 Do we have a city attorney all right seeing that we have a city attorney and a city manager I'd like to call the order the February 25 regular meeting of the city of Santa Rosa Madam city clerk roll call, please Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of mayor Schwedhelm and councilmember Sawyer Are there any of the let's see Any members of the public wishing to speak on items 2.1 addressed in closed session Do you have any comment cards on that? Okay Madam city attorney, would you like to report out on closed session items? Yes, thank you vice mayor The council met in closed session and discussed item 2.1 and gave direction to legal counsel As to item 2.2 Council continued that item to its next meeting on March 3rd All right, thank you very much and then we're moving on to the proclamation I'd like to welcome Bernice Espinoza, Kathleen Reinhart and Leslie Graves down to the floor and my daughter Evie Fleming who has graciously agreed to help me with the proclamation. She can come sit next to me Also, this is the first meeting of the city of Santa Rosa led by a woman in over six years The last one was January 28 2014 led by vice mayor Robin Swinth. Evie, do you have anything you'd like to say before we get started? This is Okay, how about when we finish great work Okay Whereas the year 2020 marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution Which ensures the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex Whereas the great state of California became the 18th state to ratify the 19th amendment on November 1 1919 Whereas citizens of Santa Rosa including among others Sarah Latimer Finley Cara boys Emmett Sewell Francis McGoffy Martin and her sisters Annabelle McGoffy Stewart and Elizabeth McGoffy Work diligently to secure votes in favor of separate leading to the ratification of the 19th amendment and the approval of the California Senate constitutional amendment number eight on October 10 1911 and Whereas neither the 19th amendment of the United States Constitution nor the 8th amendment of the state of California Constitution guarantee suffrage to all women or all citizens of the United States and Whereas the fact that today women are active in local state and national government in our running for office in unprecedented members Reminds us that we all follow in the footsteps of those resolute American suffragists who came before us and Whereas Sonoma County 2020 women's suffrage project has been established in partnership with the National Women's History Alliance and in collaboration with many local organizations set forth as a year-long project to celebrate the centennial of the 19th amendment and Whereas Sonoma County 2020 women's suffrage project is committed to creating programs which explore the complex long history and continuing fight for inclusion of all women For and franchisement including women of color trans women and non-binary individuals now there be Therefore be it resolved that on behalf of the mayor of the city of Santa Rosa and the city council I do hereby proclaim the year 2020 as with women's suffrage centennial Thank You vice mayor Victoria Fleming and thank you to the council members on behalf of the Sonoma County 2020 women's suffrage project we want to invite you to all of our events and you can find out more about them on our website at WWW Soco women 2020.org This year is a very important year not only the centennial of the 19th amendment but as we know it is an important election year and We have the census so it's important that we're all counted and it's important that we're all represented moving forward and Making sure that the dream of the 19th amendment for universal suffrage is actualized Thank You Thank you very much Moving on to staff briefing city manager McGlynn. Is there anything to report on item 7.1? Nothing for this evening Cindy managers report no report this evening Statements of abstention by council members seeing none Mayor and council members report I'll start with you mr. Dowd Anything you'd like to report would you turn on your microphone por favor would you mind turning on your microphone? No worries Thank you. I attended as the alternate to the Santa Rosa plain groundwater sustainability agents and We approved the audit for the 2018-2019 physical year and do we also reviewed and approved the Rough budget for the 2020-2021 physical year and also Took some direction on appointments to the advisory committee assignment and then the other Subcommittee Russian River watershed Association Board meeting is this Thursday. Thank you mr. Rogers anything? Mr. Tibbetts Mr. Olivares, okay Approval of the February 11 2020 minutes are there any corrections or changes? Okay minutes approved as is Can we move on to the consent calendar before I've okay item 12 consent calendar mr. McGlynn Item 12.1 resolution approval of professional services agreement with baron and bud PC and Dixon Dab and chambers LLP to provide legal representation on behalf of the city of San Rosa in connection with the potential litigation against PG&E arising from the Kincaid fire of October 2019 12.2 resolution Thomas Florian Frazier property acquisition item 12.3 resolution amendment to the city classification and salary plan creating the Classification of deputy director community engagement and reclassification of the vacant director of community Programs and engagement position to deputy director community engagement item 12.4 resolution approving and authorizing the mayor to execute the amended and restated joint powers agreement for Sonoma County Public Safety Consortium dated March 1st 2020 Item 12.5 resolution approval blanket purchase order for public notice printing services item 12.6 Ordinance adoption second reading ordinance of the council of the city of Santa Rosa amending title 20 of the Santa Rosa city code to amend Chapter 20 dash 1 6 Resilience city develop measures by adding section 20 dash 1 6 dot 1 3 0 second 12-month automatic extension for the tentative maps associated entitlements to address continued housing and economic development needs within the city following the tubs and nuns fires of October 2017 file number re z 1 9 dash 0 1 2 Thank you any questions from the council Mr. Tibbet, could you pull item to 12.1 for discussion Indeed Okay, anything else from the council Okay, any comment cards I have one from mr. DeWitt Hello, my name is Dwayne DeWitt. I'm from Roseland and I would come here today because I've Had a lot of experience with people who are thoroughly involved with authentic community engagement in numerous governmental situations I do not support this item I believe that it's very important that you step back from this whole department And perhaps just abolish it End it and go with upgrading the skills of your marketing and outreach people who are in numerous departments Apparently it might be over 10 of these employees And I think it would be much better to save the money This over a hundred thousand dollars That's going to be given annually to someone to essentially Make sure that folks go along to get along That's not the way it should be In a democracy such as ours a republic actually It is imperative to have that opportunity for people who may not agree with those at the top to dissipate fully and have their Ideas and their Desires if you will be considered a part of the discussion What's happening now? You go to the community advisory board you find that people who represent districts don't even talk To the people in the district they're supposed to represent except for maybe some of their friends. They might know They don't reach out to others You also find that this is a spot this community advisory board It was originally set up decades ago through the community action The community involvement task force to be a community action team And essentially what it's become now is go along to get along with the bureaucracy Make sure that the bureaucracy looks okay And do what they're saying they want to do It's not coming from the bottom up not from the grassroots Especially in areas like roseland Where we were kept out of the mix for 20 some odd years Then the last section was recently annexed and told well You'll have to go along to get along with what we've already got planned And we weren't even given somebody on the council We had to wait two extra years Saying that oh those rosland folks. They need to learn how to do it Actually, we know how to do it We understand authentic community engagement and we understand being a part of a fair process What you have right now in this department Of community engagement And seeking a deputy director Is essentially a political slush slush fund situation Some monies go to some people that get their word in Some things get done to help them But on the bigger picture a lot of folks are getting left out As a matter of fact, none of the folks that I know over in rosland were told by their community advisory board Member that this budget hearing was coming up today, which is a very important hearing This should be something that all people in the city are aware of That's true authentic community engagement. Thank you for your time. Please abolish this position All right, thank you Do you want to guide us through the conversation about Yeah, I will move items 12.2 through 12.6 of the consent calendar and wait further reading of the text Second Your votes, please All right, and that a vote passes with five eyes Yeah, 12.1 Thank you, madam vice mayor This is a question for the city attorney about the kinkade contract with raren and bud How much in damages are we expecting? From the kinkade fire We are still in the process of evaluating damages. We have damages in a number of different areas Including staffing First responders fire services operation of the eoc closure of city hall and in addition some damage to A damage and disruption to our wastewater treatment system and potentially to other City infrastructure as well So we do not have the numbers at this Time that is part of the engagement Baren and bud and others will assist us in gathering all that data and putting the numbers together While I recognize we don't have a number Determined at this point in time based on the things that you just told me would it be reasonable to assume that The damages that you just explained are likely in the magnitude of the tens to millions if not hundreds to millions of dollars Potentially potentially I would say probably in the tens of millions. Okay one one prevailing it may it may be Significantly less it may be more But somewhere in the in the millions or 10 millions and when we went out and we solicited dids for the kink for the the tubs fire Yes, I recognize that baren and bud was Among the law firms are of the best value But were they were there any other firms particularly local firms that were cost competitive? There were other firms most of the other firms That we met with or that I interviewed some we met with as a group Some I I interviewed separately The the prices ranged from the low baren and buds low of of 18 percent up to 33 percent There was no one no firm that was At least at the outset As low as baren and bud. There was a firm that offered to meet My recollection to to match baren and buds baren and bud also was not simply a cost factor about a factor of their experience in wildfires and Their experience in consolidating coordinated litigation And also their experience and sensitivity to Public entities and the particular needs and interests of sensitivities of public entities the the firm that Offered to meet what baren and bud were providing were they local or were they from out of the area? They I believe I don't know where their main offices are i'm sorry I don't recall The reason why i'm asking these questions is because well one more question before I lead to my comment Did we to to determine that we were going to go with baren and bud in the consent calendar right now? On this date did we go out and reach out to law firms both locally and regionally statewide? Nationally to also see if we could get a cost competitive bid for the king cave fire representation We did not go out for a competitive process In this with this particular engagement given our experience And there are other public entities that have already engaged baren and bud in the In response to the king cave fire With respect to the 2017 wildfires. We found it very helpful very useful to be in a collaborative situation with our other Local public entity partners and for those reasons we determined to go with baren and bud Okay, the the comment i want to bring up is is that i'm i'm really i've had a lot of concerns You know i've a lot of times been a big eye up here on this dais who has been a lone vote against certain contracts because we didn't choose The local bidder particularly when they were cost competitive whether they were within a percent or two of Of the lowest responsive bidder and my prevailing concern here Is that i feel like as a representative on this council we have to be judicious with money that Comes in and becomes available both in terms of the city of santa rosa and what we're able to put in our coffers here As well as what we can do to put in the coffers of local businesses within this city And when we look at the amount of money that the city is likely to receive From the tubs fire litigation settlement We're probably talking about sums in the tens of millions of dollars that's going to be sent to A law firm in a jurisdiction out of this state And that really bothers me particularly when and i and i'm not trying to discount the work that baren and bud has done i'm sure they've represented us well, but Again, i struggle with we have these local firms It sounds like some have tried to be cost competitive And they've been in this community giving in this community for decades and that generosity the support for the local community has never ceased Yet we did not go out and solicit bids for the kinkade fire to see if we can get something cost competitive and and hopefully An advantageous scenario where we're able to keep a lot of this money locally So i just i appreciate the work that you're doing you're in your office And i know that you're busy and soul source contracts really help From going through an rfp and interview process But i just say this because this public needs to be aware and this council needs to be in my opinion A little bit more judicious about how we watch money flow in and out of this community And if i may i just want to clarify we did go through a very comprehensive competitive process with respect to the initial fires in 2017 and in many ways this is a continuation of that effort But i i do hear your comments and appreciate them Mr. Rogers Thank you. Uh, madam city attorney Just on that point about the continuation between tubs and kinkade Is there still? I guess the way to put this is how tenuous Is the tub's fire Settlement and will the kinkade fire Discussion impacted in any way the um The proposed settlement uh in the 2017 fires Has been announced the four hundred and fifteen million for the nine A north bay public entities that settlement agreement is subject to A bankruptcy court approval bankruptcy has jurisdiction and ability to Modify that total amount modify how that amount is allocated amongst the jurisdictions Um Whether that will whether the initiation of a lawsuit in kinkade we do not anticipate that it will negatively affect The the potential for that settlement. Um, that would certainly be something that we have looked in we have looked at and considered But it is timely to Move forward with kinkade and we are not concerned at this point that it will interfere at all with the 2017 Potential settlement proposed settlement Now that being said that is another reason why it is Advantages at this point to continue with baron and bud. We're very familiar with All that is going on in the bankruptcy and has is very sensitive to Not doing anything That could disrupt that uh that initial settlement. Okay. Thank you Anything further Mr. Rogers Yeah, I will move item 12.1 and leave further reading of the text Okay, your votes, please And that passes with four eyes one day from councilmember tibets All right, um, and on that note we will uh Reconvene at 5 p.m. For a public comment on non-agenda matters All right Seeing that we have a city attorney and a city manager. Um, we're going to reopen the Council meeting the regular council meeting Item 13 public comment on non-agendized items. Uh, first up we have catherine vignette Catherine followed by valerie jordan Hi, i'm catherine vinello. I'm the councilor at richway high school in santa rosa And i'm here to talk about School resource officers today And just to give a brief history. I've been there 30 years. So about 30 years ago richway high school There were four high schools in santa rosa and richway was one of the four that shared A resource officer with another school And we did that until about 2006 We had a we had an interim principal for two years And there was also a change in the police department with the lieutenant who was in charge of the sROs And somehow we lost our sRO And we have not had one since and We're finding that a lot of people don't know that in the district or the city That richway is one of the only high school actually that doesn't have an sRO at our school We do have i've been there 30 years. So i've seen changes with our student population We have almost twice the number of students we had 30 years ago. We've got kids who have a lot of trauma in their lives Anxiety depression and there's a lot going on as we all know in our society now and As you know from reading the paper and the news we also had A shooting there at the school and it's interesting because a couple weeks before I had written to our school board Asking that richway be considered for an sRO. We really need when we have them before It just changed the climate of our school. Many of our students don't have Some of our students don't have positive Relationships with police officers that really created a really great relationship with police officers when they were there on campus Visiting with the kids They probably the police officer that we had probably spent three or four hours a day there And it created a different Environment there. I do not believe that shooting would have happened if we had a sRO on our campus for two reasons one is the kids Um if it just creates a different atmosphere than the all-state effect that the kids know that there's a police officer there I don't think that kind of thing would have happened at our school We're desperately meeting an sRO part time at richway high school We want to be included with the five other high schools that do have them and I'm also willing to write a grant or do anything. We did have a grant once for a couple years I'm willing to do anything To get an sRO on our campus. I think it would be really it would our students would feel safer Our staff would feel safer. The parents would feel Safer and also it would be benefiting the students to have that relationship with the police department. Thank you Okay, valerie jordan followed by dwayne duit Hi, my name is valerie jordan and i'm the current principal at richway high school And prior to that I was the assistant principal at lc allen high school and prior to that I had taught at migamera high school So I do um understand the importance and um of having a school resource officer on a campus from not having one and having one Our partnership our collaboration with the santa rosa city Santa rosa sea schools and santa rosa police department with the santa rosa resource officer program That collaboration is huge. Um that deters drugs It deters violence. It reduces crime it It makes us feel safer on campus having An officer on campus it also um their number one job is to make connections with our students and staff And that's what we're missing Currently if we need assistance we have to call an sRO from another site and take them from there Or if they're too busy we call dispatch That's not a feasible way to handle an emergency situation for us at school What I'd like to say is that I understand there is um a shortage of santa rosa police department Officers, but when and if they get trained and they get up and running we would love to be um Um Granted our sRO back. Um, we're ready for them to come back. Um, we've had them like kathy was saying we had them before I don't know what happened, but we would like to welcome them back and we're ready for them. So thank you Dwayne followed by Fred Krueger Hello, my name is dwayne d. Witt. I'm from roseland. I came today to thank you For your decision on the 14th of january Regarding what folks in my neighborhood call the roseland neighborhood Especially wanted to thank mr. Tibbetts for Pointing out that the community plan that had been putting together over a long period of time Should be considered by city staff In regards to what was just said by the educators before me This is something that can also help the youth We need to have ways that young people Can have a break from tension a release from stress Also wanted to thank mr. Rogers because in the past he had pointed out a letter that came from our congressman Mr. Mike Thompson Regarding support for the roseland creek greenway and bikeway, which we're willing to Do volunteer work on as long as we could call it a veterans trail The kind of lead to that veterans trail that was put together By the vietnam veterans of america chapter 223 in the past that runs through anadel park We in roseland are not as well organized as some other neighborhoods We actually emulate The efforts of the southeast greenway. We've learned from them We see how well they can do and we're trying to be as good as they are And getting the things that are needed I see today. I should thank you for one other thing Right up here on this counter this podium. It looks like you may be putting in an overhead projector again I see something that's been hooked up here. I haven't turned it on because We got to wait till it looks like it's christened all that But I believe that's going to be a big help because members of the community will then be able to come in Bring examples of the things they're talking about have them be shown To you and the entire audience plus others in the community So they'll better understand some of the issues that faces The things in roseland that faces right now is we don't have enough green infrastructure The people who are here from the southeast greenway. They've worked hard to save their green infrastructure there But in roseland, we're under the threat of housing development Not just a few units thousands of units Already up to a thousand units are in construction And working forward, but we don't have the green infrastructure we need We have to somehow save that riparian corridor along rosland creek One of the best ways is to reach out for funding for a greenway along rosland creek Which we will proudly call the southwest greenway to link up with those folks on the east side of town And we veterans of volunteer Any time anything you need for us to help make it happen. Thank you very much for your time uh Association in roseland, I'd like to address the question of growth and development and housing in santa rosa and i'm going to take an unusual perspective because um I try to hike regularly up taylor mountain But when you get up to taylor mountain you get an overview of santa rosa But one thing that we don't talk about and that's been annually you can see The growth of smog and this smoky layer over santa rosa and that's a sign that We're not completely Integrating the population growth and you see this same force again in traffic Increasingly we have gridlock Increasingly we see a decline in open space and yet we know That the psychological health of citizens is related to the extent of open space There's a whole series of studies that document that In roseland particularly we have a number of intersections with a Uh a level of service of f 10 years ago when the draft eir was done for the proposed walmart The speed of traffic on both herne And sabastopol roads was barely three miles an hour at rush hour And we're trying to add more popular more housing But people In the bay area say the cheapest place for housing in san francisco and the north bay is santa rosa And so people are coming here from novato and from san francisco because the housing is cheaper You're never going to deal with the housing problem by building more houses And you're not going to address the homeless problem until you deal with the federal and the state issues Which is the level at which these problems were caused if we think back 50 years ago We began to close the mental health institutions. We began to shut down education in the prisons And then the amount of state and federal funds allocated the city decline and the social services weren't there So to try and think that you're going to solve the homeless problem Locally without the assets that you had in the past is just not paying attention to the data So my proposal Stop the growth the growth in a linear way is like a cancer and everyone suffers We try to drive from here to roseland and the traffic is overwhelming You try to drive from here up to a fountain grove and at certain times of the day you can't get there You're overdoing that emphasis on housing and you're not addressing the infrastructure that's essential for quality of life So prioritize the infrastructure The the city the services to citizens instead of and and the structure is wrong You're relying on housing fees and development All right, paul andre shabrak followed by alan thomas Here for item 15.1. Okay, you'll have your opportunity very shortly Mr. Thomas So can you hear me? I don't know if I can I guess it's working um the reason for um 306 boy street alan thomas I'm here to talk about some of the issues that we're having in our neighborhood Regarding some of the social services that are that surround the neighborhood that I live in in railroad square and the west end and part of your goal setting session is coming up with Values that you guys have and you're talking about intelligence innovation and transparency Transparency is the hardest for you guys Because you have a lot of people that you have to deal with But I think it's time to get a little bit more transparent and how the public Can interface with the city and the police officers Or public works or whoever to try to mitigate the impacts of these social services The social services and the way that they're run Or the reason why people get really upset when they think a project that they've been working on May be impacted by a social service You're not doing yourself any favors by not Doing a better job and I know it's hard But transparency has to be dealt with some of the situations that i'm talking about are people sleeping In doorways of businesses on wilson street Reading in the paper about someone getting hit in the head with the baseball bat the last weekend Someone who sleeps habitually on the sidewalk in front of another social service parks hit a stolen. I'm assuming it's stolen grocery cart filled with debris on the street There's there's no one there to say hey Because the services aren't dealing with it And so the you're asking the police to do something It's it was complaint driven and so after a while people get tired of complaining And they just have to just grin and bear it and it's like well, what do you expect? That's what it's like down there. That's what what you have But you're now going to other communities and saying hey, we want to have these facilities in your neighborhood Well, why would they want that that that makes no sense? You're not doing a job of selling it And the gentleman the previous speaker you keep telling everybody that it's a housing issue But then when we talk to the police they say no it's prop 47 prop 57 Those are the problems. It's it's not housing. You've got addiction problems. It's you got mental health problems So there's just a disconnect. So I would hope that you could come together over the next year Or six months from whenever you decide to do it and come up with a unified front so that the public has an understanding of what to expect And if we can't do a better job because we don't have enough money You need to tell us that you say hey, this is just the way it's going to be Because I get flyers every day from different politicians telling me how they're going to solve everything But I don't know where the money's coming from and I don't know where the resources are coming from so Whatever you can do to kind of tighten the things up and just be a little bit more responsive And understand that people want to communicate with you. Thank you Thank you Hi, my name is Mito Gonzalez. I work at memorial hospital. I've been there for 22 25 years I'm here today because we took a boat last week to strike The boat came up 94 to strike. So we will be striking for one whole week here in the near future The problem there has been growing Providence bought st. Joseph a little while back and ever since they did it's been going downhill They've been taking away and taking away and taking away from their workers And it's not stopping and right now we have we're in bargaining in good faith and What they're taking away is the same thing that they had already taken away three years ago Six years ago. They took away Pretty much the same thing that they're trying to take away from right now Everybody says they don't want a single payer Health care. Well, we're moving toward that by a hospital the hospital that we work for they're taking away our ppo. They're taking away the The health program that we have right now by putting in place An hl mode that is going to cost us a whole bunch and the doctors aren't going to be paid for that They're leaving the system Something has to be done now And this is a bit about what i'm telling you a lot of the things that they're taking away right now They're taking away 40 out 32 hours of my vacation time Last time they took 40 hours away The next one they're going to take another 30 hours away. They're doing subcontracting where they told us last time Don't look at it as We're going to take we're going to uh Bring in other companies to do what your work That's not the the the reason why we're doing it It's like because of fires and whatnot that's been happening. They can go and get other help. Well, they lied And so now they've already taken a they're already subcontracting on Certain levels at the hospital The billing department is completely gone hr is going The Cafeteria is going my job will be next i'm a lab technician and they've already talked to another company called lab west And i make over 30 dollars an hour and the company it's coming in they're going to be paying their their people 12 Dollars an hour. They're not going to give them any type of benefits. This is the type of people They're going to be taking care of your families my families. This is how they're treating us the workers Imagine what they're how they feel about the patients It's gone far be far More than what it's going on than what it should and we're trying to put a stop to it That's why we're gonna know have We're gonna walk out We have a lot of support right now And i'm just trying to Tell everybody i know i don't i don't have enough time here because i had a whole list of stuff I wanted to say if you can hear all the things that the other are being taken away and how they're treating us You would be right behind us. Thank you. Thank you I'm sorry karmann followed by larry luguri Carmen i'm a visca. I'm an evs tech at memorial hospital. I've been working there for three years now Otherwise known as a housekeeper. I clean up everything Um, I absolutely love my job. I love my co-workers And I even love the patients. I feel like they're my family and for me to be treated horribly and Not getting the proper health care that I deserve to take care of All of our families is Not acceptable. I want to get Paid good. I want to have be able to take my family out to a beach And my my mother, but I can't when they're proposing the wages That are two percent Of an increase. That's that's horrible. I break my back for our families And I clean up disgusting nasty things that I want all of you guys to Be clean safe and taken care of I just want to be supported like how i'm supporting our families It's really difficult to do that when my My hospital is taking away things with health care wages And That's that's pretty much it So thank you. Thank you. Larry Ligori followed by mary virginia watson Hey folks, Larry Ligori. I am proud to be a representative of the national union of health care workers So I represent the fine men and women that work at santa rosa memorial hospital the 800 service and technical workers That care for this community It doesn't we don't have to go back that far in our memory to realize that in the north bay fires of 2017 And most recently the king kate fire sanitaryza memorial is the only hospital that stays open It's the only one that stays on the grid. It's the only one that stays safe in natural disasters as but as has been proven too many times recently These are the caregivers that literally leave Their children and their families at shelters when they're under forced evacuation And they still come to work to care for us and our families And the the treatment from providence st. Joseph is despicable. I've been a union representative in all environments Municipal city county nonprofit. This is by far the worst I've ever seen They they operate under hypocritical core values that they don't follow such as dignity justice excellence compassion And we see none of it So rather than read off a laundry list of statistics what I just wanted to share is something that I've been realizing more and more is that in the 30 years that I've lived in santa rosa Um When we first moved here when my family first moved here from the bay area from the peninsula Santa rosa memorial was the place you wanted to end up for your career They wouldn't even hire you Without a year or two of clinical experience So you would have to go to site setter or keiser And then you the goal would be to get to santa rosa memorial so you could retire there They had the better benefits. They had the better pay They had the better training and education programs and in less than One generation that has completely flipped It's become completely corporate By a behemoth and it's completely profit over patient And everyone should be upset about that We can't afford to keep our workers in this community. They can't afford to pay rent or buy a home They can't afford to shop or go to a movie Or by dinner or support other local businesses and we have more and more members leaving at a rapid pace They're not only leaving the city of santa rosa. They're leaving the county of sonoma. So and i'm not a great public speaker, which is why i'm going too fast But we want to do them for everyone here as a member of the community Reach out to whoever you know call the hospital Ask to speak to the executives and tell them to treat these workers with dignity and respect and bargain a fair contract We're not asking for anything other than what is deserved They want to take away the ppo. They want to take away their paid time off And these are dangerous jobs more and more of our workers are getting hurt So, uh, we're really honored to have great relationships with many On the council and we greatly appreciate that. We hope to hear your voices in the coming days And anyone in the community that can get involved, please do so reach out to the hospital or reach out to us at nuhw Thank you. Thank you. Mary virgini watson followed by steven batten I all I Feel A tv witch with that noise I just want to explain a little bit, uh, you know why why folks are Have voted to authorize a strike because health care workers I've represented health care workers for about eight years now and uh, they don't like to strike You know why because they like to take care of patients. That's what they're there for they're not there to get rich They're there to Take care of patients But providence st. Joseph which operates santa rosa memorial health and other hospitals in northern california Really is operated like a giant health care corporation. And I think that's something folks need to understand In order to protect their own communities and protect themselves when they find themselves patients at psj hospitals um So, you know the the ceo rob hockman a couple of years ago gave himself a six million dollar raise So he's up from four and a half million to ten and a half million dollars a year um, yeah Folks that work at santa rosa hospital um at other psj hospitals have been offered Just insulting offers like a point two five percent raise to an already low hourly rate We've been Basically, you know Bargaining for nine months and are just at two percent and we know what's happened in santa rosa and the economy in the north bay that 2% a year Is a pay cut Our members are making up to 45 percent less than workers at kaiser doing the same work And that doesn't even count the very the very big difference between a decent benefits package and what s Are santa rosa memorial workers are offered And you know this leads to trouble with recruitment and retention That's a real problem And that's a real problem when you end up in the hospital, right? Having um inexperienced nursing assistants inexperienced x-ray techs Taking care of you Finally, I just want to talk about um how workers at provident st. Joseph's hospitals in other areas of northern california Were treated when they went on strike this last november. They have um similar Issues to those being discussed you could almost zerox it Um, and they were retaliated against the most active members who make the lowest Salaries were locked out for days We believe this is illegal and we've we're filing an unfair labor practices Charge um It's illegal, and it's disrespectful And we just hope that if this sort of thing happens in santa rosa you'll stand with us And I just wanted to thank you all for the support that you have given so far Thanks so much Okay, steven bats and followed by jen la porca Hello, my name is steven bats, and i'm a anesthesia tech at santa rosa memorial hospital, and I wanted to come speak to you about the conditions that are going on there um provident st. Joe has Soul purposes is profits over patients, and I see that every day You know they recently outsourced over 700 jobs across california Washington and oregon, uh that was HR supply chain And payroll I can't even get the supplies that I need To for patient care Because it's been outsourced to india. Um, this is just a number of examples. Um that providence does it's constantly Cutting and being cheap meanwhile. They pay out 2.5 million dollars in bonuses last year the top 21 executives And everyone in the community should be deeply concerned They are santa rosa memorial hospitals the regional trauma center if you're you or your loved one is in an accident That is where you will go even if you're a kaiser member or a sutter member You will go to memorial because memorial is the trauma center. They will take care of you if they can But it doesn't seem like that less and less. Um in my department alone the or we just constantly It's a constant turnover of nurses and techs. They cannot keep staff. They go elsewhere Due to the lack of Competitive wages and you know as a regional trauma center we see the most acute patients the most the sickest patients the The most dangerous patients and yet we don't Get competitive wages compared to other hospitals Or benefits or even staffing levels. So I just urge everyone to put pressure on them Do not let providence st. Joe come in and Destroy our healthcare in this community our regional trauma center for money Tell them to you know Put patients before profits It's just I've been there for 10 years and I've watched it progressively go They like to wave the flag of that they're Doing the mission of jesus and I they're really not. Um, it's it's just profit motive Managers are incentivized to cut hours of caregivers to cut staff. They're incentivized to not buy new equipment So I just urge everyone to speak out and Put pressure on them and not let this happen to our community Thank you. Thank you. Jen Laporta Hi, I was at the December 10th study session regarding the small cell installation all over santa rosa and um Found out after that meeting that there were 12 Uh wireless transmission facilities or wtfs Uh that were applied for by at&t that were not a part of the staff presentation On december 10th. Some of those were approved Before that date and some were approved shortly after that date Uh regarding notification. I went personally to 60 doors In the area of the proposed Uh wtf at 144 belview avenue. I knocked on 60 doors asked everybody Did you get notified only one person told me Out of those 60 that they were notified. Okay, um, so There is a real lack of notification process on um on these these wtfs and Other people have knocked on doors in other parts of the city and have found the same thing that the vast Majority of affected people were not properly notified by the city or anyone For that matter the city has actually allowed the telecoms At&t Verizon, etc to control the notification process from drafting and sending out the letter to being the contact For residents if they have questions only to claim this is all within federal safety guidelines At least for this latest round of wtfs. We can confirm this Okay, at least one neighborhood in the latest wtfs under review received zero notifications And um this violates typical city policy regarding permit review and processing I wanted you to know this it is also in violation of the process for minor conditional use permit applications Described in the zoning ordinance. Why is it for other? other um projects like cannabis dispensaries that the that those Those companies are Are Are not the contact person. Why is it that the city is writing letters To the residents for those kind of projects and have a city contact whereas for these Wireless telecommunication facilities small cell in particular that are going up all over town Why is it the telecom is the contact person you think they're gonna Have unbiased information. I don't think so You guys need to look at that. Thank you Okay, thank you very much and um We will move on to item 15. Mr. McGlynn item 15.1 public hearing public hearing on fiscal year 2020 21 budget priorities Assistant city manager chuck mcbride joined by principal financial analyst shelly riley Good evening vice mayor members the council tonight is the fiscal year 2020 21 public hearing on budget priorities The purpose of the public hearing is to garner public input on the budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year And to get public input on council goals Uh written public input can be submitted online at www.srcity.org Forward slash budget comments and we've already received a fair amount of correspondence through that link Next steps Council goal setting will occur on march 12th and 13th on about two weeks Currently we're working with departments and the city manager to develop to develop budgets that align with the public priorities and council goals and that'll be ongoing Until we adopt the budget in june The preliminary budget overview will be presented to council on april 7 2020 If we if we need that workshop We plan on a two-day workshop on may 5th and may 6th and then The draft budget documents will be made available to the public on june 1st If all goes well, we will have budget adoption on june 23rd At this point, um, I'd like to pass it back to the vice mayor to open the public hearing on the budget priorities Thank you. Mr. McBride. All right council any questions All right, this is a public hearing. You do not have to submit a comment card I do encourage you to um, if you've heard what you have to say said before Where your hand or get up and echo what has been said before um, so With that will open public hearing an hamond followed by debbie mckay Good evening. Nice mayor phleming and council members. Thank you for your ongoing support of the roseland community library I'm an hamlin director for the sonoma county library I took this job last march and was immediately impressed with how santa rosa And other cities in sonoma county support their libraries The partnerships we have allow us to offer extraordinary library services to sonoma county residents And we owe a lot of that to your support and vision for a high level of service to your city Last year we were at a turning point in roseland Our temporary library is in a deteriorating building that has to be demolished to make way for the new roseland neighborhood village development We had to act fast And we needed your help We asked for a modest investment that would help us secure an interim location for the library Your $150,000 partnership in the last fiscal year was a great investment and it has multiplied many times over The sonoma county library is investing $1.5 million in a leased commercial building in the heart of roseland And in a few short months Roseland will have its first full service public library We have the building secured for another five years And we plan to show roseland what a 21st century library is like We made a promise to roseland and you are helping us keep it and we urge you to renew this partnership for another year We also recognize that we are overdue for a conversation with the city about all of our library buildings How best to serve santa rosa and provide both the city and the library with certainty about how to proceed We are ready to have that long-term strategic conversation Meanwhile, we ask you to invest in roseland again And be ready to help us cut the ribbon on a new library in a few short months. Thank you Thank you. Um debbie mckay followed by kevin schneider Hi, thank you council members I'm debbie mckay. I'm here representing the league of women voters And we uh one of our priorities this year is climate change So we would urge you to have your budget be in line with your tier one priorities And we urge you to keep climate change as one of your tier one priorities In particular to spend the funds necessary to implement the 100 renewable energy for government services And I also want to make a comment about homelessness. That's another priority for the league this year And I think you've made a tremendous amount of effort in this area But i'm not sure the community is aware of the effort the council members have made And so the league is very supportive of transparency And we would urge you to communicate more with the community about what you're doing and the expenditures that you're making in the area of homelessness Perhaps something such as a quarterly progress report either online or in utility bills Or a quarterly study session that the public could attend So I think you could publicize a lot more the efforts that you're making Perhaps use social media more to publicize and to hold public meetings Maybe even town hall meetings so that the community can give you their input on a regular basis This is one of the top priorities of the people in our community And I think it's come to extra attention because of the joe radota trail I don't think it's an issue that's going away anytime soon And I know that your resources are stretched to the max with all the disasters that you've had But this is a problem that's not going away. So I hope you'll keep it in tier one I hope you'll keep your comprehensive housing strategy in tier one The we do support doing affordable housing particularly infill and particularly in the downtown area So we hope you'll keep these all as tier one priorities and that your budget will reflect those as priorities when you have to prioritize. Thank you Thank you Karen Schneider followed by dwayne duet On your right side I can see you now Thank you Thank you city council members for your ongoing support of the roseland community library I'm Karen Schneider. I'm a library commissioner and I have the joint appointment for santa rosa and sonoma county I am also the dean of the library at sonoma state university I have worked on and off in the library since 1973 including significant time in public libraries I gained my love of libraries from my father He was a high school dropout But a well-read man who brought me to the public library twice a week Where we would each check out the maximum allowed books and then swap books back and forth until the next trip several days later My dad wanted more from me than he had and in large part to the love of reading he Instilled in me. I have a bachelor's degree two masters and a doctorate I also live west of the freeway and just minutes away from the new roseland library site The roseland library project is one of the most exhilarating library initiatives I have been involved in during my long career The current site has gone far to address structural Iniquities in the north bay and has become a community hub for literacy learning job seekers and community gatherings Roseland residents use the computers at the library to apply for jobs to apply for student financial aid To take online classes and to have access to the same information and resources that are more readily available in other parts of our city The current library has been a terrific proof of concept for bringing library services to an underserved area of the county But the new site will offer better services in a more comfortable and inviting setting By investing in the roseland library you are investing in the next generation of community leaders A high percentage of roseland library users are families with young children at sonoma state We see the results of ensuring children have access to libraries and other literacy services These are the students who thrive in elementary and middle school Then succeed in the courses they need in high school to be eligible to apply to a four-year university Then they come to our university college ready And they are able to stay in school and graduate with a pathway to a career or their next step in education This is not just anecdata There are buckets of research underscoring that early childhood youth and teen literacy interventions help kids succeed The new low roseland library will be a wonderful place for kids including that crucial after school period By supporting the library you help roseland residents be safer smarter and more successful I know my dad would love the new library. Thank you again for your past support and please support the roseland library again this year Thank you Dwayne DeWitt followed by Anne Sealy Hello, my name is Dwayne DeWitt. I'm from roseland. I wanted to thank those previous speakers and Say that it's a wonderful thing if you will continue to be supportive of the library that we in roseland have come to love The need for a technological advancement in roseland is something that's apparent also Perhaps you could look at the city of hayward and how they've built a library. That's a technology center also working with the city and the libraries to make sure that the youth And elderly folks too can all get on the same page with new technologies So please help the roseland library as much as you can Along with that, please help the roseland community in general With a dilemma that's come up. It's been talked about but usually the can gets kicked down the road That's the fact that it's the densest most underserved and overburdened community in all of sonoma county It also lacks the basic amenities that many other places in the city already take for granted It's thought that there's at least 17 000 people living in a 1.2 square mile area known as the traditional roseland That was the case according to the general plan with six acres of parkland to be allocated That would be about 100 acres of land needed over there in roseland For the youth for the seniors for the different people to have any type of open space recreation things There's only about 24 acres so far Much of it's still under discussion There should actually be a roseland open space system You folks should spend a little bit of time working with your gis department And do the graphics that show where there's open space left and how you could put aside the funding From the development fees To actually purchase land now and have it banked and ready So that there won't just be a couple of sites that are packed in with everything on them like happened with bayer farm I was on the steering committee for bayer farm We did not imagine what we got We turned in a final plan and what came back from staff was something far different With far more concrete than we ever expected and much less nature We had been referencing west gate park over by stony point road and there are two acres of open turf Instead bayer farm got a half an acre of open turf And then we got our gardens which people like But we got tons and tons yards and yards of concrete We don't need that what we need is open space nature Things for our youth to learn as much as the youth on the other side of town Help us out with the budget Also, give us the audit of the money that's coming from the county So we know from the annexation how it all works out. Thank you for your time and c. Lee followed by john quinn vice mayor flooding and council members And c. Lee speaking for concerned citizens for santa rosa and also as a board member of Sonoma county conservation action I urge you when you look at the budget to Give two matters your highest priorities is that one is climate change both the prevention of and the adaptation to There's enough expertise on this council and in your staff to to know what that i'm talking about The second priority is homelessness. It's clear the time has come To do something very significant I'd like to pull up vice mayor former mayor chris coursey's thinking in this that there need to be near-term solutions And I need to be Long-term solutions near term could be The the many things you've already discussed the park is safe parking areas but I want to pull in the fact that yesterday there was a non Non-governmental forum on homelessness at which mr. Tibbets and mr. Rogers were speakers and This is county supervisors and service providers It's clear that there's enough governmental support for working together county and city To provide spaces for safe parking For for the other programs that were discussed for the long term please scrape up as many funds as you can to provide The funding for the projects the affordable housing projects that apparently have all their permits But they just lack the funding that is crucial for our future So climate change and homelessness. I hope you put And keep at the top of your lists. Thank you Thank you. John Quinn followed by john mccall My name is John Quinn. I'm the president of santa rosa youth athletic excuse me santa rosa youth soccer league One of the things that we've talked about here has been mentioned here by a number of Presenters is our need to invest in our infrastructure to keep up with the needs of our community We have not kept up with respect to Parklands and athletic fields that will serve our community I was talking earlier today with a senior about senior soccer and They impressed upon me seniors are afraid to play soccer on our grass soccer fields because they are not in very good shape They're afraid. They're going to get injured That's not a good situation If you if your seniors aren't comfortable doing it your kids probably shouldn't be comfortable doing it Kids probably don't know better and we need to do a better job of maintaining our fields We need to do a better job of maintaining our parks And we need to create new lighted all-weather soccer fields to serve our community As I said in a prior city council meeting In contrast to the city of petaluma where they have four city all-weather soccer fields santa rosa has none We have three times the population base and we have no lighted all-weather soccer fields In our own organization right now this From now until april 1st We've got approaching a thousand kids who want to play soccer And we have no parkland for them to play on no fields for them to play on That's not a good situation. I mean, it's it's a real challenge because these kids are participating in Organized soccer in leagues not santa rosa soccer league but broader leagues Where they have games starting this weekend and we don't have fields to make available to So what happens is our our community our our families have to spend money to go somewhere else to play they take their their tax dollars and they goes Purchase in other communities and get sales tax revenue in other communities because we're not meeting the needs of our community You know, we have I mean round numbers We have about a thousand kids playing soccer this month in our organization. Maybe 2000 in the community We have no fields for them and In our league alone, we have about 700 kids in league Right now where the city doesn't have any facilities for them until after april 1st at the earliest It's not good for our community to have our families having to travel elsewhere spend their money in other communities It's better and makes activities more affordable for families if they can spend the money in their own community So I think, you know, you'll probably hear over the coming weeks and months of different plans to Repurpose sites. I think you ought to consider seriously artificial turf and lights for those sites Thank you, uh, john mccall followed by tom amato My name is john mccall. I work for snowmilan trust. There may be two speaker cards with my name. So I don't want to say this twice, but thank you very much. I'm here tonight to talk about The southeast greenway and encourage the city council to continue to make this a budget priority for the coming fiscal year As you all know last july you you passed a major milestone in approving the general plan amendment Zoning changes and environmental documents to move the greenway project to the next level Which is the phase that we're in now your planning department did an amazing job Since 2009 to get this to you last year And after your approval of all of the zoning changes the management Transition to the city's real estate division Under the leadership of jill scott over to my left over there. It's been a privilege working with her team getting to know her City attorney molly mcclain Staff from your survey team We've we've shifted gears from the land use permitting side of things to the real estate acquisition and due diligence Phase of this project Excuse me Our goal for this next year is to actually try to get into a purchase agreement with caltrans for the greenway We're going to be requesting during your goal setting that this project be a tier one or tier two priority And really I think what we need at this point is just your commitment and support for your staff Joe and her team. There's a lot of work to do with caltrans. We have to do appraisal work and title review We have to try to come up with a purchase structure And she and her team have been doing a great job, but we're not going to finish By the time We're not going to finish this year Another part of this is that there is an existing memorandum of agreement understanding an mo u with caltrans that the city And many of us signed back in 2015 That's going to expire in august that mo u Basically creates a structure for the purchase of the greenway, but it also gives the city and sonoma water a right of first refusal If caltrans were to put the greenway up for sale the council excuse me the city would have a right of first refusal for purchase I don't know exactly how long it's going to take to finish this transaction But we do need more time and the mo u provides the structure and certainty that we're all working together So we'd like to see that continued and certainly not have it expire before august As sonoma land trust we've been working with a partnership of all the folks in the room with the greenway campaign With your staff and other partners We've raised almost a million dollars that we have in hand for purchase of the open space and park portions of the greenway That funding is secure right now, but we don't want to lose that and That is another reason why we need your support to keep keep staff working on this So thanks for your commitment. Um, this is such a transformative important project for the city and We look forward to working with you on it in the years. Hopefully not too many years, but years to come Tom amato followed by robert gazer Vice mayor and members of the city council. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak I'm with the oakmine democratic club First I'd like to congratulate you for your good work last year on multiple issues around climate change Ranging from all electric to raising the minimum wage to Working on the problem with waste management Kind of a range of issues that I thought you did some very excellent work on And in particular the passage of the climate emergency resolution That was a major step forward Sadly The bigger picture is going to mean it's going to be harder for yourselves and all of us as we go forward As we're all aware this month. We've had no rain And there are no rain forecast for the rest of the month That is part of the larger problem we face as our state and planet warm and in our case dries out It'll be harder because the situation continues to get worse Much of that's behind your control. What is in your control is your budget? and we asked you to make climate change a tier one priority certainly And as you spoke in the that when you're doing the resolution to have it shape all your decision making all your thinking as you move forward As our city council There are hard decisions and we'll support those hard decisions and Again, we'd like to thank you and we also look forward to your future deliberations And trying to figure out the best steps forward for our cities. Thank you Thank you. Robert geyser followed by thea hensel Good evening. I'm bob geyser. I'm co-chair of the southeast greenway campaign committee John has laid out what's happening. We're moving ahead with acquisition on the greenway project And there's a lot of work to be done within the coming year One point is just how the the council Assets its budget priorities and classifies things We request continued council approval For the greenway project as a tier two project. That's projects underway as resources permit Last year this this project was not on the initial draft list But we were told that it was approved at at the end of the the process So this year we request that the tier two classification be continued for the Project which is described has been described in past years to simply plan and implement the southeast greenway And I wanted to say finally that what we're moving towards This is and it involves the city the county It involves other people too We're aiming towards a project that will create a 29 acre linear city park from hone avenue to summerfield 18 acre extension of spring lake park east of summerfield And 10 acres that are zoned for for housing development at three sites near farmers lane and ylupa And we look forward to continue working with the city on this What we think will be a community asset. Thank you Thank you very much. See a hensel followed by norma doil See a hensel 1354 g ylupa avenue Thank you for letting us be here tonight I appreciate it and thank you to the councilman vice mayor phleming We john really Did a synopsis of everything we want to mention to you tonight. You heard that we Thought that the project some people thought the project was finished last year and it's not as you know for land Use projects this goes on and on and we want to support the real estate services department to get a tier two priority listing back in And hope when the city sets their goals, they will include that one of the things that is really important to us Is this mo you that was referenced by john? It expires in august and it's critical because it gives the city first right of refusal on this property And it promises to keep the entire tract in a contiguous portion not break it up into little pieces We are going to need some staff time to negotiate Renegotiate that mo you with the partners and with And with caltrans Any delays such as the mo you expiring or temporary housing issues could result in the partnership losing over a million 0.75 A million dollars and that's not something that we can recoup easily all that is in our acquisition fund right now So we just want to maintain that and we hope that you will give this consideration. Thank you Thank you. Norma Doyle followed by anna stevens Good evening council members Thank you for your continued support of roseland library I represent the roseland library coalition. We've been around before It started and helped get it off the ground with some fundraising. We look forward to the Move to the new location where it will be have expanded hours and more resources And for so the roseland library which started small has just gone forward with leaps and bounds The rose and residents now have access to information and many things that are available To other places in santa rosa that have long been available to them As you know a high percentage of the roseland Library uses their families with very young children and so by investing in the library In roseland you're investing in the next generation of community leaders who will be sitting in your place someday A few important things about the library, although I know that you are all very literate or you wouldn't be sitting where you're at This was by neil gayman in his book art matters because your imagination can change the world He has one chapter that is devoted to why our future depends on libraries Reading and daydreaming reading fiction. He says is reading for pleasure It's one of the most important things that we can do And he's making a plea for people to understand What libraries and librarians do for the community to preserve both of these things People who cannot understand each other cannot exchange ideas They cannot communicate the simplest way to make sure that we raise very literate children is to teach them to read And more importantly to show them that reading is a very pleasurable activity There's no such thing as a bad book for a child to read Because when they engage in a book they're walking up the rung of literacy Very important. They find out that reading is vital to their future They use their imagination and when they return from reading they've changed a little bit when they write their books Or their thoughts someone else has changed just a bit A library is a place of safety a haven from the world a place where librarians will talk to everybody help everybody and treat them with respect If we do not value our libraries We silence the voices of the past and we damage the new ideas from the young voices to come Please continue to support the Wilson library with 150 000 dollars in your budget this year In their new location where many more people will enjoy the library. Thank you Thank you. Anna Stevens followed by peter rumble Hi, I uh, I live across the street from 401 college avenue And the city did not notify me that there's a cell tower going into our neighborhood I had to hear about this from another resident and it's peer reviewed science that these towers cause cancer as well as other health issues Especially within such a close proximity to where people reside Our health as well as property values will be negatively negatively affected And we don't want these towers in our neighborhood They are not necessary They are detrimental to our neighborhood on every level Please adopt an updated telecom ordinance that protects us Stop permitting and constructing wtfs until this ordinance is in effect Thank you All right, peter rumble followed by mike turgeon Good evening council members peter rumble from the center as a metro chamber. Uh, I am here though Representing the chamber but also the downtown action organization Uh The resident rock star of our organization and on the suite will cover some of our Other chamber priorities, but I wanted to mention on behalf of the dao And the chamber that we have a really wonderful process established with your senior leadership staff To meet on a frequent basis to talk about what's happening downtown What maintenance issues what safety issues what issues generally we can tackle Together collaboratively without having to raise those up to sort of the this this stage and uh, just deal with them quickly and I really appreciate that and that is because your council Made downtown a tier one priority and if we are looking ahead to next year and wanting a vibrant dynamic downtown Then I encourage you I urge you to Continue downtown economic development in total To be a tier one priority just as an example We've been able to in january alone clean up a thousand pounds of trash off of the streets remove 100 pieces of graffiti Refer over 40 people who are currently without homes to homeless services Your investment in additional officers to six total assigned to downtown And our upcoming purchase of decorative lighting for the trees all lead to Our ability to change the perception of our downtown from what it is a wonderful place But many in our community don't see it as such And so if we can continue to prioritize that that will be incredibly meaningful For our future as a city just as an example what economic development as a tier one priority for downtown Could mean upgrading our utilities to support greater services and And events downtown installing decorative light poles to give a sense of a singular community in place easing the path for businesses To come in and fill our vacant storefronts Which neither the property owners nor our community nor you as a city want along our downtown Um Also, uh, we are making progress in completing the squares master plan if we can continue to make Progress on that in the coming year. We'll see the fountain and public art As well as green grass in the middle of the square eventually hopefully Finally to all of this I would urge you As most critical not just for our economic development for but for our housing progress progress To prioritize the development of an enhanced infrastructure financing district Which certainly Thank you very much peter, um mike turgeon followed by kevin conway Thank you vice mayor council We are now two and a half years past the Horrific fires that hit santa rosa. So we have been in a state of awareness and We've come a long way And primarily I believe it's because we have the council we have and the staff we have in place It should be noted again. It was at a couple at a last city council meeting that our city Enjoys the services of mr. McGlynn who's been named the 2019 city manager of the year and I think A lot of the climate policy and climate actions that have taken place were specifically Attributed to the way that Last year was laid out in terms of what was going to be addressed when and what time From the climate community's perspective. We had to swallow hard to have to wait About the electric ready ordinance, but it turned into the electric Reach code ordinance, which is a bigger win altogether. And so I just want to say how Grateful the climate community is to have you all where you are Although you may not feel that sometimes when you lay down your head on the pillow sometimes, but You are here because we are going to need to spend Everything we have money our commitment our values In the next five years to be able to have a grip on what's going to be coming down the pike I want to say that the climate emergency resolution policy That was passed the resolution Might be wise to turn into a policy at which the Every action by the city government needs to be Examined in the light of what the impacts of the climate crisis will be And mitigations are put in place to the greatest extent possible One important thing budget-wise that was dealt with last year was a million dollars was carved out and want to thank Mr. McBride for in his finance department for Crafting that creative way of finding enterprise funds and general city funds to Be able to examine the potential of using That money to opt up to evergreen To reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as well as efficiencies to the buildings that the city controls so We will be judged by what we do in the next five years whether that's fair or not by our Posterity and it's so it's going to be quite important that we think of the climate crisis and every Decision we make and every action we do not just the city council, but everybody in the room everybody in the entire community So thank you Thank you. Kevin Conway followed by sydney cots Vice mayor and council members Kevin Conway from friends of the climate action plan Mike turgeon said very eloquently basically what I want to say and tom amato did as well I do want to say though that uh, I wish I enjoyed this weather more I took my three-year-old grandson today to doil park And I didn't enjoy it that much all I could think of was how nice it was outside day after day after day And it's kind of scary kind of creeped me out a little bit Uh, we have to do three things. We have to stop emitting greenhouse gases We have to draw down what we've already put in the atmosphere And we have to have just adaptation measures put in place One low-hanging fruit that we can do is spend 12 to 1500 dollars to have One of our staff members joined the urban sustainability director's network With the changing of the guard that's happening at the rcpa Aleksaville will not be doing that service for our county and for our city anymore It's not a lot of money, but it's a great resource For our staff to be able to learn and find out what is happening around north america actually including canada and many many cities in our country What are some? municipalities doing Around the climate crisis and are there anything that we can emulate? I'd also like to see some money set aside to to buy solar panels and batteries so that our city could At least the critical services police and fire Can be islanded From the grid in the event of these psps's that we're going to be faced with So i've said enough the most important thing though that has been said and that i want to repeat is that You did make a commitment on january 14th to look at Everything you do and certainly the budget is an important one through the lens of the climate crisis And i hope that you follow up on that. Thank you. Thank you. Sydney cox followed by ted calbert Hello I understand that you were in the process of setting budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year Since a number of small cell installations for the telecom industry will be placed in many Locations within the city limits I feel it imperative that these installations be monitored on a regular basis So that they will be compliant with the permitted radio frequency range for which they are certified This will require the services of a number of qualified independent radio frequency engineers Not from the telecom industry This requirement is already a part of the mill valley ordinance And the telecom companies are to pay for the rf engineers, but they're chosen by the city In addition the installation of these small cells needs to be carefully managed So that they are not less than the allowable distance to residences schools and places of business Where people spend a good portion of their day Some say the distance is 500 feet, but others feel that is too close In addition small cell installations should be no less than 1500 feet away from another small cell I hope that you are in the process of studying the impacts Of radio frequencies and small cells on neighborhoods And would like to mitigate potential issues wherever possible I hope you will allocate whatever funds are needed to keep our neighborhoods and our populations safe From excessive rf exposure Finally, I would like to request that the council look into Municipal wireless broadband over fiber optic cables Or by the city would lay fiber optic cables and lease it to the telecom companies As recommended by mayor molten peters of mill valley. Thank you Thank you. Ted colbert followed by jen la porta I'm I'm tade coward. I'm an author and a writer historian And president literary guild And i'm here to request the city council Provide and again and input $150,000 from the budget to the roseland community library Libraries are very very important I myself use it in a digital concept The digital apps Hoopla and liby Enable you to access books at the library from the library And you can put it on your digital equipment no matter where you're at. I was back in northeast in Ohio And I was able to access the books from sonoma county Mark twain famous writer of course said that A man that Does not have a book is the same thing as a man who cannot read And it damages Everyone in the community. So I encourage the council to again Hopefully budget towards the rosland community Library, thank you very much. Thank you. Jen la porta followed by paul andreisha brock Hi, I'd like you to update to adopt an updated telecom ordinance that protects us I'm with santa rosa a santa rosa group for safe technology and we have not heard back from the council On where we are in this process Despite repeated attempts to contact you I would like to say that various real estate publications estimate that a cell tower in a property's vicinity Can reduce the property's value by 10 to 20 percent This makes sense to me because uh people don't want to buy a home near cell tower california's 2015 assembly bill 57 establish an exemption for placing cell towers on or adjacent to fire stations Studies showed brain abnormalities in firefighters exposed to cell tower radiation. They could not do their job well All citizens should be similar Similarly protected if it's if it's if it's bad enough for the firefighters. What about the rest of us? Okay, uh consider 1500 feet between wireless transmission facilities and 1500 feet to any residence school day daycare center senior center park or hiking trail Stop permitting and constructing these cell phone towers until this ordinance is in effect As we speak your Your permitting department your planning department is permitting these things Okay, consider an automatic shutoff valve that shuts off the radiation off over a certain maximum Consider a fine to big telecom if the cell tower exceeds this maximum radiation amount Which should be based on real science and not the outdated FCC guidelines Consider to consider a fine for the first infraction a larger fine for the second infraction And permit revocation for a third infraction with removal of the cell phone tower Fire prevention and recovery is one of santa rosa's top priorities these small cell Towers are fire hazards placed in close close proximity to electricity wires and on top of wooden poles The battery compounds the fire hazard and these five 4g slash 5g cell towers only enhance video streaming They're not to enhance phone calls or texts needed during emergencies Imagine having these fire hazards every three to 400 meters in our neighborhoods that won't assist us in a real fire situation Well, hey, we're in a green city. The recent natural gas ban is one example 5g is not sustainable and its energy Assumption is massive Wireless access networks are the biggest and most inefficient consumer of energy in the cloud environment and are Catapulting their increase in carbon footprint 5g also harms bees trees and birds The fiber optic option uses thousands of times less energy than wireless and will preserve and protect the residents Thank you paul andreya shabrak followed by sarah orteez sarah orteez followed by alima silverman Hi there. I'm sarah orteez. I'm here on behalf of the sonoma county public library foundation to talk about the rosalind library Thank you so much for your support last year for the rosalind library And I just want to encourage you to keep it as a priority for funding this year The library just continues to become more and more relevant in our time The sonoma county library loaned over two million physical objects last year, which doesn't even include the digital And so it's becoming more crucial not less Author frank chimero says I once heard that a library is one of the few remaining places That cares more about you than your wallet It means that a person can be a person there not a customer not a user Not an economic agent not a pair of eyes to monetize But a citizen and a community member a reader and a thinker a mind and a soul As we consider that many spaces open to the public now require some form of buy-in such as purchasing food Our free spaces like libraries and parks become that much more important, especially for children and teens in low-income areas The first five report on school readiness that was released clearly found a correlation in sonoma county With visiting the library once a week and school readiness in children Currently over 500 children are registered rosalind library users And the site of the new temporary library is half a mile away from cook middle school Without the rosalind library those children will be without a community library That's critical to their early and ongoing education The rosalind library isn't just a resource for children, but teens adults and seniors as well We've heard about how people use the computers at the library But they can also check out chrome kits, which are chrome books and hot verizon hot spots there as well They have an over an 80% Checkout rate where people can take those chrome kits home and apply to jobs apply to schools Do their homework research and do everything else that other people have access to on the internet Chimera goes on to say the library is one of the best places to get a real and generous sense of the city How does the city wish to be? Look to the library a library is the gift a city gives to itself As we continue to look for funding for the rosalind library We have to ask ourselves as santa rosen's who we wish to be and the kind of spaces we want to remain free and open to the public Um, so I urge you to continue to support the rosalind library with $150,000 and thank you very much Thank you. Alima silverman followed by abigail zoger Hi, i'm alima silverman, uh resident santa rosa Vice mayor fleming and council members. Thank you for the time to speak to you tonight I'm requesting that you make climate change again a tier one Priority top priority in your budget Climate change underscores everything that we do now and since you passed the climate emergency resolution In january of this year a funding priority should follow To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to implement other strategies that will reduce the city's carbon footprint You have been and need to continue to be Leaders in the realm of climate change action and We all need to do everything possible to Create a sustainable environment that we can leave for our children and grandchildren so again Make climate change a tier one top priority I also support the southeast greenway And funds for homelessness. Thank you Thank you abigail zoger followed by alma shah Thank you very much for your hard work on behalf of the city. I um Am here also to speak on behalf of funding for climate change Action I teach at santa rosa junior college and for years i've gone to the wastewater treatment plant as field trip with my students And I have seen What santa rosa city staff can do when they have put their mind to it? They're creative. They're thoughtful. They come up with interesting solutions santa rosa's wastewater treatment plant Is actually a leader in the state? It does things at that plant that you should all go for you should all go take a field trip there just saying But what I think that needs to be said is that um putting staff time is also money And I know that that's money and if you put your staff time towards climate change solutions It would be money well spent one thing that I Listen to is that here is that there's a problem with our housing and our homeless issues There's a problem with climate change and they're not unrelated We need more housing. We need more affordable housing and we need more affordable housing in places where people Do not need to drive their cars to get to work and to get to where they need to go Transportation is the underbelly of santa rosa's climate change problem that's where we put most of our greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and so That is a very hard nut to crack that is not an easy just put money towards its solution That's a creative solution and that's where putting staff time will really make a difference Because those people can come up with interesting ideas and in communication with other members of the community We could maybe be a leader in that area the way we have become in others like the all-electric reach code, etc So thank you much very much for your hard work and sadly we're going to be here Asking you for even more hard work because the problem hasn't gone away. Thank you Thank you almasha followed by kim schroeder Thank you. Hi. My name is almasha I am here in support of or actually asking you to continue to work with the county in support of finding a Short-term and a long-term solution to our current Unshelter neighbors housing crisis I am amazed to be here and to leave here what all of you have to hear because yes everything is related It's about education. It's about the climate. It's about transportation and it's about housing and as a community member I am all for that but I do think that if we have a certain tier of priorities and We have Something that is very clearly enraging a large amount of the population and that topic is the unsheltered We really need to work together to come together to a solution I Please ask that you work very closely with the county to perhaps open the fairgrounds as a possible long-term inexpensive solution to the Unshelter crisis I don't exactly know what input you had into los wilicos, but los wilicos is a band-aid in a Much larger problem and I encourage you to please Yes, keep us posted do more outreach With neighborhoods do more town halls people want to help come to a solution not just The homeless advocates, but also the homeless themselves and environmental groups like clean river alliance And neighbors everybody wants to help So please let us please set some funding aside for these very important issues. Thank you Thank you very much kim schroeder followed by ananda suite Good evening vice mayor and council Thank you for your recommendations to city staff at the end of the december 10th study session on small cell wireless telecom facilities They included determining how to keep them out of residential areas provide residents with more control Establish control over cpu c poles to the extent possible and have discretion This is an urgent matter to prevent more residents from being affected by these and climate change Is a high priority and for residents here tonight 5g as you may know has an enormous carbon footprint from high powered Needed to power the facilities The 24 seven radiation pollution Harm to our trees birds and bees So minimizing the extent possible in our city is critical To the climate change and I just wanted to bring to attention a couple of recent lawsuits A group of scientists consumer health nonprofits and citizens recently filed a historic legal action Against the FCC for its refusal to update its 24 year old cell phone and wireless radio frequency guidelines The legal petition contends the FCC's actions Are not in accordance with the law as the FCC has violated the administrative procedure act and the national environmental policy act By failing to adequately review the hundreds of relevant scientific submissions Finding harmful effects from wireless technologies Another one is a group called the irregulators They filed to appeal an FCC decision and expose one of the largest accounting scandals in american history 19 years ago the FCC with the help of at&t horizon and sentry link And with a single stroke was able to manipulate the federal accounting rules To always make the wired utility networks appear unprofitable And have the state utility customers fund all of the company's other services from fiber optics for fios or uverse To the wireless to business data services and in 2018 the FCC decided to continue these rules for six more years The irregulators is an independent consortium of senior telecom experts analysts for forensic auditors and lawyers who are former staffers from the FCC State advocate and attorneys general office as well as telecom auditors and consultants Billions of dollars per state are in play with this lawsuit So we can't wait unfortunately for the lawsuits like these to play out to take time And telecom is rushing to get their real estate grab on as many polls as possible in the meantime Please put such a zoning ordinance As a tier one priority to protect our neighborhood schools and sensitive areas and thanks again for your acknowledgement that night We really appreciate it Thank you. Thank you. Ananda sweet Good evening vice mayor Fleming members of the council. I'll keep my comments brief Peter really went into detail on most of them But I want to give you just to remind you of our high level budget priorities as the chamber We support a budget that emphasizes economic development Expedites housing development while maintaining core services public safety and other vital services And includes an investment in sustainable reserve On that economic development piece as peter mentioned we are focused on economic development downtown as a crucial tier one priority And I would just emphasize that that downtown investment really is an investment that benefits our entire community A vibrant dynamic downtown improves recruitment of a high quality workforce new business development recreation and retail opportunities for residents and provides attractions for tourism and I would say In addition to economic development really is social development and a sense of place for the residents of our entire city I also just want to close by echoing Peter's appreciation for the collaboration with the council and with city staff on all those key downtown issues that he talked about But I also want to say just in general how important that sense of collaboration and working with the city has been to us at the chamber Most notably recently our work on employer supported child care and increasing access to quality early education and care Has really been something that's very important needed in our community and will really be an important step for the city And we did have the recent win with key sites announcement of 100 Slots on site and of course that's just one of the many pieces that we collaborated on with the city So i'll just again thank you for your support in that area that really benefits not only our Current workforce as a current crucial economic development issue But also our future workforce and just seeing that as one of the best ways you can Invest in the future economics success of the city of san rosa. Thank you Thank you. This is a public hearing. Is there anybody you do not have to fill out a comment card Is there anybody who would like to speak? Okay Seeing none i'm going to close public hearing and bring it back to the council counselor. Are there any questions or comments at this point? mr. Rogers Thank you, madam vice mayor I think one of the things that has been the most helpful for the council Over the last couple of years of doing this was the way that the calendar has Ultimately been laid out I think it sets the expectation for both the public and the council members on when they should see certain items I'd encourage us to continue to do that The other one is that typically when we go through this process We talk about a lot of these items as though they're congruent in the amount of staff time Or the amount of effort that they take and I think some form of a system in this year's Priority setting where we can actually look at things that are going to take longer than others to implement Or to work on would be really helpful Because typically we're told how many tier one how many tier two priorities But they're not always the same scope And so we do have things like the general plan that while not mentioned tonight is going to be Uh a significant load of work for our staff How do we compare that to something like updating the local preference that might be a little bit easier, right? Well, I think those things are intimately tied together and we'll try to do our best in the goal setting to Illuminate some of that Typically what we do is come back from goal setting and propose a work plan That's been the the new step forward But in that work plan that we will ask council to adopt post goal setting That will be embedded in that conversation But until we see that you know, it's sort of We need to understand the desire and then we'll try to meet that desire But the the thing that still remains two things remain that I've been repeating to council is We still have A challenge as you look at our structural issues and we need to take an earlier stab than we had in the past So I've said that beginning July one, which typically has been You know ramping up for the new fiscal year. We will be actually beginning a budget process for the upcoming year And that's going to accelerate because The the last couple of years we've had a painful experience to understand what managing October and parts of november looks like We lose a considerable amount of time and one of the things that council is really going to have to understand Is that's pushing back a lot of efforts And that's one of those variables that we're unable to project accurately moving forward And that is really difficult to manage We are managing it and the staff has responded Resiliently to that challenge, but it is it is a challenge that really we don't have any a direct answer for except that We know that we're going to face it. Yeah, no, and I understand that some of the other things that I Didn't hear tonight That I do think that the council is going to need to grapple with as well as the open government task force And then also potential ballot measures for 2020 that'll take up time as well And then I mentioned the general plan So I did want to put those on the radar the council and on the public as well I hear you on the issues that you brought up and then there's also additional things that you'll hear us talking about during goal setting Anybody else mr. Tibbetz Yeah, one two things that that kind of struck me Over this last year that I wanted to address leading up to this Budget process well one that one that struck me is I received a lot of emails pertaining to kind of trash abatement abandoned vehicle and furniture abatement And as long along along with graffiti removal And I actually I remember there was an instance in particular a couple months ago where I emailed You Sean and you were able to put our staff on and we got it cleaned up relatively quickly But this this is was a common theme at least in my email box over the past year and it And it suggested to me that we really need to look into bringing Either bringing back some form of the neighborhood revitalization program or some amalgamation of that That's kind of keeping our our streets clean keeping keeping santa rosa Beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. I think as a city government That's something that is kind of one of our foundational roles and responsibilities that I think in our efforts to Tackle some of these larger more global issues. We haven't had the time to address as as much so Just kind of airing that out But I hope that we can talk about what that might look like in the future and what that looks like as part of the budget process Chuck you got to look like you No, okay, we'll have that discussion for the council during goal setting. So okay Thank you And the other one for me is is definitely the rosin library. I appreciate a lot that this council Supported it last year I hope that at a minimum we can support it again this year But I do remember they asked us for a three-year commitment last year And we kind of said well, we'll take it one step at a time Not knowing what the economic outlook is going to be I think we still are in economic uncertainty, but i'm hoping that we can Try to approach this where we look at funding it for the remaining two years with potentially an economic backdoor that if Certain revenues decline beyond a certain percentage We're off the hook for the second year something along those lines But I just love to have it so that the library director doesn't have to come out here every year and and make that request again I think in goal setting there will be an opportunity to have these conversations and give us further direction about exploring opportunities That's it. Thank you vice mayor Anybody else wishing to comment? All right, um seeing no further items on the agenda. We will adjourn