interim deputy director of economic development and then rafiel who was working as I guess a program specialist not Exactly sure what the title is He is now being used as a liaise On the permitting side, but it's still doing some work in the economic development department My question is is who would be doing this work? It would be myself director osborne acting deputy director scott and contingent of other staff from planning and economic development That doesn't exist. That's what you're saying So I guess my discussion point on this is I think this is a worthy the discussion to have I think it's worthy that we have this discussion at some point. We literally do not have anybody To do the work right now In order to do to take this on That's my biggest concern now once budget comes and we have people that are staffed or and they're or may or we go through Because we are in the recruiting process. I assume once all of that is done. I think that'd be an appropriate time but We literally do not have people to do this unless we take people off of other jobs overseeing departments and and things of that nature I don't have any other comments Okay, seeing none may anyone here for public comment on this item Seeing no public comment Madam city clerk may you please Need a motion and a second. Oh, okay. I'll make the motion. So I'll like to make a motion to To close portions of of four street temporarily Can I offer a clarifying amendment go for it? specifically from D street to I can't remember if it's hidden or exchange, whichever the the first street by beer baron is And then jumping over to the other one, which is by the rosa to B street so that that way we close fourth street for A bicycle and pedestrian use but also maintain the traffic flow specifically around the square Yes, madam city attorney if I may madam mayor The item in front of you is to determine Whether to put something on the agenda so The motion you'd be making would be To have staff come back with an item Uh to determine whether to vacate those portions of fourth street. You're not actually doing it this evening Yeah, I just felt a little more clarity in the motion might alleviate some panicked phone calls All right. Yeah. Yes, you do need to vote on it, but the motion is to um, whether or not to agendize this item Madam city clerk may you please call the vote? I didn't hear the second mayor. I'm sorry second And again the motion language is to place a discussion of impacts of temporarily vacating portions of fourth street to a future Agenda date as amended by councilmember rogers If I may through the mayor um The term vacate my understanding is a legal term and so we would prefer that The term be closed not vacate I'm good if you're good Thank you councilmember rogers Hi councilmember. Oh crepeki. No councilmember mcdonald. Hi Councilmember fleming is absent councilmember alvarez. Hi Councilmember or vice mayor step. Hi Mayor rogers. Hi Let the record show this passes with five affirmative votes with councilmember fleming absent and Oh crepeki councilmember. Oh crepeki voting. No All right Moving on to item 11.2.2 Request for agenda item regarding development of process to Activate vacant parcels The motion was made by councilmember rogers And it was seconded by councilmember. Oh crepeki So now we'll have any discussion All right, so seeing none. We'll now take public comment on this item Seeing no one moving to the podium All right, so no public comment right now madam Oh I need a motion moved Second All right. I have a motion made by councilmember rogers in a second from vice mayor step Madam city clerk. May you please call the vote? Councilmember rogers. Hi councilmember. Oh crepeki. Hi councilmember mcdonald. Hi councilmember fleming is absent councilmember alvarez Vice mayor step. Hi mayor rogers. I let the record show this passes six affirmative votes Thank you Moving to item 12, which is our approval of minutes. We have one set of minutes march 26 2024 Which was a special meeting councilor. Are there any corrections to the minutes? Seeing none madam city clerk. Oh, actually I can do it If you would like to make a public comment, please go to the podium. We see no one moving towards the podium. So we will now Adopt the minutes as presented We already did consent So we will now have our second Written communications are attached on to the agenda item 17 If you would like to make public comment on item 17 written communications, please make your way to the podium There is no one making their way to the podium Moving on to item 18, which is our public comment on non-agenda matters This is our second time that the public can make comment on Items that are not on the agenda, but are within our jurisdiction as council If you would like to make a comment, please make your way to the podium seeing no one making their way to the podium We will now close public comment And We have nothing else on The agenda, but I would before I adjourn like to congrats congratulate our colleague councilmember rogers on making 40 under 40 And thank you to our other colleague councilmember okrepke For making the nomination So congratulations and thank you for keeping your colleagues in mind councilmember okrepke and with that we will adjourn the meeting. Thank you very much