 Good afternoon. Welcome to today's city council meeting. Madam clerk. Can you please call the roll? Yes, thank you mayor councilmember tidbits Councilmember Schwedhelm will be absent from today's meeting councilmember Sawyer here Councilmember Fleming here councilmember Alvarez President Vice Mayor Rogers President Mayor Rogers here let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of council members Schwedhelm and councilmember tidbits Great, we start today in closed session with items 2.1 and 2.2 Madam city clerk. Can you please handle public comment for those two items? Thank you mayor For those of you wishing to make a public comment on item 2.1 or 2.2 and are participating via zoom Please raise your hand now dial star 9 if you are participating by telephone mayor there is Appears to be no public comment from the chamber and there are no hands being raised in zoom for items 2.1 and 2.2 Additionally, we receive no written or voice message public comment on these items. All right. We'll recess in the closed session Interpreter Charles and interpreter Pablo. Can we do a brief mic check? Probandos micrófonos testing the mic Thank you to both just so you know I put Charles directly into the Spanish channel For those of you just joining the meeting live translation in Spanish is available and members of the public wishing to listen in Spanish can join the Spanish channel To do so, please click on the interpretation icon in the zoom toolbar. It may look like a globe Once you join the Spanish channel, we recommend you shut off all or pardon me shut off your main audio So you only hear the Spanish translation Pablo can you restate that in Spanish, please Bien para los que recién se unen a la reunión Interpretación en vivo al español está disponible y los miembros que deseen escuchar en español pueden unirse al canal Para unirse haga click en el icono de interpretación en la barra de herramientas de zoom que ahora puede parecer un globo terraria Una vez según al canal español También se recomienda que apague el audio primario para que solo escuche la interpretación al español Thank you Let's go ahead resume today's council meeting want to welcome assistant city manager Jason nut and assistant city attorney Jeff Burke Who will be participating with us today? We also have council members both here in the chamber as well as at home via zoom Madam city clerk, can you please walk through for the public how they'll be able to participate in today's meeting either virtually or in person? Yes, thank you mayor After each agenda item is presented the mayor will ask for council comments and then open it up for public comment If you wish to provide a public comment and are attending the meeting in person Please sign up to speak on an item with the administrator Julie at the top of the room This process is in lieu of speaker cards to reduce touch points due to COVID-19 Julie will ask you your name and what item you wish to speak on and for a one-sentence summary of your statement for the record if you are participating from zoom or by telephone and wish to make a live public comment on a specific item At the time public comment is opened by the mayor for that item Please use the raised hand feature if you are calling in via telephone. You can dial star 9 to raise your hand Generally the mayor will first take public comment Live public comment the host in zoom will be lowering all hands until public comment is open for the agenda item Once all live public comments zoom and in person have been heard the meeting host will play voicemail public comments If you provide a live public comment on an agenda item But also submitted a voice message public comment your voice message public comment will not be played during the meeting Written public comment received by the deadline on the agenda Was up uploaded to the agenda portal and made available to the public and the council earlier today Additionally, there are two public comment periods on today's agenda to speak on non-agenda matters at items 13 and 17 This is a time when any person may address the council on matters not listed on this agenda But which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council throughout today's agenda when the mayor calls for public comment and Interpreter will be prepared to assist anyone needing interpretation services in Spanish Those using interpreter support will be afforded additional time for your public comment as required by the Brown Act We ask that those listening on the Spanish channel But wishing to make a public comment to turn off the interpretation channel entirely At the time you hear your name called so you can join the main channel to make your public comment heard and translated into English This icon may now look like a circle with an ES in the middle and the word Spanish underneath You can then rejoin the Spanish channel at the conclusion of your comment to continue listening to the meeting in Spanish Thank you Thank you, madam clerk. Let's go ahead and make the meeting official and get a quorum check. Would you mind calling the roll? Thank you councilmember tidbits Councilmember Schwedhelm will be absent for the remainder of the meeting Councilmember Sawyer here councilmember Fleming here councilmember Alvarez Vice mayor Rogers President mayor Rogers your council member tidbits. Have you joined us? Councilmember Alvarez. Have you joined us? Okay, let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmember Alvarez and councilmember tidbits and councilmember Schwedhelm All right Let's go ahead go to item 3.1 Thank you mayor and council we have two study sessions today the first of which is item 3.1 Water demand offset policy and fees calling close our senior water resource planner will be reporting Thank you very much Mayor and members of the council We're here today to provide you with a study session on the proposed water demand offset policy and fees And I'm joined today by mark hildebrand of hildebrand consulting mark will do some of the presentation with me today I'm also joined by Katie Cole of wooded and curran There are consulting firm that we brought on board to help us to develop the water demand offset policy And as I said mark hildebrand helped with the fee study Katie will not be doing any presenting, but she will be here. Should we need her for additional questions? Next slide, please This may be some familiar information. You may recall back in may we did a study session and in june we held a public hearing with you to Consider our urban water management plan and our water shortage contingency plan These documents are required by california law and the urban water management plan is a very long range look at our water supply And looks at population growth and development and all of the elements that we need to Have in mind as we plan out our future over the next 25 years in terms of our water supply and serving our community We know that we have a very good outlook on the long-term water supply during normal water years and even below average water years But during severely dry years like we experienced last year and just until recently Um, we do anticipate having water shortages and so we do have Water shortage contingency plan that we presented to you in a study session in may and that you adopted in june And we wanted to bring that back to your attention because the policy before you today Is a mechanism for implementing an element of the water shortage plan Next slide, please So the water shortage contingency plan is required by that urban water management planning act and it must be a standalone document And so you adopted it as a separate document in june this year It has to clearly define what a water shortage is in stages. We have stages that go from below 10 to over 50 percent And it has to provide a really detailed roadmap or operations manual That explains how we're going to reduce demand for water when we have water shortage emergencies So that we make sure that we have adequate water supplies for public health and safety even during severe water shortage periods The shortage plan and the urban water management plan and the policies and measures that come out of those for implementation Are exempt from CEQA according to the water code section 10652 And therefore this policy that's before you today for study session. Is it not considered a project under CEQA? Next slide, please And this slide may look a little familiar to you. We talked to you in may about our priorities during water shortages And based on guidance from the state and from our own experience We feel that the highest priority during a water shortage is public health and safety Of course, we also want to do our best to make sure we can maintain economic stability With our existing customers and landscaping to the greatest extent possible A new demand is the fourth item on that list of priorities when we're in water shortages Next slide, please In the 2020 water shortage plan that we reviewed in may and you adopted in june We had eight water shortage stages lined out Everything from a very mild shortage less than 10 percent to a very severe shortage of over 50 percent The city has had water shortage plans since 1992. That was the first year that we adopted a water shortage plan And in that time, we've never experienced a water shortage greater than 25 percent We know that we've done very well with the measures that we have the response actions that we have To achieve up to a 25 percent reduction, but once we get past that point We know that that's a severe water shortage and we would need to do what's called water allocations More commonly, that can be referred to as water rationing So below that orange bar that would be stages five six seven and eight That's when we would be requiring all of our existing customers To adhere to individual allocations on their existing account And they would have to be mandated to not exceed the limit of water use for their particular site Next slide, please We have lots of response actions and again We reviewed these in more detail in may and june, but just as a reminder when we're in water shortages We do extensive outreach and education to our customers We also provide abundant customer service and assistance and we do that through our water use efficiency team And our customer service agents over in the billing department as well So we provide our customers with quite a bit of help so that they can reduce their water use during shortages We make operational changes as well and how we're doing business to save water as well We do have quite a few restrictions and prohibitions particularly on our existing customers And then in stages five through eight, we have as I said water allocations or water rationing So I want to go into a little more detail about the restrictions and prohibitions And the water allocations. Next slide, please You can see this is just the prohibitions and restrictions from stages one through four They are all applicable to our existing customers. Some of them apply to new construction as well Next slide, please In addition in stages five through eight, we have even more restrictive Limits on how water can be used during severe water shortages Again, all of these except for one apply directly to our existing customers And some of them apply to new construction as well And you'll note that by stage eight no irrigation is allowed at all in the city for any customers existing or new So just wanted to point out that again as we look at what our priorities are for public health and safety We cut back on irrigation early Next slide, please It'll become even more apparent when we talk about the water allocations So what our allocations are when we ration the limited supplies we have during a severe water shortage among our existing customers And we do this again focused on public health and safety first and foremost And these are very restrictive amounts of water that are allowed to be used at individual sites Every water service has to adhere to its very restrictive limited amount of water and violations can be enforced including with excess use penalties As we talked about during your study session in may and during the public hearing in june What we do typically is use progressive enforcement because we want our customers to be successful When they're successful during water shortages and meeting our targets We're successful as a city and also as a community So we do have enforcement available to us But we start with progressive enforcement hoping our customers can become successful because we really need them to cut back that water use When we're rationing water and it's a limited supply and we need to make sure that it lasts throughout the water shortage emergency There is no water available for new demand Next slide, please We wanted to also let you know that our customers have done an extraordinary amount of work over the last 30 years To reduce their water use and to become more water efficient over time We talked a little bit about this during the study session about the water shortage plan And the urban water management plan This graph will look familiar. It's a little different than what you saw before because this is only focused on residential water sales And what we've seen is our residential customers over the last 30 years have reduced their per capita water use the amount used per person In the residential sector from 120 gallons per person per day down to 67 gallons per person per day And that's an extraordinary achievement Some of that is due to state laws so that when houses are sold They must come up to speed with current regulations on water use efficiency standards It's also because we have extensive programs in our In our arsenal for helping our customers to reduce their water use and we've had over 50 000 participants in our programs over the years I also wanted to point out that 42 of that 44 percent reduction In per capita water use decrease Was achieved by 2010 So this is just to point out that our older stock most of our Residential stock is older while it wasn't built to be as efficient as new stock Most of our customers have come up to speed with The current standards and we see very high levels of efficiency in our older building stock So again, congratulations to the city council for supporting these policies over the last 30 years And also to our customers for all the work that they have done Next slide please So when we look at water allocations knowing how efficient our customers are And understanding how severe water shortages are you'll see that in stage five It's an incredibly restrictive limit on water use on our residential customers about 72 to 75 of our water uses in the residential sector 40 gallons per person per day is not much There's a little allotment as well for irrigation purposes That represents a 20 to 30 percent reduction in water use depending on the family size and the lot size And also on which time of year it is. So it's a significant decrease in water use The commercial institutional industrial sector and the health and safety sectors are looking at Reducing water use without the advantage of reducing irrigation to achieve those reductions Predominantly those are accounts that don't serve irrigation purposes The irrigation services would be required to reduce their use by more than 50 in a stage five water shortage. So again, you can see that our Priorities for water shortages are mapped out and reflected in these allocations Next slide please Spend a little less time on stages six seven and eight. This is stage six And it's just to show you that in the residential sector They're achieving up to 40 percent reduction in normal water use Irrigation services over three quarters reduction in water use Commercial and health and safety are doing 10 to 20 percent reductions And again without the benefit of being able to simply reduce irrigation Next slide please So in stage seven even more restrictive and if we could go to the next slide I just want to point out. There is a typo that I noted and I apologize for this The residential sector is down to 28 gallons per capita per day in stage eight not 32 So I apologize for not catching that before this was submitted for your review So again incredibly restrictive and at this point there is no water allowed for irrigation services and irrigation is prohibited completely in stage eight So again, water allocations are very severe. So when we're in these extremely severe water shortages these allocations are quite restrictive Next slide please We don't only have water shortage crises facing us We also have a housing shortage crisis and we're well aware of that So we need to be mindful of the fact that we have to comply with not only california state law Mandating a certain amount of housing, but also simply the needs of our community So the city has prepared and adopted quite a large series of policies plans and practices To do what it can to help address that housing shortage crisis So as we look at what we would need to do in a severe water shortage Knowing we also have a housing shortage crisis. We have to work carefully to balance those Next slide please In developing the water shortage plan staff considered a number of options other than water offsets One of them was to consider a moratorium many agencies do institute moratoriums during severe water shortages Um with our housing crisis and with the need to support economic economic vitality Just didn't feel like that was uh the right direction for our city and our community We could have required the developers find new water supplies What we've seen is the city has also been working to expand its water supply. It's a very difficult task to achieve It's quite expensive and it takes two to three years once you have established a new water supply To come up to standard and meet all the permitting requirements So that didn't work either We could require developers to do their own projects to conserve water and talking to some other agencies that have permanent offset policies in place They express that what they hear from the development community is there are serious challenges in being able to complete those projects And that the expenses to the water supplier are significant There needs to be quite a bit of oversight inspections before during and after data analysis approvals So it didn't necessarily cost much less than being able to have the programs run by the water supplier themselves We also considered requiring that the offset fee be due at the building permit application. That's typically when all of our fees are due However, we know that some projects take many years to develop. Sometimes a building permit may be sitting Waiting for the right moment to begin for five or even ten years So requiring that a fee be paid now When the actual impact would be later didn't make sense So staff recommended that we have the fee due at the time the impact occurs, which would be when Project is requesting its final inspection or any type of occupancy The other thing we'll talk about is that this fee would only occur Only be collected If and only if we had a severe water shortage at that time and we'll give a little more detail about that in a moment Next slide, please in the 2020 water shortage plan that we presented to you in may in the study session and that you adopted in the public hearing in june there was the five i'm sorry four stages of offsets starting with stage five and then six seven and eight Because as you saw the restrictions on our existing customers get more and more severe The more severe the water shortages It seemed to make sense to make the offset requirement more severe as well However, when we looked at the financial impact that would have on projects and we looked at the nexus We all concurred. There was a group of 15 of us from three different departments working together planning economic development as well as the city attorney's office and the water department And in conjunction with wooded and current as our consultant We all to a person came to the same conclusion that the offset should be set it only 100 percent and that the fee should be Established to essentially achieve a net zero impact rather than doubling tripling or quadrupling The offset requirement So we'll be bringing to you a request to amend the water shortage plan At a public hearing on november 30th asking you to make this change To remove the progressively steeper increase in offset requirements and to flatten that to simply 100 Next slide, please So the policy again as I had said earlier is this mechanism to implement the water shortage plans requirement That when we're rationing water among our existing customers That new demand must offset any new I'm sorry new construction must Offset any new demand on our system And this was designed in a way to respond to water shortage emergencies While also allowing us to continue to respond to the need for new housing and to comply with state laws On both the water shortage side and the housing side next slide, please This policy would apply to any project that doesn't yet have a building permit application on file at the time the policies adopted But it would only apply to those that are Having to pay new or increased connection fees. That's a fee for the infrastructure impact Of a new connection or an increased connection Next slide, please The process would be that if this policy applied to a project that's submitting a building application They would submit a water demand offset application as part of that process Staff would memorialize that in an agreement So that it's very clear to both parties what the fee would be When the fee would be due and under what circumstances the fee would be due The building permit would be issued and the project would go off to proceed along its way And payment would not be due until final inspection or any type of occupancy But it would only be due if and only if we're in a declared water shortage emergency That is requiring that our existing customers ration their water use So for example right now we're in a stage three water shortage if this policy had been adopted last year Any new projects coming online would not be subject to paying water demand offset fees Because we're not rationing water with our customers So in fact if we go back to 1992 so the last 30 years of having water shortage contingency plans If this had been a policy that had been adopted in 1992 we would have collected exactly zero fees in the last 30 years So again, this is simply reserved for severe water shortages While we haven't had to ration water in the last 30 years. There's no guarantee We just don't know what the future will hold given climate change Given the uncertainties of weather conditions But we just wanted to clarify that this is a policy that would not have required any fees to have been paid in the last 30 years And we're hopeful that we'll continue to get rain and that we won't end up needing to implement this policy But that we'll have it in place should we have a severe shortage in the future Next slide, please So again, the water demand offset fee would be due At the time of final inspection or occupancy of any type if and only if we're in a declared water shortage emergency That requires our existing customers ration their water use Fees will be collected and tracked separate from all other revenue streams So that we can make sure that we comply fully with the mitigation fee act And the fees will be used to fund city projects and programs to achieve water offsets Next slide, please We also wanted to point out before I have mr. Hildebrand talk to you about the fee study We did during the development of the urban water management plan. We had a very thorough analysis of our water use and one element of that was to look at residential water use by age of construction When we looked at that what we saw as year after year, whether it was pre 1994 1994 to 2009 Or 2010 and forward water use in the single family sector is very close While new development is built to be more water efficient That's no guarantee that the folks who live in those new homes are necessarily going to use less water It really depends on the number of folks who live in each home the size of the landscape and their own habits and practices So it ultimately regardless of the age of construction And also given the fact that so many of our customers have upgraded their homes to current standards We see that water use is about the same in the single family sector In the multifamily sector when you look at this graph initially it appears that the newer construction uses less water However, what's embedded in this data that couldn't be teased out is irrigation water use So for the older Whether they were the pre 1994 group or the 1994 to 2009 group Most of our multifamily stock is older And those projects have a meter that serves both the irrigation purposes and the domestic purposes However, after 2010 none of those accounts have mixed use meters. So there's no irrigation In the 2010 and forward construction site water analysis So essentially their water use is very much parallel once you figure in the irrigation uses as well Next slide, please So at this point, I'd like mr. Hildebrand to talk to you a little bit more about the fee study that he conducted on behalf of the city of santa rosa Mr. Hildebrand Thank you. Mr. Close. Can you hear me? Okay? Yeah, great. Thanks So as was touched on the water demand offset fees were based on costs of known conservation programs that the City has implemented in the past and so specifically we looked at Direct install bathroom conversion. So that means replacing shower heads with ultra low flow on sorry, sorry toilets with ultra low flow toilets Installing aerators onto faucets and installing lower flow shower heads So we looked at the cost of that particular program We also looked at the clothes washer program providing rebates To replace older wash clothes washers with high efficiency clothes washers and we also looked at the cost of providing rebates for replacing turf with with other types of landscaping And so based on the cost of those programs and based on the known water savings that were achieved through those programs we were able to come up with a unit price of how much it costs to Reduce water usage next slide And so you can see in this table Those three programs are represented in the middle of the table In the three columns there And we looked at how much those particular programs would cost to offset Specific types of development. So as you can see in the top group there We look at single family residential with three different lot sizes small lots medium lots and large lots and we used a utility billing data to Look at those types of accounts to understand how much water those types of accounts use on average And therefore how much it would cost through these different programs to completely offset the use of that water Ultimately, we took the average of the weighted average of those three programs So in the final column you can see the offset costs associated different types of development So we looked at single family residential duplex triplex condos Um various types of accessory dwelling units and senior housing These are all categories that are consistent with the charges that are already City and so it's a Classification that's familiar to the city Finally in the in the last category at the bottom there the commercial industrial institution on the irrigation are case by case spaces. So The city would assess the proposed development and make a determination of how much water was expected to be used from those types of Accounts and we came up with the unit cost of per thousand gallons a month The four hundred and fifteen dollars there in the bottom right of the corner Next slide So this table provides the same numbers, uh, just in with fewer numbers This was the final water demand offset fee on the right Next slide Thank you, mr. Hildebrand In uh considering what alternatives the city may have to charging developers water demand offset fees staff looked at a number of options and What we wanted to make sure the city council was aware of is that of course There is the option to use general funds. Um, that could be potentially to subsidize for example housing development Some portion thereof Could be having geographic limits for example the downtown core It could be limited to affordable low or very low income housing It would really be up to the city council's purview Should it decide that it wanted to subsidize the water demand offset fees In terms of water fund availability The rate payer revenues could not be used because of the restrictions of proposition 218 Proposition 218 limits us and does not allow us to use rate payer funds to subsidize other groups The water department does have cell tower revenue that is not subject to prop 218 It is currently used to provide some relief to assist our low-income customers and our h2o Program or help to others program But should the council direct it such we could redirect those funds from that group of low-income folks And subsidize the water demand offset fees Excess use penalties. We just wanted to remind you. Yes, those are available and again That's when someone exceeds their water ration We can collect excess use penalties. However, as we Talk to you about in may and june of this year Our strategy is always progressive enforcement We've found that to be incredibly useful with our community Our community tends to be very willing to help us reduce water use in times of water shortage emergencies And in part we think that's because we've built a relationship with them that is based on progressive enforcement And that means we work with our customers to help them be successful So that we're successful as a water department and as a city and as a community during water shortage crises So we do not anticipate that we would be collecting any substantial amount of excess use penalties Instead, we would anticipate that we would be educating and assisting our customers so that they can comply with their water allocation limits There may be of course some amount of excess use penalties that would have to be collected if there were calcitrant Customers who refuse to respond But really the goal is progressive enforcement and helping our customers be successful and reduce that water use Next slide, please We have also Been brought what has also been brought to our attention is a new Regulation ab 602 related to development fees and the impact fee nexus. This was approved by The state legislature and signed by the governor on september 28th. It goes into effect on january 1st And what this requires is that local agencies that want to implement impact fees They have to achieve that through meeting certain standards. The first is the fee study would have to be adopted before adopting the fees They would have to identify the existing and proposed level of service and why the new service is needed And then after july 1st the study would have to either consider the square footage Of housing units for calculating the fees or make findings by square footage isn't appropriate And looking at this although the water demand offset fee Before you in a study session today is not subject to ab 602 We've taken steps to make sure that it would meet those requirements Next slide, please We have done quite a bit of outreach Even more since this slide was developed We mailed 59 letters to developers and contractors and housing advocates to let them know We did that in late september to let them know about this proposed policy And fee structure and when public meetings would be occurring And how they could participate in those meetings also provided them with Contact information if they wanted to ask questions or request presentations for their organizations Or if they wanted a copy of the draft policy or the draft fee study We did receive one response the north coast builders exchange Did ask for us to come and do a presentation for their governmental affairs committee And we did so on october 14th We have also had three public meetings prior to this meeting. We did a informational presentation to the city council bp bpu liaison community committee, excuse me on october 5th We did a study session with the board of public utilities on october 7th And we did a study session with the planning commission on october 14th There were no public comments submitted at that time We've also sent a letter by email to about 170 community groups environmental groups developers and contractors Housing advocates to make sure that they're aware that this information is being presented to the city council That it's being considered. We've created a web page And that is s r city dot or g slash water demand offset And that has the draft policy and the draft fee study Posted to it as well as additional information. I also wanted to mention that the 170 letters that were emailed out We emailed that letter out both in english and in spanish simultaneously Again, we've not received any public comment from the effort so far next slide, please The next steps would be for us to go to the board of public utilities They had as I said a study session october 7th We would return to them on november 4th asking them to consider recommending to council to adopt the policy and fees We would also ask them to make a recommendation to amend the water shortage plan As I had stated to flatten the offset fee require the offset requirement to 100 in stages five six seven and eight On november 30th, we plan to come back to you and you will be holding a public hearing and we'll consider adopting the policy and fees Just prior to that public hearing immediately preceding it You will be having a public hearing and we will ask you to consider Adopting the amendment to the water shortage plan. There's one other minor amendment there that's an administrative amendment And we'll be providing more information to you about both of those during your public hearing Next slide, please So with that we are happy to take any questions that you may have Thank you so much collin counsel. Are there any questions council member fleming Yes, thank you collin. I have a question about um, it was I think it might have been slide 18 it was um a few back when you um went from Um, uh the percentages um instead of them be multiplicatives of the 100 on the increases You decided to stay at 100 percent. Can you review the rationale and and what um the impacts of that are one more time Thank you so much for bringing that slide up. That's very helpful. Um, yes. Thank you council member Fleming so in the plan currently The offset requirement would be 100 so I'll use very very simple numbers just because um, I think it'll help make the point So let's say a site needed 100 units of water In stage five, they'd be required to pay a fee that would allow the city to offset 100 units of water through one of our projects or programs In stage six, it would require 200 units of water to be offset, which would double the fee In stage seven, it required 300 units of water, which would triple the fee And in stage eight, it would require 400 units of water, which would quadruple the fee What we're proposing is that stages five through eight not have that increasing requirement But rather that we only ask new development to achieve a net zero impact, which would be the 100 percent offset Or in this example 100 units of offset So the fee would be tied to simply 100 offset sort of a net zero impact if you will Rather than having it double triple and quadruple in the later stages Thank you for the explanation. It's very clear And I'm not seeing any other hands from council. Let's go ahead go to public comment on the item If you are interested in providing comment, uh, our system in the chamber is actually down at the moment So we're going to have folks line up at the podium. Oh, we're back up My system's still down. So I'm going to have folks go ahead line up at the podium Just make sure to introduce yourself when it's your time And then we'll come back and we'll do public comment via zoom after our chamber comments Is this on? Yep Hello, my name is Dwayne D. Witte. I'm with the Sonoma County Housing Advocacy Group For oh five years the group Has been attentive to affordable housing issues And yet was not informed in any way shape or form by the city of these activities Perhaps we need to get An update on your communications list And make sure that we're not left off One of the concerns that many Residents of Sonoma County raised during stressful water times Is they see new development happening And they ask why do you ask us citizens? to restrict our use and be more conservative I myself I am a person who believes that water conservation is good all the time Not just in cases of extreme Drought One of the things that's been brought up today Is the idea that In stage five and above You'll switch this up and just make it a net zero And not go with any penalties I think that it's important That we realize in our system Many people Will try to game it And they're not necessarily going to be Honest brokers in the situation of how water use and new demand will be So Advocacy for Having penalties seems harsh but Realistically, it's the only way we get True honesty in water conservation If there are penalties people pay attention Some of the worst water wasting I see Is with irrigation And institutions and industry Specifically right here in our area. We could say the junior college I've seen a leaking underground pipe there for well over a decade They haven't really cared because they're not held accountable The same can be said in the wine industry They use lots of water and they don't really feel They have to be As conservative as those residents who have cut their use so much Here we are in a county where you have lots of people who Are concerned And as residents they've done their job to Cut their water use which was Actually applauded to point out how they went down from 120 gallons per Family per day down to 67. That's a wonderful thing You don't see that with institutions and industry So I would hope that you folks would Put something in there to make sure that those folks will be more conservative also And treat this water shortage as if it is year-round We won't necessarily be going back to the good old days. Thank you Is there anybody else in the chamber who'd like to make comments? Okay, we'll go to our Public comments on zoom. I see one hand. Let's start with kalem Kalem go ahead Mr. Mayor miss vice mayor council members and mr. City manager I am kalem weeks the policy director for generation housing where we advocate for more more diverse and more affordable housing Add a script, you know prepared today, but i'm gonna go a little off script and and and simply start by just thanking your staff and You know your your consultancies for taking the time to actually listen to our early concerns. We did submit a letter I'm not exactly certain when but it was I think a a couple months ago Expressing some of our early concerns in terms of equity and making sure that this wasn't, you know, an overly burdensome cost on to some of our lower income Communities and and generally speaking communities of color Um, I I guess I I would just you know add to day that I would encourage to the extent possible that we kind of pump the brakes on this You know, we did have this recent rainstorm and I think it's put us in a slightly less dire situation And certainly I think we have an opportunity here to potentially, you know re-engaged communities seek additional input and and potentially You know take the time to really dial this in and ensure that we aren't causing any additional burdens that would potentially You know impede You know council priorities and very much, you know, so one of the council priorities would Certainly be development of affordable Low and low income housing And you know one of the questions I guess I would have for staff too because I'm a little bit confused Is why is this not subject to AB 602? That's a little bit unclear to me. And if at all possible, I would definitely appreciate getting additional input on that today Um, and then I would add, you know add just kind of one more thing, um, you know Again to the extent possible if it is An option I I fervently believe in generation housing We fervently believe that is important that we use subsidies to the extent possible to help Further stimulate additional affordable developments And you know as always, uh, thank you for your time. Thank you for your leadership We really appreciate it and I look forward to hearing more from you Thank you so much. Caleb the only hand that I see via zoom. Is there anyone else who wanted to give comment? Okay, I'll go ahead bring it back to the council This is a study session. So staff is looking for direction Uh, and collin if you could just provide a little bit of, uh, context for council members on what type of direction would be helpful As you move this back towards the bpu Yes, thank you, mayor. Um, did you also want me to address the ab 602 question or do you feel that the slide Adequately addressed it already. I feel free to Okay, um, I just wanted to make sure that the public understood that ab 602 while it was signed in september It becomes effective january 1st. Our study is already completed. So we are prior to that deadline However, we've done everything that we can working with our legal counsel and With our accounting folks just to make sure that we really are lined up and set up to follow that The requirements that were in that So while it didn't rely on square footage For housing folks can see that to a certain degree There is a kind of square footage in that it does reflect the fact that larger single family properties Have a larger water demand due to landscaping And so they would pay a higher fee and very small unit high density Housing tends to use less water per unit. And so that has a lower fee So while it wasn't based strictly on square footage, ultimately the way our water use Signature is for each of these different customer classes. Um, it does in many ways reflect that indirectly But we have to use the actual water demand as our basis and our nexus In terms of what kind of an impact we have to offset So hopefully that helps and that it the law Doesn't go into effect until january 1st But we've done everything we can in our power to make sure that we are complying ahead of schedule I appreciate that and then con really fast. There was also a comment Um, I just wanted to make sure we're all working with the same facts on Where our water usage actually is and so I want to make sure I share this for the public 83 of the water usage in santa rosa is from single family homes 6 is multifamily 6 is agriculture 5 is commercial and industrial And city parks is only 3 so I did want to make sure I put that information out there as well since there was a comment about it Um, and actually city of santa rosa proper. We don't serve agricultural customers with our potable water supply. So The potable water supply that is subject to things like water rationing in the water shortage plan Does not serve agricultural customers Great. Thank you so much. Yeah, you bet. Um, so, um You were looking for uh, what direction that might be helpful for staff at this time during the study session um, I think ultimately if the council Doesn't have a different direction to provide to us We're interested in knowing whether or not the as it's proposed should we move forward with it as it is Would there be any recommendation from council that there be some other approach to How fees are paid or subsidized? Whether we would need to make changes to our shortage plan Just generally speaking what we have presented is that What the council would like to see move forward as written or if there is any specific change that the council would like to recommend Okay, I'll start with council members on zoom first council member soyer any additional feedback Thank you, mayor. No, just my thanks to the team and coming forward with recommendations My fear is perhaps that this major rain um That we've received in the last couple of days will allow what will make people feel less inclined to be diligent in their conservation. So this is a Nice reprieve for at least a little while But keep up the good work santa rosa because you're doing an excellent job in conserving water And we need that to continue until we are truly Out or much closer to out of this drought And so I I I am the subject matter experts In this team have made a I think an excellent recommendation. I think it's fair. I think it's equitable. I think it's just um and reasonable and And conservative enough to help get us through this crisis. So I very much support the recommendations coming from staff. Thank you Council member council member alvarez I share the sentiments and thank you mayor. I share the sentiments of councilman soyer And really to the community and to not let up on the conservation efforts Don't let the rain fool you. We're we're not out of the good drought and we really are in the right direction but To keep moving in that direction and for staff. Thank you for the presentation and when it comes to our water agency You are as stated prior you are the subject matter Experts and and definitely for your lead and I guess if I did have a question It would be once we once we in if we and when that happens. We exit the drought period Is there any any process or or allows to visit the fee schedules To the community once again if and when we exit the drought Mayor would it be appropriate for me to go ahead and respond? Yep. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you so much first I just wanted to thank both of you For reminding our community that we really are not out of the drought yet And it is a huge relief. I think also because october is such a scary time for us in terms of fire danger so I know all of us are breathing a deep sigh relief five I I think that's very clear and yet lake sonoma is at the lowest level. It's ever been in its history since it first filled So this is great. We've had some rain. We have some more coming The lake is starting to get more water, but we still need that 20 Reduction and use to ensure that we have water supply going forward. So thank you both for that And then in terms of revisiting the fees Certainly, I think, you know, once fees are adopted The way that the policy is developed is that at least every five years we would revisit those fees Because we need to look at has water use continued to drop in which case there's less water that would need to be offset And we want to make sure that we're Staying up with that as our community continues to be more conservative with its water use. So absolutely And I know that at any time if council wanted to direct staff to revisit those fees in between that five-year cycle That's certainly an option as well But our plan is to have that adopted. But yes, of course But while we're in drought, we are not requiring any fees at this time. So just a reminder We are not in a stage five six seven or eight. We're in a stage three So even if this were in place today, no fees would be collected under our current 20 mandatory reduction in water use So that our current drought is not severe enough to trigger these fees. So Just a reminder that certainly we could revisit them, but nobody would be subject to the fees under our current circumstances Perfect. Thank you for that. Thank you Thank you councilmember. I'll bring it back to the dais councilmember Fleming Thank you, mr. Of close and to your team for all of your work I I don't believe that this is the best way for us to go right now. I think that it That causes us a problem whereby it prejudices future water users, especially multifamily water users Who are our lowest using Group as we've seen because of the the less amount of irrigation that is caused in this group. So What I think that That we do have a drought. We have a really serious drought I agree with the other council members that people need to continue to conserve We also have an ongoing housing shortage And while this would not apply to any housing that's being built now If if the drought doesn't get any worse It does have the the chilling impact of one more fee and one more sort of This incentive to building and so, you know, I've spoken with director Burke. I made it clear that I don't believe this is the way that we should be going. I don't think that we should essentially disadvantage future water users from being able to become future water users And I don't have the the solution for how we should be figuring this out Otherwise, but one way that I would look at this would be one thing that was mentioned Which would be to exempt a geographic area where we really don't want to disincentivize development Such as the downtown or looking at exempting multifamily building Or density above a certain amount That we've been struggling to get maybe mid-rises or something on that order I appreciate that we've got to figure out a way to manage water use and water expectations But I don't believe that multifamily use is the way to go And I think that it's going to cause us more problems down the road. So Those are my thoughts. I will be supporting this but it's with great reservation Thanks council member vice mayor um Just want to thank the water department for all of their hard work the staff You guys are great You guys definitely put your all into everything water I Will be supporting this because I don't have an alternative. I don't have an answer otherwise And also because we haven't had to implement it and we wouldn't have had to implement it In 30 years, and I know that we can always revisit it if it's something that we do need to revisit But we need to have something in place Um, so if we need to revisit it we can revisit it So but thank you guys so much for your hard work Yeah, I would echo those comments as well Just for the hard work that the team has been doing and I know it's been a long process And thank you to the board of public utilities for weighing in on this as well Not just once but twice coming up next week The one change that I was really looking for you made In it and that was the reduction in the percentage As we moved through the different tiers it it didn't feel fair to me that we were asking new development to offset more than their fair share and make up for Uh, what would essentially just be bad timing and bad circumstances that they weren't built 10 years ago 15 years ago I think that the 100% offset is fair as we look at the conditions But above that I had concerns And so I appreciate you taking the time to listen to folks and to make some tweaks to the policy as it moves forward And I'm sure there'll be more tweaks that'll be made before it comes back to us for final adoption With that, I think you've got direction collin Thank you very much mayor and council members. We really appreciate all of the comments that you've shared with us in the direction Thank you. And I also want to thank the team again about 15 folks work very hard on this and I just want to thank all of them as well Thank you Mr. Assistant city manager, let's go to item 3.2 Thank you, mayor and council members our second study session item is item 3.2 We'll be discussing one-time monies relating to the PG&E settlement and the American rescue plan act And allen alton our acting chief financial officer will be reporting Thank you Good afternoon mayor members of the council so This is a study session on one-time monies. This is uh for Some of this is a very long time coming We believe what what you will see in this presentation are Proposed spending plans That will utilize both American rescue plan act money And also the remaining amounts of PG&E settlement fund dollars We last had a study session on this on in july um at that point we formed a working group and started developing criteria for ranking a number of projects that we had That both came from the the council during that study session, but also from staff We reviewed these with the long-term financial policy and audit subcommittee on october 12 And with that let's go to the next slide So as I mentioned, we formed a working group to review the slides or review the programs It's a very diverse group of individuals from different Departments with different areas of Focus in their work. So that group included jason nut and claire hartman who are both Assistant city manager is one of public works one of planning eric mckinney from information technology scoreral shales from Human resources that that helped us with the diversity inclusion and eo work Rice adela rosa from economic development Legali chaos from community engagement tasha right from water looking at sustainability And myself We met several times as a group I developed a team site. So we were able to share information and Work off of draft documents and help build those I have to say in all my years here I've worked in a number of groups, but this is probably one of the It was it was eye-opening for me to be able to get such views and be able to kind of come together and build consensus In the areas that I frankly wasn't familiar with and I learned a lot from it. It was a great group to work with Next slide, please so we we took each program Whether they were Well, let me take a step back As as we had our our list of programs and I think that there were 67 in total We Did a first look to see which would be arpa eligible And then all others would kind of go into a pgne category So basically you have specific arpa funding and then you have all the other ones that maybe don't work for arpa So they would need to compete with the other funds that were a smaller amount so And our consultant Hagerty helped us with that initial view or review Provided backup information and then we were able to share that with the group Um but As we then started looking at the individual programs to rank them and score them We use the same The same criteria for both programs So and and we were looking at things from a sustainable economic and equity lens So from a sustainability thing we were looking at environmental equity And looking at whether the investment would specifically Assist vulnerable communities we looked at it from a standpoint of of environmental health and whether It would provide a benefit to vulnerable communities in a range of of ways From a health standpoint Be it parks and pathways or healthy foods However, that might be we looked at things to be If it was a true one-time program if it would free up general fund dollars If it would require ongoing Funds or if it helped implement the climate action plan We looked at things from a from an economic perspective Looking at social economic upstream investment Looking at economic determinants of health and And also looking at whether they would advance Economic development in the downtown or eliminate bottlenecks in planning and economic development Reducing ongoing general fund maintenance costs or enhancing recruitment and retention And we looked at things from an equity lens as well. So we wanted to score Or give a particular score for projects that would advance diversity And advance equity and access And advance inclusion We wanted to look at those that could impact underserved populations And address generational poverty Or improve access to city services And advance Homeless and housing first strategies Expanding on building availability of child care All of this review criteria recognizes A priority investment for federally determined Qualified census tracts And place-based equity strategies So we we kind of folded in our own lens, but always keeping in mind the federal Requirements that were there and Our abilities under those federal guidelines, especially for ARPA Other factors that went into the review process. Like I said, we kept in mind The final rule guidelines from Treasury We looked at Really the potential of ongoing nature of a program. A lot of these things that you're going to see Are are really going to be kind of pilot programs And You know part of that comes that if the pilot program is successful Now we need to find a funding source for it. It doesn't mean that we Uh would Not recommend those, but it just means that there's a larger challenge going ahead. And then we also looked at returns on investment Um As we get into these uh slides later on we did try to estimate some timelines for implementation Wherever possible. Um, and we also know that going forward we'll we'll need to Um be reporting out on The metrics for success of these programs These were some comments that came through the the review from the the Finance of committee Some of that we're still working on but those are things that we have in mind as we're going forward Next slide please So uh before we we hop into the actual PG&E and ARPA programs and just going to give you a quick Very fast overview of where we were from the general fund and the water funds for FEMA public assistance projects At least on the PG&E side, obviously the Tubbs fire was a The reason for that settlement There were a number of projects that were That we took place in or we worked on Some of which are we've completed through the the FEMA and Cal OES process I think we've closed out A handful of projects We're in the closeout phase on on a few more But then we have fire recovery projects that are still going so what we wanted to do is just Kind of briefly touch on the fact that we We are still working on these projects what four years later Of trying to recover from the Tubbs fire and moving those things along So this slide shows basically the general fund part of it the cost estimate that we had from a city standpoint What FEMA obligated to us and what we've received so far and what I would say is that whatever While FEMA may obligate a certain amount If all things go well The final closed-out amount should be closer to what our actual true that costs are But that is several as i'm learning several several years down the road But as it as it stands right now all of our emergency response So the things that we had to to draw from the reserves to Respond initially to there those have all then turned back to the city And and we we did well with that Others We have budget within the cip and so now they're just basically Working as a grant program. So as we move through the process We hit certain milestones. We draw down from grant revenue and that helps pay for it So next slide We'll show the Water Side of that. They also have an emergency response and then they have water specific Programs that are moving through the site So next slide so The pgne settlement funds we received 95 million dollars. We've allocated most of that This graph shows just from a from a picture standpoint where we've moved in terms of having fire recovery and resiliency projects fiscal stability Of putting money into the reserves We Allocated some money to the renewal enterprise district And we have money committed for the rosalind library Which leaves us with about seven million dollars of uncommitted funds And next slide We can move quickly through this but this is basically what we've Done with those so With the fire resiliency We have the vegetation management program, which is a five-year program At about 5.25 million The wildland resiliency response strategic plan upgrade. So that was about 2.75 and as we We are You see items come to council every now and then that are actually Spending the money out of those particular programs. We have fire recovery. These are We're just recently Committed by the council where obligated over four projects in the hopper avenue board or some residential street repair and relandscaping and vegetation restoration And then like I mentioned, we have the contribution to the rosalind library And the contribution to the renewal enterprise district Next slide So as I said, we we had a very long List of Program requests that didn't fall within arpa about 120 million worth We had about seven million dollars to spend We We were able to get that down to about Just under seven million dollars as a proposed plan Um So a little bit on the on the scoring again the scoring we scored arpa and pgne the same The maximum possible score was a 21 No program on either side scored that high There were So usually they were about a point each If we knew that there were ongoing costs Um, you know, we would try to list that and and in one of the categories I think we gave a negative number if it was a it was an ongoing Program or or something to that effect, but but for the most part If it met a particular criteria that I mentioned earlier in the presentation They got a point at the end of the day. We totaled up all those points And we then ranked them that way and for this one You kind of see where we fall and um Down to the seven million so in these next slides I will go over uh quickly As I can the um the individual Programs that we're funding and uh I do have a lot of the working group folks are Panelists on this so if there's specific questions that I can't Uh get through them on a on a high level they can get more detail for you So next slide please So some of these are are um dealing with again and we're showing them by rank order so you have uh Translation services, uh was I think the highest rank Um, it would be for both translating both Are our written materials, but also Like the translation services that we do for the counseling meetings. This is Undoubtedly an ongoing program. I don't see us ever moving away from them We as a group that the initial estimate of that was actually lower As a group we we realized that we probably needed to have a higher amount And what this will do is this will be it it'll be in a project So it will be able to move uh carried over from You know a couple of years What we need to try to do is is understand the um What the ongoing program costs for the translation services will be just how and Where we are right now. It's it's spread out throughout the The various departments That traditionally do outreach whether it be door tags or other types of outreach So we're trying to kind of cobble everything together figure out what we need and consolidate A way to move forward, especially on the general fun side With this. So this is a high amount. It's not expected to be for one year It'll probably be for a couple of years, but it'll give us that opportunity to Build a trend line and a real estate budget moving forward The youth promoters and youth council, uh, this will create a model for youth engagement Um and expand outreach and that this is something that we think that we could probably start Fairly seen uh, we would um You know, it wouldn't take a long time to build up that program I would say that that if something like this is approved We could start rather quickly Uh, the specific plan So this is replacing Mendocino Avenue with south center rosa avenue specific plan It's a one-time cost. But and what it's doing is it's combining These funds with other revenues to create this larger project Expect the ir on this to begin in 2023 and complete it around 2024 Rosalind creek park. This was something that To kind of give you an insight into the deliberation We had a kind of an all-encompassing park Program that was originally reviewed and kind of stored Low because it was it was more than what we had to spend And then the thought was and I think it was after the council meeting when we talked about rosalind creek where You know, well, can we do something specifically in here? What can we do? And we came up with a project that would Provide connectivity with bicycle and pedestrian trail access So complete the loop pathway system Um, uh, do two pedestrian creek crossings Uh, and then do some multi-use trail Uh, a bicycle pedestrian connecting with men Overbank so that connectivity we were able to do this is stuff that we could actually get done Rather quickly at at an amount to kind of fit within Uh, what we could fund and then as we resport that it scored quite high Next slide, please So these are um, when we originally had the list we had dei initiatives was just a large Project we went and broke it down as much as possible into these smaller projects that kind of give an idea of what we would What initiatives we could Take on and then we ranked all of those individually score them and Spored them and ranked them. So we have the intern program. This is something that could start immediately We would want to coordinate it with the school year, but it's it would build the local talent pool connection for city opportunities There is a community and staff equity. So there's a community component and equity training for city staff Both of those were estimated probably happened in the early part of 2022 Uh, dvi spaces is is where we are trying to find and Multicultural spaces and so we are actively looking for those areas where we can go out and do multicultural events in spaces within the city The barrier for that has been that we've just had no money Once we would finally find a space. So this would kind of move us for that direction of actually being able to establish These multicultural spaces or have events throughout the city The board and committee stipend this is This would be a policy change. It's not something that we currently do and There would need to be details worked out on this However, the thought in bringing it forward was that we want to try to open up Participation in our boards and committees and a stipend amount might be able to Remove some of the barriers save the child care or things like that That would prohibit somebody that That would want to Join a board or committee, but just wouldn't be able to do it because of those barriers. So that's what it was Then we have The recommendations coming from the C collaborative And We look at that and the equity dashboard those things are tied together Looking at spraying implementation in those That's like So the community empowerment plan What this funding would do would be would allow Community engagement to start Do more work out in the street It would allow them to do this now It's an interesting thing. We have the community engagement program that's set up With some staff that's in there, but we don't have really a good operating budget for them So there's a lot of things that we would like to be able to do out in the area listening sessions other types of engagement There but we simply are trying to you know find money to get out and to do those This would provide that and would also allow us To evaluate and figure out what the right ongoing operating budget would be for this for this group So we have contract services both for planning and economic development And and and fire. So the plan review part of fire Both of these things are basically Helps With staffing issues this allows us to move through The the bottleneck that that can happen from both fire rebuild but just in general Of of trying to move projects through both planning and planning and economic development On both the planning side and the fire side. So I kind of combined them It's for the same same amount. So they're just on one line here, but it would be $500,000 for The the contract on the fire side and then about 300,000 We receive a lot of public record Records requests, but also we have a need for digitizing And that so this public records management update It actually helps out a number of different Departments it specifically helps out ed and helps get hard copies records into the trusted system Part of this cost is the support for digitizing everything and ultimately what it will do We think is reduce the cost of long-term storage, but this was one of those things that as we were going through and looking at What The best return on investment we can get this is one of those things that doesn't score high in a lot of the other categories, but very much scores high in terms of The benefit that it has for multiple departments and just regular smooth operating city departments Then the trusted system that I that I mentioned. This is records management software This is something that could probably be implemented within six months it would need to go through a The rfp and contract process and that usually takes around six or seven months But it's something that we could we think that we could have going within probably this fiscal year The it would have an annual license fee attached to it 15,000, but that would be Spread out through the it rate plan There's a fire inspection database that we were looking at this is allows us to streamline The reporting that we're required to do for the state. So it's one of those It's it's money that we need to spend That again doesn't check a lot of the boxes, but it makes for a more efficient reporting of mandated reports Transit radio upgrade would allow us to upgrade our city bus radios to what the police department their new digital radio system And then we have the assault or fountain panels This would be for us to cast and solve artwork for the assault or fountain This is something that has There's an ongoing maintenance possible about 10,000 for that But this is also kind of a critical need in terms of getting the panels done and then And then that would be able to shore up the fountain that is Next slide please So we have the climate action plan. We would use these funds to support climate action policy initiatives have toolkits for applicants development and remodels Vacuation equipment is things like barricades and in that That we use what we're leading to to do some sort of Disaster evacuation Again with these things This is just could be done as quickly as we can start the procurement process Um The enhanced infrastructure financing district. So this would be for a consultant to prepare financing plan and fiscal impact report for financing district It would help us in as we are working with the county We would go to RFP and contract rather immediately upon approval, obviously And then we would Then go to spring 2022 is when we would think that we would be able to come back and study such And then the last two that we have here are limited term Positions there's a limited term planner that would be a two-year limited term focusing on um Deadline driven projects whether they be affordable housing projects or things that are focusing on red funded development The other one is a media check Again, this one would be a three-year limited term and So as we are with these hybrid meetings, we still have pre-covid level of media tax um there is a A quite a lot of support that's required full and setting up the meetings uh, but also reporting them and editing them and going through post-processing and then actually posting the meetings And um, it's just finding that we were probably going to have a hybrid model for For a little bit now At least You know, so we're We're asking for a limited term Because we don't know exactly how long into the future. We would do this This hybrid model, but we do know that The current staffing model is uh, is too low. So A limited term tech Would help that process bring And again, those things would be able to start As quickly as we could get the A recruitment process going And with that We get to the end of the PG&E programs at the very end of the presentation. I have Those PG&E programs that did not make it onto this list I can go through those at that point right now. We can either Answer questions here or move on to the ARPA funds So Alan, let's go ahead and see if there are any questions on PG&E first I know that Because we're doing this all sort of in in one concert that there might be some additional questions when we get to the finish That'll look back, but let's start with specific questions about recommendations with the PG&E funding And i'll start with councilmember soyer Thank you, mayor. Um I have a generalized question first before I get into some specifics um A number of these funding Allocations Have to do with Funds that the council has already Made some decisions on in using general fund Dollars So if there's an item Where there are where we have in prior meetings dedicated funds from our general general fund And it's also Being allocated under PG&E settlement Where to Where do those dollars go? That we're already dedicated And that we're now funding through PG&E Especially given the challenges that we will be having in the next year with Um Our contract negotiations, etc. Which are not included in our budget so i'm curious, um, how How the what was the conversation by the um by the team? And this is a lot of information here and a great deal of work. So let me first Acknowledge that But I am curious about the conversation that was had Regarding where those funds will go If there's an item on here on these programs Where we have we where we might decide okay, let's use PG&E dollars But we had originally dedicated general fund dollars How was how did that conversation go and where will those dollars go? I have I have a good recommendation But i'm i'm i'm curious as to what the team How a team looked at those in a sense kind of a backfill if you will so that's what i'm curious about That's my first question. Okay So we probably had A a more lengthy conversation about that as it related to ARPA funds because ARPA is is essentially A different funding source than the general fund the PG&E dollars went into the general fund And sat there and then was able to uh, we're we're doling them out uh over time so um clearly if uh On some of these are things that and and i'll be I'm not sure of exact examples of Things were counsel had already allocated dollars and we're adding More to this So I apologize for that And i'm sure that somebody on the team can refresh my memory If there are those in general, but but basically what we what I looked at From my finance perspective in there and what I talked about with the group was You know We we have seven million dollars to do work That if we don't use these Kind of dedicated PG&E funds We would it's going to hit the general fund either way. So it's that's like kind of where we are PG&E is is essentially You know seven million dollars of the general of additional general fund dollars to to use for this And so that's how I looked at it and how I think the rest of the team looked at it Um as we went through if there's things on there specifically that um, you know, I will say that Like I mentioned earlier some of the things that had to do with the community empowerment plan. I know that uh community engagement is is is a priority for the council and being Engaged with our community, excuse me, but um Uh, there there really isn't a lot of of operating money for them to to use. It's kind of a interesting Budget scenario for that. I think what happened was that that we're still Kind of molding what community engagement is going to look like for the city of santa rosa This sort of gives us a jumpstart to be able to use To your point Ongoing it will be general fund dollars, but this gives you that opportunity to Start building a program Understanding that you're going to need Ongoing general fund dollars later, but it gives you some one-time dollars to kind of mold out program now Thanks, Ellen. Let me let me give a more maybe a more concrete example I'm in the homeless assistance on slide 16 um So that's in the arpa though, right? That's an arpa. I'm sorry. Let's go to Let's go to slide Let's go to let's see actually most of my Most of my questions do have to do with arpa um So in your in in your assessment of um Now hold on a second It's a lot of slides. Um Well, let's let's go to rose and look Rose and creek for instance, and we all are I think we're all fans of the rose and creek park um Where they're not general funds Obligated by the council Prior to this recommendation of 1.5 million might want to have assistant city manager nut kind of Throw me a line on this one. Yeah, thank you. Thanks jayden. I just And I'm what I'm I guess what I'm trying to get to is are we is Are we do we ultimately have dollars that we could commit to Unfunded obligations In in this fiscal year in 21 22 That are being funded by pg and e Um Dollars that had already been committed in our general fund in prior meetings Thank you council member uh jason nut assistant city manager I I believe for the arc for the pg and e recommendations. I don't I don't recall any of these line items supplanting existing general fund or other funding sources These were all in addition to Existing budget line items for roseland creek community park for example There are funds set aside specifically for the construction and implementation Of one of the pathways connecting mc min and Burbank avenues those funds are coming from park development fees These funds requested through pg and e would be in addition to those funds We would not be removing those from the project scope And I believe that is similar to other projects that are listed That alan went through that these would be in addition to Already existing funds that may have been incorporated as part of the fiscal year budget Okay, I appreciate that and I think actually in looking at my notes The majority of my concerns come out of the arpa funds Not not the pg and e settlement funds. So I will and it and the reason that I bring it up at all and why I'm going to have a number of questions about the arpa funds has to do with our Obligations in our next fiscal year that have not been discussed and nor are they on our on our budget So I will I'll hold my comments then and wait till we get to the to the arpa funds because I think that's really Where most of my questions lie. So thank you very much Are there any other questions from council members? If I could ma'am. Yep. Go ahead council member Yes, thank you. Alan in slide number 11 on the public records management update 900,000 it says ultimately reduces the cost of a long-term storage What would the cost be should we not invest into? Uh, this management update. What are we looking at? And if you could also elaborate you elaborate On what it actually is could you could you revisit that again? What is the public records management in general? so so we Store and digitize we we used to let me put it this way we used to Store a lot of paper records and over the past years. We have gone to a more digitized um Records management, that's how we manage our records now if you have paper records you have to have storage for it in some cases You have to have specialized storage for it. Uh, I think um, you know, what this does is it allows uh Things like long form Or long large maps and other things to be Digitized and and to be able to be more efficient from that standpoint. So it it's kind of building off of what we already have And uh, and it's this next necessary phase that really addresses that one area and it allows us to be able to pull records quicker Uh, um to distribute those records quicker in and the life The cost of what that storage is uh ongoing. I'd have to get back to you on that Um, I I don't have that particular cost in the But we're looking at a savings of of staff hours just by them having to to go through this different system Or the antiquated system I should say so it has to do with the efficiency as well, right? Yeah, it's absolutely inefficiency And and on the asawa uptown panels the ongoing maintenance cost of 10 000. What is that in encumber? Uh, that's a good question. I'm gonna off top of my head. I would guess that it's just your general uh Maintenance that we would do like with any other park or Or area where it's our public works or parks folks providing maintenance I think what we're trying to do there is provide an overall cost of what some of these Of what of what some of these items will be they it's not a Install it and then let it go. We need to make sure that it Looks well going forward, right So we can't set it and forget it up now. Where's the line about? And and the 10 000 will be on the yearly yearly budgeting items. Yeah, it would Right, it would be included within other Um, you know our our normal maintenance budgets that are out there just be another line item that's added to it Thank you, sir Councilmember Sawyer Thank you, mayor, and I'm looking at um, I did have one more question regarding Um, I believe it's now the the number of the slides all changed and when we had some additional information Provided so I appreciate the extra information, but it it did mess up my slides in looking at the The the funding for this is slide 12 Where we are going to Focus it was a limited term here it is that the limited term planner With a focus on the red funded development If we were how flexible is that if we were to determine a project that we wanted to use this this limited term planner for And it did not have anything to do with the red funded development Would we be able to access that planner? It says focus, but it doesn't say restricted. So I'm just wondering how flexible The planning department is going to be when it comes if we if we needed to use their their Expertise and their and their time to work on some other project Would would they be available for that? Yeah, right. Um, good afternoon Claire Hartman interim assistant city manager Also currently deputy director for planning So thank you for the question. Um, it is not project specific this limited term planner. What it is Is that it would it would be earmarked? That's what we're proposing to help facilitate Particularly affordable housing, but also downtown housing I think one of the items that I've reported out on before is we're slipping in our targeted performance um, and these are absolutely the top priority of projects and so we are looking to Add capacity and really ensure that we meet our targets in those two categories um It is not something that is included in the ped plan review services item because we simply It's it's it's quite challenging to hire a consultant to sort of Get trained up if you will into our discretionary process or buy a complicated by right housing process So having that limited term planner we can really train them Train them up retain them for a predictable amount of time and really make the most use out of it So that's what that planners for But yes, so we would we would use it to further city council's top priority in terms of planning review Great answer. I really appreciate that because you're you're smack on and we did we we need help and This this will assist in that endeavor. So I appreciate that answer. Thanks Ms. Harman I had a follow-up to the previous question That came up about public records management And I just wanted to clarify because I appreciated the question this didn't click on you quick enough The $900,000 associated with the public records management update 300,000 is specifically to digitize. We have a lot of paper records In pet and specifically and we get thousands of public record act requests every year just in pet We're one of the number one producers of public records And they've only escalated so one is just to digitize our records. That's $300,000 The $600,000 actually is and this is the part where I think it leverages Across other departments and divisions and creates an opportunity to modernize our public record management system And that is to create a public portal Where we can vet our records in advance and make them accessible through a public portal So people can self-help and get the public records that they seek They're really being more efficient about our staff resources because we spend an enormous amount of time right now finding public records scanning them and and responding to those requests So that's what this is and if we can accomplish that It's really a model for for the rest of the city But if there and if I may So the $600,000 would be to create the public record. I'm sorry the the portal the portal that goes Across different departments is what I'm hearing correct. We would leverage it across the the city. Yes So this would be More of a one-time Expense and then whatever the upkeep for this portal would be the the long-term vision for it Correct. It's a one-time investment And that has long-term implications. There may be software implications, but Yeah, the idea is that it's not going to have significant ongoing program costs It's a one-time investment to set to digitize and then to set up a public portal system Okay, thank you for that. I think it's a clarification Mayor I do have one one more question. I think it's pretty minor and actually Mr. Alvarez brought it up was $10,000 for the sculpture Um for the maintenance. It isn't unknown because it is bronze. It will be bronze and $10,000 is probably a guess at what the maintenance might be if we didn't use the $10,000 Or we could adjust that with the 10 with the remaining of that $10,000 go to maintenance of the square other maintenance on the square Or would it go put a bounce back to the general fund? Hey, this is Ray Steller. So you can have a development division director and The $300,000 for the bronze portion is specifically for the bronzing and for the installation The $10,000 ongoing maintenance. Um, I'm not sure exactly where that came from. It might be specific to the um The fountain itself and not specific to the artwork because the artwork will be bronze and will be Incorporated in the the city's public art Program and the maintenance through that program I really appreciate that because I and I'm sure Of water features always require more money than we would expect not only to install create and install but to maintain So, um, I'm sure that I'm sure that that will be that those that $10,000 will be well used and thank you very much for that clarification and now some members Sorry, I was going to follow up and just say and and um, the number is a placeholder when we come into the actual budget for fiscal year 22 23 Will actually insert and identify the specific number for ongoing maintenance Whether it's the conservative Whether it's the conservator that'll take care of the spawns Or or if it relates to the to the fountain maintenance as reissa mentioned Um, we'll we'll make sure that that's clarified in the budget process council member tibets Thanks, mayor, um Jason. I've got about four questions here Jason. I'll start with two that I think you might be best position to answer Um, if my memory serves when we were looking at doing the ballards on courthouse square There was an account dedicated to uh courthouse square that had At the time I well over a hundred thousand dollars in Funding available. It might have even been more and I remember at the time It was a this wonderful revelation for me because I didn't know that we had Kind of these dedicated accounts Um, and I was wondering if you or alan for that matter, uh, mr. Alton Knew how much money is left in that account after we expended the funds on the ballards So I'll start and alan can tell chime in if I misstep um that Courthouse square account is fully expended. Uh, the ballard project and the associated work Uh, did use not only those funds, but we added to the Project in an effort to bring it to completion. So there is nothing remaining in that former project account Okay, thank you. And that is a follow-up Currently or is our park development fund the same as our parks fund We have a park development fund that we receive payments from developers that are doing Uh, new work. Um, and that is what generally feeds New park improvements in and around our community based on the four zones that we discussed during the budget time um That's the only account that i'm aware of. Uh, i'm not sure if uh, if alan has an understanding that there is a separate account That's titled differently That I was I don't know not that i'm aware of I was a little confused by that as well So do we know alan how much is in the southeast area park development fund currently? Uh I don't I don't have that off top of my head that I can get that back Yeah, if you could get that sometime before the study session item is over that would be really helpful. Um And then it's terms in terms of our park budget. I cannot remember During our budget hearings earlier this year Um, how much we set aside, but I thought that we had set aside funds for the roseland creek development Park so So we may have set aside Uh specific park development fees for that, but is that what you're what you're asking? Well, I I don't think that the entire parks department is funded off of the park development fee fund for the southeast santa rosa quadrant Um, I I'm just trying to recall back to the budget in its totality for parks I thought that we had made a general fund uh appropriation to parks to help with the roseland park development So project Yeah, council member. So, uh two years ago. We did utilize general funds To help remove structures that were located on the three independent properties as part of a larger demolition projects to remove assets That were in uh conditions that we didn't want to continue to support And so those were general fund dollars And there are some additional dollars for that project still remaining as we have to take down the foundations and the foundations the wells and the septic tanks on those properties Okay, thanks jason. Um, allen. Yeah, I'd still be really curious to know how much money is available in the parks development fee fund Um, because again harkening back to the budget Uh, I also seem to really distinctly remember that we had set aside $600,000 or we were looking to set aside $600,000 for the specific area plan Um, you know, so I what I'm what I'm driving at I'm going to comment on this more later is that When I was reading the staff report for uh for this, I was just pretty disappointed in in kind of the results Um, this feels a lot to me like we are using PG and the settlement money And arpa money for basically abdicating our general fund obligations and trying to save the general funds some money Uh, and why I find that I think a little bit disappointing is just because I think our public sees this money as money that is meant to invest in the well-being of the citizenry post fire post Covid so I'm going to leave my comments there for now. Um, and I will probably expand upon in the comment period um Oh, and one final question is uh, sorry. I forgot the planner consultant. Um, or the planner uh for assistant city manager hartman Is this person going to be a consultant or an actual employee of the city? The 240,000 Thank you for the question. Uh, it would be an employee of the city and that is uh, quite a it's a quite a distinction And that's why we're able to retain a person For a period of time as opposed to consultants which tend to swap out over over months I'm glad to hear that because I want to take a minute to opine on what I've been hearing on the street for people coming through our planning process It's it's been interesting and it's changed my tune about our planning department because I was always the person supporting staff to use consultants Um, obviously it helps get away from pension obligations down the road And can help us clear backlogs But one of the things I've been hearing is that whoever we're using in fresno or baker's field that area Um is incredibly risk averse and I think that's probably by nature the fact that they are consultants Um, they probably don't want to lose their contract to city by taking on a riskier interpretation of the california building code Um, so i'm very glad to hear that you're looking uh for somebody in house who can take You know work directly with staff directly with the fire marshal's office city attorney's office yourselves, etc Yeah, thank you for that comment And claire while you're on I had a question as well. Can you talk to us a little bit about the significance and the urgency of the specific plan? Great. Um, yeah, thank you for that question. Um, so The last couple years we had been earmarking sort of post general plan update Obviously all hands on deck for general plan update and climate action plan update, but we're planners, right? So we're looking forward to What would be our next priority because these these things do? Take a lot of leveraging of funds city funds staff time Also various grants that we can collect along the way so What's happened in the last couple of years besides a lot of emergency response? That has delayed some of our planning efforts including being able to actively seeking and access additional funds that would match a grant that we had gotten for it was a leap grant of five hundred thousand dollars That we were earmarking towards menacino avenue A menacino avenue specific plan We Did try for some grants, but we were unsuccessful. Um, and so Uh We were starting to run out of time on the the grant that we did receive We'll have to reassign that. Um, we have ideas for that in terms of a housing dashboard um, and also some streamlining for our our and streamlining and transparency of our housing production and plan review process Other things that have happened the last couple years is there's a lot of the catalytic Projects and sites that we were looking to partner with through the specific planning process Didn't wait for us So as you know that Center as a junior college has been successful in constructing housing. Um, that is within that that that area we were looking to Partner with that catalytic site and opportunity the county has moved forward with sites on moving Moving and building a county complex downtown which frees up their site and they are not waiting for us. They are looking at being um planning process and environmental review process on their campus and that's also in that The uh The journey's end obviously um great success story. They didn't wait. Um, thank goodness. Um, they move forward They're going to be developing their first days And so those catalytic areas sort of happened in the last Couple of years and then in addition we have been Embarking in a missing middle initiative Which looks at our medium density residential which will affect the sort of s r j c neighborhood proper A lot of those properties are medium density And so that's already happening In underway So we were looking at where where else in the city really needs our help In terms of specific planning And we are looking to south santa rosa avenue. I know many of you Know that it is uh Very deficient in terms of infrastructure. Um, there's mobility issues. There's environmental justice issues It's one of our qualified census tract areas Um, and I'm and this is the area between one-on-one and pedal in the hill road But within our urban growth boundary, um, there's been a lot of development in recent years from Through the county frankly, um, where the city's in a position only to act on a utility certificate And with with that type of development, um, it's not really entwined in the uh in the environment It's not connected with city policies. Um, it's simply provided Uh utility service and then you have new population a lot of those projects are affordable housing And so we really have some equity issues about you know placing affordable housing developments where we are deficient in infrastructure or even frankly Some long-term Innovative planning and livability principles. So we're looking at that and we do think that we Will be quite successful in grants And we'll also think we'll be successful partnering with the county because it's of mutual interest to really plan that area Um, and and we do have funds that we could leverage Um, if we could get some assistance through the pgne funds Of 600,000 we could leverage that with some existing city funds while we while we activate around some grant opportunities Okay, thank you Alan let's go through arpa okay so Yeah, so just a brief overview of uh the american rescue plan actor arpa. So, um We received 17.1 million in may of 21 We are scheduled to receive another 17.1 million in The same time in 22 We need to have all of the funds Obligated and ideally spent by December 31st 2024 However, they will provide a little bit of leeway until I believe it's 2026 for those projects that are Still in the pipeline or or winding down from spending So next slide, please I would I would also say that we did put all the arpa funds into a special revenue fund We do have to report out on a Spending plan quarterly although treasury has Uh Allowed us to Let's see our october quarterly report. Uh, it's been delayed until january But that's just Where we would report on our spending right now. We haven't spent any arpa funds. So there's nothing for us to report Um arpa has a very specific spending requirements We use this as part of our um to inform our decision going forward. So They were looking at revenue replacement for government services They look at revenue replacement a little bit differently than we would at a local level in other words As as I would look at it In in that there's you know x amount of dollars that we lost in t or t revenue or recreation revenue And calculated on a one-to-one basis What uh treasury does is look at all general government services So it's a number of of different funds that make that up although They do not include The water utilities, but basically all other funds within our city Entity Would be uh looked at in terms of the revenue calculation So what it ends up doing is is it really waters down that amount that we could Use as Revenue replacement and the benefit to the revenue replacement part is that it could be used for A number of of different Projects It's just whatever generals government services are so it is one of those few things that allows you beyond the the restrictions Otherwise they put in arpa so The other thing with with arpa is it's it's any COVID-19 expenditures or negative economic impacts Which could be small business assistants Addressing industries that were hit particularly hard by the pandemic It looks at economic recovery It does allow for premium pay for the central workers However, it does have A certain definition of what those the central workers are Which is is a little bit different than how we look at the central workers Again at the local level And it does allow for capital improvement projects Investing in water sewer or broadband infrastructure And what you can't use it for You cannot deposit the funds into a pension system In fact, if I remember correctly, they don't want it into any type of of fund balance support, so You cannot use the dollars to go in and basically boost your fund balance And also it It provided federal recognition that the negative Impacts are falling most severely on communities and populations disadvantaged before that pandemic began Next slide So what we have here is a spending plan. I'll kind of go over how we looked at it. It's it's again We've already received one tranche of of dollars. We're going to get another tranche in may Um, and we have a specific period of time to to spend it so what we What I tried to do or what the team tried to do is develop a budget that's kind of fits within those tranche amounts for year one and year two that said If projects are delayed for whatever reason or or They last Longer if the funding remains there we can move some of those dollars out into the out years So that's We also looked at projects that You know Could be scalable to where if we had we had a lot going on in the first year if we could scale some of that and move it into the Year two or in the out years we would we would be able to do that so So as we're going through this While we tried to set it up in a year one in a year two and then remaining Well, we were really trying to hit was the Was the total cost amount and staying within our The total amount of ARPA that we'll receive which is 34,207,436 dollars So which as a proposed plan here We did fall within that you'll note that some of these Projects or programs have an asterisk by their name And what that means is that we need to combine those to a qualified census rack and so to be clear on this You know ARPA Can be used In the community and to help vulnerable populations in the community What the qualified census track? Requirement does is that basically if you are spending dollars With it, you know in generally within the guard the ARPA guidelines but spending it within a qualified census track then The treasury assumes That you've checked all of those boxes that it does that it is impacting vulnerable community And and you're providing that level of assistance. So what it does from an administrative standpoint is it just makes it a lot Easier to Be able to do the reporting on it and and basically to get the approval on it They they they look at that a little less than they would If it was somewhere outside of a qualified census track, then we would Still You know could go for the funding there, but we would have to go through a much more Lengthy and scrutinized justification process for it. So If there are areas that were qualified census tracks, we tried to stick within that Well, we tried to stick within those Uh next slide please so to I think john's question earlier and I I don't know that I can Inticipate exactly what it was but we did look at at some programs that are currently funded by the general fund and and even on an ongoing basis and if they fit within the Categories allowed by ARPA if they were ARPA eligible then We could use the ARPA dollars in there to Provide flexibility on the general fund side So homeless assistance is one of those looking at basically we We fund with general funds around Uh four million dollars a year Uh, so looking at at that spread out over Uh a three-year program. We couldn't quite fit it in Uh a full homeless services budget For the third year it was a portion of that But that's nine point eight million dollars that we could fund Through ARPA that we would not have to fund through the general fund That There was a capital project that We also realized this was actually initially on our PG&E Side we weren't sure if it would Be eligible under this because capital projects Sometimes aren't unless they are the specific capital improvement projects there, but we Based on our review with cavity we it does meet the The eligibility for that and that allowed us to Actually, what it allowed us to do was to put money toward rosalind fruit park That's part of where we were able to take Something that That could be funded via ARPA We posed out there and And then we're able to use The rosalind fruit park and we also bumped up the translation services And I believe the community empowerment plan Via The the money that we moved out of PG&E over in ARPA that allowed a specific rosalind fruit park Now to go up in this up to augment some other budgets Safe parking program With the wraparound what this would allow is two years the believe of of the Of that program along with the wraparound services I think this would just go in and Go right along with the contract There so I think you're looking at a rather immediate Use of the funds for them The child care program that we would do is is be able to fund phase Two of that program. We already have funded it through Actually through cares act dollars. So this is one of those examples of where we were funding to came in That we weren't able to Apply toward The emergency the initial response of the pandemic It was funded through the cares act and then that freed up Funding that could be used for the for the child care program So this will continue down And I believe that is for three years Of funding that would go through Um The in-response program this would allow uh us to take uh, I think it's right now proposed at a or Well, we'll get ready to go at a 10 hour a day seven days a week this would be able to Uh, put it up immediately to 24 seven operation Instead of what was initially proposed was a slow ramp up And and adding the dollars to it. So What this does is gets 24 seven operation sooner rather than than over time So that's that's where that is After school programs, these are ones that we are Uh, we we would expand out programs one Expanding the days going from four days to five days And then it would also Add two sites, uh, and we would keep those within the qualified census tracts, which generally, um, uh, these are our these programs are not far Affordable housing Areas that's how this is proposed so Those tend to be in those areas anyway or serving a A group that's eligible under argument And then we would also be able to expand our recreation sensation program So expand the number of sites for that And we would be looking at summer of 2022 And what funding is left over would Also fund summer 23 In the secure family funds, so this is augmenting funds that would already go into that we Move toward the secure family fund. This would actually provide a youth immigration legal services There so that would be again. I think it's just a Either a contract amendment or it would just be a simple Transfer of the money over so it would be a rather immediate use of the funds that would be able to provide those immigration legal services for youths Next slide, please So universal basic income is Is an idea that I believe that the county is working on Uh, we would partner with the county for them Um, uh, we would have to work out with the county exactly how What our criteria is versus theirs. I think we would make it santa rosa specific But that's where we would go and we would align with their programs. So an estimated start date of january from 2022 The uh, uh, the baby bonds would be another thing where we would look at We would we would actually have to develop This there are examples that are out there keelsberg is doing something Like this and I think that there is There's other Organizations that they can do this we would want to partner with them and be able to provide a An amount of money that hopefully they would manage the administration of it Setting improvements these would be grants for small business improvements because Of the short term nature of this funding doing a Revolving loan or any other type of loan program would not work for this We essentially need to get the money off our books. So the best way to do that would be to set up a a Screening criteria and And just do a grant program And then finally we have what we're in this area that we're calling community investments We're looking at providing fiber backbone projects On the west side focusing on the qualified census tracts. We think that that would be That fits under the capital Part for broadband within ARPA. However Our intent was to count to partner with the county right now That's not clear. So actually how we would move forward with this is is not Fully known at this point Um As as opposed to the other programs where it's a little less conceptual We actually kind of know how we would move forward with it. This one is is It was not as clear Then finally we have some administration and organizational support. So Two things fall on that one I hit the small dollar amount first Um Because quite frankly, it's the only one I have skin in the game hunt is the ARPA administration. Um So we we did a short-term contract with TigerD to help with this. We would extend that out and bring that to council If we had direction to use this I'll I'll be perfectly frank. We need help not only with our ongoing reporting Um, but any other if if some of these programs End up not working out for whatever reason and we need to reprogram I need the expertise to be able to come in and guide us in the right direction so that we Are our remain as audit confident as we can be So this would It's not to exceed amount. I don't think that we will get to that To that level of funding Especially if we get into a routine on the On the reporting But this will allow us to help in that in that regard And then the COVID-19 testing so what we're looking at with this is right now FEMA has 100% public assistance reimbursement for employee testing Relative to this so that would fall within what we're doing by council policy providing testing for our miscellaneous employees We can the idea would be to Kind of earmark the the ARPA funds for this but Look at right now utilizing FEMA PA through the end of the calendar year at the end of the calendar year From what we're told and this could change but right now we're told that the The cost share for the city That or the reimbursement amount will go from 100 percent down to 75 So when it goes down to 75 Then we would start using the ARPA money to Cover the city's cost share that 25 percent of the cost share And then if the FEMA program ends And we are still under a testing environment Then we would use ARPA completely For the remainder of that so So the idea is use FEMA PA First go through that reimbursement program and then as There starts to become a a city Cost liability we would use ARPA to cover them So that's the end of the ARPA programs And the next slides will go into the programs that that are not on the spin And so I can handle this two ways we can either go over the ARPA programs Like we did with the PG&E or I can run through these slides I don't have you know I would I think what I would do on here is go very high level There's a couple of them where questions have come up in the past that I can address now Um, uh Just but it's whatever your choice. Let's keep going All right so, uh, the the following few slides are the ones that are That did not make it for whatever reason in ARPA. They were either kind of questionable of the how we would If they would meet the criteria Uh, um upon, you know, second review And then or they just scored very poorly in and were below the line So these three items were were at ARPA. They didn't tick enough of the boxes Uh, when we get into the PG&E settlement fund one of the things that we looked at right off the bat Even though as you can see the first one here Um, a new fire station scores extremely high Uh through our ranking material or criteria But we didn't have $50 million. We had $7 million. So Right off the bat. That's that's something that that we that we figured that we could fund more programs Uh of lesser dollar numbers that will provide either Uh more efficiency or to hit a lot more different areas as opposed to sinking everything into one very large dollar Project and so that's the same thing with a lot of these as we get down to it In some of these we did not They were more conceptual than uh than anything else Um, I will mention that the roof replacement this came up a couple of times and I think that um Assistant city manager not reached out to The council about this, but I'll I'll just say it right away. We we did identify dollars and we are doing a Uh design work without that. We don't actually know Uh, what the what the true roof replacement costs would be Uh, given that we need to understand what the materials that would be used, but I believe that the roof has about 12 year life on it remaining so there is some time Uh to program a roof replacement in a letter day Next slide, please On this we vegetation management. This is um what this amount is is actually the um city match for a number of grants that are in process right now um, I think the way that we would address this Is right now we have five five years At about a million dollars a year of vegetation management Dollars that we've already allocated from PG&E settlement funds So if we are successful in these grants We could take that fifth year and turn that into The additional I think it's five million dollars of additional grants that would go it would go forward Uh, so that is the way that I think I would leverage that last year to be able to get you the five million And still keep a robust vegetation management program going um the uh Next slide, please And then this one here that came up was a hot EOC center We we think that we might be able to get some federal funding on that We've gotten encouraging news Along that that front So we would We would want to right now we have a functioning EOC It's not a hot EOC. It's one though that we can Um, we can activate rather quickly Uh, um as we get over the weekend Uh, what this will do is is we would hold off Wait to find out if if we're able to receive some specific federal funding for this And then go ahead and develop the hot EOC With the use of those funds And with that that is uh, that's the end of the slide The next steps that we have with this would would be for You to provide direction to staff on a way forward Um, uh any proposed changes we would make those Uh, and then bring back to council to Uh to actually adopt spending plans And and appropriate dollars Whether from the ARPA special revenue fund or from pgne The remaining amounts of those And uh, so we have the projects that are funded and ready to be used With that I'm here and the rest of the working group are here to answer any questions you may have Great. Thank you so much Alan so Council let's stick to questions Uh, and then we'll do public comment Come back for comments from council members as well as any changes that you'd like to see from this So let's stick to first. Are there any questions about what's being proposed with the ARPA spending? Or about any of the projects that didn't make it onto the list Councilmember Sawyer Thank you mayor and um, I do have some a few questions and please bear with me. Um Um First I want to again thank the the um team for coming Together with these recommendations that could not have been an easy process There's so many unknowns Alan originally mentioned um that Part of these funds where there were the where we had dedicated funds Prior to this list Which might free up General funds for other important unfunded programs and contractual obligations is important to me So that has already been part of the discussion when Dedicating some of these funds knowing full well, but In some cases, uh, some of these funds have already been Obligated which would the way I believe it was mentioned which would free up General fund for other obligations and other programs That are currently um unfunded. Is that an an accurate assumption? Yes And did was there was there a way to To come to a total a potential total of those funds that are in a sense double used Or did what or did you even try to do that? I don't want to ask I don't want to ask a question that you didn't deal with But if I'm just so if not, I'm fine with that But I just knowing that you that you considered The that there would That there would be a very good chance that some of the funds that are allocated are being handled in a different way so I I believe the only one that really falls within the category that you're talking about is The homeless services budget That's that's an established ongoing Thing we routinely Transfer money from the general fund to The homeless services fund In in total of about $4 million is there about So The other ones there were questions about that we believe that what what we're doing with this though would be Augmenting Some existing dollars with ARPA dollars. So like in response, I think I I'm Not sure exactly when the When the council item comes up or if it's already come up. So I apologize for that But I believe what we're doing there is augmenting Existing a smaller program that would have been out of the general fund and adding ARPA funds to that So it's not a real replacement on that Because in order to fit in within the funding tranches We you know, we We only had so much for that year Uh, but those are things that we looked at and we could obviously after this is just a study session You're not adopting anything now. So we could go back and Triple check and make sure that that we're not missing anything And uh, if so, yeah, absolutely we could do that but it was part of our discussion and um Yeah, okay. So now I have a couple more questions and some observations. So You just mentioned the in response Providence st. Joseph health has donated has dedicated 1.1 million to that program. Was that considered when you were identifying? The the amount necessary the 3.9 million in in response the 1.1 that's been dedicated and not only not only from From providence st. Joseph, but other hospitals are considering and and and the potential for community Contribution so if those were to come in as Um as obligated from these various organizations and the community That would just free up some of those dollars that you were talking about. Am I am I accurate in that? Yes, and we would have the ability to reprogram those in the other areas right now What we knew was what the what the cost was based on a budget provided from the police department Uh, I think it's the most updated estimated that we had so that's what we worked with and You know, so yeah, that's that's where we were But there's always the ability to reprogram if other funding sources come in right and I think that's all good I mean I this it's good news to me because we could certainly use the funding um in the secure family fund The $100,000 on how was how was that? How was it determined that was a priority, especially when it's specifically Intended for youth How was there how did that how did that amount come up that was Determined necessary for youth as opposed to other Other potential recipients Um other than youth in that program Because it's dedicated to youth It's an appears that reasonably dedicated to youth as opposed to Um adults that might have the need for those kinds of legal services So I'm just curious were that how did that $100,000 get identified for youth immigration legal services I think when we look at more than I I know the descriptor is is is more centric on youth Immigration services When we had the discussion it was less about youth and it was more about the immigration services And it was a way for us to be able to You know, we knew that there was a need. There was some dollars that went to it through the budget process. This would allow Uh specifically for that immigration uh attorney to be to To be funded So that's we we didn't really focus on the youth part. We focus more on the immigration long Thank you. And is legal aid the recipient of these funds? it is uh I I believe so I may be wrong on that and if I am I'll follow back up with you Okay, thank you. You already mentioned the homeless assistance. So I I think you you mentioned that there could be some funds kind of available um Given what we've already dedicated out of the general fund it could it could free up some of those funds with the homeless assistance Correct It would provide you flexibility of general fund programming. Yes, excellent. Thank you. Um, and in the safe parking program Could correct me if I'm wrong. I thought we had dedicated two million Already from the general fund. So is that one of those that may free up some of those funds? um Given that there's two million dedicated for safe parking Yeah, I think what what this does is that um It expands that program out But yes, I would need to double check with that to see that if If there were already existing obligations that that that are would provide additional flexibility within the general fund Thank you Good news There was there's another comment. I think claire has a better answer than mine. Sure Not better supplemental Yeah, just for um specific Reference, so we do have some budget that has already been allocated. Um, and that was in our fiscal The current fiscal budget that we're in and it was uh, 315,000 as you recall So we do need additional funds to make the program work Especially if we want to do 24 7 and we are looking at not just doing a pilot program and then and then not having anything left over We're we're looking at doing a one-year pilot program and then Possibly looking at extending it for another year or to look at our options at that point um, so we we would be asking for the two million on top of the 315 And uh, like some of these others we're we're we're reaching out to the county and we're looking for other funding sources To offset I appreciate that because it is a really important program. I think Um on slide 17. I'm just going to flip. Um, the universal basic income No, it was not asterisk, but I I believe that that is Part of the county program. Um, so can I assume that um, none of the 960 Let's see. Let me I'm not heard of the 60 000 would be used for developing the program that the county already has one in in place Hey Sorry Um, so yeah, so this would um, we've been meeting with um Oscar and um the folks over in at the county So that we can align our programs together They would be running on two-year track. We would um align it with there so that we can Work off of the existing programs and um and You know sort of further the funds through there. It would be returned a source There may be an administrative fee. Just a small administrative fee to it. Um, but um in reading the proposal that That was the human services department put forward in their ARPA process The they have accommodated the salaries and benefits for limited or uh part-time staff within their programs And we think this would um, supplement it. We may need to go back and work on agreement an agreement with them But they are very eager to To streamline the process Through what they've developed Excellent and ready so can you um, so in have you have you seen the the program that the county is currently Working under or recommending Yes, I've seen the proposals that they put together through their ARPA process So so I can assume that they take into consideration people that may Move out of the area and no longer be um able to to collect Some of the the universal basic income that we're that we were offering the questions Yeah, yeah questions I mean details like that are covered well within the Within the program that the county's working on Um, they were not explicitly outlined in the outline that was submitted to the board of supervisors But those are considerations that we have discussed and will uh, will drill down on Should we move forward with it? How scanning because any if someone were to fall out of the program, of course that just Makes accessible dollars to people that are that could still be in the program It's just it was one of those questions that I that I it was one of those Considerations inside inside of the program that I was wondering about I'm going to jump to baby bonds um The one million dollars and and I have some of the same questions about the development of the program Um, is the development of the program? Will that come out of the one million that would that would be a subject for to or available To the baby bonds or is that uh in addition to the one million? Hi, good afternoon. The recommendation is the First five has a model created where they invest in Four or two to four year olds college saving programs dollars and that is up and running and we could partner with them And easily go if we want it to change our model Healdsburg Corazon Healdsburg for example has A model if we wanted a different model that would take more time in terms of ensuring That the benefits that our families get are not do not take them over a threshold where it becomes A penalty or actually a cruise in a way that is unintended So depending on the path we choose and the recommendation at this time is likely to be The first five model Knowing that working with health care right now is actually very burdensome on the health care system because they're so concentrated With covet that the likely for this short duration The likely best investment at this time would be the partnership with first five that model Thank you very much. I appreciate that and i'm curious With the baby bonds and what age would the bonds first because what age would the child be before the bonds would be Accessible to them So again the model that first five has is a college savings program It's the 529 and so that is at the end of high school that we would take students or Children from the age of two to four Qualifying them working with a system that highlights and centers on san erosa And then the 529 would follow them Outstanding great investment the perfect example of upstream investment. I do have a yeah, and I do have a question about the investing um A million dollars invested and well invested For that many years could could um provide a fair Fairly nice return So how is there a plan on how to invest these funds at this point or is that still up to negotiation? The 529 is through Other agencies that do the investing so I believe that it's through theirs. We can come back with the Final answer on that particularly if we develop something of our own But right now it would be through existing entities Okay, I would be curious about that because there are a number of investment strategies that could Parlay that one million dollars and and and potentially Give even provide even more of this program To more individuals that that could well use it. So I'm I'm curious about that investment strategy Thank you very much. Um, I'm also curious about the broadband and we have you know Needs all over the city for the broadband and this 8.6 million And we did not fund I think it was 10 I had to go back and and and look through the slides on what the programs that were not That were not funded How how was it determined that this would be? Mainly on the west side Because the east side was 10 million. This is eight 8.6. So rounding up to nine Is what's the what is the the the strategy In using this all on one part of the city as opposed to identifying Other areas in the city that could well use this particular technology So the focus of arpa is to To do those types of projects in in areas that are Uh, the underserved communities the qc Yes, so that's that's why from that's why they're split With the pgne one being more on the east side because they wouldn't It wouldn't uh, uh be eligible under arpa and the west side one being Uh, um the arpa ones they both started out as 10 million dollar projects We scaled the other one back as we were Uh, as we were trying to fit within a uh costing budget. So again, not having a You know having it be kind of more conceptual it was a little bit more scalable Uh, and not something that we knew that we had to fund we kind of figured that there was probably Uh more of a back end cost and an upfront cost And then and in granted, you know that amount of money probably Doesn't get a lot From just us it was really hoping to be a more regional effort with the county And i'm not really sure where we are with that. I just uh, um, I I understand that That the county's had Possibly a setback there. I think they did an rfp Uh and and um I I understand that didn't go well, but uh or at least maybe it's it's still ongoing Um, uh, so that's that's where we are that that's that's why they're different amounts. They started out at the same amount Uh, we scaled back the other one to kind of fit within our our funding abilities. We um One targeting the west side would be more arpa eligible the other one on the east side Would not so therefore it would fall under the pge side Excellent. Thanks ellen. I appreciate that. Well, I those that's the end of my questions and I I um, I just have to just mention that I that One of the things that that really does concern me are some of our contractual obligations that we um, that will be coming to roost um in the next Fiscal year and this fiscal year that are not yet in our budget. So I appreciate the The the the group identifying some of the funds that that could be used even though they're one-time funds And I understand that are at least maybe two-year funds Um, we have we have a number of obligations that are not yet accounted for and that does give me no small amount of pause So thank you for for that consideration. Thank you for considering those unfunded Obligations and those contractual obligations that are coming coming home to roost soon. So, um, I I I appreciate all this information and um, I I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you for the clarifications and my To follow up on on um providence health And their contribution to in response. It was I think it was around 400,000 Um, and then we're also trying to get some more money in I think uh, we're we're looking at settering Kaiser But that amount would be about Again around 400,000. So I think I think we're looking Uh, if possible The the amount that could come in from the from the hospital areas would be Around the 800 to $900,000 range So then my 1.1 was erroneous and I I apologize for that But I did I did it was my understanding that it was 1.1 million that they were obligating but but that's you know I'm I wouldn't I'm not going to follow my sword on that information. So I appreciate the clarification. Thanks, Alan councilmember tibbetz Thanks mayor, uh, just a couple of quick questions I I did hear the response from sequoia on the baby bonds and and I do like the baby bonds I like that we have first five to lean on to run programs. So there's probably going to be limited Program costs associated with that. I I'm sorry, racy. I know that john asked you and our mystics was crunching vaccination rate numbers But racy, can you tell me again? Who is going to administer ubi? Human services department would um read that effort and we tie in and um their proposal suggest that they would be um Contracting out to community organizations and it would be return to source. We have discussed that as well Okay, so we don't know what the administration costs would be associated with that We don't um, we haven't uh discussed that part in detail though in their um in the human services department's application to the board of supervisors for their arpa funds. Um, they do have salaries and benefits um embedded into the cost that they're asking for and they're asking That the board of supervisors for nearly nine million dollars at about $275,000 of that are uh allocated are being requested for salaries and benefits and they uh list that as extra help or time limited only And so do you know anything? Oh, sorry I'm sorry I was going to say um, you know, whether we can just write on that because it's allocated We would just be adding to that program is um is what my hope is but that is what we would be discussing because there would The assumption is there's some administrative cost That would certainly make me feel better about it. I have some reservations about ubi given the one time funding nature of it You know, I feel a little bit reluctant to dive in fully without knowing there's an ongoing funding source for a program that's intended to be sustaining um And do we know anything about if we do jump in with the county? Is it too soon to ask about what their programmatic criteria is going to be? Income individuals, etc. Who would be supported by the program? Sure, so um, what they're stating is that um It would go to very low income families and transitional age youth with risk factors uh, and um, you know, what we have discussed is that the program would leverage the funding systems and supports um, such as Sonoma works programs, the uh, foster care extended foster care, uh, and community-based organizations that are already sort of embedded with with the Constituents that we would be looking to serve and so there is that piece of it. Um, if that answers your question It does um, well before our final, you know, doing final approval of ubi program Well, we have the chance to basically decide whether we want to jump in and the county's program or not and I bring that up because Um, I like the idea of helping extremely low-income families. God knows they need to support Uh, even if it is one-time money that you know from my line of work We see that that helps extremely low-income families a lot However, I understand the county's logic about supporting transitional age youth, you know, that is one area where homelessness has expanded Um, so we're kind of chasing the data on now and however, I would want to know more about, um, you know Fully understanding the needs of transitional age youth because our organization that I work for Has just started doing some supportive transitional age youth and through Uh, I'm forgetting the acronym from the state, but they are eligible for between 2,600 and 3,500 a month in state funds For 18 to 25, I believe or 24. And so what that tells me is actually that Uh For them one-time funding is probably not going to make a big difference What we're seeing is that their need is actually housing and the ability to apply that money to extremely low-income housing supports So that would be something I would want to like discuss and know further But you're saying we would have the chance to do that Yeah, so, um, the way the county is um saying that they're going to set up the program is it would be three years with two years of funding at this point um And it would be the first six months. I would be to set up the program. Um, this, you know the the startup Pieces of it and then the last six months would be to um publish the uh process and outcomes evaluation and what we are seeing on some of these things It is a layering effect. Um, so in the models that we're looking at in other areas And of course I don't have all the details off the top of my head But in the models we're looking at other areas. Um, it is uh Layering this for two years giving some breathing room addressing some of the other foundational things Which we are trying to address through other programs both with arpa and outside of arpa So this would at least have um the benefit of the other existing programs Okay, thank you. Um, my I guess my other question is is on the panel, you know, I was I was disappointed to see that um down payment assistance didn't make it into the mix because again when I think when we talk about Helping families young families like truly build wealth in this community in a community now where we saw Property values go up. I think 18 percent last year in santa rosa Um down payments now, you know on a median income home. I think in the county is now 850 000 for a home here Uh, you know, you can find homes in the 500 to 600 000 dollar range But you're looking at a down payment of 120 000 and that's on top of how did you save to get there? um, and then also, you know, we I think if I recall correctly from the last meeting there was a lot of council support for it I heard a few people say we'd like to see it one person mentioned that Um, you know, we I like it because it's sustainable. It's ongoing It's money that we recover and then readminister. So, you know in perpetuity. We're helping people You know put roots down in this community Um, and is it because I guess could you talk about why it didn't score so high and then was that just because was there I'm wondering if there was a misinterpretation of the council talking about sustainable I saw on the criteria in the staff report that Sustainable was environmental kind of focused on environmental sustainability Was economic given consideration there program economics Okay Yeah, Claire, are you going to take this that that was not something that came through condom development? Yep, I'm happy to so We looked at this through the housing and community services department Um, and as you would call, you know, three million was sort of the minimum threshold to make a program even worthwhile to Put effort in The output would be that we'd be able to support 30 to 50 recipients. Um, if there were grants, it would be a one time Um opportunity If it's a loan program as you were Suggesting there in your last remarks That would require a program management just like our other loan programs. We We uh, don't have the staff to support that we actually don't have an existing down payment assistance program On that we could leverage so we would need to address the staffing issue for long term to manage those loans And I I don't have the scoring sheet up to I can't speak to exactly how it fell out in ranking. But sustainability was Less environmental, I would say is is also fiscal fiscal sustainability And we were looking heavily at one time monies that could be expended in this time period Can I ask when we got rid of the housing authorities down payment assistance program because in 2016 I spoke with then director David Gwine and he stated for counsel that We did have a program with infrastructure in place for silent second lending at low interest rates So i'm just curious when we got rid of that program I don't have what he did say What he did say was it was dormant that it was unfunded, but he said we do have it Uh Yeah, so I I don't have a specific answer for you Megan bassinger may be able to be pulled up on on standby here to get a specific answer. She's the interim director for housing and community services Councilmember tidbits, we may need to circle back with you on that one and and so claire and maybe Megan has joined us if he was like Thank you Good afternoon. I'm Megan bassinger interim director of housing and community services And while we don't have a specific down payment assistance program that's available to individual home buyers We do assist with the down payments associated with specific developments So for instance, the lantana homes project Which was just completed in the last few months by bourbon housing Received funding so that we could provide down payments for those households When those units sell we do roll the funds into loans for the new home buyers But it's not an open solicitation to anyone who's looking to purchase a home in the community So do we give that to those individual home buyers like at lantana for example in the form of silent seconds? Correct So it's a loan to the home buyer, but generally they stay with the property and would roll onto subsequent buyers All right. Okay. Well that I appreciate that Megan that kind of syncs up with what david told me personally And I remember he told the council about it too It was during the measure and conversation and we're making decisions then about whether we should fund That program on an individual home buyer basis and then you know The thinking was at the time that that silent second mortgage when the person sold it the home They would either go It would basically get the loan we get called once the conventional mortgage was over Or when they sold it at the point of sale it would repay the city with a crude interest And it'd be an interest only loan essentially So the city would actually make money you'd have some money to offset administrative expenses associated with it And I remember from that day when dav gave that presentation to council It had always been something that I'd really want to see happen because you know, I tell the story that I was lucky. I had a parent who provided me with a down payment somebody who works for me His parents just gave him a down payment and I think about what a privilege, you know What about those kids that don't have that in this community? Um, I'll bring that up a little bit later I'd love it if we could find funding for that program that is sufficient to make a program worthwhile But also um to you know, make sure that if there are expenses associated with it that they get covered And I have some ideas about where funding will come from but I'll pull I'll kind of give that in my comments later My uh, last question is is allen. I'm sorry to put you on the spot. But did you find how much is in the south? Southwest Santa Rosa parks development fee fund So it's all hands on deck trying to find that amount for you. I don't know that I'm gonna have it by by this meeting I absolutely follow up with the full council As soon as I get it Apologize no worries, you know, whenever you have it if it's today, that's terrific You know during this meeting if it's you know, a follow-up email to me That's fine where I'm going with it is I don't want to engage in district politics I certainly do not want to stop the progress on that park that councilmember alvarez has made But to me if there is money in that account that is the defined use of that account and that money For the rosalyn creek park should come from that account. That's that was the argument I was going to make Um, but again councilmember alvarez, you have my support for that park Um, I just want to make sure that you know, we're using the money that these developers are paying into for the appropriate use My I think that's my last question for now Yes, it is. Thank you staff And I think mr. Net wanted to respond on something. Yeah councilmember tibets. I did ask deputy director santos in the park Park planning division to pull that information up the southwest Zone does have 2.4 million dollars associated with it on just for an example rosalyn creek community park if we were to build out that Entire master plan would be probably over 15 million dollars And so each of the zones are underfunded as you see with many of the programs that we've talked about today And I do have information on the other three zones if you're interested Most of which are uh, for example in northwest we have 5.1 million majority of that is already programmed for projects coming forward in the Southeast we have 1.6 million, um, which will likely be Going toward the Kwanasprings community park And in the northeast we have 2.6 million, which will likely be going toward fremont park None of those dollar amounts fully Fully complete any of the park master plans that were defined described So as you're saying at the the 2.4 million in the park's development fee fund The 2.4 that is there is well shy of the 15 million you need to complete the rosalyn creek park That park was 15 million. I don't recall it being that high. Are you That is the whole master plan region No, I was saying that particular park and the infrastructure needs for that park the way the master plan was defined And that is just one of the parks most of the parks In the southwest area are not fully complete And need additional financing to bring them to fruition So the 1.5 that we would be appropriating today from the pg and e funds, um Where's the the rest of the uh, and i'm not trying to be adversarial here, but genuine question Where's the rest of the 11 million dollars coming from? Well, that's part of why most of our community parks remain Incomplete because we have not been able to acquire all of the funds to be able to do the work Southwest community park is looking to have a large finley style recreation facility in pool that's in the southwest area community plan and the general plan We also are underfunded to complete work up at youth community park As a master planned park So just in general our community parks are fairly underfunded In order to bring them to full fruition And it's our intent to be able to build Specific products so that those parks become functional For the community and uh, don't lay follow Okay, I appreciate that jason. I want to bring something up for the council to think about The one of the other proposals I made when this came out a few months ago was To look at doing a essentially california tiger salamander mitigation banking And I I have subsequently found that the true cost of that program is $300,000 The county of sonoma recently got a federal grant to begin a comprehensive habitat plan for the california tiger salamander and Director tennis wick over there would like to partner with us To include santa rosa plane as part of that mitigation plan We have a lot of land available at the laguna treatment plant that Is land that we own that we can do mitigation banking against and so with what that means is that All of those parcels in southeast and southwest santa rosa that are ripe for development It's you know, all the fallow brownfield areas that you know is infill housing has infill housing potential But it and is on our major transit corridors, but is not Really, you know bankable for a developer because For them to have to pay mitigation credits They're paying 150 to 200 thousand dollars an acre on top of the develop acquisition and development costs to build there Well, if we considered including joining the county on their plan and appropriating $300,000 out of arpa funds to do that We would potentially it'd be a long term probably two to three years down the road But we would open up southeast southwest santa rosa for our housing needs significantly Which then could further get those park development fees increased to support The southeast and southwest parks needs that eddie and natalie and john have so i want to i'll bring it up later To see if there's interest amongst the council, but to me that seems like a $300,000 investment that we should make I spare Okay, um, so I wanted to oh Megan can can Megan come back And she appears. I love it. Okay, uh lantana homes So how many homes are in that? That is a 48 unit development of single family homes and uh How long did it take to build that community? That community was initiated by the housing authority in 2007 It encountered every hurdle that a project could due to the recession lack of funding at the state Um, and we just finished it this past summer That's quite a long time Yes so Okay, so that was my question for that because we're only asking questions and then uh homeless assistance uh What are some of those dollars? earmarked for exactly The 9.8 million dollars Right, so it is I don't have the actual budget allocation in front of me, but it is um It's it's our work. I believe it's our work with catholic charity. So it's it's it's how we fund Our various outreach programs and and others That that are there. I I I saw claire pop up. She might have A little bit more of the line item parts to that but I was just going off of what we typically spent Well, I don't have line items, but I but I can say Um Is that it is status quo with our homeless services program budget. So we have sam jones hall and we partner with providers to um support the The physical facility, but also the operations associated with it Outreach efforts our family support center uh, and and I'm probably missing some items as well, but our the entirety of our homeless services budget is supported by that That line that uh 9.8 million dollars and that's just status quo and again, we saw this as an opportunity It's quite eligible. Um because of the population that serves for arpa So it's an opportunity to apply for arpa to fund something that otherwise would just be from our general fund and provides the city some flexibility Okay, and out of curiosity how how large is our homeless service budget? in totality Um, that's the entirety of our homeless services budget 9 9.8 million Yes for the entire year That's my understanding No, that's Our general fund uh budget for homeless services, right? So There's various funding sources that go into it. That specifically is just the general fund part and that 9.8 is over uh Two and a half three year period so The general fund contributes about four million dollars a year to homeless services fund for homeless services What we're talking about is just that portion Okay, um and claire really quickly. Can you Or someone uh, can someone tell me what the the master lease program was Anyone familiar with that? I'm uh, not sure Your question the master lease program a master lease program Where people were put into apartments or houses or Um, are you referring to some of our coveted response? Um efforts where we Took care of folks that had were coveted positive or needed to be isolated. We worked with the county and ourselves with with And that's not part of this general operations budget, but we did make responsive efforts to to in coveted response And they were placed in in houses So for well, um master lease houses. I I'm sorry. I'm not our apartments or something We had a lease master lease agreement with the sandman in But nagan's just jumped on every she has more a better answer If I could try and interject, um oftentimes nonprofit organizations will master lease Either residences or apartments and use those to house individuals they're serving Um catholic charities had and they may still have a program that was funded through the continuum of care Where they would hold the lease to units and they would use those to house individuals that they were serving Okay, but that was not our program No, it was it was operated through the continuum of care But the community does benefit from programs like that Okay Okay That concludes my questions. Thank you Great any other questions I think this is a question for you jason for the fiber backbone If you were to describe it to the community and say for 8.6 million dollars, you're going to get this What exactly are they going to get for an 8.6 million dollar investment? Thank you, mayor. Uh, that was part of the conversation we were going to have with the county is Coordinated effort. They did go out with an rfp. They received no responses to the rfp To help develop what would be a municipal fiber municipal broadband network What we've looked at is the concept of installing mid Mid-mile fiber installations, which is predominantly on the arterials It would set up for fiber to home or fiber to sell sites In our particular case, we would be able to Connect public infrastructure, whether it's public buildings and facilities traffic signals On the west side of town predominantly like said on those arterials and collectors in an effort to Set the stage for what would be a broader more To the home connection through the county's municipal broadband system At this point as alan mentioned, we just don't have a complete definition on it But that's where the cost came from was looking at what the installation would be per mile Of fiber along our major arterials and collectors And how does the Recent state and federal legislation around fiber play into this conversation My understanding is that there's some pretty substantial buckets of money that we can pull from Absolutely, there's certainly intent on having a large commitment Both at the state and federal levels when it comes to the installation of broadband Um, what we saw during the course of those last 18 months are some fairly significant gaps in our ability to be able to provide services to community members who are in most need of having access to Broadband and the push to try to help install those facilities as it is gaining ground Um, that's part of why arpa incorporated that into the language That stated broadband would be an important and critical asset to incorporate Um In our particular case given the type of criteria that we scored all of the projects against it scored fairly well in particular In the in the qualified zones in the southwest and the and the west Uh, and that gave us the opportunity to include this as one of the line items But that was the nature as it was really a mid-mile Program not a to the house program. So even with this 8.6 million, it'll get us a step closer But it still is not going to be infrastructure that is going to be readily available for the public That's correct at this point in time. There are other models. Um, if we were to go out on it alone We could contract directly with the service provider and Assist in the construction to the house Um, it was our intent as I mentioned to try to coordinate with the county We don't know what type of service model that they're going to try to implement But it makes sense for us to try to coordinate as closely as possible And so it was we were hoping we were hoping they would have a provider selected at this point or a contra consultant selected So that we would have a much better answer for you at this point in time When you say to the home Do you mean single family homes? Multi-family homes or doesn't matter no distinction. I think the ideal concept is any end user Okay, any other questions council? Yeah, council member Fleming Does this fiber backbone take into consideration the potential for under grounding other utilities as we go along Which would seem to me to be well in line, especially with our fire prevention Efforts on the east side, but all throughout the the city would we go along and put things in the ground as we If we were to lay the fiber Yeah, unfortunately the dollar Per lineal foot cost that we used did not incorporate a A full under grounding of utilities along those major corridors Those are extremely expensive to go through those exercises And it would dramatically exceed the cost that we have available to us And so no that wasn't included in the proposal for this particular This particular project All right, let's go ahead and go to public comment on this item I'll start with the hands-on zoom and then I'll come back to the folks who are here in the chamber We're going to start with michelle Am I live? Yes, you are Great. I appreciate that mayor. Uh, thank you council members. Um for making the opportunity to talk about these important investments and For your detailed questions and attention in this long conversation. Um, I am here today to advocate for The roseland boys and girls club and a city investment in that capital project. Um, I really appreciate, um council member tidbits and Council member sorrier some of your comments around the opportunity to really do something transformational with these funds Obviously we can do some business as usual items, but I think You're right The public is looking for us to make very significant investments to transform our community And just a few key points on our project. I've obviously sent you all materials and been in touch And really want to appreciate Mayor rogers and council member alvarez for the long conversations about this project over the last several weeks One the investment that we're asking for from you is not operational. It is a generational investment in young people and in child care Which is clearly one of your priorities. We're so grateful that you're giving that key attention And this isn't going to provide Young people one summer or two summers of programming. This is going to provide Programs for families for an entire childhood Families will be able to go back to work for 10 12 15 years because they know they will have Free high quality child care available to them in their neighborhood Secondly This project scores highly in all of the areas Outlined in a scorecard for these funds It will influence health and well-being. It will improve neighborhood access It absolutely is an upstream investment To give kids the opportunity to learn and grow to allow parents to get back into the workforce And it very clearly expands child care On top of all of that it is in a qualified census track. So as we look at your report card It hits all the buckets that are really important There are 2,800 young people in roseland Right now only 900 of them have an opportunity to participate in before school after school and summer camp programs And they need us So I ask that you have many worthy Projects on your list, but I ask that you look back and advocate today for staff to Look into this project and see how it fits into the use of your one-time funds And I really appreciate your leadership on this and your consideration. Thank you Thank you, michelle. We'll go to ananda Good afternoon, mayor rogers and council members ananda suite with the santa rosa metro chamber First I want to acknowledge and appreciate your time and a strategic approach to investments in our community on our economic recovery Many of the issues that we talk about frequently business support housing supply fire risk and early child care and education are Significant opportunities in this one-time fund discussion and are all key to a healthy economy and thriving community Looking at business support and economic recovery. It's crucial to support smaller employers And downtown investment specifically is an opportunity to support thriving employers Good jobs environmental sustainability and increased tax revenue specific financial support of an active downtown Is additionally a way to create a place where people want to live work and enjoy And a meaningful way to create a sense of belonging to build community and a place where our children and grandchildren want to stay Housing and opportunities to increase our housing supply are critical to our long-term success And your commitment to invest in the room renewal enterprise districts housing fund meets a critical need And the benefits are magnified by the ability to leverage funds Thank you for acknowledging the need to significantly expand housing supply for our residents and your work to recognize the impact that council policy decisions Have on discouraging or encouraging needed housing development Fire preparedness and mitigation as ongoing efforts are critical The fires we've experienced highlight the need to use our natural resources sustainably and to implement practices that minimize the impact of wildfires In addition to prioritizing recovery from fire damage Significant focus should go to fire prevention measures to protect our community against the continual threat of wildfires And last but certainly not least. Thank you so much for your recognition of early child care and education as critical to Santa Rosa workforce today And as a crucial investment in Santa Rosa's future Beyond being an immediate workforce issue these investments are absolutely broad economic development opportunities and bring a high return on investment You see you see that return from savings and special education remediation Better health outcomes reduce need for social services lower criminal justice costs and increase self-sufficiency and productivity of families for generations to come I can't adequately convey within a few minutes of public comment how meaningful your leadership in this area has been Your focus here sends a clear and important message that child care will be supported by the city of Santa Rosa From changes in the permitting process for child care development to significant and direct investment in sustaining growing the sector To meaningful investment innovative solutions to expand access to quality child care We are so grateful for your leadership in this issue Thank you again for your time and focus on these priority areas That maximize opportunities to create vibrant stable healthy economy and are key to a thriving community for all Thank you so much inanda. That's the last hand that I see. Oh, we've got david Hi, my name is david bowman. I want to applaud the council as well as The mayor on their efforts to think about how to use these one time funds in a strategic manner the The reality is that these types of events are singular and I think Require a lot of due diligence to think through not only the short-term benefits, but the long-term implications And where those funds can be invested in something lasting something that will be paying back The community members who have supported the idea and seen it through for years to come Should rise to the top. I want to echo previous comments about the need for a location in roseland To support the youth of santa rosa the the need is so great um And the need is not only on behalf of that those youth that Are looking for a place to find solace counseling Continuing education, but also to their families who are juggling multiple jobs just to make ends meet Or a desperate need of affordable child care And you are struggling under the weight of increasing cost of living in santa rosa and sonoma country and sonoma county in general So I do implore the council to give further consideration about how Some of the ARPA funds could actually be invested in a true tangible visible and long-term solution That is really a a community hub a place where the youth Of our community can actually learn grow and the families of our community Can seek some help and just making ends meet. It's uh, it's critically important to the future of our community and as previous Speakers have mentioned just the investment our youth the payback of healthy well-adjusted Community members is incalculable. So with that, I respect the council and mayor's time and My employer just give this further consideration and thank you for your great work Thank you so much david I'll come back to the council chambers. We'll start with phil followed by keith I've maxed out the podium My name is phil kerr. I'm the ceo of city ventures And I wanted to love the opportunity to come speak to you in person. Finally. It's nice to be back in the council chambers We have over 700 homes under development in santa rosa We're the largest housing Builder in santa rosa. We're the largest solar all electric housing builder in the state And we're we've been committed to santa rosa for a long time And we've really enjoyed the experience of working with your staff and developing in santa rosa Our commitment is to developing in infill locations developing in ways that can use development to conserve open spaces and Doing that in a way that addresses climate change as well. So every home we build is solar all electric as well It's been a great opportunity. It's been an opportunity that's been made possible by city staff Santa rosa is a really interesting place to build because there's every time you build here There's about nine agencies that you deal with It's one of the most difficult places to develop housing In the probably 80 cities i've ever worked in While simultaneously having one of the most competent staffs i've ever worked with I've had the pleasure of working with specific staff members Jesse Oswald gave osborne claire hartman Andrew tibbetts scott moon in particular in the fire department. You have an amazing set of leaders in your staff and The the opportunity i think that exists Is to put funds towards some of the contract staffing things to make So your leaders and your staff can focus on some of these bigger priorities There's uh, so much to do in terms of permit checking etc I strongly encourage the council to make sure to fund additional planning and additional Contract resources to streamline the processes processes can be really daunting in santa rosa They don't need to be with additional contract staffing um, I'd also like to give a quick nod to councilmember tibbetts and the tiger salamander Concept dimension we focus on infill development. There's a tremendous opportunity for infill development in this city If you can address the tiger salamander process and problem in terms of how to build in those infill locations in a streamlined way that protects open space mitigates but does it in a streamlined way It took us nine years to develop two projects in the southwest Um, and that was going about as fast as you could And so there's opportunities to streamline that work together with developers to do that Be happy to help in any discussions on that. So thanks for your time Thank you phil Keith mayor city council members staff My name is keith christopherson christopherson builders And the purpose my purpose being here today is to uh Is to talk about housing Having gone through the the various exhibits today and I was it was startling to see what your what your unfund unfunded objectives are And it's daunting seriously but Housing is is a designated crisis Not only here in santa rosa, but around the state and for that matter around the country and I was Honestly, I was disappointed to see that I was thankful that That there was roughly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars allocated for a planner and But these guys need more help Like mr. Kerr said you've got a great staff here We've worked in a lot of different places And including santa rosa for the last 40 years And this staff is over the top amazing top to bottom head to toe But they need help they need some support Housing is is is so critical. I was looking at the baby bonds And I don't know how many what the bursts over deaths are in santa rosa I should but I don't on an annual basis But just take those just take those 700 100 babies And in in 20 years those people are going to be looking for housing So you've got you've got 14 what 14 000 Housing units that you're going to be looking for in 20 years so When you start to think about that it's it's a big big number So i'm hoping that my hope would be that That somewhere amongst these spending priorities that you have That you could find a little bit more to send over to Jesse gape and claire And help them get the job done so we can provide housing to our community. Thank you very much Thank you Are there any other comments in the chambers? Mr. DeWitt. Hello, my name is duane de witt I'm from roseland action Which is an environmental justice and social equity group founded 28 years ago in the qualified census tract of the roseland creek neighborhood next to roseland and shepherd It's really important that we look at the possibilities of how to improve these areas Thanks that you're putting money forward for the library and parks Please seek more money for storm water improvement Flooding occurred on mcminne avenue this weekend. It's happened often in the past From what I heard today You could actually use arpa funds For water sewer and I believe storm water improvement And those funds could help with your ideas for The bicycle and pedestrian circulation Which is why the city convinced the county To first buy six acres on the south side of roseland creek a full 10 years ago Nothing's been done since Now though with this funding Things could go forward also Arpa funds could be used for the broadband You probably don't know but over 20 years ago It was discussed during the redevelopment of sabbastopol road to have redundant cabling fiber optic and cable that was copper To enhance the possibility for broadband in the future Now that sonic is operating in the southwest area of santa rosa Would be an excellent time to put this funding forward Especially along sabbastopol road Where the housing could be built In the mixed used infill that's been talked about with the term transit oriented development And this could help with that last mile to the homes The thing about much of this that's been talked about today Is it's all been talked about before and the can has been kicked down the road But now there's some money here and you could make some positive investments And we could have a better community all the way around The idea that somehow the west side would be getting more than others Well, that's because it's deserved This is the area that is the qualified census tracks of the most disadvantaged underserved and overburdened areas of the city The city chose to make rosalinda county island 25 years ago and further ruined rosalind's possibilities for the future Now because this money has come forward through arpa And pg and e with tragedy We could turn it around over there at least along rosalind creek in that disadvantaged neighborhood of rosalind creek Thank you kindly Thank you, mr. Dewitt The last public comment that i see so i'll bring it back to council members Mr. Assistant city manager could you frame for council members what type of feedback you're looking for in this discussion? Yes, thank you, mayor We are interested in understanding if the program that we've outlined based on the scoring Is consistent with council's Expectations and if there are areas that you would like to see us make adjustments if you would please describe that for us And how you would like to Have us bring it back to you moving forward All right, we'll start with zoom. We'll start with councilmember tidbits Thanks, mayor Thank you, jason i'm gonna i'm gonna politely say that my expectations were were not exactly met with this plan And i I think to explain my initial reaction a little bit here and i do want to first thank everybody who put work into this Right, it's always important to acknowledge the work that goes into these reports that come to council But my I think some of my frustration with how this rolled out was this this really when I think about what COVID was meant to be from the biden administration. It was really a few things It was how do you help people through times of COVID? Um, how do you help your communities get ahead? And it was also meant to be funding for communities that were negatively impacted by COVID And I think the Implication there was a financial one Um, and when I look at our budget, you know, the city of santa rosa was in a most fortunate position. We started our 2019 2020 budget was I mean, I had it. Oh, it was 436.7 million in 21 and 22. It was 474.9 We actually saw our budget grow by 38 million dollars Um, and and I actually attribute that large part to one thing I think that has to do with a lot of folks from The peninsula who were able to do remote work We're able to move here. I mean, we saw a dramatic appreciation of property values and skyrocketing costs of living During this time, which was I think unique in many respects So when I saw a lot of these general fun things that we were We appropriated money for on our budget this year come forward With the thinking that we'll use arpa money to pay for what the council already approved in a budget I I just felt like we were not giving our citizens the opportunity that arpa really presented Um, I understand the foresight associated with it. We were looking at How can we we always have that looming budget deficit? How do we get ahead of it? We have contract negotiations going on and you know, those contracts are going to come do is john rightfully put Um, but I was just hoping to see I think a little bit more out of the plan so You know, I want to propose I guess a couple of changes for my colleagues to consider And I I think uh, I guess I'll begin with number one and that is that california tiger salamander mitigation plan that presents huge housing opportunities for southeast and southwest santa rosa huge revenue opportunities for the general fund and huge park fees For southeast and southwest santa rosa to help close that gap And with the county of sonoma already on on the path With us with the opportunity to glom on I think we'd be really remiss to not fund that especially and again I I recently learned that the number I originally quoted of 2 million is actually more like 300 000 So what I want to propose to the council is taking half of the 600 000 from a specific area plan Putting that towards a california tiger salamander mitigation bank and habitat plan Um, to me that seems like a good compromise. That seems like we are helping the general fund down the road But we're also acknowledging that that specific plan was going to happen one way or the other without this general fund The next thing I'd like to propose is tibets before you move on if I could ask you a clarification question on that Are your is your expectation with that statement one of actually acquiring mitigation credits or What we what I I think the county may be doing is exploring the possibility of Being the administrator of permits for different species that are on the listed list and so Is that your expectation is that we're talking to the county and it may not be actually acquiring rights It may just simply be an administrative aspect No, I'm I want to be clear. I'm more interested in acquiring rights About two years ago councilmember schwedhelm then mayor schwedhelm and I had the opportunity to join a round table on this issue With the army corps of engineers and a group of stakeholders locally a lot of county folks were present and uh specifically the interest was in a lot of the laguna treatment plant lands that we have lands that we That you know, we don't have to go out and buy but we could essentially get that land permitted as banking lands Which then can become a revenue center for the city or at the very least help with some of our housing and development needs So I would like to focus it probably more at that level if that's not the direction The county is going with it, but I think it's important as we're talking about Okay, what are we going to set aside for the next six months to a year as we figure out more of these programs? I think $300,000 is important to set aside To kind of figure that out. Let's see where the county is going. Okay. They're not going in the exact direction We wanted to go and there aren't any synergies between us and the county and where can we go on our own reasonably? Thank you for the clarification. I will um, the reason I was asking is because uh, we have recently acquired mitigation credits Um, they far exceed the cost of what you're mentioning as far as what you're hearing from the county um, I also understand in talking to director Burke that We have significant limitations on what we could identify as Habitat qualifying on our properties and I would need to Promote her to respond to that directly. I just want to make sure I'm clear I'm happy to do more research and to get back with you with more detail about what that could look like And we'd also want to communicate with director wick over at prmd to make sure that we understand what program they're Evaluating so I just want to clarification and I appreciate you offering that up Okay, thanks jason. Um, the second the second item that I want to bring up is Uh homelessness, you know, I think that 9.1 million dollars supplanting money from the general fund using arco money Um is a heck of a lot Again, I recognize the we don't know what things look like two years from now necessarily argument But I want to be clear to the public that um, what I'm about to recommend is not to take away funding from homelessness We have already set aside in our budget Money for homelessness the tune of about 4.1 million a year. I think that was the number Um, what I want to ask us to do is instead of supplanting the money with arpa for two years I would like us to supplant it for only one year So we're still achieving I guess a net gain on the general fund of over four million dollars and consider applying One year of that homelessness funding to The down payment assistance program. So roughly four million four point one million dollars If we looked at doing a 60 thousand dollar down payment We could help probably about 66 families Um acquire a home build equity in this community at a time when prices are just getting unattainable for people My age and younger And then the last thing that I want to bring up and this might be a little bit more of a hot button issue with the county But I think it merits discussing and probably not here per se It's probably a topic that belongs on it as its own agenda item in the very near future But uh as of september 7th, um vaccination rates in the county was 75 Uh, the total was I looked up the numbers Um, if you'd bear with me for a second here Um, it was about 320 000 people had been doubly vaccinated as of september 7th I went on to the county's website just now and as of october 25th We now have 341,441 people were vaccinated and remember these are all only people over the age of 12 So when you look at the population statistics, we're now at 79 vaccinated When you then look a little bit farther, there's another 30 000 people who have received one vaccine So why i'm bringing this up is when we're looking at spending or appropriating setting inside 1.2 million for staff testing Uh, we should probably have that conversation about is that too much? And and the reason being is you'll recall when when sundar dr mace was before this council, you know, I said Honestly, you know doctor. What is the um herd immunity? I mean, I had heard the cdc use the number 70 percent and she said well, actually it's more like 80 percent And I said okay. Well, we should set it at 80 percent for the city and she said no you have to go by county-wide We're in this together Well, well folks i'm here to tell you based on what that doctor said We're kind of here or we're going to be there in the next two to three weeks And if I also recall back it was about 60 000 a week to test our staff Maybe staff has a more exact number So i'm I wanted to propose that we look at um only funding this three weeks out maybe a month With the understanding that we will have hit that 80 figure and we probably don't need to spend 1.2 million And in fact 200 000 or 240 000 might be sufficient to get us to where is reasonable Which would leave us then with about 900 000 left over um from that Uh, I guess line item if you will and then I was going to recommend that we invest that in the boys and girls club facility over in roseland so You know, I don't want to get into the vax anti vax conversation, but um, you know, I'd rather us fund that A couple weeks at a time as opposed to saying staff here's 1.2 million And then we forget about it and then come budget season You know We hear about it in the form of turn back and we've missed the opportunity to invest in something that the community is looking for In needs today. So those are the three things that I wanted to throw out there For folks consideration Thank you councilmember councilmember soyer Thank you mayor. Um, well for let me address first of all, um councilmember tibbetz suggestions I am curious to know, um, where we Whether we could drill in on some of the cts mitigation discussion Not sure where that's going to go But I but the cts has been dogging our city and our county for for I don't know close to 20 years now So, uh, where we where we could Um get some movement in that discussion. I would be interested in Um in finding out I'm not sure what that conversation might look like but it but I am intrigued by the by the direction because it is a major impediment to Development inside our urban growth boundary Um, secondly, I would like to sharpen our pencils on the on the the covid testing. Um I think it should things change so quickly. Um Since this recommendation came across, I'm sure things have changed already. So, um, if there if there is uh staff Capacity to look at how we might Lesson that amount from 1.2 million to something else. Um, I would be interested in in in in pursuing that I'm not interested at this point in obligating where those funds might go But I am interested in in look in sharpening our pencils on the covid 19 testing I will say that I am the the programs not in the spending plans Really concern me. I mean there are some major major Concern I have major concerns about those things that we are not going to be funding and they are Um, I I can hardly Look at that list and feel comfortable that we're not putting funds into those Um into those buckets Um, the one that that sticks out to me, and I'm sure this will come as no surprise to anyone on the council is the Burbank carriage home The carriage house and home Um, I hope that our consultants are correct in how long they think that roof is going to last Um, any kind of any any kind of leaking in that environment could drastically Compromise the A an irreplaceable collection um of historic documents, etc And um, I'm not sure what since there's no amount there. I'm not even sure What the cost might be but I have been hearing for quite some time Um, this unknown about the material Now, whether it's a an issue of of covid and they can't seem to get the material or they don't know what the material should be Or they don't know how much it will cost um I that we are kicking a Potentially very costly can down the road And we would lose our status as a national historic landmark and perhaps even the our state designation as well. So, um, among Um, almost everything on that list of the things that we're not spending money on That one rose to my attention in part because there is no cost Um, and maybe it's difficult to assess the cost Um, but I'll I will leave it at that Thank you, and I appreciate the work of staff. This is not easy to do It's no easier for the council to make comments about this list as it was to produce the list in the first place So I appreciate the work. I thank you for it. And, um, uh, I look forward to Expending those funds That we need to spend within the within the deadlines. I'm sure we'll have no problem spending that money. Thank you JC, you look like you wanted to say something Uh, thank you, mayor. I council member Sawyer I just wanted to assure you that we are actively working through a project right now with a consultant to design an accurately Uh, a historically accurate product that will be used to re-roof that structure. That's what's ongoing right now Um, the concept of what it will take to actually Finish the re-roofing to do the physical construction is one we won't have a an idea on until we understand what the material So that we are historically accurate Looks like and we expect to find more information this year as that contract finishes Thank you, Jason. I understand the challenge Council member alvarez Thank you, mayor, uh from myself Actually, I want to start off by saying that support, uh, councilman tibbet's inquiry into the tiger salamander issue that has really as Councilman Sawyer said entered us for over 20 years So I definitely do want to hear more From staff on how we can assure that that southwest san rosa continues to have a vibrant future So i'm absolutely supportive of that in in secondly I I saw a a large Difference between what we're dedicating to our homeless issue compared to what we're dedicated dedicated to our our children Of san rosa and i'm happy to hear that that councilman tibbet's Was creative in saying that if we funded the first year only opposed to the second year or at least taking a look at the At the first year it freed up some funds Uh and in line with thinking that how we can actually promote home ownership for those in the community it kind of reminded me of childcare and how important that is instrumental to our vibrant Economy and and how we can actually help our labor force Continue to work without having to stay home with the children and and what we can do there to support them and again, this goes in line with what is childcare what is with uh The investments into development of of housing in our area So I see how how how One is definitely playing into the hands of of another and I have to tell you deciding what to do with other people's money the taxpayers money is It's probably the hardest thing that that any of us have ever had to do It's it's easy to throw out millions in one direction or another direction. But wow, this is probably the hardest thing that I have to do on on sitting here on city council And and this is this is due to an opportunity that's been presented by both arpa and the pgne funds So this is definitely a one-time Occurrence and and I definitely want us to pay attention to the to the equity part Which I'm very thankful that staff has done so and and I'm thinking How can we Make the investment Transcend generations not just the two to three years that we're looking at and and with that being said I do have a question for staff and what is the contribution from our regional partners when it when it comes to homeless the homeless issue in addressing homelessness Claire are you available to come on and respond? Sorry, we have mouth full of snacks. Um, I believe kelly checking it all has been elevated to a panelist Thank you kelly. I'm here Sorry, give me a second. Yeah, Kelly. I was wondering what the what the investment from our regional partners is to our homeless issue You know It's a great question. I I have you know our city budget for homeless services in front of me this evening I don't have What our continuum of care is contributing toward this issue or the county of sonoma or the other cities In sonoma county in front of me. I can certainly look into that I know that the county and the continuum of care are investing heavily in this issue as well With their resources as well as all the resources that are coming in from The state to assist with this effort. So i'm happy to get back to the full council with that information I don't have it ready ready this evening. I appreciate nonetheless kelly and the thoughts behind the question is If if we are helping people elevate themselves from homelessness If we are assuring that community members are first-time home owners That we need to provide an inventory that provides a stock needed as well as uh, Correcting what is a supply and demand ratio? So with that being said, I definitely would like to see us invest heavily Into those programs that do help the community Far beyond the two to three years and for me It's definitely assuring that our labor force to show up to work And I think an undersweet as well as michelle spoke on this fact of how important it is to support our labor force So for me, it would be in accordance with jack said about looking at homeless investment for the one year and being able to fund future or or or programs that go beyond it Again, I think where we part ways a little bit brother is just um The the down payment for 66 families where i'm hoping we could see the the the labor force kind of Be strengthened more by by the child care ensuring that they can ensure to work But I think we're all very much in line of trying to see how we can actually look at this money more from from the community Investment more than an operational standpoint. At least that's where I believe we're mostly coming from which I do appreciate Thank you Thank you councilmember councilmember fleming I think that councilmember alvarez said it right It is not easy to spend other people's money and it is not easy to spend a lot of money I think what makes it particularly difficult is that it is not enough money To do everything that we want to do I think if we had enough money to fill all of our dreams and wishes for our future our present and our future This would be a very easy conversation I think the challenge is that um We would like to do a number of things and we'd like to do a number of things well, but that we're Not going to be able to do that and I do think that staff did a fairly comprehensive and proficient job of providing us with a list of things in a way that we did ask for it in terms of Um rating things on on equity Equitability and sustainability and environmental sustainability and all of the different things that we asked for and and I frankly think that there was Probably no one way That this was going to be done that was going to please all seven of us And so I do really appreciate the staff for having done that there are a couple of things that I um have heard Here that from other council members that that have caused me to want to comment one is um around the the california tiger salamander if $300,000 could solve A chunk of our cts problem. I think that that would be money well well spent. I can't say I understand exactly How we could spend $300,000 and have it solve our problem, but if it does do that Obviously, we need to do that because that would be Uh a watershed moment for us, but I have I have great doubts, but I'm very open-minded um, the other thing is that I do recall supporting the idea of Funding our existing down payment assistance program Uh, and I do recall us having support Um, at least myself and council member tippets and perhaps it was just the two of us, but I do recall Uh, at least another person supporting it So if it was fewer than four then then I get that but I am disappointed That we didn't hear more about that today because I do believe that's a long term intergenerational Solution to poverty Um, although I do wonder about you know, even with a down payment who can afford a low look You know, what kinds of low-income folks are going to be able to afford the housing that's In the market these days, but not nevertheless. I do think it is worth exploring and I think also that council member tippets brings up a great point about testing That if we are approaching 80 percent and we're going to be able to get our elementary kids vaccinated in the next week. I'm hearing that You know What you know, how frequently do we need to be testing into the to the tune of 1.2 million dollars? I'd love to see that that money redirected to our our park and recreation department and and beefing up their services in our southwest quadrant where they Have been the heroes of the pandemic alongside with our police and fire services and our water department The people have been coming to work day in and day out Like love to do things that can make life better for the working families Of the city of santa rosa and that that'll have to suffice for my comments. Thank you Vice mayor Thank you, mayor. Um, first I'd just like to thank the staff for all their hard work and dedication in and getting this done All right, so now I'm about to go with my comments so, uh starting with homeless assistance 9.8 million, um No, let's not start with that. Let's start with jack. Let's start with the tiger tiger salamander thing I would love for $300,000 to get rid of the tiger salamander that would free up so much Space to develop in my district. That would be great if we could make that happen jason Like $300,000 $350,000 Somewhere in that ballpark. That would be awesome. I think we would all be happy if we could make that happen With that being said I think that the gentleman that spoke Had a point and I don't know if claire is still on I don't know if with our council goals of us wanting to develop If planning has enough support um In the amount of development that we do want In the city of santa rosa Um, we say that we want, you know, affordable housing We have to build it that we need Housing will we need to build it because we don't have it I don't know if our planning department is Is keeping up. Are they backlogged or they delayed Kind of what's going on so, um That is where I would need to lean To staff to know like how far are we Behind how is that affecting Our developers is that Making it so they don't want to come here And develop and is this something that we can do to support them to support us to get What we are saying is one of our priorities and one of our goals met So that would be important to me I am a product of the boys and girls club So i'm always going to have the boys and girls club back I spent my summers at the boys and girls club I think that For my mother was a single mother And so she was able to drop me off there before she went to work in the summers And pick me up and I was safe and i'm alive and here I am today So I think that the boys and girls club is a great investment um So I advocate for the boys and girls club Um now we'll go to homeless Assistance I would not be opposed to One diversifying the providers that we have providing services Uh to our homeless community um And in saying that I would not be opposed to I don't know about cutting it in half, but looking at taking some of the 9.8 million dollars because I feel like We do give a lot to homeless services and putting some of that to the down payment assistance program and that is something that I have Said that I really support and I've been very passionate about I think home ownership opens up A lot of doors but with that I um I'm a firm believer in you can give a man Fish and he'll eat for one day, but you can teach him how to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime So with that definitely having a very strong educational component to that um and really teaching people the importance of like Credit and like all of that but making it all encompass not just like here you go here is money But here is a program go through the program and then We help you with the with the down payment kind of a thing Like this is our investment in you and and here you go and in your family um, and I think that we can help so many families because To have 48 units That were built and it took from 2007 to 2021 that's a really long time And it's so restrictive to me, but if you can have People within the community and you're teaching them really how to go out in the community and buy homes anywhere Um, I think that is so powerful And that just really teaches them how to fish and not just giving them a fish And i'm not saying there's anything wrong with the development not saying that at all I'm just saying to me you can you can reach A lot a lot of people a lot more people um And I think that's all folks. Thank you councilmember alvarez Yes, thank you, mayor. I'll I'll be I'll be quick here Uh, an email came in right before Counseling began and I really wanted to thank congressman and mike thompson for support for the boys girl and girls club here in roseland And specifically the child care program. So I thank you sir for for having sent the letter and for your support Councilmember tidbits Yeah, two two quick comments first if it wasn't clear before when I was Talking about my support the down payment assistance program and what those programs look like Historically they're done as loans. So when I mentioned that, you know, if you loaned out 60 000 and a down payment Uh, you would recover that and the average american will hold on to a home and then for 10 years and then sell it So that are initial 66 for any members of council members of the public thinking we're gonna We would grant 60 thousand dollars to somebody that's not at all It would be it would be a loan that would get recovered and then reissued and and reach, you know, far more than 66 people Over over time it would be hundreds if not thousands as long as the program was continued All right, thank you councilmember and just as a point of clarification for council ARPA funds need to be spent Uh, so if we're talking about a down payment assistance program that would need to be funded out of the pgne fund As I understand it from talking to staff because we have a set date that we have to spend ARPA And set criteria on what we can spend ARPA on PGne is the one that is completely flexible So if we're going to find three million dollars for a down payment assistance fund It's likely going to have to come from pgne funds Which means removing some of what is currently being proposed within that that bucket So I just want to make sure that folks are Aware of that as we go through our our conversation for me It I'm looking at this from a pretty simplistic standpoint for me the pgne settlement funds Were the unmet need for our community from fire And yes, there's some bleed out away from fire issues because we had other opportunities such as the rosaline library And such as the renewal enterprise district that we likely would have wanted to have funded But then didn't have the funds because we were responding and recovering from the fire And that's one of the slides that we glossed over that I thought was really important was what we've actually spent on fema projects between the general fund and water And what we've spent on resiliency funds or resiliency and recovery projects from the pgne funds That's about 80 million dollars that the council has spent over the last four years that we weren't able to use on other types of resources With that said, there's a couple of things that are in the Left by the wayside in in projects that were not funded That I think that we really need to figure out how to fund with the pgne funds One is vegetation management What I heard is with 1.2 million dollars as a shortfall We can make that work by sacrificing an additional year of vegetation management But these are matching funds that actually money begets money in our community And I wouldn't be comfortable leaving an additional year on the side of the road for vegetation management That's what we've committed to in the cwpp And we know that that's a five-year plan. We need to fund the vegetation management for that plan We also have the hot eoc which was a commitment that we've made as a best practice to our community That's 1.4 million. Yes congressman thompson and our Our senators have worked really in congressman huffman have worked really hard And it looks like we've secured a million dollars for it We need to make sure that we actually get that funding across the finish line to fund the hot eoc To me those two are more important than some of the other things that we have funded in the pgne funds Such as the the specific plan Even the rosalind creek portions Yes, we need to get there eventually But if you're asking me about funding some of what we have in there versus funding vegetation management and the hot eoc I'm telling you that there's no competition for me. I want the vegetation management and the hot eoc We also have board stipends in there Which the council has never actually discussed more than passing comments from the dais And what I heard from staff and we talked about this a little bit in long-term finance is that Perhaps another use or a better use for some of those funds Since we have no program criteria and 75 000 means we're going to be picking and choosing which Board members or committees are most important and get us stipend I don't want us in that game and I don't want to setting Setting funds aside until we have that conversation But I did hear a need for child care at our boards and in commission meetings I'd be fully happy with changing the stipends to Added child care for those meetings as a a criteria criteria instead When we go to arpa arpa i view as a once in a generational opportunity To be able to actually address poverty and the impacts not just of the COVID-19 crisis But those who have been impacted the most by that crisis And really do things to help lift people out of poverty and make changes within your community So there are many things that are in there that I really like But i'm having a hard time i'll be honest getting behind the fiber backbone That seems to be like a public works project that was sort of shoehorned in and it's a it's a fourth of what we'd be spending our arpa funds on with no direct Immediate impact to the community it'd be part of a longer project I think we need to do things With that fund that are more beneficial right now to the community Rather than taking the long game, especially when we have so much funding coming from the state and from the federal government For broadband projects It seems to me like that's going to be funding that we can compete well with And that particularly when you look at the criteria for that funding going after what What currently qualifies for arpa means that what we're leaving behind is the parts of the city that are not going to qualify as well Or have a harder time qualifying for that federal funding I do think we need to fund the parklet program And invest in our businesses and help those that have struggled particularly in downtown And I do think we need to set aside some funding particularly for programming for downtown To get people back in person and get people back in in community spaces As we move forward My final question really Is for the council to evaluate too When we walk out of here when we finalize our spending plan when we talk about what we've done with arpa Do you look at it and say this is going to change the community? And I I don't want to lose sight of Needing to relieve some of the pressure on our general fund in the future I'm fully supportive of homeless services, but but there are a number of things in there There's a number of funds that are still in there 2.6 million in the second year for example I'm just I'm hoping that will look a little bit more aspirational and more community changing as we finish our spending plan on that fund I saw a couple of hands went up. We'll start with councilmember tibbetz Thanks, mayor. I do have a clarifying question. I suppose it is and it's as I guess as much of a comment as it is a question You know, you were mentioning some of the requirements of arpa And I think it was kind of in response to the down payment assistance about how it needs to be spent instead of loaned out and recovered You know, I what I'm about to say, I guess kind of dovetails is what you're saying chris about again, you know, I was kind of absolving the general fund of a lot of the financial burden using arpa And that's that's I think what I'm struggling with and I think I heard you kind of say that too I don't want to put words in your mouth, but uh You know the the homelessness thing that's that's somewhere where I guess You know, maybe can this is my question for stat Jason or alan would Would basically funding Homelessness using arpa as a backfill then free up 9.2 million in the general fund For some of these other programs that wouldn't otherwise fit the bill Because they're loans or something to that effect I'm trying I'm trying to get to yes on the down payment assistance program For the council Council member all start and alan may fill in afterward when we began this process back the prior to budget season We were evaluating our long-term budget strategy. We were seeing fairly significant budget deficits coming forward And there was a general Recommendation by council that we look at ways that we can we can work and utilize the federal funds to offset the general fund need So that we can save those general funds to cover our budget shortfalls That's part of what staff utilized going through this And that's why I think you see the significant Recommendation for homeless services. It is one of the few programs that fits into the federal Um description and allows us to reserve general funds for addressing that that general fund budget issue if it by shifting funds away from Homeless services with arpa that doesn't actually reduce the program Offerings it just simply means that the general fund will continue to support Those programs within the homeless services team And so I wanted to make I think that I'm hoping that answers your question about why we have attempted to get to this place Why we looked at offsetting general fund Um, but uh, you look like you like I haven't quite gotten there yet Yeah, I apologize like it's probably me, but that was about as clear as mud. Um, I mean specifically what i'm asking is if our first question Is that as a down payment assistance program in the form of silent second loans an ineligible use for arpa I I think I think it would be but I don't know that for sure So I've already reached out to our consultant. They're on the east coast So I'll get the answer back in the morning but but yeah Okay, thanks, Alan I appreciate you being honest about not knowing for sure and I appreciate you proactively reaching out to the consultants My second question would be for you Jason or Alan. Whoever might be best equipped to answer this If it is ineligible And the council says let's fund homelessness for 4.1 million a year meaning we have Basically it's made 4.1 available in our 21 22 fiscal budget Can the council then subsequently say we're going to take that 4.1 and put it towards down payment assistance Because it's not technically arpa funds council has the authority to direct staff to invest general fund money how council sees fit So that's a yes That is a yes Okay, thank you. Jason my my last comment is going to be this and that is you know, I I've been on the council through five budget cycles now and every year We've been told that we've got a deficit And that you know a year from now two year from now is going to be really bad I could probably go into my office and pull out the the binder from My first year on council and it's said three years from now We're going to be 10 million in the whole and we don't know where the money's going to come from And I and I recognize the dance that we do Staff has to be conservative because you guys are the ones who keep this city running day in a day out But I also want to say that you know And when we're using these funds for a transformational experience for the city We need to keep in mind that you know In the last at least in the last five years We have yet to see the big budget deficit to come We always seem to find it from department turn back or we seem to find it from settlements from our city attorney's offices and cases They've been victorious on Funding from the state or feds So I just I just add that with a little grain of salt and a lot of respect for staff because this work is hard So I want to be clear. I'm supportive of the down payment assistance If it is eligible for ARPA my understanding was because it's a revolving fund or that's how it's being proposed That that doesn't expend the funds and so wouldn't be I'd love to hear from alan tomorrow morning that it is in fact Eligible or that there's a way for us to get there and if not i'm supportive of trying to find a way with the pgne funds as well Uh, I'll push back a little bit on my on my colleague. We cut 14 million dollars from the budget this year Uh with more cuts coming next year, which is why i'm okay with opening up some flexibility in the general fund By moving some of our services over to the extent that they can I also want to remind council, uh, and then i'll i'll get off the soapbox and turn it over to councilmember soyer We also have just reached agreement with most of our bargaining units Or in the process of reaching agreement with most of our bargaining units And one of the things that is an eligible expense that's in there that we need to make sure we're accounting for Is the the covet premium pay for essential workers that has been agreed to in many of the contracts That's not funded in our existing budget. Uh, that is not accounted for going forward So I just want to make sure that there's that reality check for us as we have these discussions about what our budget Looks like for the next three years in particular Uh with that i'll turn it over to councilmember soyer Thank you mayor and thank you for mentioning Though that the um that unfunded expense that you just mentioned um It does give me concern um I'm curious about process um And how we move forward now there have been a number of recommendations and a number of questions That have that will are yet to be answered that I know staff is going to be researching and looking for um more definitive answers I i'm still curious to know how the uh the baby bonds how that 1 million would be invested and So there are a number of comfort of questions that have come up this evening We've never dealt with these kind of funds before we've never had a list of we've never had this these amounts um That were handed over to us to make to make important decisions on on funding So this is a unique uh a unique environment in which we are operating So i'm curious about process at this point. Um, Mr. Nutt how how We what what's what are the next steps are are we will staff come back to us with The answers to these questions and then we'll kind of hash it out again and and decide where we want to move some money I I I agree with the mayor's concern about about the broadband broadband Amount it's it's a lot of money and i'm quite frankly kind of wondering How the how that became priority? um Given the list of things that we um that we're not that we're not funding But so process wise what are the what are the next steps? How are we going to what what is staff going to do next for us to help? um finalize this list so that we can start spending this money per the per the The requirements Yeah, thank you very much council member. Uh, you know when we met last time there was a fairly significant brainstorming session Where we collected feedback from each of the council members on items that you'd like to see us evaluate How they fit into these programs? We then further talked with staff about programs that needed to be added to the list And then we took information and feedback from council as far as what the scoring criteria should look like And we did our best to try to outline those so what you see allen bringing back to you today was our first go around Trying to use the the scoring criteria the projects that were identified the dollar amounts to see what? Falls off what what rises to the top and I would say 75 of the projects that we put on the list are items that you Agree with and I think that that will will consider those as we move forward As like we did when we met the last time on the fire recovery projects We'll consider those as Recommended by council the 25 that we're discussing right now. We will take a further and deeper look at We'll look at how we can make those adjustments either to bring in those projects that you felt Fell off the list fell out of the scoring and should have not have And so we'll try to bring those back in we'll readjust those other projects In an effort to try to fund what council has asked us to look at at this point And we will collect some additional information and return to you in another study session I realize that this is a little onerous, but council member as you mentioned We've we've not played with this type of one-time fund before and we want to make sure that we're investing appropriately As each of you has have mentioned tonight For the betterment of the community and so That's why we'll take the additional time to review those items that you just discussed and come back with a revised Proposal for those items and additional information and clarity on some of the programs Thank you. I appreciate that advice mayor Really quick talking about the the broadband thing when we were all at home There were a lot of children that had to do schooling schooling from home And depending on their their location it was it was almost impossible for them to get On to do their schooling from home and it was really slow and they really couldn't keep up With class without it glitching and not Not working and so I think that that is where the I mean broadband really came in and it's not It's not equitable across the board as far as it's like. Oh, you go home and do but everyone doesn't have the ability to just go home and Keep up and do live streaming and have the ability to do schooling and stuff From home and so that's when we were really able to see that it is definitely not Equitable but the schools were saying go home and do this and Everyone should be able to do it and you know, it just it didn't happen that way And so I think for me when you talk about broadband that's Why it it's still a thing and I'm not I know we have kind of passed that mark But I'm not saying it's not going to come back or we're not going to have a situation and also we're moving into a An age where our children and people are using technology more And so it really is showing the difference between the have and the have nots when you're able To go home and the libraries close at a certain time So in starbucks closes at a certain time So what happens when you're not able to go home and have the internet and the ability to use those Services because I know I pay like a hundred and something dollars and I don't have cable I just have the internet and that could be a lot of money for some families. So Yeah And I agree with everything you said For me the issue is that we've got about 70 billion dollars. That's with a b From from state and fed. So I'm wondering if there's a more immediate impact we can make here, but Is there any additional direction that you need mr. Assistant city manager? I know thank you mayor and council. I think we have direction that we need at this point Okay, council is going to take a half hour dinner break. We'll come back at 6 30 And we'll start with our study error at excuse me our public hearings items 15.1 and 15.2 All right, let's go ahead and bring us back madam city clerk. Can you please call the roll? Thank you mayor councilmember tidbits Here Councilmember soyer Councilmember fleming here councilmember alvarez President Rice mayor rogers president mayor rogers That the record showed that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmember schwedhelm Great, uh, so we're going to play a little bit of hopscotch on our agenda because uh, we're running a little bit behind Our public hearings typically try to be as close to five o'clock as possible. Uh, so that means we're going to go to item 15.1 Thank you, mayor and councilmembers item 15.1 is a public hearing Introduction of an ordinance of the council of the city santa rosa amending title nine of the santa rosa city code by amending chapter 9-12 Refuse and sanitation and chapter 9-14 construction and demolition debris by adding provisions and requirements of senate bill 1383 short-lived climate pollutants organic waste reductions Joey henowitz zero waste coordinator is going to be presenting Thank you assistant city manager. My name is Joey henowitz zero waste coordinator for the transportation public works department And i'm here to present to you tonight some city code amendments To codify senate bill 1383 we can move to the next slide, please So a little bit of background as to why sb 1383 came into effect We're all pretty well aware of the climate crisis that we're now experiencing Specifically here in santa rosa. We've had some some gifts significant fire events That have affected our community hotter summers with record-breaking temperatures extreme droughts and rising sea levels that erode our coastlines Scientists tell us that greenhouse gases that are released from human activities You know like like land landfilling food and yard waste can cause climate change And specifically sb 1383 focuses around organic waste and diverting that organic waste from the landfill Where in the landfill organic waste emits up to 20 percent of the state's methane emissions Which is our climate super pollutant 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide So it's important that we try to get those materials out of the landfill and into our compost facilities next slide Um, I just kind of mentioned organic, uh, organics like boot scraps yard trimmings paper cardboard, etc They do make up a significant amount of what california is currently dumping to our landfill So we're really trying to get folks to put their organic material into the green bin and out of the gray bin Here in snowman county and in santa rosa. We're showing it about roughly about a 40 to 45 percent Organic material that is going into our landfill. So we have a lot of room to improve in that area And reducing these short-lived climate pollutants like organic waste is going to have a one of the fastest impacts on the climate crisis Um, and this is why sp 1383 was signed into law in 2016 To respond to this climate crisis california is now implementing the statewide organic waste recycling and surplus food recovery legislation and regulation next slide So as I mentioned in 2016, um, the governor at the time governor brown set methane emissions targets Which codified sp 1383 and a statewide effort to reduce the emissions of these state of these short-lived climate pollutants Namely methane which is emitted from um, organic from the landfills when the organics go into landfills um, and the overarching policy elements of sp 1383 Is to an act statewide targets designed to reduce organic waste disposal by 75 percent by 2025 And to rescue for people to eat at least 20 percent of currently disposed surplus food by 2025 So some very aggressive targets But as we all know that these aggressive targets are needed in um to try to fight this climate crisis next slide, please So the reason why i'm here before you tonight is obviously this is a state law and state regulation But the city of santa rosa and all some jurisdictions across california must adopt an enforceable mechanism requiring compliance with the various sp 1383 requirements No later than january 1st of 2022. So that's what i'll be bringing for you tonight in the city code amendments And these city code amendments are basically to codify the provisions and the requirements that are set before us with the state law As the 1383 next slide So the regulations should become effective um, uh, january 1st of the upcoming year 2022 As as it is what we would call an unfunded mandate sp 1383 does authorize local jurisdictions to charge fees to recover the costs incurring and complying with these regulations um, and sp 1383 outlines specific implementation tasks Required of local governments to try to achieve the goals of sp 1383 and i'll go over those here on the next slide um, so the city of santa rosa the overarching Kind of elements of sp 1383 you'll see there before you to provide organic material collection to all residents and businesses It's just basically mandatory service to have all three bins Establish a food recovery program to recover edible food from the landfill conduct outreach and education to all affected parties and generators Um, and you'll see other folks there the haulers facilities at edible food recovery organizations. Um, next slide um continuing with the requirements that uh, the city is in charge of in order to comply with sp 1383 is um, you need to estimate organic material processing and food recovery capacity to the city And we would need to potentially create a plan to fund expansion if the edible food recovery capacity in our jurisdiction is not sufficient We do need to procure a certain amount of recyclable or recovered organic waste products such as compost mulch and or renewable gas The thought here here is that they want to create the markets for these materials and that was the reason for that from from calorie cycle Um, we also would be needing to monitor compliance and conduct enforcement of covered entities So we would be making sure that Everybody has the three-bin system and we would also be doing contamination checks as well To make sure that people are properly disposing of the correct products of each of the three bin waste streams Along with that we would need to maintain accurate and timely records of sp 1383 compliance Which um, calorie cycle will be having us submit an annual basis in the form of an implementation record Next slide So just to kind of get a little bit into the some of the specifics of the overarching Kind of policy points there that I just went into As far as edible food recovery requirements are concerned We are required to develop a list of food recovery services and organizations within santa rosa And to implement an edible food recovery program, which is going to educate The edible food generators on the requirements of sp 1383 Potentially needs to increase the access of food recovery services and organizations if the capacity is not currently sufficient We're currently underway of trying to establish this and You know set the capacity in santa rosa that that work is still being done at the moment We would need to monitor that the edible food generators are complying with the requirements of sp 1383 And as I mentioned before if we don't have that current capacity We would need to make sure to expand that the city the city would be on the dole to expand that capacity If there's no current capacity that exists in the jurisdiction next slide So calorie cycle on sp 1383 does break the edible food recovery requirements into two tiers There's a tier one commercial generator and a tier two commercial generator You can see there where each kind of um, you know facility or location would fall into Um, and then we can go on to the next slide with some more specifics on that So with the tier one, they must donate their access Food and apply with the associated record keeping requirements as of the onset of sp 1383 as of january 1st 2022 The folks that are located in the tier two section They must do the um the same as of january 1st of 2024 So they get a little bit of a two-year Reprieve on on those reporting requirements and the actions that are going to be needed But both tier one and tier two must maintain a contract with A food recovery service that provides pickup service or accepts donated food Or that it may self-fall that material and they are required to keep records on each organization that they service So there are going to be some record keeping requirements of not only the food recovery Generators but also the food recovery services that are picking up the food and transporting that food to be Used for for folks to to eat next slide Another section that is pretty significant in sp 1383 is it does require the procurement of recovered organic waste products This might this may include compost renewable natural gas electricity from biomass conversion and or mulch In some of the renewable gas and biomass conversion sections This material actually has to be diverted from a california landfill and it has to be Organic material that was created in california as far as those generations are concerned And based on initial calculations and I could tell you that jurisdictions across california are all pretty worried about this component Because it's a significant amount of organic waste that needs to be procured But initial calculations that have been done by a city of centers of staff would Um for compost we would be approximately 8200 tons annually that we need to be procured at approximately a cost of about 400 000 dollars If you if you change that to um yardage We're looking at about 56 yards per day that we need to be procured and then dealt with on an annual basis on a daily basis Um Just briefly i'll touch base on we are looking into a rebate program here in sonoma county So city of santa rosa and the other jurisdictions that are part of zero waste sonoma who is our jpa For for some of our solid waste matters are looking into exploring a compost rebate program to lessen the financial And the compost availability burden or essentially There's a certain amount of compost that's available in our area and most of that compost is used by the agricultural community We don't want to compete with them and one of the elements of sp1383 is we are able to sign direct service provider agreements with Hopefully some of these um agricultural businesses where we would give them a certain rebate and that rebate has yet to be determined Where essentially they would get a certain percentage Off of the compost that they procure as long as they sign an agreement with us that says we are procuring this on behalf of Zero waste sonoma or the city of santa rosa to hopefully lessen our burden We are still exploring that and working that through with cow recycle But the hope is is that we might be able to reduce some of those procurement Targets for each jurisdiction in sonoma county next slide So within sp1383 there is also the adoption that we need to maintain with the calgreen standards With the calgreen building standards really where this affects the solid waste kind of component for the city is within our construction and demolition debris franchise our cnd franchise Currently we have a 50% Diversion requirement for our cnd haulers in our cnd franchise We just need to change that to the 65% and that's where you're going to see the city code amendment in the 9-14 So we're going to be proposed those adjustments to align with the calgreen requirement from changing it from 50% to a 65% diversion requirement next slide So the city does have some enforcement requirements that are Necessary and we must adopt an ordinance imposing The requirements for all generators to apply with organic material collection edible food recovery That's contained within the ordinance amendments that you see before you tonight Regulations specified as sufficient number of businesses need to be inspected each year to confirm compliance city of san rosa and zero waste staff have interpreted that to be 10 of businesses on an annual basis and The first two years between 2022 January 1st 2022 and 2024 is what they call the education phase So there won't be any penalties or or formal enforcement that'll occur during those first two years But anyone in violation of the requirements will be given educational materials At that point and then after that January 1st of 2024 The enforcement process will become effective and will involve progressive enforcement action potentially leading to administrative penalties For those that don't act on the requirements of sp1383 if necessary next slide So CalRecycle also has some enforcement that they potentially would administer over the jurisdiction So if they find that any of the jurisdictions aren't fulfilling the requirements of sp1383 They may engage in their own enforcement actions of their own Those actions that you see there listed on the second bullet point there Next slide so As far as the penalties are concerned the jurisdiction Shall impose penalties or violations of the requirements of sp1383 as I mentioned as of january 1st of 2024 for non-compliant entities The first notice would be an educational notice obviously so when I say the first violation They're actually going to be us reaching out to the non-compliant entity before and to try to get them to correct the behavior But if they don't respond and they act on that the first violation would be anywhere from 50 dollars to 100 dollars Second subsequent violation would be 100 to 200 and then third violation You see the cost there as well the 250 to the 500 dollars next slide For non-compliant jurisdictions Cal recycle may also administer administrative penalties as well on jurisdictions that don't comply with the requirements Best sp1383 these are a little bit more significant and why it's really important for us to make sure that we Do this correctly here in santa rosa and I can assure you that we are But the penalty levels are a minor violation You see there about a 500 to $4,000 per violation per day Modern violation is is significantly higher 4,000 to 7500 and then a major violation would be anywhere up to about $10,000 per violation per day So it's important that we make sure that we we implement this and I can assure you that we are next slide So just a little bit of follow-up on the penalties that could be issued by cal recycle I don't anticipate this being an issue here in santa rosa But I just want to make sure that you guys are aware once the penalty range has been determined cal recycle does have A set of various factors that they may Administer potentially including the range on that and you see some of the issues there whether the nature the circumstances and severity Violators ability to play its pay The deterrent effect of the penalty on the violators So there's a couple different avenues that they can look into when they when they are going to be administering those penalties on jurisdictions Next slide So what are the santa rosa impacts? How does it impact our community? How does it can impact our ratepayers? So sb 1383 compliance is obviously going to come with increased costs Those are for education and outreach general administration as I mentioned the organic waste product procurement is going to cost some money The inspections the enforcement and the capital costs to make sure that everybody has, you know, all three bins across the city And establishing and or expanding edible food recovery program. Those are going to be all of the cost drivers with sb 1383 The city is not alone in this effort There are also other partners that we have that are working towards the implementation and have their own Responsibilities so the city of santa rosa zero waste sonoma and ecology will all have a part in sb 1383 Just to kind of touch a little bit of high level on that zero waste sonoma As the jpa for most of the jurisdictions in sonoma county is going to assist with the education and the outreach The organic waste procurements As I mentioned, we're going to be looking to try to do that rebate program and zero waste sonoma is going to be kind of Heading that effort with the support of the jurisdictions Reporting and record keeping organic waste processing diversion planning and they will be handling the initial administration of complaints violation and waivers Next slide So our waste dollar ecology will be assisting with the capital requirements So any new bins that need to be purchased any new cans decals, etc They will be the boots on the ground for this process So they will be doing the route reviews and the contamination monitoring And doing the record keeping and the outreach associated with that But ultimately and this is this is really set in stone in in the regulations is Even if we have these other partners work on behalf of the jurisdiction to to accomplish sb 1383 It's requirements Santa Rosa and the jurisdictions across california are ultimately responsible to ensure that all sp 1383 requirements and conditions are met And then Santa Rosa would be the ultimate enforcement authority for non-compliant entities Resulting in any administrative penalties, which would be going through our code enforcement department If we have any non-compliant generators That I mentioned before as far as the penalty process was concerned Next slide So the complete cost to implement sp 1383 or won't be fully known until probably at least a year a year and a half into implementation where the costs are actualized Zero waste number will be increasing their agency fee to increase some of their staffing and increase some of the Additional costs that they're going to be going through as far as the edible food recovery program Recology will obviously be increasing their rates to account for some of these increases and things that they weren't originally Contained within our current franchise agreement Initial cost projections that we've done so far reveal that that we're looking at approximately a five percent increase to solid waste rates The good news here is that I we're not going to be seeing sp 1383 Increases in rates until 2023 the upcoming 2022 rates that we're going to be seeing in Santa Rosa Are actually what's been submitted to me by recology. We're looking at actually a flat increase through the single family unit and for multifamily and commercial we're looking at About a three to five percent increase So that's actually pretty good news because we've been having significant increases from our single family unit For the past few years. So there was a little bit of an increase in the recyclables market where we're actually going to get a little bit of a Of reprieve there And then as far as the agreements with our partners are concerned We are finalizing and I will be bringing forward to city council relatively soon in the next coming few months Agreements with zero a synom in the form of an MOU to effectuate The responsibilities and what zero a snowman will be performing for on behalf of Santa Rosa And then also what we bring forward a fourth amendment to our solid waste collection services agreement with recology to To update and codify that those those new requirements that we will be asking of recology That are outside of our current franchise agreement and scope and responsibilities Next slide So that is pretty much all I have for you here tonight We're just providing you which the city code amendments that are necessary to to codify ask the 1383 within our city code And i'm available for any questions or comments that you might have All right counselor. Are there any questions for joey? I have one for you joey and it's just sort of a broad question about uh compost facilities Are they generally a money maker or a money loser? And I kind of ask that question because if we're spending 400 000 a year on procurement of compost And i'm sure other cities around us are in a similar vein Is is this the kind of thing where the city could look at our infrastructure? I know that other attempts to have a compost facility have fallen through And is that perhaps an area worth exploring from the council side? Uh, you know, I definitely think that they they are profitable because they they are in business You know as a business to make money. So I do think that they are making money What the margins are how much money that you know, they are they are making I I wouldn't know nothing in a compost facility Um, but the point that you make I think is is a is an excellent point that if we are going to be spending this much money on On compost it definitely could and maybe should be something that we would explore here locally we've Looked into a local compost facility. Um, that was being headed by zero waste Sonoma That was going to be a regional facility that eventually, you know fell through for equity financing reasons But it is something that we are continually looking at to try to bring a local compost facility here to Sonoma county All right, thank you We'll go ahead. Uh, go ahead Mr. Assistant City manager. Do you have something? All right, we'll go ahead and open the public hearing If you're interested in providing comment on this item go ahead hit the raise hand feature on zoom I'm seeing no hands I'll go ahead and check no voicemail public comments Great. We'll close the public hearing Bring it back And I do believe Mr. Mayor there is a um recommendation And that recommendation requests The amendments. Um, it is in the staff report Yep, I was just looking to see which council member has the item. It's council member alvarez Yes, thank you, mayor No, I will be reading the ordinance without the amendments. I believe This is showing as amendments I mean as ordinance, I mean I couldn't hear you there council member. Oh, I'll I'll stand. I'll be reading the ordinance, but I don't see the amendments Uh Councilmember Sawyer, you've got your hand up. Do you have this as well? I I don't but I I'm just gonna I'll be wait I'll wait for the motion and I have a comment. I'm after it's on the table. Okay With the permission, mayor, I'll go ahead and read the ordinance. Yep Very well Ordinance of the council the city of santa rosa emitting title nine of the santa rosa city code By emitting chapter nine dash 12 Refuse and sanitation and chapter nine dash 14 Construction and demolition debris by adding provisions and requirements of senate bill 1383 Short-lived climate pollutants organic waste reductions and way further reading of the text Second second Okay, we have a motion from council member alvarez and a second from council member Sawyer council member Sawyer you had comments I do. I just a very brief one. Um, you know, the the importance of the difficulty of SB 1383 cannot be underestimated and I just wanted to appreciate Mr. Hennel what's in his and the team that he has been working with Constantly for months and months and months to come up with this recommendation. It is an amazing effort That was done in a Incredibly brief period of time given the type of work that was necessary So I want to honor their effort and their work and the product that they have come forward with because this is This is a major change in how we deal with many aspects of our solid waste so Congratulations, joey Everything that you've done and the team that you've worked with you guys have done yola's work. Thank you The vice mayor I would also like to second those comments and thank you and your staff for your inspiration Because me and my babies have also started composting at home So thank you guys very much for your hard work and your dedication With that, let's go ahead and call the vote Thank you, mayor councilmember tibbetz I Councilmember Sawyer I councilmember flimming Yes councilmember alvarez I Vice mayor rogers I Mayor rogers I That motion passes with six eyes with councilmember schwedhelm absent Great. Thank you so much, joey. We'll go on to item 15.2 Thank you, mayor and council members item 15.2 is a public hearing zoning code text amendment codification of zoning code interpretations and other technical questions moneye shakali reporting Thank you. Good evening mayor and Members of the council, so I will start going to my powerpoint. Let me turn my video off Okay So as you mentioned the item before you today is codification of zoning code interpretation and other technical amendments next slide please Okay, sorry The proposed zoning code amendments will incorporate 20 zoning code interpretation issued by the zoning administrator and includes amendments that are technical in nature Such as chapter remaining corrections to downtown station area specific plan implementation sections and other minor changes next slide please Okay A brief history of our current zoning code Our current zoning code was adopted in 2004 and it allows the zoning administrator To issue interpretations when there are questions about the Meaning or applicability of specific parts of the code since 2011 the zoning administrator has issued 30 such interpretations seven of these interpretations have been codified or superseded through prior zoning code text amendments and Three interpretations are temporary measures written in response to COVID-19 public health order And these 10 interpretations are not included in today's codification Also in july of this year This zoning code text amendment was presented to the planning commission Which recommended approval to the council next slide please So here you can see the subject of these 20 interpretations proposed for codification These interpretations covered diverse topics like fence high led price signs and introduction of cottage food operation as a home occupation Next slide please so I am going to give you an example of one of these interpretations in january 2013 The california homemade food act went into effect and created a new category of food facility operation Called cottage food operation Which unlike other food facilities can be operated out of a home kitchen And paired these law cities cannot prohibit cottage food operation As a result of this law an interpretation was issued in january 2013 to provide a definition For this term and to include cottage food operation as a type of home occupation That does not require a planning entitlement Next slide please And here is another example of an interpretation The applicability section exempt city projects from entitlement permits While the design review section requires the city projects be reviewed by the design review board These two sections raise questions about under what circumstances or when a public or city project requires an entitlement permit And compliance with the zoning code Next slide please So zoning code interpretation was issued in june 2017 And uh, it was to clarify the city projects are not required to obtain planning entitlements The proposed zoning code amendment adds a sentence underline on the slide Which states that conceptual design review by the design review board is required for city projects This sentence creates consistency with the design review section. So to add the Code we will have a consistency also can you go to the next slide please Also as a result of this interpretation We are clarifying the redevelopment agency by adding or its successor agency shown here In bold takes because the redevelopment agency was dissolved in 2012 And we are removing the text shown here as a structure to simplify this section next slide please So here are some of the technical correction in this codification The removal of the aggressive economic development measures because the ordinance included a sunset date in august 2015 Also renaming the title of a chapter to better reflect the intent of provisions And changing a footnote in land use tables to correct assembly bill number next slide please And here is another technical correction this slide reflects technical correction to act to to the accessory dwelling unit ordinance to Better reflect consistency with state law some of these corrections include regulation of side corner setbacks Removal of restrictive second story setbacks requirement for a separate exterior door and Permitting of attached ad use for existing multi-family developments Next slide please And this slide shows the majority of technical corrections related to the downtown station area specific plan These amendments are made to improve the internal consistency with the zoning code and implement the specific plan And some of these corrections include clarifying the director level design review process within the review authority table Deleting redundant language in the land use tables for downtown zoning districts and Eliminating the superseded downtown station area combining the street. You can go to next slide please And Hopefully that's like this slide reflects amendments to the resilient city development measures Some of these corrections include removal of the requirement for notification of temporary use permits of accessory structures removal of the setback and Exemption regulation because this language was previously added to another section of the zoning code and addition of automatic tenancy map time extensions that were unintentionally removed as a part of the most recent updates next slide please And The proposed text amendments which are meant to clarify the original Intents of the zoning code are minor in nature and do not substantially change Or alter the purpose of the code therefore this codification is exempt from california environmental quality act next slide please And with that it is recommended by the planning commission And the planning and economic development department that the cancel introduced an ordinance approving amendments to title 20 of the city code to incorporate zoning code interpretations and other corrections that are minor in nature next slide And that was my presentation. I am available to answer questions and thank you Thank you so much for the presentation council. Are there any questions? I'm not seeing any so i'll go ahead and open the public hearing If you're interested in providing comment on it go ahead hit the raise hand feature on zoom We'll go ahead start with you mr. Dwight Hello, dwayne. Dwight from roseland One of the unfortunate things about the resiliency ordinance is that has essentially turned the zoning administrator in to the main planning king if you will Or queen depending on who holds that seat And you've taken away the opportunity for community members to actually have a voice On projects right next to them Perfect example of this was a year and a half ago when the zoning administrator allowed false administration Information to be put into the record in front of witnesses that were at a meeting across the street In the annex building that you have there It was february of And as people asked to have the meeting be recorded the zoning administrator said no As people asked to have a record of the information Previous to what had occurred be available to the public which the brown access is supposed to be allowed The zoning administrator said no Then the zoning administrator and the planner that was handling that project Allowed false information to be entered into the record Which was then utilized later To allow that project to go forward and when it was at the planning commission The chair of the planning commission Admitted that the information was wrong and told the proponent of the project. It's bad That you did this but we're going to let it go forward anyway This is getting to be so Deliberately deceitful That it's bothersome to many people in the community that this is allowed The zoning administrator should be someone who is helping the community Not just being a shill for the developer that comes forward with any project What needs to occur again? I believe is that you need to end the resiliency ordinance It's been four full years since the fire There's no need to have this type of a Vacation of our democratic processes so that people can build houses The majority of the houses burnt down the fire have been rebuilt or in process now So what's essentially happening is housing in other parts of the city are being allowed to go forward Under the rubric of the zoning administrator Taking away the oversight that was there in place for decades Projects are being fast tracked. They're not doing as they should in terms of having Public involvement community engagement and all the things that you profess to believe in and say you support So now is the time for you folks to say wait a minute This zoning administrator action It's not right. It's incorrect and we should go back to the way that was in place before the tubs fire. Thank you Thank you, mr. DeWitt I see no other hands Do we have any voicemail public comments? We receive no voice message public comments on this item, mayor Great. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing We'll bring it back to council I do believe that uh councilmember tibbet. This is your item Thank you, mayor I move in ordinance of the council of the city of san reza amending title 20 of the san rosa city code to incorporate zoning code Interpretations made by the city's zoning administrator and other technical corrections file number st2 1-001 and waive for the reading of the text Second Motion by councilmember tibbet's and a second by councilmember soyer. Are there any additional comments? Okay, let's call the vote councilmember tibbet's I councilmember soyer I councilmember flimming Yes councilmember alvarez I council vice mayor rogers I Mayor rogers I That motion passes with six eyes with councilmember schwedhelm absent Okay Council will go back to the beginning of our regularly scheduled four o'clock meeting Mr. Assistant city attorney, can you give a brief report out on the closed sessions from earlier today? I don't think we need one on the study sessions We had two closed sessions item 2.1, which was a conference with real property negotiator and 2.2 conference with labor negotiators And uh direction was given to staff and council and no final action was taken Great. Thank you so much Mr. Dutt if you'd please do the staff briefings Thank you, mayor and council. We have two staff briefings this evening item 7.1 COVID-19 response update and I will be giving that As of monday 341 163 county residents aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated against Equivalent to 79 of the county's eligible population Another 30 458 residents have been partially vaccinated Sonoma county residents who received any of the three COVID-19 vaccines are not eligible for a booster shot If they meet new criteria outlined by the sonoma county department of health services yesterday Residents are encouraged to visit SoCoEmergency.org To review the latest criteria to determine if they should schedule a booster shot age health status occupation type of vaccine received and when received are some of the components of the criteria The county health officer has offered guidance to the community on how to stay safe while having a good time trick-or-treating and celebrating halloween last year door-to-door trick-or-treating Was discouraged because the county's case rate was high and climbing and no vaccines were available to help combat COVID-19 This year things are different and dr. Mace has offered the following suggestions for a safe and enjoyable holiday Trick-or-treaters should avoid large groups and should wear a mask that covers their mouth and nose Before eating treats people should wash their hands or use sanitizer Indoor gatherings of unvaccinated people including children should be avoided People greeting trick-or-treaters at the doorstep should wear masks while distributing candy instead of inviting children to reach into a community candy bowl Consider handing out individually wrapped treats or placing them on a table Most importantly, if you are sick or concerned that you've been exposed to the coronavirus Stay home and do not distribute treats Mr. Mayor that concludes item 7.1 okay Go ahead go to item 7.2 Item 7.2 is seed collaborative equity plan update and Amy Reeve our human resource director will be introducing the item Thank you and good evening mayor and council members I'm Amy Reeve the director of human resources and i'm pleased to introduce Paul Hudson and his colleagues from seed collaborative this evening They will provide a brief update regarding the diversity equity and inclusion Of work that's going on across the city as well as providing a high-level data On the citywide survey recently Completed so with that i'll turn it over to paul and his team. Thank you Thanks, Amy Good evening Mayor rogers and council members This is an update on our due diligence and our findings and analysis We have a number of slides to go through so we're going to try and go through this pretty quickly If you could go to slide three and i'm going to turn the presentation over to Thomas sang who is Doing who's our market analyst? Before i do that we have with us evan holland who's our senior consultant shana Aloni who's one of our account managers in simone basil basale who is account manager Along with thomas saying who's going to do this section of the presentation. Thank you Okay, thank you paul Good evening everyone. Um, so i'm going to first uh very succinctly go over with you sort of the process that we went through In particular i want to review the due diligence process that we had undergone from february towards the end of august here The first part of this process was a deep dive overview into doing interviews and focus groups because we wanted to Get a sense of understanding insights understanding themes Patterns, we wanted to hear directly and hear voices directly who were stakeholders who are members of the city And so you can see sort of across the city We had interviewed not just council members, but staff members as well as external stakeholders We also did a deep dive into the police department The fire department as well All together there were 113 Participants who participated in these interviews and focus groups And um that led to us to sort of analyze and understand sort of similar patterns And then we then proceeded to the next phase of research, which is the next slide We also then conducted an employee staff survey And you can see that a quick overview here First of all, I guess kudos. I mean, I think we had over 50 percent of all staff Participate in this survey, which was extraordinary And we very much appreciated the efforts on the part of the staff that we worked with And just some quick um highlights here the the center pie chart here is the actual city Breakdown of its demographics by race and ethnicity on the left there is how our survey Um Performed and you can see sort of it largely Home huge closely to sort of the the employee demographics Although there was one section of those who did not specify their ethnicity Close to 15 percent at 14 percent there This is also a group that was largely very educated based upon sort of our collection of the data You can see here that Essentially close to 70 percent of folks Had a college degree and also earned an advanced degree as well Next slide And very quickly you can sort of see who else we got as a part of the survey respondents Over half were folks who were line staff Another 31 percent were folks who were Senior members of the department, but also had managers and supervisorial Our roles on the on the right there gender-wise you can see over a third were female A little bit over half were male and then again another 12 percent who did not specify That now one thing to note about that I think you'll you'll see as a something that might come up later, which is Those who did not specify gender or race or ethnicity These are oftentimes folks that may be A little bit skeptical about sort of the transparency of the process And therefore just choose not to disclose that information We'll see some patterns about that later on next slide Approximately two-thirds of the folks that participated over on the survey were ages between 35 to 54 years of age You see that on the left side and then on the right side You know, we almost had sort of 50 percent of those who had worked in the city for 10 years or more And the other 50 percent right below that and with that I'll go ahead and pass it on to Evan Holland Thanks Thomas and good evening council next slide please So a couple of notes I want to make before we dive into some specifics with regard to the data So just as a friendly reminder, this project is an internally focused project looking at Structure policy practice culture and operations within the city as it relates to diversity equity and inclusion And so just want to remind the council of that the second thing I want to remind folks is that In addition to looking at the city broadly, we were also tasked with Honing in on some specifics around the police and fire department So what you're going to see right now is an overview of data findings and analysis from the city at large And then I'll pass it to Thomas to talk in detail about the city Police department and fire departments next slide please So in terms of our top line citywide Analysis findings and themes. There's three we want to highlight. The first is that Staff perspectives on dei are largely positive, but vary just like many cities Staffs they vary And understanding in in terms of understanding and in terms of satisfaction with departments leaning into dei From a policy and practice standpoint And so what we've seen and what we learned through our analysis is that the city has microcultures like many cities There's different facilities Staff working in different places and in different teams and so microcultures develop and so as a result Diversity equity inclusion is playing out relative to how all of those various cultures within the city Are operating and again, that's organizational cultures We heard specifically So thomas referred to the employees that did not specify either their gender or their race or ethnicity And so for those that did not specify specifically in the survey There was a correlation between those folks and their expression of dissatisfaction with the with the dei progress within the city In addition in our interviews and focus groups, which are confidential We heard from uh, women or female identified staff that there's been reports of exclusion Microaggressions inappropriate jokes and comments along the lines of sexist or of a harassment nature And so something to flag um in terms of internal dynamics we're seeing So contributing to some of these dynamics is someone finding that we've um Uplift is that the city faces challenges with recruitment and hiring Not only because some of these staff perspectives on dei, but because largely the city lacks diversity in its population 67 of residents within the city of santa rosa are white and um high cost of housing as i think council Intipid sort of was speaking about earlier in the study session Really speak to some of the limitations around attracting diverse talent and retaining diverse talent um in addition to You know in the appendix of our presentation if it's helpful we outlined some findings around uh The history of challenges around racism and housing within the city that that are contributing to present day dynamics In addition, we we heard that staff morale is affecting organizational culture and this is important as it relates to dei so I think it's important for council to know that staff are stressed and are stretched A lot of work is going over fewer staff and we heard this impacting um morale Folks are stressed around the various traumas the fire Drought uh organizational restructure the budget labor negotiations is affecting morale staff level And this sort of overburden staff dynamic impacts how staff are able to lean into diversity equity inclusion And you'll see some evidence of this later in our presentation next slide, please And so You know as we shared We conducted a survey and provided several statements for staff to respond either agree Neither disagree or agree or disagree and so you see that in the key below that correlates with the colors I think what you what's important to understand here is that generally staff are open to to issues of diversity um You know in general feel like staff are treated fairly or at least understanding that staff feel that fairness is a goal It's not always a reality, but is a goal um, but when it comes to issues of making changes Engaging in actual work to increase diversity or increase equity within a department or within the city Then is where you get um less buy-in from staff. And so you see some of that here Next slide, please So we were able to take some of the survey findings and disaggregate them Uh by various populations within city staff And so the circled areas are some areas we want you to take note of and so what we asked was um, or what we staff to respond to is the statement It is important and valuable to examine and discuss issues related to race and ethnicity And so you can see where um at a city-wide level at the top left, you know, taking out fire and police Um departments that 75 are in agreement But where you see these red circles is where there's blatant disagreement And so of note the police department um came in at just under 20 percent disagreeing That uh race and ethnicity ethnicity was important and valuable to examine um In terms of gender those who chose to not specify their gender on on staff came in at 30 percent disagree Uh, we saw this again with lgbtq staff and staff that again chose not to specify their uh sexual orientation Came in at just under 20 percent disagree And as well as staff who chose not to identify their race came in at 25 percent So we highlight these areas because they're areas of work And that's why we're doing the study so we can uplift these areas of work Next slide, please So in terms of culture and the culture of inclusion We heard from um interviewee and focus group participants Of the belief that the city reflects a white male dominant culture We heard language like this is really a white supremacist ideology grounded organizational culture And um we have some information in the appendix that sort of speaks to the history of the city's Forming as it relates to some some laws and practices that were of a racialized nature that sort of informs some of this present day dynamic But we took this qualitative comment and aligned it with some quantitative data And so you know the staff on on by and large 70 percent of the staff are white And 61 percent of the staff are male, so it's no surprise that the culture is dominated by the majority of the individuals who are staff Uh, I think also important to note that salaries those who make the the highest salaries 100 000 or more are um 75 percent of those staff are men and 85 86 percent of those staff are white um executive staff we've seen We we saw that 70 percent of executive staff are white and despite the fact that 60 percent of executive staff are women We're still seeing some microaggression Some inappropriate jokes and comments some exclusion from key conversations and decisions That's driving this dynamic of a white male dominated culture We're pairing this with some uh survey findings The city of santa rosa invests time and resources and you should invest time and resources in building diverse teams that came in an under 50 percent agreement and just under 20 percent disagreement and um The city is committed to improving diversity at its senior staff that came in a 34 percent agreement and 20 percent disagreement So areas of work to do around diversity equity inclusion next slide, please So staff on hold um We heard a lot of really great feedback from staff really interested in getting into some training and some professional development around Diversity equity inclusion to improve acumen and readiness to will diversity equity inclusion on a sort of day-to-day basis So what you'll see here is that this dynamic of staff feel comfortable discussing diversity by and large Employees are encouraged to participate in trainings related to diversity equity inclusion leadership In in department support dei at the tune of 62 staff felt this But when it comes down to the bottom two my department is taking concrete action to improve workforce equity that came in under 50 percent Agree and dei training Uh dei training the dei training my department has gone through has been meaningful and cycle and has a positive impact and that's You know 32 so what folks are saying is they want Better training and they want their training to impact their day-to-day Operations one anecdote i'll share is we heard from several staff that the way in which commitment to professional development around dei's Played out has really been at an individual staff level championing these issues and when those staff retire then the the the sort of Efforts around this go away So that means that dei efforts are really not happening at a systematic or structural level within the within the city And that's work to do area for improvement next slide In terms of access to actually in the interest of time I'm going to go ahead and skip this slide But if we're happy to answer questions if council has them next slide And then in terms of recruitment hiring development and promotion Generally staff feel supported But when you see some of the findings of the surveys at the bottom of this slide you'll see You know there is career development pass for all employees in the city 40 just below 40 percent of staff offered that as an agreement and 44 percent said they disagree with this and that city of santa rosa takes active measures to seek a diverse candidate pool This also came in pretty low in terms of agreement. So areas of work to do next slide please Turn it over to my colleague thomas Thomas you're on mute Yeah, i'm going to go ahead and go into the a little bit of the detail we did among srpd as well as the fire department as well next slide So of the subset of folks that took our survey for the police department This is what those backgrounds and demographics look like for those respondents The only thing i'll note here again was a larger number of people who did not specify nearly a quarter didn't specify the race around the city Another close to 20 percent didn't specify gender But also a very Educated group that reflects that in the right pie chart there next slide A couple things here, you know, I think when it came comes to who participated in the fire or rather in the police department Here is 22 percent of folks who were More or less command staff mostly and then for those who were lying staff or the rank and file was close to 70 percent overall Age wise you could sit at nearly half or those between ages 35 to 44 length of employment for those who have been 10 to 20 years of employment That was half of the overall folks from the police department Next slide So when it came time for when we did the focus groups in the interviews I think the police perspectives on diversity equity and inclusion Are largely positive and we interviewed a really broad range of people Including sort of diverse members across different roles and responsibilities And I think for the most part people really expressed fairly positive viewpoints when it came to dei work A lot of folks again across the board really perceived the department to be inclusive I think where there were challenges in particular We're sort of in the hiring pipeline and the ability of the department to really attract diverse candidates And I'll go back into this a little bit more But I think when you look at the survey findings and the surveys you'll see some of This overall sentiment as well. I think one interesting thing to note is that you know when we interviewed folks who On the on the command staff side were very much open towards Trying new things and open to Maybe new ideas of how to do better recruitment and hiring And there's a general openness that although in terms of the concrete actions or what practically that meant You know was I think everyone kind of shrugged and put their arms in there. We're not exactly sure But I think you'll see in the survey data later on is that there's some Divergent viewpoints when it comes to that We know that the chief strongly supports dei and that I think when it comes to the the staff, you know that there Are big challenges when it comes to recruiting and hiring A lot of these are due to sort of this uphill battle when it comes to really garnering interest among Especially among those populations historically had a lot of distrust towards police practices And groups like that Again, nothing necessarily unique to the center was the police department But certainly something that we heard as a barrier to recruitment also, I think, you know, it's hard to escape the the the The local narratives and how they reflect the national narratives about law enforcement, particularly since the events of last summer and that really is impacting Recruiting and hiring issues as well. And overall, I think that you know the this again this openness towards Really looking at innovative approaches is one that I think people are tend to be open to And you know, I think this is in the face of of sort of some of the lowest Issues of when it comes to candidacy one of the lowest pools over this past year that the the pds faced Next slide We know that the culture of the police department has been largely impacted By staff morale and the staff more Really also impacted by a couple of different things that which has really sort of influenced the culture of the police department There's been a great deal of Stress and trauma that's related to the pandemic The fire issues over the past several years have contributed to that as well as well as again the the national protests against police practices I think is you know spotlighted A lot of police departments in srpd not Included as as part of that as well You know, I think the pressures that I think a lot of police officers are facing This is you know, I think the srpd is embattled just like many other police departments around the country are embattled But it's it reduced the number of sworn officers. It's accelerated retirements in many ways There's been increased demands on the police in terms of what their orals and responsibilities are And this is also I think it should be said that we heard a lot about this so much of their The morale Is colored by sort of the contract negotiations that we heard in interviews and focus books as well And then the last point on here is that you know, we did see some divisions You know, we didn't see a whole lot of divisions when it came to necessarily to race and ethnicity or or gender or And things like that, but we did hear a little bit of inequity expressed between sworn and civilian employees In particular, there's a there's a small faction of of civilian or yeah, civilian folks Who did feel like you know, the the larger department in the sworn department Sways a lot of things and there are some issues related to that as well Next slide So again, I think for this slide the only thing I'll point out is this which is I think these survey results really show again close to 80 percent or above really Folks in the police department agree that they see Advancement when it comes to different folks of color Females lgbtq and where there is greater polarization is in that battery that lower battery question on the very bottom there Which is all members of the department whether there's sworn or civilian staff are equally appreciated and supported So you can see that 57 percent agree, but a much larger contingent of folks disagree with that at 36 percent next slide And here again hiring and recruitment. I think the top three Statements here are really focused on you know, this is the status quo Like so do you agree with how things are going? You know that the current evaluation process is fair and equitable that the police department is doing enough to attract You know candidates or Latinx Hispanic candidates and you see that a majority of police folks agree with that and on the bottom three bars These are where you know, you know Statements about change and and reforming the the hiring and recruitment practices and can you see there a majority of folks Disagree with that that they're resistant to things like you know that the existing system for bringing in new officers should be reformed That the there should be changes in the way that the department recruits And identifies candidates to build a more diverse workforce and things like that So a little bit more resistance when it comes to You know making changes there Uh next for the fire department Next slide, uh, I won't throw and bombard all of you with more numbers But I think you can see that um some of the background of folks that participated from the fire department here and the next slide Um skip to the next slide please And some key things here I think when it comes to the fire department what we heard a great deal of what is that There's a great deal of of cohesiveness And a strong sort of cultural identity In the fire department overall and that you know, this sort of Cohesiveness when it comes to this identity in the fire department is really something that permeates the entire organization Whether they're uh, you know, irrespective of roles responsibilities into divisions Um, I think a lot of folks have really cited and identified The challenges with um the fires over the last couple years and how challenging how challenging those have been Things like the tub's fire But these have also had a very strong galvanizing effect on the fire department overall That has contributed this strong sense of purpose identity and this uniformity that I think we heard across the fire department And I think that there's an ethos here, particularly among those with Leadership roles that the the future of the department really depends on a great deal on Finding new solutions and pursuing diversity equity inclusion. I think that we heard a great deal out there Now there are challenges and these challenges are similar to what we heard in the police department Which is a lot of issues related to recruitment and hiring, you know That there's issues related to the what the eligibility criteria requirements entail Which which already sort of shut out a certain group of people Um, but I think largely people did feel that the fire department was making Slow but steady progress But really felt like that the department really needed to do a better job That advancing and doing better at reaching the cities considerable hispanic and latinx community over there We know that I think a lot of the influence comes from at the top You know, there's a strong support for gi by by chief west trope In the form of a strategic plan I think that this is also something that I think a lot of folks have embraced in the department Next slide Again, I think these are largely I think this kind of speaks to the cohesiveness There's a great deal of agreement on these issues related to gi this whole battery of statements Again a little bit of maybe Somewhat of those who disagree with that there's Equal appreciation for those between sword and administrative staff, but that's like less than 15 percent So much smaller than what we saw say with the police department. Next slide And then when it comes to hiring and crewmen, I think this is where again I think we see some similarities with what we saw with the police department here as well, which is Again, a lot of folks I think tend to Hone in on the system that they'd gone through themselves and that many people hear the majority of folks feel like the current process Works whereas I think when it comes to maybe new approaches that there's still A little bit overall majority of those who might A little bit more and again, this isn't necessarily surprising for those who've already gone through the process And maybe are vested in what they've already gone through I think this is where we see some disparity disparity between what we heard from The leadership at the fire department versus sort of what we're seeing in a broader Stope of people and how they evaluated hiring and recruitment practices in the fire department now And with that, I'll go ahead and turn it over to paul Here I'm you paul We're going to stop and uh, you know Receive public comments and questions from the council. All right council. Are there any questions up to this point? councilmember tibbet Thank you mayor. Um, I have a question for you evan Back on the police slide There was something that was circled That said 18% did not specify and then earlier. I think I heard you say that those who said did not specify We're showing a dissatisfaction with the process. Is that correct? Or that's how it was interpreted Yes, thank you Um, so this is the slide. I'll let thomas cover police. This is also a dynamic at the city more broadly, uh, but thomas do you want to cover this slide? Um, if this is a slide that you are referring to, um, I think this what this shows is that this is within the police department itself and so just some Um, is this the slide that you're referring to uh councilman? This wasn't and I actually I will ask you about this slide When I saw this slide and correct me if I'm wrong, uh, was I was actually relatively, um Surprise shouldn't be the word but happy to see that there seemed to be a lot of disagreement about Things where you know, it says here people of color who work with srpd have a fair and equal opportunity as everyone else to advance And I see very little red there and I take that as a good sign. It'd be great if there was zero And I know that's what we're driving for but I was I got to say I was pleased with the results of the police department The one the question that I was asking the slide was a couple previous And it said we there was slide 11 Where we disaggregated. Yeah slide 11 Our 10. Thank you. You're speaking about this like councilman This is it. Yes. Thank you and and you circled it and I assume it's because I think when you're speaking about it Evan you said that Uh, these are folks that were expressing dissatisfaction with the process and I wanted to ask if a am I hearing that correctly and interpreting it correctly but b How does that equate with that other slide which I would say is actually looking quite good Right. So the slide we just looked at it's important to remember that that's specifically the police department So those staff that we spoke with that that filled out the survey that work within the police department Either sworn or on civilian side So this slide refers to the city at large without police and fire. So folks that work in various other departments That are noted here on the left. So it's important to note just that there's you know, on the right Those who chose to not identify their gender and those who chose to not identify their race also said That there's some disrespect not only dissatisfaction with the sort of The progress of dei, but on the flip side in this particular example, we asked Or offered it is important and valuable to examine issues and examine and discuss issues related to race and ethnicity And 30 of those who chose not to specify Their gender said no, it's not important or valuable to examine issues of race or ethnicity, right? And so this is this is sort of culture and Perspective and perception internally with staff Which is just as important as fact because it really frames up the work that we have to do, right? So if we don't even think if folks 30 of those who didn't identify Themselves from a gender perspective feel this way It's just no work that we need to do the same with those who chose not to identify their race So the fact that they didn't identify their gender or race could mean some mistrust in the process You know this happened during a lot of dynamics in the city including labor Negotiation so that could impact it or just truly didn't want to specify You know or didn't want to be able, you know, maybe they had some concerns about confidentiality. And so But nonetheless, it's important to note that there's some just that there's some lack of interest in discussing issues of race and ethnicity Paul you want to add anything else? Yeah, let me just add councilman Tibbets We can disaggregate The data on almost any of these slides the the problem is we would have had a hundred slides and it would have been an hour long Presentation, but we just took one to show you that what we can do and we did it on DEI just to say Yeah, in general people feel positive about DEI within the city police and fire and it's across the board But there are these pockets and they tend to be Greater the pockets tend to be greater around not specified and that's Probably, you know people that aren't satisfied are the most to probably Fear the most about the process and the integrity of the process. So they're not going to specify Okay, thank you all Any other questions council members? Okay, let's keep let's keep moving Thank you. Thanks folks Did we lose folks? Mayor I just received word from miss reeve that they cut their presentation short And so they've concluded for this evening Oh I think that staff would or excuse me. I think council was anxious to see some of the recommendations So if possible I don't think we need to cut it short I think we are getting to the uh to the point that council wanted to discuss Let me let me find out what we can do Let's go ahead and take a two-minute recess and see where we're at All right, let's go ahead and resume madame clerk. Do you need to take the roll again? Yes, I should take the roll quickly councilmember tibbet councilmember soyer here councilmember fleming here councilmember alvarez Vice mayor rogers present mayor rogers here That the records show that all council members are present with the exception of councilmember alvarez and councilmember schwedhelm I really appreciate it. I know we stopped at The end of the survey results You also in the document had uploaded next steps and recommendations And I think the council was interested to see what that looks like What we will do is if it works for folks, we'll go through it I know that there's a lot to absorb there for us and for the community And so we'll also schedule a follow-up study session to go through the recommendations and timeline for implementation Um, but let's go ahead and keep going through it tonight and just at least do a preview for the public Paul you're on mute. I'm sorry pa for some reason. We can't hear you. I'm happy to Um present if that's helpful Yeah, we can't hear you. I'll go ahead and present um on pause we have so next slide please So You know what to do with all the information that we just shared, right? um The intention of the data analysis is not just to uplift areas where the city is doing really well in terms of diversity equity inclusion and Areas for improvement But it's to enable staff to have an opportunity to grapple with the data Think about their own experience with some of the issues outlined within and to come up with recommendations and solutions with the support guidance best practice and and advice from seed collaborative team and so You know as we sort of wrap up our due diligence in terms of our data collection analysis phase of the project We're then going to be moving into a phase of the project that we call a Facilitated group process And so as a part of that facilitated group process what we're doing is we're putting together three sort of task forces so The first you see an orange will be a city wide task force and it'll include individuals represented from the police in the fire department as well as City leadership ranked in file our goal is to have a broad diversity of staff in terms of race and ethnicity gender Identity sexual orientation and positionality within the organization and so We are working closely with amy and others with the at the city to pull together That list of folks and we have some preliminary lists that we're working with now In addition, we're going to be creating some essentially, uh, we'll call them sister group processes group task forces Group task force And one will be focused on the police department and the other focused on um, Recruiting diversity as it relates to the fire department. And so these are particular areas that um, the city by way of the the proposal and contract Ask us to dive into and so we'll be working with um Partic a group of stakeholders from those two departments to come up with strategy strategies and solutions as it relates to the findings And analysis that we shared specific to police and fire and so we plan to engage in about a four to six month process with the um, these various groups like I said to review analysis um Grapple with their own reflection of their own experience with diversity equity inclusion within the uh, the city and the Fire and police departments and then um, we'll work collaboratively with these groups to come up with recommendations The intention behind the design of these groups is to ensure buy-in and build consensus And so we find that when we bring groups like these two consensus around a broad set of ideas that they've helped to develop We really um get folks interested in the process engaged and it allows um It provides an opportunity for the implementation of any d of the dei plan that will be drafting for the Council to be informed directly by staff Giving that plan a real shot when it comes to implementation because staff are engaged and excited Uh, next slide, please. Can you hear me Evan? Yes. Go ahead pick it up from your phone so Let me just frame this for the council When you say you want to hear the recommendations, uh, and I'm assuming you're referring to the attachment we applied We submitted with best practices research um Those aren't our recommendations. Um, that's just uh, that's our research that we've done to date To inform decisions by the city, but our process and our approach and the reason we were hired was because our Our process is is working with the city In collaboration for the city to define What they want to do in santa rosa So we will bring our we'll bring best practices from all over the country So they have that information, but ultimately we're going to facilitate a process where the a group of city employees sit down with the data Talk about solutions that will work for within city of santa rosa with our thought leadership And then we're going to come back with those recommendations that have been vetted through through a process with city employees and it's not just the city manager and And the hr director. It's it's going to be folks from the line staff union representatives management gender representation racial and ethnic ethnicity representation A real process in age the whole gamut that group will be presented with data recommendations around Areas that they should focus on and then they're going to do deep dyes develop get the data We're going to give them best practices and they're going to come back to the council with for santa rosa This is what we want to do So what Evan just outlined was kind of the process that we're going to The process we're going to go through with city employees and fire police and the city to to get a a holistic comprehensive plan to the council that represents You know the best ideas and recommendations With seed and collaboration with city employees So I think I would stop there. I mean we can talk about Best practices if you want if you have some questions about you know What other jurisdictions are doing that might be that might work in santa rosa. We can do that But we but I can tell you the ultimate recommendations you're going to get could be totally different Based on what the employees want to do in the city of santa rosa I can appreciate that paul Can you walk us through what the the next steps are going to be and what the public should Should expect to see over the next six months Sure, so uh, there's going to be a dual track operation the city That's going to have a representation from police and fire and Shana, I can't remember other community reps on this on the on the equity on the task force too We have community reps on the equitable policing task force Okay, but not on the fire department. Okay, so The the process that the the public should expect is that the city is going to go through an analysis of the data Maybe request additional data Start building recommendations to solve let's say recruitment to solve Promotion, maybe people don't feel like there's equity and promotions within the city You know females are not promoted at the same rate or they're not paid at the same rate for the same job All that you know when you start getting the data you'll start seeing disparities And so, uh, they'll they'll be working on that at the same time I'm parallel tracks the police with Employees from the police department across the spectrum Along with some community reps that were recommended Well, we'll we'll we'll start dealing with the issues within the police And how change happens within the police and they'll approve recommendations And and again, it's important that that the that the sworn staff and the civilians Embrace these recommendations and willing to implement these recommendations. And so we go through a process where they develop ownership of these And those will we'll do the same thing with the fire department And I think with the fire department is really What can we bring that they haven't already tried? What what do we have that's not already in their toolbox? So, uh, those processes will go on And ultimately there'll be a document that the that that will that the public can look at that the council will have That will that will have specific recommendations They'll be prioritized. They'll be laid out on a time frame. There'll be a cost estimate associated with those recommendations And the city will have the I mean the council will have the opportunity to say You know, this is great or you know, this is challenging or you know, we can do half of this we can do a third of this but We will try we will we will work with the staff to come up with a comprehensive plan that You know in our in our opinion as consultants, you know would Would place santa rosa in the top echelons of cities in the country around dei I really appreciate that paul. I've got sort of a fundamental question And I know you all we're sitting through our study session We obviously we we've put a line item in some of that for Funding to implement some of the the recommendations when they do fully come forward Based on sort of our baseline that we have here and what you've seen in other jurisdictions Can you give us an idea of what the council should be expecting in terms of a budget for implementation? And obviously I assume it'll be phased implementation But where do we start or what should we sort of be prepared to set aside to be able to start? So It'll be hard to give give you Range of numbers, but I can I can I can frame it this way um a lot of the work Let's say ebb and correct me if you think i'm wrong I'm saying 60 To maybe max 70 of the change can be done without a cost You know, it's really what's what's going on in the departments. It can be more equitable. What how can we create a culture of belonging? Those kind of things don't really have a price tag. It's just we have to change your behavior You have to change your policies. You have to change your practices It's it's really the time the staff and the capacity of the staff to implement the change the actual dollar amounts are around In terms of best practices a city of your size And I'll just uplift this right now Can you can you implement dei across the board? track matrix and And implement accountability practices with one full-time equivalent That's that's the real question. I think in terms of a cost for the city um but You know, I would say uh, the budget you've allocated um We'll get you a long ways down the road for the first Year and a half two years um, and then you know, you have to reevaluate it That the hope so this is the hope with dei It's it's not just You know, we want to we want to do better. We want to be a better place It really the basis of it is to create a more productive efficient operation and staff So the hope is that through implementation implementation of dei You will be more efficient and can do more with less dei isn't really designed It is people think of it as oh how much is going to cost this it's really it's If it's done, right it will save you money in terms of um People leaving the city people retiring early people having stress and and uh, you know health issues From people feeling like they're included from people feeling like they have Invested in decisions within their department and within what's going on and and how they engage with the community and their ideas are valued I mean all those sort of things Will add value to the city without costing anything I really appreciate that. Thank you. Councilmember Fleming Thank you to your for your presentation and for all the work that you've done And I also want to thank all of our employees Who took the time to participate in this? It's a big deal that you're participating in making your workplace a better place to work and for your not only for Your sales of your co-workers I think that you're going to be the heroes who lead us into the future In terms of the cutting edge and so my heart goes out to you For for being brave in doing this work, which is not always easy my question for cede is Kind of very specific. Um, it's maybe not that important But it just struck me as a little bit unusual That um the water department stuck out as having some um of the more Disagree number some of the more red numbers in the couple of the slides and I'm wondering if that's typical With what you would see You know, you think we pulled out fire and police as as two departments for for special attention and And where we want to do some extra work but But the um water department was much closer to the police department and the fire department was really nowhere near them I'm just curious for some interpretation um no I have an I value your opinion, but um Is it's not it's not the anything about a water department in and of itself that that that would drive these numbers Um, if it's the water department, it's because the water department in santa rosa the cultures of the center of the santa rosa depart Department as opposed to all water departments across the country have similar similar Rating so we're not unusual is what you're saying in that regard Yeah, I would say you're not unusual evan You're not so I think cities across the country Are looking at these issues and finding that oh, we've got some staff that are not invested in the same way We thought they might be in terms of Really engaging in doing work and making change around diversity equity inclusion I mean, I think the fact that 70 percent of water employees who completed the survey Agree that it's important and valuable to examine and discuss issues related to race and ethnicity is a positive number And important to note. Um, I think that you know, there's always there's there's often disagreement and I think that You know, what we've been telling many clients is that City of santa rosa is no different than any other city in that it's swimming in the american soup And within the american soup is Racism is a history of sexism It's a history of discrimination and a history of grappling with these issues over decades and centuries Right and so you're gonna have some folks who are just unsure and uninterested in this work And I think we've seen that in various data points throughout the presentation And it's just denoting areas of work to do but no, I wouldn't say that there's something specific Or concerning about the city of santa rosa's water department and really happy that 70 percent of staff really Agreed with that statement. Yeah, if I had been forced to guess I would have guessed that, you know, we get um That it would fall more along gender lines and that maybe we have Our proportion, but I don't know what the gender breakdown in the water department is I just find it really interesting and thank you so much. I look forward to next steps I swear Just wanted to thank you guys so much for your presentation and being here And for the information that you have Brought before us. I did have a question about the list for the equity task force For the 15 to 21 people I believe that you said the list was already Forming and who is forming that list? Where is it coming from? So we do we do that in partnership with the city. So we work with a project team It's a it's a four or five person team in the city of santa rosa And we give them criteria we give them, you know, broad criteria what we're looking for because we don't know the employees in the city of santa rosa So we're saying, you know, we want we want ethnic representation. We want gender representation We want, you know, some people from unions We want some people from line and then they give us a list with the name and the notes associated with that person Why we why they think that person would fit the criteria that we gave them to ensure it's an inclusive group of people And the other thing that informs this list is a number of the people that Show up on a list we interviewed either individually or through a focus group So we have a little data on some of the people we rely on the city for the others And then we check generally for is is there some is there some constituency or stakeholder group that's missing? So, you know, we may say I can't remember we we did make some changes in the in the names So, uh, that's that's how we got up then it was a collaboration between seed and I think it's important to know though vice mayor that we haven't begun that process The in terms of the group process right now We're really we've just compiled the list and we're wanted to get through this presentation before we really dove in Okay, so my my two cents on the list is um, I love lists I'm very structured and organized but I must say that we we do have a lot of employees and it seems as though I I see the same faces and it would be nice because we do have an email system That if we just put it out there to people that we may not see that may be interested in this topic that may have something To add that we don't see that may fit that criteria um That may respond to one of those emails that say hey You know, I think I could fit this criteria and I want to be a part of this This is something that I want to do my contribution to this um That they might be a really good person to be on On the team if we continue to have It's like a pipeline to me and it's kind of almost the same pipeline as The hr pipeline and and no I mean, I'm not saying that about hiring amy. I'm just saying like when you have the same pipeline you tend to get the same people doing or involvement in the same thing so if you Have a different pipeline it could be wider and then you get different people and you get different people involved and you get different perspectives so much like the way that you guys went out into our Our community and you got input from people that you wouldn't When you were soliciting Information to compile the the data that you brought before us today. So that would just be a suggestion um to get people that maybe We have not heard from or that haven't really been a part of much of the process And in addition too, I just wanted to point out that Even though it says like 18 percent For police department or this not specified 25 percent um Being an african-american person and sitting in a room it only takes one Person to say something to me or to say not even to me but to make a comment or For someone that I thought was my ally For that day for them to say something that totally shows That they just have chosen not to be my ally that day Shows that we need more training In this community And that could be enough To cause me to be defeated For for a second. I recoup trust me. I recoup But it's enough to cause me to be defeated just just for a day. So Where the numbers may not seem very significant They they can sting and they can hurt All the same so please don't let the the small numbers or The red and think that they're not they're not large because when you are pepper in a sea of white It it makes a difference. So that is my comment. Thank you please just quickly on the uh Inclusionary count your first point about inclusion That's one of the criteria we looked at in the equity group. Um, but there's also We will probably recommend to the To the task force that they create subcommittees around areas of interest And and if the if the group agrees There could be an opportunity for people to work for other employees to work on the subcommittees To give more people an opportunity to be in the process And the process itself Can change culture can change understanding the acumen And also the idea of working together to reach consensus All these are learning opportunities for the people that are involved in this process And we would agree with you as consultants. We would agree with you We we heard that in In our interviews and our focus groups, you know, that There there is some dissatisfaction, but you know, it's not It's not 70 dissatisfaction but that It informs how we look at changes within the city. Um, and the final thing I would say Just because I want to refresh everybody's memory Our approach is really to help all employees We don't have a limited we don't have a very strict racial frame in our work so Some of the cultural changes that that hopefully will come out of these recommendations will apply to all employees, you know, it'll it'll make a better place for everybody to be Belong in the city of Santa Rosa. So, uh, thank you for your Suggestions and we will definitely Move those forward in the process Any other comments from council? Councilmember alvarez Thank you, mayor, uh pa. I appreciate that comment, uh regarding all employees, especially under under the team That is a santa rosa the city of santa rosa my my my comment more than anything is i'm looking at at slide 26 21 And a couple others and i'm seeing what the collective responses are Yet when I go to slide 23 and I see the breakdown of race, ethnicity, gender, education levels and I'm trying to see the the real picture no matter how much it hurts or how much it gives me hope And when I look at the graphs, I see charts that are influenced So by those that might not relate to the struggle being held for example In slide 26 women who work and s r fd and fire department have the same opportunity to advance as everyone else Everyone else can't speak for women in this in this In this response And the same could be said about the lgbtq or people of color and i'm wondering if there's charts that give us The real and I don't mean to be offensive by using the real But maybe the painful Truth which is how that certain group feels and if there's a graph that demonstrates how women Feel in in that sense how lg Btq feel how people of color feel when you ask That certain group to respond So for example all members of the department what if I asked a person of color? What would the graph say if I asked a coca a coca Asian elderly men How will that person respond and and and so it's not influenced by those that simply don't understand What that struggle may may look like and it's really evidence in In slide 27 when it's asked the department is hampered in its effort to diversify its ranks by existing government departments or other restrictions And i'm seeing that only 16 percent are saying they agree with that But yet i'm sure that if you ask three of the four That number might actually Go down or go up So my question to you is Is there a way to present that information and again it might be a cold reality it might be hurtful But it's good to gauge where exactly we are we're at when we're asking those those specific individuals How they feel about the questions at hand So councilman councilman alvarez, I want you to I want to give this answer in two parts one is The survey data i'm going to give you a response on the survey data and then i'm going to give you a response On the interviews and focus groups. So you're you're mostly referring to the survey data And we can disaggregate this information and we could say, you know, we could tell you probably who these Thomas we can tell them who this uh this greens are The the problem we run into is the smaller the number of people that disagree Let's say there are three Hispanics that disagree In the fire department, you know Everybody will know who those three are So when when we disaggregate in the survey data that if it's the sampling is too small It will expose who who we're talking about if the other thing i'll say about the survey the survey is Is dictated by who who responds to the survey right we had 50 but 50 didn't respond So we can only control We can only relate to the people that respond which was overwhelmed overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male But if you go to slide three If if you look at what we did with the interviews and the focus groups, we were very intentional To reach out to constituencies that aren't always represented are always reflected. So if you look at The uh We did a cross-section of all the folks in the state, but the external folks we did nonprofit organizations We did local civic leaders um and then within um The the focus groups we looked at and we did one around race we did we are you know Hispanic focus group a latino latinx focus focus group. We did female focus group Evan help me out with these focus groups. What else do we? Yeah, I think we also tried to ensure we got a broad cross-section of line staff and administrative staff Versus middle management and upper management So whereas we may not have gotten the diversity Of staff or the large majority of staff in the survey. We did get 50 percent We really tried to be intentional with the qualitative and data collection and analysis to ensure we've got a diverse cross-section and that's important because what the survey is I mean with the interview and focus groups do is two things to the data One is they inform some of the questions that we ask in the survey So that because we did a lot of those interviews and focus groups. I think all of them first The second thing it does is it helps us to understand nuance of dynamic from communities That may not have been represented in the survey and so that's why you uh approve our our project to ensure that we collect both qualitative and quantitative to try and provide a As balanced a perspective as we can we can't force staff to complete a survey And and one other point I'll add To uh vice Mayor's rogers point Where do we get these names from? How do we get these names for interviews and focus groups? Again, we had to go to the staff, but we said look We want a cross-section So if they give the interview names and there are no latinx Males or females on the list. We say go back. Is there someone that you can have us interview that represents this perspective It was really hard finding african americans, but we but we actually found You know, we actually interviewed some african americans within the city So we were very intentional about Who we asked for to interview and the city was very supportive and very helpful in identifying names and uplifting names that We're a cross-section of race and gender. So We try to compensate for the survey with this with this part I do appreciate the explanation as as really just avoiding Any one of our staff members or any one of our our employees with City Santa Rosa is greatly appreciated. So I do appreciate that answer Um, it it does it again, it leads me wanting more, but I do understand the why of I would hate to see that any one of our employees felt harassed or or seen load out. So I do appreciate that very much Any additional comments council? All right, we'll go to public comment for our staff briefings. That's item 7.1 and 7.2 I want to say very uh, big. Thank you to the seed team and we're looking forward to the next steps as well I'm seeing thumbs up from council members If you're interested in providing public comment on either of our staff briefings go ahead and hit the raise hand feature on your zoom Madam city clerk. I'm not seeing any hands. Did we have any voicemail public comments? We received no public comments on this item via voicemail Okay, we'll keep moving. Thank you again so much All right, item number eight our city manager and city attorney of reports Thank you very much mayor and council members. Uh, I'm happy to to provide a couple of updates Our housing and community services division wanted us to report out that on friday october 29th at 3 p.m PEP housing will be holding a groundbreaking ceremony for the linda tunis senior apartments a 26 unit affordable senior rental complex in rink and valley That is receiving cdbg dr funding as well as project-based housing choice vouchers This is the first cdbg dr funded rental complex in the state to initiate construction Pretty excited about that The other is is in light of uh, the rain event that occurred over the course of the weekend I wanted to express a significant amount of appreciation to the staff who are out Supporting our community members And helping them withstand the waters that were Moving in and around all around them through each of the portions of our town In particular police and fire was very impressed with the work they were doing Very thankful that they were prepared and ready and provided the services they did to our community members As well as public works and center was a water All did a fantastic job in trying to alleviate the flood waters that did occur And try to keep other flood waters from occurring as the event wore on so I just wanted to express my appreciation about that That evening And that concludes my report I do have one brief item to report That uh, william gallagher filed a dismissal of his appeal regarding the city's all electric reach ordinance As you may recall mr. Gallagher challenged the ordinance in sonoma county superior court The court upheld the ordinance he then filed an appeal And with the court of appeals and his dismissal will end the litigation With the ordinance fully in effect. That's all Great work, uh all around. I was Very appreciative of the work that all of our staff was doing over the weekend police fire water Transportation public works. I know our executive team was Largely in the emergency operation center So just want to say thank you to everybody who who braved that storm And I also want to express gratitude to the city attorney's office for their work on the all electric ordinance It's great to have that behind us Counselor, are there any questions or comments on the city manager or city attorney reports? Seeing them, we'll go to public comment on this item Go ahead hit the raise hand feature on zoom if you'd like to comment right sing done And no public voice bails. We'll keep moving Let's go on to statements of abstention by absentia by council members Does anybody abstaining on any items tonight? Okay Mayors and council member reports. Does anybody have a report for tonight? council member fleming Thank you for hearing me I'm reporting out on The adoption of plan bay area last thursday. I'll read some excerpts from the The press release So the association of bay area governments and the metropolitan transportation commission thursday evening adopted plan bay area 2050 and it's associated environmental impact report The unanimous votes by both boards capped nearly a four-year process during which more than 20 000 bay area residents contributed to the development of the new plan Defined by 35 strategies for housing transportation economic vitality and the environment plan bay area 2050 lays out a 1.4 trillion dollar vision for policies and investments to make the nine bay area county region more affordable connected diverse Healthy and economically vibrant for all its residents through 2050 and beyond From housing strategies that would produce more than 1 million new permanently affordable homes by 2050 To transit fare reforms that would reduce cost burdens for riders with low incomes and paths to economic mobility Through job training and an universal basic income The goal of a more equitable bay area is interwoven throughout the plan with a groundbreaking focus on climate change strategies also crafted for resilience against future uncertainties including protection from hazards such as sea level rise and wildfires It could go on but it's been a long night and it's probably got a lot more to go But what I really want to say is that this isn't one step in an ongoing process of continuing to do what we're doing here in the city But also doing it more broadly and that this um involves so many people and i'm really excited to see what the next steps are So if you have any more questions, uh, please feel free to email me councilmember alvarez Thank you, mayor I omitted last week that i've appointed my last appointee to the charter review an ideas who Who wishes to become mayor by the age of 40? So i'm definitely trying to assist her in making that happen. Thank you, sir Thank you so much vice mayor Just want to report out on uh, friday october 22nd We uh mayor myself and councilman alvarez We were able to go to the santa rosa junior college And uh attend the student housing groundbreaking Which was Really nice and happy to see that there will be some housing At the jc. Uh, it's been a long time coming and uh that it will be great For future students there from there me and councilman alvarez went to Becoming independent And went to there It was a long day on friday. We went to their Groundbreak their groundbreaking. Um because they will be having a new building there. So that was great To see that And following that I'll leave one for you mayor You want to leave one for you? I'll leave one for you there Well, there's actually two So I appreciate that so following that uh, I was very happy to to join Uh councilmember alvarez councilmember soyer and the vice mayor at the remembrance for andy lopez That rounded out our day Lots of groundbreaking that are happening We also had a strong council contingent at the grand groundbreaking or excuse me the ribbon cutting for lantana homes I'm very happy to welcome Those families into their new homes and congratulations to burbank Housing for for that Since we last met we also had a climate action subcommittee Where we were able to focus on santa rosa waters energy optimization plan And there is also the citywide energy efficiency renewable and micro grid feasibility study That's going to help guide a lot of our work as we move forward I know that there's a couple of council members who've been particularly Interested in the idea around micro grids and how to make our city more resilient It is attached to that assessment is attached to the last climate action agenda And I recommend it for reading for folks who are interested in it Any other councilmember reports? Great. Let's see if there's any public comment on councilmember reports I see no hands and there are no voicemails Let's go on to approval of minutes. We have Five sets of minutes today. We have the july 20th special meeting and regular meetings The the august 3rd special meeting and regular meeting and the august 17th regular meeting minutes Councilor, are there any amendments to those five sets of minutes? councilmember alvarez Yes, thank you mayor 11.2 july 20th On the special the special no the second half of the meeting that was a special meeting as well I wasn't here for the second half of that meeting And councilmember fleming I missed it during statements of this Abstention I'll need to abstain from 11-1 and 11-2 because I was absent during the one meeting Okay Let's see if there's any public comment on item 11 agenda minutes seeing none We will see Let's show those minutes adopted With the correction from councilmember alvarez as well as an abstention from councilmember fleming for items 11.1 And 11.2 unless there's objection from council Seeing none, let's go on to the consent calendar Thank you very much mayor and council. Um, I unfortunately have to request that we pull item 12.5 As staff was preparing for this this evening. They noticed there was some There was a wrong attachment That staff included and so we will reschedule this for the next available meeting with the correct information. So please Remove 12.5 from any motion later this evening With that item 12.1 a motion city council priorities item 12.2 resolution professional services agreement number f 002 374 with ecs imaging incorporated for laser fiche item 12.3 resolution professional services agreement with meyer studio land architects incorporated A california corporation to provide landscape architectural design And engineering services and to prepare a master plan and construction documents for fremont neighborhood park item 12.4 resolution speed limits on sonoma avenue thomas lake harris drive and west steel lane Item 12.6 resolution approval of second amendment cooperative agreement between the state of california And the city of santa rosa for the herne avenue interchange highway 101 project Item 12.7 resolution folton road widening project between gernville road and pine a road mitigation credits purchase authorization Item 12.8 resolution authorizing the filing of an execution of an application for Funding from the federal transit administration buses and bus facilities program for federal fiscal year 21 2021 and committing any necessary matching funds item 12.9 resolution 2022 state transportation improvement program resolution of local support for highway 101 bicycle and pedestrian over crossing Thank you so much counselor. There are any questions on the eight items on the consent calendar for tonight Seeing none, we'll go to public comment. I have one hand up Start with julia Hi there. I'm julia donahoe and uh back in 2010 2009 2009 i was on the board of the american institute of architects in uh sonoma county and uh we were proponents with the leadership institute of ecology and the economy for studying the smart train at the northwest santa rosa stop and We engaged the community in a shred and urban design competition that considered the whole northwest santa rosa area and the Possibility of the bike bridge was part of the the design shred and we had a wonderful entry by paul harris submitted There was a book that was created. I wanted to make sure that everyone on council was aware of the book. It's called smart ideas smart for smart train and ideas because it was an ideas competition Uh smart ideas competition and urban design shred from northwest santa rosa It's available on blurb.com if you'd like to copy or I have provided it to drew weigel on the design review board And I think he's distributing it as well in a draft format In a big pdf. So it's not easy to email. So it's a more of a transfer thing, but um it was a group effort of many people including bikers architects lifey people the friends of smart and We brought experts from out of town who were experts in retrofitting suburbia ellen dunham jones and david baker from from san francisco who's an expert in housing And talked about many ideas. The one thing that was really outstanding was the idea of this bike bridge being a place maker So the entry for the bridgeway was really about creating a place maker and some some sort of identifier along the Along the road along the highway. So people coming out from san francisco really have a sense of santa rosa being here and they're being a smart train and they're being The charles schultz museum and the county center and the s r jc and conningtown mall and and all these things happening in that area of town Not just driving through on the freeway to healdsburg or to You know further north yukai or whatever wherever they're going and really Trying to make that opportunity a place maker There's a current design on the table that these funds will go for I really want to advocate for these funds The current design is a cable state bridge. We're not so sure that that really represents santa rosa Although it's very swiss engineering iconic But we'd like to see something that maybe along the lines of a design competition like we did for the obelisk Down on santa rosa avenue where we got local engineers and artists and People interested in biking together to create something that really was representative of our area So so maybe some some sort of integration with steven grover's concept, but advocate for the money Do approve the money go get the money and let's do this. Thanks Thank you, julia. We'll go to justin Hi, um, my name is justin robel. Thank you for considering the speed limit change On sonoma avenue between south a and santa rosa avenue Uh, I would like to say I agree with the proposed establishments of the speed limit on sonoma avenue Unsure how everybody how Familiar everybody is with our area here So I'd just like to point out a few things real quick We do have the luther burbank elementary school two churches julia park the prince gateway park Also known as fish park prince memorial and principal memorial parkway all right in this proposed area These all bring significant pedestrian Traffic with parents dropping off and picking up their kids from The elementary school bikers getting geared up to take rides Down the creek path and the congregations that attend the church of The divine man and the events at the church of one tree and julia park Along with the entrance to julia park in the middle of sonoma avenue where people often cross the Cross sonoma avenue in order to to gain entrance And then uh, I guess That's really the gist of it. Uh, although I spoke with a lot of my neighbors and We've all said that if it ends up being an item of uh, you know, like a budget item that that Procludes us from getting some signage We'd be happy to discuss, you know putting putting together the finances for that Um, along with any additional student crossing or school crossing signs. There's currently only one Uh school sign. It's kind of I don't think it's quite sufficient. Um for the amount of traffic that that comes into the neighborhood But I guess that's all I have. Thank you Thank you so much. Justin and I'll look over to our assistant city manager really quick I believe that the funds for any signage change is already in the budget Yes, mayor. That is correct Excellent councilor. Are there any questions or comments on the consent calendar? All right, I'll turn it over to the vice mayor I move items 12.1 through 12.4 and 12.6 through 12.9 and weigh further reading of the text second That is a motion from the vice mayor with a second from councilmember Sawyer Let's go ahead call the vote Thank you councilmember tibbetz Aye Councilmember Sawyer Aye Councilmember Fleming Yes councilmember alvarez Aye Vice mayor rogers Aye Mayor rogers Aye That motion passes with six ayes with councilmember schwaidhelm absent All right, we will go to our first of two public comment periods for the evening. That's item 13 If you're interested in providing public comment go ahead hit the raise hand feature on zoom And I see eric will start Good evening council and um Mayor rogers Really appreciate you on this fine evening This is eric frazier with truth in tourism at gmail.com. It's my address I wanted to make a comment because of course we're in the throes of The after effect of the str urgency ordinance It's a process that we maintain was short on facts heavy on fiction And um abruptly abuse the public process You'll learn more about that in a lawsuit that should be filed soon This is a grassroots effort to fund our legal work We are looking for a war chest in the six figures And it appears that we have enough money to initiate suit. There'll be more on that later But I did want to bring some facts, you know as we're sort of parsing through The wake of things and also doing the work that staff should have done prior to The economic subcommittee meeting It is interesting to see when we look at the impact of for instance the permit fee on people so using documents Responded from the city to our cpr requests We've been able to learn from these documents the amount of tot tax collected per address for instance, how long um A particular address has been active in submitting tot and that sort of thing So using the last year where we have a full year's worth of data in 2020 We see that there are 211 tot paying accounts 38 of those were commercial hotels or motels that leaves about a hundred and so it leaves 173 exactly st Are like accounts now out of those 65 percent or a hundred and thirteen Remitted less than what you're asking for a permit fee. They remitted less than 1129 dollars annually Now the average of that group of 113 was only 404 dollars in to tax submission Which is two and three quarters times Their annual submission is what you're asking for permit fees Now that's outrageous It truly is outrageous. Why are you pushing down on our senior citizens? Are people that are looking to supplement their housing expense? It really is disgraceful quickly another news item crossed my desk and that was this allegation that 99 percent of politicians are psychopaths I didn't believe that so I need to verify it. Don't worry. It's only 20 percent But you should actually read up on what psychopathy is lack of remorse pathological lying Uh callous lack of empathy I hope you sleep well Thank you. Thank you, eric I see no other hands and we have no voicemail public comments. We'll move on to item 14.1 Thank you, mayor and council. Item 14.1 is a report item Trust agreement and authorize an authorizing filing of validation action for pension obligation bond issuance Alan Alton our acting chief financial officer will believe the reporting Major mayor rogers and members of the council This item Will uh is actually the first step From our study session on september 14 Where we laid out a number of pension of strategies for Dealing with the city's pension obligation cost move on to the next slide, please so The city is looking at various strategies for addressing rising calcurs pension costs and one of those is to Is the potential for issuing Pension obligation bonds to refund a portion of its unfunded accrued liability or ual So we presented this strategy to the council in the study session on the 14th And at that study session council gave direction to staff to return with an item That initiates the validation process That is necessary prior to the issuance of pobs Next slide, please so again, the validation process this is the first step in in And moving forward with the process to issue bonds. However It absolutely does not obligate the city to issue bonds. It's just a unique process that That is unique to pobs Essentially what will happen is the city will initiate A Legal proceeding in superior court And that will determine that the bonds are legal obligations of the city This process depends on how long The court docket is backed up that it could take anywhere from four to five months Um And again during this that is the the first step before any issuance could happen Next next slide. So the next steps that we would take would be to Along with the financing team for the bonds To analyze the amount of pobs that would need to be issued to generate any savings Whether it was or determined whether it was Feasible for us to issue based on interest rates and And go through that process and then once The validation is complete and we have a what's called a plan of finance We would then come back to the council with a bond purchase agreement Uh for the sale of the bonds and a preliminary official statement relating To one or more series of bonds So those are the actual Documents that uh that deal with the bonds themselves. These are what we're doing now is just the preliminary steps So with that It's recommended by the finance department that the council by resolution One authorize the issuance of one or more series of city of santa rosa pension obligation bonds To approve and authorize execution and delivery of an adventure of trust uh relating thereto Three authorize a validation action related to pension obligation bonds And for direct staff to return to the council For approval of documents related to the initial series of pension obligation bonds And with that I am happy to answer any questions that you have All right council any questions for alan? I don't see any so we'll go to public comment And I see no hands for public comment and we have no voice mails as well So alan just want to thank you Obviously we've I think this is our fourth time discussing this and I know this is the first Actual step that puts us in a position to execute down the road So I just want to thank you and your team for all the work that you've done With that we have councilmember soyer with the item Thank you, mayor I'll introduce the resolution of the council the city of santa rosa Authorizing the issuance of one or more series of pension obligation bonds To refinance the outstanding obligations of the city to the california public employees retirement system approving an indenture of trust Authorizing a judicial validation action and approving and directing related matters and way further reading second We have a motion from councilmember soyer and a second from councilmember fleming any additional comments Okay seeing none Let's call the vote councilmember tibbet all right councilmember soyer hi councilmember fleming yes councilmember alvarez Councilman, thank you Vice mayor rogers. Hi mayor rogers. Hi that motion passes with six eyes with councilmember schwedhelm absent Great, we have item 16. That's our written communication It is the quarterly board commission and committee's attendance report Councilmembers, do you have any questions or comments on that? Yeah, really quick just want to thank everyone that has volunteered thus far to sit on all the boards Um and committees for their dedication and their time That they're giving giving up to to serve our our community. Thank you Well said vice mayor, let's see if there's any public comment on the committee reports The attendance report I see no hands We'll go to our second and final public comment period for the night a little bit truncated because we did our Our public hearings earlier, but if anybody did not speak in the first Public comment and would like to now go ahead raise your hand on zoom And I see no hands popping up as well with that council we will adjourn