 the Spanish . Thank you Pablo. Good morning. Let's go ahead and call our special city council meeting and it's special because it's the holidays. Special city council meeting to order. Councilmember Shwedhelm. Here. Councilmember Sawyer. Here. Councilmember Fleming. Vice mayor Alvarez. President. Mayor Rogers. Here. Let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmember Fleming. So because our city attorney never misses an opportunity to put more work on the agenda. Since we are having a special council meeting we're going to start with two closed session items. Do we have any public comment for items 2.1 or 2.2? We do. We receive no written public comment nor voice message public comments on this item. Okay. Do we have any hands on zoom? We have no hands on zoom for item 2 closed session items. For those wishing to make a public comment on closed session please raise your hand if participating via telephone. Mayor I see no hands being raised for public comment on item 2 closed session items. All right. We'll go into closed session then. We'll be back for our regular item after this. And welcome back. Madam city clerk could you please call the roll. Yes. Thank you mayor. Councilmember Schwedhelm. Here. Councilmember Sawyer. Here. Councilmember Rogers. President. Councilmember Fleming. Here. Vice mayor Alvarez. Thank you. Madam city attorney could you please give a brief report on our closed session? Yes. Thank you Mr. Mayor. The council met in closed session. Discussed two items. First was 2.1 which is a conference with real property negotiator concerning properties located on Herne avenue. Council gave direction to the negotiator. Council also discussed item 2.2 which is a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation. That is the Vinucci versus County of Sonoma and city of Santa Rosa case. Again council discussed the matter and gave direction to legal counsel. Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll move on to item 5.1 that is our discussion on the council vacancy. Madam city attorney I believe it is time to move on to item 6. Thank you. Madam city attorney could you please give us off. Yes I am. Thank you. And it is still morning. Good morning mayor and council members. As you know council member Tibbets announced his resignation from the council at last next slide. So we move into how do we fill that vacant position. The city charter provides that the vacancy may be filled either by appointment by the council or by the calling of a special election. If the council is going to fill the position by appointment that will have to be done within 60 days and that is by Saturday February 19th. Next slide. If the council chooses to fill the vacancy by special election the election will be governed by state elections code and under the elections code the earliest potential date for a special election to fill the vacancy created by council member Tibbets resignation. The earliest potential date is June 7th. This is there 2020 of course that would be June 7th 2022. The estimated cost of the election the snowman county registrar of voters has given us this estimate would be between 56 little over 56,000 up to a little under 103,000. That cost is based on the number of registered voters in the district. If the council wants to move forward with a special election in June the council must call the election by February 13th 2022. And I do want to note and I think we'll probably talk about it as we go forward this is a decision entirely within the discretion of the council. I do want to note though a June election would add considerable workload to the city clerk's office and please keep in mind that this is at the same time that we are moving forward on both redistricting and the charter review. So this would be additional work on top of that. Primarily for the city clerk's office also of course for our office. Next slide. If the council decides to move forward to fill the vacancy by appointment that is governed by council policy number 00-23. That was originally adopted in 1988 and it's been refined a couple of times since. That policy creates a seven step process. The list is there. You adopt a schedule, you prepare the application forms, close the application period, disclose the process, prepare interview questions, have the interview and then a voting process that is set forth from the policy and then finally the appointment. The next slides coming up will walk through that process. So step one is that the policy requires that the council adopt a schedule at the earliest possible date. So we are here today to talk about a potential schedule. First the date and time by which applications must be submitted. The date and time for the public to submit potential interview questions. We'll talk a little bit more about that. And then finally the date or dates for the actual applicant interviews and those interviews will have to take place at a public meeting. Next slide. We've set forth a suggested schedule but this is very much again in the discretion of the council. We can be flexible. The application period is to run, we're proposing that it runs for 14 days. We had a similar 14-day application period back in when we had the vacancy that was created by Julie Combs departure. We're proposing to open it on January 3rd at noon and close the following Monday January 17th at 5 p.m. Although I just did get a notice that apparently the third may be a city holiday. And so we may want to adjust that since we will not be accepting any applications when we are closed. So one possibility and again up to the council maybe we move it to Wednesday through Wednesday. So January 5th through January 19th. Similar issues going to come up with the period for the public to submit proposed interview questions. We also propose that would run for 14 days and we were just having it mirror the application period. So finally we've suggested that the city council interviews could take place on February 8th and 10th if necessary. We have not pulled the council and had the opportunity to do that to make sure that everyone would be available on those dates. So that's the schedule. So we're hoping that the council will adopt a schedule today. And next step the application form. So in accordance with the policy, the council's policy, the application must include three things. Statement of the background, statement of your qualifications and statement of why the applicant wishes to be appointed. Additional questions can be added by the council and in fact in the instance of in the 2019 vacancy there were a number of, I think there were eight additional questions that were added. The application must be accompanied by a nomination form that has signatures of at least 20 registered voters. And also the applicant must complete and submit a statement of economic interest. That's the commonly known as the form 700. Next slide. We did attach a suggested application form to the staff report and includes all of the elements required by the policy and then it adds additional questions. The application form does not need to be finalized today if you give discretion on what's been used in the past council appointments but again completely at the discretion of the council. The last vacancy, my recollection there was an ad hoc that was appointed to help craft those questions. So that is an option as well. I would say if you give discretion and authority to an ad hoc to finalize it obviously the application will have to be posted and available to people in sufficient time before opening of the application period. So given the holidays really our time is very short. Next slide. The policy sets forth a statement regarding the disclosure of applications and no application information will be disclosed before the application period is closed not disclosed by city officials or city employees. Following the deadline for submittal of applications all of the applications become public and they are available for anyone to review at the city clerk's office. Next slide. Step four, the interview questions for the public. Again the council will decide on what questions go on to the application itself and then we need to provide an opportunity for the public to submit questions for use by the council during the actual interviews. Once the we close the application period and then the proposed questions will be forwarded to all the council members. Council members can use those questions as they wish. They may use them or not. There is no requirement that the questions submitted by the public be used during the applicant interviews. Next slide. The council can also decide to provide advanced questions for the applicants that are to be interviewed. They can propose advanced questions and they can also direct that the applicants provide a written response before the interview or can simply provide verbal responses to those advanced questions during the interviews. Again, if the mayor wishes to point an ad hoc committee to help draft those questions that is permissible or individual council members may simply come up with their own questions. Step 5. Next slide. So we've gotten the applications all in. We've gotten the questions all set and the interviews take place during a public meeting, during a regular council meeting, doesn't have to be regular, but during a public meeting each applicant is interviewed and each applicant must be given the opportunity to make a brief opening statement and then to respond to any advanced questions if the council submitted any advanced questions. Then each council member is given that opportunity to question the applicant and that questions can be on any subject that the council member feels is relevant to the applicants' qualifications. And the council member can place a time limit on each interview or can place a limit on the number of questions asked. That can be done once we know how many applications we have received. Next slide. The voting procedure and this is by a process of elimination in the first round each council member, this is all set forth in the policy, each council member shall vote but if we have 10 or more applicants, or more than 10 applicants, council may allow for 4 votes, the mayor may allow for 4 votes in that first round. Those applicants receiving one vote or less are eliminated and we move on to the next round where each of the council member's votes for one fewer applicant in the prior round. And until you keep lowering that down until we're down to you have each council member has just one vote. The applicant at the end of that process that receives 4 votes in the final round is appointed to fill the vacancy and next slide. If no applicant receives a majority vote of the council and that did occur during our last vacancy, the council may adopt such other procedures for appointment as it deems appropriate. Again, the charter requires that the appointment be made within 60 days. Again, that's the mid-February date. If an appointment is not made within that timeframe, then a special election must be called. Next slide. This has to do with how long the appointee serves or either elected or appointed individual serves. If the council moves by a special election then the successor serves for the duration of council member tibbet's term. So that's four-year term, the remaining ends in December of 2024. So another three years. If the council moves forward with an appointment, then the appointee will be elected in November of next year. And then the individual that's elected in that November election will serve for the duration of council member tibbet's term again until December 2024. And then I want to note for the public and of course for the council that council member tibbet's was elected from and represents council district three. So the successor, whether elected or appointed, must also reside in district three. And next slide. It is recommended by our office and by the city clerk that the council by motion approve the procedure and schedule for filling the council vacancy created by the resignation of council member Jack tibbet's. I'll also note that I did have a question that came to me as to whether the council could appoint someone in February and also hold a special election in June and yes, there would be nothing that would preclude that. In that case, the person who was appointed would just serve for those few months between February and June. Happy to answer any questions. All right, thank you so much Madam City Attorney. Madam City Clerk, is there anticipated to be a significant cost if the council were to put this on in June versus November? Yes, there would be. And just to make an amendment to the cost that was presented in the presentation, I did receive an e-mail yesterday from the registrar voters office and because Sonoma County has been designated a bilingual county due to the census, we now have to factor in an additional 50 cents to a dollar per voter for the election. So in a special election for District 3, that cost now is anywhere from $65,982 to $122,538 and that would be the burden on just the city for a special election. If the council waits until November, then that cost is divided between the four districts. If District 3 is added to the ballot along with districts 2, 4 and 6. And then also it's factored with any measures and it's divided between the other cities that are run by the county. Okay. Councilor, are there any additional questions? All right, seeing none, let's go to public comment on this item. There is nobody in the chambers. Madam Deputy City Clerk, can you check and see if there are any hands on zoom? Mayor, I'm seeing no hands be raised on zoom for the council vacancy item 5.1 on the agenda. Okay. And did we have any voicemails? We did not. I'll bring it back to council then. Is there any discussion before I entertain a motion? I'll ask Council Member Schwedhelm to put a motion on the table for discussion. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move a motion that the council fills former council member Tibbet's seat by a council appointment consistent with council policy 000-23 and I also support the suggested schedules outlined by staff. I will second. And as a point of clarification that would be an appointment consistent with the city attorney's outline, an appointment for essentially one year until the November election for 2022 can select a successor. That is correct. Okay. Is there any additional discussion from council? Council Member Fleming? Yes. I know some of you were there and some of you weren't. When we went through this process I want to say two years ago now and I'm concerned that the benefits of going through this process as outlined outweigh the downside outweighs the benefits that it's going through this process the benefit to the community as outlined is cost savings and representation the downside is that it's for a very short period of time and I'm wondering if there's any appetite on the council to have a special election in June in the primaries and to wave the process of appointing someone for four months in the interim. Looking for additional hands or discussion? Okay. Well it seems that everybody is excited maybe they go through that again I'll be there with you then. I'll give some comments Council Member I think from my perspective it's worth looking putting it out there to see if there's anybody who would apply to fill in for a year that can provide constituent services and representation for the community if we don't find anybody who has the skill set or the experience that we're looking for we have the special election that's scheduled at that point for the voters to be able to decide for themselves. Okay well my thought on it you know just to counter is that this is a district that has some of the highest voting participation rates in the state therefore by holding a primary election we would not be disadvantaged by the public participation in the election and we would be giving the community from which Council Member Tibbets was elected additional time to have a duly elected representative in his seat so I think that probably the most democratic way is to move it up and get it done with rather than having us you know put our finger on it now that we're in district elections I think it is you know really not so much our place anymore to tell a community to represent themselves and I'm not sure that three or four months that we can't function as a six member council I think we can get it done it's really not that long and it you know there's a lot of burden on the city clerk's office moving it up there's also a lot of burden on staff it's going to take many meetings and ad hoc and all kinds of extra meetings to get somebody to fill in for a few months a year that could easily be avoided by a more streamlined process and I think you know we've heard from staff over and over about how this process you know we're overburdening staff and this is one way to just cut out a ton of work for everybody and have district three have a representative of their own for longer so I'll support the will of the council but I think that this just makes a heck of a lot more sense to go that way I understood Council Member and just as a point of clarification what I've heard from staff is that it is more of an impact on them to move it up so I am cognizant of the staff time and that's part of why I'm supportive of November any additional okay so the motion on the table is to call a special election in November and to start the appointment process in the interim for somebody to fill in Madam City Clerk can you please call the vote? The motion would then be with the change that I mentioned that the application period would begin January 5th and end January 19th and the time period for the public to submit interview questions would also begin January 5th and end January 19th and that the interviews would be scheduled on Tuesday February 8th and continue on to Wednesday February 9th if need be. I'm looking to the motion just to confirm whether or not it was included yes all right and the second for me I will second that motion let's call the vote Councilmember Schwedhelm Councilmember Sawyer Councilmember Rogers Councilmember Fleming Vice Mayor Alvarez Mayor Rogers that motion passes with six eyes thankfully we didn't need a tiebreaker on that vote with that we'll go ahead and adjourn thank you everybody have a good holiday. May I also ask I'm sorry before we adjourn in terms of preparation of questions advanced questions do you want to consider appointment of an ad hoc do you want us to I mean advanced questions we would not prepare that for staff but if you're comfortable with questions that are set forth in the proposed application that was attached to the staff report we can simply move forward to that. I look to my colleagues Councilmember Sawyer thank you Mayor well I think that the questions that were developed at our last process were comprehensive and I'd never heard I didn't hear any complaints about those questions yes there is a question about whether or not we want the applicants have an questions that they would respond to in writing that's something that we do we need to decide that today as well no we don't need to decide that the application form the questions that are on the application and what we'll do is we'll make sure that what we've attached is consistent with what we did in the last go around and we'll have the application last time those questions are submitted in advance I mean the responses to those questions are included in the application I don't recall last year or last time whether we had any additional advanced questions but if you're comfortable with what's in the application itself there is not a need to have advanced questions and the application the questions that are asked in the application are good ones and kind of can give the council I believe a good sense of the applicants background etc and there's also something to be said for the council applicants ability to think on their feet which they will have to do in service so I don't see any need to have anything in writing any questions that need to be in writing to the applicant questions I think they are adequate thank you any additional feedback council members Mr. Vice Mayor thank you Mayor I would ask those who have been involved in the process before how beneficial the question was whether the applicant had intents to run at a future date and the advantage that creates I do remember a conversation about that and the conversation was you can you can ask the applicant whether they have an intention to run in November but you can't use that as a final decision making you can use that to weigh your decision as to whether or not to select an applicant but it would not be the only issue that one could use in other words I don't believe that we can put in the application form nor can we restrict an applicant from running in the November election but you can ask them the question if I remember right that was the process yes that's correct so nor would it be binding in that sense no but Vice Mayor I will say my history is not as long as some folks at the dais I know that in all three cases all three individuals promised not to run for the seat two kept that promise and did not run including the last two and then the third one did end up running and actually ended up losing in the election because it was held against that individual that they had not kept their promise in part thank you any other feedback sounds like we're good with the questions thank you anything else before we adjourn thank you everybody you guys next year bye council members happy holidays happy holidays