 Good morning and welcome to today's city council meeting. Let's go ahead and call the roll and see if we have a quorum Thank you mayor councilmember tidbits councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember Sawyer councilmember Fleming here councilmember alvarez Vice mayor rogers Mayor Rogers here Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember Sawyer and councilmember tidbits, right? We started our day today in closed session with items 2.1 and 2.2 Madam deputy city clerk, do we have any public comment for those items? We've received no written public comment No voice message public comments and we have no one on the zoom to provide public comment from the public Okay, so we have no hands and we have nobody in the chambers So we'll go ahead and recess into closed session and council will be back in just a little bit Let's go ahead bring us back into open session Madam city clerk, could you please call the roll councilmember tidbits? Councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember Sawyer Councilmember Fleming here Councilmember alvarez present vice mayor rogers Mayor rogers here let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of council members Sawyer and councilmember tidbits, right? Madam city attorney. Do you want to do a quick report out from our closed session items? Yes, thank you councilman in closed session on two items item 2.1 concern the matter of pending litigation Gallagher versus city of Santa Rosa and council gave direction to staff To legal counsel on that matter and then the council discussed item 2.2 Which is the airport business center and blue fox partners versus city of Santa Rosa and again gave direction to legal staff Great. Thank you. Thank you so much madam city attorney We will go ahead and recess our special council meeting and we will be back in an hour at 12 o'clock for our regularly scheduled council meeting Hi Xiomara, thank you for joining us for translation. Can we do a quick? Mike check, please Hi Xiomara. Thank you for joining us Can we do a quick? Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning everyone. My name is Mara and I'll be one of your interpreters today Thank you, Mara. I'm gonna go ahead and move you into the Spanish channel and Okay, Charles do the Instructions on how the meeting will work in Spanish at the time the meeting is called to order So thank you for joining us and I'll push you over into the Spanish channel now Thank you. Thank you Sorry, I Segun Alcalá de Español recommendamos que apaga en el audio principal para poder escuchar la interpretación claramente Thank you, Charles Xiomara if you can commence your interpretation services from the Spanish channel. Thank you very much All right, let's go ahead and get our regular council meeting started for today. Madam city clerk. Could you please call the roll? It's one moment mayor councilmember Tibbet Councilmember Schwedhelm here Councilmember Sawyer. I believe councilmember Sawyer will be absent for the whole meeting councilmember Fleming Councilmember Fleming President Thank you councilmember Alvarez present Vice mayor Rogers Mayor Rogers here let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember Sawyer and councilmember Tibbet Thank You madam city clerk. We have multiple ways to participate in today's meeting It is a hybrid meeting so folks can give public comment on our items both in person as well as via zoom We'll start our day with two closed session items. That's items two point one and two point two If anybody is interested in speaking on those items Go ahead to hit the raise hand feature on your zoom or if you're in the chamber go ahead and queue up at the podium I'll start here in the council chambers if you wanted to identify yourself for the council And then you'll have three minutes to speak on the closed session items Good morning or a good afternoon. My name is Carl Carr I'm with operating engineers local three representing units three thirteen and sixteen here at the city of Santa Rosa I'm also a city resident Lifetime city resident the city of Santa Rosa Here briefly to speak on item two point one labor negotiations And here just a as a reminder to the city council to please remember that when you're discussing the labor negotiations that You're talking about the greatest asset in the city of Santa Rosa its workers its workers Especially the ones I represent keep the city moving they keep the city working They keep the water flowing they make sure that the fire trucks are prepared to go out on the fire lines They make sure that the police cars are properly maintained to allow the officers to make sure that they can patrol the city and keep the city safe They also maintain the parks. They maintain the streets They're also members of the DRT team, which was a project I know that has been a long time coming they're out there on a daily basis doing the frontline work of the city To make sure that the city is beautiful and maintained and that we can have a city That we're proud of to live in and to work in and to thrive in and so I'm just here again reminds you That when you go back and talk about labor negotiations, it's not just about money. It's not just about Boxes on a on a spreadsheet numbers on a spreadsheet. It's about those workers livelihoods in their lives People that work here want to live here and they want to live in a city that Continues to be the best city in the set in the county of Sonoma I really do truly believe that we are in the best city in the same the county of Sonoma and the county of Sonoma I believe to be one of the best counties in the state of California And the best way to do that is to make sure that you treat the number one asset like they are the number one asset Thank you for your time All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your comments Madam Deputy city clerk. Is there anybody raising their hand on zoom? No mayor There is no one in zoom and we receive no written or voice message public comments on item The closed session items on the regular agenda. Great. Thank you. We will go ahead and recess into closed session then You'll Mara and Charles the interpreters on the line. Just so you know, we will be recessed to closed session until 2 p.m. So you will have a Quiet period at this point. We will make that same announcement on how public comment and the Spanish Channel operates right at the beginning of our regular session when they reconvene from The closed session for the study session. We'll just drop right in to Put you both into the Spanish Channel and you can swap switch on and off for the meeting. Thank you Again for those of you just joining the meeting that translation in Spanish is being provided today via zoom To participate from the Spanish Channel, please click on the globe icon To connect to the Spanish Channel, it may look like a globe or an ES Interpreter Charles. Can you please repeat that? The recent gas at the reunion, the interpretation in Spanish is available and the people who want to listen in Spanish can go to the Spanish Channel To change the channel, click on the interpretation icon located in the tool bar of this zoom For that globe, because it is a Spanish Channel, we recommend that you turn off the main audio to be able to listen to the interpretation clearly Go ahead and come back from recess. Adam city clerk. Could you please call the roll? Yes councilmember Tibbets here Councilmember Shwedham here Councilmember Sawyer will be absent for the entire meeting councilmember Fleming present Councilmember Alvarez present vice mayor Rogers present mayor Rogers here Let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmember Sawyer Great. Thank you so much madam deputy city clerk Could you please walk the public through how they can participate in today today's meeting either in person or via zoom? Yes after each agenda item Is presented the mayor will ask for council comments and then open it up for public comment The mayor will first take public comment from those Participating in person then move on to members of the public participating via zoom The host and zoom will be lowering all hands until public comment is open for that agenda item If you wish to provide a public comment and are attending the meeting in person Please sign up to speak on an item with the administrator Julie at the top of the room This process is in lieu of speaker cards in order to reduce touch points due to COVID-19 Julie will ask your name what item you wish to speak on and for a one-sentence summary of your statement for the record The mayor will then call on those in person who has signed up to speak on an item Once the mayor has called for public comment He will announce for the public to raise their hands if they wish to speak on the specific agenda item If you are calling in to listen to the meeting via telephone you can dial star 9 to raise your hand Once all live public comments zoom and in and in person have been heard The meeting house will play voicemail public comment submitted if you provide a live public comment on an agenda item But also submitted an email e comment or recorded voice message public comment Your email e comment or voice message public comment will not be duplicated read or played during the meeting Additionally, there are two public comment periods on today's agenda to speak on non-agenda matters under items 13 and 17 This is the 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 council Throughout today's agenda when the mayor calls for public comment an interpreter will be prepared to assist anyone needing interpretation services Those using interpreter support will be afforded additional time for your public comment as required by the Brown Act We ask those listening on the Spanish Channel, but wishing to make a public comment to turn off the Interpretation channel entirely at the time you hear your name called so you can join the main channel to make your public comment heard and Translated into English This icon may now look like a circle with an es in the middle and the word Spanish underneath You can then rejoin the Spanish Channel at the conclusion of your comment to continue listening to the meeting in Spanish. Thank you Thank you so much madam city attorney. Do you want to do a brief report out on our two closed session items that we had I'm happy to do that the council met in closed session with this regular meeting I dressed two items the first was 2.1, which was a conference with labor negotiators council gave direction to the negotiators and item 2.2 concerned Cal OSHA matter with respect to Santa Rosa police department and Council gave direction existing litigation and council gave direction to staff. Thank you Thank you, madam city attorney Councilmembers without objection that I'm going to reorder a portion of the agenda for tonight We have our typical mayors and council members report outs that actually comes before our Consent items there is an item on consent that could potentially change Some of the appointments that folks would want to make in their report outs if approved So if there's no objection from the council, I'm going to reorder the agenda so that items 10 The mayors and councilmember reports will actually be the last thing that we do tonight So that that way it can accommodate that potential change Seeing no objection from the council, but that will move on to our first study session today Miss Reeves, I think this is you Yes, thank you, and good afternoon mayor rogers and members of the city council. I'm amy reeve the director of human resources Along with paul and jesky our organization development and training manager and jeff berg the chief assistant city attorney We will be providing a study session today on our harassment prevention policy next slide, please On the agenda today for review is a quick overview of our current harassment and discrimination prevention policy Um, we will go over what happens when allegations are potentially brought against a council member And paul will be discussing accountability and training next slide, please So the city's current harassment and discrimination prevention policy was last updated in august of 2016 And it is comprehensive and includes the following components It describes all protected categories that are protected in the policy All persons covered by the policy and the types of allegations that would result In um action under the policy So additionally there is a process described within the policy about how to submit allegations Haps to investigate those allegations And potential responses that the city could make Next slide, please and I will go ahead and turn over the presentation to jeff berg our assistant city attorney Thank you. Amy. Good afternoon, uh mayor vice mayor and council members So we've had uh several situations recently in our community involving allegations of misconduct against council members And my portion of the presentation this afternoon will address two issues The first is in the screen that you're seeing up there now What happens when there are allegations of inappropriate conduct by a council member Kind of talks a little bit about the process if you will and and then the second Part uh on the other slide is what actions can the council take if those allegations are sustained So let me talk a little bit about what allegations are and you see on that slide It says fact driven these really are very much Fact driven situations And the first question to ask is whether or not the counties i'm sorry the city's Uh discrimination policy is covered and whether it applies And that depends on the answer to two questions. The first is whether the person making the complaint Is what's called under the policy a protected person And consistent with state and federal discrimination laws protected persons include employees of the city volunteers applicants And those folks that the city contracts with to provide various services The second question is whether or not the allegations involve some type of comments or conduct regarding what's called protected classifications and Uh miss rieve mentioned That the city's policy covers all the protected classifications So under state and federal law Did the discrimination laws that started back in the 1960s and the list included uh, just you can't discriminate on the basis of uh sex gender Race and age and since that time in california the list has gotten quite long and Includes a variety of other classifications including but not limited to sexual orientation and gender identity gender expression genetic information medical condition And so if it's something that's considered a protected classification where the state Laws protect from discrimination our policy is consistent with that And so if we have a situation Uh involving allegations Against a council member The city's policy provides that The city manager will make a determination about whether to refer That to an outside investigator to conduct an investigation and and i'll discuss what investigations look like In just a second So that that's where we're dealing with a protected person and a protected classification and the city's discrimination policy applies I do want to point out however that just because the policy doesn't apply perhaps Uh, the allegations involve Uh a complaint from somebody who's a member of the public. Let's say that doesn't mean we would not conduct an investigation I think it's uh likely that depending on the allegations It could still be appropriate to conduct that investigation and There's a code of conduct policy that i'll i'll talk about Briefly in a little bit that that may Suggest that an investigation should be conducted One last point I wanted to raise was if you have a situation involving Allegations of criminal behavior We would refer that matter to law enforcement and i'll point out that under the city charter If a if a council member is convicted of a felony Under the charter the office is automatically vacated If the matter is referred to law enforcement again, that doesn't mean that we wouldn't conduct an investigation we would um We would still be mindful that a criminal investigation could be Happening simultaneously and you know, we'd certainly be mindful not to do anything that would negatively impact it, but um, You know, we I I could see situations that there would be parallel tracks Next slide, please So this slide gets to the issue of what actions uh council can take if the allegations against a member are sustained So I mentioned that the city manager if their allegations Against a council member can direct that an outside investigator would conduct an investigation and that most likely would be an attorney and the the investigators role is to be an independent neutral fact finder they're the ones who are going to be gathering the facts and The the general approach and investigations as you talk with the person who made the complaint first You talk to any witnesses that they may have Uh, and then you talk to the other side if you will so if it happens to be a council member who's who's uh Been alleged to have engaged in some type of inappropriate conduct or behavior Then then the council member would be interviewed in any witnesses that they have Um, I do want to kind of just pause for a second and mention I did talk about how the it's really critical that they're fact driven And I and I wanted to point out a concept that I called two sets of facts And the first set of facts are those that have already occurred at the time the city is made aware of a complaint And the second set of facts Are what actions that the city takes in response to the complaint? And that's really what we're talking about with regard to investigations and it's really a very critical juncture So this investigator who's gathering the facts once all the facts are obtained through interviews the investigator then makes findings And the test if you will the legal test is Whether or not the allegations are whether that investigator believes that it's more likely than not That the conduct occurred And as you might imagine in a lot of cases it could be a he said she said or You know, whatever pronouns you want to use and credibility assessments have to be made and Determinations on whether folks are being truthful and that is a job that the investigator has to make and will then prepare report And the report that the investigator prepares includes the facts and the findings If the city's discrimination policy applies There's in that policy Is a right of appeal of those findings And if an employee wants to challenge the findings the appeal under our policy goes to the city manager If a council member wants to appeal the findings according to the city's policy That appeal it says shall be governed by the code of conduct policy And so let me spend a couple of minutes and talk to you about the The city's code of conduct policy that applies for council members and also board and commission members Just for reference. It's what's on there at 000-51 So I'll just highlight a couple of what I see is some of the key sections that seem to have relevance to this discussion So the city's code of conduct policy says is a its purpose Is to increase public confidence in city government And to encourage high standards of behavior by council members It says that the professional and personal conduct of members must be above reproach And avoid the appearance of impropriety It talks about demonstrating honesty and integrity And the council members are held to the highest standard of respect To adhere to council policies civility and honesty And then the last section is regarding enforcement And it talks about how the enforcement of this policy Is really up to you as the council. It says that it's self-enforcing So it'll be up to the council how it wants to handle For example an appeal that could come its way so The the next section that I'd like to talk about is what actions can the council take When there are sustained allegations against the council member and you see on the slide there There are three items. The first is public censure So that could be some type of formal action Perhaps it could be adopting a resolution by on behalf of the council Where you disapprove or condemn actions or conduct of a council member. That's one action that could be taken If the council member involved happens to be the mayor or the vice mayor under the city charter They serve at the pleasure of the council So the council could take action to remove that council member's designation as mayor or vice mayor And then the last Piece on that slide is the option for the council to refer the matter to the county's civil grand jury and You may be familiar with the role that the civil grand jury plays kind of as a watchdog on public agencies and they issue an annual report It could or could not involve the city of santa rosa or other jurisdictions other public agencies within the county and they make findings in a recommendation and then the The the impacted agency has an opportunity to respond. That's not what i'm talking about here This is a very different process That's set up in the government code and the end result of this process is that an elected official could be removed from office And the way this process works is that The city could refer a matter to the grand jury that will then make a determination about whether to refer the matter to the district attorney And the test that is set up in the government code Is whether there is willful or corrupt misconduct in office. That's the language in the state law There are not a lot of court decisions that interpret what this means But from the ones that are out there, it seems that it's fairly broadly defined and it includes some type of intentional misconduct No criminal intent is required. So just because the grand jury Could forward it to the district attorney and there would then be a jury trial. This is not a criminal proceeding And the burden of proof. It's not a beyond a reasonable doubt It's still just the more likely than than not standard And so if those steps fall into place and the and the district attorney Prosecutes the case before a jury and the jury comes back and says yeah We think it's more likely than not that the elected official engaged in some type of willfulness conduct in office The result of that conviction if you will is removal from office The only other thing i'll mention is a possible action council can take. I know that you had a session some weeks ago About taking a look at the city charter And I think that one of the items that was discussed and maybe it's going to be referred to the committee Is a possible amendment to the charter to consider Some type of amendments to the charter that would cover the issue of council member misconduct So that was what I had on my slides and I think I will now introduce paul angeski Who's going to talk about the training that the city does in this area? Thank you. Jeff Good afternoon mayor vice mayor council members I'm paul angeski the organization development and training manager for the city And i'm going to cover under accountability and training first the requirements that the city is required to meet And then a description of how we strive to meet those requirements and in some cases actually exceed them So that we get the best opportunities for our staff to be trained and understand the policies and procedures Under the current requirements set by the state of california There are a number of things one that everyone receives an orientation within six months of a new position or promotion And that includes you as elected officials or appointed officials All our new employees and then a person who moves into their new supervisory role if they were not previously a supervisor There's also a requirement that we train temporary and seasonal employees Within 30 calendar days or 100 hours of the time they work first work for the city That's the original orientations There is also a refresher training requirement, which is every two years and under the legislation of sp 1343 Now there is a two hour Required for people who are supervisors or elected or appointed officials And a one hour training every two years for non supervisory staff The one hour training was actually added while the two hour training has been in existence for over a decade And you I will show you how the city strives to meet both the orientation and the refresher training requirements that were obligated to fulfill on next slide, please So how do we do the various compliance with the standards with our orientations? The new employee welcome is held bi-monthly so about every two months now And we do a new supervisor orientation as required when we get new supervisors promoted on Also an about a bi-monthly standard Elected and appointed orientation for council board and commission members is coordinated with the city clerk's office There are often changes to membership, particularly in boards and commissions and the city clerk's office contacts us And we set up classes specifically to make sure that we reach all those newly appointed individuals as soon as possible And after elections we make sure there are classes available for newly elected officials as well The seasonal and temporary orientations are included into the orientation done by the parks and rec creations department primarily For their seasonal employees as part of their multi-day orientation All of the requirements met for preventing workplace harassment are covered as part of that program The refresher training previously had also been done face to face with an instructor Beginning of june of this year. We now have an approved online course for both the two hour and the one hour Legally compliant trainings and I'll get into a little bit more detail of that as we go into the next slide Next slide, please So while the requirements are the minimum the city strives to exceed the minimum in areas and in ways that really serve Our staff and the individuals like yourselves who take the training First of all all orientations are instructor led Not a requirement But it's been our experience that people who are either new to city government types of jobs or employment with the city newly appointed or elected officials oftentimes have a depth and breadth of questions That need to be covered in a homogeneous group that's brought together and actually that training now Basically lasts between two and a half and three hours Even though the initial requirement is only two hours always instructor led in order to be able to get the information to the individuals as they need it okay Now the orientations include Now information on the seed collaborative in gear Two initiatives that the city has engaged in to look for ways to improve our equity and inclusion And to reach it the ways with equity with the city plan the police department equity policing and the fire department's recruiting standards and policies We believe that including these and even adding the time to the orientation for about a half hour Gives people an original awareness at early arrival to the city so that they start understanding when these phrases appear In their emails or in other things they might be doing that they can get the information and understand what the city's progress is in these areas In addition although one hour of training is required for non supervisors The two hour supervisory training is required for some specific departments at their request police fire water and tpw because their working conditions may include Possibly not daily having direct supervision at all times while they are off-site They have required that all of their staff receive the two hour training as if they were supervisors In order to make sure that they are well prepared to deal with issues of harassment discrimination or retaliation prevention And you as council members and the elected or the appointed board and commission members are also considered supervisors And that's why that is a two hour training as well Next slide please About the content in the instructor led courses We remain current with the legal standards as jeff was pointing out the standards can change as as time goes on And not always based simply on the calendar year always happening on the 1st of january or on a specific date There can be changes during the interim when new legislation or new policies and procedures come into effect And we regularly get updates from Libre Cassie and Whitmore a legal firm that we hire to train our supervisors and provide us with information So that even though we may not have them immediately in the policy We immediately change our training so that we're getting the latest information to our staff and our participants All our trainers are trained by lcw in the materials and we get support information from them And as you've all of experience in your recent orientation or refresher that material is pretty comprehensive The presentation structure is also from lcw who remains current on the changing maybe standards or items that Need to be included and again, we can make sure that the information gets in as soon as possible The next two slides provide examples of presentation for those who might be unfamiliar with the information Next slide please Is a typical opening slide you'll notice that at the bottom it has for elected and appointed officials Again, we tailor information for different groups like police We're going to do a training tomorrow specifically for our new police academy graduates Which the examples will be specific to law enforcement types of examples On preventing harassment discrimination and retaliation and all these materials as stated on this slide come from Leverett Cassidy and Whitmore and then we tailor them with examples to make sure they fit the Population that we're training through the city So supervisors get a little bit different information that focuses as being a supervisor direct contributors Contributors get their information as direct contributors And then also we will make sure that in the elected and appointed as you probably experienced The examples have been tailored so that they fit the kinds of situations you may Experience in your role Our goal isn't just to get the information across and make sure people can state laws or state consequences But actually practice using them and that's a fairly interactive class Next slide please Here's the agenda. It covers the six major areas We ask individuals to tell us which ones they may be particularly interested in Where individuals may have Areas that they prefer to know a little bit more detail about it's our responsibility to make sure all six of these areas are covered And we do so in a comprehensive way Also, the state requires us to provide access to their to our training online and the number of their Posters and information sheets and those are provided to all participants so they can download them at a later date We make sure that they see all of the ones that are in english but also access to the department of fair employment and housing site that has Posters and information sheets in a variety of languages as well Next slide please So when we looked at the content online since we're going to online refreshers starting in 2021 turns out that our Agreement with neo gov their learn program has online courses and those courses both of them are refresher courses The one hour and the two hour Meet california standards neo gov does not have a one-size-fits-all for the nationwide california and three other states that have specific standards neo gov Takes care of making sure those standards are met and it's reviewed at least annually And sometimes even in the middle of the year if there's a major change, they will be updated Because the system is set up as an online course and the requirement is that they Participate either two hours or one hour that is monitored So if a person finishes in less than two hours or an hour, they do not get a completion They have to go back into the course and spend more time with it It's designed that every participant must touch every slide and every piece of information And that is monitored through the system and then finally they must pass a test at at least an 80 percent level Failure to complete any of those three standards, which are required by the state Requires the person to take the course over again and we do allow retakes So that they can get the information and meet their refresher standards Next slide, please When sp13 43 came out that with requirements of 2019 between 2019 and 2020 Everyone in the state was required to retrain and make sure all of their individuals for any employer of five or more Gets the new training out to everyone in audit of our records shows that during that period all elected and appointed officials Met that standard. We continued with new employees. Our new employees met that standard new supervisors and our temporary and seasonal So coming into this year, which will be the first refresher year two years after 2019 We were in compliance with the standards With the implementation of the neo gov 100 of people needing a refresher this year will be assigned the refresher appropriate refresher training And in those departments like police fire tpw and water, everyone will get the two hour Non-contra non supervisors and others will get the one hour and they will get that online version Everyone is given two months to complete that Failure to complete on time results in notifications to supervisors saying a person is out of standards and needs to be reminded to take the course until they actually complete it Next slide, please So our current policy remains in place those policy documents are covered in the classes as all of you experienced as you recently went through it We have updates to current policy that will be coming in the future Part of that that takes some time to get them into the policy changes Are there sometimes are items that require possible meet and confer and so we will train to them However, the policy updates may require some meeting with the negotiators And then finally later this year an updated city policy will be brought to the council to review and approve That's the end of my part of it. I will turn it back to our hr director. Amy reef Great. Thank you So in summary we just wanted to go over the highlights here and then open it up for any questions that you might have for myself For mr. Burke or mr. Injelski But overall elected and appointed officials as well as staff are sufficiently trained to our legal standards because the training does occur At least within six months of hire And then every two after two years thereafter Um, we did cover that council has some although limited options when there are sustained allegations against a council member And finally the current city policy is under review and will be updated to reflect ongoing and existing requirements Incorporating diversity equity and inclusion principles and then we'll be brought back before council for adoption Next slide, please With that mr. Injelski mr. Burke and myself are available to answer any questions from council All right. Thank you so much. Amy and paul and jeff really appreciate the information council. Do we have any questions? Okay, we will go to our public comment on the study session for folks who are interested in providing comment Go ahead to hit the raise hand feature on your zoom And madame city clerk. I'm not seeing any hands. Did we have any pre-recorded voicemails? We do not Okay, then i'll bring it back to council Um, we'll see if anybody has any comments that they'd like to make otherwise. I just want to thank you all for for your efforts Obviously, this is something that's been top of mind for community members Uh, there's been quite a bit of interest in making sure that we do have policies that are in place here in santa rosa Uh to try to combat some of what we've seen elsewhere or at least have a response to it And I do know that the charter committee will be reviewing as well to see if we need additional tools council member alvarez Thank you, mayor my question is have you have Have we noticed any policy in the surrounding areas or are in past? policy Standards that we could implement here in the city of santa rosa That's a good question. I think that our um current practices and training Procedures are pretty consistent with what we're seeing Across the board. I know that as the mayor mentioned We would have some opportunity to evaluate whether an amendment to the charter Would provide more jurisdiction to council in terms of making decisions after an allegation Um, I don't know jeff or paul. Do you have any additional comments? No, I don't have any additional comments. I think that's a good summary I think the only thing I would say is I when I talk to my Colleagues in in other jurisdictions and that they are a little surprised on how much we invest in on on face-to-face training And so I think other than that We're just as comprehensive as not only that we need to be but also we exceed standards in many areas Thank you. And in regards to the charter review moving forward if The mayor at large Were to be something that became a reality how would the Pleasure of the council affect that I'd like to turn that over to our city attorney sue gallagher Sure that the standards for An elected mayor would be different The the reason is for the current system the reason that the mayor and the vice mayor Are subject to actions by the rest of the council is that they are appointed by the rest of the council And they serve at the pleasure of the rest of the council So the rest of the council has the ability to remove them from their mayor position or their vice mayor position Council does not have authority to remove them from the council, but just to remove them from the mayor or Or vice mayor positions If the city were to move to and the voters were to approve an at-large mayor We're then into that situation where we're talking about removal of an elected official And that is subject to a whole different set as as mr. Burke was Was discussing so In which case should should there be some guidance towards or to the charter review committee To if they are going to be taking up The the issue of a mayor at large that there should be a recommendation that they should also Come up with the language to address the issue should mayor at large fault in his duties or her duties Yes, and certainly It is our intent our office's intent that as we bring forward each of the issues we'll be giving Some background and how in the committee to research and understand The various nuances of the proposals and certainly this is An area that we would delve into is if there's an at-large mayor You know what happens to the ability to address any misconduct? So yes, thank you. I appreciate that and if the council wants to give us that direction formally Happy to receive that direction, but that is our intent Thanks I guess I would ask jeff if he has anything else he'd like to add No, I I think that accurately states that I will say, you know, we've done just some very preliminary looking and You know, maybe the the committee would would benefit from taking a look at the charter in san francisco They do have a provision in there perhaps unique among all the cities that that addresses a process For addressing elected officials misconduct in office All right. Thank you so much Seeing no other comments. We'll move on to our next study session I think we need to we do have director burg and deputy director martin Go on to item 3.2 Thank you, and good afternoon. Mayor rogers and members of council We are here today to provide an update on our Potable water supplies as well as our drought response Um, with me today is peter martin our deputy director water resources And I will provide some background and overview in terms of where we are in water supply conditions And then uh, peter martin will provide information on our drought response in more detail Next slide, please So, um, one of the questions that we continually receive from the public is related to Where our water supply comes from in the russian river water system? So I just wanted to take a minute and ask for the council's indulgence just to remind the public about the russian river system and where the water supply comes from because We have some very different conditions occurring in lake mendicino versus the conditions that are occurring in lake sonoma So as a reminder, santa rosa water purchases approximately 94 of our water from sonoma water who's the regional water wholesaler And sonoma water has water rights that allow them to divert store and rediver water for municipal and industrial purposes And it also requires them to reduce uh to release water for minimum in stream flow requirements Sonoma water also in conjunction with the army corps Manages both lake mendicino and lake sonoma and lake mendicino which is located closer to yukaya provides water for the upper russian river communities It is a much much smaller reservoir Lake sonoma provides water for sonoma waters main contractors And that includes the city of santa rosa lake sonoma is much larger and it holds roughly four years of water supply And although lake sonoma is at the lowest level for this time of year ever in recorded history There's still about two years of water supply located in lake sonoma So we do get questions about why are there different? requirements for conservation for lake mendicino versus lake sonoma And for for example, city of santa rosa versus city of helsburg and this really tells the story and why those conditions are different Next slide please So this slide builds on itself and so if uh city clerk can just click through as i'm talking that would be great We just wanted to remind the council that um last winter rainfall was very minimal And this year likely is uh going to be the driest year on record. So We had started taking actions in the fall and anticipated that we would receive rainfall, but it didn't occur and so you'll see um Actions happened very quickly throughout the year as rainfall didn't occur Sonoma water requested changes at the state and and if you could just click on through the slide that would be great Sonoma water requested changes at the state to reduce flows to try and maintain storage in their reservoirs And in doing so they also committed to reducing the diversions from the russian river by 20 percent compared to 2020 Um, this is the supply that is for santa rosa and by approving this commitment Sonoma water then made the determination that they did not have enough supplies to meet normal demands Uh this year and provided all of the contractors with allocations and just click on through and we'll go to the next slide please So on the next slide we wanted to provide an update on where lake mendicino is in terms of storage levels um as of august 27th, unfortunately Lake mendicino storage fell below the 20 000 acre foot target that sonoma water had um put for lake mendicino to be at on october 1st so um sonoma water has indicated that this is largely due to larger than expected losses mostly attributed attributable to water diversions um from the russian river The state of california has issued curtailment orders to cease diversions among water right holders in Both the upper and lower russian river with certain exceptions for health and safety needs And we are aware that state officials are currently in the process of conducting inspections for those that have been curtailed in the upper russian river To try and maintain as much storage in lake mendicino as possible um next slide please This slide does show the projections for lake mendicino throughout the remainder of the calendar year The current the black line is the current storage The orange line represents where sonoma water expected to be Based on the temporary urgency change order they received from the state as well as Folks adhering to conservation requirements and water right curtailments The blue line shows projected storage if Water right curtailments are going to be adhered to and the green line shows Where lake mendicino might end up if Demands continue as they currently are Lake mendicino Sonoma water is working very closely with the state to try and preserve as much supply in lake mendicino as possible To ensure that we have storage left over If to get us through potentially another dry winter Next slide please So for lake sonoma, as I mentioned, this is really our water supply and as of august 30th storage is at About 116,000 acre feet Sonoma water is continuing to do everything they can to manage the water supplies for the contractors as well as meeting minimum in stream flows And so we are looking Again, even though it's at the lowest as it is ever and it's important for folks to save as much water as possible We are still have have about two years worth of supply in lake sonoma at this time If we go to the next slide, please So as we have mentioned before Um Sonoma water did provide allocations to santa rosa water and all of the contractors We have allocations from july through october of this year The state water board is requiring that sonoma water reduce diversions through december so In a couple weeks the water advisory committee or the whack will be considering an update to the allocation methodology That does consider previous conservation and demand hardening And if that is unanimously approved by the whack on september 13th Sonoma water will be providing us with additional water allocations for november and december We have been running the water shortage allocation methodology and based on those scenarios and analysis If the whack does unanimously approve the update to the water shortage allocation methodology in september This would keep us in stage three, which is a 20 reduction of water use based on our anticipated allocations Next slide please I do have a little bit of good news to share Um as a region we are tracking above the requirement to reduce water use by 20 compared to 2020 So we really appreciate our customers doing their part and asking them to please keep it up Um, this slide is as of last week. We just got an update this morning And um as of this morning as a region we are down 22 compared to 2020 So, uh, we are seeing a little bit of drop-off in savings That is not completely unexpected because we did have quite a hot week last week But we are asking our customers to keep it up because it's really important that we meet this 20 reduction in diversions next slide please And just a reminder that we are in stage three of our city's water shortage contingency plan Asking our customers to reduce their water use as a community by 20 And i'm going to hand it over to peter and he's going to talk through the requirements and what we're doing to provide tools resources and support to our customers to achieve the requirements of stage three Yeah, thanks for the introduction, uh, director perk. Uh, good afternoon Mayor rogers and members of the council Um, yeah, so just with this next slide here Sorry, just advanced slide real quick, but um, I'll just kind of highlight real quick that uh as a reminder on June 29th the city council adopted stage three of the water shortage contingency plan There's a whole slew of prohibitions that come with that Of course our water waste ordinance is always in effect Which sort of prohibits leaks or breaks in the customer's property and has explicit prohibitions on irrigation overspray I won't go into detail about the prohibitions. They're listed above As they have been conveyed to the public quite a bit over the last few months But I do want to make sure that's understood That we did communicate early and often with the affected businesses industries And a home loan associations that were going to be impacted by the new restrictions for water use after june 29th This earlier outreach did allow many industries and businesses to remain in compliance with these prohibitions Make the appropriate accommodations and adapt to these requirements And so far we've only received sort of a handful of complaints regarding the business community and non-compliance Next slide please So after the action by city council on june 29th Staff did roll out a plan to implement and enforce these prohibitions You're likely aware at this point. The department's been instituting water waste patrols since may and those continue We're still using this to as a tool to notify customers of water waste And directly reach out to them and remedy any issues with their irrigation systems As you probably know the department now has automatic meter infrastructure that gives hourly reads on every meter We're making full use of this new data set that's coming to us every month This data allows sort of the water use efficiency team To identify what we call continuous use in a home that or a business perhaps that definitely Notes that there is a leak in a home. So we often can make that direct contact to a customer And oftentimes we can identify those leaks That for a customer is not aware of them because they haven't received their bill. So You know, I guess and then finally I did kind of mention Early outreach in my previous slide, but this allowed many of the industries and businesses to remain in compliance And we will request garances for specific essential activities A good example would be sort of pressure washing of hard surfaces for construction prep Or other health and safety needs Next slide Just want to say that we continue to see a large update in customer rebate programs To incentivize customers to make investments and water savings in their homes or businesses We offer quite a few rebates for fixtures that are indoors or outdoors To meet a customer's needs Many require pre and post inspection. So we're encouraging Customers to reach out to the water use efficiency team as soon as they're ready to begin a project If we could just click this slide real quick Notably, I want to point out that with the guidance of the board of public utilities The department recently increased the per square foot rebate for turf replacement And made some other programmatic changes and response to the drought I'll talk about those more in the next couple slides Next slide So most notably we did increase the green exchange program rebate from 75 cents to $1.50 per square foot In hopes that that will be the deciding point for folks to convert their turf that they may have been thinking about for a long time This will be supported by existing program funds Next slide And then we did make some changes as to the way that we implement this program For those that have already perhaps killed their lawn This year we are allowing those folks to have a brown lawn to start with As long as we can identify an irrigation pattern last year that showed that they had higher usage for their lawn And then we're giving folks a longer time period to implement the requirements for additional water use efficient plant plantings on in lieu of their Turf and so we'll extend that out as long as we need to Just mainly because Establishing new plants requires a lot of water. So if people can push that out until it starts to rain again That also gives us the immediate benefit of water savings. Next slide The water smart portal had a soft launch and then it's been in full effect for a few months now As of today, I think we have about 3,300 customers signed up. There will be another bill insert Going out this month promoting this tool and getting folks to sign up Obviously it can Allow as a customer to see sort of hourly daily Weekly and monthly water use so far Very positive response as far as this tool seems to be very user friendly and is getting A lot of use by the public. We're hoping that more will sign up over time next slide so By now, I hope that everyone in the city council and the public have been sort of Bombarded with our visible drop messaging throughout a serious save water campaign This has been a large investment of staff resources in concert with the city's communications team We have Been working with the regional partners in the summer and saving water partnership to very leverage different platforms and can keep consistent messaging Since january a focus over the past couple months has been the obviously the installation of five visibility signage in santa rosa And then we launched a water saving challenges where customers Can win prizes for instituting water saving behaviors in this home That campaign does in today. So it's not too late. If you know somebody that wants to sign up next slide and then We had a very successful drop drop by event on august 21st This included 13 locations and marin mendicino in san jama counties Uh, we did host with santa rosa water staff two locations in santa rosa at the codding town mall and nagasawa park Santa rosa water staff did distribute about 1,300 kits that had a variety of water saving tools and information for customers we plan to How host one one last event this year on october 9th, so look for more information on that as well Next slide Um, and then just uh, yeah, I just wanted to highlight some of the things that occurred this last month in terms of additional customer outreach Obviously, I have a new radio spot that promoted the drought drop by We're really promoting, uh, the new cash for grass incentives, uh, as far as rebates Um with the increase in per square foot Um rebate, uh, we have a super saver campaign, uh, that I think a lot of folks are gonna like It uh highlights folks throughout santa rosa water I recuse me santa rosa water service area. Um that are already supersavers will return supersavers and in hopes that it will, uh you know kind of Display to other folks different behaviors that they can do in their own home too as well Um, we are starting up many of the offerings are virtual But our take it from the tap program has evolved to include a lot of drop messaging for the kids in schools We have a trusted messenger video, which I do have a preview of in the next slide um, and then you know, obviously targeted outreach letters to uh specific customers hoas and large landscapes, and then we have a long gone Uh sheet mulching 101 workshop on september 7th Um next slide So hopefully we can pull up this, uh video. This was a video that was um an idea of claire norley Our water use efficiency coordinator Um, basically we have quite a few folks throughout the region Um that we're terming trusted messengers and we worked with uh snow water to create these videos I'm rino de rosier the senior manager of environmental impact at amy's kitchen Since our start in 1987 right here in sonoma county, amy's has taken water conservation seriously With offices and facilities in petaluma rona park and santa rosa We're rooted in the community and it's in our dna to protect our precious water resource We were proud to see this commitment recognized by the city of santa rosa when we won the 2019 commercial water use efficiency partner of the year award for a project right here at our santa rosa plant That saves over a million gallons of water every month Two years later, we continue to remain focused on smart water use, especially in the context of this historic drought Join in our community-wide effort to help santa rosa save water By committing to these easy water saving tips one avoid daytime watering Water your garden between the hours of 8 p.m. And 6 a.m. Only to reduce evaporation Two fix leaks test your toilets for leaks with three die tabs from your water provider Even though you can't see it leaking toilets waste significant amounts of water on a continuous basis Three minimize water use and laundry only wash full loads of laundry and save over 15 gallons with each avoided load Drought is here save water Thank you for that. And so yeah, um, you know, you saw sort of the Display of the graphic from jennifer that talked a lot about the region-wide savings, but um in terms of santa rosa water this graphic right here Um shows our target 20 supply there in the orange line Compared to previous year 2020 in the gray line and the blue line. So some good news overall This community in santa rosa has reduced water last month by 22 compared to 2020 So we are achieving the target We set out to do It is a little different in that we do have our own water supply So this is a strictly production. So it is an indicator of overall water use reduction Not just a reduction of supplies from Sonoma water Under the contracted supplies that come from them. So Next slide please So I just kind of wanted to go over a little bit about kind of The things that we're continually doing to plan ahead You know, while we all hope that we receive lots of rain this year We are looking at different metrics and scenarios that You know could occur should the region continue to experience very dry weather And we're continuing to meet with our regional partners, including Sonoma water and other contractors to develop various work products and responses to the drought As jennifer mentioned the water shortage allocation methodology for Sonoma water and its contractors is I propose to be revised and adopted very soon this methodology would be likely applied as soon as october and Could last beyond december depending upon water supplies going into next year And then Sonoma water is developing a regional resiliency study With the contractors, I know not only Evaluates sort of the disruptions to the aqua system from things like perhaps fire earthquake But they really are taking a deeper dive on drought resiliency And identifying projects that could help improve supplies during lasting droughts like we're experiencing right now And then of course we're currently planning for the potential For another dry winter winter and potential implementation of higher stages our water shortage contingency plan We're currently in stage three as you know, but if we go into stage five It does include requirements for allocations on all individual customers and businesses And the offset of future demand by new development In lieu of course of a moratorium A demand offset policy is expected and it should be of interest to the city council It'll be presented to some boards and subcommittees for input before A proposed final adoption by the city council at the end of november And then of course as we're doing today will continue to provide routine updates to the board of public utilities And the city council as we continue to monitor this drought situation Next slide So obviously Santa Rosa water is here to help you save we continue to Offer lots of resources for customers srcity.org slash water smart And then of course you can get all latest drought updates and talking points at srcity.org save water That concludes my presentation. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much deputy director council. Do we have any questions? ice mayor Hi, I think my question is for peter If someone is already in the process of the green exchange program and the The number went from 75 to 150, but they're already in the process What is the cutoff or is there a cutoff? Um, so typically we're pretty flexible with folks when it comes to this type project recognizing that you know Not everybody has the the means to make things happen quickly. So Yeah, I think definitely you can reach out to the water efficiency team You know have those conversations about your plans and you know, I don't think that We intend to cut this off anytime soon, you know, as far as this is definitely a drought specific Change and and you know, so I think You know, we just remain as flexible as possible. The target is obviously to get as much turf replaced as possible. So Okay, so Okay, so I think my question was did the 150 go into play at a certain date or Um, and you're saying no Yeah, so we did increase that. Um, I think gosh, I believe it was back in may. Um, if I remember correctly, I don't know the exact date Okay, thank you First and foremost, I wanted to thank you for the water smart portal I've been having a fun time playing around with that and and using that and in fact When my fiancee and I were in scotland, we had somebody who was house sitting We kept sending him text messages saying hey shorten your shower buddy Just to make sure that he was keeping pace on the the 20 percent My question really A director when you say that there's two years of of water supply in lake sonoma or at least it's expected to be Is that at the 20 percent reduction rate or is that consistent with what our community normally spends? So that would be Um consistent with what our our region Would normally use from lake sonoma However, um, it is very concerning, right and that that is uh, We normally would like to be more at the three to four years of supply and just have a wet winter. So, um, I I'm We want to continue to Um remind the community and appreciate the work they're doing and we need to keep it up Everything we are doing right now in terms of savings is to get us through another dry winter And ensure that we have as much supply as possible If we continue to see reductions and we don't see rainfall Um Reductions in the level in lake sonoma. We will be going to higher stages of our shortage plan Uh, because we while it is is two years. We don't You know, we need to make sure we're keeping multiple years in storage So we will be going coming back to the council if we if we see another dry year And we will be coming back to you with a recommendation to go to a higher stage of our shortage plan To continue to prepare and keep as much supply and possible In storage as possible to continue to provide prepare for dry winters And just as a reminder and this is a question that I get frequently from the public Uh in the event that we have a fire event We start utilizing water for that fire event Have we looked at say in 2017 or last year how much water was utilized? Where would that water come from as we go through such an event? So that is a question that is asked often we have discussions with uh, Sonoma water and we have discussions uh with our sort of interagency drop task force and cal fire They'll look to take water wherever they can take it from so right now, you know, if they can they'll go to lake sonoma They'll take water from lake sonoma. They'll take water from storage ponds anything. That's close and local We are uh in the water shortage allocations that have been provided to the community to all the contractors Um demand for fire response was included as well So it is there, but it's not just limited to what can come through our system Um, like I said, they'll look for any ponds any storage of water that they can find to help provide with firefighting water as well Yeah, so just to be clear you said the demand in the event of a fire emergency is accounted for in our planning It is accounted for in our planning from our system. Um, but it's just recognition that you know fires They're not always able to take water just from our system. So if it's outside of um our urban growth boundary Our city limits they'll look to take water wherever they can get it Right. Okay. Has there been any talk about increasing storage? In the short term or even long term investments Obviously every single drop is important and the more that we capture the more we have available to use later So that's a great question as um, peter mentioned We have been working for about a little over a year year and a half on a regional resiliency study And some of the things that we are looking at on that regional resiliency study are new ways to store water So we're looking at groundwater banking or what's known as aquifer storage and recovery To really see if we can take advantage of high flows in the winter time and um, have that water Banked into our groundwater aquifer so that we can then use that in the summertime Um, the Sonoma water continues to look at what's called forecast informed reservoir operations or furrow To see how they can potentially increase storage levels within the existing infrastructure at the dams both coyote valley dam and warm springs dam They have been successful in getting deviations from the rule curves for lake mendicino And are now starting to work on lake sonoma So they are looking at ways that they can increase storage in the existing infrastructure that we have As well as there has been some thoughts and ideas about re looking at the potential for additional infrastructure at coyote valley dam Potentially looking at gates or other things that might be able to expand storage at lake mendicino Plus we are also looking at ways in terms of conservation programs and regional conservation programs if we can provide more encouragement and incentives for Individual storage so rainwater harvesting Is another option that we are looking to see if we can Encourage more rebate investment in there. So we're looking at grant opportunities and other things So we're looking at a whole bunch of different ways that we may be able to have Storage not just in the traditional, you know, can we build another dam type storage? Okay, I appreciate that My final question just because I've heard Some concern from folks We also obviously are in a housing crisis I don't need you to explain again as I've had you do before About how we know that we can continue to build housing to meet that need while also meeting the need for for water long term Just as a point of clarification because I hear it a lot from folks You're not saying that if we go into another stage into a higher stage That housing will not be allowed to be built. What you're saying is it will have to offset its water demand If we go further than that 20 percent That is correct. So if we get to A stage Of 30 percent reduction or higher, which is stage five We we do include in our shortage plan the requirement for Development to be in essence Demand neutral or have a zero impact on water demand So they would be required to offset that demand to continue to build during the time when we're in that severe of a shortage You know, I do want to remind the council. I think you've heard it before and as you said, I won't I won't go into it again but New new development is required to be incredibly incredibly efficient There are a lot of requirements in terms of the cal green building code as well as our water efficient landscape ordinance We have looked at Development over the last couple years and on average it's less than Half above percent to our water demand. So they're very very very efficient And we do take that into account that is in our planning and when we are at the point of a 30 percent or greater in Water shortage, we are requiring that development be demand neutral We are still working on how that policy is being implemented and that will be coming as Deputy director martin mentioned to council in both studies session a little bit later and then To the council for consideration at the end of november Great. Thank you so much council any other questions Councilmember alvarez Thank you, ma'er a little bit off, but nonetheless, you'll hopefully follow me here Who has access to our fire hydrants? um so Of course the fire fire department has access to our fire hydrants, but if you're asking councilmember alvarez about construction meters So you will see in some cases and we've been getting a lot of questions about that where Folks are looking for meters for water for construction and dust control purposes And they need to come and get a construction meter from us It's permitted from us. They pay a fee and we charge them for that water And then you'll see there's there's in some cases like you'll see a meter On some fire hydrants and those are permitted by santa rosa water We charge them for the water and they're allowed to access that construction meter Is that does that answer your question? It does and my question was geared towards i've actually received a couple calls of water mules or water trucks Being parked in residential neighborhoods Loading up water and it it it caused concern for them And what my response to them was take a picture of the vehicle and i'll confirm if they are Have valid access To the water just because now that water is so scarce. I could I could foresee Certain individuals Getting gaining what's what's precious to us right now in the drought, right? Yeah, so it would if permitted and allowed it has a construction meter and definitely looks very clear um attachment to the hydrant And so absolutely if anyone is seeing someone access the hydrant and they have questions take a picture Tell us where it is. We will verify that that is a lawful taking of water. That's permitted by the water department in most cases We have received some pictures and questions and and so far they've all been permitted uses Thank you Thank you councilmember councilmember tibet Thanks mayor a director Burke my question for you is what percentage of the our total water use is domestic As opposed to industrial ag Etc um I will need a moment to pull that up unless peter has that in front of him We do not provide a water supply portable water supply for ag The overwhelming majority of our water use is residential both single family and and multi family And then we have commercial industrial and irrigation If it's possible to pull it up. Otherwise, we will get that to you in detail But the overwhelming majority is residential Yeah, it's fine if if mayor the mayor wants to go to councilmember Fleming. That's fine But if you could get it get it before the end of this presentation, that'd be great Yes Did I hear you say you had it? I'll pull it up right now. Great. I'll go to councilmember Fleming and we'll come back My questions are similar To mr. Tibbets But further, you know, I understand we don't We don't Have agricultural uses per se within the city But you know, we have these long-term contracts where we are sending non potable water that could be used potentially in the city for You know For landscaping and for for urban uses as a concern my question is Going back to our last study session. Have we looked at ways to offset the fees so that the the Brunt of new development costs should we get to the place of requiring that neutral for new development? Isn't fully borne by these very highly efficient new developments and are more evenly spread throughout the city and is there a way that we can You know, while we're we're permitting and constructing new development. That's highly efficient Also, then Be retrofitting older and less efficient uses So councilmember Fleming great question and regard to the question about Recycled water we do provide recycled water about two-thirds of our recycled water Goes to the geysers field to produce green energy You know, and it's up to here. We have about six billion gallons of recycled water. I think this last year we only have Five billion gallons because the drought is impacting our recycle water production as well So we do provide recycled water to agricultural customers. We have interruptible long-term contracts with them We provided them with 40 allocations this year in terms of historical use three-year average historical use We have looked at expansion over recycled water within the city in the past. It's very expensive to build a dual system and so We have a very small system on stony point road But we would need to reevaluate the infrastructure and and look to see if we could expand Urban recycle water use within the city We had looked at potentially some areas in the south and the west of the city where we could build a system, but it's um hundreds of millions of dollars and at that time We didn't have our demand projections were were reducing quite significantly So there wasn't the need to invest in the system at that time But we're continuing to look at recycle water and ways in which we might be able to use it going forward especially planning for when and and what we might look to do in the future as our geysers contract comes to an end in a number of years 20 37 So we're looking that in the future with regard to your question on the demand offset. We are looking at What those requirements are going to be and working with the team? It is complicated We have to comply with a number of different things including the mitigation three requirements And so we're we're looking at all opportunities and what we can do there Um at the stages when we are at the higher stages We really do not have supply available for new development So we're trying to find pathways to allow development to continue to occur during that time of a drought looking at demand offset as an option and looking at That fee would then allow us to go out and save water in existing Uh connections to the system. So we're looking at all those options and We will be bringing That forward for discussion initially with the bpu city council liaison subcommittee before going to The board and council to have those discussions. So we're looking at all those options Thank you for all of that information I'm always impressed by what y'all can hold In your heads at one time when it comes to all of these water permutations One the one thing that I want to emphasize is an ongoing desire for the re-examination of contracts when they come Do with our agricultural uses that do not meet our climate goals so particularly concerned about you know agricultural uses That are known to to degrade our natural environment and contribute to greenhouse gases and not supporting those through Use of our water and much rather send the water to the geysers than to cattle ranchers Okay, thank you for that. We'll take that back Deputy director are you all set or should we go to public comment? I do have those numbers if you want them. So, yeah, uh, I don't have these in my my head. So I did have to look them up So we do have about 83 of our customer base is single family residential six percent multifamily residential And then about five percent commercial And then the remaining five six percent is a mix of industrial institutional landscape And thank you, mr. Martin through the mayor Could I ask a follow-up question about if there is any noticeable or market difference between consumption between multifamily housing and single family residential? Yeah, for sure. Um, and typically you have multifamily Housing you have, you know, the vast majority is indoor water use and typically multifamily residences have less landscape And then, you know, additionally With the water efficient landscape A lot of multifamily residential uses is very low. So That's something in terms of just, you know per capita Thank you And just as a quick follow-up as well deputy director, where does santa rosa parks fall into this? Sure, yeah They are have been a very willing and helpful partner. We are communicating with them very often I have a water use efficiency team in my division That has been trying to hit about one park per week. I'm just going through with the staff looking at their, you know, budget-based operations for all their uses and I'm making sure everything's really good, but they follow up on Any complaints from the public very quickly and are doing their best to Basically display the behaviors that we're asking the community to do so You know, definitely a good relationship we're having with parks and they are doing everything they can to You know, basically reduce their water use by 20% as well, just like any other customer I appreciate that I also meant sort of within these categories residential commercial agricultural industry. Thank you. Where do we have parks situated? Yeah, those are typically irrigation meters only and they make up about three percent of our total You know demographics for our meters, so Okay, great And that's not all parks. Obviously there's large commercial landscapes and things like that. I should make that quick Great seeing no other questions from council members. We'll go ahead go to public comment And then bring it back I've got one hand on zoom so we'll start with gen I think i'm unmuted Thank you, mr. Mayor, uh, mr. Mayor miss vice mayor council members mr. City manager I am the executive director of generation housing where we advocate for more more diverse and more affordable housing I do that for the public more than you because I know you've heard it lots of times We have just submitted and want to draw your attention to a short white paper regarding home building during a drought Which is quickly becoming a hot topic. As you know We plan to provide a more comprehensive educational program in the coming months including discussion about environmental justice and how development policies Can disproportionately impact our communities of color We're really happy to hear that staff is not suggesting a home building moratorium Thank you miss berg for explaining the minimal impact of new multifamily development and as well as The director for explaining how multifamily development uses less than single family homes These are important points that I think the public often miss misses. I really appreciate council member fleming's question or suggestion regarding the spreading of cost of new development We really hope that any demand offset policy does not become a significant barrier to development particularly when barriers are already high here All over sonoma county and here in santa rosa as well So as always, thank you for your service Thank you so much That's the only hand that I see on our zoom. Madam deputy city clerk. Did we have any pre-recorded voicemails? No, we did not Okay, I'll bring it back to the council and see if there's any closing thoughts on the study session Seeing none. I'll just thank you director and deputy director I'm going to echo council member fleming's comments. I'm always amazed when we hear everything that the department is doing And it's obviously a very complex problem that we have for our region And so just thank you for your efforts and thank you to the community for stepping up and meeting that 20% goal Thank you All right council. That's the last of our study sessions for the day We will go on at four o'clock to our full City council meeting, but until then we will recess Let's go ahead and come on back to our council meeting. Madam city clerk. Could you please call the roll? Thank you, mayor councilmember tibbet Councilmember schwedhelm here councilmember fleming Councilmember alvarez president Vice mayor rogers president mayor rogers here Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember Sawyer Thank you, madam city clerk. We have no proclamations today. Let's go on to our staff briefings. Mr. City manager Mayor rogers and members of the council. I think today we can roll the covet 19 response update into agenda item 14.2 later in our meeting today Okay, great Then we'll keep moving and we'll go to our city manager and city attorney reports. Would you like to start? I'd be happy to mayor Thank you. Mayor rogers and councilmember tibbet for helping us celebrate the opening of the new portland lube public restrooms downtown Yesterday the city council opened the new standalone portland lube restroom for public use in downtown santa rosa Located at 94 santa rosa avenue adjacent to the city hall annex The lube is the first 24-hour public restroom located in the downtown corridor It is a single occupant unisex restroom designed for durability safety security and energy efficiency Some of its features include Coated stained steel walls that are difficult to vandalize and easy to clean An open bottom and top to help deter criminal activity while still providing privacy An exterior hand washing station and a baby changing station mounted to the exterior of the facility The solar powered restroom also requires minimal utilities using just 1.28 Gallons of water per flush and a maximum 60 watt energy load Staff are pleased to bring this new facility into service for the community Thank you for the chance to share that with with you today Thank you so much. Mr. City manager. I did want to thank assistant city manager nut as well and adrian from our pio team For going out there yesterday for our fake ribbon cutting This was a project that council member tidbits was particularly involved in when he first got on council And so he joined and brought his his new son with him as well I will tell you council member tidbits was particularly relieved To see that project get across the finish line Council any questions or comments on the city manager's report? Madam city attorney Good afternoon. Mr. Mayor and council. I don't have anything specific to report At this point, but I do want to note that when we get to the consent calendar We do have an item item 12.6 That is that was not published on the preliminary agenda. So at that time when we get to the consent calendar I will ask the council to consider Making the appropriate findings to allow that item to continue Thanks Great. Thank you so much. Madam city attorney We'll go to public comment on item number eight the city manager and city attorney reports If you're interested in speaking on this item go ahead and hit the raise hand feature on your zoom I'm seeing no hands. Did we have any pre-recorded voicemails? We do not mayor Okay We will keep moving then are there any statements of abstentia by council members Anything on the uh minutes? Yes I'll start with the vice mayor and I'll come back to council member alvarez. Sorry. Um, I would like to uh Not participate in november 10th 2020 in november 17 2020 as I was not on council at that time Okay, council member alvarez, uh, that would be the same statement for myself Okay As I mentioned earlier in the meeting we will reorganize and move Item 10 mayors and council member reports to the end of the meeting So we do have uh approval of the minutes We have four sets of minutes november 10th november 17th of 2020 and then june 20 June 22nd of 2021 both the special meeting and regular meetings that we held on that date Council did anybody have any amendments to those minutes or any changes? Let's see if there's any public comment on those minutes I see no hands jumping up on zoom. Do we have any pre-recorded voicemails? We did not receive any pre-recorded voicemails Okay Without objection we'll show those minutes as adopted with council members alvarez and the vice mayor abstaining from items 11.1 and 11.2 Mr. City manager, let's do the consent calendar Mayor, would you like to have the city attorney make the findings on item 12.6? Sure, if you'd like to start with that and then we'll introduce the rest of the the calendar that'd be great happy to Happy to do that This concerns item 12.6 on the consent calendar Which is a proposed resolution for waiver of certain provisions of council policy number 000-06 Which concerns appointments to boards commissions and committees and that waiver would be four appointments To the 2022 charter review committee The early early agenda policy generally requires council's early agenda policy generally requires that all items of business appear first on a preliminary agenda, which is published at least nine days before the council meeting And then published again on the final agenda, which is posted at least 72 hours prior to the meeting Madam city attorney if you could hold for one second madam clerk. Sure. Yes. I just want to Confirm that this 12.6 did in fact publish with the prelim agenda Oh, we did well then we just checked it right now and it did publish Well, very good. So never mind. We do not need any Any findings, so I'm pleased to hear that great. Thanks very much I think it just shows how Efficient the clerk's office is to be able to get that one in there in time So mr. City manager, do you want to read the much appreciated? Mr. City manager, do you want to read the full consent calendar then? Yes. Thank you mayor Mayor and members of the council this afternoon We have six items on the consent calendar beginning with item 12.1 a motion giving authority to issue design build requests for proposals for fire station number five item 12.2 a resolution approving the fifth amendment to the professional services agreement F 001410 with fcs international incorporated doing business as first carbon solutions item 12.3 a resolution Accepting a bid award and purchase order with the universal site services incorporated for sweeping services item 12.4 a resolution approving a battery lease agreement with protera incorporated for high voltage batteries for use in the transit divisions battery powered electric buses item 12.5 a result resolution approving the issuance of revenue bonds by the california statewide community development authority community improvement authority and authorization to enter into a public benefit agreement for the acquisition Of 220 to 240 burt street known as the vineyard garden apartments And finally item 12.6 a resolution approving a waiver of certain provisions Of council policy number 000-06 appointments to boards commissions and committees For appointments to the 2022 charter review committee Also, did we have any questions on the consent calendar? All right seeing none. We will go to public comment for the consent calendar If you're interested in speaking on those six items feel free to hit your hand your raise hand feature on zoom And I am not seeing any so madam deputy city clerk. Did we have any voice mails? We received no voice message public comments on this item All right, we'll go ahead and bring it back for a motion from the vice mayor I move items 12.1 through 12.6 and wait for the reading of the text Also We've got a motion from the vice mayor second from councilmember alvarez Madam clerk, could you please call the vote? councilmember tibbetz hi councilmember schwedhelm hi councilmember fleming yes councilmember alvarez hi vice mayor rogers hi Mayor rogers hi That motion passes with six eyes with councilmember Sawyer absent Okay It is not yet five o'clock So we will move past our public comments for non-agenda items and we'll go to item 14.1 Mayor rogers the members of the council item 14.1 is a report item Regarding the name change of the creek side open space to mary traverso open space This is a 3.63 acre park site located on creek side road in southeast santa rosa Emily ander our park planner assistant is going to present the staff report on this item this afternoon Good afternoon. Mayor rogers vice mayor rogers members of council My name is Emily ander and i'm a park planner assistant with the parks division of transportation and public works Today i'll be discussing a citizen request to rename creek side open space Next slide please I want to begin by reviewing a brief history of the project In april of 2018 um travis birding came forward to the board of community services And requested that they consider renaming creek side open space after his mother-in-law mary traverso Um discussion began with the board in may of 2018 But the paradise fire and the project manager's retirement put the request on hold until 2020 over the course of 2020 and early 2021 staff worked with the board and met with the community gathered and analyzed community feedback And reported it back to the board In may of 2021 the board recommended The name change to council Next slide please To orient you to the park location Santa rosa split up into four quadrants based upon the intersections of highways 101 and 12 which you see in yellow here all of the green represent park properties all of the city's park properties And creek side open space is represented by the blue star and you can see it's located in the southeast quadrant of the city Next slide please So zooming in here's an aerial map of creek side as The city manager reported it's just under four acres it's located along creek side road, which is where it gets its name and The tanzas creek runs along the southern property boundary and then a little bit within the park Um, there is sidewalk along creek side road. There are benches Trash can and dog ways receptacles within the park. Um, but the amenities are very limited Because it is an open space park Um, additionally Mary traversal lived very close to the property So then I want to talk a little bit about council policy 000-25 park naming policy and procedure The policy is brief. It's a two and a half pages with 90 percent of the document Focusing on the naming of new parks and recreational facilities The remaining 10 percent focuses on the renaming of parks and recreational facilities The policy was adopted in 1989. So over 30 years ago It's been amended three times since then but the amendments had been minimal Um, the objectives of the policy are on the slide here. Um, to choose a name that enhances Um Enhances the city's values inherited And is compatible with the community interest Or to easily identify the park by geographic location and function And that's what creek side is. Um, we're at creek side that's currently Or to encourage land and monetary donations and provide recognition of those donors Next slide please So staff looked closely at this policy in order to determine if the renaming request met the policy What you see on this slide is the entire portion of the policy relating to renaming And I'm going to read through it A park or recreation facility name may be changed if the following conditions are met A there's an occurrence or event of national or local significance In a waiting period of no less than two years between the event and the actual naming of the park is required Or b if the name becomes inappropriate The name of creek side is not inappropriate because the park is located on creek side road And derives its name from that road So we have to look at um criteria a in order to evaluate the request Miss traverso has um been gone for over two years. So she does meet the second part of criteria a Then it was up to the board and the community To consider whether or not miss traversos contributions to santa rosa were an occurrence Or event of national or local significance Next slide, please So we'll look at miss traversos community contributions to help us determine if they are of national or local significance Um miss traverso co-founded vinnett valley vision in 2005 And according to their website, they are an all volunteer group focusing on making vinnett valley an even nicer place to live They have adopted creek side park and four nearby roadway landscapes To help clean and maintain They hold two annual cleanup days a year To weed and prune and plant new Install new plants spread mulch clean up litter In 2007 they received a city merit award for neighborhood achievement. Oh enrichment, excuse me um and beyond vinnett valley visions by annual Workdays mary and her husband bill traverso took care of creek side open space They know the grass they remove blackberries and invasive plants and maintain the bird boxes They lived just a few parcels down from the park So it was very dear to them Additionally, mary traverso was known for Her part in traversos market, which is a small business that was part of the santa rosa community for over 80 years Next slide, please after hearing from So our findings about mary traverso was indeed active in the community and inspired volunteerism She's loved and by her family and known in the community from traversos market So after hearing this and a board discussion the board requested that we go out to the community find to find out um how the community felt about the potential of renaming for excited vinnett Next slide, please So there were three opportunities for the public to be involved in the project and to share their opinion with the city The first was a virtual community meeting held on november 5th 2020 There were 33 attendees and of those 33 attendees 28 participated in the zoom polls that were part of that meeting The second opportunity was an online survey. Um, that was available for three weeks on the city's website and received 98 responses and then There was a follow-up survey in early 2021 that was available for a month and received 127 responses Next slide, please This is just a visual representation of all of the community outreach That the city and the traverso family did to inform and encourage participation in the project Um, now we're going to go over some of the results of the public input data that we collected Next slide, please So the first question we asked is where do you live within the city of santa rosa? And this is a question that um, we've been we ask at our community meetings And in our all of our online surveys and the purpose of this question is just to understand where within the city The public input is coming from so that we can consider compare it kind of to the project that we're working on and to make sure that We're hearing from the residents that are close to the project and will be most impacted by the project So this particular figure, um shows the three types of community input of the three community input opportunities that were available and you'll see that um during the virtual community meeting um The people who participated in the zoom poll 36 of those lived outside of the city of santa rosa um in the first online survey we have 43 percent of northeast quadrant residents Participating that was our highest purchase response resident providing responses And so those are part of the reason that the board of community services requested that we go back into the community and do specific outreach trying to reach southeast santa rosa residents And so you'll see survey number two which occurred At the beginning of 2021 received 52 percent of responses from southeast santa rosa resident Next slide please So this is just another way to visualize The data found to ensure that we are hearing from the audience that we that we need to So here you see 51 percent of southeast santa rosa residents Participated, please know that the difference between this data and what you saw on the last slide is that this Data does not include anyone who responded that they don't live in the city or Didn't respond to the question at all Next slide, please So now we'll move on to questions That we derive directly from language that's within the policy document So we could understand From the community If they felt that mr. Verso's contributions met the policy So you can see here that 75 percent of southeast santa rosa Respondents said yes, mariam traversos, so that contributions are an occurrence or event of national or local significance Citywide 62 percent said yes And if you look at all the responses 64 percent said yes Next slide, please The next question was does changing the creekside open space park name to marry traverso Enhance the city's values inherited 71 percent of southeast santa rosa residents said yes 62 percent of city Residents said yes, and again 64 percent of all respondents said yes Next slide, please The next question we asked is is changing the creekside open space park name to marry traverso compatible with community interest 75 percent of southeast Respondents said yes 64 percent of citywide respondents said yes and 67 percent of all respondents said yes Next slide, please And then we asked are you in favor of changing the name of creekside open space to marry traverso open space in 73 percent of southeast area southeast respondents said yes 66 percent of all respondents said yes, and 62 percent of citywide respondents said yes Next slide, please The final question that was critical to our analysis was What percentage of the community should support the renaming or naming of an existing park? There's currently no information in the policy about this Um And 69 percent of southeast Uh respondents said that 50 there should be 50 percent or greater support before a park name is changed um citywide 66 percent so that's adding 50 to 75 percent and greater than 75 percent to get these figures and then um all respondents that it was 64 percent um favoring Uh having support from 50 percent of the community before changing a name Um next slide, please so with that um after analyzing the results we found that 69 percent of respondents living in southeast santa rosa support a name change if there's 50 percent or greater support for the name change um 64 percent of all respondents uh support a name change if there's 50 percent or greater support And 66 percent of respondents living in santa rosa support um a name change if there's 50 percent or greater support for the name change And as you saw before um there was greater than Than 50 percent in all of those areas of the of responses Next slide, please So with those findings um the board of community services recommends approving the park name change From prickside open space to marry traversal open space With 73 percent of southeast resident respondents and 62 percent of city resident respondents in favor This is 12 percent above the threshold of support favored by all meeting attendees and respondents to change the name of this parkland Next slide, please Thank you for your time and i look forward to answering any questions you may have Thank you so much. Emily. Are there any questions from council? Saying none, so we'll go ahead go to public comment on this item If you're interested in providing public comment on item 14.1 either hit the raise hand feature on zoom or We've got at least one speaker here in the chambers. We'll start with travis Yes, if you want to just come right up to this podium Yeah, just make sure you get close to the mic so we can hear you She's got to raise it up because i'm so short Um, hello, my name is travis birding. Thank you council for uh Taking this on and listening. Um, thank you. Emily for presenting a very good presentation Um, also want to thank lisa grant who helped me start this process a number of years ago, so i'm going to be brief, but You know i'm we're here to support mary. Uh, mary was a wonderful person. Um, she's you know I was i'm the son-in-law so Um, she was someone very important not only to me to my family but to to this community And you know the time we are in right now, you know, this this renaming is is Special for not only the family for us for mary, but also for the community You know at least something good positive For us during this time And you know it it would mean a lot for everybody and mary's done so much for For all of us and she meant a lot to the community as you guys can see in those polls You know, everybody knows who she is Um, everybody in this in that quadrant Outside of that quadrant and then outside the city appreciate who mary was and really appreciate that This renaming would mean a lot for for everybody And so I came and wanted to do this for everybody and um, you know, we're we're here now A number of years later and a lot of a lot of obstacles in the way But you know, we're here we're fighting on and you know, we we hope that you guys go ahead and approve this The board of community supervisor I thank them for their due diligence in this And thanking them going through all the necessary findings and research research that they needed to do to You know come to a Answer to approve it and to do everything they needed to do To to show that this is the right thing to do and um You know, I hope you guys Go ahead with this It would be great again for for not only the family but for the community. So thank you again for your time Really appreciate it and uh, thank you for listening. Have a good evening Thank you so much travis The only card that I have on this item for in person. I see no hands on zoom Madam deputy city clerk. Do we have any voicemails? You receive no voice message public comments on this item Okay, I will close public comment then and bring it back to the council Councilmember alvarez. I believe you have the motion I do. Thank you, mayor I would like to introduce resolution of the council of the city of san rosa changing the name of an open space park apn 049-497-005 Located at zero creekside road from creekside open space to mary traversal Open space in accordance with the provisions of council policy 000-25-park naming policy and procedure and we further reading of the text second We have a motion from councilmember alvarez and a second from councilmember sweat helm Are there any additional comments? Councilmember sweat helm Thank you. Yes, I'm very supportive of this, you know, not only um, I very fond memories of traversals not all 80 years of them But um, just knowing what a community member active can participant in the community both mary and bill bill continues to be So I think this is a wonderful honor And I'm very appreciative of city staff and the process that has gone through and the feedback solicited from the community members That brought us here to this day. So I'm very supportive of this Councilmember alvarez. Thank you, mayor for myself very appreciative that this This this has come to us now For myself when I was served on cab I remember days when it still rained in san rosa and we were out there on summer field at the divider Cleaning up the area with her. So for me, it's has definitely uh It's a great moment to see And vice mayor I was just gonna thank travis for Coming up with this idea Because I did not know miss mary, but even reading Everything I could tell that she definitely served our our community And this is such a wonderful way to honor her So I just wanted to thank you for bringing this to us and allowing us the opportunity to To honor her in this way. So thank you very much With that madame city clerk if you could please call the vote Thank you mayor councilmember tibet I Councilmember schwedhelm. Hi councilmember fleming yes councilmember alvarez I Vice mayor rogers I Mayor rogers I That motion passes with six eyes with councilmember soya absent Just congratulations to the family. Thank you so much for bringing this forward and we look forward to seeing the The new name on that park shortly Mr. City manager, let's go on to item 14.2 Mayor rogers and members of the city council item 14.2 is also a report item The matter before the council is a covet 19 vaccination verification And testing policy Amy reeve our director of human resources will be presenting the staff report this afternoon Okay, good afternoon mayor rogers and members of the city council again. I'm amy reeve the director of human resources I'd like to provide a short presentation on the city's covet 19 vaccination verification and testing policy Prior to turning the presentation over to dr. Mase the sonoma county health officer and her team Next slide please On august 4th 2021 the sonoma county health officer issued health order C19-26 Which requires the all city of santa rosa fire law enforcement emergency medical and disaster shelter staff Either provide proof of vaccination or submit to weekly covet 19 testing The initial effective date was tomorrow september 1st But has since been extended to september 24th 2021 And the city will implement the health order Next slide please Staff report from health order C19-26 the county health officer also issued a high recommendation consistent with those at the state level other counties and the university system Encouraging all employers in sonoma county to implement similar measures for their workforce Additionally on august 17th 2021 the county of sonoma adopted similar policies for all its employees To show either proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing Next slide please The human resources department is bringing forward this item to ask council To direct the city manager to adopt a similar policy that would apply to all city staff Consistent with the recommendation of the health officer The policy would require proof of vaccination or weekly testing for all city of santa rosa employees Next slide please The benefit in implementing the health officers recommendations including Include furthering the city's goal of mitigating covet 19 transmission for staff And the community we serve as well as demonstrating the city's commitment To employee well-being by implementing health and safety measures that are recommended by the county health officer and state and federal agencies Next slide please Additionally the policy will ensure that standards are consistent city-wide It's important to note that the city manager may amend or end the policy after consultation with the county health officer human resources and the city attorney's office Next slide please Implementing the recent health order is a significant operational challenge for the city Current staffing levels and budgetary needs will be assessed by human resources in conjunction with the city manager We are currently evaluating the costs associated with Testing and the additional bandwidth required for testing tracking and maintaining records to be in compliance with the order Next slide please In closing it is recommended by the human resources department and the city manager that the council by motion Due to the urgent and significant impacts of the delta variant And to follow the county health officer's strong recommendation to help further reduce the spread of the covet 19 virus Direct the city manager to adopt a policy Requiring all city employees to provide proof of vaccination Or submit to weekly testing by october 1st 2021 So at this point i'm happy to answer questions for staff or i can turn it over to dr. Mase and her team To provide the council with more information. Thank you And i do want to welcome in dr. Mase In discussions with the city manager We're very appreciative to have health professionals who are here to talk and answer questions for us Rather than putting some of our own staff who might not be medical experts in a position Of having to answer and field some of those questions from the public and council members And so dr. Mase if if you wanted to Say anything add anything on before we go to questions from council members I'll provide that opportunity right now Yes, thank you so much. Um, I appreciate your invitation to be here today. Um, we do have some slides On our metrics and where we are in the pandemic that sort of thing that we could present Um, does that sound good? Okay, we'll try not to take too much time because I know that you all have some questions for us so let me um Go through these slides. We do have a few other folks from the county side That needed to be upgraded to panelists. I believe that's paul gullix and catherine pack and adam rackey Okay, let's see if we can get those folks promoted Thank you so much. Next slide, please Okay, so looking at overall countywide trends Our metrics as of today are that we are at 19.5 new cases 100,000 residents per day with a 5.1 percent overall test positivity And a 5.8 percent test positivity in the lowest hpi core trial um, and all of this Is much higher than we were two months ago. And I think that's sort of a take home point We were at the lowest point In this pandemic at a case rate of about two new cases per day per hundred thousand More worrisome our coven 19 hospitalizations remain high I think at the very highest they may have been in their 80s Howard now we have 68 currently hospitalized and I think the worst statistic is that we've had 41 people die from covid since june 1st and that is really when Things started increasing in terms of all of our trends and you can see that here on these graphs that um Especially when you look at the overall test positivity in our hospitalizations We are reaching the highs that we had At the end of last year in january when we had our biggest surge next slide please And uh this kind of tells the story of the difference between The cases that are happening in the unvaccinated versus the fully vaccinated population The latest rates are about 30 new cases per hundred thousand per day in unvaccinated And about six new cases per day per hundred thousand In the fully vaccinated population So it is about Somewhere around five times the case rate in unvaccinated the orange line represents unvaccinated and the blue vaccinated And what's happening essentially is that we're having outbreaks amongst unvaccinated individuals predominantly that then Fuel those those people are you know doing things together. They live in the same areas that sort of thing and Then as there's increased community transmission amongst these unvaccinated individuals Then even fully vaccinated persons are actually uh getting Covid as you can see for the increase in rate and fully vaccinated next slide please And if you look at case rate trends by racial and ethnic groups in the past 60 days You can see that the rates are really high in american indian alaskan native populations black or african american populations Pacific islander population probably because a rate is based on The population of a hundred thousand so these groups We don't have a lot of people that in these groups in our county So the rates are very high Since the denominator is quite low in terms of the number of people that represent that population They can see that latinx Also are Impacted in terms of case rate trends next slide please. All right, so by city case rate trends. You can see here the different Cities we we've broken down the numbers of cases per hundred thousand new cases per hundred thousand by city You can see the greatest numbers of cases are occurring in santa rosa Kettle in my rona park in winsor But relative to population size the weekly rate of new cases per hundred thousand population Is trending upward in cloverdale and sonoma and that includes uh sonoma suno valley boys hot spring alvarano vine bird And so again the per hundred thousand case rates can be slightly different Than the total number of cases next slide please We are doing quite well with testing now our current testing volume is close to 500 tests per hundred thousand Residents per day and it's increased in all groups race ethnicity age groups geographies We're not quite where we were at the height of the surge in december january However, we're doing pretty well next slide please And if you look at cases by age groups, you can see that Cases are highest in the lower age groups and that's because we have less vaccination Occurring in the lower age groups. So we did really well early on getting our older folks over 65 vaccinated But we're still trying to get more and more people especially in the younger age groups and as you can see here it's really the 20 to 29 year old age group where we have the most cases occurring In the last 60 days And you can see the curves of cases by age groups again from June through august Next slide please So as far as school cases are concerned since we opened there have been 160 related cases that exclude sports only cases 65 occurring in elementary schools 28 in high schools 12 in middle schools and less than five in special education schools This total includes 90 student cases and 16 staff cases 10 of these cases were linked to on-campus transmission and our contact tracers are working really busily to Find out if there's more related cases and more transmission Next slide please As you can see right here, uh, we've administered close to six hundred and sixty thousand doses as of august 31st And we have The majority of them are fully vaccinated 82% of Sonoma County's population age 12 and over is at least partially vaccinated with 74% fully vaccinated and 8% partially vaccinated So, um, we're doing really well if you compared a national average and even the california state average We're above the average in terms of fully vaccinated. We do however really need to get that remaining 18 percent Vaccinated and the remaining 8 percent fully vaccinated because we know that even partially vaccinated individuals Are not fully protected. In fact, they're very likely to get the delta variant because of the increased transmission and the increased potential for spread next slide please And by age group, um, you can see that we again this supports fact We've done really well even early on vaccinating our older Population and you can see the younger population is catching up But definitely not vaccinated at the level of our over 65 group and we have some work to do there But you can see especially amongst the younger kids at 12 to 15 age group we've had fiber success especially Um, recently since they're approved and getting them back to me next slide please Hospitalizations we've already discussed. We have 68 patients hospitalized as of august 30th And we do have a strain on the hospital Both the COVID patients and patients admitted to the deferred care So deferred care just means they didn't seek care during the pandemic because a shelter in place and People not wanting to go in for medical care. So there's a disproportionate number of people now in the hospital with illnesses because of this 43 percent of our ICU patients are now COVID positive Next slide please And if you look at the trends in ages, you can see that while the 65 plus age group accounted for the majority of hospitalizations throughout most of the pandemic They're now increases being observed in the younger people 50 to 64 and 18 to 49 year old Again due to the fact that the majority of the patients who are in the hospital are unvaccinated And it's the people who are under 65 that are more likely to be unvaccinated this time next slide please Um this again looking at unvaccinated versus vaccinated majority of our hospitalizations as can see are occurring in unvaccinated persons To date all persons who are fully vaccinated who are hospitalized Are either older or have serious underlying conditions like organ transplant, etc. Next slide please Again, uh, the increased numbers of COVID-19 deaths have been observed since june 41 deaths reported since june 1st The majority of COVID-19 deaths have been among the unvaccinated 12 out of 256 deaths have occurred amongst the fully vaccinated population And again, these people have either been over the age of 90 or have had significant serious underlying medical conditions Next slide please So what have we done in response? Well, we had a several orders and we're going to get to the testing of unvaccinated but as of august 3rd we did issue a indoor mapping public order for all public settings that would include Retail stores and restaurants while you're not eating and drinking A gyms hair salon public buildings You know office spaces all of that And uh the state actually issued a Order for vaccine verification. This is the order that I think we're talking about today Vaccine verification simply means that people can't just say they had the vaccine And sign off on a form of testing to the fact that they had the vaccine rather They need to show proof that they had the vaccine in the form of a vaccine one of the cards a photo of the card a The qr code from the state system showing they've been vaccinated or a doctor's notes stating that they had a vaccine And if people are unable to show proof of vaccination They are considered unvaccinated even partially vaccinated persons are considered unvaccinated and unmixed at vaccine staff for the state order in acute healthcare facilities congregate settings like jails and homeless shelters field nursing facilities doctors offices that If they can't show proof of vaccination then they need to Not only mass and in the healthcare settings of medical grade math But also we tested once weekly for covid 19 if unvaccinated We expanded the order in collaboration with our fire law ems partners and with our department of emergency management And those who staff the temporary shelters To extend this order to those folks same thing vaccine verification And masking for all and testing requirements for unvaccinated staff in the school Now the county of sonoma also chose to adopt an hr policy For the same thing requiring employees to submit verification of full vaccination They've not vaccinated submit proof of a negative covid 19 test weekly and I believe The county is providing those tests for people as well as our the fire law e-messages And if we ever knock on wood, we don't need temporary shelters then those staff as well And uh, they're we also released a high recommendation for all employers in sonoma county that includes All businesses to do the same understanding that it you know, it is a Uh resource enhanced thing to do to not just vaccinate. I'm sorry, verify vaccine status But actually also test unvaccinated folks But that is our high recommendation for all employers and businesses so that people can feel safe when they're entering Uh, restaurants or hair salons gyms, etc. Excellent CDPH also has additional health orders. There's actually a health care worker vaccine mandate That needs to be in compliance by september 30th that it's a hard mandate requiring all workers In our hospitals our federally qualified health Clinics are you know, doctors off to To be vaccinated unless they have a qualified medical exemption or a religious exemption K-12 staff and volunteers have a soft mandate vaccine verification And requirements for testing weekly of unvaccinated k-12 teachers staff Other staff volunteers everybody And we've extended or i'm sorry moved up The compliance stage of september 24th That's for the state. It's october 15th, but in collaboration with dr. Harrington and our sonoma county office of education who determined our schools can move this by september 24th There's also a requirement for visitors To hospitals or long-term care settings to show proof of vaccination status or a negative test taken 72 hours before entering inside there's an exception for emergency critical care and end of life visit That's a state order. Next slide That might be it. Let's see. Yep. Well, thanks so much and i'll stop there and really happy to take questions Thank you so much dr. Mase I'll start with councilmember tidbits Thank you mayor and thank you dr. Mase. I really appreciate that you're here right now Um, I wanted to ask you a question about herd immunity. I have read somewhere I believe I can't remember off the top of my head that 70 percent is that figure Is that is that true? And if so, what's the significance of herd immunity? Yeah herd immunity really applies. Um throughout the community So every, you know, we different figures are put out 70 percent 80 percent of the population being fully vaccinated that kind of thing but um When you have pockets of the community like certain zip codes and areas That maybe only are 20 or 40 or 50 vaccinated Then they definitely don't have herd immunity and transmission is happening in this setting So we definitely have a potential for greater community transmission throughout the county and really throughout the state is people move about So herd immunity would require, you know, the full population to reach probably about 80 percent vaccination So we have 74 percent and then 8 percent that are partially vaccinated Um, you know, I guess what the council is going to be weighing today or be giving direction to our city manager about is Uh, should we be mandating this across our employees and and i'm inclined to say yes I want to listen to the public But um, that that number gives me I guess a tad bit of pause because if we're getting close to herd immunity Um, is it it does it become a bridge too far for us to take? Um, so I guess I'll I'll ruminate on that unless you you have um, any anything else to add about maybe the significance of Uh of doing vaccinations and then as a subsequent question The testing is is testing weekly testing because we know that it comes at a pretty significant cost to the jurisdiction Fortunately, we do have ARPA money to help fund that need But um, is is weekly testing actually that effective in preventing further spread? Well, it'll be able to pick up Cases of covid amongst unvaccinated individuals. Let me know that unvaccinated Individuals are much more likely to get covid than vaccinated individuals So, um, the point is to try to find people early on even when asymptomatic that they have covid So they can isolate and not spread covid in the um A work site. So, um, yeah, I think it will be effective Okay, thank you. And then my last question has to do with some of the risks and concerns You know, there's a lot of misinformation out there And in these days, it's hard to determine what is good information and what is bad information I have heard that there are a lot of concerns about spike proteins and the difference in how these vaccines were generated compared to Previous vaccines. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that. I've heard that there's Higher incidents of of side effects. Um, could you could you speak to that with your experience? Whether that's valid or not All vaccines have side effects. In fact, you know, we know that there's been significant Very rare, but significant side effects even from say percussive vaccines Um, and really throughout the history of vaccine So these are quite safe vaccines in comparison to all other vaccines in the past It's a new technology using mrna And that's one reason why it's probably much more effective vaccines on the whole have had more like 60 like flu vaccine influenza Is only 60 effective these vaccines are 94 95 effective. So I would say Uh, the technology as everything else has advanced and we actually have much better vaccines that are safer and more efficient than what you have previously previously Thank you so much council member Fleming Uh, thanks again, dr mace for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to come today It has really appreciated as well as all of the work that you and your team have done throughout the pandemic I think it's my first opportunity to formally thank you for your outstanding work My question has to do with the statement you made around That we know that the vast majority of people who are contracting covid are unvaccinated individuals Given that information and the expense of On the jurisdictions as mr. Tibbetts mentioned a weekly testing Why are you or perhaps as a city manager? Why is the recommendation standing to have the soft mandate rather than Going directly for the mandate of just you you have to get vaccinated Well, I think this gives us an opportunity Sorry I missed the last thing you said it gives us an opportunity for what? For people who don't want to get the vaccine to be able to test instead So it gives an alternative where the hard mandate doesn't give an alternative and I think at this point We're just trying to encourage people who are on the fence that this vaccine is quite safe Quite effective and they should go ahead and get vaccinated and I want to see the impact of the soft mandate before we move to Any other measures because I do think that you know I'd like to see what the impact is right now of doing a vaccine verification and testing program Yeah, I guess I really struggle with that My grandfather was one of those individuals who was Over 90 and it feels callous to say that You know people have underlying health conditions or their elderly and somehow It's it's okay. And I know that you're not implying as much but I do Really wonder about the wisdom of waiting and not just taking on because I mean if I know someone who's died in my family I can't can't imagine how many other people are doing that just for Folks to somehow get get more familiar with something that's not fully FDA approved I just I don't really hear a compelling argument and it's it's not a criticism But it's an opportunity to share with me a more compelling argument than Giving people a chance to think about it some more No, I hear what you're saying. Um, you know, I think they're you know Definitely is a role for high-risk groups that could transmit So we'd like the health care workers to do the hard mandate Okay, thank you It madam city attorney, do you want to weigh in on that question as well? I again, I appreciate dr. Mesa's comments and her presence here and her Willingness to spend the time to work work through things with us Um, in terms of the from a legal perspective, both options are open to the council at this time There was at this point, um, the visor vaccine has been approved By fd by the fda, but the Moderna as I understand and dr. Mesa can correct me if I am wrong does not yet have that final Approval so It's really up to council from a legal perspective. Uh, you can go either way Okay, thank you councilmember tidbits you had another question Yes, thanks mayor. This is actually for the city manager. Um, mr. Colon, can you share with the council and the public What your estimates are for testing costs to the city of san rosa? Councilmember tidbits and members of the city council We are still in the process of finalizing our cost estimates We've been working closely with the county to see if we can Piggy back on one of their providers of testing resources. We've also applied to the state For their testing program to see if we're eligible preliminary indications are that we are eligible for Test kits from the state for police and fire We're also seeing if we can expand that to our general employee population We've also identified a possible funding source from FEMA the federal emergency management agency For certain types of covet testing that may also be applicable in our testing program The range and costs that we've identified are anywhere from About $65 per test to $150 per test We don't have an accurate account of the number of unvaccinated employees At this point. We're still collecting those vaccination verifications And if the council decides to move forward with the requirement for verification It'll take us several weeks to get employees in and verify their vaccination status at that point We'll have a better count of the unvaccinated employees who will be subject to testing And we could give a more finite estimate of costs to the city council Thank you one one follow-up question So we have a variety of employees that work for the city of santa rosa There are those that can work remotely from home and then there are those who can't like public safety Are there groups i'm thinking that i'm not thinking of other than public safety who are required to show up for work because part of my calculus here is Are there folks that can work remotely who may not Need to fall within? This rule we're about to to discuss councilmember tibbetts and members of the council There are a variety of classifications that are required to work in person so to speak On a regular basis and those include many of our water department employees Our maintenance personnel our streets and signalization technicians Just a variety of Different classifications that need to be in person to do their work Even if remote work is appropriate and authorized for an employee They are all Disaster workers if we do have a disaster they need to report and assume a new role As an in-person worker in most cases during a disaster So it is our Approach that this would apply to all city employees regardless of their work location Or remote work status Thank you so much Councilmember alvarez Thank you, mayor. Is the doctor still with us? Thank you for being here Yeah, my question for you in regards to the latinx population is specifically district one What have you noticed has worked? What have you noticed? We might Been or done better and looking towards a feature where where cove is still a reality What what are the plans for the feature in in san rosa or sonoma county as a whole really? Well, I think we have lots and lots of different strategies to outreach to the latinx population In fact, um, nopal gullison who's Lead of our uh communications unit to the pao's office is here and paul I don't know if you want to speak a little bit to all the different ways in which we've been Trying to outreach to different populations including latinx to increase vaccination rates Yes, uh, thank you Dr. Mason, thank you councilman. It's a very important question for our community and We we've seen from the very beginning the importance of Of uh, have an equity approach in trying to get our messaging out and the importance of vaccinations and We've really been targeting A number of our communities particularly our latinx communities and with our with our messaging we've extended We've we've done everything from Door hangers and some neighborhoods and and outreach through our community-based organizations We continue to work closely with our community-based organizations in some of these key targeted neighborhoods um, we've had Messaging in english and spanish Radio ads we have regular members of my staff weekly As sometimes multiple times during the week on spanish language radio pushing our messaging And offering sharing the same much of the same information. Dr. Mace was just sharing We find the most effective tools have been working with trusted community leaders, whether they are community-based organizations Faith-based leaders whoever it may be and trying to get communications Our our pediatricians obviously have been very effective And getting the message out of the very trusted we find um, we've also now, uh, we've had we do weekly live streamed community briefings providing Information on covet and and whether it's related to schools or business And we've also been offering those in english on wednesdays at four and then we have a same information the following day And thursdays at four in spanish and that is pure and we've gotten some really good traction on that so The numbers have shown we've we've we've made some great progress in our And the lowest quartile in our In our community, but we still have a lot of Work we want to continue to do in those communities and and it's reaching those those a lot the long last mile of Community members Getting the messaging out is is is tough But we are continuing to make progress as you've seen in the community at a rate of about 1% a week so In some of many of these measures including the one you're considering today are proving to be very instrumental in in getting people vaccinated A follow-up question when we when we say that we've reached out to the community Have has there been any effort to reach out to the business community there for example and in roseland sabbatical road or perloma hill road where where we know our community shops and Spends our money and also it could be as a one-stop shop. How have we approached? the business community We have had some good interactions with the The business community we've worked with that that had some interaction with the Hispanic chamber of commerce and we've done we've done some actual fliers going door to door and passing out Um Flyers and posters in those communities. We could always be doing more. There's no question We've also worked with our community-based organizations Our alcoa project has been working with the businesses. I know And have been a resource to many businesses and Our economic development board has been a real resource for businesses who have had questions in those areas, but I'll check into more on that and But I know there's always more we could be doing But uh, I I appreciate that that input encouragement Absolutely, and I'm my air service of shady need those contacts Great what I what I would hope to hear is that we have set up vaccination sites at a grocery store there in the neighborhoods Is what I hope to see uh as again, those are the the locations where we know our community Visits and and is available there. So so I'm definitely at your service, sir Yes, and and any any other ideas we do have the as you know Councilman the the the site in roseland now is operating Pretty much seven days of it is operating seven days a week To late in the evening and it's the traffic there has been very good We also still have pop-up clinics said like the andes Andes community park and other locations in some of these targeted Neighborhoods so that we could bring the vaccine to them. So we're very much. I'm looking for locations that people That are going to get high traffic areas Thank you and a general question if I if I could for a person who was vaccinated early on And did not keep their card. Is there a An office a location where they could access and prove that they have been vaccinated There is a site through the state through cdph where they they can they can go online And you can get the qvc code that shows the dates that you were vaccinated And uh, so you uh, I don't have that site I I can share that with you and you can share with others. I'll try to put it Well, I I'll I'll try to find that exact site for you, but it is through the state has a That site where you can check those And if there's any issue with that Some of our county health team does help has been helping people work through some of the problems they have with that And in getting those specific dates are when they're vaccinated Thank you very much Councilman alvarez Asked part of my question the second part of that would be um, so I They're the effectiveness of The different vaccines There's a I guess percentage of effectiveness What is the harm in getting a second vaccine based on the the name or the Brand of the the vaccine doctor maize and and thank you for being here. I'm sorry. I should lead with that Yeah, thank you councilwoman. I you mean getting a different vaccine like if I if I receive Johnson and Johnson and now I'm like I'm going to get Moderna. That's better What is Well, the clinical trials didn't do that, right? So in other words when you had all those people that were um Signed up for the clinical trials, which is the data That gives us the basis for what we're doing. They gave the same dose as the previous dose So we wouldn't be able to say how getting a different one Would react at all in an individual likely not much But it may not be that effective either. We don't know. They're different vaccines Slightly because they're different manufacturers. So anyways, um, whenever possible. We like to give, you know, the same vaccine But that's how it was studied. That's all that makes sense Can you say that? Yeah, are you hearing me? Are you hearing me? Okay? Not not really. Can you say it a little slower one more time? Sure so When they did the studies with Pfizer and Moderna and j and j They gave a second dose of the same vaccine for Pfizer and Moderna to the patients that they enrolled In the clinical trial So we know that all the data we have on efficacy and safety and all that stuff Is based on giving it in that manner So there's no recommendation for giving a different vaccine after you've gotten The first shot with the single vaccine because there's no data From people from the clinical trials on doing it that way. That's all so the recommendation is to give the same shot Okay, perfect. Thank you Dr. Mase I had a question that was sent to me by an employee that I'm hoping you can weigh in on as well the employee basically asked if If folks who are vaccinated can still carry the disease the delta variant and still help spread it Why would the testing be deemed effective if it was only applied to those who are unvaccinated? Well, the likelihood of getting covet is much greater five times greater as we saw from even our own data In the unvaccinated population than the vaccinated population So the reason to test unvaccinated individuals on a weekly basis Is because that's where the money is in other words, that's where you're going to find your cases of COVID Even in asymptomatic or symptomatic. That's where you'll find them on the other hand If if an entity or organization wanted to test everybody, that's fine, too That's outside of the health order However, any business or You know governmental entity that wants to test everybody that's fine if the resources are there But I think really if you want to hone in on Where you're going to have the most benefit of testing it will be the unvaccinated So the the short answer is it's a cost-benefit analysis Well cost benefit and it makes a lot of sense because the likelihood that fully vaccinated persons are going to get coveted so much less And the people who get really sick with cover who are fully vaccinated are Or have underlying conditions or are much older Paul do you want to add anything to that or I just Just to as As you were saying, there was a report out by the CDC last week which showed That Unvaccinated people were 20 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID Then then vaccinated and that's certainly a cost-benefit Got cost-benefit analysis in there some as well. So And if I may just to follow up on on councilman Alvarez's question I just wanted to share that the official site for Confirming your vaccine record at the state is my vaccine record.cdph.ca.gov My vaccine record.cdph.ca.gov and you can go on and and they will uh, They will have show you your record. You can take a picture of that Great. Thank you. And then dr mace uh getting back to councilmember tibitz's question About herd immunity and about the percentage of of folks that you shared that have been vaccinated Was that number based on eligible populations vaccinated or was it a percentage of the total population? Including Newborns to 12 year olds who can't yet get it or folks who have a qualified medical exemption When we talk about herd immunity and when you also talk about vaccination percentages Where does that number sync up? It's the total population, but keep in mind that kids are less likely to spread COVID Adults or any other respiratory disease simply because they don't have that same cough Copping and that kind of response And so even with most respiratory illnesses kids are less infectious having said that herd immunity is definitely based on the whole population Okay, thank you councilor. Are there any other questions? All right seeing them. We'll go to public comment if you're interested. Mr. Mayor Yes, madam city attorney. Mr. Mayor, I wondered if before we go to public I Clarify something. Yeah, absolutely Thank you As I said from from our perspective from my perspective the You have the legal option of going either With a vaccination testing a soft mandate Or a or a hard mandate that would require vaccines But I did want to mention and I should have earlier Is that the soft mandate the vaccination or test or weekly testing? That has already been confirmed by the courts so that the legality of that is is Pretty firmly established and I think is recognized both by Those that might challenge The wisdom of the of that man soft mandate But the legality I think is has been well established There have not been cases at least that we're aware of yet court cases that have confirmed the vaccine The hard mandate So although we believe that it is legal. I just wanted to clarify. We don't have court cases yet to rely on so All right. Thank you And mr. City manager have we already done meet and confer with our labor organizations on this question We are still in the process of meeting and conferring particularly with the general employees We have completed the process with our public safety fire police And disaster shelter workers Okay, is taking any action tonight put us in any precarious position for those discussions No, in fact, I think it helps us advance the process This way we will be able to clearly inform them of the direction that we're going and that will help them identify any Job related impacts that they wish to meet and confer with us on Okay, great. Thank you. We'll go to public comment then If you are interested in speaking hit the raise hand feature on zoom We'll start with rigel Hi, can you hear me? Yep, go ahead Awesome. Um, so I just wanted to make it real quick. I am a little bummed out that we're even having this conversation. Um, I feel like people that have chosen to work for the city um and serve their communities, but like might push back on protections for the immunocompromised and the children that are under 12 who cannot get the vaccine The city shop should be more than willing to be vaccinated on or be subject to texting. Um, but yeah, that's it Really important. I I yield my time. Thank you All right. Thank you so much ragel I see no other hands So I'll go ahead bring it back and see madam deputy city clerk. Are there any pre-recorded voicemail public comments? We receive no voice message public comments on this item Okay, I'll go ahead and close public comment on it then And I'll bring it to councilmember tibets For a motion and discussion Thank you mayor before I make a motion I'd like to ask a follow-up question for miss reeve miss reeve Would it be possible for your office to establish a system where? Uh, testing if somebody is immunocompromised and is not eligible for the vaccine that they could submit reimbursement to you for reimbursement from the city of santa rosa Yes, I think that's something that we could look into and incorporate into our testing procedures We do intend to pay for time and testing as people go through this surveillance testing process Okay, great because uh to the council before I make a motion I I want to kind of air out when what i'm thinking for this I kind of came into today's meeting wanting to do the hard mandate requiring vaccinations across all eligible employees across the city I just have a feeling like if you're working for the city of santa rosa If you are working in the public health space, there's I think a higher standard that you have to meet To take care of the population because we're public servants. That's what we're charged with doing The one thing that gives me a little bit of pause however is that well, it's two things one is We are we do seem to be close to herd immunity 74 percent according to the data suggests people have double vaccines and then there's another eight percent That's I have had one And then I I tried to apply that same kind of figure to the number of employees We have the city of santa rosa and if my memory serves We have about 1600 So if I just apply that ratio and I recognize this isn't great math But it's the best I can do with the information I was able to obtain from today That's about 256 unvaccinated people at the city of santa rosa Now my my concern is this, you know, I I think too that Being in the united states is part of about freedom and that we really should have the freedom to choose when it comes to the health of our bodies and some people may really Be fearful of what a vaccine can do and and I just I kind of want to acknowledge that But what drives me nuts is the idea that the city of santa rosa if we just use that ratio that rough estimate And the testing costs of 150 dollars a test done weekly. So four weeks a month Could cost the city up to 150 000 a month and testing these employees who do not want to quite frankly Get with the program and help this city and this country recover from this pandemic So what what I'd like to propose is that we do require the vaccines However, people can opt out of that But they are required to cover the costs of their own weekly tests And then they have to submit those tests to their supervisor or to whoever the appropriate person in the city of santa rosa is Whether it's the hr department or their supervisor And then for people who are medically compromised who do not have the choice to get a vaccine or not They just don't have access to it That they can provide a doctor's note to the hr department and then receive reimbursement for their tests To me that sounded like the most fair approach that respects people's choice It pushes our city in the direction it ought to be going for vaccines And it recognizes the needs of the medically compromised. So mr. Mayor that would be my motion Okay, and mr. City manager you look like you wanted to weigh in And I'll ask our city attorney and hr director to also voice their concerns I believe we have some OSHA requirements That will make it difficult to implement the specifics of the motion I don't believe we can require Employees to pay for their own testing I believe the state mandates that if we implement a testing program The employer is required to pay for the testing and to pay For the employee's time in order to get the test completed We also Will build in and have planned to build in two possible exemptions under both a soft and a hard mandate One of those would be for medical reasons As a council member tidbits outlined with a doctor's note or report that they've got a medical issue that would Be compromised by receiving the vaccination The second Would be a religious exemption And we would need a similar kind of note from a pastor or a religious leader explaining that they have that Religious Exemption and and cause and I would simply that Way in just to agree with the city manager That there are questions as to whether we could Legally require An employee to pay for their own testing So i'm taking I wanted to ask a follow-up question Is this an interpretation or or something we're seeing in play in other areas because for example I read that one of the healthcare providers is Basically, if you're a work for this company, you have to pay Half of your medical insurance costs and they instituted that policy. So I assume we couldn't do something like that Could we institute a penalty like a monthly fine for people who didn't get Vaccinated which then could help us recover some of the expenses associated with testing Councilmember tidbits, we are subject to collective bargaining agreements with Nearly all of our employees And in those cases in order to impose that kind of a plan we would need to Meet and confer and bargain with those employee Organizations in order to implement that kind of a policy Okay Well, I I guess my motion is going to stand. I recognize that you um It's not going to be feasible to implement one of those points But for the sake of discussion and listening to my colleagues, I want to put that forward Okay, can you repeat the motion councilmember? Yes, I can it uh requires Uh vaccination Uh, it's well, let me back up. You can either Get the vaccine or be tested But the employees are required to shoulder the cost burden of testing and submit Uh weekly test results to their supervisor or the hr director or her office Um, and then the exemptions will include the medically compromised visa via doctor's note And religious exemption visa be a religious uh pastor or clergy person Let me see if there's a second and then we'll go to Director reeve I'm not hearing a second for the motion councilmember. So we'll go to the director and then we will Come back to see if there's an additional motion that can be made Thank you, mayor rogers. We have looked at this issue and we interpret The laws to say that if the employer is requiring the testing Then they should be compensating the employees for both the time and the cost of the test We've explored different avenues as the city manager explained And so we are still in the process of looking at some potential Program or reimbursement to assist us with the costs Um, whether that be FEMA or through the state program And we are working with a variety of potential testing resources and vendors in the meantime in the short term The county has provided us with some self-administered tests, which is how we will initially do the rollout Um In terms of talking about whether or not like for instance, um insurance could cover the cost of this testing They will they would cover the cost if someone um was exhibiting symptoms potentially But this again is a surveillance testing program So it would not be covered by insurance and I just wanted to give that context an additional explanation All right. Thank you councilmember tippets um Mr. City manager, how long would it take you to do collective bargaining on some sort of a penalty fear assessment placed upon folks That's something that could be accomplished in a week or two I frankly think it's unlikely that we could accomplish it in a week or two. Um there are several different steps and uh, you know a um You have to make a legitimate effort to bargain fairly And that would take time to complete that process And I'd also like to note that that we do have legal concerns about imposing a penalty So we would need time to do more research on that point as well Again, not tested yet in the courts And we do have serious concerns Okay, then I will throw out a substitute motion and that will be the soft approach Vaccine and testing the city will pay But I think that the city of santa rosa staff should bring it back to the council Once that additional eight percent Of our population that has been vaccinated Bring that back to the council the reason why I bring that up is at some point this has to be released um If the city is going to shoulder these costs of testing um That's going to become I think pretty financially burdensome Uh So if we hit the herd immunity figures and again, I'm going off of the 80 percent that I heard dr mace Talk about and dr mace if I miss heard you please correct me Um, but that's that's where I'm going with this that we would suspend this ordinance or this rule Once we hit I guess what would be 82 percent of the population I just interject really quickly first of all that's the um Population that is eligible for vaccine right now. So that 80 percent Um is coming from that figure. So we do have the you know the proportion of kids Under 12 for example, they're not included in the denominator. So it's a little lower than that And I also want to point out that if you look At sonoma county geographically There are zip codes or census practice that are much less vaccinated And those that are much more vaccinated So the point I was making there is simply that when you have that kind of um differences In geography, you can't say you have heard immunity because There's some areas that actually there's a lot of transmission that's going on amongst people who aren't vaccinated so um You know, I just want to Clarify that I don't think are quite at herd immunity even if we are at the 82 mark for fully fleshed partially vaccinated Well, I think we we need to pin this down doctor mace because because again, I You know unless the staff has a recommendation We can't keep paying for this level of tests for an indefinite amount of time There needs to be some sort of I think a goal a finish line. And so do we know what san Do we know what santa rosa's? vaccination rate is currently among eligible population Great question. I do have my uh, that my lead epidemiologist on the call kate that kate We do we have that breakdown by city the percentage of people vaccinated? I'm not sure we're at that level of specificity that kate, do you know? um, we have data on the website that is by um zip code I can look and see if I can find something that's more specific to santa rosa Um, I don't I don't have that vaccination proportion city specific rate in front of me, but I can see what I can find and Come back to you That would be great. Um this pack. I think where I'm going with this is if if 80 percent is the number doctor mace of the eligible population For herd immunity, then that's what I think we should establish the Finish line as now you can tell us what that population size looks like and I'm willing to make a motion that encompasses your expertise But I just like the city to do The man the excuse me the vaccines and the soft testing that we pay for until that number is reached And I would like the motion to reflect that number. That's what I'm trying to work towards I mean it's hard because it's not um It's a moving target the number of what herd immunity is So some people might say 70 percent others 90 having said that having just santa rosa city at that percentage Isn't going to help all of Sonoma county because it's a county as a whole because people travel readily In santa rosa rosa de petaluma de windsor to you know, wherever so it's um When you have this kind of a respiratory pathogen that's easily credible. We're looking for overall sort of herd immunity as a nation but definitely as a state As a bay area As the 11 counties, so it's a little bit hard. I think you folks in one city because you're going to get a lot of folks coming in and out I understand that dr mace, but our jurisdiction is is restricted to santa rosa. I'm afraid Now the county could you refresh my memory? I believe they did the vaccine plus the They took the soft option plus testing. Am I or am I mistaken? Sorry, I didn't unmute there So we as a county have opted for the soft mandate and please understand that that is an encouragement also for people to get vaccinated The soft mandate of vaccine verification and testing has two objectives One is to find people who have coded early on Even when asymptomatic and get them isolated out of the workforce. So there's not greater transmission but the other is to You know for people who are kind of on the fence or just haven't had time to get the vaccine That perhaps, you know, they would opt to get the vaccine rather than be tested So there's two options. I know that even in some of our subjects right now Some of our law and fire groups have said they've had an increase in vaccination since the policy came out For the soft mandate. I know that in the healthcare amongst healthcare workers Kaiser has told me for example that a lot of the healthcare workers that are not vaccinated Are asking now, which is the best vaccine to get that kind of thing because they know But that's a hard mandate, of course Kaiser is under a hard mandate of September 30th Having said that I think um Along with the soft mandate should come education about vaccines and why it's important to get vaccinated So I'm going to give the mayor a motion real quick mayor. Sorry for Going in circles a bit, but I really want to make sure that I'm being thoughtful here My motion is to go with the soft option and get in line with the county Have staff bring this back to us to either discontinue Or continue once our zip codes hit 80 percent So council member, I also have the city manager who wants to weigh in Again, it looks like Thank you mayor members the council I I think we share an interest in being flexible and Adaptable we have learned that lesson time and time and time again during this pandemic It's not as if we started this a year ago And knew exactly how this was going to progress We have amended our approach and policies. We have State in close contact with the county and frankly the state And look to them for recommendations and actions And we'll continue to do that as we move forward If we see an opportunity Or the lack of need to continue the program I think we would be the first to be back in here and recommend that we change the policy And discontinue the testing requirement on the other hand if it's not effective And we still are having increasing covid rates I would anticipate that our own county health department is going to recommend a harder mandate and approach They're not going to stick with a policy that is ineffective. So I'd urge consideration of flexibility recognizing that We share the council's concern about costs at the staff level And we want to coordinate closely with the county at the same time protecting The health of our own employees And our community which is our primary goal and has been throughout this whole pandemic Councilmember i'm going to make a suggestion if i can i think the herd immunity percentage As a as a marker might be hard for us to actually find some Moving target with How about and i'm making this i guess as a as a friendly amendment How about we go with the soft approach being recommended by staff until such time that the state either passes a Potential bill that's been working its way through to allow for it to become a requirement across the board Or the county of sonoma does the same mandatory requirement or When maderna and johnson and johnson also receive their full fda approval Then you've got specific metrics That gives the city manager authority to go with the more hard approach As opposed to us carrying the burden of the the testing and then in the meantime while there's still some uncertainty Legally on what is permissive. We're in the soft soft mandate territory Yeah, yeah, that's that's fine with me chris. I I'd still want 80 hurt immunity if we're going to be tacking on exit points I still want 80 percent immunity herd immunity in our zip code as a part of that It just adds flexibility for staff, you know to if that's our impetus. So I'd like that to remain Um, it's I will say though with a comment. It's just disappointing that we cannot Have our employees pay for this or Institute some sort of a fine. I find it very very frustrating that the taxpayers are going to be shouldering this testing That's mayor um, I'm not sure if kate from the county is still on but I was going to ask what the 95407 with the percentage of vaccination is on that side of town because I thought the Previously that was like the highest rate when we had covid And I was wondering if it would be the lowest rate of vaccination. And if we were going to look at um A zip code That maybe we would strategically look at a zip code where Historically we see that people are not Uh engaged, I guess in in treatment or services as much idea Looking at that zip. It looks like 78.7 percent of the residents in that zip are fully vaccinated But as I was we don't have the the question earlier about vaccination rate by city I don't have that figure handy, but I think it would make more sense for decision making to look at Zip or even census tract because even within a zip code you can have variability variability by census tract in terms of unvaccinated pockets um, so And we do have um census tract Level information available if that's something that would be of interest to you to kind of understand what's happening in all of the different areas of Sand Rosa and again, it's important to remember that this is based on the 12 plus population currently eligible So any percentages are out of that total I would like that. I would like that information member Fleming Yes, couple things one is a point of order is that I don't think we have a motion on the floor um, and the other is that You know, we're talking about population metrics. Um, when you know, our employees Commute from all over the bay area including from counties Like Solana with much lower vaccination rates than in in Santa Rosa or or or in Sonoma County, so One is I I'd like to Find out if we have a second for the motion put forward by Mr. Tibbetts and then hold my comments. Um for for that point All right looking to see if there is a second to council member Tibbetts's Motion that includes the 80 threshold I am not seeing one Is there a council member who'd like to make a separate motion? Yeah, I would go ahead council member Fleming Yeah, I would like to um suggest that we require employees to become vaccinated Fully vaccinated by october 31st Barring medical Or religious exemptions Is there a second for that motion? I'm not seeing a second. So that motion will die Councilmember Schweitham, did you have a motion? Thank you, mr. Mayor, and this is uh after hearing our city manager Which I really appreciate those comments, mr. Colon Um, but I make a motion that we direct the city manager to adopt a policy requiring all city employees To provide proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing by october 1st Uh, 2021 I like the second There's a motion and a second Councilmember would you entertain a friendly amendment that provides flexibility to the city manager? Based on what the county and the state do that allows him to go for a hard mandate When permissible For me, that's assumed. I again, that's why I made the comments what mr. Colon said absolutely This is not a static one time one and done If the county changes we have a new public health order There's so many different variables my expectation of our city manager We doing what's in the best interests of the community and the organization like he stated earlier I mean without having to come back to council for that separate conversation Because I think given the current motion or what was being proposed by staff If the county changes their rules or if the state changes their rules I believe the the city manager would have to come back for authority from the council What i'm suggesting is providing him the flexibility that when those rules change Rather than having to come back for approval. He's able to just implement. Thank you for that clarification. Absolutely. I'd support that Vice mayor and uh, I don't think he said the health the health and religious at that Did you say that health and religious reason I heard comments from the city manager that will be incorporated in the policy as We directed yes Okay, so there's a motion and a second and to make sure we're clear It is a requirement for employees to show proof of vaccination Unless they have a religious or health exemption Otherwise they have to do weekly testing To show that they they're not carrying it And also providing the flexibility to the city manager that if state law or if the county's health orders change You're permitted to then implement a mandate That that is clear direction For staff and appreciated Okay, are there any additional comments on the motion or discussion vice mayor comment. Um, so in the case that an employee misses They're testing What occurs at that time city manager So i'm i'm going to ask our human resources director to respond to this. She's she's been working with our public safety departments thus far And I think can probably provide the clearest explanation of what happens If an employee misses their regular weekly testing appointment in other words They are reporting to work for their next scheduled work period And they do not have test results Thank you We are in the process of finalizing our policies to this end and we will require that employees come back to duty with A valid test in hand And we are looking at resources that will allow us to have a turnaround time of no more than 24 hours so scenarios we have Thought of include if someone is out on vacation or a scheduled leave of absence They would need to arrange testing at least 24 hours in advance of the start of their return shift And let me follow up if they did not do that uh Would they be placed on paid leave or unpaid leave until they were able to obtain a test result They would be placed on unpaid leave until they were able to obtain a test result unless they did not have opportunity In other words 24 hours notice To get the test in time I'll go to council member sweat help when we can come back You're asking for comments correct. Yes. All right. Thank you. Um, you know for me with this ever since COVID entered our life I've been relying on a sub-matter experts. It's not my wheelhouse Um went to several different briefings from dr. Maze and other county officials Because that's what I have to rely on and we do that in other areas Of we can't be experts in everything So I was listening to the sub-matter experts Additionally doing additional research over the last couple weeks knowing this item was coming forward going to the fda site county public health kalosha federal eeoc And one of the things again, this is somewhat new for me, but on the fda website about their approval 27 pages. Do I understand everything and all these different tests and cross checking? But I sell these doctors names there and what I do understand is this sentence the review committee recommends approval of this product Right, so go to the sub-matter experts. That's their conclusion. I'm going to trust them. That's what I've been doing from day one Also letting data drive my decisions. Dr. Maze showed us a whole bunch of data that shows we need to do something Right and I'm relying on her subject matter expertise to guide us through these challenging times I'm also not asking anyone to do anything that I haven't done myself It's not like oh, yeah, this is what you should do, but I'm not going to do it No, I'm trying to walk the talk. I let the data drive my decisions and based on all that My conclusion is that it's in the best interest of this community and this organization that we go with this policy So that's why I'm fully supportive of what staff is presented And thank you, mr. Colon and the rest of the city staff because this is challenging and the vice mayor brought up some great questions We're learning as we go here But it's that bottom line. We're doing what I think is in the best interest of our community and our organization Councilmember alvarez. Thank you, mayor What I'm hearing is that we're going after a fine approach. What if we went after a reward approach? Uh, according to the numbers of councilman tibets, we would be spending about $150,000 a month if I'm not mistaken What if we took part of that funds and actually created a incentive program? Which would in turn lower the the the funds needed for the following month if that's possible So we we have not addressed that question directly We have seen some or other organizations offer various incentives days off cash payments give certificates, uh, you know Cash cards, uh, etc I am not familiar with the results of those efforts Um, and I I guess I just turn to anybody else that's Participating if they have any data about the effectiveness of those efforts I I would add that uh, one of the things we are also arranging is for an onsite vaccination program We're working with the county to provide a vaccination clinic onsite here at city hall So that it is very convenient for employees who have not yet had a chance to get a vaccination to do so Uh here at a city work location councilmember tibets I turn to the subject matter experts kind of more broadly for the population But anecdotally anecdotally in our homeless shelters eddie We see really good results with incentive programs to get the vaccine In fact, we increased probably our vaccination rates by about 60 percent through incentives so I don't personally like doing it because it makes me angry that we are Feels like buying people off who Uh didn't get with the program early on when everybody else was a good faith actor But I reluctantly say it does work Nice mayor Does that mean because I already got my vaccine. I don't get a gift card Yeah I don't like that program Are there any additional questions on the comments on the motion? Councilmember alvarez. Thank you, mayor Ultimately, I will reiterate that I would like to see some type of incentive program if I'm here and that 60 percent Is the participation level that that councilman tibets has experienced 60 percent of 150 000 the following month I believe those are that would be a great reduction the expense that we'd be facing councilmember flooding Yeah, I um, I think that you know, we're councilmember tibets work So the very specific population One that may be more Open to to these types of things. We're working with fairly high paid And well compensated collectively bargaining folks And I think that we're kind of getting away from the question at hand And I'm getting real close to calling the question here But I'll I'll hold off but I think it's time for us to make a decision And I'll go to our city attorney who raised her hand as well Yeah, I just simply wanted to say there are some legal questions that get raised for governmental agency to to give incentives because of concerns about potential claims of discrimination for those that are unable To get vaccines either for medical reasons or religious reasons. So Law is not clear on that point yet, but I just want to raise that concern with respect to incentives by a governmental agency For its own workers for its own workers All right. Thank you My comments will be very brief. I'm going to echo a lot of what council members what helm said When you look at the data, it's not folks who are having side effects from the vaccine that are clogging our icu's and our hospital beds It's it's people who are unvaccinated. It's people who are continuing to help perpetuate it throughout our community Allowing new variants to spread that are more effective At knocking people down that spread easier that go to our populations that can't get a vaccine whether it's kids or immunocompromised folks I I totally understand people Wanting to to be able to make all of those medical choices for themselves And at the same time we're talking about community health and This is just another step in that process of us trying to protect Our overall community. So I'll be supporting the motion Madam city clerk. Can you please call the vote? Yes, thank you mayor councilmember tibbet Hi councilmember schwedhelm hi councilmember flimming hey councilmember alvarez hi Vice mayor rogers hi Mayor rogers hi that motion passes with six eyes with councilmember so you're absent All right. Thank you council That was item 14.2 We have no public hearings tonight. We have no written communications We will jump back to councilmember reports That's item 10 that we skipped specifically so that we could see How our consent calendar would play out? Are any council members interested in providing a report tonight? councilmember fleming Yes, I would like to take this opportunity to appoint three individuals to the charter Review committee. I'll be appointing gen close christ mizia and jasmine gudino Okay Are there any other council members councilmember alvarez? Thank you, mayor, and I'll take this opportunity to appoint danie martinez to the charter review committee councilmember tibbet Yes, I'd like to appoint adriana adrizon to the charter review committee All right anybody else tonight Okay, we have the first five members of the charter review committee. We still have 16 to go Can I claim the gold star mayor? For for being the first to do all three Yeah Oh, I thought you were going to give me a gold star for doing that math quickly in my head after a while No, no, no, no, no, no, no you got guy fingers on each hand and each foot All right councilmember tibbet, do you have anything else to add or is your hand just still up? We'll move on to public comments for non agenda items This is uh, both item 13 and 17 on our council agenda If you are interested in providing comment to the council on a topic that has not been discussed tonight Go ahead hit the raise hand feature on your zoom Uh, I see one hand, but I think it might have been lingering from our last discussion. Let's see with reigel And the hand went down Great. Thank you so much reigel Don't see any other hands. We'll go and see if we had any voicemail public comments tonight We received no voicemail public comments on non agenda matters All right, we'll go ahead and bring that back then and that was the last item on our agenda So we'll adjourn for this evening. See you all next week