 Good afternoon, I'd like to ask the interpreter currently on the Spanish channel to commence translation of the meeting for those just joining the meeting live translation in Spanish is available and members of the public or staff wishing to listen in Spanish can join the Spanish channel by clicking on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar. It looks like a glow. Once you join the Spanish channel, we recommend you shut off the main audio so you only hear the Spanish translation. Charles, will you please restate this in Spanish. Thank you. Welcome everyone. I would like to call this meeting to order May 23, 2023, our Santa Rosa City Council meeting. It is 231 Madam City Clerk, may you please call the roll. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Stapp. Here. Council Member Rogers. Council Member Okrepke. Council Member Fleming. Here. Council Member Alvarez. Present. Vice Mayor McDonald is absent today. Vice Mayor, pardon me Mayor Rogers. Present. Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Vice Mayor McDonald, Council Member Okrepke and Council Member Chris Rogers. Thank you. We will begin our meeting today with a closed session item 2.1 conference with legal council regarding existing litigation. Madam City Clerk, can you please facilitate public comment. Thank you, Mayor. We are now taking public comment on item 2.1. If you are in Council Chamber, please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand or dial star 9. You will have 3 minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. The first public comment will be from Dwayne Duit. The conference on the legal council existing litigation states that STG Unicale Place is in a lawsuit against or with the City of Santa Rosa. There's not much else to go on here. And members of the public are curious as to why this type of a lawsuit comes forward and what's occurring. Some people out in the community think it has to do with recent legislation that's been coming forward where local government agencies are restricting the amount of gas stations that can be built or replaced. I don't know exactly what this case is about, but the name Unicale brings to mind the Union Oil Company of California and makes us think that there is some sort of a large dispute afoot. Now, I know that the way the government handles these issues is to say we'll keep as much of it as close to the vest as possible. Hold it tight. But years ago, the City of Santa Rosa had an open government task force had people come down here and talk about sharing more news to use. Letting your constituents, the taxpayers, the ones who actually foot the bill frequently know more about what's actually occurring. So, I would just like to ask, and this isn't a big thing in a way, that you open up a little window of information on these things and actually say what the specific dispute is. It doesn't change the dynamic of what one side is doing and the other side is saying. It could be more helpful. You folks look at it like, but wait a minute, this is the way we always do it, and this is the way the government allows us to do it. But that's why we had the open government task force to say, let's do it a little bit different. Let's really involve our citizens, let them understand what's happening, especially when these types of cases come up. A number of people I've run into have said they did not support the local legislation that's been limiting the amount of gas stations. That don't matter much to me either way. I ride a bike a bunch. I use gas when I'm in a car. And I've been riding in electric vehicles because I get on the bus a lot in Santa Rosa, especially those new ones. So I understand the dynamics. Please just open up the black box of government information. Thank you kindly for your time. Oh, and you know, this other thing, the interviews for the boards and commissions, is that going to be in here where you can actually see the interview? Or is that going to be back in the council's city manager's conference room? It's in here. Thank you kindly for your time. Thank you, Mr. DeWitt. Mayor, there are no additional public commenters in Zoom with their hands raised, and there were no written public comments submitted. Thank you. We will now adjourn to closed session. We will now reconvene our meeting. Seeing a quorum, Madam City Clerk, may you please call the roll. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Step. Here. Council Member Rogers. Council Member Okrepke. Here. Council Member Fleming. Here. Council Member Alvarez. Here. Vice Mayor McDonald is absent today. Mayor Rogers. Present. Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Vice Mayor McDonald and Council Member Rogers. Thank you. We will now move to item three, which will be interviews for boards, commissions, and committees. Starting with 3.1 interviews for our personnel board. The council will interview applicants for one at large vacancy and one labor representative vacancy on the personnel board. And we will begin with Gail Flatt. Thank you. Is this good? Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Are you able to tell us a little bit about yourself and why you would like to? Yes, I will. I retired a year ago in February after 40 years as an attorney in Santa Rosa. I did primarily employment law. I did a lot of work for the city. I did, for a number of years, did mediations and then workplace investigations for the city. So I guess that's kind of my impetus here that I enjoy that kind of work and would like to volunteer to do that. Thank you. Are there any questions from council members? Seeing none. Thank you very much for applying and willing to serve our community. Okay. Thank you. Yes, we will have James Finucci. Thank you for being here today, James. Thank you. If you can just tell us a little bit about yourself and why you have applied. Yes, good afternoon. As indicated, my name is James Finucci. I've been a Santa Rosa resident for over 40 years. I bring with me a bit of a unique synergistic balance of both labor and management, which I think would be valuable to the personnel board. I was employed both as a peace officer and a firefighter in San Francisco and served for 20 years on the union executive board handling the representation of employees. And then as I promoted up the ranks, I into senior management, I took on the different complexion of representative department against the employees. So I understand the value of the memorandum of understanding. I understand Skelly and all the other parameters of employee relations that come into play when the ploy is either grievance or discipline. Thank you. Are there any questions from council? Seeing none. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much for taking time for me. We will next have Michael Stanford. Michael, if you can tell us a little bit about yourself and why you would be best for this position. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you all esteemed council members. So I'm Mike Stanford. I am a supervisor at City of Santa Rosa Santa Rosa City Schools where I head custodian for the largest middle school in our city, American Valley Middle and Santa Rosa Accelerated Charter School. For 10 years before going to Santa Rosa City Schools, I was at the county of Sonoma where I was the shop steward for 10 years with SEIU local 1021. Five years as an elected officer where I have experience with the grievance procedure and negotiations. Now at the city of Santa Rosa City Schools, I find myself in that in CEO position of being a supervisor. So I've dealt with HR, my manager, and dealing on an issue with personnel. So I have experience both from the side of labor and from the side of a supervisor on discipline matters. Thank you. Are there any questions from council? Seeing none, thank you very much. Thank you all. Next we have Michael Reynolds. Okay. Michael will not be joining us. Oh, there we go. Michael if you want, you don't have to come all the way down. You can do it from up there if that's more comfortable for you. Good afternoon everybody. My name is Michael Reynolds. I am a past president of the Santa Rosa City Employees Association and now the Teamsters. I retired from the city of Santa Rosa approximately four years ago and was a member of the past personnel board. Unfortunately, I didn't get an opportunity to participate in this passport but I would like to continue on the personnel board and participate in the process and get an opportunity to assist to this city in any and all hearings that are scheduled in the near future. Looking at council to see if there are any questions from council members. Seeing none, thank you very much. Thank you. We also have an applicant, Everflores, who is unable to attend the interview but can still be considered for the appointment. And that concludes our interviews for the boards that we have today. But we cannot start our meeting until four o'clock so we will recess until that time. Thank you. Excuse me, do you want to take public comment on the item later today? So, yeah, that's fine. You can do that. And did we have the interviews for the bike and pedestrian advisory board as well or is that off the... Oh, they're both on it. Okay, thanks. So you're fine. We can do the public comment before the vote. Yeah. Yeah. That'll be fine. Thanks. It is four o'clock and we will now begin our council meeting for today. Madam City Clerk, may you please call roll. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Stapp. Here. Council Member Rogers. Council Member O'Crepke. Here. Council Member Fleming. Here. Council Member Alvarez. Present. Vice Mayor McDonald is absent and Mayor Rogers. Present. Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Vice Mayor McDonald and Council Member Chris Rogers. Thank you. For item six, I will go ahead and hand it over to Madam City Attorney. Sorry, the council met in closed session this afternoon on the matter of STG Unicale Place LLC versus City of Santa Rosa. The council has approved a settlement. The case arose out of an incident of flooding in a commercial building on Unicale Place. The initial claim was for over $2 million. Under the proposed settlement, the city will pay a point of $612,500 in full and complete resolution of the matter. STG Unicale Place LLC will also defend and indemnify the city in the event of any future claims from third parties. The council approved that settlement and directed us to finalize it in writing. Thank you. Thank you. Madam City Clerk. Madam City Clerk. Thank you, Mayor. We are now taking public comment on item six. If you are in the council chamber and would like to comment, please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand. You will, or dial star nine. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. Mayor, I'm seeing no one approaching the podiums in council chamber and no hands being raised via Zoom. We received no additional public comment in advance. Thank you. So we will now go to item seven, which is our proclamations. And it is so great to see so many people in the chambers. So thank you all for being here. I just, since we have four, I would like to give you just a rundown of how we're going to give the proclamations. The proclamations will be read. After that time, I will ask the representative and or representatives to come up to the podium first to give their remarks. And then we will take public comment on that matter. After which, whoever is here to accept the proclamations, we will invite you down to take pictures with the council. So we will start with item 7.1. And that is council member Alvarez. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Senator presented proclamation for the National Public Works Week. Whereas public works are an essential part of citizens' everyday lives. And whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities and services that are vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities. Protecting public health and improving the quality of life and well-being of the people of San Rosa. Maintaining 509 mile roadway network. 1,035 acres of park, land and open space. 73 acres of roadway landscaping. 108 city-owned buildings. And 1,200 miles of water and sewer pipe. And whereas infrastructure, facilities and services cannot be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals, engineers, operators, technicians and employees at all levels of government and the private sector. And are responsible for operating, maintaining, rebuilding, designing, improving and protecting our community's transportation system. Residential and arterial streets, lights, signals, water distribution and sewer collection systems. Treatment and water reuse systems, parks and amenities. Public buildings and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas each day public works personnel work under challenging circumstances to keep themselves, motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians safe while conducting necessary work to maintain, repair and build a public infrastructure and vital roadway system. And whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders and children in San Rosa to gain knowledge of and to maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. And whereas the year 2023 marks the 63rd annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Work Association. Now therefore be it resolved, there are Mayor Nally Rogers, Mayor of the City of San Rosa on behalf of the entire City Council and pleased to proclaim the week May 21st through the 27th 2023 as National Public Works Week in the City of Santa Rosa. I urge all citizens to join the representatives of the Public Works Association and government agencies in activities, events and ceremonies designed to pay tribute to our public works professionals, engineers, managers and employees. And to recognize the substantial contributions they make in protecting our national health, safety and quality of life. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Alvarez. And is there a representative that would like to give public comment? Yes, please do. Good evening, Mayor Rogers and Council Members. My name is Andrew Allen. I'm a supervising engineer with Water Engineering Services. Thank you for the proclamation. Recognize this as Public Works Week. As you can probably tell by the proclamation, the responsibility of design, construction, maintenance, repair and replacement of our city's public infrastructure doesn't fall on one department but does require the service of several divisions within multiple departments. My colleagues and I here tonight are representing staff that are the stewards of our city's parks, street network along with street lighting, traffic signals, our stormwater system, our fleet of vehicles and near and dear to my heart are water distribution, wastewater collection and beneficial reuse systems. So thank you for recognizing the service we provide to the city. But before I step down, I'd like to invite all of you and our community members to join us tomorrow night at the Wednesday Night Downtown Market, Courthouse Square as we celebrate Public Works Week with the Santa Rosa City Works Festival. It is free family friendly event where the community can learn about as the name implies how our city works. Again, thank you for the proclamation. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, may you please conduct public comment. Thank you, Mayor. We are now taking public comment on item 7.1. If you are in Council Chamber and have not provided a speaker card, please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand or dial star 9. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. Mayor, I see no one approaching the podiums in Council Chamber, no hands being raised via Zoom and there were no advance public comments submitted on this item. Thank you. At this time, I would like to invite those down that are receiving the proclamation to take a picture with the Council and to receive your proclamation. Thank you. We will now go to 7.2, our proclamation, which will be read by Council Member Step. Thank you, Mayor Rogers. Whereas Jewish Americans have been an important part of the American story and have greatly contributed to all areas of American life and culture since our nation's earliest days. And whereas on April 20th, 2006, the federal government proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month stating, quote, as a nation of immigrants, the United States is better and stronger because Jewish people from all over the world have chosen to become American citizens, unquote. Since then, proclamations in support of Jewish American Heritage Month have been made by presidents of the United States annually. And whereas generations of Jews have fled to the United States in search of a better life for themselves and their families, and these immigrants made invaluable contributions in support of equality and civil rights through their leadership and achievements. And whereas Jewish Americans connect to their Jewish identity in a variety of ways, such as culturally, ethnically, religiously, and by following Jewish ethics and values. And whereas Jewish Americans are racially, ethnically, socially, politically, and economically diverse, and around 25% of Bay Area Jewish households include a person of color, increasing to nearly 40% of households if the head of the household is younger than 35. And whereas in 2022, Jewish Americans faced a dramatic rise in anti-Semitic incidents, 36% higher than in 2021, including but not limited to physical attacks, vandalism, verbal and physical harassment, and hateful comments posted on social media. And whereas Santa Rosa shares an obligation to condemn and combat anti-Semitism wherever it exists, to include Jewish Americans in all facets of civic life, and to stand with the Jewish American community against hatred or bigotry in our city and country. And whereas there is a need for education and policies that are culturally competent when describing, discussing, or addressing the impacts of being Jewish in all aspects of American society, including discourse and policy. And whereas we celebrate the rich and diverse heritage of the Jewish American community, including those who live, work, and play in Santa Rosa. And now, therefore, be it resolved that Natalie Rogers, Mayor of the City of Santa Rosa, on behalf of the entire City Council, does hereby proclaim May Jewish American Heritage Month. Thank you, Council Member Step. I would like to invite anyone that is receiving this proclamation to the podium to make a comment at this time, after which Madam City Clerk, can you please facilitate public comment? I'm honored to be here today. My name is Rabbi George Gittleman. I'm the Rabbi of Conrigation Sherma Tora here in Santa Rosa. And I'm honored to stand in for the Jewish community at large. Jewish American History Month is an opportunity to lift up 350 years of Jewish history and the amazing Jewish American leaders that have helped shape American society from Levi Strauss to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. By recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month, Santa Rosa is joining with cities across the region to support the local Jewish community and promote diversity, inclusion, and interfaith understanding. This actually is my 27th year serving Conrigation Sherma Tora here in Santa Rosa. When I came here in 1996, we were a small, mighty synagogue sharing a space with Christ Church United Methodists on Yulupa. That's still a great church, by the way. But since then, over a number of years, we've raised money, bought property, and built the synagogue you see across from Waterfall Tower. So we've been there for 15 years. And now we've raised 450 families, about 1,000 people. We've grown here in Santa Rosa, and Santa Rosa's been good to us. We're a proud center for progressive Judaism that reaches beyond our walls, out into the community of which we contribute. But even as we celebrate our success, which mirrors the success of Jewish America in general, it's important to recognize the challenges that the Jewish community faces in today's world. Councilman Stapp also already mentioned the steep rise in antisemitism in America, physical assault, vandalism, verbal and physical harassment. And I'm sad to say that Santa Rosa is no exception. Allow me to remind you all that the Holocaust Memorial at Santa Rosa Memorial Park has been vandalized twice in the last three years, broken the last time in the three pieces. I regularly hear from kids and parents about antisemitism in the schools, comments that kids make to one another. I personally never felt unsafe here, but we can't take that for granted. In addition to being in regular contact with Santa Rosa Police Department, they've been very supportive of us, especially our new chief. This year alone, we will spend over $50,000 in security, over $50,000. In the last decade, we spent over half a million in security, fences, alarm systems, armed guards. Know that the Jewish Community Relations Council has dedicated combating antisemitism and hate in all its forms to our whole community, and they're a good resource for our city. America is a nation of immigrants. My grandparents came on boats from Central and Eastern Europe. They had very little. It wasn't easy, but they were able to fight and win their place, really my and our place in American society. But it's important to remember that that's not so for many people, especially people of color. So while we celebrate the Jewish American experience and our successes, let us also reflect on the larger immigrant experience, as well as the experience of people of color in this country, who, while are still being pushed down, while others are being pulled up. Let's also remember that Jews are vulnerable in America today. We don't look vulnerable, but we are. We are great contributors to American society, and we need America to do its part as a country committed to the rule of law for all its citizens. Thank you so much. Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 7.2. If you are in the chamber and would like to comment, please make your way to the podium, if you have not already provided a speaker card. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand or dial star nine. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. Mayor, there are no hands being raised via Zoom and there was no one approaching the podiums in council chamber. Additionally, there were no advanced public comments on this item. Thank you. I would like to invite you down to take a picture with council and also receive your proclamation. We will now continue with our proclamation 7.3 for Wildfire Awareness Month, and that will be read by council member O'Cruppke. Thank you very much. This is something that resonates very personal to me. I want to point out something. If you look around this room, there's a lot of brave first responders in this room where they prefer to be, which is in the back away from the spotlight. They're here to do the work, and I think we should always recognize them as often as possible because they don't seek that recognition, but they are very deserving of it. Whereas since 2017, the city of Santa Rosa was threatened directly impacted by the tubs, nuns, concave and glass fires, and whereas the tubs fire was one of the most destructive wildfires in state history, and whereas according to the National Interagency Fire Center, humans cause an average of 68% of fires per year in the United States, and whereas in 2021, 8,835 fires burned, 2,568,984 acres across California, and whereas prevention campaigns and public outreach through collaborative efforts is fundamental in reducing the threat of wildfires, and whereas wildfire preparedness is year round and takes all of us to safeguard our lands, our communities and our livelihoods by reducing hazardous fuels, creating defensible space, home hardening, and taking personal responsibility for our actions. Now, therefore, it be resolved that Natalie Rogers, Mayor of the City of Santa Rosa, on behalf of the entire City Council, do hereby proclaim May National Wildfire Awareness Month. Thank you, Council Member Okrepke. I would like to invite the representative that is here to receive this proclamation to the podium to make comment. Good afternoon, Mayor Rogers, members of the Council. My name is Paul Lowenthal, Division Chief Fire Marshal with the Santa Rosa Fire Department joined by members of our fire prevention staff as well as our Deputy Fire Chiefs from our department. I want to thank you for bringing this proclamation to the awareness of not only the people in the chamber but our entire community. There's a lot of effort that we took prior to 2017 to bring awareness, and at the time people thought the most first thing that was going to happen to our community was an earthquake. Obviously, since 2017 that's changed and we continue to bring awareness and a lot of those efforts that our community is taking because of the steps that we're helping teach and bring awareness to have directly led to a lot of successes since 2017. If you look at what happened to us in 2020, 1,152 properties were impacted by fire and only a little over 30 homes were destroyed. Granted, we don't want to see any homes destroyed, but we actually saw those efforts paying off. In the last couple of years, we've seen a number of grass fires break out in our community and efforts like vegetation management, defensible space and weed abatement stop property destruction. So we hope that these efforts continue to pay off here locally and lead to a safe season for us here in Santa Rosa. So thank you. Thank you. We are now taking public comments on item 7.3. If you are in the chamber and would like to provide comment but have not provided a speaker card, please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand or dial star 9. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. Mayor, there's no one making their way to the podium. We have no hands being raised via Zoom and there were no pre-recorded public comments on this item. Thank you. At this time, we would like to invite you down to take a picture with the council and receive your proclamation. All of you, we will fit you in the picture. Thank you so much for being here. So our next proclamation is 7.4 and that is for Mental Health Awareness Month. And that is a proclamation that will be read by myself. But I would like to acknowledge Council Member Fleming who works in Mental Health along with myself. So we definitely see what in response does in our community and we're very thankful for what it is that you do. So thank you very much. Proclamation. Whereas, May is National Mental Health Awareness Month and the City of Santa Rosa has taken significant steps to address mental health in our community by creating in response. Santa Rosa's first Mobile Mental Health Crisis Support Team, which is supported by system navigators who provide robust services to those in need and our peers with lived experience. And whereas, City of Santa Rosa worked in partnership with several local organizations including Buckaloo Programs, Humanidad, Therapy and Education Services, Catholic Charities, Sonoma County Behavioral Health, Santa Rosa Fire Department and the Santa Rosa Police Department to create, to create in response. And whereas, the in response team has responded to 2,893 calls in 2022, 1,762 calls were diverted from local law enforcement and the in response system navigators made 2,367 contacts with individuals who receive services including crisis intervention, personal support, care coordination and referrals and whereas, NAMI, Sonoma County, the local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Health, on Mental Illness was an instrumental stakeholder in the formation of in response team and has played a key role in providing essential services to those in need across our city. And whereas, NAMI, Sonoma County provides key mental health, education and support services to individuals and families affected by mental health including a warm line for support and service referrals, a family to family and a peer to peer course and support groups for families and for individuals in recovery. And whereas, with coordination between providers in Sonoma County, individuals and families have been provided with crucial wraparound support, education and system navigation that has never existed before. And now therefore it be at resolve that I, Natalie Rogers, Mayor of the City of Santa Rosa, on behalf of the entire City Council, do hereby proclaim May Mental Health Awareness Month. I would like to invite the representative that will be receiving this proclamation to the podium to say a few words. Thank you, Mayor Rodger. I'm John Cregan, our chief of police here and I want to talk really briefly and introduce our program manager from in response. But just thank you so much for the support and quite honestly this team would never be here but weren't so the port of our City Council and our City Council from day one set ourselves apart from other cities across the region with dedicating the true resources that we need to bring a team that does set ourselves apart from the state with actually having the licensed or associate licensed mental health clinician, fire paramedics, the homeless outreach specialist and the system navigators who are working behind the scenes. And even today we had two of our actual teams which are in operation today who came here for the meeting and both teams got called out in the 20 minutes we were here to go deal with mental health crisis in our community. So it's exactly what we formed this team for and we're so excited as the team continues to expand as we work to our ultimate goal of the 24-7 response model. So thanks so much for your support behind the scenes to get us here between our incredible City Manager, our City Council and every one of you. So let me turn it over to KT Swan who's been really from day one behind the scenes of creating this team and also we'll get to when we take the picture of our key partners with Catholic Charities here in Santa Rosa from Humanidad Therapy. From our County of Sonoma Behavioral Health team and support and Buckaloo programs and each one of these teams playing such a key part. And then our NAMI Board of Directors are here as well and NAMI help guide us behind the scenes with the name of the team, the color and how we build some of the community credibility. So so appreciative of NAMI. Let me turn it over to KT Swan and have her talk about the team. Thank you all. Thank you City Council members and Mayor Rogers. I really appreciate all of your support and your assistance as we've uplifted a mental health crisis team or in response program through the city. We we couldn't have done it without all your support and also from for the fact that you listen to our community or community asked for help and wanted a different mental health response model. And you heard them and with open arms gave us the support to be able to do that. We have been operating for over a little over a year now and we've seen great success in what we've done and we have a long way to go to continue to go towards that 24-7 response model. But what we have done so far has been phenomenal and it's been an honor for me to watch and I really want to shout out to our team. They've been doing great work. We couldn't do it without all of you and all of your dedication and willingness to show up when that's super hard. Even in those tough moments and but it's great to see you all come together and be a big family. And you know it's super personal. Right. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. You know and it's super personal for me. I have lived experience and we have peers on our team that have lived experience that bring their experience to the forefront of the work that they do to be able to support other folks. To have that journey as well and navigating the mental health and health care systems which is super challenging and that's a personal experience of my own as well with my family. And so this means a lot to me. And I just want to thank you for shouting out Mental Health Awareness Month. The way we reduce stigma for mental health is through talking about it and opening access to different supports and services in our community. So thank you again for all of your support. Thank you. Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 7.4 if you wish to make a comment and have. Oh my goodness. If you're in the council chamber and would like to comment but have not provided a speaker card or your name please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via Zoom please raise your hand or dial star nine. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. Mayor I see one hand being raised via Zoom. I'll turn it over to the Zoom host to facilitate as there are no public comments in council chamber. Tina I'm allowing you to speak. Go ahead when you're ready. Hi this is Tina Rivera the director for the Department of Health Services. I just wanted to add my congratulations to in response and Nami Sonoma County for all of the success and the great work on the program. I also wanted to appreciate our collaboration and partnership and I'm looking forward to our continued partnership and serving our broader Sonoma County community with all of our other partners in this work. I just wanted to join others and recognizing mental health awareness month and also again in honoring the in response team. Thank you very much. Thank you Tina. We have no additional hands raised on Zoom and no pre-recorded messages for this item. I would like to invite those that are accepting this proclamation down to accept it and take a picture with the council. Scoot in a little bit this way. We will now continue with item eight our staff briefings. Assistant city manager nut we'll take it over from here. Thank you mayor we have one staff briefing today the Russian River water forum update and Santa Rosa water director Jennifer Burke will be presenting. Thank you. Good afternoon Mayor Rogers and members of the council as assistant city manager not mentioned my name is Jennifer Burke and I'm the director of Santa Rosa water and I'm here to give you a quick update on the Russian River water forum. You know we've been in front of the council before but just wanted to provide a little bit of background information. As you may recall the city of Santa Rosa receives our water supply from the Russian River. That water is stored in both Lake Sonoma which is just north of Healdsburg in that area and then also in Lake Mendocino which is up in the Ukaia area. The water that comes into the Russian River and is eventually stored in Lake Mendocino a portion of that comes from the Eel River and it is diverted through a project owned by PG&E called the Potter Valley project. This project has been in operation for more than 100 years and previously there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 160,000 acre feet that used to divert from the Eel River into the Russian River as part of the project. In more recent years on average 60,000 acre feet of water is transferred from the Eel River into the Upper Russian River. However in recent years PG&E initially was looking to re-license that project through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and decided a few years ago that they would actually change their mind and they are not going to re-license the project. So now that project is in a licensed surrender and decommissioning process and why is that important to us in terms of water supply? Although the overwhelming majority of our water comes from Lake Sonoma, water releases from both Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma are important to meet the requirements of Sonoma water's water rights, licenses and permits. And so that water supply that is diverted from the Eel River to the Russian River, if that no longer occurs, 8 out of 10 years there is not enough water supply to meet the needs of the Russian River, of the Upper Russian River specifically. And in two of those years Lake Mendocino is predicted to go completely dry. So it is an important diversion that occurs from a water supply resiliency and also fisheries protection perspective. So what is being done about this? There have been a number of efforts that have tried to occur in the past including an ad hoc group that was formed under Congressman Huffman. There was also the potential for a two basin solution to look at the possibility of re-licensing the project. Unfortunately those efforts have not produced any solution. And so now Sonoma water has received grant funding from the state to look at a resiliency planning effort and that grant is creating a number of things one of which is the Russian River water forum. So the forum is focused on trying to determine answers to four basic questions related to the Potter Valley project decommissioning. It is with the premise that some type of diversion would continue. And if some type of diversion does continue, what facilities would be needed to continue that diversion? And who would own those facilities? If the facilities are needed to be modified in any way to ensure water supply and fisheries protection, what financing would be in place to support the acquisition and any modifications needed? And then how would the existing water rights be impacted and managed? So the water forum has created a couple of different groups that are going to be working on those questions and looking to see if we can find a solution. There's a steering committee that has been meeting for about eight months now. I have been participating on that steering committee representing not only Santa Rosa water but the water contractors that purchase water from Sonoma water. We have developed what we call a planning group and I'll talk about that in a little more detail. That is going to consist of technical staff. There is also a leadership council that will consist of electeds and I will provide details on that as well. Underneath the planning group will be those working groups. We're looking at four working groups that will focus on answering those questions I mentioned in the previous slide. And then there is a desire to also look at overall resiliency within the Russian river. There's a little bit of debate about whether that committee is going to start sooner or will be a little bit later. The hope is that the planning group will be able to take information from the working groups to identify potential solutions and then bring some solutions forward for the leadership council to consider. And then if there's members of the leadership council that would like to consider participating in those solutions they would go back to their various boards, councils, etc. To determine if that entity will participate in that solution. So getting into a little more detail on each of those committees. The leadership council as I mentioned is going to be consisting of elected officials. Representatives from tribes, local, county, state and federal governments get to participate. For state and federal agencies there's an understanding that likely those elected officials won't be able to participate so they'll be allowed to designate staff to participate. Again the leadership council is going to consider the options from the planning group and then they are going to bring that back to their various boards, councils, etc. To make a decision if they want to participate in the solution. I'm happy to announce that the leadership council representing our water advisory committee consists of the water advisory committee chair Mike Kealy from Petaluma and the water advisory committee vice chair, our very own Mayor Rogers. And thank you very much Mayor Rogers for agreeing to do that. On the planning group this will consist of technical staff and for technical staff there will be representatives from those four counties listed on the slide. There will also be representatives from tribal governments in both the Russian River and EO River basins. There's a number of water suppliers both in Sonoma County and Mendocino County and I'll give you a little more detail on Sonoma County representatives in a minute. As well as environmental interests, agricultural interests, resource conservation districts, commercial fisheries and public and private recreation interests. We are looking at a planning group that's made up right now of about 32 members but the planning group is open to any and all tribal governments or tribes that want to participate. So likely that number will continue to grow as the planning group is meeting. As I mentioned for Sonoma County water suppliers this is the additional detail. We actually have six seats on the planning group for water suppliers. We've broken that down into one member and an alternate from the north county and that consists of Healdsburg as the member and Cloverdale as the alternate. One member and alternate from West County that consists of Camp Meeker as the member and Sweetwater Springs as the alternate. We have a representative from Sonoma Water that is Mike Thompson who's an assistant general manager and then David Manning who's an environmental resource specialist as the alternate. And then three water contractors. So we have Santa Rosa with Runner Park as the alternate, Northmore and Water District and Marin Municipal Water District as the alternate and then Windsor with Petaluma as the alternate. And then we will also be nominating people to participate with technical expertise on those four working groups. The intent is that they will be made up of six to eight people but those could grow as those are formed. I wanted to remind the council that we did come before you in October of last year to get some policy direction from the council related to our participation in the initial surveys that were being conducted to see if there was enough interest to form a Russian River Water Forum. Mayor Rogers, myself, Deputy Director Peter Martin participated on behalf of Santa Rosa for those initial interest surveys. And we use the direction from this council to provide our answers. That direction consists of continuing to support some flow of water from the project for both water supply reliability as well as protection of fisheries. Generally supportive of a regional entity being formed to acquire the project as we are not interested in having Sonoma Water acquire the project. Receptiveness to contributing some type of funding that's proportional to the benefit received. And that we ensure any decisions are consistent with our restructured agreement for water supply. This is the agreement between Sonoma Water and the eight contractors which also has specific language related to acquisition of the Potter Valley project. There's a number of steps Sonoma Water would have to take if they were able to do so. They're not interested in taking those steps so we want to make sure we hold them to that accountability. And then we want to continue to be able to seek opportunities for meaningful input on the forum and as these projects are considered. So this is the council policy direction we used for the survey. This is the policy direction that I'm using for our participation on the planning group. And then in terms of next steps our first meeting occurred last week in Ukiah. It was a roughly six hour meeting. It was an initial sort of forming meeting where we talked about potential approval of a charter as well as provided information on interests. To continue we're looking to continue meeting that the next meeting for the planning group would be in mid June as a virtual option. And then starting in July looking to have monthly in person meetings likely in Ukiah that will likely be about six hours long. And those will also be broadcast virtually. In addition to the planning group as the public water supplier Sonoma County has pulled together a caucus and we are meeting monthly to determine our interest. Make sure where we can support those interests where we align identify if there's areas where we maybe don't align and we can not stand in the way. And then identify areas where we have divergent interests and we're going to have to advocate separately on the planning group from that perspective. In terms of the leadership council that is still being formed and tentatively scheduled to start meeting in late mid to late summer. And with that I wanted to provide you with the website where you can get more information or any member of the public is interested can get more information. And I'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any questions from council? Seeing none. Madam city clerk may you please connect public comment. Thank you mayor we are now taking public comment on item 8.1. If you are in the chamber I would like to comment but I have not provided a speaker card or your name please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via zoom please raise your hand or dial star nine. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. Mayor I see no one approaching the podiums no one signed up in advance and there are no hands being raised. Additionally there were no prerecorded public comments for this item. Thank you very much director Burke. Before we move on to item 9. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to those that are here to participate and are here item 16.2. But due to low attendance from the council and those that are not able to participate in that item we are not going to be hearing that item today. And it will be announced on a further agenda when the item will be heard so sorry for any inconvenience. Moving on to item 9 city manager and city attorney's report or shall I say city attorney and assistant city manager's report. Thank you madam mayor Sue Gallagher city attorney just giving our monthly litigation update. In terms of settlements I did report out earlier this afternoon that we have reached a settlement in the STG Unical Place LLC versus city of Santa Rosa under that proposed settlement the city will be paying $612,500 in full and complete resolution of the matter. That arises out of flooding in a commercial building upon Unical Place. In addition to the Unical Place LLC's waiver of costs and attorney's fees they have also agreed that they will defend and indemnify the city in the event of any future claims from third parties. Beyond that settlement I have no other settlements to report. In terms of pending litigation we currently have 27 cases total. It's kind of what we're running each month between you know 27 and in the low 30s. Of that we have two code enforcement receiverships one of which has now been fully resolved and the case was dismissed on May 19th 2023 so just a short time ago. We have one receivership remaining pending and we have several new receivership cases that we're expecting to file in the next month or so. Excuse me. We have eight matters of general litigation. One case owners and renters rights association versus city of Santa Rosa that was dismissed on May 10th at no cost to the city. That concerned our short term rental ordinance. One case McLeod at all on that regard a was regarding an RV encampment that is waiting a formal dismissal the plaintiffs have agreed to dismiss but the paperwork has not yet been filed. We have two cases of general litigation that are set for trial one next February one next March. And we have one settlement and that was in the polio versus UPA case. We had reached a settlement that has been appealed by one of the code defendants and we're awaiting those proceedings. We also have 11 personal injury cases in one of those cases I bear a versus city of Santa Rosa settlement has been reached in the amount of 13,000 and we're awaiting the final paperwork on that dismissal. And we have one trial set for in October that's the constant Brown case. We have three police actions all in various stages of litigation and we have three writ proceedings also in various stages of litigation. One of those writ proceedings we have a hearing tomorrow for a cross motions for summary judgment. If those motions are both unsuccessful there is a trial that set for September. We have one new we received one new claim last month. And so there's our status happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you assistant city manager net. Thank you mayor as the supervising engineer Andy Allen mentioned during the proclamation the city manager and I would like to invite everybody out to courthouse square tomorrow evening between 5 and 8 30 to come and enjoy our public works week festivities as the Santa Rosa city works festival. We're very excited to have crew members and their equipment out and about to be able to ask questions look at the operations and the type of work that they do be able to see examples of some of the methodologies that they're using to operate and construct our facilities here in our community. And I'll also just say since I have the opportunity I'm just very proud of the teams that we have that conduct the public works obviously is the roles that I've had within the organization. It's an incredible group of individuals and I'm just very pleased to be able to not only celebrate the public works week with them but also to be out and enjoy our city works festival with them tomorrow evening. And Mayor that concludes our report. Thank you. Thank you we are now taking public comment on item 9.1. If you are in council chamber would like to comment but have not provided a speaker card or your name please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via zoom please raise your hand or dial star nine. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. Mayor I see no one approaching the podium for public comment in chamber. There are no hands being raised via zoom and there were no advanced pre-recorded public comments on this item. Thank you. Moving on to item 10 statements of abstention by council members. Are there any abstentions that need to be made? Seeing none I will be abstaining from item 11.1. 12 as it is regarding me. Councilwoman Fleming will run the meeting at the time of my absence. We will now be moving to item. 10. Mayor and council member reports. Council members that. Let's see. Danielle Gardunio and members of the violence prevention team walked in at just the perfect moment because the update I was going to give was we had we held the third installment of the strategic planning session for the violence prevention partnership last week. And Danielle and the team did a great job. Shout out to Ernesto Olivares too for leading that group. We had a room. Danielle would know the exact number. We must have had 60 people in that room. 20 plus organizations representing schools including Santa Rosa and SRJC. We had public safety. We had K through 12 institutions. We had a lot of local nonprofits again focused on finalizing a strategic plan that will better allow us to support the youth in the community. And so I know Danielle and her team are finishing that plan up in the next few weeks. And the group is looking forward to seeing it. And it's going to be a nice step forward for the city. So thank you Danielle. Thank you to the whole VPP group. I will now give my report so that I can get closer to an exit and then you can. So on May 12th I was able to attend the community matters 18th annual of standards luncheon. It was a lot of fun insightful and provided hope for our youth in the community about how community matters is changing lives. For those of you that don't know community matters is a safe school ambassador program. With the goal of improving school climate and safety and reducing bullying and mistreatment through evidence based programs that empower and engage the youth and to hear their voices. So on the 12th I was also able to attend a life works event. And at that event I was awarded champion for change award. It was very moving inspirational night. A reoccurring theme that was unplanned was just to slow down and with it being mental health awareness month. I think that that is a great thing for us to take is just to slow down. Don't let life pass us by. Know how people are doing. Take the time to check in and take the time to reach out for help when you need help. I would like to thank all that attended the event that were there to support me and to support life works and their goal to change lives and build community. It is very much appreciated. On Saturday the 13th I was able to attend a ceremonial groundbreaking for the SRJC Southwest campus which was renamed Santa Rosa Junior College Roseland. So a lot of performances a lot of familiar faces and it was a lot of fun. On the 17th I was also able to attend the downtown business mixer. I'm pleased to see some familiar faces but also meet some people that I look forward to collaborating and working with in the future. May 19th assembly member Jim Wood presented a $5 million check to the Keratoss center. We're thankful for assembly member Wood for him wanting to continue to invest in our community. I'm also able to take a sneak peek at the Keratoss home site which will be completed next month. And if I recall correctly I think there's about 60 units that will go to our chronically unhoused and then other unhoused families and individuals. And on Saturday May 20th I was able to attend the 7th collaborative mental health conference hosted by community Baptist Collaborative. The discussion was around mental health and African American community. And I was pleased to see SRPD representing. So thank you very much Chief Cregan for bringing your team. And lastly I just want to give an announcement because we will not have another meeting prior to but on June 3rd I will be participating along with my colleagues and a lot of other community members very excited for the Sonoma County Pride Parade. I'm beyond grateful to be participating this year along with other city officials as we march with local high school students who are a part of the Gay Straight Alliance and other youth from our community. I hope to see everyone there as we demonstrate all the love and appreciation we have for our LGBTQI plus community. So come on out and join us in solidarity. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Are you going now? Okay. Council Member O'Crepkey. Thank you. I just want to take this real quick opportunity as we approach what is a long weekend for many of us but not for all of us obviously. If you would like as you exit today to go downstairs just walk right out on the corner of Santa Rosa Avenue and Sonoma Avenue. That's where our memorial is to those soldiers that fell in battle from our Sonoma County community. As we approach Memorial Day I just want to encourage everybody to enjoy themselves and take a moment to remember why we're all able to enjoy ourselves as freely as we are. And to recognize those that gave their lives so that we can have it this way. Council Member Alvarez do you have any comments? I too was able to attend the ceremony at Caritas and I'm grateful to Assembly Member Wood. I'm using this opportunity to appoint John Sawyer to the General Plan Update Advisory Committee. And that concludes my comments. Do we take public comment on this? Is there anybody in the chamber wishing to make public comment on Council Member Report Outs? Madam Clerk do we have anybody? Oh we do okay. Mr. DeWitt. Hello my name is Dwayne DeWitt. Perhaps I'm not hearing so well. Did you say you had just nominated Tom Sawyer or John Sawyer to be on the General Plan Advisory? We don't get a no back and forth but I intend to nominate John Sawyer. The person who just got off the City Council. My voice is a little out. I can appreciate that miss. The thing of it is I think at this point in time Mr. Sawyer has given far too much to our community in one sense or another. It might be time to bring in new voices, younger voices, people maybe not even 40 yet. Let people who have a future in this city of many decades ahead of them get a chance to be the voice on the General Plan Advisory Committee. I appreciate that the designation has already been done but it really is time for us to open this up to new folks and let the others move on. That's part of life as we get older we're supposed to move on up I guess. Until then I'm hoping as you see all these young people here you'll start to look for these young people and let them be the advisories to us in our future. Thank you. That's good advice to move on. So with that can we? Alright. So that concludes our report outs. We have 11.1.12 which is motion to approve absence from the city. Apparently Mayor Rogers will be traveling outside the city in June during which time she intends to participate in council meetings remotely in accordance with the Brown Act noticing requirements. Although the Mayor plans and expects to be back in the city well within 30 days of her departure and an anticipated flight or other travel delays could cause her time outside the jurisdiction to be extended. Given the potential for unanticipated travel delays extending her time outside the city and the possibility of unexpected technology connectivity issues interfering with her intended remote participation in council meetings during her travels. It is recommended by the city attorney that in an abundance of caution Mayor Rogers receive council permission for a possible extended absence from the city jurisdiction and possible absence from city council meetings from June 4 2023 through July 11 2023. References city charter section 31D and city council manual of procedures and protocols section 1F or IF. So does the council have any questions on the item before we take public comment? Yes Mr. Okrepke. Just one brief question and I apologize for showing how green I am up here but how common is this? I don't know how many times it's been done in the past. I do not recall any time since I've been city attorney that this has been done. I do understand that prior to my time with the city there was at least one instance where an extension was given to be outside of the jurisdiction or unable to attend meetings due to health reasons. Alright. With that we'll take public comment on this item and then we will have a motion. Thank you. We are now taking public comments on item 11.1.12.1. If you are in council chamber would like to comment but have not provided a speaker card or your name please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via Zoom please raise your hand or dial star 9. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. Councilmember Fleming I see no one approaching the podium. There are no prerecorded public comments on this item and no hands being raised via Zoom. I'll look to Mr. Alvarez to make a motion. Thank you Councilmember Fleming. I do make a motion to approve the absence of Mayor Malley Rogers. Second. Alright will you please call the vote. Thank you to confirm that was a motion by councilmember Alvarez seconded by councilmember Stepp to approve councilmember or Mayor Rogers potential extended from city and council meetings. I do make a motion to approve the absence of Mayor Rogers. Second. Thank you. Councilmember Stepp. I. Councilmember O'Crepkey. I. Councilmember Fleming. I. Councilmember Alvarez. I. Let the record show that vote passes with form affirmative votes. Thank you and we will take a brief recess while we wait for the mayor to return. We'll hear for item 16.2. The mayor announced earlier that it has been pushed. Okay. You're still welcome to stay. Thank you. We will now go to item 11.2 board commission and committee appointments. We're going to go ahead and facilitate public comment first and then the council will vote. Thank you. We're now taking public comments on item 11.2.1 regarding appointments to the following boards. We have one at large vacancy for the personnel board and one labor representative vacancy for the personnel board and one senior community representative for the bicycle and pedestrian advisory board and one disabled community representative for the bicycle and pedestrian board. If you would like to provide public comment on these items but have not provided a speaker card or your name, please make your way to the podium. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand or dial star nine. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period. I'm going to respond. See no one approached the podiums for public comment and no hands being raised via Zoom. There were also no pre-recorded public comments on the item. This concludes public comment on 11.2.1. Okay. So the council will make a motion if anyone chooses to make a motion. You can do them separately or you can do them all at once. And we'll see if we can get somewhere with this today. I'll make a motion if I may to appoint Mr. Flores. I'll make a motion to appoint Mr. Flores. I will make a motion to appoint Mr. Flores to his position as our at-large representative to that board. Is there a second? A second. Madam City Clerk may you please call the vote. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Stepp. Aye. Councilmember O'Crepkey. Aye. Councilmember Fleming. Aye. Councilmember Alvarez. Aye. Mayor Rogers. Aye. Committee votes. Is there any other motions? I would like to make a motion to appoint Michael Stanford for the Labor Representative able Jeff Coat for the Disabled Community Representative in Paul Schwartz for the Senior Community Representative. I'll take it. Motion made by Mayor Rogers seconded by Councilmember Alvarez. Madam city clerk may you please call the vote? Thank you councilmember step. Hi councilmember O'Crepkey. Hi councilmember Fleming. Hi councilmember Alvarez Mayor Rogers. I let the record show that both passes with five affirmative votes We'll now move to eleven point two point two mayor's appointment to the public financing authority and And with the council's approval, I would like to appoint councilmember Fleming a councilmember Rogers and Councilmember stat as an alternate city attorney. How do we proceed? you'll want to take public comment and then the The council can affirm your appointment by appointments by motion Madam city clerk may you please conduct public comment? Thank you We are now taking public comment on eleven point two point two if you are in council chamber and would like to comment But have not provided a speaker card or your name. Please make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom Please raise your hand or dial star nine. You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period May I see no hands being raised via zoom there were no pre-recorded public comments and no one in council chamber wishing to provide comment May you please call the vote We need to get a motion in a second So moved second Now, can you call the vote? Thank you Thank you councilmember step. Hi councilmember O'Crepkey. Hi councilmember Fleming. Hi councilmember Alvarez Amir Rogers. Hi, let the record show that motion passes with five affirmative votes Thank you. We will now go to Item twelve point one approval of minutes for May 4th 2023 which was a special meeting Looking to council to see if there are any corrections To the minutes seeing none madam city clerk, can you please facilitate public? Public comment on item 12. Thank you We're taking public comments on item 12 if you are in chamber and have not Provided a speaker card, please make your way to the podium if you're participating via zoom Please dial star nine or raise your hand that you will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period Seeing no one approaching the podiums in the chamber there are no hands being raised and no pre-recorded public comments on this item We will adopt item 12 as presented Moving on to item 13, which is our consent Calendar madam city clerk. Can you please read the consent calendar? Thank you mayor item 13.1 a motion to adopt the final report of the city council priorities item 13.2 resolution of the 8th amendment to the professional services agreement to Professional services agreement number f001238 with our three consulting group Inc Item 3.3 resolution to an opposition to initiative 21 dashes 004 to a 1 item 13.4 resolution first amendment to professional services agreement with turbo data systems Inc for parking citation processing services and item 13.5 a Resolution for approval of amendment number 2 to the city manager's employment agreement and introduce an ordinance to increase the compensation of the city manager To note it is recommended by the human resources department that the council by resolution approve amendment number 2 to the employment agreement of the city manager and introduce the ordinance to increase the compensation of the city manager by providing one a five percent merit increase in salary effective January 1 2023 Resulting in an annual salary of two hundred and ninety thousand five hundred eighty eight dollars as of that date To a two and a half percent cost of living salary adjustment effective July 2nd 2023 resulting in an annual salary of two hundred ninety seven thousand eight hundred fifty three dollars as of that date Three a merit increase equal to five percent of two hundred and seventy six thousand seven hundred fifty dollars effective December 3rd 2023 resulting in an annual salary of 311,691 dollars as of that date for a merit increase equal to six percent of 276,750 dollars effective the beginning of the first pay period in June 2024 resulting in an annual salary of 328,296 dollars as of that date Five a merit increase in June 2025 if and as needed to align the city manager's salary to the then average city manager's salary and comparable jurisdictions Six an enhanced wellness benefit of four thousand eight hundred dollars yearly effective January 1 2023 seven a five-year contract term and eight an opportunity to explore housing loan options Thank you bringing it back to council. Are there any questions? Seeing none Madam city clerk may you please conduct public comment? Thank you We are now taking public comment on item 13 the consent calendar if you are in the council chamber and would like to provide comment But have not provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom, please raise your hand or dial star 9 You will have three minutes in a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period The first public comment will be from Dwayne. I was Dwayne DeWitt. I'm from Roseland There are three topics under consent today that each should be allowed three minutes of discussion by the public Although I know you folks like to get things done quickly. There's some important things here You had a city council priority setting workshop on the 9th and 10th of March at that time Your own report says the 27 people attended from the public and yet in the report that you have here to approve today It doesn't give anything to say about what they had entered into the record They took the time to come to those meetings They spent time to speak and yet it's not reflected here in this for anybody to understand what they were about What was really important to me was that the assistant city manager said the city had 1,400 properties that they were going to seek to offload his words exactly offload That means it's surplus property and that means that Somehow or another it's going to be disposed of in the future Yet those are assets that belong to the taxpayers and the taxpayers need to know What's going to occur? These are the kind of things that need to be shared with the public And that's why we had an open government task force in the past 13-3 you have a resolution coming forward where you're going to oppose a Measure that's going to go to the state ballot and yet you have not talked with the public in any way shape or form To find out what the members of the public feel should be a response to this There is a copy of the proposed ballot initiative language that's available. I was able to purchase it I've read it. I don't see anything. That's really bad there as a matter of fact as a supporter of Proposition 13 from 1978 and proposition 218 from 1996 What I see happening here is some organizations are trying to say look we need to limit the amount of times that various smaller governmental agencies can go out and get taxes and Do it in such a way that the public doesn't really know what's occurring this happens quite frequently As a matter of fact, we just celebrated that you Reauthorized a 20-year small sales tax increase most folks didn't know that was coming it happened It's a good thing in some ways, but in other ways it should have been talked about with the public in the first place That's why we have a Department of Community Engagement Supposedly last but not least I like the new city manager But this is getting way too much money these days for what these folks are getting This this is unrealistic to be getting a third of a million dollars in a year to be a paper pusher an Administrator come on. This is not the way this should be the military would never have those kinds of wages and they do far more Thank you for honoring Memorial Day when it comes up on Monday Thank you. We have a speaker at the Western podium, but please go ahead with your comment But yes, thank you. I did not place a card to speak. My name is Eric Frazier My address is truth in tourism at gmail.com Following up on mr. DeWitt comments. I do agree that more time needs to be given to important issues for vetting It's come up time and time again, and I've seen where mr. DeWitt has Actually some pretty interesting analysis and research that should be heard and I think everybody On the dais knows that I'm a researcher as well And I have to tell you I'm shocked by the amount of secrecy the amount of decisions that are made without a fact basis Some of the stuff that's going on in our city is not healthy at all And again, you know nothing against the city manager. I think she's wonderful But I she hasn't followed through on the promised meetings and I'll have some other things to disclose but true We live in a state where the governor earns a two hundred and nine thousand dollar salary plus. I imagine pension So the idea that a city manager needs to be compensated at two hundred and ninety thousand dollars Doesn't necessarily make good business sense to me for some reason. I'm questioning I know that in the staff report that there is the need to have competitive salaries paid to to C-suite staff in our city management, but Wow So I guess to the young people in the audience You know you should definitely look at a career in public service Because or at least in as an employee because it is really quite lucrative when you hit the upper level of Management if you compare those salaries, however to like for instance, you can go to a site called transparent, California And you can see the salaries and benefits and pensions for every line item of HR in the city of Santa Rosa and you'd see this huge Spread and the earnings of people from I imagine the city manager sets the high water mark But no actually I know that's not the case I think it's upwards of four hundred thousand dollars plus pension All the way down to where the people that are doing a lot of work in the field at our parks and what have you are earning $20 an hour $18 an hour $25 an hour, so thank you very much for the opportunity to comment Thank you seeing no additional public comments from council chamber I'm going to turn it to our zoom host where we have one hand currently being raised via zoom Gregory I'm going to Allow your permission and ask you to unmute go ahead when you're ready Greetings. I'm Gregory Farron and you've heard from me before on many items 13.1 is really really important Information that the Citizens lot to know about I know you spent a lot of time in those two days And you've come up with what I believe to be great great priorities and great ambitions But it ought to be more than just a consent item. I'm encouraging you to try to Use the talent you have in your IT department to really make the website Be the place where all of these priorities and and I even think the entire workshop report ought to be posted it's It's great reading for your citizens to know what you've decided to do and how you thought about it in the process One particular piece of information that's in the workshop report I'm interested in trying to get and I and I encourage you also to put it on the website It was a report from your finance department on the use of ARPA and PG&E funds As you know that hundred and thirty million dollars that you Allocated is it in the budget? It's hard to be able to figure out where it is and Fortunately your city manager gave me a preliminary report of it about six months ago And I'm I'm asking that you upgrade that if it hasn't already been done I'm assuming the finance department is on top of it But you need to release that to the public either by putting it on the website or having a special Release of it because it's very very important money. It's new money doing a whole lot of great things And we need to see the the pace of its expenditure And we probably need to just keep an eye on it to make sure that it gets done That's all I appreciate it. Thank you very much Thank You Gregory. We have no additional Hands raised in zoom and we have no pre-recorded messages for this item councilmember Alvarez Thank You mayor. I would like to move items 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 and wait for the reading of the text Second we have a motion made by councilmember Alvarez and a second by councilmember O'Crepkey. I Don't even care councilmember O'Crepkey Madam city clerk may you please call the vote? Thank You mayor councilmember step. Hi councilmember O'Crepkey. Hi councilmember Fleming Councilmember Alvarez. Hi mayor Rogers. I let the record show that the consent calendar passed with five affirmative votes Thank You moving to item 14 which is our public comment on non-agenda Matters I'll hand it over to the city clerk But I would just like to say it is very great to see all the youth that are in the audience today That are here to make public comment. So thank you very much. This may be your first time, but don't let it be your last Madam city clerk. Thank you. We are now taking public comments on item 14 non-agenda matters This is a time when any person it may address the council on matters not listed on this agenda But which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council if you are in council chamber and would like to comment But have not provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium in an orderly fashion if you are participating via zoom Please raise your hand or dial star 9 you will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of That period we will take 12 speakers under item 14 if we have more than 12 public comment commenters on item 14 The remaining speakers will be afforded the opportunity to speak on item 18 non-agenda matters to provide public comment And I will ask we have two podiums that you can provide public comment for From so I'm going to start with Kevin and followed by Eunice and then Daniela if you want to split up between the podiums Please do so just so we can move swiftly and thoughtfully through the public comment period All right, our first speaker will be Kevin Please make your way to the podium Kevin is Kevin in the room Can you speak closer to the microphone, I'm sorry Apologize for that. There was some confusion about how our group was going to be presenting our group of five students from Rosen University Prep a little closer presenting together So when you approach the podium, please get uncomfortably close to the microphone. It is awkward But in order for you to be picked up and heard throughout the room and in our audio recording Please get within a finger or two Within the microphone, it's uncomfortable, but we are appreciative down here All right, I'm not going to repeat all of that another time but suffice to say our group of students will present as a group Okay, then the group representative, please approach the microphone. You will have three minutes Hi, my name is Kevin Becerra, and I'm from Rosen University Prep Hello, my name is Alexandra Mendoza. Hello, my name is Onisa Lopez Hello, my name is Christian Mojica Hello, my name is Daniella Grasi So we'd like to talk about the Rosen Creek care project that we've all been part of In the Creek care project we learned from Stephanie Lennox about the hydrology of watersheds and some common sources of pollution like trash and litter outdoor pet waste Pesticides and even soap from washing cars on the street that harm our creeks We also learned about how people can take action in their everyday lives to help solve these problems To help get the word out we designed Artistic signs that advocate for people to take action in their everyday lives that will reduce pollution and help the creeks These signs will be on temporary display along the creek path of Rosen School District office After the end of this week With lead artist Alina Nubeau all the students paid on a mural that tells a story about healthy creeks It shows native species that are affected by the Rosen Creek watershed And it will also be on permanent display along the creek behind Rosen accelerated middle school The last thing we did As part of the project was to visit the creek in person with Stephanie Lennox to help the native plants in the creek Ecosystem we pulled out invasive plant species This project was special because of each step This project was special because of each step we got to learn about things in a hands-on way and because of the things We made will be seen to have positive impact on people in the creek I think all of us who worked on it will remember this experience for a long time Thank you for your time, and we're students from Lowe's and University Prep Thank you now I might have missed everyone who announced their name so if I Announce you here. Can you just raise your hand and say I've already spoken just so I can capture it for public record Eunice Thank you. I see you Alina Please go ahead and make your way to the microphone then Alina Silva Are you going to speak also? Okay. Thank you, and then Maureen On a different item. Okay. Thank you. So please go ahead Alina Thank you council members madam mayor. Thank you very much for your time today My name is Alina new bell I am here today with some of my student collaborators representing the Roseland Creek care mural project a pilot program from local nonprofit Conservation works in cooperation with yourselves from the city of Santa Rosa and the Sonoma water Creek stewardship program I was the lead artist on this pro on this project my teaching partner and creek education and stewardship lead Stephanie Linux cannot be here tonight The Roseland Creek care project combines watershed and creek environmental education with art and design and community level environmental advocacy This project brought together classroom based watershed education with Stephanie Linux a creek advocacy design project with me a Mural and public art project led by me and painted by students and time spent on Roseland Creek with Stephanie Linux doing hands-on creek restoration work and environmental education During the course of the last semester about a hundred and eighty students and Faculty of the Roseland school district participated and some of those students told you about more of the details just a moment ago For my part, I want to express my gratitude to the city's contributions for making this project possible I hope that this body where relevant will invest in the infrastructure to maintain ongoing support for this and other kinds of deep thinking Creative lateral approaches to bringing the arts into education for the emotional and environmental wellness of our communities For anyone who would like to see the mural It's located along Roseland Creek at the creek path behind Roseland accelerated middle school will be celebrating its completion on May 25th That's this Thursday from 1 to 3 and we'd love to see you there Thank you. The next public comment will be from Silva followed by Maureen Good afternoon mayor Royers and members of the city council My name is Sylvia Langan and I've been teaching at the Rosalind Community for 25 years and the youth that you just heard about Some of my students. I'm very proud of them as you see they are very involved in their community They are they just talk about the mural their beautiful mural that they made but they have done Different activities to take care of the environment. They have plant trees Working community gardens participating climate action I participating quickly naps The youth is doing their part in Rosalind and I would like the city also to do the park for Rosalind and I would like to advocate for a small-scale Community-led microgrid The good power the her have Community center and we a place of resources and basic power needs For our more vulnerable community members to go during various climate crisis Thank you very much. Thank you the next public comment will be from Maureen please go ahead Maureen Thank you. Hello. My name is Maureen We have lived in our current home for almost nine years six and a half of those were very peaceful and happy Just over two and a half years ago My next-door neighbor put her home on the market selling to an Airbnb host That is when things began to change drastically This short-term rental is a four bedroom with a pool. It is very close to our side yard Abutting our primary bedroom and office the current rules allow up to eight overnight guests and an additional four daytime guests Rental rules do not allow events But eight to twelve people in a yard using foul language screaming splashing drinking loud music Etc from 8 a.m. Till 9 p.m. Is just as disruptive as any event The groups that come to this house are not here to walk their dogs visit a park or go to the farmers market They are here to party and get the most bang for their buck. We have had fighting cars peeling out We've had guests check in at three in the morning loudly unpacking and talking as if it were daytime Ubers lift wine vans and door dash continuously use our driveway to turn around Guests have come to our door late at night looking for this Airbnb in addition dogs are also allowed at this Airbnb Contributing to the disruption and noise level The list goes on and on it is difficult for my husband to conduct business in his office when this home is occupied To try to diffuse the noise we keep our windows and patio doors shut. This is not a neighbor This is a business. This is not regular neighbor activity The couple that owns this home does not live in Sonoma County. They own eight other short-term rentals They don't care that we are inconvenienced or woken up at three in the morning They don't care that dogs are barking or lights are left on throughout the night glaring into our bedroom What they care about is their bottom line, which is to make as much money off this property as possible It is disappointing that the city is allowing a business to operate next door next to a home that once provided peace and solitude When you live next to a short-term rental every guest is a bad actor Doesn't matter how many rules you implement or contact names and numbers you provide the bottom line is that my husband And I are the ones policing this business Would you want this next to you? Would you be as patient as we have been waiting for the city to crack down on these businesses? Hoping that our neighborhood is restored. It hasn't yet been three years and we are tired and frustrated that we are still having this same Conversation I want to ask you if you choose if you could choose a neighbor or a short-term rental Which would you choose? Would you buy my house knowing it is a neck it is next door to a short-term rental? Tonight as you leave this meeting when you pull into your driveway and walk into your quiet safe Peaceful home think about us think about how you would feel if the shoe were on the other foot Please I implore you to make non-hosted short-term rentals obsolete as so many other cities have within a residential neighborhood Thank you Thank You Maureen the next public comment will be by Eric followed by David Okay, thank you very much Well, I have the good fortune of following a neighborhood that's impacted by short-term rentals And I'm very grateful for that as you know I'm a researcher on short-term rentals and housing policy in the city and A lot of my research starts with public documents to understand the real impacts when it comes to housing Neighborhood complaints and what have you from short-term rentals while I understand the scenario that was Told earlier by the previous commenter I think what it points out though is the failure of the city to provide Adequate complaint resolution processes We know for a fact that there's hundreds of short-term rentals in the city where the neighbors love Having the short-term rental next door mostly because of the capacity to house their visiting family when they come into town We also know from complaint and code enforcement files the extent Complaints at least that go through the code enforcement file and the fact that there's a huge number of them as we'll see in further reports That are bogus unfounded vexatious and the law does not provide for penalties for vexatious complaints We also know from our research that we've been able to compile extensive records of the type of businesses houses really that Up to have got stay at their house Granted There's problems with individual properties between neighbors and what have you but these problems can be surmounted They can be addressed. They don't need to be blown out of proportion In fact our research will certainly show this was research from a few months ago But while there's only been a few noise complaints related to STRs There's been over a hundred cases of noisy roosters and chickens in the city there's been hundreds of verified reports of Unauthorized home occupations and residential nuisances that resulted in I presume resulted in Administrative citations But at the end of the day when it comes to the str process is tremendously flawed and what needs to happen I don't know if you're going to hear it on the six But what really needs to happen is that this issue needs to be workshopped out it went to the planning commission the staff's report differs greatly from the information that's Revealed through public processes the last thing I wanted to say just in the last few seconds is of course is you know trying to understand The personnel that are involved in the process. I just wanted to see if some of our administrative personnel have linked in profiles City manager Smith and a Google search says she has one, but then it's suspended for some reason I know the city council members have one, but that LinkedIn profiles an important part of transparency. Thank you. My time is over Thank you the next public comment will be from David Please go ahead David. Thank you very much. Good evening city council members Last two speakers on short-term rentals and no surprise. I'm going to speak on it, too There's a lot of subjectivity being tossed around on the short-term rental issue and it's been around for a long time You know in fact One two three of you. They're here tonight Heard the issue back in October of 21 A few more of you heard the amendment when it was brought in August of 22 And you're going to hear it again in July probably some time with another amendment and the one thing that's been missing from all of those Evaluations examinations deliberations has been the issue of Consistency with the zoning code and the general plan, you know the first two council meetings That issue passed by without I don't think any conversation or just some statements and declarations and the ordinance and The council adopted it and on it went I think you know to be fair to staff It was probably in the heat of the battle. There was an urgency ordinance. There was a problem It needed to be solved. We needed to come up with a solution So didn't really spend much time checking to see if it was really consistent or not and I think everybody ought to do a little homework pay attention to what? Planning commissioner Julian Peterson talked about at the April 27th planning commission meeting. He had it right on he really was thoughtful in his comments about consistency and I think you ought to listen to that maybe do your own research in fact I just send in a Prefese to the general city council email box yesterday that Did a thoughtful and reasoned analysis of that and I'd be glad if you would take a little time to read that and if you've Got any rebuttal Give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to talk to you about it But I mean it's really an important issue and we just got to get past the subjectivity of the whole thing because everybody's got complaints Staff is trying to walk a fine line and please everybody and it's just not going to happen. So Check out that zoning code consistency. I think you'll find there's plenty of precedent to stomp down on non-hosted short-term rentals just take them out prohibit them in residential zoning districts let the hosted ones go there They're a fine operation, and I think they belong in the city, but Non-hosted not so much All right. Thank you very much. No 35 seconds Eddie and Natalie I've personally reached out to you to try and get 15 or 20 minutes of your time. I'd appreciate if you'd Consider doing that sometime Thank you very much. I see mr. Dwight approaching the podium for public comment. This is number Please go ahead mr. Dwight for you with your comment Hello I'm from Rosalind wasn't it good to hear those Rosalind students in here They're doing their thing not prodded by me in any way shape or form That's important to keep in mind there. They're doing their own thing on the creek. All right So I encourage all of you to go to Rosalind Creek on Thursday and see what they've done They said they were going to be out there from one to three I double-checked with them when they left out of there And I've spoken with the adults before but not those youngsters, and I'm looking forward to seeing all the good things that they've done Recognizing Rosalind. Isn't that pretty cool starting to happen? And again, I wanted to thank the mayor miss Rogers and District 1 representative mr. Alvarez for being out there on Earth Day They were recognized and Rosalind in a big way. They said they could only stay for a few moments They were there for two hours each of them doing it being out there in the woods. That's mental health Care right there to Park prescription. That's what they call that bad boy getting out there and taking a walk in the woods And you probably didn't realize this but actually has been done for centuries But now you can get insurance companies to pay for that activity if you can get your primary care physician to say it would be a good idea to have a park prescription the Nation of Canada has implemented it nationwide in their health care system and The Swedes and the Danes have been doing it for centuries long story short over there in Rosalind the last bit of nature is along the creek and It's something that the young people like and I noticed in your priorities That came from your goal-setting sessions. You have a mention of the Rosalind Creek Park as you call it Did you know that nobody in the community named it Rosalind Creek Park? Actually, they had other ideas and it was a staffer back at the time Who was running the department at the time and they came up with the term after telling us they were going to try to get 40? Acres and that the land just next to where Rosalind University Prep is right now Would be a part of that land for a community park and that it would also go along the creek path out To stony Point Road. Well, that didn't happen And we think you should just take away that community park designation and call it what it is a neighborhood park and a preserve Because 11 acres has already been preserved by Sonoma County taxpayers Just like the pollen Creek preserve up by Shanae Road And that's what this should be because ours is even lovelier than theirs is go out there right now Look around you'll see for yourself. We got good nature in Rosalind. Thank you Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to our zoom host as I see one hand being raised via zoom permissions go ahead when you're ready Greetings, this is Gregory Farron again I'd like to take this opportunity to point out something on the city's website Which few people know about unless you're really looking for a place to live And it's it's a result of and it shows a lot of work That's been done in the city to provide affordable housing now. What am I talking about? The affordable housing map the city has placed and thank you to the IT department and your planning department But last September the city worked on after years of being asked to do it a geographic a map of the entire city with little dots on where every affordable housing Project that has been worked on I worked on many of them And so that people could you know go looking for the at the right place Where they might get a rental where they might be able to refer a friend or or have a sense of how throughout the city Affordable housing has been built Now you can get there real easily all you have to do is go to the city website and in the search mechanism put affordable housing map Now if you go to that map as I do often you'll see Rental units you'll see senior units. You'll see special needs units But the thing I want to point out today is that you'll see in green little dots that say mobile home parks Okay, and I haven't been paying much attention to them But I want to point out that I was shocked the other day to learn that about 90% of the mobile home parks in Santa Rosa Have expired in February of this year as to whether or not there's a requirement for low income the regulatory control which usually comes with a loan you get to build it or you know some kind of a Lean on the property expired for about 2,000 units in Santa Rosa on February 1st 2023 what a shock that to me is a tremendous loss We in the past have fought to try to retain these long-term Affordable housing projects. I remember when we fought for silver crest We fought for you know Bethlehem town We fought for a lot of things that were built and then spent years and years and years being available and Because of those leans and then when they got to the point where they could be sold to a private Investor where they could be taken out of the affordable housing. We fought to try to retain it Nothing happened as far as I can see to try to keep these Mobile home parks for going out of regulatory control and I'm really upset about that I'm going to try and find out what if anything we can do to just make sure they continue to be affordable But that's a huge loss to the affordability Living in Santa Rosa seeing no additional hands raised on zoom and no one else in the chamber We will now close public comment and proceed to item 15 Assistant city manager nut Thank You mayor item 15 is a report item repealing chapter 11 dash 16 Cruising prohibited within the core area of the city from title 11 Vehicle and traffic and Daniela garden. No violence prevention program manager will be presenting Good evening madam mayor and members of the council We'll pull up our presentation here, but as assistant city manager nut to mentioned. I'm here today to talk to you about Chapter 11 dash 16 cruising prohibited within the core area of the city from Title 11 vehicle and traffic I also want to take a moment to say thank you to members of the Sonoma County Lowrider Council who are here with us This evening for this item All right, we're going to travel back in time to 1986 January 21st When the city council held a public hearing on the issue of cruising which included a recommendation that the city adopt an anti-cruising ordinance the recommendation referenced concern that cruising was a source of Several or a variety of different issues including that cruising created an environment of fear and criminal activity against both persons and property Sorry didn't mean to do that a week later on January 28 the council adopted Ordinance number 25 19 adding chapter 11 dash 18 to the city code to prohibit cruising in the core areas of the city and Then on August 2nd 1988 council adopted ordinance number 27 13 Also now known today as the cruising ordinance making minor changes to the code and renumbering it as chapter 11 dash 16 So now fast-forwarding in time to May 5th 2021 Staff from the office of community engagement presented a report from the community empowerment plan listening sessions Included in the report or community feedback input and recommendations that focus focused on systematic racism in Santa Rosa The report concluded stating that the city of Santa Rosa must address its role in systemic racism that impacts our communities of color and Address its own policies and practices that enable historical institutional racism This included making changes that impacted the structure and culture of the organization Adopting a variety of practices policies and procedures that change how the city serves all of its residents Since then city staff has implemented a variety of strategies and projects aimed at increasing diversity equity inclusion and belonging and Improving relationships with all members of our community. This includes declaring racism as a public health and human rights crisis implementing Developing and implementing a city equity plan developing and implementing the in response mental health crisis response team and Partnering with the Sonoma County lowrider council to create the Mary Lou lowrider patrol car upon completion and reveal of the Mary Lou lowrider patrol car In 2022 the Sonoma County lowrider council approached the city to discuss the repeal of the cruising ordinance So and also during the October 25th 2022 council meeting former mayor Sorry former vice mayor Alvarez requested a future agenda item to discuss the ordinance and possible repeal of the city's cruising prohibition Hence why we're here today some Brief information here on chapter 11 dash 16 It has not been enforced in many years according to our folks over in the police department and chief cregan Signs posted regarding cruising prohibited have also been removed from the core areas of the city We actually don't know when that occurred, but it did occur. I believe prior to 2021 also Chapter 11 dash 16 or the cruising ordinance It's not related to the issues of side shows as traditionally and currently practiced by members of the lowrider community here in Santa Rosa and beyond I want to take a moment to note that cruising is synonymous with lowriding lowriding has its roots here in California as well as New Mexico and lowriding culture came from the pichuco zoot right era of the 1930s and 1940s and expanded during the Chicano rights movement of the 1960s While cruising is most popular among Latinos cruising is becoming increasingly popular among many other groups and has grown to be Embraced globally with lowrider car clubs found not only in the United States But also in Mexico, Japan, Australia and Europe Until recently lowriders cruising around town was viewed as a negative activity among the general public often being associated with crime and gang involvement More recently it has been confused with sideshow activity Again, I want to reiterate that lowriding is not sideshow activity. It's about cultural identity creativity social change and healing The motto in the lowrider community is low and slow For many members of the Santa Rosa and Sonoma County community including some of our own city employees Lowriding is an important part of individual and community life Individuals with their own lie writer lowriders say that lowriding is about family community and a sense of pride in their work It is also a form of healing from multi-generational trauma and more recently a violence prevention strategy The work that goes into building a lowrider including the paint and artwork can be very therapeutic for many involved It also provides a space within the community to celebrate cultural identity and self expression So movement across the state to repeal such ordinances begin in the wake of 2020 Last year San Jose and Sacramento took steps to repeal their own cruising ordinances Including partnering with their own local lowrider communities to educate the broader public about cruising and the lowrider lifestyle Lowrider clubs and councils throughout the state took this issue to the state legislature advocating for state changes in state law And on August 30th of 2022 the state assembly adopted resolution number 176 called cruising which celebrates the history and cultural Culture of cruising and encouraging local officials and law enforcement to work with local car clubs to conduct safe cruising events In addition to that on April 19th 2023 The California assembly passed AB 463 which removes authority from local agencies to enact anti-cruising ordinances It also repeals the prohibition on lowrider vehicles in California state law and it's making its way to the state senate soon So with that our recommendation from the Santa Rosa violence prevention partnership Is that the city council introduced an ordinance to repeal chapter 11-16? Cruising prohibited within the core area of the city of title 11 vehicle and traffic code of the city Santa Rosa City Code And with that I will take questions Thank you for that Presentation looking to council members to see if there are any questions or comments council member Fleming are you taking questions and comments at this point? Go for it. Okay. My question is are there any regulations around noise not just from lowriders, but also vehicles in general That's a great question Chief Krueger. Yes We have some yes, there are regulations Okay, and I Wasn't prepared to make comments just yet. I was gonna wait, but one thing I just want to say thank you so much This is a really important Issue to have taken on and it's clear that you have a passion for it And that is so exciting to see when staff are just really thrilled to bring an item before us It's really heartwarming. Thank you One of the things I'm fully in support of this of course I want to hear what the public has to say One thing that I am interested in is how we can partner with car communities in terms of Producing long range in terms of reducing emissions because the council has been nearly united in our support for Climate action is being a concern and here we are supporting Cars that are pretty much pretty old and so I just want to make sure that we hold both things true One that this is an important cultural asset and needs to be upheld and others that we have a real climate crisis and cars are A big contributor to our climate problem here in Santa Rosa So I hope we can have a holistic approach to that going forward and thank you so much for everything you've done Councilmember Alvarez Thank you, madam air to clarify our side shows low riders. No, they are not. Thank you. Yes Seeing no additional Questions From council members madam city clerk may you please conduct public comment? Thank you mayor We are now taking public comment on item 15.1 If you're in council chamber and like to comment but have not yet provided a speaker card or your name Please make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom, please raise your hand or dial star 9 You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period The first public comment from council chamber will be David followed by Jose Please make your way to the podium David Thank you. Jose, please make your way to the podium and please get close to the microphone so we can hear you. Thank you Hi, I'm Jose Miko kiddos and I'm a Santa Rosa native born and raised I grew up in South Park and the Roseland community So I just want to talk about my relationship with low-riding Mike my car seat was strapped in the back of a low rider My mom had a 65 Impala and she had spokes on it Some of the best memories that I have with my parents were you know low-riding, you know, my father passed away when I was 19 years old and He was in and out of prison my whole life, but all the best memories that I have was low-riding and Everybody I knew everybody I was related to the community. I lived in low-riding was everywhere to the to the stigma that Lowriders are gang members and I I think we we've already broken that idea today that most people don't believe that but you know at the time people did it and I myself was a gang member and turn my life around and I think Chief Krueger could talk about that if he felt like it, but you know, I turned my life around and Lowriding was a part of the healing process of me Walking away from that belief system that I believed in when you walk away for something that you've been Believing in for so long There's a identity crisis, you know you everything you all the value you have in yourself was rooted in a belief system and a way of life and When I walked away when I walked away from that, you know, I was struggling and reaching To figure out, you know, who am I and all I had to do was look a little deeper At my Chicano roots and you know, I hang onto those dearly Today I'm proud. I'm proud of being a Chicano. I'm proud of being a Mexican American born and raised in this community and I'm blue-collar, you know, I bought a home in the Rosalind area and Lowriding is just you know, it's very important to us Offering up like Anything hindering our ability to register our low riders like our 64 and Paula's are, you know our 1936 Chevy coupes or anything like that as far as admissions would be an egregious attack on our way of life So I just want to throw that out there Yeah, you know My dad lowrided with me when I was a baby and when I was able to finally buy my first lowrider a lowrider with my children It was it was an emotional heavy experience and Yeah, I just wanted to share that with you guys and thank you guys very much. Thank you Thank you the next public comment will be from Teresa Thank you, everyone. My name is Teresa on Selma Medina. I am a student at Maria crew high school I come from a long line of community organizers starting with my grandmother on Selma Medina Who helped organizing? Organize a campaign to form a union at Point St. George's Fishery They were victorious and history was made Eight years ago. My dad helped organize the Sonoma County Lowrider Council Before the council was formed. He had a history of we had a history competitiveness that led other car clubs to not get along For the for the reason of fear and on single the mile about eight years ago We had our very first potluck and that was the birth of our Sonoma County Lowrider Council History was made a few years back. I started noticing that there were unjust ordinances The more I learned about it the angrier I got and I knew policy needed to change But then COVID kid COVID hit it shut everything down, but that didn't kill my spirit I continued to educate myself on policy change. So I reached out to Mr. Eddie Alvarez. I Wrote him several emails and phone calls and I didn't imagine that he would return my call Never did I imagine he would return my call to a 14 year old me and I stand here in front of you asking you to please Remove the cruising ordinance and make history today In two years, I'll be voting and I'll be mobilizing the Latino voice the Latino voice and vote Thank you Eddie Alvarez for turning my phone call Thank you see no additional public comments from council chamber and no hands being raised via zoom There were no advanced public comments on this item either mayor Thank you council members any additional questions or comments Councilmember Alvarez. Thank you madam mayor. I do want to thank the Sonoma County Lowrider Council. I Want to thank former mayors Tom Svelte am John Sawyer for the support on this item as well I also want to thank TT That's a feature leader But this is what lowrider Lowriding allows us to do as a community to foster nurture educate and empower I'm a lowrider And I can't wait for summer to come We have different events here in the city of Santa Rosa pay issue being one of them It's one of the most attended events within our city The love for vehicles is something that's well-rooted in our community. It's ingrained and And and and what it means to us Not just from rosin But from people from all over the world you stated it Japan. I mean that's competition right there So I hope we get the support to move this item forward and to show our community that we embrace them and That we understand them Thank you any additional questions or comments I would like to take a ride in your lowrider All right Councilmember Alvarez may please make a motion Thank You madam air with great honor I present ordinance of the city council of the city of Santa Rosa repealing chapter 11-16 Cruising prohibited within the court area of the city of Santa Rosa Code removing the cruising prohibition and we're further reading of the text Second I have a motion made by councilmember Alvarez in a second made by councilmember O'Crew key Madam city clerk may you please call the vote? Thank you councilmember step. Hi councilmember O'Crew key Hi councilmember Fleming. Hi councilmember Alvarez. Hi mayor Rogers. I let the record show that motion passes with five affirmative votes Yay, we will now go to item 16.1 our public hearing for Tonight and if you are here for 16.2. We are postponing that item so 16.1 Assistant city manager net Thank You mayor item 16.1 is a public hearing housing legislation zoning code text amendment And senior planner Nancy waltering and supervising planner Amy Lyell will be presenting Thank you so much. We're just gonna have Dina help us pull up the presentation momentarily here But good evening mayor and members of the council tonight. We are bringing forward a an ordinance related to recent legislation on housing and so Nancy Waltering is going to be presenting tonight and I just wanted to introduce her that she is new to our team She's been a longtime local planner and we're really excited to have her on the team And she's done a lot of work for this year focused on housing She's working on this and it will also be turning her attention to our missing middle housing ordinance next and And then also tonight we do have Luke Lindenbush on the call He is with four leaf Consultants and is a staff to our housing collaborative that helps Sonoma and Napa County jurisdictions with housing elements as well as Recent legislation and learning how to implement things so he's working on a regional basis because a lot of this legislation Will need a regional approach so he is available if we do have any questions of him And with that I will turn it over to Nancy to walk you through the presentation. Oh, thank you Mayor Rogers and council members We were all aware of the severity of the housing shortage and particularly the shortage of affordable housing That affects our city our region and our state As a result over the past seven to eight years the state has mandated Extensive changes to our housing laws to remove barriers and create more opportunity to build housing Tonight I'll be reviewing the most recent changes that were approved as part of the 2022 Legislative session and the code amendments that have been proposed by the planning Commission and the planning and economic development department to ensure consistency with state law The focus of the 2022 legislative session was on reducing parking requirements as we know parking can make projects really expensive Extending certain provisions of the density bonus law to new areas of the city Increasing housing on underutilized commercial lands such as existing malls and strip commercial areas and Extending opportunities to build housing on land owned by educational agencies So what does all of this mean? These laws make it easier and less expensive to build housing including affordable housing And they promote housing close to public transit in parts of the city that are most accessible for pedestrians and bicyclists Such that they generate fewer vehicle trips Promoting housing in these areas areas that are closer to urban centers and transit Also reduces generation of greenhouse gases All of you are familiar with the steps the city has taken to respond to the crisis in housing Through adoption of the housing action plan and its commitment to provide housing for all and the other Measures listed here, and I won't go through them individually The state and its cities and counties face an enormous challenge The state forecasts the need for 2.5 million homes during the next eight-year planning cycle With 1 million of these homes needed for lower-income households And just a couple of weeks ago generation housing a local housing advocacy group Released a report indicating that Sonoma County right now has a shortage of 38,000 units The 20,000 additional units will be needed by the end of the decade for a total of 58,000 units So we've made progress, but there's still a lot of work to do At this point I'd like to go through the changes in the state housing laws that result from the 2022 legislative session The first two bills relate to parking requirements Assembly bill 2097 prohibits jurisdictions from requiring parking spaces for housing for commercial and other types of development that is within One half mile of a major public transit, which is defined as a major transit stop And this can be rail or bus Bus rapid transit or an intersection of two or more major bus lines with service intervals of 15 minutes or less during commute periods The planning plan and commission recommendation is that the code be revised to reflect to this change as required by law Assembly bill 2244 also relates to parking requirements specifically for religious institutions Religious institutions that propose Affiliated housing are only required to provide 50% of the existing spaces Meaning they can use the remaining space for development of housing and for Proposed religious facilities that also propose religious affiliated housing They're only required to provide half the spaces that would normally be required And as mentioned earlier if they're located within a half mile of a major transit stop There would be no parking that would be required They would however have to put in spaces for EV Chargers and spaces that would be accessible to people with disabilities the planning commission recommendation is that the code Be revised to reflect this change as required by law The next two change the next two laws relate to the density bonus law assembly bill 680 to clarified that Shared housing buildings such as co-housing developments that provide affordable housing are eligible to receive density bonuses The law also clarifies that the city cannot require any minimum unit size or bedroom Requirements as these are established by the health and safety code The planning commission recommendation is that the code be revised to reflect this change as required by law The second density bonus law change extends certain benefits to different parts of the city Right now the existing condition is that projects that are a hundred percent affordable Within a half mile of a major transit stop are an entire Entitled to an additional three stories in building height And that's basically what's shown on the screen of the half mile around the major Locations in Santa Rosa and those are the the smart train and the downtown bus station assembly bill 2334 extends the provision of the additional three stories or 33 feet to a hundred percent Affordable projects located within would are referred to as very low vehicle travel areas And these are areas that generate an average of 15 percent fewer vehicle trips than the regional average In these areas and it will cover about half to two-thirds of Santa Rosa projects are also entitled to Unlimited density so this is this is a big change and Amy mentioned that Luke Lindenbush is on the on the zoom call tonight and he is working on mapping these areas as well as some of the Maps that will be prepared for the other laws Assembly bill 2334 also clarified that where there are discrepancies in the allowable density in the general plan land use element and the zoning code that the higher of the two densities prevails the Planning Commission Recommendation is that the code be revised to reflect this change as required by law We've also used this opportunity of making text amendments to address some ink some Existing inconsistencies in the city's density bonus ordinance the city received a letter from the State Department of Housing and Community Development Indicating that we needed to raise our maximum allowable density from 35 to 50% as as the state did and so we have revised our tables accordingly the Planning Commission Recommendation is that the code be revised to reflect this change as required by law As part of this zoning cone amendment the Planning Commission and Planning and Economic Development Department are also recommending that the sunset date of January 2024 that's currently in the supplemental density bonus Ordinance and that's the city's ordinance be removed to provide applicants with the flexibility to Have densities up to a hundred percent over what's allowable in the general plan And that's 50% that would be for the state density bonus and another up to another 50 for the supplemental density bonus And we've clarified in table 5 1 under review of authority that the Planning and Economic Development Director makes the decision on density bonus projects and the zoning administrator makes the decision for supplemental density bonus projects And it should be noted that for supplemental density bonus projects They require a minor use permit and therefore they may be appealed to the Planning Commission or or whatever body makes the final determination on a project The two most significant changes in laws and there are a lot of laws They they keep coming out of Sacramento the two most significant changes in state laws from the 2022 legislative session Have to do with providing two different pathways for building residential development on commercial land Assembly bill 2011 establishes a by-right process and that refers to Meeting objective standards rather than going through a discretionary review process for projects that comply with Specifications and it's also exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act The Planning Commission recommendation is to incorporate this law by reference in its entirety So we would refer to state law to implement it Senate bill 6 provides a second pathway to construct residential development on commercial land This process is subject to the California Environmental Quality Act and has its own set of criteria for implementation It allows residential development on commercially zone property without requiring rezoning For projects that pay prevailing wages and meet skilled and trained workforce requirements The Planning Commission recommendation is to incorporate this law in its entirety by reference so we refer to the state law to implement it and It should be noted that we will as staff work on developing guidelines that are available on the city's website And also at the front planning counter to work with the public to implement these new laws Finally the last bill assembly bill 22 95 relates to Residential development on land owned by educational agencies if the project meets certain criteria They're required to meet objective zoning objective subdivision rules and objective design standards The Planning Commission recommendation is that the code be revised to reflect this change as required by law So these are the state mandates. We've compiled them into a single Zoning code text amendment You have the required findings in support of the amendment in front of you We've also included the findings required by the California Environmental Quality Act Therefore it is recommended by the Planning Commission and the Planning and Economic Development Department that the council introduce an ordinance amending city code 2031 in the identified sections and add chapter 2033 to bring the zoning code into compliance with state legislation as required by state law Thank you, and we're happy to answer any questions and also appreciate the participation of Lou Kalindenbush on his on zoom. He has helped our jurisdictions Understand some of the implications of the new laws and is available to also answer questions. Thank you Thank you for that presentation and thank you Lou for being here with us today Council do we have any questions of staff? Seeing none, we will now open the public hearing Thank you We are now taking public comments on item 16.1 if you're in council chamber and would like to provide a public comment But have not provided your name to the administrator at the top of the well or a speaker card Please make your way to the podium if you are participating via zoom, please raise your hand or dial star 9 You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that comment period Please go ahead at the West West lectern Did you have a document that you need to present sir? Yes, please. Okay one moment. There you go Hey, my name is Cliff Wiggum. I'm a property owner and also representative of the gateway coalition This is a area map of downtown station area specific plan and we would square The Roberts district as you can see is in blue here It's south of rainbow square separated by a four lane elevated solid earth freeway and It is the same distance from rainbow square as a wallies and Wally has a 2.0 floor area ratio And we're handicapped with a 6.0 floor ratio This is a map of the Roberts district As you can see, there's three blocks blocks two and three are Isolated by Robert's Avenue and separated by the train tracks It is all 6.0 floor area ratio. I'm proposing and asking That we amend the zoning to reflect this where we could roll the Blocks two and three back to the previous transit village 25 to 40 units per acre residential or Lower it to the 2.0 floor area ratio the same as them wallies is that would enable us to get Approximately 250 Units built on this property in the near future I Wished I was here asking for a density bonus for the 25 to 40 units to the acre rather than asking for a density reduction from this unrealistic 6.0 no developer will touch this property at this density. I Know the high density for downtown works. I looked at 888 4th Street and the Hubertels project is beautiful building but it's not affordable housing that's for sure and This will never be built at the 6.0 the block number one that can be you know, we can look at an Anchor for bringing a higher density there, but block two and three Makes sense to build affordable housing and in their future 250 units to me is a lot better than none In your own staff replanting staff report it identifies Robert's road area south of highway 12 and west of highway 101 This area is better aligned with the potential future of Rosalind area EIFD So it is the east Anchor of the Sebastian Road quarter the quarter is in the central Rosalind access which in the past has been part of the Rosalind study area publicly desired infrastructure upgrades in the Robert's Road area should be part of the EIFD Formation process should be examined historically within the rest of that quarter. Thank you Thank you. See no additional public commenters commenters from council chamber And one hand being raised in zoom so I'll turn it over to our zoom host to facilitate public comment there Thank you a Adrienne, I'm allowing your permissions and asking you to unmute so go ahead when you're ready Great. Hi, everyone. Thank you council members. This is Adrian Covert's. I'm a homeowner in the West End area and locally on Rosie in me want to say that these These new state mandates are urgently needed Not only to help increase Santa Rosa's vibrancy and livability and affordability so that there will be enough inadequate housing for my own child to Up for when he goes up But it is also really needed to meet Santa Rosa's own stated goals Discussed earlier on making housing available for all and addressing our homelessness issues that Determined several times Numerous studies in the Turner Center and elsewhere that the number one thing we can do to increase The accessibility and affordability of housing is to get more units available on the market. So just urge the council to Affirmation and bring the compliance with state law Thank you, we have no additional comments on zoom and we have no prerecorded messages for this item We will now close the public hearing I'll bring it back to council to see if there are any final questions or comments council member Fleming Yeah, just following up on the one comment. We had I what I heard throughout the Presentation is that we are amending or adopting language per state law It does not sound to me like we have discretion in these manners and is that a correct assumption That's correct. The only Provision that is for our own local law is removal of the sunset date in the supplemental density bonus ordinance everything else is Mandated by the state. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you Seeing no additional Questions or comments from council council member staff. Can you please make a motion? Thank you mayor I would like to make a motion that the city council Adopt an ornament ordinance but amend the city code chapter 20 through 31 and sections 20 to 36 point 040 20-50 point 020 20 s 70 point 020 and that we add a chapter 20 Dash 33 to bring the zoning code into compliance with state legislation as required by state law Second I have a motion from council member staff and a second from council member o'crapkey Madam city clerk may you please call the vote? Thank you council member staff. Hi Council member o'crapkey. Hi council member Fleming. Hi council member alvarez. Hi mayor rogers Hi, let the record show that ordinance was introduced at first reading with five affirmative votes Thank you. Thank you again for the presentation We'll now continue to item 17 our written communication 17.1 state legislative update Um is that attached um and published with the agenda? item 18 Is public comment on non-agenda? items Madam city clerk may you please conduct public comment madam mayor may we also take comments on the legislative update as well Yes, madam city clerk may you please conduct public comment? Thank you. We are now taking public comment on item 17.1 and item 18 the second public comment period on non-agenda matters If you are in council chamber and would like to provide a public comment on non-agenda matters or item 17.1 Please approach the podium If you are participating via zoom, please dial star nine or raise your hand You will have three minutes and a countdown timer will alert at the end of that period I see no hands being raised and no one approaching the podiums for public comment on these items mayor Thank you and uh prior to adjournment I would like to acknowledge memorial day, which is on may 29th and also can graduate Our graduates this year that will be graduating in 2023 in a special Congratulations to my twins chi and willy hall who will be graduating on friday. Very excited about that and then to also wish katharina aka tina Bron jersema Who is a resident of santa rosa and she will be turning a hundred on june 4th. So happy birthday. Thank you very much This meeting is now adjourned